ProDPinNC

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Tookie Williams' Redemption? No, his Contempt!

Tookie Williams' Redemption? No, his Contempt!
Dudley Sharp

As has become standard, in many of theses campaigns to save all murderers, it is filled with lies, hatred and contempt of the innocent murder victims, the antithesis of any recognizable redemption.

"LIES SO pervade the campaign waged to "save" convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams that Williams and company don't even bother to cover their tracks when they say things they know aren't true." (1)

"So much attention to the murderer, almost none for those he killed. So let's remember them here: Albert Owens, a veteran and father of two young girls, shot at a 7-11, and three member of an Asian-American family who ran the Brookhaven Motel-Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang and Yee-Chen Lin." (2)

"In a rare bit of commentary, William John Hagan of Canada Free Press wrote:

'The mainstream media has ignored the realities of the Williams case in order to promote an anti-death-penalty agenda. To present this mass murderer as a martyr is an insult to victims everywhere.' " (2)

Williams prison activities include "two instances of throwing chemicals in the eyes of guards." (2)

"Williams had never apologized for the murders, or even admitted committing them. A farewell message from Williams contained the lyrics of “Strange Fruit,” an anti-lynching song. So the unapologetic killer apparently had no clue about how he reached death row." (2)

Wayne Owen said: "(Tookie) has never apologized. I don't believe there is redemption without acceptance of responsibility. It rings hollow." (3) Wayne is murder victim Albert Owens' brother.

" 'He's a cold-blooded murderer and they want to sweep it under the rug,' said Owens, the stepmom of U.S. Army veteran Albert Owens, one of four people Williams mowed down with a shotgun in 1979 in two separate robberies that netted about 200 bucks." (3)

"Wayne Owens' fired-up stepmom said she promised her husband, who died in 1995, she would never rest until "justice" is done. "On his death bed, Chuck begged me, 'You won't forget Albert, will you? You'll stay on top of things, won't you?' There's been no closure for 26 years. It was bad and it remains bad.' " (3)

"What man orders another human being to lie face down on the floor and then proceeds to shoot him two times in the back at close range with a shotgun? What man later laughs when he tells his friends how the victim gurgled as he lay dying? Stanley Williams, the admitted cofounder of one of the most violent gangs in existence, is that man. What man, days after shotgunning Albert Owens to death, forces his way into a motel and executes three members of a single family? Stanley Williams is that man." (4)

"What must not be forgotten is that Williams’ escape plan also called for using dynamite to blow up the sheriff’s transportation bus after he escaped from custody. Williams’ motive to murder all of his fellow inmates on the bus was to prolong his time to escape. In other words, he hoped to prevent the authorities from quickly discovering who, if anyone, had escaped from custody. In an act so demonstrative of Williams’ willingness to kill, he was going to commit mass murder by dynamite, simply to allow himself more time to escape. These are not the actions of a man of peace. Instead, these are the actions of a cold-blooded predator who puts no value on life, unless it is his own." (4)

"Williams might regret his past, there is no act that will make up for the damage Williams has done and the devastation he has caused. Why not find a better role model for our children?" (5)

"Not only did (Williams) brag to his brother about the dying anguish of Owens, but after slaughtering the Yang family, he boasted to fellow gang members he had killed "some buddhaheads." (6)

"(Williams) broke down the door at the Brookhaven Motel. . . shot Yen-I Yang and his wife, Tsai-Shai Yang, the hotel owners, and her daughter Yee-Chen Lin, who was visiting from Taiwan." (7)

"Yen-I Yang and Tsai-Shai Yang left six children and 10 grandchildren. Yee-Chen Lin left behind three children in Taiwan." (7)

"(Williams) shot each of (the 4 murder vicitms) at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun, shattering their bodies so that they died in agony. Their suffering amused him." (8)

''You should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him"; Williams said. (8)

"Williams then made gurgling or growling noises and laughed hysterically about Owens's death.' " (8)

"Lynching was arguably the most heinous crime perpetrated by our racial majority, so despicable that the term 'lynch mob' has faded from our vernacular. These acts of hatred were mourned and memorialized by Billie Holiday in her unsettling rendition of 'Strange Fruit.' " (9)

"For a student organization to marginalize the significance of this term by drawing a parallel to the sentencing of (Williams) is deplorable. Aren't there any elderly black or white individuals who themselves witnessed that 'strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees', who are offended by this? Is CALL really equating 'Tookie' Williams' fate to the killing of Emmett Till?" (9)

"From 1983-1990, Williams was kept in solitary confinement at San Quentin for fighting, assaulting guards and ordering gang murders from prison." "He bragged about the number of police officers he had killed, personally." (10)

"The, in 1993, Williams had a spiritual awakening." " . . . if good deeds can trump death sentences, anyone on death row - whether genuine or pretending - should, henceforth be given the option to revoke his (own) execution." (10)

"So (Williams) still clings to the gang-banger's code of not snitching. That doesn't sound like "redemption" to me. That sounds like Williams has been conning a lot of people for a lot of years." (11)

" 'If people want to have the death penalty, then I think sufficient resources should be provided to carry out the process in a timely way,' Chief Justice Ronald George told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday." "California should execute or reprieve death row prisoners within about five years instead of the present 20 and do more to speed up the process . . ." (12)

"I don't mean an overly rushed way, but I think it's a poor reflection on the administration of justice if it gets to be something like out of Charles Dickens 'Bleak House' when these cases go on for decade after decade." (12)

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Victims' Voices

https://murdervictims.com/voices/voices.htm

1. "Tookie's Tales", Debra Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/1/05
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/01/EDG5TG04SF1.DTL

2. Martyrdom?, Townhall, John Leo, 12/19/05
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnleo/2005/12/19/martyrdom

3. KILLER MUST DIE, SAYS FURIOUS KIN: Celeb push to save 'Tookie' riles stepmom
BY MICHELLE CARUSO DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF, NY Daily News, Sunday, November 27, 2005
http://www.nydailynews.com/search-results/search-results-7.113?q=KILLER+MUST+DIE%2C+SAYS+FURIOUS+KIN%3A+Celeb+push+to+save+%27Tookie%27+riles+stepmom&selecturl=site

4. "Response to Stanley Williams' Petition for Executive Clemency ", Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, 11/16/05
http://murderpedia.org/male.W/images/w/williams_stanley/swilliams.pdf

5. Who is Stanley "Tookie" Williams?, Know Gangs
http://www.knowgangs.com/blog/tookie.htm - link gone

6. "He's a murderer. He should die.", Joshua Marquis, Los Angeles Times, 12/4/05 http://www.latimes.com/news/la-op-tookieexecute4dec04,0,6681281.story

7. "Crime and punishment", David Reinhard, The Oregonian, 12/1/05
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005106705&var_Year=2005&var_Month=12&var_Day=07
couldn't locate updated link at Oregomian

8. "Misplaced Sympathy for Killers", Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, 12/7/05
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/12/07/misplaced_sympathy_for_killers/

9. CALLing out "Tookie" Williams, Dan Tierney, The Daily Cardinal (U of Wisxonsin-Madison), 11/17/05
http://host.madison.com/daily-cardinal/news/calling-out-tookie-williams/article_43246277-b461-553f-a739-a3f1a1704db2.html

10. "If death penalty is law, this execution must stand", By Rubel Shelly, The Tennessean, 12/11/05
No link works. I have the original op/ed.

11. "DEATH-ROW CELEBRITY HAS DIRECT LINK TO THIS CITY'S ILLS", Gregory Kane, BALTIMORE SUN, 12/10/05, can no longer link

12. "California should speed execution process", Reuters 12/6/05
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-12-06T224034Z_01_KNE681576_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-EXECUTION-CALIFORNIA.xml&archived=False

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Victim's Voices - These are the murder victims

http://www.murdervictims.com/Voices/voices.html

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

THE DEATH PENALTY: LEAST ARBITRARY & CAPRICIOUS

THE DEATH PENALTY: LEAST ARBITRARY & CAPRICIOUS SANCTION
Both the guilty & the innocent have the greatest of protections
Dudley Sharp

All crimes and their sanctions vary, often a great deal. Rapes, murders and other crimes can have sanctions from probation to life and everything in between.

The Death Penalty: Clearly the Least Arbitrary & Capricious Sanction

There is no sanction which has fewer crimes that qualify for it, than does the death penalty; nor is there any sanction with greater limitations on its application; nor one that has greater consideration in pre trial and at trial; nor one with greater care in jury selection; nor one that has two separate trials - one for the verdict, the other for punishment; nor any sanction with more thorough and extensive appeals and more consideration within the executive branch, for commutation, clemency or pardons.

None of this is in dispute.

All of which establishes that the death penalty as the least arbitrary and capricious sanction, well known by any observer of death penalty jurisprudence and its impact.

How Due Process So Protects the Innocent (and the Guilty)

None of this is in question.

1) Pre trial has unmatched requirements and protections, from police investigation of the crime through to trial;

2) Voire dire. No other sanction has this extensive a jury selection process;

3) Trial

The defendant is presumed innocent;

A look at the legal provisions for Texas, the most active death penalty state:

In Texas, the jury has to find against a defendant/murderer with 100% of the votes (48 votes or 12 jurors times 4 separate issue votes) in order to give a death sentence, but only 1 vote (2%) for the defendant/murderer (or rare innocent) to be spared the death penalty (1) - this through two separate sections or trials, one for verdict the other for punishment.

By Texas statute (1), any juror can use anything they want, personally and subjectively, to spare the murderer a death sentence.

By voting opportunity, alone, the defendant/murderer has a 50 times greater chance of avoiding the death penalty than does the prosecution in getting it, based upon those trial opportunities.

Nationally, 2/3 of death penalty eligible trials end in sentences less than death (2 ). No surprise when things are so stacked in favor of the murderer or the rare actually innocent defendants (about 0.4% of the cases) (3).

Many, if not all, states or jurisdictions require two prosecutors and two defense counsels for capital trials, rarely required in other cases.

Is there any other trial, whereby mandatory sentences are not used, where the result, so often, is the maximum sentence, as with the death penalty?

Is there any trial, whereby mandatory sentences are not used, that only two possible sentences are available, either death or life without parole, in this case?

In fact, the death penalty trials have more restrictions than do mandatory minimum cases.

3) Appeals

Nationally, within appeals, death row inmates are twice as likely (42%, 3481 cases) to be removed from death row by means other than execution or other death (21%, 1737) (4).

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NOTE In Virginia, inmates are 4.1 times more likely (76%, 115) to be removed from death row by execution or other death than to be removed by other means (18%, 28) (4).

Why such a disparity? The judges (5).

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No other sanctions has such relief for guilty criminals or those rare actual innocents (0.4% of those so sentenced) (3).

Nationally, there is an 11 year average between sentencing and execution, for the 15% of those murderers sentenced to death (4).

In 2020, it is, now, 20 years. The average, from 1980-1985, was 6.6 years.

Texas appeals take, on average, 11 years (Now, 2020 - 18 years) prior to execution, and can go through 4 courts: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (a state supreme court that only looks at criminal cases), the Federal District Court, the (federal) Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court, for reviews of both direct appeals and appeals based upon the writ.

What do those courts think of Texas?

a) Texas death penalty cases are overturned 17% of the time. Nationally, absent Texas, 40% of death penalty cases are overturned within appeals (4).

Texas's due process shows a 58% improvement over the national average.

b) Texas has executed 45% of those sentenced to death.Nationally, absent Texas, that figure is 11% (4).

Texas' appellate record is 310% better than the national average.

Nationally, 37% of death penalty cases are overturned on appeal (4), not because of actual innocents convicted (0.4% of the cases) (3), but because of the extraordinary protections given for both the actual guilty and the actual innocent sent to death row and because anti death penalty judges do all they can to dismantle the death penalty (5).

NOTE: Virginia has executed 72% (109) of those so sentenced and has an overturning rate of only 11% (4) and executes within 7.1 years, on average (6).

Could all states come close to Texas and Virginia results? Yes, if liberal judges and legislators would get out of the way, allowing for more responsible protocols.

4) Clemency/Commutation/Pardon - No sanction has greater consideration within the executive branch, than does the death penalty.

Reality

The facts tell us that the death penalty is the least arbitrary and capricious sanction in the US.

Protections for the guilty murderer and the actual innocent accused are unmatched by any other sanction protocol.

Nothing else comes close. Period.

1) Texas Death Penalty Procedures

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/texas-death-penalty-procedures.html

2) Just Revenge: Costs and Consequences of the Death Penalty, Mark Costanzo, 1997, Worth Publishers

3) The Innocent Frauds: Standard Anti Death Penalty Strategy
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-innocent-frauds-standard-anti-death.html

4) Capital Punishment, 2011, Bureau of Justice Statistics, July 2013, Table 17, Number sentenced to death and number of removals, by jurisdiction and reason for removal, 1973–2011, page 20

http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cp11st.pdf

5) Judges Responsible for Grossly Uneven Executions
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/judges-responsible-for-grossly-uneven.html'

6) Path to execution swifter, more certain in Va. , FRANK GREEN, Richmond Post-Dispatch, December 4, 2011 Page: A1 Section: News Edition: Final

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Victim's Voices - These are the murder victims
http://www.murdervictims.com/Voices/voices.html

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The "Innocent", the "Exonerated" & Death Row

An Open Fraud in the Death Penalty Debate: How Death Penalty Opponents Lie

The "Exonerated", the "Innocent" and the "Wrongfully Convicted",
as defined by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC)
Dudley Sharp

Richard Dieter, head of the DPIC, participates in a lengthly discussion of the "exonerated innocents" removed from death row on the Dallas Morning News Death Penalty Blog.

From original link:

http://deathpenaltyblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/04/why-exonerated-needs-to-be-use.html The link vanished when the DMN switched over to Facebook (1).

This is a look at how well destroyed the "EXONERATED" and/or "INNOCENTS" list is and how it has been so deceptively used by the anti death penalty movement.

This is distributed throughout the world's media, with the hope that some journalists will actually fact check the anti death penalty exonerated claims and accurately report the reality to the public. as to the actual innocents confirmed as sentenced to death row within the US.

Comments

Posted by Kent Scheidegger @ 12:02 PM Fri, Apr 09, 2010

In Senate Hearing 107-907, June 12, 2002, Senator Russell Feingold said, citing this (Exoneration) list, "They are real people, innocent men who suffered for years under the very real possibility of being put to death for crimes that they did not commit."

No hedging, no qualification. He stated flat out, as a fact, that the people on the list did not commit the crimes.

No, I am not overstating the use by the opponents. I have debated the death penalty dozens of times, and almost every time someone cites this list as a list of people who really did not commit the crimes.

Perhaps this newspaper has been careful, as you say, but most opponents have not.

The notorious "innocence" list includes guilty murderers who have gotten away with it. Now we finally have that as an adjudicated fact, proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

The first thing opponents should do is simply stop calling it the innocence list. It is nothing of the sort.

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Posted by Aaron @ 2:19 PM Fri, Apr 09, 2010

snip I have read over and over and over again leaders of the dozens of anti-capital punishment groups, anti-death penalty lawyers, state and federal judges, state governors, state and federal legislators and various liberal activists cite the given numbers of the DPIC's Innocence List. That's been the DPIC's goal all along. If you repeat lies often enough and long enough they become "truths." snip The DPIC has a right to be opposed to the death penalty, but they have no right to deceive members of the public, media and government.

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Posted by Kent Scheidegger @ 7:55 AM Sat, Apr 10, 2010

The list was previously designated the innocence list on the DPIC website, although it appears they have now scrubbed that term. That is progress, however small, I suppose.

As noted in the press release and my original comment, the list is regularly and wrongly cited by others as a list of people who actually were innocent, and that is the point.

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Posted by Dudley Sharp @ 9:31 AM Sat, Apr 10, 2010

The DPIC still calls it the Innocence List
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row

All of the releasees, acording to DPIC "have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence."

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-penalty

They also describe them throughout their site as exonerated, which means "proven to be innocent".

It is all a matter of intended deception

Anyone who remotely defends DPIC on this issue has not concern for the truth or clarity.

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Posted by Dudley Sharp @ 11:27 PM Sun, Apr 11, 2010

Petra:

The "innocence" discussion in the death penalty debate is about the probability of executing an actually innocent person, not a legally innocent person.

It is impossible to execute a legally innocent person.

The 138-139 "innocence" deception by DPIC is particularly despicable.

For the past 11-12 years, all the media had to do was fact check the DPIC claims to show how false they were. With very rare exception, the media refused to do so and, often, still does refuse.

It would have been timely for the DMN to have warned us about the exoneration claims in 1999-2000.

I discovered this deception in 1998 or 1999 and published an op/ed about it in 2000 in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

All it takes for anti death penalty deceptions to be effective and important, is for the media to pass the anti death penalty deceptions along to their audience, without change.

In reality, about 25 actual innocents have been discovered and removed from death row since 1973.

The evidence appears solid that innocents are more at risk without the death penalty.

"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"

http(COLON)//homicidesurvivors(DOT)com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx

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Posted by Richard Dieter @ 3:34 PM Mon, Apr 12, 2010

With respect to DPIC's list of exonerated individuals, we use very strict and objective criteria for inclusion of cases on this list. Basically, the list is determined by the decisions of courts and prosecutor offices, not by our subjective judgment. As we state in a number of places on our Web site and in our reports, the criteria for inclusion on the list is:

Defendants must have been convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently either- a) their conviction was overturned AND

i) they were acquitted at re-trial or
ii) all charges were dropped
b) or they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence.

The list includes cases where the release occurred in 1973 or later, which was the time that states resumed sentencing people to death after the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down the death penalty.

The list originated from a request from Congress asking us to identify the risks that innocent people might be executed. The original list that we prepared was published as a Staff Report of the House

Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. The list has been favorably referred to by Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts, as well as by many public officials around the country.

We believe the term "exonerated" is entirely appropriate to refer to the individuals on this list, which now numbers 138 individuals. Exonerate means to clear, as of an accusation, and seems to come from the Latin "ex" and "onus" meaning to unburden. That is precisely what has occurred in these cases. The defendants were convicted, given a burden of guilt, and then that burden was lifted when they were acquitted at a re-trial or the prosecution dropped all charges after the conviction was reversed. These are not individuals who received a lesser sentence or who remained guilty of a lesser charge related to the same set of circumstances. All guilt was lifted by the same system that had imposed it in the first place.

Our justice system is the only objective source for making such a determination.

This notion of innocence, that an individual is innocent unless proven guilty, is a bedrock principle of our constitution and our societal protection against abusive state power. One does not lose the status of innocence merely because a prosecutor or other individuals retain a suspicion of guilt. Of course, it is true that this list makes no god-like determination of knowing exactly what happened in the original crime.

Such perfect knowledge of past events is impossible, either to absolutely prove that a person did or did not do an act. We do not try to make a subjective judgment of what we think happened in the crime.

We are merely reporting that in a great many cases the justice system convicted an individual and sentenced them to death, but when the process that arrived at that conclusion was reviewed, the conviction and sentence were completely thrown out. Surely, that should be a cause of concern in applying the death penalty.

If, as happened in the Hennis case, this same justice system later convicts a person again, that person's status changes to guilty. DPIC's list is a straight-forward and objective collection of these judicial exonerations.

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Posted by Kent Scheidegger @ 7:20 PM Mon, Apr 12, 2010

"This notion of innocence, that an individual is innocent unless proven guilty, is a bedrock principle of our constitution and our societal protection against abusive state power."

Not only is that not "bedrock," it is not correct.

For the purpose of instructing juries how to approach their decision, we say that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the presumption is limited to that purpose. Being presumed innocent is not the same as being innocent. A person who commits a crime is guilty from the moment he commits it, regardless of what happens in the legal proceedings thereafter.

The presumption of innocence, the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the double jeopardy limitation are all limits on the power of the state to punish people. But they are most definitely not criteria for whether a person is actually innocent or actually guilty.

For purposes other than punishment by the state, a person who got away with murder via an acquittal can still be treated as guilty. The best known example is O.J. Simpson. His acquittal did not preclude a civil suit for damages, and the civil jury found by clear and convincing evidence that he really did it.

For the purpose of public policy discussion, the relevant question is whether a person is actually innocent or actually guilty, not the separate question of whether the government can legally punish him.

Given the criteria for DPIC's list, it has little relevance to the discussion. It is dangerous because it is so often misunderstood or misrepresented as something it is not: a list of people who really did not commit the crimes of which they were convicted.

"Exonerated" is an improvement over "innocent," I suppose, but the potential to mislead is still there.

Perhaps the list should have a "black box" warning, similar to what the FDA requires on the drugs with the worst side effects. Something like this:

"WARNING: THIS LIST INCLUDES PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY DID COMMIT MURDER AND GOT AWAY WITH IT. CITING IT AS A LIST OF PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY INNOCENT MAY CAUSE YOU TO LOOK LIKE A FOOL IN PUBLIC."

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Posted by Dudley Sharp @ 9:43 PM Mon, Apr 12, 2010

Richard:

What total nonsense, as usual.

"Innocent until proven guilty" has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR LIST and you know it.

"Innocent until proven guilty" is a legal standard which only applies to the fact finders in a criminal case, be that the judge of jury.

It has no relevance to your DPIC exonerated or innocence list, which has been a source of intended deception for a decade.

Richard, how about being straight forward?

1) How many anti death penalty sites and how many media articles do you have documented evidence that you had them correct the perception that the DPIC "Innocence List" was dealing with actual innocents?

Zero, I suspect. If I am wrong, prove it.

2) How many of the cases "thrown out" had evidence thrown out which proved the defendant guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, in the prior trial?

4) Instead of your perverse definition of exonerated, have you noticed the real definition? It is
1 : to relieve of a responsibility
2 : to clear from accusation or blame

How many of the 138-139 were relieved of responsibility, accusation or blame, as opposed to a legal standard?

Richard?

5) Try the same thing with your "Innocence List". Again, how many had zero connection to the murder, as opposed to your own definition of "innocence"?

Richard?

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Posted by Bill Otis @ 9:48 PM Mon, Apr 12, 2010

The moral engine of the innocence-based argument for abolishing the death penalty is that we risk executing a person who DIDN'T DO IT. The question our citizens are interested in is factual guilt, not legalism: Do we have the right guy or not?

The notion that one needs to be God to know whether we have the right guy is preposterous. One need not be God, for example, to know that McVeigh did it. One need only pay minimal attention to the evidence. Mr. Dieter certainly knows this.

Of course there is a chance that we COULD execute an innocent person, since we are human beings.

There is also a chance that someone we could legally have executed but didn't will take another innocent life, or several of them. Indeed, that latter prospect in not merely a possibility; it has happened.

The two best known examples are Kenneth McDuff and Clarence Ray Allen. At least a half dozen innocent people died because McDuff and Allen remained alive. Did those people not also have rights?

Let's cut through the fancy dance. To say that a person has been "exonerated" of mureder will be taken, and is intended to be taken (whatever the fine print disclaimer may be), as a statement that the person didn't do it. As Mr. Dieter meanderingly acknowledges through the fog of carefully chosen words, no such thing is true.

It has been 34 years and more than 1100 executions since the Supreme Court restored the death penalty, and NOT ONE SINGLE TIME has anyone proved in court, or come close to proving, that an innocent person has been executed. That being the case, it is a confession of weakness rather than a declaration of strength to continue to make these de facto claims of innocence.

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Posted by Ward @ 2:32 AM Tue, Apr 13, 2010

Other comments have already shown how the DPIC’s so-called “strict and objective” criteria do not produce helpful or relevant results in terms of assessing the capital punishment system. To the extent that the public is concerned whether the prosecution has charged the actual perpetrator, the List is overly inclusive. A person is not “exonerated” or “innocent” because a jury has found that the prosecution did not prove the perpetrator was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is why the jury’s verdict is “not guilty” rather than “innocent “ or “exonerated”. The terms “exoneration” and “innocence” are never applied to such cases. However, the DPIC’s most recent comprehensive report states the following: “The failure to acknowledge the innocence of those who have been exonerated retards the search for the real perpetrator.” Thus, DPIC has promoted a misapprehension about the true meaning of these concepts and distorted the results of many of the cases on its List. For instance, the List continues to include “Jay C. Smith” who was freed after his triple murder conviction because of prosecutorial misconduct even though the courts have continued to express confidence in his guilt.

Also, the DPIC List and its methodology have been a subject of judicial controversy. Chief Justice Rehnquist cited the criticisms of the list in Herrera v. Collins. Justice Scalia expanded on that criticism in his recent concurring opinion in Kansas v. Marsh. Even a federal district court that was generously inclined toward the DPIC’s List found that many of the so-called exonerees were not “actually innocent.”

Mr. Dieter states: “We are merely reporting that in a great many cases the justice system convicted an individual and sentenced them to death, but when the process that arrived at that conclusion was reviewed, the conviction and sentence were completely thrown out. Surely, that should be a cause of concern in applying the death penalty.” Of course, it is a great concern when an innocent person is convicted and sentenced. No honest prosecutor would ever represent that this has not happened.

However, it is not a “cause of concern” that the legal process has done its work of reviewing judgments and reversing them for legal error. In those cases, the system has worked as it has intended. It is hardly a revelation that trials and juries are fallible. However, the public has supported capital punishment with full knowledge of that inherent risk.

Also, it is an exaggeration to state that “in great many cases” the conviction and sentence were “completely thrown out.” To begin with, the List includes cases in which the defendant was convicted and sentenced under old, defunct statutes that are not pertinent to examining our system today. However, there have been approximately 8,380 death judgments since 1973. A questionable list of 138 names during that 37 time span hardly represents a “great many cases.”

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Posted by Dudley Sharp @ 10:16 AM Tue, Apr 13, 2010

Michael Landauer:

You write: "Why 'exonerated' needs to be used sparingly".

No, Michael. There is no need to use it sparingly.

There is a need to use it clearly and precisely, as opposed to being intentionally deceptive and nebulous.

For those of us, who have been active in the death penalty debate for a long time, it cannot be overstated how often and to what effect the DPIC "Innocence List" has been used by the media, government officials and anti death penalty folks and how this blatant deception has effected this debate.

Had the media done its job, this deception would have been stopped a decade ago, but it was impossible to get the media to do its job. They refused, with very rare exception.

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Posted by Dudley Sharp @ 1:19 PM Tue, Apr 13, 2010

There is no question what Dieter, the DPIC and virtually all anti death penalty folks/groups wanted the media and the public to accept and believe. It's been a successful deception for, at least 17 years.

Time to end it.

(LATER NOTE - Words in Capitalization are for my emphasis, dudley)

Innocence and the Death Penalty, 1993, DPIC

"V. CONCLUSION It is an inescapable fact of our criminal justice system that INNOCENT PEOPLE are too often convicted of crimes. Sometimes only many years later, in the course of a defendant's appeals, or as a result of extra-legal developments, new evidence will emerge which clearly demonstrates that the WRONG PERSON was prosecuted and convicted of a crime.

Americans are justifiably concerned ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY THAT AN INNOCENT PERSON MAY BE EXECUTED. Capital punishment in the United States today provides no reliable safeguards against this danger. Errors can and have been made repeatedly in the trial of death penalty cases because of poor representation, racial prejudice, prosecutorial misconduct, or simply the presentation of erroneous evidence. Once convicted, a death row inmate faces serious obstacles in convincing any tribunal that he is innocent."

"The cases discussed in this report are the ones in which INNOCENCE was uncovered before execution. "
www(DOT)deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-penalty-assessing-danger-mistaken-executions#sxn5rpl

NOTE FROM SHARP - there is no question but that DPIC is discussing actually innocent people, here, because it is impossible to execute a legally innocent person. WRONG PERSON is no legal standard. WRONG PERSON is equivalent to actually innocent person.

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1997, DPIC, Part I: The Danger of Mistaken Executions: Pace of Innocent Cases Increases

"In the twenty-one-year span of the first report, there was an average of 2.5 releases of innocent defendants per year from 1973 to 1993. The 17 releases over the past three and a half years represents a pace of 4.8 releases per year, almost twice the pace of the previous report."

"For the original 48 cases, it took an average of approximately six and a half years between conviction and eventual release. With the 21 additional cases included in this report, the average time spent on death row before release is now about seven years. This length of time is important because both state and federal legislation in recent years will shorten the length of time death row inmates have before their execution. Currently, the average time between sentencing and execution is eight years5."

"If that time is cut in half, then THE TYPICAL INNOCENT DEFENDANT ON DEATH ROW WILL BE EXECUTED BEFORE IT IS DISCOVERED THAT A FATAL MISTAKE HAS BEEN MADE."
www(DOT)deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/523#

NOTE FROM SHARP - there is no question but that DPIC is discussing actually innocent people, here, because it is impossible to execute a legally innocent person.

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INNOCENCE AND THE CRISIS IN THE AMERICAN DEATH PENALTY by Richard Dieter, 9/2004
Executive Summary

"Ultimately, the issue of innocence, grounded in reports such as this, represents a crisis for the death penalty in America. The public’s tolerance for SACRIFICING INNOCENT LIVES for the sake of maintaining a demonstrably unfair government program with questionable benefit to society is noticeably ebbing. New voices are emerging to challenge the death penalty: judges, law enforcement officials, conservative commentators, and some legislators are discarding the former polarization of the issue as one between criminals and victims. Instead, people are noting that the injustices are often perpetrated by those mantled with the public trust, and that the victims are sometimes those condemned to death."

www(DOT)deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-crisis-american-death-penalty

NOTE FROM SHARP - SACRIFICING INNOCENT LIVES can only mean executing the actually innocent, because it is impossible to execute a legally innocent person.

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1) I copied this because it was so important. The comments went away when the Dallas Morning News went to a Facebook only comments. I re- added them, as they, now, appear, just as they appeared, originally, with non relevant posts, removed. I separated some of the comments by paragraph breaks, for clarity and separated the comments by a double hash line ======.

RELATED INFORMATION

The Innocent Frauds: Standard Anti Death Penalty Strategy
and
THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-innocent-frauds-standard-anti-death.html

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Victims' Voices

https://murdervictims.com/voices/voices.htm

Friday, March 15, 2013

SPARE ALL MURDERERS: SACRIFICE MANY MORE INNOCENTS

SPARE ALL MURDERERS: SACRIFICE MANY MORE INNOCENTS:
The Choice of Death Penalty Opponents
Dudley Sharp

Well known anti death penalty moralists and scholars "(Charles) Black and (Hugo Adam) Bedau said they would favor abolishing the death penalty even if they knew that doing so would increase the homicide rate by 1,000 percent." (1).

They choose the murders of 6.3 million additional innocents over the execution of 1300 murderers (1973-2012).

Think about that horror and the mind set behind it.

MURDERERS LIVES MUST BE SAVED, NO MATTER THE COST

In 2013, some Maryland legislators tried to retain the death penalty for terrorism and the murders of thousands (2). Those efforts were rejected by the anti death penalty contingent, as expected.

Why? They believe murderers must live, no matter the cost and no matter the magnitude and horror of their crimes.

80% support executions for the worst of crimes (3). Why? Justice.

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THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES

The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/death-penalty-saving-more-innocent.html

Innocents More At Risk Without Death Penalty

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/innocents-more-at-risk-without-death.html

OF COURSE THE DEATH PENALTY DETERS: A review of the debate

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/03/of-course-death-penalty-deters.html

LIFE: MUCH PREFERRED OVER EXECUTION

99.7% of murderers tell us "Give me life, not execution"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/11/life-much-preferred-over-execution.html

Murder Victims' Families for Death Penalty Repeal: More Hurt For Victims:
95% of murder victim's families support death penalty
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/04/victims-families-for-death-penalty.html

"Opponents in capital punishment have blood on their hands", Dennis Prager, 11/29/05,
http://townhall.com/columnists/DennisPrager/2005/11/29/opponents_in_capital_punishment_have_blood_on_their_hands

"A Death Penalty Red Herring: The Inanity and Hypocrisy of Perfection", Lester Jackson Ph.D.,http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/11/03/a-death-penalty-red-herring-the-inanity-and-hypocrisy-of-perfection.aspx

MORAL FOUNDATIONS: DEATH PENALTY

John Murray: "Nothing shows the moral bankruptcy of a people or of a generation more than disregard for the sanctity of human life." "... it is this same atrophy of moral fiber that appears in the plea for the abolition of the death penalty." "It is the sanctity of life that validates the death penalty for the crime of murder. It is the sense of this sanctity that constrains the demand for the infliction of this penalty. The deeper our regard for life the firmer will be our hold upon the penal sanction which the violation of that sanctity merit." (Page 122 of Principles of Conduct).

Pope Pius XII; "When it is a question of the execution of a man condemned to death it is then reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned of the benefit of life, in expiation of his fault, when already, by his fault, he has dispossessed himself of the right to live." 9/14/52.

Saint (& Pope) Pius V: "The just use of (executions), far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this (Fifth) Commandment which prohibits murder." "The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent" (1566).

Immanuel Kant: "If an offender has committed murder, he must die. In this case, no possible substitute can satisfy justice. For there is no parallel between death and even the most miserable life, so that there is no equality of crime and retribution unless the perpetrator is judicially put to death.". "A society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else's life is simply immoral."

John Locke: "A criminal who, having renounced reason... hath, by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or tyger, one of those wild savage beasts with whom men can have no society nor security." And upon this is grounded the great law of Nature, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Second Treatise of Civil Government.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "In killing the criminal, we destroy not so much a citizen as an enemy. The trial and judgments are proofs that he has broken the Social Contract, and so is no longer a member of the State." (The Social Contract).

3200 additional pro death penalty quotes
http://prodpquotes.info/

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"Killing Equals Killing: The Amoral Confusion of Death Penalty Opponents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/02/01/murder-and-execution--very-distinct-moral-differences--new-mexico.aspx

"The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/20/the-death-penalty-neither-hatred-nor-revenge.aspx

"Moral/ethical Death Penalty Support: Christian and secular Scholars"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-support-modern-catholic.html

"The Death Penalty: Not a Human Rights Violation"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2006/03/20/the-death-penalty-not-a-human-rights-violation.aspx

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1) From Ernest van den Haag's interview of well known anti death penalty activists.

from http://faculty.msmary.edu/conway/PHIL%20400x/Pojman%20Wisdom%20of%20CP.pdf

2) "Maryland House advances repeal of death penalty after defeating several exceptions", John Wagner, Washington Post, March 13.2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/maryland-house-advances-repeal-of-death-penalty-after-defeating-several-exceptions/2013/03/13/c79e2a3a-8c38-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html

3) US Death Penalty Support at 80%; World Support Remains High
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/04/us-death-penalty-support-at-80-world.html

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Victim's Voices - These are the murder victims

http://www.murdervictims.com/Voices/voices.html

Friday, March 08, 2013

IS THERE CLASS DISPARITY WITH EXECUTIONS?

Is There Class Disparity with Executions?

From: Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, Houston, Texas, CV at bottom
updated 10/2019

One may presume, as do I, that wealthy capital murderers have a better chance of avoiding execution by their obvious ability to hire better counsel.

Presumption is not fact.

Is there class disparity? Maybe, but, possibly, immeasurably small.

99.8% of the poor murderers avoid executions.

It appears, solely, dependent upon one's definition of "wealthy" and "poor", as to whether "wealthy" murderers are any more or less likely to be executed than 0.2%, based upon the fact that the vast minority of capital murderers are "wealthy" and the vast majority of being" poor", with the most common death penalty eligible crime being robbery/murder, not a motive for the rich.

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There is a limited study, which for me, is fairly conclusive that hired private counsel makes a huge difference.

From the brief (1). V. Conclusion

"Death penalty opponents charge that socioeconomic status shapes capital punishment. Wealthy defendants who can hire counsel are exempt from death, but poor defendants who must accept appointed counsel are condemned."

My findings both support and refute opponents claims:

--- Hiring counsel for the entire case not only eliminates the chance of death, but also dramatically increases the chance of an acquittal.

--- Hiring counsel for a portion of the case substantially reduces the chance of death.

--- Hiring counsel is not related to wealth. Almost all capital defendants are poor.

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Some other considerations, nationally.

1) Very rarely are poor murderers sentenced to death and executed.

99.8% of poor murderers have avoided execution.

There have been about 900,000 murders (1973-2023), 1973 being when the first new death penalty statutes were enacted, after Furman v Georgia. Possibly 10% of those may be death penalty eligible, or about 90,000 (a). From 1973-2023, about 1600 capital murderers have been executed, or 0.19% out of 900,000 or 1.9% out of 90,000. The overwhelming majority of those murderers are "poor".

Even more rare and much less often, per capita, I venture, do the wealthy commit capital murder. Is a significantly smaller percentage of wealthy capital murderers, less than 1.9%, likely to be executed? (b). Yes, but for circumstances other than private counsel.

2) It appears, solely, dependent upon one's definition of "wealthy" and "poor", as to whether wealthy murderers are any more or less likely to be executed, based upon the very small number and percentage of capital murders that are committed by the wealthy, as compared to the poor.

Possibly, your definition of "wealthy" will find, more or less, that 99.8% of wealthy murderers have avoided execution, just as the "poor" have.

3) Here is why the wealthy will by much, much less likely to, even, commit death eligible crimes:

a) The two most frequent crimes which put murderers on death row are robbery/murders and rape/murderers.

Rationally, wealthy murderers are much less likely, per capita, to commit such crimes, when compared to poor murderers.

NOTE: There are a number of cases whereby children murdered their parents for an inheritance. I don't know if those children qualified as wealthy, either before or after those murders.

b) According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Capital Punishment Series, 65% of those on death row had a prior felony conviction, with 7-8% having a prior murder conviction.

I strongly suspect that wealthy murderers are much less likely, per capita, to have either of those priors than are poor murderers. Criminal backgrounds are important in death penalty cases. This, alone, may explain any alleged disparity between the wealthy and the poor, if there is any.

For example, in the Menendez brothers case, whereby they murdered their parents, ". . . the jury rejected the death penalty because neither brother had a felony record or a history of violence. " NOTE from Sharp: Astounding that their history of violence against their parents was not enough.

c) Accounting for a and b, the wealthy may be 5-10 times less likely to commit capital murders per capita than are the poor and/or to have existing criminal records which would make it much less likely for them to be prosecuted for a death penalty eligible crime and/or sentenced to death, than the poor.

There is a reason there are few wealthy on death row or executed. In gross numbers, as well as per capita, they are much less likely to commit capital murder than are the poor.

NOTE: Furthermore, Dr. Joseph Katz found that, while 74% of all Georgia murder defendants were poor, only 38% of those on death row were poor (McCleskey).

note: I need to research how they are defined.

4) In Mark Castanzo's book "Just Revenge: Costs and Consequences of the Death Penalty", he claimed that 2/3 of death penalty trials ended with a sanction less than death.

Overwhelmingly, such means that poor murderers will be getting the vast majority of those benefits. Are wealthy murderers more likely to receive that benefit, per capita? Unlikely, based upon 3a&b, above, and (c) below.

5) 37% of all death row inmates have their cases overturned on appeal. Again, overwhelmingly, such means that poor murderers will be getting the vast majority of those benefits. Are wealthy death row murderers more likely, per capita, to receive that benefit? Unlikely, based upon 3 above and (c) below.

6) I have been told, repeatedly, with no supportive evidence, that 90% of those on death row had a public defender. Such would mean that close to 10% of those on death row must have some wealth to hire private counsel. I would be astounded if the percentage were that high.

If it is true, then there is no truth that the wealthy are barred or protected from death row or execution, based upon their wealth and ability to hire better counsel, if not just more expensive counsel.

In fact, based upon (c) below, we may be executing the wealthy at a higher rate than the poor.

Again, how one defines "wealthy" and "poor" may be the determining factor.

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I will continue to believe that truly wealthy capital defendants/murderers, who can hire the finest counsel, must have an advantage over their poorer ilk, but that the database of wealthy capital murderers is so small as to, likely, make moot any statistical relevance.

Keep in mind that, so far, poor murderers are avoiding execution about 99.8% of the time - and I don't think we have any evidence that wealthy murderers are executed substantially less than .19% of the time (1 above).

We may even be executing wealthy murderers at a rate higher than expected. See (c) below.

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(a) While many of those murders would have multiple victims, so to would many also have multiple murderers. So, while 50,000 cases may be death penalty eligible, because of multiple victims, it will, also, say that 80,000 murderers will be subject to execution, based upon some cases having multiple offenders.

(b) I have not tried to compile a list of the wealthy on death row, in the modern era. I just happen to know of these.

Some wealthy, sent to death row. Garza and Smith have been executed.

Robert Marshall (New Jersey), Thomas Capano (Delaware), Juan Raul Garza (federal), Markum Duff Smith (Texas)

(c) THE WEALTHY AND DEATH ROW - Contrary to opponents claims, there is no systemic evidence that wealthy capital murderers are less likely to be executed than their poorer ilk.

Drawing only on personal knowledge, with no study, I found that since 1973, in Texas, alone, at least seven middle class to wealthy murderers have been put on death row.

Four, Markum Duff Smith, George Lott, Robert Black, Jr., and Ronald O'Bryan have been executed. Three additional await execution. Extensive, objective research would, undoubtedly, reveal many more. Don’t forget John Wayne Gacy.

Furthermore, Dr. Joseph Katz found that, while 74% of all Georgia murder defendants were poor, only 38% of those on death row were poor (McCleskey).

Informed Speculation: 5% of the U.S. population (12 million) can afford to pay the $400,000* cost for their capital trial and appeals. Because financial need can be excluded, the category of wealthy capital murderer can be assumed to murder at a rate 10 times less than their poorer ilk.

Fact: 0.20% of the U.S. population commits murder. 1.3% of those are sentenced to death. Only 6% of those have been executed.

Therefore, the projected number of wealthy executed from 1976-1996 is 2 ,

or 12 million x .1 x .0020 x .013 x .06. Using 1973-1996 data.

Therefore, just based upon what I know, in Texas, the wealthy are more likely, per capita, to be executed than are the poor.

*conservative estimate based on opponents’ high cost claims (see E??)

From C. RACE, SENTENCING AND THE DEATH PENALTY, DEATH PENALTY AND SENTENCING INFORMATION In the United States,

Dudey Sharp, 10/1/97, found 5/26/13, at http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/dp.html#C.Race

UPDATE: RACE & THE DEATH PENALTY: A REBUTTAL TO THE RACISM CLAIMS (2013)
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/07/rebuttal-death-penalty-racism-claims.html

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1) Brief "Hire a lawyer, Escape the Death Penalty" By Scott Phillips, February 2010

This Issue Brief is based on an article entitled Legal Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment, 99 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 717 (2009). The findings described here are confirmed in the multivariate statistical models presented in the full paper. The author may be contacted by mail at Scott Phillips; Department of Sociology and Criminology; University of Denver; 2000 E. Asbury Avenue; Denver, CO 80208-2948; or by email at Scott.Phillips@du.edu.

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REBUTTAL: Common Anti Death Penalty Claims

Saving Costs with The Death Penalty
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/02/death-penalty-cost-saving-money.html

RACE & THE DEATH PENALY:
A REBUTTAL TO THE RACISM CLAIMS
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/search?q=racism

WOMEN & THE DEATH PENALTY:

ARE WOMEN OVER REPRESENTED ON DEATH ROW?

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/02/women-death-penalty-are-women-over.html

OF COURSE THE DEATH PENALTY DETERS: