Kenneth Mosley, set for execution this week in Huntsville, has had his execution rescheduled for Sept 24, apparently because both Rick Perry and David Dewhurst will be out of Texas this Thursday. (We don’t have details on where the two are traveling, but maybe someone should check the Appalachian Trail.)

A state district judge has moved Mosley’s execution date to September.

The 50-year-old death row inmate had faced lethal injection Thursday for the fatal shooting of Garland police officer Michael Moore during a bank robbery 12 years ago.

A state district judge in Dallas has reset Mosley’s execution for Sept. 24.

From the DMN’ Crime blog:

The execution has been postponed until September 24 at the request of the Dallas County District Attorney’s office.

Apparently both Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst are both scheduled to be out of the state this Thursday and one or the other is supposed to be in the state when an execution is held.

“Death Penalty for Female Offenders” by Victor Streib, January 1, 1973 through June 30, 2009, Issue #64, by Victor Streib,Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University.

Excerpt:

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

(1) From 1973 through mid-2009, the leading states for sentencing women to death are Texas with nineteen, California with eighteen, Florida with seventeen, and North Carolina with sixteen.

(2) As of mid-2009, California has fifteen women on death row, and Texas has ten.

(3) Currently on death row are thirteen women who killed their husbands or boyfriends, and another eleven women who killed their children. Two other women killed both their husbands and their children. These twenty-six women account for almost half of the fifty-three women now on death row.

(4) The most recent execution of a female offender was that of Frances Newton in Texas on September 14, 2005.

(5) The most unusual recent development is the rebirth of federal death penalties for women. No women had received federal death sentences in the entire current era (beginning in 1973) until one such sentence was imposed in late 2005 and another in early 2008.

SCREENING FEMALE OFFENDERS FROM THE DEATH PENALTY

(1) Women account for about one in ten (10.0%) murder arrests;

(2) Women account for only one in forty-nine (2.0%) death sentences imposed at the trial level;

(3) Women account for only one in sixty-two (1.6%) persons presently on death row; and

(4) Women account for only one in one hundred and six (0.9%) persons actually executed in this modern era.

DEATH SENTENCES IMPOSED UPON FEMALE OFFENDERS IN CURRENT ERA

(1) A total of 165 death sentences have been imposed upon female offenders from 1973 through mid-2009. Table 1 below provides these data by individual year.

(2) These 165 death sentences for female offenders constitute just 2% of all death sentences during this time period.

(3) The annual death sentencing rate for female offenders during the last decade has averaged four per year.

“Death Penalty for Female Offenders” by Victor Streib

The video below is from the National Geographic Channel, “What happens in the final hours leading up to an execution?”. Watch the full program, Sunday July 12 at 8 PM on the National Geographic Channel.

Gloria Rubac of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement notified us of a program this Sunday, July 12, on the National Geographic Channel at 8 PM. Thanks Gloria!

“The National Geographic Channel is airing a program they filmed in Huntsville and Livingston, Texas last winter. It is on a show called EXPLORER and the show is titled “Inside Death Row.”

We believe the three men featured in the program are Willie Pondexter, Johnny Ray Johnson, and David Martinez. All three men are now dead, victims of the state of Texas”.

The information below is from National Geographic Channel:

In most places death has no schedule, but in Huntsville, Texas, an average of 16 people per year are scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. Inside Death Row interviews three inmates as their dates of execution draw near, and follows the stories of their families and loved ones as they deal with death firsthand. This story is not one of guilt or innocence; it is about how the State of Texas carries out the death penalty as well as the men and women whom, by choice or circumstance, become players in the act of executing another human being. Lastly, it explores how the residents of Huntsville feel towards living in a town that is ground zero for capital punishment in the United States.

If you can not see the preview video embedded below, click here to watch it at the National Geographic Channel.

Visits to Death Row

By: Katy Jones, Associate Producer

The only way to communicate with death row inmates in Texas is by actual U.S. Postal Service mail. I spent a great deal of time during the planning stages of this project writing letters to death row inmates. It is odd enough to write to a stranger, out of the blue, but I was writing to strangers who were convicted of murder and condemned to die. What do you say? “Greetings from a girl sitting in a cubicle who isn’t quite sure how she feels about any of this?”

It was a lot we were asking. We were asking men who knew the date they were going to die if, without any tangible reward, they would be willing to share their story with us. We were transparent about our plans. We would be contacting everyone involved in the executions of those men who volunteered to participate. We would contact the families of the victims. We would interview wardens & correctional personnel. We would talk to their families. And we would film everything.

I watched the mailbox daily, hoping for return letters. We received them. After various exchanges, we settled on the three men in our film. When we met them in person, what was most surprising to me was how normal they appeared. It would be easier in some ways if you could come to death row and walk away knowing that all murderers were scary monsters. But they were normal, the type of guys who, without the jump suit and plexiglass, could have lived next door, or stand in line at the supermarket. These were just guys.

You couldn’t get away from the fact that these crimes were often awful. And some of the crimes, well – I once sent an email to my producer with a case history. I included the disclaimer, “If you are going home to your children, DON’T even open this case until the morning.”

We spoke with people who held strong opinions about the death penalty – both for and against it. What I walked away with – was that everyone on all sides of the issue – both for and against – were all deeply committed to justice. Everyone involved wanted to participate in a just society. And each participant – anti-death penalty lawyers, correctional officers, district attorneys, protesters, wardens, families, even inmates – every person was doing what they could to preserve the concept of justice.

The three men in our film were executed within the span of a month. One by one, after months of exchanging letters and visiting, we recorded our last interviews. We often were able to conduct an interview the day before they died. We’d say our good-byes, touch hands to the glass – the death row method of hand-shaking – and say whatever we could awkwardly think of to say. “Thank you for being part of our project” was all I could say.

From the AP:

An Army sergeant accused of slaying his superior and another U.S. soldier in Iraq will face a court-martial and could be sentenced to death if convicted, the military said Tuesday.

Army prosecutors say Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis shot his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson, and Sgt. Wesley Durbin on Sept. 14 at a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol base south of Baghdad. Witnesses have said Bozicevich opened fire on the soldiers when they tried to counsel him for poor performance.

and

Dawson’s stepmother, Maxine Mathis, said she was thankful the military was moving forward with the case. But she said she couldn’t support the death penalty for Bozicevich.

“If they could just send him to prison, that wouldn’t bother me one bit,” Mathis said by phone from Pensacola, Fla. “I just feel in my heart something snapped in that man. I don’t know what those young men go through over there.”

For the rest of the article, click here.