Exonerees Leading March to Abolish the Death Penalty

Death row exonerees Gary Drinkard, Ron Keine and Shujaa Graham leading the 2010 March to Abolish the Death Penalty. marchforabolition.org
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Click for a list of upcoming scheduled executions in Texas.
Innocence

Innocence

The death penalty puts innocent people at risk of execution.
Todd Willingham

Todd Willingham

Todd Willingham was wrongfully executed under Governor Rick Perry on February 17, 2004.

I .. can’t… stop… I … must … set … an … execution … date

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In Texas, some people watch football every Sunday just because they have always done it. Same thing with the death penalty in Texas. Judges know that the execution dates are going to be stayed pending the Baze decision, but they can’t stop setting execution dates. It’s just habit. Forget football. Maybe this is what crack is like. Statesman article:

The courts may have called a temporary halt to executions, but the wheels of death penalty justice continue to turn in Texas.

On Wednesday, a Tyler district judge set a Nov. 6 execution date for Allen Bridgers, a high school dropout who fatally shot a Tyler woman in the throat before stealing her car in 1997.

The U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have blocked two Texas executions in the past week. The delays were ordered while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews claims that lethal injections — a three-drug combination that sedates, paralyzes and kills — may subject inmates to intense pain but leave them unable to cry out.

“It’s baffling, because it doesn’t make any sense to schedule an execution date based on what the U.S. Supreme Court and Texas court have done in the last week,” said Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents Bridgers.

“It just creates completely unnecessary litigation” challenging Bridgers’ execution, Keilen said.

Impeach Judge Sharon Keller

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Click here to sign the judicial complaint against Sharon Keller.

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller should resign or be impeached and removed from office for her conduct regarding the execution of Michael Richard. She closed the court’s office at 5 PM without consulting any of the other judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, even the one other judge who was assigned to handle any late motions in Richard’s case, Judge Cheryl Johnson. To begin her removal from office, someone should file a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

As long as Keller is in office, the people of Texas can not be sure that justice is being done with integrity.

The Austin American Statesman has more:

The Chi ruling came as new details emerged about the Texas court’s refusal to stay open past 5 p.m. on Sept. 25 so lawyers could file an appeal on behalf of death row inmate Michael Richard. The Supreme Court had accepted the lethal injection case earlier that day, and Richard’s lawyers argued that the extra time was needed to respond to the new circumstances and to address computer problems that delayed the printing of Richard’s motion.

Richard was executed later than night, and news of the court’s refusal appeared in newspapers, and critical editorials, around the world.

Last week, court personnel declined to say who made the decision to close at 5 p.m.

It was revealed Tuesday that the decision was made by Presiding Judge Sharon Keller without consulting any of the court’s eight other judges or later informing them about the decision – including Judge Cheryl Johnson, who was assigned to handle any late motions in Richard’s case.

Johnson, who learned about the request to stay open past 5 p.m. in an Austin American-Statesman story, said her first reaction to the news was “utter dismay.”

“And I was angry,” she said. “If I’m in charge of the execution, I ought to have known about those things, and I ought to have been asked whether I was willing to stay late and accept those filings.”

Johnson said she would have accepted the brief for consideration by the court. “Sure,” she said. “I mean, this is a death case.”

Judge Cathy Cochran said the Richard case raised troubling questions.

“First off, was justice done in the Richard case? And secondly, will the public perceive that justice was done and agree that justice was done?” Cochran said. “Our courts should be open to always redress a true wrong, and as speedily as possible. That’s what courts exist for.”

At least three judges were working late in the courthouse that evening, and others were available by phone if needed, court personnel said.

None of the judges was informed of Richard’s request by Keller or by the court’s general counsel, Edward Marty, who had consulted with Keller on the request.

Keller defended her actions, saying she was relating the court’s longstanding practice to close on time.

“I got a phone call shortly before 5 and was told that the defendant had asked us to stay open. I asked why, and no reason was given,” Keller said. “And I know that that is not what other people have said, but that’s the truth. They did not tell us they had computer failure.

“And given the late request, and with no reason given, I just said, ‘We close at 5.’ I didn’t really think of it as a decision as much as a statement,” Keller said.

Keilen, whose organization also handled Richard’s appeal, said court clerks were informed about the computer problems.

The clerk’s office, asked whether Keller was told of the malfunction, referred questions to Judge Tom Price, who is in charge of court personnel. Price did not respond, and calls to other judges were not returned Tuesday.

And after the 405th Texas execution, there is a de facto moratorium

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It appears that the stay of execution given to Heliberto Chi today by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals means that there is a de facto moratorium on executions in Texas. There should be no more executions in Texas until after the U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling in Baze vs Rees. The ruling could come as late as next June.

Urge Texas Governor Rick Perry and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to Support the Moratorium on Executions Pending the Decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on the Constitutionality of Lethal Injections

Thank you to the around 500 people who took action today by writing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Governor and the Legislature after receiving an action alert from TMN asking them to write and urge a stay for Chi. The stay was issued by the Court of Criminal Appeals, but by writing the BPP, the Governor and the Legislature, you have helped us build support for moratorium. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 4-3 to reject a six-month stay for Chi, but the vote was close and your letters and emails helped make it close.

It is likely, that the U.S. Supreme Court would have issued a stay, if the Chi case had reached the Court. The CCA has given the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry — whose office prosecuted Chi — a month to “address the question of whether the current method of administering lethal injection in Texas constitutes cruel and unusual punishment such that the (TDCJ) would violate the Eighth Amendment,” the order states.

The attorney general’s office would respond on behalf of Nathaniel Quarterman, the director of TDCJ’s Institutional Division, agency spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said.

We now have to let the Texas Attorney General, the Governor and the Legislature know that the people of Texas want them to continue the suspension of executions until after the U.S. Supreme Court has issued its ruling in the Baze case.

From the New York Times:

Signaling an indefinite halt to executions in Texas, the state’s highest criminal appeals court late Tuesday stayed the lethal injection of a 28-year-old Honduran man who was scheduled to be put to death Wednesday.

The reprieve by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was granted a week after the United States Supreme Court agreed to consider whether a form of lethal injection constituted cruel and unusual punishment barred under the Eighth Amendment. On Thursday, the Supreme Court stepped in to halt a planned execution in Texas at the last minute, and though many legal experts interpreted that as a signal for all states to wait for a final ruling on lethal injection before any further executions, Texas officials said they planned to move ahead with more.

As a result, Tuesday’s ruling by the Texas court was seen as a sign that judges in the nation’s leading death penalty state were taking guidance from the Supreme Court and putting off imminent executions.

The Texas court order gave state authorities up to 30 days to explain in legal papers why the execution of the inmate, Heliberto Chi, should proceed. With responses then certain from defense lawyers, the effect of the order was to put off the execution for months, lawyers said.

Mr. Chi was convicted of killing the manager of a men’s store in Arlington in 2001.

Other executions, including four more scheduled in the next five months, were also likely to be stayed, said David R. Dow of the Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit law clinic that worked on Mr. Chi’s appeal.

“Until the Court of Criminal Appeals addresses the questions raised in this case there will be no more executions in Texas,” predicted Mr. Dow, a law professor at the University of Houston.

Acting less than a week after it rejected another inmate’s appeal 5 to 4, the appeals court justices provided no breakdown of the vote and did not give any reasoning for their decision. But they directed the state’s director of criminal justice, Nathaniel Quarterman, not to execute Mr. Chi and gave Mr. Quarterman and Tim Curry, the district attorney of Tarrant County, where the crime had been committed, up to 30 days to respond to claims by Mr. Chi’s lawyers that the formulation and administration of chemicals used for lethal injections did not quickly and painlessly kill but paralyzed the condemned inmates while they painfully suffocated.

Earlier Tuesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 4 to 3 against recommending a stay for Mr. Chi. A request for a 30-day reprieve was also pending with Gov. Rick Perry.

Had the appeals court not halted the execution, Mr. Chi’s lawyers would have taken the case to the United States Supreme Court, which last Thursday stayed the execution for another Texas inmate, Carlton Turner Jr.

First-ever local moratorium on death penalty in Texas called by Nueces County DA

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Congratulations to the Nueces County District Attorney for putting a hold on seeking the death penalty until after the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of lethal injections. This is probably the first time in Texas, if not anywhere, that a DA has put into effect a local moratorium on seeking the death penalty in response to a pending Supreme Court case. Nueces County has perhaps more reason than most counties to be extra cautious, because in 1989 Carlos De Luna was executed by Texas after being convicted in Nueces County. An investigation by the Chicago Tribune in 2006 uncovered evidence that he was probably not the killer and was in fact most likely innocent.

Governor Perry should take a cue from the DA in Nueces County and take steps to stop all executions in Texas pending the ruling by the Supreme Court. Perry can start by issuing a 30-day stay of execution for Heliberto Chi, who is scheduled for execution on Oct 3. He can then write a letter to all district attorneys in Texas asking them to work with convicting courts to withdraw all scheduled execution dates and not set any new dates until after the Court’s ruling.

Click here to send an email to Governor Perry.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Nueces D.A. won’t seek death penalty while Supreme Court has yet to rule
By Mary Ann Cavazos

CORPUS CHRISTI — The Daytona Beach based business lawyers Office put a hold on
seeking the death penalty in capital murder cases on Monday in light of the
Supreme Court’s decision last week to hear a case that questions whether
lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

Under Texas law, capital murder carries only two possible sentences: death or
life in prison without parole.

“Until we can get some direction from the Supreme Court, we will waive the
death penalty and seek life in prison, which is the only other punishment
allowed,” District Attorney Carlos Valdez said.

The case, which will be heard by the high court early next year, was filed by
two inmates on death row in Kentucky who claim that lethal injection is
inhumane and violates the Eighth Amendment.

The local self-imposed moratorium, which took effect Monday, will not affect
any of the county’s pending capital murder cases because the office already
had decided not to seek the death penalty.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Skurka said it also won’t affect the cases of
four Nueces County men on death row for capital murder but is more of a
precautionary measure.

Most states that allow the death penalty use lethal injection to put inmates
to death. But at least six states have halted executions because of issues
surrounding the method, which uses a combination of anesthetic, muscle
paralyzer and a substance to stop the heart.

So far this year, 42 people have been executed in the country. Texas, which
has put 26 inmates to death by lethal injection, leads with the most executions.

Heliberto Chi: Write Gov Perry to Stop Execution

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Write Gov Perry to Urge Him to Stop the Execution of Heliberto Chi and to stop all executions pending the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of lethal injections

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Heliberto Chi on October 3, 2007. Chi is a citizen of Honduras who was sentenced to death for the March 24, 2001 murder of Armand Paliotta, 56, at the K&G Men’s Superstore in southwest Arlington.

Chi’s court-appointed attorney, Wes Ball, says that Chi was not allowed to contact his country’s consulate as prescribed by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. That 1963 treaty was meant to allow foreigners who are arrested the right to speak with their consulates.

“Nobody told Mr. Chi he had a right to a consular official, and it was never brought to his attention,” Ball said.

If Texas executes a person who was not given the right to contact his consulate and seek assistance when he was arrested, then U.S. citizens who travel abroad may not be guaranteed the right by other countries to contact the U.S. consulate when they are arrested.

The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted a case out of Kentucky (Baze v. Rees) in which two death row inmates are challenging lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution’s 8th Amendment. A judicious course of action would be for the state of Texas to suspend executions until the Supreme Court determines whether the three drug method used in Kentucky, Texas and other states does not violate the U.S. Constitution.

Please stop this execution and all Texas executions until after the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Kentucky case.

The Texas Legislature should create an interim committee to study the administration of the death penalty in Texas, paying particular attention to the risk of executing an innocent person, the question of the method of execution, the need for a statewide Office of Public Defenders for Capital Cases to ensure that each person facing a death sentence has competent representation, the need to establish an Innocence Commission, and other reforms to improve the administration of justice in Texas.

In the text of your message, urge the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Perry to commute Chi’s sentence to life in prison.

The government of Honduras has urged Texas officials to spare the life of Chi. The request was part of a clemency petition signed by 50 nations seeking a commuted sentence for Heliberto Chi.

Under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963 (VCCR), local authorities must notify all detained foreigners “without delay” of their right to have their consulate informed of their detention. At the request of the national, the authorities must then notify the consulate without delay, facilitate unfettered consular communication and grant consular access to the detainee. Consuls are empowered to arrange for their nationals’ legal representation and to provide a wide range of humanitarian and other assistance, with the consent of the detainee. Local laws and regulations must give “full effect” to the rights enshrined in Article 36. The USA ratified the VCCR without reservations in 1969; so fundamental is the right to consular notification and access that the US Department of State considers it to be required under customary international law in all cases, even if the detainee’s home country has not signed the VCCR. As of 1 January 2000, at least 167 countries were parties to the VCCR.

In addition to sending Gov Perry an email, you can leave him a phone message at: 512-463-2000, fax him at 512-463-1849 (his fax line is often busy, so just keep trying) or write him at:

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Come to the Governor’s Mansion in Austin or one of the protests sites in the list of cities below to protest the Texas death penalty every time there is a scheduled execution.

Statewide Execution Vigils

Huntsville – Corner of 12th Street and Avenue I (in front of the Walls Unit) at 5:00 p.m.

Austin – At the Governor’s Mansion on the Lavaca St. side between 10th and 11th St. from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.

Beaumont – Diocese of Beaumont, Diocesan Pastoral Office, 703 Archie St. @ 4:00 p.m. on the day of an execution.

College Station – 6 to 7 PM on execution days, corner of Texas Avenue and University Drive.

Corpus Christi – at 6 PM in front of Incarnate Word Convent at 2910 Alameda Street

Dallas – 5:30 pm, at the SMU Women’s Center, 3116 Fondren Drive

Houston – 5:30 to 6:20 at the Dominican Sisters Mother House at 6501 Almeda Rd. (corner of Almeda and Holcombe), Parking is accessible from Almeda Rd.

Lewisville – St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church, 1897 W. Main Street. Peace & Justice Ministry conducts Vigils of Witness Against Capital Punishment at 6:00 pm on the day executions are scheduled in Texas.

McKinney – St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Community located at 110 St. Gabriel Way. We gather the last Saturday of the month between 6:00 to 6:30 to pray for those men/women scheduled to be executed in the next month and to remember the victims, their families, and all lives touched, including us as a society.

San Antonio (Site 1) – Archdiocese of San Antonio, in the St. Joseph Chapel at the Chancery, 2718 W. Woodlawn Ave. (1 mile east of Bandera Rd.) at 11:30 a.m. on the day of execution. Broadcast on Catholic Television of San Antonio (Time-Warner cable channel 15) at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on the day of execution.

San Antonio (Site 2) – Main Plaza across from Bexar County Courthouse and San Fernando Cathedral – Noon

Spring – Prayer Vigil at 6 PM on evenings of executions at St Edward Catholic Community, 2601 Spring Stuebner Rd for the murder victim, for family and friends of the murder victim, the prison guards and correctional officers, for the family of the condemn man/woman, for the man/woman to be executed and to an end to the death penalty.

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