Kennedy v. Louisiana

I don't have time to comment (darn meetings!), but the United States Supreme Court ruled today (5-4) that it is unconstitutional to execute someone for a child rape where the child was not murdered. Although no one has been executed in the US for a crime other than murder in many years, there were two men on death row in Louisiana awaiting execution for rape of a child. Additionally, this clears the laws for other states and will prevent future executions.

Here is a link to an article from the NY Times.

Clifton White

Hat tip to Jeralyn at TalkLeft (who's blog I read every day, by the way -- I encourage you to do so as well) for noting this case.

Ohio will not get the chance to kill Clifton White. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the lower court judge in White's case had overstepped his authority when he substituted his own expertise for that of experts in finding that Clifton White was not mentally retarded and, therefore, could be subject to execution.

Jeralyn provides links to the opinion and some snippets in her post so I won't bore you with more, but this is a big deal. Judges are not experts on everything. They should not get to decide who lives and who dies against the recommendations of those who are, in fact, experts on a subject.

Here's an article from the New York Times.

Troy Davis

I've come out of the shadows for a moment to pass on this bit of devestating news about Troy Davis. As you may have heard, the Georgia Supreme Court denied his request for a new trial. Please see this posting at Amnesty International and take action if you are able. As you can see below in my prior postings, Troy has a credible claim of innocence. Without a new trial, its possible the State of Georgia will execute an innocent man.

Kenneth Foster Jr.

Absolutely OUTSTANDING news out of Texas!!! (How often do you hear me say that?). Governor Perry commuted Kenneth Foster's sentence to life in prison today, just hours before Texas was scheduled to execute him. If you pay attention to death penalty activism and news, you've heard of Kenneth Foster. Kenneth Foster did not personally murder anyone, yet, under a controversial Texas law he was given the death penalty. Foster admits he was involved in the crimes surrounding the murder (he was the getaway driver during some robberies that night), but it is fairly clear he did not personally kill Michael LaHood, nor was he involved in planning LaHood's murder.

Read about it here in the LA Times.

Waaahoooooo!

Troy Davis, Darrell Grayson etc.

I have been meaning to update lately, in particular to update on the case of Troy Davis and to write one of my informal "obits" for Darrell Grayson (which, trust me, will be a not-as-typical entry). I will get to the posting for Darrell shortly.

In the meantime...

Troy Davis has been granted a hearing by the Georgia Supreme Court. For more information on Troy's case and the hearing please see Karl's blog entries at Capital Defense Weekly and the NCADP blog. Amnesty International also has a posting.

Kenneth Foster, Jr.

Texas is scheduled to execute Kenneth Foster on August 30th for the murder of Michael LaHood.

For more information, please see the NCADP blog for a re-post of a blog by Sean-Paul Kelley (originally posted at Huffington Post). Mr. Kelley was a close friend of Michael LaHood's; he is now speaking out against Kenneth Foster's execution. According to Kelley, Foster was driving the car in which LaHood's shooter was riding around the night of LaHood's murder, but Foster did not shoot LaHood or actively participate in LaHood's slaying.

I really enjoyed reading Mr. Kelley's comments on why he does not agree with the death penalty (in this and other situations). I think this quote rang the closest with me:

"Whenever people ask me about the death penalty I always reply: when you make it to the Pearly Gates, and Saint Peter asks, 'justice or mercy?' Which will you choose? Usually they sputter or blurt something out like, 'The death penalty doesn't have anything to do with that.' I reply, 'The death penalty has everything to do with that. You just can't see it.'"

Lonnie Earl Johnson - Texas

The State of Texas executed Lonnie Earl Johnson on July 24, 2007. Johnson was 44 years old at the time of his death.

Johnson never denied killing the two teenagers for whose murders he was executed (Sean Schulz (16) and Leroy McCaffry (17)). However, Johnson did claim that the two victims made racist threats against him (they were white, he was black) and pulled a gun on him. Prison officials say that Johnson believed until shortly before his death that his appeals would be successful and he would not die.

Whether or not Schulz's and McCaffry's deaths were the result of self-defense or were murder, their deaths are tragic. My heart certainly goes out to their parents and families. Yet, even if Johnson murdered those boys without provocation, I still believe it was wrong to execute him.

There is more to the story of Johnson's execution - separate, yet forever related. Lonnie Johnson was the 100th person convicted and sentenced out of Harris County, Texas to be executed since the death penalty was re-instated in Texas. In 25 years, Texas has executed 100 people from one single county. That is an average of 4 every year and its total is more than the total in any other STATE (aside from Texas). Moreover, Harris County, dear readers, is no ordinary county. Harris County has been the subject of great controversy over the last few years as the result of investigations that have shown its forensics lab to have been highly unreliable (no allegations that it currently is as far as I know). I wonder how many of those 100 individuals were convicted, sentenced and executed based on questionable forensics?

For more on the execution of Lonnie Johnson please see this article in the Houston Chronicle.

For more commentary on the Harris County 100-execution "milestone" please see the following blog posts:

Amnesty International - Counting to One Hundred

Texas Moratorium Network - Harris County: One County 100 Executions

Capital Defense Weekly - Lonnie Johnson: "Geography Means Everything"