Four Executions in Texas and Georgia Stayed, Clemency Recommended for Foreign National in Oklahoma
Four stays were grant­ed for exe­cu­tions that were sched­uled to take place this week in Texas and Georgia, and Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for a for­eign nation­al fac­ing exe­cu­tion in January 2004. In Texas, courts ordered three stays of exe­cu­tion. Two of the cas­es involved chal­lenges to the use of pan­curo­ni­um bro­mide as part of the state’s lethal injec­tion process. A third case, that of Bobby Lee Hines, was stayed on the basis of a men­tal retar­da­tion claim. Attorneys for Texas death row inmates Billy Frank Vickers and Kevin Lee Zimmerman filed a suit stat­ing that one of the lethal injec­tion drugs, which has been banned by the American Veterinary Medical Association, vio­lates the con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tion against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The Supreme Court issued a stay for Zimmerman just 20 min­utes before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion. Vickers’ exe­cu­tion was put off by the state because of uncer­tain­ty of how the courts would rule. (Associated Press, December 11, 2003) Pancuronium bro­mide is used in 28 states that exe­cute by lethal injec­tion.
In Georgia, just hours before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Eddie Crawford, the state Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal to have sev­er­al pieces of pos­si­ble blood evi­dence test­ed for DNA. Attorneys for Crawford stat­ed that the evi­dence must be test­ed based on a new law grant­i­ng inmates greater access to post-con­vic­tion DNA-test­ing. Oral argu­ments in the case are expect­ed to take place in February. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 11, 2003).
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy to Hung Thanh Le, a Vietnamese for­eign nation­al on the state’s death row. The Board vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to rec­om­mend relief after hear­ing Le’s claim that he did not have access to legal help from his embassy after being arrest­ed and accused of mur­der, and that his orig­i­nal tri­al attor­ney failed to con­sid­er his clien­t’s post trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der as a pos­si­ble defense. (The Oklahoman, December 10, 2003). See Methods of Execution.

Court Voids Death Penalty for Mexican Foreign National, Issues Life Sentence
Two years after Mexican for­eign nation­al Gerardo Valdez came with­in days of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion in Oklahoma, a jury has resen­tenced him to life with­out parole. In 2001, after review­ing evi­dence that Valdez was denied his right to seek assis­tance from the Mexican con­sulate as required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board vot­ed to rec­om­mend Valdez’s clemen­cy request, and Mexican President Vicente Fox made a per­son­al plea to Governor Frank Keating on Valdez’s behalf. Although Keating denied clemen­cy, he stayed the exe­cu­tion to allow time for Valdez to appeal. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Valdez must have a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, which result­ed in a sen­tence of life with­out parole. (Associated Press, November 21, 2003) See Foreign Nationals.

Doctor Recants Testimony As North Carolina Man’s Execution Date Approaches
Psychiatrist Cynthia Smith, who served as a key wit­ness in the 1990 death penal­ty case against John Daniels of North Carolina, has recant­ed her tes­ti­mo­ny because state pros­e­cu­tors with­held impor­tant infor­ma­tion from her. ​“My tes­ti­mo­ny was erro­neous with gross errors. Not only did the pros­e­cu­tion fail to give me all the rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion, I did not look for the infor­ma­tion either,” White said in an affi­davit about the tes­ti­mo­ny she gave in her first and only cap­i­tal case. She added, ​“John Daniels used much more alco­hol and crack cocaine before the killing than the pros­e­cu­tion had led me to believe. All I was aware of was the he had had ​‘some wine’ before going to his aun­t’s house.” In 1990, White tes­ti­fied that Daniels was­n’t influ­enced by alco­hol or cocaine when he com­mit­ted the crime and that he showed no remorse for the mur­der. She was not told by pros­e­cu­tors that Daniels had tried to burn him­self after the crime or that he was drunk dur­ing the mur­der. She notes that this infor­ma­tion would have made a dif­fer­ence in her diag­no­sis of Daniels, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on November 14, 2003. Defense attor­neys for Daniels note that White’s affi­davit could weigh heav­i­ly if a court or North Carolina Governor Mike Easley agrees to exam­ine the case before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion. (Charlotte Observer, November 7, 2003)

Bush’s Gubernatorial Clemency Process Probed
A recent Atlantic Monthly arti­cle by Alan Berlow fea­tures a review of nev­er-before-seen sum­maries and relat­ed doc­u­ments used by then-Governor George Bush dur­ing his con­sid­er­a­tion of clemen­cy appeals filed by death row inmates in Texas. The arti­cle notes that Bush’s legal coun­sel, Alberto R. Gonzales, often pro­vid­ed the Governor with case sum­maries and doc­u­ments reflect­ing a ​“clear pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al bias” and that Gonzales’s brief­in­gs failed to raise cru­cial issues in the cas­es at hand: inef­fec­tive­ness of coun­sel, con­flicts of inter­est, mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence, and evi­dence of inno­cence. The arti­cle also notes that Gonzales now serves as President Bush’s White House coun­sel, and many con­sid­er him a pos­si­ble future Supreme Court nom­i­nee. Read the entire arti­cle. (Atlantic Monthly, July/​August 2003)

Ohio Governor Grants Clemency
Ohio Governor Bob Taft has grant­ed clemen­cy to Jerome Campbell, who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on June 27th for a 1988 mur­der in Cincinnati. The clemen­cy, Taft’s first since he took office, fol­lows the rec­om­men­da­tion of the state’s Parole Board, which vot­ed 6 – 2 in favor of clemen­cy. Defense attor­neys main­tain that Campbell should be retried because a DNA test he request­ed from the state showed that blood on his gym shoes intro­duced as tri­al evi­dence was Campbell’s own blood, not the vic­tim’s. The results marked the first time an Ohio pris­on­er obtained DNA test results through a state law that allows death row inmates to have DNA test­ing at the state’s expense. In its rec­om­men­da­tion, the Parole Board not­ed that jurors may have spared Campbell’s life dur­ing his ini­tial tri­al had they had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­sid­er the DNA infor­ma­tion. (Associated Press, June 26, 2003).

Issue of Juveniles on Death Row Leads to Kentucky Governor’s First Commutation
Kentucky Governor Paul Patton said that he will com­mute the death sen­tence of Kevin Stanford, a juve­nile offend­er whose 1989 case before the U.S. Supreme Court result­ed in a rul­ing allow­ing the exe­cu­tion of those who were 16 or 17-years-old at the time of their crime. This will be the first time Patton has com­mut­ed a death sen­tence since he took office, and he not­ed in his announce­ment that the jus­tice sys­tem ​“per­pet­u­at­ed an injus­tice” in Stanford’s case. Stanford has been on Kentucky’s death row for two decades for a mur­der he com­mit­ted when he was 17. During that time, his case has served as a cor­ner­stone in the nation­al debate about the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers. Patton is still con­sid­er­ing whether he will com­mute the sen­tence to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole or to a less­er sen­tence. (Herald-Leader, June 19, 2003) See Juvenile Death Penalty

Supreme Court Decision Leads to Commutation in Louisiana
The Board of Pardons and Paroles rec­om­mend­ed that Welcome be tak­en off death row because the U.S. Supreme Court’s deci­sion end­ing the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing those with men­tal retar­da­tion. Welcome, who is con­sid­ered men­tal­ly retard­ed with an IQ of between 50 – 57, had his sen­tence com­mut­ed to life with­out parole when Louisiana Governor Mike Foster signed off on the Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion. (Associated Press, May 10, 2003). See Mental Retardation.

Louisiana Governor Commutes Death Sentence to Life In Prison
Louisiana Governor Mike Foster has removed Herbert Welcome, a 51-year-old man with men­tal retar­da­tion, from the state’s death row and com­mut­ed his sen­tence to life in prison. The deci­sion came after mem­bers of the state’s Pardon Board rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy in keep­ing with the U.S. Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Atkins v. Virginia, which bans the exe­cu­tion of those who have men­tal retar­da­tion. Experts esti­mate that Welcome, who has spent 19 years on death row and who has faced exe­cu­tion at least three times, has the men­tal matu­ri­ty of an 8‑year-old child. (Associated Press, May 10, 2003) See Mental Retardation.

Ohio Parole Board Urges Clemency for Death Row Inmate Who Maintains Innocence
By a vote of 8 – 2, the Ohio Parole Board has rec­om­mend­ed that Governor Bob Taft grant clemen­cy to Jerome Campbell, a death row inmate whom the Board believes was con­vict­ed by a jury that was unable to con­sid­er all of the evi­dence in his case. The Parole Board not­ed that Campbell’s attor­neys ​“pre­sent­ed cred­i­ble evi­dence for the major­i­ty mem­bers of this board to ques­tion any sus­tained con­fi­dence or reli­a­bil­i­ty in the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion.” Campbell was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on May 14. He main­tains his inno­cence and states that DNA test­ing on his bloody ten­nis shoes sup­ports his claim. The Board rec­om­mend­ed that Campbell be sen­tenced to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. This is the Board’s first rec­om­men­da­tion of clemen­cy since Ohio resumed exe­cu­tions in 1999. (Associated Press, May 2, 2003) See Innocence.

Systemic Problems Lead Illinois Governor to Commute All Death Sentences
Gov. George Ryan has grant­ed clemen­cy to all of the remain­ing 156 death row inmates in Illinois as a direct result of the flawed process that led to these sen­tences. He also grant­ed clemen­cy to 11 inmates who were await­ing sen­tenc­ing or resen­tenc­ing. In light of this his­toric action, the state must now decide if it wants to begin the death penal­ty process all over again. The gov­er­nor’s deci­sion is in keep­ing with the tra­di­tion­al use of this exec­u­tive pow­er to rem­e­dy great injus­tices. Ryan’s announce­ment, made dur­ing a speech at Northwestern University Law School, comes one day after he erased the con­vic­tions of four death row inmates. Today’s clemen­cies will not result in the release of the inmates since many still face life in prison. Read Governor Ryan’s Remarks. See DPIC’s Press Release.