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Post by CCADP on Apr 23, 2005 10:32:10 GMT -5
Hello all; I'd like to introduce you to a friend of ours; who has been involved in this issue, writing to prisoners, and helping and encouraging CCADP for over three years now! She's given the CCADP a brand new laptop which enabled us to work on the move when family stuff could have interrupted our work awhile ago Along with that she gave us all kinds of office equipment - reams of paper, envelopes, office software and hardware to go with the laptop she was kind enough to supply us with. She's helped several other times as well and been the only reason CCADPs phone and internet lines stayed on, on a few occasions! Now she needs our help! I hope she'll be able to come online to introduce herself - but she's offline right now due to illness which caused major financial problems for her... She writes several prisoners and makes life better for them - even paying for a writing course for one of them *(and for ME!) I found out yesterday about her serious financial problems; and after all she has done for us and the prisoners I would like to help. You all know we have no resources at all here; so I thought posting it to you all might help and we can work together. Most people in this work have no money. This person gave all hers to so many groups and good works that she has none left herself. If anyone can help; email me at info@ccadp.org with the message "Helping CCADP Member" thanks! tracy
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Post by CCADP on Apr 22, 2005 14:19:04 GMT -5
also CCADP is working on links page -we'll add a link to your blog please post the link!
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Post by CCADP on Apr 19, 2005 16:02:14 GMT -5
Hi all; We're the hosts and moderators of this message board - and also the (all volunteer) founders and directors of the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. (Tracy and Dave). You can email us at info@ccadp.org We became involved in the issue in 1998 and began the CCADP and the CCADP website that same year. The first prisoner that we had a page for was innocent death row prisoner Jimmy Dennis at www.jimmydennis.com We decided to utilize the web as an outreach and activist tool and offer free webspace (via mailed letters that we post) to death row prisoners anywhere in the world in an attempt to make people realize that we are killing human beings!.... We've just opened up this board - and if you are a family member or spouse of a DR inmate we also have a PRIVATE area for you to join - email me at info@ccadp.org to register. Enjoy the board; communicate, make contacts; share advise and experience, work together! Towards a better world... Tracy and Dave CCADP
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Post by CCADP on Jul 30, 2007 11:57:21 GMT -5
Cyberspace Casts Light on the Lives of Death Row Inmates This article ran today in an African wire service and will run tomorrow in Zambia Daily News. The reporter is sending us a print copy. We are very pleased with this article as it quotes the prisoners extensively, and thats what our work is all about - giving voice to those condemned to death. (we maintain pages currently for death row prisoners across the US, Zambia, and Trinidad at their requests) THE ARTICLE - July 30, 2007 www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38705RIGHTS-ZAMBIA: Cyberspace Casts Light on the Lives of Death Row Inmates By Newton Sibanda LUSAKA, Jul 29 (IPS) - "Can governments solve urgent social or political problems by executing a few or even hundreds of their prisoners?" asks Benjamin Mawaya, sweltering on death row in Zambia’s Mukobeko high security prison in Kabwe, 150 kilometres from the capital of Lusaka. Before anyone in the cyberspace community has time to click on a reply button, he posts an answer. "Nowhere it has been shown that the death penalty has any special power to reduce crime or political violence; everywhere experience shows that execution brutalizes those involved in the process. It is imposed and inflicted arbitrarily and it is used disproportionately against the poor." Mawaya then swiftly concludes with a question for anyone who wants to go on debating with him: "If today's penal system does not sanction the burning of an arsonists home, the rape of a rapist or the torture of a torturer, it is not because they tolerate the crimes. Instead, it is because societies understand they must be built on a different set of values from those they condemn. Why not apply these principles to capital punishment …?" The internet platform allowing Mawaya to address an audience outside his stifling cell has been provided by the Canadian Coalition against the Death Penalty, a voluntary organisation. "We make webpages for death row prisoners anywhere in the world," says its director, Tracy Lamourie. Zambia’s death row inmates -- who presently number 304 -- are the first in Africa to use this opportunity to pour out grief, seek moral and financial assistance, and make friends beyond their prison walls. Just how they found out about the website, Lamourie does not know for certain. But one likely possibility is that the link was passed on during an internet Bible class run from churches in Britain. "Now every week we are getting more requests. One prisoner will tell another saying ‘These people have helped me get some friends and contacts in the outside world’," Lamourie says. Mawaya, who is waiting for the appeal against his death sentence to be heard, gives away little about himself on his webpage. His first aim is to exchange opinions about the death penalty, executions, torture and Christianity. Job Kasonda Kapita, a former police officer, tells every would-be pen pal right away why he was sentenced to death in 1994. "I shot and subsequently killed a violent suspicious suspect I wanted to arrest for disorderly conduct … all occurred within the station yard five metres from my office." Behind bars he has become a writer, publishing poetry on his webpage. Certain inmates use their pages to seek "assistance" as well as "mutual fellowship". Evans Fundula, 33, is one. "Before conviction, I was blessedly married with two children aged 14 years and 11 years, both girls," he explains. His wife left him when she heard of his sentence and now his family needs help to look after the children. He also tells of the "injustice" of not having the money to hire a lawyer for his defence. "You are the bridge to us vulnerable…in this darkest and uncompromising place." One of the most powerful of entreaties comes from Lewis Kalumba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is the father of three daughters and a son, he writes. His wife has also left him and is now married to another man and living in a "far-away" town. He needs money for his family to visit him: "I am a poor suffering soul. Reproach has broken my heart. I am full of heaviness." Bishop Enocent Silwamba, executive director of the support organisation Prison Fellowship of Zambia, praises the websites for reducing the isolation and suffering on death row. There are six times more inmates in this prison than it was built for. They are shut away from the rest of the prison community. One has been on death row for 30 years, according to prison authorities. It is highly unlikely that any of the inmates will be executed – at least as long as President Levy Mwanawasa is in office. He has pledged not to sign any death warrants, and has also indicated that he will soon commute all death sentences to life terms. But until there is an amendment to the constitution, the courts will continue to condemn people to death -- and the webpages from death row to accumulate on the internet. (END/2007)
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:57:30 GMT -5
estimony emotional: Final decision on death penalty lies with the judge.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Florida Keys Keynoter
Byline: Christine Braden
Apr. 8--Christopher Bennett's life is now literally in the hands of a judge.
The same jury that took just two hours to convict Bennett of first-degree murder in the 2003 death of his 5-year-old son Zachary on Wednesday recommended he get thedeath penalty as punishment.
Now it's up to visiting Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Leonard Glick to either follow the recommendation or instead hand down a sentence of life.
Bennett, who turned down three plea offers that would have reduced his charges and spared him the possibility of the death penalty, and his family were overwhelmed by the jury's recommendation, which came on the second day of the sentencing phase of his trial. His conviction came Feb. 13.
According to State Attorney's Office spokesman Matthew Helmerich, the 12-member jury voted 10-2 to recommend death.
Following the recommendation, Glick held a hearing to afford Bennett's defense a final opportunity to present live testimony.
While eight people spoke on his behalf, including his father, Robert Bennett Sr., and City Commissioner Clayton Lopez, Glick postponed the proceedings until May 1 because Bennett's defense team wants to present additional testimony and because Bennett himself was too upset to address the court.
At the May 1 hearing, the prosecution and
defense will submit written sentencing memoranda to the court and Glick will schedule a formal sentencing.
Under Florida law, cases in which the death penalty is imposed are automatically appealed.
The sentencing recommendation by the jury came after several emotional and gruesome testimonies.
Medical Examiner Michael D. Hunter testified for the state that Zachary sustained "about 37 areas of injury" to his 40-pound body.
Bennett's defense called some dozen members of his family, friends and acquaintances to the stand as character witnesses. Many conceded they had not seen Bennett in years, though some did speak with affection of the slain 5-year-old.
Zachary's prekindergarten, teacher Theresa Sims testified on behalf of the defense. She characterized Zachary as "always smiling."
Sims recalled the final day of
Zachary's life. She testified she had designated Zachary "class leader" for the day - an honor for the students. Among the responsibilities of the class leader, she said, was helping feed the aquarium fish at the end of the school day.
Eager to give the fish their afternoon meal, Sims testified that Zachary stood waiting by the aquarium. He noticed that one fish was missing. In fact, Sims said the fish had died days before and had been removed from the tank.
Sims testified that her assistant told Zachary the fish was gone because it had "graduated to kindergarten." With some jury members and observers in court openly weeping, Sims testified that Zachary replied, "Next year, I'm graduating to kindergarten."
Copyright (c) 2006, Florida Keys Keynoter, Marathon
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:56:55 GMT -5
Edmondson calls on justices to send three back to death row.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The Daily Oklahoman
Byline: Michael McNutt
Apr. 8--Attorney General Drew Edmondson is requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a decision of the state's highest criminal court that overturned three death sentences.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in December that the three cases involve inmates who are mentally retarded. The judges voted 4-1 to overturn their death sentences and ordered them to serve life without parole in prison.
In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the execution of someone mentally retarded was unconstitutional. The court left it to each state to develop the proper method to enforce the constitutional restriction.
A bill Edmondson's office requested to establish procedures for determining mental retardation in death penalty cases, Senate Bill 1807, is pending in the Legislature, he said.
"We need to set the procedures in statute so the state has a level playing field," Edmondson said.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals should be required to allow the state to respond to these types of appeals before taking action on a case, he said.
The cases in Edmondson's request involve Darrin Lynn Pickens, Maximo Lee Salazar and Robert Wayne Lambert. They were sentenced to death for separate slayings.
According to Edmondson:
Pickens killed two convenience store clerks and tried to kill another during three separate robberies in Sapulpa and Tulsa.
Salazar killed a 9-year-old girl by stabbing her twice in the throat while robbing her parents' home in Cache.
Lambert robbed, kidnapped and killed a man and a woman in Creek County by locking them in the truck of a car and setting it on fire.
The U.S. Supreme Court should overturn the Court of Criminal Appeals' decisions and "put these killers back on death row where they belong," Edmondson said.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Daily Oklahoman
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:56:26 GMT -5
Couple will receive separate trials, judge rules: They are accused of killing 1-year-old boy.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The Brownsville Herald
Byline: Sergio Chapa
Apr. 8--A Brownsville couple facing capital murder charges in the death of a 1-year-old will have separate trials, but prosecutors have until April 21 to decide if they will seek the death penalty against either of them. Manuel Velez, 41, and his girlfriend Acela Rosalba Moreno, 25, appeared before Judge Menton Murray with the 103rd state District Court on Friday morning. They are accused of biting, burning, shaking, torturing and killing Moreno's son, Angel, last year. Murray ruled that Velez and Moreno would receive separate trials because Velez had a felony criminal history and Moreno did not. Court records show that Velez had a previous conviction in a felony forgery case in 1984.
Although Moreno is an undocumented immigrant from Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas, the issue was not handled in a federal criminal court.
First Assistant District Attorney Charles Mattingly said Murray gave his office until an April 21 hearing to decide if it will seek the death penalty in the case and which of the couple will go to trial first. "We have not decided at this time," Mattingly said. Court records show that Moreno claims to have suffered from battered woman's syndrome at the hands of Velez. Although Velez's attorney Gary Ortega did not return calls for comment, his sister, Emma Velez, said her family views separating the cases as a legal victory. Emma Velez said her brother maintains his innocence and claims Moreno was abused by her ex-husband, not him. "There is no evidence to show that he harmed her or the child," she said. Velez remains in custody under $1.1 million in bonds while Moreno is jailed under $2.1 million in bonds.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Brownsville Herald, Texas
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:55:36 GMT -5
Mexican human rights official asks Texas to spare Mexican on death row.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 COMTEX News Network, Inc.
MEXICO CITY, Apr 10, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Head of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on Monday appealed the U.S. state of Texas to spare a mentally handicapped Mexican citizen of death penalty.
Jose Luis Soberanes said he had sent an appeal on Monday to Rissie Owens, head of Texas' pardons and conditional liberty board, explaining that Angle Maturino Resendiz is mentally retarded.
The Mexican official asked the board to persuade Texas governor Rick Perry to suspend the death sentence decreed by judge William Harmon against Maturino on May 22, 2000 for his murder of 39-year-old Dr. Claudia Benton. His execution is scheduled for May 10.
Maturino's lawyers are trying to bring an appeal on the ground of his mental incapacity before Houston's County Court, Soberanes said.
He said that if Texas makes the decision to pardon Maturino, it will be "recognized by the international community as an unequivocal sign that the Texas government recognized the fundamental rights of the human being."
Copyright 2006 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.
Article A144356443
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:55:00 GMT -5
Health official denies random transplant of organs from executed criminals.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 COMTEX News Network, Inc.
BEIJING, Apr 10, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A senior Chinese health official here Monday described the report about China's random transplant of organs from executed criminals as "untrue" and a "malicious slander" to Chinese judiciary system.
Mao Qun'an, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, told a press conference that most organs in the organ transplant operations in China have been from voluntary donation of Chinese citizens when they were passing away, and very few from death penaltycriminals who voluntarily signed the donation."
Copyright 2006 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:54:29 GMT -5
Death penalty cases flooding S.C.: Lexington County, with 10 pending trials, to start jury selection today to resolve 2002.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The State
Byline: Adam Beam
Apr. 10--Twelve death penalty cases are awaiting trial in the 11th Circuit -- 10 of them in Lexington County. As many as five trials -- including two in Edgefield County -- could be heard this year. Edgefield County hasn't tried a death penalty case since 1993; Lexington County since 2003. "If you do three in a year, you're doing one every 120 days," 11th Circuit Deputy Solicitor Dayton Riddle said. "That's a brutal year." And it begins today, with jury selection in Lexington County's first death penalty trial in three years. Richland County, in the 5th Circuit, has four pendingdeath penalty trials, with the first scheduled for July 16, according to court records.Death penalty cases are the most complex and expensive in criminal court. If jurors are sequestered, renting hotels rooms and feeding them can cost taxpayers up to $100,000 per case, said Beth Carrigg, Lexington County clerk of court. Seven of the 10 Lexington County cases are retrials after convictions or sentences were overturned by the state Supreme Court. One defendant, Raymond Patterson, has been tried and sentenced to death three times for the same murder, the 1984 slaying of a West Virginia man. Five people have been executed from Lexington County since 1985. Ten people are on Death Row from the 11th Circuit.
Along with paying for the prosecution, taxpayers often end up paying for the defense. Patton Adams, director of the state Indigent Defense Commission, said about 85 percent of all defendants in criminal court are indigent. The commission, which operates from state money, has paid $1.4 million on its 15 pending capital cases statewide, Adams said. The most expensive case costs $244,000, with about $178,000 going to attorney fees. The difference between "trying a murder and trying a death penalty case is about the same as putting a Band-Aid on a cut and doing neurosurgery," said Columbia defense attorney Bill Nettles, who has tried seven capital cases. In the Lexington trial that starts today, Kevin Mercer, 28, is charged with murder in connection with the 2002 shooting death of 35-year-old Tracy Lamar Davis, who was an Army sergeant stationed at Fort Jackson. Eleventh Circuit Solicitor Donnie Myers' office plans to try three to five death penalty cases this year, including the Edgefield cases, Riddle said. Myers was unavailable for comment for this story because of the April 3 death of his wife. Two of the cases have been assigned to other solicitors because of a conflict of interest in Myers' office. Those cases will be tried in Lexington County but handled by another prosecutor. Each trial can take up to three weeks, including jury selection, the guilt phase and the penalty phase. In a death penalty trial, a jury, not a judge, decides the sentence. For the Mercer trial, Carrigg said the county sent about 350 summons to potential jurors -- twice as many as normal. Most death penalty juries are sequestered, and the clerk of court's office is responsible for providing jurors food, hotel accommodations and entertainment. For example, Lexington County began preparing for the Mercer trial eight weeks ago, Carrigg said. Seven SLED agents will stay with the jurors at all times. "It's more than we would like for it to be," Carrigg said about the number ofdeath penalty cases in Lexington County. "If we could try three a year, that takes four years to get rid of those 12 cases. And in the meantime, they are just sitting in jail, and the citizens are footing the bill."
Mercer has complained many times about how long it has taken his case to come to trial. In a letter dated Aug. 2, 2005, to 11th Circuit Judge William Keesley, Mercer wrote, "either my case get called up for court or I ask the courts to set me a bond, so that I can go home to my family!" Delays have been an issue in the case of Gene Tony Cooper, who was sentenced to death in 1991. In 1994, the state Supreme Court reversed the sentence, ruling that the judge should have allowed Cooper to speak to the jury during the guilt phase of his trial.
In August 2002, the court also reversed Cooper's conviction on the non-capital charges of armed robbery and conspiracy and ordered a new trial. His capital murder conviction still stands. First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe will try the case in May. Cooper is represented by David Bruck, director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse and a longtime foe of Myers in capital cases. Bruck has repeatedly filed motions to dismiss the charges against Cooper, claiming Myers violated Cooper's constitutional right to a speedy trial. In South Carolina, prosecutors, not judges, control the court docket in criminal court. Court documents show that in 2004, Myers said during a hearing that he would try Cooper's case in the spring of that year. In April 2005, Judge William Keesley ordered that the case be heard before the end of the year. Three months later, Myers recused himself from the case because one of his deputy solicitors, Rick Hubbard, was the law clerk to the trial judge during Cooper's first case. Bruck again asked Keesley to dismiss the charges and requested the trial begin before classes started at Washington and Lee University law school, where Bruck teaches. Keesley denied the motion, citing at least eight pending death penalty cases that were competing for scheduling.
He ruled that while the court has "frequently expressed its deep concern about the length of time that people accused of crimes are being required to sit in jail (in this case on Death Row) awaiting trial ... there are many reasons for this situation, including the explosive growth of this county." Death penalty cases can face delays at all stages, Riddle said, including the clerk of court's office assembling a jury pool, the solicitor's office not having enough people to process the cases, and defense attorneys with scheduling conflicts.
"There's a different number of bottlenecks that you can hit."
Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405.
Copyright (c) 2006, The State, Columbia, S.C.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:53:43 GMT -5
Terror on trial: thinking about shining path, and those like them.(THE WORLD) Jay Nordlinger.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 National Review, Inc.
EVERY so often, the world relearns the difficulty of trying a certain kind of monster in court. Nuremberg stands as the eternal example; some people still think they should have been lined up and shot. In The Hague the other day, Milosevic dropped dead, frustrating his prosecutors, and others. Saddam Hussein, of course, continues his judicial theater. Although the judge in the case--currently Raouf Abdel-Rahman--sometimes gets the upper hand. On March 15, Saddam boasted, "I am the head of state." Judge Abdel-Rahman corrected, "You used to be a head of state. You are a defendant now."
A half a world away, Abimael Guzman is also a defendant. In the roster of 20th-century monsters, he has a place. The difference between Guzman and Saddam Hussein--and the Nazis and Milosevic and the Rwandan butchers and many others--is that Guzman never gained power. But in his country, Peru, he managed to kill at least 40,000 people, depending on how you do the accounting. He also wreaked $30 billion in material damage, and left a legacy of fear. Not bad for twelve years'work, accomplished by a former philosophy professor at a provincial university.
You may have forgotten Guzman and his movement, Shining Path, but I will inflict some reminding. Abimael Guzman Reynoso was born in 1934, and his university was in Ayacucho, high up in the Andes. He was a leader in the China-favoring faction of the Peruvian Communist party. In 1970, he christened his movement the "Shining Path of Jose Carlos Mariategui," after the founder of that party.
Guzman thought of himself as the heir to Marx, Lenin, and Mao. He had no use for the contemporary Soviets, viewing them as soft. The Cubans and the Nicaraguans--the Castroites and the Sandinistas--were laughable pipsqueaks to him. He reviled Deng Xiaoping, for his departures from Mao. The Communists he really admired were the Khmer Rouge, and he shared their totalizing philosophy. Guzman was openly genocidalist. At its peak, his movement had 10,000 fighters, and these included adolescents. They killed with particular ease and glee.
Guzman's plan was to control the countryside and then strangle the cities, conquering all of Peru through "a river of blood." The plan was launched in earnest on May 17, 1980, when his forces attacked a polling place in tiny Chuschi. This was deeply significant. Peru was just emerging from more than ten years of dictatorship; democracy was in bud. At Chuschi, Shining Path burned the ballot boxes. They could not tolerate any democratic flowering, because that was not the future they had in mind for Peru.
If you discern a similarity to the current insurgency in Iraq, you are not undiscerning. Indeed, to review the campaign of Shining Path in the 1980s and '90s is to be struck by many similarities to today's Iraq.
Shining Path took care to kill all the politicians it could--and all the government officials, and all the voters, and anyone at all who dared participate in the democracy. People refused to run for office, for fear that they or their families would be killed. Sometimes, when they ran and won, they immediately resigned. In 1988 alone, Shining Path killed 17 provincial mayors.
And they did a great deal more. They kidnapped, they robbed banks, they bombed embassies. They bombed police academies, they bombed churches, they bombed businesses. They killed anyone, foreign or Peruvian, engaged in relief or development work. Europeans felt they had to withdraw from the country. Just about the only thing missing from Shining Path's repertoire was beheading--but they made up for it by hacking to death with machetes. The stories that come out of the Shining Path period are as gruesome as any you have heard.
Testifying before Congress in March 1992, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, Bernard Aronson, put it well: "In [Shining Path's] mind, any Peruvian or any foreigner who takes up the democratic cause, tries to ease human suffering, or resists terrorist threats is hampering the development of revolutionary consciousness ..." Abimael Guzman put it even better. Talking to his Central Committee, he said, "Our policy is to raze to the ground, to leave nothing.... In a war, what you cannot use or carry off, you destroy, you burn."
He meant every word. In addition to attacking people, Shining Path attacked infrastructure, which is another way of attacking people. They blew up bridges, irrigation projects, and electrical towers. They caused many blackouts--including one in Lima while the Pope was visiting--and water shortages. Their goal was simply to make life intolerable, to bring Peru to its knees. And they came very close. Peruvians remember this--it was not so long ago--and they shudder.
The similarities to Iraq's insurgents are obvious. And we might consider one more: Shining Path spread lies, preying on the ignorant. For example, they would say, "The American government--in combination with local lackeys--is poisoning your children with herbicides." Iraq's tormenters do no less. But while the similarities are obvious, there are dissimilarities, too. Michael Radu, a Romanian-born scholar in Philadelphia who has studied Shining Path, notes a couple: Shining Path had a clear ideology, and they also had a clear plan. Guzman was nicknamed "President Gonzalo"; his philosophy was "Gonzalo Thought." And his blueprint for taking the country was known to all. The Iraq terrorists are more ragtag and random, deadly as they are.
UPSTAIRS, WATCHING TELEVISION
Peru got its big break on September 12, 1992, when Guzman was at last nabbed, after his dozen years of mayhem and murder. He was upstairs in a Lima safe house--a not-so-safe house--watching television. Then Peruvian forces moved in. It was a historic triumph for President Alberto Fujimori, who five months before had staged his "self-coup," dissolving Congress and other institutions of democracy. His rationale had been counterterror. After Guzman's capture, Shining Path withered, for it had been highly dependent on its leader.
Guzman was tried in a military court. He was made to wear prison stripes, and put in a cage; members of the judicial panel were hooded. Lest you judge Peruvian authorities too harshly, for their undemocratic ways, remember this: Prior to this time, it had been impossible to try Shining Path terrorists, because their confreres kept murdering judges, or their families, or their friends, or anyone they could touch. In a two-year period--1991-92--Shining Path killed 120 judges. Hundreds of others resigned, unwilling to sacrifice themselves (to no end). Of course, those participating in Saddam Hussein's trial live under constant threat as well.
There was some question whether Guzman should have been killed--killed upon capture--and that question lingers today. This is almost always a question, when such a monster is apprehended. Do you do it the Ceausescu way, or the Saddam/Nuremberg way? In any event, Guzman was given a life sentence. The court could not impose the death penalty on him, for that penalty was reserved for those committing treason in time of war (against another country). Guzman was lucky for the leniency of even Fujimori's presidential dictatorship.
He would get luckier still, but more about that in a moment.
When Guzman was first tried in 1992, he had some support on the international left, but not complete support. The Nation magazine ran an article on the debate: Should leftists rally to Guzman or not? Some of the usual suspects said yes: Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, a Berrigan brother (Philip). Clark, as you know, is a member of Saddam Hussein's legal-defense team today. Back at the time, he explained to The Nation that Guzman required patience and understanding: "I met with Saddam Hussein, who is supposed to be the closest thing to the devil. If we want to have some peace in Peru, we have to recognize the humanity of all sides." He refused to utter any criticism whatsoever of Guzman or Shining Path.
Guzman sat in his cell until 2003, when something astonishing happened: His sentence was overturned; the verdict against him was rendered void; his trial was declared invalid. So it was with all Shining Path prisoners--about 2,000 of them. Put briefly, Peruvian democracy was embarrassed by the Fujimori period. And that period included the military tribunals that had locked away Shining Path. The entire lot of them would have to be retried, in civilian court. This threw the system into chaos, severely overloading it. Hundreds of prisoners--perhaps as many as a thousand--were outright released.
Not Guzman, of course. He had another day in court, and this one was very different from the first one. No prison stripes, no cage. Instead, Guzman was looking rather professorial, and he was surrounded by friends: his codefendants, old comrades in arms, including his girlfriend and No. 2, the dread Elena Iparraguirre. They all embraced and chatted. Reporters on the scene said it looked like a family reunion. The group started chanting slogans--"Long live the Communist Party of Peru!" "Glory to Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism!"--and pumped their fists in the air. Circus time. They turned the courtroom into a political forum, attempting to prosecute the judicial system itself. (Saddam Hussein would do exactly the same.) A judge remarked to the press, "Once a trial has this kind of atmosphere, it is very hard to continue moving forward."
PLAYING A NUMBER OF CARDS
The Guzman trial has moved forward, but in fits and starts. No one is sure when it will end. Alvaro Vargas Llosa is a prominent Peruvian intellectual. He says, "Peruvian justice is notably slow, corrupt, very unpredictable, and always very, very sensitive to the political climate." Fortunately, there is no support for Shining Path in Peru today--even the Left, the Communists, have no truck with it. But, as Alberto Bolivar--another Peruvian intellectual --points out, leftists in other parts of the world harbor a fondness for Shining Path, and they are waging the usual propaganda campaign.
Guzman and other Shining Path prisoners spend a lot of time talking about justice, their rights, due process. This is rich: For years, they dedicated themselves to the destruction of "bourgeois institutions" such as courts. Radicals elsewhere behave this way, too, of course, including in the United States: Kathy Boudin, Susan Rosenberg, Linda Sue Evans, and the rest of the Weather Underground used to scorn everything about "the system," perhaps especially the courts. To avail oneself of them was "counterrevolutionary." But after some years in prison, they started singing about rights and citing the Constitution. (In the waning hours of his presidency, Bill Clinton granted clemency to Rosenberg and Evans. He has never explained that action. Boudin has since been paroled.)
In all likelihood, Guzman's original sentence will be confirmed: life in prison. But it is also likely that he will appeal to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica. Shining Path is now playing any number of political, legal, and public-relations cards. The old Guzman, needless to say, would have roared against this.
And the Shining Path movement itself--is it dead? In Lima, there is a Terror Museum, designed to keep a record of those atrocious years, 1980-1992. The museum houses Shining Path soap carvings, music boxes that play Communist hymns. All of this kitsch has Guzman's picture on it. But Shining Path is not yet merely a memory. They are still in the jungle, killing people. In March 2002, they exploded a car bomb in Lima, near the U.S. embassy. This was three days before President George W. Bush visited. They killed ten people. (Car bombing, you may recall, had been a Shining Path specialty, in the worst days.) Then, when all those verdicts were overturned, the movement got a shot in the arm. They felt rejuvenated. The sight of their President Gonzalo and his lieutenants, whooping it up, cheered them.
As David Scott Palmer, an expert on Shining Path at Boston University, observes, lots and lots of Guzman's followers have been released from prison--so this has provided a reinforcement of a movement that had been moribund.
Some say that judges are again being intimidated, or bribed. Certain Peruvians are calling for the return of the hoods--to protect judges. And Peruvian democracy in general seems in a fragile state. Alberto Bolivar is one who believes that Shining Path is biding its time, waiting to launch another, all-out campaign. And most agree that Guzman's continued existence is a comfort and inspiration to the guerrillas now in operation, or waiting. This same kind of talk, of course, is heard in, and about, Iraq.
It might have been neater if Fujimori's men had simply snuffed Guzman, on that glorious, saving day of September 12, 1992. But civilized people do not operate that way--do not operate as Guzman does, and as Saddam does. Each of those is having his day in court, or many days. And even as they create their circuses, they are being tried for what they have done. And maybe people, all over, see that the way of the brute does not--with awful inevitability--triumph.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:51:33 GMT -5
Wrongful Conviction Prompts Detroit Police to Videotape Certain Interrogations. (National Desk)(Michigan) Jeremy W. Peters.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The New York Times Company
The Detroit Police Department, whose image has been marred for years by complaints of wrongful detentions, the excessive use of force to obtain confessions and other civil rights abuses, has agreed to videotape interrogations of all suspects in crimes that carry a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Detroit's police chief, Ella Bully-Cummings, said she viewed the new policy as a way to reform her department, which is operating under two consent decrees with the Department of Justice.
The videotaping, part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the family of a mentally ill man who spent 17 years in prison after confessing to a rape and murder that he did not commit, is expected to be in place within six months.
''Number one, it keeps cops honest,'' Chief Bully-Cummings said. ''It's a protection for the citizen that's being interrogated. But from a chief's point of view, I think the greatest benefit is to police because what it does is provide documentation that they didn't coerce.''
Chief Bully-Cummings said the department had installed equipment so it could begin taping interrogations once the final settlement was worked out and approved by the City Council and Judge Gerald E. Rosen of Federal District Court here.
A decade ago, the only states to require videotaped interrogations were Minnesota and Alaska. But in recent years, as DNA testing has led to the release of scores of prisoners and raised concerns about the prevalence of coerced confessions, more and more states and municipalities have begun recording interrogations. At least 450 police departments across the country now do so, said Thomas P. Sullivan, a former United States attorney in Chicago who has studied interrogation procedures.
''When you put it all on videotape, it gives you no leeway,'' he said. ''You can watch it. I can watch it. The jury can watch it. I always say it's like having an instant replay so you know whether the guy went out of bounds in a football game or whether the tennis ball went out of the court.''
Advocates for the wrongfully convicted applauded Detroit's decision.
''Detroit in this case has real symbolism to it,'' said Barry C. Scheck, a lawyer who helped negotiate the new policy with the city on behalf of the family of the wrongfully imprisoned man, Eddie Joe Lloyd. ''It sends a message to other police chiefs that even in the most difficult departments, this is something you can get done. That's the significance of this.''
As part of the consent decrees, which have been in place since 2003, Detroit agreed to overhaul its arrest, interrogation and detention policies.
Mr. Lloyd died in 2004 at age 54, two years after he was released from prison. Though disabled by a circulation problem in his leg and suffering from heart disease, he spent his final years, family and friends said, convinced that his case could serve as an impetus for change.
Mr. Lloyd traveled across the country as a speaker for the Innocence Project, a program at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University founded in part by Mr. Scheck that works to free the wrongfully convicted. Mr. Lloyd's customary sound bite, often uttered in interviews and speeches, was: ''DNA is God's signature. God's signature is never a forgery, and his checks never bounce.''
Ruth Lloyd Harlin, 56, Mr. Lloyd's younger sister, said the new policy brought ''a sense that the wrong has been righted.''
''It would have saved Eddie many years of being incarcerated if it had been in place when he went away,'' Ms. Harlin said. ''We can't change that. The only thing we can look forward to now is that it won't happen to anyone again.''
The Lloyd family is in the process of finalizing the settlement, reportedly worth more than $4 million, with the City of Detroit and state and county agencies in Michigan, lawyers involved with the case said.
In early 1984, Mr. Lloyd, a patient at the Detroit Psychiatric Institute who suffered from delusions that he had a special ability to solve crimes, sent a letter to the police saying he wanted to help in the investigation of the killing of Michelle Jackson, 16, the latest victim in a rash of several dozen rapes and murders. It was similar to other letters he had written, falsely claiming he knew things that would allow the police to solve heinous and well-publicized cases.
But this time, the police said, the letter mentioned details of Ms. Jackson's murder that had not been made public, and Mr. Lloyd quickly shot to the top of the list of suspects.
Mr. Lloyd's lawyers have said the police interrogated him at the hospital, fed him details of the crime and convinced him that confessing would help them find the real killer. At his sentencing, Judge Leonard Townsend of the Circuit Court in Wayne County said he regretted that Michigan had abolished the death penalty. He sentenced Mr. Lloyd to the maximum, life in prison.
After listening to Mr. Scheck discuss the value of DNA testing in criminal cases on the talk show ''Donahue'' in 1995, Mr. Lloyd wrote to him and asked for help.
By that time, most of the files had disappeared. But a pair of semen-stained long johns, which Mr. Lloyd said he had wrapped around Ms. Jackson's neck, had survived, and DNA testing determined that the stains had not come from him.
Acknowledging her department's tarnished image, Chief Bully-Cummings said the settlement in the Lloyd case was a step forward. ''I'm in charge of a department that's under two consent decrees,'' she said. ''So it's important for me as a chief to be proactive.''
Of the videotaping, she said, ''I just thought this was the best practice for us.''
CAPTION(S):
Photos: Eddie Joe Lloyd, above, was exonerated on Aug. 26, 2002, after serving 17 years in prison. The new videotaping policy brings a ''sense that the wrong has been righted,'' said his sister, Ruth Lloyd Harlin, right. (Photo by Rebecca Cook/Reuters); (Photo by Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times)
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:51:06 GMT -5
Foreigners seeking transplants come to China for organs of executed prisoners. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Knight Ridder Washington Bureau Byline: Tim Johnson TIANJIN, China _ A few weeks after receiving a lifesaving liver transplant, Pakistani businessman Shaukat Javed shuffled slowly around a specialty hospital ward chatting up fellow organ recipients. Patients from around the globe mingled in the fourth-floor ward of the First Tianjin Central Hospital, some of them with nurses bracing their steps. In the last few years, several Chinese hospitals have done a soaring business in liver, heart and kidney transplants. They charge barely half as much as in the West, advertise through intermediaries abroad and pull in a steady stream of patients who are unable to find donors in their home countries. "About every nation is here," said Javed, who owns a soap factory not far from Lahore. "There are Korean, Japanese, Arabs, the whole (Persian) Gulf region. . . . There are a few guys from Israel as well." Javed's mood turned sour only when he was asked about the donor of the liver that now was sewn firmly into his own abdomen. Did he know anything about the person? "It isn't nice to look into these matters," he said tersely. A variety of human rights groups _ such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Laogai Research Foundation _ say donated organs in China often come from executed prisoners, and there are concerns that prisoners' wishes aren't always respected. China's hospitals have a seemingly endless supply of organs because the country applies the death penalty more freely than any other nation. By harvesting from executed prisoners, hospitals receive a steady stream of organs and can match donors' compatibility with recipients ahead of time. Authorities don't hide the fact that executed prisoners are a source for some organs, but they say it isn't a rampant practice. Organs come from executed prisoners "only after they or their family members voluntarily sign donation documents," said Mao Qun'an, a spokesman for the Health Ministry. "In reality, there are very few cases of organs taken from executed prisoners. Some overseas media purposely concocted the rumor that China takes organs from executed prisoners at will. It is a malicious attack on China's judicial system." But the rule of law is weak in China, courts aren't independent and many gray areas exist around informed consent for organ donation. A number of social and political issues intersect in the matter of China's organ transplants. First, there's a rising level of medical sophistication. The country is among the world leaders in the number of organ transplants each year. Secondly, as China veers toward a free-market economy, institutions such as hospitals are grasping at income-generating opportunities, such as treating affluent foreigners. Moreover, as in many aspects of the Chinese state, secrecy shrouds the execution of prisoners. China doesn't say how many prisoners it kills each year, but legal scholars say it's probably between 3,000 and 8,000. Accusations about harvesting organs from prisoners in China have existed for several decades. But they revived in recent weeks with reports in The Epoch Times, an overseas newspaper linked to Falun Gong, a banned spiritual movement. The newspaper charged that a secret labor camp near Shenyang, in China's northeastern region, contained Falun Gong detainees who were to be executed for the express purpose of providing organs that the state would sell for a profit. Falun Gong advocates said the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital in Shenyang transplanted organs that were taken at the Sujiatun camp. Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said March 31 that the Bush administration took the charges "very seriously" and he urged China to investigate. Such allegations can't be proved or disproved easily, and a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, Liu Jianchao, dismissed them roundly, saying the "illegal cult" was playing "tricks in the international arena to undermine the stability of China." Liu acknowledged, however, that a "legal vacuum" exists around organ transplants, prompting the Health Ministry to draft interim regulations March 28 to ban the sale of organs starting July 1. (EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE) Permanent regulations are in the works, prompted by reports of botched transplants in Japanese patients that led to as many as eight deaths. Web sites in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan advertise the availability of liver and kidney transplants in China, and offer prices for the procedures. On the Web site www.bek-transplant.com, Chinese physicians say a kidney transplant for non-Chinese citizens would cost $70,000 and a liver transplant $120,000. "The above price covers the new organs, priority on the waiting list, the transplant surgery, hospital stay, interpreter, etc., for two months after the surgery. It does not cover your travel costs, hotel stay," the site says. A British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, reported in December that its reporter posed as someone interested in getting involved in organ transplants as a business venture at a hospital in Guangzhou, a southern metropolis. "We should be cautious _ this is sensitive," the newspaper quoted a hospital physician, Na Ning, as telling the reporter. The paper said Na offered a contract that provided commissions to brokers and middlemen for bringing in patients, and cut rates for more than 10 transplants. Authorities don't reveal how many foreigners come to China for transplants each year, but if the bustling Tianjin transplant wards are any indication, the number is quite high. The hospital claims to have done about 1,000 liver transplants and 2,000 kidney transplants, making it the largest center for liver transplants in China. South Korea's largest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, said last year that about 1,000 Koreans a year were undergoing organ transplants in Chinese hospitals. Patients and family members at the Tianjin hospital said that once they'd heard of the availability of organs here, they rushed to arrange operations. Nadeem Manjj came with his uncle, Mumdaz Ali Cheema, from Pakistan last June for a third liver transplant. The first two failed because Cheema has hepatitis C, complicating the procedure. "They say this is the last chance," Manjj said. "It's very risky to do it a third time. There's nowhere else like this. Here, the organs are available. In England or the U.S., you have to bring a donor with you." Manjj said the fees in China were half what they'd be in Britain or the United States, "and the post-transplant care is the same." Looking weak, Cheema joined in the conversation. "In China, the donors are available all the time," he said. ___ (c) 2006, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:50:14 GMT -5
Meet Clarence Darrow. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Daily Press Byline: Kathy Van Mullekom Apr. 11--NEWPORT NEWS -- Clarence Darrow was a man before his time -- maybe a man of this time. So says Gary Anderson, who knows "warts and all" about the most celebrated, and hated, attorney in American history. "He spent his life campaigning against many of the very things we face today," says Anderson. Darrow, a Columbo-looking kind of guy who wore slept-in suits in court instead of the French-cut clothes his wife bought, fought for civil liberties and against conspiracy laws. He saved 102 men from the death penalty, battled for civil rights and campaigned for separation between church and state. The fact that those same issues are hot topics today -- decades after Darrow died in 1938 -- motivates Anderson to introduce the lawyer to theatergoers who want to think and learn, all the while being entertained. The actor travels the country giving a one-man production titled "Clarence Darrow: The Search for Justice." He gives the two-hour performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Peninsula at 415 Young's Mill Lane in the Denbigh area of Newport News. Admission is $15 in advance or $20 at the door; students are $12. On stage, Anderson wears the Darrow look -- white crumpled shirt, wide tie and red suspenders. He speaks candidly about the lawyer's own jury-tampering trials and shares anecdotes to reveal his personal side. During the drama, you may even find him standing beside or in front of you, asking your opinion about some social issue. It's not unusual for people in the audience to get caught up in the moment, become mad or start crying, he says. "It's an interactive production where I eliminate the wall between me and the audience and talk to people like Darrow," says Anderson. "You have to be prepared for anything when you make it that interactive." Anderson's fascination, probable obsession, with Darrow goes back almost a decade when he first began his portrayals of the controversial lawyer who was born in 1857. About 60 to 70 biographies have been written about Darrow, but Anderson began to meet the man through his autobiography, which was simply titled "The Story of My Life." The two best books on Darrow, he says, are "Clarence Darrow for the Defense" by Irving Stone, who also wrote "The Agony and the Ecstasy," and "People vs. Clarence Darrow" by Jeffrey Cowan. Darrow is best known for the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, which, in some legal circles, is called the case of all times. In court, Darrow faced off with his best friend, lawyer and Christian fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan, in a Tennessee case examining the teaching of evolution in public schools. John Scopes, the teacher in question, and Darrow technically lost the case. The case took a toll on the aging Bryan, who died in his sleep five days after the trial ended. Throughout his career, Darrow was known for many things outside the courtroom -- two wives, mistresses, big ego and volatile nature. Even so, Anderson views him as a misunderstood American hero who fought against threats to our way of life. The actor has taken up Darrow's cause to offset the years he personally never voted in elections but always complained about what government was doing, or not doing. "I was an armchair quarterback," says Anderson, who sidesteps personal questions about age and acting background. "Most Americans give lip service to what they think makes this country strong. I don't want to be that way anymore." He hopes his portrayal of Darrow makes people realize there are flaws in everyone -- government officials and everyday people. Flaws aren't all bad, no matter how important or unimportant you are, he says. "You can be a flawed human and still leave a legacy," he says. "You fall down and you get up stronger." To see more of the Daily Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to www.dailypress.com. Copyright (c) 2006, Daily Press, Newport News, Va. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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Post by CCADP on Apr 16, 2006 14:49:51 GMT -5
Catholic-school kids roll in to protest Ohio's death penalty.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 The Columbus Dispatch
Byline: Alan Johnson
Apr. 11--After bicycling 140 miles from Cleveland to Columbus over the weekend, Jayson Gerbec still had enough energy to lead a student rally against the death penaltyyesterday at the Statehouse.
The 17-year-old senior at St. Ignatius High School was joined by about 200 other Catholicschool students from Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and other parts of the state who chanted, sang and spoke out against capital punishment.
While they would like to see it abolished before another execution -- Joseph Clark of Lucas County is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on May 2 -- Gerbec said he knows it will take time.
"You may not see a difference now. Sooner or later, we'll be the adults. We'll be cranking out the ballots."
"Wheels of Justice," as the rally was called, was inspired by Catholic students who regularly travel from Cleveland by bus to protest and pray outside the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, where inmates are executed.
While there were many protesters at Lucasville for the first few executions, the students from Cleveland often have been alone in their vigils in the past two years.
About 24 students made the cycling trek from Cleveland beginning last Friday. They battled rain and nearly freezing temperatures over the weekend before arriving in Columbus on a sunny Monday that marked the beginning of Holy Week.
Joining them in Columbus were students from St. Francis DeSales High School and Bishop Hartley High School.
Cristin Day, 16, came to the rally fresh off a performance in the play Dead Man Walking at Hartley, where she is a sophomore. Day is zealously opposed to capital punishment.
"There is so much more to be done," she said yesterday. "You have to scream at the top of your lungs to be heard."
Since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999, 20 men have been executed. There are now 193 men and two women on Death Row.
The students gave state Rep. Mike Mitchell, D-Columbus, a petition against the death penalty bearing 1,756 signatures.
Among the rally speakers were Gary Beeman, a former Death Row prisoner who was acquitted at a new trial, and David Kaczynski, who turned his own brother, Ted Kaczynski, also known as the "Unabomber," over to authorities.
"I don't believe innocence or justice has any place in the death penalty today," Beeman said. He called for a moratorium on capital punishment.
Kaczynski said he was faced with a horrendous choice when he realized that the man wanted for killing three people and injuring two dozen others was his reclusive brother. He could remain silent, knowing it might mean more innocent lives would be lost, or he could turn in his brother, knowing he might get the death penalty.
Eventually, he turned his brother over to authorities. In 1998, Ted Kaczynski was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
"I feel very strongly we did the right thing," said Kaczynski, now the head of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty.
ajohnson@dispatch.com
Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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