Post by CCADP on Aug 18, 2005 7:00:56 GMT -5
Theodore man fights death sentence
Trial 'marked by the prosecutor's extreme misconduct,' brief alleges
Thursday, August 18, 2005
By BRENDAN KIRBY
Staff Reporter
A Theodore man on death row for the 1997 murder of a man who was bludgeoned with his own carpentry tools has gone to federal court in an attempt to avoid lethal injection.
Joseph Clifton Smith, 35, was convicted in 1998 of capital murder in the death of Durk Van Dam, a carpenter from Michigan.
In a written argument filed in U.S. District Court, Smith's attorney maintains that the trial judge committed several serious errors and that Smith's lawyers at the time failed to mount a good defense in a trial "that was marked by the prosecutor's extreme misconduct."
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Clay Crenshaw, chief of the capital litigation division of the attorney general's office, said Wednesday that he was unaware of the details of the case. He said there are 42 so-called "ha beas corpus" appeals on death cases pending before federal courts in Alabama.
"We'll eventually be served with it, and we will typically file a written answer," he said.
Smith and another man, Larry Reid, were arrested hours after Van Dam's mutilated body was discovered in his pickup truck in south Mobile County in November 1997. Van Dam had been robbed of about $150 and his tools.
Prosecutors alleged that Smith bludgeoned Van Dam with those tools, including a saw and a hammer, and portrayed the defendant as a cold-blooded murderer. Then-Circuit Judge Chris Galanos followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.
Having exhausted all of his appeals in the Alabama courts, Smith on Tuesday filed what is known as a "habeas corpus" petition in U.S. District Court. Appeals to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and the U.S. Supreme Court likely will follow.
A federal defender appointed to represent Smith filed a 117-page brief alleging that a variety of errors and shortcomings took place during his trial in Mobile County Circuit. The most serious claims include that he is retarded; that the judge should have bowed out of the case; that Smith's attorneys mounted an inadequate defense, partially due to insufficient compensation from the state; that potential black jurors improperly were struck from the panel; and that the judge gave incorrect instructions to the jurors.
Smith's federal defender, Katherine Puzone, did not return phone calls seeking comment. In her brief, she asserts that her client is mentally retarded and points to a 2002 decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of retarded defendants.
Trial 'marked by the prosecutor's extreme misconduct,' brief alleges
Thursday, August 18, 2005
By BRENDAN KIRBY
Staff Reporter
A Theodore man on death row for the 1997 murder of a man who was bludgeoned with his own carpentry tools has gone to federal court in an attempt to avoid lethal injection.
Joseph Clifton Smith, 35, was convicted in 1998 of capital murder in the death of Durk Van Dam, a carpenter from Michigan.
In a written argument filed in U.S. District Court, Smith's attorney maintains that the trial judge committed several serious errors and that Smith's lawyers at the time failed to mount a good defense in a trial "that was marked by the prosecutor's extreme misconduct."
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Clay Crenshaw, chief of the capital litigation division of the attorney general's office, said Wednesday that he was unaware of the details of the case. He said there are 42 so-called "ha beas corpus" appeals on death cases pending before federal courts in Alabama.
"We'll eventually be served with it, and we will typically file a written answer," he said.
Smith and another man, Larry Reid, were arrested hours after Van Dam's mutilated body was discovered in his pickup truck in south Mobile County in November 1997. Van Dam had been robbed of about $150 and his tools.
Prosecutors alleged that Smith bludgeoned Van Dam with those tools, including a saw and a hammer, and portrayed the defendant as a cold-blooded murderer. Then-Circuit Judge Chris Galanos followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.
Having exhausted all of his appeals in the Alabama courts, Smith on Tuesday filed what is known as a "habeas corpus" petition in U.S. District Court. Appeals to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and the U.S. Supreme Court likely will follow.
A federal defender appointed to represent Smith filed a 117-page brief alleging that a variety of errors and shortcomings took place during his trial in Mobile County Circuit. The most serious claims include that he is retarded; that the judge should have bowed out of the case; that Smith's attorneys mounted an inadequate defense, partially due to insufficient compensation from the state; that potential black jurors improperly were struck from the panel; and that the judge gave incorrect instructions to the jurors.
Smith's federal defender, Katherine Puzone, did not return phone calls seeking comment. In her brief, she asserts that her client is mentally retarded and points to a 2002 decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of retarded defendants.