Post by biglinmarshall on Sept 23, 2009 18:03:40 GMT -5
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/sep/20/us-death-penalty-failings
The final act of Linda Carty's tragedyOnly the supreme court or the Texan governor can stop the first execution of a black British woman in a century
Clive Stafford Smith guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 September 2009 19.00 BST
The last two weeks have not been a great advertisement for the death penalty in America. Lethal injection was meant to be the "kinder, gentler" form of execution. It is anything but. This week in Ohio, Romell Brown lay strapped to the gurney, with the promise that he would die painlessly, in seconds. Yet for an hour the executioners jabbed and probed, trying to find a vein. Brown begged them to get it over; he covered his face, sobbing. He flexed his muscles and massaged his arms, trying to help them. A second hour went by. Finally, Terry Collins – director of the irony-free Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction – thanked Brown for his co-operation and sent him back to a holding cell. They plan to try to kill him again next week.
However embarrassing the failings of the Ohio system, Texas has gone one worse.
A Texas Forensic Science Commission investigation has revealed that Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004 for the murder of his three young daughters, was almost certainly innocent. The prosecution claimed he started a fire at his home that killed his children, but the evidence strongly suggests that the fire was an accident. As I look at my one-year-old Wilfred, I wonder what it must be like for a parent to lose three children to tragedy – and then to have some pious prosecutor tell the jury that you should die for it.
The commission condemned the "scientific" evidence offered by the prosecution as "characteristic of mystics or psychics". Yet Willingham need never have died. Scientific evidence suggesting that the fire was an accident had already been presented to Governor Rick Perry in support of clemency, but he turned his thumb down. Imagine Willingham's final moments on earth as the death penalty advocates outside the prison celebrated his impending death.
Meanwhile, last week a Texas appeals court refused to grant a new trial to Charles Hood. The prosecutor who had put him on death row finally admitted that he had been sleeping with Judge Verla Sue Holland at the time she presided over the trial and sentenced Hood to death. What pillow talk they must have enjoyed after each day of testimony! But the Texas court blamed the defence lawyers – they should have found the proof of this clandestine affair earlier, we are told. So Hood must die.
All of this leads up to last week's final tragedy. The fifth circuit court of appeals turned down the penultimate appeal of British grandmother Linda Carty, which means she has only the supreme court and Governor Rick Perry between her and an encounter with the executioner.
As to whether she should even have been convicted, the court found it a "close case", but the verdict was good enough for government work. An unfair trial is apparently OK, so long as it is not "fundamentally unfair."
But the court had to indulge in greater contortions to justify Carty becoming the first black British woman to be executed in over a century. She is not only a black woman, she is a battered woman, herself the victim of rape. So what? The court refused even to consider it. Her court-appointed advocate is, quite clearly, the worst capital defence lawyer in the country: he has had more clients facing execution than the death row population of 25 of the states. But the court blamed Carty for his inaction, accepting without question his statement that she refused to talk to him until he "bribed her with a bar of chocolate". While this was not the only dubious assertion the lawyer made, it was perhaps the most flagrant: Carty is allergic to chocolate.
None of this caused the court to doubt the infallibility of the Texas death penalty. The court concluded that Carty should die.
Even so, in a sane world there would be no chance that Carty would be executed. The supreme court would reverse her case, or the governor would grant clemency. But Death Row USA leaves little room for hope. The supreme court hears only one capital case in 30. And few observers expect Texas to clean up its own mistakes. Far from being a heartless killer, Cameron Willingham was the victim of a terrible tragedy, yet Perry sanctioned his execution. It is farcical to suggest that Charles Hood had an impartial judge, yet he is slated to die. And if Texas doesn't manage to kill Carty the first time, it'll probably put her back in the holding cell and have another go seven days later.
The final act of Linda Carty's tragedyOnly the supreme court or the Texan governor can stop the first execution of a black British woman in a century
Clive Stafford Smith guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 September 2009 19.00 BST
The last two weeks have not been a great advertisement for the death penalty in America. Lethal injection was meant to be the "kinder, gentler" form of execution. It is anything but. This week in Ohio, Romell Brown lay strapped to the gurney, with the promise that he would die painlessly, in seconds. Yet for an hour the executioners jabbed and probed, trying to find a vein. Brown begged them to get it over; he covered his face, sobbing. He flexed his muscles and massaged his arms, trying to help them. A second hour went by. Finally, Terry Collins – director of the irony-free Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction – thanked Brown for his co-operation and sent him back to a holding cell. They plan to try to kill him again next week.
However embarrassing the failings of the Ohio system, Texas has gone one worse.
A Texas Forensic Science Commission investigation has revealed that Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004 for the murder of his three young daughters, was almost certainly innocent. The prosecution claimed he started a fire at his home that killed his children, but the evidence strongly suggests that the fire was an accident. As I look at my one-year-old Wilfred, I wonder what it must be like for a parent to lose three children to tragedy – and then to have some pious prosecutor tell the jury that you should die for it.
The commission condemned the "scientific" evidence offered by the prosecution as "characteristic of mystics or psychics". Yet Willingham need never have died. Scientific evidence suggesting that the fire was an accident had already been presented to Governor Rick Perry in support of clemency, but he turned his thumb down. Imagine Willingham's final moments on earth as the death penalty advocates outside the prison celebrated his impending death.
Meanwhile, last week a Texas appeals court refused to grant a new trial to Charles Hood. The prosecutor who had put him on death row finally admitted that he had been sleeping with Judge Verla Sue Holland at the time she presided over the trial and sentenced Hood to death. What pillow talk they must have enjoyed after each day of testimony! But the Texas court blamed the defence lawyers – they should have found the proof of this clandestine affair earlier, we are told. So Hood must die.
All of this leads up to last week's final tragedy. The fifth circuit court of appeals turned down the penultimate appeal of British grandmother Linda Carty, which means she has only the supreme court and Governor Rick Perry between her and an encounter with the executioner.
As to whether she should even have been convicted, the court found it a "close case", but the verdict was good enough for government work. An unfair trial is apparently OK, so long as it is not "fundamentally unfair."
But the court had to indulge in greater contortions to justify Carty becoming the first black British woman to be executed in over a century. She is not only a black woman, she is a battered woman, herself the victim of rape. So what? The court refused even to consider it. Her court-appointed advocate is, quite clearly, the worst capital defence lawyer in the country: he has had more clients facing execution than the death row population of 25 of the states. But the court blamed Carty for his inaction, accepting without question his statement that she refused to talk to him until he "bribed her with a bar of chocolate". While this was not the only dubious assertion the lawyer made, it was perhaps the most flagrant: Carty is allergic to chocolate.
None of this caused the court to doubt the infallibility of the Texas death penalty. The court concluded that Carty should die.
Even so, in a sane world there would be no chance that Carty would be executed. The supreme court would reverse her case, or the governor would grant clemency. But Death Row USA leaves little room for hope. The supreme court hears only one capital case in 30. And few observers expect Texas to clean up its own mistakes. Far from being a heartless killer, Cameron Willingham was the victim of a terrible tragedy, yet Perry sanctioned his execution. It is farcical to suggest that Charles Hood had an impartial judge, yet he is slated to die. And if Texas doesn't manage to kill Carty the first time, it'll probably put her back in the holding cell and have another go seven days later.