Special Announcement

Please sign up at least 1 new person to this e-newsletter in the next week.  Over 1000 people receive the Death Penalty Update. Let's try to double that number.  You could sign up a friend, family member, colleague, etc.  

Whether you are in favor or opposed to the death penalty, after learning just a little about the system one quickly realizes how flawed the system is. We need to educate more people, and you can help us do that. New Subscribers can join by e-mailing Josh Noble at jnoble@dcaclu.org, and typing ""Death Penalty Update"" in the subject line. Please also include that persons town or city and state + zip code so we can provide the most detailed information and actions.

Corrections

In last edition's article, 'Efforts To Ban Juvenile Death Penalty Progressing,' the statistics cited on states without the juvenile death penalty contained an error.  At the beginning of this year 29 states did not impose the death penalty on juvenile offenders.  Over the last few months two additional states: South Dakota and Wyoming have repealed the juvenile death penalty, which brings us to 31 states and the federal government which prohibit the execution of juvenile offenders.  We have been using the ""31"" number for the past few updates but in last week's update mistakenly copied from an older update and cited ""29."" Our apologies. 

Also, we stated that 69% of Americans oppose the juvenile death penalty. That number is in correct. For polling numbers: According to a December 2003 ABC poll, 62% of Americans are opposed to the juvenile death penalty. A May 2002 Gallup poll indicated only 26% support for the juvenile death penalty, which is the same number found by a 2000 national poll conducted by the Houston Chronicle

For more information on the juvenile death penalty: http://justice.policy.net/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=35841

News

Florida and New Hampshire 

In Florida, a bill to raise the minimum age for offenders eligible for the death penalty to 18 passed the Florida Senate by a 26-12 vote and could be voted on by the Florida House today, which is the last day of the Florida legislative session.  Take action to encourage the passage of this bill by forwarding the below link to anyone you know in Florida and encouraging them to contact their Representative via this electronic action form: /capital/general/10519res20030512.html 

In New Hampshire both the Senate and House have passed a SB 513, a bill to raise the minimum age of offenders eligible for the death penalty to 18. However NH Governor Benson has stated that he will veto this bill, but he has not yet done so.  Please contact the NH Governor (if you're a resident or forward to friends and family in NH) and urge them to contact the Governor and tell him to sign SB 513.  Here's an action alert on the NH bill for the Governor: /capital/juv/10518res20030511.html 

Proposed Federal Legislation Would Expand Death Penalty

Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrent Act/S1795

On Thursday, April 29 Senators. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and others introduced an amended version of the Gang Prevention and Deterrence Act.  The new bill still contains five new federal death penalty provisions.  The Senate Judiciary committee will continue considering the bill next Thursday, May 6th.

Terrorism Penalties Enhancement Act of 2003/HR 2934

This legislation which will subject people convicted of various federal terrorism crimes to the death penalty and will be marked up by the full House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday May 5.  This is the first piece of the Administration's proposal to expand the Patriot Act to move in Congress this year.  

Chemist May Have Destroyed Evidence In Death Row Case (April 22, 2004)

According to a confidential police memo obtained by the Associated Press, ex-Oklahoma police chemist Joyce Gilchrist may have destroyed hair samples that could have exonerated a man on death row.  The police memorandum details misconduct in 11 cases from the 1980s.  The most significant findings of misconduct were in the Curtis Edward McCarty case, which are now the root of his latest appeal.  The memo notes that ""?Gilchrist not only altered her own case notes, but there is compelling circumstantial evidence that she either intentionally lost or destroyed crime scene hairs used to convict Curtis Edward McCarty of murder so the evidence could not be retested.""  In 2001, DNA labs in Oklahoma came under scrutiny when Gilchrist, an Oklahoma City Police chemist whose testimony was used to convict hundreds of accused criminals, was found to have misrepresented forensic hair and fiber analyses on numerous occasions.  Gilchrist's testimony helped win convictions in 23 death penalty cases and thousands of other cases.  At the time her negligence was exposed, eleven of those death row inmates had already been put to death and twelve others remained on death row.  

Read An Article From the Associated Press 

Supreme Court To Decide Whether Ring is Retroactive (April 20, 2004)

The Supreme Court heard arguments for a case that could result in more than 100 death row inmates having their sentences thrown out and receiving new hearings. The case, Summerlin v. Stewart, stems from the 2002 Ring v. Arizona decision in which the Court found that juries, not judges, must render death sentences. The Supreme Court left unclear whether the decision should apply retroactively to inmates awaiting execution.  In early September, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Supreme Court decision requiring jurors to make the critical findings when determining death sentences applies to all death row prisoners sentenced under that unconstitutional scheme. If upheld by the Supreme Court, this decision would bring about the largest reduction in the U.S. death row population since former Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the sentences of 163 death row inmates to life imprisonment and pardoned 4 others in January 2003.'

Read An Article From CNN 

Study Suspects Thousands Of Wrongful Convictions(April 19, 2004) 

Researchers identified 328 criminal cases, including 73 death penalty case, over the last 15 years in which the defendant was ultimately exonerated.  The study also identified 199 murder exonerations and 120 rape exonerations; only nine cases involved other crimes.  In almost half of the cases, the defendant had been in prison for more than ten years.  According to the authors of the study, death row inmates are a quarter of 1 percent of the prison population, but represent 22 percent of exonerations.  In addition, the study found that in 88 percent of the rape cases, DNA evidence helped free the inmate.  However, only 20 percent of murder exonerations involved DNA evidence, and almost all of those were rape-murders.  While the racial makeup of the exonerees was similar to the general prison population, race did seem to play a factor in the exonerations involving rape.  Black men comprise 25 percent of those in prison for rape, but account for 65 percent of those exonerated of rape.  In half of those rape exonerations, the black men were falsely accused of raping white women.  

Read An Article From the New York Times 

Read 'Exonerations in the United States'

Upcoming Executions 

 APRIL 

04/29/04            TX            Anzel Jones - Juvenile - Stayed 

MAY 

05/13/04            PA            Francis Bauer Harris - Stayed

05/18/04            OK            Osbaldo Torres - Foreign National 

05/18/04            TX            Kelsey Patterson - Mentally Ill

05/21/04            LA            Cedric Howard - Juvenile - Stayed 

05/21/04            NC            Sammy Perkins

JUNE

06/01/04            PA            Hubert L. Michael - Volunteer 

06/03/04            TN            Sedley Alley

06/08/04            OK            Robert Leroy Bryan

06/08/04            FED            David Paul Hammer - Abandoned Appeals

06/10/04            TX            James Lee Henderson

06/10/04            PA            Arthur Bomar - Stay Likely 

06/14/04            MD            Steven Oken (scheduled for week of June 14^th, could be first MD execution since 1998)

06/20/04            OH            John Drummond

06/23/04            TX            Efrain Perez - Juvenile - Stayed

06/24/04            TX            Raul Villarreal - Juvenile - Stayed 

06/24/04            OH            Donald Ketterer

06/25/04            OH            Robert Bethel

06/29/04            TX            Mauro Barraza - Juvenile - Stayed 

06/30/04            TX            David Harris

NCADP Execution Alerts 

Action Alerts

Take Action to Stop the Execution of Kelsey Patterson 

The State of Texas is scheduled to execute Kelsey Patterson, a mentally ill man, on May 18.  Patterson has a long history of mental illness and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1981.  While acknowledging that Patterson committed the crime for which he was sentenced to die, a federal judge noted the substantial role that his mental illness played in his crime. ""Patterson had no motive for the killings?he claims he commits acts involuntarily and outside forces control him through implants in his brain and body?Patterson has consistently maintained he is a victim of an elaborate conspiracy, and his lawyers and doctors are part of that conspiracy?and he refuses to acknowledge that his lawyers represent him.""  Despite Patterson's pronounced mental illness, a jury found him competent to stand trial and he was ultimately sentenced to death.  Patterson's case raises important considerations about society's treatment of the mentally ill.  Mentally incompetent individuals are unable to grasp the consequences of their actions, and executing the mentally ill does little to serve the administration of justice.  

Amnesty International has released a new report on the case of Kelsey Patterson.  The report, ""Another Texas Injustice: The case of Kelsey Patterson, mentally ill man facing execution,"" details Patterson's case and his endless struggle with mental illness.  

Read 'The Case Of Kelsey Patterson' From Amnesty International 

Take Action To Stop the Execution of Kelsey Patterson 

Action Alerts From the ACLU 

Upcoming Events

Ongoing, Nationwide

The Exonerated - New York City shows are temporarily cancelled. They may resume in May. National Tour Stops coming up in: Late April            Nashville, TN: contact Randy Tatel for more info: 615-329-0048