Charles Thomas O'Reilly, warden of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit, retired on Monday after having presided over out about 140 exexutions.
O'Reilly, who turns 60 on Wednesday, says he leaves with no reservations and no nightmares. He began execution duty in September of 2004, but has been with the Texas prison agency for over 33 years.
Although he didn't keep an exact tally of the number of inmates whose executions he oversaw, he estimates it is around 140. That accounts for about a third of all the executions in Texas since it resumed executions in 1982.
If I'd watched 140 people die, regardless of what they had done, and had 'no reservations' about it, I'd worry I was a sociopath.
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Sunday 29 August 2010
Teresa Lewis - 'Unfit for Execution'
A friend emailed me this article from 'Newsweek' which I thought I would post. It's about Virginia's only female death row inmate, Teresa Lewis, who is due to die on September 23rd. I'd like to point out that Teresa Lewis didn't actually kill anybody. She participated, but she didn't physically kill a soul. I'll let this article do the talking though. It was written by Lynn Litchfield, chaplain at Fluvanna Correctional Centre for Women in Virginia from 1998 to 2009.
For 6 years, I regularly spent an hour talking and listening through a small slot in a metal door. On the other side was the only woman on death row in Virginia, an inmate who pleaded guilty to hiring 2 men to kill her husband and stepson, allegedly in exchange for a cut of the insurance money. Sometimes I was allowed to sit in a chair as I stooped down to hear her, give her communion, or just hold her hand; usually I alternated between half-squatting or kneeling on the concrete floor. As chaplain at Virginia's only maximum-security prison for women, I expected to minister under challenging circumstances. These visits were unbearable, however, and not because of the physical conditions. It was my feeling—at first fleeting, now certain—that this woman doesn't deserve to die.
On Sept. 23, barring the governor's unlikely pardon or the Supreme Court taking her case, Teresa Lewis will die in the electric chair or by lethal injection (she hasn't chosen). She lost a federal appeal earlier this summer, putting her in line to be the 1st woman the state has killed in 98 years—and the 12th nationally since the high court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. She'll be the 1st of at least 16 executions scheduled across the country in the next 6 months, and the latest in a long, sad list of mentally handicapped people to receive a punishment they don't deserve. I'm not advocating for her release or making excuses for her crime. She isn't, either. But I am calling for clemency. The death penalty is too blunt and final for a world about which we can never be certain. More than 130 death-row inmates have been released for wrongful convictions in recent years. Even when someone pleads guilty, as Teresa did, there's almost always more to the story.
Teresa arrived at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women the same day she was sentenced in 2003. She wore blue scrubs; chains around her ankles, waist, and hands; and a bewildered expression. It's common for inmates to project you-can't-hurt-me indignation. But Teresa seemed meek, almost pliant. When I hugged her—the only hug we ever shared—she was so grateful. She didn't look like a remorseless killer, a "mastermind" who plotted 2 murders, as the judge put it (her original lawyers did little to dispute this image). In one of our sessions, she collapsed into great soul-shattering, body-heaving sobs and cried into my wrist, the only part of me I could get through the slot in the door.
Teresa stood out to me in other ways, too. Beneath a gloss of social pleasantries, she seemed slow and overly eager to please—an easy mark, in other words, for a con. A Duke University psychiatrist who testified at a 2005 postconviction hearing said she has an IQ of 72, placing her on the cusp of mental retardation as the Supreme Court defines it. Also disclosed since Teresa's original trial: a 2003 letter from 1 of the 2 men who carried out the killings admitting that it was he, not she, who masterminded the murders. Still, the state Supreme Court, a U.S. District Court, and, most recently, a U.S. Court of Appeals, have upheld the ruling that Teresa deserves to die. The actual killers got life in prison.
Last year, as Teresa's prospects receded, I left the prison ministry. On the inside, I was forbidden from speaking out. Now I can help her cause. My 5-year-old daughter recently asked me what an execution was, and I told her it's when someone is killed as punishment for killing someone else. "But she didn't actually kill anyone," my daughter said. No, but she participated, I explained, and in the state's eyes, that's enough. "Don't they know that doing bad to someone, even if they did bad to you, is wrong?" she responded. It's a good question.
For 6 years, I regularly spent an hour talking and listening through a small slot in a metal door. On the other side was the only woman on death row in Virginia, an inmate who pleaded guilty to hiring 2 men to kill her husband and stepson, allegedly in exchange for a cut of the insurance money. Sometimes I was allowed to sit in a chair as I stooped down to hear her, give her communion, or just hold her hand; usually I alternated between half-squatting or kneeling on the concrete floor. As chaplain at Virginia's only maximum-security prison for women, I expected to minister under challenging circumstances. These visits were unbearable, however, and not because of the physical conditions. It was my feeling—at first fleeting, now certain—that this woman doesn't deserve to die.
On Sept. 23, barring the governor's unlikely pardon or the Supreme Court taking her case, Teresa Lewis will die in the electric chair or by lethal injection (she hasn't chosen). She lost a federal appeal earlier this summer, putting her in line to be the 1st woman the state has killed in 98 years—and the 12th nationally since the high court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. She'll be the 1st of at least 16 executions scheduled across the country in the next 6 months, and the latest in a long, sad list of mentally handicapped people to receive a punishment they don't deserve. I'm not advocating for her release or making excuses for her crime. She isn't, either. But I am calling for clemency. The death penalty is too blunt and final for a world about which we can never be certain. More than 130 death-row inmates have been released for wrongful convictions in recent years. Even when someone pleads guilty, as Teresa did, there's almost always more to the story.
Teresa arrived at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women the same day she was sentenced in 2003. She wore blue scrubs; chains around her ankles, waist, and hands; and a bewildered expression. It's common for inmates to project you-can't-hurt-me indignation. But Teresa seemed meek, almost pliant. When I hugged her—the only hug we ever shared—she was so grateful. She didn't look like a remorseless killer, a "mastermind" who plotted 2 murders, as the judge put it (her original lawyers did little to dispute this image). In one of our sessions, she collapsed into great soul-shattering, body-heaving sobs and cried into my wrist, the only part of me I could get through the slot in the door.
Teresa stood out to me in other ways, too. Beneath a gloss of social pleasantries, she seemed slow and overly eager to please—an easy mark, in other words, for a con. A Duke University psychiatrist who testified at a 2005 postconviction hearing said she has an IQ of 72, placing her on the cusp of mental retardation as the Supreme Court defines it. Also disclosed since Teresa's original trial: a 2003 letter from 1 of the 2 men who carried out the killings admitting that it was he, not she, who masterminded the murders. Still, the state Supreme Court, a U.S. District Court, and, most recently, a U.S. Court of Appeals, have upheld the ruling that Teresa deserves to die. The actual killers got life in prison.
Last year, as Teresa's prospects receded, I left the prison ministry. On the inside, I was forbidden from speaking out. Now I can help her cause. My 5-year-old daughter recently asked me what an execution was, and I told her it's when someone is killed as punishment for killing someone else. "But she didn't actually kill anyone," my daughter said. No, but she participated, I explained, and in the state's eyes, that's enough. "Don't they know that doing bad to someone, even if they did bad to you, is wrong?" she responded. It's a good question.
Thursday 26 August 2010
URGENT ACTION NEEDED FOR KEVIN KEITH
Ohio's Parole Board voted against clemency for the 46 year old African American man (right), who has always maintained his innocence. The case now rests in the hands of Governor Strickland, who has already said that he finds parts of Keith's case "troubling".
If you want to read about the Keith case in detail, follow this link to our earlier post about Kevin Keith.
In summary, Keith was sentenced to death for the 1994 murders of three people. There are some SERIOUS problems with his case, including the police's use of 'suggestive techniques' in identifying Keith as the killer, and much more. I honestly do not believe that this man is guilty. There is most definitely reasonable doubt. He should not be executed on September 15th.
Thousands of people have already called for clemency for Kevin Keith, including several former federal and state judges and prosecutors. They include former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Herbert Brown, and former state Attorney General Jim Petro. Petro has said that he is “gravely concerned that the State of Ohio may be on the verge of executing an innocent person.” That makes two of us.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION.
There is a petition you can sign to the right of this page (I'm not sure if it's still valid though, we may need to update).
The best course of action you can take is to send an appeal directly to Governor Strickland AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Keith will be executed on September 15th so time is of the essence. You should note the serious doubts raised about Keith's guilty, note the fallibility of the eyewitness testimony which is central to the prosecutions case, and call on the Governor to commute Kevin Keith's death sentence on the grounds that he might be innocent and this punishment is irreversible. You can find out about some of the striking problems with the case in our previous post about Kevin Keith
Send your appeals to:
Governor
Ted Strickland
Governor's Office,
Riffe Center, 30th Floor
77 South High Street,
Columbus, OH 43215-6108
USA
Or Fax: 1 614 466 9354
Start your letter/fax with the salutation 'Dear Governor'.
I am about to pen a letter on behalf of Death Watch; Stardoll. I really hope you will take the time to help. A man's life is at stake here and we have to act fast. Please, help.
Final appeal for Bali Nine Scott Rush
Scott Rush, one of the infamous Bali Nine drug smugglers, is to make a final appeal against his death sentence. Rush was arrested in 2005 at Denpasar airport in Bali, trying to smuggle 1.3kg of heroin strapped to his body. He was just 19. The Australian is one of three Bali Nine members to have recieved a death sentence for his part in the smuggling ring.
After being sentenced to life imprisonment, Rush had his appeal for a shorter denied by the High Court. When his lawyers then took the case to the Supreme Court in 2008, he lost again but at a terrible price - the court handed him a death sentence instead.
This is his last chance chance to have a court cancel his death sentence.
"I often wake up having nightmares," Rush told yesterday's hearing. "I often think about the firing squad and how long it would take me to die."
He told the court that he would like to be "an ambassador against drugs" and how he is "the living example of how drugs can destroy lives and do cause family and friends so much unhappiness, pain and distress".
If this final appeal fails, Rush's only hope would be to seek clemency from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The president, who took office in 2004, has never granted clemency to a drug criminal before.
Saturday 21 August 2010
Virginia set to end face-to-face visits for death row inmates
35 states of America have the death penalty, and 34 of them allow face-to-face visits for inmates on death row. Kansas is the cruel exception, forcing inmates to conduct their visits with family, other loved ones, etc via video conference. Now Virginia plans to join them.
The state correction officials favour the policy because it's apparently less intrusive on the visitors, as well as being less labor-intensive on staff (ie. they only have to press a button). They also say it could lead to expanded visitation opportunities. Sounds pretty limited to me - you can't kiss your wife or hold your child's hand through a TV screen. The relatives of inmates on Virginia's death row are calling it a cruel and unnecessary policy. I agree entirely.
Apart from Kansas, as of right now all other death penalty states allow face to face visits. Some states allow contact visits (ie you're allowed to touch), but most have a sheet of glass between inmates and visitors. Ohio has glass but also has a slot to allow inmates and visitors to hold hands.
If you've ever seen something in person and then seen it on film, you might know what I'm talking about when I say that you really lose something when you put a thing on film. In my opinion, this is just cruel. If I was forced to spend 23 hours a day cooped up in a small box, I would spend every waking moment savoring the thought of seeing my loved ones in the flesh, even if it was through a sheet of reinforced glass.
As of September 1st, Virginia's death row population will sadly not have this 'luxury'.
The state correction officials favour the policy because it's apparently less intrusive on the visitors, as well as being less labor-intensive on staff (ie. they only have to press a button). They also say it could lead to expanded visitation opportunities. Sounds pretty limited to me - you can't kiss your wife or hold your child's hand through a TV screen. The relatives of inmates on Virginia's death row are calling it a cruel and unnecessary policy. I agree entirely.
Apart from Kansas, as of right now all other death penalty states allow face to face visits. Some states allow contact visits (ie you're allowed to touch), but most have a sheet of glass between inmates and visitors. Ohio has glass but also has a slot to allow inmates and visitors to hold hands.
If you've ever seen something in person and then seen it on film, you might know what I'm talking about when I say that you really lose something when you put a thing on film. In my opinion, this is just cruel. If I was forced to spend 23 hours a day cooped up in a small box, I would spend every waking moment savoring the thought of seeing my loved ones in the flesh, even if it was through a sheet of reinforced glass.
As of September 1st, Virginia's death row population will sadly not have this 'luxury'.
Sunday 15 August 2010
CA Governor Schwarzenegger wastes $64 million on new death row
I've always been a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger, not so much on the political side of things as opposed the silver screen, but my opinion of him is dropping rapidly.
It began in Sacramento on Wednesday when the California Governor announced that he planned to 'borrow' an eye-watering $64 millions from the already almost-broke General Fund. Why? Well, to build a new death row facility at San Quentin of course!
It gets worse. $64 million is nothing - the new facility is expected to cost upwards of $400 million in total.
California doesn't need more debts. Even if you're in favour of the death penalty, I bet you can't look me in the eyes and say that this will be $400 million well spent.
California already has the largest and most expensive death row in America - by FAR. There are over 700 death row inmates in California. Los Angeles County alone sends more people to death row than the entire state of Texas. And yet, nearly all of California's death row might as well be sentenced to life without parole - they nearly all die of natural causes as opposed to state-sponsored murder.
And each of those pointless death sentences is costing the state a small fortune. The state could save at least $1.1 million in each trial if it was seeking permanent imprisonment instead of the death penalty. That's just the trial. The annual cost of California's death penalty is $126 million. Per year.
So take that $400 million figure and make it more like $1 billion in five years.
To summarise, Governor Schwarzenegger could save the California taxpayers a heck of a lot of money if he would only chuck the death penalty out of the window and commute all the current death sentences to life imprisonment. No imate gets of lightly. Justice is still served - and quickly - for murder victims and their families; no decades of waiting and having the ordeal dredged up with every new appeal and clemency hearing and execution date set and reset. It is basically a cheaper, quicker and less painful way of doing things for everyone involved.
Thank you to James Clark, Death Penalty Field Organiser of ACLU California, who wrote the report this post is based on.
If you have any ideas how that $64 million could be better spent, why not Tweet Governor Schwarzenegger and let him know. Tweet @Schwarzenegger Say No to Death Row! Spend #64million on [insert your preferred state program] #cabudget.
It began in Sacramento on Wednesday when the California Governor announced that he planned to 'borrow' an eye-watering $64 millions from the already almost-broke General Fund. Why? Well, to build a new death row facility at San Quentin of course!
It gets worse. $64 million is nothing - the new facility is expected to cost upwards of $400 million in total.
California doesn't need more debts. Even if you're in favour of the death penalty, I bet you can't look me in the eyes and say that this will be $400 million well spent.
California already has the largest and most expensive death row in America - by FAR. There are over 700 death row inmates in California. Los Angeles County alone sends more people to death row than the entire state of Texas. And yet, nearly all of California's death row might as well be sentenced to life without parole - they nearly all die of natural causes as opposed to state-sponsored murder.
And each of those pointless death sentences is costing the state a small fortune. The state could save at least $1.1 million in each trial if it was seeking permanent imprisonment instead of the death penalty. That's just the trial. The annual cost of California's death penalty is $126 million. Per year.
So take that $400 million figure and make it more like $1 billion in five years.
To summarise, Governor Schwarzenegger could save the California taxpayers a heck of a lot of money if he would only chuck the death penalty out of the window and commute all the current death sentences to life imprisonment. No imate gets of lightly. Justice is still served - and quickly - for murder victims and their families; no decades of waiting and having the ordeal dredged up with every new appeal and clemency hearing and execution date set and reset. It is basically a cheaper, quicker and less painful way of doing things for everyone involved.
Thank you to James Clark, Death Penalty Field Organiser of ACLU California, who wrote the report this post is based on.
If you have any ideas how that $64 million could be better spent, why not Tweet Governor Schwarzenegger and let him know. Tweet @Schwarzenegger Say No to Death Row! Spend #64million on [insert your preferred state program] #cabudget.
Alabama executes Michael Jeffrey Land
Michael Jeffrey Land (41) was put to death on Saturday August 14th by the state of Alabama.
Land was convicted of the 1992 murder of Candace Brown, a 30 year old mother who was kidnapped from her home and later found dead on Ruffner Mountain. She had been shot in the head.
When asked if he had any final statements, Land said: "No. Thank you though."
Chris Summers, the Chaplain of Holman Correctional Facility, then got on one knee and held Land's hand. He prayed with him until Land became unconscious.
Land was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. at Holman Prison, Atmore. He had been on Alabama's death row for 17 years. He is the third inmate to be put to death in Alabama this year, the 47th overall since Alabama resumed the death penalty in 1983, and the 1223rd in the USA since the nation resumed executions in 1977.
Land was convicted of the 1992 murder of Candace Brown, a 30 year old mother who was kidnapped from her home and later found dead on Ruffner Mountain. She had been shot in the head.
When asked if he had any final statements, Land said: "No. Thank you though."
Chris Summers, the Chaplain of Holman Correctional Facility, then got on one knee and held Land's hand. He prayed with him until Land became unconscious.
Land was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. at Holman Prison, Atmore. He had been on Alabama's death row for 17 years. He is the third inmate to be put to death in Alabama this year, the 47th overall since Alabama resumed the death penalty in 1983, and the 1223rd in the USA since the nation resumed executions in 1977.
Thursday 12 August 2010
Ohio executes Roderick Davie
Roderick Davie (38) was executed by lethal injection in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility on Tuesday morning.
Family of Davie's two victims sat quietly together as the execution proceded.
Davie was convicted of the 1991 murder of a man and a woman at his former workplace in Trunbull County. In the attack he also shot a man three times who lived to attend the execution.
After making a final statement in which he apologized to the family members of his victims and the survivor of his attack, as well as thanking his own family for their love and support, the lethal cocktail was administered. The warden pronounced him dead at 10:31a.m.
Davie is the seventh death row inmate to be executed by Ohio this year, and the 40th since 1999.
Family of Davie's two victims sat quietly together as the execution proceded.
Davie was convicted of the 1991 murder of a man and a woman at his former workplace in Trunbull County. In the attack he also shot a man three times who lived to attend the execution.
After making a final statement in which he apologized to the family members of his victims and the survivor of his attack, as well as thanking his own family for their love and support, the lethal cocktail was administered. The warden pronounced him dead at 10:31a.m.
Davie is the seventh death row inmate to be executed by Ohio this year, and the 40th since 1999.
Tuesday 10 August 2010
Taliban flogs and executes pregnant woman
35 year old pregnant widow Bibi Sanubar was publicly flogged and then executed by the Taliban in Afghanistan on Sunday.
The Afghan woman was accused of having had an "illicit affair" which left her pregnant. She was kept in captivity for three days, punished with 200 lashes in public, and was then shot three times in the head.
Taliban commander Mohammad Yousuf is said to have carried out the execution before the woman's body was dumped in an area under government control.
A Taliban spokesman on Monday denied that the militia was responsible for Sanubar's death:
"We have not done anything like that in Badghis or any other province" said Qari Yosuf Ahmadi. He called the report "propaganda" by foreigners and the Western-backed Afghan government.
The execution has been confirmed by Mohammad Nasir Nazaari, head of Badghis provincial council. He said the Qadis district, where the execution was carried out, was entirely under Taliban control.
Since their ouster in 2001, hardline Taliban militants have executed many people accused of spying for foreign forces, including children as young as 7 or 8, and another woman, a mother of five, whose death has been watched by millions after secret film of her publicly being dragged out, forced to kneel and shot in the head was leaked.
Abdul Qadir Rahimi, head of the Afgan Independant Human Rights Commission in western Afghanistan, condemned Sunday's killing:
"Any such trial is unacceptable and is a violation of human rights. All trials must take place in an authorised court observing every single measure of justice."
Any execution is a violation of human rights, I believe. But this... If this is what the world has come to, we ought to hang our heads in shame.
The Afghan woman was accused of having had an "illicit affair" which left her pregnant. She was kept in captivity for three days, punished with 200 lashes in public, and was then shot three times in the head.
Taliban commander Mohammad Yousuf is said to have carried out the execution before the woman's body was dumped in an area under government control.
A Taliban spokesman on Monday denied that the militia was responsible for Sanubar's death:
"We have not done anything like that in Badghis or any other province" said Qari Yosuf Ahmadi. He called the report "propaganda" by foreigners and the Western-backed Afghan government.
The execution has been confirmed by Mohammad Nasir Nazaari, head of Badghis provincial council. He said the Qadis district, where the execution was carried out, was entirely under Taliban control.
Since their ouster in 2001, hardline Taliban militants have executed many people accused of spying for foreign forces, including children as young as 7 or 8, and another woman, a mother of five, whose death has been watched by millions after secret film of her publicly being dragged out, forced to kneel and shot in the head was leaked.
Abdul Qadir Rahimi, head of the Afgan Independant Human Rights Commission in western Afghanistan, condemned Sunday's killing:
"Any such trial is unacceptable and is a violation of human rights. All trials must take place in an authorised court observing every single measure of justice."
Any execution is a violation of human rights, I believe. But this... If this is what the world has come to, we ought to hang our heads in shame.
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