DNA clears innocent man in Houston... after 27 YEARS behind bars

27 years after his conviction, Houston inmate Michael Anthony Green (45) is expected to be freed this week in light of new DNA evidence proving his innocence.

In 1983, Green was sentenced to 75 years in prison for the rape of a Houston woman. His conviction was based on faulty eyewitness identifation, says his attorney, Bob Wicoff.

27 years in prison is the longest time that any innocent Texan has spent in prison before being exonerated. If he is freed, Green will become the second innocent man from Harris County to be released from prison THIS WEEK. Last Friday, Allen Wayne Porter was also released based on new DNA testing after serving 19 years behind bars for a rape he didn't commit.

In this case, justice prevailed. Hallelujah. It's terrible that an innocent man spent such a large portion of his life jailed for someone else's crime, but at least this story has a happy ending. If this had been a death penalty case, the reality is he probably would have been executed 20 years ago. This is Harris County's second exoneration in a week. How many more innocent men are sitting in unjustified prison cells? I wonder. How many are on death row right now? If we want to see justice prevailing like this and innocent men being handed their lives back, we must have a moratorium on the death penalty. The next innocent man might not be so lucky.

Ohio executes William L Garner

Ohio executed William L Garner (37) at 10:38 this morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

Garner died by lethal injection for the 1992 arson in Cincinnati which resulted in the deaths of 5 children. The lone survivor of the crime, Rod Mack, who was just 13 at the time, was amongst the witnesses at Garner's execution.

Garner is the 6th man to be executed in Ohio this year, and the 31st to be put to death so far this year in the US.

URGENT APPEAL FROM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Kevin Keith is a 46 year old African American male who is scheduled to be executed in the state of Ohio on September 15th for 3 murders he has always claimed he did not commit.

On February 13th 1994, someone fatally shot Marichell Chatman, her 7 year old daughter, and her aunt, as well as injuring her two young cousins and her boyfriend. Keith, an occasional babysitter, was arrested on the 15th of February. Three days later, one of the two cousins who survived the shooting told the police that the gunman was her "daddy's friend, Bruce", and when shown Keith's photo, she said he was not the shooter. But less than 4 months later, Kevin Keith was sitting on death row awaiting execution for the murders.

The prosecution claimed that, whilst in hospital, one of the victim's, Richard Warren,  named Kevin Keith as the shooter. A police officer testified that he first heard the name 'Kevin' from Warren's nurse, Amy Gimmets. Amy Gimmets was not called as a witness during trial. In 2007, Keith's lawyers discovered why. No one by that name had ever been employed at the hospital. The victim's attending nurse was a woman named Amy Whisman, who later signed a statement saying that, although she had called the police when Warren woke up after surgery, she had neither asked him nor been told by him who the gunman was.

Keith's attorneys argue that it was the police who suggested the name Kevin to the victim not the other way round, and that immediately after the shooting Warren told four different people that he didn't know who the gunman was. The day after the crime, however, the police called Warren and offered him the names of four 'Kevins', including Kevin Keith, and that Warren then selected 'Keith' as the surname. That phone call was not reported, and so we can't know if it really happened. But when videotaped later that evening, Warren said he did not know 'Kevin's' last name. He was shown photographs of six men including Kevin Keith, and the photo of Keith was the only one providing a facial close-up (a hint-hint, in other words). Warren chose the photo of Keith.

13 US experts in eyewitness identification note that "fault eyewitness identification is the single most likely factor to result in wrongfrul conviction". They concluded that Warren's identification of Keith was "tainted by many factors". The police used suggestive techniques. They hinted at Keith so much that, in his shocked and likely fragile condition, Warren was inclined to start questioning his own uncertainties about the gunman and choose Keith.

Furthermore, how reliable is the testimony of another eyewitness who caught a brief glimpse of the fleeing gunman, initially couldn't identify him, and then only identified him as Keith after Keith appeared on television news???

In light of all this newly discovered evidence that the state withheld evidence favorable to Keith, his lawyers are seeking a new trial and executive clemency.

There is a LOT more evidence which sheds doubt on Keith's guilt, but I'd be here all day writing it down. If you want to find out more, email me and I can send you some stuff. But I personally believe Kevin Keith is about as guilty of those murders as I am (and I was no where near Ohio in 1994, trust me). Amnesty International doesn't know if he's guilty of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death, but in any event unconditionally opposes any use of the death penalty anywhere, as I do. That's why I'm doing what I can to spare him from the lethal injection. If you have even the smallest doubt about his guilt, please help.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Send appeals as soon as possible to:
Ohio Parole Board

770 West Broad Street

Columbus, Ohio 43222, USA



Fax: 1 614 752 0600


Email: drc.publicinfo@odrc.state.oh.us


In your letter, you should:
- Note the serious doubts that have been raised about Kevin Keith's guilt (so if you want to know more, please do get in touch to us at deathwatchstardoll@hotmail.co.uk - we're always happy to provide anyone information they require)
- Explain that you do not seek to excuse the murders in this case or to downplay that suffering cause (the pro-death penalty folk are so keen to think of us as sympathisers of murderers...)
-Call on the Ohio Parole Board to recomment that Governor Ted Strickland commute this death sentence.
- And you should start with 'Dear Board members'

There is also a petition you can sign which will be presented to the Board at the hearing on August 11th.

http://criminaljustice.change.org/petitions/view/relief_urgently_needed_for_innocent_man_on_ohios_death_row
 
The link to the petition is also at the right hand side of the blog.
 
 
If you have even the slightest hint of doubt about Kevin Keith's guilt, please try to help. It is wrong to risk innocent lives at any time, but when there is blatant doubt about guilt it is even worse. It will only take a few minutes to send an email, write a letter, or sign the petition. An innocent life could be at stake here.

Executed at 8 - Taliban's shocking death penalty regime

(Info from The Age, June 24th 2010) - The Taliban has executed an eight-year-old boy who was accused of "collaborating" with foreign forces.
'Islam does not permit anyone to sentence a minor to execution,'' said Mawlawi Mehr Del, deputy head of the Muslim clerical council in Helmand. ''It is against Islam, against sharia. God may be extremely upset with them. Those who do something like this are neither jihadis nor Taliban, they are enemies of human life.''

It is illegal under islamic law to execute anyone under the age of 18. Even in the Taliban's own code of conduct which was drawn up by the movement two years ago, no commander may order the execution of minors. And, surely, any person other than Satan himself should be aware that executing 7 and 8 year old children is evil.

Senior Taliban member Mullah Abdul Bari disagrees, apparently, suggesting that the code of conduct does not apply in Helmand because "the number of infidels there has increased, and the Taliban don't have time to hold trials". Basically, therefore, local commanders in Helmand province can do as they please to people accused of spying.

The eight-year old was named Delawar. He was executed in a garden near his home in the village of Heratian in the Sangin district of Helmand. Accused of spying for British forces, the boy is reported to have screamed for his parents before the group of approximately 12 militants put the rope around his neck and hanged him.

The child's father, Abdul Quddus, initially reported that the Taliban had killed his son but now claims "ghosts" did it, and won't talk further. Of course he won't. If they'll hang an eight-year-old child, what do you think they'd do to a man who got them in trouble?

Worse still, the child's grandfather Naqubullah claims the boy was only hanged (under the pretext of spying) because the boy's father was too poor to pay the $US600 which local Taliban commanders tried to extort from him the day before the hanging.

This comes only a fortnight after the reported June 8th Taliban execution of a seven-year-old child for supposedly spying for the government, also in the Helmand province.

During a news conference the Afgan President Hamid Karzai told that officials were looking into reports of the execution, and said he condemned the act if it is confirmed to be true, calling it "a crime against humanity."

Newly elected British Prime Minister David Cameron said during a news conference in Kabul: "If this is true, it is an absolutely horrific crime. If true, I think it says more about the Taliban than any book, than any article, than any speech could ever say."


"Horrific" doesn't do it justice in my opinion. There are no words strong enough to trully express how sickening this is. Seven and eight years old. How can that be justice?

Utah executes Gardner by firing squad... And attorney-general tweets about it

In the early hours of Friday June 18th, Utah death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by a firing squad.

In front of nine media witnesses, Gardner sat locked into the chair, head held upright, as the prison warden draped the black hood over his head and fixed a small target over his left breast using Velcro. The 5 man firing squad then readied their weapons, only 4 of which were loaded with live ammunition allowing some doubt in their minds as to who committed the act. Shots rang out. Several witnesses later described Gardner moving his hand and arm after he was shot. At 12:20 a.m. MST, he was dead. The medical examiner lifted Gardner's hood, revealing his ashen face, mouth hanging open, very dead.

The execution is reminiscent of the good old days when men were marched up to brick walls, given a ceremonial last cigarette, blindfolded, and then shot dead. However, the method by which Utah's attorney general announced the execution was anything but old fashioned.

"I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner's execution" tweeted attorney general Mark Shurtleff. "May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims."

I don't use Twitter because it irritates me - people I barely know and certainly don't care about tweeting every few minutes about eating breakfast or thinking about going to the pub. This makes what the AG did even more shocking. To announce that a man is about to be killed in such a casual way is almost as sickening as the awful way in which the execution was carried out. Sure, Gardner chose that method. But then again, it may well have seemed like the lesser of two evils in his mind. The barbaric nature of the execution was such that even some of the friends and relatives of Gardner's VICTIMS were amongst those petitioning for a commuted sentence.

I'm sickened by Shurtleff's disgusting disregard for the sanctity of human life. I'm sickened by the cruel way this man died. But most of all, I'm sickened that - as we continue to kill and kill in methods old and new - nobody seems to realise how outdated the death penalty is.

If we've come to a point where it's acceptable to announce whether an execution will proceed or not on TWITTER, then we've come to a point where a moratorium on the death penalty is not only desirable. It's essential.

2 executed in Somalia for watching the World Cup

While the rest of the world (including Stardoll) throws themselves whole-heartedly into the spirit of the World Cup, 2 football fans were reportedly executed by Islamist militants in Somalia on June 14th.

Islamist groups had banned Somalis from watching World Cup matches on TV, claiming that watching football is 'un-Islamic' and saying it distracts citizens from their duty to overthrow the troubled east African country's government.

Ali Yasin Gedi, vice-chairman of the Elman rights groups, said that "Islamists unexpectedly entered houses in Afgoi district and fired (at) some people who tried to jump over the wall to escape."

Gunmen from the Hizbul Islam group swooped on homes in the Afgoi district, 19 miles south of the capital Mogadishu and executed two football fans while arresting dozens of others.

David Powell Executed

David Lee Powell was executed in Huntsville last night (06.15.10)

Powell, 59, was sentenced to death for the murder of Austin police officer Ralph Ablanedo 32 years ago. Seven members of Ablanedo's family watched silently from nearby as Powell took his last breath.

Powell had no final words. The lethal cocktail of drugs began to flow through his veins at 6:10pm. He was pronounced dead nine minutes later.

After the execution, Bruce Mills, a former Austin police officer who was a friend of the victim and later married his widow, said he felt as if a weight had been lifted. "Relief would be the word to describe it."

Yes. An old used-up convict who had already served 32 years on death row with excemplary behaviour, and who was "infinitely sorry that [he] killed Ralph Ablanedo", has been executed. What a relief.

Powell was a model inmate in the 3 decades he spent on death row. He helped illiterate prisoners to learn to read and counseled others on death row. He was no longer a threat to society.

Roughly 150 current and former Austin police officers waited outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas, where the death chamber is located.


There were protesters there too. When it became obvious that the execution was going to go ahead, they stood silently and kept their distance from the officers.

So Powell is dead. Ablanedo is still dead. Ablanedo would still be dead if Powell's sentence had been paroled to life without parole. So this was a great use of 32 years worth of time and money. I hope Texas feels mighty proud of itself. Another man dead. The folly.

And so it goes on and on and on...