New changes to the anti-Racial Justice Act

Submitted by cjarvis on 2012-06-08 13:53

The new Republican run at changing the Racial Justice Act will be taken up in a House judiciary committee Monday and then, if approved, to the floor that night for a vote.
 
The authors are continuing to operate on the bill, SB416, and have made a couple changes that address concerns raised in the committee earlier in the week.
 
One, defendants would be given a window of opportunity to attempt to prove bias in their case from 10 years before the offense to two years after being sentenced. The current bill reached back only two years before the offense.
 
Democratic lawmakers had expressed concern that a prosecutor with a long history of biased prosecutions wouldn’t be held accountable if the window was restricted to that two-year period.
 
Secondly, defendants can try to prove that race was a significant factor in jury selection, when a prosecutor exercises peremptory strikes. The current bill only refers to proving that the race of the defendant was a significant factor.
 
The authors have also thrown in entirely new language removing judges’ ability to declare cases as non-capital cases based on prosecutors’ failure to turn over evidence, or prosecutors’ failure to hold a timely hearing on whether a case should be tried as a death-penalty case.
 
Another new section would take approval of the protocols for carrying out executions out of the hands of the governor and Council of State.
 
What the GOP and prosecutors are trying to do with the new bill is make each death-penalty case about individual defendants, and not about widespread statistical evidence of bias in North Carolina. In 2009, the Democratic-controlled Legislature enacted the Racial Justice Act, which said racial bias in prosecution and sentencing could be used to turn death sentences into sentences of life in prison without parole.
 
Democrats and death penalty opponents say this new legislation is an attempt to repeal the Racial Justice Act, similiar to a bill last year that the governor vetoed and that the House could not override.

Read more here: http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/new_tweaks_to_the_racial_justice_act#storylink=cpy
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I"ve got my fingers AND toes crossed....   

Racial Justice Act spares 1st inmate from death sentence


Published Sat, Apr 21, 2012 12:05 AM
Modified Sat, Apr 21, 2012 04:39 A


Death row inmate Marcus Robinson smiles towards his family after Cumberland County Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks found that racial bias played a role in his trial and sentencing on Friday, April 20, 2012. The historic ruling means RobinsonÕs sentence was immediately converted to life without possibility for parole. It was the first case to be decided under the North Carolina's Racial Justice Act.

By Anne Blythe



FAYETTEVILLE -- Marcus Reymond Robinson will soon gather his few belongings from the cell on North Carolina’s death row where he has spent the past 18 years and make a historic move to a maximum-security prison cell.

The 39-year-old convicted murderer is the first North Carolina death row inmate to have his sentence converted to life without possibility of parole using the state’s fledgling and unique Racial Justice Act.

Under the 2-1/2-year-old law, Judge Gregory Weeks was able to weigh statistics while considering Robinson’s claims that racial bias played a role in his trial and sentence.

Prosecutors announced plans to appeal the Robinson decision, a challenge that could slow rulings in similar claims from 154 other death row inmates.

Weeks, Cumberland County’s chief resident Superior Court judge, read a summary of his findings Friday in a courtroom full of people keenly aware that they were witnessing a landmark ruling.

Robinson, wearing a white shirt and light-colored pants, sat at a table with his lawyers. The family of Erik Tornblom, the man Robinson killed in 1994, watched silently, though the disappointment showing on their faces spoke volumes. The family left the courthouse without commenting.

Weeks said that “race was a materially, practically and statistically significant factor” in the selection of a jury for Robinson’s trial.

Prosecutors, according to a Michigan State University Law School study, used peremptory challenges to remove blacks from juries more than twice as often throughout North Carolina as they used them for whites.

In Cumberland County, it was almost three times as often.

“When the government’s choice of jurors is tainted with racial bias, that overt wall casts down over the parties, the jury and the court to adhere to the law throughout the trial,” Weeks said. “The very integrity of the court is jeopardized when a prosecutor’s discrimination invites cynicism respecting the jury’s neutrality and undermines public confidence.”

Effect on other cases

Weeks’ findings that potential black jurors systematically had been left out of the process of capital cases in North Carolina and Cumberland County at the time of Robinson’s trial could play significantly in the cases of other death row inmates. Weeks said such decisions by prosecutors to strike African-Americans from potential jury pools undermined the courts and had a sweeping impact on the integrity and trust the community could place in the process.

Only a few inmates on North Carolina’s death row did not file Racial Justice Act claims.

The ruling, the first of its kind in this country, came two days before the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the door for states to adopt such laws as the Racial Justice Act.

North Carolina and Kentucky are the only two states that have done so, though.

The Racial Justice Act, which was narrowly adopted in 2009 along party lines, has been praised by supporters as a way to address blatant and subtle racism undermining the integrity of the state’s courts.

Weeks had harsh words for prosecutors, saying the evidence presented earlier this year by Robinson’s attorneys was enough “to support an inference of intentional discrimination.”

The judge and many of the defense lawyers and death penalty critics said they hoped the ruling Friday would mark the beginning of a new chapter in North Carolina justice.

“We had hoped for this decision, we had worked for this decision. We thought the judge’s decision was powerful,” said James Ferguson, a Charlotte civil rights attorney who represented Robinson. “We know our work is not over, but we think this is a beginning.”

District attorneys issued a statement strongly disputing that race is a significant factor in capital murder cases.

Legal scholars and death row critics from across the nation have watched with interest as the Robinson case went through the courts.

“The North Carolina legislation is a commendable attempt to do what the Supreme Court attempted to brush under the tablecloth,” said James Acker, a criminal justice professor at the State University of New York-Albany who is putting on a symposium this weekend about the death penalty and race. He was referring to the 1987 Supreme Court decision that opened the door for states to adopt laws that give judges the authority to consider statistics in racial bias challenges.

Robinson, who has been incarcerated at Central Prison only with death row inmates since his conviction, will move to a general prison population. For the first time in years, he will be among those who are not awaiting execution.

Shirley Burns, Robinson’s mother, described the moment as bittersweet. Her thoughts were with the Tornbloms, but she said the justice system should treat people fairly.

“There’s justice at last,” Shirley Burns said. “You’ve got to treat people right. You’ve got to treat people fair. That’s what we depend on when we go through the system.”

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/20/2013448/judge-sides-with-inmate-in-racial.html#storylink=cpy
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CRAP ! ! !    

I'm just curious, because I've read several comments on this board from people who have either been berated on--or banned by--the anti-death penalty bulletin boards. I've been amazed by how many people have contacted me lately to vehemently oppose my pro-death penalty stance. People have even been reading my comments on web sites (not this one, yet, as far as I know!) and then sending me personal emails to criticize me for my views. Is it just because I'm an author and have a sizable web presence, or are the rest of you subjected to the same?

If any of my "anti-fans" do happen to read this post, here's a message for you: I can list hundreds of cases where a convicted killer was released from jail or escaped from jail and then killed again. If you can list hundreds of cases where NOT executing a convicted killer was proven to protect innocent life, then I'll start to listen to your arguments.

Nope.  No antis contact or message me because I'm a pro....   

Guess they don't want "nonna" me....   

Coalition co-chair Lydia Polley said Stemple's family has compiled evidence that was never presented in court.


Noooo, Lydia compiled PROPGANDA, not evidence...   

Big difference. 

My question is : What PTO thinks about this bastard ?



Anne - I'd ask them, but I got permenantly banned from PTO today...        

We know the possibility of executing an innocent is real. We hope Governor Fallin will not want us to take that risk in the face of so much doubt,” said OK-CADP Co-Chair Lydia Polley.

All of Mr. Stemple’s appeals have been denied and the state Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency at a February hearing.

Doubt...DOUBT?  14 years of state and ferderal appeals all denied and a 4-1 vote against clemency.  The only doubt is about your common sense Lydia...you ignorant cow! 

Ahh, don't be mad at ol` Lydia GGR...  She's ignorant and she can't help it...  She's got her little agenda and she's gonna push it the best she can...   

Hell, everybody BUT these thug lickers knows that this human trash needs to be buried...   

Shortly before the hour of execution nears, the inmate will be taken from the holding cell and “afforded the opportunity to freely walk with staff” into the execution chamber.


Otherwise, they'll haul your sorry ass in there kicking and screaming....   

That horrible bastard needs to die!  Too bad someone can't bash his head in with a bat, run over his head


Well uhhh, how `bout this?

Did y'all hear that the "potatoes" last words were a reference to the sound a Harley-Davidson makes when the engine is idling? Apparently this was a secret message to Towery's nephew, who was also a motorcycle enthusiast.

Works for me.. 

Quote from: Frenchy on March 09, 2012, 12:27:33 PM

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, is still rather strange.

I am sure that ggbop has more details, but the last words of Brit. King George V were "Bugger Bognor". His wife had suggested that he recurperate there. I have been there and it is truly awful. Poor old soul must have lost the will to live!

Maybe it was this he was thinking about?

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Potato/

That's kind of disturbing...    

Arizona Department of Corrections press release on Towery's execution:


ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
1601 W. JEFFERSON PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85007 (602) 542-3133

www.azcorrections.gov
JANICE K. BREWER GOVERNOR

CHARLES L. RYAN DIRECTOR

NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release
For more information contact: Bill Lamoreaux blamorea@azcorrections.gov

March 8, 2012

Inmate Robert Towery executed

Florence, Az – Arizona Department of Corrections inmate Robert Towery, #51550, was executed at 11:26 a.m. Thursday.

Towery’s last meal included a porterhouse steak with sautéed mushrooms, baked potato with butter and sour cream, steamed asparagus, clam chowder, pepsi soda, milk, and apple pie with vanilla ice cream, which was served to him Wednesday night. In his last words he apologized to the victim’s family and friends and then to his family, then he talked about bad choices he made in his life. His last words were: “"I love my family. Potato, potato, potato." It is believed that this was intended as a message to family members. He was executed by lethal injection. The one drug protocol was administered at 11:17 a.m. and the execution was completed 9 minutes later.

http://www.azcorrections.gov/adc/news/2012/030812_Towery_executed.pdf

The death penalty without the penalty

9:00 PM, Mar. 8, 2012 
Written by
DEBRA J. SAUNDERS

While running for governor of California in 2010, Jerry Brown admitted he would "rather have a society where we didn't have to use death as a punishment." But because the Legislature and California voters approved capital punishment, "we've got to make it work."

Seeing as there are 725 condemned inmates living on San Quentin's death row but have been no executions since January 2006, I asked Gov. Brown at a San Francisco Chronicle editorial board meeting Tuesday whether California's death penalty is working.

"It's working according to the Constitution of the United States; I can tell you that," Brown answered. No, it's not working. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty is constitutional, but there hasn't been an execution in California for six years.

Death penalty opponents should note that Brown, a former state attorney general, insisted there are no innocent inmates on California's death row.

But Brown also argued that to make the death penalty work, California needs to spend more money -- presumably by paying more for defense attorneys -- and that is not his top priority. (His focus is on passing his tax-increasing ballot measure to pay down the budget deficit.)

"It is a basic law of government that if you ask people what is needed to fix any problem, they always say 'more money' for their particular function," observed Kent Scheidegger of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.

Brown must know that spending more money on lawyers won't make California's death penalty work.

In February 2006, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel stayed the lethal injection of convicted murderer/rapist Michael Morales, lest California's three-drug protocol cause a sedated Morales undue pain -- and there hasn't been an execution since.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's three-drug protocol in a 7-2 decision, but Fogel didn't budge. So it's hard to imagine how paying defense attorneys more could end the Fogel court's stay on California executions.

For six years, the state has been in a legal limbo. Californians get to pay for a death penalty without having a death penalty.

Scheidegger maintains that if Brown's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation switched to the one-drug lethal injection procedure twice recommended by Fogel, executions could resume this year. I'm not so sure.

Brown would not say how he plans to vote on a likely November ballot initiative to end California's death penalty; he maintained he came to discuss his tax initiative plans.

But we do know what he said in 2010. In a debate with opponent Meg Whitman, Brown made this promise: "I pledge to the people of this state I will faithfully carry out our law on executions, and I'll do it with compassion, but I'll do it with great fidelity to the rule of law."

It was four years after Fogel stayed Morales' execution, and Brown knew how "fidelity to the rule of law" works in California. Laws that the U.S. Supreme Court upholds in other states are blocked in California. With the liberal bench and liberal bar acting in harmony, the law's costs go up, and the results slow down. Then the whole system just stops, and no one is to blame. Except taxpayers.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20120309/OPINION/203090315/The-death-penalty-without-penalty

Ok folks, because I like ya'll - I'm gonna do you a favor...  Latin Burgers with Caramelized Onion and Jalapeno Relish and Red Pepper Mayonnaise, served with Sweet Potato Oven Fries with Avocado Dip, AND Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing...  And don't forget a big ol` tub of Dos Equis Beer

Actually I think I posted the burgers somewhere on here before - but the deal is, the burgers are pretty expensive to make..  BUT, if you have some extra cash and you have some special people over to grill out or whatever, well - these things are gonna blow them away like nobody's business...  Trust me, they're unbelievable and you'll be a hero...  Anways, here ya go:

Burgers:

3/4 pound ground sirloin
3/4 pound ground chuck
1/2 pound raw chorizo, casings removed and crumbled
1 tablespoon adobo seasoning
1 large onion, grated
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large yellow onions, finely sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup bottled and sliced jalapeno chiles, drained
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 medium jarred roasted red bell peppers, drained
3/4 cup mayonnaise
6 slices Oaxaca cheese 
6 high end hamburger rolls

To make the Burgers:
Directions
In a large bowl, mix thoroughly by hand the ground beef, the chorizo, the adobo seasoning, the grated onion and the bread crumbs. Form the burgers into 6 patties without pressing them too much or they can become tough. Line a baking pan with waxed paper and put the burgers side-by-side in a single layer. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This will help the burgers hold together. If you make more than you need just separate with waxed paper and insert into a storage freezer bag for future use.

To make the Caramelized Onion and Jalapeno Relish:
Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onions and season with salt and pepper. Add the jalapeno chiles and the brown sugar. Saute for 15 minutes or until the onion and the chiles are caramelized and soft. Set aside.

To make the Red Pepper Mayonnaise:
Drain the roasted red peppers and put them in a blender or food processor. Add the mayonnaise, and season with salt and pepper. Puree the mayonnaise and roasted red peppers until well combined and the mixture is smooth. NOTE: This may be done up to 2 days ahead of time, and in fact the flavor will be more complete with an overnight chilling.

To cook the Burgers:
Preheat an outdoor grill or grill pan on the stove top over medium-high heat. Place the burgers on the hot grill or pan until cooked to desired doneness. Due to the raw chorizo in the recipe, at least medium-well is recommended, approximately 10 minutes on each side. In the last 5 minutes of cooking, top the burgers with the slices of cheese so it can melt. If your grill has a lid, putting it on briefly will help the cheese melt quickly and evenly.

To serve: Spread about 1 tablespoon of the red pepper mayonnaise on both sides of the rolls. Lay a burger on the bottom halves, and top with a couple of spoonfuls of the caramelized onion and jalapeno relish.


Fries:

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, cut into 4-inch long and 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick fries
2 tablespoons olive oil, or more as needed
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
Coarse ground rock salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Avocado Dip, recipe follows

Directions
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.

Place the sweet potatoes in a large bowl and toss with olive oil until the sweet potatoes are coated. Add the paprika, chili powder, coriander, salt, and pepper; toss to distribute evenly.

Arrange the coated fries in a single layer on the prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes on the lower rack until the sweet potatoes soften. Transfer the pan to the upper rack of the oven and bake 10 minutes longer, until fries are crispy. Serve with Avocado Dip.

Avocado Dip:

1 avocado
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup cream cheese
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped.
2 scallions, white and light green part only, chopped
1 lime, juiced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Place the avocado, mayonnaise, cream cheese, jalapeno, scallions, and lime juice into a blender or small food processor. Blend for 1 minute or until you have a smooth paste. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve as a dip for the Sweet Potato Oven Fries.


Salad:

8 ounces young spinach
2 large eggs
8 pieces thick-sliced bacon, chopped
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 large white mushrooms, sliced
3 ounces red onion (1 small), very thinly sliced

Directions
Remove the stems from the spinach and wash, drain and pat dry thoroughly. Place into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Place the eggs into an electric kettle and cover with cold water by at least 1-inch. Turn the kettle on. Once the water comes to a boil, the kettle will turn itself off. Leave the eggs in the water for 15 minutes. Remove and peel off the shell. Slice each egg into 8 pieces and set aside.

While the eggs are cooking, fry the bacon and remove to a paper towel to drain, reserving 3 tablespoons of the rendered fat. Crumble the bacon and set aside.

Transfer the fat to a small saucepan set over low heat and whisk in the red wine vinegar, sugar and Dijon mustard. Season with a small pinch each of kosher salt and black pepper.

Add the mushrooms and the sliced onion to the spinach and toss. Add the dressing and bacon and toss to combine. Divide the spinach between 4 plates or bowls and evenly divide the egg among them. Season with pepper, as desired.

NOTE:
Throughout both the preparation and consumption processess, periodically replacing your now defunct bottle of Dos Eqius is VERY important

Enjoy..    

Rest in peace Mr. Jones...  And all the best to your family.   

If anyone would like to peruse the Arizona Department of Corrections Execution Procedural Manual in anticipation of the actual event in about 40 minutes or so, you can do so here: http://www.azcorrections.gov/Policies/700/0710.pdf