Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Let There Be Light
Let There Be Light
Stories about the nature and power of the soil pervade art, poetry, history and religion. Antaeus, the mythological giant, got his strength from the soil. So each time he was knocked down he got up stronger.
In ancient Greece, soil was sacred. Plato and Homer described it as ‘divine’ and wrote about soil as having the power to influence the soul. The Book of Genesis and the Hebrew bible reported the world’s first crime, murder, and its terrible punishment: "When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength…"
Today, a chorus of farmers and philosophers, poets and politicians, songwriters and scientists are raising their collective voices and their concerns about tilling the ground and whether it will continue henceforth to yield her strength.
Some writers argue that soil issues are moral and ethical issues uniquely within the providence of the world’s religions. Dr. Larry Rasmussen and Martin Palmer are examples.
Dr. Rasmussen is one of the world’s foremost Christian environmental ethicists. He has mentored a generation of Christians in eco-theology and ‘green religion.’
Martin Palmer, an Anglican Christian who is a regular contributor to the BBC on religious, ethical and historical issues, leads the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) in an effort to encourage religions of the world to advance environmental programs based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices.
ARC plans to launch its international Faith in Food initiative during the November 2010 Festival of Faiths in Louisville. The theme of the festival is “Sacred Soil: Foundation of Life”. Palmer selected the Festival of Faiths as a venue because:
"The unique atmosphere and history of the interfaith movement in Louisville, Kentucky, makes it the obvious place to launch an international movement of faiths purchasing and producing food ethically and sustainably. The theme of this year's festival - Sacred Soil - reflects the wisdom in each faith that the earth itself is a dynamic part of the sacred responsibility of faithful people.”
Dr. Rasmussen will address an interfaith prayer breakfast during the festival.
From November 3 through 9 at the Henry Clay Hotel, a Tibetan Sacred Sand Mandala will be created by monks from the Drepung Gomang Institute.
A wide range of soil themes will be explored through presentations and exhibits by more than 60 communities of faith, individuals, non-profits, corporations, academic institutions and artists.
Topics include: industrialized farming, living on the land, faith and food, urban farming, manufactured landscapes, farming with a purpose, sustainable agriculture, food justice, sustainable food production, farming knowledge and best practices, creation care and the earth, Native American soil blessings, the difficulties and rewards of being an environmentalist of faith, how architecture should manifest sacred aspects of the land, the ecological impact of burials and a faith in action sacred soil tool kit.
Panels and workshops include many notable speakers and activists such as Wendell Berry; Matthew Sleeth; Will Allen of Growing Power, Wes Jackson, President of the Land Institute; Josh Viertel; President of Slow Food USA, Patrick Holden, former director of The Soil Association International, the United Kingdom’s leading environmental charity; Ellen F. Davis of Duke University Divinity School, Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, Dr. Roger S. Gottleib author of “The Greening of Faith :Religions Environmentalism and our Planet’s Future; Rev. Mitch Hescox, CEO of Evangelical Environmental Network and Dr Jill Bolte Taylor author of “My Stroke of Insight”.
The Festival will also host screenings of award winning films, including “DIRT! The Movie,” “Grown in Detroit,” “The Real Dirt on Farmer John,” and “Manufactured Landscapes.”
A Sacred Soil Faith in Action Toolkit will be available for purchase and includes DIRT ! The Movie the official award winning festival film. Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson are honorary co-chairs of the 2010 festival.
Now in its fifteenth year, the Festival of Faiths celebrates the diversity of belief and spiritual practices among the world’s religions and the common themes that unify all communities and people of faith.
The festival is sponsored by the Louisville based Center for Interfaith Relations which takes to heart the first words spoken by G-d in the Book of Genesis.
Let there be light.
DV
692 words as revised/October 27, 2010 and written for publication by the Louisville Courier Journal
Note: The Henry Clay Building, 604 S. Third St., is the headquarters for the Festival,
Tickets and Reservations: There is a charge for some events. Tickets may be purchased at the Kentucky Center Box Office: 502-584-7777 or 800-775-7777: The Box office is at 501 West Main Street.
Center for Interfaith Relations/415 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd./Louisville, KY 40202/502-583-3100.
Donald Vish is a Louisville lawyer, writer and photographer. He served as president of Interfaith Paths to Peace from 2005-2010.
Stories about the nature and power of the soil pervade art, poetry, history and religion. Antaeus, the mythological giant, got his strength from the soil. So each time he was knocked down he got up stronger.
In ancient Greece, soil was sacred. Plato and Homer described it as ‘divine’ and wrote about soil as having the power to influence the soul. The Book of Genesis and the Hebrew bible reported the world’s first crime, murder, and its terrible punishment: "When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength…"
Today, a chorus of farmers and philosophers, poets and politicians, songwriters and scientists are raising their collective voices and their concerns about tilling the ground and whether it will continue henceforth to yield her strength.
Some writers argue that soil issues are moral and ethical issues uniquely within the providence of the world’s religions. Dr. Larry Rasmussen and Martin Palmer are examples.
Dr. Rasmussen is one of the world’s foremost Christian environmental ethicists. He has mentored a generation of Christians in eco-theology and ‘green religion.’
Martin Palmer, an Anglican Christian who is a regular contributor to the BBC on religious, ethical and historical issues, leads the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) in an effort to encourage religions of the world to advance environmental programs based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices.
ARC plans to launch its international Faith in Food initiative during the November 2010 Festival of Faiths in Louisville. The theme of the festival is “Sacred Soil: Foundation of Life”. Palmer selected the Festival of Faiths as a venue because:
"The unique atmosphere and history of the interfaith movement in Louisville, Kentucky, makes it the obvious place to launch an international movement of faiths purchasing and producing food ethically and sustainably. The theme of this year's festival - Sacred Soil - reflects the wisdom in each faith that the earth itself is a dynamic part of the sacred responsibility of faithful people.”
Dr. Rasmussen will address an interfaith prayer breakfast during the festival.
From November 3 through 9 at the Henry Clay Hotel, a Tibetan Sacred Sand Mandala will be created by monks from the Drepung Gomang Institute.
A wide range of soil themes will be explored through presentations and exhibits by more than 60 communities of faith, individuals, non-profits, corporations, academic institutions and artists.
Topics include: industrialized farming, living on the land, faith and food, urban farming, manufactured landscapes, farming with a purpose, sustainable agriculture, food justice, sustainable food production, farming knowledge and best practices, creation care and the earth, Native American soil blessings, the difficulties and rewards of being an environmentalist of faith, how architecture should manifest sacred aspects of the land, the ecological impact of burials and a faith in action sacred soil tool kit.
Panels and workshops include many notable speakers and activists such as Wendell Berry; Matthew Sleeth; Will Allen of Growing Power, Wes Jackson, President of the Land Institute; Josh Viertel; President of Slow Food USA, Patrick Holden, former director of The Soil Association International, the United Kingdom’s leading environmental charity; Ellen F. Davis of Duke University Divinity School, Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, Dr. Roger S. Gottleib author of “The Greening of Faith :Religions Environmentalism and our Planet’s Future; Rev. Mitch Hescox, CEO of Evangelical Environmental Network and Dr Jill Bolte Taylor author of “My Stroke of Insight”.
The Festival will also host screenings of award winning films, including “DIRT! The Movie,” “Grown in Detroit,” “The Real Dirt on Farmer John,” and “Manufactured Landscapes.”
A Sacred Soil Faith in Action Toolkit will be available for purchase and includes DIRT ! The Movie the official award winning festival film. Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson are honorary co-chairs of the 2010 festival.
Now in its fifteenth year, the Festival of Faiths celebrates the diversity of belief and spiritual practices among the world’s religions and the common themes that unify all communities and people of faith.
The festival is sponsored by the Louisville based Center for Interfaith Relations which takes to heart the first words spoken by G-d in the Book of Genesis.
Let there be light.
DV
692 words as revised/October 27, 2010 and written for publication by the Louisville Courier Journal
Note: The Henry Clay Building, 604 S. Third St., is the headquarters for the Festival,
Tickets and Reservations: There is a charge for some events. Tickets may be purchased at the Kentucky Center Box Office: 502-584-7777 or 800-775-7777: The Box office is at 501 West Main Street.
Center for Interfaith Relations/415 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd./Louisville, KY 40202/502-583-3100.
Donald Vish is a Louisville lawyer, writer and photographer. He served as president of Interfaith Paths to Peace from 2005-2010.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Death Penalty is Killing Itself
Text of Remarks
To the
Fellowship of Reconciliation
October 21, 2010
Louisville, KY
The Death Penalty is Killing Itself
By
Donald Vish
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
The death penalty is too broke to fix, to risky to use and too expensive to keep. It is the penal equivalent of Russian roulette: most of the time nothing happens but every now and then somebody gets killed.
But we may be on the verge of a lot happening.
Death Penalty History: 1957-2008
The modern history of death penalty in Kentucky undermines its own credibility as a just, legitimate and effective instrument of public policy. Since 1956, there have been thousands of murders committed in Kentucky and many were eligible for a death sentence.
Today, there are 35 people on death row and four people have been executed in the last 53 years.
Kelly Moss was electrocuted against his will in 1962; Harold McQueen was electrocuted against his will in 1997; Eddie Lee Harper decided to stop his legal appeals and requested execution by lethal injection in 1999; Marco Chapman dismissed his lawyers and his legal appeals and was executed by lethal injection in 2008.
The modern history of the death penalty in Kentucky mocks itself as a penal option that is intended to deter crime, exact retribution for heinous murders and provide society with the comfort and closure that comes from knowing that justice will be done in an even-handed manner.
How can four executions in 53 years deter anyone from doing anything? What does it say to victims’ families, friends and society at-large that out of thousands of murders in 53 years only 4 were deemed sufficiently heinous to merit execution? What is the citizenry to make of a system that can take up to thirty years to conclude its official deliberations?
What are judges, law enforcement officials and citizens to make of a justice system that seems to select for execution only those murderers that share, shall we say, certain similar demographics and even ‘geographics’? And how shall we reconcile our social and civic and legal commitment to fairness and the even-handed administration of the law with the knowledge that innocent people have been sent to death row?
Death Penalty History: 2009—present
The attorney general requested three death warrants from the governor in November 2009. Before the governor could act on the request, the Kentucky Supreme Court suspended executions in Kentucky until the Kentucky Department of Corrections published the details of the procedures it uses for execution. The DOC complied and new and revised procedures were back on the books by May, 2010. The governor began the procedure for setting execution dates for the three men when he discovered the state had a limited supply of a key drug used in lethal injections, enough for only one dose, and even that supply expired in October 2010. So, the governor asked his justice secretary to formulate a selection process so that at least one of the three could be executed while the others waited for fresh supplies of the lethal drug needed to complete the injection cocktail. The Department of Corrections has said that a new supply cannot arrive before the first quarter of 2010.
Status of the Wilson Case and Executions Generally?
The death warrant authorizing Wilson’s execution expired at midnight September 16, 2010. According to representations made by the Department of Corrections to the Franklin Circuit Court, a key ingredient in the lethal injection mix will not be available until the first quarter of 2011. As a result, there is no current date for Wilson’s execution and the state lacks the chemical means to execute until the first quarter of 2011.
There are also legal issues pending about the Wilson case that may affect executions generally:
1) The Kentucky Supreme Court is reviewing a decision by the Kenton Circuit Court denying Wilson’s request for DNA testing and a determination of whether he is exempt from execution due to mental retardation. If the Supreme Court grants Wilson’s request, an evidentiary hearing will be scheduled in Kenton Circuit Court. It is highly improbable that the governor would seek to execute Wilson before a hearing was concluded and it is highly probable that he would be enjoined if he did. This ruling does not affect capital punishment generically.
2) The Kentucky Supreme Court is also reviewing a case from Franklin Circuit Court involving the new execution procedures written by the Kentucky Department of Corrections pursuant to a November 2009 order of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
This case has the potential to impact all executions in Kentucky.
Wilson intervened in the case and the trial judge enjoined the state from executing Wilson while the court was reviewing the legal adequacy of the new execution procedures. In the course of enjoining the Wilson execution, the trial judge expressed official interest in (i) the lack of procedures to test for mental retardation prior to execution and (ii) possible legal flaws in Wilson’s trial where he was given no choice but to represent himself most of the time. Judge Shepherd has established an expedited briefing schedule on these matters, which concludes on October 25th.
The Kentucky Supreme Court is currently reviewing legal briefs from the litigants concerning the Franklin Circuit Court case, after which it may rule that the case is moot since there is no current death warrant applicable to Wilson; or, it might affirm the judge’s ruling, the effect of which would be to require the Department of Corrections to supplement its execution procedures to provide for mental retardation testing; or, it might reverse the trial judge’s ruling in effect finding that the judge had no good reason to delay the Wilson execution. In the latter case, Wilson would be scheduled for execution if and when (1) the governor signs a new death warrant and (2) the state receives new supplies of the drugs needed for the lethal injection.
If the Supreme Court finds the case is moot or it agrees with Judge Shepherd, the case would nevertheless be returned to Franklin Circuit Court for such further hearings as the trial judge may require in order to render a final judgment on the legal adequacy of the new execution procedures.
Facts about the Death Penalty(As of October, 2010)
35 states have the death penalty
15 do not
New Mexico and New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2009 and 2006.
1170-- Number of executions since resumption of executions in 1976
1999-- Stands as the year with the most executions—98
2009—34
2008—37
2007—42
2006 – 53
Race of defendants: W-57%, B-34%, H-7%
Race of victims: W-79%, B-14%
Race of death row inmates: B-42%, W-45%
Exonerations through 2009 in 26 states—139
Since 1999, number of death sentences has dropped dramatically:
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Sentences 284 235 167 169 153 140 138 121 115 111 (2008 is projected)
Kentucky Death Row 34 (includes one woman)
Gallup Poll: October 2008 Gallup Poll found overall support for death penalty was 64% (80% in 1994). Poll also revealed when respondents are given choice of life without parole as alternate sentencing option, more choose life without parole (48%) than death penalty (47%). http://www.gallup.com/poll/111931/americans-hold-firm-support-death-penalty.aspx (11-17-2008).
Number of Executions before 1976 424
Current Kentucky Death Row Population 35
Women on Death Row (Kentucky) 1
Georgraphy
Southern states accounted for 95 percent of the executions in 2008. Texas accounted for 16 of 32 executions as of August 2009 and over 37 % of all executions in the U.S since 1977. Over 33% of the prisoners on Texas Death Row come from the county where Houston is located. In 2007 (the last year for which statistics are available), juries throughout the United State returned 115 death sentences. Over 60 % were in the South. A 2002 study found that 2/3rds of American counties have never imposed the death penalty since 1977. Only 3 % (92 out of 3,066) of the nation’s counties account for 50 percent of its death sentences in that 32 year period. When the U.S. resumed executions in 1977, only 16 nations had abolished the death penalty; the number has since grown to 135 (60 retain) (FL Bar 10-01-09—11). Five nations are responsible for +90% of the world’s executions: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China - and the United States.
Conclusion
The death penalty is sanctioned by the law of the land but seems to be ruled by the law of unintended consequences when it is not being ruled by the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics (also known as Murphy’s Law).
A recent example of Murphy’s Law is furnished by a lethal injection attempt in Ohio where a prisoner in the death chamber was repeatedly stuck with a needle to administer the lethal drugs but was eventually sent back to his cell when the prison personnel could find not a vein to use. And a recent example of the law of unintended consequences is furnished by an FBI report that showed states with high death penalty usage have a higher murder rate!
Of the Wilson case, Judge Boyce Martin of the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit wrote earlier this month:
The rape and murder of Debbie Pooley was a heartbreaking and reprehensible
act. But at Gregory Wilson’s murder trial, the state’s ignominy began…*** virtually every branch of our justice system failed —from the judiciary, which allowed a sex scandal between a colleague of the trial judge and Wilson’s co-defendant to jeopardize the fairness of Wilson’s trial; to the defense counsel, who were woefully unqualified and left Wilson abandoned at trial. The judiciary failed both Wilson and our legal system in this case because a judge’s unseemly conduct created a risk of bias that undermined the fairness of Wilson’s trial. Brenda Humphrey, Wilson’s co-defendant and the woman who identified him as Pooley’s killer, was having an illicit sexual affair with Judge James Gilliece, a colleague and good friend of the trial judge during Wilson’s trial:*** …This scandal is an embarrassment to all segments of the judiciary, from the judge who violated the Code of Judicial Conduct by having a sexual relationship with a defendant to the court officers who broke their oath of office by ferrying this defendant to and from the judge’s chambers for sex. When any trial is infiltrated by this sort of sordid corruption, it demeans our judicial system and undermines public confidence in its judgments. When a criminal defendant’s life is at stake, it is horrifying.
Perhaps even more egregiously than the judiciary, Wilson’s defense counsel
failed him and the principles of our legal system. From the very beginning of the case, Wilson’s defense was clearly a charade:****
…Over my more than thirty years on the bench, Wilson’s trial stands out as one of
the worst examples that I have seen of the unfairness and abysmal lawyering that
pervade capital trials. Although I will continue to apply the law of the Supreme Court as required by my oath, I must reiterate my belief that “the idea that the death penalty is fairly and rationally imposed in this country is a farce.” Moore v. Parker, 425 F.3d No. 09-6306 Wilson v. Rees, et al. Page 7250, 270 (6th Cir. 2005) (Martin, J., dissenting). To maintain the legitimacy of our adversarial system of justice, we must be confident that its two foundational components are sound: a neutral and fair arbiter, and adequate legal representation for both parties.
If either pillar is fractured, as in this case, then we are left with a system that does not function. Its results cannot be trusted, particularly when a life is at stake. When a person is sentenced to death in a kangaroo court such as Wilson’s, with an illicit sexual affair taking place between a co-defendant and a colleague of the trial judge and no semblance of qualified defense counsel, it irreparably tarnishes our legal system. Until we reform this broken system, we cannot rely on it to determine life and death.
DV
October 21, 2010
To the
Fellowship of Reconciliation
October 21, 2010
Louisville, KY
The Death Penalty is Killing Itself
By
Donald Vish
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
The death penalty is too broke to fix, to risky to use and too expensive to keep. It is the penal equivalent of Russian roulette: most of the time nothing happens but every now and then somebody gets killed.
But we may be on the verge of a lot happening.
Death Penalty History: 1957-2008
The modern history of death penalty in Kentucky undermines its own credibility as a just, legitimate and effective instrument of public policy. Since 1956, there have been thousands of murders committed in Kentucky and many were eligible for a death sentence.
Today, there are 35 people on death row and four people have been executed in the last 53 years.
Kelly Moss was electrocuted against his will in 1962; Harold McQueen was electrocuted against his will in 1997; Eddie Lee Harper decided to stop his legal appeals and requested execution by lethal injection in 1999; Marco Chapman dismissed his lawyers and his legal appeals and was executed by lethal injection in 2008.
The modern history of the death penalty in Kentucky mocks itself as a penal option that is intended to deter crime, exact retribution for heinous murders and provide society with the comfort and closure that comes from knowing that justice will be done in an even-handed manner.
How can four executions in 53 years deter anyone from doing anything? What does it say to victims’ families, friends and society at-large that out of thousands of murders in 53 years only 4 were deemed sufficiently heinous to merit execution? What is the citizenry to make of a system that can take up to thirty years to conclude its official deliberations?
What are judges, law enforcement officials and citizens to make of a justice system that seems to select for execution only those murderers that share, shall we say, certain similar demographics and even ‘geographics’? And how shall we reconcile our social and civic and legal commitment to fairness and the even-handed administration of the law with the knowledge that innocent people have been sent to death row?
Death Penalty History: 2009—present
The attorney general requested three death warrants from the governor in November 2009. Before the governor could act on the request, the Kentucky Supreme Court suspended executions in Kentucky until the Kentucky Department of Corrections published the details of the procedures it uses for execution. The DOC complied and new and revised procedures were back on the books by May, 2010. The governor began the procedure for setting execution dates for the three men when he discovered the state had a limited supply of a key drug used in lethal injections, enough for only one dose, and even that supply expired in October 2010. So, the governor asked his justice secretary to formulate a selection process so that at least one of the three could be executed while the others waited for fresh supplies of the lethal drug needed to complete the injection cocktail. The Department of Corrections has said that a new supply cannot arrive before the first quarter of 2010.
Status of the Wilson Case and Executions Generally?
The death warrant authorizing Wilson’s execution expired at midnight September 16, 2010. According to representations made by the Department of Corrections to the Franklin Circuit Court, a key ingredient in the lethal injection mix will not be available until the first quarter of 2011. As a result, there is no current date for Wilson’s execution and the state lacks the chemical means to execute until the first quarter of 2011.
There are also legal issues pending about the Wilson case that may affect executions generally:
1) The Kentucky Supreme Court is reviewing a decision by the Kenton Circuit Court denying Wilson’s request for DNA testing and a determination of whether he is exempt from execution due to mental retardation. If the Supreme Court grants Wilson’s request, an evidentiary hearing will be scheduled in Kenton Circuit Court. It is highly improbable that the governor would seek to execute Wilson before a hearing was concluded and it is highly probable that he would be enjoined if he did. This ruling does not affect capital punishment generically.
2) The Kentucky Supreme Court is also reviewing a case from Franklin Circuit Court involving the new execution procedures written by the Kentucky Department of Corrections pursuant to a November 2009 order of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
This case has the potential to impact all executions in Kentucky.
Wilson intervened in the case and the trial judge enjoined the state from executing Wilson while the court was reviewing the legal adequacy of the new execution procedures. In the course of enjoining the Wilson execution, the trial judge expressed official interest in (i) the lack of procedures to test for mental retardation prior to execution and (ii) possible legal flaws in Wilson’s trial where he was given no choice but to represent himself most of the time. Judge Shepherd has established an expedited briefing schedule on these matters, which concludes on October 25th.
The Kentucky Supreme Court is currently reviewing legal briefs from the litigants concerning the Franklin Circuit Court case, after which it may rule that the case is moot since there is no current death warrant applicable to Wilson; or, it might affirm the judge’s ruling, the effect of which would be to require the Department of Corrections to supplement its execution procedures to provide for mental retardation testing; or, it might reverse the trial judge’s ruling in effect finding that the judge had no good reason to delay the Wilson execution. In the latter case, Wilson would be scheduled for execution if and when (1) the governor signs a new death warrant and (2) the state receives new supplies of the drugs needed for the lethal injection.
If the Supreme Court finds the case is moot or it agrees with Judge Shepherd, the case would nevertheless be returned to Franklin Circuit Court for such further hearings as the trial judge may require in order to render a final judgment on the legal adequacy of the new execution procedures.
Facts about the Death Penalty(As of October, 2010)
35 states have the death penalty
15 do not
New Mexico and New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2009 and 2006.
1170-- Number of executions since resumption of executions in 1976
1999-- Stands as the year with the most executions—98
2009—34
2008—37
2007—42
2006 – 53
Race of defendants: W-57%, B-34%, H-7%
Race of victims: W-79%, B-14%
Race of death row inmates: B-42%, W-45%
Exonerations through 2009 in 26 states—139
Since 1999, number of death sentences has dropped dramatically:
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Sentences 284 235 167 169 153 140 138 121 115 111 (2008 is projected)
Kentucky Death Row 34 (includes one woman)
Gallup Poll: October 2008 Gallup Poll found overall support for death penalty was 64% (80% in 1994). Poll also revealed when respondents are given choice of life without parole as alternate sentencing option, more choose life without parole (48%) than death penalty (47%). http://www.gallup.com/poll/111931/americans-hold-firm-support-death-penalty.aspx (11-17-2008).
Number of Executions before 1976 424
Current Kentucky Death Row Population 35
Women on Death Row (Kentucky) 1
Georgraphy
Southern states accounted for 95 percent of the executions in 2008. Texas accounted for 16 of 32 executions as of August 2009 and over 37 % of all executions in the U.S since 1977. Over 33% of the prisoners on Texas Death Row come from the county where Houston is located. In 2007 (the last year for which statistics are available), juries throughout the United State returned 115 death sentences. Over 60 % were in the South. A 2002 study found that 2/3rds of American counties have never imposed the death penalty since 1977. Only 3 % (92 out of 3,066) of the nation’s counties account for 50 percent of its death sentences in that 32 year period. When the U.S. resumed executions in 1977, only 16 nations had abolished the death penalty; the number has since grown to 135 (60 retain) (FL Bar 10-01-09—11). Five nations are responsible for +90% of the world’s executions: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China - and the United States.
Conclusion
The death penalty is sanctioned by the law of the land but seems to be ruled by the law of unintended consequences when it is not being ruled by the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics (also known as Murphy’s Law).
A recent example of Murphy’s Law is furnished by a lethal injection attempt in Ohio where a prisoner in the death chamber was repeatedly stuck with a needle to administer the lethal drugs but was eventually sent back to his cell when the prison personnel could find not a vein to use. And a recent example of the law of unintended consequences is furnished by an FBI report that showed states with high death penalty usage have a higher murder rate!
Of the Wilson case, Judge Boyce Martin of the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit wrote earlier this month:
The rape and murder of Debbie Pooley was a heartbreaking and reprehensible
act. But at Gregory Wilson’s murder trial, the state’s ignominy began…*** virtually every branch of our justice system failed —from the judiciary, which allowed a sex scandal between a colleague of the trial judge and Wilson’s co-defendant to jeopardize the fairness of Wilson’s trial; to the defense counsel, who were woefully unqualified and left Wilson abandoned at trial. The judiciary failed both Wilson and our legal system in this case because a judge’s unseemly conduct created a risk of bias that undermined the fairness of Wilson’s trial. Brenda Humphrey, Wilson’s co-defendant and the woman who identified him as Pooley’s killer, was having an illicit sexual affair with Judge James Gilliece, a colleague and good friend of the trial judge during Wilson’s trial:*** …This scandal is an embarrassment to all segments of the judiciary, from the judge who violated the Code of Judicial Conduct by having a sexual relationship with a defendant to the court officers who broke their oath of office by ferrying this defendant to and from the judge’s chambers for sex. When any trial is infiltrated by this sort of sordid corruption, it demeans our judicial system and undermines public confidence in its judgments. When a criminal defendant’s life is at stake, it is horrifying.
Perhaps even more egregiously than the judiciary, Wilson’s defense counsel
failed him and the principles of our legal system. From the very beginning of the case, Wilson’s defense was clearly a charade:****
…Over my more than thirty years on the bench, Wilson’s trial stands out as one of
the worst examples that I have seen of the unfairness and abysmal lawyering that
pervade capital trials. Although I will continue to apply the law of the Supreme Court as required by my oath, I must reiterate my belief that “the idea that the death penalty is fairly and rationally imposed in this country is a farce.” Moore v. Parker, 425 F.3d No. 09-6306 Wilson v. Rees, et al. Page 7250, 270 (6th Cir. 2005) (Martin, J., dissenting). To maintain the legitimacy of our adversarial system of justice, we must be confident that its two foundational components are sound: a neutral and fair arbiter, and adequate legal representation for both parties.
If either pillar is fractured, as in this case, then we are left with a system that does not function. Its results cannot be trusted, particularly when a life is at stake. When a person is sentenced to death in a kangaroo court such as Wilson’s, with an illicit sexual affair taking place between a co-defendant and a colleague of the trial judge and no semblance of qualified defense counsel, it irreparably tarnishes our legal system. Until we reform this broken system, we cannot rely on it to determine life and death.
DV
October 21, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
From Kentucky Law Review
Thursday, November 19, 2009
OP-ED: Atty Donld Vish's special to the CJ re death penalty
The death penalty has put the Constitution on a collision course with itself.
The path to collision was cut and cleared in 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed states to reinstate the death penalty based on statutes that used a ‘guided discretion' template proposed by the Model Penal Code (MPC).
The ‘guided discretion' approach was designed to (1) eliminate the arbitrary and discriminatory administration of the death penalty that caused the court to invalidate all state death penalty statues in 1972 and (2) balance the competing constitutional demands of even-handed administration of the law and individual consideration of each case.
Rhetoricians have a name for rubrics like “guided discretion”: enantiosis, the yoking together of opposites to teach a poetic truth by contrast. An example is make haste slowly (which has also risen to a constitutional standard in death penalty cases).
The precise place where justice fits between “guided” and “discretion” is different in each capital case and always difficult to find. Unlike other criminal law cases where the acceptable margin of accuracy or error is reasonably wide, the legal target in death penalty cases is especially narrow. The structural and theoretical obstacles to finding, then reaching, the perfect balance between uniform administration of the law and individualized consideration of each case is the reason why so many death penalty cases take so long to resolve.
As the Supreme Court has continued to track and groom the path to justice in death penalty cases by using evolving standards of due process that mark the progress of a civilized society's search for justice, competing constitutional values get in the way of one another and, like Virgil's army, crowd the field so totally that none has room to do its work.
The sponsor of the MPC, The American Law Institute, has now withdrawn the guided discretion template and its legal consultants, Professors Carol S. Steiker, Harvard Law School, and Jordan M. Steiker, University of Texas Law school, have declared the “guided discretion experiment” unsuccessful in eliminating the arbitrariness and discrimination that figured so prominently in the decision to invalidate state death penalty laws in 1972. But the failure does not inhere in the model. The template is merely a mirror for what is required by the Constitution in death penalty cases: objective guidance and wise discretion. But the more there is of one, the less there is of the other.
As courts grapple with the balance between the two, justice in death penalty cases is becoming to the Constitution what absolute zero is to the laws of thermodynamics: a place one can progress toward but never reach.
Before the political process abolishes the death penalty in Kentucky, it will have been abolished by Kentucky juries that decline to impose it and appellate courts that can't uphold it because the applicable legal standards collide with each other.
Donald Vish is the director of advocacy and education for the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and an elected life member of the American Law Institute.
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:44 PM in Apple, Criminal, Opinions and Editorials (Op-Ed) | Permalink
TrackBack
Thursday, November 19, 2009
OP-ED: Atty Donld Vish's special to the CJ re death penalty
The death penalty has put the Constitution on a collision course with itself.
The path to collision was cut and cleared in 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed states to reinstate the death penalty based on statutes that used a ‘guided discretion' template proposed by the Model Penal Code (MPC).
The ‘guided discretion' approach was designed to (1) eliminate the arbitrary and discriminatory administration of the death penalty that caused the court to invalidate all state death penalty statues in 1972 and (2) balance the competing constitutional demands of even-handed administration of the law and individual consideration of each case.
Rhetoricians have a name for rubrics like “guided discretion”: enantiosis, the yoking together of opposites to teach a poetic truth by contrast. An example is make haste slowly (which has also risen to a constitutional standard in death penalty cases).
The precise place where justice fits between “guided” and “discretion” is different in each capital case and always difficult to find. Unlike other criminal law cases where the acceptable margin of accuracy or error is reasonably wide, the legal target in death penalty cases is especially narrow. The structural and theoretical obstacles to finding, then reaching, the perfect balance between uniform administration of the law and individualized consideration of each case is the reason why so many death penalty cases take so long to resolve.
As the Supreme Court has continued to track and groom the path to justice in death penalty cases by using evolving standards of due process that mark the progress of a civilized society's search for justice, competing constitutional values get in the way of one another and, like Virgil's army, crowd the field so totally that none has room to do its work.
The sponsor of the MPC, The American Law Institute, has now withdrawn the guided discretion template and its legal consultants, Professors Carol S. Steiker, Harvard Law School, and Jordan M. Steiker, University of Texas Law school, have declared the “guided discretion experiment” unsuccessful in eliminating the arbitrariness and discrimination that figured so prominently in the decision to invalidate state death penalty laws in 1972. But the failure does not inhere in the model. The template is merely a mirror for what is required by the Constitution in death penalty cases: objective guidance and wise discretion. But the more there is of one, the less there is of the other.
As courts grapple with the balance between the two, justice in death penalty cases is becoming to the Constitution what absolute zero is to the laws of thermodynamics: a place one can progress toward but never reach.
Before the political process abolishes the death penalty in Kentucky, it will have been abolished by Kentucky juries that decline to impose it and appellate courts that can't uphold it because the applicable legal standards collide with each other.
Donald Vish is the director of advocacy and education for the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and an elected life member of the American Law Institute.
Posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 10:44 PM in Apple, Criminal, Opinions and Editorials (Op-Ed) | Permalink
TrackBack
Ky. governor holding off on some executions due to shortage of key drug
Ky. governor holding off on some executions due to shortage of key drug
WHAS TV News Report: August 26, 2010
by Claudia Coffey
WHAS11.com
Posted on August 26, 2010 at 6:34 PM
Related:
•Condemned Ky. inmate asks judge to halt execution
(WHAS11) - Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has set a September 16 execution date for a rapist and murderer but held off on two others because of a shortage of a key drug used in the execution.
Beshear said he signed only one warrant because the state has enough sodium thiopental for just one execution.
Kentucky's stock expires October 1 and a new supply of the drug is not expected until early in 2011.
It's raising a number of ethical questions; the biggest is whether one dose for one execution even safe to use so close to the date it expires.
The person facing execution? Gregory Wilson. Wilson was sentenced to die October 31, 1988, for his part in the 1987 kidnapping and murder of Deborah Pooley a year earlier in Kenton County in Northern Kentucky.
53-year-old Gregory Wilson will face an execution chamber similar to this one on September 16.
The last person executed in Kentucky was Marco Chapman back in 2008.
Wilson is one of three death row inmates for which death penalty is being sought but the state doesn't have enough chemicals on hand to execute the other two.
"I can't make anything of any of this," says Donald Vish with the KY Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Donald Vish, the Director of Advocacy for the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, says his organization has asked the governor to stay the execution until the entire system can be reviewed especially now given a key chemical is set to expire just two weeks after the Wilson execution.
"I think it creates a substantial risk of a botched execution or a substantial risk of lingering pain if the efficacy of those drugs has been diminished in any way," says Donald Vish with the KY Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
The Department of Corrections has a sufficient amount of a drug called sodium thiopental, that amount expire October 1. The drug is a sedative.
"In this setting they use three different drugs. This drug is used first to make the person unaware of the effects of the other drugs," says George Bosse of the KY Regional Poison Control Center.
George Bosse - the medical director of the Kentucky Regional Poison Control Center - says like all drugs this too has an expiration date and it’s likely to remain effective until that date.
It should last until the expiration date and what happens after that is somewhat controversial and there is some concern it could lose its effectiveness and there is concern that it could cause toxicity which is less likely but the bigger concern is it could be less effective," says Bosse.
end--
The Death Penalty: Guest Editorial, WAVE TV 6-3-10
June 3, 2010
Guest Editorial: WAVE-TV
The Death Penalty
By Donald Vish
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Aggravated murder cases in Kentucky show a disparity in treatment so inexplicable and so extreme that the legitimacy of the death penalty must be called into question.
In the last two years a serial killer, a child-killer rapist and a $1,000 hit man got life sentences while over the years some aggravated murderers got death. Why: A bad crime; a bad lawyer or bad luck?
Similar punishment for similar crimes is a cornerstone of criminal justice. Without it justice looks random and lacks credibility.
The governor needs to get to the bottom of this dysfunction before signing any death warrants. Confidence in our justice system depends on getting an explanation for a disparity that is now inexplicable-and unacceptable.
Copyright 2010 WAVE News. All rights reserved.
Guest Editorial: WAVE-TV
The Death Penalty
By Donald Vish
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Aggravated murder cases in Kentucky show a disparity in treatment so inexplicable and so extreme that the legitimacy of the death penalty must be called into question.
In the last two years a serial killer, a child-killer rapist and a $1,000 hit man got life sentences while over the years some aggravated murderers got death. Why: A bad crime; a bad lawyer or bad luck?
Similar punishment for similar crimes is a cornerstone of criminal justice. Without it justice looks random and lacks credibility.
The governor needs to get to the bottom of this dysfunction before signing any death warrants. Confidence in our justice system depends on getting an explanation for a disparity that is now inexplicable-and unacceptable.
Copyright 2010 WAVE News. All rights reserved.
Abolish the Death Penalty: Guest Editorial WAVE TV
Abolish the Death Penalty
(WAVE TV Guest Editorial
1-22-10)
By Donald Vish
KY Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
The rarity of executions in Kentucky goes beyond selectivity and enters the realm of freakish oddity – three since 1977 and only four since 1956.
Three conclusions are warranted:
1.The death penalty no longer serves any legal purpose
2.It offends Kentuckians' evolving standard of decency
3.It's arbitrarily applied
A 2006 University of Kentucky poll showed that 67% of Kentuckians prefer a penal option other than death in capital murder cases. The Kentucky Supreme Court should reconsider the continuing legality of the death penalty in light of its marginal and erratic use. Through looking at jury sentencing patterns, the court should conclude the death penalty does not meet legal standards, and that juries believe that life in prison without parole adequately protects the public and punishes the worst of the worst.
That's my opinion.
Copyright 2010 WAVE-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
