Showing posts with label Abolitionists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abolitionists. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Rodney Reed, Innocent Death Row Inmate in TX

Georgetown, Texas – Rodney Reed is sitting on death row in Texas for a 1996 murder that he probably did not commit, and if nothing is done to stop the execution, he be killed on March 5, 2015.

FreeThoughtProject reports that even the family of the victim is now coming forward in Reed's defense, saying instead that Stacey Stites' fiance, a former cop, was likely responsible for the murder. The 19-year-old victim was engaged to Officer Jimmy Fennell when she was murdered in 1996. During that time, Fennell was under various disciplinary investigations at the department, because he was stalking and harassing women while on the job. Over the years, mountains of evidence surfaced implicating Fennell as the person who killed Stacy. Fennell is presently in prison, having been convicted of rape in 2007.


Please sign the Change.org petition to save Rodney Reed
http://chn.ge/1wPTXyL?recruiter=802110


Reed was recently denied DNA tests to prove his innocence, while the likely killer, a former police officer, is jailed for rape. Read more about the case at FreeThoughtProject.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/rapist-cop-killed-wife-death-row-crime/


Reed is innocent until proved guilty. For some reason, the system wants to kill him without definitive proof. We applaud the Campaign to End the Death Penalty for launching the petition for Reed, which presently has over 14,000 signatures. Please share it with your social networks to encourage others to help Reed. 

"Test every item handled and we can determined who did this crime, but for whatever reason, the State of Texas has decided they want to execute a man without finding out those answers," said Bryce Benjet, an attorney with The Innocence Project.
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/27481959/update-judge-denies-death-row-inmates-request-for-more-dna-testing

Stacy Stites and her survivors deserve to have the right person prosecuted and sentenced, not a convenient black man who might be innocent.

Racism lives in the USA's corrupt justice system. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals hears cases out of Texas. That court was made famous by Judge Edith Jones, who was subjected to a judicial review after numerous groups filed an ethics complaint for her reportedly racist comments. Jones reportedly believes that denying condemned people a stay of execution forces them to repent and "save their souls." 

RH Reality Check reports: Some of those comments included claims that certain “racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime” and are “prone to commit acts of violence” including more violent and “heinous” crimes and that Mexicans would prefer to be on death row in the United States than serving prison terms in their native country, according to the complaint [filed by numerous human and civil rights groups]. Jones allegedly accused defendants who raise claims of “mental retardation” of abusing the system. Jones called claims that the death penalty is racist or arbitrary a “red herring.” 

See more information about Judge Jones in the article, "Judge Edith Jones: Kill Inmates to Save Their Souls"
http://dmtruth.blogspot.com/2013/06/judge-edith-jones-kill-inmates-to-save.html

Paragraph space goes here. Leave it alone, stalkers.

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is a national grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment. It has active chapters and members across the United States—including California, Texas, Delaware, New York, and Chicago. To win abolition, we need to build a grassroots struggle. We believe that those who have experienced the horrors of death row first hand–death row prisoners themselves and their family members–should be at the forefront of our movement. Their experiences help to shape our strategies. - See more at: 
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/

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This article was initially published in the Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee blog for our anti-dp organization. Seven(7) links are in this article. Please share it with your online networks. Copy and paste this link.
http://dmtruth.blogspot.com/2015/01/rodney-reed-innocent-death-row-inmate.html

"Continue to fight this fight" ~Troy Anthony Davis
Anti-DP message by Mary Neal, director of
~Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee
~Dog Justice for Mentally Ill
~Human Rights for Prisoners March
~Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI")

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee Congratulates Maryland

Today is the 18-month anniversary of the execution of Troy Davis. The Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee honors Troy Davis's final request to "continue to fight this fight" to clear his name and end the death penalty. Congratulations, Maryland, for repealing capital punishment! The Washington Post reports:

"The 82 to 56 vote in the House of Delegates, which followed two hours of debate, reflected a growing unease among lawmakers in Maryland and across the country that the risk of putting an innocent person to death remains too great with the death penalty in place."

Hundreds of condemned men were exonerated after wrongful convictions by post-conviction evidence and DNA test results, thanks to work by organizations like the Innocence Project and Amnesty International. However, it was probably the wrongful execution of potentially innocent men like Troy Anthony Davis that had the greatest impact. Troy Davis was killed by the State of Georgia on September 21, 2011, with his guilt unproved. See a video about the Troy Davis execution at YouTube link http://youtu.be/T59p1n-tS3w See the video embedded below.

Maryland joins 17 states in terminating capital punishment. Bills have been introduced in other states to also free taxpayers of the expense and moral sin of potentially shedding innocent blood.


Mary Neal, director, Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee
http://DMTruth.blogspot.com

Monday, February 18, 2013

Georgia Murders the Mentally Ill: Warren Hill Story


warren, hill, execution, it, would, be, completely, unconstitutional,
Warren Hill's Execution Would Be Unconstitutional
Warren Hill got a stay of execution regarding his February 19, 2013 execution date. On April 23, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the federal court has lifted his stay of execution. 

Georgia prepares to execute Warren Hill. Hill is an offender with intellectual disabilities. His execution would show complete disregard for justice, state law, and the Supreme Court. Moreover, killing Hill would offend God. 

WESLEY SNIPES is currently incarcerated and serving a three-year sentence on allegations that he failed to file a tax return timely. If Snipes were made a cellmate for an untreated, mentally ill killer who beat Wesley to death while he slept, using a thick board of wood with nails driven through it, wouldn't Wesley's lawyers sue the state for GROSS NEGLIGENCE? If that sick killer was then EXECUTED, shouldn't the executed man's family sue for GROSS NEGLIGENCE and CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT? WHY wasn't the mentally challenged man sent to a mental hospital before or after his first murder instead of prison? Why wasn't his mental illness being treated behind bars? Why was security so slack at the prison that he had access to a weapon? Why was a mentally ill inmate who had already committed a murder given a cellmate? Those questions apply to the murder for which Warren Lee Hill faces execution on  July 23, 2012 February 19, 2013.




Brandon Rhode, pictured above, was another mentally challenged man who Georgia killed in 2010. Brandon was killed with drugs purchased from the back of an English bicycle shop, because he died while execution drugs were deliberately withheld from America. Brandon was the son of an alcoholic drug abuser who was born brain damaged. He killed someone as a teen. A decade later, Georgia killed this helpless, sick man in a torturous execution.

Thousands of people express outrage about Hill's execution because it is illegal to execute the mentally ill according to state and federal law.  Hill's cellmate's death clearly resulted from the prison's negligence. Inmates should not be locked in cells with armed homicidal mental patients to be killed in their sleep, and the state should not ignore its own culpability in such murders and execute sick men. A similar incident occurred in Georgia a couple of years ago when a mentally ill inmate in DeKalb County Jail also killed his cellmate. A former jail guard at Memphis Shelby County Jail reported a shocking jail death to the radio audience of a Rev. Pinkney Blogtalk Show. Apparently, jail guards released two acute mental patients from isolation to watch them have a "dog fight" to the finish. Jailers have a duty to provide a secure environment for incarcerated persons, but the responsibility is not always taken seriously. 

Millions of Americans are concerned about prisoners' human rights and object to capital punishment, but officials do not care as much about citizens' protests as they should. It would be more effective to examine death penalty cases to identify a reason to sue the state following execution. For instance, Hank Skinner begged for a DNA test for years to prove he is innocent, but his requests were denied. Finally, Texas approved Skinner's DNA test, but the bloodstained jacket that Skinner counted on to exonerate him was suddenly reported "missing" from the state's evidence storage. If Skinner is executed, Texas should be sued for negligence regarding the lost jacket. 

Every execution, especially when victims are mentally ill, should be followed by a lawsuit if any valid fault against the state can be established. 

Consider that almost no mentally ill people who are receiving proper psychiatric care do violent crimes, but states usually withhold treatment until a mentally challenged person PROVES (often through violence) that he is a danger to self and others. That standard has led to numerous avoidable murders and suicides. In such cases, the affected families may be able to sue for damages. Please help the families of Warren Hill and his victim to hold the prison and State of Georgia responsible for the inmate's death that should not have happened in a controlled environment. LAWSUITS FOLLOWING WARREN LEE HILL'S WRONGFUL EXECUTION MAY DETER FUTURE STATE KILLINGS OF THE MENTALLY ILL.

Gov. Deal's Chief of Staff, Chris Riley, and his executive assistant, Carrie Ashbee, are at (404) 656-1776.

Court Denies Hill's Bid to Halt Execution - AJC Apr. 23, 2013 http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/court-denies-hills-bid-to-halt-execution/nXTcS/

For He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death ~Psalm 102:19-20


Mary Neal, Director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI) http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimi
Director of DOG JUSTICE FOR MENTALLY ILL http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogstpot.com


Paragraphs 1 - 3 repeated: Warren Hill got a stay of execution regarding his February 19, 2013 execution date. On April 23, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the federal court has lifted his stay of execution.

Georgia prepares to execute Warren Hill on Tuesday, February 19, 2013. Hill is an offender with intellectual disabilities. His execution would show complete disregard for justice, state law, and the Supreme Court. Moreover, killing Hill would offend God. (1,013 words 6,253 characters in this article) 

WESLEY SNIPES is currently incarcerated and serving a three-year sentence on allegations that he failed to file a tax return timely. If Snipes were made a cellmate for an untreated, mentally ill killer who beat Wesley to death while he slept, using a thick board of wood with nails driven through it, wouldn't Wesley's lawyers sue the state for GROSS NEGLIGENCE? If that sick killer was then EXECUTED, shouldn't the executed man's family sue for GROSS NEGLIGENCE and CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT? WHY wasn't the mentally challenged man sent to a mental hospital before or after his first murder instead of prison? Why wasn't his mental illness being treated behind bars? Why was security so slack at the prison that he had access to a weapon? Why was a mentally ill inmate who had already committed a murder given a cellmate? Those questions apply to the murder for which Warren Lee Hill faces execution on  July 23, 2012  February 19, 2013. 



Monday, April 30, 2012

Anthony Bartee: A Texas/Zimmerman Victim

Anthony Bartee, Denied DNA Tests in Texas
Execution Date May 2, 2012

ANTHONY BARTEE IS INNOCENT UNTIL PROVED GUILTY, BUT TEXAS PLANS TO KILL HIM WITHOUT ALLOWING HIS DNA TEST. He is on death row, deprived of a DNA test to prove his innocence because the system does not really care whether Americans are guilty or innocent. Congress finally said so by approving National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in 2011 while normal people enjoyed Thanksgiving. President Obama signed it while most Americans celebrated New Year's Eve with friends and family. NDAA provides for military arrests in concentration camps without any criminal charges being levied. Victims will have no opportunity for defense at trial. The difference between YOU and Anthony Bartee, who is to be killed on May 2, is that he might go first. Please don't let that happen without registering your objection.

Was your name in the first batch of petitions delivered in April telling Texas to Test The DNA in ALL the Evidence? Please sign the petition to help stop the execution of Anthony Bartee at http://bit.ly/JsXCrq - The world is appalled at the violence and apparent racism in Zimmerman's fatal shooting of an innocent, unarmed youth, Trayvon Martin. However, this nation's prisons, including death rows, are inhabited by many people who might be innocent. The Innocence Project reports: "Since 1989, more than 250 people in 34 states have been exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing." Innocent inmates are unarmed victims in the struggle to save their lives and regain their liberty. Politicians and human rights organizations that grandstand on Martin's coffin claiming concern about his wrongful death should also show aversion to taking potentially innocent lives like Bartee's while a simple test might save them. It is hypocrisy to show repulsion over Zimmerman killing Martin but not over Texas killing Bartee without irrefutable proof of guilt. Every life is important. God is no respecter of persons.

I signed the petition for Anthony Bartee and wrote the following comment:

"EXECUTE JUSTICE, NOT PEOPLE! Give Anthony Bartee a DNA test, murderous hypocrites.We recognize that Texas is about 50 down from taking the lead from Virginia as the EXECUTION CHAMPION OF USA, but Bartee is probably innocent. See "DP - The Unholy Race" http://marylovesjustice.blogspot.com/2011/10/dp-unholy-race.html People are sick of sociopaths taking tax money that could buy text books to kill our neighbors, whether innocent or guilty. Please stop, if you can help yourselves."


How Important is Innocence in Criminal Justice?
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-important-is-innocence-in-criminal.html  That issue has been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. While deliberating on whether Troy Davis would be given an opportunity for a hearing, justices on the High Court stated: 


“'The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing,' Justice John Paul Stevens wrote.


But Antonin Scalia, joined in the minority by Clarence Thomas, was unconvinced and unmoved.


'This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually innocent.' Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged ‘actual innocence’ is constitutionally cognizable.'”


Scalia’s fellow justices noted that his position allows no legal avenue for even an obviously innocent person to have his or her case heard.


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Justices Scalia and Thomas hold that the Supreme Court never made a decision on how important innocence is for a person who was already convicted. But I assert that the Supreme Court has NOT left that question unresolved. Silence on the vital matter of whether to uphold innocent people's right to life means the High Court has actually decided against it.


I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. . .  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all. ~ Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize for Peace, 1986


THE EASTER EXECUTION
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/happy-easter-2012-from-mary-neal.html    Despite the Easter Execution, most people are executed in the Bible Belt by so-called Christians. Executions, especially without proof, are not representative of Jesus Christ. He says to those with innocent blood on their hands, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."


Please sign Anthony Bartee's Petition on Democracy in Action at this link! http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/206/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10307    In case they corrupt the link, here it is without linking     http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/206/p/dia/action/public/?action_key=10307  (Copy/paste the petition link into your browser to reach the petition. Stalkers know each condemned man costs taxpayers around $70,000 per year more than inmates serving life sentences (according to DPIC stats). It depends on incarceration rates in a given state, but DP inmates definitely cost more to warehouse. Cyberstalkers therefore coded the "SAVE BARTEE" link (under the Cross of Christ) to be practically invisible. Arresting and killing people are just business dealings to prison profiteers.)


DEATH TO THE DEATH PENALTY!



Do you see the photo of a public hanging directly above? The prison profiteers' cyberstalkers which the U.S. Government and Georgia justice officials and police allow to censor my Internet input may remove it. I encountered a good deal of cyberstalking placing it here. Perhaps the injustice system believes we will forget that executions are barbaric activities if they remove my pictorial reminder. Maybe without a photo, they hope we will forget that it is nothing new for mobs of people to kill simply because they are bloodthirsty bigots without consideration about the guilt or innocence of their victims, as long as the victims are black like Anthony Bartee or from among working class whites like Hank Skinner. Skinner won a stay of execution in November 2011, but he has also not been allowed to take a DNA test to date. Stays of execution are therefore issued to delay, but not to eliminate, the possibility of killing innocents. 


It was long ago decided that when barbarians want to do a murder, they must go through a court process first. After that, INNOCENCE DOES NOT MATTER. I respectfully disagree, and it is your duty to disagree along with me. Hundreds of people who went through a "full and fair trial" were later found to be actually innocent and were exonerated based on post-conviction evidence, including DNA test results. Bartee deserves the right to use every means available to prove his innocence. No one should be executed without irrefutable proof of guilt, especially while the state denies access to test evidence that was used to incriminate him. Punishing innocent people for crimes violates not only the wrongly convicted but also crime victims.
Summary of allegations against Bartee from "Crime & Capital Punishment.com"  On August 15, 1996, in San Antonio, Bartee murdered 37-year-old David Cook by using a nine-millimeter pistol to fatally shoot him in the head and neck. Bartee then took Cook's motorcycle and fled the scene. Bartee was on parole for two counts of aggravated rape when he [allegedly] committed the murder. http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/showthread.php?1368-Anthony-Bartee-Texas-Execution-May-02-2012  


For Texas to prevent Bartee from testing his DNA against the evidence puts Texas in the position to kill another innocent man. Did Bartee kill his friend? Perhaps. But the idea that he or any convicted person might be innocent is worth a test. Hundreds of prosecutors, judges, juries, and even eye witnesses have been wrong before. Hundreds. People are innocent until proven guilty. That has not happened where a single shred of doubt remains, whether the accused is a convicted felon like Bartee or a person with no prior offenses like Troy Davis. In Bible Belt states where people feel compelled to continue DP, The Unholy Race to execute the most people before the Second Coming, capital punishment should be off the table except for offenders with sound mental health against whom the state has irrefutable proof of guilt.


Military people from America's working class are dispatched throughout the world risking their lives in battles that are supposedly for human rights. Millions of men and women have died over the course of five centuries to protect Americans' civil rights that are guaranteed under the Constitution, and the right to life is chief among them. However our justice system quibbles over whether U.S. citizens should be allowed to perform DNA tests at their own expense to avoid wrongful execution! That is absurd, inhumane, and unAmerican. As minorities like Bartee and working class whites like Skinner are imprisoned and executed in America with their guilt not proved, please remember that their so-called "right to life" is exactly equal to your own - disregarded by elitists over the justice system and therefore nonexistent


Over the Holidays, Congress and the President approved NDAA, which subjects people to indefinite military detention (concentration camps) without criminal charges. And Bartee, an innocent man, faces execution on May 2, begging for a test the state refuses to give him. Both problems stem from the fact that the lives and human rights of minorities and working class whites are considered "immaterial" by elitists. Elitists decision makers disregard the sacrifices that generations of military families and civil rights activists made to make America a land of liberty and justice for all. We the People can and must address both problems: (1) Support H.R.3785, the congressional bill introduced by Rep. Ron Paul in January to repeal the concentration camp provision of NDAA. (2) Please stand up for Bartee's right to life. In so doing, you take a stand for yourselves, your families, and for all working class Americans. No wealthy American would be denied DNA tests like Bartee and Skinner are. Insist that guilt must be proved by every means available before depriving Bartee of life. Isn't that what you want for yourself? Isn't it what you, Bartee, and every person deserve? 


The Innocence Projects maps exonerations by state, geographic trends, and individual cases at this link http://www.innocenceproject.org/news/StateView.php . The fact that more than 250 Americans have been spared from wrongful incarceration and execution through DNA testing necessitates Bartee's execution being stayed and a test actually being given this time. Stays of execution must stop being an elitist game to temporarily reduce public outrage about the government killing innocent Americans. The trickery is not appreciated.


God said we must take a stand against unrighteousness and love our neighbors as we do ourselves. Bible Belt states execute people more than others, and risk killing more innocents, perhaps because Christians are not taught God's Word regarding executions. Please see Proverbs 31:8-9 below. Then be DOERS of the Word and not hearers only, as Jesus admonished.


Proverbs 31:8-9 King James Version (KJV)

"Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of ALL such as are appointed to destruction.  Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy."


CONGRATULATIONS TO CONNECTICUT FOR BECOMING THE 17th STATE TO ABOLISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ON APRIL 25, 2012. GOV. DANIEL P. MALLOY AND THE CONNECTICUT STATE LEGISLATURE HAVE REMOVED THAT MORAL AND FINANCIAL BURDEN FROM THEIR CITIZENS. PLEASE PRAY FOR TEXANS. BLESSINGS!


See "Execution Watch" at this link http://executionwatch.org/