May 2015 Death Penalty News

ELIMINATING BLACK JURORS IN A GEORGIA MURDER TRIAL ~ "The rare grant of certiorari means the high court will examine in its next term a 1987 Floyd County murder trial. Timothy Tyrone Foster, a black man who was 18 years old when he was charged, was convicted of the murder of Queen White, an elderly, white, retired schoolteacher . . . The prosecution used its peremptory strikes against all four of the qualified prospective jurors who were black ..."
http://www.dailyreportonline.com/id=1202727421866/US-Supreme-Court-Agrees-to-Take-Up-Ga-Death-Penalty-Case#ixzz3bH7z0O1R

JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS SPEAKS AGAINST DEATH PENALTY ~ In a discussion at the George Washington University School of Law, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said the death penalty creates a higher risk of error than other criminal cases and is unfair, unnecessary, and a "terrible waste" of resources. Using the Boston marathon bomber trial as an example, Justice Stevens said jury selection procedures in capital cases produce juries who are "not representative of the community." He said that, under these procedures, "most of the 75%" of Bostonians who opposed the death penalty "could be challenged for cause and do not make it" onto the jury.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6150

EXECUTING THE MENTALLY ILL

LONG BEFORE HE COMMITTED a vicious triple murder in Houston at the age of 19, Derrick Charles had shown signs of serious mental problems. Raised amid crippling poverty, domestic abuse, alcoholism and neglect, he watched his schizophrenic mother stab his abusive stepfather. He suffered from tactile and auditory hallucinations, and by the time he was 13, had been hospitalized twice for mental illness. While in juvenile prison for nonviolent offenses, he said he was hearing voices and asked for medication. The request was denied.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/20/mentally-ill-executed/

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Excerpts from recent news articles were published in the Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee blog for our anti-dp organization. Please share anti-DP news with your online networks. 

"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")

MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com phone (678)531.0262 or (571)335-1741

Nebraska May Repeal DP

Dear Mary, Nebraska just moved one step closer to repealing the death penalty. Yesterday we asked for your help in contacting legislators in Nebraska to ask them to vote "YES" to LB 268 which would repeal the state's death penalty. I'm happy to report that you put the pressure on, and the Nebraska policymakers listened. They voted 32-15 to end the death penalty in Nebraska. We thank you! We're not done yet though. Governor Pete Ricketts has vowed that he will veto this bill. We need all 32 legislators who voted to repeal the death penalty to hold their votes in order to override a governor veto. Thank you for being part of the success. Thanks to your help, Nebraska could be the 19th state to abolish the death penalty.   Congratulations! Diann Rust-Tierney Executive Director National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty ****** This article was published in the Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee blog for our anti-dp organization. Please share it with your online networks.  "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") MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com phone (678)531.0262 or (571)335-1741

Death Warrant for Warren Hill, Mentally Ill on GA Death Row

Warren Hill was originally sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting his girlfriend, Myra Wright, in 1986. He was subsequently sentenced to death for killing his cellmate, Joseph Handspike.

Georgia is preparing to EXECUTE the mentally ill man who "somehow" got a board of wood with long nails driven through it and beat his cellmate to death while he slept. Did the prison know how dangerous Hill was? Absolutely. He was already imprisoned for murder. And how on earth did Hill get a board and nails to make a Midieval club like the one pictured below? Hill's murder by the State on January 27, 2015, and his victim's murder, will be included in our "AIMI vs. USA" legal action before the International Court in 2015. 

If inmates can be endangered and killed by locking them in cells with murderous mentally ill people, which has happened in Georgia correctional facilities more than once, then every prisoner is at risk. Correctional officers and prison administrators who apply this lack of care are intended to escape accountability by executing the mentally ill inmates who kill their cellmates. The inmates who kill will bare the blame, not the prison which should be a "controlled environment." 

"AIMI vs. USA" will take the USA before the International Court for dereliction of its duty to protect the rights of institutionalized persons, such as Hill and his victim, Handspike. Hill should have had no opportunity to ascertain a board and nails, and his victim should not have been in the cell with a homicidal mentally ill man like Hill. 

Read about The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) of 1980, a United States federal law intended to protect the rights of people in state or local correctional facilities, nursing homes, mental health facilities and institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Wikipedia). The U.S. Justice Department totally ignores its responsibility to uphold that Act; an "act" is all it is (see the links to information about CRIPA below).

As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said over 50 years ago, "All we say to America is, 'Be true to what you said on paper.'" That is still a huge problem, and no group of people anywhere on planet earth is as oppressed as Americans with mental disabilities in custody. They are regularly tortured and killed without any accountability being demanded. Some are tortured for sport and killed in grotesque Medieval ways, including death by scalding, death by roasting, death by hanging, and forcing mentally ill inmates to entertain correctional officers by engaging in gladiator fights (to the finish, in some cases). 

It is likely that Hill's mental illness was untreated before he killed Myra Wright, his first victim. Neglect likely caused both murders.

Read about Hill at "Georgia Kills Mentally Ill Inmates."
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2013/02/georgia-kills-mentally-ill-inmates.html

Happy Martin Luther King's Day 2015. Let us stand up together and demand that Americans with mental disabilities like Warren Hill be protected, moved into mental hospitals instead of jails and prisons, and that mental illness be decriminalized in the United States of America. Nobody deserves to be misused as prison commodities because of a common, treatable health condition. If the renowned human rights leader, Dr. King, were alive, we at Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI) believe decriminalizing mental illness would be one of his main objectives. Please make it one of yours. Read more about "AIMI vs. USA" at 
http://AIMI-HumanRights.blogspot.com

USDOJ: Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA)
http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/cripastat.php

CRIPA at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_of_Institutionalized_Persons_Act

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Thank you for giving Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill.

How can you help? Follow this blog, share this article, and listen to the George Mallinckrodt Blogtalkradio presentations taped January 11 and January 15, 2015 (links are below). Mallinckrodt exposed brutality and a murder against mentally ill inmates in his book, "Getting Away with Murder" and was fired from his position as a psychotherapist in Florida prisons as a consequence of his objections to torture. Human and civil rights of persons with mental disabilities in the United States are treated as nonexistent.

"Getting Away with Murder," by George Mallinckrodt
January 15, 9pm EST
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2015/01/16/getting-away-with-murder-a-george-millenckrodt-interview-part-2
January 11, 3pm EST
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2015/01/11/getting-away-with-murder-a-george-mallinckrodt-interview

It would be illegal to keep a dog in a tight space 23 hours a day and gas or Taser him for barking. It would be illegal to put a dog in deadly restraint for control. That happens to mentally ill people routinely in the nation's correctional facilities. What happened to Larry Neal? Why are we still asking that question after eleven years? Cover-ups regarding the wrongful deaths of mentally ill inmates are common and vile.

Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally. Support the H.R. 3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act." The U.S. congressional bill provides for crisis intervention team (CIT) training for police and corrections officers, assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs to stop recidivism, and other needed changes.

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This article was published in the Davis/MacPhail Truth Committee blog for our anti-dp organization. Eight(8) links are in this article. Please share it with your online networks. The article also appears in "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog at 
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2015/01/warren-hill-death-warrant-issued.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")

MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com

phone (678)531.0262 or (571)335-1741

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.” 

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/10/16/civil-rights-groups-appeal-dismissal-ethics-complaint-judge-edith-jones/

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")

Webcasts: UN CAT Reviews USA on DP and More

By: UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) GENEVA, Nov. 6, 2014 - The UN Committee against Torture is due to review the USA on 12 and 13 November in sessions that will be webcast live.

The USA is one of the 156 States parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and is required to undergo regular examinations of its record before the Committee of 10 independent experts. The Committee will engage in a dialogue with the US government delegation and also hear from NGOs.

Public sessions: 10:00-12:00 (04:00-06:00 EST) on 12 November, 15:00-18:00 (09:00-12:00 EST) on 13 November
Venue: Room XVII, Palais des Nations, Geneva - Live webcast: 

http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/

Among the possible issues to be discussed: extraterritorial application of the Convention; CIA’s secret detention, extraordinary rendition and interrogation programme; Guantanamo Bay detainees held indefinitely without charge or trial; investigation and prosecution of those responsible for torture or ill-treatment of detainees; immigration enforcement abuses; death penalty, alleged administration of untested lethal drugs; police brutality; prolonged solitary confinement; protection of prisoners against violence; sexual violence in US military.

Further information and the USA’s report are available at: 

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=930&Lang=en

The Committee will publish its concluding observations here on Friday 28 November.
A news conference is scheduled for Friday 28 November at 14:00 at Palais des Nations in Geneva when the Committee will discuss its concluding observations on the USA and the other countries being reviewed – Sweden, Ukraine, Venezuela, Australia, Burundi, Croatia, and Kazakhstan.

To learn more about the Committee against Torture, please visit: 

http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cat/pages/catindex.aspx

You are invited watch the webcasts and discuss them during broadcasts on "Human Rights Demand" channel at Blogtalkradio on Nov. 12 and 13 (the time will be announced here). The Davis-MacPhail Truth Committee is interested in solitary confinement, capital punishment, prisoner rape, and other tortures. Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI") is especially interested in the executions of persons with mental illness and low I.Q. scores. AIMI plans an action in International Court in 2015 involving up to 100 claimants of (i) persons with mental illness and/or drug/alcohol addictions, and (ii) people who were victimized by mentally ill people and/or drug/alcohol addicts who were denied timely, appropriate treatment. We seek restitution for and/or relief from police brutality, prison torture, long-term homelessness, and other discrimination against mentally disabled people in the USA. Visit the blog AIMI-HumanRights for more information at

http://AIMI-HumanRights.blogspot.com

Four url links and three photographs are on this web page.

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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")

MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com

Fed and State Employees Support NCADP

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty CFC # is:  11946

Dear Mary,

If you are an employee of our federal or state government, you can stand up as part of the 90 million strong and show your support for an end to the death penalty by contributing to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty using payroll deduction through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC)? Be sure to use the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's CFC number (11946) when you sign up, and your tax-deductible donation will be automatically deducted from your paycheck.  It's that easy!  

Committing to support the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty through your CFC designation is one of the best ways you can help in our struggle to end the death penalty. And it's an easy way that you can show that the 90 million strong includes people who serve our country daily.

Remember to use CFC number (11946) to help us abolish the death penalty once and for all.  Thank you for standing with us.

Sincerely,

Diann Rust-Tierney
Executive Director

P.S. Designating CFC number (11946) with your charitable contribution will enable the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty to engage the millions of Americans who believe the death penalty is unfair. It is time to take a stand and end the death penalty once and for all. Please also consider an extra one-time contribution to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty at this time.

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"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")

ACLU vs. PA over DP Drugs

ACLU sues Pennsylvania for information about lethal injection cocktail
SEPT. 11, 2014
The Pennsylvania chapter of the ACLU, The Guardian, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Philadelphia City Papers are asking state courts to unseal documents that would reveal how, and from whom, the state obtained the drugs it plans to use to execute Hubert Michael, Jr. on September 22.

Hubert L. Michael Jr. pled guilty in October 1994 to kidnapping and first-degree murder for the death of 16-year-old Trista Eng. On July 12, 1993, Eng was walking along Route 15 from her home to her summer job at a restaurant in Dillsburg, York County. Michael stopped and offered the girl a ride to work, which she accepted. Michael drove to state game lands in Warrington Township, York County, where he shot Eng three times with a handgun and then hid her body in the woods.

Michael's execution will not restore Eng's life. Neither is execution necessary to save society from the murderer. Life without parole would accomplish that. Therefore, Michael's execution could only be a revenge killing. If the capital punishment is carried out, then Michael may be subjected to a lengthy, torturous execution using mystery drugs like other condemned people were this year. A state's refusal to release information about execution drugs should necessitate an automatic moratorium.

The last execution in Pennsylvania occurred in July 1999, when Philadelphia torture killer Gary Heidnik was put to death after surrendering his appeals. More information about the history of Pennsylvania executions is available at http://www.cor.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/death_penalty/17351/history/607968

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"Continue to fight this fight" ~Troy Anthony Davis

Anti-DP article 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")