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Thread: Louisiana Capital Punishment News

  1. #11
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    Interesting...apart from the execution of Gerald Bordelon in 2010(who voluntarily waived post-conviction appeals), Louisiana has neither carried out executions nor even set any execution dates at all since the stay of Antoinette Frank in July 2008. And Louisiana in the early days of post-Gregg capital punishment (1980s) carried out executions at a pretty rapid rate, as did Florida.

  2. #12
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    Legislators pre-file almost 1,600 bills

    By Friday night’s deadline, Louisiana legislators had “pre-filed” nearly 1,600 bills to consider during the annual legislative session that begins March 12.

    Legislators could file as many bills as they wanted prior to Friday’s deadline. They can still file up to another five bills each once the session starts up until April 2.

    Measure, SB565 sponsored by state Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, would prohibit death row inmates from profiting from their notoriety. A flap developed last month over convicted serial killer Derrick Todd Lee’s sale of artwork.

    http://theadvocate.com/home/2218200-...600-bills.html

  3. #13
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    Wonder what the anti's will say about this..

    Bill proposes death row inmates income funneled to victim's family

    Death row was on the agenda at the Legislature Tuesday; specifically, money that death row inmates could potentially earn from art work or a book.

    Accused serial killer Derrick Todd Lee, the south Louisiana serial killer, had a sketch hit the internet.

    That was what drove this legislation to be introduced.

    Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb authored the measure. Her husband's daughter was a victim of Derrick Todd Lee. The bill allows any money or proceeds from anything to be funneled to the victim's family; but the inmate must be on death row.

    "The bill provides for proceeds or profits received from a defendant on death row. It provides that they do not receive any funds from the notoriety of the crime they committed," said Dorsey-Colomb.

    Angola Warden Burl Cain tells 9News that he has 86 people currently on death row and none of them are generating any income.

    The measure also will not affect the arts and craft show the prison hosts annually.

    http://www.wafb.com/story/17517478/b...victims-family
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  4. #14
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    It is hard to argue with the simple logic of this.
    But i am gonna try anyway . Although i admit i am not really up on us civil law i think victims of crimes (and most likely victims families in murder cases ) can sue for damages in civil court. A number will come out and any income generated will go to the victims family untill that number is reached. I dont think a person being on deathrow should change anything.
    It is a whole different matter when it involves making money off the crime, for example a painting that depicts the crimescene. That is wrong on every level and victims families should get any income from that.
    But income of a painting that shows a bowl of fruit should go to the painter and should he be executed to his wife/kids.

  5. #15
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    You have a strange view on justice Unsub. Are the relatives of a murderer more important than the survivors of the murder victim?

    The case is really easy. A civil claim costs a lot of money. It doesen´t make sense for the MVS to spend this money (if they would own it), because the DR inmates get often public lawyers (they don´t own enough money to pay their defense) or they spend their money after the trial(s). So you must be really dumb to start a civil case in most cases.

    Without doubt the criminal causes a financial damage (I hate to describe a murder in this way). It´s his responsibility to pay his debts at the MVS and the state (police work, trial, lawyer, housing in prison, ...). I don´t see any reason why you want to give the money to the murderes family if he finds a way to earn money on DR?

    On a personal level I would even prfer that the money for the "painting of a fruit bowl" is donated for some flowers on the murder victims grave than for Snickers and soap for the DR-inmate.
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  6. #16
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    Senate passes bill to prohibit inmates from selling items for profit

    Legislation to prohibit death row inmates from selling items for profit passed through the Louisiana Senate on Thursday.

    The bill was inspired by death row inmate Derrick Todd Lee who profited from artwork he sold through a "murderabilia" website. Lee is a Baton Rouge serial killer.

    Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb said the bill ensures they do not receive any funds from the notoriety of the crime that they committed.

    The bill is pending introduction into the House of Representatives.

    http://www.lsureveille.com/news/sena...3#.T5B0KNlX-uI
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  7. #17
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    Bill bans death row inmates profiting from crimes

    Death Row inmates should not profit from the notability they've gained from their crimes, Rep. Barbara Norton said as she received unanimous Criminal Justice Committee support Wednesday for legislation authored by Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb.

    Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, filed Senate Bill 565 in response to serial killer Derrick Todd Lee selling artwork on a website, Dark Vomit's True Crime Macabre and Outsider Art Gallery.

    The site, specializing in "serial killer and true crime collectibles," had two of Lee's works — a watercolor print of a panda chewing on bamboo and a watercolor of two swans on a lake — but currently is offering only the 9-by-12 swans drawing, complete with the mailing envelope stamped "Death Row" and with his two hand-written messages "Please don't bend. Pictures inside."

    Norton said the bill seeks to prevent profiteering by "someone who has murdered someone or cut someone's neck off, or whatever the case may be."

    The bill says the proceeds from any sales would go into a fund to benefit victims and their families. Before Lee was identified by DNA evidence, multiple murders in the early 2000s panicked many women in the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas.

    Many bought handguns or mace. He was first convicted in 2004 of second-degree murder for the death of Geralyn DeSoto.

    Later that year, he was convicted of the first-degree murder and rape of LSU graduate student Charlotte Murray Pace, 22, and was sentenced to die by lethal injection. That sentence was upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court in 2008. Attorneys filed an appeal in April 2011.

    Since last year's session, Dorsey-Colomb married Sterling Colomb Sr., father of one of Lee's alleged victims, Trineisha Dene Colomb, 23, of Lafayette.

    After Lee was convicted of Pace's murder, prosecutors chose not to seek other convictions. He is linked to seven murders and is suspected of others.

    http://www.shreveporttimes.com/artic...xt|FRONTPAGE|s
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  8. #18
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    Cost of Louisiana's death penalty

    There are currently 88 inmates on Louisiana's death row, including two women. All were convicted in a court of law and are going through the appeals process before their time is up.

    In the last 10 years, three people have been executed by lethal injection in Louisiana - a far cry from the 1980s when 18 inmates in the state were electrocuted for crimes committed. Louisiana is among 33 states where the death penalty is legal, but as the price goes up all have seen dramatic declines in capital cases.

    "Many years ago the death penalty was used a whole lot more than it is now," said Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier.

    The last capital murder case to be tried in Calcasieu Parish was Jason Reeves in November 2004 under then District Attorney Rick Bryant. A jury sentenced Reeves to death for the murder of 4-year-old Mary Jean Thigpen. Reeves has been serving his time on death row at Angola ever since.

    "Taxpayers are paying a tremendous amount of money for death penalty cases," said DeRosier.

    According to DeRosier when compared to other cases the cost for the death penalty is often triple. For example the recent Davis/Saltzman case cost taxpayers an estimated $77,000 to try in court. DeRosier said a death penalty case will easily come in at $250,000 or more.

    The case of Lee Roy Williams, the man convicted of the Labor Day quadruple murders, was being considered to be tried as a death penalty case.

    Though Williams originally denied his involvement in the four murders the evidence was mounting. He eventually confessed to investigators and accepted a plea deal. 8 1/2 weeks after the murders Williams was indicted, entered a guilty plea and sentenced all in the same day.

    "When Williams was confronted with the physical evidence and confronted with the possible alternative of the death penalty he opted for four life imprisonment sentences consecutive to each other," said DeRosier.

    Aside from the cost it's an uphill battle for prosecutors. Not only do they have to convince a 12 person jury the defendant is guilty of first degree murder, but those same 12 jurors must all agree on the death sentence.

    "It's not easy to sit on a death penalty jury. When choosing a jury we have to be sure we choose a jury that can do the job under the law," said DeRosier.

    Even though they are found guilty and sentenced to death the process and dollars are really only starting to add up.

    "The appellate process starts at that point and that appellate process will go through the entire state system and if resulted in death penalty verdict it will also go through the federal system. It will take a lot of years and a lot of money," said DeRosier.

    According to the Louisiana Department of Corrections it costs a little more than $60 a day to house and feed a prisoner at Angola. With the appeals process taking at least a decade if not longer - you can see the money being spent at the expense of taxpayers.

    Though the costs are high DeRosier said, "It's a factor we consider. It's not necessarily the main factor we consider because we represent the community and we represent victims and that's our first consideration."

    DNA has also been a game changer. Since 1989 seven men have left Louisiana's death row free men after being exonerated by DNA and other evidence.

    Meanwhile without getting into all the details there are some pretty interesting death penalty cases in Louisiana.

    Click here to view list of men on Louisiana's death row.
    Click here to view list of women on Louisiana's death row.

    http://www.kplctv.com/story/18610560...-death-penalty
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  9. #19
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    Defenders dwindling

    Death-penalty cases face delays

    Longtime criminal defense lawyer John Di Giulio uses the phrase “looming crisis” to describe the shortage of Louisiana lawyers certified to handle costly and time-consuming death-penalty cases.

    Di Giulio, who serves on the Louisiana Public Defender Board, says local public defender offices and the regional offices that help them out already are overworked and underfunded. “It’s going to hit the wall,” he said.

    The shortage of death penalty-certified attorneys and the lack of adequate defense funding means even more delays for death-penalty cases, which already take years to come to trial, says Mike Mitchell, chief public defender with the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Defenders Office.

    While Mitchell and Di Giulio argue the issue is adequate representation and fairness, some prosecutors offer another reason for the constant funding and resource complaints from the defense bar.

    Pete Adams, executive director of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, said he knows why the state public defender board, local public defender offices and regional capital conflict panels are making such a fuss.

    “Beneath the advocacy there is a strong disdain for the death penalty,” he said, noting that the American Bar Association — whose rules for capital case representation are followed by local public defenders and regional capital conflict offices — is opposed to capital punishment. “There is a collaboration to end the death penalty as an option here. That’s the M.O.”

    Louisiana, which currently has 88 convicts awaiting execution, has put to death only two death-row inmates in the past 10 years. The most recent, Gerald Bordelon, was executed in 2010 after he opted not to appeal his death sentence in a Livingston Parish case for sexually assaulting his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002 and strangling her.

    There were no executions in the state from 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down capital punishment laws, until 1983, when executions were resumed in Louisiana.

    Di Giulio said the cost to a public defenders office to handle a couple of capital cases “can break the bank.”

    Mitchell said a capital murder case can cost his office a bare minimum of $100,000, which does not include expert-witness fees and the cost of investigation for the defense.

    But those costs can go much higher.

    Richard Goorley, who directs the Shreveport-based Capital Assistance Project of Louisiana, noted the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections has spent $8 million so far for both the prosecution and defense of the indicted “Angola 5” inmates, the five inmates accused of killing security officer Capt. David Knapps in 1999 at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

    The department is paying most of the costs associated with the murder cases because the five inmates are accused of killing Knapps at the state-run penitentiary at Angola.

    Goorley’s office has an annual budget of more than $1 million.

    Mitchell warns that the East Baton Rouge Public Defenders Office — which is now handling six capital murder cases — may stop accepting new death-penalty cases as early as July 1 if the office’s $4.7 million budget is not increased.

    “I’m proposing we get out of the capital case representation altogether,” said Mitchell, who noted that his office also represents between 80 percent and 90 percent of all criminal defendants in the parish.

    Mitchell’s office receives a quarter of its funding from the state board and the remainder from court costs.

    “What we need to operate is about $10 million a year, to do it properly, to meet our ethical standards of performance,” he said, referring to the office’s entire operations.

    It’s unclear at this point who would handle those cases, but it’s likely the cases would be shifted to the three regional “capital conflict” offices, which are funded entirely by the state.

    Adams, the head of the district attorneys association, said that if local public defender offices stop taking new capital murder cases, “it would squarely place the cost of capital defense in the lap of the Legislature.”

    “The question becomes, who’s responsibility is it? It’s the state’s,” Mitchell agreed.

    ‘Tough work for little pay’

    The Louisiana Public Defender Board funds three capital conflict offices, in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport. The offices were created a decade ago to handle capital cases when district public defender offices are ethically barred from representing the defendants or lack the capacity or personnel to handle the cases.

    Baton Rouge Capital Conflict Office director David Price, who has been handling capital murder cases for 30 years, says the three capital conflict offices were intended to be “regional service providers.’’ Mitchell, who has been a public defender since 1983 and East Baton Rouge Parish’s chief public defender since 1994, says he hoped the Baton Rouge Capital Conflict Office would be his office’s primary backup.

    In recent years, because of local public defender office workloads and the shortage of death penalty-certified attorneys statewide, the three conflict offices have literally crisscrossed the state representing capital murder defendants that the local boards could not handle.

    “It’s getting more serious. There are fewer and fewer certified attorneys,” said Price, who puts the number in Louisiana at about 150.

    Price said it is difficult to estimate just how many death penalty-certified attorneys are needed, but he noted that in capital murder cases where the defense is court-appointed, the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that the defendant must have two death penalty-certified lawyers.

    “It’s tough work. A lot of attorneys steer away from it,” Mitchell said of capital case representation. “Historically it’s been tough work for very little pay.”

    Goorley, of the Capital Assistance Project, likened lawyers agreeing to handle death-penalty cases to physicians volunteering for duty on the front lines of a war.

    “I don’t know a lot of attorneys who want to tackle death-penalty cases,” he said.

    Complicating factors

    Mitchell’s office is currently handling six capital murder cases and has five death penalty-certified attorneys. Price’s office has six certified attorneys and is handling eight capital murder cases. Goorley’s office has five certified attorneys and is representing 11 capital murder defendants. The Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana, directed by Kerry Cuccia, was expanded after Hurricane Katrina and now maintains a standing caseload of 25 cases with 11 attorneys.

    In December, Price and fellow Baton Rouge Capital Conflict Office attorney Mario Guadamud were called in to take over the representation of Aramis Jackson, the Baton Rouge man accused in the 2010 home-invasion killing of a woman and wounding of her then 9-year-old daughter in Beauregard Town. Price and Guadamud took over the case after an attorney decided to let his death-penalty certification lapse.

    “It’s a whole lot of work. I can understand people getting burned out on it. It gets old,” Price said. He said his office, which has an annual budget of $935,000, carefully watches what it spends.

    Suspected serial killer Sean Vincent Gillis was represented by the New Orleans-based Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana, with Cuccia serving as lead counsel at the 2008 trial in Baton Rouge. Gillis was convicted of first-degree murder but sentenced to life in prison after the jury deadlocked in the penalty phase of his trial.

    Mitchell said his office had a two-fold reason for not representing Gillis.

    “We had represented at least one, if not several, of the victims previously,” Mitchell said. “We also had the Derrick Todd Lee case going on at the same time.” Lee was another suspected serial killer.

    Trucko Stampley was represented by the Shreveport-based Capital Assistance Project of Louisiana at his trial earlier this year in Baton Rouge. Stampley was found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison because prosecutors and the victims’ families agreed last fall to take the death penalty off the table in order to bring the five-year-old case to trial more quickly.

    “Trucko was primarily overload,” Mitchell said in explaining why his office did not represent Stampley. “We didn’t have sufficient counsel at the time.’’

    The Shreveport office also is representing Dominique Dantoni Smith in the 2008 slaying of his former girlfriend and her 3-year-old son at a BREC park near Zachary. Smith’s girlfriend, Trendall Lashel Matthews, of Jackson, pleaded guilty in the case in return for a life sentence.

    Mitchell said his office represented Matthews, so it could not also represent Smith.

    Price pointed out that most capital murder cases have at least two defendants, which complicates the defense. Defendants, for example, often blame each other for a crime, which means they can’t share an attorney, or even attorneys who work with each other.

    In Ascension Parish, all three capital conflict offices are involved in the first-degree murder case of five men accused in the February killing of Robert Irwin Marchand, his wife and stepson during the home-invasion theft of a collection of gold and silver coins.

    “It’s getting complicated by the conflict issue in these multi-defendant cases,” Di Giulio said.

    Price recommends the addition of one or more capital conflict offices, perhaps in Lake Charles or Alexandria.

    “I don’t know where the money’s going to come from,” Di Giulio said.

    Price said another problem is “finding the lawyers to do the work.”

    Goorley noted there are two law schools in both Baton Rouge and New Orleans but none north of Interstate 10.

    “It’s difficult for us in this part of the country to find attorneys that are qualified and certified,” he said of north Louisiana.

    Death penalty opposition

    Adams, who points out that prosecutors across the state face serious budgetary constraints of their own, contends those who represent capital murder defendants in Louisiana are deliberately “driving up the cost of capital litigation” as a means to achieve abolishment of the death penalty.

    “The law is the law. They’re obliged to operate under the law, not to manipulate its repeal,” he said. “The Constitution provides for an adequate defense. It doesn’t provide for an O.J. (Simpson) defense in every case.”

    “How much more are they spending than is necessary?” Adams inquired. “That question needs to be asked. It’s a fair question.”

    As for possible solutions to the overall problem, Adams admits, “I don’t know what the answer is.”

    “We’re going to have to sit down and figure it out,” Price said.

    Goorley said the capital conflict offices funded by the state board “save the state a lot of money” because they each have a budget and therefore submit no hourly bills.

    “The problem is there are some people who don’t think we should be funded,” he said.

    Mitchell, who noted that prosecutors in Louisiana are adept at obtaining second-degree murder convictions that put defendants in prison for life, said the following question needs to be posed: “Do we really need a death penalty in the state of Louisiana?”

    Price pointed out that Connecticut earlier this year ended that state’s death penalty for future crimes and said he feels it is time for Louisiana to investigate the cost of the death penalty as compared to life terms without the possibility of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

    Connecticut is the 17th state to abolish capital punishment.

    Goorley maintains death penalty prosecutions are trending downward nationwide but upward in Louisiana.

    “We’re going the opposite direction,” he said.

    Goorley contends the death penalty is not “beneficial for the state itself” but says “it does have a political attractiveness.”

    “It’s a crisis because I don’t see the will not to seek the death penalty,” Price observed, adding that public defender offices in many rural parishes have no death penalty-certified attorneys. “You’ve got qualified prosecutors. You’ve got to have qualified defenders.”

    “We’re going to have a death penalty,” Goorley conceded. “You have to have a level playing field.”

    Source
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  10. #20
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    Advocacy Center wants medical specialist access to Angola death-row inmates, records

    A New Orleans nonprofit organization wants a federal court order that would require officials of the Louisiana State Penitentiary to grant center attorneys and a medical specialist access to death-row inmates and records at Angola.

    Advocacy Center attorneys say in a civil lawsuit that prison officials have refused to allow them to pursue prisoner reports that death-row temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees.

    Pam Laborde, communications director for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, tells The Advocate (http://bit.ly/PaHT2Y ) since this is a legal matter, the department will respond to the court.

    In the civil suit filed Friday in Baton Rouge federal court against prison officials, the attorneys noted that some death-row inmates have health-related disabilities, including mental illness, heart problems, lung disease and diabetes.
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