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Thread: North Carolina Capital Punishment News

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    North Carolina Capital Punishment News

    Judge: Medical Board Wrong to Punish Death Penalty Docs

    The North Carolina Medical Board overstepped its authority in threatening to discipline any physician who participates in an execution, a judge said Thursday at the same time that he tossed the legal dispute over the state's death penalty back into the laps of state officials, ruling that the Council of State needs to review the protocol for executions.

    Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison Jr. noted that the medical board was wrong to say it would punish doctors for assisting in executions and that the board's efforts shouldn't prevent the state from carrying out death sentences.

    "Palliative care from a doctor to prevent unnecessary suffering, prior to a person being injected with lethal drugs which can cause excruciating pain, is not unprofessional or unethical," Morrison wrote in his ruling. "To threaten to discipline a doctor for helping in this manner is not regulating medicine for the benefit and protection of the people of North Carolina."

    Morrison concluded the Council of State – comprised of the governor, lieutenant governor and eight other statewide elected officials – failed to hear arguments from those representing the condemned inmates before they approved a new "execution protocol."

    "The essence of due process is the right to be heard," Morrison wrote in his decision. "It was not proper procedure to consider only documents and comments from those proposing the protocol and not hear from counsel for the condemned inmates."

    Morrison ordered the council to reconsider its approval of the new protocol. A spokeswoman for North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who sits on the Council of State, said his office was reviewing the judge's decision.

    Members of the medical board promise to uphold the state constitution and follow the Council of State when they take their oaths of office. Because the state allows the death penalty under certain circumstances, the medical board shouldn't try to block executions, Morrison wrote.

    "It is part of North Carolina’s public policy, which is not to be stymied by a non-binding position statement," he wrote.

    Medical board members are reviewing the ruling and had no comment on it, spokesman Dale Breaden said. The board stands by its policy on capital punishment, he said.

    The medical board adopted the policy in January, saying that participating in an execution would violate a physician's code of ethics. Any physician who took part in an execution faced having his or her medical license suspended by the board, according to the policy.

    State law requires that a doctor be present at executions to guarantee that a condemned inmate doesn't suffer, which would violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

    Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens ruled in January that the medical board's policy and the state's protocol for carrying out executions conflicted with each other, and he placed several planned executions on hold until the Council of State could resolve the matter.

    The Council of State revised the execution protocol in February, calling for a more active role by doctors.

    2 inmates sued the state over the new protocol, and Morrison ruled Thursday that the Council of State needs to revisit the protocol.

    "The state has made a very important policy decision that we're going to execute people," said Lucy Inman, an attorney representing death row inmate James A. Campbell, who was scheduled to die in early February. "It's an important and profound policy decision, and if we want to have public confidence in our policy, we need to be sure that it's imposed fairly and properly."

    The protocol shouldn't allow a prison warden to halt an execution in process and shouldn't let a warden use a single monitor to determine if an inmate is unconscious during the execution, Morrison ruled. He also said state officials need to receive input from death-row prisoners before approving a new protocol.

    Easley told WRAL that he didn't think the Council of State should hear from attorneys for death-row inmates while reviewing the execution protocol. Given the backgrounds of the council members, he said the panel doesn't have the expertise to make a decision in the matter.

    Easley has called the debate, which has involved the council, two state agencies, several courts and an independent regulatory panel, a "Gordian knot." He urged the state legislature to try and resolve the dispute, but lawmakers adjourned for the year earlier this month without taking any action.

    (source: WRAL News)

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    Anti-death penalty forces are pushing the legislature in its final days to pass a law that would allow capital murder defendants to challenge prosecutors' decisions as racially biased. But to get such a law, death penalty foes may have to accept a move to restart executions, which have been stalled for more than a year.

    Senate Democrats are talking among themselves about trying to pass a measure aimed at addressing racial bias in death penalty cases. The House has already passed a bill that would allow murder defendants to use statistical evidence to suggest that race is a significant factor in prosecutors' seeking the death penalty or in juries' imposing it. The state NAACP president is prodding senators to approve the measure.

    If Senate Democrats move forward with it, Republicans see a chance to get something they've been fighting for — a provision that may allow the state to resume executions, which have been stalled for more than a year partly because the Department of Correction can't find doctors who'll take part in them, as the law requires. Last year, the N.C. Medical Board adopted an ethics policy that forbids doctors from doing anything more than being present at executions.

    Sen. Phil Berger, the chamber's Republican leader, said the racial bias bill may allow the GOP to add a proposal that frees medical personnel to participate in executions without fear of disciplinary action.
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    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/200/story/44145.html

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    A death row inmate singled out by Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory has responded.

    At a recent debate, the Charlotte mayor said that the moratorium on the death penalty should be lifted, noting that the convicted killer of two Queen City police officers was still on death row.

    "Listen, this is personal to me," McCrory said. "Two young police officers that were shot by one man with their gun, and this man has still not been dealt with even though a jury of his peers convicted him ... There's no reason we should have the moratorium right now."

    At the debate, McCrory did not name the killer, Alden J. Harden, but he did name the police officers, Andy Nobles and John Burnette. Harden was sentenced to death in August of 1994 for the killings, which took place the previous October.

    Contacted by Dome at Central Prison in Raleigh, he said in a handwritten letter that Charlotte police have killed "many unarmed young black men" in recent years.

    "I am being dealt with," he wrote. "The moratorium is set to help make sure that more people like you and my so called peers don't take it 'personal' as well, but rather look at the law. Because everyone has a right to fight for themselves under the law."

    He wrote that "there's every reason" to have a moratorium.

    The full text of McCrory's remarks and Harden's response after the jump.

    —————

    Remarks of Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory on Aug. 19:

    "I think law allows us to lift the moratorium on the death penalty. Listen, this is personal to me because we have several police officers that were killed in Charlotte over twelve years ago now, Officers Burnette and Nobles. Two young police officers that were shot by one man with their gun, and this man has still not been dealt with even though a jury of his peers convicted him for a crime that he did and he has yet to be dealt with. There's no reason we should have the moratorium right now."

    Letter from death row inmate Alden J. Harden sent the week of Aug. 25:

    PEER: One belonging to the same societal group, grade or status. One that is of equal standing with another ... I've yet to be convicted by a jury of ... my ... peers ...

    Over the past twelve years, Charlotte police officers have shot, and killed many unarmed young black men.

    Always being cleared after a "thorough" internal investigation.

    That seems to hold no 'personal value' to you at all. I am being dealt with. The moratorium is set to help make sure that people like you and my so called peers don't take it 'personal' as well, but rather look at the law. Because everyone has a right to fight for themselves under the law. There's every reason we should have the moratorium right now.

    Alden J. Harden
    Death Row / Central Prison

    http://projects.newsobserver.com/und...nds_to_mccrory

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    A North Carolina death row inmate has lost a bid to overturn an earlier murder conviction in Georgia, which was used against him at his sentencing in the North Carolina case.

    Ted Anthony Prevatte was condemned for killing his girlfriend, Cynthia Bacon McIntyre, outside her Anson County, N.C., home in 1993.

    That was two decades after Prevatte was convicted of the 1974 murder and armed robbery of James Rouse Jr. in Atlanta. He was sentenced to die but was paroled in 1991 after the Georgia Supreme Court overturned his death sentence.

    On Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district judge's rejection of Prevatte's claims that his constitutional rights were violated in his Georgia trial.

    http://www.reflector.com/news/state/...te-211231.html

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    N.C., death penalty gets rarer

    This is a partial article..follow the link for the full story. There are also links to other interesting NC death penalty news.

    In the 31 years since the punishment was reinstated, the numbers of death cases heard and sentences handed out have steeply declined

    Dan Kane - Staff Writer
    Published: Tue, Dec. 30, 2008 04:20AMModified Tue, Dec. 30, 2008 11:28AM

    North Carolina will finish this year with just one defendant sentenced to death, a record low since the penalty was reinstated 31 years ago.

    The single capital murder conviction this year continues a downward trend fueled by better criminal defense lawyers and new laws that exclude the mentally challenged and make prosecution evidence more accessible.

    In North Carolina, more people on death row have been exonerated this year -- two -- than were sentenced to death. A de facto death penalty moratorium in North Carolina -- as the courts, state officials and the medical profession debate the ethics of lethal injections -- has prevented anyone from being executed for the past two years

    This year, 13 juries could have chosen death for defendants. Only one in Forsyth County did. Last month, a jury there gave the death sentence to James Ray Little III for shooting a cab driver to death two years ago in Winston-Salem. There will be no more capital murder trials before Wednesday, the end of the year.

    "Only one death sentence, when you think about it, is extraordinary," said Gerda Stein, a spokeswoman for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, which represents death row defendants who appeal their sentences.

    The numbers suggest that juries are less likely to impose the ultimate punishment. In 1996, there were 60 capital trials resulting in 34 death sentences in North Carolina.

    The decline in death sentences is a national trend, but North Carolina's is among the most pronounced, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

    http://www.newsobserver.com/1509/story/1349340.html

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    NC House panel narrowly OKs death penalty change

    North Carolina House lawmakers again have narrowly approved legislation designed to prevent a murder suspect or death row prisoner with severe mental illness from facing capital punishment.

    A House appropriations subcommittee voted 5-4 Wednesday in favor of creating a process whereby the death penalty would be removed as a sentencing option for a murder defendant with a severe mental disability. The maximum penalty would be life in prison without parole.

    The measure passed a judiciary committee last week and now heads to the House floor.

    Opponents said criminal procedure already allow jurors to take mental illness into account at sentencing. A state attorney says the bill creates a process that would cost millions of dollars to carry out if it became law.

    (Source: Associated Press)

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    Interesting Comments from Gov. Perdue on the status of our DP

    RALEIGH (WTVD) -- It may seem like crime is all around us these days and that means that there are many crime victims out there.

    Wednesday, they were honored in Raleigh during a ceremony for Crime Victim's Rights Week.

    The gathering of victims and their families heard from Kevin Blaine, the father of Jenna Neilsen who was murdered at a Raleigh gas station almost three years ago.

    The crime is still unsolved.

    They also heard about the highest profile case in the Capital City - the murder of Kathy Taft - from the state's highest ranking official.

    Throughout her career in politics, Governor Beverly Perdue has always been a strong advocate for crime victims. But now, she not only has sympathy, but empathy.

    "For the last two months it's been up-front, close and personal to me," she said.

    Perdue's good friend, state school board member Kathy Taft, was murdered in early March.

    "I have begun to wonder how many years it will take or if ever that family will totally recover from a senseless act, some say a random act," said Perdue.

    At the ceremony marking Crime Victims Week, Perdue thanked Raleigh police for their hard work that resulted in the arrest of Jason Williford.

    Williford lives around the corner from the house on Cartier drive where Taft was brutally beaten and raped.

    "Even a conviction and a penalty will not ever take away the hurt from this family. Just as a conviction never took away the hurt from your families," said Perdue.

    Police struggled for weeks to find a suspect, then nabbed Williford when he threw out a cigarette butt, and they got a DNA match.

    Perdue says his DNA should have already been on file from previous break-ins, and now she'll push for a law to take suspects' DNA when they're arrested.

    "I think that's the right thing to do. I think that's no more invasive than taking somebody's fingerprints," said the Governor.

    The idea is controversial, but would have helped in the Taft case.

    Perdue also told crime victims and their families that although North Carolina's death penalty is under a moratorium, she wants to reinstate it as soon as possible.

    http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?se...cal&id=7399034

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    Debate on erasing the death penalty in N.C. continues

    It has been four years since North Carolina has executed an inmate and some wonder if that implies the state is leaning toward ceasing all executions.

    With several legal questions surrounding the state's execution methods still fresh in people's minds, some questions are being raised as to whether or not the Death Penalty is still appropriate for North Carolina. Yet another contention arose this week as appeals poured in this week from death row inmates saying they don't deserve to be executed because of the Racial Justice Act. This left experts asking if this will cause another delay in carrying out death row sentences.

    As of next Wednesday, it will be four years since the state has executed anyone. In that time, there have been multiple legal challenges to the state's executions. First from the Medical Board, who was concerned about doctors being present at executions, because they took an oath not to kill. That was defeated. Then two questions are still in the court system about the actual type of execution. One case surrounds whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual, and the other asks if the state followed the proper procedures to determine the type of execution used.

    Until a decision is made, the North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium said the legislature should put a hold on executions to examine how they are administered.

    “If we are going to have the death penalty, it ought not execute innocent people,” said Jeremy Collins, with the Coalition. “And if we have a death penalty, it ought not be racially biased and if we are going to have a death penalty it should not cost this much.”

    The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys said a moratorium might not be enough. They believe it's time for the legislature to reexamine this entire issue.

    “Quite frankly it may be the time to decide we are not a death penalty state,” said Jim Woodall, president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys. “That seems to be the will of the legislature. That we should not be a death penalty state.”

    There are currently 159 people on death row in North Carolina. Almost all of them recently filed appeals under the Racial Justice Act.

    http://charlotte.news14.com/content/...n-c--continues

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    Crime lab audit incites critics of death penalty

    Death penalty opponents have renewed calls to repeal state-supported executions and to commute the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison, in the wake of an audit of the N.C. Bureau of Investigation.

    The audit, released last week, found flawed laboratory work in the cases of death row inmates, including 3 who had been executed before the revelation came to light.

    "I was flabbergasted; I could not believe it," said Ken Rose, an attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham.

    The troubling findings come on the heels of studies by researchers at the Michigan State University school of law, the University of

    Colorado in Boulder and Northeastern University in Boston that show racial disparities in the trials and sentencing of death row inmates. This month, under the fledgling Racial Justice Act, all but a dozen of the 159 inmates on North Carolina's death row used the historic law to request that their sentences be converted to life without possibility of parole because of racial bias in their trials and sentencing.

    "None of us can be confident the results in any of these cases are fair or reliable," Rose said. "What I think should happen is the governor should commute all the sentences of persons on death row to life without possibility of parole."

    Gov. Bev Perdue, a death penalty supporter, has not responded to calls for repeal of the state's harshest punishment. Nor has she commented on the new push for her to use her power as governor to commute all current death sentences to life without parole.

    "No matter which issue you pick - the death penalty or the crime lab procedures - the governor believes one principle must override all others: fairness," Chrissy Pearson, a Perdue spokeswoman, said in an e-mail response.

    None of the racial bias claims filed under the year-old Racial Justice Act, 1 of only 2 laws of its kind in the country, has gone before a judge.

    The deadline for death row inmates to file claims was Aug. 10, and according to the latest count by the state attorney general's office, 147 inmates - 82 black, 53 white and 12 of other races - are seeking relief.

    'Grab the "rope"'


    1 of the 1st inmates to file was Guy Tobias LeGrande, a mentally ill man condemned to death in Stanly County after a jury spent less than an hour deliberating his case.

    As LeGrande, a black man, was on trial for his life before an all-white jury, the prosecutor wore a noose-shaped pin on his lapel as he urged jurors to string together evidence investigators had gathered and "grab the 'rope,'" according to the death row inmate's Racial Justice Act claim.

    LeGrande's lawyers say the trial was laced with racial slurs and epithets and was reminiscent of one that might have occurred in the 1920s or 1930s, an era of legal lynching in North Carolina.

    LeGrande, who was convicted of murdering Ellen Munford, a white woman, on July 27, 1993, received the state's harshest sentence. His white co-defendant, Tommy Munford, was the victim's estranged husband.

    Tommy Munford was described in the trial as the mastermind of the plot to kill his wife and reap rewards from a $50,000 life insurance policy. He was allowed to plead to 2nd-degree murder.

    Prosecutors contend that the race of defendants and victims plays no part in their decisions. Many also disagree with assertions that all-white juries cannot deliberate and render verdicts without bringing racial bias into their decisions.

    Jim Coleman, a Duke University law professor, says all-white juries might not intentionally bring racial bias into their deliberations, but some cultural innuendo could easily be lost on juries made up of only 1 race.

    To illustrate his point, Coleman said the Duke Wrongful Convictions Clinic recently helped win the exoneration of Shawn Massey, a black man convicted of several serious crimes. It happened after the law students were able to show that the white victim and white police officers and prosecutors had been confused about the defendant's distinctive African-American hairstyle.

    "We all are limited by our experiences," Coleman said.

    Rep. Paul Stam, a Republican from Apex and leader of the House minority, has been critical of the claims filed under the Racial Justice Act.

    North Carolina has not executed an inmate since August 2006. For roughly 3 years, a push to stop doctors from assisting in executions and a lawsuit filed by some death row inmates challenging the use of lethal injections as cruel and unusual punishment have led to a de facto moratorium on executions.

    The time that it will take to hear the new bias claims in court, Stam said, would essentially create another de facto moratorium on the death penalty.

    "No one will actually get relief under the act because actual racial discrimination has been illegal for decades, and those with actual evidence that they have been discriminated against have been able to present those claims in court without this act," Stam said recently.

    Diminished faith


    The People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, an organization based in Chapel Hill, plans to gather in Raleigh on Monday to further their calls for repeal of the death penalty.

    In response to information contained in the Racial Justice Act bias claims and the SBI audit, the Rev. William Barber, head of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, has called for prayer, reflection and change. Last week, Barber sent a letter to the governor; Roy Cooper, the state attorney general who oversees the SBI; and key leaders in the state legislature and courts.

    "For those of us who view the system through a lens molded by the dark and gloomy past of legalized racial discrimination, these revelations are a disturbing reminder of the old times that are not forgotten," Barber said in his letter.

    (source: The Sun News)

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    NC court to hear case on death penalty process

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The state Supreme Court will hear arguments that could help determine the future of the death penalty in North Carolina.

    Oral arguments are scheduled for Monday in a case involving five death row inmates who say the Council of State failed to follow correct procedure when adopting a new set of guidelines for executions.

    An administrative law judge ordered the council, which consists of all statewide elected officials, to revise the policy. But the council declined, and a Wake County Superior Court judge ruled the administrative court lacked the jurisdiction to make its ruling.

    Ken Rose with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation represents 1 of the inmates. He says he's confident the case will ultimately prevail.

    No one has been executed in North Carolina since 2006.

    http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=14234218

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