Iowa hasn’t had a death penalty in over 50 years but public outrage over the deaths of two girls has spurred a new effort to re-institute capital punishment in Iowa.

The governor is fine with it, but it’s a state senator named Kent Sorenson that is spearheading the effort to get a capital punishment statute back on the books.  There’s a lot of emotion driving this issue up in Iowa after the bodies of cousins Elizabeth Collins ( 8 years old ) and Lyric Cook-Morrissey (10 years old), missing since July 2012, were recently found.  

Hunters discovered their remains this week in a wooded area near Evansdale, Iowa.  No arrests have been made, no persons of interest identified.  Currently, a reward for information is being offered in the amount of $150,000.00.  

Sorenson plans on introducing the bill in January 2013.  Whether or not he has the votes to get it out of the statehouse and to the governor’s desk for signature is not so clear: the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee doesn’t think Sorenson can get those votes.

We’ll see.  

In Texas not too long ago, Charles Dean Hood lost his appeal for a new trial to the highest state court even though he had evidence that his defense counsel was unaware that at the time of Hood’s criminal trial the judge presiding over that case, Judge Verna Sue Holland, was having an affair with the prosecutor in that trial, Thomas S. O’Connell, Jr.

Read details about it here, at the exceptional Texas blog, Grits for Breakfast.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, where Judge Holland later presided, ruled that Mr. Hood should have raised the issue in his initial appeal and even though the lower court had ruled he deserved a new trial, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals nixed it. 

Now, in Florida, there’s a similar situation.  Florida Judge Ana Gardiner communicated with the prosecutor in a 2007 capital case while the death penalty trial of Omar Loureiro was ongoing, and the defense counsel wasn’t aware this was happening. 

Gardiner resigned as judge in 2010 so the Judicial Misconduct complaint filed against her went nowhere.  Right now, she’s dealing with the Florida Bar Association’s disciplinary proceedings and last week, there was a two day inquiry (see the video feed provided by the Sun Sentinel online). 

Seems that the trial judge and the prosecutor in the Florida case are not portraying their relationship as a love affair, but instead a close friendship where each was supporting the other through difficult times.  This involved 949 phone calls and 471 text messages over the course of the death penalty trial. 

The Florida Bar Report on the prosecutor recommended a suspension – we’ll know soon enough what will happen to Judge Gardiner. 

Terry and I had discussed posting on another matter this week, but this YouTube video literally made me nauseous as tears ran down my face so we’ll be posting on that news story next week and we’re sharing this with you today.

Please watch this and think about what it means to serve time on Death Row — and how horrific this is for any human being, but especially for those who are unjustly accused and innocent:

 

 

We’ve covered the case of the West Memphis Three here on the blog in a series of posts going back over the years and in the past month, we’ve had several posts urging people to see the documentary based upon this Death Row case out of Arkansas, "West of Memphis."  No need to go back over those details here. 

Today, Terry Lenamon shares with you his thoughts on this documentary, which he has already seen in an advanced screening up at the New York Law School.  The film is scheduled for a national release in late December.  Please go see it.

Now, from Terence Lenamon, his personal thoughts on this film:

________________

 

In a perfect world each of us has a guardian angel.  

Damien Echol’s angel is Lorri Davis.

Without her, Damien would have been a casualty of a flawed and imperfect justice system. He would clearly have been executed.  An innocent man — a mere eighteen years old at the time of his sentence of death, and destined to be dead at the hands of the Arkansas justice system .

Tragedy passing at the expense of fear- driven justice, the new documentary “West of Memphis” tells that story.  I think that Amy Berg (Director), Peter Jackson, (Producer) and Damien Echols should provide this movie to every Judge, Prosecutor and Defense Attorney as a roadmap on both what should and should not be done in capital cases.  

Peter Jackson and Amy Berg do a wonderful job taking us on this long journey that begins with the horrific murder of three young boys and ends in the release of three innocent men almost two decades later.

It is an emotional roller coaster that highlights bad lawyering, overzealous law enforcement, a fear driven community bent on justice, good lawyering, and a very expensive, resource driven defense team that proves money does make a difference.

Both Dennis Riordan and Stephan Braga do a wonderful job at laying the foundation to obtain the release of these men. Barry Scheck lends a hand in helping create law related to DNA testing in Clintonville.

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh selflessly provide a piece of their $300 million dollar net worth to sharpen the defense attack on injustice with the likes of Eddie Vedder, Johnny Depp, and company dirtying their hands in the face of controversy, never veering from the pursuit of justice.

In all, this deeply touching, yet frightening examination of a broken system, makes clear one undisputable point: when you mix the taking of a life by a justice system with imperfect human fragilities, you can expect nothing less than tragedy.  

For those who practice in my world let us not forget that Death is Different. Let us not forget.

–          — Terry Lenamon | November 24, 2012

 

Terry Lenamon went to see the early screening of the new documentary West of Memphis in New York City (see our earlier post) and he’ll be sharing his experiences here in a later post … meanwhile, Terry’s very excited about spreading the word about this film and generating public awareness about this case.

It’s opening around the country on Christmas Day 2012.  Please plan on going to see it.

Here’s a trailer for West of Memphis:

 

 

 

The West Memphis Three were freed a little over a year ago after lots of support and efforts to make the public aware of what was happening to these three men.  Major public figures from Johnny Depp to Oliver Stone to Ozzy Osborne all worked to bring justice in this case (details and background here). 

Now, a documentary based on the story of the West Memphis Three is being released, entitled "West of Memphis," opening on December 25, 2012, in both Los Angeles and New York City. 

Terry Lenamon has been invited to special screenings of Peter Jackson’s film, co-produced by Fran Walsh and Damiel Echols, at the New York Law School on November 17, where the documentary will be shown as well as a panel discussion involving those involved in the film as well as the lawyers in the underlying case.  It’s being presented as part of the New York Law School’s Program in Law and Journalism as a program entitled "Justice Lost: the Fight to Free Damien  Echols." 

Terry extends his thanks to Stacey Berkowitz Ranere, Vice President of Rubenstein Associates, Inc. for the invitation and he also wants to help promote this new documentary to those interested in capital punishment and death penalty issues, both here and aboard. 

Please click on the image for details about the film from IMDb:

 

Terence Lenamon filed the following motion, his co-counsel David Markus argued the motion, and now Florida Circuit Court Judge Victoria Sigler has granted their motion regarding the unconstitutionality of Florida Statute 27.5304 – striking the law as unconstitutional.

Here is the Order (read the Motion with its briefing online in the Terence Lenamon Online Library):

 

The Eleventh Circuit has stayed the execution of Florida Death Row inmate John Ferguson, a paranoid schizophrenic, a day after it vacated its previous stay and sent Ferguson’s attorneys rushing to the U.S. Supreme Court for emergency action. 

Read the Order that stopped the October 23, 2012, execution here.

These are temporary holds while more legal arguments are made.  It’s still a very good possibility that Mr. Ferguson will be executed by the State of Florida despite being seriously mentally ill. 

Perhaps the ABA pointing out that there are basic constitutional rights to be considered here made a difference?  Here, the press statement released by American Bar Association President Laurel Bellows on the day that John Ferguson was set to die this week:

Statement of Laurel Bellows, President, American Bar Association, Re: Execution of John Ferguson

WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 23, 2012 – The American Bar Association is alarmed that Florida is poised to execute John Ferguson, a man diagnosed as severely mentally ill for more than 40 years, before the constitutionality of his execution is fully evaluated. Although a district court evidentiary hearing regarding Ferguson’s competency is scheduled for Friday, that could be too late: His execution could occur as soon as today.

A federal trial judge had stayed Ferguson’s execution and ordered the hearing to afford “full, reflective consideration” of Ferguson’s constitutional claims; however, that stay has now been lifted by the court of appeals. In the interest of justice, it is imperative that Ferguson’s execution be again stayed until there is an opportunity for the federal courts to fully review his insanity claims on the merits and thus ensure that his execution will be constitutional. To do otherwise would be to risk a terrible miscarriage of justice — one that can never be undone.

As I type this, the latest news on Florida Death Row Inmate John Ferguson is that he has ordered, and may be eating right now, a last meal of a chicken sandwich and sweet tea. 

Or maybe that’s already happened, and he’s being prepared for execution.

The United States Supreme Court holds this man’s life in his hands.  His attorneys have filed for stays of execution before the Highest Court in the Land after the U.S. District Court granted a stay of execution and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that stay.

Ferguson is set to die today. 

Ferguson is a diagnosed schizophrenic and has been known to be severely mentally ill for most of his lifetime.

Will a man who is mentally ill be executed today?  Highly likely – the Supreme Court has already turned down 2 of his 3 filings.

 Image: Florida Dept of Corrections