1 20 60 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/1e88ba54e92ebceed38552667be7e580.jpg 4875f5318751eeeebb812c482336507a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Florida Courts Delayed by Controversy Over Death Penalty Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-11-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .jpg Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Death Penalty Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Marbin, Carol Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant The jurisdiction of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Description An account of the resource . Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Palm Beach Post Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document For eight years the small crossroads town of Lake City has focused its outrage toward Starke, the prison town where Theodore Bundy awaits Florida's electric chair for the brutal murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Diane Leach. But Tuesday, Lake City turned its anger to Atlanta, where a three judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the execution of Bundy, scheduled for that day. Lake City--and indeed, much of Florida, was still stinging from an 11th-hour stay granted Bundy by the Atlanta appeals court in July for his conviction in the murders of two Chi Omega sorority sisters at Florida State University. "I'm very hard pressed to explain to the average person on the street how our system can allow situations such as this," said State Attorney Jerry Blair, who prosecuted Bundy in the Leach slaying. "We've got some judicial activists there, and they are certainly perceived to have a bias toward death penalty cases, and the public is getting very frustrated." The 18 judges who sit on the 11th Circuit bench, which hears federal appeals from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, have withstood much greater pressure--including a petition drive seeking the ouster of three of its members. In October, the House Judiciary Committee declined to recommend the impeachment of 11th Circuit Judges Frank Johnson, Thomas Clark and R. Lanier Anderson. The committee decided for the first time that federal judges could not be impeached on the basis of an unpopular judicial decision. The decision granted a new trial to two men sentenced to die in Georgia's electric chair for killing <br /><br />[end page]<br /><br />[start page]<br /><br />six members of the Alday family in Seminole County. It so outraged rural South Georgia that 100,000 people signed petitions seeking the impeachment of Johnson, Clark, and Anderson. Mike Mello is a defense attornry who has represented both Bundy and Nollie Lee Martin, convicted in the 1977 rapw and murder of a Boynton Beach convenience store clerk. Mello says he fears that outrage may have a "chilling effect" on the appeals court's independence. "That's the very reason why federal judges are appointed for life," Mello said. "The purpose is to remove the business of judging--especially judging emotionally laden, intense cases--from the political fray." Since the administration of Gov. Ruben Askew, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued 25 stays of execution for Florida death row inmates, compared to 18 stays from state circuit judges, 30 from the Florida Supreme Court, 54 by federal district court judges, eight from the U.S. Supreme C ourt and three from Gov. Bob Graham. The 25 stays are not a high proportion. Still, the appeals court's last minute stay of execution for Bundy--a former law student once accused of as many as 36 murders--prompted some people in the governors office to refer to the appeals court as a kind of bottleneck, slowing the process toward execution. "It's not kind of a bottleneck; it is a bottleneck," said Art Wiedinger, general counsel to Graham. Wiedinger suggested the Atlanta-based appeals court --and most of the federal court system--practices a kind of "legal fly-specking" that obscures the more important question of guilt or innocence in capital cases. "Most of the issues raised don't go to the search for truth or whether the person did it," Wiedinger said. "I'm not saying these are not important cases that need to be reviewed. But they are automatically reviwed by the Florida Supreme Court, and they don't need three or four or five reviews, which is the way we are now going." Graham said last week: "One thing that distinguishes a capital case from all other cases is that the accused has a strong interest in delay. "If one is serving 20 years for armed robbery, yu've got an incentive to want to expedite your appeal, because, if you're successful, you may get out of jail or get a new trial. In capital cases, people don't want to have finality because, if the finality is against them, they are going to be executed." Graham said the system must be changed, or "the whole process is going to be jammed." But Professor Steven Winter of the University of Miami Law School blames politicians, not judges, for the logjam of federal death appeals. Borrowing a metaphor from death penalty advocates, Winter argued that Graham has created the bottleneck himself by attempting to force more capital cases into the federal court pipeline than it was designed to handle. Graham signs as many as four death warrants every month. "There's a real question concerning the extent to which the system in Florida is affected by political concerns," Winter said. Three judges from the 11th Circuit expressed the same concern last month when--during oral arguments--they accused the Florida Attorney General's office of playing politics in its handling of Ted Bundy's Chi Omega murder case. In response, Attorney General Jim Smith charged that the three judges "verbally abused" Assistant Attorney General Gregory Costas and asked Chief Justice William Rehnquist to investigate the Oct. 23 incident. "These reported remarks were unwarranted and a significant departure from judicial impartiality," Smith charged in an Oct. 30 letter to Rehnquist. "I am especially at the court's hinting that, somehow, the state's position was more political than legal." Citing the incident, Blair, the Lake City prosecutor, suggested judges in the 11th Circuit have used their bench as a soapbox from which to fight capital punishment. "Unfortunately, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has a well-deserved reputation as a bastion of liberalism populated by people who have a philosophical disagreement with capital punishment and who use their public forum in court to promote their views on capital punishment," Blair said. "They are perceived in the eyes of many as frustrating the will of the people and, really, frustrating the criminal justice system." Criticism of the 11th Circuit's political philosophy dates back more than 20 years, before the circuit was even created. In 1981, the old 5th Circuit Court of Appeals--which included most of the Deep South--was split in half, with Florida, Georgia and Alabama joining the new 11th Circuit. Frank Johnson, who has sat on eight panels that granted stays to Florida death row inmates, cut his teeth judicially while a U.S. District Court judge in Montgomery Ala. Alabama Gov. George Wallace feuded bitterly with Johnson over his efforts to desegregate Alabama's public schools. Circuit Judge Elbert Tuttle, now on senior status, was one of a four member bloc of the old 5th Circuit--chronicled in former Circuit Judge Jack Bass's book Unlikely Heroes--who regularly challenged the Deep South's most well-rooted traditions, paticularly segregation. Tuttle and Johnson, who is a former U.S. Attorney, are considered by death penalty advocates and opponents to be members of a core of 11th Circuit Court judges with reservations about capital punishment. Still, many of the 11th Circuit's written opinions display not so much distaste for the death sentence as a desire that the ultimate penalty be administered fairly, Mello believes. Circuit Judge Joseph Hatchett, for instance, dissented from a decision not to hear the appeal of John Eldon Smith, condemned for the execution-style murder of a Bibb County, Ga., couple. Hatchett argued it was unfair for Smith to die when his wife, Rebecca, was given a life sentence for the same crime. Called the "death court" by Mello, the 11th Circuit hears more appeals from condemned inmates than any other--almost a third of the nation's total. "The 11th Circuit is an excruciatingly painful position because of the number of death cases it has to deal withcompared to any other circuit," said Bruce Winick, University of Miami Law School professor. "Judges in the 11th Circuit feel it in their bones, because these are the hardest cases." Some members of the legal system--including Graham, Smith, Blair and Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers--support legislation that would set a two-year limit on habeas corpus petitions, thus allowing death row inmates two years after they are sentenced to appeal in federal court. "The federal courts, in effect, have been called upon to make virtually unrestricted review of state court convictions," Bowers said. "As long as that is the case, there will be an interminable delay in ultimately resolving death penalty cases."<br /><br />[image - Frank Johnson]<br /><br />[image - Elbert Tuttle]<br /><br />[image caption - Appeals court judges Framk Johnson (left) and Elbert Tuttle.] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Enos, Dan Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Death court' creates bottleneck of execution appeals, critics say Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Subject The topic of the resource Bundy, Theodore 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Capital punishment Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Description An account of the resource A newspaper account of the frustration felt by death penalty advocates at the slow appeals process, which they felt played into death row inmates motivation to extend their lives using drawn out appeals. The focus is on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which handled a disproportionately high number of death penalty appeals. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-11-23 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Palm Beach Post 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals death penalty Elbert Tuttle Frank Johnson Kimberly Diane Leach Mike Mello stay of execution Ted Bundy Theodore Bundy https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/b3e7299702f701899ea2492ef3485081.jpg c7d1d88464d3a51929568eae2e43ac4b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 25 Innocent People Executed Since 1900, ACLU Study Claims Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michael Romaner Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Florida Times-Union Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Thursday, November 14, 1985 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/437dba2c13cf3299fe2780eaff20cb37.jpg ab8011cab891ba2be2184cde22fe635d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document GAINESVILLE – The American Civil Liberties Union is hoping to rekindle the death-penalty debate with the release of a study yesterday claiming that at least 343 innocent people have been convicted of murder and other capital crimes since 1900. Professors Hugo Adam Bedau of Tufts University, a longtime opponent of capital punishment, and Michael L. Radelet of the University of Florida said they were convinced that of the 7,000 individuals executed in this century, 25 were erroneously convicted – including a man executed in Florida last year. Radelet said he and Bedau had to use their own judgment in determining innocence because “the states never admit putting a man to death by mistake.” The list include such famous defendants as Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, anarchists who were executed in 1927 for killing a paymaster and his guard; Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953 after the conviction for selling atomic secrets to the Soviet Union; and Bruno Richard Hauptmann, electrocuted in 1936 for the murder of the infant son of aviator Charles A. Lindbergh. All three cases spawned a host of contradictory studies of whether the convictions were justified. The research, presented yesterday to a national conference of criminologists in San Diego, also listed 19 people on Death Row it said came within 72 hours of being executed when their innocence was discovered. And many other victims of injustices spent years in prison in capital cases, the professors said. “Since 1900, there have been innocent people on Death Row nearly every year,” Radelet said. “Based on that, I would bet every cent I’ve got that there are innocent people on Death Row today.” About 1,600 prisoners are on Death Row in the United States according to the American Civil Liberties Union. “These horrible facts are dramatic proof of the ongoing fallibility of our death-sentencing laws,” said Henry Schwarzschild, director of the ACLU’s capital punishment project. “Judges, legislators and the American public are entitled to know about the unavoidable risk of executing the innocent.” Radelet and Bedau, author of The Death Penalty in America, have spent the last three years examining convictions in capital crimes. “I admit in many of these cases that had I sat on the jury, I would have found the guy guilty, also,” Radelet said yesterday. “Jurors, like the rest of us, are human beings. And human beings make mistakes.” The Radelet-Bedau study –ts 343 convictions, all but 25 of which were later overturned – not because of legal technicalities, Radelet said, but because innocence was established. Lawyers representing Death Row inmates already are preparing to use the study as a basis for defending their clients. Michael Mello, an attorney with a newly created office in Tallahassee that represents Florida’s indigent Death Row population, said yesterday he intended to file an appeal next week, based on the study, on behalf of Joe Spaziano. Gov. Bob Graham signed a death warrant last week for Spaziano, who was convicted of killing a Seminole County woman. He is scheduled to be executed Dec. 3. “Up until Mike’s study, we suspected intuitively that there were a lot of miscarriages of justice,” Mello said. “But what we now have is documentation of that.” But challenges of that documentation are likely. Last year, James Adams was executed for the murder of a Florida rancher. Radelet and Bedau contend that Adams was innocent. His case is the only instance cited in the study of an innocent man being executed in the last 20 years. Among evidence presented in the study was a statement from a witness who said he saw someone fleeing the rancher’s house and that person “was positively not Adams.” The study also indicates that hair found clutched in the victim’s hand did not match Adams’ hair. “Much of this exculpatory information was not discovered until the case was examined by a skilled investigator the month before Adams’ execution. Governor Graham, however, refused to grant even a short stay to try to resolve these questions,” the study said. Radelet said it was a difficult decision for him to include the Adams case in the study. He said he expected backlash from it, but “I really believe that James Adams was innocent.” Art Wiedinger, assistant general counsel to Graham, said he was surprised that the Adams case was included in the report. He said Graham took extreme care in handling the case and reviewed the materials Radelet referred to. “They did supply memorandum, I think, the week before the execution, and based on that review, the governor felt there was no basis to overturn the conviction,” Wiedinger said. He said that not having read the study he had no opinion on whether it might alter popular opinion on the death penalty. But he said U.S. and Florida law require the exercise of extreme caution in capital cases. “Given all those safeguards, I think that meets all the problems.” Ernest van den Haag, a Fordham University professor and one of the nation’s leading authors promoting the death penalty, said yesterday from his New York home that it should be no surprise to anyone that innocent people have been executed. “Trucks do run over innocent people once in a while. We continue to drive trucks because we feel the advantages outweigh the costs,” he said. “I should say the same is true in justice. The advantages of having the death sentence outweigh the costs of making an occasional mistake.” Van den Haag also said he did not expect the study to result in any policy changes – “none whatsoever, because anyone with common sense knows that mistakes will be made.” Radelet said he hoped the study eventually would bring about the abolition of the death penalty. But he said he would be pleased if people “will remember that the possibility of convicting innocent people is very real.” This report contains material from wire services. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 25 Innocent People Executed Since 1900, ACLU Study Claims Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Romaner, Michael Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Florida Times-Union Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-11- 14 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida Subject The topic of the resource Death penalty Capital punishment--Florida. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 jpg 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English ACLU Florida https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8a511095d19e3fde76afbbd768ab042e.jpg bbae588c2ddf046545cd601a100865f9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A letter from death row Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Subject The topic of the resource The prospect of capital punishment Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Newspaper Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpg. Language A language of the resource English Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Let me ask a favor. Take a couple of minutes, if you will, to read a letter from Joe Giarratano. He is on death row in Virginia’s prison at Boydton. On Oct. 1 the Supreme Court turned down his last appeal. His legal roads have run out. If Gov. Doug Wilder refuses to intervene, Joe will be executed before the end of the year. By way of background: On the unchallenged record, Joe Giarratano was the product of a sordid childhood. He had a limited high school education. Those facts do not excuse, but they help to explain. In February 1979, when this sad chapter began, Giarratano was 21 years old, a drug addict, a drunkard, and a drifter working on a fish boat. The ugly details of the crime are now irrelevant. Joe was charged and convicted of the rape-murder of a 15-year-old girl and the murder of her mother. The only evidence against him came from five separate confessions he signed in the hours immediately after the arrest. The confessions were internally inconsistent: they smacked of police coaching. Following a brief non-jury trial, a judge sentenced him to death. That was almost 12 years ago. He has been spent his time studying law and remaking his life. I learned of the case three years ago. I spent hours reading the record and came away deeply troubled. I’m not sure Joe is guilty: I’m not sure he is innocent; but I’ve spent 50 years covering courts and I am certain of this: He was not convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Now to the letter. It is dated Oct. 8, 1990: “I truly appreciate the efforts you have made on my behalf, and for bringing my plight to the attention of the public through your columns. Knowing that folks really care has been boon for my morale.” “Overall I am holding up well, and I remain hopeful. The news from the U.S. Supreme Court came as a surprise, though it is terribly frustrating to see that procedural default mechanisms can outweigh the truth-finding process in such obdurate fashion.” “Even though I understand the judiciary’s frustration with the capital cases, I really find it impossible to reconcile that imbalance with the Constitution (state or federal). The ball is now in the governor’s court, and I can only hope that he will exercise his executive authority.” “In the meanwhile my chin is up, and I keep fairly busy. I’ve recently completed an article for the Yale Law Journal. It is in the final editing stages. And I in the process of co-authoring another law review with Professor Mike Mello (Vermont Law School). The subject is the ‘forgotten’ Ninth Amendment of our Constitution.” “Early in November, 50 law students from Georgetown and Maryland will be coming to the prison, and I plan to talk to them about the Ninth Amendment and Lockean political theory and its role in the formation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” “I’ve given two talks like this in the past, and I was amazed to discover how little is known about the historical underpinnings of the Constitution.” A personal note: I am not opposed to the death sentence. Given a killer in the weird mold of Ted Bundy, I see no reason for society to keep such a monster alive. The prospect of capital punishment may not be a deterrent to rape or murder – I doubt that it is, but that issue defies resolution. In truly heinous cases, a death sentence ought to be available to a jury as an option. But let me ask: what would be the point in killing Joe Giarratano now? In all my instincts I am a man of the law. But Joe was convicted 12 years ago by a single trial judge on evidence of doubtful reliability. The confused, suicidal drug addict of 1979 is gone. In his place one finds a young man with a good mind and a healthy outlook on life. How would killing him avenge the victims or sustain respect for judicial process? Some useful purpose ought to be served by putting Joe to death. I see no useful purpose at all. Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Hunter-Sowers, Ruby Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A letter from death row Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kilpatrick, James K Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Description An account of the resource A newspaper article regarding capital punishment which includes a letter written by death row inmate Joe Giarratano. The Ninth Amendment is referenced addressing constitutional law and the existence of "unenumerated" rights outside those expressly protected by the Bill of Rights. Giarratano references in his letter the Lokean political theory which provides additional inquiry. Columnist James K. Kilpatrick expresses concern with the brief, non-jury trial, Giarratano had along with a case for reasonable doubt. Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990-10-08 capital punishment Joe Giarratano Joseph Giarratano Mike Mello Ninth amendment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/e6569123c9d6ae959df8c19a53c878f4.jpg a7d828c725c2ffd5de6022449efc3c67 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8004526b1d6c81f08f712bb3ef0c928f.jpg 3b4a81450b5ba81ae80b710f8efc04cb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper article Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) Vol. 27 Issue No. 117 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Hall, Jennafer Text Any textual data included in the document [[Image]] Death Row inmate Paul Edward Magill: ‘I’ve been here for 11 years almost and more people have gotten off Death Row than have been executed – many more.’ [[end page]] Since Paul Edward Magill was sentenced to death in 1977, his lawyers have been trying to prevent him from becoming the first person in 34 years to be executed in Florida for a crime committed while a juvenile. The Florida Supreme Court twice reviewed his case, once in 1980 and again 1983. Both times Magill, who committed first-degree murder when he was 17, came out the loser. By the time he was 26, the governor had signed two death warrants against Magill, who was convicted of robbing, kidnapping, raping and murdering a store clerk in Marion County. His lawyers, however, haven’t let up, inundating appellate courts with an avalanche of briefs and pleadings in an effort to keep him out of Florida’s electric chair. Two weeks ago, they succeeded. On May 5, a Marion county jury overturned Magill’s death sentence and recommended life. The following day, the judge, William T Swingert, approved the recommendation and signed an order sentencing Magill to life, which carries a mandatory 25-year minimum term in Florida. According to one of his attorneys, Michael A. Mello, an assistant professor at Vermont Law School, who along with Clearwater lawyer Patrick D. Doherty defended Magill, he could be eligible for parole in 13 years, having already served 12 years in prison. Magill’s age at the time of the killing played no part in his life sentence. Although the U.S. Supreme Court in November heard a case, William Wayne Thompson v. State of Oklahoma, on the constitutionality of executing juveniles convicted of capital crimes, it has yet to rule. Sentencing ‘prejudice’ Instead, Magill’s resentencing was prompted by a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 11th Circuit. In 1987, the federal appeals court held that Magill’s sentencing proceeding was prejudiced by his trial lawyer’s ineffectiveness during the penalty phase of the first trial and by the jury’s failure to consider mitigating circumstances. The 11th Circuit found that the jury in Magill’s first trial was limited to consideration of five factors enumerated in the Florida Statutes. But the U.S. Supreme Court concluded in a 1987 case, Hitchcock v. Dugger, that the Constitution precludes imposing the death penalty where “… the advisory jury was instructed not to consider, evidence of non-statutory circumstances.” The 11th Circuit, therefore, remanded the case for a new trial on Magill’s sentence. During the new sentencing phase, the defense put on Magill’s family, three psychologists and a criminologist. Magill also took the stand. This time, only four of the 12 jurors voted for the death penalty. To recommend death, seven of the 12 must vote for it. Mello says that the outcome proves that when a jury is allowed to hear all the factors that mitigate defendant’s criminal behavior, the result is significantly different. “It shows that Hitchcock error really matters. It’s not just a technicality. It’s the difference between life and death.” “The theme of the defense was that this was an impulsive act done by a kid,” Mello said. “But he was a screwed-up kid who was not only chronologically a minor, but in terms of emotions was much younger than this stage can be – and Paul entered adolescence emotionally impaired. A psychologist who testified at the trial and had examined him when he was 12, likened Paul to a car with defective brakes rolling down a hill. He said that at age 12 Paul was troubled and predicted that it would only be compounded when Paul entered adolescence.” Magill had been arrested twice for indecent exposure by the time he was 15, and for shoplifting at 16. He frequently ran away from home and, according to his mother’s testimony at the first trial, tried to slash his wrists when his father wouldn’t buy him a motorcycle. Mello said evidence that the jury previously had been precluded from acting upon made a difference. The jury was allowed to hear how remorseful Magill felt and heard evidence establishing that he acted impulsively. “When Paul was testifying at the first trial, his lawyer asked him about remorse,” Mello said. “The prosecutor objected that remorse wasn’t in the statute as a mitigating factor. The court sustained the objection and told the jury not to consider remorse because remorse wasn’t listed in the statute.” Mello noted that the first jury was allowed to hear evidence about his impulsive actions but they weren’t allowed to give it independent weight. “The problem was that the jury was instructed that they could only consider that kind of evidence insofar as that evidence was probative of the two statutory mental or emotional distress,” he said. “Eight out of 12 members of the jury bought the argument that he was distraught the argument that he was doing,” said John C. Moore, Ocala State attorney and one of the prosecutors in the case. “We were basically left with an old case. The defense spent a lot of time and money on the case. We don’t agree with the verdict, but we’ve got to live with it.” Last December, Magill told The Review that he didn’t expect to die. “I’ve been here for 11 years almost and more people have gotten off Death Row than have been executed – many more,” Magill said. “And that’s going to continue until eventually I think it’s going to be abolished.” He said he had come to understand himself better, but he didn’t understand why he had been on Death Row for so long. “There have been times when I’ve been in depressed moods wondering what’s taking so long. I’m really grateful for the opportunity because the time here has been a rebuilding process for me. It’s taught me a great deal and I think I needed to be forced to sit down and learn.” Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appeals ruling key to death sentence: Inmate leaves Death Row for life term Subject The topic of the resource Housen, Christine Magill, Paul E. Florida. Supreme Court. Mello, Michael A. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Housen, Christine Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Broward Review Newspaper Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-05-16 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida Description An account of the resource Paul Edward Magill was sentenced to death for crimes he committed as a juvenile. He went through many trials with many appeals. He is now withstanding the last trial to determine his fate. Magill stated that more people had gotten off Death Row than had been executed and that he should be allowed life. Christine Housen Death Row Florida Supreme Court Michael A. Mello Paul Edward Magill The Broward Review https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/7ce55e29fe10a71c17fa2aaf0b1ddc9e.jpg ddce2c6ed0eba93c18a7638b20ee2a88 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document The Florida Bar will lobby for removing judges’ power to override juries to impose death penalties and for appointing all trial judges, as part of its 1986 legislative program. <br /><br />The Bar’s Trial Lawyers Section will also support increasing juror compensation. The Board of Governors delayed a decision on a constitutional amendment to abolish residency requirements for Supreme Court justices. <br /><br />The Board of Governors adopted those positions, among others, at its January 9-10 meeting in Orlando. <br /><br />The proposal to change the state law allowing judges to override jury recommendations of life imprisonment came from the Bar’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Committee. <br /><br />Committee member Michael Mello said the jury better represents community feelings about a crime and the present law “increases chances innocent people will be executed.” <br /><br />He quoted jurors as saying in some cases, “We thought the state’s evidence was strong enough to convict, but not strong enough to impose the ultimate penalty.”<br /><br />Mello, who works for the state Office of the Capital Collateral Representative, which represents death row inmates, added “For the last 12 years, the [Florida] Supreme court has overruled between two-thirds and three-quarters of the cases involving jury overrides.”<br /><br />The Board approved the position by a 21-7 vote challenge at subsequent elections. <br /><br />The residency requirements were extensively debated, with the Board initially rejecting a recommendation it lobby for the amendment, leaving it without a formal position. But when the Trial Lawyers Section asked permission to lobby for the measure, the Board first voted to oppose the amendment and then defeated a motion to allow the section to lobby for it anyway. <br /><br />The Board finally voted to send the topic back to the Legislation Committee and the Trial Lawyers Section for more study. <br /><br />“I feel on this important issue, we should take more time,” said Orlando Board member Chandler R. Muller, as he moved to send the issue back to the committee. <br /><br />Some Board members argued allowing the Trial Lawyers Section to support the measure even though the Board opposed it would help explain to legislator how the Bar works. But other Board members replied it would only confuse lawmakers and lessen the Bar’s effectiveness. <br /><br />“It’s ridiculous for us to take a position on this Board and allow a section to take a position opposite to that,” Miami Board member Alan T. Dimond said. <br /><br />On other matters the Board: <br /> <ul> <li>Approved a Trial Lawyers Section recommendation to support increasing juror compensation from $10 to $25 a day, with the funds coming rom higher filing fees. The Board also approved a section recommendation to draw juror pools from driver license lists as well as voter registration rolls.</li> <li>Approved a Family Law Section an estate by the entirely unless stated differently in the mortgage. The Board also allowed the section to oppose a bill easing commercial mortgage foreclosure restrictions. The section found the bill too broad for the stated purpose of making it simpler to foreclose on some condominium projects.</li> <li>Supported Tax Section requests it be allowed to support several bills, ranging from creating a division of tax policy in the state Department of Revenue to barring tax collectors from enforcing any but good faith payments until property tax disputes are resolved.</li> <li>Approved allowing the Trial Lawyers Section to lobby in Congres against federal products liability legislation.</li> <li>Failed, by a 15-12 vote, to support a proposed ABA recommendation calling for a federal intercircuit panel to resolve disputes between federal circuit courts without a Supreme Court appeal. A two-thirds Board vote is required to approve such a legislative position. <br /><br />The Board also took no position on creation of a chief administrative judge for the federal system. Both the intercircuit panel and administrative judge have been sought by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger and will be considered by the ABA at its midyear meeting. The Board will again consider legislative positions, including the controversial proposed modification of the Marketable Record Title Act (see related story elsewhere in the News) at its March 19-22 meeting in Tampa. Also on the agenda will be Bar responses to proposed state legislation to change the tort system, including the modification or repeal of joint and several liability. </li> </ul> Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bar favors eliminating judicial death penalty override Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Florida Bar News Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-02-01 Language A language of the resource English Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Blankenship, Gary Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment--Florida. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpg 300 dpi https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/d0cebe52e1aa7c657c1440831af060f7.jpg 63075d7e9c466603b4da75e4d5ff3f42 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Miguel Richardson bears little resemblance to the securities brokers and corporate raiders that Steven Rosenfeld, a partner in Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has always represented. Mr. Richardson, convicted of the murders of two Holiday Inn security guars in San Antonio, has been on death row in Texas since 1982. "From the point of view of a typical corporate attorney this is an entirely different clientele," Mr. Rosenfeld said. "This sort of population is not the most popular in society and there is certain reservation about doing this sort of work in the minds of a lot of people. But it's hard to pick a group of people who needs help more but have less access to it." To an uncommon extent, many of the nation's most prestigious corporate law firms are volunteering for duty in a difficult area of criminal: capital punishment. Some, like Paul, Weiss, have represented death row inmates before but are doing so more often. Many others, especially in the South and West are taking on such cases for the first time. Represented All the Way The movement is a response to an acute shortage of criminal lawyers for capital appeals. While the defendants have a constitutional right to legal representation at trial and through at least one appeal, there is no constitutional right to a lawyer through the long process of appealing a death sentence all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Many states have mechanisms to provide representation for death row appeals, but there are not enough defense lawyers to go around, according to prosecutors, prisoner rights organizations and many judges. The entry of leading, corporate law firms into death row appeals has brought complaints from some prosecutors who are annoyed by the delays and long legal briefs that the civil litigators have brought to this criminal matter. But the influx of sharp new minds is also welcomed in the Have taken capital cases since last October. While most of the participating corporate lawyers have little or no experience in the field, experts say training and resources and often the sheer love of challenge, more than compensates. Yale Kamisar, a leading constitutional scholar at the University of Michigan law school, said inexperience in death penalty appeals could even be an advantage in opening the way to novel approaches. "People in private law firms coming insights experienced criminal lawyers would not," Professor Kamisar said. "A civil lawyer who takes a capital case is more likely to get fired up and think of every conceivable argument he can make." Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Big firms offer death row defense Subject The topic of the resource Death Row Defense Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived New York Times Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource July 8, 1988 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Michigan Description An account of the resource Big law firms offer lawyers to defend people on death row https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/7f030f83ba04faaf213746b89f90d0e2.jpg 5c67be9d69f1c17bb7778bb69e9941fe Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available History 298, University of Mary Washington Language A language of the resource English Title A name given to the resource Delays On Death Row: Booker Appeals Frustrate Lawyer https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/1a76b91ba8ade2d5e5e2390881be825b.jpg ec2c8f951ce45f3979ec6ac91cbc9ec7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Gainesville-In the office of First Assistant State Attorney Ken Herbert is a file called "The Lady and the Beast." The file sits with other papers and photographs in one drawer of a black, metal filing cabinet devoted to a murder committed almost 11 years ago. The "lady" was a 94-year-old Lorine Demoss Harman, a Gainesville widow. The "Beast" is a Stephen Todd Booker, now 35, a death row inmate at Florida State Prison. He is scheduled to be executed Sept. 20 for the murder, but has an appeal pending before federal district court in Tallahassee. Inmate Freddie Lee Hall is also scheduled to be electrocuted on that date. Herbert used "The Lady and the Beast" title to outline the tragic differences between Harman and Booker. On Nov. 9 1977, the 170-pound Booker raped, beat, stabbed and killed the 90-pound Harman in her apartment. Booker, a drifter, had broken into Harman's apartment and was ransacking it when Harman returned home. The differences extend even after Harman's death. Alone, Harman probably only had minutes to fight desperately for her life. With several lawyers, Booker has had years to fight for his life through an exhaustive series of appeals that continued this week. In his latest appeal, argued before federal district Judge Maurice Paul in Tallahassee on Monday, Booker's attorneys said his death sentence was unconstitutional because the jury wasn't allowed to consider some mitigating evidence such as Booker's history of psychological problems and drug addiction. Paul has yet to rule on the appeal, but one of Booker's attorneys said he expects Booker will survive his fourth death warrant and his death sentence will be overturned. Attorney Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School, said the 1987 Supreme Court decision Hitchcock v. Dugger will work in Booker's favor. That decision, delivered by Justice Antonin Scalia for a unanimous court, overturned a death sentence for inmate James Hitchcock, who was convicted of murdering his step niece. The court ruled his death sentence was unconstitutional because some mitigating evidence, such as Hitchcock's family background, was not considered by the jury. Mello said the Booker jury was also limited in the mitigating evidence it could consider during the 1978 trial. For Herbert, who prosecuted the case, the 10 years of appeals represented an abuse of the judicial system. Booker already has appealed his death sentence unsuccessfully on several different issue in several different courtrooms. For Booker's attorney, the appeals are the only salvation for a system they say is flawed. In addition to Mello, Booker is represented by two attorneys based in Washington, D.C. "If the death penalty is a deterrent, then most people would argue it's got to follow soon after the crime, so a message is brought forth," said Herbert in a recent interview. "At this point, I don't know how many people in Gainesville remember this case." Herbert certainly does. Every time a death warrant has been signed for Booker and every time Booker has appealed, Herbert has been notified. His files on the crime are extensive, and throughout these papers, Herbert's anger with the viciousness of the crime is apparent. Harman was stabbed nine times in her chest and received four cuts in the struggle with Booker. He left two knives embedded in her body, one in her neck and one in her chest. Before her death, she was raped. Thus far, Booker's attorney have not questioned their client's guilt in the crime. The arguments have focused on whether the proceedings in court were constitutional. Mello disputed Herbert's contention that the appeals process is being abused. "It seems to me that the system is working precisely the way it should," Mello said. "What Ken Herbert is really saying is that Booker should have been executed earlier, even though signing his death warrant was unconstitutional. That strikes me as a misguided view." But so far, Booker and his attorneys have been unable to prove the unconstitutional claim. The Florida Supreme Court, along with various circuit courts and even the U.S. Supreme court, have refused to throw out Booker's three other death warrants. Booker has survived them because those warrants have expired during earlier appeals. Herbert said he is not opposed to Booker's right to appeal, but he said the judicial system is taking too long to reach a conclusion. Almost 11 years after Harman was stabbed to death, the fate of her killer is still undermined. "People have a right to some finality in their judgments," Herbert said. "There needs to be a better process." Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Serfis, Malin Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Booker appeals frustrate lawyer Description An account of the resource A newspaper article about Todd Booker. Booker murdered a 94 year old woman and claimed that his death sentence was unconstitutional. Booker was helped by lawyers to push his death sentence. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Loughlin, Sean Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Gainesville Sun Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-09-14 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG Language A language of the resource English https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/dc13fe1e8db50c04db4756ccd50871ac.jpg 2076543b566d08a67007f78bb8e89c54 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Tallahassee- The death sentence for Stephen Todd Booker, convicted of beating, raping, and fatally stabbing a 94- year- old Gainesville widow in 1977, was overturned Friday by a federal judge who said not all mitigating evidence was considered by the jury. The state of Florida immediately filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Booker, 35, was four days away from execution when Judge Maurice Paul of the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee issued his opinion, vacating the death sentence and ordering a new sentencing hearing for him. Booker, an inmate at Florida State Prison in Starke, was on his fourth death warrant. This is the first time he has won a new hearing. The ruling has no effect on Booker’s murder conviction, only the sentencing. Earlier this week, one of Booker’s attorneys, Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School, predicted that Paul would overturn the sentence based on a 1987 Supreme Court decision, Hitchcock v. Dugger, that stated all mitigating evidence must be heard by juries in capital cases. Booker’s attorneys argued that some mitigating evidence, such as his family background, mental instability and a history of alcohol and drug problems, were not considered by the jury. Judge Paul agreed. “What the court is saying is there was a Hitchcock violation,” said Carolyn Snurkowski, assistant attorney general for the state. Part of Paul’s opinion read: “This court is cautious about speculating on the effects of errors in capital sentencing proceedings, especially in light of the discretion given to the sentencer.” Snurkowski said the state will argue there is no need for a new sentencing hearing and Booker should be executed. “The argument is: Just because this error may have occurred,… it’s not such a fundamental error that would require a resentencing proceeding,” Snurkowski said. One of Booker’s attorneys said Booker would prevail despite the state’s appeal. “The state is going to do what the state is going to do,” said James Coleman, a Washington-based attorney. “(But) I think if anyone were to look at this thing objectively, I don’t think there’s any reason for a death sentence.” Coleman said Booker would probably receive a life sentence after a new sentencing hearing. “He’s never denied it,” Coleman said of the murder. “His defense has not been innocence. It’s been a question of whether the court should have sentenced him to death.” Booker killed Lorine Demoss Harman during a savage attack in her apartment, beating her, raping her, stabbing her nine times and leaving two knives plunged in her body. A jury convicted Booker of murder in 1978 and he was sentenced to die. Coleman described Booker as “remorseful” for his crime. Coleman said he spoke with Booker after learning of the decision. “He was surprised, but very happy,” Coleman said. Booker was surprised, Coleman said, because he has failed to win any of his earlier appeals. His first death warrant was signed in 1982. Another inmate also was scheduled for electrocution on Tuesday, but the Florida Supreme Court this week issued a stay for Freddie Lee Hall. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Staneart, Kellyn Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Booker death sentence reversed: the state immediately appealed the ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Description An account of the resource The death sentence of Stephen Todd Booker was overturned because the jury did not look at all mitigating evidence. Booker was before convicted of beating, raping, and stabbing a 94 year old woman. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Loughlin, Sean Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Gainesville Sun Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-09-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Gainesville, FL Atlanta, GA appeals capital punishment Death sentence Florida Death Row Florida Supreme Court murder rape https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/58cf1ec9925b62d6faadecae8daa30bb.jpg 991d50f6138a32deca9e0bc13850dd66 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bundy is set to die at 7 a.m. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Morgan, Lucy, Nickens, Tim and Lavin, Chris Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpg Language A language of the resource English https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/a2b12937409139891d7b670554389ade.jpg 6bc0be2cbbffa9361b6d8ed5b84c586c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Scovell, Madison Text Any textual data included in the document Ted Bundy, one of the most hated men in America, prepared early this morning to die in Florida’s electric chair. Late Monday night, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 not to give Bundy a stay of execution’, frustrating lawyers who had tried every appeal they could think of in a variety of state and federal courts. “There’s no question he left a trail of horror, destroyed families,” Gov. Bob Martinez said earlier in the day. “For all that reason and more, he deserves that rendezvous tomorrow morning with the electric chair.” The execution is set for 7 a.m. “He does not want to die. He is going through a lot of agony tonight,” said James Dobson, a religious broadcaster who was one of the last people to visit Bundy. Death penalty opponents, who usually state protests against executions, were noticeable quiet this time, recognizing the particular enmity that Bundy’s name inspires. Dozens of reporters from across the country gathered in this prison town to mark the execution. Forty miles up the road, in the town where Bundy kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, many residents were waiting for Bundy’s time to run out. “Closure, that’s what we’re looking for,” said Melinda Moses, a teacher at Lake City Junior High School, where the little girl was abducted. “We want it over with, and yes, we want him dead.” Legal maneuvers The U.S. Supreme Court’s vote came at 10:30 p.m. “This is the end of the road,” said Michael Mello, a lawyer who has been helping in Bundy’s final defense. “We came one vote shy.” The decision capped a frantic day of legal maneuvers and counter moves. Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, two Florida courts had turned Bundy down. The issue before them was the same one that the Supreme Court rejected: that the judge presiding in the Leach case had improperly instructed jurors before they recommended that Bundy be sentenced to death. Bundy’s attorneys also appeared to be trying one other tack: that the years on death row had made Bundy insane. Martinez prepared for that possibility by dispatching a a three-member psychiatric team to Florida State Prison to examine Bundy if the need arose. If Bundy’s attorneys did try to claim Bundy was insane, it would be up to Martinez to decide whether to stay the execution. That prospect seemed unlikely. “In the case of Ted Bundy, he had it coming,” Martinez said after the Supreme Court ruling. “We know of no reason why he should have any stay or clemency…. We have every intention of carrying out the death penalty.” Preparations One of the last people to meet with Bundy was James Dobson, president of a family-oriented Christian ministry in California. Dobson taped an interview with Bundy on Monday afternoon. Although he will not release the tapes until after the execution, Dobson disclosed some of the contents Monday night. Dobson said that Bundy admitted killing many young women and blamed pornography for his crimes. “It became an obsession with him,” Dobson said. While Bundy was a teen-ager, he sought pornography that was increasingly violent and explicit, said Dobson, who was a member of a federal commission on pornography. As he was nearing 20, Dobson continued, Bundy started thinking about killing women, and after a year or two started following through on his urges. “He expressed great regret and remorse for what he had done,” Dobson said. Bundy also was scheduled to meet a final time with his lawyers and friends John and Marsha Tanner. Tanner is Volusia County State Attorney and active in a prison ministry. Bundy had no special requests for his last meal so prison officials were planning to give him steak, eggs and hash browns. It was to be served at 4:30 in the morning, and Bundy was to get only a spoon, the sole utensil allowed prisoners who are awaiting execution. At 6 this morning prison officials were to shave Bundy’s head and right leg, for the electrical connections, and let him take a shower. He was to put on a shirt and dark trousers; the trousers match a coat that is retained for burial. Most of his personal possessions have been stored. After the execution, they will be turned over to someone Bundy had chosen. At the end of the Leach trial, Bundy married a longtime friend named Carol Boone. Later, she had a daughter, and Bundy was said to be the father. Now a resident of Washington, neither Ms. Boone nor the girl were in Florida as the execution drew near. Convicted of three murders in Florida, Bundy spent much of the last few days confessing that he killed many more women in western states. In all, Bundy now admits at least 20 murders, investigators said. “I think he was born to kill,” said Washington state investigator Robert Keppel as he left the prison Monday. “He was just totally consumed with murder all the time. He really didn’t have time to hold a job or go to school.” Keppel, who has followed the Bundy murders since 1974, says Bundy has confessed to more murders than had previously been attributed to him. He has admitted killing 11 young women in Washington, three more than investigators have included in the list of so-called “Ted murders,” said Keppel. One of the Seattle area murders took place in May 1973, a year before the other deaths that Seattle officials have long attributed to Bundy. “He could describe things in detail,” Keppel said. “It was almost like he was just there.” Bundy found a place to dump a body in Washington and kept returning again and again with new bodies, aware each time that the police had not found the others. Bundy’s mother, Louise, who lives in Tacoma, Wash., with his stepfather, John Bundy, said the confessions were unexpected “because we have staunchly believed - and I guess we still do until we hear what he really said - that he was not guilty of any of those crimes.” “But if this is true, if Ted did do these things, and if indeed he is substantiating it with facts that he really did those things… it’s the most devastating news of our lives… “I agonize for the parents of those girls,” she said. “We have girls of our own, who are very dear to us…. Oh, it’s so terrible. I just can’t understand.” Murder victim’s hometown In Lake City, Kimberly Leach’s hometown, people appeared tired – tired of the delays in the execution and tired of having been forced to relive the 12-year-old’s murder with the signing of each death warrant. “We’ve never forgotten,” said longtime Mayor Gerald Witt. “When he’s gone there’ll be a lot of people shaking hands, exchanging high-fives and all that because they finally killed the bastard.” Down the road from that mayor’s office, junior high school Principal Robert Simmons says that today’s students, who never knew Kimberly, have been educated in a school still “paranoid” about safety. Students still are organized into a buddy system. “If you see a student alone on this campus, teachers are angry,” Simmons said. Security officers patrol the grounds, and any time a student is absent, school officials call parents immediately to determine the student’s whereabouts. Parents, too, have kept up their guard, even some who did not live here when Kimberly died. “You hear about it enough,” said Candy Palmer, who stopped to pick up her seventh-grade son Danny Monday afternoon.” Most people are very attentive about getting here on time to pick up their kids. I know I am.” Across the road from the prison, television and newspaper reporters from around the nation gathered in a former cow pasture reserved for the news media at each execution. At the last execution, there were only a few reporters. Monday, there were more than 100. There were motors homes filled with electronic gear, and at least 14 satellite discs beamed the story to distant audiences. At one point Monday, the weight of 25 microphones taped to a makeshift lectern toppled the whole thing and sent television crews scrambling. Along the state road that runs past the prison, a Jacksonville man working out of his car sold shirts that featured a drawing of Bundy strapped to the electric chair and the slogan “Bundy’s Last Charge.” The shirts cost $10 each. And two entrepreneurs, who would identify themselves only as Randy and Rick, were selling electric-chair lapel pins for $3 apiece. Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bundy is set to die at 7 a.m. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Morgan, Lucy Nickens, Tim Lavin, Chris Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Bundy, Ted Death penalty Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived St. Petersburg Times Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-01-24 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida death penalty Ted Bundy https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/8fc571872b7d99e3ecde2a025d607162.jpg 60ae4cc7268439ed2bc59100a07ca2d0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document "We're a hang 'em high state," attorney Jim Green says. And the Palm Beach County lawyer is not alone in his assessment. Florida has been dubbed the nation's capital punishment capital because of its high number of executions-13, more than any other state since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1977. <br /><br />It is not just the executions that trouble Green, who is well-known for his advocacy of controversial causes. It is a provision of Florida law that allows judges to override jury recommendations for life in capital punishment cases. Green and many others, including the Florida Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Florida Bar Association, want the law changed. They don't want judges to be able to throw out a jury's recommendation of life imprisonment and order a defendant to his or her death. <br /><br />Death cases are automatically reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court, and nearly four-fifths of the decisions to override the jury's recommendation of a life sentence have been reversed on appeal. But those who favor restrictions on the judge's right to override don't find this fact comforting. The American Civil Liberties Union, of which attorney Green is a state board member, says the current system is inefficient and expensive, not to mention "highly questionable." <br /><br />"If there can be any justification for capital punishment, it's retribution," Green says. Empirically, there is no conventional data that capital punishment acts as a deterrent. The only arguable justification in light of this is retribution. The death penalty reflects community outrage. Our system of justice placed the determination of community outrage in the hands of juries as opposed to judges.<br /><br />[image - Carolyn Susman]<br /><br />"And 93 percent of judges are white males. It seems somewhat anomalous for us to allow juries which tend to reflect a fair cross-section of the community to be overriden by a judicial system that is overwhelmingly white male." <br /><br />A bill has been filed again this year by Rep. James Burke (D-Miami) that would make a recommendation of life imprisonment binding [on the] court. Last year, the bill made it out [of] two of three Senate committees. Supporters hope that, with the backing of the Florida Bar Association this year, it will do better. <br /><br />Only three states in the nation-Florida, Alabama, and Indiana-give judges the right to override jury recommendations of life in death penalty cases. "Florida is the only state that employs the override frequently, despite the fact the Florida juries are among the most death-prone," wrote Michael Mello, in an article in the Florida State University Law Review last spring. <br /><br />Mello was on the staff of the Palm Beach County public defender's office until October, when he joined a newly formed group in Tallahassee that was created by the Legislature to ensure that inmates on death row get representation when they need it. <br /><br />So far, there is only one case in Florida where a jury override has resulted in death: Ernest Dobbert. In 1984, Dobbert was executed, despite the fact the jury had voted 10-2 for life imprisonment. Mello says two other cases, which also were overrides, are nearing the end of their appeals and a third defendant, sentenced to death the same way, "is at very serious risk." <br /><br />Palm Beach County Chief Assistant Public Defender Craig Barnard can recall only one case here where a judge overrode a jury's recommendation of life, and Barnard has been with the public defender's office since 1974. The case was that of Jackson Burch, who was found guilty in 1973 of the murder of an 18-year-old Palm Beach Junior College student, Pamela Curry. The jury override became law in 1972. <br /><br />Circuit Judge Vaughn Rudnick's decision to sentence Burch to death was reversed by the state Supreme Court in 1977. <br /><br />"This county seems fairly rational when it comes to juries and the ultimate sanction," Barnard, who specializes in death-row cases, said. <br /><br />Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Marvin Mounts Jr. employed an override in the Michael Nelson case in 1982 to sentence Nelson to life in prison, instead of death, for the murder of his wife Linda. But even though he has never used an override to reverse a recommendation for life in prison, Mounts has doubts about whether the override when life is recommended should be removed.<br /><br />"Anytime you do anything inflexible, the first case that comes along should be the exception. I've been working with juries 26, 27 years. You usually weed out the bigots in the selection process. You get good people who are conscientious and really care. But I think the Supreme Court has been good on riding herd on the imposition of the death penalty."<br /><br />[end page]<br /><br />A bill has been filed again this year by Rep. James Burke (D-Miami) that would make a recommendation of life imprisonment binding on the court.<br /><br />[image - James Burke]<br /><br />[end page] Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Dinger, Francesca Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Capital-Case Judges' Override Powers Trouble Lawyer Subject The topic of the resource Criminal law--Florida Description An account of the resource Attorney Jim Green supports a bill filed by Rep. James Burke that would overturn Florida's law which allows judges to issue death sentences against juries' recommendations. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Susman, Carolyn Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Palm Beach Post Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-02-16 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida capital punishment death penalty Florida https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/15e1242fa6cf5695a3e840123cd9eb9d.jpg d9a898249d6ca9d061c4332f3aac0111 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/59751eb600c440c496a2af70064daf4e.jpg 232962e2db48cdf964eccb9d383a44a1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document What Congress now deems "reasonable" may soon prove impossible for state police. <br /><br />Confusion within law enforcement and gun dealerships about the scope and implementation of the Brady law can be traced to language that may ultimately have to be defined by the federal courts. <br /><br />With fewer than 70 days until the law goes into effect, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) have yet to issue a coherent policy for state police to make the mandated background checks on handgun purchasers. <br /><br />At issue for police and gun dealers is a phrase that appears to only vaguely define the extent of authorities' responsibilities. <br /><br />The Brady law requires that police "shall make a reasonable effort to ascertain within five business days" whether a potential handgun purchaser has a felony in his criminal history, is a fugitive from justice, is "an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance," is an illegal alien, has been dishonorably discharged from the armed forces, has renounced U.S. citizenship, or has "been adjudicated a mental defective or been committed to a mental institution. <br /><br />Although these restrictions have existed in federal law since 1968, police have never been called upon to verify them. Each is reason enough to prohibit the transfer of a handgun. <br /><br />"Reasonableness" is a word that often finds its way into legislation and just as often signifies a compromise. "It allows all sides to claim political victory," said Michael Mello, a professor of criminal law and procedures at Vermont Law School in South Royalton. <br /><br />"That's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through," said Mello. <br /><br />Whatever victories and whatever party affiliation of the victors, some question remains about a law that might not have the legal teeth or procedural muscle to curb violent crime. <br /><br />For instance, although most state police forces remain, or are in the process of constructing, computer files of criminal histories, how can they check for an "unlawful user" of controlled substances without a criminal conviction recording the abuse? <br /><br />In order to satisfy the other background demands, will the police be given access to military and immigration records? No definitive answers have yet come from Washington.<br /><br />"In some of the categories, there may be categories where nothing can be reasonably done. Drugs are not easy to check. The ATF will have to put out regulations on how to do that," said one congressional aide who is attached to the House Judiciary Committee. The aide declined to be identified, but said that he had been present at and involved in the process of drafting the law. <br /><br />"The (Brady) law is a political compromise, and I imagine that the 'reasonable' Brady clause factored into that decision," said the aide. <br /><br />He said it was his impression that framing legislators such as Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, and Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., wanted to mandate a criminal records check and to encourage the checking of other conditions where possible. <br /><br />But a legislative aide from Sen. Metzenbaum's office, speaking about the ambiguities of the bill's language, said he wasn't sure how the bill would be fulfilled. <br /><br />"The ATF may or may not clear that up. If the ATF doesn't, the courts will," said the aide, who also spoke on the conditions of anonymity. <br /><br />Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice have been equally reticent about announcing a federal plan that would help guide state law enforcement agencies through the law. They said that such a plan is currently under review. When pressed for a date of release, they said the plan would be presented "in the near future." <br /><br />Traditional opponents of gun control have been quick to finger the source of the law's confusion. <br /><br />"Since there's no standard definition of 'reasonable,' the Brady Bill has no effect. You'll have the waiting period in some cases, but there's no obligation for a records check. The law is unenforceable," said Joseph Phillips, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Washington. <br /><br />Phillips said the NRA was confident the law would be struck down - at least partially - once tested in court because there are no penalties for police departments that fail to make the background checks. He also said that Congress' efforts were misplaced, and that the system would be better served by a procedure for an instant background check. <br /><br />Semantics aside, the debate has done little to make the law's application any clearer. <br /><br />Col. Robert Horton, director of the Vermont State Police, the agency that will oversee the mandated check of criminal records, doesn't see how his force can fully comply with the law.<br /><br />"It's an extreme amount of work, and we just don't have the personnel or resources. There is no database that combines all those files," said Horton. <br /><br />The result in Vermont will probably be a passing of responsibility to municipal police forces. Horton said that local police will likely recognize potential purchasers and are therefore in a better position to judge who is fit to own handguns. <br /><br />Horton acknowledges that casual information cannot satisfy the Brady law's background stipulations, but he said he is resigned to do what he can to make the law work. <br /><br />"A lot of those things just got tacked onto the bill to please everybody. It's hard to put a value on it. It may not be cost-effective, but if (the law) saves one life, it's probably worth it," he said. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Vol. No./Issue No. Volume and issue number for the newspaper (if available) Volume 42: Number 185 Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Fanning, Neal Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Carrying Out Grady Bill Could Be Troublesome Subject The topic of the resource Gun control--United States Description An account of the resource Concerns arise about vagueness with gun control bill supposed to tighten background checks. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pearce, Jeremy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Valley News Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-12-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 300 dpi 2 JPGs Language A language of the resource English Background Checks Federal Legislation Gun Control https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/0114402b747b1a1097d749b98a7528d7.jpg 45020fa78462623784cfe51d9890fe65 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document CHELSEA – A judge is drawing fire because she ruled that a man charged with rape could be released from jail only if he agreed not to possess or view pornography. Civil liberties advocates said they were troubled by Judge Mary Miles Teachout’s ruling. “It’s a first for me,” said Vermont Law School Professor Michael A. Mello. Teachout decided that David C. Green could be released on bail while awaiting trial but only on the condition that he stay away from pornography. Green, 22, is accused of repeatedly raping his wife, who had told him he wanted a divorce, on Oct. 21. “He told me that earlier in the day he had rented a movie and had masturbated while watching the movie,” Green’s wife wrote in an affidavit submitted to police. Neither the affidavit nor other police records indicated the content of the movie. Green of Lebanon, N.H., was arrested and charged with five counts of aggravated sexual assault and one of kidnapping. He is being held in the Southeast Regional Correctional Facility in Woodstock, unable to make bail. Critics of the release conditions Teachout set questioned whether the judge should be linking the alleged crime with a movie. “Take it out of the realm of sex,” suggested Vermont American Civil Liberties Union executive director Leslie Williams. “What if you rob a bank after watching a movie about robbing a bank? It’s assuming a connection that I’m not sure is justified.” Mello, who teaches criminal law, said judges had the right to impose a number of release conditions as long as they can be “rationally related to the offense” and do not violate the constitution. “I think it’s unconstitutional,” Mello said of Teachout’s order. David Putter, chairman of the Vermont ACLU’s legal panel, said the problem with the order was that it was essentially unenforceable because it’s so broad. Vermont has no legal definition of pornography, he said. “The state can’t prohibit speech unless it clearly defines the prohibited speech and that speech falls within a lawful definition of obscenity,” Putter said. “If (Teachout) has not specified what particular guidelines govern, then the order would be a violation not only of the First Amendment but of the Vermont Constitution as well.” Mello said Teachout’s order involved the “suppression of ideas… it infringes on the marketplace of ideas. It has a potentially chilling effect.” That is what sets apart from typical conditions of release, such as prohibiting drinking alcohol or barring contact with certain people, he said. Williams, who is not a lawyer, said the argument could be put in simpler terms. “This is unreasonable,” she said. “To forbid someone to read something or look at something is going a little too far.” [Pull quote]: “What if you rob a bank after watching a movie about robbing a bank? It’s assuming a connection that I’m not sure is justified.” Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Bales, Jack Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Conditions of Release: Don't Watch Pornographic Movies Subject The topic of the resource Pornography--Law and legislation American Civil Liberties Union Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Conditions of Release: Don't Watch Pornographic Movies ,” Rutland (VT) Daily Herald , November 30, 1993. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 dpi Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993-11-30 Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource After a man views a pornographic movie, he rapes his wife and is charged with sexual assault. A judge rules that he can be released on bail only if he agrees not to possess or watch pornography. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Lebanon, NH First Amendment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/51d2b6abad1d9c34bfb93e226f15c85c.jpg 86e21058760a8fe3bae0a811e3e52747 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Court Refuses to Grant Delay in Execution Subject The topic of the resource Adams, Aubrey Dennis Jr. Thornley, Trisa Gail Supreme Court cases Description An account of the resource Associated Press article about an attempt to delay the execution of Aubrey Dennis Adams Jr., who was convicted of the murder of Trisa Gale Thornley. Mike Mellow was the defense attorney for Adams, and wanted to get the execution delayed in order to appeal the guilty verdict on the grounds that the jury was biased. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Associated Press Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Unknown Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available History 298 at the University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource n.d. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpeg Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 101 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Washington D.C Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document The United States Supreme Court refused to grant a delay in the execution of Aubrey Dennis Adams last week. Adams stands convicted of killing eight year old Trisa Gail Thornley in 1978. It is said that Adams was acquainted with the young girl's family, and was responsible for making an "obscene" phone call to her family after kidnapping and killing her. Thornley was found dead in a wooded area on March 15, 1978. Adams' attorneys are filing for an appeal on the grounds that they believe the jury was not picked properly, and was biased as an effect. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Moncure-Williams, Mackie Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Court Refuses to Grant Delay in Execution Subject The topic of the resource Adams, Aubry Dennis Jr. Thornley, Trisa Gail Supreme Court Cases Description An account of the resource This source is about a man named Aubry Dennis Adams, who was given the death penalty after being convicted of murder. Mike Mello was his defense attorney, and was attempting to get Adam's case reheard on the grounds that the jury was biased. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Moncure-Williams, Mackie Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-03-18 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 101 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Washington D.C Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/fb2205e480948187dcb3f09eb993d2cf.jpg 83fe8fb838baec6b2f1ff804b2c79299 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/24ca71748c08ca8e36f61ab28d4d42f9.jpg e738201347503293f0160a2ea3366b72 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document Attorney General Bob Butterworth says the plan to eliminate some of Death Row inmates’ state appeals may not speed up the process. TALLAHASSEE – While agreeing with Gov. Bob Martinez’s view that appeals for Death Row inmates take too long, Attorney General Bob Butterworth expressed some skepticism Monday that Martinez’s plan to eliminate some state appeals would solve the problem. “We’re all in favor of speeding up the system,” Butterworth said. “But like I said, we’re reserving judgment (on the proposal). It could just back up one court, so it might not speed anything up. It could be a Catch-22 situation.” Martinez, a vocal critic of lengthy death-penalty litigation, last week proposed eliminating one series of appeals for condemned inmates, who average spending more than 9 1/2 years on Death row. Currently, inmates can appeal collateral issues through state circuit courts all the way to the Florida Supreme Court. Collateral appeals focus on such issues as the competency of an inmate to stand trial and whether the prosecution withheld any evidence from the defense. Those issues can also be argued through the federal court system. Saying there is too much duplication, Martinez wants to eliminate collateral appeals in state circuit courts, giving only the Florida Supreme Court a chance to hear such challenges before they enter the federal system. But Butterworth, whose office represents the state on death-penalty cases, said the problem with long appeals doesn’t really lie with the state. “The real issue is at the federal level,” Butterworth said. The state already has a two-year time limit in which a condemned inmate must raise all collateral (constitutional) challenges. There is no such time limit for the federal court system. Butterworth said he hoped Martinez succeeds in generating enough support for his plan, but he wasn’t optimistic that legislators would agree to completely eliminate one phase of the appeals process. In a separate move, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has introduced a bill in Washington that would place a two-year time limit for collateral appeals in the federal courts, a move Butterworth says he supports. Graham has tried unsuccessfully in previous years to get that bill passed. Deputy Attorney General James York said he is frustrated more by federal courts that overturn or delay death sentences than state courts that review the legal challenges. While saying he appreciated the governor’s frustration with the current system, York said the proposal to eliminate some state appeals might result in the federal system “doing even more review” of death penalty cases. Defense attorneys for condemned inmates have lambasted all proposals to shorten the appeal. Several attorneys have said the maze of state and federal court hearings helps to prevent mistakes from being made before the state puts someone to death. Cutting out parts of that system may backfire for death penalty advocates, according to Michael Mello, a lawyer who once represented condemned inmates in Florida and is now a professor at the Vermont Law School. “Nothing’s going to get rid of executions faster than a string of executing innocent people,” Mello Said. But Peter Dunbar, general counsel for Martinez, said the issue is not having sufficient appeals, but having a duplication of appeals. Dunbar said the governor agreed with Butterworth that the reform is needed at the federal level, but Martinez can only address the state system. “How many times do you have to hear the same issues-until someone says, “We’ve heard it once, twice, three times, you’re out,” Dunbar said. “You don’t need to be duplicating your efforts.” Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Rigmaiden, Erin Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Cutting appeals 'could be Catch-22' Subject The topic of the resource Death row inmates Description An account of the resource Pan to eliminate state appeals for death row inmates may not speed up the legal process. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Loughlin, Sean Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Gainesville Sun Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-03-07 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 JPG Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Florida appeals Death Row Florida Florida Death Row Supreme Court https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/3be1d52e3e91ccb0bcc02b2df92666ec.jpg a1f3d6f00c2c3d191b5f7c407dcb3f83 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Death Row Inmate Wants To Study Law Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Barlow, Rich Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Valley News Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpg Language A language of the resource English Description An account of the resource Convicted killer Joe Giarratano hopes to elude Virginia's electric chair and study law in Vermont. Subject The topic of the resource Death row, Vermont Law School Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University of Mary Washington Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Saturday, November 25, 1989 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource University of Mary Washington Libraries Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Vermont Law School Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vermont Law School Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document SOUTH ROYALTON- Convicted killer Joe Giarratano hopes to elude Virginia’s electric chair and study law in Vermont. That’s fine with Vermont Law School Assistant Professor Michael Mellow. Mello and others (pro-death-penalty columnist Jack Kilpatrick among them) doubt that Giarratano stabbed to death his two lovers- a mother and daughter- in 1979. Mello has invited Giarratano, a one-time suicidal drug addict who reformed himself into an accomplished amateur lawyer, to apply to Vermont Law if he’s sprung from death row. The University of Virginia wants him too. “Vermont’s where I want to go.” Giarratano, 32, said by phone from the Mecklenberg state prison, where he’s awaited death for 10 years. He probably can’t get into Vermont Law- he has no college degree, which the school requires- but the state permits anyone to study law under an attorney and take the bar exam. “That’s how Thomas Jefferson got his law degree,” Giarratano said. CBS, ABC and the Virginia media have investigated his case. MASH actor and activist Mike Farrell was to meet with him: even conservative Sen. Strom Thurmond has asked for a retrial, Giarratano said. “Amnesty International is sort of making his case the poster-child case for this issue,” said Mello. “It’s got all of the sort of star qualities that the media seems to be looking for. He’s bright, articulate, and most likely innocent, (got) terrible representation at trial.” Mello, a death-row lawyer who worked on mass murderer Ted Bundy’s case, met Giarratano last year, when both fought for the right of condemned inmates to have lawyers represent the in post-conviction appeals. The two briefly worked together on Murray vs. Giarratano, which challenged Virginia’s failure to provide lawyers; the U.S. Supreme Court turned Giarratano down but remanded the case to the lower courts. “His level of sophistication as a litigator is higher than most litigators I have known. His instincts are awesome,” said Mello. “He insisted on being treated…as lead counsel in that case. The discussions that I had with him about court strategy, court politics, which justices we needed to aim the beliefs at least equal, and frankly some of his judgements were better than mine.” Will he get out? “Politicians all across Virginia are calling for a retrial or a pardon,” said Giarratano. “I’ve had more hope now than I’ve had in a long time. Everything’s snowballing. He first confessed to the 1979 murders but has recanted. Kilpatrick writes why he doubts Giarratano’s a slasher: Giarratano was in a drug-and-booze haze the night of the killings and only remembers seeing the corpses in the apartment he shared with the women. His four written confessions-the only real evidence against him, Kilpatrick says-had discrepancies him, Kilpatrick says- had discrepancies, indicating police may have used leading questions to get them. New evidence shows a right-handed man stabbed the mother. Giarratano is a lefty with a nerve-damaged right hand. There were bloody footprints at the scene but no blood on Giarratano’s soles- just a spot on his shoe, which matched the daughter’s blood type, but was never matched with the mother’s. How’d he beat years of substance abuse to become headhunting material for law schools? “When I was arrested and wound up here in the prison on death row, all the drugs stopped, “he said. “Once all the drugs were out of my system, and (after) hundreds of hours of counseling…I just seemed to get my head screwed back on straight. “In order to keep my mind off doing myself in or forcing the guards to do me in, I struck my face in a law book,” He won a case to improve conditions at Mecklenberg- not for humanitarian reasons, he admits, but to flog the prison administration: “This was a way of getting back at the Man.” After further reading- legal books, The Federalist Papers- “the whole spirit behind that just really hit home,” and he plunged into the law. Some death-row inmates can articulate what it’s like to await the executioner, while others can understand complex legal issues, Mello said; Giarratano’s special because he can do both. Both men contributed essays to a recent book about the death penalty; Giarratano describes his final talk with a prisoner friend about to be executed: “As I lifted the phone to my ear and heard my friend’s voice, I didn’t know what to say. Other that quick hellos, our conversation consisted of a few scattered questions tied together with long silences. I could feel the tears leaking from my eyes as the hopelessness overwhelmed me. I wanted to tell Mike to fight the guards until the last second- to take some of them down with him- but all I could say was “I love you, my friend. I’m sorry I can’t stop this.” Mike’s reply still rings in my ear: I’ll be fine. Joe. You know that I’m going home. Please don’t do anything that you might regret later. You have to forgive them.” “Walking back to my cell, I could barely move- it felt as if every muscle in my body were cramped. I could hear the guards asking me questions, but I knew that if I responded, my hatred would spew out at them. I felt the helplessness and hopelessness in the pit of my stomach- I wanted to pull my friend back. It wasn’t until later that I noticed the blood on my wrists where the cuffs bit into my flesh. I tried to pull Mike back, and I couldn’t.” Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data newspaper Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Sartori, Joe Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Death Row Inmate Wants to Study Law Subject The topic of the resource Death row Description An account of the resource Convicted killer Joe Giarratano hopes to elude Virginia's electric chair and study law in Vermont. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Barlow, Rich Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Valley News Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989-11-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Vermont Law School Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vermont Death Row Law https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/06f2fa2b432616ee6ad541404e3c18b2.jpg 4f2c05017db6a82b877eedfe2a6bb8de Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document [[Chair-image]] ‘The death penalty is a fact of life, if that isn’t an oxymoron’: North Carolina chair Lawyers go to the Supreme Court with what may be the final broad test of capital punishment When Gara LaMarche moved to Texas to become the new head of the state Civil Liberties Union, he felt a duty to participate in protests outside the capitol building on the night of executions. Two years later LaMarche and his colleagues don’t bother, allowing condemned killers to go to their deaths without benefit of public protest. “It’s the rare human being who can muster the same level of outrage for the 16th execution as for the first,” he says. “The death penalty is a fact of life, if that isn’t an oxymoron. It doesn’t mean that people don’t care—it’s that you have to focus your energies where they make a difference.” Those energies this week will be focused on the U.S. Supreme Court. Once again, carrying the hopes and fears of 1,788 inmates on the nation’s death rows, lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund will petition the court to strike down the death penalty, this time on grounds it is racially biased. The appeal promises to be the final skirmish of a long, rear-guard legal battle. “This is the last case that has the potential of clearing death row and getting rid of the death penalty,” says Mike Mello, a Florida defense lawyer. For 10 years foes of capital punishment have crafted sweeping appeals to the high court that, if successful, would have undermined dozens of death sentences. But just as regularly the court has rebuffed them, turning back ingenious claims that capital sentences were imposed in a disproportionate manner or that juries were tilted toward conviction by the elimination of potential jurors who expressed doubts about the death penalty. The cases before the court rest on the findings of researchers that killers of whites were much more likely to be condemned than killers of blacks. In a study of 2,484 Georgia homicides between 1973 and 1979, University of Iowa law Prof. David Baldus initially found that killers of whites were 11 times more likely to receive the death sentence. Determined to settle any doubts about the disparity, Baldus took another look at his piles of trial transcripts, appellate briefs, prison files, parole-board records, police reports and other documents. He reanalyzed his numbers to eliminate the statistical impact of cases with aggravating circumstances, such as those in which the murderers had long criminal records or had committed especially heinous deeds. And Baldus still concluded that killers of whites were more than four times more likely to get the death sentence than killers of blacks. Nationwide, 1,713 of the death-row inmates—about 96 percent—were killers of whites; 1,051 are themselves white. Lawyers for Warren McCleskey, a black man who killed a white police officer during a furniture-store robbery in Atlanta, used the Baldus study to appeal his sentence. But one federal court found the study flawed and another held that even if accurate it was not sufficiently compelling to eliminate other explanations for the disparate treatment of the murder defendant. On appeal to the high court, McCleskey’s lawyers will argue that the numbers are so convincing that state prosecutors should be required to explain the apparent disparities. Indeed, McCleskey’s defense lawyer, John Charles Boger, will argue that he wants the numbers treated as they are in other cases where a statistical inference is deemed sufficient for a finding of bias. “Evidence that would amply suffice if the stakes were a job promotion or the selection of a jury should not be disregarded when the stakes are life and death,” Boger says. Mary Beth Westmoreland, Georgia assistant attorney general, contends that the studies are unsound and inadequate. “There are simply too many unique factors relevant to each individual case to allow statistics to be an effective tool in providing intentional discrimination,” she argues. Georgia clearly is the favorite going into the hearing; several justices have been impatient and unsympathetic in recent years with the pace of executions. A companion case from Florida raises a related issue: does a condemned inmate have an automatic right to a hearing on claims of racial discrimination? A study of sentences in eight states, including Florida and Georgia, had shown a pattern similar to that which Baldus found. “The discrimination we found is based on the race of the victim, and it is a remarkably stable and consistent phenomenon,” explains Stanford law Prof. Samuel R. Gross. Winning on the hearing issue would give capital-punishment foes another delaying tactic, but one without much substantive bite if they lose the McCleskey appeal: attorneys would have to show overt acts of racial discrimination by prosecutors or jurors, something that is close to impossible. While the legal issues boil, execution has become a routine matter in a handful of states. “The executions are now back [in the newspapers] with the obituaries, which is where they belong,” says Texas prosecutor Cappy Eads, chairman of the National District Attorneys Association. “There’s less tendency to glamorize the executed defendant and more of a feeling that he got what he deserved.” And the pace is quickening; eight executions already this year in Texas and three others in Florida. But no state can keep up with the fresh supply of condemned inmates, 31 each in Florida and Texas since January, nearly all of whom, if they can find lawyers, will resist in the courts the trip down the Last Mile. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Magazine Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Kacoyanis, Leah Student Editor of the Digital Item Dickinson, Terra Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Death Row: Last Skirmish Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McDaniel, Ann Pedersen, Daniel Prout, Linda Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Newsweek Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986-10-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 JPG 300 DPI Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Washington Houston Miami Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment--America Description An account of the resource A magazine article that discusses capital punishment in America and how lawyers are trying to get rid of it. capital punishment death penalty defense lawyer Gara LaMarche Mike Mello Warren McCleskey https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/9cf79f3b3161575bba93acb8e62f6669.jpg 3918ce107d3dc1d5fd5a7aaf2b257360 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Death? Let the jury decide Description An account of the resource An article by Michael Mello talking about the different Legislative regulations on the Death Penalty. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michael Mello Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Miami Herald Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available UMW Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-04-27 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpeg, 300dpi Language A language of the resource English Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document IN RESPONSE to Calvin Fox’s recent explanation of three reasons why judges, not juries, should impose capital punishment: The question is important, since the Legislature is currently considering repeal of that portion of Florida’s capital-punishment stature that permits a judge to override a jury’s verdict for life imprisonment and then to impose the death penalty.<br /> <ul> <li>First, with an apocalyptic tone Mr. Fox argues that legislative repeal of the jury override will mean that “the 100 or so individuals now on Death Row may be entitled to have their death penalties set aside.” <br /><br />This figure is grossly exaggerated. Prof. Michael Radelet of the University of Florida, who keeps track of the statistics of Florida’s Death Row, Reports that although 87 death sentences have been imposed by trial judges, a full two-thirds of those sentences passed upon by the Florida Supreme Court have been reduced to life imprisonment. That court has affirmed death sentences in only 24 cases involving jury overrides, and several of these 24 are no longer capital cases for reasons unrelated to the override. <br /><br />At most repeal of the override would affect these 20 or so cases. And it need not affect even them. The Legislature could simply choose to make its new procedural rule applicable only to cases tried subsequent to the effective date of the repeal. I think such a provision would be unfair and unwise, but not unconstitutional.<br /><br /></li> <li>Second, Mr. Fox erroneously argues that Florida’s system of sentencing by the trial judge has been “consistently shown through intense Federal review to be the most reliable and proper system of imposing the death penalty.” This is most misleading. Almost a decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court mad quite clear that a capital jury-sentencing stature would pass Constitutional muster provided that the jury gave its reasons for imposing death and that the state supreme court conducted a review to determine that the penalty was not applied in a disproportionate manner. <br /><br />Most states with the death penalty recognize that because the penalty is an expression of community outrage, an appropriate cross-section of the community whose outrage is being expressed should be given the responsibility for that decision. Of the 37 American states with capital punishment, 30 give the life-or-death decision to the jury. Mr. Fox cannot seriously mean that the statutes in these 30 states violate the Constitution, or that the 22 people put to death pursuant to these statues within the past decade were executed under unconstitutional statutes. <br /><br />Still, Mr. Fox argues, the death decision should be made by a “trained legal mind,” since judicial sentencing should lead to greater consistency among cases. Yet the ordinary predicates that provide consistency in non-capital sentencing, such as frequency of trying such an offense, observation of the recidivism rate for the offense, experience with the local parole and probation officers, and the like, do not pertain in the same degree, if at all, to capital cases. <br /><br />But more fundamentally, experience and expertise in legal rules cannot substitute for the ability of the jury to reflect community sentiment in its decision whether an individual defendant deserves to live or die.<br /><br />Because death-override cases are not automatically appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, there is no central data source through which such cases can be identified. Professor Radelet notes, however, that “numerous inquiries to several criminal attorneys and state officials makes us confident that there have been less than a dozen such cases since the current statutes was enacted.” <br /><br />Moreover, the Legislature could amend the statues to provide that a jury’s verdict for life is binding, but that the jury’s decision for death be subject for override by the court. Such a system would obviously create an asymmetry, but it is an asymmetry weighted on the side of mercy. That is offensive only if one believes that the grant of mercy to some somehow abridges the rights of others whose individual circumstances do not inspire mercy. At the guilt/innocence phase of a criminal trial, for example, a judge may enter a judgment of acquittal despite the jury’s rendition of a guilty verdict. Why not extend this principle to the penalty phase of the trial? <br /><br />Mr. Fox has made the best case that can be made for retention of Florida’s practice of permitting a single judge to sentence a person to die even when a jury of his peers has decided that he deserves to live. But his reasons themselves expose the bankruptcy of his position. The fact remains that the override results in a debasement of the jury’s role as the proper reflector of community sentiment. The override wastes finite judicial resources. Legislative repeal of the jury override is within the province, duty, and ethical obligation of the Florida Legislature.</li> </ul> Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Death? let the jury decide. Description An account of the resource An article by Michael A. Mello on the Legislation regulation and its importance of jury control. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Miami Harold Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987-04-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpeg 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Jury--United States--Decision making. Capital punishment--Florida. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Miami, FL death penalty jurry Legislation Miami Michael A. Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/13378c637a5908ce8dcd404fbfca6e36.jpg 972ee2493831a2630b1dba4aec373735 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document The current debate over execution of those Florida Death Row inmates who are, or who may be, insane raises difficult issues of law and public policy. But the issue, at least in Florida, is not whether the insane should be executed. That matter has long been resolved in the negative as a matter of state law. However, that brings us to the genuinely difficult inquiry: How can the legal system determine who is really crazy, and can Florida's administrative procedure be trusted to reliably make this life-or-death death determination? <br /><br />In 1927 the Florida Supreme Court held that there was a right to judicial determination of competency when a Death Row inmate claimed to be incompetent. In the 1930s the Florida Legislature enacted the present-day statute on execution competency. That law sets out a procedure for deciding who is crazy and who is not. <br /><br />The statute provides that when the governor is informed that a person who is under sentence of death may be insane, he or she shall appoint a commission of three psychiatrists to examine the convicted person. Counsel for the convicted person and counsel for the state may be present at the examination. After receiving the report from the commission, the governor makes and independent determination of whether the convicted person, in the language of the statute, "understands the nature and effect of the death penalty and why it is to be imposed upon him." <br /><br />But this procedure is insufficient to vindicate Florida's interest in not executing people who really are insane. The system invites error and, as Robert Sherrill's article in The Herald (Viewpoint, Dec. 16) demonstrated, has already resulted in error. <br /><br />The basic problem is that the statute provides for no hearing before the decision maker. There is no right of cross-examination and no right to present defense witnesses. The statute permits counsel to be present at the psychiatric examination, but the decision maker is not the psychiatric commission. The decision maker is the governor, and there is no hearing before him. In fact, the Florida Supreme Court has noted that the present governor has a "publicly announced policy of excluding all advocacy on the part of the condemned in the process of deciding whether a person under sentence of death is insane." <br /><br />A hearing before the governor would serve a variety of social values. <br /><br />It would provide the adversarial debate our legal system recognizes as essential to the truth-seeking process. This is especially true here, where the questions are legal, not medical, and where proper resolution of those questions is difficult under even the best of circumstances. <br /><br />The present procedure encourages the governor to become a slave to the psychiatric commission and to simply follow the recommendation of the doctors. This is precisely what has happened in every case so far. In Arthur Goode's case, the psychiatric commission decided that Goode was sane and the governor ordered his execution. In Gary Alvord's case, the psychiatrists found insanity and the governor stayed Alvord's execution. <br /><br />An open hearing also ensures that the governor recognizes that his decision profoundly affects the lives of human beings. Otherwise, it is all too easy to retreat behind a shield of paper and anonymity. Further, a hearing effectively fosters a belief that one has received his "day in court," even though he may disagree with the governor's decision. <br /><br />The risks of error at the initial competency determination are enhanced by the fact that Florida provides no procedure for review. The Florida Supreme Court has decided that the governor's statutory procedure is "now the exclusive procedure for determining competency to be executed." But if the judiciary is to be excluded from the initial competency determination, then some mechanism for reconsideration of the determination is needed. <br /><br />Reform of Florida's statutory procedure for determining execution competency can come from any of three sources: <br />• The legislature could amend the statute. <br />• The governor could voluntarily open the process up to advocacy. <br />• The federal courts could mandate, as a matter of federal constitutional law, that Florida's procedure are inadequate. That precise issue is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. <br /><br />Ideally, change should come from the Legislature or the governor. It is our statute. We should see to it that it produces reliable results. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper article Contributor of the Digital Item Person submitting the digital item to the collection. Dyke, Corey Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Deciding who is crazy: Reform Florida's procedure Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment--Florida. Capital punishment--Florida--Public opinion. Insanity Defense--United States--Legal Cases. Description An account of the resource Opinion editorial by Michael Mello about changing the process for declaring someone legally insane or incompetent. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mello, Michael A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Miami Herald Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985-01-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 jpg 300 dpi Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Miami, Fl capital punishment Legally insane Michael A. Mello https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/9673bb57072622209461797ee03ab40d.jpg e8f50edc45e660aa1fd81170b90ad97f https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/68df457b36014a2f02f30c5810e8e09e.jpg 1cd43411217c07114149f6d7b410ac09 https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/a0286f09949f613d43e7ae6b27b4706e.jpg 57b610ebe113b0cf8f1732aecbd1c2aa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document In a first-degree murder case, when a judge and a jury don’t see eye-to-eye on the sentence, as has occurred at least five times in the last seven years in Escambia County, the judge gets the last word. In four local cases, judges overrode jury recommendations for life in prison and imposed the death penalty, deciding that aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances. And in one case, a judge overrode a jury recommendation for the death penalty and imposed a life sentence. It’s a system that Chief Escambia Circuit Judge M.C. Blanchard would like to see changed: He’s in favor of proposed legislation that would require judges to follow jury recommendations for life sentences but would allow them to override jury recommendations for death. “It would help a great deal in keeping our death penalty constitutional.” He said, adding that the jury should have access to the same pre-sentence information – currently, some of it is confidential – that the judge has in determining the sentence. Here’s a rundown of the five local cases: In 1978, Judge George Lowrey ignored a jury’s advice and sentenced to death Thomas McCampbell, convicted in the murder of Winn-Dixie security guard Buddy Ray. The Florida Supreme Court later upheld the conviction but reversed the death sentence. In 1979, Judge William Frye overruled a jury recommendation for a life sentence and imposed the death penalty on Marvin Edwin Johnson, Convicted in the killing of Warrington pharmacist Woodrow Moulton. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the conviction and sentence, and Johnson is on death row. In 1980, in a rare reverse decision, Frye overrode a jury recommendation for death and sentenced Edward Clifton Cleveland to life in prison for murdering a 15-year-old runaway girl and then dismembering her body and placing some parts in sealed garbage bags. In 1983, Judge Joseph Tarbuck overrode a jury recommendation for life and sentenced to death Anthony Brown, accused in the murder of Veteran’s Gas Co. delivery man James Dasinger. Three weeks ago, after a retrial won on a technicality, Brown was acquitted, the result of the star prosecution witness flip-flopping on his testimony. Also in 1983, Judge William Rowlet overrode a jury’s recommendation and sentenced to death William Eutzy, convicted in the murder of West Hill Taxi Stand driver Herman Hughley. The Florida Supreme Court upheld that conviction, and Eutzy is on death row. Exactly what goes through a jury’s mind during its secret proceedings is difficult to determine; by contrast, judges are required by law to provide a written explanation for imposition of the death penalty. What follows is a look back at the Johnson and Brown cases. In court testimony, Warrington Pharmacy employee Gary Summitt, an eyewitness, gave this account of Marvin Johnson’s armed robbery and murder of Woodrow MoultonL Summitt went to the back of the store to as Moulton a question and found Johnson holding a gun on Moulton and ordering him to fill a bag with drugs and money. After obtaining what he wanted, Johnson started toward the front of the store, and Moulton grabbed a gun from behind the prescription counter. There was an exchange of gunfire, with Moulton firing at Johnson until his gun was emptied. No longer able to defend himself, Moulton stood up with his hands in the air. Johnson walked to within a foot and a half of him, said, “You think you’re a smart son-of-a-bitch, don’t you?”, shot him in the chest and fled. The jury after finding Johnson guilty, recommended that Judge Frye impose a life sentence. Instead, Frye sentenced Johnson to death, a decision that was upheld in a split decision by the Florida Supreme Court. Interviews last week with jurors indicate some were pleased with Frye’s decision and others were not. “I didn’t want to have a guilty conscience, even though I thought he deserved death,” said Rugby Watford. “I was glad the judge did what he did.” “I just don’t believe you can (sentence him to death) on one witness,” said Doroth Grissom. “I said maybe he did it. We really didn’t feel he deserved that chair.” “One of the questionsthey asked the jurors was whether we could impose the death sentence, and we all said yes then when it was time to decide, a lot of the jurors said their religious beliefs wouldn’t let them vote for the death penalty,” said Constance Fletcher. “To me, that’s an obstruction of justice. I was really upset. I was so happy when the judge overruled us.” “(Johnson) went in with the intention of getting drugs, not with the intention of shooting (Moulton),” said Pearl Middlecoff. “If Moulton hadn’t shot at him, he would be alive today . . . I put myself in (Johnson’s) position. I probably would have done the same thing. I think the judge was very much out of place.” Frye, who had found five aggravating factors and no mitigating factors, said he has no second thoughts about his decision. “Moulton was out of ammunition and holding up hs hands. Point-blank, 2 or 3 feet away, he fired right through his heart. That was a cold-blooded murder,” he said. In the Supreme Court appeal, four justices concurred with Frye that “death is the appropriate sentence to be imposed for this atrocious and cruel execution murder committed during the commission of an armed robbery by an escaped convict who previously had been convicted of felonies involving the use of threat or violence.” Three justices dissented, saying that “the fusillade of pistol shots initiated by the victim and the apparent conscious act of the appellant to spare the two other occupants of the premises from kidnapping or murder support a reasoned judgment by the jury in favor of a life sentence.” Frye pointed out that in the Cleveland case, he overrode the jury in the opposite direction because the case law prevented him from considering that the body was cut into pieces after death. “I knew it was a risky thing to do in a political sense,” he said, “but I could not sentence that man to death knowing it was against the law . . . The jury (got) all inflamed because it was so gruesome.” The case against Anthony Brown, accused in the first-degree murder of Veteran’s Gas Co. deliveryman James Dasinger, rested largely on the testimony of co-defendant Wyndell Rogers, who pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in exchange for his testimony. During the first trial, Rogers said Brown set up Dasinger to make a delivery in a sparsely populated area of Cantoment and then killed him with a shotgun blast to the chest. The jury found Brown guilty and recommended a life sentence; but Judge Tarbuck, finding the four aggravating factors, sentenced him to death. On a reversal unrelated to his sentence, the Florida Supreme Court granted Brown a new trial. And at that trial, after Rogers recanted his testimony and said Brown was not even present when Dasinger was killed, a jury found him innocent. “That’s a lesson that a judge should never impose the death penalty on the basis of one person’s testimony,” said Micheal Mello, a Tallahassee attorney who has handled several death override appeals. “It sends shivers up my spine.” Bob Dennis, Brown’s defense attorney at the first trial, agrees. “I don’t think a person should be sentenced to death unless the evidence is absolutely clear, unless there’s a smoking gun,” he said. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Escambia Cases Show Examples Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Graybiel, Ginny Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived News Journal Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment Description An account of the resource News article describing the death penalty, judicial override, and examples from past cases that had examples of these issues. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 3 JPG death penalty Florida Supreme Court Judicial Override https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/91cd38cf4d7feb29cedd17be8f290617.jpg f364e1fc7434d9f01c680081e9b7c334 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Execution still on, judge says Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment https://hist299.umwhistory.org/files/original/d56f6bbcf41117ce287882b584bd26d2.jpg 781f0c8804b813682a5978d97c605e14 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael A. Mello Papers, Series 1 News Clippings, Binder 2, 1983-1994 Text Text Any textual data included in the document <p class="MsoNormal">Calling the appeal “a gross abuse” of the legal system, a federal judge Tuesday refused to postpone the execution of convicted police killer Alvin Bernard Ford, scheduled to die Thursday in the state’s electric chair.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, a divided Florida Supreme Court blocked the scheduled execution of John O’Callaghan by a 4-3 vote an hour after hearing arguments in the condemned inmate’s mercy appeal. His execution was also scheduled for Thursday.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Attorneys for Ford, anticipating the ruling against their client, filed an appeal to the 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta before U.S. District Judge Norman C. Roettger even announced his decision in West Palm Beach.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Time is at a premium,” said Michal Mello, one of Ford’s three attorneys.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The 31-year-old Ford, who has exhausted more appeals than any other Death Row inmate, will die at 7 a.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke unless the appeal court or the U.S. Supreme Court finds a reason to delay the execution.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Ford was convicted of shooting to death Fort Lauderdale police officer Dmitri Walter Ilyankoff during a bungled restaurant robbery in 1974.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Florida Supreme Court upheld his sentence five years later. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal. Gov. Bob Graham signed his first death warrant in 1981.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">A month later – and 14 hours before he was to be electrocuted – the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeal granted a postponement. The court dissolved the stay 13 months later.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In April, Graham again signed Ford’s death warrant. The state Supreme court denied a stay May 25.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Roettger used strong words Tuesday to express his irritation with Ford’s latest appeal, which was based on his attorneys’ belief that Ford is now insane.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“This is absolutely a classic pattern of a defendant allegedly having a mental problem and perceiving a rook card in this possession… and holding it in the vest pocket until the last possible minute,” Roettger said.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Richard Burr III, along with Mello, tried to convince the judge that Ford should be examined by psychiatrists and the results presented in court.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the past two years, Ford has gradually developed severe paranoid delusions, Burr said. He became obsessed that the Ku Klux Klan was keeping his family hostage, and torturing then, in a “pipe alley” near his cell.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">He now believes that he is a member of the Klan, that he personally has overturned the death penalty and is staying in prison only because he wants to, Burr said.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Florida law – and the U.S. Constitution, Mello argued – prohibit the execution of an insane person. Burr and Mello contended that Ford’s sanity never has been formally determined in court.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Joy Shearer, an assistant state attorney general, disagreed.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“A determination of sanity has been made, and properly so, by the governor,” she said.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Last December, Graham appointed a panel of three psychiatrists to examine Ford to determine if he understood the death penalty and why he had been sentenced to die.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">They found he did. One doctor called Ford’s delusions “contrived and recently learned.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But Burr and Mello said the decision by the panel of psychiatrists didn’t constitute a true judicial hearing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Judge Roettger, who also denied an execution stay for Ford in 1981, chastised the attorneys repeatedly for waiting until “the very last, frantic minute” to raise the issue of Ford’s sanity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“This has got to be a gross abuse of the system,” he said.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">After the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, Mello denied that he and Burr had “sandbagged” the case.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">“We filed absolutely as soon as possible. If the claim would have been ripe before, we would have filed it then,” he said. O’Callaghan, 38, was under a death warrant for the Aug. 20, 1980 killing of Gerald Vick, a bodyguard for the co-owner of a Hallandale bar where O’Callaghan worked.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The high court’s decision to intervene in O’Callaghan’s case came after a circuit court last Thursday refused to issue a stay of execution.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The Supreme Court gave no explanation for its unsigned, one-sentence opinion. Nor did the justices say whether they will grant O’Callaghan’s request for a new trial.</p> Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Newspaper Student Editor of the Digital Item Williams, Megan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Execution still on, judge says Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hoffman, Lisa Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Miami Herald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984-05-30 Language A language of the resource English Subject The topic of the resource Capital punishment--Florida. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 2 jpgs 300 dpi Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available HIST 298, University of Mary Washington Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Miami, Florida