Alabama recently set an execution date for Thomas Arthur (pictured), who was convicted of a murder that took place 30 years ago. Arthur has always maintained his innocence, but has been denied access to DNA evidence that might lead to a different verdict. As Andrew Cohen pointed out in an investigative piece in The Atlantic, Arthur is scheduled for execution on March 29, despite the confession of Bobby Ray Gilbert to the crime for which Arthur is facing execution. There was no physical evidence that linked Arthur to the murder, and his sentence was secured almost entirely by the testimony of the victim’s wife, Judy Wicker. At first, Wicker told the authorities that Arthur was not involved in the crime, but when she was convicted for hiring someone to murder her husband, she arranged a deal with the prosecution. In exchange for a recommendation of early release from prison, she changed her original testimony and implicated Arthur. Since then, Gilbert has testified under oath to the murder. Gilbert said he had an affair with Wicker and soon agreed to kill her husband. State courts, however, have ruled that Gilbert’s confession was not credible, and have opposed DNA testing on an item recovered from the crime scene that could identify who was actually involved in the crime. Arthur's attorneys have agreed to pay for the DNA testing.
On February 29, Arizona is scheduled to execute Robert Moorman, who was sentenced to death for a 1984 murder. Moorman's representatives have said the crime was committed after years of sexual abuse by the defendant’s adoptive mother, whom he then killed and dismembered her body. Moorman was diagnosed with mental retardation and attended special education classes while in public school. His first stay at a mental institution occurred when he was 13. At a recent clemency hearing, Moorman said he did not remember the details of the murder. His health has slowly deteriorated while in prison. He had a stroke in 2007 and underwent a quintuple bypass last November. Moorman was born to a 15-year-old girl who drank heavily and engaged in prostitution, according to court records and testimony at his clemency hearing. His father abandoned him and his mother died at age 17. He then went to live with his maternal grandparents until he was put up for adoption because of his grandfather’s alcohol abuse. UPDATE: Moorman was executed on Feb. 29.
Craig Watkins (pictured), the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, recently called for a review of the state’s capital punishment system. Since becoming D.A. in 2007, Watkins has initiated a conviction-integrity unit to examine criminal cases in the county. Since 2001, Dallas County has exonerated 27 inmates, including 22 through DNA evidence, most during Watkins’s tenure. None of these inmates were from death row. Regarding the death penalty, Watkins said, “I think it's a legitimate question to have, to ask: `Have we executed someone that didn't commit the crime?’” Watkins, the first African-American district attorney in Texas, said he is concerned about allegations of faulty evidence or state misconduct that could have led to capital convictions. He is calling on state legislators to review death penalty procedures to ensure the punishment is fairly administered. Watkins recently revealed that his great-grandfather, Richard Johnson, was executed in Texas almost 80 years ago. He remarked, "I think the reforms we've made in our criminal justice system are better than any other state in this country. But we still need reforms. And so, I don't know if I'm the voice for that. I just know, here I am, and I have these experiences." 
On February 21 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a U.S. Court of Appeals decision granting a retrial to James Lambert, who had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1984 in Pennsylvania. Lambert appealed his conviction, claiming that prosecutors never disclosed evidence identifying an additional co-defendant, in violation of Brady v. Maryland. Lambert claimed this new evidence would have impeached the testimony that led to his conviction. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled in favor of Lambert, ordering him to be released or retried in four months. The Supreme Court held that “the various notations and statements which [Lambert] claims the commonwealth should have disclosed are entirely ambiguous.” The Court also noted, “Any retrial here would take place three decades after the crime, posing the most daunting difficulties for the prosecution.... That burden should not be imposed unless each ground supporting the state court's decision had been examined and found to be unreasonable under AEDPA [the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act].” The dissent, written by Justice Stephen Breyer and joined by Justices Ginsburg and Kagan, said the notation about the co-defendant was not ambiguous, and noted, “if the Commonwealth was wrong, an innocent man has spent almost 30 years in prison under sentence of death for a crime he did not commit." 
On February 22, Virginia's legislature blocked a bill that would have allowed the death penalty for accomplices to murder who did not actually carry out the killing. The bill would have revised the state’s “triggerman rule,” which allows the death penalty only for the person directly responsible for the actual murder. Two weeks ago, the Senate version of the bill was rejected by the Courts of Justice Committee on a 7-7 vote. The House then passed its own version of the bill, forcing the Senate to reconsider the measure. The Courts Committee again rejected the expansion bill, this time by a vote of 8-6. The vote difference was attributed to Republican Senator Bryce Reeves, who said he changed his vote based on his religious beliefs. Similar bills were passed by the Virginia legislature in 2008 and 2009, but were vetoed by then-Governor Tim Kaine. In 2010 and 2011, the Senate Courts Committee rejected similar bills. Stephen Northup, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, called the bill “an unnecessary[,] expensive and risky expansion of capital punishment.” Among those opposing the bill were representatives of Catholic organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli. Some of these noted that the state already ranks second to Texas in the number of executions since the the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and that expanding death penalty eligibility would increase the chances of executing an innocent person.From DPIC
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DPIC On the Issues
The Death Penalty Information Center is pleased to present our first podcast in Spanish. This audio presentation is part of DPIC's series of podcasts on capital punishment. Presented in Spanish, Podcast 18 discusses general death penalty issues, with a special focus on application to minority defendants, public support among Hispanics, and the international use of the death penalty. Click the player below to hear the podcast (Running time: 6 minutes 15 seconds). See also our Spanish language page and Multimedia. |
