Court Watch

You will have to forgive us for focusing a bit on the death penalty this week. After all, this evening five of the leading spokespeople on the issue will be coming to Woodland for a Vanguard event.

In any event, Yolo County DA Jeff Reisig gave us a month’s worth of material.  Mr. Reisig was making the argument that the system works, after all, as he writes, “Each of them received due process through the many checks and balances of the criminal justice system and were justly convicted and sentenced to death.”

By Tracie Olson

I am writing as the Public Defender of Yolo County.  Contrary to District Attorney Jeff Reisig’s recent opinion piece, there are numerous, overwhelming reasons to oppose the death penalty, and none involve dishonoring victims.

INNOCENT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SENTENCED TO DEATH AND EXECUTED.

District Attorney Jeff Reisig laments the “endless delays in the criminal justice system, frivolous appeals, and a mountain of misinformation” caused by the “ACLU and its agents.”  However, he conveniently ignores the fact that the National Registry of Exonerations has recorded over 920 exonerations across the United States since 1989, more than 100 of which had been sentenced to death.

Franky Carrillo spent two decades in prison after he was convicted of a drive-by shooting in 1992 and sentenced in 1992 to one life term and 30 years to life in prison.  Critical to his conviction was the testimony of five eyewitnesses who said that they saw him pull the trigger.

Had we known then what we know now about the fallibility of eyewitness identification, particularly under poor lighting conditions, this travesty of justice may have been avoided.

Last week, the Davis Enterprise kindly ran a story about the Vanguard‘s Death Penalty Event on their front page.  That apparently was enough to prompt former Judge Jim Stevens to object.

He wrote in a letter to the editor, “Your recent article on the meeting of death penalty opponents was interesting but full of humbug. I respect the right of others to work for and express their opinion but reserve my right to tell them they are full of garbage.”

by Andrea Lyon

Monday, July 23 2012, Warren Hill is scheduled to be executed in Georgia. He was convicted of killing another inmate while serving a life sentence for killing his girlfriend, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This is despite the fact that Warren Hill is mentally retarded. Georgia was one of the first states to ban the execution of the mentally retarded; but there is a catch. The defendant bears the burden of proving he is mentally retarded beyond a reasonable doubt. This is the only state that requires the defense to bear this burden. Only the Board of Pardons and Parole can stop his execution now.

While a judge has found that Mr. Hill is mentally retarded, with an IQ of only 70, he didn’t find that fact beyond a reasonable doubt but rather by a preponderance of the evidence, which is the ordinary standard in civil matters, more likely than not. And it is on this technical basis that he will be executed. The Georgia Supreme Court voted four to three to reinstate Hill’s death sentence, and at the end of last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled seven to four to uphold that death sentence even though the majority seemed to think it “unwise.”

Pitchess Motion Revealing of Charges and Defense in Bank Blocking Case –

Defense for the 11 students and one professor charged with numerous misdemeanors for their alleged role in blocking the US Bank in UC Davis’ Memorial Union in January and February this year filed a Pitchess motion on Friday.

At a brief hearing they scheduled Judge David Reed to hear motions on August 24, 2012.

In two weeks, at the Vanguard’s Dinner and Awards Ceremony, the work of the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) will be honored with a Vanguard Award.  On hand to personally receive that award with be NCIP Executive Director Cookie Ridolfi and Legal Director Linda Starr.

The immediate benefit of the work NCIP and other branches of the Innocence Project across the nation is to exonerate those who have been wrongfully imprisoned like Franky Carrillo, who spent 20 years in custody before his 2011 release.  Mr. Carrillo will be one of the featured speakers at this year’s event and will present the Vanguard Award to the organization and individuals who helped to exonerate him.

Flawed Work by FBI Led to At Least One Wrongful Execution Paper Reports

The Washington Post is reporting this morning that the Justice Department and FBI “have launched a review of thousands of criminal cases to determine whether any defendants were wrongly convicted or deserve a new trial because of flawed forensic evidence”

They report this is the largest undertaking of post-conviction review ever done by the FBI.

Cruz Reynoso to Present Award to Pepper Sprayed Students; Northern California Innocence Project Honored

As if the amazing line up of speakers at the Vanguard Dinner and Awards Ceremony was not enough, the Davis Vanguard announces its six annual awards.  The Vanguard Awards honor the work of individuals and organizations on behalf of social justice.

In a few weeks, Franky Carrillo will speak at the Vanguard‘s annual Dinner and Awards ceremony.  His wrongful conviction, that cost him 20 years in custody, was based not just on the faulty memory of the witnesses but also intentional manipulation by law enforcement.

Carrillo was sentenced in 1992 to one life term and 30 years to life in prison after being convicted of one count of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder in a fatal drive-by shooting.

Maurice Possley, Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize To Speak at Vanguard Event

In November, California voters will be asked to decide whether to keep the death penalty in place or convert the sentences to life without parole.  Proponents of the effort to repeal the state’s death penalty point to the fact that the state has only executed 13 people since the death penalty was reinstated at a cost of $184 million per year, according to a recent study.

by Ramon Solis –

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling determined that mandatory life without possibility of parole for minors in homicide-related cases is unconstitutional.

The ruling was based off the precedent of two now concluded court cases. In each case a fourteen-year-old was convicted of homicide. The first case found Arkansas native Kuntrell Jackson guilty of a convenience store murder in 1999, even though he decided to stay outside while the murder took place. The other case found an Alabama boy named Evan Miller guilty after beating a 52-year-old neighbor and setting fire to his home. The neighbor then died of smoke inhalation.

One of the problems facing those who believe that the problem of wrongful convictions is far deeper that statistics currently available would indicate, is the dearth of reliable longitudinal data.

However, a new study that involved the DNA testing of hundreds of old Virginia homicide and sexual assault cases supports the exoneration of at least 38 suspects, according to a study released Monday by a national policy group that examined the test results.

The Three Strikes Reform ballot initiative will not fix all of the problems associated with the three strikes law.  What it will do is fix the problem of people charged with minor crimes such as stealing a package of shredded cheese, then facing a 25 year to life sentence.

In 2010, the Yolo County District Attorney’s office, led by Deputy DA Clinton Parish, sought to put Robert Ferguson, charged with the theft of a package of shredded cheese, into prison for life under California’s three strikes law.