Guv: Death Penalty Dead in NM; DNA Frees Joseph Fears of OH

GOVERNOR RICHARDSON decided March 18 to approve the bill passed by New Mexico’s Senate putting an end to executions in that state.  Death row inmates will have their sentences commuted to life without parole. This article chronicles the steps leading to that decision and reports an inmate's release from an Ohio correctional facility after 2.5 decades of wrongful imprisonment.

Americans are increasingly turning against the death penalty. Contrary to superstition, Friday the 13th was a "good luck" day for those who want the criminal justice system to be more just and compassionate. New Mexico Legislature repealed the death penalty with expectancy that Gov. Richardson will sign the bill into law. Besides that, Joseph Fears  Jr., 61, who spent the last 25 years in an Ohio prison for a rape he did not do, was exonerated by DNA testing and released from prison. Mr. Fears has joined a growing number of innocent people who have been freed after wrongful convictions.

Since 1989, 232 persons were exonerated and freed from prison by DNA evidence of innocence, including many who had spent decades on death row, wrongfully convicted for someone else's sins while the real criminals walked among us. Mr. Fears made 233. Recent cases in the news like Mr. Fears' have exposed how easy it is for innocent people to be convicted for capital crimes, and some pay with their lives.

How many innocent people have lost decades suffering behind prison walls while their children grew up without them, and their parents waxed old and died without sons and daughters by their bedsides? How many innocent people have already been executed in America's death chambers?

Congratulations, Mr. Fears! Congratulations, New Mexico!  Welcome to a more civilized existence.

Below is the email notification just received. Who said Friday the 13th is bad luck?

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***GOOD NEWS FROM NEW MEXICO***

Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:28:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
           ncadp@mail.democracyinaction.org  
Subject: New Mexico Repeal Bill Passed in the State Senate!

Just a few minutes ago, the New Mexico Senate passed the death
penalty repeal measure, by a vote of 24 to 18. Upon being signed
into law, capital offenders will be punished with life without parole.
Congratulations to everyone in New Mexico and supporters
everywhere who worked tirelessly to get the bill passed. Now we
wait for the signing. Stay tuned!

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***GOOD NEWS FROM OHIO***

FOXNews.com
Friday , March 13, 2009
COLUMBUS, Ohio

DNA Test Clears Ohio Inmate of Rape After 25 Years in Prison
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509149,00.html

A judge in Ohio has released a man who spent 25 years in prison after a new DNA test cleared him of raping a woman.

Sixty-one-year- old Joseph Fears Jr. sobbed in a Columbus court Tuesday. He had been convicted of separate rapes in 1983.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said DNA testing on evidence found in the prosecutor's evidence room linked one of the rapes to a Michigan prisoner, who has since died.

O'Brien also said underwear collected from the victim of the other rape contained no male DNA.

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***HOPING FOR GOOD NEWS FROM WASHINGTON***

On March 2, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments regarding whether prisoners, including those on death row, should have a right to post-conviction DNA testing.  Many people were convicted for crimes and sentenced to prison or death prior to the advanced DNA testing methods that are available today.  One such man is Mr. Osborne, of Alaska, whose case has now reached the Supreme Court.  Alaska, where The Honorable Sara Palin is governor, argues that if Mr. Osborne is allowed to test his DNA to prove his innocence, then other prisoners will expect to do the same, burdening the court process.

In six states, there is no law providing for prisoners to have access to the evidence used to convict them and run DNA testing on it, even if the evidence in their files could conclusively prove their guilt or innocence.  In some other states, prisoners' right to demand DNA testing is limited to death row inmates only.  Therefore, persons sentenced to life in prison without parole could spend their natural lives behind bars for crimes they never did.  People like Mr. Fears, who was exonerated through DNA testing and released from the Ohio prison yesterday, would not have a right to testing in those states under existing law. 

Cases like Mr. Fears' demonstrate a compelling need to ensurethat every prisoner has the right to DNA testing to guarantee citizens' rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Ensuring that state laws do not violate citizens' Constitutional rights is the responsibility of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Thousands of prisoners and their families as well as many others are grateful that the Supreme Court agreed to hear Mr. Osborne's case.  Many people's lives, including current and future prisoners and perhaps justice itself, hang on the decision of our esteemed Supreme Cout justices in the matter of granting the right to post-conviction DNA testing on evidence relevant to the convictions of persons, whether sentenced to prison terms, like Mr. Fears, or to execution.  See more about the Supreme Court deliberations by this writer:

Supreme Court's DNA Deliberations
http://my.nowpublic.com/world/supreme-courts-dna-deliberations-mary-neal

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The Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty has a website one can visit and see some of the men on New Mexico's death row who will now have their sentences downgraded to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  http://www.ccadp.org/newmexico.htm

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Santa Fe & Northern New Mexico News reported the following on March 8, 2009
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/SantaFeNorthernNM/2009-Legislature-Senators-hear-from-former-death-row-inmate

SENATORS HEAR FROM FORMER DEATH ROW INMATE

About six weeks before he was to be executed by the state of Illinois, Randy Steidl's mother went to a cemetery and purchased a burial plot for him. [He was later proved innocent.]

"That's something a mother should never have to do," Steidl told a reporter Friday.

Steidl came to Santa Fe to try to persuade to New Mexico senators to support House Bill 285, which would repeal the death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

New Mexico is one of 36 states that still have capital punishment. Although Gov. Bill Richardson has long supported the death penalty, he said recently that he has softened his stance and might consider signing a repeal bill if the Legislature passes one.

Steidl said his mother died last month. "At least she got to see me free," he said. The burial plot she bought for her son is next to her own grave. "Someday I'll be resting there beside her," he said.

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***SAD NEWS FROM TEXAS***

VIDEO - DEATH ROW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maARKptAHKo

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The Death Penalty Information Center carries information regarding the number of people on death row by state, by year at this link:  http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row-inmates-state-and-size-death-row-year.  The data indicates there was a sharp increase in the nation's death row population between 1975 and 2001, going from less than 500 to almost 3,600 people.  Beginning in 2004, there was a decline until 2007, which is the last year recorded on the charts at the site.  (A chart with death row population data should be pictured above.  Click the picture to magnify.)

Additional death row data is available from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. at this link:  http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=297

and

The United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics at this link:  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pubalp2.htm#cp

See the death row population breakdown by race at the following link:

BUSH OKs EXECUTION OF ARMY DEATH ROW PRISONER

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/bush-oks-execution-army-death-row-prisoner-mary-neal
For the first time in over 50 years, an Army execution has been approved by a U.S. president, George W. Bush.  The condemned man is Private Ronald A. Gray, who was convicted for ... (Select link for full article.)

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~UPDATE ~ Tuesday, 17 March 2009

PUBLIC TO GUV:  SIGN DEATH PENALTY REPEAL

ABQ News
By Dan Boyd    

http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/politics-mainmenu-36/11417-public-to-guv-sign-death-penalty-repeal.html

Gov. Bill Richardson's office has announced that more than three-quarters of the people who've weighed in on a bill to abolish New Mexico's death penalty are in favor of the measure.  According to the figures that were just released, 7,169 people have called, emailed or told Richardson in person they're for the death penalty repeal while 2,244 have expressed opposition.

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~UPDATE ~ Wednesday, 18 March 2009

THE DEATH PENALTY IN NEW MEXICO IS DEAD

http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/politics-mainmenu-36/11444-death-penalty-announcement-at-6-pm.html

SANTA FE (AP) — Gov. Bill Richardson says he is signing a bill repealing New Mexico's death penalty.

The bill replaces lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The governor faced a deadline of midnight for making a decision on the bill that lawmakers sent him last week.

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NEW MEXICO'S GOVERNOR AND SENATE ROCKS!  Happy Heroes Day, New Mexico representatives!  God bless you for showing mercy, which is what He freely gives to all of us. 

YOUR VIEWPOINT is invited in the rich text comment area after the blank space below.


Mary Neal
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And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.  ~ Matthew 25:40