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Florida:  

Daniel Hauser (FL) W/?   executed 
August 22, 2000…7:00am (EST) 
Dan Hauser is set to be executed this month by the state of Florida.  He has waived his appeals and is not currently represented by an attorney. 
January 1, 1995 Melanie Rodrigues was killed.  Dan Hauser pleaded guilty and was sentenced in March of 1996.  The court found that the crime was premeditated and particularly heinous, thus deserving of capital punishment. 
On direct appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, Dan claimed that his mitigating factors were not given adequate attention.  These include his full cooperation with the police, his good conduct while in jail, the fact that he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time of the crime, and the fact that he has suffered from emotional and mental health problems since he was just fourteen years old.  His appeal was denied. 
Please contact Governor Jeb Bush to state your opposition to another state sanctioned murder in Florida.  The Bush brothers are responsible for at least 30 executions this year alone.  Let them know that this must stop! 

Georgia 

Alexander Williams (GA)-B/?   stay of execution 
August 24, 2000…12:01pm (EST) 
Alexander E. Williams — who was just 17 years old and mentally ill at the time of his offense, and who remains profoundly mentally ill — may soon face electrocution in Georgia. He has nearly exhausted all remaining avenues of judicial relief and his fate will soon rest with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. Alex Williams was represented by a grossly incompetent lawyer who failed to present to the sentencing jury any of the compelling evidence regarding Alex’s youth, severe mental illness, and chronic childhood abuse. His execution would be contrary to American standards of justice, fairness, and decency as well as international law. This is a call for his sentence to be commuted to life in prison. 

I. LONG BEFORE HIS TRIAL, ALEX WAS SUFFERING FROM SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS AND HAD BEEN THE VICTIM OF REPEATED ACTS OF VIOLENCE AND ABUSE 

Alex Williams has been diagnosed with schizophrenia — a profound psychotic disorder that affects the processing of thoughts and beliefs and nearly every level of functioning. Alex began having hallucinations and hearing voices several months prior to the crime; his father described Alex as being disconnected from reality and living in a “dream world.” Williams believed he was able to communicate with others telepathically and expressed strange and obsessive religious thoughts to family members. For example, he currently believes that actress Sigourney Weaver is God and that she speaks to him. Early in his case, even the prosecution was aware that Alexander was hearing voices and completed a form to request a psychological evaluation. None was ever done prior to his trial or sentencing. While in prison, doctors and corrections officers have reported a history of bizarre behavior including crawling around on his belly in order to communicate with imaginary frogs. Alex is currently being forcibly medicated with powerful anti-psychotic medications. 

Alex endured repeated, indeed continuous, physical abuse as a child. While an infant, his mother shook him hard and often. When he was a toddler, she struck him with cooking utensils, sticks, branches, and the spiked edge of her glass shoes. As a child and young adolescent, Alex suffered frequent beatings at the hands of his closest caregivers, his mother and grandmother. Other times, he was punished by what his mother termed “bed restriction” where he would be forced to remain on his bed for days — sometimes even weeks — completely isolated from others while receiving only 1 meal a day. His mother also forced Alex to stand naked outside of his house and locked the front door behind him. He was sexually assaulted by his step father. 

II. ALEX’S SENTENCING JURY WAS NEVER INFORMED ABOUT HIS TRAGIC CHILDHOOD AND ITS EFFECTS ON HIS DEVELOPMENT 

In the sentencing phase of his case, not one of these critical facts about Alex’s childhood or his mental illness was ever presented to the jury. This is the type of evidence — known as mitigating circumstances — that jurors are required to consider when deciding between the death penalty and a sentence of life imprisonment. 

The entire sentencing presentation by Alex’s defense attorney lasted less than 15 minutes. Only 2 witnesses (his mother — who had been his most persistent abuser — and a female friend) were presented by the defense lawyer. All the jury heard was Alex’s mother’s opinion that he was a good child who liked comic books. There was no testimony from those who knew the details about Alex’s abuse, mental illness, and the extraordinary deprivation that he experienced throughout his young life. Nor was there any testimony from mental health professionals who could have explained to the jury the mitigating effects of youth itself as well as the ways in which the horrific abuse, trauma and mental illness characteristic of Alex’s childhood profoundly and permanently affected his development. 

According to the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, psychological and family disturbances, such as those experienced by Alex, would have seriously “exacerbated the already existing vulnerabilities of his youth.” These were facts that would have enabled the jury to understand why he was deserving of a sentence less than the death penalty. A jury that heard the truth about Alex’s life may well have reached a different decision. 

III. ALEX WAS REPRESENTED BY AN ATTORNEY WHOSE INCOMPETENCE IS ESTABLISHED AND UNDISPUTED IN THE GEORGIA LEGAL COMMUNITY 

In the early 1990’s, just a few years after Alex’s trial, his attorney, O.L. Collins, was officially removed from the list of those qualified to handle criminal cases. In a 1988 hearing in the case of Billy Sunday Birt, another convicted death penalty client, Collins revealed his ignorance of even the most basic principles of criminal law. Collins testified that he knew (only) two criminal cases: “Miranda and Dred Scott,” (Dred Scott had nothing to do with criminal law; rather it was the infamous 1857 U.S. Supreme Court case holding that blacks could not be citizens and slaves were merely property.) In yet another case, defense counsel Collins actually argued for the death penalty because that was what his mentally retarded client instructed him to do. Collins was also once publicly reprimanded by the Georgia Supreme Court for ethical violations when he improperly retained a client’s funds. (In the Matter of Collins, 246 Ga. 325) 

In Alex Williams’ case, Collins undertook no investigation and put on the merest pretense of a defense at trial. He often brought out details about the race of various witnesses and participants in the case when race was totally irrelevant to the issues at hand. He made no effort to investigate the details of Alex’s life, abuse, and mental illness nor did he present even one mitigating fact to the sentencing jury. Again, his entire presentation of evidence at the sentencing hearing lasted less than 15 minutes. His closing argument was rambling and incoherent. Collins did absolutely nothing to inform the jury or to advocate for his client at sentencing — leaving the jury without compelling, available evidence that would have supported a verdict of life. 

IV. EXECUTING JUVENILE OFFENDERS RUNS COUNTER TO BASIC AMERICAN STANDARDS OF DECENCY AND FAIRNESS 

The execution of a juvenile offender is contrary to fundamental principles of American justice which punishes according to the degree of culpability and reserves the death penalty for the “worst of the worst” offenders. By their very nature, teenagers are less mature, and therefore less culpable, than adults who commit similar acts but have no such explanation for their conduct. Adolescence is a transitional period of life when cognitive abilities, emotions, judgment, impulse control, and identity are still developing. Indeed, immaturity is the reason we do not allow those under 18 to assume the major responsibilities of adulthood such as military combat service, voting, entering into contracts, drinking alcohol or making medical decisions. A number of organizations such as the American Bar Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the Children’s Defense Fund, and the National Mental Health Association urge that the execution for a crime committed while a juvenile is simply unacceptable in a civilized society. 

V. EXECUTING JUVENILE OFFENDERS IS CONTRARY TO INTERNATIONAL LAW 

In continuing to execute juvenile offenders, the United States acts in defiance of substantial international consensus and law. Indeed, such executions have all but ended around the world, except in the United States. In the last decade, the United States has executed more juvenile offenders than all of the world’s nations combined. The only other counties that still execute juveniles are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Pakistan (China and Yemen recently abolished the use of capital punishment for juveniles; Pakistan is moving toward abolition). The death penalty for juvenile offenders is expressly prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the American Convention of Human Rights. While the United States has not yet ratified the CRC and specifically reserved its right to execute juveniles when ratifying the ICCPR, the execution of Mr. Williams would further alienate the United States from the international community. Moreover, it would further damage our legitimacy as a world leader in the protection and promotion 
of human rights, particularly the rights of children. 

Under Georgia law, the Board of Pardons and Paroles has the exclusive power to commute a sentence of death to life in prison. 

source: American Bar Association 
 

Missouri 

Gary Lee Roll (MO)-W/?   executed 
August 30, 2000..12:01am (EST) 
    Roll and two others were convicted of the murder of three people in 1992. He pleaded guilty and received the death penalty from the judge (not a jury). 
Issues: 
(1) Roll had no previous record of violent crime. 
(2) After a botched jaw operation  for a congenital nerve defect while in the military, and a later fall from a roof at his civilian job, Roll suffered continuing severe pain leading to an addiction to prescription painkillers; the pain eventually drove him to illegal drug use, which he was under the influence of at the time of the murders. 
(3) The sentencing judge refused to allow this as a mitigating factor; Roll’s defense attorney did not object, making it much harder to raise as an issue subsequently. 
 

George Wallace (OK) W/2W   executed 
August 10, 2000…1:00am (EST) 
In February 1987 William Eric Domer was abducted in Arkansas.  His body was later found in an Oklahoma lake.  Anthony McLaughlin was also abducted in Van Buren, AR and taken to Oklahoma where he was killed.  When George Wallace was arrested for these murders, he promptly confessed and requested the death penalty, waiving his first round of appeals 
When facing a December 1, 1995 execution date, however, George rescinded his offer to go quietly and has been appealing his case ever since.  At his original trial, no mitigating factors were presented to combat the prosecution’s claims that he deserved death.  Current appellate counsel are arguing that George’s trial attorney failed to investigate these factors independently when his client refused to help.  In his most recent appeal, George details a family history of mental illness, a dysfunctional, abnormal, and impoverished home environment, and sexual abuse by an uncle.  These factors were never addressed in the course of sentencing, as George was still intent on state-assisted suicide at the time. 
George further contends that trial counsel was not only inadequate for neglecting existing mitigating circumstances, but that he also should have been asking questions about why his client wanted to die. 
Imposition of the death penalty requires that aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors.  When a death sentence is imposed because mitigating circumstances were never presented, the scales of justice necessarily tip in the wrong direction. 

Texas 

Oliver David Cruz (TX) – L/W   executed 
August 9, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
Oliver Cruz worked as a day laborer and had only been educated through the seventh grade at the time of his arrest in 1988. 
Oliver and his co-defendant Jerry Kemplin were charged with the murder of 24-year-old Kelly Donovan, a soldier, who was stationed in San Antonio. Kemplin testified against Oliver in exchange for a 65-year sentence for murder, rather than facing the possibility of the death penalty.  Oliver was 21 at the time of the crime and had no prior criminal record.  There is no reason to believe a young man with no prior record to be irredeemable. 
Unfortunately, Oliver lives in a state that hands out the death penalty frequently and disproportionately to minority defendants.  Let Governor Bush know that Texas’ affinity for the death penalty is not supported. 
 

Brian Roberson (TX) – B/W    executed 
August 9, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
Brian Roberson is black; the people he is accused of murdering were white; his jury was all-white…any questions as to his fate? 
In August of 1986, the home of James and Lillian Boots was burglarized, and they were murdered.  Brian Roberson was convicted of the crimes in September of 1987 and given the death penalty.  Prosecutors argued that the nature of the crime combined with Roberson’s prior criminal record made him continuing threat to society. 
Defense attorneys countered that the state failed to prove that the deaths were deliberate.  They also pointed to Brian’s drug and psychological problems, which stem from his father’s slaying when he was a child.  His inexperienced counsel, however, failed to produce a medical opinion on his drug problems or the psychological impact of his father’s death.  His trial attorney has since admitted that she was too inexperienced when she represented Brian. 
Brian is a member of a large and supportive family who have maintained relationships with him throughout this ordeal.  He has sought strength from his spirituality and numerous pen pals who write throughout the U.S. and from Europe. 
 

John Satterwhite (TX)     executed 
August 16, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
He is a chronic paranoid schizophrenic.  This long time psychotic mental illness impairs a person’s thinking, his feelings and behavior.  It took three juries and the testimony of “Dr. Death” to finally convict John Satterwhite of the March 12, 1979 murder of Mary Frances. 
Doctor Jerome Filles, a board certified psychologist, found during his interviews with John a number of symptoms, including periodic delusions and hallucinations which suggested mental illness.  He found that John’s aggressions are often based on the misperception “that other people have evil intentions toward him.” 
Concerns about John’s competency were sufficient to overturn his conviction not once, but twice.  At the third and final trial, Doctor Grigson testified for the state.  Doctor Grigson has been dubbed “Doctor Death” due to his apparent affinity for helping prosecutors obtain death sentences.  He has been brought in as an “expert” witness in a great number of capital murder cases to certify the “future dangerousness” of a given defendant. 
In a study of Texas’ administration of the death penalty, the Chicago Tribune found that Doctor Grigson was frequently cited for professional misconductand reprimanded by the American Psychiatric Association.  He used his position for financial gain and regularly testified about persons he had never interviewed, often drawing dubious conclusions from the notes of other examiners. 
John Satterwhite’s fate should not rest on the strength of Dr. Death’s testimony.  Please contact the powers that be in Texas to express your concern about the significant role that Dr. Grigson played in John’s conviction and death sentence. 
 

Richard Wayne Jones (TX)   executed 
August 22, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
Richard Wayne Jones was convicted for the 1986 murder of Tammy Livingston. 
The jury in Richard’s case was “death qualified” in every sense of the term.  At voir dire, a juror was excluded because of his reservations about capital punishment.  At sentencing, defense counsel was not allowed to tell jurors that Richard would not be eligible for parole for at least forty years if he was spared the death penalty. 
In the end, the jury believed that Richard was a future danger to society.  They handed down a death sentence to prevent him from ever walking free again.  Unfortunately, they never heard the testimony of Paul Mansman, a former Parole Officer, who was willing to testify that Richard was a good candidate for rehabilitation. 
Richard is a poster child for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in Texas.  As an incremental step toward abolition, this sentence would have satified a jury concerned with society’s safety, while saving the life of Richard Jones. 
 

David Gibbs (TX)   executed 
August 23, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
“I got a knock on my door and there stood David in his boots and underwear at my front door with his arms up like this and blood down all in front of him.”  This, according to a friend who testified on David Gibbs’ behalf at trial, was the result of one of many suicide attempts.  On this occasion, David had sliced his arms with a razor.  Later in life, David became a danger not only to himself, but to others.  On July 2nd 1985, he killed Carol Ackland and Marietta Bryant. 
As a child, David never knew his father.  His mother showed him how to break into houses when he was just seven years old.  As the years went on, life with his mother became unbearable, so David ran away. 
Ultimately, David was sent to a foster home where the pattern of abuse and neglect continued.  He was sexually abused by his foster mother.  As a means of escape, David began drinking at an early age.  When he drank, he often turned violent. 
Upon arrest, David was charged with murder and sexual assault.  At trial, one of the jurors who sat for his case was a sexual assault victim.  David’s appellate attorneys have argued that this woman’s experience may have predjudiced the jury, so much so that they believe it warrants a retrial. 
Please call Governor Bush and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to request a new trial for David Gibbs. 
 

Ricky McGinn (TX) – W/W   stay of execution
August 27, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
After a bitter and very public battle with the state of Texas over access to DNA testing, Ricky McGinn once again finds himself standing toe to toe with death.  Ricky’s case drew nationwide attention in May of this year, when Texas Governor George Bush granted him a 30-day reprieve so that crucial DNA evidence could be analyzed.  The tests came back positive, and the Lonestar State is more intent than ever to execute Ricky McGinn for the 1993 murder of his stepdaughter, Stephanie Flanery. 
Ricky lived together with his wife and her two daughters in Brown County, Texas.  At 6:30pm on May 22, 1993, Ricky noticed that his stepdaughter, who had gone for a walk several hours earlier, was missing.  After searching for her for three hours, Ricky called the police.  Three days later, Stephanie’s lifeless body was found in a ditch.  A month later, Ricky was indicted for capital murder based on the discovery of human blood and an ax in the family car. 
Ricky’s first attorney, Pete Gomez, initially agreed to represent him for $14,000.00, but then changed his mind and asked for $200,000.00.  When Ricky said he couldn’t afford that, Gomez refused to take his case.  McGinn’s second attorney, Robert Spence, was appointed by the trial court.  He died in a car accident just days before Ricky’s trial was set to begin. Ben Dowl 
Suddereth, Ricky’s third attorney was only given a few days to prepare for trial.  In the end, the jury deliberated for only forty-five minutes (including a lunch break) before sentencing Ricky to death. 
Ricky McGinn’s case is a good example of how poorly the Texas criminal justice system operates.  Like dozens of others on Texas’ death row, Ricky fell through the cracks of an indigent defense system that George W. Bush continues to under-fund and ignore. 
 

Jeffery Caldwell (TX) B/3B   executed 
August 30, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
In March of 1989, Jeffery Caldwell was sentenced to death for the murders of Henry, Gwendolyn, and Kimberly Caldwell.  He claimed that the deaths resulted from an argument with his father, but prosecutors pointed to inconsistencies in his story to demonstrate his guilt.  They said he committed the acts without provocation, and he was a continuing threat to society. 
Jeffery’s attorney countered by challenging the testimony regarding future dangerousness.  The expert psychiatric testimony presented by the state was purely hypothetical, and use of such testimony has been fiercely contested in subsequent cases.  His prior prison record did not involve violent crime.  Additionally, defense attorneys question whether the state proved that Jeffery acted deliberately, attributing the events to a crime of passion in a dysfunctional family environment. 
Contact the parole board and Gov. Bush to protest another Texecution! 
 

Virginia 

Bobby Ramdass (VA)   stay of execution 
August 17, 2000…9:00pm (EST) 
Bobby Lee Ramdass was sentenced to death in June of 1990 for the robbery and murder of a 7-Eleven store clerk.  He robbed the store in conjunction with four other people.  He was 19 at the time of the crime. 
Bobby was poor and could not afford to hire his own investigators.  The trial court denied an ex parte hearing for his motion to hire a medical doctor and investigator, resulting in his inability to retain them for his defense. 
Bobby was not allowed to see the results of polygraph tests taken by his accomplices.  He appealed on the basis that (a) he should have been allowed to review them in an attempt to find some exculpatory evidence, and (b) the test results would have allowed his attorneys to better cross-examine two of the Commonwealth’s witnesses.  His motion was denied. 
The Commonwealth’s Attorney also informed Bobby’s trial attorney of three persons who allegedly would provide an alibi defense, but he also advised that they had made inconsistent statements.  As a result, they were never called at trial. 
 

Russel Burket (VA)   executed 
August 30, 2000…9:00pm (EST)-W/? 
In 1994, Russel Burket pled guilty to the capital murders of Katherine Tafelski and her five year old daughter Ashley. 
Russel never graduated from high school, but was skilled in automotive repairs and had held various jobs including a stint as a construction worker and a bagger at a grocery store.  He had no prior criminal record before this charge. 
Russel has a history of mental problems which led to two suicide attempts.  Two clinical psychologists testified at trial on his behalf, Dr. Thomas Ryan and Dr. Gary Hawk.  Under oath, Dr. Ryan stated that Russel had “intellectual abilities in a low average to average range.” In addition Ryan testified that Russel could not perform well in several academic areas including reading, writing and math.  Dr Hawk opined that Russel has a severe form of dyslexia, and that he suffers from dysthymia, which is a form of persistent mild to moderate depression. 
Despite the mitigating testimony of these two doctors, the judge found the Commonwealth’s psychiatrist, Dr. Mansheim, more credible and agreed that the only mitigating factor in the case was that Russel had no previous criminal record.  The judge concurred with Dr. Mansheim that Russel’s mental condition did not affect the case.  Shortly thereafter, Russel was sentenced to death. 
Appellate attorneys also contend that Russel’s confession was taken illegally. Before confessing to the crimes, their client stated, in the presence of detectives, “I’m gonna need a lawyer.”  They argue that at that moment he should have been read his Miranda rights and had an attorney appointed to him. 
(Source: Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty) 
 

Further Upcoming Execution Dates: 

September 13, 2000:   Miguel Richardson (TX) 

October 4, 2000:         Stacey Lawton (TX) 

November 1, 2000:      Jeffery Dillingham (TX) 

November 8, 2000:      Gary Etheridge (TX)