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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

CALIFORNIA VERSUS TEXAS PRISON WARDENS [THE DEBATE OF THE MONTH ~ JULY 2013]



NOTE: I will post a debate on a topic of this blog once a month.

            For this month’s debate, there will be a testimony from two retired Prison Wardens on Death Row from California and Texas. The former became an opponent of capital punishment but the latter still remained a supporter. Let us hear from the one from both of them.  







Yes on 34 Takes the Lead 

Posted: 11/03/2012 4:58 pm

Fantastic news:

California's respected Field Poll just released their latest survey, showing Prop 34, our state initiative to replace the death penalty, leading 45 percent to 38 percent -- a YES margin of 7 points!

Oh, how far we've come!

One year ago, I helped to launch the SAFE California Campaign -- now known as Prop 34 -- to replace California's broken death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. When we started, SAFE California was made up of a small but mighty group of law enforcement leaders, innocent men and women who had been wrongfully convicted and brave family members of murder victims who understood that the death penalty is a false promise.

Today, the Yes on 34 Campaign has grown into a statewide powerhouse with the support of some of the most respected organizations and leaders in the state -- everyone from Don Heller, who wrote California's death penalty law and now calls it a "huge mistake," and even FOX News personality Bill O'Reilly. 

With ten points gained in the last month YES on 34 has taken the lead!

We're surging in the polls and although we have not reached 50 percent support (yet), we're gaining momentum, sharing the facts, and changing people's minds every day!

Over my 30-year career in the California Department of Corrections, I rose through the ranks from a corrections officer working in prisons to the warden of death row. I oversaw four executions and eventually was appointed director of California's entire prison system. 

I know firsthand that the death penalty wastes money and does not make us any safer. For years, however, many people believed that the death penalty cost less than life in prison with absolutely no chance of parole. Now voters have learned that's simply not true and The Field Poll confirms it: a majority of Californians today understand that the death penalty is far more expensive than a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole. California taxpayers will save $130 million each year by replacing the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole.

Voters have also had a chance to meet Franky Carrillo and learn his story. Franky spent 20 years -- his entire youth starting at 16 years old -- behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Franky is Prop 34's number one supporter and his story has hit the television and radio airwaves. Watch it here:

We've come such a very long way. It's hard to believe that in just a few short days, California could become the 18th state to replace the death penalty. This is epic. The implications will be felt far and wide, starting with the 33 states that have the death penalty on their books.
Put simply, when we pass Proposition 34 next week and replace the death penalty with life in prison with no possibility of parole, we'll make history and come closer to justice that works for everyone -- nationwide. 

To learn more about Prop 34, please visit: www.yeson34.org




Ex-Texas warden reflects after 140 executions
— Jun. 26 8:10 PM EDT 

FORNEY, Texas (AP) — Charles Thomas O'Reilly supported capital punishment when he oversaw his first Texas execution. And he still supported it after his 100th.

In six years as warden of the Huntsville Unit, the prison that houses Texas' death chamber, O'Reilly supervised about 140 executions — more than any other warden in state history.

Now retired, he reflected on his career this week as the nation's busiest death penalty state as the state executed its 500th inmate since resuming capital punishment in 1982.

The 62-year-old said he has no regrets about a process he considered to be a relatively unemotional and small part of his job.

"If you do 140 of them and then decide you can't do them, then I think you've pushed it a little too far," O'Reilly said during an interview with The Associated Press in Forney, about 175 miles away from Huntsville. "If you can't do it, you should have made that decision after one, or maybe two."

O'Reilly, who retired in 2010, recalled meeting condemned inmates when they arrived at Huntsville the afternoon of their executions.

"I'll tell him that we're going to treat him with as much dignity as he'll allow us to," O'Reilly said. Then at 6 p.m., he would return to the inmate's holding cell and say two words: "It's time."

A five-man team walked each inmate to the death chamber and tied the prisoner to a gurney. Other staff members ran IV lines for the execution drugs.

Before the lethal injection began, O'Reilly would ask the inmate for any last words. He liked to give each inmate about three minutes, though he rarely cut anyone off.

Once the inmate's final statement was complete, O'Reilly used a hand-held clicker to signal to the drug room that it was time to start. Minutes later, he would signal to a doctor to check the inmate's pulse and declare him dead.

Relatives of the condemned inmates and victims typically watched through a window.

"There's not a lot said," O'Reilly said. "Everybody knows their job, knows how to do it, when to do it."

He does not remember the name of the first inmate executed during his tenure, but a few names stand out. They include Frances Newton, the only woman executed on his watch. Condemned to death for killing her husband and two children, she was executed in 2005, becoming just the third woman put to death since Texas resumed capital punishment.

O'Reilly said he was more concerned with making sure executions were done professionally. He recalls the professionalism of the prison chaplain and the staff he hand-picked to assist with executions.
Speaking in a low Texas drawl, O'Reilly's voice hardens when asked about his personal views on the death penalty. He said it's the appropriate way to deal with society's worst criminals, such as someone who rapes and kills a 7-year-old girl.

"As far as I'm concerned, that person probably got a just punishment for the crime that he committed," O'Reilly said. "Like me or anybody else, we all have to take responsibility for our own actions. Our actions are our choice. The consequences for those actions are not our choice."

Although the fight over the death penalty is often heated, O'Reilly said the process of an execution is quiet and simple.

"It doesn't take long. There's not a lot said," O'Reilly said. "All you're going to do there is watch a guy go to sleep."

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

THE DECENCY OF THE DEATH PENALTY [ARTICLE ON THE DEATH PENALTY OF THE WEEK ~ SUNDAY 28 JULY 2013 TO SATURDAY 3 AUGUST 2013]



NOTICE: The following article is written by the author itself and not by me, I am not trying to violate their copyright. I will give some information on them.

ARTICLE TITLE: The Decency of the Death Penalty
DATE: 30 July 2002
AUTHOR: Tammy Bruce
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Tammy Bruce (born August 19, 1962) is an American radio host, author, and political commentator. Her nationally-syndicated talk show, The Tammy Bruce Show, airs live weekdays from 10am-12pm Pacific time online via TalkStreamLive. (A podcast of the show is also available to subscribers at her website). She is a frequent on-air contributor to Fox News Channel, and writes material for the Fox Forum blog. Bruce's website describes her as a "gay, pro-choice, gun owning, pro-death penalty, Tea Party Independent Conservative" who "worked on a number of Democratic campaigns in 1990s, including the 1992 Boxer and Feinstein senate races and the Clinton for President campaign" and "also has a history of supporting Republicans as well, including President Regan, both Presidents Bush and, quite reluctantly, John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign." In 2003, Bruce was appointed to serve on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Transition Team after his successful recall election against then-Governor Gray Davis.

Tammy Bruce


The Decency of the Death Penalty
By: Tammy Bruce
Tuesday, July 30, 2002


Thanks to a death penalty freeze 30 years ago, the Manson family is still with us.

The death penalty is indeed a decent thing. Answering the monstrosity of the evil among us is our duty as decent people, as justice demands removing those who slaughter the innocent. The indecency is the idea of a justice system without the death penalty, consequently forcing victims’ families to endure the corruption of society coddling the evil that destroyed their lives.
Why do I appreciate the death penalty? It’s pretty simple, really. It gets the scum of the Earth off the face of the planet, making everyone infinitely safer. If anyone, however, needed to be reminded of the importance of the death penalty, the murderous Manson gang combined with the increasing moral relativism of our so-called justice system, provides the caution. 

A few weeks ago Manson family butcher Leslie Van Houten was denied parole for the 14th time. What’s unconscionable is that she has these repeated chances at being set free. Van Houten was convicted for her role in the Manson family's 1969 murders of Leno LaBianca, a wealthy grocery store owner, and his wife, Rosemary. Van Houten stabbed Rosemary 15 times in the back. Although not present at the actual scene, Van Houten also was convicted of conspiracy in the butchering of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others at Tate's Beverly Hills home. 

Convicted in 1969 and sentenced to death, that should have been the end of Manson and his homicidal pack, including Van Houten, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle and the lone male, Tex Watson. Instead, in 1972 all of their sentences were reduced to life in prison when the California Supreme Court briefly overturned death penalty, giving them all the constant hope of release.

Life in prison for murderers, with or without parole is absurd, insulting, and dangerous. People who are murdered are dead. Forever. Their families are forever condemned to missing the person they loved. The victims of murderers have no hope, no future. The families remain, at heart, lost. That’s not the case though for the depraved Manson family, and every other murdering freak of nature who has yet to be executed. 

The animals living life in prison or on death row have the pleasure of experiencing emotions, breathing air, eating food, falling in love, having sex. All the things denied to their victims for eternity. Prison is indeed too good, while execution provides at least a dignified and moderately painless way out while making our planet a better place. Taking away prison privileges is also simply not enough. It is the joy of life, the pleasure of living, the most depraved do not deserve.

Do you presume the Manson murder spree was so heinous that none of the participants will ever be released? Think again. The moral decay of our society and the justice system’s growing incompetence due to our generation’s moral vacuum should give you pause. Judge Bob Krug of San Bernardino County ordered a new parole hearing for Van Houten, ruling that the Board of Prison Terms needed to "explore" Van Houten's prison behavior in greater depth. In one of the more outrageous examples of the loss of moral compass, the judge ruled the parole board could not simply deny her parole based on the seriousness of the crime and even chastised them for not seriously considering her release, calling their refusal to parole her "capricious"! [http://www.courttv.com/news/2002/0627/vanhouten_ctv.html]

While the Tate and LaBianca families continue to mourn their lost loved ones, what has the Manson family been doing? Manson himself has a website, writes songs and gives interviews. Van Houten got college degrees. Atkins, who called her savage slaughter of Sharon Tate the most intense sexual experience of her life, has married a second time while in prison, now to a Harvard Law School graduate. She has also written a book and claims to be a "victim of justice." How’s that for Newspeak! Tex Watson, who supervised both murder scenes and massacred many of the victims, married and has fathered four children during his incarceration. That’s right  —  not only has he not been removed from the gene pool, he has reproduced repeatedly! Yes, these are people who belong in a death chamber, not in prison.

Fortunately, with DNA and other science, the misguided of the Left have lost their argument to end the death penalty. We do hear stories of the extremely rare instance of an innocent in prison being released due to DNA evidence. That’s great, and it proves the system works. I like eliminating the rare doubt from the process, something the Left has exploited ad infinitum. 

What does Van Houten plan to do when she’s released? She would live a "quiet life, perhaps as a book editor at home." She then told the parole board, "I don't know the world out there, but it felt like a good thing for a woman in her 50s to do.” Isn’t that special? Of course, Rosemary LaBianca didn’t have the chance to make that decision — she was 39 years old when Van Houten butchered her. How dare we allow her murderer to contemplate such a life!

Here’s a moral newsflash for Judge Krug — it is appropriate to deny someone parole based “simply” on the seriousness of their crime. It is even more appropriate to execute the murderously depraved among us. We don’t put people away so they can get college degrees or father children or enjoy marriage. Or to have hope. Van Houten is a model prisoner. That’s nice. And because we lost out and didn’t get to execute her and her cronies, being that model prisoner is what she should remain for the rest of her unnatural and depraved life.



Tammy Bruce is a Fox News Channel Contributor and author of The Death of Right and Wrong.



HI-FI MURDERER 1: WILLIAM ANDREWS EXECUTED IN UTAH (30 JULY 1992)



            On this date, 30 July 1992, an African American Killer, William Andrews was executed by lethal injection in Utah. He was convicted with two accomplices of the Hi-Fi murders on 22 April 1974. The Hi-Fi murders were a reminiscence of the murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian. I will post information about this killer from Wikipedia and Murderpedia. 

 

William Andrews


A.K.A.: "THe Hi-Fi Murders"

Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Robbery - Rape
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: April 22, 1974
Date of arrest: Next day
Date of birth: 1954
Victims profile: Carol Naisbitt, 52; Michelle Ansley, 19, and Stanley Walker, 20
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Weber County, Utah, USA
Status: Executed by lethal injection in Utah on July 30, 1992

The so-called Hi-Fi Murders was an infamous criminal case involving murder, rape and robbery which occurred in the Hi-Fi Shop in Ogden, Utah on April 22, 1974.

The crimes were committed by two 19-year-old United States Air Force airmen, Pierre Dale Selby and William Andrews. Selby and Andrews took five people hostage, killed three of them, and left the two who survived with horrific injuries.

Following a trial, both men were found guilty and sentenced to death. The NAACP campaigned to commute Selby and Andrews' death sentences, despite overwhelming physical evidence and witness accounts that identified them as the killers beyond a reasonable doubt.

The robbery, rape, and murders

Selby and Andrews entered the Hi-Fi store in Ogden just before closing time, brandishing handguns. Two employees, Stanley Walker, age 20, and Michelle Ansley, age 19, were in the store at the time and taken hostage. Selby and Andrews took the two into the basement of the store, bound them, and then began robbing the store.

Later, a 16-year-old boy named Cortney Naisbitt entered the store to thank Walker for helping him with an errand and was also taken hostage and tied up in the basement with Walker and Ansley. Later that evening, Orren Walker, Stanley's 43-year-old father, became worried that his son had not returned home. Orren arrived at the store and was also taken hostage; at this point, Ansley began begging and crying.

After Orren was taken to the basement, Selby ordered Andrews to go out to their van and bring him back something. Andrews returned with a bottle in a brown paper bag, from which Selby poured a cup of blue liquid. Selby ordered Orren to administer the liquid to the other hostages, but he refused, and was bound, gagged and left face-down on the basement floor. Just then, Carol Naisbitt, Courtney's 52-year-old mother, entered the store looking for her son. Carol was taken to the basement, bound, and placed next to her son.

Selby and Andrews then propped each of the victims into sitting positions and forced them to drink the liquid, telling them it was vodka laced with sleeping pills. Rather, it was an industrial drain cleaner whose active ingredient was sodium hydroxide. The moment it touched the hostages' lips, enormous blisters rose, and it began to burn their tongues and throats and peel away the flesh around their mouths. Ansley, still begging for her life, was not forced to drink the drain cleaner.

Pierre and Andrews tried to duct-tape the hostages' mouths shut to hold quantities of drain cleaner in and to silence their screams, but pus oozing from the blisters prevented the adhesive from sticking. Orren Walker was the last to be given the drain cleaner, but seeing what was happening to the other hostages, he allowed it to pour out of his mouth and then faked the convulsions and screams of his son and fellow hostages.

Selby became angry because the deaths were taking too long and were too loud and messy, so he shot both Carol and Cortney Naisbitt in the backs of their heads. Selby then shot at Orren Walker but missed. He then fatally shot Stan Walker before again shooting at Orren, this time striking him in the back of the head.

Selby then took Ansley to the far corner of the basement, forced her at gunpoint to remove her clothes, then repeatedly and brutally raped her while Andrews watched. When he was done, he dragged her, still naked, back to the other hostages, threw her on her face, and fatally shot her in the back of the head.

Andrews and Selby noted that Orren was still alive, so Selby mounted him, wrapped a wire around his throat, and tried to strangle him. When this failed, Selby and Andrews inserted a ballpoint pen into Orren's ear, and Selby stomped it until it punctured his eardrum, broke, and exited the side of his throat. Selby and Andrews then went upstairs, finished loading equipment into their van, and departed.

Investigation

The victims were discovered four hours later when Orren's wife and other son came to the store looking for them. Orren's son heard noises coming from the basement and broke down the back door while Mrs. Walker called 9-1-1. Stan Walker and Ansley were already dead; Carol Naisbitt lived long enough to be loaded into an ambulance, but was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

Although Cortney was not expected to live, he did survive, albeit with severe and irreparable brain damage, and required hospitalization for 266 days before being released. Despite his severe injuries, Orren Walker survived, although with extensive burns to his stomach and esophagus.

Hours after news of the crime broke, an Air Force officer called the Ogden police and told them that Andrews had confided in him months earlier, "One of these days I'm going to rob that hi-fi shop, and if anybody gets in the way, I'm going to kill them."

Hours after that call was received, two teenage boys Dumpster diving near Hill Air Force Base where Selby and Andrews were stationed discovered the victims' wallets and purses, and, recognizing the pictures on the drivers' licenses, called the police. A crowd of airmen quickly formed, including Selby and Andrews.

The detective who responded to the scene, believing that the killers might be in the crowd, put on a show, speaking dramatically and waving each piece of evidence in the air with tongs as he removed them from the Dumpster.

He later noted in his report that out of all the airmen gathered around the dumpster, most of whom stood still and watched in relative silence, two in particular paced around the crowd, spoke loudly, and made frantic gestures with their hands. The detective later identified these two airmen as Selby and Andrews. The detective later received an award from the Utah branch of the Justice Department for his use of proactive techniques.

Based on Selby's and Andrews's reactions to the evidence being removed from the trash bin, and the officer's implication of Andrews, Andrews and Selby were taken into custody and a search warrant was issued for their barracks. Police found fliers for the hi-fi shop and a rental contract for a unit at a public storage facility.

Police obtained a warrant for the storage unit, where they discovered several pieces of stereo equipment which were later identified from serial numbers as having been taken from the hi-fi store. During the course of removing the equipment from the storage unit, detectives discovered the half-empty bottle of industrial drain cleaner that had been used on the hostages. Based on this evidence Selby and Andrews were formally charged with the crimes.

A third person, Keith Roberts, was also charged.

Trial

Selby, Andrews and Roberts were tried and jointly for first-degree murder and robbbery. Selby and Andrews were convicted of all charges and sentenced to death. Roberts was convicted only of robbery and was sentenced to imprisonment.

During the trial it was revealed that Selby and Andrews had robbed the store with the intention of killing anyone they came across, and in the months prior to the robbery had been looking for a way to commit the murders quietly and cleanly.

The two then saw the film Magnum Force, in which a prostitute is forced to drink Drano and is then shown immediately dropping dead. Selby and Andrews decided that this would be an efficient method of murder and decided to use it in their crime. Orren Walker and Cortney Naisbitt were the star witnesses for the prosecution; both testified on the stand, in spite of Naisbitt's brain damage and Walker's mutilated throat.

Aftermath

Following the issuing of death sentences, the NAACP demanded that Selby and Andrews' sentences be reduced to life with the possibility of parole, claiming that Pierre and Andrews had been unfairly convicted since they were both black, and the victims and jury were all white.

Andrews was quick to accuse the judicial system of racism following the NAACP's request for reduced sentences, and in an interview with USA Today, he claimed that he had never intended to kill anyone; this was later rebutted when detectives cited a statement by Andrews in which he admitted being the one to purchase the drain cleaner and bring it to the store on the night of the killings.

Selby and Andrews became notoriously hated prisoners, even amongst the black population. They were particularly reviled on death row, especially by Gary Gilmore (also facing capital punishment and imprisoned at the same facility), whose final words to his fellow inmates before being taken to face the firing squad were, "I'll see you in Hell, Pierre and Andrews!" Gilmore is reported to have laughed at Selby and Andrews as he passed by their cells.

Despite movements by the NAACP and Amnesty International, Selby and Andrews were both put to death by lethal injection, Selby on August 28, 1987, Andrews five years later in 1992.

The Hi-Fi Murders are still seen as among the worst crimes ever committed in the state of Utah. The case is now taught to FBI trainees at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, and it was included as a sample case in the FBI's Crime Classification Manual.

Cortney Naisbitt's story became the basis for the book Victim: The Other Side of Murder by Gary Kinder. This book was viewed by many as pioneering because it was one of the first true crime books that focused on the victims of a violent crime rather than the criminals. Cortney suffered chronic pain for the rest of his life, until his death on June 4, 2002 at the age of 44. Due to his brain damage, he was forced to drop out of college, and because he could not hold down a job, had to apply for social security assistance.

Orren Walker, the other victim who survived the brutal attack, died on February 13, 2000.

The incident was also the basis for a 1991 CBS Television movie called Aftermath: A Test of Love, starring Richard Chamberlain and Michael Learned.


William Andrews
Born
1955
Jonesboro, Louisiana
Died
July 30, 1992 (aged 37)
Utah State Prison, Draper, Utah
Conviction(s)
First-degree murder
Aggravated robbery
Penalty
Death Sentence
Conviction status
Executed by Lethal Injection
July 30, 1992
Occupation
United States Air Force

The official police report stated that six black men driving two vans committed the robbery. Roberts and another man remained with the cars and two others loaded the vans, while Pierre and Andrews tortured and killed the victims. However, detectives only had enough evidence to convict Pierre, Andrews and Roberts. Ogden Police Department Officer Delroy White, who was a detective when he worked the case, observed: "Andrews was the brains behind the whole deal, the one who organized it [...] Pierre was the enforcer."
  • Dale Selby Pierre (January 21, 1953 – August 28, 1987): Pierre was 21 years old at the time of the crime. He was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, until moving to Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 17. In May 1973, Pierre entered active service with the United States Air Force, and was transferred to Hill Air Force Base in September 1973 as a helicopter mechanic. Almost on arrival, Pierre became the prime suspect in the October 5, 1973 murder of Edward Jefferson, an Air Force Sergeant at Hill Air Force Base, though police lacked enough evidence to file charges. At the time of the Hi-Fi murders, Pierre was out on bail for car theft from a Salt Lake City car dealer. On November 16, 1974, Pierre was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated robbery for the Hi-Fi crimes. On November 20, 1974, he was given three death sentences, one for each of the murder victims. While in prison, Pierre changed his name 27 times, reportedly to protect his family name from notoriety, finally settling on "Pierre Dale Selby" (simply transposing his first, middle, and last names from birth) as his legal name. After exhaustion of appeals, Pierre was executed by lethal injection on August 28, 1987, at the age of 34. At the time of his death, Pierre bequeathed all of his money ($29) to Andrews.
  • William Andrews: Andrews was 19 years old at the time of the crimes. During the trial it was revealed that he and Selby had the intention of killing anyone they came across while robbing the store. Andrews was executed by lethal injection on July 30, 1992.
  • Keith Roberts: The court found that Keith Roberts had no role in, or knowledge of, the murders. He was, however, convicted of armed robbery. Roberts was paroled in 1987.
Pierre and Andrews became notoriously hated prisoners at Utah State Prison, and were particularly reviled on death row. In 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore (also facing capital punishment) was reported to have said, "I'll see you in Hell, Pierre and Andrews!", as he passed their cells on the way to his execution by firing squad. However the The Deseret News reports that Gilmore's parting words to the Hi-Fi killers, moments before his execution were: "Adios, Pierre and Andrews. I'll be seeing you directly."