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April 2002
Southern Styled Justice…???? The Court of Criminal
Justice in Texas who oversee’s all state level appeals for Texas death row
have once again struck down a very controversial of 9 former prosecutors who are
going to vote pro-prosecution. They are << all >> Republicans who
are conservative in their judicial views…meaning, they very rarely grant
relief to death row inmates who later were freed or had their sentence
drastically reduced because the crime did not fit under capital punishment
guidelines. In one case…Roy Criner, who was serving 99 years for rape murder,
Chief Justice Sharon Keller repeatedly denied the man any relief, even
when it was clear there was no evidence of his semen in the body. She stated,
and I quote, unquote…. “The defendant may have been wearing a condom”
Hello! Anybody home? Scenario…A man goes through a struggle to overpower a
woman, then stops to put on a condom…Yeah right! Most
recently Justice Keller stated that Anthony Graves, a death row inmate who
brought extremely strong claims before the court concerning the incompetence of
his State Habeas lawyer. The Court rejected his claims by a vote of
6-3…reasoning that the Texas Constitution doesn’t
guarantee an inmate an effective lawyer on habeas review. They further
elaborated that once a lawyer is competent at his time of appointment, then
anything thereafter is of no concern to the Court , because the Court satisfied
“itself”, not the law, but the court. These are the same justices that said
an inmate who’s lawyer was taken from a psychiatric hospital to do the
inmate’s trial was “competent” . Strange though, the lawyer was taken
right back the to the psychiatric hospital immediately after the trial was over.
Apparently they didn’t think he was competent enough to walk the streets…key
thought. In
one breath, the C.C.A. Court said Graves was not entitled to relief because the
Texas Constitution does not guarantee death row inmates relief on habeas review.
Now on the same day, some session, different
case, a
white death row inmate Ricky Kerr, the Court said he is entitled to relief on
habeas review because his lawyer did very little on his behalf. Am I missing
something here ?? One
inmate is denied, while another is granted relief on habeas review.
Now both men state the same claims…that the habeas lawyers appointed
were incompetent and did little to protect crucial legal challenges or every
assert them. One lawyer filed a
blank writ only with the inmates name on the cover sheet.
In another instance, a habeas lawyer forgot about her client, whom she
had never seen and filed his habeas …”six months” late !! The Court
refused to accept it and denied the inmate. After much public attention, they
allowed a newly appointed lawyer to redo his habeas. Let
me back up some years and clear the picture more better for you.
In 1995, their non-existing habeas lawyer pool was humiliating Texas.
So Texas Legislature passed a “law” in 195 that would give every
death row inmate competent counsel for his/her habeas review.
The lawmakers made it very plain and clear that on this “one review”,
they wanted to make absolutely sure that the inmate is afforded a quality
counselor at the State’s expense. Now
how the C.C.A., misinterpreted that is beyond my comprehension… and probably
yours also. These people interpret the law to contort to their own
twisted view, which is…pro-prosecution, swift justice and finality somewhere
along the way, an innocent man or woman is going to fall through the cracks.
It could be me or anyone on death row in Texas. We
can only do so much, but you can do much more by e-mailing certain key Texas
lawmakers and demand the resignation of Sharon Keller.
Be absolutely certain that the Governor’s office will take note because
he’s up for election in November against Toney Sanchez, who I hope wins.
E-mail Senator John Whitmire, Senator Rodney Ellis, Senator Harold Duttary,
Congressman Shelia Jackson-Lee and Gov. Perry.
Demand a change by telling them you know “voting Texans” who share
your views. Thank
you for your support.
Peace and Love,
Farley
Texas
Death Row Inmate going Home By
the time this article is read by the subscribers of the C.F.T.J., another Texas
death row inmate will have been freed, on an unanimous vote of 9 – 0 by the
full Court. Damon
J. Richardson who has spent 14 years on Texas death row had his case overturned
and the High Court of Texas vacated his death sentence. Slowly the wheels of
justice have moved for my friend and now he will soon feel the wind on his
face. Damon
is my best friend and the first person I allowed to get close to me on the row
and I’m truly happy that my friend is free from the clutches of the
executioner. His
freedom came at extreme costs, which were almost at $ 200 thousand dollars.
By law he can be paid up to $ 250 thousand dollars for his wrongful
imprisonment. If
he had not been able to pay these high lawyer fees, he wouldn’t be going home.
Justice in Texas comes at a very high price. Life is priceless and what
ever is needed must be gotten somehow someway. Peace Farley
C. Matchett Justice
Scalia demands Catholic Judges resign
Recently,
a United States Supreme Court Justice A. Scalia who is supposedly devout
Catholic stated that any Judge in America who is a Catholic and follows the
Pope’s teaching over following the law should resign immediately.
This is President Bush’s sly way to slowly eradicate Judicial Benches
from fair-minded Judges and replace them with right winged conservatives who are
“all pro-prosecution”. The
so-called slogan of Bush when he was a Texas Governor…”Kill them all and let
God sort them out” still echoes
in Judicial halls across America. Now
he has called upon his frat-brother from Yale University who is a Supreme Court
Justice to denounce any and all catholic Judges who follow the Pope’s
teachings. Such a statement is both
stupid and idiotically, but we must consider the source. This
is being done because Catholics oppose capital punishment.
They too are often not allowed to sit on jury’s because of their
religious beliefs that strongly oppose the death penalty.
Throughout the East Coast of America, Catholics are the majority religion
and are very vocal in political issues. They
only speak on issues to which the Church is opposition to. For
Justice Scalia to make such a statement for his buddy George Bush Jr, makes once
question his true beliefs. I,
myself a Catholic, find it difficult to accept such a statement from another
Catholic. It is purely political
favoring so as to gain judicial strength with right-wingers meting out so-called
Justice…… Justice Scalia should
be the one to resign because it is very clear that he’s playing
“favoritism” over following the law, but who will reprimand him ?
Not the President ! Maybe
the Cardinal or the Pope himself…smile !
Someone needs to bring him
back to Earth because his status has truly blinded his judgment and commonsense
rationale. Supreme
Court Grants Stay of Execution for Texas Inmate on Racism during Juror Selection
On
February 21st, 2002, Thomas Miller-El was scheduled to die in the
Texas Death Chamber. The U.S. Supreme Court intervened days before the execution
was to take place because of the legal challenge his lawyers brought to the
Court. The
Challenge involves the racist way that a defendant is deprived of having Blacks
and Latino’s excluded from their jury. The
Supreme Court laid down a law that said such discriminatory practices deprive
the defendant of fundamental fairness before a jury of his peers.
That case was called “Batson-vs-Kentucky”.
With that said, the scope was left wide open and prosecutors used
peremptory strikes to continue excluding Blacks.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have long held that
Batson-vs-Kentucky is not violated when a Black defendant is sitting before an
all white jury, who the prosecutor has so meticulously and cunningly chosen. Now that the Supreme Court has taken Miller-El’s case, may
be they’ll see overt racism and set guidelines that the prosecutor must follow
and not leave the law to be interpreted by prosecutors. A
former Dallas County Prosecutor who was made
famous for an abortion issue Roe-vs-Wade. Henri Wade, the man who was the Dallas
County Prosecutor for over three decades, wrote a manual and passed it to his
assistant prosecutors with strict instructions to follow the guidelines set
forth inside…religiously. Inside were tricks of the trade to manipulate
throughout jury selection. Ways to
strike potential Blacks and use any reason they could.
The manual stated …”you are not looking for a fair juror”. It also
stated that Blacks should be excluded because they may see sympathy for the
black defendant or any defendant because of the history of slavery associated
with Blacks. It also said to strike
any potential Jewish juror because of Hitler’s oppression of the Jews, which
would make them empathize with the accused. The
Court did right to step in other wise prosecutors will continue to exploit the
scope of Batson-vs-Kentucky. The
practice of racism has cost tot many lives, but we can’t change the past.
We do have today, which we can plan for a better tomorrow.
Hopefully through Miller-El’s case, this racist policy can be
eradicated and Jurors will no longer be struck because of the color of their
skin.
Supreme
Court hears Mentally Retardation Case
In
a case that will set the standard concerning executing the mentally retarded,
was brought before the United States Supreme Court for Oral Arguments on
February 20th, 2002. The
case comes out of Virginia and the inmate is David Atkins, whose I.Q. is to be
59. At first, the Court accepted a
case out of North Carolina, but North Carolina officials moved with legislative
action swiftly and enacted a law that would ban the practice of executing the
mentally retarded. So the Supreme Court moved to accept another case and thus
being the reason David Atkins has been thrust into the spotlight. The
prosecutors argued that inmates will begin to make frivolous claims and lawyers
for the defense will manipulate and circumvent the law just to get their client
off death row. The defense lawyers
argued that putting such people to death when they understand not the finality
of the situation at hand…is cruel and unusual punishment and that is
prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. The
defense stated that guidelines could easily be drafted by both sides and a use
of two psychologists and psychiatrists who will evaluate these inmates who
assert such claims. Federal Government limits Appeals and Funding for Death Row Inmates In
1996, there were 2 Congressional decisions, which changed the legal avenues for
death row litigation. One cut Government funding of Resource centers, which
provided lawyers to death row inmates and these lawyers performed their jobs
very well… maybe too well for some members of Congress.
The second decision became a bill that severely limited federal appeal
options for death row inmates. In
essence, the measure shortens the time in which a death row inmate can file his
or her federal appeal, but at the same time has removed lawyers that assisted
death row inmates in their federal appeal. By
law, death row inmates are automatically entitled to “one” lawyer throughout
the appeal process. That is a
“direct appeal” lawyer who does the first appeal immediately after the
sentence has been handed down. The
Federal Government removed $ 18 million dollars from centers, who eventually had
to close down. These centers operated throughout the South and did extensive
death penalty work. These lawyers
were not controlled like the Current Court
Appointed lawyers are today. Their
absence has left many inmates left without any legal representation, while the
State works every day pushing the inmates appeal. It’s a biased one-sided battle, similar in comparison to
putting a blind man in a boxing match with a boxing champion. It’s just
unfair. Some of the lawyers have
resurrected themselves through private funding from individuals, but most are so
small of a group that they can only take on a few cases at a time.
And in Texas, the great State of injustice, this is the State that has
the worst public legal system in America !!
There is no public defender service, no capital trial unit and no
post-conviction unit….just the appearance of a process.
Everything that looks as it is, in reality isn’t really what it appears
to be. On
April 24, 196 Congress passed the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act. It severely limits the role of
federal reviews in capital cases by restricting when an inmate can obtain a
federal hearing. To get “into” the Court, they must first issue the inmate
C.O.A. (Certificate of Appealibility). If
they say no, the inmate can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but they normally
uphold lower Court’s decisions and the inmate’s life is normally ended
within 90 days. You can only apply “once”.
Like flipping a coin… win or lose…sad !
Texas…. Southern Justice without a hangman’s noose.
In one era, there was wide use of the hangman’s noose.
Then they moved to a more tortuous method…..electrocution; and finally
they modernized with what “they” deemed as a more humane method…lethal
injection. Now the final blow...streamline…all those frivolous appeals, limit
their resources, their number of appeals and soon there will be a long line at
the death chambers door. Sad, but
so very true.
Nebraska
State Prison’s electric chair sit empty on the first floor of the prison.
It has not been in use lately because the citizens of Nebraska are about
to see a bill introduced that would change their method of execution from
electrocution to lethal injection. This
comes after District Judge Robert Hippe ruled that four jolts of electricity
given to inmates in Nebraska’s electric chair was cruel and unusual
punishment. Two prominent senators
are proposing the bill to make the change to lethal injection so they can keep
their State out of a costly legal constitutional battle.
One bill of one Senator offers solely death by lethal injection, while
the other bill by the other Senator offers the inmate a “choice” … lethal
injection or the electric chair. Only
two States in America still use the electric chair as their primary method of
execution. They are Nebraska and
Alabama, Alabama is also entertaining a legislative bill that would switch to
lethal injection. The
United States Supreme Court has not ruled on that issue of the electric chair
being cruel and unusual punishment, but the practice of using the electric chair
is clearly cruel and unusual punishment. It is an agonizing death that’s
extremely painful and most times are botched executions that take more that the
prescribed voltage jolts to kill the inmates.
Last
year, a team of lawyers and criminologists at Columbia University released a
first phase study of the death penalty in America.
On February 11, 2002, they released the second phase that was riddled
with corruption, unfairness, incompetence and serious errors at every
stage of the appeal process. In
plain terms, they simply described our system as severely “broken”.
Professor James Liebman who is the leader of the team stated that it’s
very likely that innocent people have been executed. The
biggest problem appears to be the rush to impose the death penalty. Too often,
the defendant is guilty in the minds of the accuser from the moment he or she is
arrested. The study found that the
more often officials use the death penalty, the wider the range of crimes become
to which it is applied. And the
more it is imposed for offenses that aren’t highly aggravated, the greater the
risk that capital convictions and sentences will be seriously flawed.
The most disturbing of all is that political conditioning pressures
counties and states to overuse the death penalty, thus creating its
unreliability and tremendous errors. Politics’
dominate who should and who should not get the death penalty. A perfect example is the “Andrea Yates” case in Houston
Texas. The
study showed that three-fourth ¾ of all reversals nationwide were because
defense lawyers were seriously incompetent, police or prosecutors had suppressed
evidence or committed other professional misconduct.
It showed also that Jurors are often misinformed about the law or Judges
and Jurors had been biased about the case.
It showed that the higher number of African Americans in a State, the
higher the rate of serious capital murder trial error. More
often and directly State Trial Judges are subject to popular election and the
more partisan those elections are, the higher the rate of serious capital murder
trial error. The scenario – Trial
Judge gives lawyers “A” and lawyer “B” a court appointment to a capital
murder trial. They will be paid $
30 thousand dollars a piece by the courts.
They take $ 10 thousand dollars a piece and donate it to the Judges
re-election campaign and at tax time, each receives $ 7500 back on every $ 10
thousand donated. They appear to
work for the defendant, but in reality work for the State…who pays them, and
gives them tax breaks at human life’s expense.
They clear the case quickly and stay in the Judges good graces so he’ll
appoint them again so they can sell out another poor soul.
Protesters
take on Supreme Court on 1st Amendment Issue A
group of protesters who have been arrested and charged with unlawfully
demonstrating on the steps of the US Supreme Court are taking the High Court to
task on its ban on free speech on its own doorstep. For
a group of seven people, it wasn’t of any concern “what” they protested,
but “where” they protested on January 17, 2002.
They gathered not on the sidewalk in front of the Court, but on the
courthouse steps, which is illegal. Abraham
Bonowitz, director of the Abolitionist Action Committee was among 18 people
arrested in January 1997 after unfurling a 30-foot banner that read …”Stop
Executions !” – on the marble steps of the US Supreme Court.
Most arrestees claim their “First Amendment” rights under the US
Constitution, which guarantees every US citizen the right of freedom of speech
and religion. Their claim was
denied because they did not keep their protest on the sidewalk where it’s
legal. The very same steps are used freely by joggers, the public,
tourist and news crews routinely film news stories on the 45 marbled steps.
You can go up and down the steps, but you can’t express yourself on the
steps. In
1983, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to ban demonstrations
on the sidewalk in front of the Court, but said nothing about the steps.
Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice dissented and
wrote …”the rights of the people do not lose their First Amendment rights at
the edge of the sidewalk, anymore than students rights to freedom of speech or
expression and at the schoolhouse door. In
1998, a Preacher knelt in prayer on the very first step of the US Supreme Court,
to mark the National Day of Prayer. He
was arrested and at his trial, found guilty after a jury rejected his First
Amendment rights. In
the last few months, capital punishment opponents have come from all over
America and Canada to demonstrate on the the 25th anniversary of
Utah’s execution of Gary Gilmore. They walked to the very top of the steps and unfurled their
banner. They were quickly
surrounded by Court police and arrested. Their
trial is set for June 2002.
On
February 28, 2002; Texas executed death row inmate Monty Delk, a man with severe
mental illness. His mental being
did not live anywhere near competent. He
was a man who lived feces lined cell which reeked of both urine and fecal
matter. He lived naked in the
coldest of winters. He often babbled incoherent or irrational statements. Monty
arrived on death row in 1988 and his mental condition slowly deteriorated with
the accumulating years. He was
placed on the psychotic medication Naldol, which in turned caused him to suffer
a severe reaction. His condition
was diagnosed as bipolar disorder, but changed in 1994 to
“malingering” to avoid the death penalty. On
the day of his execution, he was given a “stay” by the Federal Judge so that
unresolved issues could be heard. By
5 pm on February 28, 2002, those said issues were completely resolved and Monty
was transported to the Walls Unit, which houses the death chamber, around 6 pm.
The execution was complete by 8 pm and there is no doubt that Monty was
“severely ill”…contrary to what prison psychiatrists say.
I saw him every day at my job, which at that time was a cellblock
orderly. I worked on the same
cellblock that Monty lived on. One
row 20 cell, at the very end is where they housed Monty. Out of sight….out of
mind. In my 2 years of working down
there, I never saw any psychiatrist go see him and they “never” took Monty
out of his cell for anything except shower when ever he did shower, which was once every 3 or 4 months.
The prison staff at Ellis could have forced him to take a shower, but
they only did that once because a Human rights group wanted to see him, so they
cut his hair and beard, used a riot team to extract him from his cell and take
him to the shower. Then they pumped
him full of anti-psychotic drugs and put new starched white pants and shirt on
him for presentation. After pulling
a fast one, the Ellis staff placed him back in his old cell.
Here at Polunsky Unit the psych-doctor goes to their cells 3 times a
week. By
law, these mentally ill inmates cannot be made to take their medication.
The prison system can make the medication available to the inmate, but
they cannot force one to take it. I
can not say that I am surprised at the execution of the mentally ill because it
happened in 1994 with Harold Bernard and a few others…and it will again and
again until a bill is amended with the Mentally Retardation bill to cover the
mentally ill as well.
Peace
One
day shortly after my arrival on death row in 1993…. I was on the recreation
yard having legal intellectual conversation with 2 or 3 guys, and I stated that
I pled guilty at the ill advice of my court appointed lawyer.
One of the guys stated…”you ain’t got nothing to appeal”
I looked him in the eye and told him ..”I don’t have no plans on
losing and somehow someway I’m gonna make it”. Once
again I’d beaten someone else’s expectation.
I refused to crawl in a hole and die simply because I made a mistake in
trusting my lawyer. It’s over and I’ve moved on.
As people we often easily criticize “others”. We may tell the to practice “self-control”, that’s
okay, but why don’t they take their own advice.
Judgments can be taken personal and as a Human Race it should not be
critique here or critique there. Let
us critique ourselves first. We
should be like pebbles in a bag polishing each other.
We must gain insight to that which holds us back, then deal with it head
on. We may be severe
procrastinators, or shy, or have never taken a risk to build your dreams. Like
everyone on Earth, I have faults, but as a conscious man, I try to deal with
them one at a time to make a better me, because I have hopes and dreams like
everyone else. I have fears like everyone else.
Some of us fear losing our home, our health, our income, our savings, our
lover or our looks. All of these
can take place in the blink of an eye or over a period of time.
A few will take place somewhere in our lives, but when we separate looks
and money from health and spirituality, our lives become less stressful.
Opportunities begin to abound plentifully. Then everything else will fall into place like a puzzle.
We must continue to be compassionate towards each other.
We must continue to push open doors for ourselves because no one can do
it for you. Life
is a Blessing and we must not take for granted the time we are allowed on this
Earth. We must make the most of
each and every day and not let the forces of negativity rule us.
We must continue tog row each and every day one step at a time.
We must always understood that nothing is truly lost.
If we look deeper than the surface of things, surely we will find newer
possibilities. This life is filled with endless opportunities, meaningful
work, greater vitality, and excitement. In
all things, God’s got your back covered.
Trusting God makes us powerful, positive and loving despite the high
hills of life we must climb. Remember
my friends…..to love are we born, to love we shall live and to love we shall
return.
Peace, Farley C. Matchett
The Coalition for Truth and
Justice Newsletters is published by the “Coalition for Truth and
Justice Organization” and is a publication
of death row news, current litigations, and the sole purpose of this
newsletter is to enlighten and educate the public concerning the death penalty
in Texas. Texas death row inmates
create this newsletter in an effort to bring their world to you. Managing Editor 1999 - June 2003 Farley C. Matchett # 999060 Board of Directors 1. François Geoffroy (France) Editorial June 2003
"Greeting,
Friends, I’d like to give you some news regarding our « American
Friend » Farley Matchett, co-founder with our « Belgian
Friend » Myriam Stubbe, of this newsletter and Coalition for Truth and
Justice. Today, Farley has decided
to withdraw from CFTJ in order to devote himself to his own judicial situation
and his own defense.All
over the years till today, he succeeded to feed this newsletter with very
interesting and useful articles on the death penalty in the United States of
America and more precisely on its application in his own state of Texas."
See you later for some news of our “American Friend” François Geoffroy Avenue de l’Hôtel de Ville, 81 F-77340 Pontault-CombaultÉ 01.64.40.67.04 geoffroyfmo@yahoo.fr
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