CHECK OUT the release earlier today of my weekly post in the 'Selfless Warriors Blog at the link below:
John Mimbela fought hard to help free and exonerate Daniel Villegas - and continued to wage his ultimately successful battle for years - even after the prosecutor accused him, in court documents based recorded on jailhouse telephone conversations, of conspiring with Villegas to tamper with witnesses and to 'approach' a judge. A 'Selfless Warrior' indeed!
selflesswarriors.blogspot.com
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Back to The Charles Smith Blog:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:(Re three federal executions scheduled during the presidential transition period.)... I fully support the legislator's demand to halt the state-sanctioned 'recklessly restarted' killings scheduled over the presidential transition period. Indeed, each one of the three federal executions scheduled during this period - Orlando Hall, Brandon Bernard, and Lisa Montgomery) raises important issues of interest to this Blog. (More about these cases to follow in the coming days.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "
Penned by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), the letter points to July, when the administration "recklessly restarted" the state-sanctioned killings following Barr's 2019 directive to the Bureau of Prisons. "In less than three months, the administration executed seven people—more than the total number executed over the previous six decades," states (the) letter. And, if Barr fails to heed the lawmakers' demand, the number will likely grow. Orlando Hall is scheduled to die by lethal injection November 19. Two other federal executions are set for December, those of Brandon Bernard and horrific abuse victim Lisa Montgomery."
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POST: "With 'Irrevocable Injustice' on the Line, Democratic Lawmakers Demand Trump Admin Put Brakes on Federal Killing Spree," by Staff Writer Andrea Germanos, published by Common Dream News on November 13, 2020.
SUB-HEADING: "The American People have spoken and the death penalty should be abolished."
GIST: "A group of Democratic lawmakers on Friday demanded the Trump administration halt federal executions—a practice it brought back after a 17-year hiatus—citing the threat of "irrevocable injustice."
"While you will remain in office for a few more weeks, going forward with executions in the weeks before the new administration takes office would be a grave injustice," the lawmakers wrote to Attorney General William Barr.
Penned by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), the letter points to July, when the administration "recklessly restarted" the state-sanctioned killings following Barr's 2019 directive to the Bureau of Prisons.
"In less than three months, the administration executed seven people—more than the total number executed over the previous six decades," states (the) letter.
And, if Barr fails to heed the lawmakers' demand, the number will likely grow. Orlando Hall is scheduled to die by lethal injection November 19. Two other federal executions are set for December, those of Brandon Bernard and horrific abuse victim Lisa Montgomery.
The system failed Lisa Montgomery. The ultimate failure would be to execute this woman who is severely mentally ill and suffered through decades of torture at the hands of those who were supposed to love and protect her.
It's not just Lisa Montgomery, either. There are significant issues in the cases of Orlando Hall and Brandon Bernard as well. These human beings should not be killed by our government, especially not by a lame-duck administration with just two months left.
Reasons for a suspension in the federal executions abound, the Democrats said, pointing to the fact that it "is disproportionately imposed on Black and brown people and low income people, and at least 172 people sentenced to death have reportedly been exonerated after languishing for years on death row." Despite such facts, "the administration has aggressively pushed forward over objections from family members of victims and despite Eighth Amendment objections to the manner of execution."
What's more, said the lawmakers, American voters just delivered a clear victory to President-elect Joe Biden, who pledged to work to eliminate the death penalty, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who is a co-sponsor to legislation Durbin, Leahy, and Booker introduced last year to end federal executions.
The lawmakers aren't alone in their demand: Amnesty International USA on Thursday reiterated its call for a halt on the scheduled federal executions.
After a hiatus of 17 years, the Trump administration resumed federal executions in July. We urge the US Attorney General to withdraw any pending death warrants and abandon any plans to pursue further executions.
The human rights group is urging its supporters to write to Barr to pressure him "to intervene and lead the urgent review of the broken U.S. death penalty system."
"After a hiatus of 17 years, the Trump administration resumed federal executions on 14 July 2020, putting to death seven men over 10 weeks," Amnesty wrote. "Their cases reflected concerns on arbitrariness, racial bias, and unfairness that have long affected the U.S. death penalty system, as well as contempt for international law restrictions on the use of the death penalty. We urge the U.S. Attorney General to withdraw any pending death warrants and abandon any plans to pursue further executions.""
The post can be read at:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/14/irrevocable-injustice-line-democratic-lawmakers-demand-trump-admin-put-brakes
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD (FOR NOW!): "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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