Connecticut is on the verge of repealing the state’s death penalty. The legislation passed in the Senate and will be voted on in the House next week. This action is expected to save Connecticut taxpayers $5 million a year. This will be the 5th state in 5 years to end the use of death penalty. In addition, Oregon’s governor has declared a moratorium. Other states are steadily moving closer to abolition.

In stark contrast, Florida has plans to kill David Gore next week. The following events are scheduled:

Tomorrow is Good Friday, a day when Pax Christi, the Catholic Conference, and TCADP unite in front of the Old Capitol at noon to say the Stations of the Cross. These are not the traditional prayers, but instead they are oriented to the execution of Jesus and how it relates to executions today
One week from today, on Thursday, April 12, the State of Florida will execute David Gore at 6 pm. We will gather in front of the Governor’s mansion at that time for a vigil.
On the following day, Friday, April 13, there will be a Service of Remembrance at 12 noon at the Rotunda of the Capitol to remember Mr. Gore and his victims.

Sheila Meehan
TCADP Board

2. Vigil for David Goreman – Thursday, April 12 at 6 pm in front of the Governor’s Mansion

3. Service of Remembrance – Friday, April 13 at 12 noon at the Capital Rotunda

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, has advanced Dillon’s cause for the last two years. But the House had refused to consider what’s called a “claims” bill for Dillon last session, despite overwhelming evidence that he hadn’t committed the crime.

This time, with Dillon, his girlfriend and legal team looking on from the House gallery, the outcome was different.

“It’s been a long journey,” Dillon told reporters after the vote as he fought back tears.

Dillon, 52, was convicted in the Aug. 17, 1981, killing of James Dvorak, whose badly beaten body was found along a stretch of Canova Beach. There was eyewitness testimony that he had been seen near the body, and law enforcement determined his alibi was not reliable.

In 2005, the Innocence Project took up Dillon’s case and tested the bloody T-shirt used against him in court. The DNA on it wasn’t his. And in December 2008, prosecutors dropped all charges after Dillon won a new trial, saying they no longer had enough evidence to convict him because many of the original witnesses were dead.

One key witness, a now-deceased dog handler used by Brevard prosecutors in numerous trials, had connected Dillon’s scent to the T-shirt with the victim’s blood on it. But judges in both Arizona and Florida determined the dog handler was a fraud.

A DNA expert determined through trace evidence that at least two other individuals had worn the bloody shirt, but Dillon’s DNA was not on it.

One Titusville jailhouse witness, Roger Dale Chapman, told House and Senate judicial officers examining Dillon’s case in 2009, that he had testified against Dillon only after an investigator threatened him with prison time for an aggravated sexual-assault case.

Another key witness had sex with the lead investigator and was then threatened with prison time if she did not testify against Dillon. She later changed her story multiple times.

Dillon said e considered the bill passage to be the apology he never got from the goverent agencies involved in his conviction.

Dillon’s case has been championed by former Florida State University President Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, and Cocoa lobbyist Guy Spearman, who both worked the case at no charge.

D’Alemberte sat next to Dillon Friday has he cried when the final 107-5 vote was announced.

“When I was released I had grandeurs … that they were going to stop me at the door and say ‘Mr. Dillon, we’re so sorry for what happened to you,’ and that never really happened,” Dillon said. “I realized through the years it wasn’t about the dollar values, it was just about somebody saying ‘We’re sorry for what we did to you.’ That’s really what it was about.”

The bill, (HB 141) was amended to explicitly prohibit Dillon from recovering damages from any other government in his case, and heads back the Senate which passed it at the beginning of the 60-day legislative session.

A handful of House lawmakers argued the process for contemplating claims bills was flawed or pointed out that Dillon had a prior conviction and didn’t qualify under Florida’s law for speeding up such claims. A year before his arrest, Dillon had been stopped while driving drunk and had a marijuana joint in his pocket, a conviction that led to probation and a $175 fine.
They were out-voted.

“There is no dollar amount that will give this man his 27 years back. It will not happen,” House Speaker-designate Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said on the floor. “But to say that because the process is flawed … we don’t have to right a wrong, is wrong.

“We all live in glass houses,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of things in my life I’m not proud of. But I can be proud of voting for this bill today.”

TCADP and others will gather in front of the Governor’s mansion shortly before 6 pm to hold a vigil for Mr. Waterhouse.

On the following day, Thursday, February 16th, we will gather at noon at the Rotunda of the Capitol to hold a Service of Remembrance for Robert Waterhouse and for victim, Deborah Kammerer. The service will be led by Pastor Marda Messick.

It is vitally important that there be a large showing next Thursday because the Legislature is in session. Floridians who oppose the death penalty must bear witness to their convictions so that lawmakers know that they cannot assume universal support for this policy. Across the country, the tide of public opinion is turning. Even those who support the death penalty in principle now realize that it is applied unjustly and arbitrarily in practice.

Please join us on Wednesday, February 15th at 6 pm at the Governor’s mansion and especially on Thursday, February 16th at noon at the Capitol Rotunda.
TCADP

Please join us.

A two-hour forum that will include perspective and commentary from FSU President Emeritus, former Dean of the College of Law and former American Bar Association President Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte; former Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero; 2nd Judicial Circuit Judge Janet Ferris (retired); 18th Judicial Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton (retired) and former member of the ABA Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team; Harry Shorstein, former Fourth Judicial Circuit State Attorney and former member of the ABA Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team; Mike Minerva, CEO, Innocence Project of Florida, former 2nd Judicial Circuit Public Defender and former member of the ABA Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team; Stephen Hanlon, Chairman, The Constitution Project, and former Chairman of the ABA Steering Committee; Mark Olive, renowned capital case litigator; Chris Slobogin, law professor at Vanderbilt University and former chair of the ABA Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team, Les Garringer, executive director of the Florida Innocence Commission and former Monroe County Judge, and Frank Patterson, Dean, FSU College of Motion Picture Arts.

When: Monday, November 14th from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Where: FSU College of Law Rotunda, 425 W. Jefferson St. (across from the Leon County Civic Center)
*sponsored in cooperation with The Constitution Project
This special event is free and open to the public.

· Saturday, November 12 – 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
· Sunday, November 13 – 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
· Location: 710 Waverly Road, Tallahassee 32312

Death Warrant
Governor Rick Scott signed a Death Warrant and has scheduled the killing of Oba Chandler for Tuesday, November 15th at 4 p.m. We will hold a vigil on that day and time in front of the Governor’s mansion. On the following day, Wednesday, November 16, at 12 noon there will be a Service of Remembrance for Mr. Chandler and the victims at the Rotunda of the Capitol. Please join us.

Sheila Meehan
Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty

“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me.” — Troy Davis

Friends,

After an afternoon of misinformation from the some media reports, it has been confirmed by the Governor’s office and the DOC that Manuel Valle was pronounced dead at 7:14 pm Eastern Time.

The 4:00 pm execution had been put on hold for almost 3 hours to await a U.S. Supreme Court decision on a stay. The stay was denied and the execution commenced. It is not yet confirmed that Manuel Valle was on the gurney with IV’s started during the entire wait.

There were a dozen execution vigils and protests around our state today. Thanks to every one of you who are working to end this madness in whatever way you can. Writing Letters to the Editor, calls, emails, letters and visits to your representatives, supporting FADP…are all needed. Working together we will see an end to executions in our time…for all time.

“Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!”

—Troy Anthony Davis, Oct. 9, 1968 – Sept. 21, 2011

Shine the light,

—Mark