TCADP

Death Warrant — Vigil and Service of Remembrance

admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:48:11 +0000

Governor Rick Scott signed a death warrant for Oba Chandler.
We will hold a vigil in front of the Governor’s mansion on the day and time of the execution — Tuesday, November 15th at 4 p.m.
On the next 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.

The Death Penalty: Evolving Issues in Florida

admin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:04:02 +0000

The Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights & the American Bar Association present:The Death Penalty: Evolving Issues in Florida

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.

This weekend and more …

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:08:17 +0000

THIS Saturday and Sunday we will be signing holiday cards for prisoners. Every year we sign holiday cards for the prisoners on Florida’s Death Row. The cards and a calendar purchased by Kindred Spirits are sent to every person on Death Row in December. As in previous years, Robert and Nancy Smith Fichter are graciously opening their home for the card signing. Please come by and sign as many cards as you can. All are invited.

· 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

Florida lawmaker proposes firing squads for death row inmates

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:39:31 +0000

By Toluse Olorunnipa, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
In Print: TALLAHASSEE — At least one Florida lawmaker wants to test the limits of cruel and unusual punishment with what he calls a “lead cocktail.”
Rep. Brad Drake, a Republican from the Panhandle town of Eucheeanna, has filed legislation to introduce firing squads to Florida’s death row.
The idea, Drake said, grew out of a recent controversy surrounding the state’s new lethal injection practice. Last month, Manuel Valle was executed with a cocktail of drugs never before used in a Florida execution. The drug pentobarbital knocks inmates unconscious before a second drug paralyzes them and a third stops the heart.
Several activists and medical professionals, including pentobarbital’s maker, protested its use prior to Valle’s execution, arguing that the drug fails to adequately sedate inmates.
Drake said he was tired of all the talk about how to properly execute someone on death row, so he had an idea — get rid of lethal injection and let inmates choose between the electric chair or a firing squad.
He drafted the bill after overhearing lunchtime chatter at a Waffle House in support of execution by firing squad.
“I say let’s end the debate. We still have ‘Old Sparky.’ And if that doesn’t suit the criminal, then we will provide them a .45-caliber lead cocktail instead,” said Drake, a marketing executive who was first elected to the House in 2008.
Here’s how Drake, 36, put it in an interview with the Florida Current: “There shouldn’t be anything controversial about a .45-caliber bullet. If it were up to me, we would just throw them off the Sunshine Skyway bridge and be done with it.”
The bill would give a death row prisoner 30 days to opt for a firing squad execution after the Supreme Court affirms a death penalty sentence. If the inmate did not choose a firing squad, the inmate would be electrocuted. The prison warden would determine how many executioners would be on the firing squad.
Oklahoma is the only state where a death-by-bullet law remains on the books. Utah scrapped its firing squad provision in 2004, but a handful of death row inmates convicted before that time still face death by bullet because the bill was not retroactive.
The Florida proposal hasn’t gone over well with anti-death-penalty groups, who are using it as an opportunity to highlight their position against the state’s use of the death penalty.
“The act of killing a captive prisoner is inhumane, no matter how it’s carried out,” said Mark Elliot, executive director of Tampa-based Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Drake said he hopes his bill starts a new conversation about the death penalty.
“You’ve got to start somewhere. There’s been a lot of controversial issues that took years and years and years to pass,” he said. “I say let’s have this conversation.”

Valle Executed

admin — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:19:31 +0000

Important — from Mark Elliott of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:
Valle Executed

“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

Reminder

admin — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:50:46 +0000

Please join us at 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, September 28th in front of Rick Scott’s mansion in Tallahassee. Join us again on Thursday at 12 noon at the Rotunda in the Capitol for a Service of Remembrance for Manuel Valle and victim, Louis Pena.

Thank you.

Sheila Meehan
TCADP

Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, files a bill to abolish the death penalty in Florida.

admin — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:44:40 +0000

Less than a week before the state is scheduled to execute Manuel Valle, a Democratic House member has filed a bill to abolish the death penalty in Florida.

The measure (HB 4051), filed Thursday, would do away with the death penalty and instead sentence the state’s worst offenders to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, said the state can save a lot of money without sacrificing public safety by doing away with the lengthy appellate process that is required in all death row cases.
The average death row inmate spends more than 12 years on death row. “If the issue is public safety, we can save money and put more law enforcement on the streets,” Vasilinda said Thursday. “it just seems that the money could be better spent.”
Last year, Vasilinda filed an identical bill, which died without being heard.

From the Florida Courier

Up date on TCADP upcoming actions

admin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:53:04 +0000

Dear Friends,

The killing of Troy Davis in Georgia last night after 7 so-called eye witnesses recanted their testimony is further evidence that the U.S. death penalty “system” is terribly broken. Thank you to everyone who helped to bring attention to his case and signed petitions on his behalf.

We want to correct an error in the email earlier in the week concerning Manuel Valle who is scheduled to be killed in Florida at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, September 28th. Rosh Hashana begins at sundown on September 28 and we were told that Mr. Valle is Jewish. However, it turns out that Manuel Valle is, in fact, Catholic with a devoted Catholic family in Cuba. We apologize for the mistake, but it certainly doesn’t change the fact that his execution will occur on a day that is important and a high holiday for many.

Thank you.

Sheila Meehan
TCADP

Manuel Valle’s petition -Broward Palm Beach New Times Blog

admin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:30:01 +0000

South Florida- Manuel Valle’s petition asking for a stay of execution was denied today by the Florida Supreme Court.

His scheduled date with death remains September 28, 2011, at 4 p.m.

Valle’s lawyers filed the petition late last week, claiming a Florida law prevented Valle’s attorneys from representing him in a civil action related to a denied clemency hearing.

Faced with claims that the Florida law was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled that the petition “points to no persuasive authority” that shows the section of the law violates the state constitution.

As you may remember, Valle, 61, has been given a date to die three times now since Gov. Rick Scott first signed a death warrant for Valle’s lethal injection to take place on August 2.

A federal court in Atlanta already put a stay on the execution — which was scheduled for September 6 — to listen to a claim about a possible clemency hearing, and that was denied, although Valle’s lawyers filed a petition on that ruling with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Before that, Valle was to be executed on August 2, but the Florida Supreme Court stayed his execution and remanded the case to Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola, who oversaw a hearing on the use of the state’s new lethal-injection drug, pentobarbital.

Valle, convicted of killing a Coral Gables cop in 1978, has been locked up at the Florida State Prison in Raiford since May 16, 1978, and on death row for just over 30 years now since being sentenced to death on August 4, 1981.

The last execution in Florida was on February 16, 2010, for Martin Grossman, who was convicted in 1984 at age 19 of killing a state wildlife officer, and each of the three inmates executed by the state before Valle spent more than 23 years on death row, according to South Florida cop killer Manuel Valle’s petition asking for a stay of execution was denied today by the Florida Supreme Court.

His scheduled date with death remains September 28, 2011, at 4 p.m.

Valle’s lawyers filed the petition late last week, claiming a Florida law prevented Valle’s attorneys from representing him in a civil action related to a denied clemency hearing.

As you may remember, Valle, 61, has been given a date to die three times now since Gov. Rick Scott first signed a death warrant for Valle’s lethal injection to take place on August 2.

Valle’s appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court is still pending.

Davis executed

admin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:48:42 +0000

The New York Times sums it up.

Troy Davis Is Executed in Georgia for Murder of Police Officer

Troy Davis was put to death by lethal injection late Wednesday night at the state prison here, two decades after his conviction for the murder of a Savannah police officer.

The execution of Mr. Davis, 42, by lethal injection, came after the United States Supreme Court refused to step in, issuing a one-sentence decision four hours after the execution was scheduled to begin.
Mr. Davis’s lawyers had asked the court to examine what they said were “substantial constitutional errors” in the murder trial.