Indiana Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in Roy Lee Ward v. State of Indiana

For you legal-minded readers trying to follow specific cases, Roy Ward v. Indiana was argued in the Indiana State Supreme Court this morning--now on its second direct appeal after being remanded on first direct appeal and re-sentenced to death .

A summary of the case can be found on the Indiana Law Blog and the oral arguments are already online and can be viewed with Realplayer.

The arguments focused primarily on the methodology of jury selection; the main argument being summed up by Ward's attorney (1:00:10 on the video):

Steve Ripstra: I guess the thrust of the argument is that we were denied the process that the judge put in place in the first place which would have been fair in a case like this, with a death penalty case under the conditions that we were operating in, and if we were given individual voir dire in a death penalty case and to get a week with the jury, no more than that which doesn't seem, when a man's life is on the line, out of order.

Justice Dickson: Isn't your argument asking us to conclude as a matter of law that every death penalty case requires voir dire... is it your claim that it's constitutionally required?

Ripstra: Yes, for due process.

Don't Forget...

Tune in to "At the Death House Door" tonight on the IFC at 9 pm.

NY Times Covers "At the Death House Door"

From the NY Times:

Steve James and Peter Gilbert, the director and cinematographer of the 1994 high school basketball documentary “Hoop Dreams,” are the co-directors of “At the Death House Door,” which they hope will renew debate about the death penalty.

In April the United States Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s method of capital punishment by lethal injection. “At the Death House Door” had its premiere in March at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Tex., and has received laudatory reviews, winning awards at the Atlanta Film Festival and the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, N.C.

“It’s the kind of film we gravitate to, letting one person’s story tell you about a much bigger issue,” Mr. Gilbert said in an interview.

Audience and Panel Discuss At the Death House Door

Last night's screening of At the Death House Door was well received by the audience as was the ensuing panel discussion with expert panelists. The participating panelists are pictured below from left to right: Rodney Cummings, the Marion County Prosecutor's Office's Director of Trial Advocacy, Professor Crystal Garcia from IUPUI's School for Public & Environmental Affairs and Marion County Chief Public Defender Robert Hill. The panel was moderated by InCASE Executive Director Will McAuliffe (far right).


It was immediately apparent that there would not be ready consensus between the three panelists but rather intensive discussion of the issues surrounding the death penalty. Potential conviction and execution of innocents, DNA evidence, and the human element of capital cases were all brought up by the audience and addressed by the panel. The interplay between the panelists illuminated the nuanced and plentiful complexities of the death penalty. Several times, statistics were challenged as being biased or "one-sided". Ultimately, however, the audience and panelists came away with a greater understanding of the issues and the real need for continued debate and examination of the death penalty as public policy.

Truly Beautiful Work

From the Innocence Blog:

Earlier this month, hundreds of people witnessed a moving display of justice and compassion at the Innocence Project’s annual benefit in New York. While pianist Jonathan Batiste played “What a Wonderful World” at the close of the event, two attendees got up on stage to dance, but not just any two.

These two were Dennis Fritz, who spent a decade in Oklahoma prison for a murder he didn’t commit, and Peggy Carter Sanders, the mother of the young woman Dennis was wrongfully convicted of killing. These were two people with a long history, and now they’re joined in a singular mission to seek fair justice for all.

You can view the movie (which includes an address by John Grisham) here.

Kenneth Allen Follow-Up

From the Indy Star:

Attorneys for a man accused of killing three family members in 2005 have talked him out of his request to represent himself, plead guilty and accept the death penalty.

Kenneth Lee Allen, 32, spoke to a judge this morning in Marion Superior Court. She had called the hearing after he wrote to the court last month -- but his attorneys, Monica Foster and Eric Koselke, later filed another motion to withdraw the request after meeting with him. They said such a request is common from death-penalty defendants.

"At the Death House Door"

In partnership with the IFC and IU Law - Indianapolis's LSACP, InCASE is proud to host a pre-broadcast screening of "At the Death House Door". The screening will take place on Thursday, May 22nd at 7pm in the Wynne Courtroom at IU School of Law - Indianapolis (see map below).

This documentary tells the moving story of Carroll Pickett, a Texas death row chaplain who oversaw the execution of 95 inmates, and his changing philosophy on the death penalty.



Be sure to tune in to the film's broadcast release: May 29th on IFC at 8pm EST.

Feel free to contact us at incase@indianacase.org with any questions. We hope you can join us!

The map below shows the two parking garages nearest to the law school. In addition, there is limited metered parking in the lots directly across from and kitty-corner to the law school as well as free parking on the street in front of the building (along West Street).


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One Fewer Inmate on Indiana's Death Row, One More Family That Can Begin Healing

From Evansville Courier Press:

James P. Harrison pleaded guilty on Monday and was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the 1989 deaths of two Posey County children.

The hearing ended an appeals process that has dragged on for more than a decade.

The most striking quote from the article:

After Monday's sentencing, Posey County Prosecutor Jodi Uebelhack issued a news release saying the victims' family needed a resolution to the case.

"This plea will ensure that Harrison will never be released from the Indiana Department of Correction and will cease the endless appeals process this family has endured," she said.

The appeals process is a crucial part of our justice system's attempt to ensure that innocents are not executed. These appeals rightfully take an extensive period of time so that arguments can be presented and investigated properly but they can cause the double victimization of a family that must then spend over a decade following these appeals closely waiting for the sentence promised to them by the prosecutor.

As the quote above indicates, life without parole does offer a way to bring a case to resolution and allow the victim's family to begin the difficult healing process.

NY Times Weighs In on "Questions of Fairness" and the Death Penalty's Return

The New York Times had this article entitled "As Executions Resume, So Do Questions of Fairness", highlighting the recent exonerations of death row inmates around the country as evidence of an imperfect death penalty system.

Additionally, today's editorial which questioned the death penalty's validity held some strong arguments:

The next few months, as states put their machinery of death into overdrive, are an ideal time for the nation to rethink its commitment to capital punishment...

In the Kentucky case, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a separate opinion in which he enumerated the many problems with the application of the death penalty and said that he decided that it is inherently unconstitutional. He also expressed his hope that the case would generate debate not just about lethal injection but about “the justification for the death penalty itself.” With executioners gearing up across the country to start putting prisoners to death, state legislatures, governors, judges and ordinary Americans should start that debate.

First Post-Baze Execution is in Georgia

From CNN:

William Earl Lynd was the first inmate to die by injection since September, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the three-drug combination represented cruel and unusual punishment.

Executions Set to Resume

From the NY Times:

Less than three weeks after a United States Supreme Court ruling ended a seven-month moratorium on lethal injections, at least 14 execution dates have been set in six states between May 6 and October.

“The Supreme Court essentially blessed their way of doing things,” said Douglas A. Berman, a professor of law and a sentencing expert at Ohio State University. “So in some sense, they’re back from vacation and ready to go to work.”

Experts say the resumption of executions is likely to throw a strong new spotlight on the divisive national — and international — issue of capital punishment.

“When people confront a new wave of executions, they’ll be questioning not only how people are executed but whether people should be executed,” said James R. Acker, a historian of the death penalty and a criminal justice professor at the State University at Albany.

Berman's blog, Sentencing Law & Policy, can be found here.