[PAA-Discuss] Urgent Action 266/09 - Khristian Oliver Scheduled to be Executed on November 5 i
Juli3 at aol.com
Juli3 at aol.com
Tue Oct 6 19:32:27 EDT 2009
just thought I'd share this from my AI list;
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
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3213)
6 October 2009
UA 266/09 Imminent Execution
USA (Texas) Khristian Oliver (m), aged 32
Khristian Oliver, a 32-year old man, is due to be executed in Texas on 5
November. He was sentenced to death in 1999 for a murder committed during a
burglary. While deciding whether he should live or die, jurors at his trial
consulted copies of the Bible, including text supporting the death
penalty, calling into serious question their impartiality.
On 17 March 1998, 64-year-old Joe Collins returned to his home in
Nacogdoches County in rural eastern Texas to find a burglary in progress. As the
two burglars in the house tried to escape (two others had stayed in their
car), he shot one of them, a 15-year-old boy, in the leg. The other burglar,
20-year-old Khristian Oliver, shot Joe Collins before striking him on the
head with a rifle butt, according to accomplice testimony at Oliver's April
1999 trial.
After the trial, evidence emerged that jurors had consulted the Bible
during their sentencing deliberations. At a hearing in the trial court in June
1999, the defense lawyer called four of the jurors to the witness stand,
although the judge precluded any testimony about the effect of the use of the
Bible on the jury. The jurors recalled there having been several Bibles
present, that highlighted passages had been passed around, that a juror had
read aloud from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors, and that the text
included the passage, “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that
he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death”. The
judge ruled that the jury had not acted improperly and this was upheld by
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
In 2002, a Danish journalist interviewed a fifth juror. The latter said
that "about 80 per cent" of the jurors had "brought scripture into the
deliberation"In 2002, a Danish journalist interviewed a fifth juror. The latter
said that "about 80 per cent" of the jurors had "brought scripture into the
deliberation"<WBR>, and that the jurors had consulted the Bible "long
before we ever reached a verdict". He told the journalist that he believed "the
Bible is truth from page 1 to the last page", and that if civil law and
biblical law were in conflict, the latter should prevail. He said that if he
had been told he could
In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the
jurors had "crossed an important line" by consulting specific passages in the
Bible that described the very facts at issue in the case. This amounted to
an "external influence" on the jury prohibited under the US Constitution,
and was a more "egregious" case than had occurred in other Circuits,
according to the Fifth Circuit. However, it concluded that under the "highly
deferential standard" by which federal courts should review state court
decisions, Oliver had failed to prove that he had been prejudiced by this
unconstitutional juror conduct. In April 2009, the US Supreme Court refused to take
the case.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Under international and US law, a criminal defendant has the right to be
tried before an impartial court. The principle of impartiality demands that
each of the decision-makers, whether judge or juror, be unbiased. Actual
impartiality and the appearance of impartiality are both fundamental for
maintaining respect for the administration of justice.
This is not the only time that US federal courts have considered a case in
which jurors consulted the Bible during deliberations. The decisions
emanating from these cases in the various federal circuits have been
inconsistent, including on how to evaluate potential prejudice to the defendant. In a
brief in 2009, 46 former federal and state prosecutors urged the US Supreme
Court to take the Oliver case to resolve such issues. The brief argued: "A
jury that consults the Bible during sentencing deliberations is exposed to
an outside influence in violation of the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a
fair trial by an impartial jury… Even under ordinary circumstances,
deprivation of a constitutional right is of the utmost concern. Such concern is
all greater here, where the constitutional violation occurs in the context of
jurors' decision to impose the ultimate punishment". Guidance of the
Supreme Court was urgently needed, the former prosecutors argued, not least
because the "lack of consensus among the US Courts of Appeals regarding juror
consultation of the Bible in the capital context not only generates
inconsistent outcomes, but creates the appearance of arbitrariness in an area that
demands consistency and fairness". The Supreme Court declined to take the
case.
An issue on appeal has also been the state's use of testimony from two
accomplices in the burglary – the 15-year-old who was shot in the leg and his
16-year-old brother who had waited outside – who were promised 10- and
five-year prison sentences respectively in return for their testimony. In 2002,
the brothers signed affidavits stating that they had been coached by the
prosecutor in how to make their testimony match each other's. Khristian
Oliver's trial lawyer then also signed an affidavit in which he stated that at
the time of the trial he had been "unaware of the prosecutor's role in
promoting the presentation of consistent stories" by the brothers. If he had
been, he said, he would have sought a mistrial, and at least to have brought
the matter to the attention of the jury to raise questions about the
reliability of testimony upon which the state was seeking to rely.
Race has been another issue, a sensitive topic in rural east Texas (see,
for example, USA: Death in black and white, 9 August 2001,
http://www.amnesty.Race has beRace haRace Race has been another issue, a sensitive topic
in rural east Texas (see, for example, USA: Death in black and white, 9
August 2001,
http://www.amnesty.<WBR>org/en/library/<WBR>info/AMR51/<WBR>117/2001)<WBR>. Khristian Oliver is African American (he has light skin color
and is listed by the prison authorities as white). In an affidavit signed in
2002, his mother stated that among the "psychological burdens" borne by
her son was that "some people who had been friendly when they believed him to
be a Caucasian had spurned him when they found out he was from an
African-American family". Oliver's lawyer had sought to have the trial judge
question prospective jurors during jury selection to elicit any possible racial
bias they might harbour, especially given the fact that the murder victim
was white. The lawyer was concerned that he sho
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases,
unconditionally, regardless of the crime, the offender, or the method chosen to kill
the condemned prisoner. The death penalty is inherently cruel and degrading,
incompatible with human dignity. To end the death penalty is to abandon a
destructive, diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent
with widely held values. It not only runs the risk of irrevocable error, it
is also costly, to the public purse as well as in social and psychological
terms. It has not been proved to have a special deterrent effect. It tends
to be applied in a discriminatory way, on grounds of race and class. It
denies the possibility of reconciliation and rehabilitation. It prolongs the
suffering of the murder victim's family, and extends that suffering to the
loved ones of the condemned prisoner. It diverts resources that could be
better used to work against violent crime and assist those affected by it.
Today, 139 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. The USA, in
contrast, has carried out 1,175 executions since resuming judicial killing in
1977. Texas accounts for 441 of these executions. There have been 39 executions
in the USA this year, 18 of them in Texas.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- expressing concern that jurors at Khristian Oliver's trial consulted the
Bible during their sentencing deliberations;
- urging the Board to recommend that the Governor commute Khristian
Oliver's death sentence;
- calling on Governor Perry to accept such a recommendation, or if such a
recommendation is not forthcoming, to issue a stay of execution and a
request to the Board to reconsider;
- explaining that you are not seeking to excuse violent crime or to
downplay the suffering caused to its victims.
APPEALS TO:
Rissie L. Owens
Presiding Officer, Board of Pardons and Paroles,
Executive Clemency Section
8610 Shoal Creek Boulevard
Austin, TX 78757
Fax: 1 512 467 0945
Salutation: Dear Ms Owens
Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428
Fax: 1 512 463 1849
Salutation: Dear Governor
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 5
November 2009.
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
contact information and stop action date (if applicable).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
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Washington DC 20003
Email: uan at aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyuhttp://www.amn
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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