Over the last several weeks I have received a number of comments about Damien Echols’ alleged rape by Arkansas prison guards while he was housed on death row. One comment accused me of inventing the claim—in other words, that Echols had never claimed he was raped and the claim has never appeared in the public forum.             In a December 2010 post, I mentioned this issue and made it clear that I believe Echols is an “unmitigated liar.” My information about the alleged rape came from a four-part series written by Jonesboro Sun reporter George Jared in July 2010 on the “West Memphis Three” case. In the second part of that series, Jared reported Echols’ claim that he had been raped by prison guards while on death row.             Initially, I got the Jonesboro Sun series from a “Free West Memphis Three” website. The four articles have been removed from the site. I wonder why? I tried to access the series through the newspaper website for hyperlink in this article, but was informed I would have to pay a $7.95 registration fee to “sign up” for old/archived articles. I am not about the spend $7.95 for anything about the West Memphis ...

           Blogs are a good thing. They not only discuss controversial topics but add to the public debate about these topics from all segments of our society. The West Memphis Three blogs posted here have generated tremendous public interest and debate. I have been called the worst kind of scoundrel by some and praised by others. But the positions taken in the blogs have not changed many minds: you either believe in the innocence or guilt of the West Memphis Three. I believe in the latter, that the three are guilty of the horrific crime to which they pled guilty. The following is an email I recently received from a reader, whom I will leave anonymous because he did not indicate he wanted his name used in a public forum. His views, however, belong in the arena of public debate:             “Mr. Sinclair             “For the better part of a decade I would have classified myself as a supporter for the WM3 I had seen both Paradise Lost and its sequel and was appalled at the miscarriage of justice that the two films portrayed. I gave some money to their defense by buying a copy of each film and when news articles ...

           2011 closed with some good news on the Texas death penalty front: According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, as reported in the Houston Chronicle, Texas juries recommended only eight death sentences in 2011—a stunning development in the state which leads the nation in executing people.             The Texas Coalition report came on the heels of a poll conducted by the Death Penalty Information Center which showed that just one-third of the nation’s registered voters in death penalty states believe the death penalty “is the most appropriate punishment for murder.”             “It shows that Texas and the rest of the country are moving away from the death penalty, even in Harris County,” Texas Coalition executive director Kristin Houle told the Chronicle. “It’s an astonishing development.”             Richard Dieter, director of the DPIC, agreed. “It’s not that (most) people are all or nothing about the death penalty,” he was quoted in the Chronicle. “They just have this growing sense of uncertainty. It’s a slow wearing away of confidence … a feeling that it is just too risky.”             But before we get too elated about this good news, there are some sobering reminders. There were 42 executions carried out nationwide last ...

          This past year brought closure to two of the most celebrated death row cases in the nation: Troy Davis and Damien Echols. Davis, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1989 killing of a Savannah, Georgia police officer, was executed on September 21, 2011. One month earlier, August 19, Echols, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1993 killings of three 8-year old Cub Scouts in West Memphis, Arkansas, was released from death row following an extraordinary Alford plea deal brokered by his high powered defense team.             The controversy, even celebrity, surrounding both cases was fueled by national and international supporters who vehemently professed the innocence of both men. The Echols case, known as the “West Memphis Three,” drew support from a laundry list of celebrities: Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines, and awarding-winning actor Johnny Depp. The Davis case drew support from an equally diverse group of celebrities: Def Comedy Jam’s Russell Simmons, designer Kim Kardashian, and comedian Sandra Bernhard. Both cases enjoyed warm media support from CNN, the New York Times, documentary filmmakers, and a slew of political commentators/bloggers.             I have expressed my belief in the guilt of both men ...

           On October 13, 2011, The New York Times ran “fluff piece” by Geoffrey Gray titled “A Death-Row Love Story.” The piece concerned the 1996 meeting and eventual love between Damien Echols and Lorri Davis. Echols was housed on Arkansas’ death row, condemned to death for the murder of three second-grade Cub Scouts in West Memphis. Echols, and his two cohorts (James Baldwin and Jessie Misskelly), became known as the “West Memphis Three” following the release of the documentary “Paradise Lost” which proclaimed innocence of the three child-killers. Ms. Davis watched the documentary in 1996, became interested in Echols’ case, fell in love with him, and married him in 1999.            This past summer Echols high-powered defense team sought, and secured, a plea deal with Arkansas prosecutors. The deal required the three men to plead guilty in open court without admitting their guilt, although they had to admit there was sufficient evidence to convict them if the case went to a jury. A local judge sentenced the trio to time served and they were immediately released from custody.            The public record and Echols’s supporters have never disputed Echols interest, even fascination, in the occult, particularly Satanism. In fact, the theory of ...

            On November 17, 2011, Galesburg, Illinois Judge James Stewart sentenced Nicholas Sheley to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 2008 murder—one of eight murders he committed during a two state killing spree.             The following day, November 18, a Fort Worth, Texas jury assessed an 80-year sentence against Charles Cleveland who tried to buy hot dogs, a soda pop, and box of popcorn in a movie theater with a $20 counterfeit bill. The jury also heard, and was probably influenced by, evidence that Cleveland had prior convictions for bank fraud and a felon in possession of a firearm.             What’s wrong with this picture?             There have been 43 executions in this country this year—thirteen of them in the Lone Star State where the death penalty rides high in the saddle. Thirteen of the executed offenders were convicted of killing more than one victim—two of them convicted of killing four victims each while another four were convicted of killing three victims each.             Sheley killed eight people in two different states—seven of them in Illinois alone, including a 93-year-old man and an Arkansas couple—and the best Illinois could do was give him a life sentence with two concurrent sentences ...

           In the wake of the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court’s trilogy of decisions, known as the July 2 Cases, constitutionalizing the death penalty, the first person put to death in this country was Gary Gilmore who requested, and received, death by firing squad on January 17, 1977. While the July 2 Cases validated existing death penalty statutes in some states—like Texas, Florida, and Georgia—other states had to enact statutes which met the constitutional standards pronounced in the July 2 Cases. Oregon was one of those states that had to get its death penalty constitutionally in order. In 1984 Oregon voters approved a legislative enactment reinstating the death penalty which satisfied the July 2 Cases standard.             Oregon has a long history with the death penalty, dating back to 1843. However, since 1963 only two condemned inmates have been put to death in the state—one in 1996 and the other in 1997, both of whom, like Gary Gilmore, requested their own execution. Then came twice-convicted murderer Gary Haugen who over recent months has petitioned the courts to allow his execution to proceed. Somewhere in that dim lit brain of his, Haugen stumbled upon the notion that his voluntary execution would call public ...

           The Houston Chronicle recently studied racial patterns of the death penalty in Harris County, once the epicenter of the death penalty in this country. The newspaper’s analysis found that 12 of the last thirteen persons condemned to death in the county were black, and that the last white person to receive the death in the county was a “serial killer in 2004.”             The case which has rekindled the “race and death penalty” debate in Harris County is Duane Buck. Buck, an African-America, was convicted in 1997 for the 1995 double murder of his girlfriend and her companion. During Buck’s 1997 trial, his defense attorney called a psychologist named Walter Quijano who testified during the punishment phase of the trial and who, upon cross examination by prosecutors with the  Harris County District Attorney’s Office, stated he believed that because Buck is black, he posed a greater risk of “future dangerousness” in the prison setting. Future dangerousness is a critical factor a capital jury must consider in deciding whether the death penalty is appropriate in a given case.             In 2000 U.S. Senator John Cronyn, then Texas’ attorney general, said that Buck’s case was one of six his office had identified in ...

           One thing is fairly certain about the Henry “Hank” Skinner case: either he or Robert Donnell brutally murdered Twila Busby and her two mentally challenged adult sons on the night of December 31, 10993. Skinner was convicted of the triple murder and sentenced to death. There was compelling evidence of his guilt. He was definitely in Twila’s residence the night the murders occurred. Donnell, who was Twila’s uncle and who had an incestuous interest in his niece, has died. Investigations since the murders have raised serious questions about Skinner’s guilt and Donnell’s possible involvement in the murders.             The Skinner case has drawn national and international media attention. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed online petitions asking Gov. Rick Perry to intervene and stop Skinner’s scheduled November 9 execution. The interest in Skinner’s case stems from significant pieces of evidence that was not DNA tested at the time of the crime. Skinner’s supporters forcefully contend that if the evidence is DNA tested, which is permissible under Texas law, it would exonerate Skinner and prove that Donnell was the actual killer. The items Skinner supporters want tested: Twila’s fingernail clippings; a rape kit; two knives; a blood-stained dish towel; and ...

          The most difficult and dangerous duty a police officer faces on a daily basis is responding to domestic violence calls. Emotions are high, anger is prevalent.             There’s no doubt that San Antonio street gang member Frank Garcia killed veteran police officer Hector Garza, just as there is no doubt that he intended to do it. The Washington Post carried an AP report that Garcia told investigators he knew Garza was wearing a bullet-proof vest, so he shot him in the head. As Garcia put it: “When I shot I aimed for his head and that’s where I hit him. I don’t know how many times I shot my gun. I just turned real fast. I saw the officer go down. The officer never had his gun out that I noticed.”           Garza, the father of five and a 25-year veteran with the San Antonio police department, had just responded to his second call to the Garcia residence on March 29, 2001. Having not drawn his weapon, it can reasonably be assumed he did not anticipate a violent confrontation with the parties involved in the domestic dispute. But what the officer found during the last moments of his life in Garcia’s ...