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Mid-Missouri July 2004 FOR News |
P.O. Box 268 |
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Danny Wolfe Hearing for New Counsel Set for 30 July Briefs Filed with U.S. Supreme Court in Juvenile Death Penalty Case Death Penalty Documentary to Air 30 July War's Human Devastation and Wise Dissent Hiroshima & Nagasaki signature ad Danny Wolfe Hearing for New Counsel Set for 30 July The Mid-MO FOR encourages all concerned citizens to attend the following court hearing to support Danny Wolfe, most certainly wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Danny Wolfe will finally get his day in court Friday, 30 July. Unfortunately, the court date-- more that a year and a half after the Missouri Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Wolfe-- will focus solely on a fundamental request for new legal representation apart from the public defender system. Consider joining the Mid-Missouri FOR in attending the critical hearing, set for 9:00 a.m. in the Camden County courthouse in Camdenton (south of Lake of the Ozarks). Call Jeff at 573-449-4585 to car-pool from the Columbia area. In February 2003, the state's high court unanimously overturned Wolfe's convictions in the 1997 murders of Lena and Leonard Walters, due to inadequate representation. "Wolfe is not merely presumed innocent...He is innocent," according to the recently-filed document, Motion to Disqualify the Public Defender System Due to Conflicts of Interest that Permeate the Entire System. Referring to the Supreme Court ruling, the brief states, "But for the ineffective assistance provided by the Missouri State Public Defender (MSPD) a reasonable probability exists that Mr. Wolfe would have been acquitted in 1998." That incompetence continues in the system's current handling of Wolfe's case, the motion contends, noting that his current public defender has no experience leading a capital trial defense, has visited his defendant just twice since he was appointed 17 months ago and has even written Camden County officials urging them to deny Wolfe's own request for a change of attorneys. "MSPD's decision that it will keep Mr. Wolfe's case 'in-house,'" notes the motion, puts Tom Jacquinot, the assigned defender "in the untenable position of either opposing his client or his employer." Recent gutting of MSPD's budget has further severely undermined its effectiveness, the motion states. Wolfe's trial attorneys conducted no pre-trial independent investigation of evidence and asked the state's assistant Attorney General to investigate for them, a "'some other dude did it' (the murders) defense," according to the motion. Not surprisingly, state officials reiterated their assertion of his guilt. His appellate attorneys however, later found that hair fibers found at the murder scene matched those of the state's chief witness, Jessica Ox. The Missouri Supreme Court in their ruling for a new trial, concurred that no physical evidence implicated Wolfe. Wolfe plans to sue the MSPD for their poor representation, which led him to dwell under a death sentence for six years. Should a retrial end in his re-conviction, his damage claims would likely be dismissed with the MSPD absolved of any incompetence. Such a reality creates a clear conflict of interest, states the motion. Jeff Stack, Mid-Missouri FOR's coordinator, has visited with Wolfe at the Camden County Jail on three occasions in the last four months, spoke with him on the phone about five times and exchanged many letters. Wolfe has expressed bitterness and frustration with what he feels has been the lack of adequate representation by the public defender system. He says he fears that the lack of apparent commitment and preparation by his current public defender would certainly lead to his reconviction. From his perspective, dealing with the MSPD has been lawyering by lottery: he acknowledges receiving excellent representation from public defenders who diligently prepared and argued his case before the Missouri Supreme Court in 2002, but was woefully underrepresented by other attorneys in his initial trial and now again by different lawyers with the retrial preparations. For example, despite instances of misconduct, Danny wrote in May, "the (current) lawyers don't want to file or do anything to put the prosecutor or other court officials in a bad light (and) would rather let me go back to death row." Before his 1998 trial, Wolfe pleaded without success for the court to assign attorneys other than those with the MSPD system to represent him. In this instance, he told FOR, he hopes court officials will finally listen and appoint to represent him, Cyndy Short and Jolie Justus with the Shook, Hardy and Bacon, a KC-based firm which has agreed to pay all costs of representing Wolfe. Short has been the lead attorney in several capital trials, several of which have ended in acquittals and none in a death sentence. She also represented Clarence Dexter; one of three men in Missouri exonerated after being falsely convicted and sentenced to death. He was freed after the state dropped all charges against him, just prior to the beginning of his 1999 court-ordered re-trial. Soon after the Supreme Court's action Short, then director of the capital litigation unit with the MSPD's KC-office was assigned to represent Wolfe. A few months later though, MSPD administrators re-assigned Short to a non-capital unit. She was asked and agreed to continue as lead attorney for two other clients, one in a non-capital case, the other facing a possible death sentence. Administrators, refusing her request to continue as Wolfe's attorney, fired Short. She currently practices law with the Public Interest Litigation Clinic of Kansas City. (Editor's Note: The FOR has a great deal of respect for the dedicated and highly-competent work done by most all MSPD attorneys and staff and means this notice not as a general condemnation of the Public Defenders system, but rather fulfilling a role as an advocate for Danny Wolfe in support of his right to competent and effective representation in preparation for his new trial.) Briefs Filed with U.S. Supreme Court in Juvenile Death Penalty Case Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, former President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former South African President F. W. de Klerk and the Dalai Lama, filed amicus curiae briefs, 19 July with the U. S. Supreme Court on behalf of Chris Simmons, a Missouri man who was 17 years old when he committed murder and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. Nine former U.S. diplomats, national medical, legal and religious institutions, child-advocacy groups, and nearly 50 countries including the European Union also filed briefs. The Missouri Ban Youth Executions (BYE) Coalition, comprised of more than two dozen diverse groups (including the Mid-MO FOR), also filed a brief supporting the 2003 decision of the Missouri Supreme Court overturning Simmons' death sentence, ruling the juvenile penalty to be cruel and unusual punishment, and therefore unconstitutional. To view the BYE brief, those filed by other groups in support, to view the briefs filed by the state of Missouri and by attorneys for Simmons, or for more info about his case log onto http://www.abanet.org/crimjust/juvjus/simmons/simmonsamicusor www.cjedfund.org. Death Penalty Documentary to Air 30 July "Deadline," a riveting new documentary on capital punishment in the United States, has its premiere in a special two-hour edition of NBC-TV's "Dateline" at 7:00 p.m., Central Time, Friday 30 July. The film, from Big Mouth Productions, explores two of the most significant events in the history of the death penalty: the abolition of the punishment in 1972 and the momentous debate in Illinois in 2002-2003 over Gov. George Ryan's granting clemency for all of the state's death-row prisoners. "Can capital punishment be justified in a criminal justice system so fraught with error that in Illinois, 13" death-row inmates slated for execution were discovered to be innocent and exonerated, during a time, when 12 others were executed in the state? This was exactly the question that former Illinois Gov. George Ryan faced in the final days of his term as he decided whether to let 167 people live or die. And it is the question that U.S. viewers will face July 30 when living rooms are visited by this powerful documentary. The Mid-MO FOR will have a copy of the program available for future viewing. Tune in Friday evening to watch and/or call 449-4585 to borrow our copy. STANDS for PEACE Join one of four regular Vigils for Peace Columbia: -- Saturdays, 10-11 a.m., Walnut St. Post Office; -- Tuesdays, 12 Noon-1:00 p.m., Univ. Speakers Circle; -- Wednesdays, 4:15-5:45 p.m., B'way and Providence; -- 3rd Fridays, 6:00-7:00 p.m., Broadway and 9th St. The FOR offers free Military Counseling from a pacifist perspective-- essential for young people approaching their 18th birthday. Contact counselors: John 882-3441; Lana 443-0096; Kelly 882-4605; John 445-7569; or Jeff 449-4585.War's Human Devastation and Wise Dissent Poignant postings continue to arrive from the Vietnam Veterans Against the War's e-mail list-serve. Here are blurbs from some and the url's to review the full worthwhile articles: At the War Memorial by Howard Zinn, http://www.progressive.org/august04/zinn0804.html"As I write this, the sounds of the World War II Memorial celebration in Washington, D.C., are still in my head. I was invited to be on one of the panels,...I was introduced as a veteran of the Army Air Corps, a bombardier who had flown combat missions over Europe... (Zinn told those gathered) 'I'm not here to honor war itself. I'm not here to honor the men in Washington who send the young to war. I'm certainly not here to honor those in authority who are now waging an immoral war in Iraq'..." The Price of Valor by Dan Baum, considering the trauma of war upon soldiers fighting in Iraq and in others wars. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040712fa_fact"Carl Cranston joined the Army in 1997...(He was deployed to Iraq)... 'We killed a lot of people,' he said as we ate...His wife Debbie leaned forward to tell about a night in July, after Carl’s return, when they went out with some friends...'Carl had a few drinks, Debbie said, and started railing at the disk jockey, shouting, "I want to hear music about people blowing people’s brains out, cutting people’s throats!'" ... "I don’t remember that," he said. "Really, though, I’m fine," he said. Debbie shook her head and exaggeratedly mouthed, "Not fine....." Hard man for a tough country by Paul McGeough. A look at Iraq's interim U.S.-picked Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694565543.html "Allawi tells people he's a "tough guy". Witnesses allege his actions support his words. His enemies say he was an assassin for Saddam Hussein. Now Iyad Allawi is accused of personally executing prisoners." "Allawi stands in a long line of murderers the US has aided in their climb to power. Somoza, the Shah, Mobutu, Noriega, Batista, Diem, Key, Sukarno, the generals of Guatemala, Greece, Brazil, and so many more. When will it ever end?," wonders Tom Baxter with the VVAW. HIROSHIMA--NAGASAKI The statement below will be run as a signature ad in the Columbia Daily Tribune &/or the Columbia Missourian on August 6. Below the statement and the names we will list contact info for the sponsors, event info and Web resources. We invite you to add your name. Suggested donations of $2-$25 to help defray the cost are not required but are needed and encouraged. Fifty-nine years ago, on August 6, 1945, U.S. forces dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later a second one was used against Nagasaki. Approximately 100,000 human beings died in the Hiroshima blast; 70,000 died in Nagasaki. Thousands more in Japan have died, and continue to die, due to after effects of those two bombs. Today we live in a world with eight acknowledged nuclear powers—nine, if North Korea’s claims are true—and a number of other states are seeking nuclear capabilities. The end of the Cold War has clearly not eliminated the threat from these ultimate weapons of mass destruction. In fact, due to a lack of meaningful commitment to nuclear disarmament, the dangers are greater now than ever. Our own country remains armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, and the Bush administration is pushing for the development of a whole new generation of "useable" mini-nukes—so-called "bunker busters"—that would blur the line between conventional and nuclear weapons and make nuclear war more likely. Rather than taking steps required of us as signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to pursue universal nuclear disarmament, U.S. policies are based upon maintaining arsenals of thousands of nuclear warheads in perpetuity. This, along with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which did not have nuclear weapons, and the simultaneous use of diplomacy in dealing with North Korea, has sent the signal that nuclear weapons are needed for deterrence. Further, the administration’s Nuclear Posture Review calls for targeting nuclear weapons for use against non-nuclear states, creating greater proliferation incentives. Sadly, instead of working for a future free of the nuclear threat and based upon cooperation and mutual security, our policies are based upon maintaining nuclear dominance as part of a global imperial strategy. A key aspect of this strategy is the headlong charge to deploy Star Wars ("missile defense"), a seriously flawed concept. The planners’ intent is military domination of space and the ultimate deployment of offensive, space-based weapons. Such a scheme will cost us many hundreds of billions of dollars, enriching military contractors, putting a wrench in the arms control process, and ultimately, it will fail to protect us. We would be much safer verifiably eliminating weapons of mass destruction throughout the world, including our own vast arsenals. We must unite in calling for a foreign policy that is consistent with the noble ideals upon which our great nation was founded. Remember, peace, justice and democracy do not flow from the barrel of a gun. They are not achieved by the use of nuclear weapons or by starving children, or by defoliating jungles, or by dictating to other nations who should—and who should not—govern them. Instead, our nation must take up the tools of peacemakers. We must creatively employ non-violent conflict resolution techniques. We cannot undo the harm already done by wars, terror and sanctions, but today we pledge to help eliminate the threat of nuclear war and create a more peaceful, just and environmentally sustainable future. We urge President Bush to recognize that we can only end terrorism through a commitment to international law and through partnering with people everywhere to help create peaceful, sustainable economies. We implore our elected officials to work to make these the hallmarks of U.S. policy. We call upon all governments to halt the international arms trade and to work toward nuclear disarmament and the elimination of all conventional weapons. We support non-violent conflict resolution, a non-interventionist foreign policy and the redirection of the hundreds of billions of dollars currently being squandered on the world’s military toward environmental improvement and fulfilling the world’s unmet needs for adequate nutrition, housing, health care and education.
This signature ad is organized by the Columbia Peace Coalition. Please return signatures as soon as possible and no later than July 30 to the Peace Nook, 804-C E. B'way, Columbia, MO 65201. Make contributions (tax-deductible) payable to Mid-Missouri Peaceworks and earmark for "Hiroshima-Nagasaki Ad." For more information please call 573-875-0539.
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