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Urgent Actions Against the
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URGENT ACTION APPEAL

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15 March 2005 UA 64/05 Death penalty / Legal concern

USA (Pennsylvania): Kathy MacClellan (f), aged 70

Prosecutors in Pennsylvania have announced their intention to seek the death penalty against Kathy MacClellan for a crime she is alleged to have committed last month. Kathy MacClellan is 70 years old: international law prohibits the imposition of the death penalty on anyone who was over 70 at the time of the crime.

Kathy MacClellan has been charged with the murder of her 84- year-old neighbor, Marguerite Eyer, who was found on 7 February in her home in the town of Easton, in Northampton County, eastern Pennsylvania. She died shortly afterwards in hospital. She had been bludgeoned about the head. The prosecution has alleged that she was robbed.

No date has yet been set for Kathy MacClellan's trial. On 12 March, the Northampton County District Attorney's Office filed notice of their intention to seek the death penalty against her. It is considered likely that questions surrounding her mental health will be an issue in the case.

The American Convention on Human Rights prohibits the use of the death penalty against anyone who was over 70 years old at the time of the crime. The USA has not ratified the Convention, but signed it in 1977. By becoming a signatory, the USA obliged itself under international law not to do anything to undermine the treaty pending its decision on whether to ratify it.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally. The death penalty is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution to it. This is an outdated punishment, abolished in law or practice in 118 countries. A small number of countries, including the USA, account for the vast majority of executions. In China, which accounts for the most executions each year, there is no upper age limit for application of the death penalty. For example, Wei Youde was sentenced to death in Hunan Province in 2002 for a murder committed when he was 87 years old. On appeal in 2004, Wei Youde's sentence was commuted.

Since the United States resumed executions in 1977, 944 men and 10 women have been put to death in its execution chambers. The US capital justice system is marked by arbitrariness, discrimination and error, and US authorities have frequently violated international standards in their pursuit of judicial killing of prisoners including child offenders, the mentally impaired, the inadequately represented, people whose guilt remained in doubt, and foreign nationals denied their consular rights.

In 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia, the US Supreme Court outlawed the execution of offenders with mental retardation. Earlier this month, in Roper v. Simmons, the Court did the same thing in the case of offenders who were under 18 at the time of the crime. That ruling brought the USA finally into line with a global consensus prohibiting the death penalty for the crimes of children.

Article 4.5 of the American Convention on Human Rights states: ''Capital punishment shall not be imposed upon persons who, at the time the crime was committed, were under 18 years of age or over 70 years of age@. The USA signed the American Convention on Human Rights on 1 June 1977. By becoming a signatory, the USA bound itself not to undermine the treaty's provisions. Under Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1979), AA State is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty when: (a) it has signed the treaty...until it shall have made its intention clear not to become a party to the treaty...@.

No one who was over 70 at the time of the crime has been executed in the USA since 1977. In 1991, Ray Copeland was sentenced to death in Missouri for a crime committed when he was 71 years old. He died two years later in prison. Amnesty International is not aware of any other person being sentenced to death in the USA since 1977 who was over 70 years old at the time of the crime. In January 2002, a Texas county prosecutor announced his intention to seek the death penalty against Melvin Hale, charged with a murder committed two years earlier when he was 72 years old (see UA 08/02, AMR 51/001/2002, http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr510012002). In the event, a plea arrangement was reached under which Melvin Hale was sentenced to life imprisonment in return for a guilty plea.

The oldest person currently on death row in the USA is believed to be Viva Leroy Nash who is 89 years old. He was sentenced to death in Arizona in 1983 for a crime committed in 1982 when he was aged 67. The oldest person put to death in the USA since executions resumed in 1977 was James Hubbard, who was 74 years old when he was put to death in Alabama on 5 August 2004. He was under 60 at the time of the crime. Two women over 60 at the time of execution have been put to death in the USA since 1977 - Betty Lou Beets who was 62 when she was put to death in Texas in February 2000, and Lois Nadean Smith, 61 years old at the time of her execution in Oklahoma in December 2001.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible in your own words:

- expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Marguerite Eyer, explaining that you are not seeking to excuse the manner of her death or to minimize the suffering caused;

- explaining that you are not seeking to make any comment about the guilt or innocence of Kathy MacClellan, but simply to express concern about Northampton County's intention to seek the death penalty against her;

- pointing out that the pursuit of the death penalty against a defendant who was over 70 years old at the time of the crime violates international law;

- calling on the prosecution to drop its pursuit of the death penalty in this case.

APPEALS TO:

Paula A. Roscioli

First Deputy District Attorney

Office of the District Attorney of Northampton County

Government Center

669 Washington Street

Easton, PA 18042

Fax: 1 610 559 3035

Salutation: Dear First Deputy District Attorney

You may also send a brief personal letter of concern (not more than 250 words) to:

Letters to the Editor, The Express-Times

30 N. 4th Street

P.O. Box 391

Easton, PA 18044-0391

Email, via website:

http://penn.nj.com/expresstimes/submit.html

Fax: 1 610 258 7130

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

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

Amnesty International USA

PO Box 1270

Nederland CO 80466-1270

Email: uan@aiusa.org

http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/

Phone: 303 258 1170

Fax: 303 258 7881

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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL

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URGENT ACTION APPEAL UPDATE

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27 January 2005

Further Information on UA 330/04 issued 6 December 2004 and re- issued 7 December 2004 and 7 January 2005

Death Penalty

USA (Connecticut): Michael Bruce Ross

Michael Ross is now scheduled for execution on 28 January at 2.01am local time.

A federal judge issued a stay of execution on 24 January, two days before Michael Ross was due to be executed, so as to hold a hearing into whether Ross is competent to waive his appeals. The state appealed, but the stay was upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on 25 January. The state has now appealed to the US Supreme Court to allow the execution to proceed.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please continue to send appeals as recommended previously, to arrive as soon as possible:

- expressing sympathy for the families of the murder victims in this case, and explaining that you are not seeking in any way to excuse the manner of their deaths or to minimize the suffering caused;

- welcoming the fact that the State of Connecticut has not carried out an execution since 1960, during which time more than a hundred countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice;

- expressing regret at the Governor's announcement that she will not issue a reprieve in the case of Michael Ross;

- urging her to reconsider her decision, not out of sympathy for Michael Ross, or out of a lack of empathy for the murder victims and their families, but in order to reject her own and her state's involvement in the killing of a human being, however terrible the crimes of which he was convicted;

- urging her to do all in her power to prevent the State of Connecticut from taking this backward step, and not to veto any abolitionist bill that is passed by the legislature.

APPEALS TO:

Governor M. Jodi Rell, Executive Office of the Governor

State Capitol

210 Capitol Avenue

Hartford, CT 06106

Email: Governor.Rell@po.state.ct.us

Fax: 1 860 524 7396

Salutation: Dear Governor

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. All appeals must arrive by 28 January 2005.

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

Amnesty International USA

PO Box 1270

Nederland CO 80466-1270

Email: uan@aiusa.org

http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/

Phone: 303 258 1170

Fax: 303 258 7881

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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL

URGENT ACTION APPEAL UPDATE

Note: Please write on this case even though you may not have received the original UA when issued on February 6, 2004. Thanks!

13 December 2004

Further information on UA 44/04 issued 6 February 2004 and re-issued 18 February 2004------Death penalty

USA (Texas) Cameron Todd Willingham (m), aged 36

A journalistic investigation into the murder conviction of Cameron Willingham, who was executed in February, has produced new evidence that the case against him was seriously flawed.

Cameron Willingham was convicted in August 1992 of the arson murders of his three young children, Amber Kuykendall, Karmon Willingham and Kameron Willingham. The three died of smoke inhalation in a house fire on 23 December 1991. Cameron Willingham escaped the fire.

Cameron Willingham was executed in Texas on 17 February 2004. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against clemency, and Governor Rick Perry refused to intervene. In his final statement before being executed, Cameron Willingham said: ''The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do.''

In an article published on 9 December 2004, the Chicago Tribune, whose investigations of the flaws in Illinois's capital justice system were cited by former Governor George Ryan when he commuted the death sentences of all on Illinois' death row in January 2003, revealed that it had asked four fire experts to review the case. The four concluded that the investigation into the Willingham's house fire had been seriously flawed and had used techniques which have since fallen into disrepute. They concluded that the fire may have been accidental.

One of the experts said: ''There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire''. Another said that it ''made him sick to think this guy was executed based on this investigation... They executed this guy and they've just got no idea - at least not scientifically - if he set the fire, or if the fire was even intentionally set''. Another said: ''There was no evidence to support a conclusion that the fire was intentionally set.'' One of the jurors from the original trial, after learning of the new evidence, said: ''Did anybody know about this prior to his execution? Now I will have to live with this for the rest of my life. Maybe this man was innocent.''

Prior to his 1992 trial, Cameron Willingham had turned down a life prison sentence in return for a guilty plea because he said he was innocent. At the trial, the state presented evidence that he had confessed to another jail inmate that he had set the fire, and evidence that he had not tried hard enough to rescue his children. Among the state's ''scientific'' evidence of arson was that of ''crazed glass'' in the house. This was presented as an indicator that the fire had become especially hot as a result of an accelerant being applied. However, it has since been shown that ''crazed glass'' can be created as a result of hot glass being sprayed with water when the fire is being put out. The four experts called other aspects of the investigation into question.

On 6 October 2004, Ernest Ray Willis was released after 17 years on death row in Texas. He was sentenced to death in 1987 for the 1986 murder of two women who died in a house fire that was ruled to have been arson. After a court granted Willis a new trial in 2004, the county prosecutor hired an arson specialist to review the original evidence. The expert, one of those now saying that the Willingham arson evidence is unsafe, concluded that there was no evidence of arson, and that the ''accelerant'' initially suspected of causing the fire was in fact ''flashover burning,'' consistent with electrical fault fires. The prosecutor dropped all charges, saying that Willis ''simply did not do the crime... I'm sorry this man was on death row for so long and that there were so many lost years.''

Texas accounts for 336 of the 944 executions carried out in the USA since 1977. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, regardless of guilt or innocence. Since 1973, 117 people have been released from US death rows after evidence of their innocence emerged. Others have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts about their guilt.

FURTHER RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in your own words, including Willingham's former prisoner number #999041 in your appeals:

- expressing deep regret at the execution of Cameron Willingham on 17 February 2004;

- noting new evidence that Cameron Willingham was convicted on the basis of a seriously flawed fire investigation, and that four arson experts have concluded that the house fire could have been accidental;

- noting the case of Ernest Willis, and that Cameron Willingham had consistently maintained his innocence, including in his final statement before being killed by the state;

- calling for a full independent inquiry into this case, and for the results to be made public;

- calling on the addressees to support a moratorium on executions in Texas.

APPEALS TO:

Governor Rick Perry, Office of the Governor, PO Box 12428,

Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Fax: 1 512 463 1849. Salutation: Dear Governor

The Honorable Greg Abbott, Attorney General, PO Box 12548,

Austin, TX 78711-2548

Email: greg.abbott@oag.state.tx.us Fax: 1 512 475 2994

Salutation: Dear Attorney General

If you have the capacity, you may also send letters to:

Rissie Owens, Presiding Officer, Board of Pardons and Paroles, 1300 11th St., Suite 520, P.O. Box 599, Huntsville, TX 77342-0599 Fax: 1 936 291 8367, Salutation: Dear Ms Owens

Elvis Hightower, Board Member, Board of Pardons and Paroles, 1300 11th St., Suite 520, P.O. Box 599, Huntsville, TX 77342-0599 Fax: 1 936 291 8367, Salutation: Dear Mr Hightower

Charles Aycock, Board of Pardons and Paroles, 5809 S. Western, Suite 237, Amarillo, TX 79110 Fax: 1 806 358 6455, Salutation: Dear Mr Aycock

Linda Garcia, Board of Pardons and Paroles, 1212 N. Velasco, Suite 201, Angleton, TX 77515 Fax: 1 979 849 8741, Salutation: Dear Ms Garcia

Juanita Gonzalez, Board of Pardons and Paroles, 3408 S. State Hwy. 36, Gatesville, TX 76528 Fax: 1 254 865 2629, Salutation: Dear Ms Gonzalez

Jose L. Aliseda, Board of Pardons and Paroles, 1111 West Lacy St., Palestine, TX 75801 Fax: 1 903 723 1441, Salutation: Dear Mr Aliseda

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

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

Amnesty International USA

PO Box 1270

Nederland CO 80466-1270

Email: uan@aiusa.org

http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/

Phone: 303 258 1170

Fax: 303 258 7881

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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL

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URGENT ACTION APPEAL

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