CONFERMATA CONDANNA A MORTE, LA REVISIONE CHIESTA IN RITARDO

Il governatore dell'Ohio dovr� decidere se concedere grazia

Columbus, (Ohio) 15 feb.  - La Corte Suprema Usa ha respinto la richiesta di sospendere l'esecuzione di un detenuto che si proclama innocente. John W. Byrd jr., 38 anni, verr� messo a morte marted� mediante iniezione letale, a meno che il governatore Bob Taft non accolga la domanda di grazia avanzata dai suoi avvocati. Taft � accusato di aver ucciso un commesso nel corso di una rapina, ma sostiene che a compiere il delitto � stato un suo complice.

 Byrd ha passato met� della sua vita nel braccio della morte per l'uccisione, nel 1983, di Monte Tewksbury, 40 anni, in un negozio a Cincinnati.

 Il suo complice nella rapina, John Brewer, sta scontando una condanna all'ergastolo, ed ha ammesso di essere stato lui a pugnalare a morte Tewksbury. Ma Byrd ha sollevato la questione, accusando il complice, soltanto 18 anni dopo il processo che lo ha proclamato colpevole. Quindi, secondo le leggi federali, "fuori tempo massimo" per ottenere una revisione.

OHIO: Debate over executions still intense---Bipartisan group in House hopes bill is 1st step toward repeal

Some people hope John W. Byrd Jr.'s scheduled execution Tuesday will be Ohio's last.

Senate President Richard H. Finan isn't among them.

"I don't have anybody introducing bills to abolish the death penalty," said the Cincinnati Republican, the chief sponsor of 1981 legislation resurrecting capital punishment in Ohio.

Support for repealing the law, Finan said, is "not there . . . not in my caucus."

Despite the sentiments of Finan, who must leave the Senate at the end of the year because of term limits, a movement is developing in Ohio to impose a moratorium on capital punishment or end the practice.

The issue might grow more important this year.

If Byrd's death by injection is carried out as scheduled, he will become the third person executed during the past 3 years.

As many as 10 death row prisoners will exhaust their federal appeals within a year, putting them in line to be executed, said Ohio Public Defender David Bodiker.

Public support for society's ultimate punishment, which topped 80 percent in 1994, slipped to 65 % last year in the Gallup Poll. A Buckeye State Poll showed support in Ohio at 62 %.

None of the 38 states with death-penalty laws has overturned them.

However, Illinois Gov. George H. Ryan ordered a moratorium on executions and New Hampshire lawmakers approved a bill abolishing them, only to have Gov. Jeanne Shaheen veto it.

In Ohio, state Rep. Shirley A. Smith, D-Cleveland, recently introduced House Bill 502 to study and make changes in procedures and sentencing in capital cases. A final report would be due in 18 months.

Smith has 14 Republican co-sponsors, enhancing the prospects for passage of the bill.

"I think, right now, the chances are very good because of the bipartisanship," she said.

Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr., R-Cincinnati, one of the most conservative House members and a co-sponsor of the Smith bill, opposes the death penalty.

"It's not our right to kill him (Byrd),'' Brinkman said. "He's a bad guy, don't get me wrong. He's no angel. But we have no right to kill these people just for any vicarious thrill we might get out of watching somebody suffer. We can lock 'em up and put 'em away."

But even the most zealous death- penalty opponents don't see the change happening overnight.

"We're in the hope business," said Jim Tobin of the Catholic Conference of Ohio and Ohioans to Stop Executions. "As we read our sacred scriptures, we are told in the end things will work out -- but we're not told how soon."

Tobin advocates replacing capital punishment with a law mandating life without parole.

The issue might have to be put to Ohioans as a statewide ballot initiative if the General Assembly doesn't act, he said.

Sen. Mark L. Mallory, D-Cincinnati, an outspoken death-penalty foe, said he thinks the "mood is changing'' among state lawmakers. But Rep. Ray Miller, D-Columbus, also an advocate for a moratorium, said such prospects are unlikely as long as Bob Taft is governor and Republicans control the legislature.

There is a difference of opinion among Republicans.

Some, such as Rep. James P. Trakas, R-Independence, support the move to end executions. Others, such as Rep. Timothy J. Grendell, R- Chesterland, push to keep them.

"It's our job as those who don't (believe in the death penalty) to try to change the hearts and minds of people," Trakas said. "I think it's inevitable that there are going to be more executions. . . . Capital punishment is the reality for the foreseeable future."

Grendell countered, "I believe society has accepted the fact that there are some crimes that deserve the death penalty, that it's both appropriate and should serve as a deterrent."

On opposite sides of the issue are advocacy groups such as Amnesty International and Justice For All.

"Over the last 5 years, there's certainly more support for abolition of the death penalty," said Adam Ortiz of Amnesty International. "There's definitely a momentum."

Dudley Sharp of Justice for All, a victims-rights group based in Houston, said the change in the public's attitude is largely because death- penalty foes have been "extraordinarily successful in putting their message forward" in the media.

Columbus Dispatch

Governor rejects Byrd's request to stop execution

John W. Byrd Jr. is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday for the 1983 slaying.

No remorse, no mercy for John W. Byrd Jr., Gov. Bob Taft said yesterday.

Taft rejected Byrd's Jan. 29 clemency request -- possibly the Cincinnati killer's last chance to escape execution -- because he said it contained no new information.

"Nor does his letter reflect any acceptance of responsibility for this crime or expression of remorse," Taft said in a statement.

Byrd asked Taft to spare his life, or at least grant a temporary reprieve.

Barring an unexpected, last-minute legal challenge, Byrd will die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.

Byrd's attorneys were reviewing his slim legal options yesterday, but had not decided whether they will make a last-ditch appeal.

"We're executing an innocent man Tuesday and perverting our system of justice,'' said Public Defender David Bodiker.

Byrd, 38, would be the 11th person executed in the United States this year and the 760th to die since capital punishment was reinstated in the late 1970s.

Taft previously rejected clemency for Byrd on Sept. 10, but the execution was halted by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

However, the appeals court lifted the stay of Byrd's execution earlier this year; the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case this week, all but sealing Byrd's fate.

The governor's office has been deluged with 8,451 letters, petitions and phone calls -- 2,237 this year -- opposing Byrd's execution.

Taft received 10 communications supporting Byrd's execution, 4 this year.

Among those opposing the execution was Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., a Columbus native, special assistant to President Kennedy and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Schlesinger noted in his letter that he was "a friend half a century ago of (U.S.) Sen. Robert A. Taft," the governor's grandfather.

Capital punishment, Schlesinger wrote, "should be reserved for cases where there is absolutely no shred or tremor of doubt . . . The case of John Byrd is, to say the least, shrouded in doubt."

Religious groups are planning prayer vigils and protests at the Governor's Residence, the Statehouse and the prison.

"The whole point is to be visible, to say there's a lot of people who think there's another way, that execution isn't necessary," said Jim Tobin of the Catholic Conference of Ohio and Ohioans to Stop Executions.

Byrd was sentenced to death for the April 17, 1983, slaying of convenience-store clerk Monte B. Tewksbury during a botched robbery. While Byrd denies being the slayer -- and an accomplice, John E. Brewer, has confessed to the crime -- the courts have found Brewer's admission not credible.