by Matt Saldaña
August 12, 2009
After approving versions of roughly three dozen bills, hammering out a state budget and deliberating for more than three hours, the N.C. Senate had one item left on its agenda the night of Aug. 5: the Racial Justice Act. The Senate had passed a version of the landmark bill, which would prevent the execution of defendants on the basis of race. Yet it did so only after tacking on a controversial amendment—introduced by Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham)—that would simultaneously ensure the resumption of capital punishment in North Carolina.
When it came time for the Senate to concur with a "clean" House version that purged the controversial clauses, Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr. (D-Durham), the bill's sponsor, stood up, pointed his finger to the Senate chamber's door and left in a hurry. Later, the Senate recessed for nearly an hour while the Democrats held a private caucus on the bill.
At roughly 7:45 p.m., the Democrats emerged, and McKissick, who had delayed the vote twice in the past week to garner enough supporters, said, "I would simply ask my colleagues to concur."
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
Showing posts with label law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label law. Show all posts
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
[indyweek] The high cost of the death penalty
This article was featured on the Death Penalty Information Center Web site.
by Matt Saldaña
Illustration by J.P. Trostle
June 24, 2009
The cheapest part of executing a prisoner is the killing itself.
The state's procedure of lethal injection costs about $500: $168 in medicine and syringes, plus roughly $340 for the doctor, who is present for three to four hours, according to the N.C. Department of Correction. (See details at end of story.)
Yet court fees related to capital trials, those in which prosecutors seek the death penalty for murder, cost North Carolina millions of dollars. The costs are incurred even if the charges are reduced or dismissed. Given the state's budget crisis, which has forced lawmakers to cut funding for education, social services and children's health insurance, money spent on pursuing death penalty cases arguably could be better used. Nationwide, several states, including Colorado and Kansas, are considering abolishing the death penalty to save money.
In North Carolina, Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, recently told the House Ways and Means Committee, "We might want to, at some point, revisit whether the death penalty ought to be imposed, or whether we ought to impose a life sentence without parole, because it's a strong, persuasive and convincing argument when you talk about the astronomical expense of capital cases."
Between 2001 and 2008, N.C. Indigent Defense Services cost the state an additional $36 million when prosecutors sought the death penalty instead of life imprisonment for 733 people, according to the Indy's analysis of a 2008 IDS report. IDS is a publicly funded agency that provides private attorneys for defendants charged with capital crimes, but cannot afford a lawyer.
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
Thursday, June 04, 2009
[indyweek] Racial justice victory dimmed by possible resumption of executions
by Matt Saldaña
May 20, 2009
On May 14, during the same week that North Carolina's death penalty cleared a significant legal hurdle, the state Senate passed a landmark bill that seeks to make capital punishment decisions more equitable. The Racial Justice Act, which passed by a 36-10 margin, would prevent the execution of defendants who can prove race was an underlying factor in the decision to seek or impose the death penalty at the time of their trial.
"Let's not be naïve. [Race] has been a factor at times in the past, and we need to recognize that," Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., D-Durham, the bill sponsor, said before the vote. "I'd much rather see a person end up in life in prison, without parole, because it may be fair and appropriate for the offense he committed."
A recent study (PDF) conducted by two UNC-Chapel Hill professors found that defendants in North Carolina are twice as likely to be sentenced to death for capital crimes if they are black; defendants whose victims are white are 3.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death than defendants who committed identical crimes against non-white victims, the study found.
The Senate vote is bittersweet for proponents of death-penalty reform, because it includes an amendment (PDF) intended to end the state's de facto moratorium on executions that has been in place for nearly three years. The amendment—introduced by Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, who voted against the bill—would prevent doctors from being disciplined for participating in executions and would exempt the N.C. Council of State from its role in approving execution protocol. That would resolve two issues hung up in the state's courts until recently that have effectively postponed execution of the state's 163 death-row inmates since August 2006.
"What they're trying to do is make this an execution bill, and this is not that," said Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, a sponsor of the bill on the House side. "This bill is about fairness, and opportunity, for both sides—the prosecutors and also the defendants. It's a fairness bill."
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
May 20, 2009
On May 14, during the same week that North Carolina's death penalty cleared a significant legal hurdle, the state Senate passed a landmark bill that seeks to make capital punishment decisions more equitable. The Racial Justice Act, which passed by a 36-10 margin, would prevent the execution of defendants who can prove race was an underlying factor in the decision to seek or impose the death penalty at the time of their trial.
"Let's not be naïve. [Race] has been a factor at times in the past, and we need to recognize that," Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., D-Durham, the bill sponsor, said before the vote. "I'd much rather see a person end up in life in prison, without parole, because it may be fair and appropriate for the offense he committed."
A recent study (PDF) conducted by two UNC-Chapel Hill professors found that defendants in North Carolina are twice as likely to be sentenced to death for capital crimes if they are black; defendants whose victims are white are 3.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death than defendants who committed identical crimes against non-white victims, the study found.
The Senate vote is bittersweet for proponents of death-penalty reform, because it includes an amendment (PDF) intended to end the state's de facto moratorium on executions that has been in place for nearly three years. The amendment—introduced by Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, who voted against the bill—would prevent doctors from being disciplined for participating in executions and would exempt the N.C. Council of State from its role in approving execution protocol. That would resolve two issues hung up in the state's courts until recently that have effectively postponed execution of the state's 163 death-row inmates since August 2006.
"What they're trying to do is make this an execution bill, and this is not that," said Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, a sponsor of the bill on the House side. "This bill is about fairness, and opportunity, for both sides—the prosecutors and also the defendants. It's a fairness bill."
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
[indyweek] De facto death penalty moratorium may end
by Matt Saldaña
May 13, 2009
Following a 4-3 decision by the N.C. Supreme Court, North Carolina is one step closer to ending a de facto moratorium on the death penalty, and supporters of capital punishment are clamoring for the proverbial guillotine to drop. But before the state can execute its 163 inmates on death row, it must first confront several legal and legislative challenges to the practice.
House Minority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake, announced last week that the "last significant hurdle has now been resolved" to resume executions and urged lawmakers to vote down any further death-penalty reforms.
"We really don't need any further legislative action," he said in an interview. "We've had the death penalty in our laws for the last 30 years, under what the Supreme Court says is constitutional procedures."
Yet activists and lawmakers say the death penalty is deeply flawed, and they support a host of bills that would protect defendants from being sentenced to death on the basis of race or for crimes they committed while suffering from a serious mental disability.
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
May 13, 2009
Following a 4-3 decision by the N.C. Supreme Court, North Carolina is one step closer to ending a de facto moratorium on the death penalty, and supporters of capital punishment are clamoring for the proverbial guillotine to drop. But before the state can execute its 163 inmates on death row, it must first confront several legal and legislative challenges to the practice.
House Minority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake, announced last week that the "last significant hurdle has now been resolved" to resume executions and urged lawmakers to vote down any further death-penalty reforms.
"We really don't need any further legislative action," he said in an interview. "We've had the death penalty in our laws for the last 30 years, under what the Supreme Court says is constitutional procedures."
Yet activists and lawmakers say the death penalty is deeply flawed, and they support a host of bills that would protect defendants from being sentenced to death on the basis of race or for crimes they committed while suffering from a serious mental disability.
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
Saturday, September 06, 2008
[indyweek] Suspects get pass; victims to be deported
by Matt Saldaña
September 3, 2008
Orange County prosecutors have dropped misdemeanor charges against two suspects who allegedly attacked two men—because many of the witnesses and victims are awaiting deportation and can't be found to help build the case.
In June, Yuliant Fernandez and Amilcar Tamayo, drivers for Transportes Tania, a Houston-based transportation company, were arrested in Hillsborough for allegedly assaulting two men who refused to pay an extra $500 in exchange for the release of a passenger. (See "Human smuggling in Orange County," July 16, 2008.)
According to Hillsborough Police Lt. Davis Trimmer, the two men who had arrived to pick up the passenger called police saying they allegedly had been assaulted. Police records show that Fernandez allegedly held a knife to the neck of one of the two men, and slashed his van's tires, while Tamayo and Fernandez pelted the van with rocks.
After reporting the incident to police, the victims later fled the scene. The passenger escaped from Tamayo and Fernandez by leaping out of the Transportes Tania van, according to police reports.
Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said the assault victims—whose home addresses in Clinton are listed in the police report—have been processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
September 3, 2008
Orange County prosecutors have dropped misdemeanor charges against two suspects who allegedly attacked two men—because many of the witnesses and victims are awaiting deportation and can't be found to help build the case.
In June, Yuliant Fernandez and Amilcar Tamayo, drivers for Transportes Tania, a Houston-based transportation company, were arrested in Hillsborough for allegedly assaulting two men who refused to pay an extra $500 in exchange for the release of a passenger. (See "Human smuggling in Orange County," July 16, 2008.)
According to Hillsborough Police Lt. Davis Trimmer, the two men who had arrived to pick up the passenger called police saying they allegedly had been assaulted. Police records show that Fernandez allegedly held a knife to the neck of one of the two men, and slashed his van's tires, while Tamayo and Fernandez pelted the van with rocks.
After reporting the incident to police, the victims later fled the scene. The passenger escaped from Tamayo and Fernandez by leaping out of the Transportes Tania van, according to police reports.
Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said the assault victims—whose home addresses in Clinton are listed in the police report—have been processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
Sunday, July 20, 2008
[indyweek] The 'straight-up extortion' express: Human smuggling in Orange County
by Matt Saldaña
July 16, 2008
When Hillsborough police officers responded to a knife fight in a McDonald's parking lot last month, they uncovered a network of van drivers delivering illegal immigrants to the East Coast—and allegedly extorting their passengers.
On two separate occasions in the past month, officers in Hillsborough and Camden, S.C., have arrested drivers working for Transportes Tania, a Houston-based company, for allegedly forcing passengers to pay higher prices than originally agreed. In both cases, according to police reports, the drivers were transporting more than a dozen clients—all illegal immigrants—to destinations throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, with planned stops in North Carolina.
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
July 16, 2008
When Hillsborough police officers responded to a knife fight in a McDonald's parking lot last month, they uncovered a network of van drivers delivering illegal immigrants to the East Coast—and allegedly extorting their passengers.
On two separate occasions in the past month, officers in Hillsborough and Camden, S.C., have arrested drivers working for Transportes Tania, a Houston-based company, for allegedly forcing passengers to pay higher prices than originally agreed. In both cases, according to police reports, the drivers were transporting more than a dozen clients—all illegal immigrants—to destinations throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, with planned stops in North Carolina.
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]
Saturday, June 30, 2007
[JFP] A Journey of Bones
by Matt Saldaña
June 20, 2007
During her largely improvised closing argument, federal prosecutor Paige Fitzgerald stumbled upon one of the most poetic moments in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial.
The two-week trial certainly had no shortage of poetry. Take, to begin, the battle of wits between Fitzgerald and Federal Public Defender Kathy Nester—each one listed beneath male lead attorneys on the criminal docket, but themselves the undisputed stars of a vigorous legal showdown (evidenced by each side’s decision to close with them).
Take U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, magnanimous to jurors and witnesses and grindingly scrupulous to jurisprudence. Take the color of his skin—black—and the stumbling attempt by Nester’s former lead attorney, Dennis Joiner, to suggest that it would bias his judgment against Seale. (This, after decades of an explicit bias that white Mississippi judges and juries held to the benefit of white defendants in racial hate crimes.) Take, then, the mostly white jury in 2007—eight out of 12—and the two hours it took for them to send a 71-year-old white man to jail for kidnapping two black teenagers in 1964.
Take the unexpected, blunt and apparently sincere courtroom apology of the prosecution’s star witness—confessed Klansman and co-conspirator Charles Marcus Edwards—to the families of the victims whose deaths he helped ensure. And finally, take the open rejoicing of a largely African American gallery—composed of the victims’ families, civil-rights heroes, activists and observers—when a court aide read aloud the final poetic act of justice: three guilty counts.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press.]
June 20, 2007
During her largely improvised closing argument, federal prosecutor Paige Fitzgerald stumbled upon one of the most poetic moments in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial.
The two-week trial certainly had no shortage of poetry. Take, to begin, the battle of wits between Fitzgerald and Federal Public Defender Kathy Nester—each one listed beneath male lead attorneys on the criminal docket, but themselves the undisputed stars of a vigorous legal showdown (evidenced by each side’s decision to close with them).
Take U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, magnanimous to jurors and witnesses and grindingly scrupulous to jurisprudence. Take the color of his skin—black—and the stumbling attempt by Nester’s former lead attorney, Dennis Joiner, to suggest that it would bias his judgment against Seale. (This, after decades of an explicit bias that white Mississippi judges and juries held to the benefit of white defendants in racial hate crimes.) Take, then, the mostly white jury in 2007—eight out of 12—and the two hours it took for them to send a 71-year-old white man to jail for kidnapping two black teenagers in 1964.
Take the unexpected, blunt and apparently sincere courtroom apology of the prosecution’s star witness—confessed Klansman and co-conspirator Charles Marcus Edwards—to the families of the victims whose deaths he helped ensure. And finally, take the open rejoicing of a largely African American gallery—composed of the victims’ families, civil-rights heroes, activists and observers—when a court aide read aloud the final poetic act of justice: three guilty counts.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press.]
Monday, June 18, 2007
[seale trial] Day 12: Guilty On All Counts
by Matt Saldana
Photo by Matt Saldaña
June 14, 2007
After approximately two hours of deliberation, the jury in the federal kidnapping and conspiracy trial of James Ford Seale returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on all counts. The jury found Seale guilty of two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy in the abduction and murder of Charles Moore and Henry Dee.
"Mississippi spoke today," said Thomas Moore, brother of Charles Moore.
After the verdict was read, Seale turned to his wife, Jean Seale, and asked, "Are you OK?"
Family members of the victims embraced. Donna Collins, who is the daughter of Henry Dee's sister Thelma Collins, said: "I feel great. I feel like I could leap off the tallest building and fly because (her mother) can have some relief."
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
[seale trial] Day 9: 'Strange Bedfellows: The Prosecution Rests'
by Matt Saldaña
June 13, 2007
Prosecutors in the James Ford Seale trial rested their case Tuesday, a case built primarily around the testimony of Seale’s confessed co-conspirator, Charles Marcus Edwards. In addition to Edwards’ statement, the prosecution presented corroborating details about Seale’s motive, the Klan’s search for guns on the day of the murder and the nature of Charles Moore and Henry Dee’s drowning. The final dagger, however, came from retired FBI Agent Edward Putz, who testified Tuesday about Seale’s infamous statement during a trip to Jackson after his arrest in Nov. 1964:
“We know you did it, you know you did it, the Lord above knows you did it,” FBI Agent Lenard Wolf told Seale, referring to the kidnapping and murder of Moore and Dee.
“Yes, but I’m not going to admit it; you are going to have to prove it,” Seale replied.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
June 13, 2007
Prosecutors in the James Ford Seale trial rested their case Tuesday, a case built primarily around the testimony of Seale’s confessed co-conspirator, Charles Marcus Edwards. In addition to Edwards’ statement, the prosecution presented corroborating details about Seale’s motive, the Klan’s search for guns on the day of the murder and the nature of Charles Moore and Henry Dee’s drowning. The final dagger, however, came from retired FBI Agent Edward Putz, who testified Tuesday about Seale’s infamous statement during a trip to Jackson after his arrest in Nov. 1964:
“We know you did it, you know you did it, the Lord above knows you did it,” FBI Agent Lenard Wolf told Seale, referring to the kidnapping and murder of Moore and Dee.
“Yes, but I’m not going to admit it; you are going to have to prove it,” Seale replied.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
[seale trial] Day 7: 'I Wasn't His Keeper'
by Matt Saldaña
June 7, 2007
R. W. Middleton, who was James Ford Seale’s pastor at Bunkley Baptist Church for several months in 1963, testified today against his “close friend” and fellow “gun fanatic.” Later, two witnesses with ties to Seale’s son, "Junior," and one to alleged co-conspirator Ernest Parker, took the stand. Seale, who was more active and vocal today than he has been thus far in the trial, patted Federal Public Defender Kathy Nester on the back when, early in the day, she argued successfully to keep deceased FBI informant and former Klansman Ernest Gilbert’s statements out of the trial.
Middleton testified that Archie Prather, an alleged co-conspirator in the Dee-Moore murders, approached the pulpit at the church to address allegations in 1963 that a “car full of niggers” had followed a woman to her home.
“Let me ride in the trunk and keep it halfway open. I’ll shoot every last one of them niggers,” Middleton testified that Prather said.
“I told him I didn’t think that it was an appropriate place to have those kind of meetings and say those types of things. A church is no place to talk about killing people. A church is supposed to teach you to love people,” Middleton said on the stand.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
June 7, 2007
R. W. Middleton, who was James Ford Seale’s pastor at Bunkley Baptist Church for several months in 1963, testified today against his “close friend” and fellow “gun fanatic.” Later, two witnesses with ties to Seale’s son, "Junior," and one to alleged co-conspirator Ernest Parker, took the stand. Seale, who was more active and vocal today than he has been thus far in the trial, patted Federal Public Defender Kathy Nester on the back when, early in the day, she argued successfully to keep deceased FBI informant and former Klansman Ernest Gilbert’s statements out of the trial.
Middleton testified that Archie Prather, an alleged co-conspirator in the Dee-Moore murders, approached the pulpit at the church to address allegations in 1963 that a “car full of niggers” had followed a woman to her home.
“Let me ride in the trunk and keep it halfway open. I’ll shoot every last one of them niggers,” Middleton testified that Prather said.
“I told him I didn’t think that it was an appropriate place to have those kind of meetings and say those types of things. A church is no place to talk about killing people. A church is supposed to teach you to love people,” Middleton said on the stand.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
[seale trial] The Seale Trial, Day 3: 'Why People Felt Like That Then'
by Matt Saldaña
June 2, 2007
After another 10-hour day of jury examination, air-conditioning and tears, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate reduced the jury pool in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial to 34—two more than the minimum needed to begin the juror striking process on Monday. After completing that process at 10 a.m., Wingate will hear opening statements beginning at 1 p.m. on June 4 in the federal courthouse in Jackson.
On Friday, the individual voir dire process again revealed jury candidates’ dark secrets—about violence, racial hatred, and decades of repressed memory—as they spoke into a microphone from the corner of the jury box in a leather chair that began to resemble a therapist’s couch.
[View the entire article at The Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
June 2, 2007
After another 10-hour day of jury examination, air-conditioning and tears, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate reduced the jury pool in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial to 34—two more than the minimum needed to begin the juror striking process on Monday. After completing that process at 10 a.m., Wingate will hear opening statements beginning at 1 p.m. on June 4 in the federal courthouse in Jackson.
On Friday, the individual voir dire process again revealed jury candidates’ dark secrets—about violence, racial hatred, and decades of repressed memory—as they spoke into a microphone from the corner of the jury box in a leather chair that began to resemble a therapist’s couch.
[View the entire article at The Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
Saturday, June 09, 2007
[blog] Tears, Pain, And History In The James Seale Voir Dire
Thank you to Anne Reed, trial lawyer and jury consultant, who commented on my Seale trial coverage in her trial blog, Deliberations:
James Seale is on trial in federal court in Jackson, Mississippi, for kidnapping and murdering two black teenagers, Charles Moore and Henry Dee, in 1964. It's fitting that a trial so extraordinary has extraordinary local press coverage; the Jackson Free Press has reporters Matt Saldaña and Donna Ladd in the courtroom, and their blog is the best trial reporting I'm seeing right now.
Voir dire, Day 1
The voir dire was last week, Wednesday through Friday, and it was nearly as emotional as the trial promised to be. The first day was spent on the jurors who might not be able to serve -- the one who needs to tend to his six chickenhouses, the one who had plane tickets to accompany his wife for eye surgery. Even when the questioning was at that general level, though, it was dramatic, because people's lives often are. One juror "referred to her own chronic depression and anxiety," one was an alcoholic who "“wished (she) could be drinking,” and then there were these exchanges:
[View Anne Reed's entire article at Deliberations.]
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
[blog] Daily Seale Trial Coverage
Please visit the two blogs to which I am posting daily on the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial in Jackson:
-The Jackson Free Press' Road to Meadville blog
-Nola.com's Building a New South blog.
I am also covering the trial for Reuters.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
[seale trial] The Seale Trial, Day 2: ‘Things I Didn’t Want to Think About’
by Matt Saldaña
May 31, 2007
After nearly 10 hours of group and individual juror examination in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial in Jackson, Thursday’s last jury candidate capped an emotional, and often theatrical, day with tears. By then, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate had excused seven potential jurors (including one new jury candidate) for bias and mental state, and admitted one extra candidate, reducing the first jury pool to 49.
Juror No. 36, a white female, explained her continuous sobbing at the end of the night as a “problem with (her) nerves.” “I’m afraid that it will get like this again,” she said of her nervous condition.
When prompted, she revealed to the courtroom that her father had shot and killed her former boyfriend in 1982, one of the day’s many candid—and, at times, disturbing—revelations. U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton, a district attorney in 1982, told the court that he had attempted to prosecute her father in the ensuing murder trial, but neither Lampton nor Juror No. 36 could recall one another. Immediately following his interrogation, Lampton moved to strike Juror No. 36 from the jury pool based on her emotional state, a ruling that U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate delayed.
When asked why she had indicated on her jury questionnaire that she disagreed with school integration, Juror No. 36 said that she grew up in a “prejudiced family.”
“You’re taught at home one thing, and you’re taught at school something different,” she said, referring to race.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
May 31, 2007
After nearly 10 hours of group and individual juror examination in the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial in Jackson, Thursday’s last jury candidate capped an emotional, and often theatrical, day with tears. By then, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate had excused seven potential jurors (including one new jury candidate) for bias and mental state, and admitted one extra candidate, reducing the first jury pool to 49.
Juror No. 36, a white female, explained her continuous sobbing at the end of the night as a “problem with (her) nerves.” “I’m afraid that it will get like this again,” she said of her nervous condition.
When prompted, she revealed to the courtroom that her father had shot and killed her former boyfriend in 1982, one of the day’s many candid—and, at times, disturbing—revelations. U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton, a district attorney in 1982, told the court that he had attempted to prosecute her father in the ensuing murder trial, but neither Lampton nor Juror No. 36 could recall one another. Immediately following his interrogation, Lampton moved to strike Juror No. 36 from the jury pool based on her emotional state, a ruling that U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate delayed.
When asked why she had indicated on her jury questionnaire that she disagreed with school integration, Juror No. 36 said that she grew up in a “prejudiced family.”
“You’re taught at home one thing, and you’re taught at school something different,” she said, referring to race.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
[seale trial] Day 1: 55 Left in the Chicken House
by Matt Saldaña
May 30, 2007
In the first day of the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate eliminated 21 jurors from a jury pool of 76.
Potential jurors were randomly selected from the southern district of Mississippi, which includes 45 counties across the width of the state, extending from the Gulf Coast as far north as Noxubee County on the Alabama border and Issaquena County along the Mississippi River. Tomorrow, Wingate will continue the process of eliminating jurors from the remaining 55 and, if necessary, examine additional jury pools. Throughout the jury selection process, Seale—dressed in a light blue oxford shirt and khaki Dockers slacks—listened quietly with a court-issued hearing aid.
Juror No. 68, a white male state trooper, qualified for the only automatic exemption, since he is a public officer actively engaged in official duties. The 20 other excused jurors successfully petitioned their release based mostly on financial and health considerations.
Juror No. 10, a white male rancher and logger who works a two-man crew with his brother-in-law, explained to Wingate that it would be too dangerous for his brother-in-law to work in the woods alone, or to leave his cattle unattended. Wingate acknowledged that he understood the juror’s ranching explanation, but then stopped himself.
“I said, ‘Uh huh,’ but I actually don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wingate said, eliciting laughter from the courtroom.
“See, you’re educating me,” Wingate told Juror No. 10, whom he later excused despite disagreement from the defense.
Wingate also excused Juror No. 75, a one-armed white male chicken farmer from Wayne County, after receiving another lesson in animal husbandry. The juror explained to Wingate his day-to-day process of tending to six chicken houses, which he does with the aid of one elderly, part-time worker.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
May 30, 2007
In the first day of the James Ford Seale federal kidnapping trial, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate eliminated 21 jurors from a jury pool of 76.
Potential jurors were randomly selected from the southern district of Mississippi, which includes 45 counties across the width of the state, extending from the Gulf Coast as far north as Noxubee County on the Alabama border and Issaquena County along the Mississippi River. Tomorrow, Wingate will continue the process of eliminating jurors from the remaining 55 and, if necessary, examine additional jury pools. Throughout the jury selection process, Seale—dressed in a light blue oxford shirt and khaki Dockers slacks—listened quietly with a court-issued hearing aid.
Juror No. 68, a white male state trooper, qualified for the only automatic exemption, since he is a public officer actively engaged in official duties. The 20 other excused jurors successfully petitioned their release based mostly on financial and health considerations.
Juror No. 10, a white male rancher and logger who works a two-man crew with his brother-in-law, explained to Wingate that it would be too dangerous for his brother-in-law to work in the woods alone, or to leave his cattle unattended. Wingate acknowledged that he understood the juror’s ranching explanation, but then stopped himself.
“I said, ‘Uh huh,’ but I actually don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wingate said, eliciting laughter from the courtroom.
“See, you’re educating me,” Wingate told Juror No. 10, whom he later excused despite disagreement from the defense.
Wingate also excused Juror No. 75, a one-armed white male chicken farmer from Wayne County, after receiving another lesson in animal husbandry. The juror explained to Wingate his day-to-day process of tending to six chicken houses, which he does with the aid of one elderly, part-time worker.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press Road to Meadville blog.]
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
[JFP] The Klansman Bound: 43 Years Later, James Ford Seale Faces Justice
by Matt Saldaña
May 23, 2007
Shuffling behind a young black woman in an identical orange jumpsuit, James Ford Seale entered the fourth-floor courtroom of the James O. Eastland Federal Building in Jackson on Feb. 22 with shackles hanging loosely around his waist and ankles, and his hands cuffed in front of him. The 71-year-old retired cropduster from Roxie, Miss., wore thin wire glasses, orange sandals and thick white socks. The words “Madison County Jail” were printed across his slight, but well-postured back. He stood no taller than 5’8” and looked to weigh about 125 pounds, but he showed traces of his muscular past with a thick neck that recalled his open-collared mug shot from 1964—the year he was arrested and released weeks later for the murders of two black teenagers in Franklin County.
As a U.S. marshal led him to a seat next to his lawyers, Seale smiled at his wife, Jean Seale, who sat in the front row on the defense’s side of the court. One of his stepsons-in-law arrived late, scanning the half-empty room with his buzzed head held high as he placed his arm around Seale’s stepdaughter, a blonde woman in high heels who blew bubbles with her gum. Other than flashes of eye contact with his family, Seale sat upright and still. At one point, he turned to stare at a large security camera behind a glass plane, high in the back corner of the courtroom.
When U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate—the court’s black-robed, baritone-pitched voice of authority—granted the defense a 15-minute recess to review case history, Seale sat still and looked at the ground.
One month earlier, on Jan. 24, 2007, a federal jury had indicted Seale for two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy leading to the deaths of Charles Moore and Henry Dee, the 19-year-olds beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan in the Homochitto National Forest and then drowned in a backwater of the Mississippi River in 1964. The prosecutors believe that Seale chose Dee and Moore because they thought Dee, who had just returned from living in Chicago, was involved in civil rights activity in the area.
Five days later, in a packed courtroom on a lower level of the Eastland Building, U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson denied bond to Seale, stating, “Neither the weight of the crime nor its circumstances have been diminished by the passage of time.”
It had been 42 years and eight months since Dee and Moore died, the longest wait for a case to be successfully tried in a civil rights era killing.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press.]
Saturday, March 24, 2007
[JFP] Seale Judge Sees Flurry of Motions
by Matt Saldaña
Photo by Matt Saldaña
March 22, 2007
U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate denied a motion to recuse himself and U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson today in the federal kidnapping trial of James Ford Seale. Seale's defense attorneys had complained about Wingate's prior employment, 22 years ago, with the federal prosecutor's office and seemed to hint that, as African Americans, Wingate and Anderson might be biased against Seale. The judge also delayed a motion to move the trial out of Jackson due to coverage by the Jackson Free Press and The Clarion-Ledger, and indicated that the trial might be delayed a week or more from the scheduled April 2 start date.
In the motion to recuse, federal public defender Dennis Joiner noted that Anderson had also worked as a federal prosecutor. Trial attorney Eric Gibson, arguing for the prosecution, said that if judges had to recuse themselves based on former government employment, the entire justice system would collapse.
Joiner implied that Wingate would be the prosecution’s judge of choice. “Let's just say that, if I were a prosecutor in this case, I would pick Your Honor even though you've served for 20 years without bias,” Joiner told Wingate.
The public defender then said, in vague terms, that certain issues might affect Wingate in a certain way, and that these unique responses are the reason why we should have diversity at law schools.
“Maybe you're dancing around some issues,” Wingate replied. “Does the 'diversity' argument you made mean that you don't want two judges of minority status?”
[Read the entire article at the Jackson Free Press.]
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
[JFP] Judge Keeps Seale in Jail
by Matt Saldaña
February 28, 2007
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate denied several motions from lawyers representing James Seale, the 71-year-old former Klansman held in federal custody for his alleged role in the abduction and murder of Charles Moore and Henry Dee in 1964. Wingate denied a motion to dismiss all charges against Seale and a motion to revoke a Jan. 29 order for Seale to remain incarcerated without bond in federal prison.
Citing U.S. v. Jackson, a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that removed kidnapping from the list of crimes punishable by death, federal public defender Dennis Joiner argued that charges stemming from the 1964 murders are not capital offenses and thus would have exceeded their statute of limitations in 1969. Special litigation counsel Paige Fitzgerald, arguing for the prosecution, said that the 1968 ruling did not apply retroactively, and that in 1964 kidnapping was a capital offense unbound by statutes of limitation.
Seale is accused of kidnapping Moore and Dee, tying the 19-year-olds to a tree and ordering other Klansmen to beat them with long bean sticks, as he held a gun on them.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press.]
February 28, 2007
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate denied several motions from lawyers representing James Seale, the 71-year-old former Klansman held in federal custody for his alleged role in the abduction and murder of Charles Moore and Henry Dee in 1964. Wingate denied a motion to dismiss all charges against Seale and a motion to revoke a Jan. 29 order for Seale to remain incarcerated without bond in federal prison.
Citing U.S. v. Jackson, a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that removed kidnapping from the list of crimes punishable by death, federal public defender Dennis Joiner argued that charges stemming from the 1964 murders are not capital offenses and thus would have exceeded their statute of limitations in 1969. Special litigation counsel Paige Fitzgerald, arguing for the prosecution, said that the 1968 ruling did not apply retroactively, and that in 1964 kidnapping was a capital offense unbound by statutes of limitation.
Seale is accused of kidnapping Moore and Dee, tying the 19-year-olds to a tree and ordering other Klansmen to beat them with long bean sticks, as he held a gun on them.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press.]
Thursday, February 01, 2007
[JFP] The Ballad of Charlie Moore and Henry Dee
by Matt Saldaña
Image courtesy Marla Moore
January 31, 2007
We found Marla Moore’s freshly penned lyrics on her “Punk Rasta” myspace page this week and asked to publish them.
Matt Saldaña called and spoke with Moore Tuesday about the song she wrote for two fallen Mississippians.
What drew you to the Charles Moore and Henry Dee story?
I read (Donna Ladd’s) story and the song just came out of me. It’s not a logical process; it’s a supernatural process. A lot of people have that connection, because they don’t stand just for themselves. Between Maryland, where I live, and Mississippi, how many bodies are out there that will never be claimed? We have to explore them, and that’s what I do as an artist. That’s what your paper did: give them a voice.
You begin the song by saying, “This is the kind of song no one should ever write.” What did you mean?
No one should have to ever write this song, because it shouldn’t happen. Just as with songs like (Bob Dylan’s) “The Death of Emmet Till” and “Hurricane” and (Richard Farina’s) “Birmingham Sunday,” not every song is going to be a happy song. I’m also alluding to the fact that, at the time, no one really wanted to tell the story. Because of fear, they let them be buried.
You write, “Two graves remain unquiet, breaking 40 years of silence.” How did you react to the news that, after 40 years of silence, James Seale was finally arrested?
I feel that this is important because we have (the deaths of) iconic figures in pop culture, such as Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur and Jon-Benet Ramsey, in which the public seems to get caught up in the whys and wherefores, but we forget about the human cost. It’s an ongoing process of finding justice. No one can mourn fully until there’s justice. The community needs to know you can’t just do these kinds of things and get away with it. Right now we have the largest group of hate Web sites—racism and intolerance are at an all-time high right now. But when you see people banning together, it makes you more optimistic. Part of me thinks (Seale) is too old to suffer, for as much as he should, but I feel like—Henry and Charles—I feel like I know them. I feel like it’s what they wanted.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press.]
Monday, January 29, 2007
[JFP] No Bond for Seale
by Matt Saldaña
Photo by Matt Saldaña
Jan. 29, 2006
At approximately 3:15 p.m. on Monday in the James O. Eastland Federal Building in Jackson, U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson denied bond to James Seale, the 71-year old former Klansman held in federal custody for two counts of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of conspiracy for his role in the abductions and murders of Charles Moore and Henry Dee in 1964. Forty-two years after the murders, on Jan. 25, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez announced grand jury indictment charges against Seale.
“Neither the weight of the crime nor its circumstances have been diminished by the passage of time,” Anderson said.
Anderson said she considered the violent and horrific nature of the alleged crime, which Special Litigation Counsel Paige Fitzgerald referred to as “so horrific it boggles the mind,” in denying Seale’s bail. She also took into account Seale’s concealment of his brother in Alabama during a pre-trial interview, and the chance that he could flee in his R.V.
Fitzgerald, who argued on behalf of the prosecution for a bond denial, referred to Seale—who, if convicted, would face life imprisonment—as “a man with nothing to lose.” Anderson agreed, saying Seale had “little incentive to stay” in Roxie, Miss.
Public defender Kathy Nester, arguing on behalf of Seale, objected several times, seeking to prevent Fitzgerald from presenting details of the crime at the bond hearing. Anderson overruled because those details had already appeared in the indictment report. Nester also objected when Fitzgerald referred to the Ku Klux Klan as a “terrorist organization,” though a federal grand jury first labeled the KKK a terrorist organization in 1869.
[View the entire article at the Jackson Free Press.]
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