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22 February 2006
Soffar found guilty; Chron editor's wife shaken (updated)
Yesterday, the retrial of Max Soffar went to the jury. Soffar had spent over 20 years on death row after confessing to a brutal triple murder, but his conviction was overturned by a federal court that found his legal defense was inadequate. The wife of Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen is a supporter of Soffar, as is Kinky Friedman.
The anti-death-penalty Chronicle's coverage of yesterday's events concluded as follows:
Prosecutors argued Soffar's own words convicted him. "The defense didn't bring you any evidence that he falsely confessed, that he didn't commit the crime or that someone else committed the crime," said prosecutor Denise Nassar. But, Soffar's attorneys argued, the burden of proof does not rest with them."There can be no closure and no justice based on lies. That is not our system," said defense attorney Kathryn Kase, her voice breaking with emotion. She put her arm around Soffar and hugged him after the defense rested.
Kase was not identified as the wife of Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen.
Apparently, the jury was not impressed with Kase's theatrics. They returned a guilty verdict just before noon today (coverage from the Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, KTRK-13/AP, KPRC-2, KHOU-11).
PREVIOUSLY: A missed Chron Eye opportunity?
UPDATE: The anti-death-penalty Chronicle has updated its coverage of the conviction, and it now includes this accounting of Kathryn Kase's theatrical performance:
Defense attorney Kathryn Kase at times became tearful while outlining Soffar's childhood: his continuous crying as a baby, his brain disorder, mental problems, low IQ and struggles in school that led him to drop out in the seventh grade. His mother sometimes drugged him to make him sleep, Kase said.
[snip]
"He was not a normal, healthy child from the beginning," Kase said. "You have to ask, 'Did he choose to be this way?' "
You also have to ask why Kathryn Kase was not identified as the wife of Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen.
Incredibly, that quote was the conclusion of the story about Soffar's conviction!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/22/06 09:58 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
02 March 2006
Will a twice-convicted triple murderer get the death penalty? (Updated)
[UPDATE: Yes. See below]
The Chronicle's Dale Lezon checks in on the Max Soffar trial, reporting that jurors failed to reach a decision yesterday on the death penalty:
Jurors determining the fate of convicted murderer Max Alexander Soffar are scheduled to resume deliberations this morning, deciding whether to send him to prison for life or to death row.Jurors spent the night at an area hotel, where they were sequestered after deliberating six hours Wednesday. Deliberations are scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m.
[snip]
In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutors argued that Soffar is a danger to society if he is not executed.
Defense attorneys said Soffar deserves a life sentence because he has learned to live in prison without violating rules and because he was failed by his parents and the state as a child with mental health problems.
His adoptive parents, defense attorneys argue, didn't offer him proper psychiatric care for childhood psychological and behavioral problems.
He was placed in a state mental hospital for nearly two years when he was about 13 and given shock treatments, they said.
"Who fried this boy's brain? The state of Texas did," defense attorney Kathryn Kase told the jury. "It's not too late to reach out and help Max Soffar."
Kathryn Kase is not identified as the wife of Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen, whose editorial page is strident in its opposition to the death penalty. But who knows -- perhaps Cohen and Kase have separated.
The article tucks away this news, which presumably is of more interest to readers than its placement would indicate:
If Soffar is sentenced to life in prison, he would be eligible for parole in 20 years. But since he has served more than 20 years already, he could be eligible immediately, prosecutors said after the jury left the courtroom to begin deliberating.
What a glorious day that would be for Soffar supporters like Kinky Friedman and Kathryn Kase! The thought of a brutal, twice-convicted triple murderer walking the streets always puts a spring in my step!
UPDATE: KHOU-11 reports that the jury has sentenced Soffar to death. Again. Let the weeping from Kase and Kinky commence.
BLOGVERSATION: Slampo's Place.
UPDATE 2: The Chronicle's coverage of the verdict includes yet another quote from Kathryn Kase, who is not identified as the wife of Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen. The coverage from KPRC-2 and the AP (picked up by KHOU-11 and KTRK-13) does not include quotes from Kase.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/02/06 09:37 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (7)
08 February 2007
Lone Star Pundit on the latest Chron Eye
Lone Star Pundit noticed a new Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy.
His post is here.
Nice catch, Kyle. Mr. Kathryn Kase must have thought he could sneak that one by in between rounds of golf!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/07 06:30 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)
06 February 2006
A missed Chron eye opportunity?
KPRC-2 beat the Chronicle to the punch on a potential Chron Eye today:
A retrial began Monday for a man convicted of shooting four people, killing three of them, at a northwest Houston bowling alley more than 25 years ago, KPRC Local 2 reported.
Max Soffar, 49, was 24 years old when authorities said he confessed to the robbery and shooting at the Fair Lanes Bowling Alley, located on Highway 290. A lawyer was not present when Soffar made the confession, which came after three days of intense interrogation.
The victims were Arden Alane Felsher, 17; Tommy Lee Temple, 17; and Stephen Allen Sims, 25. Greg Garner was the only shooting victim who survived. However, he could not positively identify Soffar as the shooter.
"You figure an 18-year-old kid with a gun sticking in his face, and you know he's scared to death, and after he gets shot, who's he going to identify?" Garner's father, Ira Garner, said.
Greg Garner, who was an employee at the bowling ally, is disfigured from a gunshot wound to the back of his head.
Soffar has been on death row since 1981. An appeals court panel with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in December 2000 after determining his rights had been violated because an attorney was not present during his confession. The full court reinstated the conviction in September 2001.
The same court ordered a new trial for Soffar in 2005 after judges decided that his lawyer, Joe Cannon, failed to represent him effectively during his first trial.
Soffar's supporters include David Dow, Kinky Friedman, and Kathryn Kase (the wife of the Chronicle's editor).
RELATED COVERAGE: KHOU-11.
UPDATE (02-07-2006): The Chronicle's coverage appears today, and includes a photo of Kathryn Kase conferring with the defendant.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/06/06 09:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
28 February 2006
Friedman testifies for (twice) convicted murderer
Kinky Friedman's foray into alternative marketing political campaign took an odd turn today, as Friedman testified in the sentencing phase of the trial of (twice) convicted murderer Max Soffar:
Prosecutor Lyn McClellan objected throughout the 10-minute testimony.
McClellan said Friedman's participation in the trial was nothing but a publicity stunt. He said Friedman did not offer any mitigating evidence to the trial that would explain to jurors Soffar's behavior.Friedman, who wrote to Soffar while he was on death row, has said he believes that Soffar is innocent and has been wrongly convicted.
"I said he had a higher innocence. He had an earned innocence, an achieved innocence like a guy who comes back from Iraq or Vietnam -- from a war. He's struggled with his demons and he's conquered them," Friedman said.
Once his political campaign flames out, Friedman should apply for a gig writing the Chron Eye For The Death Row Killer Guy!
Friedman said he met Soffar while writing an article for Texas Monthly magazine. He interviewed Soffar and exchanged letters with him during his years on death row.
Although he used to support the death penalty, Friedman told jurors he's now against it.
Perhaps the Chronicle reporting tomorrow will let us know whether Kathryn Kase, defense attorney and wife of Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen, wept over Friedman's testimony.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: KHOU-11.
UPDATE (03-01-2006): Here is the Chronicle's coverage.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/28/06 08:23 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
11 February 2009
New Chron Eye profiles killer/rapist
There's a new Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy today.
The profile centers on Johnny Ray Johnson, whose rap sheet includes four murders and more than a dozen rapes (including the rape of his pre-teen niece).
As usual for these sorts of efforts, this Chron Eye takes a look at Johnson's "abusive childhood" and alleged problems with the case (claims that his confessions to heinous crimes were coerced by detectives at gunpoint).
The only thing really missing in this Chron Eye is a discussion of the man's discovery (in prison) of his love of poetry. Or ballet. Or some such.* However, the conclusion makes up for that omission a bit:
“God has a time for everybody,” the killer said. “Regardless of what happens, I know that I will be in heaven.”
It's a shame that the area's newspaper of record fritters so much of its credibility (and space) with these insipid profiles of some of the worst criminals ever put away. On those occasions when real doubt is raised about someone on death row, Chron readers can't help but wonder if it's just another of Jeff Cohen/Kathryn Kase Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/11/09 09:24 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
21 August 2005
Chron eye for the death row killer gal
The anti-death-penalty Chronicle starts early with today's Chron Eye on a killer not scheduled to die until September 14.
As protesters take to the streets and attorneys launch late-in-the-day efforts to save her from the executioner's needle, Frances Newton's capital murder case promises to pack an emotional punch rarely felt in Texas, a state that leads the nation in putting killers to death.
Newton, 40, is scheduled to die Sept. 14 for fatally shooting her husband and two young children in April 1987 to claim $100,000 in death benefits. She would be the third woman — and the first black woman — to be executed in the state since the Civil War. Her execution would be the 349th since Texas executions resumed in 1982.
Newton and her supporters consistently have proclaimed her innocence, but state and federal courts have on at least 10 occasions rejected motions filed on the Harris County woman's behalf.
With those facts established, most of the rest of the story clearly is intended to provide a forum for defense attorneys and activists looking to stop the execution.
The Chronicle devoted three reporters to this Chron Eye, weeks before the execution is scheduled.
Expect Mr. Kathryn Kase's newspaper to keep pushing hard on this one.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/21/05 09:17 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
30 January 2007
Chron tries to keep Ruben Cantu story alive
The Chronicle's efforts to win that elusive first Pulitzer via the Ruben Cantu story have stalled somewhat, but the local Hearst daily just keeps plugging along in its efforts to keep the story alive:
Sam Millsap Jr. knows that most people in his home state disagree with his fervent opposition to the death penalty, but the former Bexar County district attorney remains puzzled by a particular expression of sympathy he gets from many of his fellow Texans.
They frequently admonish him not to beat himself up over the execution of Ruben Cantu, a potentially innocent man Millsap helped send to the death chamber.
And why is Cantu potentially innocent? The story elaborates:
Ruben Cantu, a gang member convicted of a robbery-related murder when he was 18, was executed on Aug. 24, 1993. In 2005, a Chronicle investigation suggested that Cantu was possibly innocent.
Here is some background on the Ruben Cantu story that should make clear his "innocence" is hardly a decided question. It's also useful when evaluating the Chronicle's death-penalty stories to keep in mind the Chronicle's fervent anti-death-penalty stance and the fact that editor Jeff Cohen's wife is a noted anti-death-penalty activist.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/30/07 11:07 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)
17 November 2004
Chron eye for the death row killer guy - cont'd
On Monday, it seemed Roma Khanna had let Jeff Cohen down.
In that installment of the Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy, Khanna departed slightly from the Chron Eye formula, neglecting to mention redeeming prison activities of the death row killer (like poetry or knitting) and also neglecting any reference to HPD or the crime lab, while actually devoting column space to the victim.
However, Khanna rebounded strongly today (the death row killer guy is scheduled to be executed tonight), as lawyers brought out the kitchen sink in an effort to save the death row killer guy:
An attorney representing a Houston man scheduled to be executed today argued Tuesday his life should be spared because of problems with the police work and prosecution in the case.
Anthony Guy Fuentes, 30, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection this evening for the shooting death of Robert Pres-ton Tate, 28, after a robbery of a convenience store on Feb. 18, 1994. Fuentes admits he participated in the robbery but maintains he did not kill Tate.
An appeal filed Monday notes discrepancies in the testimony of eyewitnesses and argues that Houston police officers improperly questioned witnesses. Defense attorneys also argued that Harris County prosecutors knowingly allowed a witness to give false testimony and withheld information that would have allowed defense attorneys to expose inconsistencies.
"You have all of these witnesses who witness the same event, and they are all seeing different things — some of them are dramatically different," said Jim Marcus, executive director of the Texas Defender Service and one of Fuentes' lawyers. "There are so many problems with the eyewitness testimony, and the case really hangs on putting the right gun in Fuentes' hands."
Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen's wife, Kathryn Kase, is a prominent member of the Texas Defender Service.
Maybe that explains the journalistic resources devoted to the Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy, even as entire sections are dropped and staff is laid off.
(Update) Anne Linehan calls my attention to the fact that the Texas Defender Service's website links to a recent Chronicle series, A Deadly Distinction, on Harris County as the "pipeline to death row" in Texas. How convenient!
(Update 2) This particular Death Row Killer Guy is no longer with us.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/17/04 08:21 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (0)
04 December 2005
A busy death-penalty week for the Chron
Look who made an appearance in a death-penalty column in the Chronicle this week:
Texas' method of executing capital murderers could come under scrutiny in a courtroom as the result of what some legal observers call a precedent-setting ruling by a federal judge in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes this month denied a motion by the state Attorney General's Office to dismiss death row inmate Charles Raby's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment.
Raby's lawyer says the judge's ruling has cleared the way for Raby to gain access to state documents and employees in an effort to prove that the chemicals used in the lethal injection process cause a condemned killer to "suffer an excruciatingly painful and protracted death."
"As far as I know, this is the first (lethal injection challenge) case in Texas where the motion to dismiss has not been granted," said Kevin Mohr, Raby's attorney.
Kathryn Kase, a representative of the Texas Defender Service, which provides legal counsel to several Texas death row inmates, agrees with Mohr's assessment.
"To my knowledge, there is no court in Texas that has let it get this far," said Kase, who is married to Houston Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen. "This is a very, very important ruling."
One would have thought that Steve McVicker might have been able to find someone else to quote, but there you have it.
Jeff Cohen's newspaper has been busy with the death penalty this week. Gossip columnist Rick Casey was dispatched to drive home the impression that an innocent man has been executed in Texas:
I want to make one thing clear. [Bexar County District Attorney Susan] Reed is not just focused on going after Moreno. Before she mentioned him in our Friday conversation, she said, "If your story is correct and (Cantu) is innocent, that means there is another murderer out there."
And she told reporter Olsen that if the story is correct, it demonstrates a nonfunctioning justice system.
While that's a nice clarification from Casey, the fact is he spends most of his column focused on what Reed will do if indeed Cantu was innocent. The story leaves the impression that of course he was innocent -- now all that matters is what is to be done about it. In reality, Cantu's innocence has yet to be determined -- something the Chronicle's reporters, editorialists, and even gossip columnists need to keep in mind.
UPDATE (12-05-2005): Owen Courreges posts some very good questions about the Cantu affair.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/04/05 08:52 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
14 April 2005
Chron eye for the death row killer guy - variation on a theme
Eric Berger pens a variation on the ever popular Chron eye for the death row killer guy theme today, reporting on a study that suggests death row prisoners may experience pain in some circumstances when put to death by lethal injection.
In the interest of equal time, we suggest that Eric Berger next be assigned to troll for studies related to the following:
1) Pain experienced by disabled persons when their feeding tubes are forcibly removed
2) Pain experienced by victims of violent crimes at hands of Death Row Killer Guys (rape, murder, torture and the like).
We're sure Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen will get right on those stories.
UPDATE (5:43 PM): Google News searching on Dr. Koniarias, one of the authors of the study and who is quoted in the story, turns up an interesting selection of how this story has been treated thus far by major media. The first news source (as captured by Google News) to run the story was the Common Dreams Progressive News Wire, which picked up a press release from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty yesterday. Other U.S. media outlets have picked up various versions of the story. ABC News is running the Reuters version in its health section. Ditto MSNBC. Forbes runs a version in its health section. Ditto the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Washington Times posted a version of the story as part of its UPI wire service.
It seems that not many news editors were attuned enough to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty to devote staff to producing their own version of this story for today's edition, let alone put it on the front page. But then again, that's why we call it the Chron Eye, as opposed to, say, the Dallas Morning News Eye.
UPDATE 2: James Taranto's Best of the Web weighs in with this little blurb:
Problem Solved
"U.S. Executions by Lethal Injection May Not Be Humane"--headline, HealthDay News, April 14
"Experts Say Ending Feeding Can Lead to a Gentle Death"--headline, New York Times, March 20
I doubt Mr. and Mrs. Kathryn Kase are amused.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/14/05 10:29 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (12)
14 June 2005
Kinsley: Are editorial boards relevant?
Today, Mr. Kathryn Kase's editorial board put its anti-death penalty spin on a Monday Supreme Court decision. The editorial is typically lackluster, and concludes as follows:
Texas' full-throated resort to the death penalty demands that all procedures pertaining to this maximum punishment be applied with the utmost, unquestioned prosecutorial integrity and that those operations are reviewed by courts that can acknowledge what may be going on.
Courts that can acknowledge what may be going on? What does that even mean? The writing seems less than ideal.
Fortunately, local attorney and blogger William Dyer has dissected the case in a more thoughtful and analytical fashion on his blog. His conclusion is particularly strong. Perhaps even ideal!
This latest instance of a blogger upstaging the high and mighty Chronicle editorial board brings to mind a story in the New York Times about Michael Kinsley's efforts to shake up the LA Times editorial pages in his role as opinion page editor:
"Michael does like to ask questions, such as, 'In today's world, what is the continuing relevance of a newspaper editorial board?' "
Mr. Kinsley, who earned a reputation as an iconoclastic editor at Harpers, The New Republic and Slate, seems determined to answer that question by upending the established notion of the newspaper editorial.
The entire New York Times story is worth reading. Kinsley does seem determined to bring his opinion pages into the internet age.
And one rather suspects that he doesn't inflict stories about riding his bicycle on his readership.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/14/05 10:44 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
25 August 2005
Chron eye for the death row killer gal - 2
Just a few days ago, the Chronicle ran a Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Gal on Frances Newton, who is scheduled to be executed on September 14.
We noted that Mr. Kathryn Kase's newspaper was starting early with its anti-death-penalty advocacy this time, and that probably was an indication that we'd get many more Chron Eyes on Newton.
Today, there's a new Chron Eye about Newton. Here's an excerpt of the effort to humanize Newton:
Along with his drug usage, Adrian Newton's infidelity and his contrite confessions and pledges to reform were hallmarks of the couple's marriage. On the day of the killings, Newton said, the couple had reconciled and agreed to eschew extramarital affairs.
Newton, who became pregnant with the couple's first child at 14, said she loved her husband and children.
Occasionally pausing to wipe away tears, Newton recalled that Alton was "definitely all boy" and often protected his younger sister.
She recalled one incident in which the little girl mischievously took single bites out of apples displayed in a fruit bowl.
"Alton took the apples and turned the bite marks to the back so I wouldn't see what she had done," Newton recalled. "Farrah was very loving."
The substantive portion of the story focuses on a theory advanced by defense attorneys about the presence of a second gun, which Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal characterizes as pure fiction.
The story also includes hearsay in support of the arguments advanced by defense attorneys:
Dow said the parents of Newton's husband have voiced support for stopping the execution, but that claim could not be verified Wednesday.
The attorney also said a one-time prisoner in the Harris County Jail, a former husband of one of Newton's cousins, claimed that another prisoner boasted of killing the family. Dow conceded that claim has not been verified.
So, it's unverified gossip. But hey, this is Mr. Kathryn Kase's newspaper -- if it helps the anti-death-penalty cause, why not disregard journalistic standards and run with it?
Unsurprisingly, the story completely ignored one salient bit of news in this case from yesterday. As the Dallas Morning News reported,
The Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday rejected claims that Ms. Newton was ineffectively represented at trial and ruled that re-testing of the skirt would not establish her innocence.
The Associated Press, LA Times and the New York Times also reported the Court of Criminal Appeals ruling that the Chronicle ignored.
Will the newspaper manage a third Chron Eye on Newton in Sunday's edition, or will the next effort be some sort of smear of Chuck Rosenthal's office by Metro/State editorialist and gossip columnist Rick Casey? Stay tuned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/25/05 06:11 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (4)
27 April 2008
DA's office rejects plea request from illegal-immigrant cop killer
The Chronicle's Brian Rogers reports that the DA's office has rejected a plea request from Juan Leonardo Quintero, the illegal immigrant who shot and killed HPD officer Rodney Johnson in 2006:
Just days before his death penalty trial, attorneys for Juan Leonardo Quintero said he has offered to plead guilty and be sentenced to life without parole for the 2006 shooting of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson — a deal prosecutors have rejected.
Quintero's attorney, Danalynn Recer, noted in an e-mail Friday that the 34-year-old illegal immigrant confessed to killing Johnson and cooperated with authorities. She also said Quintero regrets the toll his actions have taken on Johnson's family, as well as on his own family.
"He is profoundly ashamed and deeply sorry for the pain he has inflicted on them," wrote Recer, founder and executive director of a Houston anti-death penalty organization, Gulf Region Advocacy Center.
Prosecutors on Saturday said the Harris County District Attorneys office has given the defense an opportunity to submit all mitigating evidence and, after reviewing that evidence, prosecutors will continue to seek the death penalty.
"We trust the judgment of 12 citizens to determine the appropriate punishment for the man who executed Officer Johnson," said Assistant District Attorney Denise Bradley.
Bradley said Quintero is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity when he is formally arraigned at the opening of the trial Monday in state District Judge Joan Campbell's court.
Because Quintero was in the country illegally at the time of the shooting, the case has become a rallying cry for those advocating stricter immigration enforcement.
The decision by the DA's office was almost certainly more influenced by the fact that a cop was killed than that the cop was killed by an illegal immigrant.
The Chronicle does inform that anti-death-penalty activists are expected to rally around the cop-killer:
Defense attorneys have worked to bury the prosecution in paper before the trial, which is expected to last one month. The team is expected to have access to national experts who oppose the death penalty.
Of course! Maybe the experts will include Kathryn Kase, an attorney and anti-death-penalty activist (who just happens to be married to Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen). Maybe we can even look forward to an installment of the Chron Eye for the Illegal-Immigrant Cop-Killer Guy!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/27/08 03:35 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
21 May 2005
The Casey LiveJournal Monologues, blogged
Some time ago, we noted that Chronicle columnist Rick Casey would be speaking to the Harris County Democratic Party.
Certainly, journalists are welcome to speak to groups -- even political groups -- to promote their news organization and their work, whether it's Rick Casey speaking to Democrats or Dan Feldstein speaking to conservative-activist talk-radio listeners (an appearance scheduled and then canceled).
However, it's extremely useful to news consumers to know what those journalists actually say when out and about. Thus, the Houston Democrats blog has performed a fine service to news consumers and media watchers alike in Houston by recounting Casey's remarks. Here's a sample:
Rick says there is a new nationl religion: God wants you to be rich. If you are not rich, you are not with God. Basically, the right wing would like to do away with CHIP, Medicaid, and the school fund. Instead religion says we should worship markets.Markets aren't all bad, but Rick cautioned that we should consider how to make markets do what they do well and to tame them so they do. The rich say we do not have to do anything to manage markets. The poor just have to get with God, and that will solve their problems. Rick noted that at one time it was the blacks who were not believed to be with God, now it's the poor.
Essentially, the right wing has stollen the identity of Chritianity and turned it against the "non-believers." Rick asked how is it that God wants us to have a 3-5% revenue cap?
It's certainly provocative and informative reading.
Casey's columns regularly lean to the left, and we have pointed out occasions when he seems willing to flesh out details on issues that are of interest to the editorial board. The fact that he is a columnist on the news pages, but regularly offers editorial opinion in his column, seems not to be a concern to anyone at the Chronicle, although it's not clear to me why his column doesn't run on the editorial page where it belongs.
Of course, if he were moved there, the lack of balance on the editorial page would be even more striking (Cragg Hines, Clay Robison, and Casey as the staff writers on the Left, not to mention James Howard Gibbons, Andrea Georgsson, and Mr. Kathryn Kase representing liberal pet causes in unsigned editorials -- with no identifiable local conservatives writing regularly), and the laughable claim that the editorial position is "not liberal or conservative" would be that much harder to take seriously. One does feel sorry for actual reporters who have to share the news pages with Casey, though.
RELATED: My double-top-secret agenda (Rob Booth, Lone Star Times), Pay no attention to that columnist behind the veil (Sedosi Alhambra, Isolated Desolation).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/21/05 10:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
02 March 2005
Anti-death-penalty Chron celebrates decision
The anti-death-penalty Chronicle must have been an ecstatic place yesterday, judging from today's output from the newspaper's staff columnists.
Rick Casey dialed up an anti-death-penalty activist (sadly, not editor Jeff Cohen's wife) so his column could celebrate the decision without Casey actually having to write much himself:
Dow says support for the death penalty itself is a mile wide and a half-inch deep.
"That's hard to see in Harris County, but even in Texas many district attorneys now seek the death penalty much less often than they could," he said.
And two years ago, a poll of Texans found that 41 percent thought executions should be halted while a number of issues were studied.
Sixty-nine percent said they believed innocent people had been executed. Still, 76 percent said they supported the death penalty.
Dow says, however, that the expressions of concern show a dwindling depth of conviction for the death penalty. If that's true in Texas, it's more true in other states.
The likely scenario, says Dow, is that most of the other states will quit executing criminals. Then the Supreme Court will stop Texas from doing it.
Just a few weeks ago, Casey was lecturing conservatives for (he contended) not being in favor of local control, intimating they were behind John Whitmire's opposition to SAFEclear. Now, with seemingly no memory of his earlier complaint about local control, he's using David Dow's voice to urge the Supreme Court to dictate how Texas will punish criminals. That's what sophists do in pursuit of bigger goals. And at the Chron, taking on the death penalty is certainly a big goal.
Then there's Cragg Hines:
Little by little, since it reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the Supreme Court has whittled back the administration and application of capital punishment.
To the Scalias of the world, the idea of "evolving" standards or, even worse to them, an "evolving" interpretation of the Constitution, is some sort of perversion (unless, of course, it gets them to their political ends).
But as Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, if the meaning of the Eighth Amendment "had been frozen when it was originally drafted, it would impose no impediment on the execution of 7-year-old children."
I'd hesitate to see that proposition brought to a vote in the Texas Legislature as currently constituted.
We know, Cragg. That makes you and Rick Casey. When you can't achieve your political ends via the democratic process, five justices will do. And your political ends haven't been much in favor in Texas for some time.
And then there's the Chron editorial board:
The court majority also drew on the fact that since only 19 states allow the execution of juveniles, the practice is in the minority and imposition of such sentences constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment." Likewise, most nations find the state-sanctioned killing of defendants for crimes committed as juveniles beyond the bounds of civilized behavior. Justice Kennedy acknowledged "the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime."
Who cares what Texans think, so long as five justices can turn to international opinion, right?
As we frequently concede, the Chronicle is entitled to whatever editorial position it would like, however out of tune with its readership. However, the editors shouldn't expect critical readers to believe this assertion:
The truth is that The Chronicle's editorial policy is neither liberal nor conservative, but based upon principles and pragmatism that transcend, or, less grandly, avoid partisan ideology.
Casey, Hines, and the editorial board all weigh in celebrating an anti-death-penalty decision, thereby transcending, or, less grandly, avoiding partisan ideology. Sure guys, keep on telling yourselves that if it makes you feel better. But don't expect us to concede it's "the truth."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/02/05 06:02 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (6)
15 February 2006
A new Chron Eye: Clyde Smith Jr.
Another convicted murderer is headed to the Texas death chamber today, and that means it's time for another edition of Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy, in which journalistic ethics the political preferences of editor Jeff Cohen and wife Kathryn Kase concerns of journalistic balance dictate sympathetic portrayals of death-row killer guys.
Today, we learn that the latest death row killer guy had a troubled childhood, a favorite theme when the reporter is unable to find any real redeeming qualities of the death row killer (such as, for example, composition of poetry in prison):
No one from Smith's family will attend. He won't let them.
"He divorced me and he denied me, and I don't have no child, it look like," said his mother, Ruth Maye, who never visited her son in prison.
Maye said she and other family members in Mississippi had planned to go to the execution to see Smith "one last time," and claim his body — which he signed away to an unnamed friend.
Smith, who ran away at age 15, told police he would rather be in jail than in his mother's house.
Maye said she was a good mother to a stubborn child who wouldn't listen to her and got in with the wrong crowd.
"I don't know what happened to him," Maye said.
But according to affidavits filed by some of Smith's five siblings — only two of whom had the same father — Smith, who was no stranger to drugs and alcohol, ran away to escape excessive beatings by both his mother and the five men she married and divorced as they were growing up.
Didn't stay put for long
After spending time on the streets and at a boy's home, Smith moved back to Houston, where he had lived until he was 9, to live with his father, Clyde Smith. His mother warned him that "there ain't nothing left in Texas but death."
Smith's father turned him away, and Jacobs and Bilton were killed about a year later. Smith was 18 years old at the time. The men were only two of the 86 taxicab and livery drivers murdered while on the job nationwide in 1992.
In the 1980s, 15.1 of every 100,000 taxicab drivers lost their lives to murder. Though the murder rate has dropped since the mid-1990s, when cabs were first equipped with emergency alarms and cameras and could be tracked throughout their city routes, a 2000 report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration revealed that cabdrivers are still 60 times more likely than other workers to be slain on the job.
Smith now says he was only an accessory to the murders and that others pulled the trigger. The three confessions he recorded upon his arrest, he says, were made under pressure from homicide investigators.
Points to violent childhood
While Smith's appellate lawyer does not deny his involvement in the killings, he says his life could have been spared had his trial attorney presented evidence regarding Smith's violent childhood to the jury that sentenced him to death.
"The literature sort of shows that that stuff is important to jurors," attorney F. Clinton Broden said.
"Whether it would've made a difference in this case, I don't know. But he should have had the chance."
In a sworn statement, his trial lawyer said he conducted a complete investigation and found no evidence of any abuse.
But Smith's lawyers have claimed in a string of failed appeals that the trial lawyer's investigation was scant, his client visits infrequent and that he never explained to Smith that his childhood could have helped save his life.
The state rejected Smith's first and most critical appeal, his postconviction writ of habeas corpus, in part because his court-appointed habeas lawyers did not include any evidence that family members would have testified to Smith's history had they been contacted.
By the time Broden obtained that evidence and filed new appeals, it was essentially too late, as higher courts cannot rule on evidence that could have been presented at the state level.
'I did not put you there'
But Assistant District Attorney Lynn Hardaway said it is "highly unlikely" that evidence about his childhood would have spared Smith the death sentence, in light of the overwhelming evidence presented against him.
In contrast, here is the AP's coverage of that aspect of the story (via KHOU-11), which seems sufficient:
In earlier appeals, lawyers pointed out federal judges agreed Smith may have had poor legal help during his trial and that he suffered significant abuse as a child, which they say was not pursued by his trial defense team.
“Nevertheless, ... courts concluded that Smith must shoulder the consequences,” Clint Broden, Smith’s appeals lawyers, said.
[snip]
Smith dropped out of the ninth grade in Laurel, Miss. and once worked as a security guard.
He has four brothers and a sister. From death row, he said the last time he saw a relative was 1991.
He also has a daughter, about 18, who has no contact with him.
“I didn’t want her to be exposed to this,” he said.
Death row killer guy Clyde Smith Jr. will be departing tonight.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/15/06 02:33 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (1)
04 June 2005
Return of the Chron Eye!
Several readers have emailed to make sure we didn't miss today's return of the Chron Eye For The Death Row Killer Guy.
The Chron Eye is the newspaper's recurring effort to portray death-row killers sympathetically. Here's a quick refresher on the Chron Eye formula:
The usual formula is along the lines of pointing out some nice quality of the killer (for example, keeping poetry in prison), some bad quality of his childhood (perceived or real), and the problems at HPD and its crime lab (whether relevant or not to the killer being discussed).
Today's Chron Eye arguably only hits one of the three, unless one wants to count the death row killer guy's tattoos as a "nice quality" (and Chronicle writer Allan Turner does seem strangely enamored):
The blue prison tattoos on Alex Martinez's arms and torso, as intense in imagery as anything on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, tell the story of his life. Somewhere, surely, are references to his wretched childhood, the endless beatings and psychological abuse.
But it's the tombstones, macabre tributes to the women whose throats he slashed, that are most chilling.
"Maria," reads one, referring to Maria Martinez, the stepmother who miraculously survived his brutal attack in August 2001. "To be continued."
The second cuts to the heart of what brought the 28-year-old one-time Houston fast-food worker to death row. Beneath the inscription, "RIP," are a date, a woman's name and the sum, "$300." Seemingly cryptic, the tattoo is a crude ink-and-skin memorial to South Houston prostitute Helen Joyce Oliveros, who, on Aug. 12, 2001, was murdered by Martinez during a squabble over her fee.
Nice guy. Note also the author's assumptions in the lede of a wretched childhood that included abuse, something actually not established (and perhaps contradicted) in the story later:
Martinez's adoptive mother, Velma Griffin, who raised the child from 15 months to nine years, when her marriage ended in divorce, denied all the abuse allegations. Today, she prays for him and hopes his life will be spared. She routinely attempts to visit him on death row, though on each occasion he has rebuffed her, silently returning to his cell when he determines the identity of his visitor.
"I feel very sad," she said. "I cry all the way home. I have to sit in the car five to 10 minutes to compose myself. I just wanted him to know that somebody loves him."
Griffin said Martinez's early years showed promise — as a Boy Scout he was selected to address the Texas Senate. But after the divorce, when she gave up custody of her four children to her ex-husband, "his life just fell apart."
Martinez said the situation hardly improved when his adoptive father remarried. His stepmother, he asserted, intensely disliked him and worked to alienate his father.
"She wouldn't do anything," he said. "She'd wait until my dad came home, and he'd hit me hard."
Martinez's father, stepmother and siblings could not be located for comment.
By the time Martinez dropped out of the ninth grade, he was a steady inhaler of spray paint fumes and similar substances. His adolescence and young adulthood were marked by continual violent skirmishes — only during three years was he free of the criminal-justice system, records show.
"I always looked at it like everybody owed me something," Martinez said. "My mentality was not giving a damn. I couldn't see myself in the world for some reason. I was mad all the time. ... I always thought that I could go right someday. I always thought that things would work out for the best. And all the time I was getting further in the hole."
It sounds like this Death Row Killer Guy seems to be acknowledging his own part in going astray. But that sort of acknowledgment just doesn't fit the Chron Eye "childhood victim" formula, and is buried.
Although the HPD crime lab wasn't involved in this story, there is the obligatory reference to the potential unfairness of it all:
Partly out of fear that he will kill again, partly out of dread of spending his life behind bars, Martinez said in a recent death row interview that he wants to die. To the consternation of his appeals attorney, Houston lawyer Pat McCann, the killer has insisted that all efforts to save his life be halted.
"I think Alexander's life still has value," he said. "I wish he would change his mind."
McCann thinks a key element of the prosecution's case — testimony by his client's Harris County cellmate, Cesar Rios — is faulty.
"This is a case that never should have been a capital case to start with," McCann said. "A lying jailhouse snitch was one of the key elements in making a murder case a capital case. ... If Alexander dies, he'd be dying for a lie. That's not justice."
[snip]
Martinez, in the death row interview, affirmed that he likely would kill again.
It's hard to get that worked up over it. One wonders why so much column space was wasted on this.
We thought Mr. Kathryn Kase's newspaper had abandoned the Chron Eye series, since it's mainly been running AP coverage of death row killer guys about to meet their end lately. Although the series is kind of fun for us -- sort of like Chris Baker's "Debris Game" -- we'd just as soon see it go away.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/04/05 05:55 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (3)
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