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Amnesty International Execution Alert:
23 January 2002 Death penalty / Legal concern
Further information on EXTRA 57/01 issued 21 August
2001 and re- issued 18 September 2001; 11 October 2001
USA (Ohio) John Byrd
John Byrd, white, aged 37
(m) has been given a new execution date for the 1983 murder of Monte
Tewkesbury. On 7 January
2002, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay of execution it
had granted last October. Ohio's Attorney General promptly sought
a new execution date, which has now been set for 19 February 2002 at 9pm
local time.
The Sixth Circuit issued
the stay last October so that a federal magistrate could hear evidence
into John
Byrd's claim of innocence.
US Magistrate Judge Michael Merz held a hearing in November, and subsequently
ruled that Byrd had failed to prove that he had not killed Tewkesbury.
He recommended that the Sixth Circuit reject the innocence claim, which
it did.
Monte Tewkesbury, 40, was wounded during a robbery of the store where he worked. He was stabbed once, lived long enough to describe the robbers as two masked men, and died two hours later. At about that time, police stopped a van with John Byrd, John Brewer and William Woodall inside. All three were charged with murder, with Byrd charged as the actual killer, making him alone liable to the death penalty. Woodall, who was the getaway driver, and Brewer were tried separately and both received prison terms.
Since the convictions, John
Brewer has repeatedly claimed that it was he, not John Byrd, who stabbed
Tewkesbury. Other inmates
have stated that Brewer confessed to them. Other evidence also points to
Brewer as the killer: for example, a shoeprint on the counter in the store
matched Brewer's shoes - Tewkesbury was behind the counter when he was
stabbed.
The evidence that it was Byrd who stabbed Tewkesbury came from a jailhouse informant, Ronald Armstead, who claimed that Byrd confessed to the killing in jail. When a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit upheld Byrd's death sentence in 2000 by two votes to one, the majority noted: 'All agree that Armstead's testimony was vitally important to the jury's determination'. The third judge added that his testimony 'provided the only meaningful distinction between Byrd and co-defendant John Brewer'.
The jury, at Byrd's trial,
was told that Armstead had no cases pending against him, and therefore
it had no reason to believe that he had anything to gain from his testimony.
This was not true. At the time of the trial, Armstead had a pending parole
violation hearing at which he faced up to 15 years in prison. In the event,
Armstead was paroled two months after Byrd's trial, with the support of
the prosecutor's office.
Prior to the trial, the
same office had vigorously opposed parole for Armstead; during the trial,
the
prosecutors went out of
their way to vouch for Armstead, describing him as one of 'our people'
and
'real genuine', believed
by the state and therefore to be believed by the jury. Since the trial,
several jail
inmates from the time have
signed affidavits claiming that Armstead's testimony was false.
At the hearing before the magistrate in November 2001, John Brewer repeated his claim that he, not Byrd, had stabbed Monte Tewkesbury, The prosecution argued that he should not be believed, that he was confessing in order to help his friend. A number of other current or former inmates testified that Brewer had confessed to them that he had killed Tewkesbury, and that Armstead had given false testimony.
Magistrate Judge Merz ruled that Brewer was 'not to be believed' because he had been shown to have lied on other occasions. However, he accepted that a number of the other witnesses were credible. Nevertheless, under US law, which limits federal review of state court decisions, he ruled that this evidence should have been raised earlier.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, irrespective of issues of guilt or innocence. The UN Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty states: 'Capital punishment may be imposed only when the guilt of the person charged is based upon clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for an alternative explanation of the facts'. Amnesty International remains concerned that the execution of John Byrd will violate this safeguard. Regardless of the credibility of John Brewer's confession, John Byrd was convicted primarily on the word of a less than credible jailhouse informant.
Prior to his previous execution
date, John Byrd had chosen to die in the electric chair rather than by
lethal injection in order
to protest the brutality of capital punishment. In November, Ohio
adopted
legislation removing electrocution
as an option and making lethal injection the sole method of execution
in the state.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please
send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible,
in YOUR OWN WORDS:
- expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Monte Tewkesbury;
- expressing concern that
John Byrd was convicted primarily on the word of a jailhouse informant
whose credibility is in serious doubt; - arguing that there remain too
many doubts surrounding this conviction for even death penalty
supporters to have confidence
it; - calling for commutation of the death sentence, in line with international
safeguards relating to capital punishment.
APPEALS TO:
Governor Bob Taft
30th Floor, 77 South High
Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117
Telegrams:
Governor Taft, Columbus, Ohio
Fax:
1 614 466 9354
E-mail: Governor.Taft@das.state.oh.us
Salutation:
Dear Governor
You may also write (not more
than 250 words) to
'Letters to the Editor'
at:
The Dispatch, 34 S. 3rd St.,
Columbus 43215
Fax: 1 614 461 8793
E-mail: letters@dispatch.com
The Plain Dealer
1801 Superior Avenue, NE
Cleveland, OH 44114
Fax: 1 216 999 6354
E-mail: news@cleveland.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
312 Elm Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Fax: 1 513 768 8610
E-mail, via website:
http://enquirer.com/editor/letters.html
The Cincinnati Post
125 East Court Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Fax: 1 513-621-3962
E-mail: postedits@cincypost.com
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Amnesty International is
a worldwide grassroots
movement that promotes and
defends human rights.
Please do not repost this
appeal to any part of the
Internet without prior permission
from Amnesty
International. Thank you
for your help with this
appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
PO Box 1270
Nederland CO 80466-1270
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 303 258 1170
Fax:
303 258 7881
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