Scott Panetti petition URGENT - date execution le 3 décembre

https://www.change.org/p/executing-mentally-ill-ppl-like-scott-panetti-crosses-a-moral-line-serves-no-purpose-sign-petition


My Brother Was Allowed to Represent Himself at His Death Penalty Trial Dressed in a Cowboy Costume. Ask Texas Officials to Stop His Execution

Demandez la commutation de la peine de M. Scott Panetti

Demandez la commutation de la peine de M. Scott Panetti

L'Etat du Texas a fixé la date du 3 décembre pour l'exécution de Scott Panetti. Cet homme de 56 ans avait tiré sur ses beaux-parents en 1992, en présence de son ex-femme et leur fille de trois ans, dans un accès de délire, les prenant pour le diable. Scott Panetti avait commencé à montrer des signes de maladie mentale grave en 1981, quand il était encore un adolescent. En 1992, il avait été diagnostiqué avec une schizophrénie paranoïde, des idées délirantes et hallucinations auditives, et de la maniaco-dépression. Il avait été hospitalisé 14 fois en psychiatrie.

 Scott Panetti refusait de coopérer avec ses avocats, qui, selon lui, avaient monté une conspiration contre lui, ensemble avec la police. Lors de son procès il insistait à se représenter tout seul,  avec comme seul argument de défense sa maladie mentale. Il expliquait que pendant le crime, il était sous le contrôle d'une hallucination qu'il appelait "Sarge". Parmi les centaines de personnes qu'il cherchait à faire comparaître pour sa défense figuraient Jésus, John F. Kennedy et le pape. Il portait un costume de cow-boy violet, parlait de manière incohérente, tantôt s'endormait, tantôt menaçait le jury. Le jury l'a reconnu coupable et l'a condamné à mort. Deux jurés ont dit plus tard que son comportement les avait tellement effrayés qu'ils ont voté pour la peine de mort en grande partie pour être sûr qu'il ne sorte plus jamais de prison (à l'époque la possibilité de prison à vie sans libération conditionnelle n'existait pas au Texas.)
 Scott Panetti a ensuite fait appel en faisant valoir qu'il avait été incapable à la fois de subir son procès et de s'y représenter. Pourtant, les tribunaux ont conclu que Mr. Panetti était apte à être exécuté sur la base des normes juridiques qui exigent seulement que les prisonniers comprennent  qu'ils vont être exécutés, sans tenir compte de leur responsabilité pour le crime commis, éventuellement altéré par leur maladie mentale.
Scott Panetti avait finalement, et après plusieurs revirements entre 2004 et 2007, obtenu un sursis, puisque la Cour suprême américaine avait bloqué son exécution et renvoyé l'affaire pour réexamen de son état de santé mentale. Les associations de lutte contre la peine de mort pensaient qu'il était définitivement sauvé de la peine de mort et allait finir sa vie en prison. 
 Mais l'année dernière, le tribunal de district a décidé que Panetti était apte à être exécuté parce qu'il «a à la fois une connaissance factuelle et rationnelle de son crime, de sa mort imminente, et de la connexion entre les deux". L'Etat du Texas a donc fixé le 3 décembre comme date d'exécution. 
Si vous souhaitez intervenir en sa faveur, veuillez écrire à la fois au Gouverneur ainsi qu’au Comité des grâces:
 Greg Abbott 
 Adresse: PO Box 308 Austin, TX 78767

Téléphone: 512 477- 2002

Télécopieur: 512 477-0774
Formulaire de contact électronique : 

http://www.gregabbott.com/contact-us/ 

(Afin que vos coordonnées et votre message soient validés sur ce formulaire, il vous suffit d'y insérer un code postal (Zip Code) valide. Exemple : 77001) 

Courriel: Info@GregAbbott.com

 Copies à :
Service de presse du bureau du gouverneur : Fax : +1 512 463 1847
Service juridique du bureau du gouverneur : Fax : +1 512 463 1932 

Clemency Section, Board of Pardons and Paroles

8610 Shoal Creek Blvd 
Austin, Texas 78757-6814, États-Unis

Télécopieur : +1 512 467 0945
Courriel : bpp-pio@tdcj.state.tx.us

Voici une lettre modèle que vous pouvez utiliser telle quelle ou modifier :

 (Lieu, date) 

Subject: Commute the Death Sentence of Mr. Scott Panetti  

Dear Governor, ou Dear members of the Board of Paroles,
I write you on behalf of Mr. Scott Panetti, whose execution is scheduled to take place on December 3. 
 I acknowledge the serious nature of the crimes of which Mr. Panetti was convicted and I would like to convince you that I am not seeking to downplay the suffering caused by violent crimes. 
But Mr. Scott Panetti is a mentally ill man.
He began showing signs of serious mental illness in 1981, back when he was still a teenager. By 1992, he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, delusions, auditory hallucinations, and manic depression, and had been hospitalized 14 times.
Panetti refused to cooperate with his lawyers, who he claimed were conspiring against him. He insisted to represent himself at trial, where his only defense was insanity. He said that during the crime he was under the control of a hallucination he called “Sarge”. He was dressed as a cowboy at his trial and attempted to subpoena Jesus Christ, John F Kennedy and the Pope. 
Two jurors later told that his behavior had so frightened them that they voted for death largely to make sure he'd never get out of prison. (Texas at that time did not offer the option of life without parole.)
It seems to me that Mr.Scott Panetti was not competent to represent himself in court.
Moreover, as the major Human Rights organizations, I oppose the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender and the method used by the state to kill the prisoner.
In addition, I would like to remind you that the death penalty is not the solution. It is incompatible with human rights and human dignity, and it violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which happens to be the most basic of all human rights.
For all those reasons, I urgently and respectfully call on you to commute the death sentence of Mr. Scott Panetti.   

Sincerely,  

(Nom, adresse, signature)

 Merci d'adresser une copie de votre lettre à l'Ambassade des États-Unis de votre pays: 

Ambassade des États-Unis d’Amérique en France

Son Excellence Mme Jane Hartley,

Ambassadeur des États-Unis d'Amérique en France et à Monaco

2, avenue Gabriel

75382 Paris Cedex 08

France

Téléphone (standard) : +33 1 43 12 22 22

Télécopieur : +33 1 42 66 97 83 

Twitter : @USAmbFrance https://twitter.com/USAmbFrance

Puisque l'ambassadeur ne possède pas d'adresse courriel publique, merci de laisser un message sur la page Facebook de l'Ambassade : https://www.facebook.com/usdos.france    

 

 

 

 

 

GEORGIA STATE BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES: Arrêter l'execution de Warren Lee Hill in Georgia - malade mental

http://www.change.org/petitions/georgia-state-board-of-pardons-and-paroles-stop-the-execution-of-warren-lee-hill-in-georgia

Merci de signer et de transmettre autour de vous

"Stop the execution of Warren Lee Hill in Georgia

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens offered the following information in the case against Warren Lee Hill, who is currently scheduled to be executed on February 19, 2013, at 7:00 p.m.

http://law.ga.gov/press-releases/2013-02-05/execution-date-set-warren-lee-hill-convicted-murder-fellow-prison-inmate

Scheduled Execution
On February 5, 2013, the Superior Court of Lee County filed an order, setting the seven-day window in which the execution of Warren Lee Hill may occur to begin at noon, February 19, 2013, and ending seven days later at noon on February 26, 2013. Hill has concluded his direct appeal proceedings and his state and federal habeas corpus proceedings.

Georgia is about to execute a mentally disabled man in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Although Warren Lee Hill, Jr., was granted a stay of execution on Monday, July 23 -- the day of his scheduled execution -- unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, the state of Georgia will execute a man that everyone agrees is mentally retarded. A state court determined that a decade ago.

The execution would violate the U.S. Constitution if carried out, but apparently that standard is not good enough for the Peach State.
Hill, who has an I.Q. of 70, was originally scheduled to die by lethal injection on July 18, but his execution was postponed due to changes in the state's execution drug protocol. Georgia, which once used a three-drug cocktail, has opted for a single drug dosage of pentobarbital -- a sedative used to put down dogs and cats that has been banned for export by the European Union.

In his order denying relief to Hill, Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Wilson wrote that Hill meets the criteria of mental retardation by a preponderance of the evidence. In Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court mandated the states to protect people with mental retardation because there is a "special risk of wrongful execution" because of their disabilities.

Writing for the majority in Atkins, Justice Stevens opined that the mentally disabled should not be executed because it provides no deterrent effect, and that such offenders are not culpable to deserve such a form of retribution. He added that with reduced capacity, mentally retarded defendants face a risk of wrongful conviction. They are poor witnesses, may give less meaningful assistance to their lawyers, and their demeanour may give an impression that they lack remorse.

"Those mentally retarded persons who meet the law's requirements for criminal responsibility should be tried and punished when they commit crimes," Stevens wrote. "Because of their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment, and control of their impulses, however, they do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct. Moreover, their impairments can jeopardize the reliability and fairness of capital proceedings against mentally retarded defendants."

However, Georgia sees things differently.

Georgia requires defendants to prove they have an intellectual disability beyond a reasonable doubt--the strictest standard in the nation. And experts agree Georgia is an outlier, as the only state in the Union with such an unreasonably high burden of proof and an impossible standard to meet. Yet, the state judge believes that Hill does not meet Georgia's standard, and that Georgia's standard does not violate the U.S. Constitution.

Many have already spoken out on this case. Several jurors from the case said they would have sentenced Hill to life without parole if they had the option. Former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalyn Carter called for clemency, and the victim's family called for a commutation of his sentence. Mental health advocacy groups, including the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Arc of Georgia and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) have called for a stay of Hill's execution as well.

Further, the international community has voiced its opposition to the execution. Christof Heyns-- the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions -- said Hill's execution "would be a fatality in violation of international as well as domestic law."
Georgia has a history of problems in its application of the death penalty, often making big mistakes by playing fast and loose with justice. In 2005, the state of Georgia granted a posthumous pardon to Lena Baker. A black maid who was executed in 1945 for killing a white man she said enslaved and beat her, Baker was the only woman executed in Georgia's electric chair.

Her last words were, "What I done, I did in self-defense, or I would have been killed myself ... I am ready to meet my God."

And last September -- despite strong indications of innocence, an international outcry and a petition of 1 million signatures -- Georgia sent a man named Troy Davis to his death.

The execution of Troy Davis, despite the absence of a murder weapon, physical evidence or DNA linking him to the crime, placed the spotlight on Georgia and the injustices of the death penalty.

This, in a state where five death row inmates have been exonerated.
And now, Georgia is in the spotlight once again, as it plans to execute Warren Hill, a mentally ill man. And as the state decides to go it alone -- flying in the face of the Constitution -- the attention it receives is an embarrassment.

Members of the Georgia State
Board of Pardons and Paroles

Ladies and Gentlemen,


I respectfully and urgently urge you to stop the execution of Warren Lee Hill, who is currently scheduled to be executed on February 19, 2013.

Writing for the majority in Atkins, v. Virginia , Justice Stevens opined that the mentally disabled should not be executed because it provides no deterrent effect, and that such offenders are not culpable to deserve such a form of retribution. He added that with reduced capacity, mentally retarded defendants face a risk of wrongful conviction. They are poor witnesses, may give less meaningful assistance to their lawyers, and their demeanour may give an impression that they lack remorse.

"Those mentally retarded persons who meet the law's requirements for criminal responsibility should be tried and punished when they commit crimes," Stevens wrote. "Because of their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment, and control of their impulses, however, they do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct. Moreover, their impairments can jeopardize the reliability and fairness of capital proceedings against mentally retarded defendants."

Executing a mentally disabled person would cover the State of Georgia with an unbearable stain of shame.

I respectfully and urgently urge you to commute the death sentence of Mr. Warren Lee Hill."

Sursis en Floride

 Le juge de District, Daniel T.K. Hurley, a accordé un sursis à John Ferguson qui devait être exécuté mardi 23 octobre.

 Le 26 octobre la Cour entendra les arguments portés par sa pétition pour prouver qu'il ne peut être exécuté car il n'a pas  "compétence" à l'être, souffrant d'une grave schizophrénie.