[WCADP-list] April Execution Alerts

Fri Mar 31 13:47:48 PST 2006

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

e - @ b o l i t i o n i s t

April 2006

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Six Executions Scheduled for the Second-half of April

There are six execution dates lined up in April, all within two weeks of
each other. Three are from Texas and one each from Virginia, Oklahoma, and
North Carolina. One of the Texas death row inmates is Pedro Sosa, who was
granted a stay back in October 2005, and has been scheduled a new date.  

Pedro Sosa has been on death row for 23 years. His most recent execution
date was stayed after his attorneys filed a motion, arguing that the courts
had yet to consider evidence that Sosa is mentally retarded.  Generally, a
person with an IQ of 70 or below is considered mentally retarded.  Sosa
scored a 66. 

The case of Marvin Wilson also touches on the issue of mental retardation.
The most recent measure of Wilson's IQ, presented by a psy-cho-lo-gist at a
2004 state hearing, was 61. In this particular case, the attorney assigned
to Wilson failed to meet a deadline laid out by the Antiterrorism and
Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), which governs the habeas appeals
process, and as a result, Wilson will likely be executed on a technicality.

Read more about these and the other four cases below -- and ACT!

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Do Not Execute Pedro Sosa!

The State of Texas is scheduled to execute Pedro Sosa, a Latino, on April
25, 2006 for the kidnapping and shooting death of Ollie "Sammy" Childress, a
white man and a Wilson County sheriff's deputy. There is good reason to
believe that Sosa--who scored a 66 on his IQ test--is mentally retarded.
Furthermore, Sosa maintains his innocence, denying any involvement with the
kidnapping, bank robbery, or murder. 

Not only is the State preparing to execute a mentally retarded person, it is
planning to do so on a weak case. There are several issues surrounding the
case that cast doubt upon Sosa's guilt. Moreover, Sosa claims that law
enforcement officials forced him to confess by threatening him and his wife,
who was with Sosa at the time of his arrest. 

ACT NOW by contacting Gov. Rick Perry requesting that he stop the execution
of Pedro Sosa! 

Read More and Take Action at:
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Do Not Execute Marvin Lee Wilson! 

Marvin Lee Wilson, a black man, was convicted of capital murder and
sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of 21-year old Jeffrey
Robert Williams, a police informant. Wilson's case highlights many of the
most troubling issues of the U.S. death penalty system. 

In a December 2005 ruling the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals callously
refused to consider Wilson's case despite their acceptance that Wilson made
a prima facie showing of mental retardation simply because Wilson's
court-appointed attorney failed to file the appeal on time. The average
court-appointed capital defense lawyer is overworked and underpaid, so it is
not surprising that those factors, combined with the somewhat
incomprehensible statutes of the AEDPA, led to Wilson's attorney failing to
file his appeal within the necessary time frame.  

ACT NOW by contacting Gov. Rick Perry and asking that Marvin Lee Wilson's
execution be halted!  

Read More and Take Action at:
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=101711268&url_num=3&url=
http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3
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See and act on all current Execution Alerts at
 <http://www.ncadp.org/execution_alerts.html>
http://www.ncadp.org/execution_alerts.html

April 18: Richard Thornburg Jr., OK

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April 21: Willie Brown Jr., NC

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 April 25: Pedro Sosa, TX
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221  

April 26: Marvin Wilson, TX
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April 27: Derrick Frazier, TX

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April 27: Dexter Lee Vinson, VA 

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