European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 17, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                This electric chair at Raiford prison in Florida was last used in 1964. By Cynthia Mills United press International Ime is running Short in the Battle to Block Orat least delay the return of capital punishment in  inmate on Florida s death Row is perilously close to the end of a lengthy state and Federal Appeal process that so far has staved off enforcement fall but one death sentence in the last decade. A Texas prisoner is trailing just a Legal step  might make it through 1978" without any executions says Henry Schwarzchild director of the acl capital punishment project which works against implementation of the death , he says they Are terribly Likely next year. Except for Gary Gilmore who wanted to die no one has been executed in the United states since Luis Monge was led into the Colorado Gas chamber in 1967 As punish ment for killing his wife and children. The supreme court threw out capital punishment Laws across the nation in 1972 because of the arbitrary Way they determined who would get death and who would get life prison terms instead. Many states promptly Drew up new statutes in Hope they would obtain the High court s approval and in 1976 the justices upheld three of them providing Structure sentencing and appeals procedures. Other states across the nation since have used the approved Florida Texas and Georgia Laws As models for re enacting the death , More than 30 states have capital punishment Laws 20 of them adopted or revised since 1976 in efforts to comply with guidelines Laid Down by the High court. More than 400 persons Are under sentence of death the majority in Southern prisons. Only Long series of appeals on behalf of individual defendants have so far kept any actual executions besides Gilmore s from taking  now time is beginning to run Short. Joel Berger of the a act Legal defense fund which assists Many indigent death Row inmates said it is impossible to predict a time schedule for executions be cause of the Many variables. A simple mistake such As a lawyer missing a court filing Date or missing an Opportunity to obtain a stay could change the situation he said. We lose a lot of Sleepover  there also is the Chance another Gilmore will appear declining to delay his execution through appeals. Gilmore was shot by a Utah firing squad Jan. 17,1977. Earlier this year it appeared there might be a Simil Arcase involving Alabama inmate John Louis Evans Iii who was scheduled to be executed in july and had indicated he wanted to die. But the state supreme court granted an indefinite Stayat the last minute after Evans authorized lawyers to take his Case to the . Supreme court while he campaigns to change the method of execution from electrocution to death by injection so he can donate his organs to medical  recently required a condemned Man to Appeal even if it was against his wishes. The usual procedure for a person sentenced to death is to Appeal through two or More Levels in the dates with executioner draw closer for 400 state court system and then to the . Supreme court a process that can take years. If unsuccessful on that round of appeals the jailed con vict May next seek Relief in . District court the lowest level of the Federal court system then in a Feder Al appeals court and then once again in the nation s top  that the inmate May seek a Pardon or ask for further court hearings on the basis of new evidence. But those efforts could Well be Only desperate last moves. John Spenkelink of Florida and Jerry Lane Jurek of Texas were the first in the nation to have reached the critical . Appeals court  5th . Circuit court of appeals in new Orleans has not yet heard arguments on the Case of the texan who was convicted of strangling and drowning a 10-year old girl during a forcible rape  it upheld Spenkelink s death sentence aug. 21, and that Case is headed for the supreme court which Maywell be the court of last resort for the floridian. There s a possibility he will be executed by the end of the year said Ray Marky Florida s assistant attorney general. He s running out of places to  the Case of Spenkelink an unemployed drifter who killed his sadistic travelling companion will bring constitutional questions at the heart of the Cap ital punishment Issue to the High court. It began in 1973 when Spenkelink a 24-year-old escape prisoner plays Man in Florida up 4 cards with a condemned As another plays solitaire. H Jerry Jurek left and John Spyk Are running out of places to Appeal. Be from a minimum Security prison in California pick Fery frightened about murder he said and wrongly up Joseph Szymankiewic a Hitchhiker who had s,p6gines that the death penalty is some sort of solution to most of the past 20 years in prison in the Midwest pair both heavy drinkers began travelling together. Spinkelink also argued the death penalty discriminates it ended in a Tallahassee Motel room when spent not males and poor persons. There Are now Only link s gun went off during a fight. According to Evide Iree women under death sentence in the country. Introduced at Spenkelink s trial Szymankiewic he another Issue is raised by the supreme court forced Spenkelink to have homosexual relations w4jij Netere a july ruling that judges and juries who him had stolen his Money and played russian i pose the death penalty must be permitted to con Lette with him after boasting of killing a fellow was a terrible Man who submitted his sail ant to substantial provocation Svenkel lawyer argued. But Spenkelink was convicted and mitigating factors. Askew first signed his death warrant september after the state s executive clemency to two Broad questions among others Are raised by of a cd of Case whether new studies showing that people Are sentenced to death for killing Whites but not make today s new capital punishment Laws As m.eui1sub fid to h Iead to fun tonally arbitrary and discriminatory As the old ones of of statutes in states Cross the country. He said flawed by the supreme court. Juhe states with pre-1976 Laws May have to change and and How far reaching is the Impact of he High Couit u a the basis for a number of individual  decision knocking Down the capital punishing & j statute in Ohio which had a 99-person death Row Secoff Spinkelink s Case he said the trial judge noted that Only in size to Florida a v Frfd t t the u item consideration to seven Miti the ruling could affect Many More persons Bee a factors which did t induce the substantial the court plurality said states cannot limit the Mitziga a he alleged underwent. Defense lawyers or mercy factors which May be considered in sentencing Fil d b. F bran ing the recent supreme court Deci there Are More Whites than Blacks on death rec 6 6 r .a. Today. R John Spenkelink is White and so was the Man he is of evicted of killing. Yet defense lawyers argue he is a victim of a subs new Type of race discrimination in implementing Cash  charge Florida Law like that in Many of states tends to give the death sentence to people a kill Whites rather than to people who kill Blacks matter what the color of the assailant s  say 92 percent of the More than 100 persons a damned in the state Are on death Row for killing White Only 8 percent were convicted of killing Blacks. And while 63 percent of those convicted in Florida felony murder of a White victim were sentenced to d Only 15 percent of defendants convicted of the Feloi murder of a Black victim have received that sentence. Northeastern University professor William Bowe who has been conducting a study on the subject a similar evidence has been turned up in surveys of t Georgia Texas and Ohio death rows. I he said he believed the incredible. Extent Oil. Racial disparity we find should be presented to the supreme court and publicized nationally so it can be understood How the system whose purpose is Justice is operating in a most profoundly unjust  Bowers who wrote a Book called executions in amt Ca said it is not Clear that anyone is purposefully Al a ruminating. Prosecutors judges and jurors May j of see crimes against White people As different in crimes against Blacks he  professor predicted the evidence of Diacri Ninati he has turned up will certainly be one of the elements the struggle to abolish the death penalty. But the pub Sion to the appeals court s attention. Even before the supreme court ruling affecting the Ohio death Row inmates the South had the bul of prisoners under capital sentence nearly three out of five while the Northeast had the fewest according to a Law enforcement assistance administration report. The largest numbers Are in Florida Texas Georgia and  Legislatures across the country continue to Strug Gle with the Issue each time the High court provides new guidelines and efforts continue to reenact or repeal Capi Tal punishment Laws. Opinion polls continue to show a majority of the Public favors  Ohio legislative action to enact a new capital punishment Law got under Way even before All those on Testate s death Row had their sentences commuted to life following the supreme court s most recent ruling. Maryland acting gov. Blair Lee Iii signed a Bill re storing the death sentence in his state in March but gov. Hugh Carey vetoed a capital punishment Bill adopted bythe new York state legislature. His state Senate failed by one vote May 1 to override his  in Michigan where capital punishment has been prohibited since 1885, a drive to put a repeal initiative on the ballot failed by 10,000  sentiment will be tested in Oregon in novem Ber when an initiative will be on the ballot that would re store the death penalty outlawed in the state since 1964. Although More than 400 persons Are on death Row across the nation Many states Are unprepared to actually carry out executions. In Arkansas where 10 face death sentences an electrocution chamber is under construction and not due to be completed until  Vermont where a death penalty Law is technically on the books but has been unused for years the electric chair now gathers dust in the basement of the state historical society  Are 13 prisoners presently on death Row in Mississippi state prison but officials say it could take them year and thousands of dollars to get ready to carry out an execution. They say it would take Between $45,000and $50,000 just to fix up the old Gas chamber which has been unused since 1964.the Pennsylvania electric chair which was located at Rockview state prison has been dismantled and parts fit Are travelling around with a Mobile corrections museum. The furniture in the old execution chamber has been rearranged and turned into a prisoner counselling Section. Texas and a number of other states have decided that any future executions they have will be by injection. Although the Florida inmate and the one in Texas Are nearing the end of the Long appeals process for those sentenced to death officials in other states note it May be Many years before prisoners on their death rows reach that  will Surprise me if there is anything in the next two years said Illinois corrections director Charles , he added i Hope i m wrong. I think that kind of delay can water Down the effectiveness of the death pen  said the More typical delay May be eight years or More and it is bad to keep people confined to death Row that Long. A spokesman for the South Carolina corrections department said it is Likely to be 18 to 24 months before the first execution there. Gary Gilmore a Gilmore gone remain Deputy Warden Leon Hatch says the Janu Ary 1977 execution of Gary Gilmore has not affected the six men still on death Row in  has been no difference he told a re Porter. None  in fact i did an informal poll among the other in mates and about half of them were in favor of it the death penalty and about half were  during the Early morning hours just before Gil More s execution by firing squad inmates could be heard banging on bars and Yelling to reporters. Some hurled insults at the pres but some yelled kill the Bastard bearing out Hatch s poll. Five of the six men on Utah s death Row have appealed and lost in the state supreme court. Appeals Are pending before the . Supreme court. The sixth waste first to be sentenced under a new capital punishment Law passed last year after Gilmore s execution. His state supreme court Appeal is  Utah attorney general Earl Dorius said he could not estimate How Long the appeals would take or when the next execution would take place. Up the condemned state by state Here is a list based on a National up Survey and statistics compiled by the narc Legal defense fund of the number of person son death Row and the status of capital punish ment Laws in each state Alabama 36 sentenced to die under 1975 Law. Alaska  24 on death Row but 1973 Law believed in  10 face execution under 1973 Law upheld by state supreme  5 sentenced under 1977 Law passed Over gov. Edmund Brown s  5 on death Row under 1974 Law whose constitutionality is being challenged in state supreme  old Law technically on books but Delaware 2 on death Row under 1977  114 sentenced to die under 1972 Law upheld by . Supreme court in 1976.Georgia 72 on death Row under 1973 Law upheld by . Supreme court. Hawaii  2 sentenced to death. 1977 Law. Illinois 4 on death Row. 1977  3 await death sentences. 1977 Law. Iowa none. Effort to reenact this year failed. Kansas Law technically on books but considered void. Kentucky one Man sentenced under Law passe december 1976. Louisiana 9 on death Row under 1976 Law. Maine none. Maryland no one yet sentenced under 1978 la signed by gov. Blair Lee. Massachusetts none. Michigan none. Minnesota  13 on death Row. 1977 Law. Missouri no one yet sentenced under Law enacted in 1977.montana 4 sentenced. Law revised in 1977. Nebraska six on death Row under 1973 Law upheld by state supreme court. Efforts to repeal continue. Nevada five sentenced to death under 1977  Hampshire 1977 Law but no one on death  Jersey gov. Brendan Byrne vetoed 1978 legis lation. New Mexico  York gov. Hugh Carey vetoed 1978 Law. Old Law mandating death for lifer who commits murder still in  Carolina 4 on death Row under 1977 Law. North Dakota none. Ohio . Supreme court struck Down in june the state Law under which 99 persons had been  considering new Bill. Oklahoma 17 on death Row under 1976  no Law but initiative to have death penalty on november ballot. Pennsylvania gov. Milton Shapp vetoed 1978 Bill but legislature May override when it returns in septem  Island 4 on death Row. Mandatory 1973 Law for murder committed by any state  Carolina 5 on death Row under 1977 Law. South Dakota no Law except for Case of animate serving a life sentence who murders a guard. No one under sentence. Tennessee 6 on death Row under 1977 Law pass Dover gov. Ray Blanton s veto. Texas 94 face death sentences under 1973 Law upheld by . Supreme court. Utah 6 on death Row under 1973 Law. Gary Gilmore executed Jan. 17,1977. Vermont Law technically on books but believed  2 on death Row under 1977 Law. Washington 4 on death Row under 1977 Law. West Virginia none Wisconsin  no one yet sentenced under 1977  Page 12 the stars and stripes sunday tiber 17, 1978 the stars and stripes Page 13