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Tag: Prisoner rights

  • Texas to execute man for killing ex-girlfriend and her son

    Texas to execute man for killing ex-girlfriend and her son

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    HOUSTON — A Texas inmate seeking to stop his execution over claims of religious freedom violations and indifference to his medical needs is scheduled to die Wednesday evening for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her 7-year-old son more than 17 years ago.

    Stephen Barbee, 55, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the February 2005 deaths of Lisa Underwood, 34, and her son Jayden. Both were suffocated at their home in Fort Worth. They were later found buried in a shallow grave in nearby Denton County.

    Barbee’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, arguing his religious rights are being violated because the state prison system, in the wake of a ruling by the high court on what spiritual advisers can do while in the execution chamber, did not create a written policy on the issue.

    In March, the U.S. Supreme Court said states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to have their faith leaders pray and touch them during their executions. Texas prison officials didn’t formally update their policy but said they would review inmates’ petitions on a case-by-case basis and would grant most reasonable requests.

    Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt in Houston issued a preliminary injunction, saying the state could only execute Barbee after it had published a clear policy on spiritual advisers that protects an inmate’s religious rights. Last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Hoyt’s injunction, saying it was overbroad.

    On Tuesday, Hoyt issued a new injunction focused specifically on protecting Barbee’s rights. The Texas Attorney General’s Office immediately appealed to the 5th Circuit, which would have to make a ruling before the Supreme Court could take up the issue.

    The Texas Attorney General’s Office said in a previous court filing that Barbee’s claims are moot as state prison officials are allowing his spiritual adviser to touch him and pray aloud during his execution.

    Also Tuesday, Hoyt denied a separate request by Barbee’s attorneys for an execution stay over claims the inmate’s right to avoid cruel and unusual punishment would be violated. His lawyers say Barbee has physical constraints that limit the movement of his shoulders and arms and he would experience “intolerable pain and suffering” if he is executed in the normal manner with his arms outstretched on the gurney so that IV lines can be placed to deliver the lethal injection.

    In a court filing from earlier this month, lawyers with the Texas Attorney General’s Office assured Hoyt that prison officials would make accommodations for Barbee and allow his arms to remain bent and if needed would find another location to place the IV lines.

    On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously declined to commute Barbee’s death sentence to a lesser penalty or to grant a four-month reprieve.

    Prosecutors said Barbee killed his ex-girlfriend and her son because he didn’t want his wife to know Underwood was seven months pregnant, presumably by him. DNA evidence later revealed Barbee wasn’t the father. Underwood owned a Fort Worth bagel shop, which was named after her son. She and her son were reported missing after failing to show up at a baby shower.

    Barbee confessed to police he killed Underwood and her son but later recanted. Barbee said the confession was coerced and has since maintained he is innocent and was framed by his business partner.

    His trial, including sentencing, took less than three days to complete in February 2006.

    Barbee is set to receive a lethal injection on the same day as Arizona plans to execute Murray Hoope r for killing two people during a home robbery in Phoenix on New Year’s Eve 1980. Hooper is set to be executed at 11 a.m. CST on Wednesday.

    If Barbee is executed, he would be the fifth inmate put to death this year in Texas. He is the last inmate scheduled for execution this year in the state.

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    Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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  • Libyan commander Hifter deposed in US civil lawsuit

    Libyan commander Hifter deposed in US civil lawsuit

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    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Libyan military commander who once lived in Virginia sat for a deposition Sunday in a U.S. lawsuit in which he is accused of orchestrating indiscriminate attacks on civilians and torturing and killing political opponents, according to an advocacy group that supports the lawsuit.

    The plaintiffs who sued Khalifa Hifter had been waiting for years to question him directly about his role in fighting that has plagued the country over the last decade.

    Hifter, commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army, is a defendant in three separate federal lawsuits in Virginia accusing him of killings and torture in that country’s civil war.

    Once a lieutenant to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Hifter defected to the U.S. during the 1980s and spent many years living in northern Virginia. He is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile.

    Plaintiffs believe that he and his own family own significant property in Virginia, which could be used to collect any judgments entered against him in the U.S.

    U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema had entered a default judgment against Hifter in July after he failed to show up for earlier depositions. Last month, though, Brinkema agreed to set aside that ruling if Hifter sat for a deposition by Nov. 6.

    Hifter’s U.S. lawyer had asked the judge to reconsider the default judgment, saying Hifter’s duties as a military commander made it difficult for him to schedule a deposition. They also expressed concern that Hifter’s political opponents would use the deposition against him or that the questions would touch on sensitive political or military issues.

    In an affidavit Hifter submitted in September, he said the Libyan authorities to whom he answers as commander of the Libyan National Army did not want him to participate in a deposition “because it would be used by plaintiffs and political opponents in the media.”

    He also said he is a still a candidate for the Libyan presidency if and when those elections can be held.

    “The false charges in this lawsuit have been used by my political opponents to undermine my candidacy and disrupt the peace process,” Khalifa said in the affidavit.

    Robert Cox, Hifter’s U.S. based lawyer, did not return a call and email Monday seeking to confirm details of Sunday’s deposition.

    Libya has been wracked by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled Gadhafi in 2011. Over the past decade, the oil-rich nation had been split between a Hifter-backed government in the east that receives Russian support, and a U.N.-supported administration in Tripoli.

    Esam Omeish, president of the Libyan American Alliance, which supports one group of plaintiffs, confirmed Sunday’s deposition and called it a “historic precedent.”

    “This is a giant step towards holding him liable in this civil suit and the beginning of exposing the crimes of this warlord, who has been the biggest obstacle towards Libya’s peace and stability,” Omeish said in a statement.

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  • Groups: Retaliation after migrants report detention center

    Groups: Retaliation after migrants report detention center

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    ESTANCIA, N.M. — Migrants held by U.S. authorities at a detention center in rural New Mexico have endured retaliation rather than aid after reporting unsanitary conditions at the government-contracted jail, a coalition of civil rights advocacy groups said Wednesday.

    A public letter signed this week by at least a dozen migrants within the Torrance County Detention Facility describes broken plumbing, insect infestations, insufficient access to medical care and rationed bottles of drinking water.

    A companion complaint Wednesday to the office of civil rights at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security documents retaliation, including restrictions on access to legal representation and a falsified accusation of misconduct against an immigrant under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

    The new complaint adds to concerns raised in August by the coalition — which includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Innovation Law Lab, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center and the El Paso, Texas-based Justice for Our Neighbors — drawing on information from interviews with scores of migrants at the center.

    The Torrance County Detention Facility, privately operated by CoreCivic, is among about 130 detention centers used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold migrants while their immigration cases are reviewed, though in many cases it allows people to remain free under monitoring.

    Representatives for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately return messages seeking comment. However, officials with CoreCivic disputed the allegations, saying the migrants were making false claims about conditions at the lockup.

    Matthew Davio, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, said the detention center is monitored closely by ICE and is required to undergo regular reviews and audits to ensure an appropriate standard of living for all detainees. He also said ICE employs a compliance officer to ensure the detention center adheres to the agency’s strict standards and policies.

    Orlando de los Santos Evangelista, a 39-year-old construction worker from the Dominican Republic, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he stopped eating Monday with five other inmates to protest conditions. He said he ate reluctantly on Wednesday after jail officials threatened to force- feed inmates through a tube.

    Jail officials said Thursday that no one had missed a meal.

    De Los Santos said detainees also fear being placed in a solitary cell that he called “the hole.” He said the corridors at the detention facility smell of feces, and water enters his sleeping area through a broken window, soaking his bed and immigration paperwork.

    The Dominican national said he arrived in the U.S. in June and was shocked to be transfer to a prison-like facility.

    ″The conditions are inhumane. I’ve suffered from verbal mistreatment and psychological torture,” he said. “We ask that you listen to us.”

    A government watchdog in March cited unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the detention facility and suggested everyone held there should be removed and transferred elsewhere.

    Those findings from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General were based on an unannounced inspection in February. The findings were disputed by CoreCivic and ICE.

    More recently, a 23-year-old Brazilian national held at the Torrance County Detention Facility was found unresponsive by staff on Aug. 17 and died several days later at a hospital in Albuquerque. The death is under review by ICE, while the ACLU says it appears to be linked to a suicide attempt.

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    Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

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