Defendants' Motion for Extension of Time in Which to File Objections
Public Court Documents
August 7, 1972

5 pages
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Case Files, McCleskey Background Materials. Clemency Request - Attorneys Working Files Vol. 4 of 5, 1991. 656a7684-63a7-ef11-8a69-6045bdd6d628. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/4a7ecd07-ed5d-4b0a-be73-0feb7969ac96/clemency-request-attorneys-working-files-vol-4-of-5. Accessed August 19, 2025.
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P9/16-1991 17:25 FROM GEORGIA RESOURCE CENTER TO BOGER F.@1.-@1 3 . fn — F ES poi eR » = wk Fy rie : a LR Re 4 d | | ud » i . | | o f | | | i 1 | Mm Ey | P i ASIN i board Yorn ¥ Bow full-scale the pardon The records of skey appeals look like 3 full set of | { De t law books A { sen ! 3 h a + T A1 I] HL @9,16-1991 18:28 FROM GEORGIA RESOURCE CENTER TO BOGER P.@1.-/@1 AM I’ § = , e e TOTAL FP.A1 - i ~ ~ m — — — B i A A N a A E S S y = “ a b — a — — — E S r n — — 1 = ) = = f t 9-85-1991 17:85 FROM GEORGIA RESOURCE CENTER TO BOGER FILED IN CLERK'S OFFICE USDC - Atlanta IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIAGEP 31891 ATLANTA DIVISION LUTHER D, THOMAS, Cif WARREN MC CLESKEY, : gh #0 Deputy Cicrs Petitioner, t VE. : CIVIL ACTION NO. - 1:87=CV=1517«J0OF WALTER ZANT, Superintendent, : Georgia Diagnostic and 3 Classification Cantar, : Respondent. : ORDER On July 9, 1987 the court granted petitionar’'s motion for an indefinite stay of execution =0 that the merits of the petition for writ Of habeas corpus could be satisfactorily considered. On ember 23, 1987 the court granted in part and denied in par? petition. On March 9, 1988 the court ordered a stay of execution pending an appeal to the Eleventh Circuit. On November 22, 1989 the Eleventh Circuit reversed that portion of thig court's order granting relief to petitioner. Pry July 12, 1991, following = decigion by the United States Supreme Court affirming the court of appeals, thes mandate of the Eleventh Circuit was issued. Accord- ngly, that mandate is made the judgment of this court and the petition for writ of habeas corpus is DENIED. The stay of axecution ie LIFTED, Ph SO ORDERED this = day of A , 1981. Ld ” 9). (Manor — py + OWEN FORRESTER TED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE TOTAL P.81 — — — — — — A l S A t i t p i —=4= SEP-11-'91 WED 17:16 ID:ROBERT W. CULLEN TEL NO:484 521-192 #313 PO1 LAW OFFICES STROUP & COLEMAN HOBERAT HH. ATRSU™ 41 WALTON STREET. NW eit oo ELIZABETH J, COLEMAN oy - . om on : ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30303 40% A BAO 404) Bp {a1 TELEFAX COVER SHEET ~L.2 "1 WE. 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P o g ‘| : re ‘ y ; a ; 4 b j : wd : # “3 i» a q - » 1 » | 2 } . A 3 2 bo, F ‘ bar 2. = ty J r | . | ot : J hd uf 2 J y™ ou " bh v g rll # { ] ; : grow 2 w w r | x ~F 1 i . 2 i d i: &]l oie 2 L ' > poe f H - , a AH n i Sogiy 2 ; ¥ =~ $3 fs {3 : dé By 3 Mu ar d > y , 4 y at ; a 4% - 4 > Rd pith x aye R ’ a : af b 4 @ | x ah a. gl L f . . ‘ ‘ + i j p 3 N CN * i % 4 ¢ ny : god A o Bord 3 _- W ‘ Wi g . N a . tt % 1 i a = i mF UU ef ve : : a — J 4 J J % » #% & . ; 3 : x a % A ES a ] i w f B J " ; T w p we A “ > Ly - ~ AL / oF ud | | BLACK MEMBERS: GEORGIA STATE SENATE Mr. Roy L. Allen Attorney at Law 1406 Law Drive Savannah, Georgia 31401 Mr. Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. Attorney at Law Post Office Box 709 Columbus, Georgia 31902 Mr. Charles W. Walker 1402 12th Street Augusta, Georgia 30901 Rev. Arthur Langford, Jr. 1544 Niskey Lake Trail, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30331 Mr. David Scott 190 Wendell Drive, SE Atlanta, Georgia 30315 Mr. Horace E. Tate 621 Lilla Drive, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30310 Mr. Hildred W. Shumake 1103 Fair Street Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Dr. Eugene P. Walker 2231 Chevy Chase Lane Decatur, Georgia 30032 BLACK MEMBERS: GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Professor Bob Holmes Post Office Box 110009 Atlanta, Georgia 30311-0009 Ms. Grace W. Davis 670 Fair Street, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Ms. Mable Able Thomas Post Office Box 573 Atlanta, Georgia 30301 Ms. Lanett Stanley 712 Gary Road, NW Atlanta, Georgia 30318 Mr. Tyrone Brooks Station A, Post Office Box 11185 Atlanta, Georgia 30310-0185 Mr. J. E. (Billy) McKinney 765 Shorter Terrace, NW Atlanta, Georgia 30318 Mr. Anthony Hightower Attorney at Law Post Office Box 87290 College Park, Georgia 30337 Ms. Georganna T. Sinkfield 179 Tonawanda Drive, SE Atlanta, Georgia 30315 Mrs. Henrietta M. Canty 487 Lynn Valley Road, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30311 Mr. Ralph David Abernathy, III Legislative Office Building 18 Capitol Square, Suite 511 Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Ms. Cynthia Ann McKinney 765 Shorter Terrace, NW Atlanta, Georgia 30318 Mr. Frank L. Redding, Jr. Post Office Box 117 Decatur, Georgia 30030 Mr. Thurbert E. Baker Attorney at Law 4048 Rainbow Drive Decatur, Georgia 30034 Ms. Juanita Terry Williams 8 East Lake Drive, NE Atlanta, Georgia 30317 Ms. Nadine Thomas 1375 Town Country Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30316 Ms. Henrietta E. Turnquest Attorney at Law 3471 Cherry Ridge Place Decatur, Georgia 30034 Mr. Michael L. Thurmond Attorney at Law 1127 W. Hancock Avenue Athens, Georgia 30606 Mr. Henry Howard 2047 M.L.K. Blvd. Augusta, Georgia 30901 Mr. George M. Brown Post Office Box 1114 Augusta, Georgia 30903 Mr. Calvin Smyre Post Office Box 181 Columbus, Georgia 31902 Ms. Maretta Mitchell Taylor 1203 Bunker Hill Road Columbus, Georgia 31907 Mr. William C. Randall Attorney at Law Post Office Box 121 Macon, Georgia 31202 Mr. David E. Lucas 448 Woolfolk Street Macon, Georgia 31201 Mr. John W. Merritt 3206 College Street Thunderbolt, Georgia 31404 Ms. Dorothy B. Pelote Post Office Box 1802 Savannah, Georgia 31402 Mr. John White Post Office Box 3506 Albany, Georgia 31706 Ms. Mary Young-Cummings Attorney at Law 423 Holloway Avenue Albany, Georgia 31701 THE FIRST FAMILY Mrs. Coretta Scott King, President M.L.K., Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change 449 Auburn Avenue, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Telephone: (404) 524 - 1956 Dr. Billy C. Black, President Albany State College 504 College Drive Albany, Georgia 31705 Dr. Oscar L. Prater, President Ft. Valley State College 1005 State College Drive Ft. Valley, Georgia 31030 Dr. Annette Brock, Acting President Savannah State College Post Office Box 20449 Savannah, Georgia 31404 Dr. Julius Scott, President Paine College 1235 15th Street Augusta, Georgia 30910 Dr. Johnnetta Cole, President Spelman College 350 Spelman Lane, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Dr. Thomas Cole, President Clark Atlanta University James P. Brawley Dr. & Fair Street Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Dr. James H. Costen, President Interdenominational Theological Center 671 Beckwith Street, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Dr. Calvert H. Smith, President Morris Brown College 643 MLK, Jr. Drive, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Dr. Leroy Keith, President Morehouse College 830 Westview Drive, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Dr. James Goodman, President Morehouse School of Medicine 720 Westview Drive, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Dr. E. A. Thompson, President Atlanta Metropolitan College 1630 Stewart Avenue, SW Atlanta, Georgia 30310 “ CATHOLIC INFORMATION Bishop James Lyke Atlanta Archdiocese 680 West Peachtree Street Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Phone: (404) 888-7801 Bishop Raymond Lessard Savannah Diocese 601 E. Liberty Street Savannah, Georgia 31401-5196 Phone: (912) 238-2320 Sacred Heart Catholic Church Father Marvin LeFois Father Christian LeFois 251 South David Drive Mail to: Post Office Box 5052 Warner Robins, Georgia 31099 Phone: (912) 923-0124 Holy Spirit Catholic Church Father Bob Cushing 4937 Bloomfield Road Macon, Georgia 31206 Phone: (912) 788-2837 (Directory) "788-6386 (0ffice) St. Patrick Catholic Church Father Michael O'Keefe Post Office Box 612 Perry, Georgia 31069 Phone: (912) 987-4213 Rev. Dr. Cameron Alexander, President Georgia Baptist Convention Antioch Baptist Church 540 Kennedy Street, N.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30318 Phone: (404) 688 - 5679 Rev. Dr. Benjamin Hooks, Executive Director National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 4805 Mt. Hope Drive Baltimore, MD 21215 Phone: (301) 358-8900 Rev. Dr. T. J. Jemison, President National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Inc. 356 East Boulevard Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Phone: (504) 383-5401 Rev. Dr. Alfred Norris, Dean Gammon Theological Seminary United Methodist 653 Beckwith Street, S.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30314 Phone: (404) 527-7770 Rev. Dr. John Hurst Adams, Bishop 6th Episcopal District African Methodist Episcopal Church 208 Auburn Avenue, N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Phone: (404) 524-8279 Rev. Dr. Joseph C. Coles, Bishop 6th Episcopal District Christian Methodist Episcopal Church 2001 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, S.W. Suite 423 Atlanta, Georgia 30310 Phone: (404) 752-7800 -- Office (404) 794-0096 -- Home Rev. Dr. Andrew "Andy" Young Law Engineering 1000 Abernathy Road Suite 1800 Atlanta, Georgia 30328 Phone: (404) 396-8000 Mr. Ronald Logan, President Georgia's Black Funeral Home Association c/o Tyler Funeral Home 511 West Trinity Place Decatur, Georgia 30030 Phone: (404) 378-1207 : | | 1] a ] ’ | h | Hr X o f i vw bk Py anh py 2% 2 A : i [ 3 # al y - TN U2 KY rl i a a - 3 Warren McCleskey Case -- May, 1991 A. General Background Warren McCleskey is a 44-year-old black man who was sentenced to death for his part in a May 13, 1978, armed robbery of the Dixie Furniture Store in Atlanta, Georgia. During the robbery, a white Atlanta officer, Frank Schlatt, entered the furniture store and was killed by a pistol shot fired by one of the four robbers. From the moment of his arrest, McCleskey admitted taking part in the robbery, but he has consistently denied that he was the triggerman who shot Officer Schlatt. There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and the murder veapon itself was never found. The State's case against McCleskey turned largely on the testimony of two persons: (i) Ben Wright, a co-defendant and the leader of the four robbers, who gratuitously told the jury that McCleskey (and not himself) had done the shooting; and (ii) Qffie Evans, a jailhouse informant, who said McCleskey admitted the shooting while in the Fulton County Jail awaiting trial. Co-defendant Wright was the other most likely shooting suspect, but he quickly agreed to testify against McCleskey in exchange for a life sentence. McCleskey alone received a sentence of death. In 1984, the United States District Court overturned McCleskey's conviction and death sentence. The District Court found that informant Offie Evans had been secretly promised favorable judicial treatment by the State in exchange for his adverse testimony against Warren McCleskey. This secret State conduct violated constitutional rights that have long been protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972). On appeal, hovever, the federal court of appeals overturned McCleskey's grant of relief, finding that the State's promise to Evans had been negligible. Two of McCleskey's trial jurors have given sworn affidavits stating that if they had known about the evidence of misconduct later uncovered in 1984, they would never have voted to impose a death sentence on McCleskey in 1978. The State's case against McCleskey as the triggerman, they explained, was very weak, and it was only their misplaced confidence in informant Offie Evans that allowed them to vote for death. In 1986-1987, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States also rejected massive evidence that Warren McCleskey's death sentence, like many in the State of Georgia, had been imposed in a racially discriminatory pattern: black defendants like McCleskey who killed whites were receiving death sentences over four times as often as those who killed black victims, even when the circumstances of the crime were nearly identical. Indeed, in Fulton County where McCleskey was tried, between 1973 and 1980 at least 17 persons had been arrested for murder against police officials -- yet Warren McCleskey was the only one of these seventeen who received a death sentence. See McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987). After the Supreme Court denied relief to McCleskey in 1987, and shortly before his execution, McCleskey's lawyers stumbled across new evidence of another flagrant constitutional violation: that Atlanta police had secretly planted informant Evans near McCleskey's cell, had instructed Evans to obtain a confession from McCleskey, and had covered up their misconduct when later asked. (Conservative Justices Warren Burger and William Rehnquist have both written opinions in the past clearly condemning such secret misconduct as a violation of the Sixth Amendment. See United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264 (1980)). For a second time, the United States District Court overturned McCleskey's conviction and death sentence. Yet for a second time, the court of appeals and the Supreme Court reversed. These appellate courts did not overturn the finding that Atlanta officers had engaged in unconstitutional behavior; instead, they held that McCleskey's lawyers should have uncovered evidence of the police misconduct sooner. See McCleskey v. Zant, U.S.__, 59 u.s,L.%. 4288 (U.8., 3pril 16, 1991). What the Supreme Court did in McCleskey's second appeal is a travesty. They have held that no matter how terrible the constitutional violation, no matter how calculated and ruthless the police misconduct, that misconduct will be overlooked, and a defendant put to death, absent proof of exceptional circumstances almost impossible to meet. It is not enough to prove that the police and other members of the prosecution team committed perjury, lied, and otherwise acted to cover up evidence of their own actions. B. The Current Situation The Supreme Court is presently considering McCleskey's final petition for rehearing, which argues that it was impossible to uncover evidence which the police themselves had carefully hidden. That petition will likely be decided by June 10th. If the Supreme Court decides against Warren McCleskey, he has one legal avenue open: he can go back to the State courts, specifically, to the Superior Court of Butts County, Georgia, and urge that the Superior Court entertain to hear his evidence of police misconduct. There are two reasons to think that the Superior Court might do so: (i) the evidence of police misconduct had not surfaced when McCleskey came to that court in 1987; (ii) McCleskey didn't know about the misconduct in 1987 because State officials had hidden it. An important Georgia Supreme Court case, decided in 1983, Smith v. Zant, 250 Ga. 645, ___, 301 S.E.2d 32, 37 (1983), provides that if a defendant can present new evidence previously hidden by the State, the Superior Court should consider his claim on its merits. The Georgia case, in other words, appears to reject the Supreme Court's new standard and say that, in Georgia at least, proof of prosecution misconduct is enough. That's just what McCleskey can show here. AT A MINIMUM, NO DEATH SENTENCE SHOULD BE SET IN THIS CASE UNTIL AFTER THE SUPERIOR COURT, AND THE SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA, HAVE FULLY HEARD AND DECIDED HIS CLAIM. c, McCleskey's Case for Clemency There are at least three strong grounds for clemency in this case. The first is the serious, persistent doubt about whether McCleskey is actually the triggerman in this case. If he is not, it would be morally wrong for him to be executed while each of his three co-defendants receive lesser sentences. The grave questions about Offie Evans's behavior that have been raised in this case -- behavior that violated at least two separate violations of the federal constitution -- are alone enough establish a reasonable doubt about McCleskey's quilt. The second is the Supreme Court's dismissal of a host of constitutional objections -- to Offie Evans's secret offer of leniency, to the massive evidence of racial discrimination, to the proof of police misconduct -- all on what amount to legal technicalities. No one whose trial was so gravely flawed should be put to death. Finally, Warren McCleskey has done much to rehabilitate himself while in prison. He has complied with prison rules, made a useful contribution to prison life, started and led Bible study and religious class among Death Row inmates, and proven a reliable guide and counsellor to younger, more unstable inmates who have come to Death Row. Warren McCleskey is well-respected by prison guards, and he has a host of outside visitors who will praise his maturity, his insight, and his acts of consideration and kindness. a Gi - HLlA HESOURCE CENTER TF] PLEASE HELP GEORGIA’S DEATH ROW INMATE WARREN McCLESKEY kkkkkkkkkkkkkEkkkkkk The story you are about to read is and the names are those of real people. The facts are based on court testimony, statements of witnesses' interviews taken by Atlanta Police investigators and by independent investigators. This manuscript was not prepared by an intellectual genius; therefore, the language used is that of every day people. Furthermore, it was not proofread or edited; therefore, "let not your heart be troubled should you come across a flaw in the Queen's English. The purpose of this manuscript is to advise you of the facts surrounding the conviction and death sentence inflicted upon WARREN McCLESKEY for the May 13, 1978 murder of Atlanta Police Officer FRANK SCHLATT; whereas, McCLESKEY's three co-defendants were given lesser sentences for their direct involvements. It is hoped that this document will give you enough information to assist you when you write a letter to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on behalf of WARREN McCLESKEY. After you have completed your reading, please act accordingly to ensure that WARREN McCLESKEY is not electrocuted in Georgia's Electric Chair! SUMMARY OF FACTS: On the morning of May 13, 1978, WARREN McCLESKEY, BEN WRIGHT, JR., Bernard DUPREE and DAVID BURNEY robbed Dixie Furniture Store on Marietta Street in Atlanta, Georgia. They committed the robbery in order to get money for BEN WRIGHT, JR. who wanted leave the State of Georgia to avoid being arrested on a previous armed robbery charge which occurred in Buckhead a few weeks before. WRIGHT, BURNEY and MARY JENKINS (WRIGHT's girlfriend) pulled a robbery in Buckhead around the end of April, 1978, according to BURNEY. BEN WRIGHT'S car was recognized in the Buckhead robbery as the get-away-car and MARY JENKINS was seen driving it. MS. JENKINS was apprehended days later while taking a leisure drive in the same vehicle. While being questioned by police, MS. JENKINS fingered WRIGHT in an intentional attempt to protect herself from being prosecuted; therefore, the Atlanta Police Department issued an arrest warrant for BEN WRIGHT, JR. On the 13th of May, WRIGHT, McCLESKEY, BURNEY and DUPREE drove to a jewelry store in Marietta. BEN WRIGHT, JR. went inside the store to check it out. WRIGHT decided not to rob it because it was unsuitable. The four then rode around Marietta looking for another place to rob but couldn't find anything fitting. WRIGHT decided that Atlanta would be suitable for an armed robbery: therefore, they drove to Atlanta. WRIGHT, in his leadership role; decided to rob Dixie Furniture Store. Each of the four men was armed. After casing Dixie Furniture, WRIGHT concluded that it was suitable to rob. WRIGHT informed each man on what to do. McCLESKEY was advised to guard the front half of the store, while the other two men who were accompanied by WRIGHT guarded the rear. WRIGHT pressured everyone into pledging not to tell on each other if either was ever captured. Atlanta Police Officer FRANK SCHLATT, responding to a silent alarm call, entered the front of the store with his revolver detached from the holster. OFFICER SCHLATT observed a suspect who turned out to be WARREN McCLESKEY holding store employee at gun point. OFFICER SCHLATT commanded McCLESKEY to drop the gun and turn around. BEN WRIGHT, JR. entered the front section of the store and fired two shot in the direction of OFFICER SCHLATT. Court testimony revealed that one bullet hit OFFICER SCHLATT in the chest and deflected off a cigarette lighter in OFFICER SCHLATT'S shirt pocket. The other bullet, which was fatal, penetrated the OFFICER SCHLATT'S head through his right eye. WRIGHT directed everyone to split. WRIGHT, after having killed Atlanta Police Officer FRANK SCHLATT, left Georgia and went to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The other three men, who had no reason to run, continued living in Metro Atlanta. Ballistics revealed that OFFICER SCHLATT had been shot by a .38 caliber Rossi revolver. The murder weapon was never retrieved. Nonetheless, trial testimony from expert witnesses profess that such a revolver had been stolen in the robbery of a Red Dot grocery store in Southeast Atlanta two months earlier. During the robbery, WRIGHT somehow left behind a leather jacket he was wearing that had a laundry ticket stapled in one sleeve. The jacket was traced by Atlanta police to a former owner who related he had given the jacket to BEN WRIGHT, JR. several months before. Atlanta Police launched a massive man hunt for 2 WRIGHT. In the meantime, police learned the names of WARREN McCLESKEY, BERNARD DUPREE and DAVID BURNEY through MARY JENKINS. Furthermore, police discovered that WRIGHT had left Georgia. Evidence suggest MARY JENKINS was an accomplice to the robbery and murder of OFFICER SCHLATT. JENKINS possibly drove the get- away-car during the Dixie Furniture Store robbery. WRIGHT, BURNEY and witnesses did identify MS. JENKINS as being the driver in the Buckhead robbery. Furthermore, witnesses vaguely remember seeing a lady fitting MS. JENKINS description in the car with the four men when Dixie Furniture was robbed. MS. JENKINS was never prosecuted for the robbery and murder. MS. JENKINS testified against McCLESKEY, BURNEY and DUPREE. McCLESKEY was arrested in Cobb County in the early morning hours while asleep at his sister's home on May 31, 1978. DAVID BURNEY was arrested on the same day in Techwood Homes while at his girl friend's apartment. BERNARD DUPREE gave up to police at his lawyer's office after learning he was being sought in connection with the robbery and murder. BEN WRIGHT, JR. was arrested months later in Pine Bluff, Arkansas for a string of robberies and assaults there. When arrested in Arkansas, he learned that he was wanted for the murder of a police officer back in Atlanta. WRIGHT, after being arrested in Pine Bluff, Arkansas was surprised and angered by the fact that Arkansas authorities knew he had been involved in a "cop-killing". WRIGHT assumed that the three co-defendants had "snitched on him". McCLESKEY and BURNEY both confessed to robbing Dixie Furniture, but denied killing OFFICER SCHLATT. BERNARD DUPREE denied any involvement in the robbery and killing even to the extent of claiming he was not with BURNEY, McCLESKEY and WRIGHT at all when the robbery and murder transpired. McCLESKEY and BURNEY identified DUPREE and WRIGHT as being involved after each had pledged not to tell on their partners if arrested. However, neither man fingered WRIGHT as the "triggerman". The Atlanta Police officials did not advised Arkansas that WRIGHT was not fingered by his co-defendants as the murderer. Misleading information and vengeance provoked WRIGHT to turn against his three partners. WRIGHT was so moved by the fact that he had been "told on" he devised perfect statements against the three men for the Assistant District Attorney, RUSSELL PARKER, and Atlanta Police Investigators, Welcome Harris, W. K. Jowers and Sidney Dorsey. WRIGHT was the one who first said McCLESKEY was the trigger man. However, witnesses present at Dixie Furniture the day of the robbery, clearly stated that the shooting did not occur until after BEN WRIGHT, JR. went to the front of the store. Ben WRIGHT testified in open court that McCLESKEY had a .38 caliber Rossi nickel=-plated revolver---again, the pistol and murder 3 weapon was never found. MARY JENKINS told police and testified that WRIGHT was seen with the .38 Rossi weeks prior to the police's killing. However, WRIGHT testified that he himself was armed with a sawed-off shotgun, and that BURNEY and DUPREE had blue steel pistols. An article in the Atlanta Constitution quoted police investigators saying "OFFICER SCHIATT was killed by a sawed off shotgun that was fired at close range". WRIGHT claimed McCLESKEY was driving his personal vehicle, which was used as the get-away-car. WRIGHT, further testified that McCLESKEY parked his car up the street from the furniture store and that McCLESKEY entered the store and "cased" it. "After McCLESKEY returned to the car, the robbery was planned" WRIGHT testified. It is a known fact that WRIGHT was the ring leader and brain of the pack; therefore, each of the men complied with WRIGHT'S orders religiously. According to WRIGHT, in executing the robbery plan, McCLESKEY entered the front of the store and the other three entered through the rear by way of the loading dock. McCleskeky secured the front while he (WRIGHT) and the others rounded up the employees and customers in the rear and began to tie them up with tape and forced to lie on the floor. The manager was forced, by WRIGHT at gunpoint, to turn over the store's receipts, which included a watch and six dollars in cash. GEORGE MALCOM, an employee, testified that he had a pistol taken from him at gunpoint by WRIGHT. After WRIGHT had given his phony account of what happen, Atlanta Police Investigators and Assistant District Attorney RUSSELL PARKER were convinced that a jury would not return a guilty verdict against McCLESKEY based on WRIGHT's testimony; therefore, police investigators with the approval of ADA PARKER placed a professional informant named OFFIE EVANS, who used a false name, in the cellblock next to McCLESKEY, BURNEY and DUPREE. EVANS was in the Fulton County Jail on a federal warrant awaiting a probation revocation hearing on charges related to escaping from a federal halfway house. EVANS testified at trial that McCLESKEY admitted shooting OFFICER SCHLATT. McCLESKEY maintains he never had a discussion about the crime with OFFIE EVANS. It is believed that EVANS was prepared to testified by Atlanta Police Investigators and ADA Russell Parker. EVANS' testimony was too tight and authentic, which indicates EVANS had help. Furthermore, it was verified in later court challenges on behalf of McCLESKEY that EVANS was a professional snitch who would testify on behalf of the prosecution in cases tagged "difficult to get a conviction". WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO: In exchange for his counterfeit statement and testimony, Assistant District Attorney PARKER spoke with federal officials on behalf of EVANS and EVANS was given favorable treatment and set free on the escape charges. OFFIE EVANS was released from the Georgia Penal System in 1988 after serving time for a variety of charges after many episodes of jail house snitching on behalf of the Fulton County District Attorney's Office. BEN WRIGHT, JR. was sentenced to 20 years each for Manslaughter and Armed Robbery. WRIGHT was released from prison in 1987, committed a few armed robberies, kidnapping, aggravated assault and a drug charge. He was sentence to life plus 20 years. Presently, He is serving his sentences at Dodge Correctional Institution. DAVID BURNEY is serving a life sentence at Phillips Correctional Institution in Buford, Georgia for the murder of OFFICER SCHLATT and Armed Robbery. BERNARD DUPREE is serving a life sentence at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Georgia for the offenses committed May 13, 1978. DUPREE'S sentence is on appeal and he is yet claiming he was not present during the armed robbery and murder on May 13, 1978. MARY JENKINS was never tried on any charges and she is presumably somewhere in the Metro Atlanta area. It was her assistance and information that helped Atlanta Police crack the May 13, 1978 case. Assistant District Attorney RUSSELL PARKER now works as an assistant district attorney in the Cobb County District Attorney's Office. Detectives DORSEY, HARRIS and JOWERS are still working with the Homicide Division of the Atlanta Police Department. CONCLUSION No one is asking you to approve of the murdering of a human being. Law-abiding citizens should encourage our judicial system to reasonably punish persons who are fairly tried and convicted by an efficient jury. Moreover, the authentic evidence and testimony of credible witnesses should be a underlying element in convicting individuals charged with criminal infractions, particularly when a sentence of death is sought. In the case of WARREN McCLESKEY, the prosecution and police did everything that was not right to secure a conviction and death sentence. Concealing statements from witnesses that could have proved McCLESKEY was not the triggerman; placing a police informant (OFFIE EVANS) in the cellblock next to McCLESKEY for the purpose of questioning him regarding the crime; giving out a lesser sentences to BEN WRIGHT, JR. (the likely triggerman) for testifying for the prosecution; not prosecuting MARY JENKINS for the Buckhead robbery; and not telling the jury that OFFIE EVANS was a professional snitch---just to state a few of the ruthless and unconstitutional acts of the ADA RUSSELL PARKER and the Atlanta Police Department. If WARREN McCLESKEY'S execution is carried out, the City of Atlanta Police Department will have won a major victory in denying criminal suspects their constitutional rights as afforded in the United States of America Constitution. The 6th Amendment of the Constitution states, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, ..sse....., and to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense." WARREN McCLESKEY has been snatched from the jaws of death on two separate occasions by the federal courts because constitutional violations were found in his conviction. However, on Tuesday, April 16, 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court unbelievably affirmed McCLESKEY'S conviction and death sentence, which authorizes the State of Georgia to set an execution date. The date has not been set, but is anticipated any day. WARREN McCLESKEY'S fate lies in the hands of members of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. If his life is to be spared, it is up to a majority of the five members. You are asked to write Pardons and Paroles today on behalf of WARREN McCLESKEY. ON BEHALF OF WARREN McCLESKEY, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOU TIME AND ASSISTANCE. State Board of Pardons and Paroles Floyd Veterans Memorial Building 5th Floor East 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, S.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Telephone: (404) 656-5651 THE BOARD MEMBERS ARE: 1. WAYNE SNOW, JR., CHAIRMAN 2. JAMES T. MORRIS 3. BETTYE O. HUTCHINGS 4. DAVID EVANS 5. TIMOTHY JONES ws WASHI aw Worlsessey. April 17, 1991 ewes N S ‘- M Y X L A A J LR J x X By Bob Dart and Rhonda Cook aff writers IS HH ad . ~“WASHINGTON — Upholding a 1978 Georgia inurder conviction, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turtailed the right of death row inmates to appeal their cases repeatedly. '=+The 6-3 ruling is likely to shorten the time be- tiveen murder trials and executions, which now av- etages almost nine years. It imposes tough new {limits on federal court access for any criminal de- fendant to argue a violation of rights at the state tourt level, a process known as habeas corpus. *=-'The court ruled that if a state inmate can raise aiissue at the first federal appeal but fails to do so, ha issue generally may not be raised later. “The only exception to the new restrictions, Jus- : ice Anthony Kennedy said, are those rare in- “tances in which a defendant can show that he - . IGTON High court ruling could spe¢ » Court approves sales taxon cable TV. B2 \ \ probably did not commit the crime. “It’s another step in the slamming of the court- house door to death row litigants,” said Alan Ellis, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. § Prosecutors said the Retision wil help stem abuse of the appeal system by convicted killers and by opponents of capital punishment who seek to de- lay executions indefinitely. In the ruling, the conservative majority of the justices rejected the claims of Georgia death row inmate Warren McCleskey, convicted of killing an Atlanta policeman in 1978, who already had had another appeal quashed by the high court. Justice Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, set new judicial guidelines requiring a prisoner The Atlanta Journal / The Atlanta Constitution’ d deaths of convicted killers seeking a second round of appeals to justify why the new claim was not made initially, and to prove that it involved a miscarriage of justice. An unlimited review system would “give liti- gants incentives to withhold claims for manipula- tive purposes and may establish disincentives to present claims when evidence is fresh,” Justice Kennedy wrote. | Georgia Attorney General Michael J. Bowers said the decision ‘goes a long way along the lines President Bush has been talking about in terms of reforming how the federal courts deal with state death penalty cases.” He said it would be about 30 days before he asked a Fulton County Superior Court judge to set a new execution date for McCleskey. In a sharply worded minority dissent, Justice Thurgood Marshall called the decision an “unjusti- fiable assault” on defendant rights. The ruling “tosses aside established precedents without ex; planation, disregards the will of Congress, fashions rules that defy the reasonable expectations of the persons who must conform their conduct to the: law’s dictates, and applies those rules in a way that. rewards state misconduct ahd deceit,” Justice: Marshall wrote. te - Justices Harry A. Blackmun and John Paul Ste<: vens joined Justice Marshall in the. dissenting ‘opinion. — ne — + The court dismissed arguments that Georgia of: ficials violated-McCleskey’s rights by using a fel: — Jow inmate in the Fulton County Jail, Offie Evans, to elicit a confession to the 1978 slaying of an Atlan-. ta police officer. Justice Kennedy said McCleskey’s : failure to raise the issue during an initial federal court appeal in 1981 disqualified him from raising: it in subsequent appeals. . A112 Friday, April 19, 1991 sass. THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION For 122 Years the South’s Standard Newspaper Jay Smith "+ Ron Martin Publisher a wn, Editor Dennis Berry John W. Walter Jr. * Tom Teepen President Managing Editor Editorial Page Editor James M. Cox, Chairman 1950-57 --- James M. Cox Jr., Chairman 1957-74 Supreme Court v. the Girne Writ One of the pillars of the American legal system is the right to challenge a criminal conviction in federal court. If you. believe your constitutional rights were violated in the judicial process, you can file a writ of habeas corpus in federal court to get the conviction : reversed. There's a danger, of course, that petitions ers might try to drag out their cases by filing one habeas petition after another, each rais- ing a separate constitutional claim. To pre- vent this, the courts are empowered to reject additional habeas petitions under the doc- trine of “abuse of the writ.” All constitutional claims must be raised at once, unless there are excusable grounds for having Reglecied to do so. At least that was the case before this week. In a radical departure from precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, has now erected a doctrine that says: Unless law - enforcement officials actively impeded or in- terfered with the defense’s efforts to bring a claim, and unless the alleged constitutional violation actually affected the trial’s out- come, then raising the claim is an “abuse of the writ.” : .* This ‘makes a mockery of the judicial process by encouraging the prosecution to play dirty, as the case in question shows. It involved Warren McCleskey, a Georgia man who was convicted of murder largely on the strength of his confession to a fellow in- mate. What the defense didn’t know at the - time of his first federal habeas petition was that the man who heard McCleskey confess was a government plant who had been of- fered a lesser sentence in return for getting the confession. As the court has ta recognized, such a confession may well ig . constitutionally inadmissible. ' The defense didn’t know about the in- former not for lack of a good-faith effort to . find out, but because law enforcement: offi- ° -cials didn’t: come clean. Even under the court’s new standard, McCleskey ought to have had his case remanded. But the court. obviously believes that government ‘“inter- ference” must be at the level of, say, jury. tampering.’ One of the most revealing — and disturb-. ing — aspects of this decision is its radical overturning of the clearly expressed intent of Congress. The court’s earlier standard has’ been codified in federal statute; only last : year, Congress rejected an effort to change that standard. Yet the court blithely waved all this away. : : The hallmark of recent conservative for gal theory is that the courts should not make law but, to the maximum extent possible, fol- low legislative intent. This.theory has been. employed to avoid strengthening individual rights against: majority decision-making." What's clear from McCleskey, however, is that it is simply a theory of convenience, to be .* dispensed with whenever it suits the anti-lib- . ertarian prejudices of its proponents. In practice, second and third federal ha- beas. petitions consume very little time and : rarely result in the reversal of a conviction. But the court, zealous to lighten its caseload and eager to give the appearance of being tough on crime, has chipped away a signifi- cant piece of our edifice of justice. ~ . K 3 tq “a 14 v THE NEw YORK TIMES EDITORIALS Founded in 1851 ADOLPH 8. OCHS, Publisher 1896-1935 ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER, Publisher 1935-1961 ORVIL E. DRYFOOS, Publisher 1861-1863 . ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER, Publisher ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER JR., Deputy Publisher * Max FRANKEL, Eisttive Editor 5 JOSEPH LELYVELD, Managing Editor Ehe New York Times WARREN HOGE, Assistant Managing Editor DAVID R. JONES, Assistant Managing Editor CAROLYN LEE, Assistant Managing Editor JOHN M. LEE, Assistant Managing Editor ALLAN M. SIEGAL, Assistant Managing Editor LJ JACK ROSENTHAL, Editorial Page Editor PHILIP M. BOFFEY, Deputy Editorial Page Editor : [J LANCE R. PRIMIS, President RUSSELL T. LEWIS, Sr.V.P, Production ERICH G. LINKER JR, Sr.V.P, Advertising JOHN M. O'BRIEN, Sr.V.P, Finance/Human Resources WILLIAM L. POLLAK, Sr.V.P, Circulation ELISE J. ROSS, Sr.V.P, Systems JAMES A. CUTIE, V.P, Marketing ‘The Court Abuses the Great Writ | For centuries, the writ of habeas corpus has been a glorious exemplar of the rule of law, a mighty piece of legal paper that calls kings and jailers to produce their prisoners and demonstrate _ the legality of their detention. The Great Writ is, however, also subject to abuse, notably by prison inmates who file blatantly frivolous claims for release. The Supreme Court, preoccupied of late with perceived abuse of the writ, has piled up restrictive, technical rules. The other day, in the name of preserving the writ’s dignity, the Court counte- nanced a grave injustice. Lawyers for Warren McCleskey had proved, about as persuasively as the law can require, that his murder conviction and death sentence were obtained with the aid of a jailhouse informant planted by the Atlanta police in violation of his . established constitutional rights. They also showed that for nearly a decade, Georgia authorities had concealed telling evidence that the informant was a police agent. Not good enough, said a 6-to-3 Court majority in an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy. That evi- dence came too late, in a second habeas corpus petition filed in Federal court. Warren McCleskey . should have pleaded this point in his first petition years earlier. Never mind that Mr. McCleskey’s counsel uncovered the telltale evidence only Bier ~ years of demands and denials. According to Justice Kennedy, the abuse com- mitted was not by the state but by the petitioner. The Justice fastened on this thin legal point: No lower court had specifically found conscious ob- struction and falsehood by state officials. He set stiff new rules to prevent prisoners from splitting their claims to get additional hearings. Then he applied those rules to the McCleskey case. Four years ago, when the Court reviewed Mr. McCleskey’s first habeas. corpus petition, his law- yers made another impressive case. They showed that he and other black men convicted of murder were four times more likely to be executed if the victim was white than if the victim was black. Not good enough, said the Court, 5 to 4. He had to prove that racial hatred had motivated his judge, jury or prosecutor. That’s when Mr. McCleskey’s lawyers went back and found the evidence of the planted informant. Warren McCleskey unquestionably participat- ed in a robbery that resulted in the death of an off- duty policeman in Atlanta. A jury decided that he was the triggerman, and deserved his death sen- tence, on the basis of surreptitiously obtained evi- dence whose illegality was hidden despite legiti- mate demands for documents. As Justice Thurgood Marshall said in dissent, the majority has rewarded ‘‘state misconduct and deceit.” It has now made the Supreme Court the principal abuser of the Great Writ. Yar/sy THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALS 14 v Souda Che New Pork Times ! Founded in 185! ADOLPH 8, OCHS, Publisher 1806-1938 ARTHUR HAYS BULZBERGER, Publisher 1835-1961 ORVIL E. DRYPOOS, Publisher 1981-1963 ARTHUR QCHS SULZBERGER, Publisher ARTHUR OCHS SULZBEROER JR., Deputy Publivher LJ MAX FRANKEL. Executive Editor JOSEPH LEBLYVELD, Managing Editor WARREN HOOR, Assistant Managing Editor DAVID R. JONES, Assistant Managing Editor CAROLYN LEE, Assistant Managing Editor JOHN M. LEE, Assistont Managing Editor ALLAN M. BIEGAL. Asslatont Managing Editor [J] JACK ROSENTHAL. Editorial Page Editor PHILIP M. BOFFEY, Deputy Editoriol Page Bditor LE LANCE R. PRIMIS, President RUSSELL T. LEWIS, 8§2.V P, Production ERICH G. LINKER JR. Sr.V.P, Advertising JOHN M. O'BRIEN, 8r.V.P, Finance/Human Resources WILLIAM L. POLLAK, Sr.VP, Circulation ELISE J. ROSS. 8 V.P, Systems JAMES A. CUTIE, V.P, Markeling \ The Court Sets a Death Agenda When new Supreme Court majorities hasten to overrule the Court's own recent precedents, the justices invite the public to believe, as Felix Frank- furter once warned, “that law is an expression of chance -- for instance, of unexpected changes in the Court's composition and the contingencies in the choice of successors.” Led by Chief Justice Rehn.- quist, today's Court is running just such a risk to its reputation and to justice on a death penalty issue that doesn’t deserve such abuse. Over the dissents of three members, the Court staged oral arguments this week on whether to overturn capital punishment decisions rendered by retired Justices Lewis Powell in 1987 and William Brennan only two years ago. Those rulings prevent prosecutors who are seeking the death penalty from making a special issue of the murder victim's high community standing or the bercavement of the victim's family. On the merits, the Court was right in the first place. Victims’ rights obviously need attention. But when a jury is asked to choose between death or life imprisonment for a convicted murderer, that deci- sion must turn on the defendant’s character, not the happenstance of whether the victim was a vagrant or a piliar of the community. Allowing the prosecution tv exalt the victim's character would also mean that the defense could he FOR YOUR disparage the victim. Attorney General Dick Thorn- burgh, in a ceremonial appearance as “friend of the Court,” offered a cure for that: the defense simply “should not be allowed to denigrate the value of the life'’ that was lost. But gagging the defense would be an unconscionable slanting of justice. The Court has gone to unseemly lengths to raise the issue when neither states nor defense attorneys raised it on their own. Finding that a case from Ohio didn't depend on the issue it wanted to hear, the Court called up a Tennessee murder case and instructed lawyers for the state and the defend- ant, Pervis Payne, a convicted murderer, to pre- pare arguments on an expedited basis. It's bad enough that the capital punishment system already executes far more prisoners who kill whites than those who kill blacks. Since 1876 the system has executed 145 killers but not a single white murdercr whose victim was black. By letting prosecutors urge juries to let their verdict turn on the worth of the victim, the Court would probably reinforce the bias in the system. Chief Justice Rehnquist noted approvingly at this week's argument that prosecutors who seek death verdicts are bound “to get into a few rhapso- dies” about victim rights. But even those justices . who favor the death penalty should worry about the way the Court finds and declares the law. PLEASE HELP GEORGIA’S DEATH ROW INMATE WARREN McCLESKEY kokkkkkkkkk kk kkk kkk The story you are about to read is and the names are those of real people. The facts are based on court testimony, statements of witnesses' interviews taken by Atlanta Police investigators and by independent investigators. This manuscript was not prepared by an intellectual genius; therefore, the language used is that of every day people. Furthermore, it was not proofread or edited; therefore, "let not your heart be troubled should you come across a flaw in the Queen's English. The purpose of this manuscript is to advise you of the facts surrounding the conviction and death sentence inflicted upon WARREN McCLESKEY for the May 13, 1978 murder of Atlanta Police Officer FRANK SCHLATT; whereas, McCLESKEY's three co-defendants were given lesser sentences for their direct involvements. It is hoped that this document will give you enough information to assist you when you write a letter to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on behalf of WARREN McCLESKEY. After you have completed your reading, please act accordingly to ensure that WARREN McCLESKEY is not electrocuted in Georgia's Electric Chair! SUMMARY OF FACTS: On the morning of May 13, 1978, WARREN McCLESKEY, BEN WRIGHT, JR., Bernard DUPREE and DAVID BURNEY robbed Dixie Furniture Store on Marietta Street in Atlanta, Georgia. They committed the robbery in order to get money for BEN WRIGHT, JR. who wanted leave the State of Georgia to avoid being arrested on a previous armed robbery charge which occurred in Buckhead a few weeks before. WRIGHT, BURNEY and MARY JENKINS (WRIGHT's girlfriend) pulled a robbery in Buckhead around the end of April, 1978, according to BURNEY. BEN WRIGHT'S car was recognized in the Buckhead robbery as the get-away-car and MARY JENKINS was seen driving it. MS. JENKINS was apprehended days later while taking a leisure drive in the same vehicle. While being questioned by police, MS. JENKINS fingered WRIGHT in an intentional attempt to protect herself from being prosecuted; therefore, the Atlanta Police Department issued an arrest warrant for BEN WRIGHT, JR. On the 13th of May, WRIGHT, McCLESKEY, BURNEY and DUPREE drove to a jewelry store in Marietta. BEN WRIGHT, JR. went inside the store to check it out. WRIGHT decided not to rob it because it was unsuitable. The four then rode around Marietta looking for another place to rob but couldn't find anything fitting. WRIGHT decided that Atlanta would be suitable for an armed robbery: therefore, they drove to Atlanta. WRIGHT, in his leadership role; decided to rob Dixie Furniture Store. Each of the four men was armed. After casing Dixie Furniture, WRIGHT concluded that it was suitable to rob. WRIGHT informed each man on what to do. McCLESKEY was advised to guard the front half of the store, while the other two men who were accompanied by WRIGHT guarded the rear. WRIGHT pressured everyone into pledging not to tell on each other if either was ever captured. Atlanta Police Officer FRANK SCHLATT, responding to a silent alarm call, entered the front of the store with his revolver detached from the holster. OFFICER SCHLATT observed a suspect who turned out to be WARREN McCLESKEY holding store employee at gun point. OFFICER SCHLATT commanded McCLESKEY to drop the gun and turn around. BEN WRIGHT, JR. entered the front section of the store and fired two shot in the direction of OFFICER SCHLATT. Court testimony revealed that one bullet hit OFFICER SCHLATT in the chest and deflected off a cigarette lighter in OFFICER SCHLATT'S shirt pocket. The other bullet, which was fatal, penetrated the OFFICER SCHIATT'S head through his right eye. WRIGHT directed everyone to split. WRIGHT, after having killed Atlanta Police Officer FRANK SCHLATT, left Georgia and went to Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The other three men, who had no reason to run, continued living in Metro Atlanta. Ballistics revealed that OFFICER SCHLATT had been shot by a .38 caliber Rossi revolver. The murder weapon was never retrieved. Nonetheless, trial testimony from expert witnesses profess that such a revolver had been stolen in the robbery of a Red Dot grocery store in Southeast Atlanta two months earlier. During the robbery, WRIGHT somehow left behind a leather jacket he was wearing that had a laundry ticket stapled in one sleeve. The jacket was traced by Atlanta police to a former owner who related he had given the jacket to BEN WRIGHT, JR. several months before. Atlanta Police launched a massive man hunt for 2 WRIGHT. In the meantime, police learned the names of WARREN McCLESKEY, BERNARD DUPREE and DAVID BURNEY through MARY JENKINS. Furthermore, police discovered that WRIGHT had left Georgia. Evidence suggest MARY JENKINS was an accomplice to the robbery and murder of OFFICER SCHLATT. JENKINS possibly drove the get- away-car during the Dixie Furniture Store robbery. WRIGHT, BURNEY and witnesses did identify MS. JENKINS as being the driver in the Buckhead robbery. Furthermore, witnesses vaguely remember seeing a lady fitting MS. JENKINS description in the car with the four men when Dixie Furniture was robbed. MS. JENKINS was never prosecuted for the robbery and murder. MS. JENKINS testified against McCLESKEY, BURNEY and DUPREE. McCLESKEY was arrested in Cobb County in the early morning hours while asleep at his sister's home on May 31, 1978. DAVID BURNEY was arrested on the same day in Techwood Homes while at his girl friend's apartment. BERNARD DUPREE gave up to police at his lawyer's office after learning he was being sought in connection with the robbery and murder. BEN WRIGHT, JR. was arrested months later in Pine Bluff, Arkansas for a string of robberies and assaults there. When arrested in Arkansas, he learned that he was wanted for the murder of a police officer back in Atlanta. WRIGHT, after being arrested in Pine Bluff, Arkansas was surprised and angered by the fact that Arkansas authorities knew he had been involved in a "cop-killing". WRIGHT assumed that the three co-defendants had "snitched on him". McCCLESKEY and BURNEY both confessed to robbing Dixie Furniture, but denied killing OFFICER SCHLATT. BERNARD DUPREE denied any involvement in the robbery and killing even to the extent of claiming he was not with BURNEY, McCLESKEY and WRIGHT at all when the robbery and murder transpired. McCLESKEY and BURNEY identified DUPREE and WRIGHT as being involved after each had pledged not to tell on their partners if arrested. However, neither man fingered WRIGHT as the "triggerman". The Atlanta Police officials did not advised Arkansas that WRIGHT was not fingered by his co-defendants as the murderer. Misleading information and vengeance provoked WRIGHT to turn against his three partners. WRIGHT was so moved by the fact that he had been "told on" he devised perfect statements against the three men for the Assistant District Attorney, RUSSELL PARKER, and Atlanta Police Investigators, Welcome Harris, W. K. Jowers and Sidney Dorsey. WRIGHT was the one who first said McCLESKEY was the trigger man. However, witnesses present at Dixie Furniture the day of the robbery, clearly stated that the shooting did not occur until after BEN WRIGHT, JR. went to the front of the store. Ben WRIGHT testified in open court that McCLESKEY had a .38 caliber Rossi nickel-plated revolver---again, the pistol and murder 3 weapon was never found. MARY JENKINS told police and testified that WRIGHT was seen with the .38 Rossi weeks prior to the police's killing. However, WRIGHT testified that he himself was armed with a sawed-off shotgun, and that BURNEY and DUPREE had blue steel pistols. An article in the Atlanta Constitution quoted police investigators saying "OFFICER SCHLATT was killed by a sawed off shotgun that was fired at close range". WRIGHT claimed McCLESKEY was driving his personal vehicle, which was used as the get-away-car. WRIGHT, further testified that McCLESKEY parked his car up the street from the furniture store and that McCLESKEY entered the store and "cased" it. "After McCLESKEY returned to the car, the robbery was planned" WRIGHT testified. It is a known fact that WRIGHT was the ring leader and brain of the pack; therefore, each of the men complied with WRIGHT'S orders religiously. According to WRIGHT, in executing the robbery plan, McCLESKEY entered the front of the store and the other three entered through the rear by way of the loading dock. McCleskeky secured the front while he (WRIGHT) and the others rounded up the employees and customers in the rear and began to tie them up with tape and forced to lie on the floor. The manager was forced, by WRIGHT at gunpoint, to turn over the store's receipts, which included a watch and six dollars in cash. GEORGE MALCOM, an employee, testified that he had a pistol taken from him at gunpoint by WRIGHT. After WRIGHT had given his phony account of what happen, Atlanta Police Investigators and Assistant District Attorney RUSSELL PARKER were convinced that a jury would not return a guilty verdict against McCLESKEY based on WRIGHT's testimony; therefore, police investigators with the approval of ADA PARKER placed a professional informant named OFFIE EVANS, who used a false name, in the cellblock next to McCLESKEY, BURNEY and DUPREE. EVANS was in the Fulton County Jail on a federal warrant awaiting a probation revocation hearing on charges related to escaping from a federal halfway house. EVANS testified at trial that McCLESKEY admitted shooting OFFICER SCHLATT. McCLESKEY maintains he never had a discussion about the crime with OFFIE EVANS. It is believed that EVANS was prepared to testified by Atlanta Police Investigators and ADA Russell Parker. EVANS' testimony was too tight and authentic, which indicates EVANS had help. Furthermore, it was verified in later court challenges on behalf of McCLESKEY that EVANS was a professional snitch who would testify on behalf of the prosecution in cases tagged "difficult to get a conviction. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO: In exchange for his counterfeit statement and testimony, Assistant District Attorney PARKER spoke with federal officials on behalf of EVANS and EVANS was given favorable treatment and set free on the escape charges. OFFIE EVANS was released from the Georgia Penal System in 1988 after serving time for a variety of charges after many episodes of jail house snitching on behalf of the Fulton County District Attorney's Office. BEN WRIGHT, JR. was sentenced to 20 years each for Manslaughter and Armed Robbery. WRIGHT was released from prison in 1987, committed a few armed robberies, kidnapping, aggravated assault and a drug charge. He was sentence to life plus 20 years. Presently, He is serving his sentences at Dodge Correctional Institution. DAVID BURNEY is serving a life sentence at Phillips Correctional Institution in Buford, Georgia for the murder of OFFICER SCHLATT and Armed Robbery. BERNARD DUPREE is serving a life sentence at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Georgia for the offenses committed May 13, 1978. DUPREE'S sentence is on appeal and he is yet claiming he was not present during the armed robbery and murder on May 13, 1978. MARY JENKINS was never tried on any charges and she is presumably somewhere in the Metro Atlanta area. It was her assistance and information that helped Atlanta Police crack the May 13, 1978 case. Assistant District Attorney RUSSELL PARKER now works as an assistant district attorney in the Cobb County District Attorney's Office. Detectives DORSEY, HARRIS and JOWERS are still working with the Homicide Division of the Atlanta Police Department. CONCLUSION No one is asking you to approve of the murdering of a human being. Law-abiding citizens should encourage our judicial system to reasonably punish persons who are fairly tried and convicted by an efficient jury. Moreover, the authentic evidence and testimony of credible witnesses should be a underlying element in convicting individuals charged with criminal infractions, particularly when a sentence of death is sought. In the case of WARREN McCLESKEY, the prosecution and police did everything that was not right to secure a conviction and death sentence. Concealing statements from witnesses that could have proved McCLESKEY was not the triggerman; placing a police informant (OFFIE EVANS) in the cellblock next to McCLESKEY for the purpose of questioning him regarding the crime; giving out a lesser sentences to BEN WRIGHT, JR. (the likely triggerman) for testifying for the prosecution; not prosecuting MARY JENKINS for the Buckhead robbery; and not telling the jury that OFFIE EVANS was a professional snitch---just to state a few of the ruthless and unconstitutional acts of the ADA RUSSELL PARKER and the Atlanta Police Department. If WARREN McCLESKEY'S execution is carried out, the City of Atlanta Police Department will have won a major victory in denying criminal suspects their constitutional rights as afforded in the United States of America Constitution. The 6th Amendment of the Constitution states, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, ....... , and to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense." WARREN McCLESKEY has been snatched from the jaws of death on two separate occasions by the federal courts because constitutional violations were found in his conviction. However, on Tuesday, April 16, 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court unbelievably affirmed McCLESKEY'S conviction and death sentence, which authorizes the State of Georgia to set an execution date. The date has not been set, but is anticipated any day. WARREN MCcCLESKEY'S fate lies in the hands of members of the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. If his life is to be spared, it is up to a majority of the five members. You are asked to write Pardons and Paroles today on behalf of WARREN McCLESKEY. ON BEHALF OF WARREN McCLESKEY, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOU TIME AND ASSISTANCE. State Board of Pardons and Paroles Floyd Veterans Memorial Building 5th Floor East 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, S.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Telephone: (404) 656-5651 THE BOARD MEMBERS ARE: l. WAYNE SNOW, JR., CHAIRMAN 2. JAMES T. MORRIS 3. BETTYE O. HUTCHINGS 4. DAVID EVANS 5. TIMOTHY JONES 1 , Wednesday April 17, 1991 sees ( 3 WASHI 1 Va H t [ 3 e v e L R J Lr Et fy, "Bob Dart and Rhonda Cook : aff writers . =ZWASHINGTON — Upholding a 1978 Georgia indrder conviction, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turtailed the right of death row inmates to appeal their cases repeatedly. ; :-2The 6-3 ruling is likely to shorten the time be- ween murder trials and executions, which now av- etages almost nine years. It imposes tough new limits on federal court access for any criminal de- fendant to argue a violation of rights at the state tourt level, a process known as habeas corpus. *=-'The court ruled that if a state inmate can raise airissue at the first federal appeal but fails to do so, tha} issue generally may not be raised later. “The only exception to the new restrictions, Jus- : i Anthony Kennedy said, are those rare in- ‘ stances in which a defendant can show that he IGTON » Court approves sales taxon cable TV. B2 a, probably did not commit the crime. “It’s another step in the slamming of the court- house door to death row litigants,” said Alan Ellis, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. . Prosecutors said the decision will help stem abuse of the appeal system by convicted killers and by opponents of capital punishment who seek to de- lay executions indefinitely. In the ruling, the conservative majority of the justices rejected the claims of Georgia death row inmate Warren McCleskey, convicted of killing an Atlanta policeman in 1978, who already had had another appeal quashed by the high court. Justice Kennedy, writing the majority opinion, set new judicial guidelines requiring a prisoner The Atlanta Journal / The Atlanta Consitien: d deaths of convicted killers seeking a second round of appeals to justify hy the new claim was not made initially, and to prove that it involved a miscarriage of justice. An unlimited review system would “give liti- gants incentives to withhold claims for manipula- tive purposes and may establish disincentives to present claims when evidence is fresh,” Justice Kennedy wrote. Georgia Attorney General Michael J. Bowers said the decision ‘goes a long way along the lines President Bush has been talking about in terms of reforming how the federal courts deal with state death penalty cases.” He said it would be about 30 days before he asked a Fulton County Superior Court judge to set a new execution date for McCleskey. In a sharply worded minority dissent, Justice Thurgood Marshall called the decision an “unjusti- fiable assault” on defendant rights. The ruling “tosses aside established precedents without ex: planation, disregards the will of Congress, fashions rules that defy the reasonable expectations of the persons who must conform their conduct to the. law’s dictates, and applies those rules in a way that. rewards state misconduct ahd’ deceit,” Justice: Marshall wrote. = Justices Harry A. Blackmun and John Paul Ste: High court ruling could spee vens joined Justice Marshall in the. dissenting: _ . The court dismissed arguments that Georgia of: ficials violated -McCleskey’s rights by using a fel: Jow inmate in the Fulton County Jail, Offie Evans; to elicit a confession to the 1978 slaying of an Atlan-. ta police officer. Justice Kennedy said McCleskey’ 8: failure to raise the issue during an initial federal: court appeal in 1981 disqualified him from raising; it in subsequent appeals. . ‘opinion. a “3 T — birid Kin nM A ND at oh hor a 20a Tk ee Wah ke Neneh iad A12 Friday, April 19, 1991 sass. ~ THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION For 122 Years the South’s Standard Newspaper Jay Smith © + Ron Martin Publisher 5 o Editor Dennis Berry John W. Walter Jr. © Tom Teepen President Managing Editor ‘Editorial Page Editor James M. Cox, Chairman 1950-57 --- James M. Cox Jr., Chairman 1957-74 Supreme Court v. . the Gro Writ One of the pillars of the American legal system is the right to challenge a criminal conviction in federal court. If you. believe your constitutional rights were violated in the judicial process, you can file a writ of habeas corpus in federal court to get the conviction reversed. There's a danger, of course, that petition- ers might try to drag out their cases by filing one habeas petition after another, each rais- ing a separate constitutional claim. To pre- vent this, the courts are empowered to reject additional habeas petitions under the doc- trine of “abuse of the writ.” All constitutional claims must be raised at once, unless there are excusable grounds for having neglecied to do so. At least that was the case before this week. In a radical departure from precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, has now erected a doctrine that says: Unless law - enforcement officials actively impeded or in- terfered with the defense’s efforts to bring a claim, and unless the alleged constitutional violation actually affected the trial’s out- ° come, then raising the claim is an “abuse of the writ.” : This ‘makes a mockery of the adele process by encouraging the prosecution to play dirty, as the case in question shows. It involved Warren McCleskey, a Georgia man who was convicted of murder largely on the strength of his confession to a fellow in- mate. What the defense didn’t know at the ~ time of his first federal habeas petition was that the man who heard McCleskey confess was a government plant who had been of- fered a lesser sentence in return for getting : the confession. As the court has i recognized, such a confession may well pe . constitutionally inadmissible. ~ The defense didn't know about the .in- former not for lack of a good-faith effort to" . find out, but because law enforcement offi- -cials didn’t: come clean. Even under the court’s new standard, McCleskey ought to have had his case remanded. But the court, obviously believes that government “inter- ference” must be at the level of say, jury, tampering. One of the most revealing — and disturb-. ing — aspects of this decision is its radical overturning of the clearly expressed intent of Congress. The court's earlier standard has’ been codified in federal statute; only last : year, Congress rejected an effort to change : that standard. Yet the court blithely waved all this away. ; The hallmark of recent conservative or gal theory is that the courts should not make law but, to the maximum extent possible, fol- low legislative intent. This theory has been employed to avoid strengthening individual ~ rights - against majority decision-making. What's clear ‘from McCleskey, however, is * that it is simply a theory of convenience, to be - dispensed with whenever it suits the anti-lib- . ertarian prejudices of its proponents. In practice, second and third federal ha- beas. . petitions consume very little time and | rarely result in the reversal .of a conviction. But the court, zealous to lighten its caseload | and eager to give the appearance of being tough on crime, has chipped away a signifi- cant. Piece of our edifice of justice. :/ 77 oa » } vy ‘a THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALS Ehe New York Times Founded in 1851 ADOLPH 8. OCHS, Publisher 1896-1935 ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER, Publisher 1935-1961 ORVIL E. DRYPOOS, Publisher 1961-1963 . ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER, Publisher ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER JR. Deputy Publisher ® Max FRANKEL, ® Esecutive Editor > JOSEPH LELYVELD, Managing Editor WARREN HOGE, Assistant Managing Editor DAVID R. JONES, Assistant Managing Editor CAROLYN LEE, Assistant Managing Editor JOHN M. LEE, Assistant Managing Editor ALLAN M. SIEGAL. Assistant Managing Editor [ J JACK ROSENTHAL, Editorial Page Editor PHILIP M. BOFFEY, Deputy Editorial Page Editor : [ J LANCE R. PRIMIS, President RUSSELL T. LEWIS, Sr.V.P, Production ERICH G. LINKER JR. Sr.V.P, Advertising JOHN M. O'BRIEN, Sr.V.P, Finance/Human Resources WILLIAM L. POLLAK, Sr.V.P, Circulation ELISE J. ROSS, Sr.V.P, Systems JAMES A. CUTIE, V.P, Marketing ‘The Court Abuses the Great Writ | For centuries, the writ of habeas corpus has been a glorious exemplar of the rule of law, a mighty piece of legal paper that calls kings and jailers to produce their prisoners and demonstrate . the legality of their detention. The Great Writ is, however, also subject to abuse, notably by prison inmates who file blatantly frivolous claims for release. The Supreme Court, preoccupied of late with perceived abuse of the writ, has piled up restrictive, technical rules. The other day, in the name of preserving the writ’s dignity, the Court counte- nanced a grave injustice. Lawyers for Warren McCleskey had proved, ~ about as persuasively as the law can require, that his murder conviction and death sentence were obtained with the aid of a jailhouse informant planted by the Atlanta police in violation of his . established constitutional rights. They also showed that for nearly a decade, Georgia authorities had concealed telling evidence that the informant was a police agent. Not good enough, said a 6-to-3 Court majority in an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy. That evi- dence came too late, in a second habeas corpus petition filed in Federal court. Warren McCleskey . should have pleaded this point in his first petition years earlier. Never mind that Mr. McCleskey’s "counsel uncovered the telltale evidence only after ~ years of demands and denials. . ~~. According to Justice Kennedy, the abuse com- mitted was not by the state but by the petitioner. The Justice fastened on this thin legal point: No lower court had specifically found conscious ob- struction and falsehood by state officials. He set stiff new rules to prevent prisoners from splitting their claims to get additional hearings. Then he applied those rules to the McCleskey case. Four years ago, when the Court reviewed Mr. McCleskey’s first habeas. corpus petition, his law- yers made another impressive case. They showed that he and other black men convicted of murder were four times more likely to be executed if the victim was white than if the victim was black. Not good enough, said the Court, 5 to 4. He had to prove that racial hatred had motivated his judge, jury or prosecutor. That's when Mr. McCleskey’s lawyers went back and found the evidence of the planted informant. Warren McCleskey unquestionably participat- ed in a robbery that resulted in the death of an off- duty policeman in Atlanta. A jury decided that he was the triggerman, and deserved his death sen- tence, on the basis of surreptitiously obtained evi- dence whose illegality was hidden despite legiti- mate demands for documents. As Justice Thurgood Marshall said in dissent, the majority has rewarded ‘‘state misconduct and deceit.” It has now made the Supreme Court the principal abuser of the Great Writ. Hans She Netw ork Times ! Founded in 1851 ADOLPH 8, OCHS, Publisher 1896-1938 ARTHUR HAYS BULZBERGER, Publisher 1935-1961 ORVIL E. DRYPOOS, Publisher 1981-1963 7 THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALS 14 v Souda ARTHUR OCHS SULIBRRGER, Publisher ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERROER JR. Deputy Publisher [] . MAX FRANKEL. Bseculive Editor JOBEPH LBLYVELD, Managing Editor WARREN HOOR, Assistant Managing Bditor DAVID R. JONES, Assistant Managing Editor CAROLYN LEE, Assistant Managing Editer JOHN M. LEE, Asristont Managing Editor ALLAN M. BIEGAL. Assiatont Managing Editor [J JACK ROSENTHAL. Editorial Page Editor PHILIP M. BOFFEY, Deputy Edituriol Page Bditor [J LANCE R. PRIMIS, President RUSSELL T. LEWIS, §2.VP, Production ERICH G. LINKER JR. Sr.V.P, Advertising JOHN M. O'BRIEN, 8r.V.P, Finance/Humon Resources WILLIAM L. POLLAK, Sr.VP, Circulation ELISE J. ROSS. §r.V.P, Systems JAMES A. CUTIE, V.P, Marketing \ The Court Sets a Death Agenda When new Supreme Court majorities hasten to overrule the Court's own recent precedents, the justices invite the public to believe, as Felix Frank- furter once warned, “that law is an expression of chance -- for instance, of unexpected changes in the Court's composition and the contingencies in the choice of successors.” Led by Chief Justice Rehn. Quist, today's Court is running just such a risk to its reputation and to justice on a death penalty issue that doesn’t deserve such abuse. Over the dissents of three members, the Court staged oral arguments this week on whether to overturn capital punishment decisions rendered by retired Justices Lewis Powell in 1887 and William Brennan only two years ago. Those rulings prevent prosecutors who are seeking the death penalty from making a special issue of the murder victim's high community standing or the bercavement of the victim's family. On the merits, the Court was right {n the first place. Victims’ rights obviously need attention. But when a jury is asked to choose between death or life imprisonment for a convicted murderer, that deci- sion must turn on the defendant’s character, not the happenstance of whether the victim was & vagrant or a piliar of the community. Allowing the prosecution to exalt the victim's character would also mean that the defense could Q FOR YOUR disparage the victim. Attorney General Dick Thorn- burgh, in a ceremonial appearance as “friend of the Court,” offered a cure for that: the defense simply “'should not be allowed to denigrate the value of the life’ that was lost. But gagging the defense would be an unconscionable slanting of justice. The Court has gone to unseemly lengths to raise the issue when neither states nor defense attorneys raised it on their own. Finding that a case from Ohio didn't depend on the issue it wanted to hear, the Court called up a Tennessee murder case and instructed lawyers for the state and the defend- ant, Pervis Payne, a convicted murderer, to pre- pare arguments on an expedited basis. It’s bad enough that the capital punishment system already executes far more prisoners who kill whites than those who kill blacks. Since 1976 the system has executed 145 killers but not a single white murdercr whose victim was black. By letting prosecutors urge juries to let their verdict turn on the worth of the victim, the Court would probably reinforce the bias in the system. Chief Justice Rehnquist noted approvingly at this week's argument that prosecutors who seek death verdicts are bound “to get into a few rhapso- dies” about victim rights. But even those justices . who favor the death penalty should worry about the way the Court finds and declares the law. Warren McCleskey Case -- May, 1991 A. eneral Ba oun Warren McCleskey is a 44-year-old black man who was sentenced to death for his part in a May 13, 1978, armed robbery of the Dixie Furniture Store in Atlanta, Georgia. During the robbery, a white Atlanta officer, Frank Schlatt, entered the furniture store and was killed by a pistol shot fired by one of the four robbers. From the moment of his arrest, McCleskey admitted taking part in the robbery, but he has consistently denied that he was the triggerman who shot Officer Schlatt. There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and the murder veapon itself was never found. The State's case against McCleskey turned largely on the testimony of two persons: (i) Ben Wright, a co-defendant and the leader of the four robbers, who gratuitously told the jury that McCleskey (and not himself) had done the shooting; and (ii) Offie Evans, a jailhouse informant, who said McCleskey admitted the shooting while in the Fulton County Jail awaiting trial. Co-defendant Wright was the other most likely shooting suspect, but he quickly agreed to testify against McCleskey in exchange for a life sentence. McCleskey alone received a sentence of death. In 1984, the United States District Court overturned McCleskey's conviction and death sentence. The District Court found that informant Offie Evans had been secretly promised favorable judicial treatment by the State in exchange for his adverse testimony against Warren McCleskey. This secret State conduct violated constitutional rights that have long been protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972). On appeal, hovever, the federal court of appeals overturned McCleskey's grant of relief, finding that the State's promise toc Evans had been negligible. Two of McCleskey's trial jurors have given sworn affidavits stating that if they had known about the evidence of misconduct later uncovered in 1984, they would never have voted to impose a death sentence on McCleskey in 1978. The State's case against McCleskey as the triggerman, they explained, was very veak, and it was only their misplaced confidence in informant Offie Evans that allowed them to vote for death. In 1986-1987, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States also rejected massive evidence that Warren McCleskey's death sentence, like many in the State of Georgia, had been imposed in a racially discriminatory pattern: black defendants like McCleskey who killed whites were receiving death sentences over four times as often as those who killed black victims, even when the circumstances of the crime were nearly identical. Indeed, in Fulton County where McCleskey was tried, between 1973 and 1980 at least 17 persons had been arrested for murder against police officials -- yet Warren McCleskey was the only one of these seventeen who received a death sentence. See McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987). After the Supreme Court denied relief to McCleskey in 1987, and shortly before his execution, McCleskey's lawyers stumbled across new evidence of another flagrant constitutional violation: that Atlanta police had secretly planted informant Evans near McCleskey's cell, had instructed Evans to obtain Nk Se cs hh Set A wok. Meta d, A sadn dr RAR TT a a confession from McCleskey, and had covered up their misconduct when later asked. (Conservative Justices Warren Burger and William Rehnquist have both written opinions in the past clearly condemning such secret misconduct as a violation of the Sixth Amendment. See United States v. Henry, 447 U.S. 264 (1980)). For a second time, the United States District Court overturned McCleskey's conviction and death sentence. Yet for a second time, the court of appeals and the Supreme Court reversed. These appellate courts did not overturn the finding that Atlanta officers had engaged in unconstitutional behavior; instead, they held that McCleskey's lawyers should have uncovered evidence of the police misconduct sooner. See McCleskey v. Zant, U.S._ , 59 v.s,L.W. 4288 (U.S., April 16, 1991). What the Supreme Court did in McCleskey's second appeal is a travesty. They have held that no matter how terrible the constitutional violation, no matter how calculated and ruthless the police misconduct, that misconduct will be overlooked, and a defendant put to death, absent proof of exceptional circumstances almost impossible to meet. It is not enough to prove that the police and other members of the prosecution team committed perjury, lied, and otherwise acted to cover up evidence of their own actions. B. The Current Situation The Supreme Court is presently considering McCleskey's final petition for rehearing, which argues that it was impossible to uncover evidence which the police themselves had carefully hidden. That petition will likely be decided by June 10th. If the Supreme Court decides against Warren McCleskey, he has one legal avenue open: he can go back to the State courts, specifically, to the Superior Court of Butts County, Georgia, and urge that the Superior Court entertain to hear his evidence of police misconduct. There are two reasons to think that the Superior Court might do so: (i) the evidence of police misconduct had not surfaced vhen McCleskey came to that court in 1987; (ii) McCleskey didn't know about the misconduct in 1987 because State officials had hidden it. An important Georgia Supreme Court case, decided in 1983, Smith v. Zant, 250 Ga. 645, _ , 301 S.F.24 32, 37 (1983), provides that if a defendant can present new evidence previously hidden by the State, the Superior Court should consider his claim on its merits. The Georgia case, in other words, appears to reject the Supreme Court's new standard and say that, in Georgia at least, proof of prosecution misconduct is enough. That's just what McCleskey can show here. AT A MINIMUM, NO DEATH SENTENCE SHOULD BE SET IN THIS CASE UNTIL AFTER THE SUPERIOR COURT, AND THE SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA, HAVE FULLY HEARD AND DECIDED HIS CLAIM. Cc. McCleskey's Case for Clemency There are at least three strong grounds for clemency in this case. The first is the serious, persistent doubt about whether McCleskey is actually the triggerman in this case. If he is not, it would be morally wrong for him to be executed while each of his three co-defendants receive lesser sentences. The grave questions about Offie Evans's behavior that have been raised in this case -- behavior that violated at least two separate violations of the federal constitution -- are alone enough establish a reasonable doubt about McCleskey's quilt. The second is the Supreme Court's dismissal of a host of constitutional objections -- to Offie Evans's secret offer of leniency, to the massive evidence of racial discrimination, to the proof of police misconduct -- all on wvhat amount to legal technicalities. No one whose trial was so gravely flawed should be put to death. Finally, Warren McCleskey has done much to rehabilitate himself while in prison. He has complied with prison rules, made a useful contribution to prison life, started and led Bible study and religious class among Death Row inmates, and proven a reliable guide and counsellor to younger, more unstable inmates who have come to Death Row. Warren McCleskey is well-respected by prison guards, and he has a host of outside visitors who will praise his maturity, his insight, and his acts of consideration and kindness. H a t e 1 R R W o r , - A 03/22/81 11:03 FAX 404 651 8502 GEORGIA PAROLE Q0027002 March 22, 1981 Telephone: (404) 661-5887 Contact: Richard Hyde, Director of Public Atfairs News Relcasc Re: {8 Wayne County Death Sentence Commuted by Parole Board The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has today commuted the death sentence of Harold Glenn Williams to life Imprisonment. Willams was convicted in Wayne County of the June 22, 1980, murder of his grandfather Archie Lane, who was repeatedly struck with a blunt instrument in his home. Parole Board Chairman Wayne Snow. Jr.. said the Board acted to reduces the punishment disparity between the two oodefendants in the cass. He pointed out thet Williams' half uncle Dennis Witllams was at least equally involved in the homicide. However, Dennis Willlama was allowed to plead guilty and receive confinement sentences which, under the Earned Time Law then In effect, amountad to five years. Mr. Snow noted that Harold Glenn Willams had also been allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter but later withdraw his plea, leading to the prosecution's pressing for the death penalty. Harold Glenn Williams, now age 33, had no previous criminal racord. He served honorably as a marine posted at Camp David, Maryland, to protect the President of the United States. Under the Georgia Constitution, Williams must be confined a total of 26 yeara before his first parole consideration. f a | — — — — S E