danielle
07-27-2003, 09:15 PM
Tommy Fortenberry is a friend of Pam's and is scheduled for execution in Alabama on August 7.
http://www.phadp.org/actionalert.html
At the bottom of the page on the above link, there's a button that says "Take Action Now."
This will take you to a page that will send emails to the governor and attorney general in Alabama - it just takes a second to fill out. Thanks...
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The state of Alabama is scheduled to execute Tommy Fortenberry Aug. 7 for four murders at the Guest Service Station in Attalla. Fortenberry, a white man, allegedly shot Ronald Guest, Wilbur Nelson, and Bobby and Nancy Payne while robbing the station on Aug. 25, 1984.
In the days following the murders, Fortenberry gave several versions of the story to police investigators and court reporters; in some, he confessed to the murders, and in others, he blamed a man named Harvey Underwood. A jury convicted Fortenberry on Feb. 15, 1986. However, immediately after the verdict, the court moved on the penalty phase of the trial, for which Fortenberry’s attorneys were thoroughly unprepared.
Years later, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Fortenberry received ineffective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase of his trial. However, the court held that he would not have been able to provide sufficient additional mitigating evidence to alter his death sentence. Here, the court ignored critical evidence that could have been presented, namely mitigating evidence of Fortenberry’s psychological problems and struggles with alcohol addiction.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in Wiggins v. Smith, ruling that a defense attorney’s failure to investigate and present available mitigating evidence in a Maryland death penalty case constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. The Wiggins ruling should certainly apply to Fortenberry’s case; the penalty phase of his trial lasted just 45 minutes, and his attorney called only one witness.
Fortenberry also has a substantial Batson claim – an argument that the state used its peremptory strikes to prevent African Americans from serving on the jury. The appellate courts found that Fortenberry failed to prove that the state’s strikes were based on race, ignoring the blatant pattern of racial discrimination in jury selection processes throughout the nation in the 1980’s.
The state of Alabama has executed two people in 2003, and 27 since the reinstatement of the capital punishment in 1976. By state law, the governor has the sole authority to grant clemency to death row inmates. Please contact Gov. Bob Riley and urge him to commute Tommy Fortenberry’s sentence to life in prison.
http://www.phadp.org/actionalert.html
At the bottom of the page on the above link, there's a button that says "Take Action Now."
This will take you to a page that will send emails to the governor and attorney general in Alabama - it just takes a second to fill out. Thanks...
**********
The state of Alabama is scheduled to execute Tommy Fortenberry Aug. 7 for four murders at the Guest Service Station in Attalla. Fortenberry, a white man, allegedly shot Ronald Guest, Wilbur Nelson, and Bobby and Nancy Payne while robbing the station on Aug. 25, 1984.
In the days following the murders, Fortenberry gave several versions of the story to police investigators and court reporters; in some, he confessed to the murders, and in others, he blamed a man named Harvey Underwood. A jury convicted Fortenberry on Feb. 15, 1986. However, immediately after the verdict, the court moved on the penalty phase of the trial, for which Fortenberry’s attorneys were thoroughly unprepared.
Years later, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Fortenberry received ineffective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase of his trial. However, the court held that he would not have been able to provide sufficient additional mitigating evidence to alter his death sentence. Here, the court ignored critical evidence that could have been presented, namely mitigating evidence of Fortenberry’s psychological problems and struggles with alcohol addiction.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in Wiggins v. Smith, ruling that a defense attorney’s failure to investigate and present available mitigating evidence in a Maryland death penalty case constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. The Wiggins ruling should certainly apply to Fortenberry’s case; the penalty phase of his trial lasted just 45 minutes, and his attorney called only one witness.
Fortenberry also has a substantial Batson claim – an argument that the state used its peremptory strikes to prevent African Americans from serving on the jury. The appellate courts found that Fortenberry failed to prove that the state’s strikes were based on race, ignoring the blatant pattern of racial discrimination in jury selection processes throughout the nation in the 1980’s.
The state of Alabama has executed two people in 2003, and 27 since the reinstatement of the capital punishment in 1976. By state law, the governor has the sole authority to grant clemency to death row inmates. Please contact Gov. Bob Riley and urge him to commute Tommy Fortenberry’s sentence to life in prison.