CDPL Newsletter Center for Death Penalty Studies at

CENTERLAMAR FOR UNIVERSITYDEATH PENALTY Lamar University October 2015 Issue No. One fb.com/deathpenaltylamar P.O.Box 10026,STUDIES Beaumont, TX TELEPHONE (409) 880-8549 77710

FACSIMILE (409) 880-2324 The Center for Death Penalty Studies, as part of the Criminal Justice Department, was founded in December 2013 by the Center’s Director, Dr. Sanaz Alasti and CDPL Mission: Dr. Eric Bronson, Director of Strategic Planning and Development.This Center’s mission is to promote engaged A Dialogue worth a Lifetime > research, scholarship and discussion, with a focus on the ways in which issues of and democracy GHOSTS OF impact the lives of global citizens. Sean Sellers was born to a 16-year-old mother and raised by various family members. As a sophomore at Putnam City High School in , Sellers was said to drink his own blood, carry the Satanic Bible to class, and converse with demons. In his own blood he wrote, “I renounce God. I renounce Christ. I will serve only Satan. To my enemies, death”. Continued on Page 3

Samereh Alinejad forgave her son’s killer AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS CASTILLO Chris Castillo has been named the Texas/ National Organizer with Victims' Families for Reconciliation. Castillo, based in Beaumont, works with family members throughout Texas and in numerous other states. Continued on Page 4

Chris Castillo and his mother Sean Sellers

FORGIVENESS THAT WILL Upcoming Executions NEVER BE FORGOTTEN in Texas - Page 7 In April of 2014, a grief stricken mother by the name of Samereh Alinejad was faced with a decision to participate in the Islamic Sharia Law or allow the man who murdered her son to be set free. Continued on Page 6

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CDPL Directors

Criminal Justice Faculty and Students at the Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice workshop in Spain Dr. Sanaz Alasti

Dr. Sanaz Alasti is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Lamar University, Texas State University, where she teaches Center for Death Penalty criminal justice and legal classes. She is the author of several books on criminal law, the criminal justice system, Studies in Spain and comparative punishment practices. In addition to her The Contemporary Issues in the Criminal The workshop addressed the major professional experience as a post-doctorate at Harvard Justice Systems workshop took place over a problems of justice from the harsh University School of Law. two-day period from May 21-22, 2015 at punishments, constitutional foundations of Alasti attended numerous the Onati International Institute for the criminal justice, Middle Eastern criminal conferences in the US, Middle Sociology of Law. justice systems, and mediation. Each of East and Europe to discuss the the panels were a self-contained, stand- arbitrariness of capital punishment. The workshop focused on critical issues in alone session, but participants were contemporary criminal justice in order to expected to attend them all because every provide a profound collective reflect on the one of them emphasized key principles of new problems facing criminal justice good research design in the field of systems in the world. criminal justice systems.

Professor Sanaz Alasti brought 25 The workshops brought together leading participants from various prestigious international scholars, practitioners and universities, such as Harvard University, activists from the , Europe Dr. Eric Bronson is Associate University of Hull in England, Ariel and Middle Eastern countries for intensive Professor of Criminal Justice & Director of the Criminal University in Israel, Alexandria University discussions. This workshop was the result Justice Program at Lamar in Egypt and University of Naples in Italy of a competition by scholars who propose University in Texas. His to talk about various aspects of the topics and invite participants. teaching and research interests criminal justice systems. include inmate subcultures, newsworthiness of the death penalty, and victim closure. CDPL Newsletter, P.O.Box 10026, Beaumont, TX 77710 | (409) 880-8549 | www.fb.com/ deathpenaltylamar CDPL NEWSLETTER PAGE3 Ghosts of Death Row Brittany Wood, Criminal Justice Graduate Student, Lamar University, [email protected] Sean Sellers was born to a 16-year-old raised on appeal. The Tenth Circuit Court of mother and raised by various family Appeals was shocked with the OCCA’s members. As a sophomore at Putnam City decision, and wrote that High School in Oklahoma, Sellers was said to OCCA made several errors in drink his own blood, carry the Satanic Bible the case. However, due to the to class, and converse with demons. In his limited nature of habeas own blood he wrote, “I renounce God. I corpus relief, the Tenth renounce Christ. I will serve only Satan. To Circuit Court would not my enemies, death”. September 8, 1985, intervene. One of the trial Sellers, 16, shot and killed convenient store j u r o r s , D i a n a C r a u n , clerk Robert Bower. Six months passed and appealed for clemency on March 5, 1986 Sellers shot and killed his recalling that the jury never mother and stepfather while they slept in bed. believed that he would be Sean Sellers Sellers willing admitted his part in the crime executed but that they feared as a practicing Satanist. He was sentenced to his early release if they sentenced him to life death at 17 years of age. While on death row, imprisonment. Before the parole board she Sellers found a new religion: Christianity. He stated, “It is very obvious that he’s found began to write and produce artwork God, and God has changed his life. I was Every issue an author surrounding his newfound religious touched…and I truly don’t want him will examine and detail awakening. He began a religious ministry executed.” There were two options at the past or present death from prison and viewed his past as a great time Sellers was sentenced: a life sentence row cases. The example to other young adults struggling with with the possibility of parole or the death overwhelmingly their faith, even though others say it was an penalty. Oklahoma now has a third sensitive topic of death act. In post-conviction examinations, Sellers alternative: life without the possibility of sentencing is something was found to be chronically psychotic and to parole, which was instated in 1987, one year that should be display symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia after his sentencing. Archbishop Desmond discussed. We hope that and other major mood disorders. He was Tutu also wrote a letter addressing his the cases highlighted in diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder disapproval of the death sentencing. In a this section will provide (MPI), now known as Dissociative Identity letter to Gov. Frank Keating, Tutu wrote that the catalyst to begin Disorder, in 1992. The diagnosis, by a Texas the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the open discussion and psychiatrist, came 6 years after Sellers was Child provides that "neither capital consideration of the sentenced. Oklahoma, currently, has a legal punishment nor life imprisonment without abolishment of the procedure that allows post-trial consideration possibility of release shall be imposed for death penalty of newly discovered evidence under certain crimes committed by persons below 18 years completely. If you feel circumstances. According to Sellers attorney, of age." The United States has never ratified that a case should be Steve Presson, Sellers’ case overwhelmingly the CRC, which includes Article 6.1 stating, examined or would like met the circumstances. “States Parties recognize that every child has to become involved with The Oklahoma Court of Criminal the inherent right to life”. On January 27, this delicate topic feel Appeals (OCCA) refused to consider the 1999 the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole free to contact the evidence believing that Sellers waved his right Board voted 5-0 to deny Sellers clemency. author by the email to the mental health evaluation during his The board was swayed by the testimony of address provided. trial. The panel concluded that while Sellers the prison officials who claimed they may have been insane at the time of his witnessed his attorney coaching him in his crimes, the claim was made too late to be insanity defense. Continued on Page 8 CDPL Newsletter, P.O.Box 10026, Beaumont, TX 77710 | (409) 880-8549 | www.fb.com/ deathpenaltylamar CDPL NEWSLETTER PAGE4

An Interview with Chris Castillo: Forgiving Mother’s Killer Helped Healing Process

Chris Castillo has been named the Texas/ My mother was killed by at least two National Organizer with Murder Victims' men who are from Honduras. They killed Families for Reconciliation. Castillo, based her and fled the U.S. to escape prosecution. in Beaumont, works with family members The case remains unsolved. throughout Texas and in numerous other 5. Were you, at all, involved states. He has more than a decade of in the punishment process marketing and public relations experience. of your mother’s assailant? He also has a personal connection to this If not, do you feel you issue - his mother was murdered in should have been involved November 1991, and he has taken a stance in the process and why? against the death penalty for years. No, because the men escaped. I feel that crime INTERVIEW BY KNECO JONES (CRIMINAL victims always should be able JUSTICE GRADUATE STUDENT OF LAMAR UNI.) to talk with the district attorney who takes the case to 1. What was your mother’s cause of trial. Chris Castillo and his mother death? 6. Are you against the My mother was strangled to death in Death Penalty? If so, what are your the bedroom of her Houston home. reasons for being against the Death 2. How do you feel you can make a Penalty? difference within the population of murder Yes, I am against the death penalty victims’ families? because it only causes more victims and It took me I try to make a difference by telling my solves nothing. It takes too long for crime story of murder and forgiveness to people. I several years to victims’ to get justice and they must wait as was talked into doing prison ministry many many as 20 years for the case to be resolved. forgive the men years after my mother’s murder. I did it to Every time the case comes up for appeal it who killed my help keep others from suffering the pain of reopens the crime victims wound. Both the mother. I worked loss that I had felt. My hope was to teach family of the crime victim and the family of with a program inmates empathy. I did that but also learned the assailant feel the pain of death. As well, to forgive, and freed myself from the anger called Bridges to it costs 2 to 3 times more financially to pay and hatred I had for the men who killed my Life for many for a death penalty case in Texas vs. a non- years before I mother. death penalty case. 3. If there was something you could say 7. What other types of punishments do started feeling to your mother’s perpetrator, what would it you feel would be appropriate for the that the inmates be? type of crime committed against your in prison were I would tell them I pray that you find mother other than the death penalty? very much like forgiveness from God. And I would ask I believe in life in prison without the me. them why they killed my mother. possibility of parole is a good alternative. 4. Was your mother’s perpetrator Continued on Page 8 punished for his/her crime? CDPL Newsletter, P.O.Box 10026, Beaumont, TX 77710 | (409) 880-8549 | www.fb.com/ deathpenaltylamar CDPL NEWSLETTER PAGE5

Blurred Lines: Self Defense or Murder

CYNTOIA BROWN IN TENNESSEE & REYHANEH JABBARI IN IRAN By Crystal Jones, Criminal Justice graduate student of Lamar University

Reyhaneh Jabbari and Cyntoia never properly investigated.” Despite, her clients and claimed the act was in Brown, both accused of murder, Amnesty International, the UN, and self-defense. She was a working girl claimed they killed in self- defense but calls for a retrial and and killed the forty-three year-old guy only one was sentenced to death and pleas for clemency the courts found who picked her up for sex. She executed. Reyhaneh was executed on her guilty and proceeded for the claimed that he began to behave October 25, 2014 after killing her execution to be carried out. In Iran, strangely. “He drove her back to his alleged rapists in self-defense. When Jabbari was executed for killing the house where his strange behavior this crime took place, in 2007, man she says tried to rape her. In Iran frightened her and made her want to Reyhaneh was nineteen years old and if a woman is raped and is unable to escape. When she couldn't sneak spent seven years on death row. prove the accusation has truth or not, away, she said she wanted to nap. He Although, she plead guilty to the she might be charged with adultery. If laid down with her but didn't fall crime there was still a part of the story a woman kills her attacker, she can be asleep. He kept getting up and that was not investigated thoroughly, charged with murder. Both are standing over her. She became more putting solely blame onto her. punishable by death. “In Iran, if a panicked; convinced something was “Jabbari confessed to stabbing woman is raped, she is considered an going to happen to her. Finally, she Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi in the adulteress and faces death by stoning. shrugged off his advances and, as he back in the apartment where he But if a woman fights off a sexual rolled over, she took a gun from her allegedly tried to sexually abuse her. predator and kills him, she might then purse and shot him once in the head.” She claimed that another man in the be tried for murder and face death by In this case, she was prosecuted and apartment was the one who killed hanging if she cannot prove that it is found guilty. She was sentenced to life Sarbandi, though she refused to self-defense.” In comparison, Cyntoia in prison without the possibility of identify him. According to Amnesty Brown of Tennessee, who was sixteen parole. Continued on Page 8 International, Jabbari's claims were at the time of conviction killed one of

Reyhaneh Jabbari Cyntoia Brown

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Forgiveness That Will Never be Forgotten By Amunique Love, Criminal Justice graduate student of Lamar University

In April of 2014, a grief stricken mother by the Balal’s mother embraced after Samereh’s name of Samereh Alinejad was faced with a husband removed the noose from around their decision to participate in the Islamic Sharia son’s murder’s neck. Law or allow the man who murdered her son to be set free. In the autumn of 2007, Samereh Alinejad’s son Abdollah Hosseinzadeh was stabbed to death in a street brawl in Iran. This would be the second child she lost in a tragic manner. The infuriated mother was certain that when the day came for the sentencing of Balal, her son’s murder, that she would exercise her right to kick the chair from under this murder’s feet. Days before the execution was to take place, her thoughts were ambivalent and she even had dreams of her son speaking to her. "Ten days before the execution was due I saw my son in a dream asking me not to take revenge, but I couldn't convince myself to forgive," she told the Guardian. "Two nights before that day, I saw him in the dream once Samereh Alinejad forgave her son’s killer again, but this time he refused to speak to me." (Dehghan,2014)

When the day came to administer the ultimate This act of forgiveness went viral on social form of revenge, Alinejad shocked the crowd of media news, and struck hearts around the men, women, and children. She looked her globe. “Forgiveness liberates the soul. That is son’s killer in the eye, slapped his face, and why it is such a powerful weapon” stated Nelson forgave him publicly. Samereh Alinejad and Mandela 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner. We “Forgiveness can be sure that it takes an insurmountable liberates the amount of strength and courage to forgive the soul. That is murderer of your child. However to take a step why it is such beyond forgiveness and to spare a life of a powerful another human, whom in the moment had no weapon” regard for the life of your love one is stated Nelson astonishing. This remarkable act of courage, humility, and more over forgiveness is Mandela motivation to all. For this reason Lamar 1993 Nobel University Center for Death Penalty Studies Peace Prize would like to nominate Samereh Alinejad for winner. the Nobel Peace Prize. Lamar Students supporting Samereh CDPL Newsletter, P.O.Box 10026, Beaumont, TX 77710 | (409) 880-8549 | www.fb.com/ deathpenaltylamar CDPL NEWSLETTER PAGE7 Latest News & Upcoming Executions in Texas TEXAS DEATH ROW CONTINUES TO SHRINK Juan Garcia (October With 2015 two-thirds over, the Texas 6) Department of Criminal Justice this year Licho Escamilla has yet to process a single new prisoner (October 14) into its death row unit in Huntsville. The Christopher Wilkins dramatic slowdown has caused the (October 28) Julius Murphy Polunsky Unit’s population to plunge to ( November 10) 257 residents, the lowest number since it Gilmar Guevara peaked at 460 in 1999. The main reason (November 10) is a drop in new death sentences. In 1999, Raohael Holiday 48 people were sentenced to Texas death (November 18) row, according to BJS data. In 2008, that number was nine — and has stayed in THE SOUTH HAS THE HIGHEST MURDER RATE three-drug formula. The that range ever since. This year, there This November the Justice Department case was brought by death row prisoners have been no new death sentences so far, released its annual Uniform Crime in Oklahoma, who argued that the state’s according to the Texas Department of Report for 2013. The report revealed an use of midazolam in this manner creates Criminal Justice (TDCJ). overall decline of 5.2% in the national an “objectively intolerable risk of harm.” murder rate, but the South again had the JUVENILE DEATH PENALTY IN PAKISTAN highest murder rate (5.3). INNOCENCE: ALFRED DEWAYNE BROWN IS Courts in Pakistan have refused to The Northeast had the lowest murder RELEASED FROM TEXAS DEATH ROW consider evidence that a man set to be rate--3.5 per 100,000 people-- Texas prosecutors in Harris County executed at dawn on Tuesday, September and the sharpest decline from last year. announced on June 8 that they have 29 was a child at the time of his The West had the second-lowest murder dismissed charges against Alfred Dewayne conviction. Ansar Iqbal was arrested in rate (4.0), followed by the Midwest (4.5). Brown, who had been sentenced to death 1994 on murder charges – which he The states with the highest murder rates in 2005 for the murders of a Houston denies – and sentenced to death in 1996, in the country were Louisiana (10.8) police officer and a store clerk during a despite telling the court he was 15 at the and Alabama (7.2). The states with the robbery. The Texas Court of Criminal time of his arrest. lowest rates were Iowa (1.4) Appeals had overturned Brown's and Hawaii (1.5). The Northeast has also conviction last year because prosecutors CRUCIFIXION IN SAUDI ARABIA: had the fewest executions in the modern withheld a phone record that supported Ali al-Nimr, the nephew of firebrand era, with 4, and none since 2005. The Brown's alibi. He is the 154th person Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, faces South has had the highest number of exonerated from death row since 1973, execution by beheading and an additional executions (1,132) since 1976. The the 13th in Texas, and the fourth in 2015. rare punishment of “crucifixion,” which average murder rate for states with the means publicly displaying the body after REPUBLICANS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY death penalty (4.4) was higher than the death as a warning to others, according to A Pew Research survey published this average rate for states without the death Saudi state media. Ansar Iqbal, who April indicates support for capital penalty (3.4). comes from a poor family, was not punishment among Republicans has registered at birth. At trial, he presented US SUPREME COURT ALLOWS USE OF fallen 10 percent in the past two decades. school records and a bay form which EXECUTION DRUG While the decline appears gradual, showed he was a child of 15 at the time On June 29, 2015, in a 5-4 decision, the Gallup Poll numbers show that of arrest. The Court dismissed the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion Republican support for the death penalty records. They decided to rely on a guess in Glossip v. Gross, ruling that the anti- dropped 5 percent from 2013 to 2014, given by police instead – they guessed he anxiety medication midazolam is from 81 percent to 76 percent. Continued on was “22-23”. constitutional for use as the first drug in a Page 8 CDPL Newsletter, P.O.Box 10026, Beaumont, TX 77710 | (409) 880-8549 | www.fb.com/ deathpenaltylamar CDPL NEWSLETTER PAGE8

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 would want to be treated by others. “In this CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 8. Do you believe in forgiveness? Why case, the defendant argued that she killed the If clemency had been or Why not? victim in self-defense after he made granted Sellers sentence would Yes. You forgive to help heal yourself, it’s unwelcome sexual advances toward her.” have been converted to life not for the assailant. It helps you continue This is the same argument that Jabbari without the possibility of your life and find peace in your walk with claimed. Cyntoia was a child at the time of parole. The United States God. the crime, and during the sentencing phase Supreme Court denied 9. At what point in your life, did you the jurors did not see a sixteen year-old Sellerslast appeal on begin to forgive your mother’s perpetrator? homeless child working the streets to survive, Wednesday, February 3, 1999 at It took me several years to forgive the but a mature woman. 7 p.m. He was executed on men who killed my mother. I worked with a February 4, 1999 at 12:17 a.m., program called Bridges to Life for many CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 a little over five hours after his years before I started feeling that the inmates Nebraska on Wednesday, May 27 became last appeal was denied. Sellers’, in prison were very much like me. All of us the first conservative state in more than four 29 years of age at the time, had done things we were ashamed of that decades to repeal the death penalty. spoke his last words singing, were against the law. I just didn’t get caught. Nebraska legislators overrode a veto from the “Set my spirit free that I might For that reason I feel I am more alike than state's governor, Republican Pete Ricketts, praise thee. Set my spirit free different than most of the men I’ve met in with the bare minimum number of votes that I might worship thee”. prison. We are all Children of God. needed to force through a bill in the state's Sean is one of over 20 unicameral legislature. Ricketts vetoed the individuals put to death after CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 bill last week, arguing the state should at least the death penalty was reinstated In conclusion, both cases are very similar have the option to pursue capital punishment in the United States in 1976. except one’s life was taken away. The Iran to protect the public, even if used rarely. The United States was and is in criminal justice system is very flawed, and Despite the news regarding the abolition of clear violation of Article 6.2 of the Cyntoia Brown case shows just how death penalty, the referendum to repeal a the CRC, which reads “States unfair it is. It was also confirmed that law that abolished the death penalty in parties shall ensure to the Cyntoia had mental illnesses and had a poor Nebraska has passed with enough approved maximum extent possible the background being placed in foster care and signatures and will now be on the ballot survival and development of homeless. At the time of the crime she was during the 2016 general election on Nov. 8. the child” while it still holds the sixteen years old, had nowhere to live and possibility of delivering a death knew nothing about self-respect or how she sentence to a juvenile. CDPL Newsletter, P.O.Box 10026, Beaumont, TX 77710 | (409) 880-8549 | www.fb.com/ deathpenaltylamar CDPL NEWSLETTER PAGE9

Your Success, Our Support: Students’ Success Story

Mayra Picon, Former Criminal Gir raud Stephens, Lamar Justice Graduate Student, University, Criminal Justice - Lamar Universty - Current: Current: Emerging Leader Ph.D student, Florida State Intern Washington, DC University The Congressional Black Caucus The Criminal Justice program at Foundation Internship program has Lamar University, along with the p re p a re d m e t o b e c o m e a supportive faculty, provided me with principled leader, skilled policy many opportunities to become a analyst and informed advocate on successful, well-rounded individual. Capitol Hill. Lamar University’s Mayra Picon Criminal Justice Department was A required internship as an very instrumental in helping undergraduate student eventually develop the skills necessary to led to my first job in the field, which succeed in any government arena. I worked in as I completed my Masters degree. Now, as a first-year Activities and Internships: U.S. doctoral student studying Department of Interior –Bureau of Criminology and Criminal Justice Land Management, Office of at Florida State University, I feel Safety, Occupational Health and confident knowing that Lamar has Emergency Management, prepared me with the knowledge Congressional Black Caucus and experience that a successful Foundation Leadership Institute Girraud Stephens career in academia requires. student

CDPL Newsletter, P.O.Box 10026, Beaumont, TX 77710 | (409) 880-8549 | www.fb.com/ deathpenaltylamar Interested in Criminal Lamar University criminal justice program supports Justice program? students’s personal and professional success through a comprehensive array of services. Peer mentoring, faculty coaching, student organizations, and career counseling all provide the tools for success in school and in practice. Degrees: • BA Criminal Justice • BS Criminal Justice • MS Criminal Justice Contact Us: Department Choose LAMAR of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice Lamar University Maes Building, Room 55 UNIVERSITY P.O. Box 10026 Beaumont, TX 77710 Phone: 409-880-8538 THE CDPL NEWSLETTER:Fax: 409-880-2324

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