I received this from the ACLU this morning, and have written to Governor Brewer.
Daniel Cook is scheduled to be executed in Arizona on April 5, 2011. Please read the information below and take action to avert a serious miscarriage of justice. This is not a case where innocence is claimed, but one with serious mitigating circumstances that were not available at sentencing, partly because the judge refused a psychiatric evaluation.
The e-mail is copied below the squiggly thing.
16 March 2011
UA 76/11 - Death Penalty
USA Daniel Cook (m)
Daniel Cook is due to be executed in Arizona on 5 April after 23 years on
death row. The lead prosecutor from the 1988 trial has said that he would
not have sought the death penalty if he had known about Daniel Cook's
background of severe childhood abuse and mental disorders.
On the night of 19/20 July 1987, Carlos Cruz-Ramos and Kevin Swaney were
abused and killed in the apartment in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, shared by
Daniel Cook and another man John Matzke. On 21 July, John Matzke went to
the police and gave them a statement about the murders. The police went to
the apartment, found the bodies of the two victims, and arrested
25-year-old Daniel Cook.
John Matzke confessed to killing Carlos Cruz-Ramos, pleaded guilty to one
count of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The
prosecution dropped the two first-degree murder charges against him in
exchange for his testimony against Daniel Cook. The latter meanwhile was
appointed a lawyer who at the time was suffering from bipolar disorder and
was drinking heavily. A few weeks before his trial, Daniel Cook decided to
waive his right to counsel, later stating that he had believed that his
only options were to continue with a lawyer he viewed as incompetent or to
represent himself. He chose the latter (with the lawyer retained as
"advisory counsel"). The jury convicted him on both counts of first-degree
murder. The judge denied his request for a mental health expert to help him
to prepare for the sentencing, and Daniel Cook presented no mitigating
evidence.
The judge sentenced Daniel Cook to death. Although the judge had access to
some information on Daniel Cook's history of mental problems, including
repeated suicide attempts, it was far from what has been revealed since
trial. According to this more recently presented evidence, Daniel Cook was
subjected to severe and repeated physical and sexual abuse as a young child
and teenager by family members and others. He has been diagnosed as
suffering from organic brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder (see
overleaf for further information).
In a sworn statement signed in 2010, the lead prosecutor from the trial
said that had he known about this mitigating evidence, including that the
childhood abuse Daniel Cook suffered "mirrored the circumstances
surrounding the crime", he "would not have sought the death penalty in this
case". The former prosecutor also recalled that the appointed trial lawyer
was "at the low end of the competency scale for the handling of the defense
of a standard felony" and "appeared neither capable nor willing to put
forth the effort necessary to represent a defendant charged with a capital
offense". He added that Daniel Cook "was clearly not competent to act as
his own council."
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
In 2010, Daniel Cook's appeal lawyer retained a psychiatrist with expertise
in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and extensive experience in
working with the victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse. The following
details are included in her evaluation of Daniel Cook as summarized in a
sworn statement dated 21 November 2010.
Daniel Cook was subjected to severe abuse as an infant at the hands of his
father, including beatings with a belt and being burned on the penis with a
cigarette. At the age of three, he was sent to live with his grandmother
and step-grandfather. The latter subjected the boy to sexual abuse, as well
as forcing him and his sister, who was 11 months older than Daniel, to
sexually molest each other. The grandparents also subjected the children to
physical abuse; including tying them to chairs and making the boy eat his
own vomit. When Daniel Cook was nine, his grandmother died and the two
children went to live with their mother and her new husband. The children
were subjected to further physical abuse, including beatings with a belt,
and Daniel was subjected to further sexual abuse by one of his older
step-brothers. In addition, Daniel Cook experienced several suicide
attempts by his mother who reportedly suffered from bipolar disorder.
When Daniel Cook was 14 years old, his mother gave up custody of him and he
was placed in a home for boys. There he was subjected to further sexual
abuse by a "house parent", who is currently serving a prison term for such
crimes. Daniel Cook was also allegedly tied up and raped by other
individuals at the home. He ran away on a number of occasions, and was
eventually discharged from the home at the age of 16. At the age of 18 he
enlisted in the US Army Reserve, but within three months had attempted
suicide by overdose and was discharged. He made a number of suicide
attempts in the following years and was placed in psychiatric hospitals on
several occasions. During those years, he was variously diagnosed with
schizophrenia, acute psychosis, alcohol addiction, passive aggressive
personality, depression, and dependent personality disorder.
In her 2010 declaration, the psychiatrist stated that, in her opinion, "had
Mr. Cook been allowed a proper mental health evaluation in preparation for
sentencing", he would have been diagnosed with a variety of disorders,
including PTSD, organic mental syndrome, and amphetamine delusional
disorder. At the time of the crime, Daniel Cook and John Matzke were using
crystal methamphetamine, and had smoked marijuana and consumed large
amounts of alcohol. Daniel Cook had also taken Valium that day.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases,
unconditionally, regardless of the crime or the offender, or the method
used to kill the prisoner. To end the death penalty is to abandon a
degrading, destructive, diversionary and divisive public policy that is not
consistent with widely held values. It not only runs the risk of
irrevocable error, it is also costly, in social and psychological terms as
well as to the public purse. It has not been proved to have a unique
deterrent effect. It tends to be applied in a discriminatory way, on
grounds of race and class. It diverts resources that could be better used
to work against violent crime and assist those affected by it. The death
penalty extends the suffering of the victim's family to that of the
condemned prisoner.
There have been 1,243 executions in the USA since judicial killing resumed
there in 1977, including nine so far this year. Arizona has executed 24
people since resuming executions in 1992. Twenty-two of them were put to
death under a three-drug lethal injection process (sodium thiopental,
pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride) used in most US death penalty
states to anesthetize, paralyze and kill the prisoner. A shortage of sodium
thiopental resulting from the sole US manufacturer's suspension of
production of the drug and its decision earlier this year to withdraw from
the market has led to US death penalty states looking to each other, to the
federal government, and to sources overseas for solutions. Arizona is one
of the states that have obtained lethal injection drugs from a company in
the United Kingdom in recent months (see Urgent Action update, 28 October
2010, http://www.amnesty.org/....
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Acknowledging the seriousness of the crime for which Daniel Wayne Cook
was sentenced to death;
- Noting that the prosecutor has pointed to the inadequacy of Daniel Cook's
representation at trial, and said that he would not have pursued a death
sentence if he had known about Cook's childhood abuse and mental disorders;
- Pointing to the disparity in sentences given to the two defendants in
this case;
- Calling on the governor to commute Dan Cook's death sentence.
APPEALS TO:
The Honorable Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona
1700 West Washington
Phoenix, AZ 85007
USA
Fax: 1 602 542 1381
Email: azgov@azgov.com
Salutation: Dear Governor