The Washington Post - 07.03.2020

SATURDAy, MARCH 7 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

ALABAMA

Accomplice in killing

of officers is e xecuted

A man convicted as an

accomplice in another man’s

killing of three Alabama police

officers in 2004 was executed

Thursday evening.

Inmate Nathaniel Woods, 43,

was pronounced dead at

9:01 p.m. Central time Thursday

following a lethal injection at the

state prison in Atmore,

authorities said.

Alabama’s first execution of

the year came after a last-minute

bid to stop it, which included

support from the son of civil

rights leader the Rev. Martin

Luther King Jr. and others who

argued it was unfair to execute a

man who didn’t pull the trigger

in the slaying.

The state of Alabama said

Woods was an active participant

with the slayings and had

bragged about it afterward in

statements, song lyrics and art.

The U.S. Supreme Court

issued a temporary stay to

consider last-minute appeals but

ultimately denied the inmate’s

petitions. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey

(R) denied a request for

clemency.

Woods and Kerry Spencer

were convicted of capital murder

and sentenced to death in the

slayings of the three

Birmingham officers. The

officers’ deaths in a hail of

gunfire rocked Alabama’s largest

city in 2004. Carlos Owen,

Harley A. Chisolm III and

Charles R. Bennett died while

trying to serve a misdemeanor

domestic assault warrant on

Woods at a suspected drug

house.

Prosecutors said Spencer, who

was convicted before Woods and

is on death row, was the

triggerman in the slaying.

— Associated Press

TEXAS

Woman who beheaded

daughter is convicted

A Te xas woman accused of

stabbing and beheading her

5-year-old daughter in 2017 has

been convicted of capital murder

and sentenced to life in prison.

A Hays County jury on

Thursday convicted Krystle

Villanueva, 27, in the death of

her daughter, Giovanna

Hernandez. The girl was killed at

their home in Kyle, located

about 20 miles southwest of

Austin.

Jurors also found Villanueva

guilty of aggravated assault with

a deadly weapon in the stabbing

of the girl’s grandfather, who

survived.

A judge sentenced Villanueva

to life in prison without parole.

Villanueva was arrested after

police were called to the home

she shared with Giovanna, the

girl’s father and his parents.

Prosecutors said Villaneuva

told a 911 operator that she

killed her daughter because “she

asked for cereal” and then

stabbed her father-in-law.

Her defense attorney, Carlos

Garcia, said Villaneuva suffered

from psychosis for many years.

He said that on the day of the

attack, she believed her family

had been taken over by clones.

— Associated Press

DIGEST

Politics & the Nation

BY SHAWN MULCAHY

chicago — In t he harshly lit gym
of the Cook County jail, a complex
of concrete and barbed wire on
the city’s West S ide, five visitors sit
at a plastic folding table. Five
chairs face them.
An officer tells inmates to line
up along a wall, then directs them
one by one to sit down. That’s
when the visitors — volunteers
from the civic advocacy group
Chicago Votes — start talking
about the upcoming Illinois pri-
mary and helping the men who
are interested to register for cast-
ing a ballot.
For the first time, the jail will b e
its own polling precinct in this
month’s primary election.
More than four decades after
the Supreme Court upheld the
right to vote for people in pretrial
detention, many Americans re-
main blocked from exercising
that right because states don’t
have procedures in place to allow
access. Illinois is no longer one of
them, with a new law requiring all
jails to ensure that some 20,
pretrial detainees have an oppor-
tunity to vote.
Most counties are complying
by distributing absentee ballots
upon request until the voter-reg-
istration deadline, but the law
directs any jurisdiction of more
than 3 million residents — which
is only Cook County — to set up
actual voting machines within a
facility’s confines.
In Chicago, Sheriff To m Dart is
an enthusiastic supporter. The jail
he oversees is the nation’s second
largest. About 95 percent of its
5,700 inmates are awaiting trial,
some of them for as long as a few
years.
“I don’t k now if there’s a heck of
a lot more [than voting] that con-
nects you to your community,”
Dart said. “You’re connected be-
cause you’re engaged in the issues
that matter in your community.
You’re making your voice heard.”
The jail will have more than a
half-dozen temporary polling lo-
cations supervised by the Cook
County Clerk’s O ffice and Chicago
Board of Elections, which expect
much interest given the presiden-
tial campaign and contentious
races for state’s attorney and a
congressional seat. Voting will
ta ke place in the jail’s gyms, cha-
pels, law library and other special
spaces during the two weekends
leading up to the March 17 elec-
tion.
“Even though I’m not out t here,
I want better,” said 53-year-old
Archie Collins, who is facing a
drug charge. “So, whatever it
ta kes to make this a better world, I
got my hands in.”
It’s quite a turnaround for the
jail, which was mired in contro-
versy when Dart took office in

2006. Two years later, a federal

Justice Department report identi-

fied systematic violations of in-

mates’ constitutional rights, in-

cluding physical abuse by officers,

inadequate medical care a nd dan-

gerous building conditions.

Dart has since led significant

operational changes and added

features such as wood-fired pizza

ovens, a beekeeping program and

even a hydroponics system con-

nected to the jail’s community

garden.

“We’re at this unique point

where so many of the things that

are broken in our society are com-

ing in,” he said in an interview.

“We can put s trategies together to

try to address it that help human

beings and save society tons of

money.”

For the primary, the sheriff

worked with Chicago’s public t ele-

vision station to air two-minute

videos inside the jail on local can-

didates’ backgrounds and posi-

tions. He a lso invited educators to

teach civics classes. This election

cycle alone, Chicago Votes made

11 visits and registered nearly

1,500 inmates to vote.

“By the time we get done with

this, the folks voting here are

going to be more educated about

the election and the candidates

than the average voter,” Dart said.

More than 462,000 people who

have not been convicted of a crime

are locked up in local jails across

the country, according to the Pris-

on Policy Initiative. Advocates say

preventing them from voting is a

serious civil rights violation.

“We have no sound policy rea-

son for excluding people in the

criminal justice system from our

voting and election systems,” said

Ami Gandhi, senior counsel for

the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee

for Civil Rights. “The exclusion

has happened purely so that peo-

ple currently in power could hang

onto their power and manipulate

who is eligible to vote for their

own political advantage.”

A county commissioner in Har-

ris County, Tex., which includes

Houston and one of the nation’s

largest jails, proposed designat-

ing that facility as a polling pre-

cinct. But the plan, which lacked

the force of law, stalled last year

because of security, Internet con-

nectivity and other logistical con-

cerns.

Gandhi and a coalition of activ-

ists first took the issue to the

Illinois General Assembly in 2018

with the backing of Juliana Strat-

ton, a legislator representing part

of Chicago at the time.

“I think this is an opportunity

to make sure that people are re-

stored to the community a nd have

the full rights that are available to

them,” said Stratton (D), who is

now lieutenant governor. “Voting

is one of those rights.”

The “Voting in Jails” b ill cleared

both chambers but was vetoed by

then-Gov. Bruce Rauner (R). He

told lawmakers that while he sup-

ported “expansion of access,” re-

quiring jail officials to take part in

voter registration and education

efforts exceeded “the legitimate

role of law enforcement.”

Undeterred, supporters rein-

troduced the bill in 2019 after G ov.

J.B. Pritzker (D) took office. It

passed overwhelmingly, and

Pritzker signed it into law in Au-

gust.

State Sen. Omar Aquino (D),

the measure’s sponsor, said that

while other states put up new

barriers to voting, “it’s quite pro-

gressive of the state of Illinois to

do the opposite.”

Illinois is among 17 states that

prohibit only those serving a sen-

tence from voting. Upon a prison-

er’s r elease, voting r ights are auto-

matically restored.

Ye t even explicit voting protec-

tions often fall short in practice,

noted Danielle Lang of the Cam-

paign Legal Center, a D.C.-based

national nonprofit that supports

greater access to voting. “Unlike

some other voting barriers that

you might consider to be tradi-

tional red state-blue state issues,

issues around access to voting in

jail are endemic in most states.”

Legislatures nationwide have

long imposed policies that can

suppress minority participation,

often intentionally. More than a

dozen states have restrictive voter

ID laws, including several with

tough p hoto ID rules, according to

the Brennan Center for Justice.

Some election officials have ag-

gressively purged voter rolls, es-

pecially in states with a history of

discrimination, a 2018 Brennan

Center report detailed.

Florida voters went the other

way that year, approving a consti-

tutional amendment that auto-

matically restored voting r ights to

nearly 1.4 million residents who

had finished serving felony con-

victions. But Republican lawmak-

ers subsequently passed a mea-

sure requiring that ex-felons re-

pay all court-mandated fees be-

fore registering to vote — a move

that some activists labeled a mod-

ern-day poll tax.

The state’s Supreme Court up-

held the law in January, blocking

many people from taking part in

the presidential primary there on

March 17. A federal appeals court

has declared the law unconstitu-

tional, but for now its ruling ap-

plies only to the 17 plaintiffs who

brought the suit.

And on Tuesday, a federal ap-

peals court ruled that Ohio elec-

tion officials d on’t h ave to provide

absentee ballots to individuals

jailed after the deadline for re-

questing such a ballot. By compar-

ison, people hospitalized because

of an accident or medical emer-

gency can still ask for an absentee

ballot through part of Election

Day.

Illinois may become a model —

or inspiration — with its new law.

“I think everybody’s looking at

that law now as the standard,”

said Chiraag Bains, legal strate-

gies director at the liberal think

tank Demos.

Among those closely watching

its implementation is Elly Kalfus,

an organizer with the Emancipa-

tion Initiative in Massachusetts.

Kalfus led a vote-by-mail cam-

paign in jails there in 2018 and

lobbied state lawmakers for a bill

similar to the one that passed in

Illinois. T hat bill is still pending.

People who experience the

criminal justice system as defen-

dants have typically been exclud-

ed from policy discussions, she

noted. “Once people in jail are

actually allowed to vote, that

could potentially change things.”

Cook County and Chicago elec-

tion officials don’t anticipate any

technical problems when inmates

head to the jail’s polls. The sheriff

says their voting will be a major

step forward. But there’s much

more to do, in his view.

“The only thing that keeps me

here,” Dart said, “is if we take

these ideas of ours and spread

them to the rest of the country.”

[email protected]

For first time, Chicago jail

becomes a polling precinct

JOSHUA LOTT FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart oversees the second-largest jail in the country, with 5,700 inmates, about 95 percent of whom are

awaiting trial. An Illinois law passed last year requires all jails to ensure that pretrial detainees have an opportunity to vote.

BY SPENCER S. HSU

AND ANN E. MARIMOW

House Democrats asked a fed-
eral appeals court in Washington
on Friday to reconsider enforcing
a congressional subpoena for
President Trump’s former White
House counsel D onald McGahn.
The request comes after a divid-
ed panel of the U.S. Court of Ap-
peals for the D.C. Circuit found
that the c ourts have no authority to
resolve the separation-of-powers
dispute between the White House
and Democrats in Congress.
Lawyers for House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) want a full
complement of judges on the ap-
peals court to overturn the ruling
from a three-judge panel of the
same court. If last week’s ruling
stands, it means McGahn can d efy
the subpoena from the House Ju-
diciary C ommittee.
Even if the full D.C. Circuit
agrees to take a second look, the
case is likely to be appealed to the
Supreme C ourt.
“The stakes of the Committee’s
inquiry are exceedingly high,” the
House argued in a 17-page appeal.
“The Committee is investigating
allegations of President Trump’s
improper political influence into
ongoing criminal matters. Mc-
Gahn was a key eyewitness to
these events whom President
Trump tried to enlist in this
wrongdoing. P resident Trump has
countered that McGahn is lying.
The Committee must hear from
McGahn directly.”
Attorneys for the House said
the 2-to-1 ruling conflicts with a
1976 precedent in which the cir-
cuit court upheld the House’s
standing to intervene in a lawsuit
the Justice Department filed to

block AT&T from complying with

a subcommittee subpoena.

Blocking the McGahn subpoe-

na, the House argued, is “sorely

misguided” because it under-

mines Congress’s constitutional

authority to check a president’s

powers and encourages presiden-

tial stonewalling by future execu-

tives who can rest secure knowing

that “direct, widescale noncompli-

ance” i s irremediable.

House Democrats went to court

after Trump blocked McGahn’s

testimony, saying the key presi-

dential adviser c ould not b e forced

to answer questions or turn over

documents.

Judge Thomas B. Griffith, writ-

ing for the majority, agreed with

the Justice Department argument

that courts should stay o ut of such

political d isputes.

In d issent, J udge Judith W. R og-

ers said the high court has long

recognized Congress’s power to

investigate and subpoena infor-

mation and warned the ruling un-

dermines l egislative oversight.

Ordering McGahn to appear be-

fore the committee, she wrote,

does not require the court to

choose sides because the subpoe-

na is not a demand for McGahn to

answer specific questions — only

to appear in person.

The third judge on the panel,

Karen LeCraft Henderson, agreed

with Griffith’s overall judgment

but rejected a Trump administra-

tion claim that top White House

aides enjoy “absolute immunity”

from compelled testimony.

The House committee subpoe-

naed McGahn in August before

the start of formal impeachment

proceedings. Lawmakers said Mc-

Gahn was the “most important”

witness on the question of wheth-

er Trump obstructed justice in

special counsel Robert S. Mueller

III’s Russia investigation.

Before Trump was acquitted in

the S enate on Feb. 5, House l awyers

said McGahn’s testimony was still

critical to establish a pattern of al-

leged m isconduct b y the p resident.

In Friday’s filing, attorneys for

the House argued the panel erro-

neously relied on a 1997 case in

which the Supreme Court later

said six members of Congress

could not go to court to challenge

the constitutionality of a statute.

The case did not say a whole com-

mittee backed by the full House

could not sue, the f iling argued.

They a rgued the panel’s s ugges-

tion that the s tandoff was strictly a

“political dispute” b est resolved by

regular checks and balances be-

tween the legislative and execu-

tive branches “downplayed the

significance of its ruling.”

The accommodations process —

by which both s ides typically nego-

tiate compliance with legislative

oversight demands — “operates

against the backstop of potential

judicial enforcement,” the House

warned. Remove that backstop,

and Congress’s investigative pow-

er “is essentially m eaningless.”

The tools the panel suggested

Congress employ — such as im-

peachment, withholding funds

and shutting down the govern-

ment, or having the House ser-

geant at arms make arrests to en-

force a subpoena — “only invite

further constitutional brinkman-

ship and are poor substitutes for

judicial subpoena enforcement,”

the House said.

The court is expected to ask the

Justice Department to respond.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Overturn of McGahn r uling s ought

House Democrats ask

for full-court review

of decision on subpoena

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