Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos said Friday that her Office will seek to have an appellate court overturn a trial judge’s ruling against the Texas death penalty statute.
The District Attorney told news reporters that she is disturbed by the delays caused by this ruling. The case had been set for jury selection on March 31. During routine pretrial hearings on Thursday, state District Judge Kevin Fine made his ruling that prevents prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against defendant John Edward Green Jr., 25.
Green is charged with capital murder in the robbery and killing of a mother in the driveway of her home on June 8, 2008. She was shot in front of her young daughters, and her sister was wounded in the attack.
Lykos noted that the victim’s family, which emigrated from Vietnam, is devastated by the unforeseen delay in the case. "They are ready for a trial and want to see that justice is done," she said.
Prosecutors Kari Allen and Bill Exley said the victim’s family had been waiting almost two years for trial and had been preparing emotionally.
"This ruling has saddened and frustrated them," Exley said.
Judge Fine on Friday limited his ruling to a due process claim. Such challenges have been routinely denied by both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We have well settled law and that makes this even more troubling,"
Lykos said. "The Texas death penalty statute is constitutional."
Alan Curry, Chief of the District Attorney’s Appellate Division, stated that it is uncertain how long the appeal process would delay the proceedings in the case. The next hearing in the case is set for Wednesday.
Lykos verified that this would not affect capital cases pending in the other 21 state District Courts of Harris County.
"The DA’s Office protects the rights of those investigated and those accused," Lykos said. "And we will continue to vigorously prosecute the guilty."
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts announced this week that Harris County has won the Gold Leadership Circle Award for its efforts to make its finances open and accessible to all county residents.
In a letter to County Judge Ed Emmett, officials with the Comptroller’s Office congratulated the county for "implementing financial transparency" and for achieving a perfect score of 15 points in the rating criteria. Local governments are judged on their success in opening their books to the public, providing clear, consistent pictures of spending, and sharing information in a user-friendly format that allows taxpayers to access more information.
The Gold Leadership Circle Award is reserved for those local governments "that are setting the bar in their transparency efforts," according to the Comptroller’s Web site, at www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/checkup/leadership.php.
"The commissioners and I certainly appreciate the Comptroller’s Office’s recognition of the county’s efforts to ensure that our residents have quick and easy access to as much of our financial information as possible," Emmett said. "We always strive to be as open as possible with county residents. After all, it’s their money, and they have the right to know how it’s being handled."
The Dutch security company Safeberg today announced a Paper Key for its online backup service for doctors, notaries, lawyers and other people that value privacy. The paper key provides secure access to backup data and can be stored away from the computer, in a safe, deposit box or at a notary office.
Stefan Hoevenaar, founder of Safeberg: "Online backup is very practical. But can it offer privacy? Can a doctor backup patient files online? Would you backup your life online? With those questions in mind we developed the Offline Private Key Protocol (OPKP) and the Paper Key."
The OPKP security protocol demands that the private (decryption) key should be stored away from the ‘source’ computer. As a result, the private key needs to be fairly large to be secure: Safeberg uses 4,096 bits RSA keys, which, according to government and military standards, should at least be secure for the next 30 years.
Stefan Hoevenaar: "4,096 bits is about 800 characters... How can you store that offline? Would you trust that key to a USB stick for a few years?"
The Safeberg Trusted Paper Key is a 4,096 bits RSA key encoded in a 2D Datamatrix Barcode. To use the key, the user can take a picture with a camera or mobile phone. Safeberg released this video on key strength that tells the story about the key.
Safeberg Backup will be released early May 2010.
Safeberg is a security company based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. www.safeberg.com