July 9 SOUTH DAKOTA----execution date set//impending//volunteer Execution date, time set for Inmate Elijah Page The announcement came late Monday that Page, incarcerated for the March 2000 Spearfish torture and murder of Chester Allan Pouge, will be killed by lethal injection at 10 p.m. CDT in Sioux Falls. According to state law, in a capital punishment case the judge designates a week for the execution to occur, and the exact day and time of the execution is left to the warden's discretion. The warden is then required by state law to publicly announce the day and hour of the execution not less than 48 hours prior to the execution. Round's postponed Page's execution last year because state law at the time required the use of 2 specific drugs for lethal injection. State correction officials issued a new execution policy in June that allows prison officials to use discretion in determine the specific kinds of drugs used for lethal injection in South Dakota. The 25-year-old Athens, Texas native will be hooked up to two intravenous lines, one the primary line for the lethal injection and the 2nd a backup. According to this policy, 1st, sodium pentothal will be injected to make the inmate unconscious and not subject to unnecessary pain. The 2nd chemical, pancuronium bromide, will be used to stop his breathing. The 3rd, potassium chloride, will be injected to stop the heart. As for whether or not a stay of execution could take place again, the standard state procedure allows for any last minute appeals. If the governor, attorney general and chief justice of the state Supreme Court confirm that no last-minute appeals take place, Page will be moved into the execution chamber. Witnesses will then be brought into the witness rooms and curtains into the execution chamber will be opened after everything is ready. The warden will then give Page a chance to make a final statement. The drugs will then be injected and the county coroner will declare the inmate dead. (source: Black Hills Pioneer) ARKANSAS: Appeals Court Lifts Execution Stay Against Man----Victim's stepson, Rogers officer wait for execution A ruling from the 8th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals may pave the way for the execution of Don William Davis, convicted in the 1990 murder of Jane Daniel of Rogers. The judges on Monday lifted a stay of execution entered last July by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright. Davis, now 44, was set to be executed in 2006 but claimed death by lethal injection was unconstitutional because of the potential that he might not die quickly enough and therefore would suffer pain. Daniel's survivors remain skeptical about Davis' eventual death, as the family traveled to Pine Bluff, near Varner, for Davis' scheduled July 5, 2006, execution. Davis is in the Varner Supermax unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction. "We just need to see where it leads. It has kind of started the process again. We have been through it before," said Larry Daniel of Rogers, Jane Daniel's stepson, of Monday's ruling. "It gets very emotional. You kind of relive everything. It's one of those things that you want to get it done, so you can put it behind you and move forward," Larry Daniel said. "We are still waiting for the orders of the court to be carried out." Gov. Mike Beebe's office is aware the 8th Circuit 3-judge panel lifted the stay against Davis, according to Matt DeCample, Beebe's spokesman. If Davis has no more appeals, the attorney general's office will request Beebe to set Davis' execution date, DeCample said. Alvin Schay of Little Rock, Davis' attorney since about 2000, said Davis has at least three more chances to avoid the death penalty. Schay said he has 14 days to file a petition for a rehearing with all the 8th Circuit judges. If that is denied, Schay would file a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. A writ of certiorari is an order from a higher court asking the lower court to send all documents in a case for review. The U.S. Supreme Court grants writs at its discretion and only when at least 3 justices believe the case involves a significant federal question in the public interest. If the Supreme Court denies a writ of certiorari, the lower court decision stands. Davis also could ask Beebe for clemency, Schay said. Davis killed Jane Daniel at her Twin Lakes Estates home on Oct. 12, 1990. Davis shot her execution-style with a .44 Magnum and stole items from the home, including jewelry. Davis was convicted in 1992, filed an unsuccessful appeal in 1994 and was scheduled for execution by lethal injection on Nov. 22, 1999. However, the Supreme Court stayed Davis' 1999 execution to consider pending appeals. Davis in June 2001 claimed he did not want to appeal his death sentence after the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Davis did not have an ineffective attorney at trial and denied his request for a new trial. Wright issued a stay of execution last year after Davis appealed again. Davis' appeal came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Florida case that an appeal could be heard on the grounds the drug combination used in that state could cause pain, constituting cruel and unusual punishment. After Monday's 8th Circuit ruling, a detective who investigated Daniel's murder said it was time for Davis' death. "Last year's execution date was well past the time justice should been carried out. Now it is certainly time for justice to be done," said Capt. Ron Largent of the Rogers Police Department. "I am taking a wait-and-see attitude," said Capt. Mike Jones of the Benton County Sheriff's Office. The former Rogers police chief directed the murder investigation. "It should have already been taken care of," Jones said of Davis' execution. "I never cease to be amazed at the tricks some people can pull out of their hats." Betsey Wright, a Rogers resident opposed to the death penalty, said the ultimate punishment is unfairly administered. There are no statewide standards on who gets the death penalty and who is allowed to live, she said. "There are many people not on death row who committed murders identical to those that some who are on death row have committed," she said. The death penalty also runs contrary to Christian values and the values of democracy, Wright said, but she doesn't hold out hope for Davis. "I'm not optimistic that I can prevent his death," she said. (source: The Morning News) NORTH CAROLINA----new death sentence Waring sentenced to death A Wake County jury decided today to sentence Byron Waring to death a week after he was convicted of killing a 22-year-old woman in her apartment. Waring, 20, was convicted of 1st-degree murder June 28 in connection with the Nov. 8, 2005, death of Lauren Redman. The jury began their deliberations at 11:35 a.m. and returned their sentence at 2:30 p.m. Another man, Joseph "Joey" Sanderlin, also faces murder charges in Redman's death. Police believe Waring and Sanderlin attacked Redman, 22, in her West Raleigh apartment after meeting her the night before. Redman was stabbed and cut 47 times, to the point her intestines were exposed, and was raped. Waring confessed to police, telling them that Sanderlin raped Redman while he held her down. Waring's attorneys called numerous witnesses to testify before the jury, many of whom described Waring as being slow and having an IQ a little higher than that of mental retardation. His family described him as a follower who needed protection. The last time a Wake County jury handed down a death sentence was in 2001, despite several high-profile trials since then in which Wake prosecutors have asked for the punishment. Executions in North Carolina have been put on indefinite hold after legal objections raised by lawyers for condemned inmates. (source: The News & Observer) KANSAS: Attorney general seeks death penalty in Jodi Sanderholm killing Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison this afternoon filed his notice to seek the death penalty against Justin Thurber, accused of killing Jodi Sanderholm in January. The trial date was set for June 24, 2008. Thurber stood silent during the arraignment, and the court entered a not-guilty plea in his behalf. Thurber waived his right to a speedy trial to accommodate the complex litigation required in the case. Sanderholm was a Cowley College student in Arkansas City when she disappeared Jan. 5. Thurber has been charged with capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and aggravated sodomy in Sanderholm's death. (source: Wichita Eagle) ARIZONA: Ariz. high court upholds death sentence of husband-killer The Arizona Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence of a woman convicted of killing her cancer-stricken husband. The court rejected 11 separate arguments raised by lawyers for Wendi Andriano, 36, in an effort to have her 1st-degree murder conviction and death sentence overturned. Andriano was convicted in the Oct. 8, 2000, death of her husband, Joe Andriano, who was terminally ill with cancer. The couple lived in the Phoenix community of Ahwatukee. During the trial, the prosecutor Martinez characterized Andriano as a greedy, cheating wife who killed her cancer-stricken husband in a "shockingly evil" way. Martinez alleged Wendi Andriano tried to pass off her husband's death as a heart attack to get money from a malpractice lawsuit. Joe Andriano was struck in the head at least 23 times and stabbed in the neck. Investigators also found pesticide in his stomach and evidence that his wife had been trying to poison him for a substantial period. Wendi Andriano testified for 9 days in her own defense and claimed she had been battered by her husband. She said he flew into a rage when she told him she had an affair and the two got into a struggle with a knife. In her appeal, Wendi Andriano claimed that evidence of her affairs and efforts to buy life insurance policies for her ailing husband unfairly prejudiced her in front of the jury. She also argued that the jury should have been allowed to consider the lesser crimes of 2nd-degree murder and manslaughter. She raised questions about the jury's deliberations during the penalty phase, when it appeared deadlocked and the judge offered to answer legal questions to help them reach a decision, saying the judge's actions were jury coercion. And she claimed the state's method of execution by lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution because exact drug doses and potential problems with the technique are not spelled out in the law. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous 39-page opinion, rejected all in turn. Andriano is 1 of only 2 women on Arizona's death row. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S. DAK., ARK., N.C., KAN., ARIZ.
Rick Halperin Mon, 9 Jul 2007 22:51:16 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
