May 4 INDIANA: Death Row inmate plans to seek clemency hearing----Man is scheduled to be executed May 25 for the 1985 slaying of Anderson woman. A man sentenced to die by chemical injection this month for killing an 82-year-old Anderson woman during a burglary has indicated he plans to ask Gov. Mitch Daniels to spare his life. Earl Coleman, the assistant for the Indiana Parole Board, said Gregory Johnson on Monday was given information about seeking clemency and said he wanted a clemency hearing. Johnson's attorney, Michelle Kraus, of Fort Wayne, was not in the office Tuesday and was unavailable for comment, her assistant said. Coleman said Johnson was expected to file the clemency request by Friday. The Indiana Parole Board is tentatively scheduled to meet May 16 at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City to hear from Johnson. A public hearing on his clemency request is tentatively scheduled for May 20 in Indianapolis, with the board expected to vote later that day. Johnson, 40, is scheduled to be put to death May 25 for killing Ruby Hutslar in 1985. Authorities said he stomped Hutslar to death during a burglary. He was convicted in 1986. 2 people executed in Indiana in the past 2 months did not go through the normal clemency process. Donald Ray Wallace, put to death March 10, and Bill J. Benefiel, executed April 21, did not seek clemency through the Parole Board. The last inmate to seek clemency from the governor through the Parole Board was Darnell Williams last year. Williams became the 1st person facing execution to be granted clemency by an Indiana governor in 48 years. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMA: County man on death row appeals conviction Mistake piled on mistake during a trial that landed a man on Oklahoma's death row, but the worst was a defense witness whose testimony backfired and made the jury suspicious, his attorney told a federal appeals court Tuesday. John Albert Boltz is asking the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse his 1984 first-degree murder conviction in the stabbing death of his stepson, 22-year-old Doug Kirby, in Shawnee. During his trial, Boltz argued he acted in self-defense. He said Kirby came to his Pottawatomie County home to confront him after Boltz had come to believe his estranged wife, Pat Kirby, had been unfaithful. Boltz's new attorney, Jim Hankins, told a 3-judge panel of the appeals court that Boltz had insisted that his defense attorney call his friend Ralph Robertson as his first witness. Robertson testified that he found a bullet in Boltz's home that matched a gun found in Kirby's car, suggesting Kirby had fired at Boltz before the stabbing, Hankins said. But Hankins called that "obviously contrived" because Robertson was not a ballistics expert, and the gun and bullet did not match. Robertson's testimony "set the tone that nothing the trial lawyer said could be believed, that there was manufactured evidence, and the jury's in a position where nothing that Mr. Boltz says can be believed." Judges appeared skeptical of the argument. "The point is, what difference does all this make?" Judge Deanell Tacha asked. Hankins said Boltz's trial attorney presented questionable evidence and testimony, undermining his and his client's credibility. Oklahoma Assistant Attorney General Preston Draper argued there were no serious mistakes in the case because Boltz had told his attorney to have Robertson testify and told him not to present mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase. Tacha and Judge Timothy Tymkovich said a competent attorney would advise against strategies that could prove harmful. Draper said the defense trial lawyer had concerns but said that even if Boltz's moves were mistakes, he wanted to follow his client's wishes and didn't think it would hurt the case. "We have to let our clients have some sort of say in their cases," Draper said. The judges did not say when they might rule. (source: Associated Press)
