[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., OKLA., S.C.

[Rick Halperin]

June 20


PENNSYLVANIA:

Wholaver buys time District attorney: We're back where we started


As prosecutors expected, Ernest R. Wholaver Jr.'s execution scheduled for
today has been delayed after the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas
granted a stay of execution.

"Execution is a long way off," said Fran Chardo, first assistant to the
Dauphin County District Attorney.

Wholaver, a former Middletown resident convicted of killing 3 family
members, was sentenced to death in August 2004.

He shot his wife Jean and daughters Victoria, 20, and Elizabeth, 15 at
their North Union Street home on Christmas Eve 2002 after his daughters
accused him of sexual abuse and his wife filed for divorce.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which automatically reviews all state
death penalty cases, upheld Wholaver's death sentence last August.

In addition, Wholaver was to lose his right to direct appeal of issues not
automatically reviewed by the courts because his public defender failed to
meet the deadline to file such complaints. Wholaver, however, claimed he
had wanted to file an appeal but that his attorney failed to do so.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that, if Wholaver's claims were true,
Wholaver's right to appeal should be reinstated. The county district
attorneys office conceded that Wholaver's attorney had failed him, Chardo
said. The D.A.s concession cleared the way for the Dauphin County Court of
Common Pleas to grant the stay of execution, which postpones the
execution.

"We're essentially back to where we started 3 years ago," Chardo said.

Wholaver has potential avenues for appeal at 4 levels of the judicial
system: Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania Supreme Court,
U.S. Third Circuit Court and U.S. Supreme Court, Chardo said.

The U.S. Supreme Court in January refused to hear the case, Chardo said.

Prosecutors cleared one hurdle when Gov. Ed Rendell signed Wholaver's
death warrant on April 25.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Wholaver is being held
at a "close security" state prison in Greene County, a facility where most
of the state's capital case inmates are held.

Wholaver was accused in July 2004 of sexually abusing his daughters. His
wife filed for divorce and also for a Protection From Abuse order to
prevent Wholaver from entering the South Union Street house.

After the murders, prosecutors consolidated that sex abuse case with the
murder case, but the jury found Wholaver not guilty of the sexual abuse
charges.

As of May 1, 2007, Pennsylvania courts have sentenced 225 people to death
since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

Statewide, 3 executions have been carried out, including the death of
Dauphin County murderer Keith Zettlemoyer in May 1995.

(source: Press and Journal)






OKLAHOMA:

Attorney General seeks execution date


A request by Attorney General Drew Edmondson for the state court to set an
execution date in the case of Frank Duane Welch could result in the
state's 3rd execution this year.

Frank Duane Welch, 45, was convicted of killing 29-year-old Jo Talley
Cooper of Norman in 1987.

The case went unsolved for nearly a decade until he was convicted of an
almost identical murder. The DNA evidence from that case tied him to the
Cooper case.

Attorney General Edmondson's request was made after the U.S. Supreme Court
denied Welch's final appeal.

Also currently on death row, scheduled for execution June 26, is Tillman
County inmate Jimmy Dale Bland. Bland shot and killed 62-year-old Doyle
Windle Rains 11 years ago.

Bland's attorney made several attempts with the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole
Board to grant Bland clemency due to advanced lung cancer. He has been
unsuccessful.

The 1st Oklahoman executed in 2007 was 38-year-old Corey Duane Hamilton.
He was convicted of murdering four fast-food employees in 1992, and was
executed Jan. 9.

(source: KJRH News)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

SC Supreme Court: Death row inmate can't drop appeals


The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that a death row inmate who
acted as his own lawyer during his 1996 trial can't drop his appeals and
be executed, or continue to represent himself on appeal.

James Earl Reed was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend's parents in
Charleston County.

Prosecutors said Reed killed Joseph and Barbara Lafayette in their Adams
Run home in 1994 while he was looking for his ex-girlfriend.

Reed has consistently maintained his innocence.

He has been fighting with his court-appointed attorneys for years since
his conviction, claiming his lawyers want to see him executed.

A date for Reed's execution has not been scheduled.

(source: The Associated Press)