Jan. 10 OHIO: Strickland gets 1st death penalty case from parole board In the 1st death-penalty case to reach him, Gov. Ted Strickland today received a recommendation opposing clemency for a Trumbull County killer. The Ohio Parole Board voted unanimously against sparing the life of Ken Biros, 48. He is scheduled for execution on Jan. 23 for the Feb. 7, 1991, dismemberment slaying of 22-year-old Tami Engstrom. The board said that the brutality and violence of the offense outweighed any arguments in favor of clemency. Further, there was no manifest injustice or fundamental unfairness in the case, the board concluded in a recommendation sent this morning to the new governor. Biros' execution is already on hold by order of a federal judge. However, the last execution also was on hold, but a federal appeals court ruling reversed the decision overnight, allowing the lethal injection of Jeffrey Lundgren to proceed on Oct. 24. Strickland, a Democrat who supports capital punishment, has indicated he will likely order a delay in Biros' case and perhaps the scheduled execution of James Filiaggi on Feb. 13 to give him more time to review the cases. Under Ohio law, once the governor has a parole board recommendation, he has unlimited power to grant clemencies, reprieves or allow the execution to proceed. (source: Columbus Dispatch) INDIANA: New appeal planned for condemned man A death row inmate's attorney plans to appeal a federal ruling that has denied him a stay of execution. U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Young's written decision Tuesday dismissed the claim that Norman Timberlake, 59, is too mentally ill to be executed. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection Jan. 19. Brent Westerfeld, Timberlake's attorney, said his client is "severely mentally ill" and plans to appeal Tuesday's ruling to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The Indiana attorney general's spokeswoman, Staci Schneider, declined to comment on the ruling. Timberlake has another lawsuit pending before Young. It argues that Indiana's lethal injection procedures could cause unnecessary pain, amounting to cruel and unusual punishment. Timberlake was convicted in the 1993 shooting death of Indiana State Police Master Trooper Michael E. Greene during a traffic stop on I-65 in Indianapolis. A psychiatrist hired by the Indiana Supreme Court last year found Timberlake likely suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, including delusions. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the execution of insane people is unconstitutional. But Young deferred to the Indiana court's evaluation, which also showed Timberlake understood that he would be executed and the reason why -- a common guideline used by courts. Young's ruling doesn't take into account the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week to hear arguments in a similar execution case that could settle the debate over what "insanity" means, Westerfeld said. That case was brought by a Texas inmate, Scott Panetti, who also is mentally ill. "I'd say that by the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue a definitive opinion on what the correct test is," Westerfeld said. Timberlake has petitioned Gov. Mitch Daniels for clemency. The governor will decide after the state Parole Board votes on a recommendation Tuesday. (source: Indianapolis Star) ***************** Sister Prejean: Even Saddam's death offends dignity----Death penalty opponent to speak here Friday Sister Helen Prejean says a lot of people miss the point in Saddam Hussein's execution. "They're making a huge deal that they (the executors) weren't respectful," she says. "To me, they were all talking about the icing on the cake ... that they (executors) should not have taunted him." The "the ultimate indignity," Prejean says, is the decision to execute -- regardless of how bad the character -- a decision that means, "I just so disrespect your life that I am going to kill you." The Roman Catholic nun is the death penalty opponent made famous by the 1995 movie "Dead Man Walking." She will speak at 7 p.m. Friday at Little Flower Catholic Church, 54191 N. Ironwood Drive, South Bend, in line with events to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. That is free to the public. She spoke by phone Monday with The Tribune (it just so happens that her voice does resemble that of the actress who portrayed her, Susan Sarandon, at least a bit). That morning, she says, the English-language version of Arab network Aljazeera interviewed her on the death penalty globally. Prejean has accompanied six people to their execution. Those on Death Row, she says, often hope that they don't faint before they reach their execution, asking her, "Please pray that God holds up my legs because I want to die with dignity." It doesn't matter to her how many people died because of Hussein. "One human being lost is a whole universe lost," she says. She says the Catholic church long upheld the "dignity of innocent life," but only innocent life. Then Pope John Paul II took it a step further when he wrote what she calls a loophole. He wrote that a government may execute in rare cases of "absolute necessity." But, she says, some countries may interpret "absolute necessity" to be violation of adultery laws. After she and other church members spoke with him in 1997, the pope removed words in the church's official catechesis that said execution was OK in "cases of grievous crimes." The number of death sentences given in the United States fell from 128 in 2005 to 114 or fewer in 2006, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, based in Washington, D.C. And there were a total of 53 executions in 2006, down from 60 in 2005. Prejean, like many critics and attorneys, says the numbers dropped because folks are questioning the guilt of those on death row, pointing out how 123 have been exonerated since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Also, she says: "People are looking at Iraq. Killing and violence leads to more killing and violence." (source: South Bend Tribune) MISSOURI: Execution debate hits Missouri court today Missouri has botched its execution process and tried to hide its failures, attorneys are expected to argue today in a federal appeals court on behalf of the next killer scheduled to die. In effect, the lawyers will argue for all the state's condemned prisoners, whose hopes ride on preserving a judge's finding that state procedures pose too great a threat of cruel punishment. Lawyers from Attorney General Jay Nixon's office, representing the Department of Corrections, will try to put the executions back on track. At immediate issue is the case of Michael A. Taylor, one of two men with similar names on death row. This one was to have received a lethal injectio last Feb. 1. According to the case against him, Taylor helped another man abduct, rape and stab 15-year-old Ann Harrison to death in Kansas City in 1989. The central issue for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis is not whether Taylor deserves to die but the way Missouri's executions are carried out. Principals in the case declined to comment in advance of the hearing, but court documents lay out the generalities of both sides. Since the early 1990s, Dr. Alan Doerhoff has injected three drugs: a solution containing 5 grams of sodium thiopental followed by pancuronium bromide and then potassium chloride. In order, they cause unconsciousness, paralyze breathing and stop the heart. Doerhoff testified last year that he had trouble getting the full amount of thiopental to dissolve, and - improvising - he decided to halve the amount. He also admitted that he is not good with numbers because he is dyslexic and sometimes makes mistakes. Doerhoff said there are no records that document how much of each drug was used in past executions. Corrections Department officials have said that the procedure was quick, painless and efficient. Even 1/2 or 1/3 as much thiopental is sufficient to render an inmate unconscious long enough for the other drugs to take effect, they say. Taylor's lawyers and other critics say the condemned might remain awake enough to feel extreme pain. State officials say the complaints are no more than a delaying tactic, the latest in a long string of attacks aimed at ending the death penalty. After hearings, U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan Jr., in Kansas City, ruled last June that the state's procedures left an "unnecessary risk" of unconstitutional pain and suffering and halted executions. Gaitan said he was "gravely concerned" about Doerhoff's "confusion with regard to numbers." Doerhoff's identity had been secret until the Post-Dispatch reported his name last summer and revealed that he had been reprimanded by the state Board of Healing Arts and denied staff privileges at 2 hospitals. Gaitan told the state to stop using Doerhoff and ordered other changes. In reponse, Corrections Department officials established written procedures for the 1st time. Changes must now be approved by the director. For future executions, prisoners will receive about twice the amount of sedative, and injection of the 2nd drug will be delayed to ensure the inmate is unconscious. Lawyers for the Corrections Department say that should be enough, but Gaitan was not persuaded. So they appealed. They also claim Gaitan's legal reasoning is wrong. Officials would have to intend to inflict pain for the execution to be unconstitutionally cruel, they said. Moreover, they said, "risk" of cruelty has never been an issue in past cases. There is no pain from the 2nd drug and the third would cause pain similar to a heart attack for about 10 seconds, they say. The appellate court's decision is not expected for months. (source: St. Louis Post Dispatch) CALIFORNIA: Death penalty sought for man charged in murder of 3-year-old Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man charged with murdering his girlfriend's 3-year-old son, who authorities allege was tortured before he died. Alex Kermith Mendoza, 28, has been in custody at Robert Presley Detention Center since August 2005. Michael "Mikey" Vallejo-Seiber died Aug. 29, 2005, during surgery a day after his mother and Mendoza brought the boy's lifeless body to the hospital. An autopsy showed Michael had a lacerated liver, broken ribs, burns to his feet, injuries to his rectum and genitals and bruising on his body. Mendoza was charged with murder with the special circumstance of torture, and assault on a child under 8 years old likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death. He has pleaded not guilty. Ingrid Wyatt, a spokeswoman for the Riverside County district attorney's office, said a decision was reached to seek the death penalty in the case. "The decision has been made and we have filed a document notifying the court of our intention," she said. Mendoza is also charged with elder abuse in the alleged mistreatment of his 87-year-old father, who was under his care. He has pleaded not guilty. Calls to Mendoza's attorney were not returned. (source: Associated Press) IDAHO: Duncan Death Penalty Trial Site Not Determined Many members of the media reported the Joseph Duncan death penalty trial would be held in Boise. But according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, no such decision has been made. Mark Haws, with the U.S. Attorney's Office, says there has to be a grand jury indictment in order for a case to go forward in federal court unless, and until an indictment is returned in a case, no judge is assigned. There must be a judge assigned in order to know when and where a trial will take place. Once that happens, there are a few factors to consider when selecting a site. "The judges will usually listen to our recommendation and we always factor in considerations such as security, convenience to witnesses, transportation and transportation costs," said Haws. All those factors will be weighed when deciding the issue of when or where a trial may take place. (source: Fox 12 News)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------OHIO, IND., MO., CALIF., IDAHO
Rick Halperin Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:48:28 -0600 (Central Standard Time)
