April 24 TEXAS: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/201201354?ltl=1145937304 ******************************* TEXAS----3 new execution dates set JUDGE SETS 3 EXECUTION DATES FOR SUMMER 2006 A Smith County district judge scheduled execution dates for this summer on Tuesday, issuing death warrants for three killers convicted nearly a decade ago. Justin Chaz Fuller, 27, of Tyler, was convicted and sentenced to death for the April 27, 1997, capital murder of 21-year-old Donald Whittington III. Allen Bridgers, 35, was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the May 25, 1997, capital murder of Mary Amie, 53. And Newton Anderson, 29, Tyler, was sentenced to death for the capital murder of Frank and Bertha Cobb, 71 and 61, on March 4, 1999. Their executions could be carried out in July and August if they are not granted stays of execution. The back-to-back court proceedings in 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent's court required extra security measures, especially for Anderson, who nearly escaped the Smith County Courthouse during a prior court proceeding. FULLER Fuller's case was tried in the 241st District Court but was transferred to Judge Kent after Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen Jr., who prosecuted the case, became judge. Appellate attorneys Don Bailey, Scott Smith and Don Davidson were in court, as well as Don Killingsworth, who represented Fuller in trial. Judge Kent said the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has denied all of Fuller's appeals and affirmed the death sentence. Smith said he would file a federal appeal and a petition for a stay of execution. But Judge Kent, because there were no current stays of execution, set the lethal injection date for Aug. 24. Whittington's parents, sister and 2 other people were in court during the proceeding, as well as Fuller's parents. The defendant, clad in a yellow Smith County Jail jumpsuit, appeared emotionless as the judge issued his death warrant. Fuller and 3 others were convicted in March 1998 of kidnapping, torturing and fatally shooting Whittington during a robbery plot that began at the victim's Tyler apartment. The group robbed Whittington of trust-fund money and were angered when his ATM card yielded only $300 from a machine. They bound, gagged and maced him and took him to Lake Tyler, where he was shot execution-style. Investigators found Whittington's body four days after he was reported missing and after at least a dozen people viewed the decomposing remains without reporting it to police. The case inspired a new state law making it a crime to view a body without reporting it. Fuller was the only defendant sentenced to death in March 1998. 2 of his co-defendants received life sentences while another received a 25-year sentence. Fuller, who was 18 at the time of the murder, claimed he was not the gunman as authorities contended. BRIDGERS Bridgers was also brought from death row to Smith County court on Tuesday. The defendant, who was 27 at time of the murder, was a transient from Virginia who was staying with the victim at her Tyler home. Bridgers has exhausted his state and federal appeals, which were denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Appellate attorney Kenneth Nash said he has until April 28 to file a response to a federal appeal order, but there are no pending stays of execution on his client. Judge Kent set Bridger's execution date for July 25. No one was in the court's gallery in support of the victim or the defendant. Judge Kent said she understood that all of the victim's family members are now deceased. Bridgers, wearing a yellow jail suit, shook hands with his attorneys, who also included trial counsel Don Killingsworth and Mark Hall, as he was led out of the courtroom. The defendant waited in bed with a .38-caliber pistol under his pillow while Ms. Amie took a shower, he told police during in a taped confession. When she crawled into bed, he shot her in the back and face, stole $1,400 cash, as well as her car, purse and jewelry, and fled to Florida. Bridgers said he was high on cocaine at the time. He was sentenced to death in 1998 and scheduled for execution in 2001, but was granted a stay to pursue federal appeals. Bridgers met Amie's nephew Donnie Miller at a Virginia truck stop and the 2 men traveled across country in Miller's 18-wheeler before he brought Bridgers home with him to Tyler, where he met the victim, whom he lived with off and on until her death. Bridgers had prior theft-related convictions. ANDERSON Anderson was convicted of torturing and killing the Cobbs before setting fire to their New Harmony home to conceal the evidence. Firefighters searched the residence for hours before the couple's charred remains were discovered. Cobb had been shot and his wife was raped, strangled, suffocated and shot before the fire. A jury sentenced Anderson, who had a lengthy criminal history, to death in 2000. Anderson, who was 23 at the time of the murder, escaped the courtroom during his trial and got to the back door of the Smith County Courthouse before being captured by a civilian employee. His trial was then moved to Wood County. Anderson once escaped from California authorities, and attempted to escape from both the Smith County Jail, as well as the courthouse in the same year. According to earlier testimony, he also tried to bribe a Wood County jailer to unlock his cell door. Security measures were taken during Anderson's hearing on Tuesday. All items but paper documents were removed from the defense table, including pens, the microphone and water pitcher. Bailiffs stood behind and beside the victim as he sat at the table. Defense attorneys present were appellate counsel Scott Smith and trial attorneys F.R. "Buck" Files Jr. and Richard Kennedy. Judge Kent said she received information just before the hearing that although there was no stay of execution in the case, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals would most likely issue a stay because there is a pending appeal out of that court. But, Judge Kent said, until that stay is granted, she had a mandate to set the date of execution, which she scheduled for July 26. The Cobbs' daughter, son and grandson were in court Tuesday. Anderson, with a shaved head and wearing a yellow jail jumpsuit, showed no apparent emotion during the proceeding. Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, First Assistant DA April Sikes and Assistant DA Mike West represented the state in the court hearings Tuesday. (source: Tyler Morning Telegraph, April 18) ************************************* stay of impending execution Court stops scheduled Thursday execution The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today halted the lethal injection of condemned inmate Derrick Frazier set for later this week to allow time to consider a new appeal. Frazier was scheduled to die Thursday evening for the June 1997 fatal shootings of Betsy Nutt, 41, and her 15-year-old son, Cody, at their home on a ranch in Refugio County in South Texas. Frazier, set to turn 29 on Friday, would have been the 8th Texas prisoner executed this year. He and another man, Jermaine Herron, showed up at the home under the guise that their car had broken down and needed to make a phone call. Court records showed the woman offered to take them to Refugio, about 10 miles away, and was shot along with her son. The men then fled with her pickup truck. Frazier's father once was a foreman on the ranch next door to the slaying scene. Herron, 27, is scheduled to die in 3 weeks. Frazier blamed the killings on Herron and insisted he wasn't present for the shootings. The U.S. Supreme Court, acting on an appeal filed in January, refused last week to halt the punishment. Frazier's lawyers were back in the courts Monday with an affidavit from a friend of Frazier who said that duing the trial she saw a juror improperly communicating with Jerry Nutt, whose wife and son were killed. The juror, according to the affidavit from Courtney LaFont, ensured Nutt that Frazier would be convicted and given a death sentence. Prosecutors argued they had affidavits from jurors saying the incident never happened. In a short 3-sentence order Monday afternoon, the appeals court said it was granting the reprieve pending its review of the appeal. The victim's truck was found parked outside Frazier's apartment in Victoria, about 30 miles to the north. His fingerprints were inside the truck. Frazier gave police a videotaped confession in which he said he killed Betsy Nutt and Herron killed her son. He later said he was coerced by officers who told him he would get a shorter prison term if he admitted to the killing. (source: Associated Press) **************** Lubbock Jury Upholds Death Sentence A Lubbock murderer will return to death row. Lubbock County Prosecutor Jennifer Basett said, "It's not a victory for anyone but it's also necessary and must be done." It took a Lubbock jury less than 2 hours to sentence Joe Franco Garza to death on Monday. A Lubbock Federal judge overturned Garza's original death sentence in February, causing attorneys to try the sentencing phase of the trial again. Garza strangled 71-year-old Silbiano Rangel to death in 1998. He then stole his money and truck. Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell says Garza continues to be a danger within the prison system. Powell said, 'We see how he continued to handle himself in the prison and he continued to be a danger to the guards and other inmates and personal that work in the prison." Rangel's family was present at the verdict and feels justice was served. (source: KCBD) FLORIDA: House votes no changes in death penalty policy Florida is the only state in the nation that does not require a unanimous jury verdict in determining whether a case qualifies for the death penalty. On Monday, the Florida House of Representatives voted to leave in place the current policy, ignoring an opinion last year by Florida Supreme Court justices that urged the Legislature to revamp Florida's death penalty policy. Rep. Jack Seiler, D-Wilton Manors, is a death penalty supporter who sought the changes. But his efforts failed Monday in the House when representatives passed a resolution reinstating Florida's current policy that allows a simple majority vote for a jury to recommend a death sentence. The Florida Supreme Court, in a strongly worded opinion last year, indicated that the Legislature should reconsider the system because it may be in violation of opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2002, in Ring vs. Arizona, the high court found that juries, not judges, must make certain factual determinations before imposing a death sentence. Those are referred to as aggravating factors, heightened criteria a crime must fall into after a defendant is found guilty of the crime, but before being considered for the death penalty. 38 states now allow the death penalty. But because of Florida's uniqueness in requiring a simple majority verdict, Seiler said the state's death penalty laws could be ruled unconstitutional. "We are a state that stands alone on this issue," Seilerr said. "We are in jeopardy of losing our death penalty." (source: Sun Sentinel) ********************* Rights Group Wants Lethal Shots Suspended Human Rights Watch is urging states to suspend execution by injection, saying the widely used procedure puts condemned inmates "at needless risk of excruciating pain." In a 65-page report issued Monday, the private watchdog group argues that there are records and eyewitness testimony of "botched executions" in which prisoners might have been insufficiently anesthetized, experiencing pain but unable to signal their distress as the lethal drugs took effect. Lethal injections are used by the federal government and 37 of the 38 states that have the death penalty. Nebraska still uses the electric chair. Under the most commonly used procedure, the condemned prisoner is injected with a series of drugs: an anesthetic; a drug to paralyze the prisoner's muscles; and finally potassium chloride, which stops the heart. In its report, Human Rights Watch said that veterinary guidelines prohibit the use of potassium chloride to put down cats and dogs because it can cause intense pain unless the animal is deeply unconscious. The report - mentioning an issue that has been raised before in the death penalty debate - said no such precautions are taken for prisoners being executed. The rights group opposes capital punishment in all forms, but said that short of an outright ban, states are required under international human rights laws to use methods that "will reduce, to the greatest extent possible, the prisoner's risk of mental or physical agony." Anti-death penalty groups say that legal battles over the lethal injection procedure are ongoing in at least 14 states. The Supreme Court has never addressed whether lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. (source: Associated Press) VERMONT: Fell's request for retrial denied, death penalty sentencing scheduled Convicted murderer Donald Fell will be sentenced to death June 16, a federal judge said today in denying defense requests for a new trial in Vermont's first capital case in 50 years. Fell, 25, was convicted last summer of kidnapping and killing Terry King, a 53-year-old wife and grandmother from North Clarendon. A jury in U.S. District Court in Burlington returned a death verdict in July. Defense attorneys said prosecutors acted improperly during the trial's sentencing phase, but U.S. District Judge William Sessions III wrote in an opinion filed this afternoon that the allegations "do not support granting a new sentencing hearing." By law, Sessions must impose the jurys death verdict at the formal sentencing hearing, which the judge scheduled for 9:30 a.m. June 16. (source: Burlington Free Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, FLA., VER.
Rick Halperin Mon, 24 Apr 2006 23:15:04 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
