[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

May 28



TEXAS----new execution date

Execution date set for San Antonio Man


The execution date of a 27-year-old man convicted of the March 2002
slayings of 3 employees of a popular Korean restaurant has been scheduled
for October 16.

The brief court appearance this morning was interrupted when Kevin Michael
Watts--convicted in 2003 of the killings of Hak Po Kim, 30, the son of the
restaurant owner, and 2 cooks, Yuan Tzu Banks, 52, and Chae Sun Shook, 59,
and the sexual assault of Kim's wife--erupted in court, shouting and
swearing at District Judge Sid Harle.

"You white folks have been doing this [expletive] for years," he said,
before he was removed from the 226th District Courtroom. Family members
were also ordered to leave after they, too, began shouting.

Moments later, Watts returned to the courtroom, but the belligerence
resumed. Still, Harle spoke over Watts, setting his execution date for
October.

A Bexar County jury ordered Watts to death row for the execution-style
killings during a holdup involving $100 at the Sam Won Garden restaurant.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction last year.

Evidence at his trial showed that he ordered his victims to their knees at
gunpoint before shooting them in the back of the head. A 4th victim, Kim's
wife of 2 months, then was abducted and driven in her husband's SUV to the
San Antonio apartment of Watts' mother-in-law, where, court documents
said, she was tortured, repeatedly sodomized and forced to ingest
narcotics.

Acting on a telephone tip from someone who saw a media report about the
slayings and the missing vehicle, police arrested Watts -- but only after
he tried to escape by ramming the stolen SUV into two police cars.

Watts, 22 at at the time of the killings, was unemployed and had been in
and out of jail for misdemeanor convictions several times since he was
teen.

Defense lawyers didn't deny he was responsible for the killings but tried
at his trial to show that his behavior was the result of childhood sexual
molestation, substance abuse and impaired decision-making capacity. In
earlier appeals, his lawyers unsuccessfully argued that the trial judge
refused to allow a witness to fully testify about those mitigating
circumstances and behavior that led to the slayings.

(source: San Antonio Express-News)

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May 28

Impending Texas Execution List:

Name              Date          Texas # since 1982      # under Gov. Perry

Derrick Sonnier   June 3             406                     167

Karl Chamberlain  June 11            407                     168

Charles Hood      June 17            408                     169

Carlton Turner    July 10            409                     170

Les Bower         July 22            410                     171

Larry Davis       July 31            411                     172

Jose Medellin     August 5           412                     173

Michael Rodriguez August 14          413                     174

Denard Manns      August 20          414                     175

Jeff Wood         August 21          415                     176

Gregory Wright    September 9        416                     177

William Murray    September 17       417                     178

Joseph Ries       September 18       418                     179

Kevin Watts       October 16         419                     180









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see:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=
   jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=10354&tr=y&auid=3700089

(source: Amnesty International USA)

************

No review on 2 appeals from death row inmates


The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to review the appeals of 2 Texas
death row inmates condemned in separate Tarrant County robberies and
slayings.

Elkie Lee Taylor, 46, sentenced to die for killing 65-year-old Otis Flake
in 1993, contended that he shouldn't be executed because prison tests
showed that his IQ is below the accepted threshold for mental retardation.

In March, the Supreme Court refused to hear that appeal and on Tuesday
turned down a second request.

Reginald Perkins, 53, convicted of killing his stepmother in 2000, has
also appealed on the basis of mental retardation.

But his appeals have also asserted that his legal counsel was ineffective,
that the Texas sentencing statute was unconstitutional and that he was not
guilty of the murder. It's the latter appeal that the Supreme Court
refused to review on Tuesday.

Neither man has an execution date.

In 2003, 2 days before he was to be executed, Taylor won a reprieve from
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after his attorney showed that Texas
prison officials had tested Taylor's IQ in 1992, a year before Flake's
slaying. Taylor's IQ was measured at 63. An IQ of 70 is considered the
threshold for retardation.

After a hearing in 2005, state District Judge Everett Young recommended to
the appeals court that Taylor's mental retardation claim be denied. The
appeals court did so and later lifted its reprieve. Lower federal courts
also have denied subsequent appeals.

In Perkins' case, a Tarrant County jury took just 30 minutes in March 2002
to decide that he was guilty of robbing and killing his stepmother,
64-year-old Gertie Mae Perkins.

(source: Associated Press)

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Man accused of killing pregnant woman is arrested in Austin


A man suspected of shooting a pregnant 22-year-old and leaving her body
beside a road in east Oak Cliff was arrested Monday on a Laredo-bound bus
as he headed south to cross the Mexican border, authorities say.

Heather Lynn Franklin of Gainesville had been riding in a car with her
cousin and the cousin's boyfriend Monday, when the 3 started arguing.

It appeared Ms. Franklin, 4 months pregnant, tried to intervene in a
confrontation between the couple.

Police say the boyfriend, 27-year-old Fernando Zapata, pulled the car over
to the side of the road and shot Ms. Franklin in the head.

Then he dragged her from the car and drove away, police say. He soon
abandoned the car and his girlfriend, who drove to a convenience store and
called 911.

Police found Ms. Franklin's body about 12:30 p.m. Monday on Sargent Road,
near Southerland Avenue.

Within hours of the shooting, a homicide detective met with investigators
at the Dallas police intelligence unit, the Fusion Center. The detective
knew Mr. Zapata had ties to Mexico and had a hunch he might flee there.

Fusion Center officers began distributing bulletins about Mr. Zapata.

They also asked patrol officers to check bus stations in southwest Dallas.

"It was a race against time," said Lt. Todd Thomasson, who heads the
Fusion Center.

Mr. Zapata was wanted on drug charges, police say.

His arrest history included a 2007 charge of aggravated assault with a
deadly weapon. That charge also involved a car ride, an argument with a
girlfriend and a friend who intervened; it ended with a shotgun pointed at
the friend's head, Dallas police reports say.

The patrol officers hunting for Mr. Zapata at bus stations Monday
afternoon began showing his photo to clerks. At the first 4 terminals they
visited, the officers came up with nothing.

About 5 p.m.  at the 5th of 6 stations on the patrol officers' list  their
luck changed. A clerk said she'd sold a ticket to the man in the photo.
His Americanos bus to Laredo had left at 3:40 p.m., she said.

"She told me she was about 75 percent sure," Senior Cpl. John Franco said.
"He had purchased a ticket under a different name. We looked at the video
surveillance. Sure enough, it appeared to be Mr. Zapata."

The bus was scheduled to stop in Austin at 7:15 p.m., so homicide
detectives contacted the Travis County Sheriff's Office with little time
to spare.

Several SWAT team members there prepared to apprehend a murder suspect who
was probably feeling desperate and possibly still armed. They didn't want
to end up with a hostage situation on the bus.

"We put a little plan together," Travis County sheriff's Sgt. Bryan
Whoolery said.

They arranged for the bus driver to ask those passengers whose final stop
was Austin to get off the bus first.

Then he would ask the others to get off in pairs, claiming the bus
terminal's small bathroom couldn't handle many people.

The bus arrived at 7:18, 3 minutes late. It appeared the bus driver
handled his act perfectly. The SWAT team members stood out of view,
watching the passengers slowly step out.

They had studied Mr. Zapata's photo. A man who fit the description
appeared, but they weren't sure it was their man. 2 of the team members
followed him, wary of attracting attention in case they were wrong.

That left Sgt. Whoolery to watch the remaining passengers. All of a
sudden, he was alone, facing Mr. Zapata.

"He looked right at me as he got off the bus," Sgt. Whoolery said. "There
was no doubt it was him."

"Police! Get down on the ground!" he yelled with his gun drawn.

Mr. Zapata, with a look of surprise, did as a he was told, Sgt. Whoolery
said.

The officers found no gun on him, but they noticed his pants were stained
with blood.

Dallas homicide detectives soon arrived to question him.

Mr. Zapata was booked into the Travis County Jail, pending his return to
Dallas. He faces a charge of capital murder.

(source: Dallas Morning News)