[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----N.J., OHIO, N.C., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

March 2



NEW JERSEY:

Byrdsell faces death penalty if convicted


A 24-year-old Millville man was indicted Wednesday on capital murder
charges in connection with a sexual assault and smothering of a 3-year-old
girl at the Millville Lodge last year.

A Superior Court Grand Jury charged Latimer Byrdsell, of North Delsea
Drive, with 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree felony murder, 1st-degree
aggravated sexual assault, and 2 counts of 2nd-degree sexual assault, in
regard to the death of his girlfriend's daughter, A'Brianna Dennis.

Prosecutors believe Dennis was sexually assaulted and smothered with a
pillow while under the care of Byrdsell on July 10, 2006.

The capital murder charges came about because of the young age of the
victim and because grand jurors found the homicide had been committed
during the course of another crime -- flight or attempted flight after
committing or attempting to commit sexual assault, according to Prosecutor
Ron Casella.

"What they found were aggravating factors," he explained.

New Jersey has not staged an execution since 1976, and a recent N.J. Death
Penalty Study Commission recommending abolishing the punishment makes it
seem unlikely that will change any time soon.

However, that doesn't stop prosecutors from trying people under current
statutes.

There are 3 other capital murder cases currently being prosecuted in
Cumberland County, including:

Fred Mosley, 27, of Fayette Street in Bridgeton, and Marcus Thompkins, 28,
a former Bridgeton resident currently a state prison inmate, charged with
a 2004 shooting death and alleged murder-for-hire of 24-year-old Stephen
Jackson of Bridgeton.

James Royal, 24, of Chester, Pa., charged with a 2003 double homicide of a
pair of 17- and 18-year-old sisters shot to death in Bridgeton.

Steven Wright, 54, of Upper Neck Road in Pittsgrove Township, charged with
a 2005 shooting at the ShopRite grocery store on Delsea Drive in Vineland,
in which a 37-year-old pharmacist was killed.

(source: Bridgeton News)






OHIO:

Federal appellate court rules Ohio death row inmate waited too long to
file appeal


In Columbus, a federal appeals court this morning dealt what could be a
fatal blow to a lawsuit brought by a handful of death row inmates
challenging the constitutionality of Ohios lethal-injection process.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the Cincinnati-based U.S. 6th Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled that convicted murderer Richard W. Cooey waited too long
to question the drugs and procedures Ohio has used 24 times since it
resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1999.

Cooey should have filed his challenge within two years after Ohio retired
the electric chair in 2001 and maked lethal injection the state's sole
method of execution, the court said. Prior to that, inmates could choose
between the 2. Cooey, of Summit County, was convicted in 1986 of 2 counts
of aggravated murder.

The suit argues that the protocol's 2nd drug designed to paralyze an
inmate after hes been rendered unconscious by the 1st could fail. That, it
argues, could leave the condemned to suffer excruciating pain as the 3rd
drug induces cardiac arrest.

6 other inmates, among them Toledo native John Spirko in a Van Wert County
case, have joined the suit.

The court refused to accept Cooey's argument that the 2-year statute of
limitations should have begun running when his execution became imminent
after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his last appeal in March 2003

"Ohio did not adopt lethal injection until 1993, or make it the exhaustive
method of execution until 2001, so the accrual date must be adjusted
because Cooey obviously could not have discovered the injury until one of
those 2 dates," wrote Senior Judge Richard F. Suhrheinrich. "We need not
pinpoint the accrual date in this case, however, because even under the
later date, 2001, Cooeys claim exeeds the 2-year statute of limitations
deadline because his claim was not filed until Dec. 8, 2004."

Senior Judge Eugene E. Siler Jr. agreed.

But Judge Ronald Lee Gilman dissented, arguing that the majority seemed
more concerned about delays than justice.

"Timeliness is important, but justice is more important," he wrote.
"Although the common saying is justice delayed is justice denied, there
are situations in which the adage does not hold true. I believe that this
is one of those situations." He said details about Ohios execution
procedure were "murky" at best and subject to change as evidenced by the
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections response following
problems with the May 2, 2006 execution of Toledo native Joseph Clark.

The execution team had trouble finding useable veins through which the
drugs could flow to execute Clark. The execution, which usually takes
about 10 minutes, ultimately took nearly 90 minutes with witnesses briefly
hearing Clark moaning and groaning as the team worked to correct the
problem.

The state later changed some of the procedures in preparing and monitoring
inmates during the process, but it did not change the drugs or the dosages
used. The courts majority determined that the changes made after the Clark
execution were not integral to Cooeys challenge.

(source: Toledo Blade)



NORTH CAROLINA:

Lawmakers Could be Forced to Resolve Execution Dispute


The failure of the state to reach an agreement with the North Carolina
Medical Board over the role doctors can ethically play in executions could
keep capital punishment on hold for some time as lawmakers and other try
to untangle a confusing legal mess.

"Where things sit in the courts, unless the Legislature acts, we are going
to have what the governor has referred to as a de facto moratorium for a
period of probably 12 to 24 months," Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger,
R-Rockingham, said Friday.

Experts differed Friday on how a dispute that involves so many parties - a
state and federal court, state correction officials and prosecutors,
defense attorneys and the medical board - might be resolved. Some said one
of the courts might be able to find a solution, while others insisted that
lawmakers will eventually have to get involved.

"Somebody has got to figure out what a procedure should be," said Richard
Rosen, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Law. "The Legislature is the body that decides the method of
capital punishment."

Months after a federal judge ruled an execution could only proceed if a
doctor monitored the condemned inmate to prevent pain, the medical board
in January threatened to punish physicians who take part in an execution.
The state's efforts to resolve that conflict created a legal morass that
led Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens to place four
scheduled executions on hold.

Things could get even more confusing next week, when the state is
scheduled to execute convicted killer Allen Holman. He wants to be
executed and has fired his lawyers, meaning there is no one to seek a stay
on his behalf - a request a court would surely grant in the current
environment. Officials haven't said how that case will be addressed.

The dispute made North Carolina the 11th state where some form of
challenge to lethal injection - namely, whether it violates the
Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment - has effectively
placed executions on hold. The question of doctor participation has
figured in some of those disputes.

"They're looking at it all over the country," Rosen said. "Part of what's
happened is folks have realized that some of these lethal injections are
not just putting people to sleep."

Since approving its new policy on executions in January, medical board
officials have refused to comment about their decision. Attorneys from
Attorney General Roy Cooper's office met with board staff in an effort to
reach a compromise, but disclosed Thursday that the board later cut off
those discussions.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper, said Friday
that state prosecutors anticipated taking the issue back to the Stephens'
court next week.

Defense attorney Robert Zaytoun, who represents one of the death row
inmates whose execution is on hold, said the state will likely try to
"involve the medical board in our lawsuit," Zaytoun said. "They will not
be brought willingly into a courtroom."

Berger and the House Republican leader, Rep. Paul Stam of Wake County,
don't believe the medical board should even be involved. Both have filed
legislation that would remove the board from the debate by protecting
doctors and others involved in an execution from punishment imposed by
their licensing boards.

"If the word gets out on the street that our death penalty doesn't exist,
innocent people will die," Stam said.

The Senate approved a formal death penalty moratorium a few years ago, but
it failed in the House. Efforts to get a moratorium approved in the House
last session also failed.

"To a certain extent, the ball is in the court of the Democrats that
control the Legislature," Berger said. "The longer this thing drags out,
the more convinced I am that it's going to take a legislative fix to move
things forward."

This year, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, has filed legislation that would
place executions on hold until June 1, 2009, so that lawmakers can study
the state's method of execution and the role of medical professions should
have in capital punishment.

Zaytoun said that's an issue lawmakers should address.

"We can't have an execution on one day where a physician may thumb his
nose at the medical board and another day when he does not," he said.

(source: WRAL News)

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

Lawsuit expected in doctors-executions case


A lawyer for a death row inmate challenging lethal injection says he
expects 1 North Carolina government agency to sue another in an attempt to
resolve a stalemate.

Lawyer Robert Zaytoun says he believes the Department of Correction will
sue the state Medical Board to deal with the board's ethics policy. The
policy forbids doctors from taking part in executions.

A spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's office says no developments
are expected until next week in the case.

The issue stems from a federal judge's ruling last year. It says an
execution could proceed only if a doctor monitored the inmate to prevent
pain. The medical board approved an ethics policy in January that
threatened to punish any doctor who takes part in an execution. State law
requires only that a doctor be present.

Wake Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens has put several executions on
hold.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Florida Panel Urges Steps for Painless Executions


A commission appointed after a botched execution in Florida recommended
yesterday that the state take steps to ensure that condemned inmates have
been completely sedated before injecting them with two potentially painful
lethal chemicals.

The panel also called for more than 12 relatively minor improvements in
executioners' training and practices but made no recommendations that
would fundamentally alter the way Florida conducts executions.

The one potentially significant recommendation in the report was tentative
and indirect. Although the commission said the three chemicals now in the
protocol could be used humanely if the other recommendations were
followed, it nonetheless recommended that the state explore "more recently
developed chemicals" to substitute for the paralytic drug used "to make
the lethal injection execution procedure less problematic."

36 other states have similar lethal injection protocols. They are under
legal attack in scores of suits in many states, with inmates lawyers
contending that inmates can face potentially agonizing deaths that would
violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The 1st chemical in the usual series is a barbiturate. Properly
administered, it is sufficient to render an inmate unconscious for many
hours, if not to kill him.

The 2nd chemical is pancuronium bromide, a relative of curare. If
administered by itself, it paralyzes the body but leaves the subject
conscious, suffocating but unable to cry out. The 3rd, potassium chloride,
stops the heart and can cause excruciating pain as it travels through the
veins.

Opponents of the paralytic chemical say it serves no legitimate purpose
and may mask agonizing pain. But corrections officials say using other
methods would take too long and could subject witnesses to discomfort.

The commission, made up of doctors, lawyers, scientists and law
enforcement officials, was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush 2 days after the
execution on Dec. 13 of Angel N. Diaz. Mr. Bush, who has left office,
suspended executions while the commission did its work.

In a statement yesterday, Gov. Charlie Crist said he would work with the
Corrections Department and Legislature to address the recommendations. Mr.
Crist said nothing about when executions might resume.

In addition to its general recommendations, the commission reported on Mr.
Diaz's execution, which took 34 minutes. Those executioners, the
commission found, were poorly trained, did not follow protocols and failed
to ensure that access to Mr. Diazs veins was maintained through the
execution.

"It is impossible for the commission to reach a conclusion," the report
said, "with a degree of certainty as to whether inmate Angel Diaz was in
pain."

The 3 doctors on the commission issued a separate statement. They had
served warily, they said, mindful of the ethical prohibition of assisting
in executions. They had not offered medical advice, they said, and did not
consent to these specific recommendations."

The recommendations, the doctors wrote, "may require the use of medical
personnel" in executions. That, the doctors said, "is not a desirable
situation."

(source: New York Times)