July 10 TEXAS----stay of impending execution Ruiz receives temporary stay of execution A Bexar County man who was scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening was granted a temporary stay of execution after a federal court granted last-day attempts to save his life. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion more than an hour after Rolando Ruiz Jr. 35 , was to be punished for the 1992 slaying of 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez. The court agreed the concerns raised by Ruiz's attorneys were serious and that more time was needed to review them, officials said. "I'm relieved and hopeful that we'll finally get what we're after," said Ruiz's attorney Morris Moon . "Just one full review of Mr. Ruiz's sentence." Ruiz was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row after he confessed to police that he had been paid $2,000 to kill Rodriguez, who was fatally shot in her driveway nearly 15 years ago on July 14, 1992 . His lawyers argued earlier this week in federal court that their client had been denied his constitutional right to effective counsel in the punishment phase of his trial. But the Texas attorney general's office rejected that claim. Jason Clark , spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said here Tuesday that he informed Ruiz of the stay of his death sentence. "He seemed genuinely at a loss for words," Clark told reporters. Ruiz was scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m., and would have become the 19th inmate to be executed this year in Texas, the 3rd from Bexar County, had the sentence been carried out. With Tuesdays stay, Ruiz instead joined a growing list of Texas death row inmates whose executions have been halted this year. Since early May, 4 others have been spared for a variety of reasons. Lawyers had earlier argued that jurors at Ruiz's trial were not told about potentially mitigating evidence, including relatives' claims that Ruiz was neglected and abused as a child and a psychologist's report that stated he was heavily influenced by drugs and alcohol. But the attorney general's office rejected those arguments as not sufficiently compelling, stating in a response that "much of the proffered evidence was presented to the jury in some form, was otherwise irrelevant, or was potentially double-edged in nature." An affidavit that lawyers had hoped would help save Ruiz instead was cited in the response as evidence of his "complete disregard for humanity." An aunt had claimed in the affidavit that Ruiz suffered an unstable and rough childhood and at one point was placed in a shelter. A few days before the murder, according to the document, Ruiz's mother was pressuring him to get a job and told him to "bring money into the house or get out." And so, investigators said, Ruiz killed Rodriguez and then went to play basketball for the rest of the evening. The next day he took his mother some money and used the rest of it to buy cocaine, according to the affidavit. "Ruiz was unwilling to work for a living, so he committed this murder for only ($2,000) to avoid getting kicked out of his house or having to get a job," the attorney general's office stated in its denial. The response also noted that Ruiz at his trial blamed himself for his drug use and claimed that he came from a good family and was not physically or mentally abused. Investigators said the victim's husband and brother-in-law hired Ruiz to commit the slaying so they could collect $400,000 dollars in insurance money. After stalking Rodriguez for days, Ruiz shot her once in the head as she stepped from her car in the garage of her North Side home, investigators said. She smiled at her killer before he fired, said Assistant District Attorney Robert McClure, who prosecuted Ruiz. 4 others were convicted in the slaying, including the victim's husband and brother-in-law, an intermediary in the murder-for hire and a man who accompanied Ruiz on the night of the shooting. (source: San Antonio Express-News) NEBRASKA: 5 death row inmates ask to join challenge of execution protocol The attorneys for five death row inmates asked a district court judge on Tuesday if they could join a lawsuit filed by Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers challenging the state's electric chair protocol. Now, attorneys representing the state, Chambers, and death row inmates Erick Vela, Raymond Mata, Carey Dean Moore, Jose Sandoval and David Dunster will file briefs by mid-August on the challenge. The sides will argue whether the prison systems properly followed procedures when it changed the execution protocol in 2004, whether attorneys for the inmates can join the challenge and whether Chambers can bring the case to court. Moore in June asked to withdraw a notice that he would no longer fight execution. He was scheduled to die May 8 in the electric chair for the 1979 murders of two Omaha cab drivers. But on May 2, the state's high court stayed the execution, saying it must reconsider whether the electric chair amounts to cruel and unusual punishment given a "changing legal landscape." Chambers has told the court he would consent to the death row inmates trying to join the lawsuit. Chambers argues that in the lawsuit that the Department of Correctional Services didn't follow proper procedures when it changed protocols for the electric chair - first calling for a single shock of 2,450 volts for 15 seconds, then changing again to 20 seconds in 2007. Chambers said the changes were "null and void" because they weren't properly reviewed. The new protocol was adopted after 2 district judges said the former protocol - 2,450 volts for 8 seconds followed by 480 volts for 22 seconds - amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and was unconstitutional. On the Net: Nebraska Department of Correctional Services: http://www.corrections.state.ne.us/ (source: Associated Press) SOUTH DAKOTA----impending execution SD governor says only Page can stop execution now The 2 people with the power to call off Wednesday's planned execution, the 1st in South Dakota in 60 years, gave no indication Tuesday there's any lingering legal question or 2nd thoughts. Elijah Page, 25, of Athens, Texas, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at approximately 10 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. He ended all appeals and asked to die for the brutal March 2000 murder of Chester Allan Poage, 19, of Spearfish. Gov. Mike Rounds postponed Page's planned Aug. 29, 2006, execution over concerns that a 1984 state law requiring the use of a two-drug mixture could put prison officials at legal risk if they instead administered a 3-drug combination that is now the standard. State lawmakers amended the law in February to allow prison officials to use whatever lethal injection mixture they choose, clearing the way for the executions of Page and the state's three other death row inmates to proceed. Rounds said he plans to be in Pierre on an open telephone line to the execution chamber in case any issues arise. They won't come from him. "I do not anticipate any reason for a stay in the execution at this time," he said Tuesday in Sioux Falls. "Naturally, once again Mr. Page has the ability at any time to stop his execution right up to the very moment of the initiation of the execution procedures. But I'm not aware of any plans that he may have. My concerns, my questions that I had last year, have been answered. And so at this point I am not waiting for any additional information that may cause me to issue a stay." Mike Butler, Page's attorney, said Tuesday he has the phone numbers of the governor, Supreme Court chief justice and attorney general in case Page wants to resume his appeals. That doesn't appear likely, he said. "Page has not given me any indication that he has had any change of heart regarding the scheduled execution," Butler said. Page's regular visitors have included family members and Butler, who plans to spend much of Wednesday at the prison and witness the execution. Besides being the first person executed in South Dakota in 60 years, Page would be among a handful of people his age or younger put to death since capital punishment was reinstated in 1979. His case also is unusual because a judge, not a jury, imposed a death sentence and he has asked to die. Page, and another death row inmate, Briley Piper, 25, of Anchorage, Alaska, pleaded guilty to killing Poage in the Black Hills in 2000. A third man, Darrell Hoadley, 26, of Lead, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The three killed Poage so there would be no other witness to the theft of a Chevy Blazer, stereo, television, coin collection, video game and other items from Poage's home. As Poage begged for his life, the three men made him take off most of his clothes and forced him into an icy creek. They stabbed him repeatedly, kicked him in the head 30 to 40 times, tearing his ears off, and then bashed him with large rocks. He was also forced to drink hydrochloric acid. The torture lasted 2 to 3 hours. South Dakota had the death penalty when it became a state in 1889 but abolished it in 1915. Capital punishment was reinstated in 1939 but was abolished again from 1977 to 1979 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled existing death penalty laws unconstitutional. Another death penalty statute has been in place since 1979. The cases of Piper and the state's 2 other death row inmates, Charles Rhines and Donald Moeller, are in various stages of appeal. In all, South Dakota has had 15 recorded executions, with the first 4 taking place before statehood. The execution room has been remodeled since the last time capital punishment was carried out in the state. George Sitts was electrocuted in 1947 for killing 2 lawmen, not far from where Poage was killed. The room features only the table with straps and armrests. A hole in the wall leads to a small room where a person hired to carry out the execution administer the drugs. There's a microphone above the table so Page's last words can be recorded and heard in four observation rooms that surround the execution chamber. Each room has 1-way glass. Rooms are available for family members of the victim and condemned. There's also space for others authorized by law to witness the execution, such as the sentencing judge, law officers, media representatives and others. After the execution, a member of the Department of Corrections staff will announce the time of death and other details. Then the 2 media representatives and any other witnesses who want to comment will be available for questions. (source: Associated Press) ******************* Known South Dakota executions since before statehood A list of 15 executions in South Dakota since 1877. The first 4 occurred before statehood in 1889: 1. Jack McCall was hanged March 1, 1877, at Yankton for the slaying of Wild Bill Hickok in Saloon No. 10 at Deadwood. 2. Thomas Egan was hanged July 13, 1882, at Sioux Falls for the bludgeoning death of his wife. His innocence was learned years later when his stepdaughter admitted on her deathbed to the crime. 3. Brave Bear was hanged Nov. 15, 1882, at Yankton for murdering a pioneer settler in Sully County 3 years earlier. 4. James Layton Gilmore was hanged Dec. 15, 1882, at Deadwood for killing a man in a quarrel at a freighters' camp on the old Fort Pierre-Deadwood trail. 5. John Ben Lehman was hanged Feb. 19, 1892, at Custer for killing John Burns, a constable who had gone to Lehman's ranch near Fairburn because of a feud between Lehman and a neighbor. 6. Nathaniel Thompson was hanged in October 1893 at De Smet for killing his wife. 7. Jay Hicks was hanged Nov. 15, 1894, at Sturgis for the robbery and murder of a Meade County rancher. 8. Chief Two Sticks, who fought at Custer's Last Stand, was hanged Dec. 28, 1894, at Deadwood for instigating the slaying of 3 cowboys during an American Indian uprising. 9. Charles Brown was hanged July 14, 1897, at Deadwood for the robbery and murder of a Deadwood woman. 10. Ernest Loveswar was hanged Sept. 19, 1902, at Sturgis for the murder of 2 Meade County homesteaders. 11. Allen Walking Shield was hanged Oct. 21, 1902, at Sioux Falls for the murder of a woman. 12. George Bear was hanged Dec. 5, 1902, at Sioux Falls for murder. 13. Emil Victor was hanged Nov. 16, 1909, at Aberdeen for the murder of 3 people. 14. Joe Rickman was hanged Dec. 3, 1913, in Perkins County for the murder of a woman and her daughter. 15. George Sitts was electrocuted April 8, 1947, at Sioux Falls for the Jan. 24, 1946, slayings of state criminal agent Thomas Matthews and Butte County Sheriff Dave Malcolm near Spearfish. (sources: South Dakota State Historic Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, NEB., S. DAK.
Rick Halperin Tue, 10 Jul 2007 22:19:08 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
