[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, KY., TENN., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 10



TEXAS:

Final execution case with Bush as Texas governor under scrutiny


A Texas judge on Monday sided with an anti-death penalty group seeking to
find out whether an inmate was wrongly executed, ruling that officials
must keep a 1-inch (2.5-centimeter)-long piece of hair that was a key
piece of evidence in the man's murder trial almost 2 decades ago.

The Innocence Project wants to know whether Claude Jones was wrongly
executed in December 2000. Jones was the last of a record 40 inmates
executed in America's busiest capital punishment state that year and the
last of 152 inmates put to death during now-President George W. Bush's
time as Texas governor.

The piece of hair led to Jones' conviction and execution for the 1989
shooting death of a liquor store owner in San Jacinto County, about 75
miles (120 kilometers) north of Houston.

State District Judge Elizabeth Coker set a hearing for Oct. 3 to consider
whether DNA testing should be performed on the hair.

The Innocence Project, a legal clinic affiliated with the Benjamin N.
Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York, was among
plaintiffs seeking the court order and the mitochondrial DNA testing,
which was not available when Jones was tried.

"This was a case that really cried out for DNA testing because the
physical evidence was so central to the conviction and it's very clear DNA
testing can establish either way whether or not Claude Jones was
wrongfully executed," Innocence Project attorney Nina Morrison said.

"Especially now that he's already been executed, the public interest
really is in determining whether the procedures that were in place for
determining innocence or guilt and whether someone should be executed were
correct," she said.

At Jones' trial, an expert in hair analysis linked the hair to Jones. With
his execution imminent, the inmate filed, and later asked to withdraw, an
11th-hour state court plea seeking DNA testing.

Other than the hair, the primary evidence against Jones was testimony from
an accomplice, Timothy Jordan, who said Jones told him he committed the
murder. Jordan and another man, Kerry Dixon, initially were arrested for
the slaying. Jones was arrested later. Jordan got a 10-year prison term
and Dixon a 60-year sentence. In an affidavit in 2004, Jordan said
everything he said about the robbery and killing at the trial he learned
from Dixon and that he testified against Jones to get a lighter sentence
for himself.

The single strand of Jones' hair, found at the murder scene, was supposed
to have been destroyed with the case long resolved but inexplicably was
not.

"It's really a miracle it's preserved at all," Morrison said.

(source: Associated Press)





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

Governor's move worries victim's family


In their home near Lake Houston, Betty and Lex Baquer keep photos of their
daughter, Farah.

She was murdered 13 years ago when Farah's own husband hired a hit man to
kill her.

Today, that hit man, as well as a middleman, and the husband, Robert
Fratta, sit on death row.

But the Baquers now have new reason to question when the executions will
ever take place.

"So we just have to ride the waves, and hopefully it'll happen in our
lifetimes," Lex Baquer said.

A couple weeks ago in a rare move, Gov. Rick Perry commuted the death
sentence of one convict. In a robbery that turned deadly, Kenneth Foster
was the getaway car driver, not the triggerman.

In many states, that might disqualify him from the death penalty.

But not in Texas. The law here allows accomplices or conspirators in
murders to be executed as well.

But when the governor blocked Fosters execution, the Baquers wondered what
that might mean to the chances that Fratta and his middleman might be
spared.

"The Death Penalty that all 3 of them got was justified," Mr. Baquer said.
"[Even] only if one pulled the trigger."

What the governor did raised the possibility that other death sentences
will be commuted to life: people who were accomplices, not triggermen, but
who nonetheless were sentenced to death.

Its what happened near the Medical Center on Fannin Sttreet after a murder
some 27 years ago.

Willie Williams and Joseph Nichols were a couple of holdup-men who in 1980
hit a deli there on Fannin. Williams would admit to firing the shot that
killed the clerk, and he was put to death.

But lawyers for Nichols argued that he'd already run out the door and was
therefore not guilty of capital murder since he was only an accomplice.

A case that sounds eerily similar to the Foster case, the one in which the
governor spared the inmate's life.

"We brought exactly the same arguments that I believe were brought in the
Foster case," attorney Cliff Gunter said. He was Nichols' lawyer.

"He had a bad record; I'm not saying he was an angel," Gunter said. "He
was guilty of murder  he just wasn't guilty of capital murder."

Capital murder meaning a sentence of death.

And in fact, Texas did execute Joseph Nichols, on March 7 of this yearjust
months before fellow death row inmate Foster would have his sentence
commuted.

By one estimate, there are some 60 more inmates still on death row whose
cases are similar to these.

And it may now be up to the Legislature to clarify how Texas should try
these sorts of cases and decide who deserves execution.

In the murder-for-hire of Farah Fratta, her family said there should be no
doubt.

"All 3 are responsible for her death," Baquer said.

But now the law that sent them to death row is again being challenged in
the state that executes more people than any other.

(source: KHOU News)






KENTUCKY----impending execution

LEX 18 Talks To Man Set For Execution----Man Facing Execution Talks To LEX
18


Convicted killer Ralph Baze is scheduled to be put to death on September
25 at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Lyon County, and said Monday in
an interview with LEX 18 that though he admits his killings, he didn't
receive a fair trial.

Baze, 52, admits that he shot and killed Powell County Sheriff Keith
Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe in 1992. However, Baze claims he feared
for his life before the shooting, and that he faces the death penalty
because his victims were law enforcement officers.

Baze said the shooting was the result of a family dispute that got out of
hand, and that prosecutors repeatedly twisted testimony and the facts of
the case.

Baze has filed an appeal to Kentucky governor Ernie Fletcher for clemency,
but recognizes that his time is running out if clemency is not granted.
"If someone doesn't stand up for the truth, I am going to die on September
25," he said.

In the last 4 months, Baze has sent letters to state Attorney General Greg
Stumbo, the Kentucky Supreme Court and the commonwealth's attorney who
prosecuted him, alleging misconduct by the attorney general's office and
multiple judges.

Stumbo's office denies any wrongdoing and said the facts of the case show
Baze is guilty.

Last month, Fletcher signed a death warrant for Baze. It's the 2nd time
Baze has faced an imminent execution. A judge stayed the previous
execution order in 2002.

Baze is also the plaintiff in 2 federal civil suits, 1 challenging the
constitutionality of lethal injection, another contesting the way Kentucky
purchases the 3 drugs used in an execution.

Both suits are pending.

Kentucky has conducted 1 other lethal injection execution, putting Eddie
Lee Harper to death in 1999.

Baze has selected a priest from Ohio, a prison minister and 2 attorneys to
serve as his witnesses to the execution. He is considering bypassing a
last meal and fasting instead.

(source: LEX18 News)






TENNESSEE----impending execution

Chair Tested for Planned Tenn. Execution


An electric chair slated to be used in the state's 1st execution by
electrocution since 1960 was tested Monday and is ready to go, prison
officials said.

The chair, scheduled to be used in the execution of convicted killer Daryl
Holton early Wednesday, was tested by running currents through a "test
load box that is designed to simulate a human body," said state Department
of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter.

The test lasts about 35 seconds  "the amount of time we believe it takes
to cause death at 1,750 volts," she said.

Holton, a Gulf War veteran, confessed to killing his t3 young sons and
their half-sister with an assault rifle on Nov. 30, 1997. He told police
that he killed the children because his ex-wife hadn't let him see them
for several months, and that he had intended to kill his ex-wife and
himself but instead turned himself in.

Holton chose the electric chair over the state's preferred execution
method, lethal injection. Under Tennessee law, death row inmates can
choose between the electric chair and lethal injection if their crimes
were committed before 1999.

Holton, 45, came within a day of being executed a year ago before getting
a stay from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal. He was also among 4
death row inmates whose executions were postponed in February, when Gov.
Phil Bredesen placed a 90-day moratorium on the death penalty.

Bredesen had cited a number of problems with the state's execution
guidelines, including a jumble of conflicting instructions that mixed
lethal injection instructions with those for the electric chair.

The Correction Department completed the revision of its procedures in
March, the moratorium was allowed to expire and the four executions were
rescheduled.

Holton has been on death watch since Sunday morning and planned to meet
with a spiritual adviser, Carter said. Holton made no special requests for
his last meal, Carter said.

Holton appears to have few legal options left that could prevent his
execution. He has fought his appointed defense attorneys for several years
and has refused to speak with them or sign petitions to file appeals on
his behalf.

His lawyers have said he has a long history of mental illness and may
suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from his Army service.

9 states allow some or all condemned inmates to choose between lethal
injection and another execution method, according to the Death Penalty
Information Center, a research group that opposes the death penalty. 10
states have the electric chair, but only Nebraska uses it exclusively.

The last Tennessee inmate to die by electric chair was convicted rapist
William Tines, who was executed Nov. 7, 1960.

Virginia inmate Brandon Hedrick was the last person executed by electric
chair in the U.S., on July 20, 2006, according to the center.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Path to execution


November 1997  Daryl Keith Holton, 36, shoots and kills his three sons and
his ex-wife's daughter.

June 1999  Bedford County jury convicts Holton of first-degree murder and
sentences him to death.

January 2004  Tennessee Supreme Court upholds the conviction and death
sentence.

May 2004  Holton asks the Tennessee Supreme Court to delay his June 3,
2004, execution. The court sets a new date of June 8, 2005.

May 2005  Bedford County circuit judge postpones Holton's execution at the
request of defense attorneys.

May 2006  Tennessee Supreme Court rules defense cannot continue with
appeals without Holton's consent. State lawyers ask the Supreme Court to
reset his execution. Holton does not oppose that request. Court sets
execution for Sept. 19, 2006.

September 2006  6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issues stay of execution
to determine whether a lower court was right to dismiss a defense
organization's petition on Holton's behalf. Holton had refused to help the
defense with appeals. Later, Holton files his own petition with the U.S.
Supreme Court to stop his execution.

January 2007  6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms lower-court
decision and lifts stay. Tennessee Supreme Court sets execution for Feb.
28, 2007.

February 2007  Gov. Phil Bredesen halts all executions for 90 days and
instructs the Department of Correction to create new written protocols on
executions.

May 2007  Bredesen lifts the moratorium. Holton's execution is set for
Sept. 12.

(source: The Tennessean)






OHIO:

Ohio Execution Delayed Over Lawsuit


In Columbus, a federal judge has delayed the October execution of a death
row inmate who joined a lawsuit challenging lethal injection as
unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Romell Broom, who raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl, is 1 of
15 Ohio inmates claiming the procedure may cause prisoners to suffer.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost on Sept. 5 ordered Broom's Oct. 18
execution halted while the lawsuit proceeds.

< Another death row inmate asked Frost on Friday for permission to join
the lawsuit. Michael Turner, 48, killed his estranged wife and her
boyfriend at her apartment in a Columbus suburb in June 2001.

Broom, 51, abducted Tryna Middleton in Cleveland at knifepoint on Sept.
21, 1984, while the girl was walking with friends. He raped her and
stabbed her seven times, according to the attorney general's office.

The state argues that the 15 inmates missed a deadline for filing their
lawsuit against lethal injection.

Earlier this year, an appeals court ordered the lawsuit dismissed because
of the missed deadline but delayed its order to allow an appeal of that
issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ohio is waiting for the high court's decision and its effect on the entire
lawsuit and so won't appeal the decision to delay Broom's execution.

"We're not going to do this piecemeal," said Leo Jennings, a spokesman for
Attorney General Marc Dann. "It's not the best use of our resources."

In Delaware, a federal judge in February allowed all inmates on death row
to join that state's similar injection lawsuit, while similar suits in
California and Missouri have put all executions on hold. A federal lawsuit
is also pending in Maryland where executions are on hold after a state
appeals court said the state didn't properly adopt new injection
procedures.

On the Net: Death row: http://www.drc.state.oh.us/Public/capital.htm

(source: Associated Press)