May 18 TENNESSEE: State Attorney General Asks for June 1 Execution Tennessee State Attorney General Paul Summers Thursday filed a motion with the State Supreme Court. He wants a June 1st execution date for Sedley Alley. In his motion filed Thursday, Summers points out that the state courts had already rejected a previous request by Alley for DNA testing. Sedley Alley was convicted of killing Suzanne Collins. Earlier this week, Gov. Phil Bredesen gave Alley a 15-day reprieve to give Alley's lawyers time to ask for DNA testing. (source: NewsChannel 5) *************************** Condemned Inmate Says He Won't Fight To Delay Execution A state inmate scheduled to be executed in august says he wants to be put to death after a court ruling gave him the right to reject the help of attorneys trying to spare his life. Stephen Hugueley already was serving time for killing his mother when he fatally stabbed prison counselor Delbert Steed at the Hardeman County Correctional Complex in 2002 and was sentenced to death. Besides those 2 deaths, Hugueley admits killing a prison inmate and trying to kill another inmate. Hugueley told the Tennessean newspaper that all the attacks were premeditated and that he is likely to kill again if he isn't executed. He said taxpayers should be outraged that public defenders are trying to persuade him to resume his appeals. He's to be executed August 15th. (source: WVLT) NORTH CAROLINA: Doctor's role at executions debated The North Carolina Medical Board took the 1st step Wednesday toward deciding whether physicians who participate in executions are violating their professional ethics. The board, which disciplines doctors, has never received a complaint about a doctor being involved in the execution of a killer. But recent publicity about doctors' involvement in North Carolina's executions prompted Wednesday's action. The board's executive committee referred the matter to its policy committee, which will meet July 19 in Raleigh. The policy committee will likely discuss the topic and present options for the full board to consider later in the year. State law requires a physician to be present at executions. In the course of litigation about the state's method of lethal injection, prison officials also have revealed that a doctor and nurse stand in a room adjacent to the execution chamber where a heart monitor and a brain wave monitor are located. Monitoring vital signs and brain-wave activity violates doctors' ethics code, according to the American Medical Association, which opposes doctors' involvement in executions. Those recent revelations prompted half a dozen North Carolina doctors to write to the board urging it to take a position against being involved in executions. "We've taken an oath to preserve life and act in the best interest of the patient," said one letter writer, Charles van der Horst, a professor at UNC's School of Medicine. "This is not acting in the best interest of the patient. This is acting as an instrument of state government." Van der Horst said he was encouraged by board's action, adding, "If a doctor is violating their oath, they need to be hauled before the board and have their license taken away." (Dr. van der Horst's brother, Roger, is an editor at The News & Observer who oversees education coverage.) Robert Bilbro, a Raleigh physician who wrote to the board, said, "I'm glad they are going to look into it further." Bilbro co-authored a letter with Dr. Liz Kanof, a former medical board member and former president of the N.C. Medical Society. The medical board's action is unusual compared with the reaction in other states where the issue has been raised, said Dr. Jonathan Groner, an Ohio State surgeon who follows the issue and opposes doctors being involved in executions. In California, opposing bills have been proposed in the legislature - one protecting doctors who participate and another preventing doctors from taking part. In Georgia, legislation was proposed that would prevent that state's medical board from disciplining doctors who participate in executions. "This is the first case that I've heard of a medical board taking up physician participation in executions as an ethical issue," Groner said. "The fact that the medical board is willing to look at this issue is outstanding from my point of view." (source: Associated Press) KENTUCKY: Jury rejects death penalty A jury of 6 men and 6 women showed Darryl Burrell mercy today, rejecting the prosecution's request to sentence him to death by lethal injection. The jury, made up of 4 blacks and 8 whites, recommended Burrell serve life in prison -- with no chance at parole -- for robbing a Lexington Dairy Mart and murdering clerk Ashley Cason. Cason's relatives said they were satisfied with the recommendation, but were disappointed he didn't get the death penalty. "At least he will have to get there and think about it for the rest of his damn life," step dad Gary Williams said. "He can suffer. Maybe she can rest now." On Wednesday, Burrell was convicted of wanton murder, 2 counts of attempted murder, 3 robbery counts and tampering with evidence. Prosecutors say he planned to kill 2 men in the store so there would be no witnesses. (source: Herald-Leader) MISSOURI: Brown found guilty of murder, could face death penalty In Waynesville, a 26-year-old man was convicted today of 1st-degree murder and kidnapping in the July 7, 2002 death of Ralph Lee Lape Jr. Justin Brown, of Cape Girardeau, was accused of killing Lape, 54, for his money and burying his body near Portageville, Mo. A Pulaski County jury deliberated for 4 hours before reaching its decision. The jurors will now hear evidence and testimony to decide the defendant's sentence. He could receive the death penalty. Co-defendant Mark Gill, 35, was convicted separately of 1st-degree murder and kidnapping and sentenced to die. During Brown's 4-day trial, held in Pulaski County on a change of venue, a videotaped statement from the defendant from 2002 said he went along with the plot to kill Lape out of fear Gill would kill him as well. (source: Southeast Missourian) CALIFORNIA: Justices uphold death sentence amid jury bias claims The California Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of a convicted killer Thursday amid accusations the prosecutor and trial judge conspired to tilt the jury toward a death verdict by removing Jews from the panel. The justices unanimously rejected assertions that the prosecutor and judge colluded to excuse prospective Jewish jurors from a case involving a murder and robbery at a Berkeley bar. Former Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Jack Quatman testified last year that now-deceased Judge Stanley Golde told him to remove Jews from the prospective jury pool because Golde believed they were less likely to issue death verdicts. Justice Marvin Baxter, writing for the majority, noted that a state investigation concluded that Golde issued no such order nor did Quatman excuse any prospective juror who was Jewish. "Quatman's character and reputation for honesty and integrity was poor," Baxter wrote. He suggested Quatman had a vendetta against the prosecutor's office after it didn't endorse his unsuccessful run for a judgeship more than a decade ago. The case concerned defendant Fred Freeman, a white man later sentenced to death for killing bar patron Donald Koger during a 1987 robbery at a Berkeley bar. Quatman, now a criminal defense attorney in Whitefish, Mont., testified last year that during a private 1987 meeting, the Judge told him, "No Jewish person can sit on a death penalty jury and vote for death." He said he was encouraged to bump Jews from the jury pool by using peremptory challenges that did not require a reason to remove a prospective juror. Quatman was not immediately available for comment, nor was Freeman's attorney, Gary Sowards. Following Quatman's allegations, other Alameda County defense lawyers said the Alameda County district attorney's office had an unwritten policy, in violation of federal and state law, to exclude Jews and black women from capital juries in the late 1970s through the early 1990s. In a sworn declaration to the California Supreme Court, John Meehan, the Alameda County District Attorney between 1981 and 1995, said the district attorney's office prohibits "discrimination against racial, ethnic or religious groups." Freeman, 66, isn't likely to be executed for years, if at all, as his appeals now head to federal court. The case is In re Fred Harlan Freeman, S122590. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TENN., N.C., KY., MO., CALIF.
Rick Halperin Thu, 18 May 2006 21:43:19 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
