June 12
FLORIDA----execution
Fla. man executed for prison guard's murder
A Florida man was executed Wednesday for the murder of a guard during a botched
1987 prison van ambush intended to free an imprisoned friend.
William Van Poyck, 58, was pronounced dead at 7:24 p.m., 23 minutes after the
injection process began at Florida State Prison.
"Set me free," were his final words.
Van Poyck's case garnered international attention because he published 3 books
and maintained a blog while on death row. He even wrote recently about his
pending execution.
"He's finally free from those prison walls," Lisa Van Poyck, the inmate's
sister, said as she stood among the protesters standing across the street from
the building where her brother was executed.
The family of the slain guard, Fred Griffis, has said in interviews that they
were frustrated that news stories focused on Van Poyck, the crime and his
writings - and not Griffis.
"It's been a very traumatic experience," said Norman Traylor, the victim's
cousin.
William Van Poyck and Frank Valdes ambushed a prison van outside a West Palm
Beach doctor's office in a failed attempt to free James O'Brien - with whom
they'd served time. Griffis was fatally shot after he threw the van's keys into
the bushes to foil the escape. Van Poyck and Valdes were captured following a
car chase.
Steve Turner, one of the corrections officers ambushed that day, spoke after
the execution on Wednesday.
"Justice has prevailed," he said. "They can close the book."
In his appeals, Van Poyck argued that Valdes fired the fatal shots and that if
the jury had known that, he wouldn't have been sentenced to death. The Florida
Supreme Court last week rejected Van Poyck's latest appeal involving Valdes'
widow, who says her husband told her he was the gunman.
The justices noted that Van Poyck planned the escape attempt and that he and
Valdes carried loaded weapons.
In 1999, Valdes was stomped to death in prison. 7 guards were charged with his
death, but none were convicted.
Following Valdes' death, Van Poyck was moved to Sussex State Prison in Virginia
for his safety. That's where he wrote a 324-page autobiography, "A Checkered
Past: A Memoir," saying his purpose was not to elicit sympathy but "to put a
human face on me and convicts in general."
Van Poyck went on to write 2 novels. He won awards for his writing and kept a
blog since 2005 by writing letters to his sister, who posted them online.
"He is deeply remorseful for the ending of Fred Griffis' life," Lisa Van Poyck
told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "He is guilty of a crime of trying to
break somebody out of a prison transport van - he had no intention of hurting
anyone."
In his blog, Van Poyck wrote in recent entries that he has received dozens of
letters a day regarding his pending execution.
"I am not unusual in wanting to believe, at the end of my line, that my life
counted for something good, that I had some positive influence on someone, that
my life made a difference, that I was able to at least partially atone for the
many mistakes I made earlier in life," he wrote.
Griffis family members planned a gathering Wednesday for quiet reflection about
Fred Griffis' life.
"When he was murdered, it basically ripped a hole in the family's heart that's
never really healed," said brother Ronald Griffis.
Ronald Griffis said his brother was always looking out for others. He was
released on medical discharge after his 1st tour in Vietnam, but re-enlisted
for 2 more because he felt he could help. In his final moments, he was
determined not to let a killer escape.
Said Ronald Griffis: "I knew that even at the end, he was still my brother, he
was still Freddy, that's who he was. He protected others."
Van Poyck becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Florida and the 77th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in
1979. Only Texas (499), Virginia (110), and Oklahoma (103) have executed more
inmates since the US Supreme Court re-legalized the death penalty in America on
July 2, 1976.
Van Poyck becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the
USA and the 1334th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17,
1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
*************
Prayer service Wednesday on scheduled execution of Van Poyck
A prayer service to abolish the death penalty will be held at 4 p.m.,
Wednesday, June 12, at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, 526 N. Park Ave.,
Winter Park, on the scheduled execution of William Van Poyck.
The service, open to the public, will be led by Father Richard Walsh, pastor of
St. Margaret Mary.community.
Florida's Catholic bishops have written a letter to Gov. Rick Scott to stop
executions and eliminate the death penalty.
"We urge you to see that the death penalty diminishes us all and contributes to
a growing disrespect for the sacredness of all human life. It perpetuates a
cycle of violence and feeds on an underlying sense of vengeance in our culture.
Human life, given by God, is sacred," the letter said.
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
TEXAS----execution
Texas executes man who confessed to killing 5
A man who confessed to killing 5 people during a 6-month crime spree in
southeastern Texas 15 years ago was put to death Wednesday for the fatal
shooting of a firefighter.
Elroy Chester, 44, said that he didn't want relatives of his victims to have
"hate in your heart for me."
Chester said he confessed to killing firefighter Willie Ryman III because "you
should know who killed your loved one."
"Don't hate me. I'm sorry for taking your loved one," Chester said. "Elroy
Chester wasn't a bad man, I don't care what anybody says. A lot of people say I
didn't commit those murders. I really did it."
Moments later, Chester told the warden to proceed with the execution and began
humming what sounded like church hymn. He then took several deep breaths,
yawned and began snoring as the lethal drug took effect.
Chester was pronounced dead at 7:04 p.m. CDT, 27 minutes after the lethal drug
was administered.
Ryman, a decorated Port Arthur firefighter, was killed in February 1998 when he
interrupted Chester as he sexually assaulted Ryman's 2 teenage nieces during a
break-in at their home. Chester, who was on probation at the time, was arrested
soon after and subsequently pleaded guilty to killing the 38-year-old
firefighter.
"After 15 years, it's a long time coming," Barry Ryman, brother of the slain
firefighter, said after watching Chester die. "It's not complete closure. Our
brother's still not here. The other victims are not here."
"Justice has been done. It was carried out today," Ryman's sister, Kim Chiasson
said. "His reign of terror is over."
DNA evidence tied Chester to the rapes. Ballistics tests matched his gun to the
slayings of Ryman and four others. The gun was stolen in one of 25 burglaries
in Port Arthur attributed to Chester.
A jury deliberated 12 minutes before deciding Chester should be put to death.
"In my 37 years as a policeman, I've never met a man so evil in my life," said
Port Arthur Police Chief Mark Blanton, who was outside the Huntsville prison
with several dozen police and firefighters from the city about 75 miles east of
Houston.
He said with Chester's death, "I will know he won't be able to prey on anybody
... or take somebody else's life."
Chester also confessed to killing 78-year-old John Henry Sepeda and Etta Mae
Stallings, 87, during burglaries. He told police he stalked Cheryl DeLeon, 40,
then fatally beat her with his gun as she arrived home from work. And he
admitted to shooting his 35-year-old brother-in-law, Albert Bolden Jr., in the
head.
"It was just a horrible time in Port Arthur when these murders and attempted
murders were going on," McWilliams said.
The execution was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a
last-ditch appeal from Chester's attorneys that focused on the conduct of a
judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who ruled earlier in Chester's
case.
Judge Edith Jones was in a 2-1 majority 2 years ago that determined Chester was
not mentally impaired and was therefore eligible for execution. Chester's
attorneys argued Jones subsequently displayed bias against Chester when she
discussed his case during a February lecture on the death penalty at the
University of Pennsylvania law school.
Jones' remarks in February were not recorded, but attorneys for Chester
obtained affidavits from several people who attended and backed an account from
a lawyer who described Jones' "outrage and incredulity" that Chester and others
would raise mental impairment claims in their appeals. Attorney Susan Orlansky
said the comments "infected" Jones' judgment and called her impartiality into
question.
Chester's attorneys requested a reprieve to give new judges on the case time to
study it and the allegations against Jones. They did not contest his guilt.
When a new 5th Circuit panel reviewing the arguments Wednesday said it
perceived "no injustice, nor any incorrectness," Chester's lawyers took their
case to the Supreme Court.M
Chester became the 7th convicted killer executed this year in Texas and the
499th since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982 following
a nearly 2-decade-long hiatus. Chester becomes the 260th condemned inmate to be
put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.
Chester becomes the 15th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the
USA and the 1335th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17,
1977.
A Dallas woman, Kimberly McCarthy, is scheduled June 26 to become the 500th
Texas inmate executed in modern times.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
************************************
Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----260
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present----499
Perry #--------scheduled execution date-----name---------Tx. #
261------------June 26-------------------Kimberly McCarthy----500*****
262--------------July 10------------------Rigoberto Avila, Jr.----501
263-------------July 16-----------------John Quintanilla Jr.---502
264-------------July 18------------------Vaughn Ross----------503
265-------------July 31-------------------Douglas Feldman-----504
266-------------Sept. 19------------------Robert Garza--------505
267-------------Sept. 26------------------Arturo Diaz--------506
268-------------Oct. 9--------------------Michael Yowell----507
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
*************
Judge's comments raise questions about impartiality
It's a mythical ideal that judges are strictly impartial.
They may have preconceived notions about the law, along with well-informed
viewpoints based on their experience. And they're only human; they may form
opinions about cases or develop impressions about society based on the
perspective those cases provide.
But judges are entrusted with basing decisions on the facts before them and the
applicable law, not their presumptions or conjectures. They're supposed to put
aside any biases that might interfere with them acting fairly.
A complaint filed against Judge Edith Jones of Texas, a 28-year veteran of the
New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, says she made comments
that violated the code of conduct for federal judges and called into question
her impartiality.
The complaint, filed by civil rights groups and legal ethicists, including
several based in Texas, cites affidavits from people who attended a February
speech Jones made to a Federalist Society group at the University of
Pennsylvania Law School.
The speech wasn't recorded, but the complaint says Jones suggested that blacks
and Hispanics commit more violent crimes than other groups; called death row
inmate claims of mental retardation "red herrings"; and criticized U.S. Supreme
Court rulings on capital punishment.
Jones also, according to the complaint, discussed several death penalty appeals
in which she had written opinions, including Elroy Chester's.
Chester was scheduled for execution Wednesday for killing Port Arthur
firefighter Willie Ryman III in 1998. Chester sexually assaulted Ryman's 2
nieces in their home then shot Ryman when he came to check on them.
Chester confessed to that killing - along with a string of other violent
crimes. But his lawyers have argued that he shouldn't be executed because he is
mentally retarded. The Supreme Court last fall turned down that petition.
This week, Chester's lawyers asked the 5th Circuit to name new judges to review
his case because of the comments attributed to Jones. On Tuesday, the court did
so (Jones dissented). But on Wednesday, Judges Eugene Davis, Edith Clement and
Stephen Higginson said there was no reason to block Chester's execution.
What's still unresolved, though, are questions about how Texas determines which
inmates are too mentally impaired for the death penalty - and how far judges
can go in public comments before they undermine public confidence in the
courts.
(source: Editorial, Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
*********************
Elroy Chester executed for killing Port Arthur fireman
Convicted killer Elroy Chester has been executed.
A last-minute appeal to the United States Supreme Court was not granted and
media members were called in to witness the execution at 6:21 p.m. at the Walls
unit. Chester died at 7:04 p.m.
Chester is a serial killer who in 1998 admitted to committing five murders in
Port Arthur. He asked the court to stop Wednesday's execution and to lessen his
sentence to life in prison. The court unanimously denied his request.
Although Chester has admitted to 5 murders, Wednesday's execution comes as a
result of the 1998 killing of Port Arthur Firefighter Willie Ryman III.
According to Chester's prison record, On February 6, 1998, in Port Arthur,
Chester broke into the residence of Kim Ryman Deleon. While at the house,
Chester raped 2 underage girls. Willie Ryman III entered the home and was shot
and killed by Chester. Chester took jewelry from the home and fled the scene.
While in police custody, Chester confessed to the crime, 2 other murders, and 3
attempts to commit capital murder. Chester said that he committed these
offenses because he was out his mind "with hate for white people" due to a
disagreement with a white staff member over a disciplinary report during a
previous TDCJ incarceration.
(sources: 12NewsNow)
************************
5th circuit panel agrees to exclude Jones from death penalty appeal
2 judges on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Tuesday to reassign
review of the case of a man facing execution Wednesday to a new panel that
would exclude Judge Edith Jones, who is the subject of a formal misconduct
complaint.
One of the judges, James Dennis, also supported a stay in the pending execution
of convicted killer Elroy Chester, which remains scheduled for 6 p.m.
The new 3-judge panel is expected to decide whether to stay Chester's
execution.
Attorneys for Chester, sentenced to death for raping 2 girls and murdering
their uncle, filed motions last week requesting a review of a 2011 ruling by
Jones and two other judges denying Chester's claims of mental impairment.
The attorneys requested that Jones recuse herself from reviewing Chester's case
because of remarks attributed to her about his case, and the death penalty in
general, made during a law school lecture at the University of Pennsylvania in
February.
Jones' alleged remarks are the basis of a formal judicial disciplinary
complaint filed against the former 5th Circuit chief judge last week by 13
attorneys representing civil rights, anti-death penalty and ethics groups.
That complaint alleges that Jones improperly discussed the facts of several
specific cases, including Chester's, and also made disparaging statements about
blacks, Hispanics, Mexican nationals and people with mental retardation.
Chester is black. His attorney, Susan Orlansky, specifically cited those
allegations in her motions to the 5th Circuit.
An attorney who attended Jones' Pennsylvania speech said in an affidavit
included in the misconduct complaint that the judge expressed "outrage and
incredulity" that Chester was claiming to be mentally incompetent "in light of
the crimes" to which he confessed.
Orlansky has not responded to requests for comment.
Chester pleaded guilty in 1998 to killing Willie Ryman. He also confessed to
killing four others during a monthlong crime spree.
Voting to grant the motion to reassign Chester's case Tuesday were the chief
judge of the 5th Circuit, Judge Carl Stewart, and Dennis, according to a copy
of the decision.
Both judges served with Jones on the panel that issued the mental competency
ruling in Chester's appeal.
Jones refused Monday to recuse herself from Chester's case, or from another
death penalty case in which attorneys also argued that Jones improperly
commented about their client's case in the Pennsylvania speech.
The other case involves Ramiro Ibarra, a Mexican national facing the death
penalty for a Waco-area murder.
His attorneys claim she specifically referred to Ibarra's case when she
allegedly said Mexican nationals preferred U.S. death row to imprisonment in
their homeland, where the death penalty is banned, federal court records show.
(source: mysanantonio.com)
**********************
Court: Texas inmate's decades-old sentence invalid
The life sentence given to a Texas man who has remained in prison for 33 years
since being pulled off of death row isn't valid, Texas' highest criminal court
said Wednesday, possibly paving the way for a new trial or the inmate's
release.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said once it overturned Jerry Hartfield's
murder conviction in 1980 for the killing of a bus station worker 4 years
earlier, there was no longer a death sentence for then-Gov. Mark White to
commute.
The opinion was given in response to a rare formal request by the 5th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals to confirm the validity of its ruling overturning
Hartfield's conviction, in light of the governor's 1983 commutation. The New
Orleans-based federal court made the request, which upheld a lower state
court's ruling that the sentence was invalid.
"The status of the judgment of conviction is that (Hartfield) is under no
conviction or sentence," Judge Lawrence Meyers wrote in a decision supported by
the court's other 8 judges. "Because there was no longer a death sentence to
commute, the governor's order had no effect."
Hartfield, now 57, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1976 robbery
and killing of a Southeast Texas bus station employee. The criminal appeals
court overturned his murder conviction, ruling that a potential juror
improperly was dismissed after expressing reservations about the death penalty.
White commuted Hartfield's sentence in 1983 at the recommendation of the Texas
Board of Pardons and Paroles, and he has remained in prison since then, unaware
until a few years ago that his case was in legal limbo. Court documents in his
case described him as an illiterate 5th-grade dropout with in IQ of 51,
although Hartfield says he's learned to read and write while in prison.
In its failed appeal to the 5th Circuit, the state argued that Hartfield's life
sentence should stand because he missed a 1-year window in which to appeal
aspects of his case.
Neither the prosecutor's office in Bay City nor Hartfield's attorney, Kenneth
R. Hawk II, immediately responded to phone messages Wednesday seeking comment.
During a prison interview last year, Hartfield told The Associated Press that
he's innocent, but that he doesn't hold a grudge about his predicament, which
his lawyer last year described as "1-in-a-million."
"Being a God-fearing person, he doesn't allow me to be bitter," Hartfield said
from prison.Hartfield was 21 in June 1977 when he was convicted of murdering
55-year-old Eunice Lowe, a Bay City bus station ticketing agent who was beaten
with a pickaxe and robbed. Her car and nearly $3,000 were stolen. Lowe's
daughter found her body in a storeroom at the station.
At the time, Hartfield, who grew up in Altus, Okla., had been working on the
construction of a nuclear power plant near Bay City, about 100 miles southwest
of Houston. He was arrested within days in Wichita, Kan., and while being
returned to Texas, he made a confession to officers that he called "a bogus
statement they had written against me."
The alleged confession was among the key evidence used to convict Hartfield,
along with an unused bus ticket found at the crime scene that had his
fingerprints on it and testimony from witnesses who said he had talked about
needing $3,000.
Jurors deliberated for 3 1/2 hours before convicting Hartfield of murder and
another 20 minutes to decide he should die.
(source: Associated Press)
****************************************
Legislators to Consider Measure for 17-Year-Old Capital Murderers as Jake Evans
Trial Looms
The Parker County district attorney is keeping an eye on the Legislature's
special session. Next month, Jake Evans' case is scheduled to go to trial. The
17-year-old kid from a gated community in Aledo is accused of methodically
gunning down his mother and his little sister then calmly phoning 911.
"It's weird," he told the operator on the night of October 3. "I wasn't even
really angry with them. It just kind of happened. I've been kind of planning on
killing for a while now."
Trouble is, there's no legal punishment for Evans should a jury convict him.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juveniles can't be sentenced to life without
parole -- that's anyone under 18. In Texas, 17-year-old criminal defendants are
considered adults. And, under current state law, juries have little discretion
in sentencing. It's either life without parole or the death penalty.
On Tuesday, Governor Rick Perry added a measure to the special session that
would allow 17-year-old capital murderers to be sentenced to life with the
possibility of parole after they've served 40 years. One of the bills was
authored by Representative Phil KIng, whose district includes Aledo.
"We've been watching and we've been working with legislators to get something
passed," a spokesman for the Parker County district attorney tells Unfair Park.
"And we're happy Governor Perry added it to the agenda so we have a chance to
get this figured out."
As written, the legislation would apply retroactively to include Evans if it
receives 2/3 of the vote in both chambers of the Legislature, says Shannon
Edmonds of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.
Evans certainly isn't the only 17-year-old to fall into this constitutional gap
created by Miller vs. Alabama. Edmonds says the Harris County district attorney
has 12 pending capital murder cases involving 17-year-old defendants.
(source: Dallas Observer)
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