Feb. 3
ALABAMA:
Hearing date reset for man facing possible death sentence in fatal beating of
Huntsville artist Wade Wharton
A man facing capital murder charges in the Jan. 15 beating death of admired
Huntsville artist Wade Wharton will have to wait to hear the state's case
against him, after a judge today granted his request to reschedule a
preliminary hearing.
The continuance request by attorney Robert Tuten, on behalf of 19-year-old
Ervin Akeem Tolbert, was granted today by Madison County District Judge
Schuyler H. "Dick" Richardson. Tuten's filing Friday cited an out-of-town
conflict for the attorney on the scheduled preliminary hearing date of March 6.
Richardson granted the continuance but no new date for the preliminary hearing
has been set. The preliminary hearing is used by the district court judge to
determine if there is sufficient evidence to move the case forward and present
it to a grand jury.
Tolbert faces 2 counts of capital murder in the beating death of his neighbor
Wharton, 76. Wharton a well-regarded metals sculptor was remembered Sunday at a
reception at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Wharton came to the public's attention in 2008 when the city cited him for
"improper storage of junk" in his southwest Huntsville yard. He had long
collected bits of metal and other castoffs he used to create sculptures he
placed around his home. After The Huntsville Times reported on his battles with
the city, Wharton developed a following of devoted fans of his art, many of
whom stepped in to help him clean up the piles of what the city called junk.
He eventually pleaded guilty to the charge of keeping junk in his yard and, in
exchange, received no fine from the city.
Tolbert is charged with capital murder-robbery and capital murder-burglary. He
is alleged to have killed Wharton around 4 a.m. in the carport area of
Wharton's home on Nassau Drive.
The defense has asked the prosecution to announce if it will seek the death
penalty, but the Madison County District Attorney's Office has not yet made a
public statement on the issue.
(source: al.com)
LOUISIANA----stay of impending execution
Killer set for Wednesday execution wins 90-day delay, trial regarding drugs
Death-row inmate Christopher Sepulvado was granted a 90-day stay of execution
today, just 2 days before he was set to be killed with a new, controversial
combination of lethal-injection drugs.
The state and Sepulvado's attorney's agreed to a 90-day temporary restraining
order after a closed-door meeting with U.S. District Court Judge James Brady,
said Pam Laborde, spokeswoman for the state Department of Safety and
Corrections. The meeting was held in Brady's chambers to discuss recent changes
in Louisiana's lethal injection protocol.
A trial on the constitutionality of the state's execution method is scheduled
to begin April 7.
"The stay will allow additional time for review and responses to outstanding
issues related to the execution," Laborde said in her written statement.
Last week the state announced it would be using a mix of the sedative midazolam
and the painkiller hydromorphone. The deadly concoction was used earlier this
month in Ohio, where it reportedly caused convicted rapist and killer Dennis
McGuire to gasp and snort for 15 minutes before dying.
Sepulvado was sentenced to death in 1993 for killing his stepson. He beat the
6-year-old child with a screwdriver and held him in scalding water.
This is the latest in a string of delays won by Sepulvado. He and fellow
death-row inmate Jessie Hoffman have a joint federal lawsuit pending that says
they deserve to know precisely how the state will execute them. Their lawyers
are trying to show that the state's methods could cause unnecessary pain and
suffering, violating their constitutional rights.
Sepulvado's lawyers have repeatedly complained that the state has withheld
information about its lethal-injection process, including the source of the
drugs and whether they're expired.
On Friday, following pleadings by Sepulvado's lawyers, Brady ordered the state
to "identify, by type, manufacturer, lot number, quantity, expiration date, and
source, the drug or drugs to be used by the DOC in the lethal injections given
to death row inmates."
In response, the Department of Corrections released a document stating that
Louisiana had hydromorphone and midazolam "in compliance with the recently
revised protocol."
However, the state's execution protocol calls for a concentrated mixture of of
midazolam, a sedative, 5 times stronger than what the state's records show it
has in stock, according to a state document recently filed in court.
Ohio's protocol, which death-penalty opponents say resulted in a botched
execution, also called for the stronger dose of midazolam.
The state provided to Sepulvado's attorneys only some of the information
ordered by the judge. It did not identify what company or pharmacist supplied
the drug. In a court filing last week, a lawyer for the state argued that it's
imperative to protect the identities of companies that provide drugs to the
DOC.
"In truth, other than exposing those people to the potential abuses and
harassment of anti-death penalty advocates, there is no good reason for
exposing the identities of these people," wrote state attorney Jeffrey Cody.
Sepulvado's case underscores "troubling new developments" concerning
Louisiana's planned method of execution, according to Sophie Cull, the former
director of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
"Recent issues in Oklahoma, Ohio and Missouri have highlighted the national
crisis surrounding lethal injection, marked by botched executions, extreme
secrecy and the replacement of FDA-approved drugs with drugs of unknown
sourcing and testing in new experimental combinations," she said.
The stay of execution follows a court filing last week by Gary Clements, a
lawyer for Sepulvado. Clements said that Louisiana's "11th-hour" switch of
execution drugs was both secretive and appeared to violate its own regulations.
"Consistent with its belief that it need not provide any information about the
execution, the state has 'disclosed' its protocol in name only: petitioner has
no way of knowing what drugs will actually be used in the execution," Clements
wrote.
This is the 3rd time in several years that the state has changed its
lethal-injection method, as states all over the country have faced nationwide
shortages of execution drugs.
In February 2013, the state announced a change from a 3-drug mixture of lethal
injection drugs to the single drug, pentobarbital. But that drug only has a
shelf life of 3 years, and the state disposed of its supply after it expired in
September.
The state couldn't find another source of pentobarbital, Laborde said.
Documents obtained by The Lens in response to a public-records request for
documents regarding acquisition of pentobarbital show that in September the
state received a confidentiality agreement from an Oklahoma compounding
pharmacy called The Apothecary Shoppe, which is not licensed in the state of
Louisiana. Several states around the country have been turning to compounding
pharmacies, which aren't regulated by the FDA, to obtain lethal injection
drugs.
(source: The Lens)
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