March 28
TEXAS----execution
Texas executes man who killed food delivery woman with bat
Texas executed convicted murderer Anthony Doyle on Thursday as it kept the pace
of executions steady while other states have had to postpone capital
punishments because they cannot obtain drugs used in lethal injections.
Doyle, 29, was convicted of beating food delivery woman Hyun Cho, a South
Korean native, to death in 2003 with a baseball bat, putting her body in a
trash can and stealing her car.
Doyle was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m. CDT (2349 GMT) at the state's death
chamber in Huntsville after receiving a lethal injection. He did not make a
last statement, a Department of Criminal Justice spokesman said.
Texas, which has executed more people than any other state since the U.S.
Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, has obtained a fresh batch
of its execution drug pentobarbital, the Department of Criminal Justice said
this month, without revealing the source.
On Thursday, a state judge ordered Texas to release the name of its new drug
supplier. The state attorney general's office said it would appeal the ruling.
The decision was for 2 inmates due to be executed in April and had no impact on
Doyle's execution.
Many other U.S. states have been struggling to obtain drugs for executions
after pharmaceutical firms, mostly in Europe, imposed sales bans because they
object to having medications used in lethal injections.
Oklahoma has had to postpone 2 executions planned for this month because it
could not find drugs. Alabama said this week it has run out of one of the main
drugs it uses, putting on hold executions for 16 inmates who have exhausted
appeals and face capital punishment.
Several states have looked to alter the chemicals used for lethal injection and
keep the suppliers' identities secret. They have also turned to lightly
regulated compounding pharmacies that can mix chemicals.
But an Oklahoma judge ruled on Wednesday that the state's secrecy on its lethal
injections protocols was unconstitutional, a decision that could delay
executions in other states where death row inmates are planning to launch
similar challenges.
Texas plans to execute 5 more inmates between now and the end of May, about the
same number as every other state combined for the period, according to the
Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization which monitors
capital punishment.
Doyle was the fourth person executed in Texas this year and the 512th in the
state since the death penalty was reinstated.
But executions overall have been on the decline in Texas, after hitting a peak
of 40 in 2000. Since 2010, Texas has averaged about 15 executions a year.
The high costs of prosecutions and the availability of a sentence of life
without parole have caused capital punishment convictions to fall to about 10
or less a year in recent years.
"We are now very selective in what we choose to go after as death penalty
cases, instead of deciding that every single murder that we try will be a
capital case," said Susan Reed, the district attorney in San Antonio and a
death penalty supporter.
Doyle becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas
and the 512th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7,
1982. Doyle becomes the 273rd condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas
since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.
Doyle becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA
and the 1373rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977,
(sources: Reuters & Rick Halperin)
*********************
Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----273
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present----512
Perry #--------scheduled execution date-----name---------Tx. #
274------------Apr. 3--------------------Tommy Lynn Sells-----513
275------------Apr. 9--------------------Ramiro Hernandez----514
276------------Apr. 16-------------------Jose Villegas--------515
277------------May 13--------------------Robert Campbell------516
278------------May 21--------------------Robert Pruett-------517
(sources for both: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
****************
Death Watch: Most Notorious; Serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells scheduled for
execution
Travis County District Judge Suzanne Covington has ruled that the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice must reveal to death row inmate Tommy Lynn Sells
the name of the company that has supplied lethal injection drugs to the state
for his imminent execution.
TDCJ says it will appeal.
Sells and fellow death row inmate Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas sued yesterday to
force TDCJ to release information on the supplier. The state has resisted, in
part because drug makers who supply executioners have come under increasing
scrutiny.
Covington's order required the state to release the information to the inmates
under protective order, barring the information from being released - at least
right now - to the general public. Sells attorney Maurie Levin said the broader
public has the right to that information, but that this is a good 1st step and
will allow "those facing imminent execution [to] have the information necessary
to evaluate whether Texas' execution process will violate their right to be
free of cruel and unusual punishment," she said in an emailed statement. "While
we believe TDCJ is ultimately accountable to the people of Texas, and that
transparency in this process is essential, the assessment of the broader
public's right to know will be made at a later date."
TDCJ is "disappointed in the court's decision" and is appealing the ruling,
spokesman Jason Clark said in an email.
In the wee hours of Dec. 31, 1999, Tommy Lynn Sells climbed through an unlocked
window of the trailer home where the Harris family lived outside Del Rio.
He groped 13-year-old Kaylene Harris as she slept on the bottom level of a bunk
bed and then stabbed her and repeatedly slit her throat when she awoke and
tried to escape. Before he left the girl's room he spotted Kaylene's
11-year-old friend, Krystal Surles, there for a sleepover, up on the top bunk.
Krystal had her hands in front of her face and throat. Move your hands, was all
Sells said to her, she recalled for Nightline, before he reached up and without
any emotion, slit her throat.
Sells severed her windpipe, but only nicked her carotid. Krystal survived the
attack. Indeed, two days later she identified Sells as her attacker and as the
murderer of her friend. Sells subsequently confessed to the crime and then
reenacted it for Val Verde County investigators.
In November 2000, he was sent to Texas' death row.
Since his conviction for Kaylene's murder, Sells has been linked to other
murders and claims to have killed dozens of people across the country (in 2003,
he pleaded guilty to the murder of 9-year-old Mary Bea Perez, in San Antonio*),
earning him the moniker of ???Coast-to-Coast Killer.??? In interviews, he has
declined to say exactly how many people he's killed, but, in talking with
journalist Martin Bashir, suggested it could be as many as 50.
Attorneys for Sells have argued mightily on appeal that his death sentence
should not stick: that he is mentally retarded, and thus Constitutionally
barred from execution; that he was provided with ineffective assistance of
counsel at trial; that his confession to police was involuntary; that the
Texas' death penalty scheme itself violates the Constitutional ban on cruel and
unusual punishment.
Each of Sells' appeals has been denied.
On March 26, lawyers filed a new suit, in Travis County court, alleging that
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has failed to provide enough
information about the drug that will be used in Sells' execution, despite
earlier rulings that would require that information to be made public, reports
the Houston Chronicle.
On April 3, Sells is slated to become the 5th inmate put to death in Texas this
year, and the 513th inmate executed since reinstatement of the death penalty.
(source: Austin Chronicle)
***************
Death Drugs Ruling Could Fuel Opposition to Texas Death Penalty
A ruling by a court in Austin that Texas must disclose the source of the
Pentobarbital it uses to execute condemned criminals is seen as a major victory
for opponents of capital punishment, 1200 WOAI news reports.
The judge ruled that Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials must
disclose 'in camera,' or privately to the judge, the source of a new supply of
the lethal injection drug that the state received to execute criminals starting
April 1. The state has announced the receipt of the drugs, but has said
revealing where the drugs came from would be a security violation.
Jen Moreno, an attorney with the Death Penalty Center at the University of
California Berkeley tells 1200 WOAI news the fact that the drugs are more than
likely from an unregulated so called 'compounding pharmacy' will open the door
to claims that using them on inmates violates Constitutional protections
against cruel and unusual punishment.
"I would expect that the attorneys in that court are taking a serious look at
what was released and they will seriously consider bringing an Eighth Amendment
challenge," she said.
But state prison spokesman Jason Clark says, not so fast.
"Certainly the agency is disappointed in the District Court ruling, and we plan
on appealing the decision to a higher court," Clark said.
Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly unwilling to allow their product to
be used in executions, which has forced Texas and other states to rely on small
compounding pharmacies to obtain the needed drugs. When the state got the death
drugs that were used to execute a man last night, officials actually made up
the non-existent 'Huntsville Hospital' and ordered drugs to be sent there. When
the state revealed the name of the pharmacy in the Houston suburb of The
Woodlands which provided the drugs, the pharmacy was picketed by anti death
penalty groups.
Moreno says the attitude of the drug companies should say something to Texas
officials about the waning popularity of capital punishment.
"I think that is sending a message about a larger awareness that the death
penalty is not something that we need in our society," she said.
(source: WOAI news)
***********
Judge Says Execution Drug Supplier to Texas Must Be Disclosed to Condemned
Texas prison officials were ordered to disclose the name of the supplier of a
new lot of drugs to be used in lethal injections to the attorneys of 2
prisoners, Tommy Lynn Sells and Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas, who are scheduled for
execution. In addition, the ruling requires that state officials turn over any
test results that have been done on the drug's purity and/or potency to the
condemned men. The judge did not, however, rule that the officials must
publicly disclose the information.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice argued against disclosure, saying that
execution suppliers are facing threats as discovered in an assessment by
police. The threats, coupled with Internet photos depicting pharmacists who
make execution drugs as targets for violence, formed part of the argument
against disclosure by Assistant Attorney General Nicole Bunker-Henderson.
Although the Attorney General's office represented the criminal justice agency
in this action, they have previously stated publicly that the drug information
should be made public.
Because the state's previous source for execution drugs received threats last
year due to the public disclosure of its name, Texas attorneys argued that the
new supplier of pentobarbital, which the state uses as a sedative in lethal
injections, should remain secret as well.
Phil Durst, an attorney arguing for the disclosure of execution drug suppliers,
stated that attorneys of inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection have a
right to know from where the drugs are obtained. Durst represents one of the
condemned men. The lawsuit claimed that without knowing the supplier of the
drugs, the inmates would not be able to properly determine the risk of being
subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, which would violate the Eighth
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The existing supply of pentobarbital is due to expire on April 1, meaning that
the new supply source must be ready to go before any executions can be
performed. Due to time constraints, the petition, filed on Wednesday, was heard
on an emergency basis on Thursday. Sells and Hernandez-Llanas are the first
inmates scheduled for execution using the new batch of drugs.
Sells was convicted and sentenced to die on April 3rd for the throat-slashing
of 2 girls, Kaylene Harris, 13, and Krystal Surles, 10, in 1999. Kaylene did
not survive. He has reportedly been tied to more than 12 other murders and
claims to be responsible for many more. Hernandez-Llanas will face execution on
April 9 in the fatal of beating Glen Lich, who owned the ranch near where
Hernandez-Llanas worked, in 1997.
The shortage of suppliers has forced lethal injection states to turn to
compounding pharmacies, which are not subject to the same federal scrutiny, for
the necessary drugs. The new supply in Texas comes from a compounding pharmacy.
Prior attempts to keep execution drug sources private have also been
unsuccessful. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has not stated whether
they plan to appeal the ruling. Texas executes more prisoners than any other
state, which makes the recent tide of drugmakers refusing to supply lethal
injection drugs to U.S. prison agencies due to their opposition to the death
penalty felt much more strongly in Texas. Finding a new source of the drug was
essential, but possibly losing the source due to the supplier's fear of public
recrimination means that Texas will resist having to make the source's name
public.
One day earlier, a judge in Oklahoma struck down that state's law that protects
the identity of execution drug suppliers. As that ruling in appealed,
executions in Oklahoma may be suspended.
(source: Guardianlv)
******************
Lawyers: Texas should reveal execution drug source
The Texas prison agency's position that its supplier of a new batch of
execution drugs should be kept secret is being challenged by attorneys for 2
inmates who would be the first executed with the replenished stockpile.
An emergency hearing was set before a state judge in Austin on Thursday, a day
after attorneys for convicted killers Tommy Lynn Sells and Ramiro
Hernandez-Llanas filed a lawsuit demanding the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice name the provider of the pentobarbital, the sedative the state uses for
lethal injections.
Sells and Hernandez-Llanas are scheduled to die April 3 and 9 respectively.
Sells was condemned for slashing 2 girls' throats in 1999; one girl died.
Hernandez-Llanas was condemned for the 1997 beating death of a man who owned a
ranch where Hernandez worked.
"Time is truly of the essence," the inmates' lawyers said in their lawsuit.
"Without information about where the drugs come from, and the purity, potency
and integrity of those drugs, neither Mr. Hernandez-Llanas nor Mr. Sells can
evaluate the risk that their executions will subject them to cruel and unusual
pain in violation of the Eighth Amendment."
The current supply of pentobarbital used for lethal injections in Texas expires
April 1. Prison officials said last week they have a new supply but cited
security reasons for declining to disclose the supplier's name.
The state attorney general's office previously has said the information should
be public and is waiting for arguments from the agency on why the policy should
be changed.
The dispute in the state that executes more inmates than any other comes as
major drugmakers, many based in Europe, have stopped selling pentobarbital and
other substances used in lethal injections to U.S. corrections agencies because
they oppose the death penalty.
Texas only had enough pentobarbital to continue carrying out executions through
the end of March until it obtained its new supply from the unknown provider. An
inmate set to die Thursday would be using the sedative from that supply.
Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark declined to comment
Wednesday on the lawsuit, saying the agency "doesn't comment on pending
litigation." Last week, he said department officials "are not disclosing the
identity of the pharmacy because of previous, specific threats of serious
physical harm made against businesses and their employees that have provided
drugs used in the lethal injection process."
Attorney General Greg Abbott's office was set to represent the prison agency at
Thursday's hearing before State District Judge Tim Sulak, said Lauren Bean, a
spokeswoman for Abbott.
The inmates' lawyers said their filing compels Texas' corrections department to
comply with the state's Public Information Act, adding that the deadline for
the agency to submit its request for an attorney general's opinion regarding
the new secrecy is April 1.
"Even if (prison officials) expedited the filing of that request - which they
have not said they will do - the attorney general will not be able to write an
opinion before Mr. Sells' April 3rd scheduled execution," attorneys Maurie
Levin, Naomi Terr and Hilary Sheard wrote.
On Wednesday, an Oklahoma judge voided that state's execution law, agreeing
with inmates that a "veil of secrecy" preventing them from seeking information
about the drugs used in lethal injections violated their rights under the state
constitution. Oklahoma officials plan to appeal.
Oklahoma is among the states that have promised companies confidentiality if
they will provide the sedatives or paralyzing agents used to execute condemned
prisoners, and went beyond that to prevent information from being revealed even
in court.
Arkansas and Missouri keep execution information secret.
While Texas prison officials haven't indicated they want to go to the extent
those states have, they are seeking to at least keep the name of their lethal
drug source from being revealed.
(source: Associated Press)
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