May 12
TEXAS----impending execution
Lawyers for Texas inmate cite botched Oklahoma execution in appeal----Robert
James Campbell is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday evening but
officials refuse to reveal source of sedative
Lawyers for the 1st US prisoner scheduled to be put to death since the bungled
execution of Clayton Lockett have launched a last-minute appeal that seeks to
stay the procedure and lift the shroud of secrecy over Texas's drug supplies.
Robert Campbell is set to be given a lethal injection in the Texas death
chamber on Tuesday evening, but officials have refused to reveal the source of
the sedative that will kill him, adopting a stance mirrored in several other
states as it becomes increasingly difficult for prisons to find suitable drugs
and willing suppliers.
On Monday, Campbell's legal team filed an appeal with the federal 5th circuit
court in which they argue that Lockett's messy death marks a "dramatic change
in the relevant landscape" and that Oklahoma's lack of transparency was a major
factor in the problems.
"The common denominator between Oklahoma and Texas's lethal injection
procedures - secrecy - was the primary and substantial risk facing Mr Lockett.
All his attempts to gain information about the drugs with which Oklahoma
intended to carry out his execution were for naught - and he was subjected to a
torturous execution that undoubtedly violated the Eighth Amendment," the
lawyers claim. "Mr Campbell seeks to protect his right not to suffer the death
experienced by Mr Lockett."
Oklahoma has agreed not to carry out any more executions until an investigation
into the events of 29 April is concluded. In the immediate aftermath, prison
officials said that a vein "blew" and Lockett suffered an apparent heart
attack. The White House said the execution "fell short of humane standards".
Last Friday a district judge ruled against Campbell, citing previous court
decisions in favour of drug secrecy in similar cases which, he said,
established a precedent. But he strongly urged the federal appeals court to
re-examine the issue and consider ruling for greater openness in light of
events in Oklahoma.
Judge Keith P Ellison wrote: "The horrific narrative of Oklahoma's botched
execution of Clayton Lockett on 29 April, 2014 requires sober reflection on the
manner in which this nation administers the ultimate punishment ... this court
urges the 5th circuit to reconsider its jurisprudence that seems to shield
crucial elements of the execution process from open inquiry."
Ellison also referred to a Catch-22-type situation facing inmates in court,
since their claims that uncertainty about drug origins and quality means they
face unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment" cannot be based solely on
speculation, yet "in sanctioning the state's refusal to disclose potentially
relevant information, 5th circuit case law appears to leave the inmate with
nothing but speculation on which to rely."
The judge's words follow the sharp criticism of Missouri's secretive practices
by a federal appeals judge in February. Kermit Bye wrote that given "the
absolute dearth of information Missouri has disclosed to this court, the
'pharmacy' on which Missouri relies could be nothing more than a high school
chemistry class." His stance was backed by 3 supreme court justices.
Campbell's lawyers also argue that his previous legal representation was
inadequate and that he is intellectually-disabled, with an IQ of 69, making his
execution unconstitutional.
He was convicted of the 1991 murder of Alexandra Rendon, a bank employee, in
Houston. The 20-year-old was abducted from a gas station, sexually assaulted,
robbed and shot in the back. A witness said that Campbell told her to "run,
bitch, run", before shooting at her.
Campbell would be the 34th person executed by Texas since it switched to a
single-drug pentobarbital protocol in July 2012. According to court documents,
it has executed 7 inmates with compounded pentobarbital including 3 with its
latest, obscured, supply of the drug.
In the aftermath of Lockett's death, Texas officials insisted that it would be
business as usual in the nation's most active death-penalty state because they
use a different protocol to Oklahoma, which has a 3-drug procedure. Texas also
contends that it now has a long track record of carrying out pentobarbital
executions efficiently, and that a laboratory has tested its batch and found it
to be suitably potent and free of contaminants. However, during the state???s
most recent execution, last month, Jose Villegas reportedly said "it does kind
of burn" as the drug took effect.
Campbell's lawyers counter that a lack of transparency about the procurement
and testing processes threatens a death row inmate's rights regardless of the
substance used in the execution, especially given the lightly-regulated nature
of many compounding pharmacies.
Since Lockett's death, Texas has arranged four more executions between August
and January 2015, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
(source: The Guardian)
***********************
Texas scheduled to carry out 1st US execution since botched Oklahoma lethal
injection
Texas will carry out on Tuesday the 1st U.S. execution since a botched lethal
injection in Oklahoma last month unless attorneys for a man convicted of
murdering a Houston bank teller convince a court that he runs the same risk of
the punishment going awry.
Attorneys for Texas condemned killer Robert Campbell cited in their appeal the
Oklahoma case of Clayton Lockett, who died of an apparent heart attack on April
29 after Oklahoma prison officials stopped his execution.
Campbell's execution would be the 8th this year in Texas and the 4th in recent
weeks to use a lethal dose of pentobarbital Texas prison officials obtained
from a compounding pharmacy they've refused to identify.
3 Texas executions with the new stock of the sedative were carried out last
month without incident.
But Campbell's attorneys - citing the Oklahoma case that President Barack Obama
called "inhumane" - renewed arguments raised earlier in Texas that the secrecy
meant they could not verify the potency of the pentobarbital and competency of
the pharmacy providing it, meaning Campbell could be subjected to
unconstitutional pain and suffering.
"Frighteningly, Texas is pursuing the path of secrecy in the midst of these
deeply troubling events, and even in the immediate wake of events in Oklahoma,"
said Maurie Levin, Campbell's lead attorney in a federal civil rights suit.
"Information about the source of lethal injections drugs - particularly in
today's fraught arena - is vital."
Attorneys for the state of Texas disputed Levin's arguments, saying they were
"speculative" and did not demonstrate a significant risk of pain. Texas was not
using a new method of execution and did not employ the 3-drug procedure used in
Oklahoma, they said. Texas had carried out three executions with the new drug
supply and courts already had ruled the process was acceptable, the state said.
The Texas procedures are "vastly different from the situation in Oklahoma in
which an admittedly new protocol was used," said Ellen Stewart-Klein, an
assistant attorney general.
A federal judge in Houston last week rejected Campbell's appeal on the secrecy
issue, saying his hands were tied because of rulings from the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in previous cases. But U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison urged
the 5th Circuit to reconsider the issue because it seemed to "shield crucial
elements of the execution process form open inquiry."
Texas obtained a new execution drug supply and invoked secrecy in late March as
a previous stock was reaching its expiration date. The confidentiality was
necessary to keep the provider, a compounding pharmacy, from threats of
violence from death penalty opponents, prison officials said.
Campbell's civil rights lawsuit joined another appeal Monday in the 5th Circuit
that contended Campbell was mentally impaired, making him ineligible for
execution under U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
Campbell, 41, was convicted of capital murder for the January 1991 slaying of a
20-year-old Houston bank teller, Alexandra Rendon, who was abducted while
putting gas into her car, robbed, raped and shot. A companion of Campbell's,
Leroy Lewis, pleaded guilty, received 35 years in prison and is now on parole.
Campbell was 18 at the time of the slaying and on parole after serving 4 months
of a 5-year sentence for robbery.
"I can't imagine her last moments," Rendon's cousin, Israel Santana, said last
week. "She had no chance. Think about what hell she endured ... the agony she
had to go through."
Even before the Oklahoma problems, questions about execution procedures had
drawn renewed attention from defense attorneys and death penalty opponents in
recent months. States have scrambled to find new sources of execution drugs
after several drugmakers, including many based in Europe, refused to sell their
products for use in executions.
(source: Associated Press)
****************
Attorneys allege Texas is going to execute man with mental retardation on
Tuesday
Today, based on new information and evidence only recently uncovered in state
files indicating that Robert Campbell is a person with mental retardation, and
therefore ineligible for execution, according to attorneys that will ask the
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider its recommendation against
clemency for Mr. Campbell. Mr. Campbell is scheduled to be executed in Texas on
Tuesday, May 13, 2104 at 6 p.m. CT.
"It is an outrage that the State of Texas itself has worked to frustrate Mr.
Campbell's attempts to obtain any fair consideration of evidence of his
intellectual disability," said Robert C. Owen, an attorney for Mr. Campbell.
"State officials affirmatively misled Mr. Campbell's lawyers when they said
they had no records of IQ testing of Mr. Campbell from his time on death row.
That was a lie. They had such test results, and those results placed Mr.
Campbell squarely in the range for a diagnosis of mental retardation. Mr.
Campbell now faces execution as a direct result of such shameful gamesmanship."
According to Mr. Campbell's attorneys, during prior state and federal judicial
proceedings, the State of Texas failed to disclose 2 prior I.Q. test scores
that tended to prove Mr. Campbell's intellectual disability. The Harris County
District Attorney's Office did not provide counsel with public school records,
including the results of a score of 68 from an I.Q. test administered to Mr.
Campbell when he was a schoolchild.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice similarly failed to disclose that Mr.
Campbell scored a 71 on an I.Q. test administered by a state-employed prison
psychologist shortly after Mr. Campbell arrived on death row at age 19. Even
more egregious is the fact that TDCJ flatly told Mr. Campbell's attorney in
2003 that no such IQ tests existed for death row prisoners.
An I.Q. test score of 70 or below is generally accepted as "significantly
subaverage intellectual functioning" necessary to diagnose intellectual
disability. According to Mr. Campbell's attorneys, every piece of substantial
evidence supports this diagnosis, and a comprehensive evaluation by a highly
qualified psychologist - a member of the Texas Board of Examiners of
Psychologists, appointed to that post by Governor Rick Perry - has now
confirmed it.
Mr. Campbell faces imminent execution despite the fact that no court has given
meaningful consideration to extensive evidence that he is intellectually
disabled. Unless the Board intervenes, Texas may execute a man who is mentally
retarded, in violation of the Supreme Court's now decade-old ban on such
executions.
A powerful dissenting opinion issued last week by Judge Elsa Alcala of the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) correctly called the evidence of Mr.
Campbell's mental retardation 'compelling.' She zeroed in on the fundamental
unfairness of the court's decision to reject his claim - the reason why this
evidence was not available in 2003, when the CCA first turned away Mr.
Campbell???s mental retardation claim.
In her dissent, Judge Alcala states, "It would be unjust to penalize [Mr.
Campbell] for not uncovering such a falsehood previously, when he had no basis
to believe that a falsehood had been conveyed to him. . . . This Court should
not base its decisions that determine whether a person will live or be executed
based on misinformation or wholly inadequate information."
Here is the link to Mr. Campbell's habeas petition:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQZmFSMVBLcmpRcU0/edit
Here is the link to the CCA ruling and dissent:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQTXk5c1l1VGQzSHc/edit
Mr. Campbell's attorneys also plan to appeal directly to Texas Governor Rick
Perry, who has the authority to issue a 1-time, 30-day stay of execution.
(source: North Dallas Gazette)
****************************
Gov. Perry Asked by the Arc to Stop Tuesday Execution of Intellectually
Disabled Man
The Arc, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental
disabilities, just delivered this letter to TX Governor Perry.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQQlFnOVhVNUNEeE0/edit
May 12, 2014
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
Clemency Section
8610 Shoal Creek Boulevard
Austin, Texas 78757
RE: Executive Clemency, Commutation of Death Sentence to Life Imprisonment for
Robert Campbell
Dear Governor Perry, Chairman Owens, and Board Members of the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles:
We write on behalf of The Arc of the United States to urge that, on the basis
of his intellectual disability (ID), the death sentence of Robert Campbell be
commuted to life without possibility of parole.
In its 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized
the special risk of wrongful execution faced by persons with ID (formerly
termed "mental retardation") and banned the execution of persons with ID as
cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. 536 U.S. 304.
News reports indicate that Mr. Campbell has been found by a highly qualified
psychologist to have a diagnosis of intellectual disability with an IQ of 69.
Additional evidence suggests the state of Texas and the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice withheld 2 prior IQ tests showing an IQ of 68 from a test
during elementary school, and 71 from his prison records. We note Judge
Alcala's statement in her dissenting opinion: "It now falls to the federal
courts and Governor Perry to ensure that Mr. Campbell, a person with mental
retardation, will not be executed as a result of this disturbing violation by
State officials of his most basic due process rights."
The actions of state officials have created a gross miscarriage of justice
regarding counsel's efforts to appeal Mr. Campbell's sentence.???The Arc is
committed to seeking lawful outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities
and will continue working to ensure that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on this
issue is abided by in jurisdictions across the country.
The Arc is a non-profit organization which, for over 60 years, has dedicated
itself to altering perceptions of people with intellectual and developmental
disabilities and to the education of the public about the true potential of
persons with this diagnosis. Over the decades, The Arc has advocated for the
passage of state and federal legislation on behalf of people with disabilities
and established a broad network of state and local chapters that support people
with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the country. In
addition to our longstanding interest in actively seeking justice in death
penalty cases involving individuals with intellectual disabilities, The Arc of
the United States recently received a grant from the Department of Justice,
Bureau of Justice Assistance to start The National Center on Criminal Justice
and Disability (NCCJD). Backed by the knowledge of dedicated criminal justice
professionals, we urge you to prevent a miscarriage of justice and commute the
death sentence of Robert Campbell to life without possibility of parole.
Sincerely,
Peter V. Berns
Chief Executive Officer
The Arc of the United States
Amy Mizcles, LMSW
Executive Director
The Arc of Texas
(source: dupontcirclecommunicaitons.com)
*********************************
TX Failed to Disclose Robert Campbell has Mental Retardation; Execution Tuesday
Documents Show that Texas Failed to Disclose Evidence that Man Facing Imminent
Execution has Mental Retardation, According to Attorneys
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles Will Be Asked Today to Reconsider Clemency
for Robert Campbell; Based on New Evidence of Low I.Q. Test Scores that were in
the State's Possession But Never Shared with Campbell's Lawyers
Today, based on new information and evidence only recently uncovered in state
files indicating that Robert Campbell is a person with mental retardation, and
therefore ineligible for execution, attorneys will ask the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles to reconsider its recommendation against clemency for Mr.
Campbell. Mr. Campbell is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Tuesday, May 13,
2104 at 6 p.m. CT.
"It is an outrage that the State of Texas itself has worked to frustrate Mr.
Campbell's attempts to obtain any fair consideration of evidence of his
intellectual disability," said Robert C. Owen, an attorney for Mr. Campbell.
"State officials affirmatively misled Mr. Campbell's lawyers when they said
they had no records of IQ testing of Mr. Campbell from his time on death row.
That was a lie. They had such test results, and those results placed Mr.
Campbell squarely in the range for a diagnosis of mental retardation. Mr.
Campbell now faces execution as a direct result of such shameful gamesmanship."
According to Mr. Campbell's attorneys, during prior state and federal judicial
proceedings, the State of Texas failed to disclose two prior I.Q. test scores
that tended to prove Mr. Campbell's intellectual disability. The Harris County
District Attorney's Office did not provide counsel with public school records,
including the results of a score of 68 from an I.Q. test administered to Mr.
Campbell when he was a schoolchild.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice similarly failed to disclose that Mr.
Campbell scored a 71 on an I.Q. test administered by a state-employed prison
psychologist shortly after Mr. Campbell arrived on death row at age 19. Even
more egregious is the fact that TDCJ flatly told Mr. Campbell's attorney in
2003 that no such IQ tests existed for death row prisoners.
An I.Q. test score of 70 or below is generally accepted as "significantly
subaverage intellectual functioning" necessary to diagnose intellectual
disability.??? According to Mr. Campbell's attorneys, every piece of
substantial evidence supports this diagnosis, and a comprehensive evaluation by
a highly qualified psychologist - a member of the Texas Board of Examiners of
Psychologists, appointed to that post by Governor Rick Perry - has now
confirmed it.
Mr. Campbell faces imminent execution despite the fact that no court has given
meaningful consideration to extensive evidence that he is intellectually
disabled. Unless the Board intervenes, Texas may execute a man who is mentally
retarded, in violation of the Supreme Court's now decade-old ban on such
executions.
A powerful dissenting opinion issued last week by Judge Elsa Alcala of the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) correctly called the evidence of Mr.
Campbell's mental retardation 'compelling.'
She zeroed in on the fundamental unfairness of the court's decision to reject
his claim - the reason why this evidence was not available in 2003, when the
CCA first turned away Mr. Campbell's mental retardation claim.
In her dissent, Judge Alcala states, "It would be unjust to penalize [Mr.
Campbell] for notuncovering such a falsehood previously, when he had no basis
to believe that a falsehood had been conveyed to him. . . . This Court should
not base its decisions that determine whether a person will live or be executed
based on misinformation or wholly inadequate information."
Here is the link to Mr. Campbell's habeas petition:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQZmFSMVBLcmpRcU0/edit
Here is the link to the CCA ruling and dissent:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQTXk5c1l1VGQzSHc/edit
Mr. Campbell's attorneys also plan to appeal directly to Texas Governor Rick
Perry, who has the authority to issue a 1-time, 30-day stay of execution.
(source: TCADP)
******************
Suniga death penalty trial expected to start Tuesday----Capital murder case for
2011 shooting death at One Guy from Italy restaurant
Lubbock County's 1st death penalty trial since 2008 is expected to start at 9
a.m. Tuesday at the 140th district court.
Brian Suniga, 34, will face a 12-member jury trial during a capital murder case
in the 2011 shooting death of 26-year-old David Rowser II at the One Guy From
Italy restaurant on 50th Street.
Suniga has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since 2011.
Jury selection for the case started in March with lengthy questionnaires sent
out to potential jurors, followed up by individual interviews.
The trial was scheduled to start May 9, according to court records.
Presiding Judge Jim Bob Darnell executed a gag order April 25 on the case
prohibiting prosecutors, defense attorneys and law enforcement agents from
commenting, according to court records.
Attorneys for Suniga filed a motion on the same day to change the venue of the
trial and dismiss nine of the selected jurors in the case and the rest of the
jury pool.
A 2nd change of venue and jury dismissal motion was filed Monday.
Suniga's attorney, Edward Keith Jr., argued in the motions his client would not
get an impartial jury because of media coverage surrounding the killing. The
motion cited recent coverage by local news agencies, including a May
Avalanche-Journal article regarding gang tattoos. The A-J article did not refer
to the pending case, nor did it mention Suniga or any gang affiliation.
Police arrested Suniga and Sesilio Caballero Lopez Jr. on Dec. 29, 2011, in
Abilene one night after they allegedly killed Rowser during a robbery at the
One Guy from Italy restaurant at 4320 50th St.
Investigators believe Suniga and Lopez entered the restaurant and demanded
Rowser's coworker and brother, Jonathan, give them the money from the register.
He refused, and the 2 men allegedly took the tip jar instead and turned to
leave.
David Rowser II came out of a room near the restaurant's restrooms and was shot
twice in the chest, according to A-J archives.
Lopez also faces a capital murder charge; a trial date is not yet set.
At present, 2 death row inmates in Texas have received their sentences in
Lubbock.
Rosendo Rodriquez III was handed a death sentence in 2008 for the 2005 killing
of a 29-year-old woman.
Joe Franco Garza was sentenced to death in 2000 for the 1998 killing of a
71-year-old-man, according to A-J archives.
(source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
