June 9
TEXAS:
Supreme Court Rejects Texas Death Row Inmate's Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday rejected the appeal of Texas death row inmate
Robert James Campbell, 41, whose attorneys want state officials to disclose the
source of the lethal drugs the state uses in executions.
Campbell had a pair of appeals in federal courts last month as his scheduled
execution neared.
While the Supreme Court appeal on drug secrecy was pending, a lower federal
appeals court halted Campbell's execution to allow his lawyers time to pursue
appeals based on the claim that he's mentally impaired and ineligible for the
death penalty.
The justices rejected the drug secrecy argument Monday without comment.
The court has made similar rulings in other cases.
Campbell was sentenced to death for the 1991 rape, robbery and murder of
Houston bank teller Alexandra Rendon.
Rendon was kidnapped from in January 1991 from a Chevron station and driven to
an isolated area where Lewis and his co-defendant took her jewelry, and then
raped her, records show.
Then the men forced Rendon at gunpoint to walk into a field where Campbell told
her to run.
Campbell fired once at her and missed and then shot her in the back and left
her to die, records show.
The 2 men fled in the victim's car.
Rendon's body was found 12 days later.
"This was not a shoot and rob and run away," Rendon's cousin, Israel Santana,
said. "The agony she had to go through."
Rendon, who had been making wedding plans, was buried wearing her recently
purchased wedding dress.
Campbell was 18 at the time of the murder.
(source: KWTX news)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Michael Ballard tells U.S. Supreme Court he doesn't want to appeal death
sentence, letter claims
Quintuple murderer Michael Ballard - or someone posing as him - claimed in a
letter last week he wishes to drop his death sentence appeal, but an attorney
is continuing the appeal without his permission.
If Ballard intends to drop his appeals, the 40-year-old would effectively be
signing his own death sentence. No Pennsylvania inmate has been put to death in
decades without waiving his federal appeals. The last execution was carried out
in 1999.
The Northampton County District Attorney's Office is in receipt of the letter,
but could not confirm today that Ballard, who is on death row for murdering 4
Northampton residents in 2010, is the author.
The letter asks the U.S. Supreme Court that it reject Ballard's appeal process,
saying a federal defender acted without his permission. Ballard didn't even
learn of the appeal until he heard about it through the news media, according
to the letter.
"They are acting against my own wishes to waive my appeals," the typed letter
dated June 2 says.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld Ballard's death sentence in November. In
March, Marc Bookman, the director of the Atlantic Center for Capital
Representation, filed an appeal on Ballard's behalf requesting the U.S. Supreme
Court review the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision.
Bookman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. He previously
has not returned phone messages on the matter.
District Attorney John Morganelli said his office will investigate the letter's
claims, which, if true, could mean Bookman acted unethically by not acting in
the interest of his client. Too often, Morganelli said, federal defenders
blindly advocate against the death penalty instead of for their defendants, he
said.
"They don't represent their clients, they represent causes," Morganelli said.
Morganelli said although he cannot confirm Ballard wrote the letter, he
believes it's legitimate. He would not speculate on whether Ballard truly
wished to drop his appeal or was trying to throw a wrench in the proceedings.
"I can't figure Ballard out. I have to take him at his word," he said.
Ballard pleaded guilty in April 2011 to murdering his ex-girlfriend Denise
Merhi, her father Dennis Marsh, her grandfather Alvin Marsh and good Samaritan
Steven Zernhelt, a neighbor who rushed into Merhi's homes after her screaming
cousin ran out of the building. A jury sentenced him to death the following
month.
At the time of the quadruple stabbing, Ballard was on parole after serving
about 18 years in state prison for a 1991 Allentown murder.
In an interview with 2 Express-Times reporters who wrote a book about the
murder and trial, Ballard made clear he did not enjoy his life on death row.
"I live as a (expletive) pet. I'm taken out for exercise. I'm told when to eat.
I live in a (expletive) cage. I am a pet. This is not a (expletive) life," he
said in the book.
(source: lehighvalley.com)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Winfield seeks stay from Missouri Supreme Court
A Missouri inmate scheduled to be put to death next week is asking the Missouri
Supreme Court to halt the execution.
John Winfield faces execution June 18 for killing 2 women in St. Louis County
in 1996. In a court filing on Monday, attorneys for Winfield say it is
unconstitutional for the state to execute him with "an unregulated compounded
drug, from an undisclosed supplier, made of unknown ingredients, and through
unknown processes."
Missouri is among several states that refuse to disclose the source of their
execution drugs.
Winfield also has appeals pending before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
and the U.S. Supreme Court.
He would be the 7th person put to death in Missouri since November.
(source: Associated Press)
ARIZONA:
Jodi Arias Trial: Hearing in Murder Case Closed Off to Public
A closed-door hearing was held Thursday in the Jodi Arias murder case.
The subject of the hearing was unknown.
The hearing was closed to the public, including news reporters.
Arias was convicted of murder in the 2008 killing of her lover, but jurors
couldn't reach a decision on a sentence.
A 2nd penalty phase is set for September as prosecutors again seek a death
sentence.
Her murder conviction stands, but prosecutors have the option of putting on a
2nd penalty phase with a new jury.
If the 2nd panel fails to reach a unanimous decision, the death penalty will be
removed from consideration. The judge then would sentence Arias to spend her
life behind bars or be eligible for release after 25 years.
(source: Associated Press)
USA:
Obama's death penalty review risks backlash from the states
The generations-old debate over capital punishment has shifted to Washington,
where President Obama???s Justice Department has launched a national review of
the death penalty.
Attorney General Eric Holder's inquiry, initiated last month following a
mishandled execution in Oklahoma, is still in its early stages. The effort
includes a look at state death penalty protocols, though its scope and ultimate
implications are not yet clear.
But by ordering up the review, Obama is raising questions about what role, if
any, the federal government should have on an issue that is traditionally the
province of the states.
Some congressional Republicans are warning the administration to tread lightly.
"I think the president's got enough to do ... without sticking his finger into
state government," said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the
Senate Judiciary Committee. "They better stick to the things that, under the
Constitution, are his responsibility."
Obama, a supporter of the death penalty in rare cases, has been relatively
quiet on the subject throughout his presidency. On his watch, however, the
Justice Department has imposed a moratorium on federal executions, while the
agency studies policies employed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The death penalty returned to the fore in late April, with the execution of
convicted killer Clayton Lockett, who reportedly writhed in pain after he was
given the 1st part of a 3-drug lethal cocktail and ultimately died of a heart
attack.
Obama called the mishap "deeply troubling" and ordered a federal review not
just of the issues at play in the Oklahoma case, but also the application of
the death penalty generally.
"Racial bias. Uneven application of the death penalty. Situations in which
there were individuals on death row who later on were discovered to be innocent
... all of these do raise significant questions about how the death penalty is
being applied," Obama said last month. "I think as a society, we have to ask
ourselves some difficult and profound questions."
Justice Department spokeswoman Ellen Canale said the agency, at the president's
direction, had expanded the pre-existing review "to include a survey of
state-level protocols and related policy issues."
The agency declined to release details about the initiative's timeline or what
form its conclusions might take.
At least 1 group contacted by the Justice Department in the review's initial
phase urged modest federal action.
The Constitution Project, a prominent think tank whose members include former
attorneys general, judges and prosecutors with differing views on the death
penalty, laid out a slate of recommendations, said Christopher Durocher, the
group's government affairs counsel.
The proposed measures, stemming from a report the group issued in May, included
the establishment of a an office at the Justice Department tasked with
reviewing innocence claims of death row inmates.
Durocher said the group is pressing for more information about the way death
penalty cases are brought into the federal justice system, given reports of
racial disparity.
The group also urged the development of "federal standards and procedures" for
accrediting forensic laboratories.
Recent research has called into question the practices used in some of the 32
states that employ the death penalty.
"We would support measures that did require states to adopt certain minimum
standards," said Durocher.
States that refuse to adhere to the benchmarks could be deemed ineligible for
certain federal grant money, Durocher said.
The financial incentive, rather than an outright mandate, "maintains the
respect between the state role and the federal role" in capital punishment, he
said.
"We don't want the federal government to be interfering too much with a state's
sovereign rights to administer the criminal justice system."
However the Obama administration moves forward with its review, that balance
will be vital in winning support from many in Congress.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) formerly served as the state's attorney general and,
as a prosecutor, personally argued a death penalty case involving a slain
police officer.
"This is an issue that has been reserved for the states, and I would hope that
the attorney general, in reviewing this, would not take any kind of executive
action but would instead make his recommendations to the states and let them
act accordingly," Ayotte said.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is among many congressional Democrats who support
the death penalty for those convicted of the most heinous crimes. However, she
was among a handful of co-sponsors to legislation offered several years ago to
impose a moratorium on all state and federal executions.
She lauded the Obama administration for delving into the thorny topic.
"I feel that we're having all kinds of problems in moving forward with the
death penalty, and we've seen it in state after state, Boxer said. "I think a
review of how the death penalty is carried out is definitely appropriate
because of the fact that cruel and unusual punishment is not allowed in the
Constitution."
Opponents of the death penalty say the federal action is more evidence that the
tide is turning in their favor.
Use of the death penalty in the United States has fallen dramatically since
peaking in 1999 with 98 executions after steadily rising since the mid-1970s.
Last year, states put 39 people to death.
Public support has also fallen. While most Americans - roughly 60 % - still
favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, that number has
decreased steadily since 1994, when 80 % of the country approved of capital
punishment, according to a Gallup poll released last year.
The anti-death-penalty movement won another victory last week, when the U.S.
Supreme Court said Florida's rigid IQ test to determine who is fit for the
death penalty violated the Constitution.
Now, all eyes are on the Obama administration's review.
"The government should identify ways to make sure states are adhering to what's
best for human rights," said Thenjiwe McHarris, senior campaigner for the Death
Penalty Abolition Program at Amnesty International.
While the group has not been in discussions with the Justice Department,
McHarris called the review an important milestone for the president. While
Obama's direct authority on capital punishment is limited, coming out against
the death penalty would send a powerful message, she said.
She cited statistics showing that 144 death row convicts have been exonerated
and lamented that the United States remains among the globe's top enforcers of
the death penalty, along with China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
"The world is moving away from the death penalty," McHarris said. "Now its time
for the U.S. to do the same."
(source: The Hill)
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