Sept. 4
KANSAS:
In Cheatham case, judge denies finding death penalty
unconstitutional----Courthouse closing cuts short motion hearing
A district court judge denied 3 defense motions to find the death penalty
unconstitutional during an abbreviated hearing on Wednesday in the retrial of
Phillip D. Cheatham Jr.
Cheatham's motion hearing had been scheduled for Shawnee County District Court
Judge Richard Anderson to hear 16 motions on Wednesday.
But the hearing abruptly ended at 9:50 a.m. Wednesday when the courthouse was
closed for the day after water leaked into the building's transformer,
initially shutting down the elevators and some offices.
All offices were shut down, and court and county employees were sent home for
the day.
The Cheatham hearing started at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Motions denied by the judge were that the Kansas death penalty was
unconstitutional because the statute doesn't require the jury to find
mitigating circumstances; the death penalty creates a chilling effect on a
defendant's right to a jury trial; and juries apply the death penalty in an
arbitrary and capricious manner constituting cruel and unusual punishment.
Anderson and the lawyers were considering a fourth motion when the courthouse
was closed for the day.
The Wednesday hearing will resume on Sept. 17 when the remaining 13 motions
will be heard.
A new trial was ordered for Cheatham, 41, in 2013 after the Kansas Supreme
Court overturned his capital murder conviction and death penalty sentence for
the Dec. 13, 2003, killings of Annette Roberson and Gloria Jones, who were shot
to death in a home at 2718 S.E. Colorado.
Cheatham is charged with capital murder in the killings of Roberson and Jones.
Cheatham also faces charges in connection with the attempted 1st-degree murder
of Annetta D. Thomas, who survived after she was shot 19 times in the attack.
Cheatham also faces two alternative premeditated 1st-degree murder counts in
their killings, as well as attempted 1st-degree murder and aggravated battery
in the shooting of Thomas. Cheatham also is charged with criminal possession of
a firearm.
After his conviction in his 1st trial, Cheatham was sentenced on Oct. 28, 2005,
to the "Hard 50" prison term for the killing of Jones, and the death penalty
for the slaying of Roberson.
Those convictions and sentences were overturned when the Supreme Court ruled
Cheatham received ineffective assistance of counsel by Dennis Hawver. Attorneys
John Val Wachtel, of Wichita, and Paul Oller, of Hays, are defending Cheatham.
Chief deputy district attorney Jacqie Spradling is prosecuting the Cheatham
case.
(source: Capital Journal)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Federal judge denies stay of execution for man convicted in 1998 Columbia
murders
A federal judge Tuesday denied motions to stay the execution and reopen the
case of a man convicted in 1999 of killing 2 people in Columbia.
Earl Ringo's attorneys argued in federal court proceedings that because Ringo's
1st appointed counsel in 2004 did nothing on his case for 10 1/2 months before
he finally got new representation, Ringo's new lawyers did not have enough time
to adequately prepare his grounds for relief.
Ringo's case was moved to Cape Girardeau County, and he was convicted of 2
counts of 1st-degree murder for the shooting deaths of 2 people at Ruby Tuesday
in 1998. At about 6 a.m. July 4, 1998, Ringo, a former Ruby Tuesday employee,
and a friend, Quentin Jones Jr., went to rob the restaurant by waiting behind
trash bins and attacking delivery driver Dennis Poyser when he arrived. During
the robbery, both victims, JoAnna Baysinger, 22, of Jefferson City and Poyser,
45, of Fort Wayne, Ind., were shot in the head. Ringo's execution is set for
12:01 a.m. Sept. 10.
Jones testified against Ringo at trial and received 3 life sentences in
exchange.
U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes didn't agree with the arguments made by
Kathryn Parish and John William Simon, Ringo's St. Louis-area attorneys. Wimes
ruled that extraordinary circumstances did not exist because, even though
Ringo's counsel in 2004 had only 49 days to file his habeas relief, they still
filed it 2 days before it was due. Wimes today also denied Ringo's motion for
relief from judgment for the same reasons he denied the other motions.
Ringo's new lawyers had argued that the attorneys would have found more grounds
for relief if they had more time.
"But the record is devoid of evidence indicating what counsel would have done
if they had had more time," Wimes wrote.
For most of the 12 months Ringo had to file his habeas petition, Parish argued,
Ringo was effectively without representation.
"The lack of counsel in and of itself is a denial of the constitutional right
of habeas corpus," Parish said.
The decision isn't the end of efforts to stop the state from killing Ringo,
Parish said. She and Simon have requested Gov. Jay Nixon appoint an independent
panel to investigate the issue of race in Ringo's death sentence. Ringo, a
black man, was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury in a majority white
county. Parish said they also likely will appeal Wimes' decision or seek a stay
in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ringo also is a plaintiff in an Eighth Circuit case seeking a review of
Missouri's execution procedures, but Parish said he could be executed before
that case is disposed. Missouri's source of its lethal injection drug continues
to be kept secret despite several lawsuits and calls from advocacy groups to
name the compounding pharmacy that makes it.
While the Eighth Circuit case continues, it seems the "goal of the state is to
kill everyone on death row without a substantive review of those protocols,"
Parish said.
Assistant Missouri Attorney General Michael Spillane represented the state in
Ringo's latest federal habeas proceedings. A spokesman for Attorney General
Chris Koster declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
(source: Columbia Daily Tribune)
********************
Report: Condemned Missouri inmates got midazolam
As Missouri prepares for another execution next week, a new report suggests
that the Department of Corrections quietly and repeatedly used a drug that has
raised concerns in botched executions in other states.
Missouri's written 1-drug execution protocol allows only for use of
pentobarbital. The state said pentobarbital was the sole drug used in the
deaths of 9 condemned men since November.
St. Louis Public Radio reported Wednesday that the sedative midazolam also was
part of the process in all 9 executions, despite Department of Corrections
director George Lombardi's comments under oath in January that the state "will
not use" midazolam.
The report cites chemical log forms obtained through a Sunshine Law request
showing that "Versed" was administered to each inmate. Versed is another name
for midazolam.
Corrections department spokesman David Owen said Missouri's protocol allows for
use of sedatives in advance of the execution, and they are not part of the
actual execution. He declined to name the sedative used but confirmed that only
pentobarbital is used for lethal injection.
Gov. Jay Nixon, during a news conference in Columbia, said courts have
repeatedly allowed Missouri's protocol.
"This is the way the protocol has been and, quite frankly, there's been a
significant amount of litigation about it and the courts have continued to say
that it's a proper and just way to complete the ultimate punishment," Nixon
said.
Still, an attorney for condemned inmate Earl Ringo Jr. called the report
alarming. Ringo is scheduled to die Sept. 10 for killing 2 people in Columbia
in 1998.
Attorney Kay Parish said she will ask the courts to halt the execution based on
concerns raised by the St. Louis Public Radio report. She said corrections
officials "have insisted time and time again that the botched executions in
Oklahoma, Arizona and Ohio have no relevance to what's going on in Missouri
because they're not using the same drugs. That is an outright lie in light of
the report that came out today."
Midazolam was used in the execution of Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire in January.
He snorted and gasped for 26 minutes before dying. Clayton Lockett died of an
apparent heart attack 43 minutes after his execution with midazolam began in
April. Arizona inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood gasped more than 600 times and took
nearly two hours to die in July.
At a deposition in January, soon after McGuire???s death, Missouri Department
of Corrections director George Lombardi was asked if backup execution drugs
hydromorphone and midazolam would be used if Missouri ever ran short of
pentobarbital.
"And I'm testifying right now to tell you that will not be the case. We will
not use those drugs," Lombardi said, according to documents from the
deposition.
Death penalty opponents have criticized Missouri's procedure. The state refuses
to name the compounding pharmacy where it obtains execution drugs or say if or
how those drugs are tested.
Lombardi said in the deposition that Versed can be given as a sedative at the
request of the inmate, the state or the execution team, often hours before the
actual execution - long before media and other witnesses observe the execution
process. Spokesman Mike O'Connell has said after several executions that
inmates were given a sedative prior to the actual executions, without naming
the sedative.
Jonathan Groner, a professor of surgery at the Ohio State University College of
Medicine who has written extensively on the death penalty, said midazolam given
prior to an execution could relax an inmate so much that he couldn't articulate
if he is in pain during the process.
"If you have midazolam he may not respond if he's uncomfortable," Groner said.
(source: KMOV news)
**********************
South KC murder spree could bring death penalty
"Help at address, shotgun."
That furtive telephoned plea for help on Tuesday afternoon summoned Kansas City
police to a scene of carnage where they found 3 people shot dead and 2 others
severely beaten.
But on Wednesday, barely 24 hours and an "all-hands-on-deck" police
investigation later, authorities announced that they had charged a 34-year-old
former convict in the crime.
Brandon B. Howell, acquitted 5 years ago in the killings of 2 teenagers, now
faces a potential death sentence for Tuesday's spasm of violence against 3
separate families in a quiet south Kansas City cul-de-sac.
"All punishments are on the table," Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker
said in announcing charges at a Wednesday afternoon news conference. She vowed
to seek justice for the families of the slaying victims: Susan Choucroun, 69;
Lorene Hurst, 88; and her son, Darrel Hurst, 63.
Another couple living on the same block, George and Anna Taylor, were found
beaten inside their home, and on Wednesday authorities said they were in the
hospital "fighting for their lives."
Howell was charged in Jackson County Circuit Court with 3 counts of 1st-degree
murder, 4 counts of armed criminal action, 2 counts of 1st-degree assault,
burglary, motor vehicle theft and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Baker said Howell was being held without bond.
He was arrested late Tuesday night while walking along Interstate 29 near
Northwest 72nd Street, about one mile from where a vehicle stolen from the
scene of the killings was found abandoned Tuesday afternoon. According to court
documents, Howell had a 12-gauge shotgun concealed in a pants leg when he was
arrested.
Kansas City Deputy Police Chief Randy Hopkins said Wednesday that a tip from
the public led officers to Howell.
Despite the charges, officials said there was much more investigation to be
done. It was still unclear how Howell got to the cul-de-sac area and exactly
how the crime unfolded, they said. Also, testing was underway to determine if
the shotgun Howell was carrying was the same one used in the killings.
Court documents allege that Howell burglarized the Taylor home at 1 E.
Woodbridge Lane. That's the address from where a woman made the 911 call about
12:50 p.m. Tuesday.
When officers arrived, they found Choucroun dead in the driveway of her home, 3
E. Woodbridge, next door to the Taylor residence. They went into the Taylor
home and found both critically injured in the basement.
Officers then began a house-to-house search and found the bodies of the Hursts
in the front yard of Lorene Hurst's home at 7 E. Woodbridge. She and her son
may have just returned from the grocery store when they were shot.
Witnesses at the scene told police that after hearing several gunshots, they
saw the Taylors' Toyota Highlander driving down the street. One witness said
the driver stopped in front of Choucroun's house, got out and shot her before
getting back in the vehicle and driving away.
A few hours later, police were called to a Motel 6 at 8230 N.W. Prairie View
Road, where they found 3 victims, 1 with several cuts on his head. The victims
told police that a man had followed them to their room and asked for a
cigarette. After assaulting 2 of the victims, the man fled on foot.
Police searching for the motel assault suspect soon found the Highlander
abandoned in a restaurant parking lot a few blocks from the Motel 6.
Shortly before midnight, officers acting on the tip stopped Howell. Besides the
shotgun, the keys to the Highlander were found in his pants pocket, according
to the court documents.
On Wednesday, Platte County prosecutors charged him with multiple crimes
related to the motel incident.
Wednesday was not the 1st time Howell has been accused of murder. A Jackson
County jury in 2009 acquitted him in the killings of Johnson County teenagers
Tabitha Brewer and Nick Travis.
Howell also spent time in prison for a 1999 home invasion robbery in Gardner in
which a pet cat was beheaded. He was paroled in 2011.
Brewer, 16, and Travis, 18, were last seen by their families in April 1998.
Several days later, Brewer's partially burned purse was found near 55th Street
and the Paseo. Four months after they disappeared, Travis' body was discovered
buried in the yard of a duplex in the 5400 block of the Paseo. The duplex was
being renovated at the time by Howell's father, according to later testimony at
his trial.
Brewer's body has never been found.
While Kansas City police continued to investigate that case, Howell was
arrested by Johnson County authorities in connection with an October 1999 home
invasion robbery. In that case, three men forced their way into a Gardner
apartment, threatened the residents and demanded drugs and money.
One of the victims suffered a cut on the hand. The assailants killed the cat, a
tabby named Tony.
Just before he was scheduled to go to trial, Howell pleaded guilty to charges
of aggravated kidnapping, kidnapping, aggravated assault, attempted aggravated
robbery and animal cruelty.
A Johnson County judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
In 2006, Jackson County prosecutors charged Howell with 2 counts of 1st-degree
murder in the deaths of Travis and Brewer.
A high school acquaintance of the teens, he was the last person seen with them
before they were reported missing.
Several witnesses who testified at trial said Howell implicated himself in the
killings. But after hearing the evidence, the Jackson County jury found Howell
not guilty of the charges.
Tom Brewer, Tabitha's father, pursued his own investigation in the decade after
his daughter's disappearance. Brewer said that he saw pictures of Howell on
television Wednesday and knew it was the same man acquitted of killing his
daughter.
Jurors from his daughter's case, he said, likely are 2nd-guessing their
verdicts.
"I feel sorry for the jurors who acquitted him the last time because that is
going to be hard for them to live with," Brewer said. "Justice is always served
one way or another. I hate to see more lives shattered by this man. He's a bad
person and he shouldn't be out."
He said the events Tuesday and Wednesday have reminded him of how bitter
Howell's acquittal was 5 years ago.
"It was hard," Brewer said. "You want to find some kind of justice for what has
been done. I believe the old saying from the Bible that you reap what you sow.
This man has repeatedly sown violence."
(source: Kansas City Star)
SOUTH DAKOTA----death row inmate dies
Death row inmate James McVay found dead in cell
A man given the death penalty by a Minnehaha County jury earlier this year has
died as a result of an apparent suicide.
Death row inmate James McVay, 44, was found hanging in his cell Wednesday night
in the James Annex to the South Dakota State Penitentiary, according to the
department of corrections.
Penitentiary staff attempted CPR and an ambulance was summoned. McVay was
pronounced dead before he could be transported to a local hospital.
McVay pled guilty but mentally ill in the July 2011 murder of Maybelle Schein
of Sioux Falls.
The Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the death. The
Department of Corrections will conduct a full review of circumstances
surrounding his death.
(source: Argus Leader)
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