Jan. 17
TEXAS:
Court Suspends Death Row Inmate's Lawyer Over Late Filing
On Wednesday, the judges of Texas' highest criminal court told a defense
attorney named David Dow he would not be able to practice in front of them for
the next year. The Court of Criminal Appeals decided that Dow had filed a
motion to stop the execution of his client, Miguel Angel Paredes, too late, and
that since he'd done the same thing in a different case in 2010, he will now be
suspended.
Neither the court nor Dow, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center
and one of the best known death penalty defense attorneys in the country, will
comment publicly. But this move is the latest evidence of an ongoing feud in
Texas between lawyers who appeal on behalf of inmates facing executions, Dow
chief among them, and the judges who rule on their claims. On the surface, the
fights have been about deadlines, but, as criminal justice blogger Scott Henson
described Dow's relationship with the judges back in 2009, "Basically these
folks just don't like each other on a level that transcends any given issue."
Miguel Paredes was executed last October for a triple murder of gang rivals,
committed in 2000. The summer before the execution, he wrote a letter to Dow
asking for help, and Dow volunteered - without being appointed to the case - to
investigate Paredes' claims. It took a while owing to Dow's busy schedule, but
he found that Paredes' original lawyer had called no witnesses at the trial and
that Paredes was allowed to waive an early appeal while on anti-psychotic
medications.
Dow filed an appeal and a call for a stay 7 days before the execution. The
court said he should have filed it the day before. The court has explicitly
said the deadline is 7 days before an execution, but in practice, attorneys
know that they must have it in eight days before.
It wasn't the first time Dow had clashed with the court over deadlines. One
evening in October 2007, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review
Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, Dow and his colleagues raced to write a
new appeal for their client Michael Richard. As they worked to argue how the
Kentucky case mirrored their own, they later said, their computers broke down,
and they asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to wait 20 minutes after its 5
p.m. deadline so they could deliver the appeal by hand.
"We close at 5," was the response by the court's head judge, Sharon Keller.
Those 4 words became a rallying point for the death penalty's opponents and
made her a villain ("Sharon Killer") in newspaper editorials across the
country. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers sent a complaint
about her actions to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The commission's report on the matter called Keller's conduct "not exemplary of
a public service," but cast firm doubt on Dow's computer breakdown story and
took him to task for "making inaccurate statements in the press" about how soon
the appeal was actually ready, which "spun out of control" into a "public
groundswell of opposition against Judge Keller."
In June 2011, Keller's court issued a new rule about filing deadlines. A
pleading would be "deemed untimely" if it was filed "fewer than 7 days before
the scheduled execution date." The rule goes on to say that a "request for a
stay of execution filed at 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning when the execution is
scheduled for the following Wednesday at 6 p.m. is untimely."
Dow filed a motion to stay Paredes' execution at 12:37 p.m. on Oct. 21. The
execution was set for Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. It was more than 7 days in advance, but
violated the rule's example. Pull out a calendar if you find this all a bit
confusing.
At a hearing last month, Dow went before the court to defend his late filing.
The court found that he and his partner "failed to show good cause for the
untimely filings."
In Dow's corner are defense attorneys who think the narrow and peculiar
application of deadline rules allows the judges to avoid what went wrong at the
original trial. The judges were "focusing very narrowly on 15 hours of time
rather than the case as presented," said Kathryn Kase, director of the Texas
Defender Service and a former colleague of Dow???s. "It's somewhat like saying,
'You were working too late in the emergency room,' while not focusing on the
grievous injuries the patient has."
As for the trial defense lawyer, who called no witnesses even as his client
faced a death sentence, the judges had no complaints.
(source: Texas Tribune)
**************************
Capital murder trial costs county
Information from the county auditor's office indicates that so far, the Gabriel
Armandariz double homicide case has cost Young County about $427,334 and will
likely cost taxpayers much more than that by the time the trial concludes.
The Jeremy Thornburg murder case that concluded last October cost Young County
$42,897, but a side-by-side comparison between the two cases would not be fair
since Armandariz' is a capital murder trial and the prosecution is seeking the
death penalty.
At the Young County Commissioners Court meeting Monday, Jan. 12, officials,
including County Auditor Cheryl Roberts, County Judge John Bullock and several
commissioners, discussed the ongoing cost accrual of the nearly 4 year case
that's received national attention since April 2011, when Amandariz' 2 young
children, Luke, 6 months, and Gatlin, 2, were found dead under their residence
on the 300 block of Third Street in Graham.
Armandariz has since stood accused of murdering both children, and 1 of his
attorneys pleaded not guilty on his behalf at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice
Center in Fort Worth Wednesday, Jan. 14.
"This began April or May of 2011, and to date, not to shock anybody, but it's
already cost close to half a million I believe," Bullock said Monday, though he
also qualified Tuesday he cannot speculate on what it will cost by the time the
trial concludes. "It's supposed to take them 4 to 6 weeks to pick a jury."
County officials say that the bulk of the cost comes from expenses related to
the defense counsel, including hotel, travel and hourly rates.
A breakdown of the rising cost of capital murder trials from The Marshall
Project, a publication devoted to journalism about the American criminal
justice system, lists 6 major factors for their astronomical price tags: cost
of attorneys, cost of expert witnesses, trial unpredictability, mitigation,
jury selection and housing.
"Armandariz is now in Tarrant County's custody," Roberts told the court Monday.
"We'll have some out-of-county housing (costs) there."
A December 2014 Marshall Project article titled, "The Price of Death," lists
several Texas counties that have recently sought death penalties, including
Jasper County, which shelled out $730,640.55 to sentence 2 white supremacists
to death in 2000; and Levi County, which in 2008 ended up paying $885,382.33 to
seek the death penalty for Levi King, a man who murdered a pregnant woman and 2
others.
After that trial, Levi County "was forced to raise taxes and suspend
employees," the article states, and then summarizes why capital case costs have
risen dramatically in the last few decades.
"Increasing legal protections for defendants has translated into more and more
hours of preparatory work by both sides. Fees for court-appointed attorneys and
expert witnesses have climbed. Where once psychiatrists considered an IQ test
and a quick interview sufficient to establish the mental state of a defendant,
now it is routine to obtain an entire mental-health history.
(source: The Graham Leader)
************************
Kaufman DA's killer has brain damage, lawyer says
Testing has found signs of brain damage in Eric Williams, who was sentenced to
death in connection with the murder of the Kaufman County district attorney and
2 others, his attorney says.
KTVT-TV (Channel 11) and the Terrell Tribune reported Friday that Williams'
lawyer is seeking a new trial because of the findings.
A judge had agreed to medical tests to determine whether Williams, a former
justice of the peace, had been driven to violence because of neurological
damage that might have resulted from diabetes.
Williams was charged with capital murder in the fatal January 2013 shooting of
prosecutor Mark Hasse. He was also charged in the March slayings of District
Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, at their home near Forney.
Williams was found guilty last month of killing Cynthia McLelland and has been
sentenced to death.
His wife, Kim, pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder in Hasse's death and was
sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Williams' lawyer, John Wright, said tests conducted this month at the
University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston found signs of injury to
Williams' brain, the Terrell Tribune reported.
A member of the prosecution team told KTVT that the motion had been expected
and shouldn't pose a problem in Williams' conviction.
(source: Dallas Morning News)
PENNSYLVANIA:
DA to seek death penalty in death of man found in burned car
A Pennsylvania district attorney is seeking the death penalty against a man
charged with fatally shooting a man whose body was found in the trunk of burned
car.
The defense attorney for 18-year-old Jonta Bishop, of Hagerstown, maintains
Bishop shot 36-year-old James Deneen Jr. in self-defense. The Hyndman man was
shot on September 25 before his body was stuffed into the car, which was then
set on fire in Londonderry Township in south-central Pennsylvania.
But Bedford County District Attorney contends Bishop's self-defense claims are
refused by the fact that Deneen was shot in the back of the head.
3 other people are accused of helping Bishop dispose of the body.
A judge delayed Bishop's formal arraignment Thursday after Higgins announced
he'd seek the death penalty. That's because a death penalty-qualified attorney
must now represent Bishop.
(source: Associated Press)
**************************
Patriot-News, liberals disrespect victims by opposing death penalty: PennLive
letters
As a best selling author is fond of saying, "liberalism is a mental disorder,"
and after seeing the ultra liberal Patriot-News Editorial Board's argument to
abolish the death penalty, I must conclude that the author is correct.
Does justice not cry out for the ultimate penalty for the killers of the York
school teacher who was brutally tortured and murdered, and the young woman you
featured in Sunday's edition who was the victim of premeditated murder for her
vehicle? You have the unmitigated gall to bring cost savings into the
discussion.
If the victim were a relative of the members of the Patriot-News Editorial
Board or Tom Wolf, I predict the hypocrisy of liberals would be on display for
all to see.
MICHAEL A. CATARINO, Monroe Twp.
(source: Letter to the Editor, pennlive.com)
GEORGIA----impending execution
Death-row inmate Warren Hill scheduled to die on January 27
Death-row inmate Warren Lee Hill will once again face the execution chamber
despite continuous attempts to spare his life for much of the last 3 decades.
Earlier this afternoon, a Lee County judge ordered the Georgia Department of
Corrections to execute Hill, who has an IQ of 70, sometime between Jan. 27 and
Feb. 3. Hill was initially found guilty in 1986 for murdering his
then-girlfriend Myra Wright. He landed on death row 4 years later after being
convicted of killing inmate Joseph Handspike, who was asleep in his prison
cell, with a nail-studded 2-by-6 board.
Hill's lawyers haven't contested his guilt. But they have filed continuous
legal appeals over the years in hopes of sparing his life. Across the nation,
an IQ of 70 or below is typically considered to be the standard for proving
intellectual disability. But Georgia, which has the nation's toughest burden of
proof when it comes to determining someone's mental capacity, hasn't ruled in
Hill's favor.
Yet Hill has managed to stay alive through multiple stays of execution. The
most recent stay came from a Fulton County judge during a legal challenge over
the Georgia's controversial lethal injection secrecy law. The state ultimately
won that courtroom fight. But it bought Hill enough time to potentially benefit
from the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision, Hall v. Florida, last May that
increased protections for death row inmates trying to avoid execution due to
intellectual disability.
Back in October, Towaliga Judicial Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson tossed out a
Hill's legal request to claim intellectual disability, a designation that would
make him immune from execution, following the Hall v. Florida ruling. But
Wilson urged the Georgia Supreme Court to review the case in light of the
decision made by the nation's highest court. Hill's attorney, Brian Kammer,
then filed a request for an appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court.
At that October hearing, Kammer says, the state's lawyers assured Wilson that
the Georgia Supreme Court would take a serious look at the issue. That
assurance led Wilson to dismiss Hill's request, Kammer says.
"What's really galling about this execution warrant is they're...seeking out an
execution order before the Georgia Supreme Court reviews the case," Kammer
tells CL.
Kammer today responded by filing another motion for a stay of execution with
the Georgia Supreme Court. The motion is currently pending. Georgia Supreme
Court spokeswoman Jane Hansen tells CL a ruling is expected "any day" on
Kammer's initial request for an appeal. But she did not comment regarding a
potential decision for the stay of execution.
Hill's latest execution order comes at a time when state officials have
recently accelerated its execution rate. If killed, Hill would be the 3rd
death-row inmate in the last 2 months to be killed in Georgia. The recent
uptick comes on the heels of a year when the lowest number of executions
occurred in 20 years. In 2014, corrections officials executed 35 people in 7
states, in part due to high-profile botched executions in Arizona, Ohio, and
Oklahoma.
"It's extremely troubling that as the rest of the country dramatically slows
down the pace of executions, here in Georgia we seem to be moving faster,"
Southern Center for Human Rights Executive Director Sara Totonchi tells CL.
"...Sometimes I think when we see the end of something coming, we tend to hold
on even tighter. The death penalty has been a part of our culture and politics
in Georgia. As the nation moves away from it, we seem to be steeped in this
draconian tradition."
According to Totonochi, Georgia officials are currently killing death-row
inmates faster that any other point in the last decade. She says that's likely
happened given that, for the first time in years, state officials can hold
executions without major legal challenges obstructing the process.
"I'm sure the state sees the writing on the wall that the death penalty is on
its way out," she says.
Lauren Kane, spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, says in a
statement that Hill "has concluded his direct appeal proceedings and his state
and federal habeas corpus proceedings." The statement also says that his
execution date is set for Jan. 27 - the very 1st day of the 7-day execution
window.
(source: Creative Loafing Atlanta)
FLORIDA----new execution date
Execution scheduled for man convicted of killing ex-wife, daughter, and in-laws
An execution date has been set for a man found guilty of murdering his ex-wife,
5-year-old daughter, mother-in-law and sister-in-law in a Conway-area home 30
years ago.
Jerry Correll, 59, is scheduled for execution on Feb. 26 at 6 p.m., according
to a death warrant signed by Gov. Rick Scott.
Correll was found guilty of fatally stabbing his ex-wife, Susan Correll; their
5-year-old daughter, Tuesday Correll; and his ex-wife's mother and sister, Mary
Lou Hines and Marybeth Jones.
He was sentenced to death in 1986.
Correll's execution has been scheduled before. In January of 1990, Gov. Bob
Martinez signed his death warrant, saying Correll was to die in an electric
chair in March of that year.
But 4 days before the scheduled execution, a U.S. District Court judge in Tampa
granted Correll a stay after he and his lawyers claimed the defense during his
trial was inadequate.
Correll exhausted his appeals in February of 2014, when the U.S. Supreme Court
declined to review the case, court records show.
Florida's most recent execution came Thursday with the death of Johnny Shane
Kormondy, 42, who was given a lethal injection. Kormondy was found guilty of
breaking into a banker's home in 1993, murdering him and raping his wife.
Kormondy was the 21st inmate executed under Scott. Scott and former Gov. Jeb
Bush are now tied for having the highest number of executions since the death
penalty was reinstated in Florida in 1979, according to the Associated Press.
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
MISSISSIPPI:
Former death row inmate ruled mentally disabled
A former death row inmate who came within an hour of being executed in 1997 has
been permanently removed from death row by a judge who ruled he is mentally
disabled.
Willie Russell was sentenced to die for the July 18, 1989, stabbing death of
correctional officer Argentra Cotton at Unit 24-B. Russell had previously been
convicted of robbery, kidnapping and escape. He abducted a guard at the
University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson when he was there for
medical treatment in March 1987 and led police on a high-speed chase into rural
Hinds County.
Russell came within less than an hour of execution on Jan. 21, 1997, before the
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay due to his claim of mental
retardation.
There have been numerous court rulings in Russell's case. The case was sent on
appeal back to the circuit court of Sunflower County to rule on Russell's
mental retardation claim.
Circuit Judge Betty Sanders recently ruled that Russell was mentally retarded,
therefore permanently removing him from death row. The Constitution prohibits
the execution of mentally retarded individuals.
Russell will remain in prison, just not facing the death penalty.
(source: Clarion-Lledger)
OHIO:
2 arrested in Clark County shooting death
2 teenagers have been arrested in connection with the shooting death and
robbery of a Clark County gun collector who had hundreds of firearms at his
home. Robert V. Winbush, 18, of Fairborn, has been charged with aggravated
murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary. He pleaded not guilty
Friday in Clark County Municipal Court. Judge Thomas Trempe set his bond at $1
million.
Raymond Zimmerman, 17, address at large, has been charged with a delinquent act
of murder and is in the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center. Zimmerman is
the nephew of shooting victim William Henson and briefly lived with him,
according to a sheriff's report.
"He had the knowledge and information of where the victim lived and how to gain
access," Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said.
The Clark County Prosecutor's Office filed a motion Friday seeking to have
Zimmerman face charges as an adult. Juvenile Court Judge Joseph Monnin said
Friday that it will likely be 2 to 3 weeks before he rules on the motion.
This news outlet typically doesn't name juveniles but has in this case due to
the severity of the accusations and request to charge Zimmerman as an adult.
Winbush could face the death penalty. Clark County Prosecutor Andrew Wilson
said his office will decide whether to pursue the death penalty closer to when
he presents the case to a grand jury.
Deputies began the investigation Wednesday morning when they got a call from
the victim's sister that she had found Henson, 59, dead in his home at 10799
Haddix Road. The house was in disarray and several guns were missing.
Investigators spoke to witnesses who said Winbush and Zimmerman told them about
the shooting, a sheriff's report stated.
After 36 hours of combing through and cataloging evidence, the Clark County
Sheriff's Office worked with multiple agencies to execute search warrants at 3
residences in Fairborn. During those searches, deputies said they found 38 guns
and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
The suspects had allegedly sold some of the firearms already, Kelly said, and
were trying to sell others online.
The teens also reportedly had traded some guns for drugs, Maj. Russell Garman
said.
"The combination of guns and ammunition on the streets where they are going to
be traded for drugs or cash, they could have wreaked havoc on southwest Ohio,"
Kelly said.
Henson had served in the military and was a good man, his cousin Jeremy Jarvis
said.
He was private and wouldn't let just anyone into his home, Jarvis said, so it
didn't surprise him to learn a relative has been accused in the death.
"Bill had a small social circle so he didn't associate with too many people,"
Jarvis said.
Franklin Collins lived a few doors down from Henson and said he was disturbed
by the news of his death.
"I hated it," Collins said. "I liked Bill as a neighbor."
He said he was relieved to hear that it was an acquaintance and not a random
burglar.
"I'm just relieved that it wasn't people coming from other places and doing it,
but it's sad Bill had to go that way," Collins said.
(source: Dayton Daily News)
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