Aug. 27
OHIO:
Man accused of quadruple homicide could face death penalty if convicted
Robert L. Adams Jr. could face the death penalty if he is convicted of killing
4 people in the basement of a South Linden house on June 13.
A Franklin County grand jury indicted Adams on 29 counts relating to the deaths
and the attempted murder of a 5th victim.
Adams is accused of killing Tyajah Nelson, 18; Daniel Sharp, 26; Angela
Harrison, 35; and Michael Ballour, 41. A 5th victim, a teenage girl, survived
the shooting and identified Adams and an accomplice, according to court
records.
The shootings occurred in Ballour's house in the 1600 block of E. Hudson
Street. Nelson was his daughter.
Police said Adams was the shooter but was assisted by Jordyn D. Wade, 16. Wade
is charged with 4 delinquency counts of murder, 1 delinquency count of
attempted murder and 5 delinquency counts of kidnapping.
He is being held in the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center awaiting a
hearing in Juvenile Court to determine whether his case will be transferred to
adult court.
Wade is accused of holding the victims at gunpoint to keep them in the
basement, where they were shot by Adams, police said. Investigators said the
victims were robbed, and the killings were drug-related, although officials
have not elaborated.
Adams was arrested near Starkville, Miss., on Aug. 12. He will be arraigned on
Monday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
(source: Columbus Dispatch)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Doubting Jennifer Herndon ---- An appeals lawyer who has represented more than
a half-dozen men put to death in Missouri faces questions about her competency.
In 6 days, on Sept. 1, Missouri is scheduled to execute 50-year-old Roderick
Nunley, who was condemned for the 1989 rape and murder of 15-year-old Ann
Harrison. The high school freshman was abducted while in her driveway, waiting
for the school bus.
If the execution takes place, one of Nunley's attorneys, Jennifer Herndon, will
have represented 8 of the last 19 men executed in Missouri. And those 8 men
will have been executed in a span of 4 1/2 years.
The Marshall Project profiled Herndon in June, describing how she juggles a
debilitating workload as a capital appeals attorney with a separate career as
an internet marketer, sending out inspirational messages along with product
pitches geared for online entrepreneurs. The story also detailed Herndon???s
financial and professional struggles; in 2013, her law license was suspended
for 4 months because of delinquent state income taxes.
On Tuesday, 2 other attorneys who once assisted in Nunley's case filed a motion
with the Missouri Supreme Court, asking that Nunley's execution warrant be
recalled because of "severe doubts??? about Herndon's fitness as a lawyer.
Their motion cited The Marshall Project's story, in which Herndon said, among
other things, "I feel like I'm not doing the best work I can or should be doing
for my clients right now."
With Herndon, the quantity of her legal work was already an issue. Because
relatively few attorneys handle capital appeals in Missouri, the state's
accelerated pace of executions in recent years has created unusual stress for
the defense bar. Of the 19 executions held nationally this year, Missouri has
5, 2nd only to Texas.
But the motion went as much to the quality of Herndon's work, and whether she
has met her ethical obligations as an attorney.
In years past, the Missouri Department of Revenue filed three liens against
Herndon, saying she owed more than $47,000 for unpaid state income taxes from
2006 to 2012, according to court records. But two months ago, the department
filed a fourth lien, saying Herndon owes $2,077.85 for unpaid taxes in 2013 - a
delinquency that could once again place her law license in jeopardy.
The motion filed by the 2 other attorneys said "equally troubling" was a
lawsuit filed against Herndon last month. That suit, an unlawful detainer
action, alleges that Herndon's house was purchased on July 14 in a foreclosure
sale, but Herndon has failed to leave the residence.
"Ms. Herndon appears to lack the time and capacity to competently represent Mr.
Nunley," the motion says. "Her online career and pending legal and financial
problems raise substantial questions about her competence."
In an email sent to The Marshall Project, Herndon wrote of how the court system
has placed her in the unfair position of handling "a never-ending string of
back-to-back executions," while simultaneously refusing to approve additional
funds.
"I have rejected opportunities to make money in my other business, opting
instead to work on Mr. Nunley's case because his life matters more than money
to me. I have laid out money from my own pocket, in excess of $300 to date, to
cover copy costs, postage and filing fees. I will not be reimbursed for this,
but can't take that into consideration when his life is at stake.
"I am doing everything I can for Roderick. Is it enough? No. Do I think I could
save his life if I had all the resources in the world? Not without a miracle.
Over the last 2 years, just considering my clients, I have seen the state
execute 2 men who were incompetent, 1 who was mentally ill, 1 who was mentally
retarded, and 1 who made such a transformation in prison that he would have
made a fine next door neighbor. I have filed motions supported by case law the
state couldn't refute, hired experts whose opinions were uncontroverted,
drafted clemency petitions the size of a book, and yet Missouri continues to
execute men, no matter how legally or morally wrong it is under the specifics
of each case. That's why I want out. Not because I don't care anymore, but
because the system is broken here. I can't fix it, and being a part of it makes
me feel like an enabler of the executioner."
The motion filed Tuesday included affidavits from Lindsay Runnels and Jennifer
Merrigan, the two attorneys who once assisted in the case, and from Shynise
Nunley Spencer, who is Nunley's daughter. Runnels, in her affidavit, said that
in the summer of 2010, she agreed to help the defense team search for evidence
in Nunley's past that might mitigate the crime, such as childhood trauma or
mental illness. But because of Herndon, Runnels wrote, she encountered
obstacles with such basic steps as obtaining a copy of the trial file, which
"was mostly missing and what did exist was in disarray."
Herndon told Runnels she had never requested the file from the Missouri State
Public Defender, nor had she checked with the trial attorneys - because 1 was a
friend and the trial had been difficult for her, and Herndon was hesitant to
"bring it all up again," according to Runnels's affidavit.
In the fall of 2010, Nunley received a stay of execution based on a due process
issue. Afterward, Runnels wrote, she "had essentially no contact" with Herndon,
despite informing her that she was "able and willing" to continue working on
the case.
This year, when Runnels learned through The Marshall Project's story of
Herndon's previous law suspension, Runnels sent a copy of the article to
Nunley's daughter. Afterward, Runnels spoke with Nunley on the phone. A rule of
the Missouri Supreme Court says lawyers who are suspended must notify their
clients. But, Runnels wrote, "Mr. Nunley told me that Ms. Herndon never
informed him that she had been suspended from the practice of law, nor had Ms.
Herndon obtained his consent to continue representing him ..."
Nunley also told Runnels that he had tried to fire Herndon in 2009 or 2010, but
Herndon would not withdraw from the case, according to Runnels's affidavit.
Shynise Nunley Spencer, in her affidavit, wrote that she has kept a
"consistent, close and loving relationship" with her father. Despite that, she
wrote, "I have never, not once, spoken with Jennifer Herndon. She has never
called me. She has never returned my calls. My brother has never spoken to her
either."
Reading the story about Herndon made her feel "sick," the daughter wrote. "I
was shocked to learn that she had been suspended from practicing law. ... I do
not understand how the system allows someone in Ms. Herndon's situation to
represent people in the most serious of all criminal cases, where their lives
are at stake."
Herndon's last client to face execution was Richard Strong, condemned for the
stabbing deaths of his girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter. Herndon pleaded
for a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, but came up a vote short. Strong was
put to death on the evening of June 9.
That same evening, Herndon went on her business's Facebook page and posted this
message:
"I'm in the midst of a sad day. Then I watch the woman in front of me at the
store pull out every card she has to try to cover her $20 grocery bill. In the
end, she's 31 cents short.
Ponder for a moment what it's like not to have 31 cents to your name. Suddenly
I'm feeling very grateful, and happy I could help someone out with a mere 31
cents. It's nothing until you don't have it!"
3 days after Herndon gave her fellow shopper 31 cents, Missouri filed its lien
against Herndon, saying she owed the state more than $2,000.
(source: The Marshall Project)
KANSAS:
Right about death----GOP students call for Kan. party to seek death penalty's
demise
Young people aren't afraid to speak up when they think their elders are
misguided, and sometimes they're right. That's the case with a recent
resolution from the Kansas Federation of College Republicans calling for the
party to push to end the death penalty in Kansas.
For too long conservatives in the party have blindly supported the death
penalty on one hand, while spouting support for being "pro-life" on the other.
One view cancels out the other.
"More young conservatives like myself recognize that our broken and fallible
system of capital punishment in no way matches up with our conservative
values," the group's chairman, Dalton Glasscock, said in a statement. "By
ending the death penalty, Kansas has an opportunity to promote a culture of
life and fiscal responsibility. As Republicans - whether young or old - this is
a smart reform that we should support."
The organization wants the Republican Party to create a plank in its political
platform that vows to work to end the death penalty, then follow through by
repealing the law allowing executions.
Republicans throughout Kansas history have supported banning the death penalty
and the state itself has wrestled with capital punishment way too long. Kansas
repealed the death penalty the 1st time in 1907, then reinstated it in 1935.
The death penalty was struck down again in 1976 and then reinstated again in
1994. No execution has been carried out here since 1965.
It's not only life or death that should concern conservatives. The death
penalty is also fiscally irresponsible.
Study after study has shown the death penalty is more costly to taxpayers than
putting someone in prison for life with no chance of parole. The Republican
Party is the one we look to take care of our state funds and spend them
responsibly. The death penalty should be at the top of their list of cuts.
But as we saw this last legislative session, Kansas Republicans aren't the
responsible party of the past. They would rather push for the death penalty as
a misguided "tough on crime" stance that really does nothing to cut crime or
protect society.
Rep. J.R. Claeys, R-Salina, used a modern social media tool, Twitter, to voice
the tired old rhetoric: "(College Republicans) want cop killers to have a shot
at adding child rape to their record," Claeys tweeted, adding a hashtag that
said "#over my dead body."
One look at that statement and we know voices such as Claeys are simply talking
loud without concern for making much sense.
It's time to make room for new, more reasonable voices, like the young people
speaking up on our college campuses. Here's hoping they'll soon reach the age
where they can run for public office, and in the meantime, the rest of the
Republican Party will grow up.
(source: The Hutchinson News)
NEBRASKA:
Nebraska Bishops issue statement on death penalty restoration effort
Nebraska's 3 Catholic bishops issued a statement Thursday reaffirming their
opposition to restoring the death penalty.
Omaha Archbishop George Lucas, Lincoln diocese Bishop James Conley, and Grand
Island diocese Bishop Joseph Hanefeldt issued the statement 1 day after
supporters of reinstating Nebraska's death penalty turned in petitions with
more than 166,000 signatures, which would get the issue on the November 2016
ballot if the signatures are verified.
The bishops joint statement says: "Justice requires punishment, but it does not
require that those who have committed serious crimes be put to death. The death
penalty does not provide rehabilitation to convicted criminals. There is no
clear evidence that executions deter crime. Racial minorities and the poor are
disproportionately sentenced to death, often as a consequence of racial bias or
inadequate defense due to an inability to pay for better representation. Other
means are available to punish criminals and to protect society that are more
respectful of human life."
"For the Catholic community, this issue - like all life issues - involves more
than public policy. It involves our faith and the central principle that human
life is sacred. Reflection on the God-given dignity of every human person
should guide all our decisions about life, including refraining from the use of
the death penalty."
State lawmakers voted to end capital punishment in May. Governor Pete Ricketts
vetoed the measure, but the legislature overrode his veto. That triggered the
petition drive to put the issue before voters. The more than 166,000 signatures
stops the repeal before it was scheduled to take effect on Sunday. It will take
about 40 days to verify the signatures.
(source: scrippsmedia.com)
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