Oct. 6
OHIO:
Walk to end the death penalty underway
Samuel Holmes "Sam" Sheppard, a Bay Village, Ohio, osteopathic physician, was
convicted in 1954 of the brutal murder of his pregnant wife, Marilyn Reese
Sheppard, at their home. He spent almost a decade in prison, mostly at the Ohio
Penitentiary, before a retrial was ordered, where he was acquitted in 1966. To
his death, he maintained his innocence of the murder. Now, Sheppard's son, Sam
Reese Sheppard has taken up the fight to end the death penalty in the state of
Ohio.
Sam Reese Sheppard grew up under a stigma that most people will never
experience in their lifetime. And as it turned out, it was a needless stigma.
"It's been a tough go," Sheppard told the Daily Times. "I suffer from
post-traumatic stress syndrome like many of us do and don't realize it in
regular families." All in all, though, Sheppard says his growing up was not as
bad as many would think.
Sheppard rang the bell across the road from Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
(SOCF) in Lucasville, on Sunday as Ohioans to Stop Executions began a walk to
Columbus to call for an end to the death penalty. The walk is sponsored by
Scioto Peace and Justice Fellowship of Reconciliation.
"I've been active around the death penalty issue for years in terms of trying
to get rid of it and also I try to bring a little bit of balance to the issue
because we try to remember the victim's family members," Sheppard said. "People
who are suffering on the other (victim) side, that's a hell of a way to live."
Sheppard works with both sides of the death penalty issue because he says it is
a 2-sided issue, but make no mistake about it, he is opposed to the death
penalty. Also opposed to the death penalty is Derrick Jamison, who was
exonerated in 2005 after serving 20 years on Ohio's death row for a crime he
did not commit.
"I am the 119th death row exoneree in the United States, that's why I'm
involved," Jamison told the Times. "I'm on a mission. I was sentenced to die on
Oct. 5, 1985 in Hamilton County, Ohio. I went to death row in Lucasville
(SOCF). In my case they withheld 35 pieces of evidence and I was released by
Judge Robert Neihouse. I could have been home 3 years earlier. They had a plan
if I signed the papers I could go home free but I refused because I would not
admit to something I didn't do."
Starting at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, death penalty abolitionists from Ohio and
beyond began a 7 day, 83 mile walk from the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
in Lucasville, the prison where Ohio conducts executions, to the Statehouse in
Columbus, calling for an end to capital punishment. More than a dozen
participants registered to walk the entire route, and hundreds of supporters
from across Ohio are expected for the final leg to the Statehouse on Saturday,
Oct. 10, which is observed internationally as World Day Against the Death
Penalty.
"I want to bring to people's attention that the death penalty is not fair,"
Jamison said. "They're killing innocent people and we need to stop this. We've
got things in Ohio like life without possibility of parole and we need to use
that for when we make mistakes. We've got 9 death row exonerees in Ohio.
One of the most interesting participants is Terry Collins, who retired as
Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections after
participating in 33 executions. Collins was scheduled to speak Monday evening
at 7 in Chillicothe.
(source: Portsmouth Daily Times)
********************
March against death penalty comes through Chillicothe
In the basement of the Chillicothe Community of Christ Church, a group of
people gathered with a shared interest: to bring an end to the death penalty in
Ohio.
Some joined the group that evening, just to hear form and ask questions to
those who opposed the death penalty, others were part of a group that is
marching from the Lucasville prison, where executions are performed in Ohio, to
the Statehouse in Columbus.
Ohioans to Stop Executions, who all donned matching red shirts with a stop sign
pattern on the front, have marched about 26 miles in 2 days on their journey to
the Statehouse.
But the march stands for more than their combined desire to bring an end to the
death penalty: They are also aiming to raise awareness on World Day Against the
Death Penalty on Oct. 10, the day the group plans to arrive in Columbus.
"The people walking down the road have been reaching a lot of people," said Abe
Bonowitz, with Ohioans to Stop Executions. "We have a message that there's
something other than the death penalty."
Before their stop for the gathering in Chillicothe, the group of marchers had
visited a gas station in Waverly. While they were there, Jake Stamport, who
just moved to town, stopped them for nearly 30 minutes to ask them a few
questions.
Stamport is originally from Texas, the state with the highest number of
executions in the country - 528 since 1976, according to a state-by-state
database - and said he is a supporter of the death penalty. Ohio has performed
53 in that same span.
Stamport spoke to the group earlier Monday to try to understand the position
and decided to join the group that evening for the meeting in Chillicothe.
"Meeting Mr. Jamison made me think about it. I'm still all for it, but I'm open
for anything," Stamport said. "As far as I'm concerned, if you kill 1 innocent
man, you should abolish it all. It's not right."
Derrick Jamison, of Cincinnati, was a prisoner on death row for 20 years. He
was convicted of a murder and robbery in 1985. But in February 2005, three
years after his conviction was overturned, a judge dismissed all charges
against Jamison.
Now, Jamison joins the Ohioans Against the Death Penalty march to share his
story and speak out against what he experienced in his time on death row.
"I was in hell on death row. I try not to dwell on it too much. I'm trying to
push forward and move on, but it will always be on my mind," Jamison said.
Locked up with the same people for years, Jamison said, other death row
prisoners became friends to him,
"To be talking to a guy you know is going to die in a couple of days, what do
you say to him?" Jamison said. "They were my friends, and human beings."
During his time on death row, Jamison got to know a man who worked for the
prison system for more than 30 years.
During that time, Terry Collins held many positions in the correctional system,
including director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. On
Monday night, Collins addressed the group gathered in the church to share his
experience with the death penalty.
Collins witnessed 33 executions in his 32 years of work, and he said Monday
night that it took its toll on him.
"I think I wiped it out of my mind after I left," Collins said. "I think that
was my way of coping."
He has seen the death penalty affect more than just the prisoners. Collins said
he has see the toll it takes on families of victims who have the cases brought
up again and again over the span of decades while those who have been sentenced
to death row file appeals. There is also the staff who Collins said volunteer
to work on the death penalty team.
"The people on the death penalty team are very compassionate. Usually older,
religious, and the most compassionate people," Collins said.
For Collins, who has only come out against the death penalty after his
retirement, there is an alternative to capital punishment. Collins said in his
address Monday night that the sentence of life without parole has been in use
for years. As of Sept. 1, Collins said, more than 500 prisoners in the state of
Ohio have received that sentence.
Over 52,000 people are held in state prisons, Collins added, with 141 currently
on death row. However, Collins said, there have been 9 death row inmates
exonerated from their sentence.
"We have the best criminal justice system ... but it can make mistakes,"
Collins said.
(source: Chilligothe Gazette)
**************
Death-penalty foes on 83-mile protest march
Death-penalty opponents have begun a walk from the Ohio prison where inmates
are executed to the Statehouse as part of a capital-punishment protest.
The 7-day, 83-mile walk started on Sunday at the Southern Ohio Correctional
Facility near Lucasville and will end in Columbus.
The walk is sponsored by Ohioans to Stop Executions and other groups. They plan
to finish the protest in Columbus on Saturday, the annual World Day Against the
Death Penalty.
Along the way, marchers will hear from other death-penalty foes such as Terry
Collins, the former director of the Ohio prison system who witnessed more than
30 executions and now opposes capital punishment.
2 dozen Ohio inmates have execution dates, but the state currently lacks the
drugs to put them to death.
(source: Columbus Dispatch)
ARKANSAS:
Arkansas prison system says deal with death row inmates over drug secrecy not a
contract
An agreement to tell Arkansas' condemned inmates the source of its execution
drugs isn't technically a contract and a judge should dismiss a lawsuit
challenging a new death penalty law, the state's prison director said in a
court filing Monday.
An attorney for Arkansas Department of Correction Director Wendy Kelley filed
the motion to dismiss a complaint from 8 death row inmates who argue that the
law passed earlier this year, which allows the state to withhold the source of
the lethal drugs, is unconstitutional.
Jeff Rosenzweig, an attorney for the inmates, has said the prisoners fear the
secrecy could lead to cruel or unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth
Amendment. He also said the law violates a contracts clause in the Arkansas
Constitution because the state, when settling a previous lawsuit, agreed to
tell inmates the source of its lethal drugs. The contracts clause forbids laws
from being passed to specifically negate terms of a contract.
The state argued on behalf of Kelley, who is named as the defendant, in
multiple filings Monday that the settlement didn't create a "current contract"
between the state and the inmates.
"The State retains its inherent sovereign authority to change the law in the
exercise of its police powers, even if the change in the law affects public or
private contract rights," Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Merritt wrote in the
filing, adding that the state believes there is no current agreement because
the previous litigation ended.
The state also argued that the law is constitutional.
Correction Department spokeswoman Cathy Frye said she could not comment on
ongoing litigation.
Rosenzweig, reached by cellphone late Monday, said he would reserve his
comments for court. A hearing is set for Wednesday on an earlier state motion
to dismiss the inmates' claims.
The Monday filings came in response to an extensive amended complaint and
request for a preliminary injunction Rosenzweig filed last week.
Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen wrote in a letter sent Monday to both
parties that he will address on Wednesday the state's first motion for
dismissal. He said after that ruling, he would address any other issues.
8 inmates are set for execution on 4 dates between Oct. 21 and Jan. 14, meaning
2 executions will happen on each day, unless an injunction is ordered halting
them. The executions would be the 1st executions in Arkansas in a decade.
Last month, The Associated Press identified the three pharmaceutical companies
that likely made Arkansas' execution drugs, all of which said they object to
their drugs being used in executions. 1 of the companies has said it is
pressing the Arkansas Department of Correction for information but hasn't heard
back.
(source: Associated Press)
KENTUCKY:
Death penalty an option in Ricky Kelly case
The death penalty is still a possibility for Ricky Kelly, accused of accepting
money to kill a man in 2005, after a judge denied a defense motion to exclude
the sentencing option as a sanction against prosecutors.
Kelly, 44, is accused of accepting payment to fatally shoot Lajuante "B.B"
Jackson in August 2005 in the Sheppard Square housing complex to protect his
drug-trafficking organization.
"...the Court is sympathetic to Kelly's argument that this case has been
pending for a significant amount of time," wrote Circuit Court Judge Angela
McCormic Bisig.
The case has lingered for years in the court system. Kelly was indicted in
Jefferson Circuit Court in 2010 on eight counts of murder. Those charges were
dropped in favor of federal court prosecution on a single count of murder in
aid of racketeering. That case was dropped in August 2014, with prosecutors
citing the death of a key witness set to testify against Kelly. The case moved
back to state court, where Kelly now faces one count of murder.
Kelly's former public defender Amy Hannah filed a motion in March arguing the
death penalty should be dropped to punish prosecutors for consistently failing
to turn over evidence in the case and missing agreed upon deadlines.
Finding "no specific legal authority" to drop the death penalty because of the
alleged delays, and ruling they weren't the result of "intentional misconduct
or wrongful behavior," Bisig denied the motion in her Oct. 1 order.
She noted many reasons for the delay in Kelly's case, including changes in both
the prosecutorial and defense team, the large volume of evidence and
"complexities and serious nature" of Kelly's charges.
Attorneys Mac Adams and Daniel Alvarez, who now represent Kelly, told Bisig at
a July hearing the delays were prejudicial to Kelly.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Elizabeth Jones Brown countered, saying the
death penalty should not be dropped over evidence disputes and that all
evidence known to prosecutors was in the hands of Kelly's attorneys.
Prosecutors have cited Kelly's multiple past drug convictions, the planned
nature of the alleged crime and a "murder for hire" aggravating circumstance as
their reasons to pursue the death penalty.
Kelly is next due to appear in court Thursday. A jury trial is set for April 8,
2016.
(source: The Courier-Journal)
OKLAHOMA:
Oklahoma Attorney General comments on Richard Glossip's stay
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt sat down with the O'Colly Monday
afternoon and discussed a variety of state issues.
ON RICHARD GLOSSIP'S STAY OF EXECUTION
"(The stay) was something that I initiated the day after what occurred on the
30th, I did that because of what transpired on the 30th, so that was of my own
initiative. I think what you're referring to is the fact that the DOC advised
my office and the governors' office very late in the process barely an hour
before the execution that they had received the wrong drug. We have 3 different
drug protocols - different options involving different drugs. Potassium
chloride is 1 of the drugs that is used in each of those protocols, and
potassium chloride has been used by the state for a long time. So, for the DOC
to advise my office that late in the process that they had received potassium
acetate as opposed to potassium chloride is very troubling and it's something
we're investigating and inquiring into now to see how that happened. How did
the pharmacist send the wrong drug, why did they send the wrong drug, et
cetera, so that process is ongoing and it's something that as far as my office
is concerned, we have litigated successfully the use of midazolam, the Supreme
Court said that was constitutional, and we've also litigated the execution
protocol which is just the procedures that the DOC has to go through in
carrying out the death penalty. It's the latter that's a concern at this point
because as they went through those procedures, clearly receiving the wrong drug
and notifying my office an hour before the execution, is something that
shouldn't occur and we need to figure out why it occurred and that???s
something we're looking into right now. The most sober of the responsibilities
that the state carries out is the execution of the death penalty. And the
reason we spend time as a state, one, adopting the execution protocol, which is
what DOC and the state did, and the defense of that in courts and the court
blessing it and making sure that it's followed; and if it's not being followed
we need to find out why and what happened to cause the non-compliance with the
protocol and that's what we're looking into."
(source: ocolly.com)
**************
The Secrets That Shroud Executions: It's Not Just Oklahoma's Problem
A recent lethal injection drug mix-up highlights the capital punishment chaos
playing out across the country.
Last Wednesday, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, Richard Glossip stood in
a holding cell waiting to die. Just minutes before his scheduled execution, he
was abruptly whisked back to his regular cell without warning or explanation.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin had announced - in a surprise to both Glossip and the
crowd of death-penalty opponents, his family, and reporters waiting outside the
prison - that she would halt his execution.
Glossip was to die by lethal injection, the current preferred method among the
31 states that carry out the death penalty. But the state's lethal injection
protocol, Fallin ruled, needed to be sorted out.
The next day, Attorney General Scott Pruitt requested that the Oklahoma Court
of Criminal Appeals stay all lethal injections in the state until his office
could figure out why the prison had received the wrong lethal injection drugs
to execute Glossip. Executions won't resume, Pruitt told reporters, until he
regains confidence that the Department of Corrections can carry them out
according to the state's established guidelines.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before," Robert Dunham, executive director
of the Death Penalty Information Center, told TakePart. "It betrays a stunning
level of incompetence."
While the state intended to execute Glossip using a combination of 3 drugs -
midazolam, an anesthetic; potassium chloride, to stop the heart; and
pentobarbital, an anesthetic used to euthanize pets - corrections officials
told reporters the state discovered at the last minute that its drug supplier
had mistakenly sent potassium acetate, which is not approved by the state for
such use.
The drug protocol was extensively reviewed last year after the grisly botched
execution of Clayton Lockett, leading to questions about how the prison could
have acquired the wrong chemical and solidifying Oklahoma's role in the larger
lethal injection chaos seen from California to the Carolinas. Pharmaceutical
companies are distancing themselves from capital punishment by refusing to sell
products used in executions to corrections departments; states have scrambled
to obtain drugs (Nebraska was recently caught attempting to import sodium
thiopental from India without approval from the Food and Drug Administration);
and other states are buying drugs from each other to ensure executions can go
through.
"We see a lot of states engaging in behavior that is questionable and
concerning," said Megan McCracken, an attorney with the Death Penalty Clinic at
the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. "A lot of assertions are
made without transparency to demonstrate that these things are being done with
due diligence, with care, and in an aboveboard manner."
Oklahoma's mix-up is also a reminder of the secrecy that shrouds the state laws
that govern executions. Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, and Texas are a few of the
states that, like Oklahoma, have laws severely limiting information about the
source of the lethal injection drugs they use and the state of those drugs.
These laws forbid the release of information about the identity of the
pharmacies that provide lethal injection drugs and in some cases prevent
inmates themselves (as well as courts and the public) from finding out what
drugs will be used to kill them.
"Because of [Oklahoma's] secrecy statute and because they operate with so
little transparency, it is very difficult to meaningfully assess what's going
on or what happened," McCracken told TakePart. "While it's entirely appropriate
that they have stopped executions, it's very difficult to have confidence that
these problems will be addressed."
According to McCracken, because of statutes that limit or block public access
to information about the drugs used in lethal injections and the broader
process in Oklahoma and elsewhere, it's nearly impossible to know if this is
truly the 1st time such a mistake has been made.
(source: takepart.com)
NEBRASKA:
Nikko Jenkins' death-penalty hearing scheduled for week of Jan. 4
The 1st week of the new year will be consumed with an old case.
Authorities have scheduled Nikko Jenkins' death-penalty hearing for the week of
Jan. 4.
Jenkins was convicted of the August 2013 killings of Juan Uribe-Pena, Jorge
Cajiga-Ruiz, Curtis Bradford and Andrea Kruger.
But his death penalty hearing has been delayed by questions about Jenkins'
competency as well as the state's repeal of the death penalty. That repeal is
now on hold as petition organizers seek to reinstate the death penalty.
More motions are expected. Jenkins' attorney, Douglas County Public Defender
Tom Riley, is expected to file a number of constitutional challenges to the
death penalty.
During the procedure, a jury will hear evidence of aggravating factors that the
state must prove, as well as mitigating factors, which likely will include
Jenkins' mental-health treatment - or lack thereof - in prison.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine will present evidence of the following
aggravating factors: that there were multiple murders, that the murders were
committed to cover up another crime and that Jenkins had a substantial history
of violent behavior prior to these killings.
If the jury finds there are aggravating factors, Jenkins' case judge, Peter
Bataillon, as well as District Judge Mark Johnson of the Norfolk area and
District Judge Terri Harder of the Kearney area will weigh any mitigating
factors and decide whether Jenkins should be executed.
(source: omaha.com)
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