Jan. 20
TEXAS----execution
Texas puts inmate to death for a killing 15 years ago in state's 1st execution
of 2016
A Texas man put to death Wednesday for a killing 15 years ago became the
state's 1st prisoner executed in 2016.
Richard Masterson, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m. after a lethal
injection in the nation's busiest death penalty state. Texas carried out 13
lethal injections in 2015, accounting for nearly half of the 28 executions
nationwide.
Masterson had claimed the January 2001 strangulation of Darin Shane Honeycutt
was accidental and had several appeals before the courts, including at four
with the U.S. Supreme Court. His last-day efforts to stop his execution were
rejected.
He had testified at his trial that the death of the 35-year-old Honeycutt in
Houston happened accidentally during a chokehold that was part of a sex act.
The 2 had met at a bar and then went to Honeycutt's apartment.
Honeycutt was an entertainer who performed dressed as a woman. Honeycutt's
stage name was Brandi Houston.
Court records showed Masterson confessed to police, told others about the
killing and acknowledged Honeycutt was slain on purpose in a letter to the
Texas attorney general in 2012.
"I meant to kill him," Masterson wrote to then-Attorney General Greg Abbott,
who is now the state's governor. "It was no accident."
Evidence showed Masterson stole Honeycutt's car, dumped it in Georgia, and was
arrested at a Florida mobile home park more than a week later with another
stolen car. That car belonged to a Tampa, Florida, man who testified he was
robbed by Masterson but survived a similar sex episode where he was choked.
Masterson's attorneys argued Honeycutt's death was accidental or the result of
a heart attack, that a Harris County medical examiner whose credentials have
been questioned was wrong to tell jurors it was a strangulation, that
Masterson's earlier lawyers were deficient and that his prolonged drug use and
then withdrawal while in jail contributed to his "suicide by confession" when
he spoke to police and in the letter to Abbott.
Lawyers also contended trial jurors were given an incomplete instruction before
their deliberations and that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied
Masterson his rights to due process and access to the courts by refusing their
challenge to a new state law that keeps secret the identity of the provider of
pentobarbital that Texas prison officials use for lethal injections.
State lawyers argued that Masterson's attorneys offered no scientific evidence
about Honeycutt's death that hadn't been previously raised and rejected,
including by jurors at Masterson's 2002 trial. Federal courts had no
jurisdiction in the execution drug secrecy because it was a state matter, they
contended.
Masterson had a long drug history and criminal record beginning at age 15.
Court documents showed he ignored advice from lawyers at his trial for the
killing and insisted on telling jurors he met Honeycutt at a bar and they went
to Honeycutt's Houston apartment where Masterson said the chokehold was part of
an autoerotic sex act.
Honeycutt's body was found Jan. 27, 2001, after friends became worried when he
failed to show up for work.
Masterson also told jurors he was a future danger - an element they had to
agree with in order to decide a death sentence was appropriate.
Masterson's case recently drew the attention of Pope Francis, who has
reinforced the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment.
At least 8 other Texas death row inmates have executions scheduled for the
coming months, including 1 set for next week.
Masterson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas and the 532nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982. He becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death in
Texas since Greg Abbott became governor of the stat in Jan. 2015.
Masterson becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the
USA and the 1424th overall since the nation resumed executions on Jasnaury 17,
1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
**********************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----14
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----532
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
15---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------533
16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534
17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535
18---------March 22-----------------Adam Ward-------------536
19---------March 30-----------------John Battaglia--------537
20---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------538
21---------April 27-----------------Robert Pruett---------539
22---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------540
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
FLORIDA:
Lavar Monte Thompson Convicted, But A Potential Death Penalty Sentencing Is On
Hold
A Starke man was convicted Wednesday for the 2012 murder of William Couch.
The prosecution's decision on whether to pursue the death penalty or not is on
hold, the state attorney's office said.
Lavar Monte Thompson, 35, was charged with 1st-degree murder in the killing of
Couch, as well as home invasion robbery, burglary while armed with a firearm
and battery, 2 counts of kidnapping and arson.
With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Florida's death penalty
sentencing system is unconstitutional, the prosecution will wait to decide
whether to pursue the death penalty or not.
Multiple agencies were involved in this case including the Union County
Sheriff's Office, the Bradford County Sheriff's Office, The Florida Department
of Law Enforcement and the State Fire Marshal's Office.
The jury deliberated over the conviction for more than an hour. Sentencing for
Thompson will be decided at a later date, until a decision over how to handle
the death penalty has been made.
2 co-defendants in the case, Michael Pierce and Amanda Jeffrey, were previously
sentenced in the case. Pierce previously served time in a state prison on an
aggravated assault conviction, according to the Florida Department of
Corrections.
Thompson also served time in state prison for grand theft auto and cocaine
charges.
(source: WUFT news)
CALIFORNIA:
California death penalty: New execution method under scrutiny
As California moves forward Friday with a crucial public hearing to air its new
lethal injection procedures, death penalty foes are taking aim at the details
in a plan that could lead to the resumption of executions after a 10-year
hiatus.
Calling the reforms "human experimentation," the American Civil Liberties Union
and other death penalty critics say California's Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation has proposed revised lethal injection methods that will lead to
the type of botched executions that have plagued other states. "The proposed
regulation is replete with legal, ethical, medical and logistical problems,"
said Megan McCracken, a lethal injection expert with UC Berkeley law school's
death penalty clinic.
State prison officials in November proposed an elaborate new execution
procedure in an attempt to resolve a decade of legal battles over the state's
execution method, with the centerpiece being a switch from a three-drug lethal
cocktail to a single drug to put condemned killers to death.
Death penalty supporters, however, say the criticism is just an effort to
thwart executions.
"Having failed for decades to convince the people of their view that the death
penalty is wrong, their strategy is to make it impractical and then argue for
repeal on the grounds of practicality," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director
of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.
Under administrative rules the state must follow to enact the new procedures,
prison leaders have received thousands of comments on the proposal and will
hold a public hearing Friday in Sacramento. The lethal injection reforms, if
approved, would likely take effect in November -- when voters also will be
asked to decide a ballot measure that seeks to abolish the death penalty
California is following the lead of many other states with lethal injection by
choosing to opt for a single sedative to execute death row inmates. The new
procedure includes four drug options: amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital
and thiopental.
But death penalty opponents readying for Friday's hearing say 2 of those drugs,
amobarbital and secobarbital, have never been used in executions, accusing the
state of taking the risk of experimenting on the state's 750 death row inmates.
In addition, critics of the state's plan note that California's procedures do
not include any specifics on how prison officials will obtain these drugs for
lethal injections -- a problem in other death penalty states that have had
trouble securing a supply since pharmaceutical companies several years ago
balked at providing them for executions.
"It's a huge question mark," said Ana Zamora, the ACLU's criminal justice
policy director.
Death penalty supporters say the groups are putting up invalid roadblocks to
executions. For example, Scheidegger said it is irrelevant that some of the
drugs have not been used before because there is sufficient medical evidence
they are lethal and "produce a less painful death than traditional methods of
execution."
He added that state methods of securing a drug supply do not belong in the
regulations.
State prison officials dispute that the regulations do not include mention of
drug supply. In 1 passage, prison officials note that the drugs can be produced
in the prison system's pharmacies, by other state-run pharmacies or obtained
from private sources.
Legal experts say California will have to provide details in its proposal on
how it will secure execution drugs, because the overall plan must still survive
court review. A San Francisco federal judge at some point is expected to
consider the legality of the state's new procedures.
"Traditionally, of course, requiring drug sources has not been part of a lethal
injection protocol," said Deborah Denno, a lethal injection expert at Fordham
University law school. "But the past few years have shown us that that
drug-acquisition information is critically important."
(source: Mercury News)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
