Feb. 3
TEXAS----impending execution
Texas Inmate Gustavo Garcia Receives Execution Date of February 16, 2016
Gustavo Julian Garcia is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CST, on Tuesday,
February 16, 2016, inside the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary
in Huntsville, Texas. 43-year-old Gustavo is convicted of the murder of
43-year-old Craig Turski in Plano, Texas on December 9, 1990. Gustavo has spent
the last 24 years on Texas' death row.
On December 9, 1990, Gustavo Garcia and Christopher Vargas entered a warehouse
in Plano, Texas. Garcia was armed with a sawed-off shotgun and had additional
shells in his pockets. Garcia ordered the clerk, Craig Turski, to hand over the
money from the cash register, while Vargas took beer and placed it into their
waiting vehicle.
Garcia then shot Craig in the abdomen at close range. Craig fled from the
store. Garcia pursued him while reloading his shotgun. After reloading, Garcia
shot Craig in the back of the head.
A female customer who had entered the store and promptly left when she saw
Garcia forcing Craig to hand over the money, returned to the store with her
husband. Upon finding the store deserted, they called the police. Craig was
transported to a local hospital, where he eventually died from his gunshot
wounds.
On January 5, 1991, Garcia and Vargas robbed another gas station. They took the
clerk, Gregory Martin into the back room and shot him at point blank range with
the same gun that was used to shoot Craig weeks earlier. Gregory died at the
scene. Upon seeing Garcia and Vargas enter the store, Gregory told his
girlfriend, whom he was talking to on the phone, that he thought he was going
to be robbed. She alerted the police, who arrived quickly at the scene.
Police found Vargas standing over Gregory's body. Vargas alleged that he had
just entered the store and found Gregory lying on the floor. Garcia was found
hiding in a freezer area, close to where the shotgun was later discovered.
Garcia confessed to both crimes.
Gustavo Garcia was sentenced to death, while Christopher Vargas was sentenced
to life in prison. On Thanksgiving 1998, while on death row, Gustavo attempted,
along with 6 other death row inmates, to escape from prison. Only 1 inmate made
it past the prison fences. Gustavo and the others were recaptured. The escaped
inmate was the 1st to successfully escape since a Bonnie and Clyde gang member
escaped in 1934. The inmate was discovered to have drowned shortly after his
escape.
The Supreme Court of the United States has refused to review the case of
Gustavo. In refusing to review the case, they also rejected a request to stay
his execution.
Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Craig and Gregory. Please
pray for peace for the family of Gustavo. Please pray that if Gustavo is
innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for
any other reason, evidence will be presented prior to his execution. Please
pray that Gregory will come to find peace through a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ, if he has not already.
(source: theforgivenessfoundation.org)
**********
Bryan Man Originally Given Death Penalty Is Resentenced To Life In Prison
28 year old Christian Olsen, who was convicted of the beating death of a
neighbor, 68 year old Etta Jean Westbrook, was officially resentenced Tuesday
in Brazos County district court.
In April 2012, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the death sentence
handed down by a jury in 2009.
Initially, the Brazos County district attorney's office sought to reimpose
death. But DA Jarvis Parsons cited 2 reasons for changing his mind.
One was the suicide of Olsen's girlfriend, who was in prison serving time for
soliciting him to murder her mother. Parson says she gave a confession to
authorities while in prison.
Parsons says they also discovered DNA evidence that would have been used to
argue for the death penalty was mishandled and would have been challenged in
court.
Parsons says at Tuesday's hearing, Olsen agreed to waive all future attempts to
be released from prison and oppose anyone else who would attempt to do the
same.
Parsons says Olsen will not be charged in the death of his girlfriend's mother,
Geraldine Lloyd, because of the punishment Olsen received for killing
Westbrook.
Lloyd was killed in her home several months before Westbrook was murdered.
(source: WTAW news)
NORTH CAROLINA:
State seeking death penalty in double Onslow County homicide
A judge has ruled the state can seek the death penalty in the case of a
Jacksonville man charged with murder in the deaths of his girlfriend and
5-month-old son.
Local media outlets report the judge ruled during a hearing Monday in the case
of 26-year-old Sebastian Mendez.
Mendez is charged with murder in the slayings of death of his girlfriend,
29-year-old Shaung Liu, and his 5-month-old son, Archer Liu back in July.
Authorities say that the woman was found dead in her car 3 blocks from her home
in Jacksonville. The infant was found dead in a suitcase in the attic.
Authorities say the victims were strangled.
During the hearing, Mendez again pleaded not guilty to the charges.
(source: WRAL news)
*****************
Bar dismisses grievance against lawyer who worked on Racial Justice Act cases
An N.C. State Bar disciplinary panel has vacated a five-month-old ruling
against Cassandra Stubbs, a lawyer who worked on successful Racial Justice Act
cases.
The panel issued a new order Monday that dismissed the grievance filed against
the Durham defense attorney and entered a judgment in Stubbs' favor. The
admonishment she received has been wiped off her record from a disciplinary
case that raised many questions in the legal community about why the bar even
filed a public complaint.
"Cassy Stubbs represents the best of lawyers," Alan Schneider and Bradley
Bannon, the Raleigh attorneys who represented her, said in a joint statement
Tuesday. "She could have used her talent and law license in any way, but she
dedicated her professional life to serving the poorest and most disenfranchised
people in our community. Her work in the Racial Justice Act litigation saved
four lives and exposed widespread racial bias in the imposition of the death
penalty in North Carolina. She should have received a medal for that work, not
a Bar grievance. From day one, we have adamantly denied ethical wrongdoing and
fought to clear her name, and we thank the disciplinary panel for ultimately
doing the right thing."
Stubbs, described by her peers as "an absolute beacon of integrity," tearfully
fought accusations of professional misconduct levied against her in an
anonymous complaint. As a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union
Capital Punishment Project, she was among a team of attorneys who used the
short-lived Racial Justice Act to convert the sentences of four North Carolina
death-row inmates in 2012 to life without possibility for parole.
The Racial Justice Act, repealed by state lawmakers in 2013, allowed death row
inmates to challenge their sentences by using statistical evidence to show
racial bias played a role in their cases. The bar allegations against Stubbs
focused on inconsistencies between court records and sworn statements that the
defense team introduced from men who had been part of a 1994 jury pool but not
selected for the panel in the case of Marcus Reymond Robinson, the 1st
death-row inmate to have his sentence converted.
The judge who heard the Racial Justice Act cases ruled in 2012 that the
inconsistencies were immaterial and unintentional and did not weigh into his
rulings.
Similar allegations were lodged against Gretchen Engel, director of the
Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation. A different disciplinary
panel considered Engel's case last year after the initial Stubbs' decision and
came to a different conclusion. Engel was cleared of any wrongdoing and her
case was dismissed.
Since then, the bar reconsidered the Stubbs case and the N.C. Supreme Court
vacated the four Racial Justice Act rulings.
(source: newsobserver.com)
GEORGIA----execution
Georgia Executes Its Oldest Death Row Inmate
Georgia executed its oldest death row inmate Tuesday, after courts rejected a
challenge to a state law that keeps secret the names of providers of lethal
injection drugs.
Brandon Astor Jones, 72, was convicted in 1979 for the killing of a convenience
store clerk during an armed robbery. A judge ordered a new sentencing hearing
in 1989 and he was later resentenced to death in 1997.
Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan confirmed that
Jones was executed at 12:46 a.m. Wednesday. His execution had been scheduled
for 7 p.m. but his lawyers filed filed a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court.
The high court refused to halt the execution in an order made hours after that
time had passed.
Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 6-5 not to hear
before a full court Jones' challenge of the state law that keeps secret the
company that manufactures drugs used in lethal injections.
The majority cited a decision Monday by a 3-judge panel that denied a motion to
stay the execution. It ruled Jones' lawyers were unable to show the challenge
was likely to succeed, and noted the drugs from undisclosed sources have been
used 7 times "without incident."
But 5 judges dissented, and 4 of those said Georgia's law keeping secret the
name of the company that compounds pentobarbital. They said the secrecy law
could violate Jones' right of access to the courts.
"Today Brandon Jones will be executed, possibly in violation of the
Constitution. He may also be cruelly and unusually punished in the process,"
the 4 judges said in their dissent. "But if he is, we won't know until it's too
late - if ever." States have been scrambling to find alternatives or
alternative sources of the drug after its manufacturers refused to sell it for
executions.
Georgia along with other states relies on small compounding pharmacies to
produce the drugs, and the state instituted a secrecy law in order to keep
supply lines open. A court upheld the law in May.
The shortage of drugs has forced some states to delay executions. Ohio in
October scrapped all executions until 2017 because it has been unable to obtain
necessary drugs.
Jones was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of Roger Tackett, a
convenience store manager killed during a robbery.
A court threw out his 1st conviction in 1989 because jurors had a Bible in the
room during deliberations, and he was retried and resentenced to death in 1997,
NBC station WALB reported.
Another Georgia inmate - Travis Clinton Hittson, sentenced to death for killing
a Navy sailor in 1993 - is scheduled to be executed Feb. 17, the state
Department of Corrections said.
Jones becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death in Georgia this year
and the 61st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Only
Texas (533), Oklahoma (112), Virginia (111), Florida (92), and Missouri (86)
have executed more inmates than Georgia since the US Supreme Court re-legalized
the death penalty on July 2, 1976.
Jones becomes the 5th condemned inmate to put to death in the USA this year and
the 1427th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: NBC news & Rick Halperin)
FLORIDA:
Death penalty bill clears House committee
A House panel signed off on a bill that would revamp Florida's process for
sentencing killers to death, a move prompted by a recent U.S. Supreme Court
ruling that the state's method is unconstitutional.
The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee approved the legislation (CRJS7) after
more than an hour of debate earlier today.
The bill would require jurors to unanimously find at least 1 aggravating factor
- including whether the crime was premeditated or heinous - before recommending
a sentence of death in capital cases.
But it would not go as far as some death penalty experts have recommended and
require unanimity among jurors when they actually make a recommendation of
death. Instead, it would increase the number of jurors required to recommend
death from a simple majority of 7 out of 12 to a super-majority of 9.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's sentencing scheme for
death penalty trials in a case involving Pensacola killer Timothy Lee Hurst.
Justices in an 8-1 ruling found that Florida's process violated Hurst's Sixth
Amendment right to trial by an impartial jury because it allowed the judge
alone to find the existence of aggravating circumstances.
The bill surfaced out the House committee last week in a move designed to bring
state statutes in line with the high court ruling. The Senate Committee on
Criminal Justice is expected to propose its own bill soon.
(source: Tallahassee Democrat)
**********
House Panel Approves Death Penalty Fix
A House panel on Tuesday approved proposed changes to the state's death-penalty
law in an effort to address a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down
Florida's capital-sentencing structure as unconstitutional.
The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee's 11-2 vote on the measure (PCB CRJS
16-07) came less than 2 hours after the Florida Supreme Court issued an
indefinite stay of execution for Cary Michael Lambrix, who had been scheduled
to die on Feb. 11. The court heard oral arguments in the case Tuesday morning.
Lawmakers in both chambers are hurriedly preparing legislation in response to
the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, issued on the opening day of the 2016 session,
in a case known as Hurst v. Florida. The Jan. 12 ruling overturned the state's
capital felony sentencing system, which gives judges - and not juries - the
power to impose the death penalty.
The high court's decision came in the appeal of convicted murderer Timothy Lee
Hurst, who was sentenced to death for the 1998 killing of fast-food worker
Cynthia Harrison in Pensacola. Harrison, an assistant manager at a Popeye's
Fried Chicken restaurant on Nine Mile Road where Hurst worked, was bound,
gagged and stabbed more than 60 times. Her body was found in a freezer.
The 8-1 decision focused on what are known as "aggravating" circumstances that
must be determined before defendants can be sentenced to death. A 2002 U.S.
Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, requires that
determination of such aggravating circumstances be made by juries, not judges.
Under Florida law, juries make recommendations regarding the death penalty,
based on a review of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, but judges
ultimately decide whether defendants should be put to death or sentenced to
life in prison.
The House would allow death sentences to be imposed only if juries - after
weighing aggravating and mitigating factors - unanimously decide that at least
1 aggravating factor exists. The proposal would also require at least 9 jurors
to vote for the death penalty. The legislation is based on the recommendations
of state attorneys.
Of the 31 states with the death penalty, Florida is one of only three that do
not require unanimous jury decisions about imposing death sentences. Florida
law only requires a simple majority of the jury to recommend death. The only
other 2 states that do not require unanimous decisions - Alabama and Delaware -
require at least 9 jurors to vote in favor of capital punishment.
Whether death-penalty jury verdicts should be unanimous has been a major source
of debate during discussions about the Hurst ruling, which did not specifically
address the issue. Nearly all experts - with the exception of prosecutors -
recommend that the state adopt a unanimous jury requirement to avoid the risk
that Florida's sentencing system could be struck down again in the future.
"The question arises, do you look simply at the narrow issue that Hurst
addressed or do you look at the whole body of cases that the United States
Supreme Court has talked about?" 10th Judicial Circuit Public Defender Rex
Dimmig told the panel Tuesday.
But prosecutor Brad King argued that the measure goes "well beyond the
dictates" of the Supreme Court's order. And King, the state attorney for the
5th Judicial Circuit, said it is impossible to predict how the court will rule
in years to come.
"To think we can sit here today and presume to understand what the U.S. Supreme
Court can do ... in the future is honestly a pipe dream," he said.
Requiring unanimous decisions on death-penalty sentences would allow a single
juror "to hold hostage the entire process," King argued, pointing out that some
of Florida's most-notorious crimes failed to result in unanimous jury
recommendations for the death penalty.
But University of Miami Law Professor Scott Sundby, who trains Florida judges
in the death penalty, said research shows that 92 % of juries that voted 9-3 in
favor of the death penalty returned the same result if required to reach a
unanimous decision.
"In other words, in 92 % of the cases, when they deliberated to unanimity, they
still came out as death," Sundby said.
Not requiring a unanimous decision would put Florida in danger of having its
law struck down again, he predicted.
"I promise you this would invite a lot of constitutional litigation, and the
odds of it being reversed by the (U.S.) Supreme Court are quite high," Sundby
told the committee.
The House panel rejected an attempt by Rep. Randolph Bracy, D-Orlando, to amend
the bill to require unanimity on death sentences.
"There is great racial and gender and geographical discrimination in how the
death penalty is applied," Bracy, who is black, said. For example, "no white
person has ever been sentenced to death for killing a black person" in Florida,
Bracy said. In contrast, murders involving white women are 6.5 times more
likely to result in the death penalty.
"1 way to reduce the bias is require unanimous juries," said Bracy, 1 of 2
Democrats on the subcommittee who opposed the bill.
But Chairman Carlos Trujillo, a former prosecutor, said Bracy's concerns rested
more with the application of the death penalty than with the sentencing phase.
And, he said, the proposal is far from a done deal.
"By no way, I think, is this a 100 % finished product," Trujillo, R-Miami,
said. "I'm sure all of these recommendations will come to play at some point."
Senate President Andy Gardiner told reporters Tuesday that "there a lot of
members in our chamber that would prefer a unanimous decision."
But the Senate may cede to the House's 9-3 position to finalize a bill before
the session ends next month.
"What's important is that we get an agreement done, and we pass something this
session to address what's been brought forward by the U.S. Supreme Court. And I
think we're on track to do that," Gardiner, R-Orlando, said.
(source: northescambia.com)
ALABAMA:
Lawyers for man accused in 'ritual' child killing say death penalty
unconstitutional
Lawyers for a Gadsden man accused of killing his toddler daughter in 2013 with
either a sword or knife told a judge today that Alabama's death penalty statute
is unconstitutional.
Stephon Lindsay, 38, accused of killing his daughter, 20-month-old Maliyah
Tashay Lindsay, was in court today before District Judge Billy Ogletree in
Gadsden.
His lawyers, Morgan Cunningham and Jacob Millican, have filed several motions
contesting the death penalty, as well as the judge's prerogative to override
the jury's recommendation in the trial's penalty phase.
Gadsden police discovered the body of Maliyah Lindsay in a wooded area at the
dead end of Plainview Street in Gadsden on March 12, 2013 after Stephon Lindsay
was arrested in connection with the child's disappearance.
Relatives later said Lindsay may have killed the child as a result of some kind
of ritual. An autopsy ruled the child died of blunt force trauma and that a
knife or sword was used in her death. Lindsay is set for trial Feb. 22.
In a hearing today, Cunningham focused on one argument - that Alabama's death
penalty statute is unconstitutional because it closely mirrors Florida's. On
Jan. 16, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of Florida's death penalty
statute because it did not give jurors a large enough role in determining
whether defendants should be executed.
Etowah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marcus Reid said the court did not
strike down all death penalty statues, but merely Florida's. He also said
Alabama's statute had been held up by the court, and that the court had turned
away an request for a stay from Alabama inmate Christopher Brooks, who was
executed less than a week after the Supreme Court's Florida decision.
"It's not as though the Alabama statute is unknown to the United States Supreme
Court," Reid said.
Ogletree said he would rule later this week on the motion. Ogletree also stated
that both Lindsay's defense team and prosecutors are waiting on the results of
a 2nd medical exam as to Lindsay's mental state at the time of the crime.
(aouexw: al.com)
OHIO:
Executions in Ohio: Race and gender statistics
The panelists in a discussion on the death penalty at the University of Akron
Tuesday discussed a new report that found racial, gender and geographic
disparities in how Ohio's death penalty is administered.
The report, released last week, was done by Frank Baumgartner, a political
science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The report looked at executions in Ohio from 1976 to 2014 when 53 people were
executed, all men. The findings included:
-- 65 % of the executions were for crimes involving white victims, despite the
fact that 43 % of homicide victims are white.
-- 27 % of homicide victims are women, but 52 % of executions were for
homicides involving female victims.
-- 4 out of Ohio's 88 counties - Summit, Lucas, Cuyahoga and Hamilton - or
just 5 % of the counties, produced more than 1/2 of the state's executions.
(These also are among the state's most populous counties.) -- Only 3 counties -
Summit, Cuyahoga and Hamilton - have had more than 5 executions each. (Summit
had 6 executions during this period.)
-- More than 3/4 of Ohio's counties - or 69 - have never had an execution.
The report only examined people who were executed, and didn't look into those
who are currently on Ohio's death row.
(source: ohio.com)
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