June 28
NORTH CAROLINA:
2 teens make court appearance, 2 more sought in Kinston church murder
2 teens were told they could get the death penalty if convicted for killing a
Kinston high school student. The victim was found Sunday afternoon behind a
Kinston church.
Thomas Bullock, 18, of Kinston, and Tyrek Leach, 17, of Knightdale, went before
a judge this afternoon. They are jailed without bond.
NBA star Reggie Bullock's mother, Danielle Brown, says that Thomas Bullock is a
relative.
Bullock and Leach were arrested early Monday at Brown's home.
While in court Monday, Bullock asked the judge, "Why am I being charged with
something I didn't do?"
Police are still looking for Jaquel Lawson, 20, and Christopher Hembry, 19,
both of Kinston, for the shooting death of Antonio Hines.
Officers were sent to a shots fired call around 5:15 p.m. Sunday at Bill Fay
Park. Once they arrived, police found Hines had been shot behind Westside Free
Will Baptist Church on Lynn Drive, which is adjacent to the park.
The 18-year-old was reportedly shot about 6 times and pronounced dead at the
scene. Family friends say he went by "DC" and was a percussionist in the
Kinston High School band. School officials say Hines would have been a senior
at KHS.
There is no word yet on a possible motive. 3 of the 4 suspects are former
students at Kinston High School.
(source: WITN news)
ARKANSAS:
Judge criticizes secrecy in U.S. executions
An Arkansas judge who last year declared unconstitutional a law that allows the
state to keep confidential the source of drugs used for execution by lethal
injection has lamented a 5-4 decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court reversing
his ruling.
In a breakout session on the death penalty at the Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship General Assembly June 24, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell
Griffen said that since the Supreme Court upheld the use of capital punishment
for certain crimes, the death penalty debate has shifted to whether specific
execution procedures satisfy the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual
punishment.
"How it's being done now is we'll make sure it's nice by making sure it's
secret so you don't know how barbaric it is," said Griffen, who also serves as
pastor of CBF-affiliated New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Ark. Griffen
said legal action surrounding capital punishment now focuses on "seeking to
discover the chemicals that are being used to put people to death and discover
where they are coming from."
The day before the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld a state law that allows for
the type, manufacturers and sellers of drugs used for lethal injections to be
kept confidential. The law is designed to ensure the state can find a place to
buy the drugs in a market where pharmaceutical companies are rapidly
withdrawing from the lethal injection trade.
Not only are inmates on death row not entitled to know who is selling the
drugs, Griffen said, they also cannot find out the qualifications of the
individuals who will administer them.
"If you want to euthanize your dog, you know that under your state only the
people who have certain credentials can put your dog down," Griffen said at the
CBF workshop. "If you want to euthanize your neighbor - if you want to kill
your neighbor in the name of the state - I 10-time double-dog dare you to find
out the qualifications of the person who is doing it."
"As a matter of fact, there is no requirement that the state tell you, and they
have an affirmative obligation to not disclose that," the judge continued. "It
is amazing. One would call it irony, but it's too nice a word."
Pfizer, the world's 2nd-largest drug company adopted distribution controls in
March to prevent its drugs from reaching execution chambers across the United
States.
"Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we
serve," the company said in a statement. "Consistent with these values, Pfizer
strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital
punishment."
Reprieve, a New York-based human rights organization, said in May that all 25
FDA-approved manufacturers of potential execution drugs now have blocked their
sale for use in capital punishment.
The ruling by the Arkansas high court clears the way for the execution of 8
people on death row whose lives were extended by Griffen's temporary
restraining order last Oct. 9. One of the state's execution drugs expires
before the Supreme Court decision goes in effect, however, and the supplier has
told officials it would not supply any more.
(source: baptistnews.com)
MISSOURI:
Murder charges filed in Edgerton deaths
Grayden Denham is now charged with four counts of first-degree murder in
connection with the deaths of 4 people outside a burned out Platte County home
in February.
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said a grand jury indicted Denham on all
the charges. He said it will take a month or 2 to decide if the f1st-degree
murder charges merit the death penalty. If the prosecutor doesn't seek the
death penalty, the maximum sentence would be life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
Denham also is charged with 4 counts armed criminal action as well as charges
of animal abuse, 2nd-degree arson and tampering with physical evidence. He will
be arraigned Thursday.
Denham already faced a charge of stealing a 2012 Nissan Versa sedan in
February. The vehicle was registered to his grandparents, Russell and Shirley
Denham.
Zahnd and Platte County Sheriff Mark Owen held a press conference Monday
afternoon in Kansas City to discuss the case.
Platte County authorities found the murdered and burned bodies of Russell
Denham, 82, Shirley Denham, 81, Heather Ager, 32, and Ager's 3-month-old son,
Mason Schiavoni, outside the grandparents' Edgerton, Missouri, home, which was
destroyed by fire Feb. 19.
Grayden Denham was called a person of interest in the deaths.
Defense attorney John O'Connor recently filed a motion for a speedy trial. The
vehicle theft case is currently set for a jury trial on Monday, Sept. 26. The
new charges could cause a delay in the trial.
Denham will be arraigned on the new charges Thursday, June 30.
Grayden Denham is being held in the Platte County Jail in lieu of posting a $4
million bond.
(source: The News-Press)
ARIZONA:
Group wants to appeal decision in lawsuit over death penalty
The First Amendment Coalition of Arizona has asked a judge to clear the way for
it to appeal a ruling last month that dismissed the group from a lawsuit
protesting the way the state carries out the death penalty.
The group had joined death-row inmates in the lawsuit and alleged the state
violated the coalition's First Amendment right of access to governmental
proceeding by deliberately concealing information about executions from the
public.
U.S. District Judge Neil Wake has dismissed the coalition from the case, but
allowed some claims brought by the inmates to continue.
The group is now asking Wake to issue a judgment so it can appeal the decision.
Otherwise, the group must wait until the case concludes.
Executions in Arizona remain on hold until the lawsuit is resolved.
(source: Associated Press)
************
Arizona must stop psychological torture of its death row inmates
So Arizona has eliminated the use of sleeping medications used in executions.
The state's supply expired on May 31.
Now let's be real - medical expiration dates? I have pain medicines in the
cabinet that expired 2 years ago and still get the job done.
Anyway.
The state has 2 other options, but can't seem to get their hands on any of the
supply, so all executions are on hold. Indefinitely.
Let me be clear: I am a huge fan of the death penalty. I believe it serves its
purpose.
There are people in this world that we choose to remove from society and a
handful of those are so bad that we don't even want them breathing the same air
that we enjoy. THAT'S what executions are for.
Now, let's get to the bottom of Arizona's execution pause: Cruel and unusual
punishment.
We can ditch the unusual part because we have been executing criminals since we
became a nation.
That leaves us with cruel. The hard fact is this, death hurts. It is not
designed to be comfortable.
I have no problem with there being a bit of pain while someone is executed. I'm
sure their victims didn't get the same respect.
But there is an element of cruel and unusual going on here in Arizona, and it
needs to end now!
I don't hold a lot of sympathy for death row inmates and I don't think that
executions are cruel and unusual. However, I do think that psychological
torture of an inmate is cruel and unusual.
Isn't this what we are looking at here?
Imagine you are on death row and scheduled for execution. The state tells you
that you won't be executed today because a legal fight, but it might be over
tomorrow. Then we'll kill you.
Nope, not over tomorrow. Maybe next week. Then we'll kill you.
Hey, the state might get rid of executions all together. But if not, we'll kill
you then for sure.
Oh, and by the way, about the sleeping medication we give you before we stop
your heart? It might not work.
Even I have a problem with this kind of nonsense! The state and its attorneys
better get this right and soon. There is no need to subject anyone to that kind
of torture.
(source: Mike Russell, KTAR news)
CALIFORNIA:
State Supreme Court upholds death penalty in double-murder
The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death-penalty sentenced for a
man who organized a fatal robbery in Fountain Valley and then convinced his
girlfriend to kill a witness to the crime.
An Orange County Superior Court jury convicted William Clinton Clark, 62, of 2
felony counts of murder in 1996.
He didn't kill anyone directly.
But prosecutors said Clark masterminded a 1991 computer-store robbery where
Kathy Lee was slain when she arrived at the Fountain Valley store to pick up
her son. Clark also was convicted of convincing his girlfriend to murder a
witness.
Ardell Love Williams, 19, was lured to a location with a promise of a job in
1994 and shot to death before she could testify against Clark. Clark's
girlfriend, Antoinette Yancey, was sentenced to life without parole for her
role in Williams' slaying.
(source: Orange County Register)
USA:
Feds want to know how Dylann Roof's defense team will argue against death
penalty
Federal prosecutors want Dylann Roof's defense team to disclose a list of
mitigating factors they will use in the sentencing phase of the trial to stave
off the death penalty for the 22-year-old Eastover man accused of killing 9
people in a downtown Charleston church.
Citing the federal cases against Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Gary Lee
Sampson, prosecutors said knowing how the defense will argue against a death
sentence will mean "a meaningful opportunity to exercise its statutory right to
rebut any information the defendant seeks to present."
Roof's attorney David Bruck argued during the Boston bomber trial that
Tsarnaev's acts did not warrant a death sentence because of his age, the
influence of his older brother, and an unstable home life stemming from his
father's disabilities, among other things.
It's possible Bruck will use many of the same mitigating factors while trying
to convince a jury that Roof does not deserve to be put to death.
Roof is a young, uneducated man from a rural area outside of Columbia who
aligned himself, according to a manifesto found online, with the Council of
Conservative Citizens, one of the longest running white supremacy groups in the
U.S. His parents are no longer together and he had fallen into a life of drug
abuse.
Prosecutors want the list of mitigating factors released to them by Oct. 1, a
little more than a month before the trial is slated to begin in downtown
Charleston.
In a separate filing, Roof's attorneys sought to outline how the sides will
handle a mental health evaluation. The filing comes after prosecutors and
defense attorneys could not settle on several issues, including when the
defense has to disclose its mental issues expert, type to testing done, and
whether attorneys can be present.
Roof faces nearly three dozen federal charges for the shooting at Emanuel AME
on June 17, 2015. He also faces 9 murder and 3 attempted murder charges for the
shooting in state court.
Prosecutors in both courts are seeking the death penalty.
Previous filings from Bruck have sought a local jury from the Charleston and
Beaufort regions, and a bench trial. The court rejected the motion for a bench
trial but the issue of a local jury has yet to be decided.
Upwards of 1,500 people will be called as potential jurors in the federal
trial.
Roof's federal trial is slated to start first, on Nov. 7, with final jury
selections. His state trial is slated to begin on Jan. 17.
(source: WCIV news)
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