Dec. 5
OHIO----impending execution
State rejects execution delay for man who raped, killed girl
The state has rejected a proposal to temporarily delay the January execution of
a man set to die for the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend's 3-year-old
daughter.
Assistant Ohio attorney general Thomas Madden ruled out the possibility of a
1-month reprieve for death row inmate Ronald Phillips in a Friday email made
public Monday.
The state and attorneys for Phillips discussed the possibility of a reprieve
while arguments are made over Ohio's new 3-drug lethal-injection method.
Phillips, who was found guilty by a jury, is scheduled to die Jan. 12. An
initial proposal would have postponed the execution until Feb. 15.
Madden's email said the proposal was rejected after Phillips' attorneys
proposed a delay until April.
Phillips' attorneys also went beyond the agreement by not limiting the issues
that a federal judge would consider during arguments over the new
lethal-injection method, Madden said.
"As we seem to be unable to reach an agreement, we consider the matter closed,"
according to Madden's email, included in a Monday court filing.
The attorney general's office declined to comment. Messages were left for
Phillips' attorneys.
Phillips is the 1st death row inmate scheduled for execution next year under a
new process for putting condemned prisoners to death.
The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction plans to execute Phillips and 2
other inmates with a three-drug combination that's similar to a method it used
several years ago.
Phillips, 43, was sentenced to death for the fatal attack on Sheila Marie
Evans. His attorneys have asked the Ohio Parole Board to recommend clemency,
with a decision coming Friday.
The case is tragic, but Phillips is not among the worst of the worst offenders,
his attorneys told the board.
Summit County prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh says Phillips refuses to accept
responsibility and it"s time for justice to be served
(source: The Tribune)
IOWA:
Reinstating Iowa's death penalty would be a mistake
Re: "Does Iowa Need the Death Penalty for Cop Killers?"
When you are young, you are taught "not to fight fire with fire" and "violence
is not the answer," so why is it that we cannot transfer this into our adult
lives? I completely understand and share the outrage following the tragic
murders of 2 Des Moines-area police officers, but by reinstating the death
penalty in response to such violence, we would be doing more harm than good.
A person who decides to kill a police officer is unlikely to change his mind
based on whether the punishment is a life sentence without parole or the death
penalty. I understand that we want to make people more afraid of the
punishments so they will not resort to shooting officers, but imposing capital
punishment will not act as an effective deterrent for a criminal to think twice
before committing murder. Our police officers deserve to feel safe, but their
safety will more likely be enhanced through improvements to mental health care
and reasonable gun laws.
By reinstating the death penalty, we would be signaling that violence is the
answer to our problems, which we know is not true. We would all be better off
if we were to focus on enforcing the laws we already have in place in Iowa.
Lauren McDowell, Des Moines
(source: Letter to the Editor, Des Moines Register)
OKLAHOMA:
Carter County DA to seek death penalty in Ardmore double homicide
The Carter County District Attorney's office spokespersons said they will seek
the death penalty for a man charged with a double homicide.
Craig Stanford is accused of shooting and killing Aaron Lavers and Athony
Rogers in their ardmore apartment back in May....then stealing an ipad.
District Attorney Craig Ladd says he filed for the court to pursue the death
penalty.
"The aggravating circumstances I have alleged against Mr. Stanford are
murdering someone to prevent a lawful arrest of prosecution of him," Ladd said.
"Another was that he would be a continuing threat to society. And another was
that he exposed more than one person to a risk of death."
Stanford will be due back in court Wednesday for his arraignment.
(source: KXII news)
NEBRASKA:
Nebraska Agency Defends Illegal Execution Drug Purchase As A "Unique
Process"----Last year, Nebraska spent more than $25,000 on illegal execution
drugs they never received from a man in India. The department of corrections
defended its conduct to auditors in a report released Monday.
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services defended the state's conduct
in paying $26,000 for illegal execution drugs it never received, arguing it was
a "unique process," in response to questions from a state auditor looking into
the sale.
A report by the auditor was requested by 2 state senators earlier this year,
and was released on Monday.
Many of the facts in the report were already brought to light by BuzzFeed News.
The report details how the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services came to
spend thousands of dollars on illegal execution drugs from a supplier in India,
in spite of a federal prohibition on importing the drug.
As BuzzFeed News has reported, a man in India named Chris Harris has made tens
of thousands of dollars from death penalty states desperate to find a source
for execution drugs. The supplier claims he can manufacture drugs, but it turns
out the facility he registered is just a small office space that he rents out.
Harris attempted to FedEx Nebraska the drugs, but they never made it out of
India, and he refuses to give the state a refund. Harris shipped drugs to 2
other death penalty states last year, but the federal government seized those
shipments as soon as they entered the United States.
The department of corrections' deputy director of administrative services,
Robin Spindler, defended the agency's conduct to the auditors.
"The protocol...does not require" approval of the sale from the state's
administrative agency, Spindler told auditors by email. She insisted that the
department of corrections "has specific authority" to "create its own process
for obtaining the necessary lethal substances, including obtaining them without
a prescription upon a written request from the NDCS Director."
Spindler added that "there are no competitive bidding requirements or
requirements for obtaining" execution drugs.
"Again, obtaining lethal injection drugs is a unique process, and the
legislature specifically authorized NDCS to come up with its own procedure;
therefore, the requirement of obtaining permission ... does not apply."
The auditors passed along information on the drug purchase to senators, but
made no determination on its legality or wisdom. The 2 state senators who
requested the audit did not immediately return a request for comment.
If the department of correctional services is successful, the agency will soon
have even more autonomy over how it purchases execution drugs. Under a proposal
released just last week, Director Scott Frakes called for the power to keep
secret the supplier of the state's execution drugs, and is asking for the
ability to change which drugs it will inject into death row inmates. Doing so
would make reporting on the supplier difficult, if not impossible.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska has already pledged to fight the
push for secrecy; a hearing in which the public will be allowed to testify is
scheduled for later this month.
(source: Chris McDaniel is a death penalty reporter for BuzzFeed News)
********************
Corrections tells auditor it didn't need to follow state rules to buy death
penalty drugs
State Corrections officials say they had authority to order lethal injection
drugs from a source in India without following usual state purchasing protocol,
according to a state auditor report issued Monday.
The department paid about $54,400 for the drugs, but never received them
because they were not approved for import by federal agencies. And there was no
agreement by the provider, Harris Pharma, to refund an up-front payment if the
drugs were not delivered, the report said.
Later, when Corrections Director Scott Frakes asked for a refund on 1,000 vials
of sodium thiopental, Chris Harris responded that that was not possible.
Nebraska's failure to receive the drug was no fault of his company, he said.
There was no request for a refund on pancuronium bromide ordered from Harris at
the same time even though state Corrections officials said the drug also was
never received by the department.
State Auditor Charlie Janssen released the report Monday on the lethal
injection drugs purchase gone awry, substantiating what Corrections Department
documents had previously revealed. The drugs are used as part of the state's
death penalty protocol.
In July, Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers asked for more information on the attempted
drug purchase. In October, Omaha Sen. Burke Harr put in a second request for
the state auditor's office to investigate the attempt by the Department of
Correctional Services to acquire lethal injection drugs from a foreign broker.
Harr said he made the inquiry to find out why the state didn't receive the
drugs, and then why it didn't get back taxpayers' money.
When he asked for the report, Harr said he wanted to know why the state wasn't
suing to get its money back. "Is it normal for the state to just walk away when
the other side breaches a contract?"
Janssen said answers to those types of questions would have to come from the
attorney general's office.
Janssen said the report wasn't an audit, but rather an attempt to get the
information regarding the drug purchase in chronological order.
Chambers said the Corrections Department didn't answer all the questions about
the purchase to his satisfaction. On some things, Corrections officials quoted
state law that they said gave them authority to ignore other laws.
When asked if the department got approval from the Department of Administrative
Services for the drug purchases, since the dollar amount was over the
unrestricted open market purchase authority, Corrections said approval was not
required.
By state law, the department has authority to create its own process for
obtaining the necessary lethal injection drugs, including without a
prescription, upon a written request from the Corrections director, department
officials told state auditors.
"This was enacted separately from the statutes regarding the material division
of Administrative Services, with the recognition that the obtaining of lethal
injection drugs was unique," said Robin Spinkler, deputy director of
administrative services for the Corrections Department.
The execution protocol includes no competitive bidding requirements or
requirements for obtaining approval under the specific statute, Spindler said.
"NDCS has previously worked with Chris Harris to obtain these drugs," she said.
"NDCS was not aware of any other vendors providing sodium thiopental and
pancuronium bromide."
When asked if anyone at the department discussed the prepayment process with
the state accounting department at the Department of Administrative Services,
the answer was no.
"The purchase of these drugs did not fall under the prepayment provisions of
the DAS accounting manual," she said.
The manual says prepayments are not illegal, per se, but are in conflict with
the normal claims process since the state has given up assets in anticipation
of goods or services to be provided at a later date. The potential loss to the
state is greater with prepayments, and extreme care should be taken and such
payments minimized, it says.
Harr said anyone entering a contract or agreement should always contemplate
what would happen if what is contracted for isn't delivered.
The drugs in question were part of an execution protocol the department is
seeking to replace with a more secret process.
"We're not going to know if we learned from our mistake because if these regs
go through, we'll never know if we spent this money or not," Harr said. "That's
one of the concerns I have.
"These are government dollars. We want transparency. Thank goodness we found
out about this."
He is hopeful, he said, that Gov. Pete Ricketts will say the state learned its
lesson from the misspent $54,400 and in the future will take heed.
Chambers said he would talk to Sen. Bob Krist, chairman of the Executive Board,
about having the Legislature's fiscal office go over the report and offer some
conclusions on what it said.
(source: Lincoln Journal Star)
NEVADA:
Las Vegas girl killed over $450 dispute, prosecutors suggest in death penalty
trial
15-year-old Alexus Postorino was shot and killed because of a dispute over
$450, prosecutors suggested Monday through testimony in the death penalty trial
of Norman Belcher.
In the days before Alexus was killed, Norman Belcher sent threatening text
messages to the girl's father.
Belcher thought William Postorino owed him the money for forged drug
prescriptions.
"If we refund my slips, the total is $1,450, and I owe you $1,000, so my $450
is being overlooked and now have justifiable reason to get what is owed to me,"
Belcher typed in a text message to Postorino. "And I'm actually hoping that you
don't pay me, because I then feel like I'm following protocol ... So $450 or
war. An element of surprise."
Authorities have said Belcher arrived at the Postorinos' southwest valley home
in the early morning of Dec. 6, 2010, intending to commit a burglary and leave
no living witnesses.
Belcher and Postorino had been friends since 5th grade, but had a falling out
before the killing.
Just 5 days before Alexus' death, someone broke into Postorino's home, while
the girl was alone and asleep. The burglar stole cash, marijuana, Xanax and a
PlayStation.
Postorino suspected Belcher, and told him, "Until I find out any different, I'm
done with you."
Defense attorney Robert Draskovich began to imply that Postorino's involvement
in illicit drugs meant that anyone could have been out to rob him.
Postorino admitted that he had been arrested in February 2010, carrying
marijuana, methamphetamines and a gun, while his then-14-year-old daughter was
in the car.
He was at a casino when Alexus was killed. The girl had 4 gunshot wounds,
including 2 to the chest.
A few months beforehand, Belcher had left prison, where he had been sent for a
voluntary manslaughter conviction in a 2003 homicide case.
Investigators linked Belcher to a white 2009 Nissan Versa that a neighbor had
seen a man loading up before speeding off.
Belcher is accused of stealing a 60-inch television, a laptop computer and a
metal safe containing money before leaving the home in the 9700 block of Villa
Lorena Avenue, near Tropicana Avenue and Grand Canyon Drive.
The Nissan, which Belcher had rented, was found burning in a parking lot near
Craig Road and Lamb Boulevard, not far from the defendant's apartment.
A patrol officer had stopped Belcher in the Nissan near the scene of the
shooting and had given him a traffic citation about half an hour after the home
invasion.
The car keys also were found in his possession.
Belcher faces 7 felony charges, including 1 count of murder with a deadly
weapon and 2 counts of armed robbery.
Defense attorney Gary Modafferi told jurors in opening statements last week
that detectives did not pursue leads they could have, including a volatile
boyfriend of Ashley Riley, who was at the residence and was friends with the
men who lived there.
On Monday, Draskovich suggested that Postorino initially had questions about
who killed his daughter.
"Metro has convinced you that they think (Belcher) is guilty of this murder,"
the attorney said while cross-examining Postorino.
"No," Postorino said.
The attorney pressed on: "You've been shown no evidence, correct?"
"That's why we're here," Postorino said.
"You learned about the burnt car, correct?"
"Yes."
"And that was the change," Draskovich said. "Once you heard about him burning a
car, then he must be the murderer, correct?"
"No," Postorino said, and testimony wrapped for the day. He is scheduled to
continue testifying on Tuesday afternoon.
(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)
US MILITARY:
Appeal by former Fort Bragg soldier who murdered mother and 2 daughters was
rejected in military court
An Army appeals court's November decision to uphold the death sentence of
Timothy Hennis, a former Fort Bragg soldier, is raising questions over the
death penalty in military court.
The decision came after Hennis appealed the death penalty sentence he was
handed in his 2010 court martial.
Hennis was charged in 1986 with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder and 1 count of
rape after raping and killing Kathryn Eastburn and 2 of her 3 daughters. Hennis
was an Army Sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg at the time.
Hennis' lawyers appealed the case and the state supreme court granted Hennis a
new trial in 1988. He was later acquitted in 1989. He re-enlisted in the Army
and eventually retired in the early 2000s.
After retiring, Hennis was called back into service and sent to Fort Bragg in
2006 for prosecution. Shortly after reporting for duty, the military charged
Hennis with triple murder again, this time in military court. Hennis was found
guilty once again and sentenced to death a 2nd time in 2010, which his defense
said is double jeopardy.
Frank Baumgartner, a professor of political science at UNC, said the death
penalty is rarely carried out.
"The federal government has only executed 3 people since 1976 and the military
hasn't executed anybody," Baumgartner said.
The last time the military executed someone was 1961 before it was banned in
1983 then reinstated in 1984. Today, there are currently 6 men on military
death row, including Hennis.
"It's unlikely that the military would actually carry it out," Baumgartner
said. "It's very paradoxical, it's very strange."
He said Hennis will likely end up living out a life-sentence in solitary
confinement in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Eugene Fidell, a senior research scholar in Law at Yale Law School, said Hennis
won't necessarily escape his sentence.
"He is definitely in a world of trouble and I think he stands quite a good
chance of being executed," he said.
Fidell said one of the reasons the military has not executed anyone in so long
is because every military execution needs personal approval from the president.
"Typically, military cases tend to be left on the president's desk when an old
one leaves office and a new one comes in," Fidell said. "They figure it'll be
somebody else's headache."
Baumgartner said regardless of whether someone agrees or disagrees with
military executions, the current system has negative effects on both inmates
and the victims' families.
"There is a really strange phenomena in the death penalty of kind of a
falseness of a promise of death and that falseness falls both on the inmate and
their loved ones, but also on the surviving family members of the victim of the
crime," Baumgartner said. "It's really, you know, a deeply dysfunctional
system, whether you're in favor or against it."
(source: dailytarheel.com)
*****************
Defendant in recovery doesn't halt 9/11 case at Guantanamo
A U.S. military judge turned down a request Monday to halt the latest round of
Sept. 11 war crimes proceedings at Guantanamo Bay while one of five defendants
recovers from a surgical procedure.
Army Col. James Pohl said defendant Mustafa al-Hawsawi may be excused from
pretrial hearings in the case this week at the U.S. base in Cuba but that his
apparently painful recovery is not an adequate justification to postpone the
proceedings scheduled to run through Friday.
The prison doctor who oversees medical care in Camp 7, the maximum-security
unit where al-Hawsawi is held with 4 other alleged members of the Sept. 11
conspiracy, testified that the Saudi underwent hemorrhoid surgery at the base
Oct. 14 and has taken pain medication sporadically during his recovery.
Defense attorney Walter Ruiz said that al-Hawsawi cannot sit for prolonged
periods in court because of what has at times been "excruciating pain" and that
he has experienced side effects from medication that include dizziness and
nausea.
The lawyer and others have long raised concerns about the health of the
48-year-old defendant. He had an undisclosed medical emergency while in CIA
custody in 2003-2006 and was subjected to rectal exams with "excessive force,"
according to the Senate Intelligence Committee report on its investigation into
the U.S. clandestine interrogation program. Ruiz said that treatment was
connected to his most recent surgery.
"This is not some show that we are trying to put on to delay these
proceedings," he said. "Mr. al-Hawsawi needs additional time to recover."
Prosecutors urged the judge not to postpone a case that has been subjected to
repeated delays. The five defendants were arraigned in May 2015 on charges that
include terrorism, hijacking and nearly 3,000 counts of murder for their
alleged roles planning and support the Sept. 11, 2001, attack. They could get
the death penalty if convicted. A trial date has not been scheduled.
(source: militarytimes.com)
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