May 18
TEXAS:
Why is Bobby Moore still on death row?
On March 28, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals (CCA) violated the U.S. Constitution in rejecting Bobby
Moore's claim that he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the
death penalty. In the wake of that Supreme Court decision, the prosecutors in
the case appropriately agreed that Moore is intellectually disabled and may not
receive the death penalty.
Yet today, more than a year later, Bobby Moore remains under a death sentence
and is still on death row - which means that, under Texas law, he is
automatically kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. This is
unconscionable. The CCA should immediately change Bobby Moore's death sentence
to life in prison so that he may be moved off of death row, as law and justice
require.
Moore has been on death row since 1980, when he was involved in a bungled
robbery of a grocery store in Houston and was convicted of killing a store
clerk during the crime.
In Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution
prohibits imposing the death penalty on any person who is intellectually
disabled.
In 2014, a Harris County trial court determined that Moore is intellectually
disabled. After considering current medical standards and evidence from a 2-day
hearing, the court detailed its findings in a 186-paragraph opinion. But,
unfortunately, the CCA, rejecting current medical standards, concluded that
Moore is not intellectually disabled and that his death sentence must remain in
place.
The Supreme Court emphatically rejected that ruling. The high court held that
Texas courts, like all courts in the country, must use current medical
standards to evaluate intellectual disability claims in capital cases. In a
decision that left no doubt about Moore's intellectual disability, the court
explained that Moore's very low IQ score was well within the clinically
established range for intellectual disability. The Supreme Court also
emphasized the "considerable objective evidence" of Moore's adaptive problems,
another characteristic of intellectual disability. For example, at age 13,
Moore did not even understand the days of the week, the months of the year, the
seasons, or how to tell time.
The Supreme Court returned the case to the CCA with instructions to follow its
decision. It is deeply troubling that, 1 year after that decision, and 5 months
after the completion of all legal briefings in the CCA, Bobby Moore remains on
death row. The CCA now should act immediately to remove Moore's death sentence.
It should do so for at least 3 reasons. First, in light of the Supreme Court's
ruling, there is nothing left to be decided. The CCA is bound to follow the
federal decision that compels the conclusion that Bobby Moore is intellectually
disabled. Removing Moore's death sentence is the proper and just result - and
the only result consistent with the Constitution.
2nd, there is no longer any disagreement between the prosecutors and the
defense about the appropriate course of action. Last November, the prosecutors
told the CCA that Moore "is intellectually disabled, cannot be executed, and is
entitled to Atkins relief." In other words, he is entitled to have his death
penalty struck down. In doing so, the prosecutors agreed with a broad range of
medical and intellectual disability associations, faith leaders and religious
organizations, prominent Texans from across the opinion spectrum (including
conservatives and death-penalty supporters), leading lawyers and many others
who have implored the CCA to remove Bobby Moore's death sentence.
3rd, and perhaps most important in terms of the current inexcusable delay: As a
death row prisoner, Bobby Moore is automatically kept in solitary confinement
approximately 23 hours a day, every day. For people with intellectual
disabilities like his, solitary confinement is especially cruel and
intolerable. Every day he remains in solitary confinement, Moore's intellectual
disability means that being on death row - and isolated from other people - is
continuing torture and a living hell.
More than a year after the Supreme Court made clear that he should not be on
death row due to his intellectual disability, Bobby Moore remains marooned on
death row, waiting for the CCA to act. That is unjust and unacceptable. If the
CCA needs more time to fashion a new standard for evaluating intellectual
disability claims in Texas, it should at least issue an interim order striking
down Moore's death penalty immediately and allowing him to be moved off of
death row and out of solitary confinement. Such an order would give effect to
the Supreme Court's decision, remove the specter of an unconstitutional death
sentence and allow Moore to return to the general prison population. The time
has come for the CCA to do justice in Bobby Moore's case. More than a year
since the Supreme Court's decision in his favor, it is long past time for him
to be moved off of death row and out of solitary confinement.
(source: tribtalk.org)
*******************
Will Texas have to push back the expiration date on its lethal injection drugs?
Texas currently has 8 executions scheduled through October, but records
obtained on Monday showed that most of the drugs the state had in stock were
set expire in July.
When Texas officials put 1 man to death and announced the upcoming executions
of 2 more men Wednesday, a prison spokesman said the department was in
possession of enough lethal injection drugs to carry out the remaining 8
executions scheduled through October.
But records obtained by The Texas Tribune on Monday indicated that the state's
supply of drugs was insufficient. Unless the state were to push back the
expiration dates of its current supply or track down more of the hard-to-find
drugs, at least 3 of the condemned men would be set to die after available
drugs expire.
The spokesman, Jeremy Desel, refused to say on Thursday if "beyond-use dates,"
similar to expiration dates, were changed on the current supply or if new drugs
were purchased, telling a Tribune reporter that a new records request would
need to be filed for any updated information. But he repeatedly said that the
department was "confident that we are adequately prepared for all scheduled
executions."
According to records provided to the Tribune on Monday, the department had 10
doses of pentobarbital, the single drug used in Texas executions. 8 of those
doses had a beyond-use date of July 20, and the other 2 were labeled for use
until Nov. 9.
At least 1 of those was used in Juan Castillo's execution Wednesday, meaning
there are likely now 9 doses available. Recent executions have used the drugs
set to expire in November, but the department did not immediately say Thursday
morning which batch of drugs was used in Castillo's execution.
Regardless, only 3 of the 8 upcoming executions are scheduled before July 20.
Even if the state switched tactics from recent executions and used the batch
with a use date of July on Castillo, the November drugs would only cover two of
the five executions set in September and October.
A look at the current supply of Texas' execution drugs prior to Juan Castillo's
execution on Wednesday. At least one dose was used in Castillo's execution, but
it is unknown from which batch the drugs came.
Across the country, death penalty states have struggled to get enough drugs to
carry out executions. In 2011, large manufacturers began blocking their drugs
from being used in lethal injections, and several states have since switched to
using a controversial drug, midazolam, which has been involved in botched
executions in Oklahoma and Arizona.
When Texas struggled to find execution drugs years ago, it turned to
compounding pharmacies, which are state-regulated agencies that mix their own
drugs without federal regulation. Since 2013, it has only used pentobarbital
created in these types of pharmacies in its executions.
But that supply might be running dry as well. Recent records obtained by the
Tribune showed the state hadn't received a new batch of drugs since February
2017, and the state recently battled with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
over its attempted import of another execution drug, sodium thiopental, from
India.
The current beyond-use dates, however, don't necessarily mean the state won't
carry out the executions. Both batches of pentobarbital the state has now have
seemingly had their beyond-use date extended in the past.
According to TDCJ records received by the Tribune last year, drugs set to
expire in July 2017 were removed from stock, and, on the same day, the same
number of vials were added back to the inventory with an expiration date set
for exactly one year in the future. Those are now set to be used before this
July. And an equal number of drugs said to expire in January were later
reported with the current beyond-use date of November, with no recorded
purchase of additional drugs. The expiration dates were apparently changed
after the department retested the drugs' potency levels, records show.
The apparent extension of expiration dates produced outcry from some defense
attorneys, one of whom said in a recent death penalty appeal that recent Texas
executions were botched because of the old drugs, causing pain and making the
punishment cruel and unusual.
"The thinking is they're only getting older; it's only going to get worse,"
Maurie Levin told the Tribune earlier this year. Levin is involved in multiple
lawsuits against the state regarding execution drugs.
Multiple men in Texas executions this year have mentioned a burning sensation
when on the gurney in the death chamber, according to reporters witnessing the
execution. The Houston Chronicle reported in January that Houston serial killer
Anthony Shore said, "It does burn." In Castillo's execution Wednesday, he
reportedly said, "Shit does burn." Another man, William Rayford, reportedly
jerked on the gurney, according to witnesses.
A previous spokesman for the department denied that Shore or Rayford's
executions were botched, saying the men quickly lost consciousness and were
both pronounced dead 13 minutes after lethal drugs were injected. Castillo's
execution took 23 minutes.
(source: Texas Tribune)
*****************
Texas prisons taking heat over aging execution drugs experts say could cause
'torturous' deaths
Concerns about Texas' dwindling lethal injection supplies coupled with
questions about the age of the drugs have some advocates wondering whether the
state is prepared to humanely carry out its recent uptick in scheduled
executions.
Texas currently has 8 death dates and 9 doses of its execution drug -
compounded sodium pentobarbital - for use in the Huntsville death chamber.
What's more, a string of contradictory records from the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice raises questions about whether some of those doses could be 3
years old, far older than previously reported and old enough that experts worry
it could increase the chances of a "torturous" execution.
"The older the drug the greater the likelihood of a botched execution. Period,"
said Maurie Levin, a death penalty lawyer with experience in lethal injection
litigation. "It becomes contaminated, corrupted, impotent, and all of those
things can lead to a torturous execution."
In response to a public information request by the Houston Chronicle late last
year, the state said that some of its current supplies were obtained in 2015 -
even though supply logs appeared to show those drugs were no longer on hand.
Officials declined to explain the discrepancy.
"Clearly, the reason they are not being forthcoming is because there is
something they don't want the public to know," said Robert Dunham, executive
director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that has been
critical of the administration of the death penalty.
"That's bad policy and a bad practice," he added.
****
Earlier this year, hours before the execution of death row inmate John
Battaglia of Dallas, Levin and a team of attorneys filed an unsuccessful
lawsuit accusing the state of botching 2 executions in January by using too-old
drugs.
In that claim - which a court shot down - attorneys reviewed TDCJ records and
concluded that the department had been testing drugs just prior to their
scheduled expiration to justify extending the shelf life.
Typically, the state's drugs have beyond-use dates at least a year in the
future, but experts have repeatedly voiced suspicions about what the TDCJ does
with those supplies when they're set to expire.
For instance, in July 2017, on the same day a batch of drugs was set to expire,
the state sent eight doses back to the supplier and got 8 doses back the same
day, listed in a log simply as "return from supplier." The state has previously
declined to explain what, specifically, that designation indicates.
"An educated guess is that they're using the same drugs that they previously
stated already expired," Levin told the Chronicle. "But because they insist on
keeping this information secret, we don't know what they're doing."
Levin and other experts are concerned that TDCJ might simply extend the
shelf-life of its current supplies as they near their expiration dates in July
and November.
The questions about the age of supplies come as several states have reported
difficulties in obtaining drugs for lethal injections because of reluctance by
manufacturers to provide them for that use.
Megan McCracken, a capital litigator with the Lethal Injection Project at the
University of California-Berkeley School of Law, voiced concerns after
reviewing the state records.
"The logs and DEA forms appear to contradict each other and to obscure
information about the state's execution drug supply," she said, condemning the
"lack of transparency."
***
For attorneys and death penalty watchdogs, the possibility of using 3-year-old
drugs is troubling.
The state's supplies of the deadly barbiturate are kept in 2.5-gram vials and
in 5-gram vials, both of which are tracked on separate logs. The had-written
5-gram log and a Drug Enforcement Administration tracking form both show the
prison system got 11 vials of drugs on Dec. 16, 2015.
But then in July 2016, all of the 5-gram supplies were "returned to the
supplier," the logs show.
For 7 months, the department had no 5-gram drugs, but in February 2017 another
11 vials came in marked "new supplies," according to the logs.
So, on the one hand, records seem to show that the oldest 5-gram supplies date
back to early 2017. But yet, other records indicate that the oldest 5-gram
supplies date back to late 2015.
"The received dates are 12/16/2015 and 02/02/2017," the department wrote in an
email, responding to a question about when the current supplies were received.
And last month, after a request for tracking forms corresponding "only" to
drugs currently in supply, prison officials provided DEA forms dating back to
December 2015, again suggesting the state still had those 3-year-old drugs on
hand.
"It's like Scrooge and his ledger," said Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor
of anesthesiology at Emory University School of Medicine who has testified as
an expert in lethal injection litigation. "Maybe a lemonade stand would have a
similar level of accountability."
(source: Houston Chronicle)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Group Delivers Anti-Death Penalty Petition Signatures to Gov
Organizers of an anti-death penalty coalition say they have delivered over
56,000 petition signatures to New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu,
urging him to sign a bill to repeal the state's capital punishment law.
Sununu has vowed to veto the bill, saying he stands with crime victims and
members of the law enforcement community.
Before presenting the signatures, the New Hampshire Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty held a news conference Thursday where family members of murder
victims spoke in favor of repealing the death penalty.
The bill was passed by the House and Senate. It is unclear whether they have a
2/3 majority of votes in both chambers, which is needed to override vetoes.
(source: The Associated Press)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Eric Frein's Lawyers Arguing for a New Trial
Lawyers for Eric Frein, the man who ambushed state troopers and was on the run
for weeks in the Poconos, argued Thursday that he deserves a new trial.
Frein was given the death penalty for shooting and killing 1 trooper and badly
wounding another in 2014.
Frein was not in court on Thursday.
His lawyers argued he wasn't allowed to speak with a lawyer and his videotaped
confession should have been thrown out.
Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin argues it was Frein who made the
choice to keep talking.
"The interrogation interview, when that stops is up to the defendant. He could
have said 'I do not walk to talk anymore,' it was the defendant himself that
brought back up the death of Corporal Brian Dickson," said Tonkin.
Jurors in Pike County convicted Frein last year for the killing of Corporal
Dickson and wounding of Trooper Alex Douglass.
There's no word when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will make its ruling on
Eric Frein's Appeal.
(source: WNEP news)
FLORIDA:
Death row inmate who set woman on fire claims her attorneys were ineffective
Death row inmate Tina Brown - who was convicted in 2012 for tasing, beating and
setting a woman on fire - is again in Escambia County court as she argues for a
new trial.
The jury in Brown's case unanimously recommended that she be sentenced to death
for the murder of Audreanna Zimmerman in 2010.
Brown, 47, was the only defendant sentenced to death. Her daughter, Britnee
Miller, who was 16 at the time, is serving a life sentence for murder, and a
3rd woman, Heather Lee, 35, is serving a 25-year sentence for 2nd-degree
murder.
Much of Brown's arguments, which are in a lengthy series of court filings,
argue that Lee had more culpability in the crime and that several of the jurors
should have been excused from the case.
Her argument comes down to claiming she had an ineffective counsel. The
argument is a common appeal in death penalty cases, according to State Attorney
Bill Eddins.
Brown, Lee and Miller attacked Zimmerman in Brown's Ensley home, where they
beat and stunned her with a Taser. They then put her in the trunk of a car,
drove her to a wooded area, doused her in gasoline and set her on fire.
Zimmerman was able to run to a nearby home to call 911. She was transported to
a burns unit in Mobile, Alabama, with burns on 60 percent of her body and died
2 weeks later.
Prosecutors originally also sought the death penalty for Lee, but reduced the
charge after Lee agreed to testify against Brown.
Now, Brown claims if her trial counsel - John Jay Gontarek and Sharon K. Wilson
- had investigated her case more thoroughly, her sentence could have been
different.
Brown, who is represented by the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel in her
appeal, also claims several jurors made comments during jury selection that
they either supported the death penalty or would not take into account Brown's
history and life experiences in sentencing.
She further claims 1 juror said a close family member suffered severe burns,
which Brown's appeal says should have automatically eliminated that person from
the pool.
Nearly a dozen witnesses testified during Brown's week-long evidentiary hearing
before Judge Gary Bergosh, who also presided over the murder trial.
The hearing is scheduled to continue through next week, and then Bergosh will
decided whether Brown's arguments are valid and her sentence should be vacated
and a new trial should be scheduled.
Brown also claims Lee has made comments while incarcerated, bragging about her
role in the murder, and that other witnesses could have been called during the
initial trial to explain Lee, rather than Brown, had a more tense relationship
with the victim..
Brown also references inconsistencies in testimony and depositions she thought
should have been explored on the stand. She claims her attorneys didn't
adequately investigate the mitigating factors that could have helped in the
penalty phase of the trial.
Brown's appeal to the Florida Supreme Court to vacate her sentence and order a
new trial was denied in 2014 after the justices unanimously upheld her
conviction.
Brown's hearing is scheduled to continue Friday and possibly through Monday.
(source: Pensacola News Journal)
OHIO:
The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the death penalty for Austin Myers, 23, of
Clayton, for the murder of Justin Back, 18, in January 2014.----Execution date
set for 23-year-old Clayton man in Warren County case
A former Northmont High School student is to be executed on July 20, 2022 for
the murder of a Warren County man.
The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the death penalty for Austin Myers, 23, of
Clayton, in the death of Justin Back, 18, in January 2014, according to a
decision published today.
Myers was sentenced to death for Back's murder during a robbery at Back's home
outside Waynesville. The sentence came although another Clayton man, Timothy
Mosley - like Myers, 19 years old at the time - actually stabbed Back to death.
Back was 18 at the time, a 2013 Waynesville High School graduate about to enter
the U.S. Navy.
(source: Dayton Daily News)
*********************
Pair could face death penalty in Lorain woman's homicide
2 Lorain County men face the death penalty after being indicted on capital
murder charges in connection to the killing of a 67-year-old Lorain woman.
Lorenzo Garcia, 31, of Elyria, and Antonio Martinez, 24, of Lorain, face
38-count and 36-count indictments, respectively, for the alleged aggravated
murder of Linda Wisniewski, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed
Thursday.
Garcia was indicted on 8 counts of aggravated murder, 5 counts of murder, 2
counts of aggravated burglary, 4 counts of aggravated robbery, 1 count of
attempted murder, 6 counts of kidnapping, 4 counts of felonious assault, 2
counts of theft, 4 counts tampering with evidence, 1 count grand theft of a
motor vehicle and a count of having weapons under disability.
Most of the counts for Garcia also include a firearms specification. All 8
counts of aggravated murder also contain 6 specifications because law
enforcement believes the murder of Wisniewski took place during a home invasion
in which Garcia and Martinez planned on committing murder and Garcia was the
principal offender.
Martinez also faces 8 counts of aggravated murder, 5 counts of murder, 2 counts
of aggravated burglary, 5 counts of aggravated robbery, 6 counts of kidnapping,
4 counts of felonious assault, a count of attempted murder, 2 counts of theft,
2 counts of tampering with evidence, 1 count having weapons under disability
and grand theft of a motor vehicle.
Most of the counts in Martinez's indictment also contain a firearms
specification and the 8 counts of aggravated murder have 6 specifications
similar to those contained in Garcia's indictment.
The 2 men are the only suspects police have identified in the death of
Wisniewski.
Police have said that around 10 p.m. March 27, officers responded to a
"burglary in progress" call at 3625 Amherst Ave. in Lorain. Upon arrival,
officer found Wisniewski dead.
Kenneth "Chip" Williams, 28, who relatives described as a close family friend
of Wisniewski, was found with serious injuries and was taken to MetroHealth
Medical Center in Cleveland.
Police arrested Garcia and Martinez later that week in connection with the
incident, charging them with aggravated murder.
Both men were being held on $1 million cash and $1 million personal bond, but
according to court documents both are now being held without bond in Lorain
County Jail.
(source: chroniclet.com)
ILLINOIS:
Madigan: House Will Give Rauner Death Penalty Full Hearing
Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposal to reinstate the death penalty for certain violent
crimes and other changes he made to gun legislation will get a House hearing.
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan announced Thursday that lawmakers will
have a public hearing on the Republican governor's proposal Monday.
Rauner made an amendatory veto on Monday to legislation to require a 72-hour
waiting period for delivery of an assault-style rifle. He rewrote it to make
all firearms subject to the 72-hour wait and add other anti-gun violence
measures including reintroducing capital punishment for killing police officers
or multiple people.
Madigan says those issues "deserve a full hearing and consideration before the
House." He said he added the governor's language to another bill to be
discussed Monday.
The bills are HB1468 and SB2580.
(source: Associated Press)
ARKANSAS:
Arkansas court rejects condemned man's bad lawyers claim
A death row prisoner convicted of killing a man during a robbery that netted
him $20 and a gun received adequate assistance from his initial set of lawyers
and has no right to a new sentencing hearing, the Arkansas Supreme Court said
Thursday.
Brandon Lacy's new lawyers had said that since their client suffers from
alcohol-fueled amnesia and other substance abuse issues, his trial attorneys
should have done more to test his mental health and present the results to
jurors with the hope of a lighter sentence. The state's highest court said in a
6-1 decision it wouldn't second-guess decisions made by the trial lawyers as
they set their strategy and noted that the attorneys had made "strenuous
efforts" to secure a life sentence for their client.
"Far from ignoring the issue of neuropsychological testing, counsel explored it
and was told by an independent expert that it was not needed," Justice Robin
Wynne wrote for the court.
Randy Walker died in 2007. Prosecutors said Lacy hit Walker twice in the head
with a fireplace poker, stabbed him, slit his throat and set his trailer on
fire. A co-defendant is serving life without parole.
Justice Josephine Linker Hart, in a dissent, said Lacy's legal team failed to
meet American Bar Association guidelines.
"Lacy was a long-time daily blackout drinker who began consuming alcohol
regularly at the age of ten," Hart wrote. She said Lacy moved on to other
substances by age 15 and that his lawyer adopted an attitude of "No one is
going to give (Lacy) the death penalty."
Arkansas last year executed 4 men in 8 days after initially planning to put 8
men to death in 11 days. It does not have a complete set of execution drugs on
hand.
(source: Associated Press)
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