January 15
TEXAS----stay of impending execution
Texas court stops 1st execution of 2019, citing changes in intellectual
disability law and bite-mark science----Blaine Milam was convicted in the 2008
East Texas death of his girlfriend's 13-month-old baby.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stopped the state’s 1st execution of
the year, calling for a lower court to take another look at the case following
changes in bite-mark science and laws regarding intellectual disability and the
death penalty.
Blaine Milam received a stay from the court on Monday, a day before his death
was scheduled. Milam, 29, was convicted in the brutal death of his girlfriend’s
13-month-old baby girl in 2008 in East Texas.
In a late appeal, Milam's lawyers argued against the state’s reliance on
bite-mark testimony, which was a key part of his trial. His lawyers also
claimed he was intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution.
In December 2008, Milam called 911 and police in Rusk County arrived to find
the body of Amora Carson, according to court opinions. The medical examiner
counted 24 human bite marks on the baby’s body and found evidence of blunt
force trauma and sexual assault.
At trial, the prosecution linked Milam to several of the bite marks. But his
attorneys now say that science has largely been discredited, pointing to the
Court of Criminal Appeals’ recent decision to overturn the murder conviction of
Steven Chaney. (In December, the court took the rare step of asserting Chaney's
innocence, saying his conviction was based on bite-mark science that “has since
been undermined or completely invalidated.” Chaney spent more than 25 years
behind bars.)
Rusk County prosecutors, meanwhile, argued to the court that the questions over
bite-mark science were settled at Milam’s trial in 2010. And they said the
state had enough other evidence that it wouldn’t have affected the jury's
decision at the time. They pointed to testimony that Milam told his sister from
jail to find a hidden pipe wrench believed to be used in Carson’s assault — and
his apparent confession to a jail nurse.
The trial court must also take another look at Milam’s claims of intellectual
disability, according to the court order. The issue was raised at Milam’s
trial, which prosecutors said put the issue to bed, but there has been
considerable change in how the state determines such disability since 2010.
In 2017, the U.S Supreme Court tossed out the method the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals had previously used to determine who is intellectually
disabled and, therefore, constitutionally ineligible to be executed. The Court
of Criminal Appeals later said it would change its test, which used outdated
medical standards and nonclinical factors created by its judges, including how
well the person could lie.
“Because of recent changes in the science pertaining to bite mark comparisons
and recent changes in the law pertaining to the issue of intellectual
disability ... we therefore stay his execution and remand these claims to the
trial court for a review of the merits of these claims,” the court said in its
order Monday.
The court will now consider Milam’s claims under current medical standards.
The stay was not only the court's first of 2019 but also its 1st without death
penalty critic Elsa Alcala, who left the bench at the end of 2018 and was
replaced by Judge Michelle Slaughter. Slaughter, along with Presiding Judge
Sharon Keller and Judge Kevin Yeary, dissented against the stay.
Despite the court's decision, Texas is still set to host the nation's 1st
execution of the year. Robert Jennings is scheduled to die on Jan. 30,
according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. 5 other executions are
scheduled in the state through May.
(source: Texas Tribune)
*******************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----40
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----558
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
41---------Jan. 30----------------Robert Jennings---------559
42---------Feb. 28----------------Billy Wayne Coble-------560
43---------Mar. 28----------------Patrick Murphy----------561
44---------Apr. 11----------------Mark Robertson----------562
45---------Apr. 24----------------John King---------------563
46---------May 2------------------Dexter Johnson----------564
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
OHIO:
Columbus death penalty case delayed again for man accused of killing girlfriend
and son
The trial for a Columbus man accused of killing his girlfriend and 6-month-old
son is delayed yet again.
Brandon Conner faced a Columbus Superior Court judge Monday morning after
delays that have added up for more than a year.
The latest delays come as money is an issue for the defendant in Columbus' only
death penalty case.
Officials say Conner can no longer pay his private attorney fees, after being
represented by defense attorneys Mark Shellnut and William Kendrick since 2014.
State appointed attorneys Emily Gilbert and Brad Gardner officially took over
the case.
Attorneys are requesting more time before the case is presented before a jury.
“It hurts but we are getting through it and you know, family comes together at
times like this really closely, and we realize the value of being there for one
another when you lose something so great. It was a big loss--- Mandy and her
baby,” said Chayla Branch. a friend of murder victim Rosella Mitchell.
News Leader 9 spoke with family and friends of the victims in 2014, shortly
after they were killed. Five yeasr later, closure and justice is still what
they are seeking.
Because of these delays, the court officials are projecting this trial may be
delayed until fall 2019 or even 2020.
A representative from the district attorney’s office says they are hoping to
move forward with this death penalty case in a timely fashion.
Conner currently remains in jail, facing charges of murder, aggravated battery,
arson and using a knife to commit a crime.
The judge is allowing a 60-day window for attorneys to prepare for the next
status hearing.
The next hearing is scheduled for March 22.
(source: WTVM news)
**********************
U.S. Supreme Court turns down appeal of Clayton man’s death sentence
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to consider an appeal of a Clayton man’s
death sentence.
This morning, the high court’s decision was filed in the Ohio Supreme Court in
the case of Austin Myers, 24, a Clayton man sentenced to death in Warren County
for murdering Justin Back, 18, of Warren County.
Ohio Public Defender Bethany O’Neill claimed that the high court’s ruling in
another death penalty case, Hurst v. Florida, “rendered Ohio’s death penalty
scheme unconstitutional,” in asking the nation’s high court to take up Myers’
case.
Myers was convicted in 2014 of murdering Back, a childhood friend. Back was
about to join the U.S. Navy.
Myers became the youngest person on Ohio’s death row at the time.
(source: Dayton Dail News)
INDIANA:
Indiana Death Row Inmate Suing To Block Executions----The lawsuit says
Indiana's death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
A death row inmate is suing the governor and state prison commissioner in an
attempt to block Indiana’s use of capital punishment.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of Roy Lee Ward says the death penalty violates
several portions of Indiana’s Constitution, including the right to life and the
prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Ward was sentenced to death in 2002 for rape and murder, but has no execution
date.
Attorney David Frank is representing Ward. He says the lawsuit doesn’t dispute
the severity of the crimes those on death row committed, but says the state
hasn’t made a case for why those specific inmates should face death.
"The practice and implementation by the state of Indiana of capital punishment
has become vindictive, illegitimate and arbitrary and capricious," Frank says.
The lawsuit also points to several neighboring states that have abolished their
death penalties. It says the Washington Supreme Court found that state's death
penalty unconstitutional for similar reasons.
The suit asks for both a preliminary and permanent injunction to stop Indiana
from carrying out any executions.
Ward previously sued the state for the way it went about selecting a new lethal
injection method.
Ward argued the Department of Correction skirted rule-making processes required
by state law when it adopted the new lethal injection cocktail.
Indiana’s Supreme Court ruled against Ward, allowing the state to use the new
drug.
In 2017 legislators included language in the state budget that allows Indiana
to keep the identity of vendors who provide lethal injection drugs
confidential.
Indiana hasn’t executed anyone for nearly a decade and has no scheduled
executions.
(source: WFYI news)
TENNESSEE:
Bill seeks to remove death penalty for murderers suffering from severe mental
illness
A new bill filed in the Tennessee General Assembly seeks to take the death
penalty off the table as punishment for a person who commits 1st degree murder
while suffering from a severe mental illness.
SB0031 has been filed by Senator Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville). The bill states
a defendant with a severe mental illness at the time of committing 1st degree
murder "must not be sentenced to death when the conditions of the severe mental
illness...significantly impaired the defendant's capacity to appreciate the
nature, consequences, or wrongfulness of their conduct."
Such severe mental illnesses include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder,
bipolar disorder with psychosis, major depressive disorder with psychosis, or
delusional disorder.
According to the bill, defendants will be able to raise the issue of possible
severe mental illness which will then have the court hold a hearing to
determine if the defendant did suffer from mental illness at the time of their
crime. It will be on the defense to prove the defendant did suffer from the
mental illness.
If the defendant is found by the court to not have a severe mental illness at
the time of their crime, the defendant would be able to appeal based on the
claim of severe mental illness if they are found guilty and after they are
sentenced.
If passed, the bill would go into effect July 1, 2019.
(source: Fox News)
OKLAHOMA:
Innocence Project’s Vanessa Potkin to address Julius Jones and wrongful
convictions at OK-CADP fundraiser
The 28th Annual Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP)
Awards Dinner & Meeting will feature Innocence Project’s Director of Post
Conviction Litigation, Vanessa Potkin as keynote speaker.
The event will be held Saturday, June 8 at the Capitol View Event Center, 5201
N. Lincoln Boulevard, in Oklahoma City. It will include a cocktail reception,
buffet dinner and awards program.
Vanessa is also an executive producer on the ABC documentary “The Last Defense”
through Lincoln Square Productions. With a career specializing in wrongful
convictions, the case of Julius Darius Jones, who has served over 19 years on
Oklahoma’s death row, was a story that Potkin felt should be spotlighted in the
seven part docu-series.
As a nationally recognized expert on wrongful convictions and the use of DNA to
establish innocence, she has represented and exonerated over 30 innocent
individuals. The group collectively served over 500 years of wrongful
imprisonment, five of whom were originally prosecuted for capital murder.
Co-founded in 1992 by attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, Potkin joined
New York City’s Innocence Project in 2000 as its 1st staff attorney.
In an article by Erica Commisso, of the Establishment, a multimedia site run
and funded by women, Scheck said the following about Potkin, “She embodies the
spirit of the Innocence Project. Exonerees all love her. She really catches
their vitality, and she’s got a terrific sense of humor and a fighting spirit.
She gets it.”
Regularly consulted by members of legal and legislative committees, media
outlets, and others, Vanessa has helped to pioneer the model of post-conviction
DNA litigation used nationwide to exonerate wrongfully convicted persons.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 164 people
exonerated from death row in the United States – 10 in Oklahoma.??In her work,
Potkin maintains a post-conviction docket, crafts litigation strategy, writes
motions, and litigates in trial and appellate courts nationwide. She works to
secure post-conviction DNA testing.
DNA test results and other exculpatory evidence can be used by attorneys such
as Potkin, in cases involving false confessions, erroneous eyewitness
identification, informant testimony, faulty forensics, prosecutorial misconduct
and ineffective assistance of counsel.
Many of the above factors were in play in Julius Jones’ trial in 2000,
according to Dale Baich, a member of Jones’ legal team.
“The Last Defense’ put a spotlight on Julius Jones’s case by telling a
compelling story about the injustices and racism at play in his case and
throughout the criminal justice system as a whole,” Baich told The City
Sentinel. “The prosecution’s case against Julius has always rested on a shaky
foundation, and the documentary further exposed that fact,” Baich added.
“Following a conviction, and as a case moves through the courts, procedural
technicalities often prevent judges from looking at new and compelling evidence
that a person’s constitutional rights have been violated.
“A documentary, unhindered by these technicalities, can educate members of the
public about a case, help them understand what happened, and allow them to
decide whether to hold their public officials accountable for what went wrong.”
Baich added.
“The Last Defense” is executive produced by Academy award winning actress Viola
Davis and her husband Julius Tennon for JuVee Productions, Christine Connor and
Lee Beckett for XCON Productions, along with Potkin and Aida Leisenring for
Lincoln Square Productions. The documentary aired on the ABC the Television
Network last summer.
In an interview with Newsday reporter Robert Brodsky, Potkin said, “Most people
feel that if you are on death row it’s because there was really strong evidence
of your guilt and the jury reached the right verdict. People are horrified to
see how you can be sentenced to death based on so little.”
Oklahoma has had a moratorium on the death penalty since October 2015 after the
wrong drug, (potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride – the drug
approved as a part of the state’s 3-drug protocol) was nearly used to execute
Richard Glossip.
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections later announced that the wrong drug had
also been used in the January 2015 execution of Charles Warner during which he
said, “My body is on fire.”
The Oklahoma DOC is currently working with the state Attorney General’s office
to develop a new death penalty protocol incorporating nitrogen hypoxia, which
has never been used before in the U.S. Until the new procedure is in place, all
executions will remain on hold.
“We are honored to have Vanessa Potkin share her experience at the Innocence
Project as well as tell how Julius Jones came to be selected as one of the 2
cases to be examined by ‘The Last Defense’ documentary,” said Rev. Don Heath,
OK-CADP chair. “She will tell a compelling story from her body of work
exonerating the wrongfully convicted.”
“The Last Defense” is available to view online.
During the dinner program, OK-CADP will give out three awards to those working
to abolish the death penalty in Oklahoma: the Opio Toure Courageous Advocate
Award, the Phil Wahl Abolitionist of the Year Award, and the Lifetime
Abolitionist Award.
Individual dinner tickets are $50, $15 for students, and sponsorships for
tables of 8 cost $400. To order tickets by mail, send checks, along with
guest’s names, to: OK-CADP, P.O. Box 713, Oklahoma City, OK 73101-0713.
Indicate “annual dinner” in the memo line.
To purchase tickets online, visit okcadp.org or call 405-532-5443.
(source: The City Sentinel)
NEVADA:
Death of inmate with delayed execution confirmed as suicide
The death of a twice-convicted murderer who declared that he wanted to die and
became frustrated when his lethal injection was postponed by legal challenges
has been confirmed as a suicide, authorities said Monday.
Scott Raymond Dozier, 48, died Jan. 4, said the office of the Clark County
coroner in Las Vegas that performed the autopsy.
Prison officials had reported that Dozier was found unresponsive in his solo
cell on death-row at Ely State Prison.
White Pine County Sheriff Scott Henriod had said there was no indication of
foul play.
Dozier said repeatedly he would rather be executed than live his life in
prison.
Critics said he sought state-assisted suicide.
His lawyers and state attorneys revealed in federal court filings in November
that Dozier tried several times in October to arrange ways to kill himself,
including apparent cuts on his neck and arms and an attempt to have poison sent
to him through prison mail.
The filings came in a case in which Dozier complained that he didn't like being
held under suicide watch or close-security administrative segregation.
Prison officials said he was not on suicide watch since before the court
filings in November.
Dozier suspended appeals of his 2007 death sentence stemming from his
conviction in the 2002 robbery-killing of 22-year-old Jeremiah Miller in Las
Vegas.
He also was convicted in Phoenix of 2nd-degree murder for killing 26-year-old
Jasen Green in 2002.
His execution would have been the 1st in Nevada since 2006.
It was called off in November 2017 and July 2018 during legal challenges — 1st
to a 3-drug combination that had never been used in the U.S. and then by drug
companies suing to block their products from being used in an execution.
Nevada wanted to use the sedative midazolam, the powerful opioid fentanyl and a
muscle-paralyzing agent called cisatracurium for Dozier's execution. Fentanyl
is a drug blamed for illegal-use, drug overdose deaths nationwide.
Federal public defenders who represented Dozier said the combination could have
rendered Dozier immobile but aware he was suffocating to death. They called it
less humane than putting down a pet.
The fight propelled Nevada to the top of a national debate about the death
penalty and showed extraordinary efforts some states take to try to obtain
drugs from pharmaceutical companies that insist they don't want their products
used for executions.
15 the 30 other states in the U.S. with capital punishment have backed Nevada
in a drug company case still pending before the state Supreme Court.
The states argue that harassment from advocacy groups and threats of boycotts
against pharmaceutical makers are keeping prison officials from enforcing the
will of voters in states with the death penalty.
Nevada now has 79 people on death row but none immediately in line for an
execution, state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Santina said.
(source: Associated Press)
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