July 30
TEXAS:
DA's Office Seeking Death Penalty Against Alleged North Side Murderer
The man who is charged with shooting and burning 2 men in Northern San Angelo
may get the death penalty.
In the early morning of March 20 police responded to 4800 block of North
Chadbourne where they found the burned body's of Jared Lohse and Jack "Chubby"
Harris Jr.
Preliminary autopsy reports for Lohse and Harris determined the manner of death
was homicide resulting from gunshots wounds. Chadwick, who was developed as a
suspect early on in the investigation, was already in custody at the Tom Green
County Jail on unrelated charges when the murder complaints were signed.
He has been in the Tom Green County Jail since the murder.
He is charged with murder of multiple people. On July 26 District Attorney
Allison Palmer made a notice of intent to seek the death penalty toward
Chadwick.
His initial pretrial is scheduled for August 7.
(source: sanangelolive.com)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Former Pennsylvania Prison Superintendent Describes Toll of Working on Death
Row
A former Pennsylvania death-row prison superintendent says working on death row
makes corrections personnel feel “less human” and “can be profoundly damaging”
psychologically. Cynthia Link (pictured) served as the Superintendent of
Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution at Graterford from 2015 to 2018,
during a period in which the prison housed more than 20 of the Commonwealth’s
death row prisoners. In a July 16, 2019 op-ed for Penn Live, Link describes the
psychological toll that corrections officers face when working on death row.
She explains the challenging nature of working with condemned prisoners even in
a state such as Pennsylvania, which has not carried out an execution in 20
years.
“Few outside of my profession realize how difficult capital punishment is for
the staff; even when executions are not being carried out, housing death row
prisoners can be profoundly damaging,” she writes. Enforcing the “inhumane”
conditions on death row causes extreme stress and prevents corrections officers
from doing the jobs they were trained to do. “Politics, policy and post order
often kept us from providing professionally prudent care,” Link says.
“Death row was designed to provide temporary housing prior to an execution,”
Link says, “but today’s death-sentenced prisoners live inhumanely for many
years or decades while staff struggle to help them survive their ‘temporary’
stay.” In an effort to protect corrections officers, Pennsylvania limits them
to two year “tours of duty” working on death row and monitors them for mental
health problems. Despite those efforts, the stress of the assignment has
serious effects on officers. Link explains: “Some officers indulge in alcohol,
drugs or other dangerous behaviors to find relief. Some isolate and leave their
families. Some have even taken their own lives when it becomes too
overwhelming. The stress on death row staff is seldom-discussed but undeniably
real. Each tour of duty on death row makes you feel less human.”
At its peak, more than 250 prisoners were incarcerated in Pennsylvania’s three
death-row facilities. Most eventually had their convictions or death sentences
overturned in the courts after spending years in solitary confinement, where
they had no contact visits with their lawyers and family members, yet were
subject to strip searches each time they left their cells.
The prisoners were eventually transferred from the old Graterford Prison
(pictured, below) to a new modern supermax facility less than a mile away. Link
draws a parallel between the outdated, crumbling building in which
death-sentenced prisoners had been held, and the death penalty itself as a
policy “relic.” “Prisons eventually outlive their usefulness and turn into
relics of an unfamiliar past. Maybe the death penalty is a relic that can also
be replaced. I know that doing so would remove a huge burden from the lives of
corrections staff.” She urges Pennsylvania’s government to consider prison
workers as they make decisions about capital punishment. “As government
officials in Harrisburg contemplate what to do about the death penalty, I urge
them to factor in the human toll it takes on Pennsylvania’s corrections
profession. Death sentences punish them, too.”
Numerous corrections officers have spoken about the difficulty of working on
death row and carrying out executions. In 2017, a group of correctional
officials from around the U.S. warned Arkansas about the extreme impact of the
state’s proposal to execute eight people in 11 days. Former Georgia warden
Allen Ault has been an outspoken critic of capital punishment, sharing stories
of his own experiences conducting executions. Frank Thompson, who held
high-ranking positions in prisons in Oregon and Arkansas, wrote, “Many of us
who have taken part in this process [of executions] live with nightmares,
especially those of us who have participated in executions that did not go
smoothly. Correctional officers who carry out execution can suffer from
post-traumatic stress, drug and alcohol addiction, and depression.” Jerry
Givens, who carried out 62 executions in Virginia, now opposes the death
penalty, and has spoken about his concerns about executing innocent people.
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
GEORGIA:
DA to seek death penalty in deadly Rockmart shooting
The District Attorney for the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit said Monday he plans
to seek the death penalty again a man accused of killing 4 people and wounding
another in Rockmart last year.
Daylon Delon Gamble was arrested in Indiana after fleeing the state on murder
charges out of Polk County. The shootings happened January 24 just after 8 p.m.
at 2 homes in Rockmart, about 45 miles northwest of Atlanta.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Helen Rose Mitchell, 48, and Jaequnn
Davis, 19, were killed in a home at 319 Williamson Street. Peerless Brown, 24,
was critically shot. About 3 blocks away at an apartment on 503 Rome Street,
investigators found the bodies of 24-year-old Arkeyla Perry and 26-year-old
Dadrian Cummings.
The victim's family members said Gamble knew the victims. A point Gamble’s
defense attorney noted arguing why a man seemingly enjoying an evening with
friends would shoot 5 of them, and questioned if ballistic evidence connected
Gamble.
(source: Fox News)
FLORIDA----impending execution
Death row inmate Gary Ray Bowles seeks stay of execution----Bowles, 57, was
sentenced to death for the November 1994 murder of Walter Hinton.
With an execution scheduled Aug. 22, attorneys for death row inmate Gary Ray
Bowles on Friday asked the Florida Supreme Court to grant a stay of execution
and to order a hearing about whether Bowles is intellectually disabled.
Gov. Ron DeSantis last month signed a death warrant for Bowles, who was
convicted of committing three murders, including a Jacksonville murder that
sent him to Death Row. Bowles’ attorneys are trying to establish that he is
intellectually disabled and that, as a result, it would be unconstitutional to
execute him. A Duval County circuit judge this month rejected the arguments,
finding that they are “time-barred” because the claims about intellectual
disability were not filed earlier in Bowles’ appeals. The claims were first
filed in October 2017.
In the Supreme Court filings Friday, Bowles’ attorneys argued that the issue
should be sent back to the circuit court for a hearing on the claims of
intellectual disability.
“Individuals who are categorically ineligible for execution, like Mr. Bowles,
cannot be left by states without a forum to at least receive a single merits
review of such claims,” Bowles’ attorneys wrote in a brief.
Bowles, 57, was sentenced to death for the November 1994 murder of Walter
Hinton, who was found dead in his Jacksonville mobile home. A 1999 sentencing
document said Bowles brutally killed Hinton during a robbery, including
dropping a 40-pound stepping stone on Hinton’s face.
Bowles is also serving life sentences in the 1994 murders of John Roberts in
Volusia County and Albert Morris in Nassau County, according to documents filed
at the Supreme Court and information on the Florida Department of Corrections
website.
A memorandum released last month by the governor’s office said Bowles also
confessed to murdering men in Georgia and Maryland and that evidence suggested
he targeted gay men.
(source: floridapolitics.com)
ALABAMA:
Moore supports Trump Administration’s resumption of executions
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr announced that he has ordered Hugh
Hurwitz who heads the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin scheduling executions.
The Justice Department also announced the names of the first five prisoners to
be executed. The executions resume beginning with Daniel Lee Lewis on December
11. There have been no federal executions performed since 2003.
Friday, U.S. Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore announced his support for the
attorney general’s decision in a statement.
“Judgments by jury’s in capital cases should be properly in enforced after all
appeals are heard,” Moore said. “Likewise, corruption and delays in our Courts
should be addressed. Whether immigration or capital punishment, our law must be
enforced equally without prejudice or delay.”
Moore also mentioned immigration. There are dozens of people on federal death
row that a jury ruled should be executed. There were no federal executions at
all during former President Barack H Obama’s (D) administration. Hundreds of
thousands of immigrants have been ordered departed; but most of those orders
have not been acted upon by federal authorities. The Trump Administration is
beginning to ramp up deportation efforts for those immigrants.
Moore is running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat
currently held by Sen. Doug Jones.
“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation
adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed
by the President,” AG Barr said. “Under Administrations of both parties, the
Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals,
including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his
peers after a full and fair proceeding. The Justice Department upholds the rule
of law—and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the
sentence imposed by our justice system.”
Daniel Lee Lewis is the 1st convicted murderer scheduled to die by lethal
injection on December 11, 2019. According to the schedule released by DOJ,
Dustin Lee Honken, Alfred Boureouis, Wesley Ira Purkey, and Lezmund Mitchell
are scheduled to all be executed in the days and weeks to follow in December
and January. More executions will be scheduled going forward. All the
executions will be performed at U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, Indiana.
Alabama executes prisoners in the state prison system here, but there has not
been an execution of a federal prisoner in sixteen years. As Chief Justice,
Moore had to hear the appeals of death row inmates in the Alabama state prison
system.
According to Fox News, there are 61 men and 1 woman on the federal death row.
Most of them are housed at a federal prison in Indiana. Lethal injection is the
only approved means of executing someone in the federal system.
Moore was the Republican nominee for Senate in 2017 but was narrowly defeated
by Jones in the special general election. Moore ran for Governor in 2010 and
2006, but failed was defeated in the Republican primary.
John Merrill, Stanley Adair, Bradley Byrne, Tommy Tuberville, and Arnold Mooney
are also running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Jones presently
has no Democratic primary challengers.
The major party primaries will be on March 3.
(source: alreporter.com)
ARIZONA:
Federal public defender pushes Arizona for more information on lethal injection
drugs
Now that Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wants to resume executions, a
federal public defender wants more transparency from the state.
Dale Baich, a federal public defender in Phoenix, said Monday that Arizona
should reveal specific details about the drugs used in executions.
In 2014, the state botched the execution of Joseph Wood, who was given more
than a dozen doses of the lethal drug cocktail over a 2-hour period.
Baich said there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the incident.
"Going forward, I think it's important that the source of the drug be made
available, the cost of the drug be made available and the qualifications of
those administering the drug be made available," he said.
Last week, Brnovich wrote a letter to Gov. Ducey asking the state to resume
executing prisoners on death row.
The letter was released after the U.S. Department to of Justice announced it
will begin executing federal prisoners for the 1st time since 2003.
There are 116 inmates on Arizona's death row, including 14 prisoners who have
exhausted all of their appeals.
Baich also argued against the use of the death penalty, saying that life in
prison is a better alternative.
Since 1973, there have been 166 prisoners on death row who were exonerated,
according the to Death Penalty Information Center.
In Arizona, Debra Milke spent 22 years on death row before her conviction was
overturned in 2013.
(source: azfamily.com)
*******************************
Migrant tries to keep death penalty off table in Arizona murder case
Lawyers for a Mexican immigrant charged with murder in the 2015 shooting death
of a convenience store clerk are urging the Arizona Court of Appeals to reject
an effort by prosecutors to seek the death penalty against their client.
Earlier this month, authorities appealed a lower-court decision that said
prosecutors could no longer seek the death penalty against 34-year-old Apolinar
Altamirano in the shooting death of 21-year-old clerk Grant Ronnebeck because
Altamirano is intellectually disabled. Prosecutors argued the judge failed to
make an overall assessment of Altamirano’s ability to meet society’s
expectations of him and adapt to the requirements of daily life as an adult.
But Altamirano’s lawyers said in court records filed a week ago that the judge
had already considered evidence of their client’s weaknesses and strengths in
such “adaptive behavior,” including his work ethic, relationships with loved
ones and ability to hold down a job and support his family.
Altamirano’s lawyers said the state isn’t saying the judge “committed legal
error or abused his discretion, but instead merely takes issue with the way in
which he weighed and assessed the credibility of the evidence.”
The case against Altamirano has been cited by President Donald Trump, who has
railed against crimes committed against American citizens by immigrants who are
the United States illegally.
Trump, who has created a new office to serve victims of immigration crimes and
their relatives, has invoked such crimes at rallies, pointing to cases in which
people were killed by immigrant assailants who slipped through the cracks.
Altamirano, whose hometown is Damian Carmona in central Mexico, has lived in
the United States without authorization for about 20 years. He was deported
after a marijuana possession arrest and returned to the United States.
He is accused of fatally shooting Ronnebeck at a store in Mesa after the clerk
insisted that Altamirano pay for a pack of cigarettes. Authorities say
Altamirano stepped over Ronnebeck to get several packs of cigarettes before
leaving the store.
He led officers on a high-speed chase before his arrest, and handguns and
unopened cigarettes were later found in his vehicle, police said.
Altamirano has already been sentenced to 6 years in prison for his earlier
guilty pleas in the case to misconduct involving weapons.
He still faces murder, robbery and other charges in Ronnebeck’s death. He has
pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges.
His trial was scheduled to begin Thursday, but it has been postponed. No new
trial date has been set.
In an October decision, a judge prohibited prosecutors from introducing
evidence at Altamirano’s trial that he was in the United States illegally. The
judge said the prejudice from Altamirano’s immigration status outweighs any
relevance it may have.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 barred the execution of intellectually disabled
people.
(source: KTAR news)
CALIFORNIA:
Execution not the only form of prison death
15 years into a 41 years-to-life sentence, I arrived at San Quentin — the home
of death row. I immediately noticed the difference between the treatment of
condemned people and of general population people, like myself. Anytime
condemned people left their cell they were shackled at the waist and feet. As
they moved through the corridors and walkways, all general population people
were told to face the wall.
We were told not to look at them.
In California, there are a few different types of death sentences: the death
penalty (immediate death), life without the possibility of parole (slow death,
known as LWOP)), and life sentences (possible death).
The moratorium of the death penalty was an important first step, but more needs
to be done
California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently enacted a moratorium on the death
penalty, or immediately putting someone to death. I believe he did this not
just as an act of compassion for the people on Death Row, but also because he
did not want it on his conscience. He had stated he could not preside over any
murders during his term as governor.
As a formerly incarcerated person who was facing the death penalty, I empathize
with those sentiments. Not only with the compassion for the people on death
row, but also with the governor not wanting a murder on his conscience, whether
legal or illegal.
Death sentences and life sentences are not different from murder in the
streets. Whether it was a legal hanging, firing squad, electric chair; the gas
chamber, or lethal injection, a human being will be killed. I have deep guilt
and remorse for what I’ve done. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the
crimes I’ve committed, the harm I’ve caused and the lives I’ve ruined. I
understand the governor not wanting to live with that.
When I committed my crime I was dealing with anger, fear, and trauma. Those
feelings I felt are not excuses to commit a crime or harm someone. So why, as a
society, are we willing to let our policy decisions be prompted by those very
same feelings when we sentence people to die by execution or a slow death in
prison?
We focus on the crime to fuel our own fear, rage and anger against them, which
allows us to view them as somehow less than human.
The moratorium of the death penalty was an important first step, but more needs
to be done. We need to work toward a moratorium of all death penalties –
including the slow death of life without parole.
The only way to be able to put someone to death is to dehumanize them and see
them as less than a person. Sadly, I categorized the human beings I harmed as
enemies and not seeing their humanity allowed me to commit those crimes. We do
the same when we sentence a “monster” to death. We can’t look at their
humanity. We cannot look at a person’s humanity when we sentence them to die of
old age in cell with a life sentence or a sentence of life without the
possibility of parole.
We focus on the crime to fuel our own fear, rage and anger against them, which
allows us to view them as somehow less than human. These sentencing policies
are enacted because of the same sentiments and elements of dehumanization I
utilized when I committed murder. With such parallels to murder in the streets,
how can we continue these crimes against humanity and society?
It is reported that “88% of criminologists do not believe the death penalty is
an effective deterrent.” If the actual death penalty is not a deterrent, why do
we continue the other slower death sentences of life and LWOP under the guise
of crime deterrence?
Many believe that politicians support the death penalty to appear tough on
crime and to appeal to their constituents’ fears, anger and trauma associated
with crime. There is a definite need for separation of a person responsible for
harm from society when that person is a danger to society and themselves.
However, going so far as sentencing them to die is akin to the same knee-jerk
reaction to anger, fear, and trauma that fueled my crimes.
Looking back at the time I committed my crimes I wish I had acted in a more
humane and compassionate way. I wish I had the emotional intelligence to manage
my feelings and not let them give me the ability to dehumanize people. I’m
sorry for what I’ve done. My crimes are deplorable and I know it; and I want
better for our society.
[Editor’s Note: Philip Melendez is a former California state prison inmate]
(source: capitolweekly.net)
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