[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., CALIF., USA
April 9 TEXASimpending execution Texas Set For 1st Execution Since Obtaining New Supply Of Lethal Injection Drugs Kent Sprouse is scheduled to be executed Thursday for the 2002 murders of a police officer and a gas station customer. Sprouse, 42, was convicted and sentenced to death for killing a Dallas police officer and a customer at a gas station in 2002. In March, Texas acquired a new supply of pentobarbital, the sole primary drug it uses for executions, from an unidentified licensed pharmacy according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Like other active death penalty states facing a shortage of execution drugs, Texas had almost run out if its supply of pentobarbital. A TDCJ spokesman said that it has acquired more pentobarbital to conduct all 4 executions scheduled next month, including Sprouse's. The drugs were purchased from a licensed pharmacy that has the ability to compound, TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Sprouse's case last November. He did not have any last-day appeals in the courts to stay the execution scheduled for Thursday at 6:00 p.m. CDT. In 2004, Sprouse was convicted and sentenced to death for killing Officer Harry Steinfeldt and Pedro Moreno, a customer at a gas station. In 2002, Sprouse entered a convenience store at a gas station 20 miles south of Dallas with a shotgun hung over his shoulder, according to court documents. After returning to his vehicle he fired his gun in the direction of 2 men at a pay phone. He then attempted to speak to Pedro Moreno, a customer who was filling his truck with gas. When Moreno did not respond, Sprouse reached into his vehicle, pulled out a gun and shot and killed the 38-year-old man. When Ferris Police Officer Harry Steinfeldt arrived at the scene, he approached Moreno who was on the ground before turning towards Sprouse's car. As he turned, Sprouse shot him twice under the arm - an area not protected by his bullet-proof vest. Before dying from his injuries, Steinfeldt fired 17 shots wounding Sprouse in the chest, leg, and hand, the Associated Press reported. Tests revealed that Sprouse was high on drugs at the time of the shootings having consumed amphetamines, methamphetamines, and cannabis within the past 48 hours. His lawyer presented an insanity defense to the court, but the jury rejected the defense and sentenced Sprouse to death for capital murder. Sprouse told an officer that he shot Moreno because he thought he was an undercover cop, according to court records. And I shot the other officer that was in uniform, he said. He has unsuccessfully appealed to courts to focus on the question of whether he was mentally ill at the time of the shootings and therefore should not be executed. (source: buzzfeed.com) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present4 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-522 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 5Apr. 9Kent Sprouse-523 6Apr. 15---Manual Garza-524 7---Apr. 23---Richard Vasquez--525 8---Apr. 28---Robert Pruett526 9---May 12Derrick Charles--527 10--June 3Les Bower528 11---June 18---Gregory Russeau--529 (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) VIRGINIA: Mark Earley, former Virginia attorney general, now opposes death penalty He said execution is based on the false premise that death sentences are 100 % accurate. Mark Earley, Virginia's attorney general during one of the busiest execution stretches in modern state history, has changed his mind about capital punishment. If you believe that the government always 'gets it right,' never makes serious mistakes, and is never tainted with corruption, then you can be comfortable supporting the death penalty, he wrote in a recent essay for the University of Richmond Law Review. I no longer have such faith in the government and, therefore, cannot and do not support the death penalty, wrote Earley, attorney general from 1998 until June 3, 2001, when he resigned to run for governor. Among other things, his essay touched on a capital murder case he handled as a young lawyer; the case of Earl Washington Jr., an innocent man wrongly sentenced to death in Culpeper; and a capital murder conviction recently tossed out in South Carolina some 70 years too late. Earley is at least the 2nd Virginia attorney general to change his mind about capital punishment. William Broaddus, the state's attorney general in 1985 and 1986, when 5 executions were held, was an outspoken opponent of the death penalty by 2000. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 36 people were executed in Virginia while
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 9 INDIA: 1993 Mumbai blasts: Supreme Court junks Yakub Memon's plea, confirms death penalty The Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed the death penalty for 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, and junked his plea to reconsider the previous verdict. A 3-judge bench led by Justice Anil R Dave dismissed the review petition by Memon after holding there was no ground to interfere with the judgement to hand out capital punishment to him. Memon is left with the only legal remedy of filing a curative petition against this judgement. Memon had sought the recall of March 21, 2013 apex court order upholding his death sentence on the grounds that he may be held guilty of a conspiracy to commit terrorist acts but he was not actually involved in executing the blasts that led to death of people. According to his counsel Jaspal Singh, evidence could prove only an involvement of Memon in the conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and the punishment prescribed under the now repealed-Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act did not entail a death sentence. The court was told that under TADA, a person attracts death sentence only when he is actually involved in committing the terror strikes resulting in deaths of people. He also pointed out an alleged error by the trial court in relying upon certain documents which were otherwise not admissible as evidence. Singh further contended that the judgement was not ready when Memon was heard on the quantum of punishment and hence he had no occasion to know grounds of his conviction. The top court had in June stayed the execution of Memon, who is the brother of Ibrahim Memon, better known as Tiger Memon, the alleged mastermind and the prime accused who is absconding in the blast case. President Pranab Mukherjee had in April rejected Memon's mercy petition of Memon and the decision was left to the Maharashtra government for fixing the execution date. Memon is lodged in Nagpur jail. In March last year, the SC had confirmed the death sentence awarded to Memon, holding him guilty of being the driving spirit behind the blasts that killed 257 people, while commuting the death sentence awarded to 10 others to life imprisonment till their death. The court had said that Memon's commanding position and the crime of utmost gravity warranted capital punishment. Memon's review petition was heard in the open court in accordance with the Supreme Court's landmark ruling, which held that review petitions against the verdict upholding the death sentence must be heard by a 3-judges bench in open court. A Constitution bench had said that all the death row convicts, whose review petitions have already been rejected but their sentence has not been executed, may file fresh petitions for an open court hearing of their review pleas within a month and they will be heard for at least half-an-hour. However, in the cases, where the curative petition has already been decided, the death row convict will not have this opportunity to avail. (source: Indian Express) * SC declines to stay death penalty of 1993 serial blasts convict Yakub Memon PTI reported that a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice AR Dave rejected the review of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon's death penalty, after having stayed his execution on 2 June 2014 and upholding the sentence on 21 March 2013. Memon had planted explosives in cars in Mumbai, with 10 of his accomplices having had their death sentences commuted to life terms. (source: legallyindia.com) INDONESIA: Bali 9: Legal team files constitutional challenge questioning president's refusal to pardon Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan Lawyer Inneke Kusuma arrives at the Indonesian constitutional court with evidence to support latest challenge on Thursday April 9, 2015. Photo: Lawyer Inneke Kusuma arrives at the constitutional court with evidence to support the latest challenge in the Bali 9 case. A lawyer for 2 Australian drug smugglers has filed for a constitutional court challenge questioning the Indonesian president's process of refusing to pardon them from the death penalty. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were denied a chance to appeal against their death sentences in the country's administrative court, so their lawyers are trying another tactic. Inneke Kusuma from the Indonesian law firm representing the pair has filed 2 boxes of papers to the constitutional court. What mercy and justice demand The Hon Ken Crispin Q C, writing for ABC Religion and Ethics, on why Indonesia should spare the lives of Bali 9 ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. She said the legal team were filing 2 cases 1 challenging a rule that prevents foreigners launching cases in the constitutional court and another questioning the president's obligation to adequately consider clemency cases. President Joko Widodo struck out Chan's and
