[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S.C., FLA., OHIO, TENN., OKLA., USA
June 12 SOUTH CAROLINA: Mom: Ex-husband shouldn't die for killing 5 kids A mother whose ex-husband killed their 5 children says she wouldn't choose to sentence him to death, but she will respect the jury's decision. Defense lawyers called Amber Kyzer to testify Tuesday. She said she thinks Timothy Jones Jr. should not be executed for killing their 5 children in a Lexington home in August 2014. But on cross-examination by prosecutors, Kyzer said while she strongly opposes the death penalty, she thinks jurors should make up their own minds. Under questioning, Kyzer also described how Jones hit her, spit in her face in front of their young daughter and threatened to chop her up and feed her to pigs during their marriage. The same jury convicted Jones of 5 counts of murder last week. They must decide if he faces the death penalty or life without parole. Social worker Deborah Grey testified Tuesday that Timothy Jones Jr.'s father was born after his then-12-year-old grandmother was raped by her stepfather. Grey testified she used interviews and records to determine Jones' mother reported she was molested by her father who was also into voodoo and locked his daughter in a closet with a dead chicken dripping blood on her as part of a ritual. Prosecutors objected to much of Grey's testimony. Jones was convicted last week of killing his 5 children in their Lexington home in 2014. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDAnew execution date Gov. DeSantis signs death warrant in Jacksonville murderExecution of Gary Ray Bowles is scheduled for Aug. 22 at Florida State Prison Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a death warrant for an inmate convicted of committing 3 murders in Florida, including a Jacksonville murder that sent him to death row. The execution of Gary Ray Bowles is scheduled for Aug. 22 at Florida State Prison, according to documents the governor’s office filed late Tuesday afternoon at the state Supreme Court. Bowles, 57, would be the 2nd inmate put to death since DeSantis took office in January, with serial killer Bobby Joe Long executed on May 23. Bowles is 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. The death warrant, however, is for the November 1994 murder of Walter Hinton, who was found dead in his Jacksonville mobile home. A 1999 sentencing document included in the Supreme Court filing said Bowles brutally killed Hinton during a robbery. It said Bowles brought a 40-pound stepping stone into the mobile home, put the stone on a table and sat down and thought for a few moments. “He then entered Mr. Hinton’s bedroom and dropped the cement stepping stone on Mr. Hinton’s face,” the sentencing document said. “Mr. Hinton sustained a skull fracture which extended on the right side of his face across his cheek to the roots of his teeth. Despite the force of this blow, Mr. Hinton did not die or lose complete consciousness. In an effort to save his life, Mr. Hinton struggled with the defendant.” The document said Hinton was then choked and had toiled paper stuffed down his throat, with a rag placed over the toilet paper. A memorandum released Tuesday evening 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: news4jax.com) OHIO: Death penalty bill creates loopholeWould eliminate capital punishment if defendant suffered from serious mental illnesss A House-approved bill that could allow defendants to escape the death penalty if they suffered from a serious mental illness at the time of the crime “would open the floodgates” for appeals from Ohio’s death row. That’s what state Sen. Sean J. O’Brien said is his biggest concern about House Bill 136 and why he’s going to try to stop it in the Ohio Senate — or at the very least, convince other senators the bill needs a clause to keep existing death row inmates from filing a claim should it become law. House members approved the bill 76-18 last week that eliminates the death penalty for offenders diagnosed by a professional with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or delusional disorder. The legislation also contains language that would allow death row inmates to file to be resentenced to life in prison without parole. There are 137 men and one woman on Ohio’s death row, including eight from Trumbull County. The only woman, Donna Roberts, is from Trumbull County. An effort by Republican state Rep. Robert R. Cupp of Lima, a former Ohio Supreme Court judge, to amend the House version to ban it from applying to existing death row inmates failed. “One of the big problems I had with that bill, the retroactive application, which is very, very r
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 12 IRAN: Iran's top diplomat says his country executes gay people because of 'moral principles' Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Monday cited "moral principles" when asked why Iran executes homosexuals for their sexual orientation, as he also attacked the US and Israel for "violating human rights." At a press conference in the Iranian capital with his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, Zarif was asked by Bild reporter Paul Ronzheimer about the death penalty for gay people in the Middle Eastern country. "Our society has moral principles, and according to these principles we live," Zarif responded. "These are moral principles regarding the behavior of people in general. And that's because the law is upheld and you abide by laws." In late January, a 31-year-old man was publicly hanged in Iran after being found guilty of violating the country's anti-gay laws, according to The Jerusalem Post. As of March 2019, there were 70 UN member states that have laws on the books criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual acts, according to a report from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). Of these countries, 6 impose the death penalty on consensual same-sex sexual acts: Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Sudan, and Somalia. (source: businessinsider.com) EGYPT: Good news: Reprieve beneficiary in Egypt Hatem Zaghloul has been pardoned and freed! I am writing to share the great news that Hatem Zaghloul, who was sentenced to death as a child in Egypt in 2014, has now been pardoned and is back with his family. I recently visited Hatem and his father in Egypt just after he returned home. They were both so grateful for the efforts of Reprieve supporters– so, from Hatem and his father, thank you to the whole Reprieve community. Hatem was taken from his bed in the middle of the night. He was falsely accused of being involved in an attack on a police station. He was sentenced to death in a mass trial of 545 people. That’s when Reprieve’s lawyers, investigators, campaigners and supporters became involved in proving his innocence. His sentence was eventually reduced to a 10-year prison term, and now – after more than 5 years away from his family – he has been pardoned and freed by the Egyptian President. So many people campaigned for Hatem as part of Reprieve’s work to stop children from being sentenced to death in mass trials in Egypt. This is a huge victory for all of us who champion human rights. We should celebrate this great news! End death sentences for children in Egypt Since 2013, Egyptian courts have recommended initial death sentences for at least 10 children convicted in mass trials. Sign our petition calling on the Egyptian Government to release all children unlawfully sentenced to death, close the child death penalty loophole and end the use of mass trials. (source: Sherif Azer, reprieve.org.uk) ALGERIA: Former Algeria PM Faces Corruption Trial as 3 Officers Sentenced to Death Algeria’s prosecutor said Tuesday that 45 people, including former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia and senior officials connected to the case of the Algerian automobile tycoon Mahieddine Tahkout, are being investigated in corruption cases. The prosecutor announced that the Undersecretary at Sidi Amhamed Court in Algiers opened a judicial investigation against 45 people on suspicion of involvement in the case. The investigating judge decided to place 19 of the accused in provisional detention and conditionally release 7 suspects. The 19 others under investigation remained free without restrictions. Tahkout, his son and 2 of his brothers, along with 38 civil servants and 3 business employees, are being prosecuted. The detainees are accused of money laundering, concealing the illicit transfer of goods obtained through corruption and squandering public funds. Separately, the military tribunal sentenced to death three officers of the dissolved Intelligence and Security Service in cases related to the disclosure of state secrets and communicating with foreign parties, reported the German news agency (dpa). Al-Jazair al-Youm news agency quoted a source close to the military establishment as saying that the 1st death sentence was issued against the former adviser to the head of foreign intelligence for disclosing state secrets. The 2nd was against a lieutenant of the Information and Coding Service on charges of leaking information and communicating with foreign parties and the 3rd was issued against the deputy head of foreign intelligence in the case of conspiracy against the state and the disclosure of secrets and communication with foreign parties. Meanwhile, Abdul Rahim Bouteflika, brother of former Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika, was removed from his government post after 37 years of service. Abdul Rahim, known as Nasser, had been retired from his position as secreta
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
June 12 TEXAS: Texas 7 inmate says judge who sent him to death row is a bigot, so he deserves a new trial An inmate condemned to die for his role in the Texas 7 prison escape says the Dallas judge who put him on death row is a bigot and a racist who should have recused himself from the case, according to a federal court filing appealing the man's conviction. Randy Halprin filed the appeal saying that former state District Judge Vickers "Vic" Cunningham was prejudiced against him because he is Jewish and routinely used derogatory and offensive language about Jewish people, Catholics, African Americans and Hispanics. Halprin said the courts should grant him a new trial. Halprin's attorneys wrote in the appeal, called a writ of habeas corpus, that Cunningham regularly spoke the N-word, condemned "the [expletive] Jews" and used other slurs to describe racial minorities. The Dallas Morning News reported last year that Cunningham, who is white, rewarded his children with a trust if they married someone who is white, Christian and of the opposite sex. Cunningham, 57, denied the allegations in the appeal Tuesday in a brief statement to The News. Last year, he denied racial bigotry in an interview, but he did confirm the trust he set up for his children. "The fabrications contained in the writ are more of the same lies from my estranged brother and his friends," Cunningham said Tuesday, referring to his brother Bill Cunningham, who is married to a black man. "I have not communicated with him since our father's funeral. I will not be commenting further." Halprin, 41, was a member of the Texas 7 gang of prison escapees who murdered Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins during a robbery on Christmas Eve 2000. Cunningham sentenced Halprin to death in 2003. His attorneys allege in the appeal filed last month that the judge's anti-Semitic beliefs and statements violated the Constitution's due process requirement guaranteeing fair treatment at trial. They say Halprin is entitled to a new trial no matter how strong the evidence is against him. Halprin has said he did not fire his gun the night Hawkins was shot 11 times and run over behind an Oshman's sporting goods store. Halprin was convicted and sentenced based on Texas' law of parties, which allows for anyone participating in a crime to be held accountable for Hawkins' murder. "Before, during, and after Randy Halprin's trial, Judge Cunningham harbored deep-seated animus towards and prejudices about non-white, non-Christian people. He expressed these views frequently in private and they informed his thinking about his public service in the law," Halprin's attorneys Tivon Schardl, Timothy Gumkowski and Paul Mansur wrote. "Judge Cunningham had a duty not to preside over a case in which he considered the defendant a ... '[expletive] Jew.'" The Dallas County district attorney's office did not respond to a request for comment. Toby Shook, the lead prosecutor who is now a defense attorney, declined to comment. Halprin's attorneys said in the filing that they were not aware of the allegations against Cunningham until The News' report about the trust and other allegations of bigotry. Then they conducted their own investigation, they wrote. Halprin does not have a scheduled execution date. Halprin was a victim of child abuse who went on to be a child abuser. While baby-sitting for a friend he met at a homeless shelter, he broke a 16-month-old's arms and legs, fractured his skull and beat his face until one eye filled with blood. He pleaded guilty to injury to a child and was serving a 30-year sentence when he escaped Dec. 13, 2000, from the Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas. 'Level of hatred' In the appeal, Halprin's attorneys quote Tammy McKinney, who grew up with Cunningham and knows him as an adult, as saying that the judge "did not like anyone not of his race, religion or creed, and he was very vocal about his disapproval." McKinney said that Cunningham's "level of hatred" grew as he aged but that he was always prejudiced and that prevented them from ever becoming "truly good friends," according to the court filing. The trial of Texas 7 ringleader George Rivas was presided over by Molly Francis. Rivas was sentenced to death and has been executed, along with three other escapees. Another committed suicide to avoid capture in Colorado, and the gang's lookout won a reprieve in March from the U.S. Supreme Court. When Francis was appointed to a state appellate court, Gov. Rick Perry appointed Cunningham as her replacement. Cunningham was proud of the role he played in sentencing 5 of the Texas 7 to death, including Joseph Garcia and Michael Rodriguez, who were Hispanic. Rodriguez was also Jewish and attended services with Halprin in prison. Garcia and Rodriguez have been executed. McKinney said the judge would talk about the cases at parties and, when he lost his inhibitions
