[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., ARK., USA
April 17 TEXAS: Texas death penalty practice deserves abolition Arkansas wants to execute 8 people over the next 10 days. The state's stock of Midazolam, a sedative used for lethal-injection, is due to expire at the end of the April. Not one to let taxpayer dollars go to waste, Gov. Asa Hutchinson opted to clear the state's death row as soon as possible. For now, a federal judge has put a pin in these plans, but Arkansas plans to appeal. Gruesome instances like these remind us of a grim reality - capital punishment is a fundamentally flawed institution that has no place in modern society. Texas is no stranger to death penalty complications. In March, the Supreme Court ruled that Texas used an antiquated standard to determine the necessary intellectual ability a death row defendant must demonstrate. Moreover, just last week Texas refused to conduct additional DNA testing for another defendant. This is especially concerning in a state that has the second highest rate of executions per capita. If a society is determined to provide the death penalty it must also be willing to pursue a gamut of opportunities to prove innocence. Anything less creates a legal system which stacks the deck against the accused. The laws of Texas seem predisposed for inmates to be put to death. Currently, a panel of jurors must unanimously agree upon the death sentence for the defendant to be put on death row. A single juror's dissent automatically renders life in prison. However, state law bans judges and attorneys from communicating this 2nd contingency. The impact is profound. In a 2008 trial juror Sven Berger didn't believe defendant Paul Storey qualified for the death penalty. Berger also knew he couldn't convince the other 10 jurors otherwise and so, unaware of the power of his dissent, Berger voted for the death sentence. Justice may be blind, but Texas laws are trying their hardest to keep jurors in the dark. Capital punishment is a difficult subject to mediate. Society has an inherent drive to achieve justice, and the families of victims must not feel as if the law has marginalized them. However, the law must not be vengeful and it must not discriminate. The disproportionate representation of minorities on death row is an outgrowth of the bitter legacy of lynching in the United States. The death penalty requires complex moral gymnastics to justify taking a life. It fails as a deterrent and at best has an imperceptible effect on the homicide rate. Victims deserve justice, but so do the defendants. The fight to repeal capital punishment in Texas will take years to come to fruition. However, attempts to iron out some of the most glaring flaws can be made. DNA testing in Texas is only conducted when the defendant can prove the tests would change the outcome of the case. This standard unduly limits potential evidence and is far more restrictive than necessary. Senate Bill 1616, if passed, would improve juror transparency by removing the gag order on capital punishment case sentencing instructions. Finally, the criminal justice system needs a dramatic overhaul. For far too long minorities have been disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. A study by the University of Maryland, using Houston's Harris County as a test case, found that black Americans were three times as likely to have their cases advanced to a death penalty trial than their white counterparts. Adopting a bottom-up approach to reform - amending drug possession and bail laws, for example - will mitigate the nefarious impacts of the modern day death penalty. Arkansas is creating an environment in which assembly line justice is the norm and the basis of the criminal justice is eroded. Texas must learn from the failure of Arkansas and let the death penalty take its last breath. (source: Opinion; Usmaan Hasan is a business freshman from PlanoThe (Univ. Texas) Daily Texan) DELAWARE: Delaware returns to death penalty debate after prison uprising Just after 10 a.m. EDT on Feb. 1, a group of inmates took four staff hostage as they seized control of Building C at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, Delaware, with 120 prisoners inside. By the end of the 18-hour standoff, Sgt. Steven Floyd Sr. was dead. The state has shared little information about the attack and now, "All 120 are considered suspects," said Jayme Gravell, a corrections spokeswoman. But lawmakers and human rights groups tell completely different stories about what led to the uprising and how to move forward. "We have been begging for help for years." - Correctional Officers Association of Delaware union president Geoff Klopp Republican Rep. Steve Smyk said corrections officers had recently been on the receiving end of a 1-2 punch. The 1st came in August, when the state Supreme Court ruled that Delaware's death penalty was unconstitutional because it allowed a judge's sentence
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., MISS., OHIO
April 14 TEXAS: Court grants Duane Buck relief that could remove him from Texas death row The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted Texas death-row inmate Duane Buck the right to pursue his claims of ineffective counsel and relief under a rule that covers mistakes and neglect - a move that could spare him from execution. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race improperly tainted inmate Buck's death sentence and remanded the case to the lower court for a new hearing. In a two-page ruling filed Thursday, the federal appeals court also ordered him released unless the state initiates proceedings for a new trial for punishment within six months or "elects not to seek the death penalty and accedes to a life sentence." Buck was convicted in Houston 20 years ago for the killings of his girlfriend, Debra Gardner, and her friend, Kenneth Butler. He was sentenced to death after a psychologist testified he would be a continuing threat to society because he is black. The case, which has made national headlines for years, could be a harbinger of how the country's highest court deals with death penalty cases with racial overtones, experts have said. After February's decision, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said her office would review Buck's case, including speaking with the victims' families and looking over mitigation evidence, before deciding how to proceed. "Racially charged evidence has no place in any courtroom, and this administration will not tolerate its presence," she said. "We remain committed to seeking justice for the victims of Duane Buck's heinous criminal acts and will do so without what Chief Justice Roberts described as the 'strain of racial prejudice' present at the 1997 trial in which Buck was convicted." [see: http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/14/14-70030-CV0.pdf] (source: Houston Chronicle) VIRGINIAimpending execution 3 Reasons Why Virginia May Execute an Innocent Man In 2006, a jury convicted Ivan Teleguz of hiring someone to kill Stephanie Sipe, his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child. Now, more than a decade later, Virginia is scheduled to execute Teleguz on April 25, 2017, and there is substantial evidence suggesting that Teleguz is innocent. How is that possible in the United States - the land of the free, where a poor person is entitled to legal counsel and a criminal defendant has numerous chances to be heard in court? Actually, it happens with some ease, and in part, it happens because of conscious choices we have made about our legal system. There are at least 3 reasons for this counter-intuitive reality. 1. Prosecutors, Not Judges or Juries, Resolve Most Criminal Cases in America When most people think of criminal cases, they have visions of Atticus Finch and dramatic closing arguments before juries. In fact, 97 % of federal cases and 94 % of state cases are resolved through plea-bargaining. The prosecutor determines what charges to bring against a defendant, offers him a lesser sentence if he accepts the deal in lieu of a trial, and often plays one defendant off of another in the process. In most cases, criminal defendants accept a plea rather than insisting upon their day in court because the penalty and risk associated with going to trial is simply too high. Teleguz's case demonstrates this phenomenon well. There was no physical evidence connecting him to the murder of Ms. Sipe; the prosecution's case was based on the testimony of three witnesses. Since his trial, 2 of those witnesses have recanted their testimony and have admitted that they lied when they implicated Teleguz in exchange for favorable treatment from the government. The Commonwealth repeatedly told the 3rd witness, Ms. Sipe's actual killer, that he would face the death penalty unless he "cooperated" with them by agreeing to testify against Teleguz in Ms. Sipe's murder and sticking to that story. Not surprisingly, he did just that and he is serving out a life sentence while Teleguz faces imminent death. 2. The Myth of the Right to Counsel Speaking of Atticus Finch, why didn't Teleguz's lawyer prevent this outcome? Indeed, the United States Supreme Court has held time and again that "[t]he right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours."[1] There is a huge divide, though, between the right and the reality. Like Teleguz, 80 % of criminal defendants are poor, and they are entitled to a lawyer at the state's expense. Those lawyers are overworked, underpaid and operate without anything close to what the government has in the way of investigative and expert resources. For these reasons, while in office, Attorney General Eric Holder regularly described indigent defense systems nationwide as "unjust," "morally untenable," "economically unsustainable," and "unworthy of a legal system that stands as an
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., ALA., LA., OHIO
April 13 TEXAS: Death Row Inmate Rodney Reed Loses DNA Appeal The state's top criminal appeals court is refusing to allow additional DNA testing of evidence in the lengthy Central Texas death penalty case of Rodney Reed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says the request by Reed's attorneys was the latest of a number of legal moves to unreasonably delay his execution for the April 1996 abduction, rape and strangling of 19-year-old Stacy Stites. Her body was found off the side of a road in Bastrop County. Reed was arrested nearly a year later when his DNA surfaced in another sexual assault. He sought tests on more than 40 items collected in the murder investigation. Reed long has insisted he and Stites had a consensual sexual relationship and that her police officer fiance more likely was her killer. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Defense: Test Murder Weapon in Death Penalty Case An attorney for a man on death row in the shooting death of a Pennsylvania police officer is asking that the murder weapon be tested to make sure it didn't go off by accident. The (Easton) Express-Times (http://bit.ly/2p8MjRc ) reports that defense attorney Jonathan Polonsky brought up the idea at a hearing Wednesday in Northampton County Court in the case of 51-year-old George Hitcho Jr. He was convicted of 1st-degree murder and sentenced to death in the 2011 shotgun slaying of Freemansburg police officer Robert Lasso, who responded to a disturbance call at Hitcho's home. Polonsky argued that his client's former attorney should have had the gun tested to counter an argument by prosecutors that had the weapon not jammed after the fatal shot, the defendant would have kept firing. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIAimpending execution With Execution Date Approaching, Evidence Suggests Teleguz Is Innocent Pressure is building on Governor Terry McAuliffe to grant clemency in the case of a former Harrisonburg man who could be executed later this month. New evidence suggests prosecutors and police used questionable tactics to convict him, and witnesses who pointed a finger at him are now admitting they lied. Ivan Teleguz faces execution this month for a crime that supporters say he did not commit. When a young Harrisonburg mother was brutally murdered more than a decade ago, police were anxious to find the killer, and DNA from the crime scene led to Michael Hetrick - a man who said he didn't even know Stephanie Sipe and had no motive to kill her. Detectives thought the woman's former boyfriend and the father of her child hired Hetrick, and they urged him to confirm that theory: "The police just fed him every detail of their case. They even gave him this document that laid out their entire theory of the case, and said, 'We want you to read this so you can understand the facts of the case." Elizabeth Peiffer - staff attorney at the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center - says officers then called the Commonwealth's attorney, who said she would ask for the death penalty unless Hetrick could confirm that Ivan Teleguz was behind the killing. "That if he didn't give them Ivan - if he didn't repeat this story back to them, his own life would be in jeopardy - that they would seek the death penalty, and he would get it," she explains. Hetrick then said he was hired by Teleguz, and 2 other men testified that's what happened. One of them - an immigrant from Kyrgystan - was promised help in getting a visa from the federal government to save him from deportation. The other was told he might face the death penalty if he didn't implicate Teleguz. In court, attorney Peiffer says, the prosecutor claimed Teleguz had also committed a murder in Pennsylvania. "They told jurors that this is how he solves his problems. He has people commit murder for him, and jurors were really scared," she says. "They sent out a question to the judge during deliberations asking if he had their addresses, and the judge had them instructed that he did have this information, and jurors were so scared that they very quickly sentenced him to death." But it turned out the Pennsylvania murder they described never happened, and the 2 men who originally linked Teleguz to the crime in Virginia have since said they lied. Now the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center and the law firm Kirkland and Ellis are asking the governor to pardon Teleguz or at least commute his sentence so he won't be executed. "We have asked that he grant a full pardon, because we believe the current state of the evidence, with 2 of the key prosecution witnesses recanting their testimony that no juror could have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." And, Peiffer says, public support for Teleguz, who - along with his family -- left the Soviet-controlled Ukraine as a child to avoid religious persecution, is growing. "Not only do we have over 113,000 people
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., N.C., S.C., FLA., LA., OHIO
April 11 TEXAS: You don't have to be a bleeding heart to oppose the death penalty What should happen now to the convicted murderer Paul David Storey? Nothing. "Nothing" would mean leaving Storey to live out the rest of his days at his current address in prison. Late last week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted Storey's execution, which had been scheduled to take place Wednesday. The court was motivated -- indirectly, at least -- by the pleas of the victim's parents, who do not want their son's killer put to death. As I said last week in writing about this case, we cannot allow victims or their survivors to assess punishment for the criminals who have wronged them. That would be too arbitrary, too inconsistent, too emotional. But there was wisdom in considering the statements made by Glenn and Judith Cherry of Fort Worth. Their adult son, Jonas, was killed during a 2006 holdup at the Tarrant County business he managed. Storey and an accomplice eventually confessed to the murder. The accomplice accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to life in prison. Story went to trial and was sentenced to death. "As a result of Jonas' death, we do not want to see another family having to suffer through losing a child and family member," said the statement the couple recently forwarded to state criminal justice authorities. The appellate court wants the trial court to determine whether jurors in Storey's 2008 trial, and subsequent appeals lawyers assigned to his case, were aware of the Cherrys' opposition to Storey's execution. Appeals lawyers for Storey claim Tarrant County prosecutors told jurors that it "went without saying" that the victim's family considered a death sentence appropriate. The case is further complicated by a juror, who now says he would not have sided with his fellow jury members in voting for death in the case had he known their sentiments. These are all challenging issues, complicated by emotion as much as by legal procedure and the passage of time. But the very central role that emotion plays in every death penalty case makes a dispassionate argument against executing capital offenders. I have no love for Paul David Storey, no sentimental indulgence for his grandiose jailhouse dreams of becoming a poet or novelist, no sympathetic ear for besotted activists who try to recast stone cold killers as tragic victims of a cruel system. Justice, by definition, needs to be guided by fact and by law, not by emotion. But when we move into the painfully conflicted territory of capital punishment, emotion is all we have -- on all sides. And as fervently as death penalty supporters deride its opponents as "bleeding hearts," they're operating on an emotional basis themselves. It's understandable that many of us might want to assess the most severe punishment imaginable on those who commit the most heinous and unforgivable crimes. But from a pure policy standpoint, the death penalty is expensive -- unavoidably so, given the constitutional guarantees to which inmates are entitled. It's also irreversible, unevenly assessed, and arbitrarily applied. Admitting as much does not make us suckers and rubes. It highlights the practical reality that society is as just as well protected by sentencing our worst criminals to life without the possibility of parole as it is by killing them. Should appeals lawyers be successful on Storey's behalf, he could be entitled to a new trial on punishment only. His guilt would remain unchanged. Prosecutors might conceivably save everyone a great deal of time, expense, and painful emotion by choosing not to retry this, and leave Storey where he is, where he belongs, where the grief this case has already caused can be contained: Permanent incarceration. The death penalty still enjoys considerable public popularity, which I understand. Nothing will cure a bleeding heart like sitting through a few murder trials -- the cruelty inflicted and the grief victims endure can harden even the most sympathetic onlookers. But capital punishment is too fraught with problems, too controversial, and in the end, too impractical to continue in widespread use. It is already dying a slow death of its own, as statistics chronicle its steady decline. You don't have to love Paul Storey, or think he has been somehow misunderstood, or view him as a victim, to see permanent incarceration as the best way for the state to handle him. You just have to be pragmatic. (source: Commentary; Jacquielynn Floyd, Dallas Morning News) ** Fort Worth Man on death row Loses Federal Appeal A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from a Fort Worth man on Texas death row for a 2010 convenience store holdup that left 2 men dead. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday refused arguments from 41-year-old Kwame Rockwell that he had poor legal help at his Tarrant County trial when his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.
April 9 TEXAS: Putt-Putt killer gets stay of execution, but 'case is far from over' The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution Friday for a man convicted in the 2006 murder of an assistant manager of a Putt-Putt golf park in Hurst. Paul Storey, 32, who was convicted in 2008 for the murder of Jonas Cherry, was scheduled to die on Wednesday. Storey did not immediately learn of his stay because he was in transport Friday afternoon from Fort Worth to Huntsville. He had been in the Tarrant County Jail for a recent hearing in connection with his case. "The 1st thing I did is rush back to the jail but he had already been sent back to prison to be executed," said attorney Mike Ware. While his conviction remains in place, the court's decision will put into motion a lengthy legal process that will eventually decide whether Storey should live or die for his crime. Storey's lawyers, his family and the parents of Cherry have all fought to save Storey's life. Cory Session, a justice reform advocate who fought for the posthumous exoneration of his convicted brother, Tim Cole, also pushed for Storey's execution to be stayed. "This case is far from over," Ware said. "At the time being I'm very relieved for Paul and Marilyn and for that matter, I'm relieved for the Cherrys." Said Marilyn Shankle-Grant, Storey's mom: "I am just elated. I am so happy. I know now it is an indefinite stay until we get some answers from the lower court." Cherry begged for his life during the crime at Putt-Putt Golf and Games at a highly visible location across Texas 121/Loop 820 from North East Mall in Hurst. It was about 8:45 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2006 and Storey and Mark Porter stood over Cherry, who pleaded: "Please! I gave you what you want. Don't hurt me." They refused and shot him twice in the head and twice in his legs and fled with between $200 and $700. Cherry, who was approaching his 1st wedding anniversary, was pronounced dead at the scene. Storey and Porter were convicted of capital murder, but only Storey got the death penalty. Porter got life without parole after making a deal with the Tarrant County district attorney's office. Session said Friday that the appeals court has called for another hearing at the trial court presided over by State District Judge Robb Catalano. That hearing will seek to determine whether defense attorneys were notified by prosecutors during Storey's trial that Cherry's parents, Glenn and Judy Cherry, were against the death penalty during the 2008 trial. "Judith and Glenn Cherry did not want death for Mr. Storey," an affidavit from the parents stated. "Unknown to the jury and contrary to the state's argument, they stood with the family members who pleaded for the jury to spare Mr. Storey's life." Prosecutors, however, have said that while the Cherrys were generally opposed to the death penalty, they were in agreement at the time of the 2008 trial that Storey should be executed because he had refused to accept a plea bargain for life without parole. Christy Jack, 1 of the prosecutors who is now in private practice, recently told the Star-Telegram that Storey's defense team was informed before the trial about how Cherry's parents felt. "Death penalty litigation is the most important thing that attorneys do," Jack said. "So I want everything that I do in these cases to be above reproach." Robert Foran, the lead prosecutor at the time of the 2008 trial, also confirmed Jack's account. "The defense decided not to call the parents to the stand," Foran said. "That was a tactical decision on their part, but we told them and they damn well know it." (source: star-telegram.com) VIRGINIA: Virginia's dark legacy of secrecy about executions The newly enhanced secrecy behind Virginia's capital punishment protocols underscores a legacy of death born in institutionalized racism that upcoming executions - including that of Ivan Teleguz, scheduled April 25 - do not just prolong, but exacerbate. In March 1879, after years of tolerating party atmospheres accompanying the public executions of blacks, Virginia first moved to shroud its execution process in secrecy after almost 1,000 revelers gathered after the hanging of 2 young black men at New Kent Courthouse for a grand "Gallows Ball" that lasted until daybreak. Afterward, a mortified General Assembly moved quickly to make hangings private, intending to stop the festival backdrops and remove black influence and traditions from the proceedings. Most newspapers that year, including the April 2 Petersburg Progress-Index, praised the new statute, reporting that "this (law) shall put an end to all such gallows picnics and jollifications as was witnessed at New Kent Court-house." There is little evidence to conclude that crowds gathered to condemn the crimes of the prisoner. On the contrary, the widespread prejudices in the judicial process, from
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
April 7 TEXASstay of impending execution Texas court halts execution of man amid claims of false evidence The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted the execution of Paul Storey, which was set for Wednesday. In a three-page order Friday afternoon, the court sent the case back to the Tarrant County trial court to review claims regarding the prosecution presenting false evidence at Storey’s trial. In 2008, Storey, 32, was sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of Jonas Cherry during a robbery of a miniature golf course where Cherry worked in Hurst, near Fort Worth. At the trial, the prosecution said that Cherry’s parents wanted the death penalty. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. “It should go without saying that all of Jonas [Cherry’s] family and everyone who loved him believe the death penalty was appropriate,” the prosecution said during the penalty phase of the trial, according to Storey’s appeal. Storey and Cherry’s parents, Glenn and Judith, say that’s not true. The Cherrys wrote to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles in February, asking for a life sentence for Storey. The Cherrys said they never wanted the death penalty and made that clear to the prosecution, according to Storey’s appeal. “As a result of Jonas’ death, we do not want to see another family having to suffer through losing a child and family member ... due to our ethical and spiritual values we are opposed to the death penalty,” the Cherrys said in their statement. Sven Berger, a juror in Storey’s trial who recently asked Texas legislators to change jury instructions in capital cases, also wrote an affidavit for Storey’s recent appeal. In his affidavit, Berger said had he known the Cherrys didn’t want death, he would have “held out for a [sentence of] life without the possibility of parole for as long as it took.” Now, the trial court has been ordered to determine whether the fact that the Cherrys opposed the death penalty could have been discovered by appellate attorneys earlier. Generally in death penalty cases, if evidence could have been raised at an earlier appeal and wasn’t, it is not allowed to be used in future appeals. This evidence was brought forth to the courts less than two weeks before his execution. The appeal claims the evidence of the Cherrys’ disapproval of the sentence was learned only in the past 90 days. But the Court of Criminal Appeals said it’s not yet clear whether his previous state appellate attorney could have learned about the Cherrys’ beliefs. “The trial court is ordered to make findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding whether the factual basis of these claims was ascertainable through the exercise of reasonable diligence on or before the date the initial application was filed,” the order states. “If the court determines that the factual basis of the claims was not ascertainable through the exercise of reasonable diligence on or before the date the initial application was filed, then it will proceed to review the merits of the claims.” Storey’s appeal said the evidence of false claims warrants him a new punishment hearing, where he either could be sentenced to death again or receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole. (source: Texas Tribune) * Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present24 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-542 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 25-May 16---Tilon Carter--543 26-May 24---Juan Castillo--544 27-June 28--Steven Long---545 28-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---546 29-July 27-Taichin Preyor-547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
April 7 TEXAS: Dallas County district attorney's office to show mercy to 'lost souls' The new Dallas County district attorney and her first assistant view the people who go through the criminal court system as "lost souls or monsters." Faith Johnson says her job as district attorney doesn't always call for toughness; sometimes justice requires mercy. "We're compassionate where compassion is needed. We're merciful when mercy is needed," she said Tuesday night at a community forum at Concord Church in Red Bird. It was the 1st of what Johnson says will be a quarterly forum to answer questions and explain how the local criminal justice system works. Johnson, a Republican and former judge, was appointed in December by Gov. Greg Abbott to replace Susan Hawk, who resigned in September to focus on her mental health. Johnson, the 1st black woman to become Dallas County district attorney, has said she plans to run for the office when her term expires next year. In her first 90 days in office, she has attended more than 140 community events and meetings. She regularly takes her prosecutors to lunch to get to know them and their work. She is often 1st to the office and last to leave. "I have been getting only four hours sleep so I can restore the relationship between the community and the DA's office," Johnson said. Her top priority has been to facilitate an expungement program to clear some criminal records. The crimes must be non-violent and meet other requirements. And for the people whose crimes can't be erased, Johnson wants to help them clear their public criminal records so they don't have trouble getting a job or qualifying for housing. "We want them to get a job," she said. "Share the load of the taxes." She said those efforts are part of being just. It's the same reason she says she wants to boost the DA's office conviction integrity unit, the group that has overseen the reversal of wrongful convictions. And when asked about her approach to the death penalty, Johnson said it's her job to abide the law, and execution is legal in Texas. But, she said, Dallas County prosecutors will pursue the death penalty only when they are "darn sure that that's what we need to do." She said that's part of her oath: to uphold the law for everyone. "I'm going to do what's right by you. I don't care who you are. You could be black, white, purple, green," Johnson said. "You could be rich, poor. You could live in North Dallas, south, east, west. I got you. I got you. I'm here for you." First Assistant District Attorney Mike Snipes called Johnson the "real deal" and said she has a compassionate approach to the job. "We're going to take care of the lost souls. We're going to try to rehabilitate them. We're going to try to reintegrate them into society," he said. As for the monsters: "The judge and I are coming after them." (source: Dallas Morning News) *** Lost souls, not monsters Re: "New DA pledges she'll uphold law for everyone -- Restoring the public's trust is crucial, Johnson says at her first forum," Thursday Metro story. I am pleased that the current district attorney speaks of compassion and mercy for those she refers to as "lost souls." It is commendable that she seeks the reintegration of nonviolent offenders back into our society so they can hopefully lead productive lives. It is unfortunate and inexcusable that Faith Johnson's office uses language to dehumanize those who may have committed violent offenses. To be sure, violent offenders need to be punished and imprisoned, as society has a fundamental right to be safe. But such offenders are not "monsters." The law allows district attorneys to use judicial discretion to seek the death penalty; they are certainly not obligated to do so. It would be refreshing and humanizing to see our district attorney show true mercy to all offenders, and to see her extend justice in the name of the law while recognizing the inherent truth about human rights: There is no such thing as a lesser person. Rick Halperin, Dallas, Director, Embrey Human Rights Program at Southern Methodist University (source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., LA.
April 6 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: No Comfort, No ClosureJonas Cherry's parents don't want their son's killer killed 32-year-old Paul Storey is the 5th person set for a state killing this year, his execution date currently set for Wednesday, April 12. In 2006, Storey shot and killed Jonas Cherry, manager of the Putt-Putt Golf & Games mini-golf course in Hurst (Tarrant County) during a botched robbery. His friend Mark Devayne Porter, who had served as accomplice, accepted a plea deal, and is currently serving life in prison. Storey refused a similar plea, and in 2008, he was found guilty of capital murder, and sentenced to death. Storey's efforts for relief have since been unsuccessful. But recently, a few impediments to his execution have arisen. Austin attorney Keith Hampton, who's representing Storey with Mike Ware, says that Cherry's parents Glenn and Judy were appalled by the state's invitation to travel to Huntsville to witness Storey's execution, and have filed an affidavit with Tarrant Co. District Attorney Sharen Wilson and Gov. Greg Abbott requesting that Storey's life be spared. "It is very painful for us to consider the suffering of Paul Storey's mother, grandmother, and family if he is put to death," they wrote. "[His] execution will not bring our son back, will not atone for the loss of our son, and will not bring comfort or closure." Hampton called the Cherrys' request an "amazing act of mercy." He said it's rare to hear the family of a murder victim say "you'll multiply our pain by inflicting pain on another family." Hampton and Ware have separately been at work to vacate Storey's sentence. On March 31, they filed a petition asking that their client's sentence be vacated in consideration of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. They say prosecutors knew of the Cherrys' opposition to the sentence, and that prosecutor Christy Jack lied in her closing argument about their desire to see Storey executed. And because the prosecution offered Storey a plea deal prior to trial, Hampton argued, the prosecution's pursuit of the death penalty raises a presumption of vindictiveness. Making matters more muddy is that Sven Berger, one of the jurors during Storey's trial, spoke with the Marshall Project last March, confessing his regrets for sending Storey to death row. Referencing a 2010 affidavit he filed in Storey's support, Berger said he would have lobbied against the death penalty had he known of Storey's "'borderline intellectual functioning,' history of depression," and other mitigating evidence. And in a 2nd affidavit, Berger said he would also have rejected a death sentence had he known the Cherrys' stance. Both Ware and Hampton hope that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will be swayed and grant Storey a new punishment hearing. If not, he'll be the 543rd Texan executed since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976. (source: Austin Chronicle) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present24 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-543 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 25-April 12-Paul Storey---543 26-May 16---Tilon Carter--544 27-May 24---Juan Castillo--545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 30-July 27-Taichin Preyor-548 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) * Ruling could mean new execution date for man convicted in prison guard's murderA death row inmate convicted in a Texas prison guard's murder lost another appeal Wednesday at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled against a death row inmate who claims he was framed in the 1999 murder of a prison guard. The ruling could allow Bee County to set his 4th execution date in the last 2 years. Robert Pruett, 37, has consistently maintained his innocence in the murder of Daniel Nagle, and for the last several years, has worked to have DNA testing prove his innocence. But the trial court has twice tested DNA evidence in the case and twice found inconclusive results, ruling that the tests wouldn't have had any effect on his conviction and sentence had they been available during his 2002 trial, according to Wednesday's Court of Criminal Appeals opinion. Pruett was serving a life sentence for murder in Beeville when Nagle was murdered in December 1999, according to court records. Nagle was found stabbed, unresponsive in a pool of his own blood next to a sharpened metal rod and a shredded disciplinary report Nagle filed against Pruett. Pruett says he was framed for the murder, that he threw the report at Nagle but didn't hurt him. A Bee County jury sentenced Pruett to death in 2002 for
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., MD., N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.
April 5 TEXAS: Dallas County district attorney's office to show mercy to 'lost souls' The new Dallas County district attorney and her first assistant view the people who go through the criminal court system as "lost souls or monsters." Faith Johnson says her job as district attorney doesn't always call for toughness; sometimes justice requires mercy. "We're compassionate where compassion is needed. We're merciful when mercy is needed," she said Tuesday night at a community forum at Concord Church in Red Bird. It was the 1st of what Johnson says will be a quarterly forum to answer questions and explain how the local criminal justice system works. Johnson, a Republican and former judge, was appointed in December by Gov. Greg Abbott to replace Susan Hawk, who resigned in September to focus on her mental health. Johnson, the 1st black woman to become Dallas County district attorney, has said she plans to run for the office when her term expires next year. In her first 90 days in office, she has attended more than 140 community events and meetings. She regularly takes her prosecutors to lunch to get to know them and their work. She is often first to the office and last to leave. "I have been getting only 4 hours sleep so I can restore the relationship between the community and the DA's office," Johnson said. Her top priority has been to facilitate an expungement program to clear some criminal records. The crimes must be non-violent and meet other requirements. And for the people whose crimes can't be erased, Johnson wants to help them clear their public criminal records so they don't have trouble getting a job or qualifying for housing. "We want them to get a job," she said. "Share the load of the taxes." She said those efforts are part of being just. It's the same reason she says she wants to boost the DA's office conviction integrity unit, the group that has overseen the reversal of wrongful convictions. And when asked about her approach to the death penalty, Johnson said it's her job to abide the law, and execution is legal in Texas. But, she said, Dallas County prosecutors will pursue the death penalty only when they are "darn sure that that's what we need to do." She said that's part of her oath: to uphold the law for everyone. "I'm going to do what's right by you. I don't care who you are. You could be black, white, purple, green," Johnson said. "You could be rich, poor. You could live in North Dallas, south, east, west. I got you. I got you. I'm here for you." First Assistant District Attorney Mike Snipes called Johnson the "real deal" and said she has a compassionate approach to the job. "We're going to take care of the lost souls. We're going to try to rehabilitate them. We're going to try to reintegrate them into society," he said. As for the monsters: "The judge and I are coming after them." (source: Dallas Morning News) PENNSYLVANIA: Remove restrictions on Pa. death penalty We are still in limbo regarding the death penalty in Pennsylvania, and there is absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel. I would request that Gov. Wolf reinstate the death penalty and, if at some time in the future they decide to make some changes in the law to address it at that time. The Eric Frein trial has started. This man, according to authorities, killed a state trooper in cold blood and wounded another trooper. He caused disruptions in the state for over a month, which cost taxpayers millions and took a huge toll on businesses. His actions caused fear in the public and affected schools and other public services. This is a man who, if convicted, deserves death, and our governor would need to make sure Frein's death is not delayed one second due to some perceived issue with our existing law and death penalty procedures. John Reilly North Whitehall Township (source: Letter to the Editor, Morning Call) MARYLAND: Revisiting the death penalty in Maryland is a bad idea On Wednesday, March 22, The Frederick News-Post???s daily online poll asked readers' opinions on the death penalty. I presume that it was in response to the Feb. 6 introduction of House Bill 881 calling for the death penalty in 1st-degree murder cases where the victim is a law enforcement officer, correctional officer or first responder. Maryland's death penalty was repealed in May 2013 in favor of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Given people's inclination to respond to issues emotionally and not always rationally, the desire by some to reinstitute the death penalty is understandable. Though understandable, it is misguided and not based on rational thought, data or sound social science research. I was a proponent of the death penalty for most of my adult life. In more than a few incidents, as a police officer, I was upset when the killer of a law enforcement officer was captured alive and then ineligible for the death
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA.
April 4 TEXAS: Supreme Court Will Take up 3rd Harris County Death Penalty Case This Year After recently ruling in favor of 2 Harris County death row inmates, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to take up yet another Houston death penalty case this year. Carlos Ayestas was sentenced to death for his role in a 1995 home invasion, in which Ayestas and two others tied up a 67-year-old woman with duct tape and strangled her to death. His guilt is not at issue in the case - but his appellate attorneys argue that if the jury at his sentencing hearing had known he was schizophrenic and addicted to cocaine they would have decided against execution. Ayestas's original defense lawyers did not reveal this during the sentencing hearing. The only mitigating evidence they presented about Ayestas were 3 letters submitted by the Harris County Jail's English-as-a-2nd-language teacher, who said Ayestas was an attentive student. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to take up the case on the grounds of ineffective counsel, deciding whether the U.S. Fifth Circuit erred when it denied Ayestas additional resources to dig up evidence showing that his original lawyers failed him. The justices denied to consider the case on one other basis Ayestas's attorneys put forth: that Harris County District Attorney's Office prosecutors sought to execute him based in part on his immigration status. In 2014, Ayestas's appellate attorneys with the Texas Defender Service discovered an internal "Capital Murder Summary" memo never shared with Ayestas's trial defense counsel. In the memo, prosecutor Kelly Seigler lists 2 "aggravating circumstances" that support sentencing Ayestas to death. One was the brutal nature of the senior citizen's murder. The other was the fact that Ayestas was not a U.S. citizen. He was an undocumented immigrant from Honduras. As the Texas Attorney General's Office noted in its brief opposing Ayestas's appeal, someone later crossed out that second immigration-status reason, and it was never presented to the jury. The Supreme Court justices did not explain why they would not consider whether the U.S. Fifth Circuit erred when it declined to hear out Ayestas's claims that prosecutors sought his execution for discriminatory reasons. The Fifth Circuit's basis for declining that argument last March was that Ayestas's defense counsel didn't try hard enough to discover the Capital Murder Summary memo until more than a decade after his trial - reasoning the Texas Defender Service argued was flawed in its Supreme Court writ. "Mr. Ayestas's case is about the right to be fairly charged and defended," his attorneys, Lee Kovarsky and Callie Heller, said in a statement. "From the charging decision through the federal habeas process, Mr. Ayestas has been denied his constitutional right to nondiscriminatory treatment and effective representation; these are rights to which all criminal defendants, especially those facing a death sentence, are entitled." This is the 3rd time this year that a Harris County death penalty case is in the Supreme Court spotlight. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Houston death-row inmate Bobby Moore, whose attorneys have maintained that he is mentally disabled and should not be executed. The court ruled that Texas's method of determining whether death-row inmates are mentally disabled, which is sometimes likened to the "Lennie test," a reference to the John Steinbeck novel Of Mice and Men, is invalid. And in February, justices ruled in favor of Duane Buck. At his sentencing hearing, an expert witness called by Buck's own attorney suggested on the stand that because Buck is black, he posed a greater "future danger." The court ruled Buck is entitled to a new hearing. In the Texas Defender Service's brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of Ayestas, they began by quoting Chief Justice John Roberts's opinion in the Buck case: "[T]his is a disturbing departure from a basic premise of our criminal justice system: Our law punishes people for what they do, not who they are." (source: Houston Press) Supreme Court to hear another Texas death penalty caseThe U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear the Texas death penalty case of a Honduran national who was convicted for his role in a 1995 murder of 67-year-old Santiaga Paneque during a Houston home invasion. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear the Texas death penalty case of a Honduran national who is arguing that a federal appeals court wrongly denied him resources to investigate and provide evidence of substance abuse and mental illness. Advocates for Carlos Ayestas believe that if a jury had heard he had a history of cocaine addiction and mental illness, they may not have sentenced him to death for his role in a 1995 murder of 67-year-old Santiaga Paneque during a Houston home invasion. State officials have dismissed such
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., FLA., ARK., NEV., USA
April 3 TEXAS: Texas House to hear 2 death penalty bills today 2 death penalty bills will be heard in committee Monday April 3, 2017 at the Texas House of Representatives in Austin, TX. The 1st one is House Bill 3054 by Herrero (D-Robstown). Herrero is presenting a revision in jury instructions in death penalty cases to inform hold-out jurors of the effect of their holding out. Also up for debate is House Bill 3080 by Rose (D-Dallas) which would create procedures to exclude persons with "severe mental illness" from the death penalty. In light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Moore v. Texas, the discussion on the latter bill could be very interesting. The Moore opinion concerned the intellectual disability (formerly known as mental retardation) of an individual, not mental illness. HB 3080 could turn into a forum for addressing Moore - even though Moore does not need legislation to be implemented statewide. (source: eparisextra.com) DELAWARE: Bill aims to amend death penalty statuteUnanimous jury would determine capital punishment Legislators are proposing changes to Delaware law that would require a jury to unanimously agree before a person is sentenced to death. Under the Extreme Crimes Protection Act, a jury - not a judge - would decide whether a defendant is sentenced to death. In August, Delaware Supreme Court ruled Delaware's death penalty law violates a person's constitutional right to a jury as outlined in the U.S. Constitution's Sixth amendment by allowing a judge to decide whether a defendant receives a death sentence. Since then, Delaware's death penalty has been on hold, and sentences for 12 men on death row were reduced to life in prison. The proposed amendments would require that a jury unanimously find that an aggravating factor or factors exist making a person eligible for a death sentence, and that those factors outweigh all mitigating factors. As written now, a jury recommends to a judge whether aggravating factors exceed mitigating factors. The jury's decision does not have to be unanimous. Current law gives a judge the final say on the death sentence. A judge may sentence a defendant to death even if a jury is not unanimous on a death sentence or recommends life in prison. The proposed legislation ends a judge's ability to issue a death penalty against a jury's decision. However, it allows a judge to give a lesser sentence even if a jury votes for a death sentence, said Rep. Steve Smyk, R-Milton, a prime sponsor of the bill. "The judge can dial it down, but if a jury says life in prison, that's the system. That's what we go by, and we should accept that," Smyk said. As another protection for a defendant in a death penalty case, the proposed legislation would allow a jury to consider mitigating factors presented by the defense, even if they have not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Still, Kathleen MacRea, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, said her group will not support the Extreme Crimes Protection Act or the changes it espouses. "The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. It doesn't keep people safe. From a policy perspective, it risks convicting innocent people," she said. The ACLU was a strong proponent of legislation proposed in 2015 to repeal Delaware's death penalty. That legislation had the support of then-Gov. Jack Markell and dozens of lawmakers, but the bill failed in a January 2016 vote. It has not been reintroduced. MacRea said the ACLU intends to rally similar opposition against the Extreme Crimes Protection Act. "We'll definitely testify against it," she said. "The bottom line is the death penalty system is a biased system." Smyk said he expected groups opposed to the death penalty to be against any measure that could bring back the death penalty. However, he said, there has been a slight shift in favor of it since the Feb. 1 prison siege at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna. "I don't support a death penalty, but I support the victims of crime," Smyk said. "Without a death penalty, you'll unleash more people of the caliber that took the life of Steven Floyd. And that's a reality." Sen. Ernie Lopez, R-Lewes, said he continues to support repealing the death penalty, but he would consider the statute changes and give the bill a thorough review. "I'm still in support of the repeal. But if there is any piece of legislation that brings greater clarity to the code, I've typically been in support of it as long as it's balanced and fair," Lopez said. "I will definitely keep an open mind." Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, did not return calls for comment. "It has to be a united effort," Smyk said. "Many people are going to have to talk about it to get it done right." The bill continues to be circulated for more sponsors at Legislative Hall, and it is expected to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., OHIO, ARK., OKLA., CALIF.
April 2 TEXAS: Smith County judges eye pay increase for court-appointed attorneys in capital murder death penalty cases The dwindling number of Smith County defense attorneys who are willing to take on capital murder death penalty cases for indigent defendants has prompted local district court judges to consider raising the hourly compensation. During a recent meeting of the Smith County Council of Judges, Judge Jack Skeen Jr. with the 241st District Court said he believes the number of local attorneys on the list is down because the compensation is not sufficient to take the attorneys away from their regular practice and to make up for the stress they are going to incur while working the case. In addition, he said, the hourly rate is insufficient to compensate them for their expertise. "I just think it's time for us to look at it," he said. The issue has come into play recently with Judge Christi Kennedy of the 114th District Court having to hire 3 out-of-county attorneys to represent defendants in a case in her court. In another example, criminal defense attorney Jeff Haas, who is representing Gustavo Zavala-Garcia in a capital murder case, said he had been unable to find a 2nd-chair attorney for the case and believed the compensation rates were part of the problem. Another part of the problem comes down to the circumstances after a conviction, he said. Because of the mandatory appeals, the case isn't over when there is a conviction, and some attorneys don't want to be as tied up as long as they are when they do this type of case. The fee schedule as outlined by an October 2001 local order calls for lead, or first chair, attorneys in capital cases, in which the state seeks the death penalty, to be paid $80 per hour for out-of-court time and $100 per hour for in-court time. Co-counsel, or 2nd-chair attorneys, receive a rate of $50 per hour for out-of-court time and $60 per hour for in-court time. The order goes on to say the lead counsel shall not receive more than $40,000 in attorney fees for a capital murder death penalty case. Co-counsel shall receive no more than $22,500 in the same situation, according to the order. That said, the order allows for the district court judges to increase or decrease the fees as they deem necessary. "Total compensation ... shall be determined by the judge upon the circumstances and complexity of each case," the order reads. When the local attorneys on the approved list are taken, the district court judges have to look for and hire out-of-county counsel, which often means paying more because of hotel stays, mileage and meals. Though these rates may make many professionals envious, the amount of time, energy and stress involved in these cases is difficult to match. "When you're the defendant's lawyer in a capital case, you stand between the defendant and death," said criminal defense attorney Buck Files of Tyler who has represented 9 defendants in 11 capital cases. "It is the most stressful challenge I believe any lawyer can ever have." Because of the gravity of these cases, the time investment is huge. An attorney puts aside everything else to try to take care of the client, Files said. Working on one of these cases essentially means an attorney focuses exclusively on this case. In addition, a capital murder case is not over when a guilty verdict is announced and a sentence read. There are mandatory appeals, and although different attorneys are appointed to represent a defendant on appeal, the original attorneys often find themselves having to defend their work on the trial for years if their former client claims "ineffective assistance of counsel," which they typically do, in post-conviction proceedings. So, in committing to represent a defendant in a capital murder death penalty case, the attorney is committing for the long haul. Files said it is not uncommon for expert witnesses to receive much more than defense lawyers get in a case. He said in a case in which a partner in his firm served as defense attorney, the investigator and mitigation specialist got paid more than he did. "(The) problem from my perspective in a capital murder case (is) the only people who are asked to sacrifice, other than jurors ... are criminal defense lawyers," Files said. "Everyone else gets to draw their standard rate." The fee schedules for court-appointed attorneys in these types of cases vary statewide, Files said, adding that, to be fair, he has seen Smith County judges pay more in some cases. For Haas, though, it comes down to a personal conviction as to why he is willing to represent indigent defendants charged with capital murder. "I have a responsibility to the judicial system to do these cases," he said. After discussing the issues of compensation rates, the judges ultimately decided to table it. Though they had some proposed rates for 1st- and 2nd-chair attorneys, they had
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., LA., OHIO
April 1 TEXAS: As execution looms, juror in Hurst Putt-Putt murder hopes to change law When Sven Berger looked around at the other jurors in the deliberation room during a 2008 capital murder trial, he knew that the majority wanted the death penalty. He also knew he didn't. But he voted for it anyway. It's a decision he still regrets, and one he says he wouldn't have made if the law had been clearly explained in that Tarrant County courtroom. He'd sat in the courtroom and listened to how Paul Storey, the 22-year-old defendant in an ill-fitting suit, and another man had robbed Putt-Putt in Hurst and fatally shot the assistant manager, 28-ear-old Jonas Cherry. Berger knew Storey was guilty, he said in a recent Texas Tribune interview, but in his gut, he didn't believe the man would be a future danger to society, a requirement in issuing the death penalty in Texas. What Berger didn't realize - in part because of the language in the jury instructions - was that his vote alone could have blocked the jury from handing down a death sentence and given Storey life in prison without the possibility of parole. Thinking that he'd have to convince most of his fellow jurors to spare Storey from execution, he didn't fight as the jury deliberated, Berger said. When the life-or-death questions went around the table, he answered like everyone else. Now, with Storey's execution set for April 12, Berger and at least 2 state lawmakers are hoping to change jury instructions in death penalty cases. "The judge instructed us that any vote that would impose a life sentence would require a consensus of 10 or more jurors," Berger wrote in a letter to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee last week. "With the vast majority of the other jurors in the room ... voicing their vote for death, I seriously doubted I could persuade 1, let alone 9 other jurors, to vote to incarcerate Mr. Storey for the remainder of his life, and I switched my vote." 'I was shocked' To hand down a death sentence in Texas, the jury's decision must be unanimous. If even 1 juror disagrees, the trial automatically results in a sentence of life without parole. But the jury instructions don't say that, and, under state law, no judge or lawyer can tell jurors that either. Instead, deliberations in a trial's sentencing phase focus not on death versus life, but on 3 specific questions the jury must answer: is the defendant likely to be a future danger to society? If the defendant wasn't the actual killer, did he or she intend to kill someone or anticipate death? And, if the answer is yes to the previous questions, is there any mitigating evidence - like an intellectual disability - that the jury thinks warrants the lesser sentence of life without parole? To issue a death sentence, the jury must unanimously answer "yes" to the first 2 questions and "no" to the last question. But, the instructions state, to answer "no" to the first 2 questions or "yes" to the last, 10 or more jurors must agree. What those complicated instructions don't say is that a single juror can deadlock the jury on any of the 3 questions, eliminating death as an option and triggering an automatic life without parole sentence. Berger didn't get the distinction. "I'm appalled that Texas' capital jury instructions misled jurors about the implications of their vote, and find it unconscionable that men and women like me, with the power of life and death, are told that they must act only as a single group, and that their individual voice doesn't matter," Berger wrote in his letter. He's not the only one upset. Democratic Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. of Brownsville and Rep. Abel Herrero of Robstown filed bills in the Texas Legislature to strike the language that says ten or more jurors must agree to answer against the death penalty, and also remove a sentence that bars judges or lawyers from telling jurors what their votes mean. And Republican Rep. John Smithee, of Amarillo, has since signed on to Herrero's bill as a co-author. Senate Bill 1616 and House Bill 3054 have both been referred to committee. "I was shocked to learn that the instructions in place actually lie to jurors who are tasked with quite literally making a life or death decision," Lucio told the Tribune, saying religious advocates first informed him of the current jury instructions. 'A guessing game' The bills might not make much headway in a Republican-dominated legislature that tends to avoid anything that could affect the death penalty. Though no opposition has come forward yet (neither bill has even been granted a hearing), prosecutors would likely fight it if it gained traction. "In a death penalty case, the jury's job in sentencing is to answer the special questions required by the law, not decide the ultimate sentence. This bill informs them of the effect of their vote and basically encourages any hold-out jurors to try to hang the jury on
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., ALA., TENN., ARK.
March 31 TEXAS: Texas Executions May Slow Down, But Won't Stop Texas executes more people than any state, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week that spared the life of a mentally disabled Texan and proposed legal reforms are forcing it to confront its fondness for capital punishment. Under the Texas law of parties each person involved in a crime can be charged and convicted for it, no matter if they were an accomplice or the perpetrator. The law came up in the capital murder trial of Erica Yvonne Sheppard, who was sentenced to death in March 1995. The jury heard evidence that Sheppard, then 19, and co-defendant James Dickerson, snuck inside Marilyn Sage Meagher's apartment in June 1993, intending to steal Meagher's car keys. Meagher refused to give up the keys and Dickerson told Sheppard to find a butcher knife. She did, and held Meagher down while Dickerson cut her 5 times, then bashed her with a 10-pound statue. Trying to get her sentence reduced to life in prison, Sheppard, now 43, argued in a federal habeas petition that her trial attorney erred by not objecting when the judge, in explaining the law of parties, incorrectly told jurors that a bank robber and getaway driver would both be guilty of robbery and each should get the same punishment. U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas agreed in a March 29 order denying Sheppard's habeas petition that Sheppard's trial judge got it wrong. Atlas cited Earl Enmund v. Florida, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment did not permit the death penalty for Enmund because he was the getaway driver for 2 people who robbed and murdered an elderly couple, but he did not kill nor intend to kill the couple. But Atlas found Sheppard's culpability sufficient to hold her responsible for the murder, even if the trial judge misled the jury. "The evidence establishes that Sheppard was an active, not merely peripheral, participant in the robbery and murder. Therefore, the trial court's erroneous statement as to punishment on the law of parties was not relevant to Sheppard," Atlas wrote. Texas State Reps. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, and Harold Dutton Jr., D-Houston, have introduced legislation that would change the law of parties, banning prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty for accomplices in capital felony cases who were not directly involved in the crime. A bill proposed by state Rep. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, would undo another capital punishment law that favors prosecutors. In Texas death penalty cases, a jury must answer 3 questions: Is the defendant a continuing threat to society? If the defendant was not the actual killer, did he or she intend to kill someone or anticipate death? Is there mitigating evidence in their background, character, or in the circumstances of the crime, sufficient to spare their life? To sentence a defendant to death, a jury must unanimously answer yes to the future threat and intent to kill questions and no to the mitigating evidence question. State law also says that 10 or more jurors must agree to answer the special questions in the defendant's favor to give them a life sentence. Critics say that text is misleading at best, at worst a flat-out lie, because defendants must be given a life sentence if 1 juror decides they don't deserve to be executed, but there's a catch: Judges and attorneys can't tell jurors that under state law. Lucio's SB 1065 would benefit defense attorneys because it would remove the bar against judges and attorneys telling jurors that one of them can prevent a death penalty, and nix the de facto rule that 10 or more jurors have to agree on 1 of the 2 special questions to recommend a life sentence. Lucio told the Texas Tribune he filed the bill after religious groups told him about the mandatory jury instructions. "I was shocked to learn that the instructions in place actually lie to jurors who are tasked with quite literally making a life or death decision," Lucio told the Tribune. The U.S. Supreme Court undercut Texas' willingness to execute mentally deficient prisoners this week when it blocked the execution of Bobby James Moore, a 57-year-old African-American, who has been on death row since his July 1980 sentence for fatally shooting a grocery store clerk with a shotgun during a botched robbery in April that year. Experts have testified that at age 13, Moore could not differentiate the days of the week, tell time or understand that addition is the opposite of subtraction. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Moore's death penalty, ruling that habeas cases need only consider rules it adopted in 2004 to guide lower courts in assessing intellectual disability. The Briseno factors, named for plaintiff Jose Briseno, ask seven questions, most notably: "Can the person hide facts or lie effectively in his own or others' interests?" and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., FLA., ARK.
March 29 TEXAS: Texas Must Broaden Death-Penalty Exemption, High Court Says A divided U.S. Supreme Court said Texas must broaden its death-penalty exemption for people who are intellectually disabled, ruling that the state was violating the Constitution by using outdated medical standards. The 5-3 ruling could mean a new sentencing hearing for Bobby James Moore, 57, who was convicted of fatally shooting James McCarble during a 1980 grocery store robbery in Houston. Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that, while states have some flexibility to determine who's ineligible for the death penalty, they can't completely disregard current medical standards. The case divided the court along ideological lines, with Justice Anthony Kennedy joining the court's liberal wing in the majority. "Texas cannot satisfactorily explain why it applies current medical standards for diagnosing intellectual disability in other contexts, yet clings to superseded standards when an individual's life is at stake," Ginsburg wrote for the majority. The Supreme Court barred the execution of intellectually disabled people in 2002 as violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments. To a large degree, however, the court left it to the states to determine who qualifies for that exemption. Texas is one of the nation's top death-penalty states, with 239 people on death row, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website. In upholding Moore's death sentence, Texas's top criminal appeals court said the state could continue to use a 1992 definition of intellectual disability as part of a multi-factor test for determining eligibility for capital punishment. The state court also said it stood by a 2004 ruling that used Lennie Small, a mentally challenged character in John Steinbeck's novel "Of Mice and Men," as an example of someone who might be exempt from the death penalty. Ginsburg called that test an "outlier," saying that only 2 other state courts had adopted anything similar. In dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts said the high court had overstepped its authority. "Clinicians, not judges, should determine clinical standards," Roberts wrote for himself and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, "and judges, not clinicians, should determine the content of the Eighth Amendment." (source: bloombergquint.com) ** Texas Used Wrong Standard in Death Penalty Cases, Justices RuleThe case concerned Bobby J. Moore, who has been on death row in Texas since 1980 for fatally shooting a Houston supermarket clerk during a robbery. The Supreme Court on Tuesday continued a trend toward limiting capital punishment, rejecting Texas' approach to deciding which intellectually disabled people must be spared the death penalty. Writing for the majority in the 5-to-3 decision, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Texas had failed to keep up with current medical consensus, relied too heavily on I.Q. scores and took account of factors rooted in stereotypes. "Texas cannot satisfactorily explain why it applies current medical standards for diagnosing intellectual disability in other contexts, yet clings to superseded standards when an individual's life is at stake," Justice Ginsburg wrote. She was joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The case was the latest in a series of decisions refining the court's 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia, which barred the execution of the intellectually disabled as a violation of the Eighth Amendment???s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Atkins decision gave states substantial discretion to decide just who was, in the language of the day, "mentally retarded." But the decision did set out a general framework. It said a finding of intellectual disability required proof of 3 things: "subaverage intellectual functioning," meaning low I.Q. scores; a lack of fundamental social and practical skills; and the presence of both conditions before age 18. The court said I.Q. scores under "approximately 70" typically indicated disability. The case before the court on Tuesday concerned Bobby J. Moore, who has been on death row since 1980 for fatally shooting a 72-year-old Houston supermarket clerk, James McCarble, during a robbery. Justice Ginsburg wrote that Mr. Moore's I.Q. was in the range of 69 to 79, meaning that other factors had to be considered. In dissent, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that only 2 I.Q. scores had been found reliable, of 78 and 74. "The court's ruling on intellectual functioning turns solely on the fact that Moore's I.Q. range was 69 to 79 rather than 70 to 80," Chief Justice Roberts wrote. The reliable scores were enough, he said, to decide the case and to allow Mr. Moore's execution. Justice Ginsburg said the courts have more work to do when I.Q. scores are close to the line. For
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
March 28 TEXAS: Justices side with Texas death row inmate who argued intellectual disability The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a Texas man on death row who argued he was mentally disabled and could not be executed. In a 5-3 ruling, the court said the state's definition and standards for assessing intellectual disability "create an unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability will be executed." Those standards, known as the Briseno factors, take into account whether neighbors, teachers and friends think the person is intellectually disabled, makes plans or was impulsive, is a leader or a follower, responds in a rational way to situations, respond coherently to oral or written questions and can hide facts or lie to others in their own interest. In delivering the opinion of the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said adjudications of intellectual disability should be informed by the views of medical experts. "Texas cannot satisfactorily explain why it applies current medical standards for diagnosing intellectual disability in other contexts, yet clings to superseded standards when an individual's life is at stake," she wrote in the majority opinion, which Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined. The case centered on Bobby James Moore, who was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for fatally shooting a store clerk during a botched robbery that occurred when Moore was 20 years old. Evidence at his trial showed that he had significant mental and social difficulties beginning at an early age. At 13, he lacked basic understanding of the days of the week, the months of the year and the seasons. He could hardly tell time or understand the basic principle that subtraction is the reverse of addition. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA), however, said Moore had failed to prove significantly sub-average intellectual functioning with an IQ score of 74. Ginsburg said, however, that when an IQ score is close to, but above, 70, court precedent requires courts to account for the test's "standard error of measurement" and consider a defendant's adaptive functioning. She said the court also deviated from prevailing clinical standards in considering his adaptive functioning. Chief Justice John Roberts filed a dissenting opinion that Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas joined. Roberts said he agrees that the state used unacceptable standards to analyze Moore's adaptive deficits, but disagreed that it erred in analyzing Moore's intellectual functioning. "The Court overturns the CCA's conclusion that Moore failed to present sufficient evidence of both inadequate intellectual functioning and significant deficits in adaptive behavior without even considering 'objective indicia of society's standards' reflected in the practices among the states," he wrote. "The Court instead crafts a constitutional holding based solely on what it deems to be medical consensus about intellectual disability." (source: thehill.com) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ARK., USA
March 25 TEXASimpending execution Hurst parents make video plea to Abbott to spare their son's murdererGlenn and Judy Cherry are pleading that Governor Greg Abbott save the life of Paul Storey, one of the men who killed their son and was condemned to death. What his jurors did not know after all the evidence was presented at his trial may have doomed death row inmate Paul Storey, according to a clemency petition filed Wednesday with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Storey, convicted in 2008 for the brutal execution-style murder of Jonas Cherry, is scheduled to die on April 12. Storey's lawyers, his family, and Cherry's parents are fighting to save Storey's life. Cherry begged for his life during the crime, which took place about 8:45 a.m. Oct. 16, 2006. Storey and Mark Porter stood over Cherry, who pleaded: "Please! I gave you what you want. Don't hurt me!" They refused and shot him twice in the head and twice in his legs. Cherry, who was approaching his 1st wedding anniversary, was pronounced dead at the scene. Storey and Porter were convicted of capital murder, but only Storey got the death penalty. Porter got life without parole after making a deal with the Tarrant County district attorney's office. If recent history is any guide, the chances that Storey's request for mercy will be granted are slim. The reality is at this stage of the proceedings a clemency petition is just about the only thing a defendant can ask for. Mike Ware, Paul Storey's attorney. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has received 82 clemency applications in capital cases during the past 5 fiscal years and has recommended that none be granted. Neither Governor Rick Perry nor Greg Abbott have granted anyone clemency in a capital case during the past 5 fiscal years. Texas also tends not to commute sentences for those convicted of crime. Out of the 551 commutation applications received during the past 5 fiscal years the board has recommended that 4 be granted and Abbott and Perry have granted none. Perry and Abbott have not granted any emergency reprieves, conditional pardons, restorations of civil rights or pardons based on innocence during the past 5 years, despite the hundreds of applications received by the board during that same time period. The pardons board has recommended that only a few applications be considered during the past 5 fiscal years. Despite the daunting statistics, Storey's advocates say they have hope that mercy will be granted in his case. "Every case is unique and every case should be looked at that way," said Mike Ware, 1 of the attorneys representing Storey. "Hopefully we can persuade the board and the governor to look at this case as a unique case. The reality is at this stage of the proceedings a clemency petition is just about the only thing a defendant can ask for." Storey's attorneys argue in his clemency petition that almost no one associated with his case wanted him to be executed. The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office offered Storey a life sentence which he refused and Glenn and Judy Cherry, the victim's parents, have made a video and sent a letter to state and local officials asking that his life be spared. Storey's mother, Marilyn Shankle-Grant, said Storey told her that he would have had to admit to killing Cherry in order to be offered a life prison sentence and Storey maintained that he did not kill Cherry. "Paul said he did not shoot Cherry in the head," Shankle-Grant said. Misrepresentations According to the petition, the views of Cherry's parents were misrepresented by prosecutors during the original trial. The prosecution argued that all of Cherry's family and everyone who loved him believe that the death penalty is appropriate, the petition said. According to Storey's attorneys and advocates, that was not true then and that is not true now. "Judith and Glenn Cherry did not want death for Mr. Storey," the petition states. "Unknown to the jury and contrary to the state's argument, they stood with the family members who pleaded for the jury to spare Mr. Storey's life." Subsequent psychological testing also indicated that Storey was just barely functional intellectually. A juror, Sven Berger, who deliberated on Storey's case, signed affidavits stating that had he known that the parents of the victim did not want Storey to receive the death penalty or had he known about Storey's diminished intellectual capacity, he would not have voted for the death penalty. "I hope that everything works out for Paul," Berger said during an interview. "I felt kind of guilty. I still feel kind of guilty. The trial has never left my mind completely. And lately, I've thought about it a lot more." (source: star-telegram.com) *** 2 jurors seated in Colone capital murder trial, but selection could take another month Testimony is still a month away in the capital murder
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
March 24 TEXAS: The Trouble with InnocenceFor almost 40 years, Kerry Max Cook did everything to clear his name after being convicted of a horrifying murder in Tyler. So when he was finally exonerated, why did he ask for his conviction back? June 6, 2016, convicted murderer Kerry Max Cook walked into a Tyler courtroom. The 60-year-old was dressed in black, his silver hair trimmed short. Cook's eyes, dark and nervous, shot around the wood-paneled chamber, which was filling rapidly. Local news reporters and a documentary-film crew from New York were setting up cameras and microphones. Cook caught sight of 3 men in the audience, men who had once been convicted criminals themselves: Billy Smith, Michael Morton, and A.B. Butler Jr. All 3, famously, had been proved innocent of their alleged crimes after serving a collective 60 years behind bars. They had come from miles away to attend this hearing, and Cook walked over to greet them. Smiling, the 3 stood to shake his hand. Morton clapped him on the shoulder. Cook, who has a big, square face, smiled too. He had fought for almost 4 decades to get to this moment. In 1978 a jury found him guilty of the murder of Linda Jo Edwards, a 22-year-old Tyler secretary whose body was discovered in her apartment bludgeoned and mutilated. The case confounded the city's investigators and prosecutors with its gruesomeness, and Cook became known as a monster and a deviant, the most notorious killer in Smith County. Over the years, the county's prosecutors had sought - 4 different times - to send Cook to death row. But Cook had always claimed he was innocent, saying he'd had no motive to kill Edwards. Though his protests garnered little attention early on, eventually his case attracted a number of sympathizers and advocates, some who reexamined the evidence and others who represented him in court for his numerous appeals. Cook and his supporters had clashed fiercely with Smith County, making repeated headlines, and he had become a celebrity worldwide, an indelible symbol - at least outside Tyler - of the overreach of the Texas criminal justice system. His story was dramatized in both a play and a movie, and Cook grew into an anti-death penalty hero, accumulating thousands of friends and followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter; 1 of his fans, Madonna, had recently posted a short video made by New York fashion photographer Steven Klein about Cook. "Join me and Steven Klein," she wrote, "in his long struggle to prove his innocence and clear his name." Now, finally, Cook had been granted this hearing, to determine whether his conviction should be thrown out at last. Scanning the room, he recognized many of the players who had moved his case through the courts. Up front was Scott Howe, who had represented him in the eighties, sitting next to Paul Nugent, who had done so in the nineties. In the back was Nugent's adversary, David Dobbs, the prosecutor who, for 8 years, had tried relentlessly to have Cook executed. Also present was Jim McCloskey, an investigator for Cook whose research had led to an exhaustive report naming another man - Edwards's boyfriend - as her killer. That man, James Mayfield, was in the courthouse too, waiting in a hallway for his turn to testify. 40 years earlier, Mayfield had been a brazen lothario, carrying on a 17-month affair with Edwards - who was 1/2 his age - under his wife's nose. On this day, though, the 82-year-old sat quietly, wearing a green T-shirt and spectacles, looking tired. Cook took a seat at a table in front of the judge's dais, next to his lawyers, Gary Udashen, the president of the board of directors of the Innocence Project of Texas, and Nina Morrison, from the national Innocence Project. Across from them were the district attorney of Smith County, Matt Bingham, and 2 assistants. The 6 sat in awkward silence as they waited for the judge to appear. Finally Cook whispered something to Morrison, putting his arm around her shoulder. She leaned in and whispered something back. Moments later, at 9:30, Judge Jack Carter climbed into his seat, banged his gavel, and announced to the world what Cook and his lawyers already knew. Peering over the bench, the judge declared in a deep East Texas accent that, as of that morning, the state had agreed to recommend that Cook's conviction be set aside. He was, for all practical purposes, exonerated. Quickly, Udashen, whose graying eyebrows and glasses give him an owlish look, rose from his seat and addressed the court. He and Bingham had struck a deal, he explained: in return for the prosecution's acknowledging that Cook's due process rights had been violated by the state's use of false testimony in earlier trials, the defense had agreed to relinquish 6 of its 8 claims, including several that alleged prosecutorial misconduct. The defense would still fight for Cook to be declared "actually innocent" of the murder, a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., ALA.
March 22 TEXAS: Fill gaps in capital case trial lawyers The shrinking list of lawyers qualified to handle the growing list of capital murder defendants in Bexar County does not bode well for the criminal justice system. With 68 capital murder cases pending and only 11 lawyers living in the county who meet the minimum requirement to represent indigent defendants who might end up on death row, the likelihood is high that many of those cases will not be resolved soon. Most defendants charged with capital murder are at the mercy of the criminal justice system for their legal defense. They generally lack the financial means to hire legal counsel or post bond. That means those accused of capital murder in Bexar County will spend a long time in the local lockup awaiting their day in court. It also means a long wait for resolution by the families of the victims in those cases. Usually, 2 lawyers are assigned to each capital murder case. Texas law requires those assigned as lead lawyers in capital murder cases to have spent 5 years doing criminal law work; have experience challenging mental health or forensics experts in court; and be skilled at presenting mitigating evidence to a jury. The rules are well intentioned given the growing number of death row inmates across the country who have been exonerated. In Texas alone, 12 people have been released from death row since 1973. The problems with the strict appointment guidelines is that they do not allow the assignment of former prosecutors who may have tried capital murder cases or former judges who may have presided over such cases. Lawyers on the list of candidates qualified to handle capital murder cases in Bexar County are vetted by a local selection committee, but the group of veteran lawyers and jurists serving on it are strictly bound by the state regulations. Attempts by the Bexar County judiciary to broaden the rules to allow former prosecutors and judges to qualify for the appointments have met with stiff opposition at the state level. The issue needs to be addressed. Burdening a small group with the defense of the most serious of felonies is a disservice to the lawyers and their clients. The cases can be emotionally and physically grueling on the defense team. The sheer number of cases each lawyer is handling makes a strong case for an appeal based on ineffective assistance of counsel. The shortage of lawyers to handle capital murder defense work is not unique to Bexar County. Express-News Staff Writer Bruce Selcraig reports that other jurisdictions are experiencing the same situation. Establishing a public defenders office that would include lawyers who are experienced in capital murder defense is an expensive proposition. The same can be said for hiring defense lawyers from out of town to tackle the caseload. The fee paid to court-appointed lawyers in capital murder cases is only $150 an hour for actual trial work, but the costs add up quickly for taxpayers footing the bill. If lawyers are brought in from out of town, there is the added cost for travel, lodging and meals. The number of death sentences in Texas has been steadily declining since life without parole became a sentencing option. It has gone from 48 people sent to death row in 1999 to only 4 in 2016. Lack of eligible lawyers to handle capital murders defense work could bring those numbers down further. If that was the intent behind the strict rules on the criminal defense appointments, then let's be upfront about it and start a serious discussion on the future of the death penalty in Texas. If not, the stressful workload piled on the few attorneys qualified to represent capital murder defendants needs to addressed. It is simply unacceptable that defendants without financial means have limited access to defense lawyers in capital cases. The list of available attorneys needs to be broadened. (source: Editorial Board, San Antonio Express-News) VIRGINIAimpending execution 'Innocent on Death Row' event calls on McAuliffe to issue a stay of execution for man convicted of murder-for-hireIvan Teleguz execution date set for April 25 Over 200 students gathered in Clark 107 Monday to listen to attorney Elizabeth Peiffer make the case that Ivan Teleguz - a death row inmate convicted of hiring a man to murder his ex-girlfriend and who is set to be executed on April 25 - is innocent. "He was charged with hiring someone to murder the ex-girlfriend and mother of his child, Stephanie Sipe," Peiffer, a staff attorney at the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, said in an interview with The Cavalier Daily prior to the event. "After he was convicted a lot of evidence began to emerge that he was innocent of the murder." The murder took place in July 2001 in Harrisonburg. Teleguz is alleged to have hired and driven 2 men - Edwin Gilkes and Michael Hetrick - from Lancaster, Penn.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., TENN.
March 21 TEXASimpending execution Parents of slain Hurst Putt-Putt manager seek to halt killer's executio The parents of a man slain during a robbery in 2006 in Northeast Tarrant County have signed an affidavit calling on the state not to execute one of the killers next month. Glenn and Judy Cherry, whose son Jonas Cherry was killed at Putt-Putt Golf and Games in Hurst where he was an assistant manager, wrote a letter to state and local authorities requesting that Paul Storey's death sentence be commuted to life without parole. "Paul Storey's execution will not bring our son back, will not atone for the loss of our son and will not bring comfort or closure," the affidavit states. "We are satisfied that Paul Storey remaining in prison until his death will assure that he cannot murder another innocent person in the community, and with this outcome we are satisfied and convinced that lawful retribution is exercised concerning the death of our son." Cherry's parents, who are opposed to the death penalty, addressed the letter to Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson, Gov. Greg Abbott, state District Judge Robb Catalano and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Glenn and Judy Cherry said they know how hard it is to lose a child and have no wish to see Storey's family suffer in a similar way. "His family did not harm us and are innocent regarding our suffering," the letter states. Jonas Cherry begged for his life during the crime, which took place about 8:45 a.m. Oct. 16, 2006. Storey and Mike Porter stood over Jonas Cherry, who pleaded: "Please! I gave you what you want. Don't hurt me." They refused and shot him twice in the head and twice in his legs. Cherry, who was approaching his 1st wedding anniversary, was pronounced dead at the scene. Storey and Porter were convicted of capital murder, but only Storey got the death penalty. Porter got life without parole after making a deal with the Tarrant County district attorney's office. Storey is scheduled to be executed April 12. On Monday afternoon, Storey's lawyers continued their efforts to persuade the state to spare his life. During a hearing, attorneys Mike Ware and Keith Hampton said they plan to file their client's clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this week. Clemency, or mercy, is something attorneys representing death row clients routinely ask for but seldom receive. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 282 death row inmates nationwide have been granted clemency for humanitarian reasons since 1976, but only 2 of those inmates were in Texas. According to documents filed in federal court, Storey's lawyers were never told that he was just barely functional intellectually. That information has, in part, led at least 1 juror to change his mind. Sven Berger, a 36-year-old software engineer now living in Washington state, voted for the death penalty along with the other 11 jurors at the end of Storey's trial in 2008. The jury deliberated less than 2 hours before assessing the death penalty, Berger said. "There was a definite sense in the room that a decision had already been made," Berger said. "Had I known he was mentally impaired there would have been a much longer conversation about my decision." Berger, who has signed an affidavit detailing his change of mind, also said that prosecutors argued during the trial that Cherry's parents wanted the death penalty to be imposed. Ware recently told him that Cherry's parents wanted Storey to have a life sentence without parole. "More than anything else that affected me," Berger said. "If the family of the deceased did not want the perpetrator executed, that would have been important for me to know, and I believe it would have been important to the other jurors." Christopher Wilkins, who went on a 2-day killing spree in Fort Worth and was executed on Jan. 11, was the 1st person executed in the United States in 2017. Berger said he got the impression during testimony that Storey was not very bright but was not a future danger to society. But he did not feel equipped at that time to sway other jurors to his way of thinking. He said he never understood why Storey deserved a death sentence while his accomplice, Porter, received a life sentence. "It seemed clear to me that Porter was the leader," Berger said. "It irritated me that he took the plea deal. It was infuriating to see Porter get life and Storey get death." Storey's mother, Marilyn Shankle-Grant, said she spoke to Berger about his change of heart and forgave him. "This young man was placed in the position of deciding whether someone was going to live or die," Shankle-Grant said. "He didn't want to go against the crowd. There were a whole lot of people who were going one way and he didn't want to voice his opinion. "We all have things that we've done in the past that we wish we could have done
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., ARK., USA
March 20 TEXAS: Severe mental illness and the death penalty Over the course of our state's history, people with severe mental illnesses have faced serious consequences in the criminal justice system. All too often, these individuals faced capital punishment, a sentence that frequently extends an already emotionally difficult ordeal for family members, involves years of litigation and occurs at high financial cost to taxpayers. The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for persons with intellectual disabilities and for juveniles - because medical research shows those individuals do not have the same mental capacity as fully-functioning adults. People experiencing symptoms of severe mental illnesses are clearly in the same category and should be treated the same way. Assessing capital punishment in these unique and infrequent cases disregards the growing scientific consensus that severe mental illness can significantly impair one's ability to make rational decisions, understand the consequences of one's actions and control one's impulses. The diagnosis process is lengthy, detailed and accurate. The capital punishment approach sweeps aside our collective responsibility to provide adequate care options for persons with mental health disabilities. In January, the Texas House Select Committee on Mental Health released its interim report and recommendations. The report acknowledged "an estimated 30 percent of inmates have one or more serious mental illnesses." To address the issue of individuals with serious mental illness, one must broach the complex relationships between the mental health community and the criminal justice system. It is clear that a lack of access to treatment can directly result in costly, non-therapeutic criminal justice system involvement. Individuals who are guilty should be held accountable for their actions, but we propose that individuals who qualify for the severe mental illness exemption from the death penalty should be subject to criminal prosecution, and if convicted, should serve terms of life without parole. Our proposed exemption would not apply to a broad range of individuals. Only those with medical diagnoses such as schizophrenia, schizo-effective disorder, paranoia and other psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression should be considered. It would apply on a case-by-case basis; a judge or jury would consider all of the evidence to determine whether a person had a severe mental illness with active symptoms at the time of the crime. When individuals with severe mental illnesses enter the criminal justice system and are not appropriately diverted to treatment, the state runs the risk of executing innocent people. Individuals with severe mental illnesses run a higher risk of being executed, typically after bending to police pressure, firing their counsel and representing themselves or refusing to help with their own defense. A 2012 study found that approximately 70 % of wrongfully convicted defendants with mental illness confessed to crimes they didn't commit. This compares to only 10 % of defendants without a mental illness. Mental illness is not a choice. We as a society have already answered the question of how to address persons with severe mental disabilities as it relates to the criminal justice system. Our challenge nationally, and as a state, is to ensure this approach is now reflected in all aspects of the law. Toni Rose, State representative, District 110 (source: Texas Tribune) ALABAMA: Lawmakers to vote on death penalty bill Alabama lawmakers will vote next month on whether to prohibit a judge from imposing a death sentence when a jury has recommended life imprisonment. Alabama is the only state that allows a judge to override a jury's sentence recommendation in capital murder cases. The Alabama House of Representatives is scheduled to debate the bill on April 4 when lawmakers return from a 2-week spring break. The Senate has already approved the measure. The bill is 3rd on the proposed debate agenda for the day. According to the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative, since 1976 Alabama judges have overridden jury recommendations 112 times. In 101 of those cases, the judges gave a death sentence. The legislation would only affect future capital cases, not inmates currently on Alabama's death row. (source: Tuscaloosa News) ARKANSAS: Arkansas's Cruel and Unusual Killing Spree Arkansas's plan to execute 8 men in 11 days next month is a recipe for disaster, one entirely of the state's making. Although the state has not put anyone to death since November 2005, it now says that it must execute 2 people per day on April 17, 20, 24 and 27 because its current supply of midazolam, 1 of its 3 execution drugs, will expire at the end of the month. This will be the fastest spate of executions in any state in more than 40
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., CONN., PENN., ALA., ARK., CALIF., USA
March 9 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: "No Need" for Mental TestsJames Bigby will be the 4th Texan executed in 2017 James Bigby, 61, is scheduled to be the 4th Texan executed this year when he goes to the Huntsville gurney on Tuesday, March 14. The Fort Worth native has spent the last 25 years on death row after a 2-day killing spree that left 4 people dead. The murders began on Dec. 23, 1987. Bigby was convinced that several of his acquaintances were conspiring against him when he arrived at his friend Mike Trekell's Fort Worth home for dinner. Trekell was cooking when Bigby shot him in the head, then drowned Trekell's 4-month-old son in the kitchen sink. He then moved on to the houses of 2 more friends - Calvin Crane and Frank "Bubba" Johnson - killing both. He was arrested at an Arlington hotel on Dec. 26. Bigby confessed to the crimes when he was arrested and again later in a written statement. At his trial, during a recess, Bigby grabbed a gun from the bench, broke into chambers, and threatened his trial judge at gunpoint. Though he was disarmed before anything happened, the incident influenced the jury's decision in determining Bigby's future dangerousness; he was convicted of capital murder in March 1991, and sentenced to death. Prior to his killing spree, Bigby had a history of robberies and sexual assault, which prosecutors focused on during sentencing. His defense argued their client suffered from schizophrenia and depression, and that he was a product of a neglectful upbringing. (The defense also addressed Bigby's newfound reverence for religion.) Appeals have focused on the trial counsel's failure to address Bigby's family's history - a violation of Bigby's right to assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment. Court records indicate that Bigby's mother gave away each of his siblings to relatives, which caused him to fear he too would be abandoned. Bigby also detailed his unhealthy relationship with his mother - noting that she breastfed him until he was 7 - as well as her alcoholism, and her attempted suicide. None of those hardships have done anything to sway any appeals court. Bigby has had no sustainable luck finding relief at the state or federal levels - however, in 2005, the district court wherein he filed his appeal vacated his death sentence after ruling that his trial jury was given inadequate instructions regarding death penalty sentencing, citing the 2001 case Penry v. Johnson. In 2006, he attended a 2nd sentencing trial and was handed a 2nd death sentence. In March 2015, Bigby filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, though the effort was rejected by SCOTUS 2 months later. In September 2016, the state filed a motion to issue an execution date, but according to the order written by Tarrant County Judge Robb Catalano, Bigby's counsel requested additional time. Bigby "had been uncooperative and uncommunicative with him, such that he was unable to 'rationally evaluate' the Defendant's state of mind or mental ability," wrote Catalano. Bigby's attorney filed a report stating "no need" for a mental examination on Oct. 27, 2016 - Bigby "understands the reason for his execution." An execution warrant was signed a few days later. If all goes the way the state intends, Bigby will be the 2nd Tarrant County resident executed this year and 542nd in Texas since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976. (source: Austin Chronicle) * Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present23 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-541 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 24-March 14-James Bigby---542 25-April 12-Paul Storey---543 26-May 16---Tilon Carter--544 27-May 24---Juan Castillo--545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) Court affirms conviction, death penalty for Petetan The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday affirmed the April 2014 capital murder conviction and death sentence of Carnell Petetan Jr. A 19th State District Court jury convicted Petetan, 41, in the September 2012 shooting death of his estranged wife, Kimberly Farr Petetan, a few months after he was released from a 20-year prison sentence. 8 judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals voted to reject Petetan's 30 points of appeal, while Judge Elsa Alcala dissented, saying she preferred not to rule on Petetan's case while the Texas standard for determining whether someone is intellectually disabled is in legal flux. The McLennan County jury found that Petetan constitutes a continuing threat to society and rejected his claim that he is exempt from execution because of mental impairment.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., GA., FLA., ARK., NEB., USA
March 8 TEXASexecution Texas killer Ruiz apologizes for '92 contract murder before execution"Words cannot begin to express how sorry I am," the condemned prisoner said in his final statement. After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last appeal, condemned contract killer Rolando Ruiz, Jr., was executed Tuesday night by the state of Texas -- its 3rd lethal injection in the past 2 months. Prison officials at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville administered the lethal drugs at around 10:30 p.m., not long after the Supreme Court's decision. He was pronounced dead 29 minutes later. Ruiz previously received 2 stays of execution from federal and state appeals courts. Monday, a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit denied another request for a stay and the United States' highest court followed suit late Tuesday. Ruiz, 44, was tried and convicted of the 1992 contract killing of Theresa Rodriguez, which was orchestrated by her husband, Michael, and his brother, Mark, in order to collect on her $400,000 life insurance policy. Ruiz showed remorse for the 29-year-old woman's death in his final statement Tuesday night. "I would like to say to the Sanchez family how sorry I am. Words cannot begin to express how sorry I am and the hurt that I have caused you and your family," he told the woman's relatives just moments before his execution began. "To my family, thank you for all your love and support. I am at peace. Jesus Christ is Lord. I love you all." 2 of Theresa Rodriguez's sisters and 2 brothers in-law witnessed the execution, as did an acquaintance and half-brother of Ruiz's. "There's never closure," the victim's father, Eddie Sanchez, said Monday. "It's not going to bring my daughter back." Detectives found during their criminal investigation that Ruiz was paid $2,000 to kill Rodriguez when she returned home from an outing with her husband and brother in-law, who were in on the plot, on July 14, 1992. She was shot once in the face by Ruiz, who ambushed her while she sat in a car in the driveway of her San Antonio home. The Rodriguez brothers pleaded guilty in the case and received life in prison. Ruiz, who was 20 at the time of the crime, was given a death sentence after a jury found him guilty of capital murder in May 1995. Michael Rodriguez was later a member of the Texas Seven, a group of prisoners who escaped from a prison in east central Texas in 2000. He was executed 8 years later for killing a police officer during the escape. The issue weighed by the Supreme Court Tuesday night was whether Ruiz had been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment by spending 17 years in solitary confinement. Ruiz's attorneys argued in their petition that he had been, which would constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment. The high court disagreed. Ruiz's execution follows the lethal injections of 2 other convicted killers in Texas this year -- Christopher Chubasco Wilkins and Terry Darnell Edwards on Jan. 11 and Jan. 26, respectively. It is the 5th death sentence carried out in the United States this year. Historically, Texas is the most active state when it comes to executing inmates. Nearly 550 Texas prisoners have been put to death since a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in 1976. By contrast, California, which holds a death row population nearly 3 times the size of Texas, has executed 13 people. Florida, which incarcerates the nation's 2nd-largest group of condemned inmates (396), has executed less than 100 in that same time span. In 2016, though, Georgia carried out the most executions (9) in the country, followed by Texas (7). Earlier this year, Texas filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for preventing the state from importing drugs that are used in lethal injections. Several other states are also having difficulty obtaining the drugs traditionally used in a 3-step process. Last week, Arkansas scheduled the executions of 8 prisoners on 4 days in April, purportedly because its supply of 1 drug will expire in May. (source: UPI) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present23 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-541 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 24-March 14James Bigby--542 25-April 12-Paul Storey---543 26-May 16---Tilon Carter--544 27-May 24---Juan Castillo--545 28-June 28---Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ** DA will seek death penalty in fatal beating of pregnant Corpus Christi woman Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a man accused of fatally beating to death his pregnant girlfriend, Nueces
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
March 7 TEXASexecution SA hit man Rolando Ruiz executed after Supreme Court denies appeals The U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeals from attorneys trying to keep a paid hit man from execution in Texas for gunning down a San Antonio woman in a life insurance scheme nearly a quarter-century ago. Rolando Ruiz was convicted of accepting $2,000 to fatally shoot Theresa Rodriguez, 29, outside her home in 1992 as she was getting out of a car with her husband and brother-in-law, who both orchestrated her murder. The ruling came down just after 10 p.m. and he was pronounced dead at 11:06 p.m. The execution was delayed nearly 5 hours before the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last-day appeals from Ruiz's attorneys. Ruiz approached a car pulling up to Rodriguez's home the night of July 14, 1992, under the guise of seeking directions. Her husband of nearly seven years, Michael, was in the car along with Michael's brother, Mark. Ruiz, who already had pocketed $1,000 and had failed in two earlier killing attempts, asked Mark Rodriguez if he wanted him to "do it," and Rodriguez gave him the go-ahead. As Theresa Rodriguez was getting out of the car, Ruiz put a .357 Magnum revolver to her head and fired. 3 days later, Ruiz collected another $1,000 for the completed job. Evidence showed Michael Rodriguez stood to collect at least a quarter-million dollars in insurance benefits from his wife's death and that he'd recently applied for another $150,000 in life insurance for her. Ruiz had met Mark Rodriguez at the home of a mutual friend, was arrested nine days after the shooting and implicated the brothers. The police investigation was aided by a telephone tip after Theresa Rodriguez's employer, the San Antonio-based financial services giant USAA, offered a $50,000 reward for information about her slaying. Ruiz becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 541st overall since the state resumed capital punishment on december 7, 1982. Ruiz becomes the 23rd condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since greg Abbott became governor. Ruiz becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1447th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: KSAT news & Rick Halperin *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present23 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-541 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 24-March 14-James Bigby---542 25-April 12-Paul Storey---543 26-May 16---Tilon Carter--544 27-May 24---Juan Castillo--545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., S.C., GA., ALA., OHIO, IND., CALIF.
March 7 TEXASimpending execution Hit man in San Antonio murder-for-hire slaying set to dieRolando Ruiz is scheduled to die for the murder-for-hire slaying he carried out more than 24 years ago Rolando Ruiz walked up to a car as it pulled into the driveway of a San Antonio home and said he needed directions. Then he asked Mark Rodriguez, 1 of the 2 men inside the vehicle, "Do I do it?" Rodriguez replied: "Yes." Theresa Rodriguez, Mark's sister-in-law, was getting out the passenger side of the car, looked up at Ruiz as he walked toward her and smiled at him, according to court documents. Ruiz put a .357 Magnum revolver to her head and fired. On Tuesday, Ruiz, 44, was set for lethal injection for the murder-for-hire slaying he carried out more than 24 years ago. Evidence showed he received $2,000 from Mark Rodriguez, whose brother, Michael, stood to collect at least a quarter-million dollars in insurance benefits from his 29-year-old wife's death. Evidence also showed Michael Rodriguez, who also was in the car the night of July 14, 1992, recently had applied for another $150,000 in life insurance for his wife. Ruiz's execution would be the 3rd this year in Texas and the 5th nationally. His lawyers argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that lower courts improperly rejected an earlier appeal. They also contended Ruiz's execution would be unconstitutionally cruel because he's suffered a "uniquely devastating psychological toll" after nearly a quarter-century on death row, multiple execution dates and 2 reprieves. "It is entirely attributable to the state's failure to provide competent lawyers," attorney Lee Kovarsky told the high court in a filing. He also argued the deterrent value of the punishment was "undercut" by the lengthy time between imposing the sentence and carrying it out. State attorneys contended Ruiz's arguments were meant to distract the courts from the weakness of his claims and said Ruiz had taken advantage of legal mechanisms to ensure his conviction and sentence were proper and previous judicial reviews found no constitutional error. While some individual Supreme Court justices have raised questions about long death row confinement, the courts consistently have ruled it was not unconstitutionally cruel, Assistant Texas Attorney General Edward Marshall told the justices. Ruiz's arguments about earlier deficient legal help "have been inspected, scrutinized, studied, probed, analyzed, reviewed and evaluated" at all levels of the federal courts, he said. Ruiz had met Mark Rodriguez at the home of a mutual friend, was arrested nine days after the shooting and implicated the brothers in the contract killing scheme. Police focused on him after receiving a telephone tip after Theresa Rodriguez's employer, the insurance firm USAA, offered a $50,000 reward for information about her slaying. Court records show Ruiz after the shooting drove off in a car waiting for him on the street. Evidence showed Mark Rodriguez already had paid him $1,000, then gave him another $1,000 3 days after the killing. Ruiz had made 2 earlier unsuccessful attempts to kill Theresa Rodriguez. The Rodriguez brothers eventually accepted life prison terms in plea deals. Mark Rodriguez was paroled in 2011. Michael Rodriguez later joined Ruiz on death row as one of the notorious Texas 7, a group of 7 inmates who escaped from a South Texas prison in 2000, remained fugitives for weeks and killed a Dallas-area police officer. He was executed in 2008. He blamed his infatuation with a younger woman for the contract murder plot. Joe Ramon, who accompanied Ruiz the night of the shooting, and Robert Silva, identified as the intermediary who put the Rodriguez brothers in touch with Ruiz, also received life prison sentences. (source: Associated Press) * Texas set to execute triggerman in San Antonio murder-for-hire caseTexas is set to execute hitman Ronaldo Ruiz 25 years after he killed a San Antonio woman for $2,000. It's the fourth time the state has set a date for his death. Prosecutors hope it's the last. It's been almost 25 years since Rolando Ruiz shot and killed a San Antonio woman in her garage. He was a 20-year-old hitman, paid $2,000 by the woman's husband and brother-in-law, who were out to collect her life insurance money. On Tuesday, Texas plans to execute Ruiz - the 4th time the state has set a date for his death in nearly a decade. Ruiz's attorneys are hoping to block this one, too, arguing his nearly 22 years on Texas' death row constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Ruiz killed 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez in July 1992; he was convicted and sentenced to death almost 3 years later. Rodriguez's husband and brother-in-law, Michael and Mark Rodriguez, both received life sentences. Michael, the husband, escaped from prison in 2000, 1 of the notorious "Texas 7." He was sentenced to death and executed in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., MISS., TENN., ARK.
March 4 TEXASimpending executions Texas Prepares for Execution of Rolando Ruiz on March 7, 2017 Rolando Ruiz, Jr., is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CST, on Tuesday, March 7, 2017, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 44-year-old Rolando is convicted of murdering 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez on July 14, 1992, in San Antonio, Texas. Rolando has spent the last 21 years of his life on Texas' death row. As a child, Rolando was allegedly abused, which led him to be addicted to drugs and alcohol. Rolando also claims that because of his excessive use of drugs and alcohol, he has difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality. Rolando dropped out of school following the 10th grade. He worked as a laborer prior to his arrest. Rolando has previously been arrested and served time for assaulting his ex-girlfriend and stealing her vehicle. While in prison, he assaulted a jailer. In 1992, Rolando Ruiz was hired by Michael and Mark Rodriguez to kill Michael's wife, Theresa. Michael agreed to pay Ruiz $1,000 up front, with an additional $1,000 being paid once the job was completed. Prior to the hiring of Ruiz, Michael took out a $150,000 life insurance policy on his wife and himself, in addition to the $250,000 policy he already had. Michael planned for Ruiz to rob and murder Theresa on July 10, 1992, when she arrived for work at a restaurant. Ruiz called off the attack when he spotted a security guard. Michael then asked Ruiz to kill Theresa when they were leaving the movies later that night. Michael and Theresa never showed up at the movies. On July 14, 1992, Mark told Ruiz that he was to follow Michael and Theresa home from the movie theater and then kill her. When Michael pulled the car to stop at his home, Ruiz ran up to the passenger side door and shot Theresa once in the head as she attempted to exit the vehicle Without robbing her, Ruiz fled the scene and spent the rest of the evening playing basketball. 3 days later, Ruiz received his 2nd payment of $1,000. Mark and Michael were sentenced to life in prison after accepting plea agreements, while Rolando received the death sentence. In December of 2000, Michael broke out of prison as a member of the Texas 7. During efforts to recapture the group, police officer Aubry Hawkins was killed. Michael was sentenced to death and executed on August 14, 2008. 2 other men, Joe Ramon and Robert Silva were also sentenced to life in prison for their part in the murder if Theresa. Joe accompanied Ruiz on the night of the murder, while Robert was responsible for putting the Rodriguez brothers in touch with Ruiz. Since in prison, Ruiz is believed to have joined the Texas Syndicate, a notorious prison gang that causes disturbances and assaults other inmates and officers. Rolando Ruiz was twice scheduled to be executed in 2016. The reasons those executions were halted has not been stated. Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Theresa Rodriguez. Please pray for strength for the family of Rolando. Please pray that if Rolando is innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for any other reason that evidence will be presented prior to his execution. Please pray that Rolando may come to find peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if he has not already. Texas Prepares for Execution of James Bigby on March 14, 2017 James Eugene Bigby is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CDT, on Tuesday, March 14, 2017, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 61-year-old James is convicted of the murder of 26-year-old Michael Trekell, Michael's 4-month-old son Jayson Kehler, Calvin Wesley Crane, and Frank "Bubba" Johnson, on December 23-24, 1987, in Tarrant County, Texas. James has spent the last 25 years of his life on Texas' death row. James had a difficult upbringing. His mother allegedly drank while pregnant with him and breastfed him until the age of 7. James' mother also gave away his siblings to be raised by other relatives. He grew up fearing that his mother would abandon him, as his father had. Additionally, his mother and siblings all suffer from mental health issues and have struggled to live successful lives. James had previously been hospitalized multiple times for schizo-affective disorder and depression. He had also received electroshock therapy during one of his stays. James had previously been arrested and served time for various robberies and a sexual assault charge. James dropped out of school following the 9th grade and worked at Frito-Lay prior to his arrest as an auto mechanic. In late December 1987, James Bigby had a pending worker's compensation claim against his employer, Frito-Lay. Bigby was paranoid that several of his friends were conspiring against him to thwart his claim. On December 23, 1987, Bigby bought 2
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., LA., CALIF., USA
March 2 TEXAS-new execution date Condemned killer in San Antonio robbery set to die May 24 A 35-year-old San Antonio man on death row for a fatal shooting during a robbery more than 13 years ago has been set to die. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said Tuesday the prison agency has received court documents setting Juan Castillo for lethal injection May 24. Castillo was convicted of the December 2003 slaying of 19-year-old Tommy Garcia Jr. Evidence showed Garcia was lured to a San Antonio lovers' lane by Castillo's girlfriend and then ambushed. She pleaded guilty before Castillo's 2005 trial and testified against him. Late in his trial, Castillo fired his lawyers and represented himself. The U.S. Supreme Court in October refused to review his case. He's among at least seven Texas inmates with execution dates this year, including 2 in March. (source: Associated Press) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present22 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-540 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 23-March 7--Rolando Ruiz--541 24-March 14-James Bigby---542 25-April 12-Paul Storey---543 26-May 16---Tilon Carter--544 27-May 24---Juan Castillo--545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) * Falk gets death penalty for correctional officer's slaying John Ray Falk Jr. was sentenced to die for his role in the murder of a correctional officer during an attempted escape from a Huntsville-area prison more than 9 years ago. An Angelina County jury deliberated for 28 minutes this morning before reaching a decision following closing arguments. Falk, who chose to represent himself, pleaded guilty to capital murder last Thursday for the slaying of Texas Department of Criminal Justice employee Susan Canfield of New Waverly. The jury had the option to give Falk the death penalty or sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Falk and another inmate, Jerry Duane Martin, ran away from a work detail at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville on Sept. 24, 2007. Canfield was killed while trying to prevent the escape when her horse was struck by a stolen truck driven by Martin in the garage area of the city of Huntsville Service Center adjacent to the prison. The inmates were apprehended that day a few miles from the prison. Martin was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2009 by a Leon County jury for Canfield???s murder. He was executed in 2013 after waiving his right to an appeal. (source: Huntsville Item) NORTH CAROLINA: "Count": UNC Process Series Examines Life On Death Row This weekend, you're invited to UNC's campus to experience a theatrical work in progress: a staged reading of a play developed through conversations with death-row inmates across the country. The play is called "Count." Written by Lynden Harris in conjunction with Hidden Voices, the play examines the lives of 6 men on death row. Harris has worked on the piece for several years, forging strong relationships with numerous inmates along the way. This weekend's performance will be a staged reading, but the curtain will go up on the finished product later this year: UNC's PlayMakers Repertory Company will stage "Count" as part of their PRC2 series next season. "Count" - the title is derived from the headcount that begins and ends each day in prison - will be staged on Friday and Saturday, March 3-4, at 8 pm at Swain Hall Studio 6. (Admission is free, but there's a 5-dollar suggested donation.) In addition to the 2 readings, there will also be a panel discussion on the death penalty Thursday, March 2, from 4:30-6:00 at the Center for the Study of the American South (410 E. Franklin Street); Harris will speak along with Jennifer Thompson of Healing Justice and UNC professors Frank Baumgartner and Isaac Unah. Hidden Voices is an organization dedicated to giving people a chance to express themselves - especially those who are marginalized, silenced, or otherwise rarely heard. (Harris is its founder.) "Count" is part of UNC's Process Series - an annual series of innovative works in progress, part of UNC's Department of Communication. (source: chapelboro.com) FLORIDA: 40 years on death row and still living off your taxes Expect a fiery debate on capital punishment when the new legislative session starts in the beginning of March in Tallahassee. A few months ago, the Florida Supreme Court decided the jury must be unanimous for a defendant to get death. The NBC2 Investigators discovered this will likely
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., LA., ARK., USA
Feb. 28 TEXAS: SCOTUS refuses appeals from 3 on Texas death row The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review appeals in 3 Texas death row cases, including one where a man pleaded guilty to a triple slaying The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review appeals in 3 Texas death row cases, including one where a man pleaded guilty to a triple slaying in South Texas. The high court's rulings moved 2 inmates closer to execution: LeJames Norman, 31, condemned for the 2005 shooting deaths of 3 people during a botched robbery of a home in Edna, about 100 miles southwest of Houston, and Bill Douglas Gates, 67, condemned for strangling a Houston woman in 1999. Neither has an execution date. Norman and an accomplice also now on death row, Ker'Sean Ramey, were convicted in the slayings of Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, inside the home they shared in Edna, in Jackson County. Roberts' parents discovered the bodies Aug. 25, 2005. Court records indicated Ramey and Norman believed there was 100 kilograms of cocaine in the house and hoped to steal it, but they never found any drugs. Norman was arrested trying to cross a bridge into Brownsville from Mexico about 5 months after the killings. He pleaded guilty to capital murder, leaving a jury to decide only on punishment. Norman's appeal raised questions about the competence of his trial attorneys. Texas prison records show when Gates was arrested for the slaying of Elfreda Gans, 41, at her Houston apartment, the Riverside County, California, man was on parole after serving 6 years of 2 life prison terms in California for robbery, assault on a peace officer and possession of a weapon by a prisoner. His appeal also questioned whether his trial lawyers were deficient. The 3rd case refused by the high court involved prisoner Michael Wayne Norris, whose case was returned by a federal district judge in 2015 to his trial court in Houston for a new punishment hearing. A federal appeals court last year upheld that decision. Norris has been on death row nearly 30 years for fatally shooting a Houston mother and her 2-year-old son. Patrick McCann, Norris' attorney, said Monday the ruling involved legal procedural point related to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Norris is awaiting his new punishment trial and Monday's ruling had no effect on that, McCann said. Norris was on parole after serving time for murder when he was arrested for fatally shooting Georgia Rollins, 38, and her 2-year-old son, Keith, at their Houston apartment in 1986. His appeal challenged the instructions provided to his jurors during the punishment phase of his 1987 trial in Harris County. At the time, trial courts were wrestling with evolving jury instructions about mitigating evidence, like mental impairment or dysfunctional childhood, and how it should be applied to punishment in capital murder convictions. The Supreme Court visited the issue several times, refining trial procedures through its rulings, and several cases of Norris' era were returned to trial courts for new punishment hearings. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIA: Justices to Consider Scope of Habeas Review in Death Penalty Appeals The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to weigh into the issue of which prior state court rulings a federal court should evaluate when deciding the merits of a condemned inmate's appeal. The case involves Marion Wilson Jr., a Georgia inmate, who, along with co-defendant Robert Earl Butts, was sentenced to death for the 1996 killing of state prison guard Donovan Parks. The 2 men had approached Parks in a Milledgeville, Ga. Wal-Mart parking lot and asked him for a ride. Parks invited them into his car, but a short time later, they ordered him to pull over to the side of a residential street, where they killed him with a sawed-off shotgun blast to the head. After a jury trial, Wilson was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. The jury later came back and sentenced him to death for the murder, finding as a statutory aggravating circumstance that Wilson killed Parks while engaged in the commission of an armed robbery. The sentence was later affirmed by a Georgia superior court judge and the state Supreme Court. Wilson appealed his sentence to the federal court in Atlanta, and after failing to have it overturned there, asked the 11th Circuit to intervene. But that's where things got complicated. The appeals court had to decide which of 2 lower court rulings it would consider when deciding the merits of Wilson's appeal: the short, summary opinion of the Georgia Supreme Court, or the far more detailed ruling handed down by the superior court judge. Lawyers for Wilson and the state attorney general's office both argued the panel they should give the most weight to the superior
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Feb. 23 TEXAS: High court denies Texans' appeals 2 Texans on death row for separate slayings in the Dallas- Fort Worth area have lost appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court. Without comment, the justices refused Monday to review the cases of 52-year-old Joseph Lave and 54-year-old Juan Segundo. Lave was condemned to die in a 1992 robbery in which 2 teenagers were killed and almost decapitated. Segundo was arrested nearly 19 years after an 11-year-old Fort Worth girl was raped and strangled in her home. Neither man has an execution date schedule. Joseph Lave In November 1992, 2 teenagers working at a Herman's World of Sporting Goods store in Richardson were killed in a brutal robbery. Frederick Banzhaf and Justin Marquart, both 18, were bound and blindfolded with duct tape before their heads were bashed with a hammer and their throats were slashed nearly ear to ear. Angie King, a store manager at the time, was also attacked and bound but she was able to free herself and called police. Lave was 1 of 3 suspects and got the death sentence after King identified him as the killer based on his voice, which she said sounded like Donald Duck's. Lave's execution date was ahalted in 2007 when the Dallas County district attorney's office realized evidence was not turned over to Lave's attorneys that included a 2nd polygraph test by a co-defendant. Lave has remained in prison as his case made its way through the court system to the Supreme Court. Juan Segundo In August 1986, an 11-year-old Fort Worth girl was raped and strangled. Her 3 young cousins slept through the attack after the killer removed a window fan to quietly slip into the room. Her family found a note written in a dictionary in Vanessa Villa's befroom. "Mama, take me from this place. I'm scared," the note read, according to her uncle Juan Carranza. Vanessa might have been assaulted before and Segundo threatened her to keep quiet, so she wrote the note, he said. 2 decades later, a national DNA database matched Segundo to her slaying. Attorneys claimed last year that Segundo's lawyers were deficient in the 2006 Tarrant County trial and failed to properly investigate and develop evidence that he was intellectually disabled, but courts have rejected that claim. (source: Dallas Morning News) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Feb. 22 TEXAS: Supreme Court blocks death sentence over racial bias The Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Texas murderer Wednesday because of racially discriminatory testimony presented by his own defense team. The 6-2 ruling was the second in the court's new term to overturn a death sentence, and it could be a harbinger of things to come. The justices heard another death penalty case from Texas in November that hinges on a prisoner's intellectual disability. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the ruling in favor of Duane Buck, who was sentenced to death following the testimony of a defense witness in 1996 who said he would be more dangerous in the future because he is black. The testimony "said, in effect, that the color of Buck’s skin made him more deserving of execution," Roberts wrote. "No competent defense attorney would introduce such evidence about his own client." The effect of that testimony, Roberts said, "cannot be dismissed as de minimis. Buck has demonstrated prejudice." Texas had agreed several years after Buck's sentencing to reconsider the sentences of seven prisoners following similar testimony, but they excluded Buck from the list because the prosecution was not to blame. But Roberts said such testimony from the defense is even worse. "Buck may have been sentenced to death in part because of his race," the chief justice said. "As an initial matter, this is a disturbing departure from a basic premise of our criminal justice system: Our law punishes people for what they do, not who they are." Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. Thomas wrote that the racial testimony was secondary to "the heinousness off petitioner's crime and his complete lack of remorse" for having shot and killed a former girlfriend. At oral argument in October, it was clear a majority of justices would not let the death sentence stand. Even Alito, a former prosecutor known for being tough on crime, said "what occurred at the penalty phase of this trial is indefensible." Still, several justices were concerned that Buck's challenge was not raised in time, and that a ruling in his favor could lead to a flood of other challenges from prisoners whose convictions have been considered final. Roberts sought to avoid that outcome by writing a decision tied directly to the facts in Buck's case. (source: USA Today) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, KY., MONT., USA
Feb. 19 TEXAS: Conference held in Austin to abolish the death penalty A group of Texans wanting to get rid of the penalty heard a different perspective on the act of executing someone during a conference Saturday in Austin. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty brought together people who think it's unfair - and should go away. The group invited journalists who have witnessed executions to explain why it's an important issue to discuss. "Whether you're for it or against it, whether that coverage takes place is extremely important. I think that a lot of people who are advocates either for it or against it don't know the back story as far as what goes into the reporting on the death penalty, how sometimes the stories can be pretty dark, pretty looming, very graphic in a lot of ways," said Ryan Poppe. Democratic lawmakers have filed bills in the Texas House and Senate to abolish it. However, Poppe says it will likely see the same fate as past bills to do the same. It likely will not even come up for a vote. (source: KXAN news) ** Activists Want Texas' Death Penalty Abolished as Executions Decline Data from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty shows fewer inmates were executed in 2016 than in 2015 - a trend the group says continues to go down. "I think it's time to get rid of it," said Brian Stolarz, defense attorney. Opponents of the death penalty say juries are becoming more aware of the risk of a wrongful conviction. "We also see juries in cases demanding higher standards of evidence. There have been 157 people nationwide and 13 here in Texas who were wrongfully convicted and released from death row," said Kristin Houle, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Defense attorneys say the political climate has changed and so have minds. "We have a case with no physical evidence, no science at all in the case. Just witness interviews, witness statements and other things, and a man who was innocent was going to die," said Stolarz. 2 bills have been filed at the state capitol; 1 would get rid of the death penalty for people convicted under Texas' law of parties and the other would abolish the death penalty altogether. Additionally, fewer prosecutors are seeking capital punishment "because they have the option of life in prison without parole and also because many of them don't want to burden their counties with the exorbitant expense of a death penalty trial," said Houle. Some argue the state ought to practice restorative justice - where those convicted have a chance to repent and rehabilitate. "Even people who have done bad things cannot be judged on that one bad thing alone. People are greater than the one bad thing they do," said Stolarz. So far, 18 states plus DC have abolished the death penalty. (source: twcnews.com) *** Lawmaker wants state funds for death penalty attorneys A Republican Texas lawmaker is trying to pass a bill that would create and fund a statewide office of appellate attorneys to represent death row inmates. Last week, Rep. James White, R-Hillister, filed House Bill 1676 to create the Office of Capital Appellate Defender. The state-funded office would represent inmates sentenced to death who can't afford their own lawyer in their direct appeals to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - the time when convicts can raise issues from their trial. Currently, the convicting court appoints an approved lawyer for this step of the appeals process and the prosecuting county pays the bill. White, who represents 5 rural counties in East Texas, said the bill is one way to help struggling counties that have had to raise property taxes while dealing with unfunded state mandates, such as paying for indigent defense. And as chairman of the House Corrections Committee and representative of the district that houses most of Texas' death row inmates, he wants to ensure the state is being thorough when handing down the harshest penalty it can impose. White has estimated the office would cost $500,000 a year, which could put the bill in jeopardy as lawmakers work to tighten the state???s budget for the coming biennium. (source: The Texas Tribune) GEORGIA: Man gets new life sentence for killing officer 25 years ago A man sent to death row 23 years ago for killing an Atlanta police officer has been given a new sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole. Atlanta-Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in a news release Friday that 45-year-old Norris Speed agreed to the new punishment to avoid another possible death sentence during a new penalty hearing ordered by an appellate judge. Speed was convicted in 1993 of malice murder in the December 1991 slaying of Atlanta officer Niles Johantgen. But an appeals judge threw out Speed's death sentence in 2010, ruling a sheriff's deputy gave improper
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., OHIO, MO., S.DAK., NEV.
Feb. 18 TEXAS: Faith leaders support death-row inmate's religious discrimination claim More than 500 faith leaders across the country have endorsed a statement calling for a new trial for a Texas death row inmate claiming religious discrimination in the selection of his jury. National faith leaders including Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne of Red Letter Christians, author Brian McLaren and Baptist ethicist David Gushee issued a statement Feb. 16 supporting Christopher Anthony Young, a 33-year-old man from San Antonio, Texas, sentenced to death for killing a mini-mart and dry cleaners owner during an armed robbery in 2004. Among other things, Young argues that one prospective juror interviewed at his 2006 trial was dismissed because prosecutors believed her association with an outreach ministries program at her Baptist church might bias her against imposing the death penalty. "It is absolutely unacceptable to strike a juror based on her affiliation with her church," said Pastor Joel Hunter at Northland, A Church Distributed in Longwood, Fla., and a lead signatory. "As evangelical Christians, we firmly believe that people of all faiths and backgrounds should be able to participate as jurors." Prosecutors dismissed prospective juror Myrtlene Williams, 1 of 6 African Americans in the 60-member jury pool, because they believed her membership in Outreach Ministries at San Antonio's Calvary Baptist Church could cause her to be more sympathetic to the defendant, particularly in the punishment phase of trial. During questioning Williams said that while some members of the group visited jails and prisons in an effort to rehabilitate persons who are incarcerated, she did not personally work with prisoners. Another reason given for her dismissal was she had a daughter with a past conviction of a larceny-type offense in another state. The statement by faith leaders said her removal was wrong. "Membership in a particular church or association with a particular ministry is not a fair basis for preventing someone from carrying out her civic duty as a juror," they said. "Indeed, eliminating a particular juror based solely on her religious affiliation offends the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution." Young, who is African American, also has argued that the state used Williams' religious affiliation and daughter's criminal history as a pretext to dismiss 5 of the 6 impaneled jurists who were black. The Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals denied Young's right to appeal his conviction in August. The U.S. Supreme Court will confer March 3 about whether to accept the case. The faith leaders said they do not all agree on the morality of capital punishment and are not stating an opinion about whether or not Young deserves to die. "We do believe, however, that the process by which he was sentenced to death was tainted by the decision of the government to strike a juror, not because of her personal beliefs, but solely because she was affiliated with a ministry that works to improve the lives of the poor, the elderly, and the incarcerated," they said. "Indeed, the government struck this juror even though she did not personally work with prisoners; she was removed, in short, because of her mere association with a church that pursued its mission of aiding the weak." Gushee, director of the Center for Theology and Public Life and Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta, currently serves as interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., a flagship congregation in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. 2 years ago Gushee and other individual CBF members campaigned unsuccessfully for clemency for Kelly Gissendaner, the 1st woman executed in Georgia in 70 years and a graduate of a prison theology program sponsored by a consortium including Mercer University???s McAfee School of Theology, 1 of the CBF's partner schools. Other Baptists signing on in support of a new trial for Young include Fisher Humphreys, a retired professor at Samford University???s Beeson Divinity School and member at Baptist Church of the Covenant in Birmingham, Ala.; Mikael Broadway, associate professor of theology and ethics at Shaw University Divinity School and associate minister at Mount Level Missionary Baptist Church in Durham, N.C.; Roger Olson, Foy Valentine Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas; and Frederick Haynes III, senior pastor at Friendship-West Baptist Church Dallas. (source: Baptist News) FLORIDAfemale death sentence overturned After 2 death row stints, mother of murdered 'Baby Lollipops' no longer faces execution Ana Maria Cardona, the Miami mother twice sentenced to execution for the torture and murder of her toddler son known as "Baby Lollipops," is no longer facing death row. Prosecutors on
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., ALA., OHIO
Feb. 17 TEXAS: Lining Up a ConvictionA suggestive photo lineup put Juan Balderas on death row. Experts say he may have been wrongfully convicted, but will he get a new trial in time? At first glance, the photo lineup that helped send Juan Balderas to death row doesn't look too unusual. It shows 6 young Latino men staring blankly ahead. Balderas, in the bottom middle position, looks calm, almost as if he's daydreaming. But according to judges and experts, this lineup is deeply prejudicial. 2 small details - the black hoodie Balderas is wearing and the mark on his left cheek - may have singled him out to the witness who viewed this lineup. Balderas was sentenced to death for a 2005 Houston murder based on the testimony of a single eyewitness, and he???s maintained his innocence ever since. The witness identification procedure in Balderas' case gained the attention of the state's highest criminal court, with a majority of judges ruling in November that it was suggestive, and 1 judge arguing it was so prejudicial that Balderas deserved a new trial. Combined with allegations that prosecutors hid evidence from the defense during the trial, and that another witness has recanted his account of the shooting, the identification raises the troubling question of whether Balderas was wrongfully convicted. Meanwhile, a panel of experts formed to cut down on wrongful convictions is urging state legislators to beef up rules for witness identifications. Balderas' case is one example of how small errors in police treatment of eyewitnesses can lead to serious problems with a conviction. On December 6, 2005, 16-year-old Eduardo Hernandez was hanging out with friends at an apartment in Alief, a suburb in sprawling southwest Houston. A man in a black hoodie barged in, circled the room, and shot Hernandez 9 times in the back and head. Hernandez was part of a local street gang called La Tercera Crips. He had angered his fellow members by snitching and throwing hand signs for a rival gang, several would later testify. The only witness who saw the shooter's face was Wendy Bardales, the sister of Hernandez's girlfriend. She described the shooter as someone she had never seen before, a young Latino man about 5 feet 6 inches tall, skinny and clean-shaven. He had short black hair in a fade haircut and was wearing a black hoodie. And he had a dark mark on his cheek, she said. The night after the shooting, officers showed her a photo lineup, but she told them the shooter wasn't in it. Over the next few days, Houston police received anonymous tips suggesting that Balderas, another member of the gang, was involved. The week after the murder, an officer went back to Wendy with a new lineup of 6 photos, which the Observer obtained through a Texas Public Information Act request. Wendy recognized Balderas - the 2 had lived in the same apartment complex and had known each other for about a year. She told the officer that Balderas "could be the shooter," and that he "looked like the shooter," even though on the night of the murder she had told police that the shooter was someone she had never seen before. The officer returned to her house the next day, trying to pin her down on whether Balderas was the shooter, but she still didn't say she was sure. Finally, the officer told her to place her hands over the top of the face of each subject, in order to simulate the shooter's hoodie. When she did, the officer later testified, her eyes "grew wide" and "began to water." Wendy said she was positive that Balderas was the shooter. "A witness's actual memory can be forever changed if suggestive procedures are used." Experts who study witness identification procedures say it's a textbook example of an identification gone wrong. The 1st problem is the lineup itself. It includes only 1 person - Balderas - who matches the description Wendy gave police. None of the other 5 men are wearing a black hoodie or have any marks on their faces. They also don't match her description in other ways: Some are heavier, others not clean-shaven, others not wearing a fade haircut. "Given the witness's description, this photo array is extremely suggestive and creates enormous potential for a wrongful conviction," said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a University of Houston law professor who studies witness identification. "The suspect should not stand out, and given that he is the only person with those distinctive features, this is highly suggestive." Large police departments typically have huge databases of booking photos, so it shouldn't be a problem to find "filler" photos that better match a witness's description. The process is also an issue. Research over the past few years has made clear that even small, unintentionally leading statements by officers can make witnesses feel pressured to choose someone. Coaching, such as when the officer urged Wendy to cover parts of the faces, can
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., OHIO, MO.
Feb. 15 TEXAS: Sabine County grand jury re-indicts man accused in baby death for capital murder A 27-year-old Pineland man who was arrested back in December of 2014 in connection to the death of his girlfriend's 5-month-old daughter has been re-indicted on a capital murder charge, according to the Sabine County District Attorney's Office. Sabine County District Attorney Kevin Dutton said Tuesday that Matthew Hudson's original charge was 1st-degree murder. Jail records show that Hudson has posted a bail amount of $100,000 and has been released from jail. "We can prove this was more than just negligence," Dutton said. "The original autopsy report didn't have photographs." Dutton said his office was getting ready to take the case to trial, and they met with the medical examiner. At that time, the medical examiner showed them the photos. "We determined that the grand jury needed to hear new evidence, and then they indicted him for capital murder," Dutton said. The death penalty is not off the table, Dutton said. The district attorney explained that Hudson has been appointed a death penalty counsel. Dutton said although no court date has been set yet, they are hoping to try the case by the end of the year. According to the affidavit, a Sabine County Sheriff's deputy was contacted by a Child Protective Services investigator on Nov. 7, 2014, in reference to a 5-month-old baby girl that had been airlifted from the Sabine County Hospital to Texas Children's Hospital, where she died less than 48 hours later. When the deputy went to the Sabine County Hospital, a doctor told him that a CT scan of the child had shown "some possible brain trauma." Then the deputy spoke to Sophia's mother, who said that Hudson took her to work at about 5:55 a.m. that morning. She said that her daughter was fine when Hudson dropped her off at work. In addition, the baby's mother told the deputy that she had taken Sophia to the Sabine Family Medicine a couple of weeks before her baby wound up in the hospital. She also took her daughter to Complete Healthcare Services in Jasper a few days before Nov. 7, 2014 for treatment of a cough. Hudson told the deputy that after he dropped his girlfriend off at work, he went back home to a residence in the 300 block of Westwood Loop in Hemphill with Sophia, according to the affidavit. Hudson allegedly left Sophia in the car seat until she began to get fussy, and he moved her closer to him. According to the affidavit, Hudson took Sophia out of the car seat and changed her dirty diaper. He told the deputy that he lay the baby on her back and started to give her a bottle of formula. When Sophia started to get sleepy, Hudson laid her on her back in his bed and started giving her the baby formula again. Hudson told the deputy that Sophia started bubbling milk out of her mouth, and he wiped her mouth before trying again with the formula. This time, Sophia bubbled the milk again and coughed, according to the affidavit. When Hudson noticed that Sophia was unresponsive, he allegedly shook her in an effort to get a response. After Hudson woke up the 3 other people who were at the house, all 3 of them came running to help, and one of them started doing CPR on the baby and kept doing it until the first responders from the Fairmont Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene, the affidavit stated. Hudson told a 2nd SCSO deputy who came to assist at the hospital the same version of the story, according to the affidavit. The 2nd deputy went with Hudson to his home. According to the affidavit, the deputy noticed that there was no working light in the bedroom where Hudson had taken Sophia to feed her. When asked about the lack of a working light, Hudson allegedly told the deputy that he used the light on his cell phone. The affidavit stated that the deputy did not see any sign of aspiration on the bed, the living room, or on the floors of the residence. On Nov. 10, 2014, Hudson met with a Sabine County deputy, a Texas Ranger, and CPS workers in Hemphill. During the interview, he gave almost the same version of what he had earlier said had happened. However, this time, he told authorities that after Sophia started getting fussy, he took her out of the car seat and started tickling her and making her laugh, according to the affidavit. In addition, Hudson allegedly started tossing Sophia in the air and catching her to make her laugh. Later, after Hudson talked to authorities about Sophia bubbling up the milk and coughing before becoming unresponsive, he said that he didn't remember how many times he shook the baby or how hard, according the affidavit. When the Texas Ranger asked Hudson who he thought was responsible for Sophia's death, Hudson allegedly said that he believed he was. (source: KTRE news) NORTH CAROLINA: Trial underway for Wake County man accused of killing in-laws Before opening statements
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., GA., MISS.
Feb. 11 TEXAS: Meet the Texas warden who supervised the most executions People against the death penalty protest outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas. It's execution day, and there have been no last minute reprieves. "I don't think we've ever executed an innocent person," said retired warden Charles Thomas O'Reilly. The condemned killer now walks to the death chamber, knowing nothing can save him now. "Myself and the chaplain, we're in the death house with the inmate," O'Reilly explained. It's a process O'Reilly knows intimately. Between 2004 and 2010, O'Reilly supervised 140 executions. The retired warden says each one was different. "We had one guy that got in there, and he cracked jokes the whole time he was in there," O'Reilly said. Among those executions, 1 was a woman, Frances Newton, in 2005. "She didn't give us any trouble. We treated her with as much dignity as we would anybody else that would be in there," O'Reilly said. He also watched over the execution of one of the most notorious criminals in Texas history: Angel Resendiz, the so-called "railroad killer" who traveled the country by rail, killing as many as 14 people, including Dr. Claudia Benton of West University Place. "These are evil people," O'Reilly said. "While I believe there's a lot of good in the world, there's also evil in the world." O'Reilly says he sleeps well at night -- no nightmares, no regrets. "If you're a warden at the Walls, you're gonna preside over executions," O'Reilly said. "If that's a problem for you, don't take the job." On the day of execution, the prisoner would be brought to Huntsville from death row in Livingston. O'Reilly would meet with the prisoner that afternoon, explain the process to him or her, and as the final hour approached, he would say, "It's time." A team of guards would strap the inmate into the gurney and then, IVs would be inserted into his arms. O???Reilly's would be the last voice the condemned would ever hear. After that, by remote control, O'Reilly would turn on a light in another room where someone whose identity would be kept secret started the flow of drugs. "He makes his final statement and then he goes to sleep," O'Reilly explained. The retiree looks back at his career and says supervising more executions than any warden in Texas history is not what he wants to be remembered by. O'Reilly says he'd rather be remembered as a good and fair warden who was just doing his job. (source: KHOU news) Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Order New Hearing In Brazos County Death Penalty Case A death row inmate from Brazos County is getting another court hearing. That's after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled the trial judge who removed himself after sentencing John Thuesen for capital murder nearly 7 years ago was not allowed to return to preside over Thuesen's post-trial appeals. Justices on the state's highest criminal court found that the judge who assigned a replacement did not issue a formal ruling allowing the original judge to return. The replacement judge was ordered to return and take no longer than 180 days to hear Thuesen's appeal and make a ruling. This week's decision by the criminal appeals court, the 1st of its type in Texas, does not change the local jury's decision that Thuesen killed his ex-girlfriend and her brother in College Station almost 8 years ago...or the death penalty sentence issued by the trial judge. (source: WTAW news) VIRGINIA: Judge orders mental evaluation for Henrico man accused of killing his parents on Easter A judge on Friday ordered a mental evaluation to ensure that a Henrico County man charged with killing his parents last Easter is fit to stand trial. Henrico Circuit Court Judge James Stephen Yoffy granted a defense motion for an evaluation of William Brissette. The judge ordered it to be finished by April 3 so attorneys could examine it. Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon L. Taylor supported the motion for the mental examination. The report, which will be done by a psychologist at the University of Virginia, will gauge whether Brissette is competent enough to understand the trial process and can help the attorneys defending him. "There is concern here that the defense has raised that Mr. Brissette's mental illness has made him incapable of assisting in his defense," Douglas A. Ramseur, Brissette's attorney, said after Friday's court hearing. Ramseur declined to specify what mental illness Brissette is suffering from. Brissette, 23, is facing charges of capital murder in the case. He is accused of fatally shooting his parents, Henry J. Brissette III and Martha B. Brissette, on Easter Sunday last March. The punishment for that is life in prison or death. Taylor has said that she intends to seek the death penalty, saying last September that her decision is based on the "vileness" of the crime and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., MISS., OHIO, IND.
Feb. 10 TEXASnew execution date New death date for inmate spared from execution this week A Texas death row inmate whose execution date scheduled for this week was halted because of a legal technicality has received a new execution date. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says the prison agency has received court documents setting 37-year-old prisoner Tilon Carter's lethal injection for May 16. Carter had been set to die Tuesday for smothering an 89-year-old man during a robbery at the man's Fort Worth home. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued an order last Friday halting the punishment because a state office that represents death row inmates was notified of the scheduled punishment a half-day late, a violation of state law. Carter was condemned for the 2004 robbery and slaying of James Tomlin, a retired Bell Helicopter worker. (source: Associated Press) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present22 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-540 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 23-March 7--Rolando Ruiz--541 24-March 14-James Bigby---542 25-April 12-Paul Storey---543 26-May 16---Tilon Carter--544 27-June 28--Steven Long---545 28-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---546 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) FLORIDA: Florida Supreme Court Upholds Sentence for Killing Guard The Florida Supreme Court is upholding the conviction and death sentence for a man who killed a Daytona Beach corrections officer. The court on Thursday rejected arguments by Enoch Hall that his attorney mishandled his case. The court also noted that his sentence should remain in place because a jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. Hall was serving life sentences in the sexual battery and kidnapping of a 66-year-old woman when he killed a corrections officer. Hall stabbed 50-year-old Donna Fitzgerald 22 times with sheet metal in 2008. Fitzgerald was alone while supervising Hall and others in an inmate work program. An investigation determined Hall may not have been eligible for the program, and Fitzgerald should've had a radio or body alarm to summon help. (source: WTXL news) ** Death sentence tossed out in Florida drive-by shooting case The Florida Supreme Court is throwing out the death sentence of a Jacksonville man convicted in a drive-by shooting that killed a young girl watching television at her grandma's house. The high court on Thursday upheld Rasheem Dubose's conviction for the crime, but ordered a new sentencing hearing because a jury did not unanimously agree to impose the death penalty. The court in a split decision recently ruled that death sentences require a unanimous jury recommendation if the sentence was imposed after a 2002 key ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. DreShawna Washington-Davis, 8, was killed when 29 shots were fired into her house in July 2006. Authorities said the shooting was a retaliatory strike against the child's uncle. Dubose's brothers, Terrell Dubose and Tajuane Dubose, were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the crime. (source for both: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Former Alabama death row inmates to share their stories of confinement, freedom Racism, poverty, freedom and confinement will be the focus of speeches delivered by 2 former Alabama death row inmates, sharing their stories at the University of North Alabama later this month. Anthony Ray Hinton, who spent 30 years on death row, and Gary Drinkard, who was released after 5 years, will share their stories of exoneration and wrongful conviction during a conference at UNA Feb. 23-24. The events are open to the public. Hinton walked free in April 2015 at age 52. He'd been on death row for 30 years for the 1985 murders of 2 Birmingham fast food restaurant managers. Hinton and his attorneys asked prosecutors for years to retest the gun that linked him to the crime. On April 3, Anthony Ray Hinton walked free, prosecutors dropping the charges - the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered a retrial - that he'd killed 2 men in a Birmingham area fast food managers in 1985. The bullets didn't match up beyond a doubt, the state said. Shortly before his release, new tests ultimately ruled that the bullets found at the crime scenes couldn't be conclusively linked to the gun or to each other. Hinton's conviction, he has said, is rooted in racism, poverty and failures of the criminal justice system. "We want to help people think critically about the crimes and evidence that warrant sentencing someone to death," said Stephanie Renee Adair, one of several English graduate students helping plan the conference at UNA. Incarceration
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., ALA., MISS., KY.
Feb. 9 TEXAS: Montgomery County DA's Office requests new execution date for Swearingen The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office asked a judge Tuesday to set a Sept. 21 execution date for Larry Swearingen, the Willis man sentenced to death for murdering a teenage Montgomery College student in 1998. But Swearingen's attorney thinks an ongoing civil rights suit on his case should be decided before any execution date is even suggested. Swearingen was sentenced to death in 2000 for murdering Melissa Trotter, an 18-year-old Montgomery College student. Trotter went missing Dec. 8, 1998, and was found dead in the Sam Houston National Forest north of LakeConroe. After years of appellate fights over post-conviction DNA testing, Swearingen filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state of Texas in October 2016 claiming he should be entitled to that DNA testing. Swearingen sought testing on Trotter's sexual assault collection kit; hairs recovered from her body, the gloves used to move her body and a hairbrush found on the ground near her body; all hairs collected from her clothing; the ligature and the pantyhose used to strangle Trotter, among other evidence his appellate attorneys believe contain biological evidence that has not been tested. "It's premature to even have filed this motion," said Swearingen's attorney James Rytting, adding that he plans on filing a motion opposing the fall execution date sometime soon. The execution date motion will be decided upon by visiting Judge J.D. Langley in the 9th state District Court. Judge Phil Grant, having previously worked on the Swearingen case during his time with the DA's Office, was recused from the case in June 2016. But the DA's Appellate Division Chief Bill Delmore said the September date was appropriate and intentionally selected. "A September date will provide sufficient time to allow a resolution of the civil suit," Delmore said. "I have not found anything that suggested the existence of an appeal from the denial of a DNA motion should preclude going forward on an execution date. I've even seen cases in which the Court of Criminal Appeals has denied a stay (of execution) even when there's an appeal from the denial of a motion for DNA testing pending." As for the DNA testing, then-9th state District Court Judge Kelly Case approved the testing in August 2014. But subsequent appeals filed by Montgomery County prosecutors blocked it all the way to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Rytting appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court in February 2016, which refused to hear the case in October 2016. Swearingen has dodged four execution dates - in 2007, 2009, 2011 and most recently in 2013 - that were all stayed by the Court of Criminal Appeals. He's been in and out of the appellate process for more than a decade, including four previous motions for DNA testing which lost their momentum in appeals courts each time. For Melissa Trotter's family, the September date cannot come soon enough. "We're definitely ready to be done with all this judicial process," Melissa's mother Sandy Trotter said. "It hinders all of us from healing as we just keep remembering all the bad that happened to Melissa. It's unfinished business yet. It's not going to bring Melissa back. We're never going to have her. But it'd be better to remember the good memories than all this stuff that happened Dec. 8, 1998." Langley had yet to rule on Delmore's motion as of Tuesday evening, court records show. Swearingen's federal case in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Texas has yet to be resolved. In an opinion in October 2015 reversing Judge Case's DNA ruling, the Court of Criminal Appeals referred back to previous rulings it and lower appellate courts had made in Swearingen's case. In the October 2015 ruling, they said Rytting's motion did not meet the 5-pronged requirement for green-lighting DNA tests in the appellate phase as outlined in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Instead, the CCA denied Swearingen's appeal on the basis that he did not provide new information that would show the DNA evidence would prove his innocence. The court's concurring opinion also referenced a "mountain of evidence" that originally convicted Swearingen in 2000. Delmore called the evidence "overwhelming" in Tuesday's motion. "Capital punishment is imposed discriminatorily against certain identifiable classes of people; there is evidence that innocent people have been executed before their innocence can be proved; and the death penalty wreaks havoc with our entire criminal justice system." US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (source: Houston Chronicle) Texas needs to reform its 'law of parties,' which allows death penalty for people who haven't killed anyone On Monday, a Republican state representative from Plano, an avowed conservative, will make a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, KY.
Feb. 7 TEXAS: Death penalty trial starts Monday The death penalty trial of Michael Dwayne Bowman, 33, is set to begin in a Troup County Superior courtroom Monday morning. Bowman is accused of shooting and killing Griffin Police Officer Kevin Jordan, 43, while he was working an off-duty job at a Waffle House 1702 North Expressway on June 1, 2014, police said. Attorney's asked for a change of venue for the trial, citing concerns with the media attention surrounding the case. The Troup County Government Center was chosen as the site for Bowman's trial. The Spalding County District Attorney's Office and Bownman's defense lawyer spent weeks picking a jury comprised of Troup County citizens. Officer Jordan was trying to break up a fight between several people who were asked to leave the restaurant, including Bowman's girlfriend Chantell Mixon. The off-duty officer was allegedly trying to restrain Mixon when Bowman allegedly shot Jordan several times in the back, police officials stated. Jordan died from his injuries. He left behind 7 children. Bowman was indicted on 3 counts of murder, aggravated assault of a police officer, obstruction of a police officer, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, according to the Spalding County District Attorney's office. Mixon was also charged with murder in the case. It was unclear as of press time Sunday when or if she will stand trial. (source: LaGrange Daily News) FLORIDA: Murder charge dismissed against inmate accused of killing North Naples man Prosecutors have dismissed a murder charge against a North Florida inmate accused of the brutal 2012 prison rape and killing of a Collier County man in their shared cell. Instead, the state intends to re-indict Shawn "Jiggaman" Rogers, 36, and seek capital punishment after Florida legislators take another stab at rewriting the state's death penalty law this spring. Rogers is accused of raping, stabbing and beating to death Ricky Martin, 24, of North Naples, in their Santa Rosa Correctional Institution cell in March 2012. Bill Bishop, an assistant state attorney in Okaloosa County, said prosecutors were worried Rogers' attorneys would file a demand for a speedy trial at a time when there is confusion about whether or not the state's death penalty is available as a punishment. The State Attorney's Office in the First Judicial Circuit dismissed the charges Jan. 9. Prosecutors intend to re-indict Rogers after the state's death penalty is clarified by lawmakers and the Florida Supreme Court. Rogers already is serving a life sentence with no chance at parole for armed burglary and aggravated battery in Volusia County. "Death is the appropriate sanction for Mr. Rogers," Bishop said. "He could have basically just received another life sentence and would not have been punished and held accountable for the death of Mr. Martin." The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's death penalty law in January 2016, ruling it unconstitutional because it placed the decision of death in the hands of a judge. During last year's legislative session, lawmakers rewrote the law to require 10 of 12 jurors to agree on the death penalty. But in October, the state Supreme Court declared the new law unconstitutional because it doesn't require a unanimous decision. Death penalty cases across the state are in flux due to the ruling. "We have every belief the Florida Legislature is going to make those modifications to the death penalty law,??? Bishop said of requiring a unanimous jury decision. Martin's father-in-law, Russell Sharbaugh, who also is the personal representative of Martin's estate, said he understands the decision to dismiss the charges. Sharbaugh, who lives in the Naples area, supports the death penalty for Rogers. "I don't think he should walk away with no punishment," Sharbaugh said. Investigators said Rogers, who has gang ties and an extensive history of violence behind bars, bound Martin???s hand and feet with strips of bed sheet and then beat him within 36 hours of Martin arriving at the Santa Rosa prison. Martin was found lying in a pool of blood with his pants and underwear down to his knees. Several inmates in nearby cells said the attack was racially motivated, according to an Inspector General's Office report about the killing. Rogers admitted to the killing in letters to relatives, Florida Department of Corrections records show. Martin died April 8, 2012, about a week after being removed from life support at a Pensacola hospital. A 2014 Miami Herald article about the killing raised questions about why Martin, a 150-pound nonviolent offender, was placed in a cell with the 6-foot-4, 226-pound Rogers, who has a long history of attacking and beating other inmates. Rogers has admitted to being one of the state's most violent prisoners, according to the paper. 4 months before Martin was
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., KAN., UTAH, CALIF., WASH., USA
Feb. 4 TEXASstay of impending execution Execution halted days before Fort Worth man was set to dieTilon Carter, 37, received a stay Friday afternoon from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. His execution was set for Tuesday. For the 2nd time this week, a Texas execution has been stopped days before the man was set to die. Tilon Carter, 37, received a stay Friday afternoon from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. His execution was set for Tuesday. Carter was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the 2004 death of 89-year-old James Tomlin in his Fort Worth home. Carter and LaKeitha Allen broke into Tomlin's home, bound him with duct tape and robbed him, according to court records. Carter has maintained that he never meant for Tomlin to die, that he tied him up and left with the money. But a medical examiner ruled Tomlin died from being smothered, as well as from being tied up and left in a dangerous position. The stay comes after Carter's attorney filed a late petition requesting a stay of execution on a technicality: the trial court was a day late in notifying the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs that an execution date had been set. "This is fairly technical thing, but they did technically violate the law," said Robin Norris, Carter's attorney. According to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, if the trial court fails to notify the convict's lawyer and the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs that an execution date was set within 2 business days of setting it, the court must reset the execution date. In Carter's case, it took 3 days. The trial court had rejected Carter's request to reset the execution date, stating that even though it took 1 day more than was required, the execution was still more than 140 days away, longer than the 90 days required between setting an execution date and the actual execution. The Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay pending its resolution of the issue. "This is the 1st case I know of that has actually gone to the Court of Criminal Appeals on this question," Norris said. "Most of the convicting courts that have been asked in the past to reset an execution date on the grounds that the Office of Capital and Forensics Writs was not notified in a timely matter have just reset the execution on request. But they didn't do that here." The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment on the case. The stay was the 2nd in Texas this week. On Tuesday, a federal district court in Corpus Christi stopped the execution of John Ramirez, which was set for Thursday. The state has executed 2 people this year. (source: The Texas Tribune) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present22 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-540 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 23-March 7--Rolando Ruiz--541 24-March 14-James Bigby---542 25-April 12-Paul Storey---543 26-June 28--Steven Long---544 27-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---545 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) Why some Texas legislators want to limit the death penalty 1 death sentence in Texas has prompted some legislators to rethink the state's broad qualifications for the death penalty. Jeff Wood, 43, was convicted for the 1996 murder of Kriss Keeran. Wood was sitting in a truck outside a convenience store in Kerrville, Texas when his friend Daniel Reneau entered the store to steal the safe. Reneau shot and killed Keeran, who was working there as a clerk. Wood was convicted of murder under Texas' "law of parties" statute that says those who are responsible for a crime that results in death are equally responsible as the killer even if they did not directly commit the murder, the Texas Tribune reports. The convict was scheduled to be executed in August 2016, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed his execution just 6 days before the event. At the time, the Texas Catholic Conference said the stay "prevents a gross miscarriage of justice." "The public outcry against this execution illustrates broad agreement on the injustice and basic unfairness of the Texas law of parties," the conference said Aug. 19. A trial court is reviewing Wood's case. State Rep. Terry Canales, a Democrat, is sponsoring House Bill 316 to end death sentences for those convicted of capital murder under the law of parties. "We've got to start somewhere when it comes to reforming the death penalty, and there's no better place to start than the law of parties," Rep. Canales said, according to the Texas Tribune. Republican State Rep. Jeff Leach plans, a death penalty proponent, opposes using the law of parties to secure a death sentence. He was involved in Wood's case.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., MISS., TENN, OHIO
Feb . 2 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: "An Intentional Smothering"Tilon Carter says he never meant to kill James Tomlin Tilon Carter faces execution on Tuesday, Feb. 7, after 10 years on death row. The 37-year-old was convicted of capital murder in a Tarrant County court in 2006 for the capital murder of James Eldon Tomlin. In April 2004, Carter and his girlfriend, Leketha Allen, robbed Tomlin, an 89-year-old retired veteran with jars of cash stashed throughout his home. Carter taped Tomlin's hands and legs together and covered his mouth with duct tape before the couple ransacked the house and stole $6,000 and a shotgun. Tomlin's daughter discovered her father's body that day. An autopsy indicated Tomlin had been beaten and smothered, and died of positional asphyxiation. Carter admitted before his trial that he planned to rob Tomlin, though he maintained that he did not mean to kill him. The Tarrant County medical examiner testified that it wasn't exactly clear how Tomlin suffocated. The position and restraints were "consistent" with positional asphyxiation, but marks on the victim's lips "indicated an intentional smothering." Carter's history of misdemeanors and armed robbery made it easy for prosecutors to convince the jury that he was a career criminal. Carter pleaded not guilty. Jurors disagreed and sentenced him to death. Allen accepted a plea for 25 years in prison. She's eligible for parole this year. Carter's appeals have hinged on arguments that his trial attorneys failed to offer contradicting testimony regarding the cause and manner of Tomlin's death, thereby violating his Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel. Attorneys have also focused on the court's alleged failure to prove the death penalty was warranted (as opposed to life in prison), and that state law pertaining to a jury's right to know is in fact a violation of the Eighth and 14th amendments. Those appeals have all failed - most recently, last March, at the U.S. Supreme Court. On Nov. 2, 2016, Carter's appellate attorney Robin Norris requested permission from a federal court to withdraw as Carter's attorney - at Carter's request. Norris wrote: "All judicial avenues for review of Mr. Carter's capital murder conviction and death sentence have been exhausted." What remained were procedural filings for clemency and commutation to the governor and state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Those, Norris suggested, could be taken over by new counsel. The court has not yet responded. Carter is expected to be the 2rd Texan executed this year. John Ramirez's execution, scheduled for today (Feb. 2), was stayed in a Corpus Christi federal court on Tuesday. Attorney Gregory Gardner, who played a crucial role in the stay of Kosoul Chanthakoummane's execution last month, took over Ramirez's case Jan. 27. Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos wrote in her order that "the short time remaining before Ramirez's execution" meant that the substitution of counsel "could only be given effect through a stay." Last week, despite newly discovered forensic evidence, and proof that Dallas County prosecutors falsified evidence to secure a conviction, the Supreme Court denied Terry Edwards' last-minute appeal. He was executed Jan. 26 at 10:17pm, nearly 4 hours after his scheduled court-ordered time of death. (source: Austin Chronicle) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present22 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-540 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 23-February 7---Tilon Carter--541 24-March 7--Rolando Ruiz--542 25-March 14-James Bigby---543 26-April 12-Paul Storey---544 27-June 28--Steven Long---545 28-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---546 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) FLORIDA: Waffle House killer to get chance to get off death row The death row inmate who marched 3 employees of a Davie Waffle House into a freezer, ordered them to their knees and shot them as they begged for their lives will get another chance to fight for his own, the Florida Supreme Court decided. Gerhard Hojan, now 41, was found guilty in 2005 of murdering Christina Delarosa, 17, and Willie Absolu, 28, during a robbery at the restaurant. A 3rd employee, Barbara Nunn, survived a shot to the head. The state's high court ruled that Hojan is entitled to a new sentencing hearing because Florida's process for implementing the death penalty at the time was unconstitutional. The jury that convicted Hojan recommended execution by a vote of 9 to 3. Last year, the court ruled that death penalty recommendations had to be unanimous. Hojan's was 1 of more than 200 cases statewide where the Supreme Court ruled a defendant on death row could be entitled
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ARIZ.
Feb. 1 TEXASstay of impending execution Execution halted for man convicted in Corpus Christi stabbing death2 days before death row inmate John Ramirez was scheduled to be executed, a federal district court in Corpus Christi halted the execution. A federal district court in Corpus Christi halted the execution of Texas death row inmate John Ramirez on Tuesday, 2 days before he was set to die. Ramirez, 32, was convicted in 2009 in the stabbing death of Pablo Castro in Corpus Christi during a 2004 robbery. Castro was stabbed 29 times, and Ramirez wasn't arrested until more than 3 years later when he was found near the Mexican border, according to court documents. He was set for execution on Thursday. The stay comes after 2 motions were filed last week by federal death penalty attorney Greg Gardner, even though he had no previous experience in the case. The court granted the motions to stop the execution and grant Ramirez new counsel because, the motion claimed, Ramirez's previous attorney had failed to file a clemency petition. The state has appealed the court's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which has the ability to overrule the lower court's decision before Thursday and reverse the stay. On July 19, 2004, Ramirez and 2 women, Angela Rodriguez and Christina Chavez, were driving around in a van looking for people to rob for drug money when they spotted Castro taking the trash out from the convenience store where he worked, according to an opinion by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Rodriguez and Ramirez approached Castro, and Ramirez slashed his throat and repeatedly stabbed him in his head, neck, shoulders and back, according to court records. Rodriguez went through his pockets and came back to the van with $1.25, according to Chavez's testimony. The 2 woman were found the night of the murder appearing high and drunk, records stated. Rodriguez is currently serving a life sentence for murder, and Chavez pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and got a 25-year sentence, according to prison records. She became eligible for parole in January. Ramirez evaded arrest until Feb. 20, 2008, when he was found near the Texas-Mexico border. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death; he's been on death row for almost 8 years. In the recent motions filed Friday, Ramirez claimed his previous appellate attorney abandoned him by not filing a clemency petition, a motion commonly filed in capital cases to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and the governor asking for a stay of execution or commutation to life in prison. About 3 weeks after receiving an execution date, Ramirez wrote his previous attorney, Michael Gross, saying he wanted Gross to remove himself from his case so he could seek new representation. Gross complied, and didn't file a clemency petition, but neither did anyone else. Attorney General Ken Paxton argued for Texas that Gross was simply following Ramirez's instructions, but the court ruled Gross was still responsible because he hadn't been replaced. After Ramirez's godmother called Gardner, he filed the motions. Paxton said the 2 lawyers were engaging in "gamesmanship," noting that both were involved in another death penalty case that was recently stayed. The court said a hearing did not suggest any such tactics. It is the 1st stay of execution in Texas this year, stopping what would have been the state's 3rd execution. Another execution is set for next Tuesday for Tilon Carter. *** Texas lawmakers aim to eliminate death penalty for convicts who didn't killAt least 2 Texas Democrats and one Republican are pushing to reform the death penalty under the law of parties, which holds those involved in a murder equally responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing. Months after Jeff Wood narrowly and temporarily avoided execution for a murder he didn't commit, his case has motivated Texas lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to call for death penalty reform. Wood, 43, was convicted in the 1996 murder of Kriss Keeran, who was fatally shot by Wood's friend in a Kerrville convenience store. Wood was sitting in a truck when his friend, Daniel Reneau, went into the store to steal a safe and then pulled the trigger on Keeran, who worked there as a clerk. Even though Wood didn't kill Keeran, he was convicted of murder and given the death penalty under the Texas statute known as the "law of parties," which holds that those involved in a crime resulting in death are equally responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing. He was scheduled to die last August, but, after a rally in front of Gov. Abbott's mansion and uproar from a group of lawmakers, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed, or stopped, his execution six days before it happened, sending it back to the trial court to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, KY., ARK., MO.
Jan. 29 TEXAS: Judge tells murder suspect he appointed 'best lawyers I could find' A Texas prison inmate's desire for a new lawyer in his Bowie County capital murder case was the subject of much discussion at a pretrial hearing Friday. "If I wanted him off my case, I could just assault him and he'd be off my case. But I'm not going to do that. That wouldn't help me at all," Billy Joel Tracy said of his lead defense attorney, Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant, Texas, at a hearing before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart at the Bowie County Courthouse in New Boston, Texas. Tracy clenched a cuffed fist as he spoke. Cobb was seated next to him at the defense table. "I know what my odds are in this courtroom. This man here made it clear to me what he wants to do with me," Tracy said, referring to Bowie County District Attorney Jerry Rochelle. At an earlier hearing, Rochelle told the court his office is taking extraordinary measures to work with Tracy's defense team, so that "when the time comes to put a needle in that guy's arm," there won't be any doubt that the state has followed the law. Tracy, 39, is charged with capital murder in the death of Correctional Officer Timothy Davison, who was beaten to death July 15, 2015, while working at the Barry Telford Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Tracy was allegedly caught on multiple video surveillance cameras wielding a metal tray slot bar like a baseball bat to deliver blows during an attack lasting less than a minute, which proved fatal to Davison. The state is seeking the death penalty. Tracy recently filed motions on his own behalf asking for Cobb's removal. Lockhart addressed the concerns outlined in Tracy's motions, including complaints that Cobb wouldn't allow him to take possession of copies of court records at the courthouse following a previous pretrial hearing. "Defense counsel cannot hand you documents," Lockhart said. "They could be subject to criminal prosecution if they give you unredacted information." Information, such as the address of a witness, is removed from copies of court documents provided to criminal defendants by law. Lockhart said he has learned that Tracy currently has redacted copies of all the discovery, or information the state has provided the defense, in his possession. Lockhart pointed out that reading through and redacting the thousands of pages of documents in the case is a lengthy process. "It could take days, if not weeks, to go through all that," Lockhart said. In response to Tracy's complaints about Cobb, Lockhart explained the logic behind his decision to appoint Cobb as lead counsel and Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson as 2nd chair. Lockhart said he was impressed with Cobb's performance as a defense lawyer in a case in Red River County. Cobb's grasp of the law, criminal procedure, his experience as both a defense attorney and a prosecutor, and the opinions of other judges who've seen Cobb in the courtroom led to Cobb's appointment, Lockhart said. "I deliberately didn't want a local attorney for lead counsel," Lockhart added. Lockhart spoke of Harrelson's experience and ability as well, mentioning a capital murder case Harrelson tried, which ended with a verdict of life in prison from a jury that had the death penalty as an option as well. "The state of Texas is trying to take your life. I have appointed you the best lawyers I could find. It would behoove you to pay attention to them," Lockhart said. "I will do this for you though; I'll let you speak at pretrials if you wish to speak again." At Friday's hearing, Lockhart expressed concern that Tracy's abundant pro se motions are filed with the purpose of delaying the trial or to establish grounds for appeal, particularly ineffective assistance of counsel. Tracy assured Lockhart that he wants to get the trial over with and that his complaints about Cobb are based in his desire to have good representation. Lockhart told Tracy that case law in Texas clearly establishes that a defendant does not have the right to "hybrid" representation, or to represent himself or herself at the same time they are being represented by a lawyer. "Hybrid representation has a great potential for chaos," Lockhart said, quoting Texas case law. "I want the record to show that this court is not ruling on any of the motions provided by the defendant unless they are adopted and re-urged by defense counsel." Lockhart told Tracy he is free to file whatever he wants and that the court will read the pro se motions and letters but that he will not rule on them. Lockhart asked Cobb and Harrelson to provide Tracy with copies of the opinions that deny a defendant the right to hybrid representation in Texas. Lockhart asked Cobb if he had any reservations about continuing to represent Tracy. Cobb said he has had similar, not identical, but similar experiences in other cases and doesn't plan to leave the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., OHIO
Jan. 28 TEXAS: Report: Texas bought seized execution drugs from India Texas prison officials in 2015 arranged to buy lethal-injection drugs from a company in India that was busted for selling psychotropic drugs and opioids illegally to people in Europe and the United States, a new report claims. When that deal fell through, they bought $25,000 worth of execution drugs from another supplier in India, a shipment seized in Houston by U.S. drug enforcers as an illegal importation, according to the report in BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed, in a detailed story posted late Thursday, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials notified the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Jan. 8, 2015 that they would be importing a large amount of sodium thiopental, Texas' execution drug, as required by a DEA license the agency holds. "TDCJ will be importing Thiopental Sodium in 1 gram vials for a total of 500 to 1,000 grams per purchase/importation," a DEA investigative report published with the article shows. "TDCJ will be importing from the following supplier: Provizer Pharma." Before the sale could be completed, however, Indian drug enforcement authorities raided Provizer Pharma's offices in the city of Surat, arrested five employees and seized an assortment of drugs, many of which are used as "party pills" in the United States, India's Narcotics Control Bureau called the raid a "significant seizure." Weeks later, Texas turned to another supplier in India -- identified in leaked DEA documents as Chris Harris -- and that shipment was seized in July 2015 at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. A second shipment bound for Arizona was seized at the same time. The seizures came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had warned Texas and its supplier, along with Arizona and Nebraska, that attempts to import the drugs would be illegal and that the shipments would be confiscated, officials earlier confirmed. A federal court at one point blocked its importation. The BuzzFeed report provides new details about the source of Texas' execution drugs, long a secret that the state has battled in courts to keep out of public view, and of the lengths to which Texas and other states have gone to obtain them. In recent years, as most companies in the United States and Europe have stopped making the drugs used in U.S. executions or prohibited their sale for lethal use, Texas and other states have had to resort to secondary suppliers where purchases have proven to be much more difficult. Critics of the death penalty also have questioned whether the quality of those drugs can more easily be compromised, and whether they will kill condemned inmates without pain and suffering -- a key element in whether the use of those drugs could compromise the legal administration of the death penalty. The Texas-bound executions drugs seized in July 2015 remain in DEA custody. Earlier this month, Texas sued the FDA seeking to release the drugs, accusing the agency of "gross incompetence or willful obstruction," according to court filings. In its lawsuit, Texas referred to the source of the lethal drugs only as a "foreign distributor." While the source of Texas' execution drugs used to be publicly available, state officials in recent years have made information about their suppliers a guarded secret as suppliers for the drugs dried up, some driven by pressure from death penalty opponents in the United States and Europe. Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered the information secret, and state officials have fought since then to keep as many details as possible under wraps, including a threat against the DEA not to identify the supplier in the pending lawsuit over the confiscation. Texas prison officials declined late Thursday to discuss any details in the BuzzFeed story, other than to say they had "not engaged in any transaction" with Provizer. They declined further comment. "The story is highly speculative and inaccurate," said TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark, declining to discuss any details. "TDCJ has a statutory responsibility to carry out court ordered executions in Texas," Clark said. "All drugs used in the lethal injection process are legally purchased and are tested by an independent lab for both potency and purity to ensure they meet national standards." (source: Houston Chronicle) Texas Sought Banned Death Penalty Drugs From Overseas Party DealersIn the future, President Trump's lifelong fanaticism for capital punishment could make such shady deals unnecessary. Lethal injectionBrian Baer/ZUMA Press/NewscomThe state of Texas - hell bent on procuring banned drugs to be used in lethal injection executions - nearly completed a deal with 5 party drug dealers in India before the men were arrested. According to an absolutely bonkers report in Buzzfeed, Indian court documents reveal Provizer Pharma - the company equally
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., MISS., OHIO, NEB.
Jan. 27 TEXAS: Texas prisoner dies of lethal injection after last-minute appeal fails The US supreme court rejects a plea from Terry Edwards' attorneys for stay of execution and reinvestigation of 'flawed' murder conviction There was no clear gunshot residue from the murder weapon on his hands and no blood from either victim on his body or clothes. Yet Terry Edwards has been put to death in Texas as the result of a conviction his attorneys argue was deeply flawed and potentially tainted with racial bias. After the federal 5th circuit appeals court denied his petition on Wednesday, Edwards' final hope for a stay of execution and a fresh examination of his case rested with a last-day appeal to the US supreme court. But that failed and Edwards, 43, died of lethal injection at 10:17pm on Thursday at the state's death chamber in Huntsville, said Texas department of criminal justice spokesman Jason Clark in a statement. "Yes, I made peace with God. I hope y'all make peace with this," Edwards said before he was put to death, according to the statement released by Clark. The execution was the 540th in Texas since the supreme court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state. Edwards was fired from his job at a Subway in suburban Dallas in 2002 for suspected theft of money. He returned a couple of weeks later with his cousin, Kirk. The sandwich shop was robbed and 2 employees were shot dead. Mickell Goodwin, 26, and the store manager, Tommy Walker, 34, died from close-range bullet wounds on 8 July 2002. A witness reported seeing Terry Edwards dumping a gun into a bin across the street. He was arrested soon afterwards and convicted in 2003. Kirk Edwards pleaded guilty to robbery in exchange for a 25-year sentence with the possibility of parole. Terry, who in contrast to his cousin had no history of violence, according to his lawyers, received the death penalty. At trial the prosecution asserted that Terry Edwards pulled the trigger, telling the court that he went to Subway "with murder in mind, with greed in mind, with evil in his heart". But in appeals his lawyers have claimed that he was not the killer and that his cousin is a more likely culprit. Under Texas's "law of parties", accomplices can be sentenced to death even if they do not personally commit murder. Texas has executed more people since 1976 than the next 6 states combined. Last year it put 7 prisoners to death by lethal injection, while Georgia led the nation with nine. Edwards would be the 2nd inmate executed by Texas this month. The state has 7 more scheduled for later in the year. Edwards' attorneys have also cast doubt on the fairness of the jury selection process. They said in a statement that prosecutors "removed all eligible African Americans from the jury pool of 3,000 citizens [143 of whom were questioned] and seated an all-white jury to decide the fate of an African American man charged with murdering 2 white people". They say they have obtained a strike list that next to the names of 32 of the questioned potential jurors has a handwritten, encircled "B" that could stand for "black". "When we saw the strike list with B's next to potential jurors names we were stunned," John Mills, one of the attorneys, said. In May last year the supreme court ruled in a case known as Foster v Chatman that the conviction and death sentence of a black man convicted of killing a white woman in Georgia in 1986 was unconstitutional because of the way potential black jurors were excluded. In that case, prosecutors marked the names of possible black jurors with a "B" on lists. But in Edwards' case, Mills said that they have been unable to obtain juror questionnaires. These would indicate jurors' races and allow cross-referencing with the strike list, perhaps proving the theory that "B" means "black". The questionnaires appear to have been lost. The 43-year-old's current team raised a common claim in death penalty cases: inadequate counsel. The defence called as a witness a trace evidence analyst who ended up testifying on cross-examination that Terry Edwards could have removed 2 of the 3 chemical components typically found in gunshot residue from his hands, perhaps from sweating or wiping it off. But Edwards' attorneys say a review they commissioned last year by a former FBI agent contradicts this, and argues: "The testing and evidence introduced at trial raises very serious questions of reliability." Mills also said it looks as if the district attorney's office has closed off access to the conviction integrity unit, a branch of the office that was set up in 2007 to review cases in the wake of a spate of wrongful convictions in the county. "We're concerned that the district attorney's office is no longer interested in having the unit look at the case," he said. A spokeswoman for the office did not respond to a request for comment but told the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., OHIO, UTAH, USA
Jan. 27 TEXASexecution A man convicted of committing a fatal robbery at a Balch Springs Subway shop weeks after he was fired from his job there was executed at a Texas prison. 43-year-old Terry Edwards was put to death by lethal injection late Thursday for the $3,000 holdup at a Subway restaurant where 2 employees were gunned down in 2002. Multiple appeals before the high court temporarily delayed the punishment for more than 3 hours. Edwards' attorneys had asked the justices to reopen his case to investigate claims that a court-appointed lawyer earlier in the appeals process provided deficient help by abandoning him. The court 2 weeks ago agreed to review the case of another Texas death row inmate who raised claims about poor legal help. Another appeal before the high court Thursday night raised questions about whether the pentobarbital Texas uses in lethal injections should be tested for its potency before Edwards is put to death. The court order setting Edwards' execution had given the state a 6-hour window, ending at midnight, to carry out the punishment. Edwards was convicted of a 2002 robbery at a Balch Springs Subway sandwich shop where 2 employees were killed. He was sentenced to die in 2003 for the shooting deaths of Tommy Walker, 34, and Mickell Goodwin, 26. Edwards had been fired from the Subway where they worked weeks earlier, and prosecutors said he killed the 2 before fleeing. Witnesses said Edwards later was seen dumping a .38-caliber handgun in a trash can across the street from the store. He was arrested the same day and found with $3,000 from the store. But Edwards' lawyers say he wasn't the triggerman in the deadly robbery. They allege that the lead prosecutor in the trial elicited false testimony from a forensic expert and unconstitutionally cherry-picked jurors so that the black defendant faced an all-white jury. They also contend that the prosecutor withheld statements from witnesses who said they saw Edwards' cousin inside the restaurant at the time of the murders and fleeing out the front door. They say Edwards' cousin, who committed the robbery with him and is eligible for parole, was the gunman. The lawyers sought to delay Edwards' execution and allow the county to assign Dallas County's Conviction Integrity Unit to the case, citing "grave concerns" about the validity of the conviction. State lawyers, however, argue in court documents that Edwards planned and participated in the robbery, knowing that the victims would be shot. They also contend that multiple witnesses identified Edwards and that he made incriminating statements while he was in a police car after his arrest. In a recording of his statements, Edwards was heard to say that he had "messed up" and got 2 murders. "None of applicant's allegations exculpate him as a party to the capital murder, nor undermine confidence in the jury's verdict," Jaclyn O'Connor Lambert, an assistant Dallas County district attorney, wrote in a court pleading. Edwards becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 540th overall since Texas resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. He becomes the 22nd condemned inmate to be put to death since Greg Abbott became governor of Texas. Edwards becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1445th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Dallas Morning News & Rick Halperin) * Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present22 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-540 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 23-February 2---John Ramirez--541 24-February 7---Tilon Carter--542 25-March 7--Rolando Ruiz--543 26-March 14-James Bigby---544 27-April 12-Paul Storey---545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) *** impending execution Death Watch: A Death Sentence for $1.25John Ramirez goes to the gurney for a murder committed during a robbery John Henry Ramirez, 32, gets Texas' next dose of lethal injection on Thursday, Feb. 2. He was sentenced to death in 2008 after murdering Pablo Castro in Corpus Christi during an alleged robbery. In July 2004, Ramirez and 2 female friends jumped Castro outside of the convenience store where he worked. Nueces County prosecutors charged that Ramirez and his friends spent the night cruising around town looking to rob people for drug money when they spotted Castro taking out the trash. Ramirez attacked the store clerk with one accomplice, beating him, and stabbing him 29 times. They also allegedly stole $1.25 from
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Jan. 26 TEXAS: Supreme Court rejects appeal for inmate convicted of Dallas-area murders The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution of a Texas prisoner condemned for committing a fatal robbery at a Balch Springs sandwich shop weeks after he was fired from his job there. Terry Edwards is set for lethal injection Thursday evening for the $3,000 holdup at a Subway restaurant where two employees were gunned down in 2002. Multiple appeals before the high court temporarily delayed the punishment for more than three hours. Edwards' attorneys asked the justices to reopen his case to investigate claims that a court-appointed lawyer earlier in the appeals process provided deficient help by abandoning him. The court two weeks ago agreed to review the case of another Texas death row inmate who raised claims about poor legal help. Another appeal before the high court Thursday night raises questions about whether the pentobarbital Texas uses in lethal injections should be tested for its potency before Edwards is put to death. The court order setting Edwards' execution gave the state a six-hour window, ending at midnight, to carry out the punishment. Edwards was convicted of a 2002 robbery at a Balch Springs Subway sandwich shop where two employees were killed. He was sentenced to die in 2003 for the shooting deaths of Tommy Walker, 34, and Mickell Goodwin, 26. Edwards had been fired from the Subway where they worked weeks earlier, and prosecutors said he killed the two before fleeing. Witnesses said Edwards later was seen dumping a .38-caliber handgun in a trash can across the street from the store. He was arrested the same day and found with $3,000 from the store. But Edwards' lawyers say he wasn't the triggerman in the deadly robbery. They allege that the lead prosecutor in the trial elicited false testimony from a forensic expert and unconstitutionally cherry-picked jurors so that the black defendant faced an all-white jury. They also contend that the prosecutor withheld statements from witnesses who said they saw Edwards' cousin inside the restaurant at the time of the murders and fleeing out the front door. They say Edwards' cousin, who committed the robbery with him and is eligible for parole, was the gunman. The lawyers sought to delay Edwards' execution and allow the county to assign Dallas County's Conviction Integrity Unit to the case, citing "grave concerns" about the validity of the conviction. State lawyers, however, argue in court documents that Edwards planned and participated in the robbery, knowing that the victims would be shot. They also contend that multiple witnesses identified Edwards and that he made incriminating statements while he was in a police car after his arrest. In a recording of his statements, Edwards was heard to say that he had "messed up" and got two murders. "None of applicant's allegations exculpate him as a party to the capital murder, nor undermine confidence in the jury's verdict," Jaclyn O'Connor Lambert, an assistant Dallas County district attorney, wrote in a court pleading. (source: Dallas Morning News) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
TEXAS: Execution delayed for inmate convicted of Dallas-area murders Texas prison officials have temporarily delayed the scheduled execution of a 43-year-old convicted killer while the U.S. Supreme Court considers multiple appeals intended to keep him from lethal injection. Attorneys for inmate Terry Edwards are arguing his case should be reopened so they can show that poor legal help at his trial resulted in an unjust conviction and that he had deficient legal assistance during earlier stages of appeals. Another appeal before the high court Thursday night raises questions about whether the pentobarbital Texas uses in lethal injections should be tested for its potency before Edwards is put to death. State attorneys are opposing any delay. The court order setting Edwards' execution gives the state a six-hour window, ending at midnight, to carry out the punishment. Edwards was convicted of a 2002 robbery at a Balch Springs Subway sandwich shop where two employees were killed. He was sentenced to die in 2003 for the shooting deaths of Tommy Walker, 34, and Mickell Goodwin, 26. Edwards had been fired from the Subway where they worked weeks earlier, and prosecutors said he killed the two before fleeing. Witnesses said Edwards later was seen dumping a .38-caliber handgun in a trash can across the street from the store. He was arrested the same day and found with $3,000 from the store. But Edwards' lawyers say he wasn't the triggerman in the deadly robbery. They allege that the lead prosecutor in the trial elicited false testimony from a forensic expert and unconstitutionally cherry-picked jurors so that the black defendant faced an all-white jury. They also contend that the prosecutor withheld statements from witnesses who said they saw Edwards' cousin inside the restaurant at the time of the murders and fleeing out the front door. They say Edwards' cousin, who committed the robbery with him and is eligible for parole, was the gunman. The lawyers sought to delay Edwards' execution and allow the county to assign Dallas County's Conviction Integrity Unit to the case, citing "grave concerns" about the validity of the conviction. State lawyers, however, argue in court documents that Edwards planned and participated in the robbery, knowing that the victims would be shot. They also contend that multiple witnesses identified Edwards and that he made incriminating statements while he was in a police car after his arrest. In a recording of his statements, Edwards was heard to say that he had "messed up" and got two murders. "None of applicant's allegations exculpate him as a party to the capital murder, nor undermine confidence in the jury's verdict," Jaclyn O'Connor Lambert, an assistant Dallas County district attorney, wrote in a court pleading. (source: Dallas Morning News) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., S.C., FLA., MISS.
Jan. 26 TEXASimpending execution Unequal Under the Law: The Troubling Case of Terry Edwards, Set to Be Executed on Thursday They removed all the black folks from the pool of potential jurors. In the trial of a black man convicted of killing 2 white folks. Not in 1950 ... but in 2002. Prosecutors systematically removed all the black jurors from the jury pool of 3,000 citizens. And by "systematically," I mean they wrote the letter "B" beside the names of potential jurors, and then seated an all-white jury. It doesn't get much more overt than that. After ensuring that more than 30 black juror-prospects did not make it onto the final jury panel, prosecutors managed to ensure that Terry Edwards would have an all-white jury when he faced the death penalty in Texas. And of course, the death penalty is what he got. Where lynchings happened 100 years ago is where executions happen today. When it comes to race in America, the prison system - and the death penalty in particular - shows us how little has changed in the past century. Our system of criminal justice is one of the social institutions that has been the least affected by the civil rights movement. In the 1950s, as we began to transition from lynchings to state-sanctioned executions, African Americans were 22 % of the population in the U.S. but made up 75 % of executions. Now, nearly 70 years later, African Americans are 13 % of the population but still account for over 1/3 of executions and nearly 1/2 (43 %) of death row. Where lynchings happened 100 years ago is where executions happen today - in states like Texas. And the states that continued to hang on to slavery the longest are the same states still holding on to the death penalty - states like Texas. Texas alone accounts for roughly half of the executions in the country. During sentencing, one of the things argued in Texas courts is the "future dangerousness" of the defendant. It's a nebulous idea for sure, but even more nebulous considering the unhealed wounds of our racial past. In the case of Duane Buck, another Texas man currently fighting to stop his execution, data was allowed into the court as evidence that suggested that black folks are more likely to be dangerous than white folks. The New York Times featured Buck's case in an article "Condemned to Die Because He's Black." Mr. Buck's case is still before the Supreme Court. Now back to Mr. Edwards - whose final hours are ticking away, and whose case may not even make it to the Supreme Court. In addition to striking dozens of potential black jurors from his jury, the prosecution presented an array of bad forensic tests, and withheld all sorts of other evidence. Terry Edwards did not get a fair trial, and he deserves one. This isn't an isolated incident. The prosecutor in this case has been responsible for other wrongful convictions, including three folks who have now been exonerated. What's especially troubling and consistent with other cases is the lethal duo of prosecutor, Thomas D'Amore, and forensic technician Vicki Hall. These 2 teamed up on another trial of a man I've had the privilege to meet. His name is Richard Miles. In 1995, D'Amore and Hall provided gunshot residue "evidence" that is eerily similar to the case of Mr. Edwards. Nearly 20 years later, Richard Miles was exonerated and freed (in 2012). Now he's the Founder of Miles of Freedom working for reform in the prison system. Here's what Mr. Miles has to say: "I was 19 years old when I was arrested for murder. I'm 41 now. I have never shot a gun a day in my life. But that didn't matter. All the jury needed to hear was 'His hands came back dirty.' The prosecutor, Thomas D'Amore, and the forensic technician, Vicki Hall, put on false gunshot residue testimony. Now it looks like this same prosecutor and this same forensic technician are saying the same thing about Terry Edwards. It looks like the same set up." I do not know what happened on July 8, 2002 that took the lives of 2 precious people - Tommy Walker and Mickell Goodwin. My heart goes out to their families and to all the victims of violence. I don't know what happened that night. But I do know that Terry Edwards did not get a fair trial, and he deserves one. The death penalty needs to be remembered in the same way we remember lynching - with horror and shame. Inscribed on the Supreme Court are the words: "Equal Justice Under the Law." The case of Terry Edwards is a poignant reminder that this vision is still a noble aspiration, though far from being fully realized. Too often, the best predictor of who gets executed in America is not the atrocity of the crime but far more arbitrary things like where the crime was committed, the race of the victim, and the resources of the defendant. I also know that there is a way to honor the victims of violence without more violence. The death penalty needs to be remembered in the same way we
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., MO.
Jan. 25 TEXASimpending execution Texas Appeals Court Refuses To Block Thursday Execution Texas' highest criminal court has refused to stop this week's execution of a 43-year-old man convicted of a suburban Dallas sandwich shop robbery where 2 employees were fatally shot. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals late Tuesday rejected appeals from attorneys for Terry Edwards. He's set for lethal injection Thursday evening in Huntsville for the 2002 death of 26-year-old Mickell Goodwin. The manager of the Subway restaurant in Balch Springs, 34-year-old Tommy Walker, also was killed. Edwards weeks earlier was fired from the shop. His attorneys insist among several claims that a cousin, not Edwards, did the shootings, that Dallas County prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from his jury and that he had poor legal help at his trial and during previous appeals. Edwards still has appeals in the federal courts. (source: Associated Press) *** DA asks appeals court to reconsider ruling in Waco death penalty case McLennan County prosecutors are asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider its decision to overturn the conviction and death sentence of a man found guilty in a deadly double shooting. Albert Leslie Love, Jr., was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the murders of 2 men in 2013 at an apartment complex on Spring Street in Waco. In a Dec. 7, 2016 decision, the appeals court ruled that prosecutors should have secured a search warrant instead of a court order to obtain text messages used against Love during the trial. Prosecutors maintain that authorities followed the established practice in seeking a court order requiring Love's cellphone carrier to provide the texts as well as calls. "At the time the evidence is obtained there has been no violation of any law. It is only an after-the-fact determination that then works to retroactively view law enforcement's action to be a violation of the law. The review of the actions of law enforcement should be at the time of the action, not in hindsight," prosecutors wrote in their motion for a rehearing. Love and Rickey Cummings were both sent to death row for the March 28, 2011 ambush-style killings of Keenan Hubert, 20, and Tyus Sneed, 17, who died in a hail of bullets as they sat in a car in the parking lot of Lakewood Villas Apartments on Spring Street in east Waco. Testimony in their trials indicated the 2 were killed in retaliation for the April 8, 2010 death of Emuel Bowers III, who was shot and killed while sitting in his car at a Waco park. (source: KWTX news) ** For Elderly Inmates, There's More Than 1 Way to Die on Death Row Public radio stations from across the state collaborated on this series looking at the death penalty in Texas - its history, how it's changed, whom it affects and its future. From Texas Standard: Death row inmates often spend decades between the day they're sentenced and the day they're executed. That can be due to many factors - from lengthy appeals to the state being unable to get the drugs it needs to carry out executions. In the meantime, inmates age. Some are dying of natural causes. Such was the case last April when 2 inmates passed away - one right after the other. Texas faces many challenges treating inmates' health on a limited budget. To understand, we must look at inmates' overall living conditions. Conditions differ between the more than 230 men and the 6 women on death row in Texas. In a way, the lives of the women on death row are exceptional. They wake up in their cells, head out to a job, and then socialize or exercise until sundown when they're locked up again. But the men's day-to-day is very different. Jason Clark is a spokesperson with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). He says to understand why men's lives on death row are different, we need to backtrack. "In 1998 Martin Gurule escaped from death row," Clark says. Gurule drowned in a nearby creek, after escaping the compound where he was imprisoned. Since his escape, things dramatically changed for men on death row. Today, they're held in de facto isolation - in tiny cells roughly the size of an office cubicle - 23 hours a day. Every day, they get 1 hour outdoors, in a cage, with little freedom of movement. Male death row inmates are also forbidden from receiving human touch. Carl Buntion is 72 years old. He has been on death row since 1991. "I don't get to talk to very many people," he says. In 1990 Buntion killed Jim Irby, a Houston police officer. Buntion was convicted a year later and has been on death row ever since. At 72, he is Texas's oldest man on death row. He is what TDCJ considers geriatric - inmates older than 55. And for these people, this living arrangement can have very real implications on their health. "I have all the old man ailments,"
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., MISS., USA
Jan. 24 TEXAS: Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present21 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-539 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 22-January 26---Terry Edwards-540 23-February 2---John Ramirez--541 24-February 7---Tilon Carter--542 25-March 7--Rolando Ruiz--543 26-March 14-James Bigby---544 27-April 12-Paul Storey---545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ALABAMA: Alabama judicial override safe from Supreme Court review The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to Alabama's system of judicial override for the death penalty from several death-row inmates in the State. In a list of orders on pending cases released Monday, the Court denied certiorari in the case of Thomas Arthur v. Alabama. Arthur and 2 other death-row inmates petitioned the high court in November to review Alabama's death row laws. Those laws allow judges in the State impose the death penalty in some capital murder cases, even when the jury refused to impose the death penalty. Last year, the Yellowhammer State became the last state in the US to have judicial override after the US Supreme Court ruled against a similar law in Florida. Over the next several months, the Florida Supreme Court and the Delaware Supreme Court killed judicial override in 2 out of the last 3 states with the provision. Arthur escaped death for the seventh time in November when the US Supreme Court Chief Justice issued a stay from the Court on the night of the 74-year-old's scheduled execution. That night, Arthur's attorneys filed 2 briefs before the Court. The petition for writ of certiorari denied Monday asked the Court to review the death penalty sentencing laws, which Arthur argued were unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's January 2016 decision in Hurst v. Florida. Another petition, which is still before the Court, asks the Court to review Arthur's request for an alternative form of execution beside Alabama's lethal injection cocktail. Arthur believes Alabama's 3-drug lethal injection regimen would be cruel and unusual, violating the Eighth Amendment. In Hurst v. Florida, the Court ruled Florida's judicial override laws were unconstitutional. That law, like Alabama's, allowed trial court judges to overturn a jury's verdict of life. Attorney General Luther Strange said Monday in a statement that Alabama's judicial override sentencing law is different from Florida's and that the Court's decision was a victory. "The US Supreme Court's denial of certiorari ... is a reaffirmation that Alabama's death sentencing law is constitutional," Strange said. "Convicted murders [sic] have repeatedly challenged Alabama's death penalty sentencing system because it allows for judicial override similar to Florida???s law." Alabama's law, unlike Florida's, requires that a jury unanimously "find an aggravating factor at either the guilt or sentencing stage" before determining a death sentence. In other words, judges can't impose the death penalty without at least some input from the jury. In the Hurst decision, the Court applied a 2002 decision that found that a jury must find the "aggravating factors" necessary for imposing the death penalty. Florida's laws did not require the jury's input on those factors. Aggravating factors are often whether the murder occurred during the course of a robbery, burglary or kidnapping - or whether the defendant was "under sentence of imprisonment," as was Arthur's case. That small provision present in Alabama's criminal procedure giving juries the responsibility to find those "aggravating factors" likely saved the State's sentencing system, though the Court's exact reason is unknown. For Alabama, Strange said, it's still a victory. "It should, therefore, be clear to all that Alabama's death penalty sentencing system is constitutional," Strange said. But even with Monday's legal victory, Alabama's system remains the only "hybrid sentencing system" in the country. Juries give a nonbinding advisory sentence - either for death or for life - and the judge then makes the final determination. In Arthur's case, his trial jury voted 11-1 for an advisory verdict of death, but the vote wasn't unanimous, as most other states' death-penalty sentences require. Since 1976, more than 92 % of 107 overrides have resulted in a judge imposing the death penalty when a trial jury voted to recommend life in prison, according to Montgomery's Equal Justice Initiative. And it's not just the Supreme Court reviewing judicial override in the State. The Legislature will take it up next month
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., VA., FLA., ALA., MO., USA, US MIL.
Jan. 24 TEXASimpending execution Is Texas About to Execute an Innocent Man?Terry Edwards' murder conviction is irrevocably flawed. Unless the courts or Gov. Greg Abbott step in to stop it, Texas will execute Terry Edwards on Thursday. This would be a reprehensible miscarriage of justice. Edwards' conviction for capital murder was won at least in part due to a faulty forensic argument pushed by the prosecution and what appears to be a racially biased and likely unconstitutional jury-selection process. If this execution proceeds as planned, it would be an irrevocable stain on a state justice system that leads the nation in wrongful convictions. Terry Edwards is not a saint. He and his cousin Kirk Edwards were responsible for the 2002 homicides of Tommy Walker and Mickell Goodwin. But while Terry Edwards took part in the burglary that led to the murder of 2 of his former co-workers at a Subway restaurant in the Dallas suburbs, it's less clear that he was the triggerman. In a series of filings earlier this month, Edwards' attorneys requested that his execution be stayed and a new writ of habeas corpus be considered. It will be up to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether new evidence ought to be considered at the federal level, while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is also considering whether to stay the execution. The appeal makes for damning reading, dismantling key portions of the case against Terry Edwards. The principal evidentiary problem with Edwards' case surrounds the use of forensic testimony about gunshot residue. Despite the shooting having occurred at point-blank range, Edwards had no blood on his body, no gunshot residue on his hands, and none of the victim's DNA on his person when he was picked up by police immediately after the crime occurred. He was tested for gunshot residue within an hour of his arrest, according to the appeal. A state forensic analyst named Vicki Hall tested Edwards' hands for gunshot residue and found it wasn't there. Given that negative result, the defense called Hall to testify at Edwards' trial; she was the defense's only witness during the guilt-innocence phase. On cross-examination, though, Hall explained away her test results, testifying that Edwards might have either sweated away or wiped off "some of that residue." Hall had also indicated in her forensics report that 1 of the 3 elements that would have been found in the gunshot residue was present on Edwards. In closing arguments, prosecutor Thomas D'Amore used Hall's testimony to argue that the presence of that 1 element - the relatively commonplace barium - proved that gunshot residue had been present, and that Edwards had somehow wiped off the other 2 chemicals. In Edwards' appeal, a former FBI agent writes that this wipe theory is "scientifically unsupportable": The three chemicals, barium, antimony, and lead, exist in the same particle, or in particles that contain two of the three. If you remove any of the components they would be removed linearly. It does not occur that just 1 of the components is removed; the components all increase or decrease together. It is not possible that a defendant who had gunshot residue on his hands could simply wipe 2 of the 3 components off of his hands and not the 3rd. Or, as 1 of Edwards' current attorneys John Mills put it to me, "It is scientifically impossible to remove trace elements of 2 chemicals and not 1." According to Mills, there is reason to believe gunshot residue would have been present on the shooter in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Hall, the forensic analyst, ran a trace analysis of the victim Mickell Goodwin and found all three elements on her right hand near a defensive wound. That result is "important for 2 reasons," Mills told me. "It does demonstrate that the gun that was used does emit a relatively high volume of gunshot residue when fired, and it heightens the significance of the absence of gunshot residue on Mr. Edwards." Hall and the state, however, failed to disclose this test to Edwards' lawyers in advance of the trial, and his new legal team didn't uncover this fact until very recently. At trial, though, Hall did testify about the negative results from tests conducted on the hands of the other victim, Tommy Walker. D'Amore, meanwhile, has had three previous convictions overturned. In one of those cases, Hall testified that the presence of two of three chemicals on the hands of defendant Richard Miles indicated that he had "fir[ed] a weapon or handl[ed] a very dirty weapon." Miles was convicted, but the disclosure that Hall's trace-evidence testimony was faulty - a fact she later admitted herself - helped exonerate him years later. Edwards' attorneys argue in his appeal that "Hall's testimony and the direct examination by D'Amore in the Miles case were dishonest in a manner that reflects not only collusion and fraud, but also bears
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., GA., FLA., ALA.
Jan. 20 TEXAS: Nueces County judges have more capital murder cases than capable lawyers to appoint Nueces County has too many capital murder defendants and not enough defense lawyers. When appointing lawyers to indigent defendants accused of the most serious offense, state district judges rely on approved attorneys to lead the defense. But Nueces County has seen an uptick in capital murder defendants. Meanwhile, only 4 lawyers in the county are on the list of attorneys who can be "first chair," meaning they're the lead attorney on a case. "I mean, we are out of attorneys," 347th District Judge Missy Medary said during a judges' meeting Wednesday. Medary is the 5th administrative judicial region judge and maintains the attorney list for the 11-county area. More lawyers on the list are from more southern counties, including Hidalgo and Cameron. Judges may appoint those attorneys, but the costs for travel and lodging on top of the attorneys' pay would cost the county "a ton of money," Medary said. A local lawyer may make tens of thousands of dollars off a single capital murder case, though it may take about 2 years to resolve either in a trial or a plea deal. A lead attorney is paid $200 per hour. Judges are trying to entice more local lawyers to apply for the list. But it's a hard sell, said some of the lawyers who are on the list. Capital murder cases can decimate a solo practitioner's practice because of the volume of work. "It's so time-consuming to do it right," said Jim Lawrence, who has been a defense attorney for decades. Add to that the pressure of your client's life being on the line. In Texas, capital murder carries two punishment options: the death penalty or life in prison without parole. "Dealing with a person's life is an emotional strain, to say the least," Lawrence said. In 2016, Corpus Christi police charged 10 people with capital murder. Each one is entitled by law to a first and second chair lawyer, a private investigator and a mitigation expert. All but one defendant said they couldn't afford to hire an attorney and the county provided lawyers. Nueces County has 6 lawyers on the list of approved second chair attorneys. Second chair attorneys are paid $150 per hour. Defense lawyer Eric Perkins, who is approved to be a first chair attorney, said part of the problem is police and prosecutors charge suspects with capital murder in cases that - in some lawyers' opinion - don't rise to the level of capital murders. In some cases, the charge was downgraded to something less severe. But in the beginning, a judge has to appoint a lawyer approved to handle capital murder defenses. Perkins was on the defense team who represented Daniel Garcia, who in 2014 killed store clerk Mostafa "Ben" Bighamian during an attempted robbery. His co-defendants a man who wielded a knife in the store and a woman who drove the getaway car were charged with capital murder and appointed a multi-person defense team. Garcia was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison but prosecutors dropped the charge against the others. Arturo Navarro pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for a 45-year prison sentence. Del Victoria Cavazos pleaded guilty to robbery and tampering with evidence for 20 years in prison. There are multiple defendants in 3 killings last year. 2 men are charged with capital murder in the March 25 shooting of a couple in a car, 4 men are charged with the same offense in the Sept. 1 shooting at a gun shop, and 3 men face the same charges in the Dec. 18 shooting of an elderly man in his home. "A case that is probably not a death penalty case is draining huge resources for no good reason," Perkins said. (source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times) PENNSYLVANIA: Where does death penalty stand in Pennsylvania? The Bucks County district attorney said the investigation into the Abington Township couple accused of raping and murdering 14-year-old Grace Packer is far from over. "On its face, this case is obviously very, very heinous factually, but the aggravating factors that we have to consider are really really specific," said DA Matthew Weintraub. Weintraub said the death penalty is a definite possibility for Grace's adoptive mother, Sara Packer, and her boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan. The case has received national attention and immense public outcry for justice, but if the couple does receive the death penalty, will they actually be executed? Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said probably not. "Essentially, it's been suspended by Gov. Wolf. Gov. Wolf has taken the position that the warrants will be signed, and they have been signed, but he immediately thereafter issues a reprieve," said Morganelli. Morganelli said death warrants continue to be issued, like that of convicted Pittsburgh cop killer Richar Poplawski on Wednesday. The governor will not stop giving reprieves
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., USA
Jan. 17 TEXASbook review Grace and Justice on Death Row: The Race Against Time and Texas to Free an Innocent Man, Reviewed The new book from Alexandria-based lawyer Brian W. Stolarz chronicles the long road to getting an innocent man off death row. According to Amnesty International, the death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crimes, and it claims innocent lives. Its research shows that 140 people have been released from death rows in the U.S. due to evidence of wrongful conviction since 1973, and the 14 states without capital punishment have homicide rates at or below the national rate. Harris County, Texas, leads the nation in death row executions, according to The Death Penalty Information Center, though capital punishment there is on the decline. Still, since 2010, 99.5 % of U.S. counties sentenced fewer people to die than Harris County. Alexandria-based lawyer Brian W. Stolarz was part of the legal team that got the most recent death row inmate in Harris County, Alfred Dewayne Brown, exonerated. And his new book, Grace and Justice on Death Row, walks readers through a detailed account of the 2003 double homicide for which Brown was sentenced to die - even though he wasn't even present at the crime scene. Stolarz, a self-avowed Catholic, shines a spotlight on the injustices that landed Brown in prison and nearly took his life, including witness harassment, prosecutorial misconduct, withheld evidence, a now-defunct Grand Jury selection system that reeked of conflicts, and the disturbingly low wages paid to lawyers who defend the poor. The book begins with the events of the April 2003 shooting - offering a detailed account of Brown's crime-ridden neighborhood and some of its inhabitants trying to survive by working for minimum wage, robbing stores, and dealing drugs. From the beginning, it's clear Brown is innocent, but Stolarz takes the reader on an interesting and infuriating ride toward his incarceration. Brown's girlfriend says he was at her house at the time of the shooting, but she changes her story after the prosecution threatens her and locks her up on trumped-up perjury charges. Other supposed friends of Brown throw him under the bus for various reasons, including fear of their own incarceration and promises of reward money. Though Brown is ultimately determined to have mental disabilities, a supposed "expert" manipulates mental health assessment data to say what the prosecutors want to hear. No spoilers here about how the case goes wrong and is eventually righted - Brown was held on death row until June 8, 2015 - but it's worth noting that Stolarz includes some chilling comments about capital punishment from the late Antonin Scalia, including this one: "One cannot have a system of criminal punishment without accepting the possibility that someone will be punished mistakenly. That is a truism, not a revelation." But the book has its faults. It loses some steam when Stolarz writes about his own life, his Catholicism, and superfluous references to how horrible he's feeling during the years he works on the writ of habeas corpus - the process by which Brown is eventually exonerated. You sometimes get the impression that Brown's freedom is more about Stolarz than Brown, and the book suffers from too much self-congratulating. There's also a dizzying telling and re-telling of what actually happened at the crime scene. It all gets a bit complicated and muddy, but this storytelling flaw doubles as a strength in light of the morass of a justice system that appears to be in place in Texas. If you get lost in the sequence of events - and the details surrounding the multiple miscarriages of justice - it's possible the witnesses, the families of the victims, and the jury were likewise mired in confusion and obfuscation. Stolarz cites some star reportage by Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston Chronicle, who won a Pulitzer for her work on Brown's case. And the book's final plea to abolish the death penalty - or at least to establish reforms in all states that require DNA evidence linking the accused to the crime - seems like a no-brainer. Stolarz also makes a compelling argument for increased funding for attorneys who defend the poor, an improved social service system for death row exonerees, and disbarment and criminal investigation for prosecutors who deliberately withhold evidence in death row cases, as happened in Brown's case. (source: washingtoncitypaper.com) VIRGINIAimpending execution Gov. McAuliffe declines clemency for Ricky Gray, who is set to be executed Wednesday Governor Terry McAuliffe today declined to grant clemency for Ricky Gray, who will die by injection Wednesday night at the Greensville Correctional Center for the capital murders of 2 young sisters 11 years ago unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps in. "I have decided not to intervene in this case. Mr. Gray was convicted in a fair
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., W.VA., N.C., S.C.
Jan. 15 TEXAS: DNA evidence to be analyzed again in death penalty case appeal A lawyer for Steven Thomas, who faces the death penalty after being convicted of capital murder in Williamson County, says some of the DNA evidence presented at the trial was false, according to court documents. A district judge approved payments this month for the lawyer to hire a DNA analyst and a fingerprint analyst to review the evidence in Thomas' case, court orders showed. Thomas was convicted Oct. 31, 2014, in the death of 73-year-old Mildred McKinney, who was beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled at her Williamson County home in 1980. He was 56 when he was convicted. He was arrested in 2012 after DNA he was required to provide for a federal drug charge matched DNA found at the crime scene. A DNA analyst from the Texas Department of Public Safety testified at Thomas' trial that his sperm was found on a ribbon wrapped around one of McKinney's thumbs. Thomas' fingerprint also was found on a clock at McKinney's home, according to another DPS analyst. Thomas, who worked for a pesticide service that had been to McKinney's house, appealed his case in January 2015 to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, where it is pending. As part of the appeal, 1 of Thomas' attorneys, Joanne Heisey, filed requests with Williamson County's 26th District Court in November requesting money to hire a DNA analyst and a latent print examiner. Latent fingerprints - such as the one prosecutors said Thomas left on the clock - aren't visible to the eye but are left behind by oils or perspiration on a finger. "Mr. Thomas's trial counsel did not seek expert assistance to independently review any of the forensic evidence the State used to convict him," the requests said. "A preliminary review of the DNA evidence presented at Mr. Thomas' trial indicates that at least some of that evidence was false." Recent research, the requests said, "has called into question the reliability of various forensic methods, including latent fingerprint analysis." The research shows that latent fingerprint analysis has a false positive rate that could be "as high as 1 error in 18 cases," the requests said. A lawyer who works with Heisey said their office had no comment about the case. Lytza Rojas, a former prosecutor involved in Thomas' trial, didn't return requests for comment last week. Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick said Thursday he couldn't comment on pending litigation. State District Judge Donna King on Jan. 3 approved Heisey's requests to hire a DNA analyst for $5,500 and a fingerprint analyst for $3,000, according to court orders. Under state law, Williamson County will be repaid by the state for the expenses, according to the requests filed by Thomas' lawyer. Another one of Thomas' lawyers, Ariel Payan, said in his appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals in August that the evidence presented at the trial showed McKinney was killed by more than one person. No evidence at the trial showed Thomas had killed McKinney or helped commit any other crime against her, Payan said. Evidence at the trial showed that a throat swab taken from McKinney's autopsy showed male DNA that didn't belong to Thomas and also ruled out other suspects in the case, including serial killer Henry Lee Lucas and his partner Ottis Toole. The ribbon wrapped around one of McKinney's thumbs not only had DNA on it from Thomas but also from an unknown man, according to a DNA analyst who testified at the trial. (source: Austin American-Statesman) *** Last Lake Waco triple murder defendant dies in prison The Lake Waco triple murders sent shock waves across Central Texas almost 35 years ago. Terrified parents kept their children close and made Lake Waco off-limits for their teenagers. After all these years, perhaps the final chapter of the controversial saga was closed Friday with the death of Anthony Melendez, the last of 4 men implicated in the grisly slayings of Jill Montgomery, Raylene Rice and Kenneth Franks, whose bodies were found in July 1982 at Koehne Park. Melendez, 57, died Friday in a prison hospice at the Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony, near Palestine. Prison spokesman Jason Clark confirmed Saturday that Melendez died but said privacy guidelines preclude the prison from revealing a cause of death. Melendez, who was serving 2 life prison terms, died as some, including the ex-wife of former McLennan County District Attorney Vic Feazell, worked to exonerate him, although those efforts stalled in the past few years. Melendez, who pleaded guilty to 2 counts of murder in the case and testified against David Wayne Spence at his trial in Bryan, also petitioned the governor for a reprieve, commutation or pardon after he recanted his confession. Other defendants Spence, who was tried in Waco and Bryan, was executed in 1997. Melendez's brother, Gilbert, who also pleaded
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO
Jan. 14 TEXAS: Supreme Court to review Texas death penalty caseThe U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it would review the legal complexities in a Texas death penalty case, where a man killed a 5-year-old and her grandmother. The U.S. Supreme Court will review the death penalty case of a Fort Worth man who shot and killed a 5-year-old girl and her grandmother at a children's birthday party. The high court said Friday it would look into a legal distinction between ineffective lawyering in the trial court and during state appeals. Erick Davila, 29, received the death penalty for the 2008 shooting deaths of Annette Stevenson, 47, and her 5-year-old granddaughter, Queshawn, according to Davila's brief filed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Davila, a gang member, drove up to a house where he knew a rival gang member, Jerry Stevenson, was and shot into the house and front porch. Instead of killing the man, Davila killed Stevenson's daughter and mother. During his trial, defense attorneys said Davila didn't intend to kill multiple people, only Jerry Stevenson, which would make the case ineligible for a capital murder conviction and the death penalty. To be convicted of capital murder in this case, Davila must have knowingly and intentionally killed multiple people. In his brief to the high court, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Davila did intend to kill multiple people because he said after his arrest that he wanted to shoot "the guys on the porch and ... [was] trying to get the fat dude." Aside from Jerry Stevenson, only women and children were at the party, the brief said. The trial jury seemed to hesitate on the intent issue, submitting a question to the court during deliberations asking: "Are you asking us did he intentionally murder the specific victims, or are you asking us did he intend to murder a person and in the process took the lives of 2 others." The court sent legal definitions and included a charge that said Davila would be responsible for a crime if the only difference between what happened and what he wanted was that a different person was hurt, the brief said. The defense objected, saying it was an improper jury instruction, but the court overruled the objection. Within an hour, the jury came back with a capital murder conviction, later sentencing Davila to death. The crux of Davila's current legal argument rests on this jury instruction and how his subsequent appellate lawyers dealt with it. Davila's direct appeal began after his sentence, but his appellate lawyer didn't raise improper jury instruction as an issue - a mistake Davila's current lawyer says was "life-threatening." "The judge gave a bad instruction. The lawyer on direct appeal did not raise it," said Seth Kretzer, Davila's federal appellate attorney. "Had she attacked it and won, he might have gotten a new trial, not death-eligible." After his direct appeal, Davila's state habeas appeal, where one raises issues outside of the trial, didn't argue that his lawyer in the direct appeal was ineffective for not raising the jury issue - another mistake, Kretzer said. Paxton said in Texas' brief that Davila's arguments are meritless, that a federal district court looked into the jury instruction in question and found no fault against it. Death row inmates can also appeal their case in the federal courts system, but it is generally ruled that issues that could be raised at the state level - like the jury instruction - can't be reviewed at the federal level until they have gone through the state courts. One exception to this rule is if the state habeas lawyers failed to raise the issue of ineffective trial counsel. Now, Kretzer is trying to argue that exception should also apply to state habeas lawyers who fail to raise the issue of ineffective appellate counsel as well. In that case, Davila could argue that because his state habeas lawyer didn't fault his direct appeals' lawyer for not bringing up the jury instruction, the federal courts can now hear it. "The way the law works right now is if the trial counsel made a mistake, the federal court could save the inmate's life, but if the appellate counsel made the mistake, they would have to go ahead and execute," Kretzer said. The Supreme Court has gotten involved because different federal appeals courts have ruled differently on the distinction between ineffective trial counsel and appellate counsel. In previous rulings, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has said that there is no distinction between the 2, but the 5th Circuit, which covers Texas, as well as the 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th circuit courts, all have ruled that the 2 shouldn't be treated the same, the state's brief said. "If the Court was willing to address a potential circuit split, Davila's case is not an appropriate vehicle for doing so," Paxton wrote, re-emphasizing that the federal district court rejected the case based on both
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., PENN., GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO
Jan. 13 TEXAS: The Texas death penalty is dying The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP), a statewide grassroots organization working to end the death penalty, recently published its annual death penalty report, which illustrates that some Texans are re-thinking their views on capital punishment. TCADP's findings reveal that prosecutors and jurors are losing interest in sentencing defendants to die. Given that Texas' death penalty has been plagued by inequity, inefficiency, and inaccuracy, it makes sense that capital punishment is falling out of favor. 2016 marks the 2nd year in a row of Texas juries sentencing the fewest number of people to death since 1976. Death sentences peaked at 48 in 1999, while there has been a total of 3 this year. Executions in Texas have also steadily declined to the lowest number in 20 years; last year, there were 7. Harris and Dallas counties have traditionally been known for their high number of death sentences. However, prosecutors in these counties have increasingly elected not to pursue that punishment, and jurors have chosen alternative sentences such as life without parole. Consequently, no one has been sentenced to death in either county in 2 years. Moreover, when Texas has executed people, it hasn't been pretty. Texas is America's leading death penalty state, executing 538 individuals since 1982, and the state has faced a number of controversies. Rather than punishing only the worst of the worst, the death penalty has disproportionately singled out poor, mentally handicapped, and minority defendants. People who cannot afford a private attorney are at a of receiving a death sentence in Texas, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a U.S. non-profit national organization that provides information on the death penalty. The TCADP report found that almost 1/2 of those executed in Texas over the last 2 years had severe and mitigating impairments such as mental disabilities. The report also found that 80% of those executed in Texas over the last 5 years were people of color. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over the case of Duane Buck, who had been convicted of murder and sentenced to die. He is languishing on Texas' death row, in part, because of allegedly tainted testimony that Buck presented a higher risk of future danger because he is African American. When confronted by problems like these, capital punishment begins to look less like a solution and more like an injustice. There were 7 stays of execution in Texas in 2016 - one for a man named Charles Flores. The primary evidence against Flores was a hypnotized eyewitness. Jeff Wood also received a stay, and the case against him included testimony from a discredited psychologist who did not bother to even interview the accused. Another stay was issued for Robert Pruett, who was scheduled for execution despite the existence of unexamined evidence, as well as conflicting DNA evidence, from the crime scene. Texas is no stranger to the high price of the death penalty. Costs of a single death penalty trial run close to $3 million dollars, according to some studies, and it is 'we the people' who pay. Jasper County, Texas, increased property taxes by 7% to pay for 2 capital trials, while Kaufman County, Texas, is expected to pay $500,000 for expert witnesses in a single capital trial. In fact, it is only because Kaufman County is a part of the Capital Defense Fund Program that they are not expected to pay an additional $1.3 million dollars. We have poured millions into the death penalty, but the return on our investment has been minimal at best. Texas has wrongly convicted and sentenced at least 13 people. Others have been executed who might have been innocent. Meanwhile, studies show the death penalty doesn't protect society, and many murder victims' families say the complex and lengthy process doesn't offer them the swift justice or closure that they seek. Some feel the system forces them to constantly relive the murders of their loved ones as they endure ongoing legal wrangling and incessant media attention. Given the facts, it should not surprise anyone that Texans are losing faith in the death penalty. We like solutions that work. Capital punishment does not work, and that may be why Texas' death penalty is in a steep decline. (source: Texas Tribune) NEW HAMPSHIRE: Sampson's 2nd sentence could renew NH execution issue Twice sentenced to death in a federal court, carjacker and murderer Gary Sampson will now have to wait to find out whether he will be executed in New Hampshire. Earlier this week, a federal court jury in Boston found Sampson, 57, guilty of murder and sentenced him to death for his 2001 spree, in which he killed 2 people in Massachusetts and 1 New Hampshire. A 2003 trial on the same charges - a trial in which the verdict was later thrown out - also found Sampson guilty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., FLA., OHIO, IND., ILL., USA
Jan. 12 TEXASexecution Texas carries out nation's 1st execution in 2017 Texas has executed death row inmate Christopher Wilkins, who was convicted of killing 2 men after one of them mocked him for falling for a phony drug deal. The lethal injection of the 48-year-old Wilkins Wednesday is the nation's 1st execution this year. 20 were carried out in the U.S. last year, the lowest number since the 1980s. Wilkins was declared dead at 6:29 p.m. local time. Wilkins explained to jurors at his capital murder trial in 2008 how and why he killed his friends in Fort Worth 3 years earlier, saying he didn't care if they sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court declined to block Wilkins' execution about 3 hours before the scheduled lethal injection. Wilkins' attorneys had argued to the Supreme Court that he had poor legal help at his trial and during earlier appeals and that the courts improperly refused to authorize money for a more thorough investigation of those claims to support other appeals and a clemency petition. In their unsuccessful appeal to the high court, Wilkins' attorneys contended he had poor legal help at trial and during earlier appeals and that the courts improperly refused to authorize money for a more thorough investigation of his claims. State attorneys said courts have rejected similar appeals and that defense lawyers are simply employing delaying tactics. Wilkins was released from prison in 2005 after serving time for a federal gun possession conviction. He drove a stolen truck to Fort Worth, where he befriended Willie Freeman, 40, and Mike Silva, 33. Court records show Freeman and his drug supplier, who wasn't identified, duped Wilkins into paying $20 for a piece of gravel that he thought was a rock of crack cocaine. Wilkins said he shot Freeman on Oct. 28, 2005, after Freeman laughed about the scam, then he shot Silva because he was there. Wilkins' fingerprints were found in Silva's wrecked SUV and a pentagram matching 1 of Wilkins' numerous tattoos had been carved into the hood. Wilkins also testified that the day before the shootings, he shot and killed another man, Gilbert Vallejo, 47, outside a Fort Worth bar in a dispute over a pay phone, and about a week later used a stolen car to try to run down 2 people because he believed 1 of them had taken his sunglasses. "I know they are bad decisions," Wilkins told jurors of his actions. "I make them anyway." Wes Ball, 1 of Wilkins' trial lawyers, described him as "candid to a degree you don't see," and had hoped his appearance on the witness stand would have made jurors like him. "It didn't work," Ball said. While awaiting trial, authorities discovered he had swallowed a handcuff key and fashioned a knife to be used in an escape attempt. "This guy is the classic outlaw in the model of Billy the Kid, an Old West-style outlaw," said Kevin Rousseau, the Tarrant County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Wilkins. 20 convicted killers were executed in the U.S. last year, the lowest number since the early 1980s. That tally includes 7 executions in Texas - the fewest in the state since 1996. Wilkins is among 9 Texas inmates already scheduled to die in the early months of 2017. (source: Associated Press) ** Condemned killer of San Antonio woman loses appeal The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has rejected an appeal from a man sent to death row for fatally stabbing a disabled woman at her San Antonio home after she refused to give him and his girlfriend money to support their $1,000-a-day drug habit. Lawyers for 40-year-old Armando Leza contended he was innocent of the 2007 slaying of a neighbor, 57-year-old Caryl Jean Allen, and that his deficient trial lawyers contributed to a Bexar County jury's decision to convict him and give him the death penalty. The appeals court sent the appeal back to the trial court, which held a hearing and recommended the arguments be rejected. The appeals court ruling Wednesday supports the trial court's findings. Leza's girlfriend also was charged and testified against him in a plea deal. (source: foxsanantonio.com) PENNSYLVANIA: Still only 7 jurors selected for Easton death penalty case Attorneys in the death penalty case of Jeffrey Knoble added a juror but they also lost a juror Wednesday. Jury selection continues in the trial of the 27-year-old Riegelsville man. He's charged with fatally shooting Andrew "Beep" White in March 2015 in the former Quality Inn hotel in Easton. The total number of jurors holds steady at 7. The attorneys made their way through a pool of 40 prospective jurors on Monday and Tuesday. They started questioning a new pool of 56 one by one on Wednesday. Jeffrey Knoble is charged with killing Andrew "Beep" White at a Downtown Easton hotel in 2015. They need 12 jurors and 4 alternates before testimony can begin. Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano hopes
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Jan. 11 TEXASimpending execution Supreme Court declines to block Texas execution The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to block the scheduled execution of a Texas death row inmate who killed two men after one of them mocked him for falling for a fake drug deal. The court's ruling on appeals for 48-year-old Christopher Wilkins came about three hours before his scheduled Wednesday evening lethal injection. It would be the first execution in the nation this year. Wilkins' attorneys had argued to the Supreme Court that he had poor legal help at his trial and during earlier appeals and that the courts improperly refused to authorize money for a more thorough investigation of those claims to support other appeals and a clemency petition. State attorneys argued courts had rejected similar appeals and that defense lawyers were simply employing delaying tactics. (source: Associated Press) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA
Jan. 11 TEXASimpending execution Texas Killer Christopher Wilkins Tries to Stop Year's 1st Execution A Texas man who claims his lawyers did a bad job of defending him against charges he callously murdered 2 men could become the 1st prisoner executed this year if the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't call off his Wednesday night lethal injection. Christopher Wilkins, 48, is set to die for fatally shooting Willie Freeman, 40, and Mike Silva, 33, because he was angry that he was tricked into paying $20 for a rock disguised as a chuck of crack cocaine. Wilkins admitted to the 2005 double slaying - and claimed he had committed another murder and other crimes - during the sentencing phase of his trial. "I tend to want to take the easy way out," the ex-con truck driver told the court. "I make bad decisions. I know they're bad decisions when I'm making them. I make them anyway. "I think subconsciously, I've been trying to kill myself or get myself killed since I was probably 12 or 13 years old," he added. In his appeals, Wilkins has argued that his attorney ignored his wish to plead guilty and did not put on a vigorous defense and that an appellate lawyer had a huge conflict of interest, having already accepted a job with the prosecutor's office. Executions hit a 30-year low in the United States last year, in part because some states were unable to obtain the needed drugs or put lethal injections on hold after executions that did not go as planned. Texas has a supply of drugs, but the number of lethal injections in the state fell by nearly 1/2 to to s7 last year. Georgia had the most executions - 9 - in 2016. (source: NBC news) USA: Charleston bishop opposes death sentence for man convicted of killing churchgoers Jurors unanimously agreed to sentence Dylann Roof to death for killing 9 black churchgoers. In closing statements before the deliberation Jan. 10, the unrepentant 22-year-old told jurors that "I still feel like I had to do it," the Associated Press reported. Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone said in a statement that the Catholic Church opposes capital punishment and reminded people that all life is sacred. "We are all sinners, but through the father's loving mercy and Jesus' redeeming sacrifice upon the cross, we have been offered the gift of eternal life. The Catholic opposition to the death penalty, therefore, is rooted in God's mercy. The church believes the right to life is paramount to every other right as it affords the opportunity for conversion, even of the hardened sinner," Bishop Guglielmone said. "Sentencing Dylann Roof to death conflicts with the church's teaching that all human life is sacred, even for those who have committed the most heinous of crimes. Instead of pursuing death, we should be extending compassion and forgiveness to Mr. Roof, just as some of the victims' families did at his bond hearing in June 2015," the bishop added. The jury had to reach a unanimous decision to sentence Roof to death. Had they disagreed, he would have been automatically sentenced to life in prison. He was convicted of 33 federal charges last month, including hate crimes. Roof acted as his own attorney and did not question any witnesses. In his FBI confession, he said he hoped the massacre would bring back segregation or start a race war, the Associated Press reported. Bishop Guglielmone offered prayers of support for those who were killed and their families. "Our Catholic faith sustains our solidarity with and support for the victims of the Emanuel AME Church massacre and their relatives. We commit ourselves to walk with these family members as well as the survivors as they continue to heal from the trial and this tragedy," he said. The bishop asked people to continue to pray for the victims, survivors and families connected with the shooting. He also encouraged people to pray for Roof and his family. "May he acknowledge his sins, convert to the Lord and experience his loving mercy," Bishop Guglielmone said. The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel AME Church, Tywanza Sanders, the Rev. Sharonda Singleton, the Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, the Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., the Rev. Cynthia Hurd, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lance, and Susie Jackson were killed in the shooting. (source: catholicregister.org) *** U.S. Seeks Death Penalty for Fort Lauderdale Airport Gunman The Iraq war veteran accused of killing 5 travelers and wounding 6 others at a busy international airport in Florida was charged Saturday and could face the death penalty if convicted. Esteban Santiago, 26, told investigators that he planned the attack, buying a 1-way ticket to the Fort Lauderdale airport, a federal complaint said. Authorities don't know why he chose his target and have not ruled out terrorism. Santiago was charged with an act of violence at an international airport resulting in death - which carries a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., OHIO, USA
Jan. 11 TEXASimpending execution Texas man set to die for killing pranksters who told him gravel was crack cocaine A Fort Worth jury sent Christopher Wilkins to death row for killing 2 men he admitting shooting over a $20 phony drug deal after Wilkins said he didn't care whether he was sentenced to death. "Look, it is no big deal," Wilkins calmly said from the witness stand at his 2008 trial. On Wednesday, more than 11 years after the killings, the 48-year-old Wilkins is scheduled to die by lethal injection, pending the outcome of an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court. If the execution goes ahead, it will be the nation's 1st this year. In 2005, after serving time in prison for gun possession, Wilkins drove a stolen truck to Fort Worth, where police tied him to several aggravated assaults and burglaries. There he befriended 2 men, 40-year-old Willie Freeman and 33-year-old Mike Silva, who duped him into paying $20 for a piece of gravel he thought was a rock of crack cocaine. According to court records, Wilkins said he shot Freeman on Oct. 28, 2005, for laughing about the scam, then he shot Silva because he was there. Their bodies were found in a ditch. Wilkins' fingerprints were found in Silva's wrecked SUV, and a pentagram matching one of Wilkins' numerous tattoos had been carved into the hood. "When I get wound up, I have a fuse that is short," Wilkins testified. "I don't think about what I am doing." He also admitted that a day earlier he had shot and killed another man, Gilbert Vallejo, 47, outside a Fort Worth bar in a dispute over a pay phone, and about a week later he used a stolen car to try to run down 2 people because he believed 1 of them had taken his sunglasses. "I know they are bad decisions," Wilkins said of his actions. "I make them anyway." Kevin Rousseau, a Tarrant County assistant district attorney, described Wilkins as "a professional criminal. Very violent. He used violence as a means of achieve his means on a routine basis." Wilkins' attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, saying he had poor legal help at trial and during other appeals, and that the courts should have authorized money to his current lawyer to support other appeals and a clemency petition. "He has never had a meaningful opportunity at any stage to develop that claim, to have any court address it on the merits, or even to have it considered as part of a petition for executive clemency," attorney Seth Waxman, told the justices in his appeal. Stephen Hoffman, an assistant Texas attorney general, said investigation of those arguments "would either be redundant or fruitless," and called the appeals a delaying tactic. 30 convicted killers were executed in the U.S. last year, the lowest number since the early 1980s. 7 were carried out last year in Texas, the fewest since 1996, but Wilkins is among 9 Texas inmates already scheduled to die in the early months of 2017. (source: Dallas Morning News) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-January 11---Christoper Wilkins539 22-January 25---Kosoul Chanthakoummane540 23-January 26---Terry Edwards-541 24-February 2---John Ramirez--542 25-February 7---Tilon Carter--543 26-March 14-James Bigby---544 27-April 12-Paul Storey---545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) PENNSYLVANIA: Mother, boyfriend now charged in death, dismemberment of Montgomery County teen A Montgomery County couple acted out a hate-fueled rape and murder fantasy on 14-year-old Grace Packer, authorities said, charging the girl's mother Sara Packer and her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan in a conspiracy to kill her and dismember her body. The information Bucks County prosecutors used to charge Jacob Sullivan came in Sullivan's hospital bed confession Saturday as he recovered from a failed suicide pact with Packer a week earlier as authorities increased pressure on the couple following the discovery of Grace Packer's body near a Luzerne County reservoir last year, District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said Sunday. Weintraub said that although Sullivan's statement cannot be used against Packer, investigators have a strong case alleging that she was complicit in the plot to kill the girl, who she adopted as a toddler. Packer purchased sedatives allegedly used in an attempt to poison her daughter and the bow saw allegedly used to remove her limbs, court documents say. She also stored the body for three months packed in kitty litter in an attic closet one floor above her bedroom,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., VAL., ALA., MO., S.DAK., CALIF., USA
Jan. 9 TEXASimpending execution Inmate Set to Die for Fort Worth Killings Loses Appeal Christopher Wilkins, 48, is set to be executed for fatally shooting 2 men in Tarrant County in 2005. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has rejected an appeal from a 48-year-old man set for execution this week for the slayings of 2 men in Fort Worth more than 11 years ago. Christopher Wilkins faces lethal injection Wednesday evening in what would be the nation's 1st execution of 2017. Wilkins contends his lawyer at his 2008 trial in Tarrant County was deficient. The appeals court says the appeal is improper and has dismissed it without ruling on its merits. Wilkins has another appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court. Evidence showed Wilkins fled a Houston halfway house in October 2005, stole a truck and drove to Fort Worth. He was convicted of fatally shooting 2 men there for duping him into buying a phony rock of crack cocaine. (source: nbcdfw.com) * 2 deserving of death penalty In the last few years I had begun to question the true value of the death penalty, especially after an East Texas man whom I believe was innocent was executed. I began to wonder if solitary confinemenet for the rest of a murderer's miserable life might even be worse, sort of a punishment that keeps giving. But if the death penalty ever had merit, it is deserved for 2 people now fighting it. They, themselves, want to continue living in spite of having blatantly killed others. One is Dylann Roof in South Carolina, who shot church parishioners who had welcomed him into their Bible study with open arms and were rewarded for their goodness by meing murdered. The other is John Battaglia from Dallas, who shot his little girsl in cold blood while they begged him not to and their mother listened helplessly on the phone. I feel both of these men are pure evil and they knew exactly what they were doing, althought Battaglia is trying to prertned he doesn't remember it. Roof brazenly says he has no regrets, while Battaglia has gone on to live the 15 years that he denied his duaghters. Neither man deserves to live another day. Beverly Rigsby, Richardson Let's abolish the death penalty I find the statistics disturbing, alarming - and encouraging. Death at the hands of our criminal justice system remains abhorrent by any measure; its finality is chilling. Disturbing is the fact that even in Texas, we have executed people who have later been proved innocent -- too late for Cameron Todd Willingham in 2004. Especially alarming are the statistics regarding a "racial disparity" in both death sentences and in executions. Encouraging is the fact that the number of death sentences and executions have declined dramatically. Prosecutors, judges, juries and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have been sending us a clear message for the past few years: It is now time for Texas to abolish the death penalty. Our legislators gather in January. It can be done! Bob Michael, Carrollton (source for both: Letters to the Editor, Dallas Morning News) PENNSYLVANIAfemale faces death penalty Prosecutors to seek death penalty for woman accused of killing son, sending photo to father Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for a McKeesport woman accused of killing her son, the Allegheny County district attorney's office announced Thursday. Christian Clark, 21, remains jailed awaiting trial on homicide, attempted homicide, assault and endangerment charges. Police say Clark sent her son's father photos of the 17-month-old boy's lifeless body during hours' worth of angry text messages Nov. 1 because she believed he planned to be with another woman. "Ya kids ain't safe here I don't want them here" and "Answer me or im going to jail for child endangerment" were among dozens of texts listed in the criminal complaint. Then came a message about an hour into the rant that said, "I'm killing them," followed by a laughing emoji with tears coming from its eyes, police said. Clark called 911 more than an hour later and police found the lifeless boy. Clark first claimed not to know how he died, then confessed to smothering him, police said. Clark is also charged with trying to smother the couple's 2-year-old daughter. If she's sentenced to death, she'll become only the 3rd woman on death row in Pennsylvania. Andre Price Jr., 24, of McKeesport, who is accused of not calling 911 when he received the messages, waived a preliminary hearing Monday and will go to trial. (source: WXPI news) DELAWARE: Dover murder retrial begins for former death row inmate A former death row prisoner has rejected a plea offer and will proceed to trial Monday morning on allegations that he killed a man during a Dover drug deal. Isaiah McCoy, 29, told Superior Court Judge Robert B. Young that he is innocent and would not take a deal in which he would
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ALA., TENN.
Jan. 7 TEXASfemale may face death penalty 'Drug addict' Texas mom smirks in her mugshot after being charged with stabbing her 5-year-old daughter to death and attacking her father-in-law who tried to stop her A mom appears to be choking back laughter in her mugshot after allegedly mutilating and killing her 5-year-old daughter. Krystle Villanueva, 24, is charged with capital murder for allegedly stabbing her daughter Giovanna Larae Hernandez to death. She could face life in prison or the death penalty. Villanueva is also accused of stabbing her father-in-law, Eustorgio Arellano-Uresti, who tried to stop the attack. Mr Arellano-Uresti says that at 11am January 5 he went to go make lunch at the home in Kyle, a town located 25 minutes from Austin. According to KXAN, he saw Villanueva take a knife to her back bedroom then he heard Giovanna crying out in pain. Mr Arellano-Uresti tried to grab the weapon from Villanueva and she attacked him, stabbing him in the forehead and back. Witnesses then saw Mr Arellano-Uresti leave the home and Villanueva run after him with a shotgun that was not loaded. Police and the SWAT team were called to the scene and found Villanueva washing off in the shower. Giovanna was dead in a bedroom. Neighbors were shocked that such a horror could happen in the quiet Green Pastures subdivision. Toxicology reports are still out, but Villanueva's friends said she suffered from drug addiction. They were also in shock that the mother could commit such a crime. Arellano-Uresti alleged his daughter-in-law used drugs, alcohol and marijuana according to the affidavit. Her sister told officers in 2015 she went to a nearby rehab center for substance abuse. Villanueva's friend Sabrine Sifuentez told the station: 'She went to a rehab. She did a 90-day program and she came out good. She was doing good. She had a job. 'She tried to get help. I don't know if she just relapsed, or I really can't say what happened.' On a live Facebook broadcast by KXAN, Sheriff Gary Cutler said: 'This is one of the worst cases I've ever seen.' 'The suspect has had minor issues with law enforcement in the past, nothing major.' She is also charged with second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. In one of the 'About Me' sections on one of her Facebook profiles she says: 'The most important things to me in life is family and succeeding in life but especially my daughter Giovanna La'Rae. I'd do anything in the world for this chick.' Villanueva is being held on a $1.1 million bond at the Hays County Jail. Of the total $800,000 is for capital murder and $300,000 is for aggravated assault. (source: dailymail.co.uk) NORTH CAROLINA: Convicted killer sues, claiming a conspiracy to keep him on death row A convicted killer appeared in New Hanover County court Friday for a hearing related to a lawsuit he filed against several defendants he claims are conspiring to keep him on death row. Shan Carter, 42, is convicted of killing 3 people in 2 separate incidents, including the kidnapping and murder of Donald Brunson on Dec. 6, 1996, and the murders of Tyrone Baker and an innocent bystander, 8-year-old Demetrius Greene, on Feb. 16, 1997. In October 2016, Carter filed the lengthy, handwritten federal lawsuit, naming District Attorney Ben David, Governor Roy Cooper (in his capacity as former Attorney General), and his legal counsel on his appeal of his death sentence among others as defendants. "Between February 18, 1999 to this present date all the defendants at various times between the said dates joined in conspiracies against the plaintiff consisting of a conspiracy to murder the plaintiff by poisonous lethal injection under the color of law in the state of North Carolina's Death Chamber at Central Prison, in Raleigh, NC, malicious communicating threats to murder the plaintiff, kidnapping the plaintiff, tampering with (a civil rights) victim - witness, mail and or wire fraud, aiding and abetting, and circumventing the state criminal procedure that's federally funded," the lawsuit states. In the suit, Carter claims he attempted on at least four occasions to have Cooper investigate his cases because of "trial misconduct," but Cooper refused and "investigated other high-profile, race-based, and political cases." On Wednesday, Johnston County Superior Court Judge Thomas Lock allowed Carter's defense attorneys, William Durham and Kristin Parks, to withdraw from his case, as they could not reasonably defend Carter while attempting to defend themselves. Before the ruling, Lock gave Carter the option to remove Durham and Parks as defendants from the lawsuit, so they could continue to represent him and not delay his appeal by having new attorneys assigned to defend him. He declined. "It's going to take several months, if not more years," David explained. We're ready and have been ready, I've been
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., OHIO
Jan. 6 TEXAS: Officials: Austin might be without local DNA lab for at least 2 years The Austin Police Department's troubled DNA lab could easily be closed until summer 2018 by the time city and county officials implement a new way to analyze locally DNA evidence collected from Austin crime scenes, an Austin advisory commission estimated Tuesday. Austin police Assistant Chief Troy Gay agreed the delay was possible, though he hoped a solution would be implemented sooner. The city's Public Safety Commission unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday urging the Austin City Council to find a temporary solution within 6 months. Since June, Austin police have been sending some of their DNA evidence to the Texas Department of Public Safety to be tested, and since December, they have also been sending some of it to Dallas County. Still, DNA evidence is not being tested as often as it comes in, Gay said. A backlog existed even before police closed the lab in June. The crisis at the police department's DNA lab reached a climax last month. On Dec. 12 DPS officials, who were re-training the Austin Police Department's 6 DNA analysts, told police they had lost confidence in four of the technicians and refused to continue working with them. 4 days later, Austin's interim Police Chief Brian Manley said the lab would not reopen as previously planned. All of the DNA lab's analysts are still being paid to do administrative work, Gay said. Now that the lab won't reopen, Scott Milne, a former official with the Arizona Department of Public Safety who was recently hired to be the Austin lab's new chief forensic officer, is currently on administrative leave. "We are looking at what the future is for those employees in our lab," Gay said. Austin police officials will now rely on outside experts to help them figure out what form a future DNA lab should take, Gay said. A few ideas that Austin and Travis County officials have floated include putting the lab under the supervision of the Travis County medical examiner's office or creating a government lab that works separately from any current branch of the criminal justice system. On Jan. 26, the Austin City Council will likely vote on whether to negotiate and execute a contract with a firm that can assess the situation and determine the best way forward. However, that firm???s report could take up to 6 months to complete, Gay said. Austin police have been discussing the issue with a few different firms, Gay said. Austin will not be issuing a request for proposals because only a few firms exist that offer the service the Austin Police Department is seeking, he said. "Then, there will be commissions and meetings and panels to discuss the findings, and there won't be a decision made for at least another year," Commissioner Kim Rossmo said, predicting how long it could take to implement the report's recommendations. Rossmo said the process could take until 2020, "unless the city and the police department see this as something of urgency." The police department shut down the DNA section of its forensic lab after a state audit was highly critical of some of the lab analysts' techniques. A Texas Forensic Science Commission report released over the summer concluded that one of the lab's DNA testing practices raised "concerns about the APD DNA lab's understanding of foundational issues in DNA analysis." Commissioners also asked Gay whether Austin police have opened an internal investigation regarding how the DNA lab got to this point. According to some estimates, retesting the evidence in cases that led to convictions could cost Travis County taxpayers $14 million. "We all know what has happened here has been a colossal management failure. ... There's lots of examples of labs having problems, but I don't think there's too many where the lab completely collapses," Rossmo said. "It's obvious there were some issues here that were incredibly significant in terms of the cost. If some patrol officer on the street gets into trouble, he'll be punished. Are you doing any sort of internal investigation as to who was just asleep at the wheel, costing the taxpayers probably millions of dollars?" Gay said officials plan to rely on the outside firm to help them conduct that investigation. "I don't disagree with you," Gay said. "We believe the look-back will help us identify where the challenges were and if there were mistakes made. If those mistakes were made and they were negligent, then we will attempt to hold those individuals accountable." (source: Austin American-Statesman) Texas sues feds over death penalty drug Texas is suing the federal Food and Drug Administration over a months-long delay in access to drugs the state uses in lethal injections. State Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said Wednesday his office filed suit to gain access to hundreds of doses of thiopental sodium,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., CALIF., WASH., USA
Jan. 5 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: Conflicts of InterestWhen your attorney goes to work for the D.A. The state's death chamber fires up again after a year in which the total number of state-sanctioned killings (7) was the fewest since 1996, when former Gov. George W. Bush oversaw the execution of only 3. First set for strapping in is 48-year-old Christopher Wilkins, convicted of capital murder in 2008, 2 1/2 years after confessing to the shooting deaths of 2 men - Willie Freeman and Mike Silva - near Ft. Worth during a drug deal gone awry. Several weeks before the murders, Wilkins left a halfway house in Houston, stole a truck, and drove to Ft. Worth, where he made plans to meet Freeman to buy drugs. Instead, Freeman presented Wilkins with a $20 piece of gravel and laughed at him. Williams testified during trial that he decided at that moment to kill his new acquaintances. During testimony Wilkins also expressed a desire to plead guilty, skip the remainder of the trial, and await sentencing. He told jurors they had a job to do. Jurors took only 90 minutes to return a guilty verdict and sentenced Wilkins to death. Despite the verdict, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that 2 of the jurors cried during the announcement, while Wilkins mouthed "It's okay. It's okay." In 2010, the state's Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Wilkins' conviction. Wilkins' appellate lawyers, led by Hilary Sheard, filed a federal petition for relief in May 2012 that claimed Wilkins' trial counsel conducted a "belated inadequate and cursory investigation" and violated his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. They also claimed their client suffered from a conflict of interest because one of his previously assigned lawyers had formerly represented another of Wilkins' victims: Gilbert Vallejo, whom Wilkins confessed to killing the night before he shot Silva and Freeman. They also argued that the original trial violated their client's 14th Amendment right to due process, in that the defendant was self-destructive and therefore incapable of entering a plea deal or standing trial. The petition was denied by a federal judge, and the Supreme Court declined a motion to stay the proceedings. "Strickland took the case, but failed to reinvestigate the trial, and [he] had contracts to work with the prosecutor's office that put Wilkins on death row." - Hilary Sheard A 2015 execution date was stayed in order to address potential DNA concerns with the case, and the execution was eventually rescheduled for this Wednesday, Jan. 11. On Dec. 21, Sheard requested another stay of execution from the state's Court of Criminal Appeals, asking that Wilkins be given a full and fair review of his claims. Sheard cited the poor quality of capital habeas representation in "some Texas cases and the devastating consequences" such conditions have on the convicted. Specifically, Jack Strickland, who represented Wilkins at trial, was also assigned to be Wilkins' attorney during appeals. Strickland, however, had begun working for the Tarrant County D.A.'s office, which sentenced his client to death, before resigning from Wilkins' case. According to Wilkins' appeal, Strickland made public his plans to return to the D.A.'s office in May 2010, prior to filing Wilkins' habeas application, but waited until Feb. 2011 to withdraw from the case - after habeas had been denied. "He should have been appointed a new attorney, or at least been given a hearing on the issue," Sheard told the Chronicle. "Strickland took the case, but failed to reinvestigate the trial, and [he] had agreed to work with the prosecutor's office that put Wilkins on death row. Wilkins tried to fire Strickland repeatedly, but to no avail." Late on Wednesday (Jan. 4), the CCA denied Wilkins' appeal. He currently has a petition for writ of certiorari pending with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding an absence of funding for reinvestigating the case and trial; SCOTUS has not issued a ruling on that, either. If the state moves forward with the execution, it will mark the 539th execution in Texas since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The Department of Criminal Justice currently has 2 additional executions scheduled for January: Kosoul Chanthakoummane on Jan. 25 and Terry Edwards the following evening. "For Law Enforcement Purposes Only" The Texas Department of Criminal Justice filed a lawsuit on Jan. 3 in a Galveston federal court against the Food and Drug Administration and Commissioner Robert Califf, arguing the FDA has failed to make a prompt final decision on the lethal injection drug sodium thiopental. The 2 agencies have been in a standoff since July 2015, when the FDA intercepted a shipment of sodium thiopental being sent from India, arguing on three grounds that the drug shouldn't be allowed into domestic commerce. The FDA issued a tentative decision last April
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, CALIF., WASH., USA
Jan. 4 TEXAS: Paxton sues FDA for delaying import of death penalty drug Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday his office has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for delaying the state's importation of a drug used in capital punishment. The lawsuit argues the FDA's claimed legal grounds for refusing the drugs' entry into the United States are invalid, citing an FDA exemption for law enforcement purposes. Thiopental sodium, also known as Sodium thiopental, is part of the 3-drug cocktail used in lethal injections. In its December newsletter, the Council of State Governments said, while Texas has 317 inmates on death row, it only has enough of a key lethal injection drug to execute 2 of them, stemming from a nationwide shortage of the drug. The Attorney General's Office is asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to declare the FDA's delay unlawful and compel the agency to make a final decision on the admissibility of the drug, which was detained by the FDA 17 months ago. "There are only 2 reasons why the FDA would take 17 months to make a final decision on Texas' importation of thiopental sodium: gross incompetence or willful obstruction," said Attorney General Paxton. "The FDA has an obligation to fulfill its responsibilities faithfully and in a timely manner. My office will not allow the FDA to sit on its hands and thereby impair Texas' responsibility to carry out its law enforcement duties." In April 2016, KXAN reported that the FDA blocked an appeal to bring in Sodium thiopental. (source: KXAN news) Supreme Court examines death penalty for the disabled Bobby James Moore got the death penalty for a murder he committed in 1980 at a Houston supermarket. But 36 years later, he apparently has a new argument: He is intellectually disabled and cannot be executed under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court heard his case at the end of November. Moore was 21 when he and some friends decided to rob Birdsall Super Market. His job was to stand guard with a shotgun. Things did not go as planned. Almost immediately after two clerks in the courtesy booth learned they were being robbed, one of them screamed. Moore pointed his shotgun at the second clerk, a 72-year-old man named James McCarble, and shot him in the head. McCarble died instantly. Police caught up with Moore 10 days later at his grandmother's house in Louisiana, where he confessed to the crime. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled executing the mentally disabled violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. But the court left it up to the states to determine mental ability within certain parameters. During oral arguments in November, lawyer Clifford Sloan cast Texas as an oddball state that uses something other than current clinical standards to diagnose intellectual disability -- a 1992 definition along with other factors thought up by judges, not scientists. The Texas appeals court said Moore had abilities that showed he was not so intellectually disabled as to be exempt from capital punishment. Both sides agreed Moore had a terrible childhood. He dropped out of school in 9th grade. His father beat him. He was kicked out of the house at 14. He had 4 felony convictions by age 17. "At the age of 13, Mr. Moore did not understand the days of the week, the months of the year, the seasons, how to tell time, the principle that subtraction is the opposite of addition, standard units of measurement. And there are numerous other deficits like that that are undisputed," Sloan said. Justice Stephen Breyer had his doubts about whether the Supreme Court could establish a consistent standard for judging mental ability. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller argued the state's criteria for intellectual disability is consistent with Supreme Court precedent as well as clinical standards. He also noted the legal finding of intellectual disability is different from a medical diagnosis. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a concern of her own about letting states set their own standards: "Isn't making it discretionary a huge problem in this area, because if you let one trial court judge apply it and another one doesn't have to apply them, then you're opening the door to inconsistent results depending upon who is sitting on the trial court bench, something that we try to prevent from happening in capital cases." The current justices are divided on the much more basic question of whether the death penalty is constitutional at all, for anyone. Breyer is a frequent critic of capital punishment, as is Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In 2014, the court struck down Florida's law that said if an inmate's IQ is over 70, evidence of other intellectual disability need not be considered. (source: Baptist Press) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ALA., TENN.
Jan. 3 TEXAS: Brakes applied on death penalty cases The death penalty is rare, even in Texas, where just 7 executions were carried out last year. In some places, it's almost non-existent. In Dallas and Harris Counties, not a single death sentence was handed down last year. This is good news. Executions are costly. Their value in deterring would-be murderers and others from committing their crimes is small. And they are disproportionately carried out against persons of color. Of the 9 men sentenced to death in Dallas or Tarrant Counties since 2012, all are African-American. In Harris County, 15 of the 18 more recent death sentences have been handed down against black defendants, the other three against Latinos. Worst of all, an execution is the outcome of an error-prone system, and one that simply can't be undone once carried out. That insight was at the heart of the ruling 45 years ago in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the death penalty violated the Constitution. "The penalty of death differs from all other forms of criminal punishment, not in degree but in kind," Justice Potter Stewart wrote in 1 of 5 concurring opinions in Furman v Georgia. "It is unique in its total irrevocability. It is unique in its rejection of rehabilitation of the convict as a basic purpose of criminal justice." 4 years later, the court ruled that with proper attention to racial fairness and other factors, the executions could resume. But ever since, Texas has had a starring role in demonstrating just how naive that second decision was. It's distressing to note that support for the death penalty remains strong in many states, including Texas (though that support is at its lowest level in decades). There is hope in the fact that actual use of the death penalty is fading fast. In the past 5 years, 26 inmates on Texas' death row have been removed. 18 saw their sentences reduced. 7 died in custody. 1 was exonerated and released. Even Texas' famously tough-on-crime Court of Criminal Appeals has grown far more careful when it comes to executions. In the past 2 years, the court has issued 15 stays of execution. In the 3 years before that, it averaged just 1 per year. Nationwide, the use of the death penalty is also at a low. It's encouraging, too, to see Justice Stephen Breyer continue his sometimes-lonely crusade to convince the rest of the court to take up again, as they did in 1972 and 1976, the overall question of whether the Bill of Rights prohibits executions. The penalty is so rare, and so random in its application, it should no longer be tolerated: "Individuals who are executed are not the 'worst of the worst,'" Breyer wrote Dec. 12, "but, rather, are individuals chosen at random, on the basis, perhaps of geography, perhaps of the views of individual prosecutors, or still worse on the basis of race." (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) NORTH CAROLINA: Shaniya Davis killer revives death penalty issues. Mario Andrette McNeill won't be the poster boy for getting rid of the death penalty. We can???t think of anyone on death row we'd rather see with a lethal injection in his arm. McNeill is the monster who took 5-year-old Shaniya Davis from her mother in 2009, in return for a $200 drug debt. McNeill raped the little girl and killed her, tossing her body into a remote kudzu patch where deer hunters gut their kills. Shaniya's mother got off easier than she deserved, with a 17-year sentence for 2nd-degree murder. McNeill offered no defense at his trial, saying in 2013 that, "My goal was freedom. I lost my freedom. What does it matter after that?" 3 years later, it appears that staying alive does matter to him. And so does freedom. His lawyers are asking the state Supreme Court to overturn his conviction because his original lawyers were too cooperative with the police. McNeill will get his hearing. All death row prisoners automatically get one. And we'll only hope - along with most North Carolina residents - that he isn't set free. But even though McNeill is the worst imaginable reason for taking the death penalty off the books, his case offers another opportunity to talk about it. Like most other states, North Carolina doesn't have much of an appetite for executions these days. We've got 150 prisoners on death row - including 1 who's been there for 31 years - but haven't executed anyone in more than a decade, owing to a host of legal challenges. It doesn't appear likely there will be any executions in 2017, either. We don't want McNeill to have any chance of regaining his freedom. His horrific crime deserves no mercy. But it's also clear that our society is steadily moving away from the death penalty, as state after state takes capital punishment off its books. There are good reasons for that, starting with the potential for mistakes in identification, investigation and prosecution. And there is the fundamental
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., ALA., IND., S.DAK., COLO.
Dec. 15 TEXAS: Accused killer's lawyer is using former Dallas DA's mental illness in an attempt to torpedo case A Dallas defense attorney is using the mental illness of former District Attorney Susan Hawk in an attempt to change the course of a legal case that could end with his client's execution. Mentally ill Army veteran Erbie Bowser is accused of killing 4 - including his estranged wife and girlfriend - and wounding 4 others with a hand grenade and by firing a gun until he ran out of bullets. Hawk sought the death penalty in his case before she resigned to focus on her mental health. Jury selection is supposed to begin in January. Bowser's attorney says in a court records filed this week that Hawk's public statements "diminishing the significance of mental illness" made her the wrong person to decide whether to seek the death penalty against a man who suffers from mental health problems. He is hoping incoming District Attorney Faith Johnson will see the case differently and is asking the judge to delay the case. It's unclear whether more attorneys will use Hawk's mental illness, which caused erratic behavior and frequent absences, in their own cases. Bowser's attorney, Brad Lollar, declined to comment but wrote extensively about his concerns in court records. "And despite her personal struggles, Judge Hawk repeatedly diminished the significance of mental health in public statements, referring to it as a 'crutch' and an excuse," Lollar wrote in a court filing. "Hawk's public statements diminishing the significance of mental illness particularly calls into question whether she could fairly exercise discretion to seek the death penalty in this case, where a central mitigating circumstance is Mr. Bowser's own lengthy and well-documented history of mental illness," he wrote. Johnson on Wednesday expressed an interest in speaking to Lollar about the case. She will be sworn in Jan. 2. "I heard the defense attorneys were wanting to speak with me, and I'm waiting to be contacted," she said. The DA's office, currently run by First Assistant District Attorney Messina Madson, did not respond to a request for comment. Hawk could not immediately be reached for comment. Prior to Hawk's resignation, she strived to be district attorney and to get mental health treatment. But she was hospitalized 3 times while in office. She worked fewer than 70 days before she resigned in September. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday before state District Judge Tracy Holmes. Whether Lollar's motion finds any traction is uncertain. Attorney John Tatum, who regularly works on death penalty cases, said he's never seen anything like it. "It's novel. If it saves a guy's life, people would say it has merit," Tatum said. "It would definitely be controversial." Lollar wrote in court records that Dallas prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty in any other pending case, including one where a man is accused of stabbing to death his wife, her father and stepfather and injuring his sister-in-law. Special prosecutors, appointed because of a conflict in the DA's office, recently offered a plea agreement of life without parole in a case where a man is accused of killing three and shooting a fourth in the head, court records show. Each was stabbed multiple times. "Judge Hawk had a personal interest in diminishing the significance of mental illness to retain her position as district attorney," Lollar wrote. "Under these circumstances, she could not fairly exercise appropriate prosecutorial discretion in this case." Bowser, he said, has not been able to "meaningfully" negotiate a plea agreement because Hawk's absences were followed by months without a district attorney. Night of the murders The August 2013 rampage began at a Dallas home near West Wheatland Road and Mountain Creek Parkway. Police said Bowser killed his girlfriend, 43-year-old Toya Smith, and her 17-year-old daughter, Tasmia Allen. Smith's 14-year-old son and Dasmine Mitchell, a 17-year-old family friend, were injured. Police believe Bowser then went to the DeSoto home of his estranged wife, Zina Bowser, where he threw a hand grenade into the living room before shooting and killing her and a 2nd woman, 28-year-old Neima Williams, police said. The explosion blew out the walls and some windows. He also wounded two boys, ages 11 and 13, before he ran out of bullets, according to police. When DeSoto officers arrived, Bowser seemed catatonic, giving only his name, military rank and a serial number. Police said he was pretending to be one of the victims, but his attorney says in court records that the behavior was related to his mental illness and medication. "His behavior indicates dissociation at the time of the arrest and this 'altered mental status on arrest' is substantiated by observations of emergency room doctors at Parkland Hospital. When Mr. Bowser was brought
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., ALA., OHIO, NEB.
Dec. 14 TEXASnew execution date San Antonio hit man's execution set March 7 A convicted hit man has a date set for execution early next year for the 1992 slaying of a San Antonio woman. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says the prison agency has received Bexar County court documents setting Rolando Ruiz, 44, for lethal injection March 7. Ruiz was condemned for collecting $2,000 to kill 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez at her San Antonio home in a life insurance scheme involving her husband and a brother-in-law. In 2007, Ruiz came within an hour of execution before a federal apeals court halted the punishment. (source: Dallas Morning News) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-January 11---Christoper Wilkins539 22-January 25---Kosoul Chanthakoummane540 23-January 26---Terry Edwards-541 24-February 2---John Ramirez--542 25-February 7---Tilon Carter--543 26-March 7--Rolando Ruiz-544 27-March 14-James Bigby---545 28-April 12-Paul Storey---546 29-June 28--Steven Long---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ** Tales from the Texan who cooked 218 last meals for death row inmates Brian D. Price went to prison in 1989. "For the assault of my ex-wife and the kidnapping of my brother in law. A domestic dispute that got way out of hand and I lost control for a while and it cost me 14 years of my life. I ended up at the Walls Unit Prison in Huntsville, Texas, that's where the executions take place." Everyone in prison gets a job, and Price was assigned to the kitchen. One day, the inmate who usually prepared the last meals for death row inmates wasn't able to cook, so they asked Brian if he would step in. The prison can't force someone to do it, but Price agreed. "I decided if I was going to do the last meal, no matter what their crime was, I was going to try and do it as if it was someone I knew and loved, a family member. I wanted to prepare it to the best of my ability with what we had to work with. When someone would request a last meal, they'd request sometimes some extravagant meals. Most of the time they didn't get what they requested because it had to be something we could prepare right there out of the kitchen commissary. If they wanted a lobster, they got a piece of frozen pollock, which I'd try to gussy up a little bit. I'd wash the breading off and put my own batter on it, made it look like something from Long John Silvers so they thought they were getting something from the free world, at least. If you wanted a steak, you got a hamburger steak. Well, after I prepared that last meal for that particular inmate, a man who had committed a murder ... I'm Christian, so that night I prayed over the meal and asked the lord to give him forgiveness, if he hadn't already. The next day Sergeant Cook called me into his office and said, 'Hey Price, the guy they killed last night, he sent a word of thanks over to you. He said he really enjoyed that meal.' When I heard that, it really had an affect on me. I thought, well, that was probably the last thanks that man gave anyone in this world. I maybe brought a little bit of a smile on his face before he left." Price told his supervisor he'd take over the last meals, and for 10 years, from 1991 to 2001, he cooked 218 last meals in the state of Texas. There was 1 particular meal he made over and over again. "The most requested last meal, believe it or not, was a cheeseburger and french fries. Comfort food. We made homemade buns for it. It was really big, a monster burger." There were also some unusual requests. "1 man wanted dirt from the grave he was going to be buried in for his last meal. Some type of voodoo ritual. But we gave him yogurt instead." I wondered if an inmate could ask for as much food as he pleased. "They would request whatever they wished but they wouldn't get it. One man wanted 24 tacos and 6 enchiladas, a whole bunch of stuff. Captain Parkin said, 'No, he can't eat all that. Just give him s6tacos, a couple enchiladas.' A reasonable amount that he could probably finish before he went to meet his maker." In 2011, a Texas inmate named Lawrence Russell Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was executed for chaining a man to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death. For his last meal he requested 2 chicken fried steaks, a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, 3 fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., FLA., ALA., TENN.
Dec. 8 TEXAS: 34 Years Ago, the First Person Died by Lethal Injection. It Was Controversial Then, Too It was seen as more humane and relatively painless, but that's not certain When Charles Brooks Jr. lay down on a gurney in the execution chamber, there was no way to know exactly what would happen next. On this day in 1982, Brooks was the first person to be executed by injecting a cocktail of drugs intended to numb his body and mind, paralyze him and stop his heart. His death, the 1st by lethal injection, sparked an ethics debate among the public and physicians about whether the procedure is humane, one that continues today. Brooks was convicted of murdering David Gregory, an auto mechanic, wrote Dick Reavis for Texas Monthly in early 1983. Gregory rode with Brooks during a test drive at the used-car lot where he worked. That night, he was found tied up in a motel room. He had been shot in the head. In separate trials, both Brooks and partner in crime Woodie Loudres were sentenced to die for the crime. Loudres was able to reduce his sentence, but Brooks was not, although no weapon was ever found and officials never determined who shot Gregory. Lethal injection was seen to be more humane than other execution methods, like gas, electrocution or hanging, according to an article on History.com. Because one of the drugs used was supposed to put the condemned in a state of deep sedation, it was also perceived to be painless. In spite of physician protests that lethal injection was a violation of medical ethics, wrote Robert Reinhold of The New York Times, it was seen as acceptable. But conflicting witness reports at Brooks's death led Reinhold to report that "the procedure did not seem to settle the question of whether such a death was painless." The conviction that landed Brooks on death row wasn't his 1st. What was different this time: he knew that if the state didn't intervene in his case, he could become the 1st man on death row to be killed by a cocktail of drugs designed to numb his mind and stop his heart. "In his best mood," Reavis wrote: "Charlie thought that there was nothing to fear in death by injection. He believed that he could set it up to be like the surgery after the 1st of his bullet woundings." Brooks and Reavis made an agreement: if the condemned man felt pain during his execution, he would shake his head, like he was saying "no," and Reavis would understand. They repeated the agreement at each meeting. In the end, the state didn't grant Brooks a stay of execution. "For the 1st time in American penal history," Reavis wrote, "men who were neither physicians nor sorcerers got ready to execute a prisoner with the forbidden tools of medicine and pharmacology," "According to 4 reporters who witnessed the execution in a tiny room at the edge of the prison's Walls unit, Mr. Brooks appeared to have suffered some pain," Reinhold wrote. Reavis was one of those reporters. He wrote: It was perhaps a minute, perhaps 2 minutes, before he felt death creeping in. The [sic] he slowly moved his head towards the left shoulder, and back towards the right, then upward, leftward again, as if silently saying no. I snapped to erectness. Charlie was wagging his head: was that his signal to me? He couldn't be sure one way or the other. Today, those killed by lethal injection are almost as likely to be guinea pigs for the procedure as Brooks was. Supplies of known lethal-injection cocktails are running out across the United States, reports Tess Owen for Vice. Injections nationwide are at a 25-year low, she writes, partially because it's increasingly hard for corrections departments to get the drugs they need to perform them. This deficit has led to correctional departments trying untested mixes of drugs to replace the old standards they aren't able to get anymore, with grim results. Only Texas, Georgia and Missouri are using the death penalty "with any regularity," writes Mike Brantley for AL.com. But the death penalty remains legal, and those who face the prospect of death at state hands may potentially be killed using untried cocktails of drugs. (source: smithsonianmag.com) DELAWARE: Fate of Delaware inmates on death row rests with Supreme Court Delaware's Supreme Court justices are mulling whether their ruling declaring the state's death penalty law unconstitutional can be applied retroactively to a dozen men already sentenced to death. The court heard arguments Wednesday in an appeal filed by Derrick Powell, who was sentenced to death in 2011 for killing Georgetown police officer Chad Spicer in 2009. Deputy Attorney General John Williams, used Danforth vs. Minnesota, made the argument that the change in law does not apply to those currently on death row. "The question of retroactivity is what to do when the law changes," argued Deputy Attorney General John Williams. "States are free to adopt whatever
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., ALA., USA
Dec. 7 TEXAS: State court reverses death penalty in Love murder case The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the capital murder conviction and death sentence of Albert Leslie Love Jr. Wednesday, ruling text messages were improperly used against him because they were obtained without a warrant. Love was convicted and sentenced to death after a trial in Williamson County in 2013 in the March 2011 shooting deaths of Keenan Hubert, 20, and Tyus Sneed, 17, at the Lakewood Villas apartment complex, 1601 Spring St. The court, in a 6-3 opinion with 3 dissents, awarded Love a new trial because his Fourth Amendment rights were violated when the content of his text messages were improperly admitted against him because they were obtained without a warrant. Love will be returned to McLennan County to await another trial. The reversal sent shock waves through the McLennan County Courthouse, where officials were unclear if Love's retrial can be held in McLennan County, if it will be returned to Williamson County or moved to another county. Love's trial was moved to Georgetown because the trial of his co-defendant, Rickey Donnell Cummings, was held first in Waco. Cummings' conviction has already been affirmed by the appeals court. McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna and his first assistant, Michael Jarrett, did not return phone messages Wednesday. Cummings, like Love, is a Bloods gang member who was sentenced to death in 2012 for his role in the double slaying. Cummings' younger brother, Darvis Cummings, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September 2014 after he pleaded guilty to murder as a party to the ambush slayings. Deontrae Majors and Marion Bible, who were in the front seat of the car, were wounded in the attack but managed to flee to safety. Prosecutors told the jury at Love's trial that Cummings and Love wanted to kill Hubert because they believed he killed their best friend, Emuel "Man Man" Bowers III, at Hood Street Park the year before. It mattered little to Love, the prosecutors said, that 3 other men were with Hubert in the car when he opened fire with his AK-47, spraying at least 19 shots with the high-powered assault rifle. Prosecutors introduced Love's cellphone records, which included 37 pages showing the contents of about 1,600 text messages. Among the most damaging was one sent to Bowers' mother shortly after the ambush attack that said, "mission accomplished." Trial testimony showed that Bowers' mother, Shelia Bowers, whom Love and Cummings called "Mama Shelia," was upset that Waco police investigators had not arrested anyone in her son's murder. Prosecutors showed photos of Love's numerous tattoos that tie him to the Bloods gang. On his right arm are the words "R.I.P. Man Man" next to a tattoo of an AK-47. The Court of Criminal Appeals ruling says that after a review of the record as a whole, the court finds that the "probable impact of the improperly-admitted text messages was great. As we cannot determine beyond a reasonable doubt that the text messages did not contribute to the jury's verdict at the guilty phase, we hold that the error was not harmless." (source: Waco Tribune) DELAWARE: Execution or life in prison? Delaware Supreme Court to decide State Supreme Court Justices didn't filter their comments much during a hearing Wednesday that could let those currently on death row live the rest of their life in prison. Earlier this year, the court ruled Delaware's capital punishment system unconstitutional because juries weren't the ones ultimately responsible for locking in a death penalty conviction. Previously, juries decided whether a defendant was eligible for a death sentence, but then a judge weighed different factors to hand down his or her ruling. The test case before the court is that of Derrick Powell, who shot and killed Georgetown police officer Chad Spicer in 2009. His lawyer, Patrick Collins, says continuing to execute death row inmates who were convicted under an unconstitutional system flies in the face of precedent. "Executing Derrick Powell would far and away be an extreme outlier as opposed to just about any other state that has considered the question," he said. Justice Collins Seitz Jr. openly agreed later in the hearing. "How could it ever be just to execute someone who was sentenced under a flawed statute? I don't understand how that's just," Seitz said. Maryland legislatively abolished its death penalty in 2013 without including those already convicted and facing execution. Then Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) later commuted the sentences of the four men on death row to life in prison in 2015. State prosecutors rebutted that these sentences should remain intact because this court previously said new rulings on constitutional issues can't necessarily be applied retroactively. There are 2 exceptions, but prosecutors argue they don't apply here.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., N.C., GA., ALA.
Dec. 7 TEXAS: Love triangle dismemberment murderer found guilty; takes stand during sentencing Michael Scott Quinn was supposed to be begging jurors not give him the death penalty. Instead, the San Antonio man made inappropriate jokes as he took the stand in his own defense. Jurors found Quinn guilty of capital murder on Monday taking less than 20 minutes to deliberate. Quinn is eligible for the death penalty. Quinn told jurors he is not a monster or a killer. While he admits to sawing off Albert Guerra's legs in the 2013 murder, Quinn says his former lover, Connie Yanez, was the one who killed him. Guerra was beaten to death with a hammer in his north side home. After he was murdered, the house was set on fire. "I told her that I would try to the wrap if we got caught," Quinn said. "I wasn't planning on getting caught, but we got caught, so I'll take it." The jury didn't believe Quinn. He was convicted and the case continued with the sentencing phase to decide if Quinn will get life in prison or be put to death. Despite the seriousness of his situation, Quinn caused jurors to gasp and laugh when his lawyer asked if he felt sorry for killing Guerra. "If is the biggest 2-letter word there is," said Quinn. "If my sister had a d**k, she'd have been my brother." The jury will hear from a psychologist on Tuesday who will testify about how previous abuse in Quinn's life might have affected him. (source: KHOU news) DELAWARE: Court arguments set on retroactivity of death penalty ruling Delaware's Supreme Court is hearing arguments on whether its ruling declaring the state's death penalty law unconstitutional can be applied retroactively to a dozen men already sentenced to death. Wednesday's oral arguments come in an appeal filed by Derrick Powell, who was sentenced to death in 2011 for killing Georgetown police officer Chad Spicer in 2009. In August, a majority of the Supreme Court justices declared that Delaware's death penalty law was unconstitutional because it allowed judges too much discretion in sentencing and did not require that a jury find unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant deserves execution. Attorney General Matt Denn declined to appeal that ruling in federal court but said he believes that it cannot be applied retroactively to offenders already sentenced to death. (soruce: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Prosecutor: Evidence of torture in Granville County murders Prosecutors in the gruesome murders of an elderly Granville County couple on New Year's Eve 2014 are revealing new details in the case. The prosecutors said in court Tuesday that the couple may have been tortured before being killed. The deaths of 73-year old Jerome Faulkner and his 62-year old wife Dora at their home near Oak Hill made national headlines when the accused killers set off on a multi-state crime spree from Texas to West Virginia. Prosecutors also claimed there is evidence that Jerome's death was a slow one. Lawyers for a 23-year-old man accused asked a judge Tuesday to take the death penalty off the table. The judge said he would delay the ruling on the death penalty until the start of the trial, saying it would be premature to for the court to remove the option at the current time. Jury selection is set for February 27 and could take weeks. One of the suspects, 52-year-old Edward Campbell, later killed himself in Raleigh's Central Prison. Now his son Eric, the other suspect, is putting all the blame on his dad as he tries to stay off death row. In a motion, the defense says the younger Campbell was threatened and abused by his father and he was afraid of him. It says Eric Campbell didn't know his father intended to kill the couple. He thought it was just going to be a robbery. "Eric said over and over again, 'I just thought it was going to be a robbery. I didn't want him to kill anybody. I didn't want to commit a robbery. I didn't want anyone to be robbed. I didn't want anyone to be killed,'" his defense lawyer said. After the murders, the Faulkner's bodies were loaded into their pickup truck which the Campbells drove to West Virginia. After shootout with police there the next day - New Year's 2015 - investigators found the bodies in the truck bed under a mattress. If the judge refuses to take the death penalty off the table, Campbell could be the first defendant to face a capital punishment trial in Granville County in 25 years. The judge denied a change of venue on Tuesday. (source: ABC news) Judge in Granville County murder case delays ruling on death penalty request The judge who presided over a hearing Tuesday to determine whether Eric Campbell should continue to face the death penalty said it was premature to issue such a ruling until closer to the trial. Campbell, 23, is accused of murder, arson, robbery and other charges related to the killings of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA. FLA., ALA., LA.
Dec. 6 TEXAS: Families have exchange in capital murder hearing The family of a 13-year-old shot on his grandparents' front doorstep and a relative of the man accused of the killing faced each other in a court hearing Monday. David Davila appeared briefly before 148th District Judge Guy Williams after a Nueces County grand jury indicted him last week on a capital murder charge. The indictment accuses Davila of shooting 13-year-old Alex Torres as part of a retaliation. Davila, 27, pleaded not guilty. As Torres' grandmother walked out of the courtroom, she stared at a woman sitting in the gallery with Davila's mother. The women made eye contact. "What are you looking at?" the woman sitting down said loudly to Torres' grandmother. Several others in the audience turned to look. A nearby bailiff put himself between the women and ushered Torres' family out of the courtroom. Torres was shot Jan. 13, 2015 when he answered the door of his grandparents' Southside apartment in the 2200 block of Treyway Lane. His grandparents were grocery shopping. The killing went unsolved more than a year before a tipster told Corpus Christi police Davila was responsible but that the gunshot was intended for his ex-girlfriend who lived in a nearby apartment. According to an arrest affidavit, Davila's ex-girlfriend reported him to Child Protective Services. Davila's girlfriend at the time of the shooting, Christina Trevino, was also indicted on the same charge last week and is accused of driving the getaway vehicle. Davila's lawyer, Adam Rodrigue, declined to comment after the hearing. During the hearing, a prosecutor gave Rodrigue a box of evidence, including CDs. Davila and Trevino, 24, remain in the Nueces County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail each. Capital murder is punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. (source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times) NORTH CAROLINA: Man accused of murdering Granville County couple seeks to avoid death penalty Nearly 2 years have passed since Jerome and Dora Faulkner were ambushed and killed inside their rural Granville County home by what prosecutors have described as a father-and-son team who selected the retirees at random while on the run from Texas authorities. Eric Alexander Campbell, son of the late Edward Campbell, is facing the death penalty in a crime spree that made national headlines after it ended in West Virginia in a shootout with deputies. In a court document associated with a hearing set for Tuesday in Granville County Superior Court, Amos Tyndall, a Chapel Hill attorney representing the younger Campbell, provided details of a multi-state crime spree in which Eric Campbell reportedly was so afraid of his father that he could not extricate himself from his grip. In the request to take capital punishment off the table for Eric Campbell, Tyndall described Edward Campbell as a tyrant parent who abused drugs and manufactured methamphetamines, held his children upside down and beat them, shot the family dog and beat up his wife so viciously that she escaped him late one night while he slept. "When Eric was prescribed Adderral for ADHD as a child," the court document states, "Edward Campbell took all the pills for himself." Edward Campbell, 54, died in March 2015 when officials at Central Prison found him unresponsive in his cell after he had attempted to hang himself. That left Eric Campbell, now 23, to stand alone on 2 counts of murder, as well as charges of 1st-degree burglary, 2nd-degree arson and identity theft. He also was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle, financial card theft and 2 counts of cruelty to animals - charges stemming from the spear-deaths of the Faulkners' 2 dogs. Crime spree The court document details a crime spree that began in Brezoria County, Texas, in September 2014 after Edward Campbell was arrested for severely assaulting his wife after believing she was cheating on him. In that incident, according to court documents, Holly Campbell told law enforcement officers that her husband threatened to shoot her in front of their children and held her hostage for hours - beating her, choking her and continually threatening her. After being released from jail on bond in that case, Edward Campbell skipped a court date, stole a 2007 Chevy Suburban from a school and left Texas with Eric on Christmas Eve of 2014, telling his adult son they were going camping. The men made it across the southern United States to Georgia in 4 days. They stopped at an Advanced Auto Parts for a new alternator in Suwanee, Ga., on Dec. 28, 2014. Later that day, they stopped in a Home Depot in Greenville, S.C., purchasing a sprayer, muriatic acid, drain opener, lighter fluid, a chain, padlock, jam nut and U bolt. They camped for a few days near Hillsborough, and are seen on surveillance footage of a Wal-Mart buying
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., FLA., OHIO
Dec. 4 TEXAS: 3 teens charged with capital murder in death of 4-year-old Texas girl 3 people have been charged with capital murder in the shooting death of 4-year-old Ava Castillo. 3 teenagers have been charged with capital murder in the death of a 4-year-old Texas girl, authorities announced Friday. The Harris County Sheriff's Office identified the suspects as Marco Miller, 17, Philip Battles, 18, and Ferrell Dardar, 17. Miller and Dardar did not appear in court as expected Friday night, but a prosecutor revealed that an anonymous tip first led investigators to Battles, also known as "Peewee." She said Battles implicated Miller and Dardar. "They're just cowards, cowards," Julie Gomez, the victim's aunt, told KTRK. Ava Castillo was gunned down Nov. 14 during a robbery in the parking lot of the apartment complex where she lived. Her mother was shot and wounded 7 times, and her 10-year-old sister was grazed by a bullet. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you like I wish I could," Diana Gomez, Ava's mother, said in an exclusive interview Tuesday. Investigators said the suspects are part of a crew responsible for a number of other violent crimes that are still under investigation. Battles is also charged with capital murder in the death of 62-year-old Ignacio Ortega. Dardar was out on bond for 3 counts of aggravated robbery when Ava was killed. Miller has no prior record. The Harris County District Attorney's Office decide whether to pursue the death penalty in the case. "I'm for the death penalty, but that's too easy. That's too easy. You put a dog to sleep," said Julie Gomez. "They don't deserve that. I want them to live their miserable lives in jail for the rest of their lives." The 3 suspects were being held in jail without bond. (source: ABC news) DELAWARE: Death row legality case to be heard Wednesday The Delaware Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday that could decide the fate of the 13 men currently on the state's death row. In August, the court threw out the death penalty, ruling a portion of it was unconstitutional. However, the justices did not issue a ruling on whether the decision was retroactive, meaning the individuals already sentenced to death still face execution. In October, lawyers for convicted murderer Derrick Powell submitted a brief arguing the ruling should apply to Powell and the other 12 men awaiting death, bringing the issue to the forefront. While the case is superficially focused on Powell, who killed Georgetown police officer Chad Spicer in 2009 and was sentenced to death 2 years later, it could reverberate well beyond him. A broad decision could change sentences for those already on death row to life in prison or it could affirm their convictions. The Supreme Court will hear arguments from Powell's lawyers and the Department of Justice Wednesday at 10. August's ruling came about, justices said, because the Delaware death penalty violated the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees right to a trial by jury. The law did not require the jury to rule unanimously on whether aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating factors and gave the judge final discretion to sentence death. Because the unconstitutional provision was so intertwined with the rest of the law, justices were "unable to discern a method by which to parse the statute so as to preserve it," Chief Justice Leo Strine wrote in the landmark August ruling, with Justices Randy Holland and Collins Seitz concurring. In court filings, Powell's lawyers said the August ruling should apply to the inmate. Any other decision, wrote Patrick Collins and Natalie Woloshin, would be "a ratification of a 40-year misstep that is anathema to our understanding of the Sixth Amendment." "If Derrick Powell is executed, it will be because he had the misfortune to be sentenced during a period of constitutional jurisprudence that has now been recognized as misguided, and corrected," the lawyers wrote. The Department of Justice, contrast, argued the August ruling is a "procedural, not substantive, change" and noted the death penalty itself was not found unconstitutional. "'No one, not criminal defendants, not the judicial system, not society as a whole is benefited by a judgment providing that a man shall tentatively go to jail today, but tomorrow and every day thereafter his continued incarceration shall be subject to fresh litigation,'" wrote Chief of Appeals Elizabeth R. McFarlan and Deputy Attorney General John R. Williams, quoting U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II. 5 separate briefs have been submitted by organizations or individuals supporting Powell's claims. Among those filing the briefs are lawyers for former death row inmate Luis Cabrera, whose death sentence was overturned in June 2015. Appeals in the case have been stayed while Powell is deliberated. The American Civil Liberties Union of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., S.C., GA., ALA.
Dec. 3 TEXASstay of impending execution Battaglia again wins stay of execution days before he was condemned to die for killing daughters 2 weeks after a judge found John Battaglia mentally fit to be executed for killing his 2 daughters in 2001, the Dallas man has received another stay of execution. The state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Friday that Battaglia's competency needs to be evaluated further. In 2001, Battaglia made national headlines when he shot his daughters, 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty, at his Deep Ellum loft while their mother listened helplessly on the phone. "No, Daddy! Don't do it!" Faith pleaded, seconds before her father pulled the trigger in an act of revenge against his ex-wife. Battaglia was to be put to death next Wednesday after State District Judge Robert Burns ruled on Nov. 18 that he understands his case and execution well enough to remain on death row. According to a report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Battaglia's attorneys now have 60 days to file a brief with the appeals court concerning his competency, court spokesman Abel Acosta said. Battaglia was previously scheduled to be executed in March but was granted a stay, again to sort out competency concerns. A defendant is considered competent for execution under Texas law if he understands why he's been sentenced to die and that his execution is imminent. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that the 61-year-old former accountant and Marine has a factual understanding of his conviction and execution date, but there had been debate over whether he has a "rational understanding" of it all. Psychologists testified that Battaglia suffers from a delusional disorder that makes him believe he did not kill his children, but Burns questioned whether he has developed this delusion as a coping mechanism. After the murders, Battaglia had 2 roses tattooed on his arm in memory of his girls. He then left a chilling message on the family's answering machine. "Goodnight, my little babies," he said in the message. "I hope you are resting in a different place. I love you." (source: Dallas Morning News) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-January 11---Christoper Wilkins539 22-January 25---Kosoul Chanthakoummane540 23-January 26---Terry Edwards-541 24-February 2---John Ramirez--542 25-February 7---Tilon Carter--543 26-March 14-James Bigby---544 27-April 12-Paul Storey---545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) * Mental health services lacking in Texas jails, UT study finds University of Texas law students hope their report on 10 in-custody deaths will change the way jails handle prisoners with mental illness, but for Katie Cheek, the goal is much more personal. The Houston woman's son, Greg Cheek, died in February 2011 after 3 1/2 months in the Nueces County Jail on a trespassing charge. Katie said she called repeatedly to inform jail officials about his history of mental illness and the medication he needed for paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, with no results. "I was utterly powerless," she said. "I could not control what had happened to him. It was in other people's hands, and I couldn't convince them of the severity of his illness, of the need to have him put in a hospital so I could have him with me today." Greg Cheek, a well-known surfer and artist in Corpus Christi, was found unresponsive on the floor of his cell, where he took to sleeping on the cold concrete after tearing up his bedding. Suffering from low body temperature and a severe infection, the 29-year-old died the next day, weighing 146 pounds, 30 less than when he arrived. Cheek's mother participated in the report, "Preventable Tragedies" - released this month by the UT Law School's Civil Rights Clinic - in hopes of sparing other parents her pain and of prodding jail officials to adopt reforms. "The lack of communication by the jail was so dismal. It all was preventable, completely preventable," she said. "We all know that mental illness is a disease. What I find abhorrent is that some people automatically think these people are damaged goods." Jail deaths The UT report, initially inspired by the suicide of Sandra Bland in the Waller County Jail after a traffic stop in July 2015, acknowledges that county jails are often called upon to serve as mental health facilities, "and they shouldn't be," said Ranjana Natarajan, director of the Civil Rights Clinic. According to the report, studies have
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Dec. 2 TEXASstay of impending execution Battaglia again wins stay of execution days before he was condemned to die for killing daughters 2 weeks after a judge found John Battaglia mentally fit to be executed for killing his two daughters in 2001, the Dallas man has received another stay of execution. The state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Friday that Battaglia's competency needs to be evaluated further. In 2001, Battaglia made national headlines when he shot his daughters, 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty, at his Deep Ellum loft while their mother listened helplessly on the phone. "No, Daddy! Don't do it!" Faith pleaded, seconds before her father pulled the trigger in an act of revenge against his ex-wife. Battaglia was to be put to death next Wednesday after State District Judge Robert Burns ruled on Nov. 18 that he understands his case and execution well enough to remain on death row. According to a report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Battaglia's attorneys now have 60 days to file a brief with the appeals court concerning his competency, court spokesman Abel Acosta said. Battaglia was previously scheduled to be executed in March but was granted a stay, again to sort out competency concerns. A defendant is considered competent for execution under Texas law if he understands why he's been sentenced to die and that his execution is imminent. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that the 61-year-old former accountant and Marine has a factual understanding of his conviction and execution date, but there had been debate over whether he has a "rational understanding" of it all. Psychologists testified that Battaglia suffers from a delusional disorder that makes him believe he did not kill his children, but Burns questioned whether he has developed this delusion as a coping mechanism. After the murders, Battaglia had two roses tattooed on his arm in memory of his girls. He then left a chilling message on the family's answering machine. "Goodnight, my little babies," he said in the message. "I hope you are resting in a different place. I love you." (source: Dallas Morning News) ** http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_scheduled_executions.html Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-January 11---Christoper Wilkins539 22-January 25---Kosoul Chanthakoummane540 23-January 26---Terry Edwards-541 24-February 2---John Ramirez--542 25-February 7---Tilon Carter--543 26-March 14-James Bigby---544 27-April 12-Paul Storey---545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., N.C., FLA., ALA.
Dec. 2 TEXAS: Texas Defends Mental Standards in SCOTUS Death Penalty Case Another Texas death penalty case was argued at the United States Supreme Court this week. The 2 questions presented was whether executing someone 35 years after the imposition of a death sentence, and allegedly using outdated medical standards to determine intellectual disability, is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. The Eighth Amendment prohibits executing those who are intellectually disabled. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Solicitor General Scott A. Keller were in Washington, D.C. with Keller arguing the case on behalf of the State of Texas. The transcript of the oral argument is attached below. Marc Rylander, spokesman for the Office of the Texas Attorney General told Breitbart Texas after the oral argument, "Texas' standard for intellectual disability is constitutional and fits well within the national consensus among states about how to define intellectual disability." The petition for writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to hear the case of Bobby James Moore v. Texas (#15-797) was filed on December 15, 2015. Moore was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1980 for shooting a 70-year-old grocery store clerk in Houston while he was committing or attempting to commit robbery. The majority of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals noted in its opinion that the Supreme Court has determined that the execution of the intellectually disabled violates the Eighth Amendment "but left it to the States to develop appropriate ways to enforce the constitutional restriction." Judge Elsa Alcala filed a dissenting opinion at the time stating, "it is time for Texas to reevaluate the decade old, judicially created standard in Ex parte Briseno in light of a shift in the consensus of the medical community regarding what constitutes intellectual disability, and in light of the Supreme Court's recent holding in Hall v. Florida indicating that courts are required to consider that consensus in assessing intellectual-disability claims." As stated in the majority's opinion of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Briseno adopted the definition of intellectual disability stated in the 9th edition of the AAMR manual published in 1992, and the "similar definition" of intellectual disability contained in the Texas Health and Safety Code. Washington D.C. lawyer Clifford M. Sloan, arguing on behalf of the Petitioner, told the Court during oral argument that "Texas has adopted a unique approach to intellectual disability in capital cases in which it prohibits the use of current medical standards. It relies on harmful and inappropriate lay stereotypes." He urged "that the entire category of the intellectually disabled, every person who is intellectually disabled, is exempt from execution under the Eighth Amendment." Sloan argued that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal appellate court in Texas, used a standard established in 1992 and prohibited the use of current medical standards. He told the Court that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals "said that the State habeas trial court erred by employing the current standards." Saying she wanted to "cut to the chase," Justice Sotomayor asked Mr. Sloan: "Was the criminal court of appeals using any clinical standard, any medical clinical standard?" He told her no. Justice Sotomayor said later during Petitioner's presentation that the CCA had found that Mr. Moore did not meet 2 prongs - he could not prove that he was clinically intellectually disabled, and that his IQ was higher than what was generally recognized clinically. Sloan maintained that both prongs were in "very sharp conflict" with clinical guidance generally, and "especially with current clinical standards." Justice Ginsberg fired off and her statement is a strong indication about what she might be thinking about the issue. She said, "There is no doubt about what the Texas court said. It's marching orders for Texas courts. It said the habeas judge erred by employing current clinical definition of intellectually disabled, there in that respect, rather than the test we established in Briseno. The test we established in Briseno is - is stated sharply and clearly as the test that must be applied by Texas courts." Mr. Keller urged that Petitioner argued in their reply brief that there is no material difference between the language in Texas' standard and the current clinical frameworks, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals applied the factors in the Briseno case which are in the Texas Court's precedents. Part of the discourse between the Texas Solicitor General and individual justices on the Court was whether Texans would agree that the Petitioner should be exempt from the death chamber, and whether you try to get standards to reflect that, or rather, you look at the consensus of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., FLA.
Dec. 1
TEXAS:
Will the Supreme Court Stop Texas from Executing the Intellectually Disabled?
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in the United States, in
1976, Texas has been responsible for more than 1/3 of the country's executions
- 538 out of 1440. The most egregious reason is the state's unique and grudging
approach in cases where the defendant claims intellectual disability.
In 2002, in Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court reached the decision that, no
matter how heinous the crime, an intellectually disabled person cannot be
sentenced to death. Disabilities of reasoning, judgment, and control of
impulses, the Court said, do not allow a person to "act with the level of moral
culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct."
Because offenders with intellectual disabilities are less blameworthy, the
Court said, imposing the death penalty contributes neither to deterrence of
capital crimes nor to retribution for them, and so it causes "purposeless and
needless" pain and is cruel and unusual punishment.
The Court recognized that there was "serious disagreement" about which
offenders were intellectually disabled. "Not all people who claim to be
mentally retarded will be so impaired as to fall within the range of mentally
retarded offenders about whom there is a national consensus," the majority
opinion said. ("Intellectual disability" has replaced "mental retardation" as
the favored term.) The Court anticipated a variety of approaches to enforcing
its prohibition, and left to the states "the task of developing appropriate
ways to enforce the constitutional restriction upon its execution of
sentences."
Most states with the death penalty rely on a combination of intelligence
testing and clinical assessment to confirm that a defendant has severe
intellectual disabilities. In 2004, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the
state's highest criminal court, created its own definition of intellectual
disability, in a case called Ex Parte Jose Garcia Briseno. In the Briseno
opinion, the C.C.A. said that reliance on clinical testing is "exceedingly
subjective." The court's responsibility, it said, was "to define that level and
degree of mental retardation at which a consensus of Texas citizens would agree
that a person should be exempted from the death penalty." The court decided it
was possible to be intellectually disabled according to medical and scientific
standards, which apply to no more than three per cent of Americans, yet not
disabled enough to be exempt from execution in Texas.
The Texas approach to intellectual disability is so different from national
standards that, according to the American Bar Association, the state has
regularly sentenced to death "defendants with intellectual disabilities whom
other jurisdictions almost certainly would have recognized as exempt." Jordan
Steiker, a professor at the University of Texas Law School, and Richard Burr,
the lawyer who represented Jose Briseno before the C.C.A., estimate that Texas
has executed 30 to 40 people with strong claims of intellectual disability, and
that between 30 and 40 of the 242 people on the state's death row have
similarly strong claims to exemption. This week in the Washington Post, Steiker
and his sister, Carol Steiker, a professor at Harvard Law School, wrote that
Texas "focuses on questions that no medical professional would deem appropriate
in diagnosing intellectual disability, such as whether an offender's family and
friends thought he had intellectual disability." They continued, "Instead of
relying on the same approach to intellectual disability that Texas uses in
every other context (such as placement in special education or eligibility for
disability benefits), the court sought to redefine the condition in the capital
context so that only offenders who meet crude stereotypes about intellectual
disability are shielded from execution."
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Moore v. Texas, about
whether the state is violating the Constitution by prohibiting judges from
using current medical standards in deciding whether a defendant, Bobby James
Moore, is exempt from capital punishment. Moore, now 57, has been on death row
for 37 years for his part in a failed supermarket robbery in Houston, in which
he shot and killed a sales associate. (Moore has said the shooting was
accidental.)
In 1995, a federal district court granted Moore a new sentencing hearing after
the court found that his lawyers had "grossly mishandled the representation of
Moore and violated their oath as members of the bar with astonishing frequency"
by, among other ways, failing to present any mitigating evidence, including of
the defendant's impaired mental development and functioning. In 2001, he was
sentenced to death again, after a jury determined that there was not sufficient
mitigating evidence to warrant a sentence of life
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, PENN., VA., N.C., S.C., OHIO
Nov. 30 TEXAS: Supreme Court Justice Makes Powerful Plea For The Disabled On Death Row A narrow majority of justices at the U.S. Supreme Court appeared ready to side with a Texas death row inmate and further refine the constitutional prohibition on executing the mentally deficient. The justices are charged with deciding whether the courts may use non-clinical or outdated medical information in assessing whether a person is intellectually disabled, and therefore protected from capital punishment. The justices found that executing a mentally disabled person is an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment in 2002. They further developed that ruling in Hall v. Florida in 2014, finding that courts may not use a rigid threshold IQ test, but must rely on a range of clinical factors. In this case, a death row convict named Bobby James Moore challenged the state of Texas' use of components called the Briseno factors, which assist courts in making findings concerning intellectual disability. These 7 factors are derivative of Lennie Smalls, from Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." Moore was sentenced to die for his role in the robbery of a grocery store which resulted in the death of a clerk. He attempted to vacate his execution by proving he is intellectually disabled, but failed in a state appeals court. The parties would not contest that Moore is developmentally challenged (he could not add or subtract until his teenage years, for example), but disagree as to his status as intellectually disabled. Though the Briseno factors are not the primary test the Texas courts use to make findings of mental deficiency, they do help inform and shape such findings. In this case, the lower court also relied on a 1992 edition of the American Association on Mental Retardation, which is no longer current. Clifford Sloan, Moore's attorney, characterized Texas' non-clinical factors as "harmful and inappropriate lay stereotypes." Sloan said reliance on medical frameworks is a "life and death question that goes to the human dignity of the intellectually disabled." Chief Justice John Roberts, sounding perturbed, repeatedly wondered if Moore's lawyers were raising arguments and issues unrelated to the question the Court granted review on. Roberts' concern seemed to draw sympathy from Justices Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito. Elsewhere in the argument, Kennedy suggested a conflict existed between Texas' practice and up to date medical standards. He also was troubled by the possibility that a mentally deficint individual could fail Briseno factors scrutiny and still be executed, as has happened on at least 3 occasions, according to an American Bar Association amicus brief. Justice Stephen Breyer, the Court's clarion death penalty opponent, made a powerful intervention during Sloan's argument, asserting that national standards could not possibly be set for assessing mental deficiency, given the extreme subjectivity involved in such diagnoses. To his thinking, it follows that disparate outcomes will result. "There will be a bunch of easy cases. And then there are going to be cases like your client who has been on death row for 36 years. And there will be borderline cases ... what is the Court supposed to do? Are we supposed to have all those hearings here? I mean, you've made very good arguments for your client. There are probably several others in the country in different states which may have different standards. And if you have some view that the law in this area should be law, i.e., that it should be uniform across the country, point me to something that will tell me how a district judge should go about making this determination in borderline cases." "And if you 23 want my true motive, I don't think there is a way to apply this kind of standard uniformly across the country, and therefore, there will be disparities, and uncertainties, and different people treated alike, and people who are alike treated differently," he added. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller argued that the states were not bound to strictly adhere to a particular organization's clinical definition of intellectual disability. He also argued that the Briseno factors are merely a secondary test the Texas courts use in addition to a constitutionally-valid 3 part test. He also aggressively rebuted the notion that the Briseno factors were derived from Lennie Smalls. "Lennie, and the character from "Of Mice and Men," was never part of the test," he said. "It's not part of the test. It was an aside in the opinion, and the Court said it was not going to address that separate question and instead adopted the clinical standards." A decision is expected in the coming months. (source: dailycaller.com) PENNSYLVANIA: Manuel Sepulveda is off death row Convicted killer Manuel Sepulveda is off death row and now serving life in prison without parole, following a new sentence imposed
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, NEB., ORE.
Nov. 29 TEXAS: U.S. justices sympathetic to death row inmate on intellectual disability A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared ready to side with a man sentenced to death for a 1980 Houston murder who is challenging how Texas gauges whether a defendant has intellectual disabilities that would preclude execution. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the execution of people who are intellectually disabled violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. At issue in the arguments the eight justices heard on Tuesday was whether Texas is using an obsolete standard to assess whether a defendant is intellectually disabled. Bobby Moore, convicted at age 20 of fatally shooting a 70-year-old grocery clerk during a 1980 Houston robbery, is challenging his sentence in Texas, which carries out more executions than any other U.S. state. Moore's lawyers contend their client is intellectually disabled and should be spared execution. They argued that a lower court that upheld his sentence wrongly used an "outdated" 24-year-old definition used in Texas when it determined he was not intellectually disabled. Moore's appeal focused on how judges should weigh medical evidence of intellectual disability. His lawyers said that a lower court found that Moore's IQ of 70 was "within the range of mild mental retardation." Based on questions asked during the argument, the justices, equally divided between liberals and conservatives, appeared likely to rule for Moore, 57. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sides with the liberals, looked likely to be the key vote. Kennedy and two other current justices were in the majority in the 2002 ruling precluding executing people with an intellectual disability. At one point during the argument, Kennedy said that the state appeals court precedent on which Texas relies was intended to "really limit" the definition of intellectual disability. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller responded that the state court has "never said that the purpose ... is to screen out individuals and deny them relief." "But isn't that the effect?" Kennedy asked. Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal, said the Texas standards appeared to reflect a decision by the state court to reject expert clinical findings because "they don't reflect what Texas citizens think." The Supreme Court's justices have differed among themselves over capital punishment but the court has shown no indication it will take up the broader question of the whether the death penalty itself violates the Constitution. Liberal justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have said the way the death penalty is implemented may be unconstitutional, in part because of differences from state to state. Breyer hinted at those concerns during Tuesday's argument. He said it may not be possible to set an intellectual disability standard that is applied uniformly nationwide, meaning there will be "disparities and uncertainties" and "people who are alike treated differently." The high court on Oct. 5 heard arguments in another Texas death penalty case. In that one, the justices appeared poised to rule in favor of black convicted murderer Duane Buck, who is seeking to avoid execution after his own trial lawyer called an expert witness who testified Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because of his race. Rulings in both cases are due by the end of June. (source: Reuters) On death row for 1980 killing, Texas inmate asks Supreme Court to spare him A Texas death-row inmate who once struggled to spell the word "cat" exposed on Tuesday sharp differences among Supreme Court justices over capital punishment and the judging of intellectual disability. In an hour-long oral argument set against the backdrop of an upcoming confirmation battle, the short-handed court seemed split along conventional conservative and liberal lines. The fate of inmate Bobby James Moore and others like him who are on the borderline of intellectual disability now appears to hang on one swing vote, that of Justice Anthony Kennedy. "This is a vitally important, life or death issue," Moore's attorney, Clifford M. Sloan, told the justices. In 2002, the court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. It???s been up to individual states to determine how this standard is met. In Moore's case, Texas applied a standard subsequently spelled out in a 1992 manual by the American Association of Mental Retardation. Critics, including Moore's attorneys, consider this standard outdated, and some justices Tuesday clearly agreed. "Your view ... of state discretion is that a person that every clinician would find is intellectually disabled, the state would not find is intellectually disabled, because a consensus of Texas citizens would not find that person to be
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., OHIO
Nov. 29 TEXAS: U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Texas Death Penalty Case On Intellectual Disability It's unconstitutional to execute people with intellectual disabilities, that much the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear. But things get fuzzy when individual states try to legally determine "intellectual disability," and that ambiguity is leading Texas to its latest hearing before the high court. On Tuesday morning, the 8 justices will hear arguments surrounding Texas' method of determining the condition, ultimately deciding if the state's approach fits within past rulings specifying who can be put to death. The case is brought forth by Bobby Moore, a death row inmate of more than 36 years. In April 1980, Moore, then 20, walked into a Houston supermarket with 2 other men, wearing a wig and holding a shotgun, according to Texas' brief to the high court. He approached the clerks' counter and shot 73-year-old James McCarble once in the head, killing him. Decades after receiving the death sentence, the 57-year-old man still sits in prison. Moore's appeals have been exhaustive; he was even granted a second sentencing hearing in 2001 and again handed the death penalty. In his latest appeal, Moore's attorneys claim he is intellectually disabled, which would make him ineligible for execution. But courts have disagreed on how to legally determine the disability. 2 previous Supreme Court rulings have addressed executing intellectually disabled people. In 2002, Atkins v. Virginia ruled that executing those with the disability violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, but left it up to the states to legally define the condition. In 2014, Hall v. Florida specified that an IQ higher than 70 did not alone eliminate the condition, and that legal determination "is distinct from a medical diagnosis but is informed by the medical community's diagnostic framework." "I'm very concerned of this propensity to push the envelope and define more and more people as intellectually disabled, including people that regular folks would not for a moment consider to have that condition." - Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Fund After Atkins, Texas' highest criminal court set the state's definition of intellectual disability in Ex parte Briseno as those with a low IQ and poor adaptive functioning since childhood. In setting the standard, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals controversially referred to Lennie, a character from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, in describing how to define the condition. "Most Texas citizens might agree that Steinbeck's Lennie should, by virtue of his lack of reasoning ability and adaptive skills, be exempt," the ruling stated. "But, does a consensus of Texas citizens agree that all persons who might legitimately qualify for assistance under the social services definition of mental retardation be exempt from an otherwise constitutional penalty?" The same year Hall was decided, a state district court determined that Moore was indeed intellectually disabled, but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Judge Cheryl Johnson wrote that the lower court erred by using current medical standards to determine the condition, instead of the framework set up by the criminal appeals court, which adheres to the 1992 definition set by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). "Although the mental-health fields and opinions of mental-health experts inform the factual decision, they do not determine whether an individual is exempt from execution under Atkins," Johnson wrote in the opinion. "The decision to modify the legal standard for intellectual disability in the capital-sentencing context rests with this Court unless and until the Legislature acts, which we have repeatedly asked it to do." On Tuesday, attorney Cliff Sloan, representing Moore, will argue that the CCA violated the constitution by requiring courts to use medically outdated standards to determine if a death row inmate is intellectually disabled and ineligible for execution. Moore's brief claims that courts should be using current medical standards to determine intellectual disability, and that the Briseno definition is unjust and only qualifies certain people with intellectual disability as exempt from execution, instead of all of them. "In Briseno, the CCA - while ostensibly adopting a 1992 clinical definition of intellectual disability - criticized the medical community's diagnostic framework as 'exceedingly subjective,' and fashioned its own additional 'factors' for intellectual disability derived from lay stereotypes and lacking any clinical foundation," Moore's brief to the high court said. "There really isn't any confusion in the medical and the scholarly environments about what is intellectual disability. This is a condition that's been around since as long
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., NEV., USA
Nov. 27 TEXAS: Death penalty, the mentally disabled at issue for justices The U.S. Supreme Court is set to examine whether the nation's busiest state for capital punishment is trying to put to death a convicted killer who's intellectually disabled, which would make him ineligible for execution under the court's current guidance. Lawyers for prisoner Bobby James Moore, 57, contend that the state's highest criminal court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, ignored current medical standards and required use of outdated standards when it decided Moore isn't mentally disabled. That ruling removed a legal hurdle to Moore's execution for the shotgun slaying of a Houston grocery store clerk in 1980. The Texas court is a "conspicuous outlier" among state courts and "defies both the Constitution and common sense," Clifford Sloan, Moore's lead lawyer, told the justices in written briefs submitted ahead of Tuesday's scheduled oral arguments. Such a "head-in-the-sand approach ... ignores advances in the medical community's understanding and assessment of intellectual disability over the past quarter century," he wrote. Moore's lawyers want his death sentence set aside, contending his punishment would violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling in a North Carolina case that prohibited execution of the mentally disabled. The Texas attorney general's office says the state "fully complies" with Supreme Court precedents. The state points to its use of 1992 clinical definitions for intellectual disability as cited by the high court in its 2002 decision. And the office says it has consulted and considered more recent standards. The question before the high court "rests on a false premise," Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller said, arguing that Moore's claim of intellectual disability is refuted "under any relevant standard." Two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a Florida law that barred any other evidence of intellectual disability if an inmate's IQ was over 70. Texas uses a 3-pronged test to define intellectual disability: IQ scores, with 70 generally considered a threshold; an inmate's ability to interact with others and care for him or herself; and whether evidence of deficiencies in either of those areas occurred before age 18. The state says Moore had a troubled childhood with little supervision and scored 57, 77 and 78 on IQ tests before dropping out of school in the 9th grade. He'd been convicted 4 times of felonies by age 17 but never was diagnosed with an intellectual disability as a youth, the state argues. It describes him as living on the streets, playing pool for money and mowing lawns. During the fatal robbery of 72-year-old Houston supermarket clerk James McCarble, Moore wore a wig and fled to Louisiana afterward, and had represented himself in legal actions, showing the required intellectual capabilities, the state contends. Moore's lawyers argue the state "cherry-picked" specific higher IQ scores, and that at age 13 Moore had no basic understanding of the days of the week or seasons of the year, couldn't tell time and couldn't read or write or keep up in school. Since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976, Texas has carried out 537 executions, far more than any other state. Moore arrived on death row in July 1980, and only 5 of the state's some 250 condemned inmates have been there longer. In 1999, an appeals court threw out his death sentence, ruling that the legal help at his trial was deficient. At a new punishment hearing 2 years later, a Harris County jury again sentenced him to die. In an appeal of that verdict, the Court of Criminal Appeals returned the case to the trial court for a hearing, where the judge decided Moore was mentally disabled and ineligible for execution. But the appeals court rejected that recommendation, saying the trial judge had disregarded case law. 8 of the appeals court's 9 members participated in the case, and 2 of them disagreed with the majority. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Anti-death penalty event planned for Wednesday in St. Augustine Less than a year after a St. Johns County priest was found shot to death in Georgia, parishioners and officials from the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, as well as other community members, will gather to say that no one convicted of a violent crime should ever be put to death. The 1-hour, anti-death penalty event, billed as Cities for Life and co-hosted by Equal Justice USA, will be held at the Shrine at Mission Nombre de Dios at 101 San Marco Ave. on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Father John Gillespie, pastor at San Sebastian Church, told The Record last week that the event wasn't necessarily planned in response to the death of his friend, Father Rene Robert. But the topic, he said, has taken on a greater meaning since Georgia
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., S.C., CALIF.
Nov. 25 TEXAS: Texas judge apologizes for lynching comment about suspect in shooting of San Antonio cop A Texas judge has apologized for writing "time for a tree and a rope" on Facebook about the black man accused of killing a San Antonio police officer. Burnet County Judge James Oakley has since deleted the comment and issued a public apology Wednesday, according to the Austin American-Statesman. His remark has been harshly criticized on social media, many suggesting the allusion to lynching was racially motivated. The San Antonio Police Department posted online Monday about the arrest of 31-year-old Otis Tyrone McKane in the slaying of Detective Benjamin Marconi. Marconi, a 20-year veteran of the department, was shot in the head during a traffic stop. Police say the shooter pulled up behind the Marconi's squad car, got out and walked over to the passenger side. The man then fired twice, killing 50-year-old Marconi. Oakley shared the Police Department's Facebook post about McKane's arrest. In the comments, he wrote: "Time for a tree and a rope..." The judge is the top elected official in Burnet County, which is near Austin. He was appointed by former Gov. Rick Perry to the board of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. His term expires next year. Oakley also serves on the board for the Pedernales Electric Cooperative and the Capital Area Council of Government's executive committee. People have been posting reviews on the Burnet County Facebook page, calling Oakley's remark racist and inappropriate. Oakley called his comment "indeed curt and harsh," the Statesman reported. "What I should have posted, if anything, is a comment that more clearly reflects my opinion on the cowardly crime of the senseless murder of a law enforcement officer," he said in an email to the Statesman. He said his view of McKane "is the same regardless of ethnicity." He also said he supports due process and the death penalty. "I also support the death penalty in cases where the ultimate crime has been committed and there is clear and complete evidence and where all steps of the judicial process have been respected," Oakely wrote in the email. "I would also point out that I am an administrative judge and do not preside over criminal court." (source: Dallas Morning News) ** Court allows appeal in case of murdered Fort Worth mom, sonStephen Dale Barbee is on death row after being condemned for the suffocations of 34-year-old Lisa Underwood and her son, Jayden. A federal appeals court is allowing Texas death row inmate Stephen Barbee to move forward with an appeal contending his trial attorney improperly told jurors that Barbee was responsible for the February 2005 slayings of his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her 7-year-old son at their Fort Worth home. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an appeals claim that Barbee's trial lawyer was deficient for making the comment to jurors and not having Barbee's permission to say it to jurors during closing arguments of the trial's punishment phase. The court rejected several other appeals claims but said Wednesday it took the action to resolve any doubts in a death penalty case. The 49-year-old Barbee was condemned for the suffocations of 34-year-old Lisa Underwood and her son, Jayden. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Mifflin County's 2017 budget to raise taxes With a dramatic increase in expenditures looming, the Mifflin County Commissioners on Wednesday unveiled their proposed county budget for 2017 with a tax increase totaling 1.75 mills. Citing 2 huge expense-related activities that are on the horizon, the proposed spending plan will total $30,486,639, as opposed to the current year's budget which totaled $25,853,887. Commissioner Lisa Nancollas said the average property tax rate in the current budget is $541.50. With the tax increase, that average will rise to $608.10. As a comparison to normal every day purchases, Nancollas said the $5.55 average monthly increase is less than the price of a movie ticket, a Big Mac meal, a pack of cigarettes or 2 pounds of hamburger, among other things. 2 major increases in expenditures explored in detail Wednesday include a federally mandated requirement that the Mifflin County Correctional Facility be in compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) and the county's share of the cost of an upcoming death penalty criminal trial. "All 3 of us worked very hard to develop the best budget for Mifflin County," Nancollas said. "These are trying times for Mifflin County. We have urgent issues. This is a difficult time with the proliferation of regulations." Commissioner Stephen Dunkle said the federally mandated PREA compliance represents the biggest cost increase, noting that only 20 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties are in compliance today. He said 1 of the main reasons for that is the enormous cost
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., FLA., ALA., LA., CALIF., WASH.
Nov. 23 TEXASimpending execution Attorney Wants Execution Halted For Dad Who Killed Daughters A man set for execution next month is appealing a judge's ruling last week that he's mentally competent to be executed for fatally shooting his 2 young daughters more than 15 years ago in Dallas while their mother listened helplessly over the phone. John David Battaglia has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, to halt his scheduled Dec. 7 lethal injection in Huntsville. State District Judge Robert Burns last week ruled Battaglia was faking delusions that could make him ineligible for the death penalty under U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Battaglia's attorney, Michael Mowla, says in his appeal that Burns' ruling was "unsupported and incorrect." He wants the execution stopped so the state appeals court or a federal court can review the competency ruling. (source: Associated Press) Legislation Promises Stiffer Punishment For Targeting Police Officers New legislation filed at the state capitol aims to provide stiffer punishment for those caught targeting police and first responders. Following the shooting of San Antonio Police Det. Benjamin Marconi, the city's police Chief William McManus said that it was obvious, the uniform, not the officer was the target. It's that idea that has spurred the creation of new legislation ahead of the January session that would enhance crimes against a police officer. Charlie Wilkinson is the executive director for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas also known as CLEAT. Wilkinson says CLEAT is in support of the bill because it creates a new class of hate crimes when police officers and first responders are the intended target. "This was Detective Marconi doing his job and filling in in a place where he was needed and he was targeted simply because he was a police officer," Wilkinson says. The bill's author, Dallas Republican State Rep. Jason Villalba says it wouldn't only apply when an officer is targeted and shot. "Let's say you are driving a car and you see a cop and you take your truck and you plow into their car, and the police officer isn't harmed. Obviously that isn't a case that is going to be a capital crime that results in the death penalty. It's going to be a crime that results in a 2nd degree felony. If we have a 2nd degree felony under our statute it moves up to the next highest class," Villalba explains. The bill will be introduced in the legislative session that begins in January. (source" tpr.org) ** Texas Death Case Tests Standards For Defining Intellectual Disability The U.S. Supreme Court hears a case that questions intellectual disabilities and the death penalty - specifically, what standards states may use in determining whether a defendant convicted of murder is mentally deficient. In 2002, the justices barred the execution of the intellectually disabled. But it left the states considerable room to decide who is "mentally retarded." Two years ago, the court put its thumb more firmly on the scale, telling states they were not free to use a rigid IQ number to determine "retardation," but instead "must be informed by the medical community's diagnostic framework." Now the state of Texas is defending its use of standards that major medical organizations do not endorse. Instead, the state's test is based on what the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals called "a consensus of Texas citizens," that not all those who meet the "social services definition" of "retardation" should be exempt from the death penalty. The man at the center of the case is Bobby J. Moore, whose gun discharged during a botched robbery, killing a 70-year-old store clerk in Houston in 1980. There is no doubt about his guilt or about the fact that he has limited mental abilities. Even the prosecution's psychologist testified at trial that Moore likely "suffers from borderline intellectual functioning." Moore's lawyers argue that Texas is using outdated standards to determine "retardation," instead of the current medical standards required by the U.S. Supreme Court. The state of Texas argues that there is no national standard, and that the state should not be limited to current medical diagnostic tools or standards. Moore's lawyers note that, at age 13, he didn't understand the days of the week, the months of the year, how to tell time, or the principle that subtraction is the reverse of addition. He failed first grade twice, but school officials continued to advance him in order to keep him with children of a similar age. In addition to his other difficulties, his father beat him repeatedly over his failures in school. And when Moore was 14, his father threw him out of the house to live on the streets. Moore's IQ tests range from a low of 57 to a high of 78 with an average of just over 70 -
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., VA., S.C., GA., FLA., ALA.
Nov. 22 TEXASimpending execution Urgent ActionSTOP EXECUTION OF TEXAS MAN WITH DELUSIONAL DISORDER John Battaglia, aged 61, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 7 December. He was sentenced to death for killing his 2 young daughters in 2001. Three psychologists have concluded that a delusional disorder renders him incompetent for execution. On 18 November, a Texas judge ruled that he is feigning mental illness and can be executed. Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet- including inmate number #999412 in your appeals: * Calling for the execution of John Battaglia to be stopped and for his death sentence to be commuted; * Noting that 3 psychologists have found he has a delusional disorder that leaves him without a rational understanding of his impending execution; * Explaining that you do not wish to downplay the seriousness of the crime or deny the suffering caused. Contact these 2 officials by 7 December, 2016: Important note: Please do not forward this Urgent Action email directly to these officials. Instead of forwarding this email that you have received, please open up a new email message in which to write your appeals to each official. This will help ensure that your emails are not rejected. Thank you for your deeply valued activism! Clemency Section, Board of Pardons and Paroles 8610 Shoal Creek Blvd., Austin, Texas 78757-6814, USA Fax: +1 512 467 0945 Email: bpp-...@tdcj.state.tx.us Salutation: Dear Board Members Governor Greg Abbott Office of the Governor P.O. Box 12428 Austin, Texas 78711-2428, USA Fax: +1 512 463 1849 Contact form: https://gov.texas.gov/contact/assistance.aspx Salutation: Dear Governor (sourc: Amnesty International USA) NEW JERSEY: N.J. lawmakers want to reinstate death penalty in 'extreme' cases 2 state lawmakers are looking to reverse New Jersey's landmark ban on the death penalty and restore the punishment for serious crimes. On Monday, Senators Steve Oroho (R-Sussex) and Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) introduced a bill that would restore capital punishment in certain murder cases, citing recent terror attacks and fatal ambushes of police officers across the United States as examples of crimes warranting the death penalty. New Jersey eliminated capital punishment nearly a decade ago, and the measure would have to be approved by the Democrat-controlled state Legislature in order to pass. Previous attempts to roll back the prohibition have failed in recent years, and opponents who shepherded the state death penalty ban into law vowed to fight any effort at repeal. But its sponsors say recent events merit a fresh look at allowing capital punishment in "extreme" cases. According to a copy of the bill obtained by NJ Advance Media on Monday, it would restore capital punishment in cases including the murder of a police officer; the murder of a child in commission of a sex crime; deaths caused by an act of terror; killings committed by those who have previously been convicted of murder; and for serial killers. In a statement announcing the introduction of the bill, Oroho cited the case of Ahmad Khan Rahimi, the man accused of planting bombs in New Jersey and New York in a botched terror plot in September, in advocating for a return to capital punishment. But even if the bill were currently law, Rahimi himself wouldn't likely face the death penalty, because despite causing widespread panic and injuries, the string of bombings caused no fatalities. In an interview, the senator said the accused Elizabeth bomber was used as an example. "There could have been significant fatalities had it actually gone off as planned," Oroho said, adding that he hoped the possibility of capital punishment would serve as a deterrent to future plots. Sen. Ray Lesniak, a key sponsor of the legislation banning capital punishment in the Garden State, said on Monday that the testimony that led to its passage included the family members of major crime victims who opposed answering killing with more killing. He also said the specter of wrongful convictions should give pause to anyone looking to reinstate the death penalty. Van Drew, a Democrat who said he voted against the repeal of the death penalty, said there was "no question that it has to be used very sparingly, only in circumstances where there is clear proof" such as a confession or DNA evidence. Lesniak said he did not expect the bill to pass. "We haven't had the death penalty for almost 10 years now, and we're not going to back to the dark ages," Lesniak said. Ari Rosmarin, the public policy director for the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which fought for the death penalty ban, said capital punishment in New Jersey "is in the dustbin of history, where it belongs." "Lawmakers submit thousands of bills every year that will never see the light of day in an effort to generate a headline," Rosmarin said
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., OHIO
Nov. 19 TEXASnew death sentence Death sentence for Fort Worth man who killed pregnant girlfriend, 2 others A Tarrant County jury sentenced a Fort Worth man to death Friday in a 2013 triple slaying. Amos Wells was convicted on Nov. 3 of capital murder in the deaths of his pregnant girlfriend Chanice Reed, 22; her mother, Annette Reed, 39; and Chanice Reed's 10-year-old brother, Eddie McCuin, on July 1, 2013. The jury deliberated for about 4 hours Friday afternoon before reaching the decision. "This has been a long trial," said Kevin Rousseau, Tarrant County prosecutor. "The family is happy that justice was served. Nothing will replace the lives that were lost. But this was a necessary first step in the healing process." Prosecutors argued that after Wells shot his girlfriend and her mother, he chased Eddie through the house and shot him while he cowered on the floor. A woman who identified herself as Chanise Reed's cousin said during her victim impact statement that she forgave Wells but still could not understand why he killed the woman and the unborn child he claimed he loved. "There have been 6 deaths in our family between 2010 and 2012," the woman said. "All we have left is memories that will never fade away." State District Judge Ruben Gonzalez allowed Wells' family to speak to him after his death sentence was announced to a packed courtroom. Wells, who barely showed any emotion as his sentence was read, broke down in tears as they said their goodbyes. One man said that he would do all that he could for Wells, including take care of his mother and daughter and supply him with whatever he needed while he was in prison waiting for the state to carry out his sentence. "I did this," Wells told his relatives. "I'm an adult. Don't bear this burden. This burden is mine. The more you see me, the more you do for me, the more I will feel like I am putting this burden on you." On July 1, 2013, while first responders surrounded the residence in the 2900 block of Pate Drive where the shooting happened, Wells had already turned himself in at the Forest Hill Police Department. Video surveillance showed Wells leaning on the counter top in front of a window that led to the police communication division. One officer leveled his service weapon at Wells, who begged for the police to take his life, according to testimony. The last man to be sent to death row by a Tarrant County jury was Cedric Allen Ricks, who received a death sentence on May 16, 2014. Ricks got into an argument with Roxann Sanchez, his 30-year-old common-law wife and grabbed a kitchen knife and began stabbing the victim and her 12- and 8-year old sons. Before Friday's verdict there had been 3 death sentences handed down in Texas this year, according to The Texas Tribune. Last year, Texas sent 2 convicted killers to death row, the fewest since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's capital punishment statute nearly 4 decades ago, according to a Texas-based group that opposes the death penalty, the Tribune reported. The state has scheduled executions for 6 offenders next year, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records. 3 are from Tarrant County, 2 are from Dallas County and 1 is from Collin County (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) * Judge rules child-killer Battaglia competent to be executed After months of uncertainty, the fate of convicted child killer John Battaglia was sealed in a Dallas County courtroom on Friday. Judge Robert Burns ruled Battaglia's scheduled execution date of Dec. 7 will stand after the court found him competent to face the death penalty. The judge's ruling concluded 'Battaglia does understand that he is to be executed and that his execution is imminent, and he does understand the reason for his execution." Battaglia committed one of the most heinous and unthinkable crimes in Dallas history back in May 2001. He shot and killed his two little girls, Faith and Liberty, while on the phone with his ex-wife Mary Jean Pearl. Back in March, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of execution. Court documents at the time stated Battaglia claimed his lawyer abandoned him and failed to call into question his mental competency. In a jailhouse interview with News 8's Rebecca Lopez, Battaglia blamed a list of people he called "demons" for his conviction in the murders. Prosecutors believed Battaglia was attempting to game the system while the defense team argued 3 out of 4 experts concluded he was delusional and should not be executed. In court, it was revealed Battaglia read books and case law on how he could fool doctors into believing he was too incompetent to be executed. (source: WFAA news) *** Deadly Question Bill Meier says he can't remember exactly how he arrived at the deadly question, back in 1973. "I frankly don't have the kind of memory that would allow
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., IND.
Nov. 16 TEXAS: The Supreme Court Asks What It Means To Have An Intellectual DisabilityResearchers say that Texas has invented a nonscientific diagnosis based on a crude stereotype in order to execute people with an intellectual disability. In April 1980, 20-year-old Bobby James Moore and two other men attempted to rob the Birdsall Super Market in Houston. Moore carried a shotgun, and one of his accomplices had a pistol. As an accomplice opened a bag to fill with money, Moore, wearing a wig and sunglasses, pointed his gun at 2 store clerks. When one of the clerks shouted, Moore shot the other in the head, killing him instantly. Moore has been on death row for 36 years. His guilt is not in question, but his lawyers say he does not have the mental capacity to justify executing him for his crime. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that executing someone with an intellectual disability is a "cruel and unusual punishment," prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. Now, in the court's new term, Moore's case will require the justices to consider how to define intellectual disability. Psychologists typically diagnose intellectual disability with tests of a person's IQ and "adaptive behavior," meaning the interpersonal and practical skills needed for everyday life. The tests examine a broad range of abilities, including whether the person can clothe and feed themselves, handle money, read and write, and whether they are gullible and easily led. But in Moore's case, the state of Texas instead relied in part on a stereotype based - literally - on a tragic character from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Leading medical and scientific organizations claim that Texas conjured up this bizarre literary standard to prevent people on death row from being deemed to have a disability. But 16 other states that use the death penalty have lined up in support of Texas, arguing that this issue should not be ceded to "a small professional elite" - that is, doctors and scientists specializing in intellectual disability - who may be motivated by their opposition to the death penalty. The stakes are high, and not only because Texas - responsible for more than 40% of the 841 executions in the United States since 2000 - has the most active death row in the nation. "There are other states that deviate from the clinical consensus of what intellectual disability is," John Blume, a legal scholar who heads the Cornell Death Penalty Project, told BuzzFeed News. So if the court takes a firm line on how adaptive behavior should be measured, the decision could reverberate beyond the Lone Star State, forcing all states to align their assessments with scientific standards. This isn't the 1st time that the Supreme Court has been asked to define intellectual disability. In 2014, in an opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court ruled that Florida was wrong to use a rigid cutoff of 70 IQ points or less. Today's IQ tests, which are set so that 100 points is the average score, have a measurement error of 3 points or more. This means that any score should be considered as a range, not an absolute value. After that court decision, Florida reduced the sentence of convicted killer Freddie Lee Hall, who had scored 71 on one IQ test, from death to life in prison. Moore's case is expected to hinge not on IQ, but on the trickier measures of adaptive behavior. Although standardized tests for adaptive behavior give scores similar to IQ, they are not always used, and different states measure adaptive behavior in different ways. In 2004, when ruling on the case of Jose Garcia Briseno, convicted of murdering a sheriff, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals took inspiration from a character in Of Mice and Men: Lennie Small, a lumbering migrant worker who understands neither the world around him nor his own strength, and ends up killing a woman who flirts with him. "Most Texas citizens might agree that Steinbeck's Lennie should, by virtue of his lack of reasoning ability and adaptive skills, be exempt," Judge Cathy Cochran wrote in her opinion. But she questioned whether the scientific definitions of "mental retardation" should apply to the death penalty. Calling the measurement of adaptive behavior "exceedingly subjective," Cochran proposed seven questions, now called the "Briseno factors," to help judge whether a convicted killer has the intellectual capacity to justify facing the death penalty. She did not specify exactly how they should be used. The Briseno factors use specific abilities - such as whether the person can lie, and whether their crime required planning - to judge whether someone has a disability, rather than assessing every aspect of their adaptive behavior. Experts say the Brise???o factors do not reflect modern clinical standards of disability. "It's not how adaptive behavior is measured by anyone, anywhere, and it sets an unreasonable standard,"
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., ARK., NEB.
Nov. 15 TEXAS: Rep Dutton Files Bills to Abolish the Death Penalty and Prohibit Death Sentences in Law of Parties Cases Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston today filed HB 64, a bill to abolish the death penalty in Texas. Rep. Dutton also filed HB 147, a bill to prohibit the death penalty for people convicted under the law of parties. Jeff Wood received a stay of execution in August 2016 after many legislators expressed support by writing clemency letters to Gov. Greg Abbott. Wood received a stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals pending further review. Rep Dutton first filed a bill to abolish the death penalty in 2003, which was the 1st abolition bill filed in the Texas Legislature in a long time up to that year. Everyone opposed to the death penalty should thank Rep Dutton for his leading role in the effort in the Texas Legislature to end the death penalty. It was an exciting day back in 2003 when Dutton's abolition bill was heard in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. That was the 1st time an abolition bill was heard in a Texas legislative committee in the modern era, and maybe ever. In 2017, we will hold another lobby day to abolish the death penalty. In 2015, during the Texas Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty, we went with two death row exonerees, Ron Keine and Sabrina Butler of Witness to Innocence, and met with State Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr to ask him to file a bill in the senate to abolish the death penalty, which he filed 2 weeks later. It was the 1st-time ever a bill to completely abolish the death penalty had been filed in the Texas Senate. (source: Texas Moratorium Network) GEORGIAimpending execution//volunteer The Latest: State: Inmate Should Be Asked If He Wants Appeal Lawyers for the state of Georgia say a death row inmate set for execution this week should be asked whether he wants an appeal filed on his behalf. Steven Frederick Spears is set to be put to death Wednesday. He was convicted in the August 2001 slaying of his ex-girlfriend Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega, about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta. A lawyer on Monday filed a "next friend" petition on behalf of his ex-wife, saying that Spears hasn't pursued post-conviction legal options to fight his execution because he's mentally ill. The petition asks a judge to set a hearing to consider problems during his trial and sentencing. In a filing Tuesday, the state asked the judge to ask Spears whether he wants the petition to go forward. They also ask that an expert examine him by Wednesday "in an abundance of caution" since his competency has been challenged. (source: Associated Press) ARKANSASnew death sentence Jury Sentences Mauricio Torres to the Death Penalty The jury that found Mauricio Torres guilty of capital murder have sentenced him to the death penalty. On Monday, a jury found Torres guilty of murdering his 6-year-old son Isaiah Torres. Isaiah Torres died on March 30, 2015. Police said Isaiah Torres died as a result of severe child abuse. The defense said Mauricio Torres didn't knowingly cause his son's death, so he didn't deserve capital punishment. Isaiah Torres' mother, Cathy Torres, also faces a capital murder charge and is set to go on trial at a later date. (source: nwahomepage.com) NEBRASKA: Low IQ score won't save Nikko Jenkins from death penalty Maybe it was because he would have to go along with being called intellectually disabled in scientific terms - dumb in slang terms. Maybe it was because it wasn't on his agenda Monday. Whatever the case, convicted killer Nikko Jenkins wanted no part of his attorney's attempts to disqualify him for the death penalty based on his last IQ test - a test that saw him score a 69 at age 17. Such a score meets the standard for what Nebraska law calls "mental retardation." And the U.S. Supreme Court has forbidden executions of people who suffer from mental retardation. No matter, Jenkins said. "I would like to waive this IQ testimony," he said, interrupting his attorney during his capital-punishment proceedings. "I'm not portraying that I'm under the threshold to procure the death penalty." Jenkins' attorney, Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley, pressed on anyway. "I'm not going to sit here and watch him put a noose around his own neck," Riley said. "The overriding aspect we have here is that, whether Mr. Jenkins agrees with it or not, he falls under the statute that precludes capital punishment (for the learning disabled). "This (death penalty hearing) should end here and now." It will last most of the week. After 4 hours of testimony, District Judge Peter Bataillon rejected the low IQ argument. For one, it was an abbreviated test, given to a group of incoming prisoners - and not a more thorough, individual IQ test. For another, the prison psychologist who administered the test said Jenkins "completed it in an
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., ALA., OHIO, KY., TENN.
Nov. 15 TEXASimpending execution Child killer John Battaglia is mentally unfit to be executed, psychologists say John Battaglia, the former accountant who murdered his daughters while their mother listened helplessly on the phone in 2001, appeared in a Dallas County courtroom Monday as a judge considered whether he's mentally fit to be put to death. Battaglia, 61, is set to be executed Dec. 7. But first, a judge must rule on his competency. Under Texas law, an inmate cannot be executed if he does not understand why he's being executed or that execution is imminent. Battaglia shot his daughters, 9-year-old Faith and 6-year-old Liberty, inside his Deep Ellum loft in 2001. He had arranged a call with his ex-wife, who listened on the phone as the older girl begged for mercy. "No, Daddy! Don't do it!" Faith pleaded, before the phone line exploded with gunfire. The act flung Battaglia into infamy as people in Dallas and around the nation struggled to comprehend why any father would shoot his children -- and then go get 2 roses tattooed on his arm in their memory. A Dallas County jury sentenced him to death in 2002. Prosecutors believe Battaglia has enough understanding to go forward with the execution. Defense attorneys argue that his mental illness and "delusions" should spare him. His execution was first postponed in March to give the courts time to sort out this issue. Battaglia wore square glasses and an orange-and-white striped jumpsuit during his court appearance Monday. He listened for much of the day, but occasionally laughed, whispered loudly to his lawyer or turned around to look at spectators in the gallery. At one point, he shouted out that it was all a "conspiracy." 3 psychologists testified that Battaglia suffers from delusional disorder, a mental illness characterized by having unshakable beliefs in things that aren't true. They disagreed on whether he has bipolar disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. All testified that Battaglia is mentally incompetent for execution -- but for different reasons. Dr. Diane M. Mosnik, a clinical psychologist who spent 16 hours with Battaglia to test and interview him for the defense, said Battaglia meets one criteria for competency: He knows he has an execution date scheduled. But she said he fails the second: he doesn't understand why he's being put to death. Battaglia believes he's being executed not because he shot his children, but because of a conspiracy to "quiet him," one that involves everyone from the attorneys and judges in his case to religious figures, such as the pope, Mosnik said. 2 other psychologists -- Dr. Timothy Proctor, called by the state, and Dr. Thomas G. Allen, called by the court -- drew a distinction between a factual and rational understanding of the case. Battaglia factually understands that he is on death row because he was convicted of killing his children, they said. But they also said he does not rationally understand that he murdered his daughters; his mental illness makes him believe he didn't do it. That lack of "rational understanding" makes him incompetent to be put to death, the psychologists testified. It will be up to the judge to interpret whether -- or how -- the "rational understanding" rule applies. State District Judge Robert Burns pushed the psychologists for more information about whether Battaglia, an intelligent man who once passed the CPA exam, could be feigning mental illness to skirt the death penalty. 2 psychologists testified that Battaglia was not faking it. Burns also questioned whether delusional thinking comes as a coping mechanism. "If you personally committed a really heinous offense," he asked the state's psychologist, Proctor, "how would you not, at some point in the passage of time, create some kind of a delusional explanation for what you did?" Proctor said the judge was "hitting the nail on the head of the fine distinction we're talking about." He said it's one thing if an inmate tells a story to make themselves feel better; it's another if he truly doesn't understand because mental illness has altered his reality. Faith and Liberty's mother, Mary Jean Pearle, was in court for her ex-husband's hearing, but left without comment. Battaglia's father -- also named John -- was also there. He said he hopes action will be taken to "cure" his son. "The last thing he would have done if he were sane is kill those 2 girls," he said of his granddaughters. A ruling is not expected until at least Tuesday, when testimony continues. The judge could rule from the bench then, or wait to make a decision. (source: Dallas Morning News) GEORGIAimpending execution//volunteer Board to Hold Clemency Hearing for Georgia Death Row Inmate The state parole board plans to hold a clemency hearing for a Georgia inmate scheduled for execution this week. Steven Frederick Spears is to be put to death
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., ALA.
Nov. 8 TEXAS: Dallas man on death row loses appeal for a 2nd time A Dallas man on death row lost an appeal Monday to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd time. Ivan Cantu was sentenced to death in Collin County in the killing of his cousin in 2001. The federal appeals court rejected Cantu's argument that his legal help was deficient for failing to investigate and present evidence that he was innocent. Cantu was convicted of capital murder in the death of 27-year-old James Mosqueda and indicted in the death of his cousin's girlfriend, 22-year-old Amy Kitchen, according to the Dallas Morning News archives. A former girlfriend testified that Cantu told her he planned to kill Mosqueda and that he showed her the bodies, which were found at the couple's home in Far North Dallas. (source: Dallas Morning News) PENNSYLVANIA: Attorneys for alleged Pa. CO killer file multiple motions Attorneys for Jessie Con-ui filed motions seeking to bar a judge from allowing evidence in the murder trial With less than 6 months until reputed gang member and convicted killer Jessie Con-ui is scheduled to face trial on charges he murdered a local corrections officer, attorneys on Monday filed multiple motions seeking to bar a judge from allowing evidence. Con-ui, 39, could face the death penalty if convicted next year for the murder of 34-year-old Corrections Officer Eric Williams. Prosecutors allege Con-ui brutally murdered the Nanticoke native inside U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in Wayne County in 2013. Con-ui, allegedly angered over a cell search, blindsided the unarmed Williams and kicked him down a prison stairwell before stabbing him to death, prosecutors say. President Barack Obama in March signed into law a bill named after Williams that armed federal corrections officers with pepper spray. Prosecutors first announced their intent to seek the death penalty against Con-ui on Oct. 2, 2014. The motion claimed Con-ui, an alleged member of the New Mexican Mafia and convicted first-degree murderer, presents a future danger "because of low potential for rehabilitation and lack of remorse." Additionally, Con-ui should be sentenced to death because of his participation in additional acts of violence that went uncharged, prosecutors said. Four motions, filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa, seek to prohibit certain evidence should a jury convict Con-ui and be required to consider the death penalty, while Con-ui???s attorneys seek to quash evidence as well. Federal prosecutors' motions ask to: Preclude execution impact evidence Prosecutors are seeking to limit what evidence Con-ui can enter regarding the effect his death would have on his loved ones. They say testimony that he is beloved by family and friends, the negative impact the death penalty would have on them and any pleas for mercy "are not relevant to (Con-ui's) character or his personal culpability for the charged murders." "Just as victim impact witnesses are not permitted to cry out for death, execution impact witnesses must not be allowed to cry out for life," prosecutors wrote. Preclude comparative proportionality evidence and arguments Prosecutors are seeking to prevent Con-ui from comparing the facts of his case to other similar cases, including capital punishment cases. Preclude prison culture evidence and Bureau of Prisons (BOP) contributory negligence claim Presenting evidence Con-ui was treated unfairly in prison or the BOP failed to respond to the murder scene in a timely manner is not relevant to a mitigating factor and would confuse and prejudice a jury, prosecutors say. They ask a judge to ban such evidence. Preclude unsworn allocution Prosecutors ask a judge to prohibit an unsworn statement to the jury in which the defendant can ask for mercy, explain his or her conduct, apologize for the crime, or say anything else in an effort to lessen the impending sentence, according to the motion. Prosecutors argue Con-ui does not have the constitutional or statutory right to make such statements. Defense motions Con-ui's attorneys, meanwhile, seek to prevent prosecutors from showing video of Williams" murder "as well as emotionally-fraught and unfairly prejudicial post-mortem photographs of (Williams') body" during the guilt and penalty phases of his trial. Additionally, attorneys David A. Ruhnke, James A. Swetz and Mark F. Fleming request a judge prohibit evidence regarding Con-ui's other alleged acts of violence, including an assault on a fellow inmate inside another prison and an alleged 2003 plan to participate in multiple murders. Con-ui's trial is slated to begin April 24. (source: correctonsone.com) ALABAMA: What's next for Tommy Arthur after escaping execution 7th time? As the clock ticked towards 6 p.m. last Thursday, death row inmate Tommy Arthur began to think he wouldn't survive the seventh time Alabama was set to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., IND., KY., ARK.
Nov. 8 TEXASnew execution date James Bigby has been given an execution date for March 14; is should be considered serious. *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-December 7---John Battaglia539 22-January 11---Christoper Wilkins540 23-January 25---Kosoul Chanthakoummane541 24-January 26---Terry Edwards-542 25-February 2---John Ramirez--543 26-February 7---Tilon Carter--544 27-March 14James Bigby---545 28-April 12-Paul Storey---546 29-June 28--Steven Long---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ALABAMA: Bill would bring firing squad executions to Alabama An Alabama state senator Friday prefiled a bill that would give condemned inmates the option to request a firing squad. The legislation from Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, the chairman of the Senate's General Fund committee, comes on the heels of arguments from death row inmate Thomas Arthur - who escaped execution Thursday night - that Alabama's current lethal injection process is inhumane and that he has a right to argue for alternative methods of execution, like shooting. Pittman said Monday the Arthur case was part of the reason he filed the bill. But he also cited legal challenges to the state's execution method and growing reluctance from pharmaceutical companies to allow the use of drugs in the death penalty. "People seem to support Second Amendment, (and) a lot of people have guns and ammunition," he said. "You never have to worry about supply." Under Pittman's bill, an inmate could request a firing squad as an alternative to the state's 3-drug lethal injection method. If requested, a group of 5 law enforcement officers would carry out the sentence. The legislation leaves the protocols for a firing squad execution up to the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Bob Horton, a spokesman for DOC, said in an email Monday there was no record of the state conducting an execution by firing squad. "The ADOC is obligated to follow current, or future legislation without preference to the method of execution as chosen by the condemned, and as deemed to be constitutional by state statute," the email said. An email seeking comment from ALEA was sent Monday morning. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed Arthur's execution Thursday evening. The inmate, convicted in 1982 in a murder-for-hire scheme -- Pittman Monday called him "basically an assassin" -- has argued the state's current execution method could leave him suffering unnecessary pain, a violation of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The nation's high court ruled in 2015 that inmates challenging a method of execution must present a safer and more readily-available alternative. Arthur argued in lower federal courts that the courts should allow him to make a case for a single injection of pentobarbital or a firing squad. A 3-judge panel of U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals judges rejected Arthur's argument Thursday, saying he was contemplating methods of death not considered in the state law. U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson dissented, arguing that would unfairly deny Arthur methods used in other states. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the case. Pittman said he would be open to adding other methods of execution to the bill. "To the extent there are prisoners who are contrite or feel guilty about their crimes and wish to accept the sentence delivered, I want to leave them as many options as possible," he said. From 1812 to 1927, Alabama used hanging as its chief method of execution, usually at the county level. In 1927, the state took over executions, consigning the condemned to electrocution in a chair known as "Yellow Mama." The state switched to lethal injection as its primary method of execution in 2002, though inmates may request the electric chair. No inmate executed since 2002 has done so. Utah and Oklahoma use the firing squad as a secondary method of execution. Utah executed Ronnie Lee Gardner by firing squad in 2010. 5 law enforcement officers shot Gardner with .30-caliber Winchester rifles. 1 received a wax bullet in place of a live one. A Pew Research Center poll released in September found 49 % of Americans supported the death penalty, while 42 % opposed it. The finding represented the lowest among of support for capital punishment in over 4 decades. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death-penalty group, the number of death sentences in Alabama fell from a peak of 25
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., FLA., ALA., NEB.
Nov. 5 TEXAS: "An Eye For An Eye" by Israeli Documentary Filmmaker Ilan Ziv Premieres Oct. 28, Shifts Election Focus From Division To Forgiveness The powerful documentary AN EYE FOR AN EYE, comes to select U.S. theaters beginning October 28th with a message of forgiveness and healing for a country racked by divisive rhetoric. Directed by award winning filmmaker Ilan Ziv, AN EYE FOR AN EYE tells the story of death row inmate Mark Stroman, and the friendship he ultimately forges with one of his surviving victims Rais Bhuiyan, who sets about to save Stroman from death row as part of his Muslim faith. As part of the film's message of tolerance and forgiveness, and its anti-death penalty position, film director Ilan Ziv will host select Q & A's following screenings. Film Synopsis: In the weeks following 9/11, dozens of attacks against Muslims, Sikhs and other minorities were reported across America. Among the perpetrators was Mark Stroman, who began "hunting Arabs," as he described his nightly prowling. He set targets on anyone he thought came from the Middle East. His victims happened to be immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. He killed 2 and partially blinded a young man from Bangladesh. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. In a rare twist of fate, in the weeks before an impending execution, his only surviving victim became his biggest advocate - Rais Bhuiyan, a devoted Muslim, began a campaign to spare Mark's life in the name of Islam and mercy. With unprecedented access and in-depth interviews, the film charts this riveting drama of revenge, change and forgiveness. At its heart is the profound bond forged between Stroman and the Israeli born filmmaker Ilan Ziv. For the first time in Mark's life, the narrative of hate starts to wear off as he begins a journey inward that challenges some of his most intolerable thoughts about the people and the world he lives in. A powerful human drama that carries a warning and a message of hope in our troubled times. View the trailer for the film at: https://youtu.be/VQkpn92X5Xs (source: digitaljournal.com) PENNSYLVANIA: After mistakenly facing death penalty, confessed Bethlehem killer wins new trial Nearly a decade ago, Paul Serrano III pleaded guilty to a brazen murder in Bethlehem, accepting a life sentence as prosecutors threatened to seek his execution if he went to trial. But this week, Serrano's plea was thrown out and he was granted a new trial, after the justice system realized the death-penalty charges he originally faced were illegal and shouldn't have been brought against him in the first place. That's because Serrano was 17 years old when he self-admittedly gunned down a 15-year-old boy during a gangland hit in which he went to the wrong apartment and opened fire on the wrong person a week before Christmas 2006. Though the shooting occurred just 24 days short of Serrano's 18th birthday, he was protected from the death penalty by a landmark ruling two years before in which the U.S. Supreme Court found it was cruel and unusual punishment to sentence juveniles to death. Chickasaw Country, in south-central Oklahoma, is rich with Native American culture and Western history, an unprecedented destination for lovers of our country's historical landscape. Museums and historic sites will bring it to life, from the trailhead days of yore to the vibrant heritage of today. But his age went unnoticed, apparently, by Northampton County prosecutors, Serrano's own lawyers and the judge. "He was 17 at the time, and they pleaded him out as an 18-year-old," Serrano's latest attorney, Tyree Blair, said Friday. "I don't know how you miss that." On Wednesday, Judge Emil Giordano vacated Serrano's guilty plea to first-degree murder and the life-without-parole sentence that resulted. Giordano found the August 2007 plea wasn't knowing and voluntary, given that Serrano entered into it in exchange for prosecutors withdrawing their efforts to seek his death. "It was overlooked," said District Attorney John Morganelli, who personally handled Serrano's case. "It was overlooked by everyone." Giordano ordered a new trial as the now 27-year-old Serrano rejected a new plea offer from Morganelli. Under it, Serrano would have again admitted to 1st-degree murder, and would have received a sentence of 30 years to life. On Friday, Morganelli called Serrano a "knucklehead" for not taking the deal, saying authorities continue to have a "very good, strong case" against him despite the passage of time. On Dec. 18, 2006, Serrano shot 15-year-old Kevin Muzila in the chest after knocking on the door of the boy's West Union Boulevard home, according to court records. Police said Serrano was carrying out gang orders to kill a man who was a rival drug dealer. But Serrano mistakenly went to the next-door apartment and emptied his pistol without looking to see who answered, police
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., OHIO, NEB., CALIF., USA
Nov. 4 TEXAS: North Texas man found guilty in shooting deaths of 3 people A North Texas jury has convicted a 26-year-old man of capital murder in the shooting deaths of his estranged girlfriend, her mother and young brother. The punishment phase of the trial for Amos Joseph Wells III is scheduled to begin Friday, a day after he was found guilty of the July 2013 slayings. Tarrant County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The shooting at a Fort Worth home was preceded by an argument between Wells and 22-year-old Chanice Reed, who was pregnant at the time. Authorities say Wells retrieved a handgun and killed the three. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/2fjyJIE ) the evidence included shells found at the home that matched ammunition kept by Wells. Wells later surrendered to police by asking to be shot and killed. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Death Row Inmate Narrowly Escapes Execution for the 7th Time Thomas Arthur has escaped death for the 7th time. US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stay from the Court late Thursday evening delaying Arthur's scheduled Nov. 3 execution. The Court's stay marks the seventh time 74-year-old death row inmate Arthur has avoided an impending execution date. Attorneys for Arthur filed briefs before the Court Thursday. One of the petitions asked the Court to review Arthur's request for an alternative form of execution beside lethal injection, because Arthur believes Alabama's 3-drug lethal injection regimen would be cruel and unusual. The 2nd asked the Court to review Alabama's death penalty sentencing laws, which Arthur argues are unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's January decision in Hurst v. Florida, which overturned the Sunshine State's sentencing laws. The US Supreme Court ruled Florida's former sentencing laws, which allowed trial court judges to overrule the decision of a jury in a death penalty case, were unconstitutional. Alabama is now the last state with judicial override for the death penalty. And since 1976, more than 92 % of 107 overrides have resulted in a judge imposing the death penalty when a trial jury voted against recommending the death penalty, according to Montgomery's Equal Justice Initiative. Arthur's case would not usually warrant a stay, Chief Justice Roberts said in the order, but he agreed to vote for the stay because he wanted the other justices of the court to have time to review the case. Associate Justice Samuel Alito voted against granting the stay, along with Associate Justice Clarence Thomas - who granted a temporary stay earlier in the evening before Arthur's 6 p.m. scheduled execution. Arthur's stay will terminate when the court decides on the 2 petitions for writs of certiorari, which ask the Court to review the constitutionality of Arthur's case. If the Court denies the petitions for writs of certiorari, deciding not to take up Arthur's case, the stay on his execution would terminate. If the Court decides to review the case, which Roberts in his order hinted was unlikely, the stay would be extended until the Court hands down a final ruling on his appeals. If the stay is terminated by the Court's refusal to take up his case or the Court affirms the previous decisions of lower courts, which have all gone against Arthur, Arthur's execution will be rescheduled by the Alabama Supreme Court. The Alabama Supreme Court has set seven different execution dates since Arthur was first convicted of the 1982 murder-for-hire of Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker, and he outlived them all. Roberts said he believed the case does not warrant the US Supreme Court's review, writing: "The claims set out in the application are purely fact-specific, dependent on contested interpretations of state law, insulated from our review by alternative holdings below, or some combination of the 3." The Supreme Court has not yet issued a decision on whether to review Arthur's challenge, which originates from an appeal in a US District Court in Alabama that was denied and later appealed to the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In his appeal in the US District Court based on a 2014 US Supreme Court Decision in Glossip v. Gross, Arthur suggested a firing squad or another lethal execution drug, Pentobarbital, as alternatives to the state's controversial 3-drug regimen. Arthur's attorneys argued that Midazolam, the 1st of 3 drugs in Alabama's cocktail, would fail to do its job of sedating the inmate to prevent pain during the induction of the 2 other live-taking drugs, violating the Eight Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In Glossip v. Gross, the US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the use of Midazolam as a sedative was not unconstitutional, allowing its use to continue, but Arthur argues that his preexisting heart condition would render Midazolam ineffective. The federal judge hearing
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., NEB., CALIF.
Nov. 4 TEXAS: Fort Worth man guilty of capital murder in deaths of boy, 2 women A Fort Worth man was found guilty of capital murder Thursday for shooting his pregnant girlfriend, her 10-year-old brother and their 39-year-old mother. Amos Joseph Wells III elected to not to have anyone testify on his behalf in the guilt/innocence phase of his case, paving the way for the Tarrant County jury to begin deliberations. Wells, 26, was accused of killing his estranged 22-year-old pregnant girlfriend, Chanice Reed; her mother, Annette Reed, 39; and Chanice's 10-year-old brother, Eddie McCuin Jr., inside the family's east Fort Worth house on July 1, 2013. Wells just shook his head as one of his relatives stormed out of the courtroom crying and shouting: "You all are just murderers. No DNA. Just murderers." Tarrant County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. A defense motion asking the court to set aside the death penalty was denied July 13. The jury was released for the remainder of Thursday and instructed to return to the courtroom Friday to begin hearing evidence in the punishment phase. In his closing arguments, Tarrant County Prosecutor Kevin Rousseau told jurors there should be no doubt in their minds that Wells was guilty of killing Annette and Chanice Reed. Rousseau projected the evidence of the defendant's guilt on a screen under the label "Amos Wells is Guilty" and showed it to the jury. Among the evidence was the fact that 12 shells were missing from a box of ammunition found in Wells' room - the exact number of shells used at the residence where first responders found the 3 mortally wounded victims. Prosecutors also showed the jury that all the bullets came from the same type of handgun authorities believe were used in the slayings. Wells surrendered to Forest Hill police, asking to be shot and killed, prosecutors said. (source: Fort Worth Star Telegram) PENNSYLVANIA: Kevin Murphy execution date for 3 murders set, quickly stayed State Corrections Secretary John Wetzel signed a notice of execution Wednesday for an Indiana County man convicted in 2013 of 1st-degree murder for shooting his mother, sister and aunt just seven months after the state Supreme Court upheld his death sentence. However, department of corrections documents indicate the death warrant setting Kevin Murphy's execution for Dec. 19 was almost immediately stayed this morning, allowing the 55-year-old a chance to appeal. The state Supreme Court upheld Murphy's death sentence in March. A Westmoreland County jury convicted him of shooting Doris Murphy, 69; Kris Murphy, 43; and Edith Tietge, 81, at Ferguson Glass in Loyalhanna Township on April 23, 2009. The 3 women worked at the family business, which Kevin Murphy owned. Murphy used a .22-caliber revolver to shoot the women in the head because they disapproved of his romantic relationship with a married woman and didn't want her live at the family home near Saltsburg, police said. The jury imposed the death penalty for Doris Murphy's killing and imposed life sentences in the deaths of Kris Murphy and Tietge. In prior appeals, Murphy has argued prosecutors failed to prove he was the killer and the verdicts were against the weight of the evidence. In a 14-page last spring, 5 Supreme Court justices disagreed. "Viewed in its totality, we find the Commonwealth presented sufficient evidence to enable a reasonable jury to find all elements of the crimes of 1st-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt," they said in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Thomas Saylor. Jurors imposed the death penalty based on evidence Murphy "deliberately and maliciously" killed his relatives, according to the opinion, and prosecutors "plainly established ... aggravating circumstances found by the jury, given the multiple killings involved." Justices Max Baer, Debra Todd, Christine Donohue and Kevin M. Dougherty joined in the opinion. Justice David N. Wecht did not participate in the proceedings. Gary Heidnik was the last person to be executed in Pennsylvania in 1999 for murdering 2 women he had imprisoned and tortured in the basement of his Philadelphia home. Murphy is incarcerated at SCI Greene in Waynesburg. (source: triblive.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Black juror's dismissal, death penalty revisited in double homicide A black man facing execution for a pair of South Asheville murders could come off death row, brought on by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding racial bias in jury selection and a woman who arrived at the Buncombe County courthouse wearing a cross earring and Tweety Bird shirt. That woman, Wanda Jeter, was called as a prospective juror in the 1997 sentencing of Phillip Antwan Davis, who had already pleaded guilty to 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, the 1st for fatally shooting his 17-year-old cousin, and then shooting and attacking her mother with a meat cleaver. The only
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., MISS., OHIO
Nov. 3 TEXAS: Death Row Inmate Sues Texas for DNA Tests With help from The Innocence Project, death row inmate Larry Ray Swearingen claims that DNA tests could prove his innocence of a 1998 murder, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has unconstitutionally denied him the opportunity to present the evidence. Swearingen sued the nine judges on the state's highest criminal appeals court on Oct. 28 in Federal Court, challenging the appellate court's interpretation of the criminal code, and demanding the release of evidence for DNA testing. "It's not a casual thing to bring a federal civil rights action, but the denial of DNA testing in a death penalty case is really something that is pretty extraordinary," said Bryce Benjet, an attorney with The Innocence Project of New York City. "We think it is appropriate for a federal judge to step in and enforce the Constitution," Benjet said in an interview. Swearingen was convicted of the 1998 murder of Melissa Trotter, of Willis, Texas, a 19-year-old freshman at Lone Star Community College-Montgomery. She was found in the Sam Houston National Forest, strangled to death by a pair of pantyhose. The state presented evidence at trial that Swearingen and Trotter had been seen leaving campus together the day she disappeared. Prosecutors said Swearingen kidnapped, raped, and murdered her after she refused his sexual advances. Swearingen's attorneys say in the new lawsuit that he was convicted "largely on the basis of circumstantial evidence." Swearingen has always maintained his innocence and has filed several motions to secure DNA testing under the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, which requires post-conviction DNA testing if such evidence would more than likely have resulted in a not-guilty verdict. His first 2 motions were unsuccessful, but the Montgomery County Court granted 2 subsequent motions for DNA testing, which the court of appeals reversed. As those motions wended through the courts, the Texas Legislature made several amendments to the DNA testing statute in the criminal code. The Legislature cited Swearingen's case as the impetus for these changes, which included expanding the definition of what "biological material" could be tested and broadening the statute to require testing of evidence that has "a reasonable likelihood of containing biological material." "His case was the subject of legislative testimony, yet still, when it gets back to the Court of Criminal Appeals, they interpret the statute in a way that denies him testing," Benjet said. The 28-page lawsuit against the Court of Criminal Appeals states that Swearingen's repeated efforts to obtain DNA testing have been "thwarted" by the appellate court's "unreasonably narrow" interpretation of the criminal code, and that its interpretation "ignores the most powerful aspects of DNA testing and sets a bar that cannot be satisfied in most cases." This alone has denied him due process, his attorneys say, and "unconstitutionally deprived [him] access to the courts" to obtain other remedies which could prove his innocence. Swearingen seeks declaratory relief that the appeals court's interpretation of the code is unconstitutional. He also sued the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Montgomery District [Court] Clerk and the Montgomery County Sheriff, to force release of evidence for testing, including the murder weapon, the rape kit, the victim's clothing and cigarette butts found near her body. Montgomery County prosecutor Bill Delmore told the Houston Chronicle last year that "a lot" of DNA testing had been done in Swearingen's case, and that Swearingen's DNA profile was matched to a hair on a pantyhose fragment found in his trailer and 2 hairs found in Swearingen's truck were matched to Trotter. "We're very confident that we have the right guy," Delmore told the Chronicle article in June 2015. "We've executed on far less." But Swearingen's attorneys call the pantyhose evidence found in Swearingen's trailer "troubling," as the pantyhose had not been found during the first 2 searches of the trailer. Also, "serious doubts have been raised about the reliability" of the tear line analysis that matched the fragment to the pantyhose found tied around Trotter's neck, according to the complaint. The only pre-trial DNA testing that revealed a male donor, taken from fingernail scrapings, excluded Swearingen, and the state offered no "plausible" explanation for the presence of someone else's DNA underneath Trotter's fingernails, his attorneys say in the complaint. They say the state speculated that "perhaps blood from an officer present during the autopsy who may have cut himself while shaving hours before inexplicably worked its way under the victim's fingernails," or that blood circulating through the morgue's air-conditioning system "somehow landed in the scrapings from Mr. Trotter's fingernails."
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., FLA. ALA., LA.
Nov. 2 TEXASnew execution date John Ramirez has been given an execution date for Feb. 2; it should be considered serious. Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-December 7---John Battaglia539 22-January 11---Christoper Wilkins540 23-January 25---Kosoul Chanthakoummane541 24-January 26---Terry Edwards-542 25-February 2---John Ramirez--543 26-February 7---Tilon Carter--544 27-April 12-Paul Storey---545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) PENNSYLVANIA: Prosecutors drop death penalty in '92 killing The York County District Attorney's Office is no longer seeking the death penalty against a man who's waiting for a retrial in the killing of his girlfriend, who was stabbed and cut more than 200 times and found covered in bleach over 24 years ago. Daniel Jacobs, 45, of York, is already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for the death of his 7-month-old daughter, Holly. But, he's been waiting for another trial in the killing of Tammy Lee Mock, 18, for about 10 years, because his case has been in limbo. Both were found in the bathtub of the couple's apartment on West King Street near South Richland Avenue in York on Feb. 16, 1992. It's unclear why the District Attorney's Office made the decision, which is mentioned in court documents dated on Friday. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Tim Barker, one of the attorneys who's handling the case, could not immediately be reached. Initially, Jacobs was found guilty of 1st-degree murder in Mock's killing and sentenced to death. But federal appeals courts threw out his punishment and conviction, in 2001 and 2005, respectively. In September, Common Pleas Judge Harry M. Ness ruled that Jacobs is competent to stand trial, but that he cannot serve as his own lawyer. He has since filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider the decision. Kevin Hoffman, an attorney who's been appointed to represent Jacobs, said he will most likely have to prepare for the case to go trial. But, he said, it will be "some time" before one is held. Now, Hoffman said it will be a "more straightforward process." That's because the attorneys will not have to pick a jury for a death penalty case, nor present additional testimony - if there's a conviction. Jacobs is expected back in court on Dec. 1. (source: York Daily Record) NORTH CAROLINA: Time to end NC's death penalty There is a deadly battle going on in the courts of the United States. It has lasted for decades. The battle is between those favoring the death penalty and those opposed to it. In North Carolina we have 150 people on death row. 55 North Carolina Counties have prisoners on death row. 45 counties have no one there. It is clear that people in certain counties have been more likely to receive a death sentence than others. For instance, Durham County has no one on death row. Its neighbor, Wake County has ten. Guilford County has 3 prisoners on death row. Yet, its neighbor, Forsyth County, has 12. The last execution in North Carolina was on August 18, 2006, 10 years ago. There are many things that keep prisoners from being executed in North Carolina. Here are 6 of them: 1. The legislature passed the Racial Justice Act. It made it extremely difficult for death sentences to be upheld on appeal. That law has been repealed, but the result is that most (if not all) death sentence cases are under appeal. Resolution of this problem will take months - perhaps years. 2. The law requires a doctor to be present during executions. However, both the American Medical Association and the North Carolina Medical Board have ruled that doctors should NOT be present at executions. In response to this, the legislature has passed a law which states that participation in executions is not the practice of medicine. The intent was to protect doctors who attended an execution from discipline by medical boards. It is unlikely that this law will entice doctors to participate in executions. Whether it is practicing medicine or not, it is still helping to kill someone. Second, the propriety of that law will continue to be litigated. 3. The State has to find the appropriate drugs to cause death. Many companies have refused to sell the drugs to states that will use them in executions. Then, once the chemicals are picked, there will be legal challenges to those particular chemicals. 4. It will be at least 2 years before executions are scheduled. The passing of 12 or more years from the last execution will make it more unpleasant to restart executions. Judges will
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., OHIO, NEB., CALIF., USA
Nov. 1 TEXAS: Man accused of slaughtering '3 generations out of one family' This article contains graphic description. Amos Joseph Wells kept his head down as video of the carnage he is accused of causing flashed across a courtroom screen Monday morning. As the victims' family members cried - some so distraught that they left the courtroom - jurors watched as emergency crews worked desperately to save the lives of Wells' estranged 22-year-old pregnant girlfriend, Chanice Reed, her 10-year-old brother, Eddie McCuin Jr., inside the family's east Fort Worth house. The video was shot by a police sergeant's body camera. Outside the home, other paramedics tended to the wounded pair's mother, Annette Reed, who had been crying for help when officers first arrived - despite a gunshot wound to the face. Despite their efforts, all 3 would die, as well as Chanice Reed's unborn son. "This defendant slaughtered 3 generations out of 1 family," Lloyd Whelchel, who is prosecuting the case along with Kevin Rousseau, told jurors in opening statements Monday. "He took 4 innocent lives that day." Tarrant County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Wells. He has been jailed since shortly after the July 1, 2013 slayings, when he walked into the Forest Hill Police Department and announced, "I've done something bad." Though Wells is on trial for the deaths of Chanice Reed and her mother, Annette Reed, jurors also learned about the 2 other lives lost that day. Reed's unborn son would be 3 today had he lived, Whelchel told jurors, likely getting ready to go trick or treating with his cousins. McCuin would have been 13 and in the 7th grade, his life still wide open before him. Instead, the 10-year-old boy was chased down by Wells and executed inside the house after first witnessing his sister being shot, Whelchel told jurors. Wells' defense attorneys, Bill Ray and Steve Gordon, did not give an opening statement Monday. 'They're dying' In an emotional day of testimony, jurors heard from those who heard or witnessed Chanice Reed and Wells arguing moments before the triple shooting occurred. They also heard Annette Reed's own voice as she called 911, asking for assistance at the home in the 2900 block of Pate Drive, in a chaotic call drowned out by screams and the shouts of "No!" and "Stop!" in the background. Annette Reed later updates the call taker that "He's going to his truck" followed by more screams of "No!" before the call abruptly ends. Joylene Parsons, Annette Reed's aunt, testified she had also heard shouting in the background when her clearly troubled niece called, asking her to come over and explaining that Chanice Reed and her boyfriend were arguing. Esqual Martinez said he was working 2 houses down, patching up a driveway, when he saw and heard a man and woman arguing in the nearby front yard. He said it sounded as if the man wanted to the woman to come with him, but she kept yelling no and telling the man to go. Martinez said the man walked to the driver side of a Tahoe parked on the street in front of the home. "At first I thought he was leaving but he came back with a gun in his hand," Martinez testified. Martinez said he watched as the man shot the woman he had been arguing with multiple times. He said he then saw the man approach an older woman with the gun. He said the older woman was trying to bat the gun away but the man kept repositioning it toward her until shooting her too. Scared, Martinez said he grabbed a shovel and hid in a corner of the house he was working at for fear that the gunman might come after him next. "I heard some more shots," Martinez testified. "I didn't know what was going on." 'Just pray for her' Before emergency crews could arrive, another of Annette Reed's son arrived at the home after his own worrisome conversation with his mother. Kenneth Speed, 21, testified he had called his mother to seek permission to go swimming but heard his sister, Chanice Reed, arguing with Wells loudly in the background. He said he and other relatives and friends rushed to his home after hearing his mother curse at Wells and the call ending. He said they arrived to see the home's front door and screen door open and a neighbor standing in the yard. "I opened the door and said, 'What's going on?'" Williams recalled. "He said, 'Someone got shot.'" Williams testified he looked to the left and saw his mother on the ground. "I ran up. She was choking on her own blood," Williams testified. "I looked to the left and I saw my sister in the doorway with a hole in the head." After seeing bullet holes inside the home's walls, Williams said he headed down toward the hall to find his little brother. "I looked down the hallway. He was on the ground," Williams testified. "I rolled him over. He had 3 bullets in his chest." By the time Parsons arrived at her niece's home, police cars already packed the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ARK., NEB., CALIF.
Oct. 31 TEXAS: Activists march against the death penalty Although she grew up in a pro-death penalty Republican family, Terrie Been chose to speak out in front of a crowd on Saturday for her brother Jeff Wood, a Texas death-row prisoner whose execution was halted in August. While Wood didn't shoot the victim, he was sentenced to the death penalty under Texas' Law of Parties for his involvement in a 1996 murder case. The ruling has since been appealed by Wood's lawyers and will be sent to the original trial court for re-evaluation. "I want the world to know that my brother, Jeff Wood, is not a monster," Been said. "I want the world to know that he is not the worst of the worst. Jeff is a human being, he does not deserve to be referred to as number 999256." A crowd of more than 30 people consisting of activists, student organizations, UT students and families of death row inmates gathered at the south side of the Texas State Capitol for the 17th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty. However, Been wished her voice could be heard by a larger audience. "It's breaking my heart." Been said. "Every year there are less and less people." Linguistics senior Elizabeth Dean, a member of the International Socialist Organization, said the death penalty is a cruel and undeserved punishment for people who don't get proper representation. "The rich committing crimes can buy their way out of it, and the poor, innocent, are subject to far worse penalties." Dean said. "Especially, black and brown people are targeted by the police." After an open-mic speech at the Capitol, the crowd walked up to the governor's mansion while shouting chants like, "Texas death row, we say hell no," and "Law of Parties, shut 'em down." As the 2nd-most populous state, Texas has accounted for more than 1/3 of the nation's total executions since 1976, but the number is declining, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "There are increasingly signs that conservatives, as well as liberals, are concerned about problems with the administration of the death penalty," said Raoul Schonemann, clinical professor and co-director of the Capital Punishment Clinic. "The repeal by the Nebraska legislature in 2015 may signal abolition by other 'red states' in the future. So while I don't think Texas will abolish the death penalty soon, I also don't think it's inconceivable that it will happen eventually." (source: The (Univ. Texas) Daily Texan) ARKANSAS: Jury picking starts in trial of Bella Vistan accused of killing son Jury selection will begin Tuesday for a Bella Vista man accused of killing his son last year. Mauricio Alejandro Torres, 46, and his wife, Cathy Lynn Torres, 45, are charged with capital murder and 1st-degree battery. They will be tried separately. Prosecutors opted to try Mauricio Torres 1st. Cathy Torres' trial is scheduled to begin May 5. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against both. Mauricio and Cathy Torres are being held in the Benton County Jail without bail. The couple are accused of killing Maurice Isaiah Torres, 6. Nathan Smith, Benton County prosecuting attorney, declined to comment on the case. Deputy prosecutors Stuart Cearley and Carly Marshall will assist Smith. Jeff Rosenzweig, Bill James and George Morledge will represent Mauricio Torres. Rosenzweig declined to comment on the trial. He said the defense will reserve its comments for the courtroom. A witness list filed by prosecutors includes more than 90 witnesses who may be called. A witness list from the defense team was not included in Torres' case file. The trial is expected to last 3 to 4 weeks. 75 prospective jurors are scheduled to report at 9 a.m. Tuesday for jury selection. The 1st stage of jury selection will take place in Circuit Judge Robin Green's courtroom. Circuit Judge Brad Karren will preside over the case and the trial will be in his courtroom. The boy was pronounced dead at an area hospital on March 29, 2015. A medical examiner determined he suffered chronic child abuse and his death was from internal injuries caused by rape, according to court documents. The autopsy also found there were multiple healing and healed wounds and blunt force trauma to the child's head and other parts of his body, according to the probable cause affidavit. The Torreses could be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty if convicted of capital murder. They face from 5 to 20 years if convicted of 1st-degree battery. The Torreses also were arrested in connection with rape, a Class Y felony, but Benton County prosecutors did not file rape charges. Smith previously said the suspected rape occurred in Missouri, not in Benton County. Zachary Holly's murder case was the last death penalty case tried in Benton County. Holly, 30, of Bentonville was sentenced in May 2015 to die by lethal injection for killing 6-year-old Jersey
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., KAN.
Oct. 30 TEXAS: Texas on trial for using fictional character in death penalty casesThe US state of Texas has come under fire for its use of a character from "Of Mice and Men" in determining if defendants are mentally ill. The so-called "Lennie Standard" has put several men on death row. In November, the United States Supreme Court will hear a case that might shock even those familiar with Texas' reputation for being hawkish when it comes to capital punishment. Although the court outlawed execution of the mentally incompetent in 2002, Texas has continued to use the murky legal definitions of sanity and disability to execute mentally ill prisoners. At the center of the upcoming "Moore versus Texas" is not only the state's reliance on outdated medical parameters, but the use of the so-called "Lennie Standard." This is the name Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Cathy Cochran gave "an unscientific seven-pronged test ... based on the character Lennie Smalls from John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men,'" according to the Death Penalty Information Center. In Steinbeck's 1937 novel, Lennie is the large, mentally disabled farmhand who serves as the protagonist's constant companion. The climax of the novel hinges on Lennie's unwitting murder of a woman as he goes to stroke her hair, unaware of his own strength. The "Lennie Standard" asks questions such as whether a defendant showed forethought or an ability to act deceptively as determiners of mental competency. 'Borderline intellectual functioning' In the case now before the Supreme Court, the state of Texas has argued that Bobby James Moore was mentally fit because he employed the use of a wig and hid his weapon during the armed robbery of a grocery store that ended in the death of the store's owner, Jim McCarble, in 1980. This is despite the fact that, according to a piece from Adam Liptak of the New York Times, Moore "reached his teenager years without understanding how to tell time" and had a psychiatrist testify on his behalf that he "suffers from borderline intellectual functioning." Liptak, who follows the Supreme Court for the Times, told DW that the source of the conundrum was in no small part due to the court "allowing states, within broad limits, the ability to decide for themselves who was and wasn't mentally disabled ... bringing about Texas' use of this, shall we say, unusual system." This is what led Cochran to come up with the "Lennie Standard" in 2003 after the state legislature failed to provide adequate parameters. The definition dilemma The case highlights not only the Lone Star State's history of executing mentally ill patients - for example, Andre Thomas, a man who removed one his eyes with his own hands and ate it, still sits on death row - but also the legal conundrum of defining disability. There is no X-ray that reveals mental illness, and the Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that relying soley on a low IQ, a system which was employed by the state of Florida, was not a solid enough legal basis to rule someone incompetent. Even the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness (DSM), the gold standard for defining mental disability put out every few years by the American Psychiatric Association, is subject to the changing interpretations of medicine's perhaps most inexact branch. The novelist Steinbeck's son Thomas had some very cutting words for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, saying in 2012 that "I find the whole premise to be insulting, outrageous, ridiculous and profoundly tragic ... I am certain that if my father, John Steinbeck, were here, he would be deeply angry and ashamed." Supreme Court 'unlikely to accept Texas standard' Liptak, however, saw reason to believe the "Lennie Standard" will be struck down. "If the Supreme Court wasn't willing to accept the Florida standard based on a hard number, they are unlikely to accept the Texas standard." He said, though, that this would likely have more to do with the state's out-of-date medical criterion than "Of Mice and Men." "In general, the trend at the Court is to cut back on the death penalty," Liptak added, though a nationwide ban is unlikely to follow, particularly in the face of staunch public support for the practice in states like Texas. Capital punishment in Texas accounts for about 1/3 of the national total, the state having executed 538 inmates since the US brought back the death penalty in 1976. (source: Deutshce Welle) ALABAMAimpending execution Arthur's execution set for Thursday Douglas Arthur and his sister, Sherrie Stone, have been on an emotional rollercoaster for 40 years, and now they are preparing for what they believe could be their last ride. Their father, Tommy Arthur, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 3, for his involvement in the 1982 murder-for-hire death of Muscle Shoals resident Troy Wicker. "I was 15 when my father went to prison (for the 1st
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., LA., ARK., KAN., NEB., CALIF.
Oct. 28 TEXASnew execution date Steven Long has been given an execution date for June 28, 2017; it should be considered serious. ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-December 7---John Battaglia539 22-January 11---Christoper Wilkins540 23-January 25---Kosoul Chanthakoummane541 24-January 26---Terry Edwards-542 25-February 7---Tilon Carter--543 26-April 12-Paul Storey---544 27-June 28---Steven Long--545 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) GEORGIAimpending execution//volunteer 8th Georgia execution this year to be of a man who says he did it Georgia on Thursday scheduled the lethal injection of Steven Frederick Spears, who thus far has chosen not to fight his death sentence for murdering his girlfriend in 2001. If he dies by lethal injection on Nov. 16 as scheduled, Spears, 54, will be the 8th person Georgia has executed this year, which is more than any other state. Last week, Georgia executed Gregory Lawler for murdering an Atlanta police officer in 1997. His lethal injection was Georgia's 7th since Feb. 3, more than any other year since the death penatly was reinstated nationwide in 1976. Spears, now 54, readily admitted he murdered his ex-girlfriend, Sherri Holland, in the early-morning hours of August 25, 2001, in Lumpkin County. "I loved her that much. I told her I wasn't letting her go, and I didn't," Spears said in his confession. "(If) I had to do it again, I'd do it." Spears told friends and detectives that he had warned Holland whey they started dating that if he "caught her or found out she was (with) somebody else," he would "choke her ... to death." When he began suspecting Holland was romantically involved with someone else, Spears made 4 plans to kill her. Following 1 plan, Spears connected electrical wiring to the plumbing in the crawlspace under Holland's house so she would be electrocuted in the shower during a lightening storm. According to court records, Spears boasted, "Pretty creative, ain't it?" He also left a bat under a canoe at Holland's house in case he decided to beat her to death. Spears also crawled into Holland's house throught an air conditioner vent to leave a loaded shotgun for later. "If she brought somebody else in there I was just gonna shoot him,", Spears said. His 4th plan - which he used - was to choke her, bind her with duct tape, and suffocate her with a plastic bag. On the night of Aug. 24, 2001, Spears hid in Holland's son's closet for several hours. Around 2:30 a.m. or 3 a.m. the next day, he went into her bedroom and woke her. As Holland tried to run, Spears hit her several times in the head, then followed through with his 4th plan. "Last thing she said was she loved me," Spears told investigators. Holland's ex-husband found her body when be brought their son home after a visit. By then, Spears was hiding in the woods, sleeping in a deer stand. 10 days after the murder, Spears came out of hiding and was picked up as he walked along a highway. He said he was going to turn himself in. Even though Spears declined to challenge his conviction or sentence, death penalty cases are automatically appealed to the Georgin Supreme Court. On Feb. 16, 2015, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the automatic appeal, and the Spears case was not voluntarily submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court for review, which is usually the next step. Unless he changes his mind, Spears will be the 1st person to go to his death in Gerogia without contesting his sentence. 20 years ago, Larry Lonchar was electrocuted for a DeKalb Country triple murder after he gave up his appeals, but only after he twice allowed his lawyers to file challenges hours before he was scheduled to die. (source: Atlanta Journal Constitution) LOUISIANA: DA to seek death penalty against suspect in stabbing death A Jefferson Parish grand jury has indicted a man accused of stabbing a restaurant manager to death during a June robbery on 1st-degree murder charges and the district attorney's office says it will seek the death penalty. District Attorney Paul Connick, in a statement Thursday, said he came to that decision regarding 23-year-old Joshua Every after meeting with the victim's family and consulting with staff. Every and 3 others are charged in the death of 21-year-old Taylor Friloux, who managed a Raising Cane's restaurant in Kenner. 24-year-old Mark Crocklen Jr. and 18-year-old Gregory Donald Jr. face charges of 2nd-degree murder. A 4th defendant, 22-year-old Ariana Runner, was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., Neb., USA
Oct. 24 TEXAS: She watched her husband get sentenced to death. Now she's becoming a lawyer to save him and others. When her boyfriend Juan Balderas was sentenced to death in March 2014, Yancy Escobar Balderas couldn't understand what was happening. She sobbed uncontrollably as the lawyers she believes failed her soon-to-be husband walked out of the courtroom. 2 1/2 years later, on a Saturday earlier this month, Yancy sat in a classroom at the University of Houston, dressed in a smart suit, holding her new, hard-earned paralegal certificate. Yancy - a 29-year-old immigrant from El Salvador who is the 1st from her family to graduate from high school - is turning her experience of marrying a death row inmate into a powerful motivation to become a lawyer and help defend other people facing capital punishment. "After sitting through this trial, seeing the injustices in Juan's case, I want to do something where I can make a change in the system, in people's lives," she told me this week. Yancy and Juan, who went to the same middle school, started dating when they were 14 and 15. Her family emigrated from El Salvador, and she was undocumented when she was brought to the U.S. at age 6. (She's now a U.S. citizen.) Theirs was a pretty typical childhood romance: Yancy remembers holding Juan's hand in church, and him getting all dressed up to meet her mother. "We would just talk every day on the phone, and he would always try extra to make me happy," she said. "He was my best friend." The 2 grew up in a rough neighborhood on the edge of Houston's suburban sprawl. Juan, who had done time in juvenile detention, was involved with a street gang of 18- and 19-year-olds known as La Tercera Crips. Yancy says he was trying to avoid the group, go to college, and move on with his life - but he wasn't able to escape. On December 16, 2005, when Juan was 19, he was arrested as part of a larger raid picking up seven alleged gang members who police said were behind a string of shootings. He was charged with murder, accused of gunning down 16-year-old Eduardo Hernandez in a bleak apartment complex near an expressway. When she first heard that her boyfriend was arrested, Yancy was reeling. "I was in disbelief," she said. Because she didn't own a car, she had to take 3 buses to get to the Harris County jail in downtown Houston to visit him. He said he was innocent, and she stood with him. Juan and Yancy waited and waited as his trial date kept getting pushed back. The trial didn't actually begin until January 2014 - an extraordinary 8 years after he was arrested, all spent behind bars. The case was delayed because of his lawyer getting sick, changes in judges and prosecutors, and a back-and-forth while the district attorney decided whether or not to seek the death penalty. Moreover, Harris County was facing a backlog of more than 1,000 criminal cases. While Juan was waiting for a trial, according to court documents, his brother committed suicide and he wasn't allowed to attend his funeral. Before he was arrested, he was preparing to go to college and study art. Instead, he spent the equivalent of 2 college degrees incarcerated without being convicted of anything. Once the trial finally began, Yancy quit her job and stopped going to her community college classes because she couldn't concentrate. She attended Juan's trial every day for 2 months, sitting behind him, filled with nerves. Juan's court-appointed lawyer was Jerome Godinich, who has been reprimanded by a federal appeals court for missing deadlines and failing to file appeals in other death penalty cases. A 2009 investigation by the Houston Chronicle found that he represented more criminal clients than any other court-appointed attorney in the county. Between 2006 and 2009, he represented 21 different defendants facing the death penalty - a caseload that legal experts say makes it almost impossible to provide sufficient representation. Godinich and his 2nd chair attorney didn't even meet with Juan until just before the trial, and conducted almost no investigation, Yancy said. According to Pat Hartwell (an anti-death penalty activist who attended the trial and befriended Yancy), at times during jury deliberations, neither of Juan's lawyers were present while the judge and prosecutors responded to questions from the jury by themselves. Hartwell said that when she confronted Godinich, he told her, "I have another trial to take care of." (Godinich did not respond to a request for comment.) On March 14, 2014, the jury sentenced Juan to death. When the foreman read the verdict, "I didn't know what was going on," Yancy told me. "A few jurors were crying, but it was not clicking in my head. Then it became clear to me, the decision - I guess I cried so much, my nose was bleeding." 2 weeks after the sentence, the couple decided to get married. They had talked about it before, but now they
