[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, 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
