[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., GA., LA., OHIO, OKLA., NEB., COLO., CALIF.
Aug. 12 TEXASstay of impending execution//impending (volunteer) execution Texas Inmate Set to Die for Killing His Mother Gets Reprieve A 54-year-old East Texas man set to die this week for his mother's slaying more than 11 years ago has won a reprieve from Texas' highest criminal court. Tracy Beatty had been scheduled for lethal injection Thursday evening for the death of 62-year-old Carolyn Click in November 2003. Beatty recently had been paroled. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in a brief order Tuesday, stopped the execution pending further orders from the court. It gave no timetable. Click's body was found buried near her trailer home outside Tyler in Smith County. By then, Beatty already was in jail on auto theft and weapons charges. His attorneys argued Beatty had deficient legal help at his 2004 trial and during early appeals and that prosecutors used improper testimony at his trial. *** Texas inmate who dropped appeals headed to execution Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez has been trying to speed up his execution since being sent to death row 5 years ago for striking and killing a police lieutenant with an SUV during a chase. On Wednesday, he's hoping to get his wish. The 27-year-old prisoner is set to die in Huntsville after getting court approval to drop his appeals. A second inmate scheduled to be executed this week in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, won a court reprieve Tuesday. Lopez is facing lethal injection for the 2009 death of Corpus Christi Lt. Stuart Alexander. The 47-year-old officer was standing in a grassy area on the side of a highway where he had put spike strips when he was struck by the sport utility vehicle Lopez was fleeing in. Last week from death row Lopez said: It's a waste of time just sitting here. I just feel I need to get over with it. Attorneys representing Lopez refused to accept his intentions, questioning federal court findings that Lopez was mentally competent to volunteer for execution. They appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the punishment, arguing his crime was not a capital murder because he didn't intend to kill the officer, and that Lopez had mental disabilities and was using the state to carry out long-standing desires to commit suicide. It is clear Lopez has been allowed to use the legal system in another attempt to take his own life, attorney David Dow told the high court. Lopez, who also wrote letters to a federal judge and pleaded for his execution to move forward, said a Supreme Court reprieve would be disappointing. It's crazy they keep appealing, appealing, he said last week of his lawyers' efforts. I've explained it to them many times. I guess they want to get paid for appealing. Lopez was properly examined by a psychologist, testified at a federal court hearing about his desire to drop appeals and was found to have no mental defects, state attorneys said in opposing delays in the punishment. Alexander had been a police officer for 20 years. His death came during a chase that began just past midnight on March 11, 2009, after Lopez was pulled over by another officer for running a stop sign in a Corpus Christi neighborhood. Authorities say Lopez was driving around 60 mph. Lopez struggled with the officer who made the stop and then fled. He rammed several patrol cars, drove at a high speed with his lights off and hit Alexander like a bullet and a target, said an officer who testified at Lopez's 2010 trial. When finally cornered by patrol cars, Lopez used his SUV as a battering ram trying to escape and wasn't brought under control until he was shot, officers testified. It's a horrible dream, Lopez said from death row. I've replayed it in my mind many times. Deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false compartment in the console of the SUV. Records show Lopez was on probation at the time after pleading guilty to indecency with a child in Galveston County and was a registered sex offender. He had other arrests for assault. Lopez would be the 10th inmate executed this year in Texas. Nationally, 18 prisoners have been put to death this year, with Texas accounting for 50 % of them. On Tuesday, another death row prisoner, Tracy Beatty, 54, received a reprieve from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He had been scheduled for lethal injection Thursday. He's on death row for the 2003 slaying of his 62-year-old mother, Carolyn Click, near Tyler in East Texas. At least 7 other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months. (source for both: Associated Press) * Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present9 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-527 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 10-August 12Daniel Lopez--528 11-August 26Bernardo
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., GA., LA., OHIO
Sept. 4 TEXASimpending execution Death WatchTrottie is scheduled for execution next week At 11pm on May 3, 1993, 2 days after his come back to me, or else ... ultimatum to his estranged, common-law wife Barbara Canada, 24-year-old Willie Tyrone Trottie broke into the Houston home of Canada's immediate family and opened fire. Strapped with a 9mm pistol, he ignored the 5 young children in the home but wounded Canada's mother, sister, and brother Titus, who by then had begun returning fire with his own weapon. Titus hit Trottie, but Trottie persisted, eventually finding Barbara in a bedroom, where he shot her 11 times. She died there. Bitch, I told you I was going to kill you, Trottie said, before returning to Titus and shooting him twice in the head. Canada's 29-year-old brother died in front of 2 children. Trottie was arrested that night and charged with the capital murder of both victims. He never testified, and his counsel, Connie Williams, never lobbied for a self-defense argument on the brother's murder ??? instead pushing unsuccessfully for a lesser offense. A jury convicted Trottie on all charges. He was sentenced to death on Dec. 15, 1993. Trottie's appeals cited general ineffectiveness of counsel, which he argued ignored obvious and available defenses ranging from self-defense against Titus to a the fact that Trottie virtually always dressed in black (thus countering the idea that he'd worn the clothes he wore for the purpose of concealing potential blood stains). His attorneys also argued that the state suppressed exculpatory evidence (i.e., a letter from Trottie's former probation officer maintaining that his strained relationship with Canada probably did mess with [Trottie's] head a little), and another citing the prosecutor's repeated reference to tape recordings of phone conversations between Trottie and Canada that had been ruled inadmissible. Last July, an appeal for a retrial was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals. In May, Trottie wrote to the website Gawker: My faith in God is still strong. Whatever HIS WILL, I'll be content with that. Trottie is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, Sept. 10. He'll be the 8th person killed by the state of Texas this year, and the 516th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Trottie's is the 1st execution in 4 months (Manuel Vasquez's August date was ultimately withdrawn, reset still pending). More on Willingham Prosecution In late July, the New York-based Innocence Project filed a grievance with the State Bar of Texas arguing that former prosecutor John H. Jackson violated his professional, ethical, and constitutional obligations in his prosecution of Cameron Todd Willingham, the man put to death in 2004 for allegedly setting fire to his own house, killing his 3 daughters. Central to those allegations is the fact that Johnny Webb, a regular inmate of the Texas prison system who testified against Willingham, provided a detailed account of how he lied on the witness stand after Jackson promised to reduce his sentence. An August story in the Washington Post said the Innocence Project has called for a full investigation of Jackson's handling of the case. Jackson, now retired from his 16-year post as a Navarro County judge, could be sanctioned or even criminally prosecuted for falsifying official records, withholding evidence from the defense, suborning perjury, and obstructing justice. A Mercy Plea In August, the American Civil Liberties Union filed an appeal with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommending that Gov. Rick Perry grant clemency to Max Soffar, a death row inmate whose guilt is also in question. Soffar, now 58, was arrested in 1980 for a Houston bowling alley murder of three teenagers, after a controversial interrogation that lasted three days yet yielded no audio recording. Soffar maintains that he did not actually rob the bowling alley or commit the execution-style murder, but mishandled his implicating of a friend in an attempt to receive a $15,000 reward. The ACLU notes that Soffar was 24 years old at the time, had suffered a long history of brain damage and substance abuse, and had the mental capacity of an 11-year-old. The ACLU's appeal deals not with Soffar's alleged innocence, but with his rapidly declining health. He contracted liver cancer in 2013, underwent ablation in December, but learned in June that he's experiencing tumor progression. ACLU attorney Brian Stull reports that the average survival time for someone in Soffar's case is estimated at 8.1 months, assuming he takes and can tolerate chemotherapy, which has not yet begun, and that's backdated to at least June. The ACLU attached seven letters to its petition to the governor, including ones from former FBI director William Sessions and former governor Mark White, requesting that Soffar be allowed to die at home. We don't know how long it will take the board
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., GA., LA., OHIO
Sept. 3 TEXAS: Suspect in Kaufman County slayings allegedly plotted 2 other deaths A former Kaufman County justice of the peace accused of murdering the Kaufman County district attorney, his wife and an assistant prosecutor last year was also plotting to kill 2 others - including the current district attorney - according to court documents filed Tuesday. Eric Lyle Williams, 47, is charged with capital murder in connection with the January 2013 fatal shooting of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, 57, near the courthouse. Authorities say 2 months later Williams gunned down District Attorney Mike McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia, 65, in their home. Williams' wife, Kim, also has been charged with capital murder in the deaths. The latest court documents contend that Eric Williams conspired to kill Kaufman County District Attorney Erleigh Norville Wiley, who was appointed in April 2013. Eric Williams also conspired to kill former state District Judge Glen Ashworth, the documents allege. Wiley and Ashworth could not be reached for comment. The documents do not explain why prosecutors believe Williams wanted to kill Wiley and Ashworth. Wylie was a criminal court judge in Kaufman County before being appointed district attorney by Gov. Rick Perry. Williams was Ashworth's court coordinator for a time. The documents indicate Williams plotted to kill Ashworth as far back as 2005. Williams was initially arrested April 13, 2013, on a charge of making a terroristic threat after authorities said he emailed county officials threatening another attack. At the time, officials did not reveal who was threatened. He was later charged with capital murder in the slayings of the McLellands and Hasse. One of the documents filed Tuesday by special prosecutors Bill Wirskye and Toby Shook seems to indicate that they are likely to prosecute Williams at his December trial only in the slayings of Mike and Cynthia McLelland. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Also on Tuesday, the defense filed a motion seeking to delay the trial. But Wirskye and Shook want state District Judge Mike Snipes to allow them to tell jurors, who will decide Williams' guilt or innocence, about the Hasse killing and about a 2012 theft case in Kaufman involving Williams that they believe ties him to both slain men. They say that proving their case involves showing Eric Williams was acting out a revenge plan against the 2 prosecutors. According to Wirskye, Williams had no motive to kill Cynthia McLelland except that she was at home with her husband. Eric Williams' attorney Matthew Seymour declined to comment about the filings. Only in rare circumstances are jurors told about a defendant's prior convictions or bad acts before the punishment phase of a trial. Prosecutors are expected to argue at a Sept. 12 hearing before Snipes that this should be one of the exceptions. The murder of a prosecutor is a rare event. When that prosecutor is murdered outside the courthouse, there is no shortage of suspects - including the likely list of defendants from the same murdered prosecutor's past docket, Wirskye wrote in the filing. When another prosecutor from the same office and his wife are then murdered only 2 months later, it is an unprecedented occurrence. ... The list of common defendants, consists of only one defendant - Eric Williams. Hasse and Mike McLelland tried only one case together - the hotly contested Eric Williams burglary case. During that trial, McLelland and Hasse portrayed Williams as a thief and a man with a violent streak. McLelland told the judge that Williams was bereft of honor. McLelland and Hasse pushed for prison time, but Williams got probation. More allegations The new court documents also allege: --Eric Williams sent a message to Crime Stoppers confessing to killing Mark Hasse and the McLellands. --Eric Williams rented a storage unit a month before Hasse was fatally shot. The unit was used to store getaway cars connected to both slayings. Eric Williams' home computer was also used to conduct Internet searches on Hasse and Mike McLelland. --On the day of the McLelland slayings, Eric Williams dumped a phone, a mask and 2 revolvers in Lake Tawakoni. The mask and 1 of the guns were used in Hasse's slaying, according to the court documents. --DNA evidence from earplugs found in the getaway car used in the Hasse slaying was linked to Eric Williams. --Cellphone records show both Eric and Kim Williams were near the area during the McLellands and Hasse slayings. --Kim Williams, who filed for divorce after their arrests and who has been cooperating with the investigation, is expected to testify for the state. (source: Dallas Morning News) CONNECTICUT: The Rev. Al Sharpton speaks against death penalty at Yale Among mostly Yale University undergraduate students, the Rev. Al Sharpton spoke Tuesday on how he is against the
