Jan. 27
TEXAS----execution
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-present----22
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----540
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
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 $1.25----John 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 Castro's pockets before returning
to the van where the other accomplice waited. A police chase ensued, but
Ramirez escaped. His 2 friends were caught, and eventually testified against
him.
Ramirez evaded arrest for 4 years, spending time in Mexico, where he became a
father. He eventually returned to Texas with his family, and was arrested in
2008. Ramirez pleaded not guilty, but the jury returned a quick guilty verdict.
DNA evidence found Castro's blood in Ramirez's van; strands of Ramirez's DNA
were found on Castro's body. During the punishment hearing, the defense only
called one witness - Ramirez's father - though according to court records,
Ramirez asked they not call a second witness. Ramirez has since admitted that
he didn't want his family history dragged into the case.
Ramirez's direct appeal was denied in 2009. He filed for relief in 2010,
arguing that trial prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
the murder was committed during a robbery; without the underlying felony,
Ramirez would've likely been sentenced to life in prison. Appellate attorneys
also claimed that prosecutors at Ramirez's trial conducted an "improper"
elimination of potential jurors, and that Ramirez was erroneously shackled
during trial, which unfairly tainted the jurors' view of their client. Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals denied his plea in 2012, as did the 5th Circuit Court
of Appeals last February. In May, Ramirez appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,
but was denied 5 months later.
Last week, Corpus Christi news network KIII released a short interview with
Ramirez. He said: "I'm not going to ask [Castro's family] to forgive me 'cause
I think about it and I don't know how I'd react if someone killed a close
family member - a father or a brother. I know it's hard. I wouldn't want to ask
them to forgive me, I just want to ask them to know that I'm sorry."
Ramirez would be the 3rd Texan executed this year. Kosoul Chanthakoummane,
previously scheduled for execution on Jan. 25, saw his death date rescheduled
for July 19. (His attorney Gregory Gardner told the Chronicle that the forensic
science used to convict him at his trial has since been debunked.)
(source: Austin Chronicle)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Bucks County judge orders new trial for death-row inmate in 2007 Warminster
Township killings
Bucks County Common Pleas Court Judge Alan M. Rubenstein, acting on a request
by the District Attorney's Office, ordered a new trial on Jan. 26 for death row
inmate Alfonso Sanchez, 35, who had been convicted of 1st-degree murder in the
2007 shooting deaths of 2 people in Warminster.
The District Attorney's request came after the office's appellate division,
reviewing Sanchez's ongoing appeal, discovered a prosecutorial mistake that
occurred at the time of Sanchez's trial in 2008.
On September 30, 2008, a Bucks County jury found Sanchez guilty of 2 counts of
1st-degree murder and 15 related counts in the October 2007 shooting deaths of
Lisa Diaz and Mendez Thomas. Both victims died of gunshots to the head, fired
at close range in a Warminster apartment.
The verdicts came after a 7-day trial before Rubenstein, who on October 22,
2008, formally sentenced Sanchez to death for murdering Diaz, 27, and to life
in prison for murdering Thomas, 22.
The error, a failure to turn over lab reports pertaining to DNA testing, "was
legally material to (Sanchez's) defense at trial," and therefore justifies a
new trial, Deputy District Attorney Jill Graziano, a member of the appellate
division, told Rubenstein at a brief hearing on Jan. 26.
Graziano said the District Attorney's Office immediately provided copies of the
lab reports to Sanchez's appellate attorneys upon discovering them and
determining that they had not been previously disclosed.
District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub praised his staff for identifying the
error and disclosing it promptly to Sanchez's attorneys.
"Whenever we discover that a mistake has been made, justice requires that we
act promptly to set it right," he said.
Assistant Federal Defender Stuart Lev, whose office has represented Sanchez
during his appeals, expressed appreciation for the District Attorney's
disclosure.
"I thank and respect the Commonwealth for its candor in this matter," Lev told
Rubenstein.
Weintraub and Graziano stressed that prosecutors do not believe that the DNA
evidence in any way exonerates Sanchez for the homicides. They expressed
confidence that he again will be found guilty.
"The Commonwealth continues to believe the evidence of (Sanchez's) guilt
remains overwhelming and we intend, once again, to try Alfonso Sanchez for the
deaths of Lisa Diaz and Mendez Thomas and to again seek the death penalty for
those crimes," Graziano said in court. "To that end, we are asking your Honor
to vacate the judgment of sentence and order that a new trial be held in this
matter."
Rubenstein said he would notify President Judge Jeffrey L. Finley of his order,
adding that Finley would oversee appointing a judge and new defense counsel to
handle the re-trial.
Below is Graziano's full statement, which was delivered during the Jan. 26
hearing.
Statement of Deputy District Attorney Jill Graziano
Your Honor, rather than conducting additional evidentiary hearings, as was
previously scheduled, the Commonwealth is today agreeing that Petitioner is
entitled to Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) relief and we are asking the
court to order a new trial. With your Honor's permission, I would like to make
a record regarding the reasons for this agreement.
In reviewing the prosecutor's trial file from 2008 for purposes of
investigating Petitioner's 2016 PCRA claims, our office became aware that,
during the course of discovery in this case, the prosecution turned over to
trial counsel police reports and evidence vouchers indicating that evidence had
been collected and sent to Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) Bethlehem lab.
However, no lab reports were turned over in discovery and it appears, both from
the trial record and our investigation, that both the prosecution and defense
at the time proceeded to trial on the mistaken belief that no DNA testing had
been performed.
During the course of investigating Petitioner's PCRA claims, however, our
office identified 2 separate labs that had been generated as part of this case.
The first was dated August 18, 2008 - prior to the start of trial - and was
generated by the PSP Bethlehem serology lab. It indicated that blood samples
had been obtained from underneath victim Lisa Diaz's fingernails and were being
sent to the PSP lab in Greensburg for DNA testing.
The 2nd lab report had been issued by PSP Greenburg on October 23, 2008, the
day after Petitioner was sentenced by your Honor to death in the murder of Lisa
Diaz and a term of life imprisonment for the murder of Mendez Thomas. Of
relevance to these proceedings, this October 2008 lab report indicated that DNA
evidence had been found under the fingernails of victim Lisa Diaz which was
consistent with the DNA profile of Petitioner's co-defendant, Stephen Miranda.
Notably, Petitioner's defense at trial was that Stephen Miranda was the shooter
in this case. Although Miranda was Lisa Diaz's then-boyfriend, and thus, it was
not exceptional that his DNA would be found under her fingernail, the
Commonwealth recognizes that this DNA evidence was legally material to
Petitioner's defense at trial.
During our investigation in 2016, our office further determined that neither
the August 2008 lab report nor the October 2008 were disclosed to Petitioner's
trial counsel in 2008. They are now in Petitioner's possession as our office
immediately provided copies of the lab reports and lab notes to Petitioner's
current counsel upon discovering these items and determining that they had not
been previously disclosed.
Your Honor, the Commonwealth does not believe that this information concerning
Stephen Miranda's DNA in any way exonerates Petitioner. We still firmly and
unequivocally believe that Alfonso Sanchez murdered Lisa Diaz and Mendez
Thomas. Nonetheless, we also recognize that the Commonwealth had a duty and an
obligation to turn over the lab reports to Petitioner in 2008 at a time when
they could have been used by trial counsel to advance Mr. Sanchez's proffered
defense. Through inadvertence and oversight, the Commonwealth failed to fulfill
that obligation.
As such, our office believes that the right thing to do is to concede that
Petitioner is entitled to PCRA relief by way of a new trial. The Commonwealth
continues to believe the evidence of Petitioner's guilt remains overwhelming
and we intend, once again, to try Alfonso Sanchez for the deaths of Lisa Diaz
and Mendez Thomas and to again seek the death penalty for those crimes. To that
end, we are asking your Honor to vacate the judgment of sentence and order that
a new trial be held in this matter.
(source: buckslocalnews.com)
GEORGIA:
Catholic bishops don???t want death penalty in Murray case
The Catholic bishop of the diocese that covers the Augusta area is joining the
Catholic bishop of St. Augustine, Fla., in asking the district attorney not to
seek a death sentence for the man accused of killing an elderly priest.
The Bishop Felipe J. Estevez of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Fla., Archbishop
Wilton D. Gregory of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Bishop Gregory J.
Hartmayer of the Diocese of Savannah are holding a news conference at 11 a.m.
Tuesday outside the Richmond County Judicial Center and John H. Ruffin Jr.
Courthouse.
In a news release from St. Augustine, the Catholic bishops announced they are
calling on District Attorney Ashley Wright to reverse her decision to seek the
death penalty if Steven J. Murray is convicted of murder in Burke County
Superior Court for the killing of the Rev. Rene Robert, a St. Augustine priest.
Wright is to be sworn in as an Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court judge on
Monday afternoon. Until the governor appoints an attorney to replace her as
district attorney, Chief Assistant Hank Syms will be in charge of the office.
Estevez wrote to Wright in May about Robert's signed and notarized 4-page
"Declaration of Life" that declares should he die by another person's hand
regardless of the circumstances, he did not want that person subjected to the
death penalty. Estevez said he never received a reply from Wright.
As Wright told the St. Augustine Record, the decision to seek a death sentence
if a jury convicts Murray of murder is based on the facts of the case and the
law, not public opinion or sentiment.
Murray is accused of killing Robert during a criminal rampage in April that
ended with Murray locking the 71-year-old priest in the truck of his car and
taking him to a remote spot on River Road in Burke County. The priest who had
ministered to Murray was shot and left to die alone.
In December, Estevez received a petition signed by nearly 7,000 Catholics in
his diocese asking that Robert's request be honored.
(source: The Augusta Chronicle)
OHIO:
Federal judge: Ohio's 3-drug death penalty cocktail poses 'substantial risk of
serious harm'
A federal magistrate judge on Thursday barred the use of a 3-drug cocktail the
state of Ohio planned to use to execute death-row inmates, declaring the method
the state prefers to be unconstitutional.
Magistrate Judge David Merz of Dayton also halted the executions of 3 inmates
scheduled to be executed in the coming months, 2 of which came from Northeast
Ohio.
Merz, in his 119-page order, ruled that there were enough problems with all 3
of the drugs Ohio intends to use in its execution protocol to warrant this
disallowance. 2 states, Arizona and Florida, have discontinued the use of 1 of
the drugs, named midazolam.
"The Court concludes that use of midazolam as the 1st drug in Ohio's present
3-drug protocol will create a 'substantial risk of serious harm' or an
'objectively intolerable risk of harm' as required by (Supreme Court
precedent)," Merz wrote.
The ruling is a success for the inmates challenging Ohio's execution protocols
and anti-death-penalty advocates who have sought to chip away at the state's
ability to execute people since executions resumed in 1999. It may be short
lived, though, as the ruling is all but guaranteed to be appealed.
A spokeswoman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office said the office is
reviewing the decision.
Ohio hasn't executed anyone since January 2014, when it took killer Dennis
McGuire 25 minutes to die from a previously unused execution drug combination.
McGuire was administered a cocktail that included midazolam. Witnesses said he
appeared to gasp several times during his execution and made loud snorting or
snoring sounds.
State officials and the courts put executions on hold until the state picked a
new lethal-injection drug combination of midazolam, rocuronium bromide and
potassium chloride last October. The challenge that led to Merz's ruling
Thursday was also borne out of McGuire's execution.
During a hearing earlier this month, Merz heard testimony on all 3 drugs. His
ruling Thursday said that the state cannot use any cocktail that contained
potassium chloride or rocuronium bromide, a paralytic agent, since the state
told a court in a previous proceeding that it would not use such drugs during
future executions.
Those scheduled to die in the next few months included:
- Ronald Phillips, an Akron man convicted 1993 for raping his girlfriend's
3-year-old daughter and beating her to death. His execution was scheduled for
Feb. 15.
- Gary Otte, an Indiana man who shot and killed 2 Parma residents during
robberies in 1992. His execution was scheduled for March 15.
- Raymond Tibbetts, a Cincinnati-area man convicted in 2001 for murdering
Judith Sue Crawford and Fred Hicks. His execution was scheduled for April 12.
Ohio has had trouble in recent years getting drugs to use for lethal injections
in part because pharmaceutical companies don't want their products used for
killing people.
In 2014, state lawmakers passed a secrecy law hoping to encourage small-scale
drug manufacturers called compounding pharmacies to make its lethal-injection
drugs. That law was challenged, though courts have declined to declare the law
unconstitutional.
(source: cleveland.com)
UTAH:
Death penalty bills resurface in Utah
State Representative Paul Ray is, once again, pushing bills that propose to
expand the death penalty in Utah.
House Bill 176 aims to make any human trafficker that causes the death of
another person eligible for capitol punishment.
His second bill, not yet numbered, would make any person who murders a police
officer with a premeditated plan eligible for the death penalty. That bill
would have exclusions for someone who kills an officer during the commission of
another crime.
That means any of the people who are accused of killing police Utah officers in
recent years, would not have qualified for the death penalty under such a law.
"There are just certain people that need to be terminated," said Ray.
Both bills could face opposition if another bill surfaces to repeal the death
penalty in Utah.
Last year, the repeal bill died before there could be a full debate or a vote.
Marine Lowe of the ACLU said the group is working with other death penalty
opponents in the community to bring back another repeal bill this year. Details
are still being worked out, she said.
Randy Gardner, the brother of Ronnie Lee Gardner who was the man last executed
in Utah, is among those speaking out against the death penalty.
His brother was executed by firing squad in 2010 for killing 2 people in the
80s. Gardner said the death penalty makes victims out of the family members of
those who are executed.
"I don't condone what my brother did but I don't condone state sanctioned
murders either," he said.
Last year, in the last hour of the legislative session, Gardner interrupted
lawmakers by yelling about his grief over his brother's death and by holding
posters that showed his brother's autopsy pictures.
Opponents of death penalty in Utah include the ACLU, The Catholic Diocese, Utah
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Libertas Institute.
Opponents say the the death penalty contribute to a culture of violence, is
costly because it often does not lead to executions but long, drawn-out pain
for victims because they don't see closure.
Ray said his 2 bills have support including from victims of inmates on Utah's
death row.
Ray said he has staff members crunching numbers to prove that the death penalty
doesn't waste tax dollars. He said the numbers are not available yet.
(source: KUTV news)
USA:
Accused Florida Airport Shooter Faces Death Penalty
A federal grand jury has indicted Esteban Santiago Ruiz on 21 charges connected
to the deadly shooting at the Fort Lauderdale, Florida airport on January 6,
the US Department of Justice said in a press release on Thursday.
"A federal grand jury sitting in Broward County returned a 22 count indictment
against Esteban Santiago Ruiz (Santiago) in connection with the mass-shooting
at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 6, 2017," the
release stated.
Santiago, 26, is accused of killing 5 people and injuring 45 others. He
reportedly conducted the attack on behalf of the Islamic State terror group.
Santiago faces a maximum penalty of death or life in prison. He is due to be
back in court for arraignment on the charges on January 30.
(source: Reuters)
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