[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., ALA., KAN., USA
Oct. 19 TEXASstay of impending executions 'Tourniquet Killer' execution date reset to January 2018'Tourniquet Killer' claims death row inmate convinced him to confess to murder The execution date for Anthony Allen Shore, also known as the "Tourniquet Killer," has been reset for Jan. 18, 2018. He was scheduled to be put to death Wednesday. On the eve of his scheduled execution, Shore told investigators that a fellow inmate attempted to persuade Shore to take responsibility for the December 1998 abduction and killing of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter. Larry Ray Swearingen was convicted of Trotter's murder and is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 16. Shore, who confessed to four slayings, was scheduled to be executed Wednesday evening, but the date has been reset while an investigation can be conducted. Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said investigators from his office spoke with Shore on Tuesday and he told them he decided to expose the scheme and not cooperate with Swearingen. The prosecutor said Swearingen tried a similar scheme before his trial for Trotter's killing. The U.S. Supreme Court refused an appeal from Swearingen last October. His attorneys have long wanted additional DNA testing of evidence they say could show he didn't kill Trotter. During Tuesday's interview, Shore told investigators he initially refused Swearingen's request, but the 2 eventually became friends and he decided to try to exonerate Swearingen as a favor. Shore told investigators that Swearingen gave him a hand-drawn map of the location where Swearingen left physical evidence of Trotter's murder. Ligon asked Gov. Greg Abbott to grant Shore a single 30-day reprieve in order to process the contents of Shore's cell. On July 21, authorities discovered a folder in Shore's cell containing approximately 10 items pertaining to Trotter's murder, including copies of court exhibits and scene photos, a hand-drawn page of a calendar for the month of December 1998 with handwritten notations regarding weather conditions, and a hand-drawn map which appears to depict the location where Trotter's body was found. The handwriting on the map appears to be Swearingen's, authorities said. (source: click2houston.com) * Texas court halts execution to review claims that co-defendant lied at trialThe execution of Clinton Young, convicted in a 2001 Midland-area murder, was stopped by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The courts will look into claims that Young's co-defendant lied in his testimony against Young. The execution of a man who insists he was framed in a 2001 murder was halted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday, 1 week before he was set to die. The court sent the case of Clinton Young back to trial court to look into claims that Young's co-defendant, a main witness for the state at trial, lied in his testimony. Young's lawyers claim four jailhouse witnesses have sworn they heard the co-defendant, David Page, brag about killing Samuel Petrey and blaming it on Young. "I'm very grateful to the Criminal Court of Appeals for granting this stay and for giving me a chance to prove my innocence in court," Young told his attorneys on the phone, according to a statement. In November 2001, Young and Page, ages 18 and 20, took part in a drug-related crime spree that involved fatally shooting Doyle Douglas and Samuel Petrey and stealing their cars over 2 days on opposite ends of the state, according to court documents. Douglas was shot in Longview on Nov. 24. The next day, Petrey was killed in Midland, more than 450 miles away. Young was convicted and sentenced to death in Petrey's murder in 2003, with Page testifying against him. Page took a plea deal and was given 30 years in prison under an aggravated kidnapping conviction, according to court filings. He is currently eligible for parole but was denied release last year. At trial, Page said Young shot Petrey, but Young has said he was sleeping off a methamphetamine high when the man was killed. Seeking to prove his innocence and stop his upcoming execution, Young's lawyers filed an appeal earlier this month claiming Page's testimony was false based on the new witness statements. The statements all include Page mentioning how the gloves he was wearing while shooting Petrey allowed him to blame Young for the murder. The appellate court sent the case back to trial court to resolve this new claim of false testimony. "We are confident the court will conclude that Page lied under oath to save himself and that our client is innocent of the crime that put him on death row," said Margo Rocconi, one of Young's lawyers, in a statement. The Midland District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to comment on Young's case Wednesday. (source: Texas Tribune) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., ALA., MISS., LA.
June 8 TEXASstay of impending execution Execution halted for man convicted in Texas real estate agent's murderThe Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday halted the execution of a man convicted in the murder of a McKinney real estate agent in 2007. Another Texas execution has been stopped by the state's highest criminal appellate court, giving relief to the man convicted in 2007 in the robbery and murder of a McKinney real estate agent. Kosoul Chanthakoummane, 36, was scheduled to die on July 19 after more than 9 years on death row. He was convicted in the 2006 stabbing death of Sarah Walker in the model home of a subdivision where she worked, according to court documents. On Wednesday morning, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution and sent his case back to the Collin County trial court to review claims of discredited forensic sciences. On July 8, 2006, a couple coming to view the model home found Walker dead, stabbed 33 times with a bite mark on her neck, according to a federal court filing. Her watch and ring were missing from her body. Bloody fingerprints found at the scene and DNA under Walker's fingernails linked the crime to Chanthakoummane, who was arrested nearly 2 months later. Chanthakoummane told police he went to a model home after his car broke down, and that he had cuts on his hands that could explain his blood at the scene, according to the filing. At trial, the state presented forensic experts who claimed the bite mark on Walker's neck and DNA at the scene pointed to Chanthakoummane. In 2016, a White House report concluded forensic bite-mark evidence was not scientifically valid. This is the 3rd time the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted a scheduled execution this year (2 of those scheduled executions were for the same man, Tilon Carter). Another execution was halted by a federal court. There have been 4 executions in the state this year. (source: Texas Tribune) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present24 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-543 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 25-July 27-Taichin Preyor-544 26-Aug. 30-Steven Long545 27-Sept.7--Juan Castillo--546 28-Oct. 26-Clinton Young--547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) *** Intellectually disabled death row inmate should be exempt from death penalty The Gospel compels Christians to speak for those without a voice and to advocate for society's most vulnerable members, including those with intellectual disability. For this reason, I feel compelled to speak out on behalf of Bobby James Moore, an individual with documented life-long intellectual disability who has spent the last 37 years on Texas' death row. While Christians have varying views on the death penalty, hopefully we can all agree no person with intellectual disability should be executed. As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized more than 15 years ago, "(n)o legitimate penological purpose is served by executing a person with intellectual disability" because such persons "do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct." While the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has been reticent to heed this message, it has both the legal and moral duty to do so now. And it should take an important 1st step here by reforming Moore's death sentence to life imprisonment. As a 13-year-old, Moore lacked a basic understanding of the days of the week, the months of the year, telling time, and the concept that subtraction is the reverse of addition. He failed the 1st grade twice and every grade after that before dropping out of school in the ninth grade. At age 14, his father - after subjecting Moore to years of severe mental and physical abuse - threw him out of the house because Moore still did not know how to read. Moore lived on the streets, eating out of garbage cans and sleeping in a pool hall. He survived largely due to the kindness of strangers. Then, at the age of 20, Moore was involved in a bungled grocery store robbery, in which he shot and killed a grocery store clerk. He has spent nearly 40 years on death row for that crime, which we all condemn. In 2014, a Harris County District Court judge held a 2-day hearing. After carefully listening to experts and witnesses, Judge Susan Brown applied current medical standards and determined that Moore is intellectually disabled and therefore exempt from the death penalty. She noted that Moore has an average IQ score of 70.66, which is well within the range of intellectual disability. And she found in her lengthy fact-finding that Moore's serious mental and social difficulties were very clear from early childhood. The
[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., 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, VA., GA., FLA., ALA., LA.
April 9 TEXASdeath row inmate dies Oldest Inmate on Texas' Death Row Dies of Natural Causes Jack Harry Smith, 78, the oldest man on death row in Texas, has died of natural causes, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The oldest condemned man in Texas has died at age 78 of natural causes, a Texas prisons spokesman said Friday. Jack Harry Smith had been on death row since October 1978 for a fatal shooting during a $90 robbery of a Houston store. Only 3 among about 250 prisoners now awaiting execution in Texas have been on death row longer. Smith had been in poor health for years and was taken from death row to the medical facility a week ago. He died Friday afternoon at the medical facility at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court had refused an appeal from Smith after a federal appeals court rejected arguments by his lawyers challenging his 1978 conviction and death sentence. Smith had convictions for robbery-assault and theft in 1955 and another robbery-assault conviction in 1959 that earned him a life prison term. He also had a prison escape attempt in 1963. Smith was paroled from his life sentence on Jan. 8, 1977, after serving 17 years. One day short of a year later, on Jan. 7, 1978, Smith and an accomplice were arrested the same day Roy A. Deputter was gunned down while trying to stop a holdup at a Houston convenience store known as Corky's Corner. The accomplice, Jerome Lee Hamilton, received a life sentence and testified against Smith, who received a death sentence. Smith, a former welder who completed only six years of school, arrived on death row on Oct. 9, 1978. He'd been there since. The Supreme Court rejected a previous appeal from Smith in 1985, but little happened in the case after that. Unlike procedures now in place, no deadlines then forced appeals to move through the courts. Attorneys suggested the trial judge, who died in 1997, wasn't inclined to move the case forward. In an interview with The Associated Press in 2001, Smith complained about the lack of progress. "I feel that the system is waiting for me to pass away of old age," said Smith, who said his health problems included cancer. "I'm angry at the justice system, at the courts for wasting taxpayers' money for giving me this hospitality." He said he never was in the store where Deputter was killed. A witness identified Smith as 1 of 2 gunmen -- 1 armed with a shotgun and the other with a pistol. Deputter, who lived behind the store and helped out the owner, walked in on the holdup, pulled his own gun and exchanged shots with the robbers. He was shot once in the heart and once in the head. Besides Hamilton, a cashier at the store also testified against Smith at his trial. Hamilton was paroled in February 2004. Smith said he was offered a life sentence before his trial but refused to plead guilty to a crime he said he didn't do. (source: nbcdfw.com) VIRGINIA: Exonerated Virginia man makes bittersweet statement on his freedom As he walked into the Virginia sun after spending 33 years in prison for crimes authorities now say he didn't commit, the fact that his parents weren't there to see him become a free man weighed heavily on Keith Allen Harward's mind. "That's the worst part of this," said Harward, who choked back tears as he spoke about his parents, who both died while he was wrongfully imprisoned. "I'll never get that back." Harward was released from the Nottoway Correctional Center on Friday after the Virginia Supreme Court agreed that DNA evidence proves he's innocent of the 1982 killing of Jesse Perron and the rape of his wife in Newport News. An April 30, 2013 photo of Keith Allen Haward, convicted in 1982 of rape and murder in Newport News, who was exonerated by DNA tests and ordered by the Virginia Supreme Court to be released. Harward was a sailor on the USS Carl Vinson, which was stationed at the shipyard close to the victims' home at the time of the crime. A security guard identified Harward as the man he saw entering the shipyard wearing a bloody uniform, but the woman never identified him as her attacker. The prosecution's case relied heavily on the testimony of 2 experts who testified that his teeth matched bite marks on the woman's leg. No other physical evidence linked Harward to the crime. The Innocence Project got involved in Harward's case about two years ago and pushed for DNA tests, which failed to identify Harward's genetic profile in sperm left at the crime scene. The DNA matched that of one of Harward's former shipmate's, Jerry L. Crotty, who died in an Ohio prison in June 2006, where he was serving a sentence for abduction. The reliability of bite-mark evidence has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. An Associated Press investigation in 2013 found that at least 24 men convicted
