Jan. 17
VIRGINIA----impending execution
Death row inmate argues for firing squad days before lethal injection date
You may not care how a killer is killed. But what if there was a way to execute
convicted murderers on death row with a cheaper and more effective alternative
than lethal injection?
According to convicted murder Ricky Gray's attorneys, there is. The solution: a
firing squad.
"[There is] a lot of support for the notion that it is more humane, and less
painful than the lethal injection protocols, which we've seen time and again
have resulted in botched executions all across the country," one of Gray's
attorneys, Lisa Fried told reporters last week.
Gray was convicted of murdering Cox High School homecoming queen Kathy
Grabinsky Harvey, her husband and their 2 young girls in their Richmond home
over a decade ago.
Gray was sentenced to death for the crimes. His co-defendant, Ray Dandridge,
was sentenced to life without parole by jurors.
"I've stolen something from the world," Gray says in a recorded YouTube video,
speaking out publicly for the 1st time. "It's never left my mind, because I
understand exactly what I took from the world by looking at my 2 sisters."
On Wednesday, Gray will become the 112th person executed by the Commonwealth of
Virginia since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme
Court.
"I'm sorry they had to be a victim of my despair," Gray continues in the video.
"I robbed them of a lifelong supply of joy."
Recently, Gray's attorneys argued for execution by firing squad, but the
request was denied by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Now, Gray is facing death by lethal injection - a controversial drug cocktail
which Gray's attorneys say is "chemical torture".
Court records say the state spent over $66,000 dollars to not only acquire the
hard-to-get drugs, but to also help hide the identity of the pharmaceutical
companies involved.
Additionally, Gray's attorney cite sources which show lethal injection has a 7
% botched execution rate, the highest out of any execution option. The same
sources show firing squads have a zero % botched execution rate.
Now, only the Supreme Court or the Governor remain able to postpone Wednesday
night's execution.
In an odd procedural circumstance, Gray's attorneys say his lawsuit alleging
that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment is still pending in
court. The Virginia Department of Corrections is supposed to respond to his
allegations by January 24, 6 days after Gray's scheduled execution.
"If [he] is executed on [Wednesday], the method of execution will be used
without the court ever resolving whether Gray's allegations that it is a cruel
and unusual punishment are true," Rob Lee, one of Gray's attorneys, told News 3
on Monday.
In the past, Virginia governors have not stepped in until all court proceedings
are resolve, and Governor McAuliffe is likely to follow this practice.
(source: WTKR news)
****************
Years after slayings, killer of Va. family faces execution
The 2006 murders of a well-known Richmond couple and their young daughters as
they were preparing to host a New Year's party sent shock waves through
Virginia's capital city.
More than 11 years later, some hope the execution of a man convicted in their
deaths will close a painful chapter of this community's history.
"I do not think we should be saddled with the cost of keeping that heinous
murderer alive," said Steve Tarrant, who lived near the slain family and still
gets emotional when he talks about watching their bodies being carried out of
their home.
"I think his execution will help effect a closure," the 76-year-old said.
(source: Associated Press)
NORTH CAROLINA:
There is no true justice in death penalty
On Jan. 10, self-avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof, who was convicted of the
murder of 9 African-Americans while they prayed, was sentenced to death. His
sentence should come as no surprise to those familiar with the overwhelming
amount of polling data showing majority support for the death penalty. One need
look no further than the comments section of any article on the Dylann Roof
saga to see that support for the ultimate criminal punishment is alive and
well.
Our uniquely American affinity for the death penalty is tragic for the simple
reason that capital punishment is both morally and intellectually indefensible.
When subjected to any level of academic scrutiny, the common arguments in
support of the death penalty: deterrence, fairness and closure for victims'
families, quickly crumble. Now more than ever, on the heels of what many would
call a model death sentence, it is worth examining the sad fact that there is
no logical argument in support of capital punishment.
The only argument that attempts to claim a measurable societal benefit to
retaining the death penalty goes as follows: the death penalty should be kept
because its very existence deters would-be murderers. If this "deterrence"
argument strikes you as ascribing an uncomfortable amount of logic to the
process by which one person decides whether to murder another, you can probably
already see why it fails. In a 2006 meta-analysis of the many different ways in
which researchers have sought to measure the deterrent effect, if any, of the
death penalty, professors from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania
concluded that "[n]one of these approaches suggested that the death penalty has
large effects on the murder rate. Year-to-year movements in homicide rates are
large, and the effects of even major changes in execution policy are barely
detectable." It is accordingly unsurprising that, when surveyed, 88 % of the
leading criminologists in the United States stated that death penalty was not
"a deterrent to the commitment to murder."
Most commonly, death penalty supporters rely on the difficult to quantify
assertion that there is just something inherently fair about a murderer being
punished by death. The "eye for an eye" argument is premised upon the belief
that all human life is equal, and that the fair punishment for killing another
is for murderers themselves to be killed. While this defense is perhaps morally
righteous in the abstract, it fails to hold up in practice. The flaw in this
argument stems from the fact that American justice systems are woefully
incapable of treating all life as equal. Focusing just on North Carolina,
researchers at UNC have concluded that "[a] defendant is significantly more
likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white rather than non-white."
Specifically, the UNC study found that the odds of a defendant being sentenced
to death were 3.5 times higher if their victim was white. The "eye for an eye"
argument falls apart rather quickly in the context of a justice system that
arbitrarily treats blue eyes as more valuable than brown. The last of the
common pro-death penalty arguments is that the punishment is necessary in order
to afford the families of victims a sense of closure. As recently seen in
testimony from the Dylann Roof trial, however, not all families of victims are
in favor of their family members' killer being put to death. Notwithstanding
recent research from Marquette University that challenges the idea that
executions can provide a sense of closure, there is undeniably some subset of
individuals who both want to see, and will derive some sense of satisfaction
out of seeing their loved ones' killers put to death. Their interests must be
weighed against the dramatically increased litigation costs that accompany
capital cases. According to researchers at Duke University, "[t]he extra cost
per execution of prosecuting a case capitally is more than $2.16 million." A
separate Duke study concludes that it costs North Carolina taxpayers roughly
$11 million annually to continue to use the death penalty.
Taking all available facts together, the question becomes whether it is logical
to retain a form of punishment that is administered in a racially biased
manner, yields no generalized social benefits, and costs taxpayers a small
fortune, solely for the purpose of indulging the fraction of Americans who both
lose a loved one to murder, and wish to see that loss repaid by another death.
Because I cannot believe that a majority of Americans are so morally bankrupt
as to answer that question in the affirmative, I am left to conclude that the
continued majority support for the death penalty is due to a pervasive
ignorance of the issue. Until that changes, each death sentence meted out, even
Mr. Roof's, provides another occasion to reflect on the sad state of affairs
that is the American use of capital punishment.
(source: Guest Columnist; Eric Edgerton is a graduate of the George Washington
University School of Law and a practicing attorney at Roberts & Stevens, P.A.,
in downtown Asheville----Asheville Citizen-Times)
FLORIDA:
Convicted killer gets 2nd chance at life
A convicted killer, sentenced to death at the Orange County Courthouse, will
get a 2nd chance at life. This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
Florida's death penalty law unconstitutional.
Rafael Zaldivar wants Bessman Okafor dead for killing his son Alex Zaldivar. In
2015 he heard the sentence he'd been hoping for, death. But a few days ago,
Rafael met with the prosecutor in the case. He says, he told him, they'll have
to do the death penalty phase of the trial again.
"He's got hope and hope is the only thing that's keeping him alive today and I
want to take that hope away," said Zaldivar. "Unfortunately in our case it was
11 to 1. If that particular juror would have decided to vote guilty we wouldn't
be talking today. So by one juror, we've gotta start all over."
Zaldivar says he and his family will have to take the stand again and re-live
the unimaginable pain that began back in 2012, when Okafor, murdered Alex
before he could testify against him in a home invasion case.
"19 years old and in college. He put him on the ground and shot him twice. I
always wonder what was he thinking."
Now, Zaldivar wonders what will happen next.
"Do you think he has another chance? Sure. He's coming back. It's a 50/50. He's
coming back. And we're gonna have to tolerate this guy at taxpayers expense."
Zaldivar says he plans to fight in court.
Okafor is scheduled to have a hearing in Tallahassee in March.
(source: Fox News)
********************
Make death penalty - and justice for victims - swift and sure
ernard L. Welch, a longtime death-penalty opponent, wrote a My Word column in
the Jan. 7 Orlando Sentinel questioning this country's use of the death penalty
to punish those who murder. He asked whether the death penalty "mimics the
cowardice of the killer."
As a retired prosecutor, I once dealt with our death-penalty law, and I have
seen the handiwork of the murderers I prosecuted. I have participated in
presenting to a judge and jury the facts regarding what these murderers did so
that, based on the law, the judge and jury could determine whether the
defendant in fact deserved to be put to death. This is a determination the
defendants in these cases did not bother to make regarding their victims.
I have also litigated the post-conviction motions that inevitably follow a
sentence of death.
Murder defendants are entitled to legal process - something they did not afford
their victims. One good example of the care that is taken to make sure a murder
defendant receives the death penalty only when he truly deserves it would be
the case of Bryan Jennings, a Brevard County murderer.
Jennings was convicted of kidnapping 7-year-old Rebecca Kunash from her bedroom
on May 11, 1979, while her parents slept nearby. He smashed her head into a
curb, raped her several ways, and then drowned her and left her body floating
in a canal.
Jennings has been tried, convicted and sentenced to death 3 times for this
murder, and today he is still alive on death row awaiting the outcome of yet
another appeal by his court-appointed attorneys. Rebecca is still dead.
While Welch suggests the importance of the defendant coming to realize "the
truth of his actions" and postulates that spending time in prison is more
punitive than receiving the death penalty, the lack of a waiting line to be
executed in the most humane and painless way the state can provide contradicts
that assertion.
The continued appeals by those on death row is another clear rejection of that
misguided assertion. Murderers on death row want to live - something they
denied their victims. I submit it is much more important that we provide the
victim's family justice than it is for the defendant to come to some
realization of "the truth of his actions."
Welch questions whether the government's right to kill is any more respectful
of the right to life than "the maniacal actions of a Dylann Roof." In light of
the requirements that must be met to allow a death-penalty sentence, it would
clearly seem so.
Some of those requirements include: probative evidence obtained illegally is
excluded from being presented by the state; guilt must be proved beyond a
reasonable doubt; if a conviction results, the state must then prove
aggravating circumstances exist, which outweigh any mitigating circumstances
that exist; a jury and judge must consider whether the death penalty is
warranted under the law and must agree that it is; and, review of the case may
continue more than 37 years before such murderers are executed.
What do you think?
(source: Op-Ed; As assistant state attorney in the 18th Judicial Circuit, Chris
White prosecuted numerous capital murder cases. He is retired----Orlando
Sentinel)
OHIO:
Ohio killer asks to be spared from death penalty
Attorneys for a death row inmate sentenced to die for fatally stabbing a
67-year-old man are asking the Ohio Parole Board for mercy for their client.
Raymond Tibbetts is scheduled for execution in April. He was convicted of
killing Fred Hicks at Hicks' Cincinnati home in 1997.
The parole board meets Tuesday to hear arguments for and against clemency for
Tibbetts.
Records show that Tibbetts first killed his wife, 42-year-old Judith Crawford,
by beating her with a bat and stabbing her during an argument over Tibbetts'
crack cocaine habit. Tibbetts then killed Hicks, who had hired Crawford as a
caretaker and allowed the couple to stay with him.
Tibbetts was sentenced to death for the killing of Hicks and life imprisonment
without parole for Crawford's death.
(source: Associated Press)
************************
Man convicted of murdering Warren couple wants death sentence thrown out
A man who has been on Ohio's death row for 30 years for murdering an elderly
couple in their Warren home has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to vacate his
death sentence.
Charles Lorraine was sentenced to die for the 1986 stabbing deaths of
80-year-old Doris Montgomery and her 77-year-old husband Raymond.
He was convicted on 2 counts of aggravated murder, 2 counts of burglary, 2
counts of complicity to commit burglary, and 1 count of robbery.
The last execution date for Lorraine was set in 2012.
Even after state officials said that Lorraine had exhausted all appeals and
Governor John Kasich refused to grant clemency, a federal judge stopped the
execution, saying Ohio had failed to follow its own rules for executions.
Lorraine's attorney has now filed a motion with the Ohio Supreme Court citing a
U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down last year ruling that a jury must
evaluate and weigh all factors required by law to impose the death penalty.
The motion says that an earlier ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court found errors
in the sentencing phase of Lorraine's case, and argues that the matter should
be sent back to the trial court in Trumbull County for re-sentencing.
The Trumbull County Prosecutor's Office has yet to file a response to the
motion.
Background
According to court records, the Montgomerys had been friendly and generous to
Lorraine in the past and they had hired him to perform tasks around their home.
On May 6, 1986, investigators say Lorraine got Raymond Montgomery to go to the
2nd floor of his home on the pretense that he had forgotten an item.
Upon entering the room, Lorraine, while wearing rubber gloves, stabbed
Montgomery 5 times with a butcher knife.
After killing the husband, police say Lorraine returned to the first floor,
where Mrs. Montgomery was confined to bed, and stabbed her 9 times.
He then burglarized the residence.
Showing no remorse, Lorraine went to a bar and bought drinks with the stolen
money, according to court documents.
He and a friend returned to the Montgomerys' home to steal again.
(source: WFMJ)
**************
Opponents of death penalty urge Kasich to commute sentences to
life----Executions scheduled through end of 2017, with 2 dozen other dates set
through 2021
Opponents of capital punishment urged Gov. John Kasich to postpone the state's
scheduled executions and commute the death sentences of Ohio inmates to life in
prison without the possibility of parole.
Ohioans to Stop Executions and other like-minded groups also want lawmakers to
move legislation barring death sentences for the mentally ill and implementing
additional supports for the families of murder victims.
"You need not execute dangerous offenders in order to feel safe from them or
hold them accountable," said Abraham Bonowitz, a spokesman for Ohioans to Stop
Executions. "As the courts are still sorting out Ohio's execution protocol, I
want to make it clear that Ohioans to Stop Executions does not take a position
on how we kill our prisoners. Our concern is that we kill prisoners in light of
the many problems that exist with the morality, the fairness and the accuracy
of Ohio's capital punishment system."
The groups had planned to protest the execution of Ronald Phillips, who was
sentenced to die for the 1993 rape and murder of a 3-year-old girl in Akron.
He was supposed to face lethal injection on Jan. 12, but the procedure was
postponed until Feb. 15. Ohioans to Stop Executions and others instead gathered
Jan. 12 at the Statehouse to call for an end to the death penalty and to visit
lawmakers to discuss the issue.
There are 7 other executions scheduled through the end of this year and 2 dozen
other dates set through 2021.
Executions in Ohio have been on hold since the lethal injection of Dennis
McGuire in January 2014. McGuire, who received a capital sentence for the rape
and murder of a pregnant Preble County woman, gasped for breath during what
witnesses described as a prolonged procedure under the state's former 2-drug
execution method.
In early 2015, state prison officials abandoned that combination, switching to
2 different drugs, though that protocol has not been used.
The state and others have struggled to find supplies of execution drugs, after
manufacturers blocked their use for lethal injections. State law changes have
since enabled the purchase of drugs from compounding pharmacies, under
legislation that allowed the names of those businesses to be kept secret.
And pharmacy logs released by state prison officials late last month show
sufficient supplies of lethal injection drugs on hand for coming executions.
Last year, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced it
would restart executions in 2017, using a new 3-drug combination that was
similar to the method the state relied on for past executions.
During meetings with lawmakers' offices Thursday, capital punishment opponents
urged passage of legislation implementing recommendations of a Supreme Court
task force that studied ways to improve the administration of the death
penalty.
"We have been saying fix it or end it," Bonowitz said. " It's pretty clear that
few Ohio legislators want to concern themselves with this issue. We will keep
pushing on the reforms Our mission is to end executions in our state once and
for all. That is our goal, and we will achieve it."
(source: twinsburgbulletin.com)
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