[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., FLA.
Jan. 14 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: Unhappy New YearMasterson found guilty of capital murder of Shane Honeycutt, set to die Jan. 20 Texas goes to the gurney Wednesday, Jan. 20, with its 1st execution of the calendar year. Set to die is Richard Allen Masterson, 43, who's spent the past 14 years on death row for the murder of Darin Shane Honeycutt. Masterson and Honeycutt knew each other for very little time. They met at a gay bar in Houston just before 2am on Jan. 26, 2001. Dressed in drag that night, Honeycutt introduced himself as Brandi Houston. He offered Masterson a ride home from the bar and on the way proposed that they go back to Honeycutt's apartment for the night. On the morning of Jan. 27, a friend, Larry Brown, coerced Honeycutt's landlord into letting him into the apartment, and found his friend Shane naked and not breathing on his bed. Masterson had stolen Honeycutt's car and hightailed to Georgia. He was later arrested in Florida - picked up for stealing a 2nd car - and brought back to Harris County. Jurors reportedly took only 90 minutes to determine his sentence. Unquestioned during the trial was whether Masterson killed Honeycutt - he admitted as much on his return to Houston. During an interrogation, in which no attorney was present, he allegedly "add[ed] elements that would elevate the case to capital murder," saying he'd rather die than serve a life sentence. But the way in which he killed his recent acquaintance - and whether or not he intended to kill him - was not so easily discernible. He said in a statement during the interrogation (which played to jurors at trial over objections from his attorney) that he killed Honeycutt by putting him into a sleeper hold as soon as the 2 undressed, and that he never actually planned to have sex with him that night. "Something just told me in my mind - I said to myself that I was going to kill him," Masterson said. However, Masterson recanted on those statements in his trial testimony, saying that he lied about his actions because he was too embarrassed to tell the officer taking the confession that he planned to have sex with a man. Instead, he said, Honeycutt requested that Masterson choke him during sex. Something "went wrong" and Honeycutt fell forward, gurgling. Masterson said he got up and left the room; when he came back, Honeycutt was dead. The jurors didn't think long on Masterson's intentions, finding him guilty of capital murder. During the punishment phase, a litany of witnesses were brought out to testify to Masterson's violent past - including accusations of domestic violence and reported incidents while incarcerated - and the jury ruled that he represented a future danger to society. It did not help his cause that, against his attorneys' wishes, he testified that he would defend himself in prison, "whether it's against a guard or inmate or anybody else by any means necessary." Masterson had very little chance of winning his trial all along. In a Jan. 2012 letter written to his judge, Masterson claimed his attorneys had been assigned to his case only "a few weeks" before jury selection, and that the investigator hired to "ask questions about the deceased['s] background and sex practices" never questioned Masterson, among other concerns. A Dec. 2011 letter to that same judge elaborated further, listing a number of individuals charged with heinous crimes who received lesser sentences. "They all had good lawyers they paid," he wrote. "Poor people like me get death." Masterson has railed against his attorneys in letters and waffled on attempts to withdraw various petitions for relief. He's now represented by D.C. attorney Gregory Gardner, who on Dec. 21 filed a application requesting that Masterson be assigned to an expert doctor for a brain scan to determine whether he suffers from organic brain damage. That request was granted Dec. 22, giving Masterson 29 days to complete the necessary procedures. Gardner has not replied to the Chronicle's requests for updates. Masterson would be the 13th Texan executed under Gov. Greg Abbott's reign and the 532nd since the state's 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. 6 inmates are currently on the death row docket with set dates, including James Freeman on Wednesday, Jan. 27. (source: Austin Chronicle) PENNSYLVANIA: Freemansburg cop killer on death row asks for stay of execution A Freemansburg man sentenced to death for killing a police officer has filed court papers asking for a stay of execution. George Hitcho filed papers on his own behalf last week accusing his trial attorneys of botching his case. The 50-year-old wants a stay of execution until his appeal against his trial attorneys is resolved. The typewritten papers were sent from the State Correctional Institution in Greene County and docketed in Northampton County on Jan. 4. On Wednesday, Northampton County Judge F.P.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., USA
Jan. 13 TEXASnew execution dates Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present13 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-531 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 14-January 20---Richard Masterson-532 15-January 27---James Freeman-533 16-February 16--Gustavo Garcia534 17-March 9--Coy Wesbrook--535 18-March 22-Adam Ward-536 19-March 30-John Battaglia--537 20-April 6--Pablo Vasquez---538 21-April 27-Robert Pruett539 22-June 2---Charles Flores---540 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) FLORIDA: Supreme Court: Florida death penalty system is unconstitutional Florida's unique system for sentencing people to death is unconstitutional because it gives too much power to judges - and not enough to juries - to decide capital sentences, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The 8-1 ruling said that the state's sentencing procedure is flawed because juries play only an advisory role in recommending death while the judge can reach a different decision. The decision could trigger new sentencing appeals from some of the 390 inmates on the Florida's death row, a number second only to California. But legal experts said it may apply only to those whose initial appeals are not yet exhausted. The court sided with Timothy Lee Hurst, who was convicted of the 1998 murder of his manager at a Popeye's restaurant in Pensacola. A jury divided 7-5 in favor of death, but a judge imposed the sentence. Florida's solicitor general argued that the system was acceptable because a jury first decides if the defendant is eligible for the death penalty. Writing for the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said a jury's "mere recommendation is not enough." She said the court was overruling previous decisions upholding the state's sentencing process. "The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death," Sotomayor said. The justices sent the case back to the Florida Supreme Court to determine whether the error in sentencing Hurst was harmless, or whether he should get a new sentencing hearing. Justice Samuel Alito dissented, saying that the trial judge in Florida simply performs a reviewing function that duplicates what the jury has done. Under Florida law, the state requires juries in capital sentencing hearings to weigh factors for and against imposing a death sentence. But the judge is not bound by those findings and can reach a different conclusion. The judge can also weigh other factors independently. So a jury could base its decision on one particular aggravating factor, but a judge could then rely on a different factor the jury never considered. In Hurst's case, prosecutors asked the jury to consider 2 aggravating factors: the murder was committed during a robbery and it was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel." But Florida law did not require the jury to say how it voted on each factor. Hurst's attorney argued that it was possible only 4 jurors agreed with 1, while 3 agreed with the other. Sotomayor said Florida's system is flawed because it allows a sentencing judge to find aggravating factors "independent of a jury's fact-finding." 3 of Florida's current death row inmates were sentenced over the jury's life recommendation. But no judge had overridden a jury recommendation in a death penalty case since 1999, according to state officials. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that a defendant has the right to have a jury decide whether the circumstances of a crime warrant a sentence of death. Florida's American Civil Liberties Union is calling on state officials to re-examine the sentences of all death row inmates. But Stephen Harper, a law professor who runs the Death Penalty Clinic at Florida International University, said it's unlikely the Supreme Court ruling will open the door for most Florida death-row inmates to new sentencing hearings. He said the Florida decision is based on a previous Arizona ruling that was already found not to be retroactive. "In general, it will not be retroactively applied," Harper said. But he added that Florida inmates whose initial appeals have not been exhausted may be able to argue that the latest decision applies to them. And, he said, any capital cases that are awaiting trial would likely be delayed while state legislators and the Florida Supreme Court sort out the next steps. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said her office is reviewing the ruling. News of the high court's decision stunned Florida legislators. Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, who learned of the ruling while he was giving a speech to open the state's annual
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., MO., WYO.
Jan. 2 TEXAS: Ted Cruz really, really loves the death penalty Ted Cruz would represent a lot of firsts should he be elected president: He'd be the 1st Hispanic president, and the 1st president to be born in Canada (or anywhere outside the 50 states, for that matter). But he'd also be the 1st president ever to have clerked for the Supreme Court. And Cruz has cited his subsequent record before the court, where he has presented oral arguments times (8 as solicitor general of Texas), as an important credential both in this presidential campaign and in his come-from-behind 2012 run for Senate. 5 of his 9 Supreme Court appearances related to the same issue: the death penalty. In each case, Cruz represented the state of Texas and defended capital punishment in cases where even many advocates would normally be squeamish. He defended executing rapists who had killed no one; executing the mentally ill; and executing a man with an IQ of 78. He lost those 3 cases, all by narrow 5-4 votes. But his 2 other appearances related to the same case, in which Cruz was opposed by the Bush administration, the Mexican government, and the International Court of Justice. Cruz won, and the defendant was executed 5 months later. The Jose Medellin case Whatever one thinks about his death sentence and eventual execution, Jose Medellin was hardly a sympathetic character. At age 18 he, by his own admission, orchestrated the gang rape and murder of 2 girls, ages 14 and 16, in 1993, committed in conjunction with 5 other members of his gang. Afterward, he joyfully bragged about the crime to Joe Cantu, 1 of the gang member's brothers, and Joe's wife Christina, as described in a 1997 state appeals court ruling upholding Medellin's conviction: [Christina] asked the group what had occurred and appellant responded that they "had fun" and that their exploits would be seen on the television news. Appellant [Medellin] was hyper, giggling, and laughing. ... As if to accentuate his conquest, appellant showed Christina his blood soaked underwear. Appellant related that after another gang member sexually assaulted the second girl, he "turned her around" and anally raped her. Appellant also bragged of having forced both girls to engage in oral sex with him... When Christina asked the group what happened to the girls, appellant told her that they had been killed so that they could not identify their attackers. Appellant then elaborated that it would have been easier with a gun, but because they did not have one at the scene of the incident, he took off one of his shoelaces and strangled at least 1 of the girls with it. Both Joe and Christina noted that appellant complained of the difficulty group encountered in killing the girls. After appellant related the difficulty he encountered in strangling one of the girls, he said that he put his foot on her throat because she would not die. He proceeded to confess to his participation in the crimes in a written statement to police. He and 4 of the 5 other participants were sentenced to death. Jose's little brother Venancio, who was 14 at the time, confessed to participating in the rape of 1 of the girls but not the murder, and received a sentence of 40 years (he has been denied parole 5 times, most recently last month). 2 of the 5 perpetrators sentenced to death - Raul Villareal and Efrain Perez - saw their sentences commuted in 2005 after the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute offenders for crimes committed while they were under 18 (Villareal and Perez were both 17). The other 3 participants - Medellin, Peter Cantu, and Derrick Sean O'Brien - were executed in 2008, 2010, and 2006, respectively. The Supreme Court did not take up Cantu and O'Brien's cases. But it did take up Medellin's, twice, because his death sentence appeared to run afoul of international law. Medell'n was a Mexican citizen, and under the Vienna Convention of 1963, foreign nationals must be informed by authorities arresting them abroad of their right to contact their consulate for support. Medellin was never informed of this right. In 2004, the International Court of Justice - the judicial organ of the United Nations, which arbitrates disputes between countries - ruled, in response to a complaint by Mexico, that the US had violated the Vienna Convention by not informing Medellin and 50 other Mexican nationals on death row of these rights, and ordered US courts to review all 51 convictions and sentences. That opened the door for Medell'n to launch a new appeal, which Texas (represented by Cruz) rigorously fought. The Bush administration - not especially known for its fondness for the UN and other multilateral institutions - nonetheless took the ICJ's side, telling courts that reconsideration was obligatory given the US's treaty obligations. The case first hit the Supreme Court in 2005, when the justices ruled that Medellin hadn't
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., VA., N.C., ALA.
January 1 TEXAS: Texas' top criminal court halted far more executions in 2015 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted an unprecedented number of execution stays in 2015, the 1st year on the court for 3 judges elected in 2014. "There's absolutely been a change, and we're still seeing where the splits are," said Scott Henson, author of Texas criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast. An analysis of data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and annual reports from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which tracks executions and stays, shows that Texas courts halted 14 executions this year. 2 of those were later rescheduled and carried out. That's nearly twice the number of stays granted most years. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, long known as one of the most conservative, tough-on-crime courts in the nation, gave 8 death row inmates more time to appeal their sentences in 2015. That is more than double the number of stays the court has granted in any year since at least 2007. Trial courts or prosecutors withdrew the remaining execution dates in 2015. Legal experts say the increased number of stays from the state's top criminal court might be the result of its changing membership. In 2015, 3 new judges joined the bench: Bert Richardson, a former state and federal prosecutor; Kevin Yeary, who worked as a defense lawyer and prosecutor; and David Newell, a former prosecutor. But the change could also reflect the increasingly skeptical attitude of the public nationwide toward the death penalty, experts said. The number of executions in the United States hit a 24-year low in 2015, dropping to 28. Nearly 1/2 of those took place in Texas. "You're seeing a national trend show up in state-level decision-making," said Lee Kovarsky, a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law who works on Texas death penalty cases. State and national polls show public support for the death penalty on a steady decline over the last decade. At the same time, the number of new death sentences and executions in Texas and other death penalty states has also decreased. Appeals court orders granting the 8 execution stays in 2015 provide something of a window on divisions among the 9 judges. Just 1 of the 8 stays was granted unanimously. All 9 judges agreed to stay the execution of Julius Murphy, whose lawyers argued that prosecutors coerced false testimony from 2 witnesses who were key to his 1998 conviction in a robbery that turned deadly. Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, who has been on the court since 1994, and Judge Lawrence Meyers, who joined in 1992, partnered to dissent in 1/2 of the stays granted this year. Meyers disagreed with the majority in all the remaining stays. In the case of Randall Mays, Keller and Meyers wrote the lone dissenting opinion objecting to a stay of execution. Mays was convicted and sentenced to death in 2008 in the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy. The majority of the court chose to stay his execution, allowing more time to determine whether Mays is mentally competent to face the ultimate punishment. Keller and Meyers disagreed with the majority's decision. While Mays' lawyers had shown he was mentally ill, the 2 judges believed his attorneys failed to prove he did not understand how and why he was being punished. "Mental illness and incompetence to be executed are not the same thing," Keller wrote in the dissent. In the other stays the court granted last year, lawyers for death row inmates sought clemency for a variety of reasons. Some said they needed more time to investigate new evidence. Others argued that new scientific developments could help prove their innocence. A few contended they had shoddy legal help. Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said the new judges might have been more likely to agree to stays out of a desire to be more cautious. Since 1989, there have been 240 exonerations in Texas, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, including 11 men who had been on death row. "For lack of a better term, [the judges] might not be as jaded as they might be in the future after they see these kinds of claims brought up time after time after time," Edmonds said. But Kovarsky said the increase in stays might have less to do with the makeup of the court than with the general shift away from the death penalty nationally and in Texas. According to Gallup Poll data, the number who don't favor the death penalty for murderers grew from about 28 % of respondents nationally in 2000 to more than 37 % in 2015. In 2015, Texas courts issued just two new death sentences, the lowest since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 after a 1972 Supreme Court decision led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment. "I strongly suspect that the [Court of Criminal Appeals] would still rank very
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., FLA., ALA.
Dec. 17 TEXAS: Texas Falls Out of Love With the Death Penalty, Embraces Life Without Parole Fewer and fewer prisoners in Texas are being sent to the execution chamber. For what it's worth, Texas is still the death-penalty capital of the United States, which in turn employs capital punishment more frequently than any other western country. Only Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and China - none of them shining beacons of human rights and individual liberty - kill more prisoners. In 2015, Texas executed 13 people, just less than 1/2 of the 28 put to death nationwide. But there's another way to frame the issue: In 2015, Texas executed just 13 people, down from a peak of 40 in 2000. Even more striking, the state's courts handed out only 3 death sentences for the entire year, the lowest number since Texas reintroduced the death penalty in 1976, and went more than 9 months without issuing a single one. Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties, collectively responsible for about 1/2 of Texas' death row population over the past 4 decades, didn't condemn a single person to death last year. As highlighted by a report released this week by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, this is part of a long-term decline. The causes are varied, says Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service. High-profile exonerations like that of Anthony Graves, who spent nearly 2 decades on death row after being wrongfully convicted of murdering 6 people in Burleson County, have sowed doubts in the public mind about the infallibility of the criminal justice system. Ditto for the expanding recognition of deep flaws in forensic science, the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, and racial disparity in prosecution and sentencing. Surprisingly enough, the death penalty in Texas is going the way of the electric chair. "Prosecutors understand there's a great deal of sensitivity on the part of juries now in terms of innocence issues and issues of lack of certainty," Kase says. Case in point: 4 of the 7 juries from whom Texas prosecutors sought the death penalty in 2015 opted for a lesser sentence, a sharp reduction from prosecutors' historic batting average of about 80 %. There's also the matter of cost. Texas has become a leader in criminal justice reform in no small part because smaller prisons saves the state money. So, for that matter, does taking the death penalty off the table. Capital cases, with their endless appeals pursued by taxpayer-funded defense lawyers, are expensive, and prosecutors, particularly in smaller counties, have become increasingly reluctant to burden their jurisdictions with the cost. But focusing only on bleeding-heart juries and budget-minded prosecutors would miss the biggest factor driving Texas away from the death penalty. Until a decade ago, Texas juries in capital cases had 2 sentencing options: death or life in prison with the distant (40 years) possibility of parole. They almost invariably chose death. "I think juries were looking for certainty in the punishment that someone that they convicted of capital murder wouldn't harm anyone else," says Kristin Houle, TCADP's executive director. A guarantee of 40 years behind bars just wasn't certain enough. Then, in 2005, Governor Rick Perry signed a bill creating a sentence of life without possibility of parole. The numbers suggest that jurors have found this to be a much more palatable alternative, with the increase in life without parole sentences more than replacing the decrease in death sentences. Death sentences peaked in 1999 at 48, then bounced between about 2 and 3 dozen over the next 5 years. Texas Falls Out of Love With the Death Penalty, Embraces Life Without Parole Life without parole took a couple of years to catch on, but recent years have averaged about 100 such sentences, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice's annual statistical reports. (Note: TDCJ doesn't report new sentences, just the total number of inmates with that sentence at the end of the fiscal year. To find the number of new sentences, we simply subtracted one year's population from the next. So it's possible, in the case that prior inmates died in custody, that the number of new sentences could actually be higher.) Together with Texas' declining violent crime rate during this period, the numbers suggest that life without parole isn't merely being employed as a replacement for the death penalty; it's also being used in place of more lenient sentences. This raises its own set of issues. Many of the same factors that make the death penalty so problematic - racial bias, shoddy science, overzealous prosecutors - almost certainly apply to life sentences as well, the difference being that life sentences receive less scrutiny and guarantee fewer opportunities to appeal. Death penalty opponents are OK with that. "You have to look at what are our alternatives here and right now in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, NEB., USA
Dec. 7 TEXAS: Hearing the voices of those bearing the brunt MORE THAN 60 people gathered for the Campaign to End the Death Penalty's (CEDP) annual convention, held in Austin, Texas, in mid-November. The CEDP was formed 20 years ago to challenge the most barbaric aspect of the U.S. criminal injustice system: capital punishment. It has stood out from other anti-death penalty and criminal justice reform organizations because it has put death row prisoners and their families at the center of the struggle, emphasizing the humanity of the victims of this system. This year's convention was no different. Lawrence Foster, the 87-year-old grandfather of Kenneth Foster Jr., who faced down the death penalty in Texas in 2009, gave the opening remarks for the conference. Standing before us in his casual blazer and gray Chuck Taylors, his presence reminded us what is possible. His grandson Kenny was charged under the unjust "law of parties" law in Texas, which makes defendants who are merely present when a crime is committed just as culpable as the person who committed it. So even though he was in his car with the windows rolled up when someone was shot and killed, Kenny was charged along with the shooter and given the death penalty. In 2007, he came within 6 hours of being executed before his sentence was commuted to life. Lawrence Foster was a tireless fighter for his grandson the whole time, speaking at press conferences and demonstrations and helping to organize various events to mobilize the public behind the call to save Kenny. But the fact that Kenny remains incarcerated and--if the system has its way--will die in prison means that justice still has not been served. Lily Hughes, the CEDP's national director, spoke during the opening plenary, discussing the state of the death penalty today and explaining why its use has declined and the importance of our movement connecting to the broader fight around criminal justice. In a session on "2 Cases of Injustice: Stop the Execution of Rodney Reed and Louis Castro Perez," both Sandra Reed, Rodney's mother, and Delia Perez Myers, the sister of Louis Castro Perez, spoke about the fight for their loved ones and their continued determination to stop the execution system. It wasn't lost on anyone in the room that both cases are in their critical last legal stages. Delia Perez Myers described her anger over evidence that was only recently discovered because prosecutors had buried it. Meanwhile, Sandra said she and her family remained focused on the struggle for Rodney. "We have to keep fighting" Sandra said. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AFTER THE plenary sessions, there were workshops to take on issues such as "The Torture of Solitary," where presenter Randi Jones Hensley taped out markings on the floor to show the small space that prisoners are confined to when stuck in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day. "Just imagine what that's like--to be in that small space day after day after day. And many prisoners spend years of their lives there. It's an inhumane and unjust punishment." Mark Clements, a former police torture victim from Chicago who spent 28 years unjustly incarcerated, also spoke at the workshop and brought home the deplorable conditions of today's prisons: "They treat you worse than a dog." Student Blaine Anderson, who was attending the CEDP's convention for the first time. approached another presenter, journalist Liliana Segura, to say that "this is one of the best conferences I've ever been to, and I've attended many prison justice-type conferences." Anderson said she had never really thought about how family and loved ones are affected by the injustice system, and how moved she was listening to people whose lives have been forever altered. That power probably came through most clearly when Terri Been, whose brother Jeff Wood is currently on Texas death row, also under the unjust "Law of Parties" rule, spoke from the audience. Choking back sobs and surrounded by her sons who took turns consoling her, Been talked about what it was like when Jeff came within hours of being executed in 2008: I just couldn't do it, I just could not go in and watch them kill my brother--even though he wanted me there. And I just don't know what else I can do. I can't sleep, I'm a nervous wreck. They want to kill my brother, and I don't know how to protect him. While the pain of family members like Terri Been was real and shared throughout the conference, so was the determination to fight. LaKiza--the sister of Larry Jackson, who was killed over a year ago by an Austin police detective, who followed him and shot him in the back--spoke about her continued pursuit of justice. The cop, Charles Kleinert, was indicted for murder, but a judge threw out the indictment--that ruling is being appealed. "We are going to keep up the pressure because I am not about to give up," LaKiza said. -
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., IND., ARK., MO., ARIZ., ORE.
Dec. 3 TEXAS: The Death Penalty in Texas and a Conflict of Interest Robert L. Roberson III was convicted in 2003, in Anderson County, Texas, of murdering his 2-year-old daughter. In determining his punishment, the difference between a death sentence and one of life in prison hinged on the demonstration of what Texas law calls a "sufficient mitigating circumstance," such as a mental illness or impairment. It's likely that he suffered from both. But while the trial record is full of red flags, such as an I.Q. score of 87 in junior high school, a history of organic brain damage from concussions and other traumas, and testimony that he was "very likely" abused as a child, his trial lawyer didn't do much of an investigation into his mental-health record or his family history. The trial court didn't do what it should have to document his mental-health history, either. He was sentenced to death. As an indigent person - he had been in and out of prison during the previous dozen years, for burglary, passing bad checks, and violations of parole - Roberson had qualified for counsel paid for by the government and was appointed a new lawyer to represent him in appealing the case. That lawyer failed to make a claim in state court that the trial counsel was ineffective, and this failure is at the heart of a petition about the case that the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider on Friday. It would be a miscarriage of justice if the Court decided not to take the case and grant Roberson the hearing he seeks. In 2012, in Martinez v. Ryan, the Court made a groundbreaking ruling that, in a case like this one, in which an inmate is seeking relief under a federal writ of habeas corpus, a federal court can allow the inmate to pursue a claim of ineffective counsel if the lawyer representing him on appeal in state court failed to make that claim. The problem for Roberson is that the lawyer appointed to represent him in the state appeal, James Volberding, was also appointed to represent him in the federal appeal - and failed to point out his earlier failure. As the petition now before the Supreme Court puts it, "Because lead counsel Mr. Volberding was Roberson's state post-conviction lawyer, a Martinez argument required him to attack his own performance." Volberding told me that there was nothing to attack. "We looked for any compelling evidence about Roberson's character or upbringing that would have led a jury not to give him a death sentence and there was nothing," he said. But that seems to sidestep the issue, and perhaps to misrepresent it: Volberding's position is that he refused to present a frivolous claim. But he presented in federal court the claim that he said he refused to present in state court - and the judge turned it away because he had forfeited it, by not raising it during the state proceeding. In a crudely printed, hand-written note, Roberson asked the federal trial court to appoint him a different lawyer, but the court said no. Roberson then asked Volberding to request that the federal trial court review his claim about ineffective counsel, and made sure that the court knew about that request by sending the court a copy of his letter to Volberding. But neither Volberding nor his co-counsel, Seth Kretzer, asked the court for the review. (Kretzer told me, "The thing about a Martinez claim is that it has to begin with facts showing the deficiency of trial counsel and we didn't find any.") When a federal magistrate judge recommended that Roberson's habeas bid be denied, as Roberson's petition to the Supreme Court summarizes, the magistrate noted that Volberding and Kretzer did not argue "the inadequacy of state post-conviction representation necessary to excuse its default" - that is, necessary for the court to let Roberson pursue his claim under the Martinez precedent. The magistrate wrote, "The Court would note that Roberson's federal counsel was also his state habeas counsel, and he had the opportunity to present the claim in the state habeas corpus proceedings; nonetheless, he failed to present the claim until the present proceeding." Volberding had an obvious conflict of interest. As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit wrote about a similar case, in 2013, it is "ethically untenable" and a violation of a client's rights under federal law to require that his or her lawyer "assert claims of his or her own ineffectiveness in the state habeas proceedings." The court found that when a "petitioner requests independent counsel in order to investigate and pursue claims under Martinez," it is "ethically required" - the court put those words in italics - that he have "qualified and independent counsel." As for Kretzer, he had a conflict of interest because his job was to work effectively with Volberding. If Kretzer had brought up with the federal court Volberding's failure to make the claim about his own ineffective counsel in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., S.C., FLA., LA.
Dec. 2 TEXAS: A Matter of Conviction Anthony Graves, Houston Forensic Science Center Board MemberExonerated from death row and working for justice, Anthony Graves doesn't have a moment to waste. Anthony Graves is doing remarkably well for a former resident of death row. "I'm a rock star," he says of the way he's treated these days, asking rhetorically: "How do they treat a rock star?" Sitting inside the Houston Forensic Science Center's soon-to-open new offices, he smiles without the slightest hint of irony. Graves, who was wrongfully incarcerated for 18 years - with 12 on death row - faced lethal injection twice before his 2010 exoneration. Today he spends his time trying to fix the criminal justice system that put him there. "It's broke," he says. "But who better to tell you that than the person who saw it fail them from top to bottom?" And fail it certainly did. The Brenham native was just 26 years old in 1992 when he was arrested and charged with the grisly murder of a family of 6 in Somerville, north of Brenham. Robert Earl Carter, his cousin's husband, had told police he and Graves had killed the family together. The day before Graves's 1994 trial, Carter tried to recant, telling the Burleson County district attorney he'd acted alone. But the DA didn't share that information with the defense team, putting Carter on the stand to testify against Graves anyway. After a speedy trial, Graves was convicted of capital murder. Graves remembers being shocked when police brought him in for questioning. "I thought it had something to do with a traffic ticket or something," he says, "and I didn't have one, so I was really in the dark." There he would stay, year after year, waiting, languishing in prison - all the while steadily maintaining his innocence and keeping the faith that justice would prevail. "For 6,640 days, I was always innocent. I never lost hope because that never changed," he says. "I had no choice, because the alternative was to believe they could kill me for something I didn't do." In 2000, before Carter was put to death, he made a statement from the death-chamber gurney, again taking sole responsibility for the murders. "Anthony Graves had nothing to do with it," he said. Minutes later, he was gone. In 2002, University of St. Thomas professor Nicole Casarez and a group of students discovered the case through the Texas Innocence Network, which partners with journalism students at UST and the University of Houston. When they visited him, the 1st thing Graves told Casarez and her students was that he would not try to prove his innocence to them. "Do the work: you'll find out for yourself," he remembers saying. There was, it turned out, scant evidence linking Graves to the murders. In 2006, thanks in large part to Casarez's work, his conviction was overturned. The wheels of justice began to turn, albeit slowly, as Graves continued to sit in jail, awaiting his retrial. Eventually, the state turned to former Harris County prosecutor Kelly Siegler. In 2010, a year into her appointment, Siegler told reporters Graves had been framed for a murder he did not commit, saying that "after looking under every rock we could find, we found not one piece of credible evidence that links Anthony Graves to the commission of this capital murder." In October 2010, Graves became the 12th person in Texas to be exonerated after a stay on death row, and within eight months he was awarded $1.4 million under a state law that compensates victims wrongfully convicted of crimes. After receiving the money, he didn't even go on vacation. It didn't make sense, he says, "to go out on an island and drink from an umbrella. That's not taking my life back." Instead, Graves would seek justice for others, first as an investigator for Texas Defender Services, assisting attorneys with capital murder cases, and then on his own as a consultant, communications specialist and advocate for a better criminal justice system. He also sought justice for himself, pursuing punishment for former Burleson County DA Charles Sebesta. This June, the Texas State Bar revoked Sebesta's license, ruling that he'd withheld critical evidence from Graves and his attorneys, including Carter's admission that he'd acted alone. "No, I disbarred him," Graves says, pointing out that it was he who filed the grievance. He says he's forgiven Sebesta but wants to see justice applied to the former prosecutor. "I just want to happen to him what would happen to any other person who tried to commit murder in our state," he says, calling what Sebesta tried to do to him "nothing short of attempted murder." In June of this year - just weeks after Sebesta was disbarred - Mayor Annise Parker tapped Graves to become a board member of the Houston Forensic Science Center, the new incarnation of the formerly embattled Houston Crime Lab. Casarez, who was appointed to the same board in 2012,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., ARK., COLO., CALIF., USA
Dec. 1 TEXAS: In retrial, man again sentenced to death for killing wife After hearing 9 days of testimony, it took a Houston jury just 15 minutes to again sentence William "Billy the Kid" Mason to death, prosecutors said Monday. Mason was convicted of capital murder in 1992 in the death of his wife, Deborah Ann Mason, and went to court again earlier this month after being granted a retrial for the punishment phase. "They understood from the beginning," Assistant Harris County District Attorney Katherine McDaniel said of the jurors who handed down the verdict. "It was just a never-ending parade of victims." She said jurors heard that Mason kidnapped his wife, then beat her to death under the Hwy. 59 bridge over the San Jacinto River in Humble because she was playing her radio too loudly on Jan. 17, 1991. He had been out of prison just 18 days after serving time for a murder and an attempted murder. "How many capital murderers also have a prior murder and an attempted capital murder?" McDaniel said. "He was just bad in every respect." She said jurors also heard testimony that Mason had risen to the rank of captain in the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a notorious prison gang. He spent more than a decade behind bars on a 55-year-sentence for robbing and killing a black man in 1977. On the day that 33-year-old Deborah Mason was killed, the couple had spent the morning smoking marijuana and drinking with friends. They got into a fight and he began to beat her in the presence of their friends. After the fight escalated, Deborah Mason was bound and gagged before being taken to the bridge where she was killed. The retrial was a result a Supreme Court ruling that determined jurors did not hear mitigating evidence in some death penalty cases from that era. He was facing either death or a prison sentence under the law as it was at the time of the slaying, which meant he could have been paroled in as little as 15 years. His attorneys argued that it was a case of horrible domestic violence, but rose to the level of a capital murder because of the kidnapping. "If he had killed her at the house, it wouldn't have been capital murder," Mason's lawyer, Terry Gaiser, said before the trial. If offered, Gaiser said, Mason would have agreed to a plea deal guaranteeing he never got out of prison. Gaiser could not be reached for comment Monday. The retrial began on Nov. 9. On Nov. 19, the jury came back with the verdict after deliberating less than a half-hour in state District Judge Marc Carter's court. It was the 2nd death penalty trial in Harris County this year. The 1st led to a sentence of life without parole for Johnathan Sanchez. (source: Houston Chronicle) GEORGIAimpending execution Clemency hearing set next week for Georgia death row inmate A clemency hearing is planned for next week for a Georgia death row inmate convicted of killing a close friend of his mother. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday said the hearing for Brian Keith Terrell will be held Dec. 7, a day before he is scheduled to die. Terrell was on parole in June 1992 when he stole 10 checks belonging to 70-year-old John Watson of Covington and signed his own name on some. Watson told Terrell's mother and sheriff's officials about the theft and agreed not to press charges if most of the money was returned the next day. But the day he was to return the money, Terrell had his cousin drive him to Watson's house where prosecutors say he shot Watson multiple times. (source: Associated press) FLORIDAnew execution date Gov. Scott orders execution in Glades County murder case, the 2nd for 2016 Gov. Rick Scott has ordered the execution of a man who has been on Florida's death row for 2 murders in 1983. The execution of Michael Ray Lambrix, scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 11, 2016, is the 2nd already planned in the new year. Oscar Ray Bolin is scheduled to be executed Jan. 7 for murders in Tampa Bay. Lambrix was convicted in Glades County in 1984 for killing Aleisha Bryant and Clarence Moore, Jr. According to information from the governor's office, Lambrix and his girlfriend met the victims at a bar and invited them back to the trailer where they lived for dinner. Lambrix then beat Moore to death with a tire iron and strangled Bryant. He stole a gold chain from Moore's body and buried them in a shallow grave before taking Moore's car. Lambrix had escaped from work release in December 1982 while serving a 2-year prison sentence for violoating probation. But outside groups, including Amnesty International, have contested the narrative that led Lambrix to spend more than 30 years on death row. They said that Frances Smith -- who Lambrix lived with and who was the key witness against him -- was not credible and had given inconsistent statements to police. Another witness who claimed Lambrix had confessed the murders later recanted her
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA
Dec. 1 TEXAS: 2 Texas death row inmates say their lawyers are failing them In the hours before Raphael Holiday was put to death by lethal injection earlier this month, he made a final appeal to the Supreme Court. The convicted Texas murderer argued that his 2 court-appointed lawyers had abandoned him by not filing a last-ditch petition for clemency. Now, another man on death row in Texas is accusing the same two lawyers of failing to provide him with effective counsel. In a petition to the Supreme Court, Robert Roberson alleges that they haven't pursued a key legal avenue in his appeal because of a conflict of interest. The lawyers, James Volberding and Seth Kretzner, say they've represented their clients effectively, and that the claims against them have been instigated by outside attorneys. "We're practical street lawyers. We deal with reality, not the world that you wish it was," Volberding told me. "Some other lawyers - we call them dreamy-eyed - want to pursue any conceivable option, even though it's completely unrealistic." But the legal duo is facing the unusual situation of opposing court motions filed by 2 of their their own clients within a few weeks. Their actions have raised eyebrows in the insular world of capital punishment attorneys - and at the Supreme Court. Being a death penalty lawyer means following complicated, technical appeals processes, often with only a vanishing chance of winning. That's especially so in Texas, which has accounted for more than 1/3 of all executions in the country since 1976. In both the Holiday and Roberson cases, the question seems to focus on whether a lawyer must exhaust every possibility of avoiding an execution - or whether it's better to be realistic about which claims are likely and which have virtually no chance of success. Let's start with Holiday. He was sentenced to die in 2002 for burning a house down with his 18-month-old daughter and her 2 half-sisters inside. His mother-in-law testified during trial that he forced her at gunpoint to spread gasoline while the kids watched. Then he lit a match. Volberding and Kretzner represented Holiday in his federal appeal. They filed a long petition alleging mistakes in the trial. But they lost at every level, and in June, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Holiday asked Volberding and Kretzner to file a clemency petition on his behalf. They declined, telling him that success was highly unlikely. Clemency requires approval from a state board as well as the governor. Only 2 death row inmates in the last 20 years have won clemency in Texas. "It was our professional opinion that a clemency petition did not have a realistic chance of success and merely raised false hopes," Volberding told me. "We hate the situation that ultimately happens, where someone is sitting there on the day of the execution waiting for a 1 in a million or 1 in a billion chance that their petition is going to work," Kretzner added. But federal law stipulates that attorneys appointed to represent death row clients shall represent them in "all available post-conviction proceedings." And legal experts say there isn't wiggle room, even if a win seems as likely as a snowstorm in San Antonio. "There should have been a federally appointed lawyer who was looking after [Holiday's] interests instead of letting him to go the execution chamber essentially unrepresented," said Jordan Steiker, the head of the University of Texas Law School's capitol punishment center. What happens when a murder suspect facing the death penalty represents himself in court? After Holiday took on the services of a pro bono attorney who filed a motion to have Volberding and Kretzner removed from the case (the 2 lawyers are being paid by the court), the lawyers soon changed their minds and filed what they admit was a hastily-written clemency petition--Volberding characterized it as "very quickly and effectively" done. The petition was denied. 2 weeks ago, on the day of his scheduled execution, Holiday's former trial attorney made a final appeal to the Supreme Court, which was denied. But in an unusual turn of events, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a statement naming Volberding and Kretzner, more or less rebuking them for having "abandoned" their client. "So long as clemency proceedings were 'available' to Holiday, the interests of justice required the appointment of attorneys who would represent him in that process," she wrote. After reviewing Sotomayor's statement, Volberding said he and Kretzner will be filing clemency petitions in all of their death penalty cases going forward. *** Only a few weeks after Holiday's execution, the Supreme Court will once again consider a motion by one of Volberding and Kretzner's death row clients asking to have his lawyers removed. On Friday, the Court will hear a petition by Robert Roberson, who alleges that they've failed
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., OHIO, IND.
Nov. 25
TEXAS:
Texas court gags news coverage of mass murders
The district court in this East Texas town (Palestine) has approved a defense
attorney's gag order to restrict news coverage of the recent campsite murders
of six victims, including evidence and testimony presented in pretrial
proceedings.
The prior-restraint order forbids the news media from reporting "in detail"
evidence presented to the court by police, prosecutors or witnesses "other than
reporting that certain persons testified" at pretrial hearings.
It also prohibits participants in the case - the parties, lawyers, law
enforcement officials, and witnesses - from talking to the news media on the
grounds such a restriction is necessary to protect defendant William Hudson's
right to a fair trial.
The gag order was approved Friday without comment by a judge, the same day it
was submitted by Hudson's court-appointed attorney, Stephen Evans of Palestine.
Surprisingly, news outlets received no advance notice of the motion or the
court's quickie decision to approve it.
Normally, before a court restricts the news media from publishing information,
a hearing is conducted before a judge to allow objection to whether a gag order
is necessary or even constitutional under the First Amendment right to publish
news.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark 1976 decision in a widely-publicized
Nebraska murder case, overturned a judge's gag order, declaring the government
has a heavy burden to prove it is necessary to gag the news media from
reporting lawfully obtained news no matter what. That ruling characterized a
gag order as a last resort, not a first option.
The 6 victims of the campsite carnage at Tennessee Colony just northwest of
Palestine were murdered only 10 days ago. Capital murder charges were filed
promptly against Hudson, 33, who lived adjacent to the murder scene, and was
identified by the lone survivor.
Hudson is being held without bail in the Anderson County Jail, awaiting the
outcome of a grand jury hearing on the case. He faces the death penalty or life
in prison without chance of parole if convicted.
The court gag order strictly bans the media from taking photographs or video of
defendant William Mitchell Hudson while he is being transported to court, and
rules out any photography, televising or radio broadcasting from inside the
courthouse.
The motion further directs the case judge to hold all pretrial hearings in the
judge's private chambers, "outside the presence and hearing of the public and
the press."
Defense attorney Evans said in the gag order motion his client "intends to
produce evidence during pretrial hearings which might impair the possibility of
a fair and unprejudiced jury."
(source: Dalton Daily Citizen)
VIRGINIA:
Harvey family killer to remain on death row after judges deny latest appeal
The man who killed the Harvey family in their South Richmond home nearly 10
years ago will remain on Virginia???s death row. The Federal 4th Circuit Court
of Appeals has denied killer Ricky Gray???s most recent appeal of his
conviction and death sentence. Gray filed the appeal before a a 3-judge panel
in September.
In explaining the appeal's denial, Judge Diaz wrote:
Ricky Jovan Gray appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ
of habeas corpus. His appeal presents 2 questions. First, whether the Supreme
Court of Virginia, in resolving factual disputes regarding an
ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim without an evidentiary hearing, made an
"unreasonable determination of the facts" under the Antiterrorism and Effective
Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), 28 U.S.C. # 2254(d)(2).
Because we find that the state court did not ignore Gray???s evidence or
otherwise reversibly err in resolving factual disputes on the record, we reject
this 1st challenge.
The 2nd question is whether Gray may belatedly raise in the district court a
claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel under the Supreme Court's
decision in Martinez v. Ryan, 132 S. Ct. 1309 (2012).
We find that the claim Gray seeks to raise was presented to, and decided by,
the state court. Therefore, it is not subject to de novo review in the district
court under Martinez.
Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
Senior Circuit Judge Davis disagreed, in part, with the decision to deny Gray's
appeal:
I agree with my friends in the majority that Ricky Jovan Gray exhausted his
claim that trial counsel were constitutionally ineffective in failing to
present evidence during the penalty phase of his trial that he was voluntarily
intoxicated during the commission of the crimes.
Furthermore, because a "reasonable fact-finder . . . could have found the facts
necessary to support [Gray's] claim from the evidence presented to the state
court[]," Winston v. Kelly, 592 F.3d 535, 551 (4th Cir. 2010), I agree with the
majority that the district court
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., FLA., CALIF.
Nov. 21 TEXAS: Prosecutor will seek death penalty in Texas campsite mass murders Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell said she will seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing 6 members of 2 families at a campsite near this East Texas town. Mitchell announced the decision to the Palestine Herald-Press late Friday afternoon. She filed capital murder charges earlier this week against William Hudson, 33, whose property abutted the campsite. He is being held without bond at the county jail. The penalty for capital murder in Texas is death by lethal injection or life in prison with no chance for parole. A jury makes the decision if the prosecutor asks for the death penalty. Mitchell said the case will be presented first to a county grand jury. Attorney Stephen Evans of Palestine was appointed to represent Hudson. The district attorney said the massacre was the "single most horrific crime committed in Anderson County's modern history. Our hearts grieve for the Johnson and Kamp families. We will use all resources available to prosecute Hudson to the fullest extent of the law." She told a news conference 5 of the victims were shot to death, and the 6th died from blunt force trauma, a deadly blow to the body. The sole survivor of the carnage, Cynthia Johnson, 73, hid in the woods from Hudson on Saturday night when authorities said he carried out the carnage. She called 911 about 7 a.m. Sunday to report the killings. He was arrested at his mother's nearby home. The district attorney said Hannah Hudson, 40, an insurance adjustor from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, died of blunt force trauma. Shot to death were her son, Jade, 6, her father, Carl Johnson, 77, her fiance Thomas Kamp, 46, and Kamp's 2 adults sons - Austin, 21, and Nathan, 24 - from a previous marriage. Mitchell said intense publicity raises the question of transferring the case to another jurisdiction in Texas, but she will insist it be prosecuted and tried in Anderson County. Arrest affidavits said survivor Cynthia Johnson, husband of Carl, told investigators Hudson befriended the campers Saturday afternoon when he used his tractor to free a vehicle stuck in mud. She said he later socialized and drank with them before slaughtering the victims. Investigators found the bodies of the Kamps and the Johnson child in a pond behind Hudson???s home. Hannah Johnson and her father were found dead in a silver travel trailer at the campsite, where Mrs. Johnson said they ran for their lives from Hudson. (source: The Daily Item) SOUTH CAROLINA: Stories of murder and execution to be heard Saturday The Mother Emanuel AME tragedy is part of the reason a North Carolina advocacy group decided to hold their annual conference in the greater Charleston area. The stories of murder and execution will be heard Saturday in North Charleston at the Hilton Garden Inn off International Boulevard. The group, "Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation" (MVFR) focuses on giving hope and healing to families of murder victims' and the death penalty. "It wrecked my life," said Teresa Avent, a member of the group whose brother was murdered. Avent said her brother's death turned her life upside-down. After several years she finally got to a place where she could face the accused killer and find a level of forgiveness. "Forgiveness is not so much for the offender," Avent said. "It's so much for us as the victims. It releases us to move forward in a productive manner.: Back in June the word 'forgiveness' rang across the Lowcountry and the nation. Family members of the victims killed in the Mother Emanuel AME shooting spoke of forgiveness to the accused killer. It's part of the reason MVFR chose this location for their conference. "Also because there's a broader suffering community and we wanted to highlight, amplify community, build voices to those who have been adversely affected by homicide," said Jeremy Collins, a board member. "We invited people from the community and the nation to come together and share experiences and stories they have of losing loved ones to murder and execution," said Executive Director, Jack Sullivan, Jr. The group also focuses on the death penalty and finding a better way to deal with that issue from a family victims' standpoint. Sullivan's sister was murdered 18 years ago. Her killer was never found, but to this day he said he wouldn't ask for execution. "We want to talk to the person and find out what he or she was going through," Sullivan said. "Why did he or she have to pull the trigger on my sister, our sister, and what is the best way for this person to be held accountable for what took place." South Carolina leaders from the NAACP President, Black Lives Matter, and Reverend Dr. Nelson Rivers will be in attendance. The day-long workshop will begin at 9:00 a.m. Saturday at the Hilton Garden Inn. The group welcomes
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., CALIF., USA
Nov. 20 TEXAS: Man charged with 6 counts of capital murder in East Texas campsite killings A man was charged with 6 counts of capital murder Thursday in the killing of a family at an East Texas campsite. William Mitchell Hudson, who remained jailed on a $2.5 million bond, is accused of shooting 2 of the victims at a travel camper and dumping the other 4 bodies in a pond near his property. The warrants were issued by the Anderson County district attorney's office after preliminary autopsy results showed all 6 victims died by homicide. The autopsies identified the dead as Carl Johnson, 76; Hannah Johnson, 40; Kade Johnson, 6; Thomas Kamp, 46; Nathan Kamp, 23; and Austin Kamp, 21. No other details from the autopsies would be released, Sheriff Greg Taylor said. According to a previous warrant, the 33-year-old suspect was drinking with the group Saturday when he accompanied four of them into surrounding woods. The warrant says the lone survivor, Cynthia Johnson, heard gunshots before Hudson returned alone to the campsite, chased her husband and daughter into a travel camper and shot them. No motive has been released. "There are no adequate words to truly describe this horrific and senseless act. 6 members of 2 different yet joined families are gone," District Attorney Allyson Mitchell said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. "Our hearts grieve for the Johnson and Kamp families and we will use all our resources to prosecute Hudson to the fullest extent of the law." Capital murder in Texas is punishable by either death by lethal injection or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. No decision has been made on whether the death penalty will be sought. Hudson's attorney, Stephen Evans of Palestine, declined to comment. After-hours messages seeking more information from the district attorney's office were not returned Thursday. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Death penalty can be sought for Ross murder retrial The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has cleared the way to seek the death penalty against Paul Aaron Ross of the Hollidaysburg area, who is awaiting a new trial in the death of a 26-year-old woman at Canoe Creek State Park more than 11 years ago. (source: Altoona Mirror) NORTH CAROLINA: Racial discrimination remains plague on criminal justice system One of the fundamental promises of the American criminal justice system is that ordinary citizens have the power to help decide how justice is handed down. But the truth is, we have never fully extended this power to African Americans. The U.S. Supreme Court underscored that truth this month, when it heard arguments in Foster v. Chatman, a Georgia case in which jury selection notes reveal that prosecutors purposely excluded every potential black juror and that they ranked the African Americans in case "it comes down to having to pick one of the black jurors." If the court rules for the defendant in Foster, its decision will force courts across the country to stop ignoring clear evidence that African Americans have been systematically denied the right to serve on juries across the country. Here in North Carolina, we should watch this case closely. In the investigation of cases tried under N.C. Racial Justice Act, we found evidence even stronger than that which drew the Supreme Court's attention this month. The prosecutor's handwritten notes in a Cumberland County capital case labeled jurors with terms like "blk wino" and "blk, high drug neighborhood." Another juror was deemed "ok" because she was from a "respectable blk family." RJA defendants also discovered that their prosecutors attended a training seminar, sponsored by the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, where they were given a cheat sheet of "race-neutral" excuses they could use to justify excluding African-American citizens from jury service. To top it off, a comprehensive statewide study of more than 150 capital cases from 1990-2010 found that prosecutors dismissed qualified African-American jurors at more than double the rate of white jurors. The disparity was even more pronounced when the defendant was African American. Despite this clear evidence, North Carolina has hardly begun to remedy the problem. The courts' record In the 30 years since it became illegal to strike a juror based on race, the North Carolina appellate courts have heard more than 100 cases where prosecutors were accused of intentionally excluding jurors of color. These courts ruled there was evidence of discrimination against African-American jurors in only 1, a case where the prosecutor failed to provide any explanation for his strikes." The courts' record was so troubling that the General Assembly enacted the Racial Justice Act, a law that forced the courts to consider statistical evidence of racial disparities in jury selection and charging and sentencing. The hope was that RJA would finally
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., TENN., CALIF.
Nov. 19 TEXAS: Texas 'Out of Step' With Other US States on Ending Death Penalty Texas is not following the practice of other US states to eliminate using capital punishment, advocacy group Equal Justice USA Executive Director Shari Silberstein told Sputnik. "The 6 states, including Texas, that have participated in executions this year are out of step with the growing number of states that have completely abandoned the death penalty," Silberstein said. On Wednesday, Texas put to death its 13th convicted killer this year. The killer, 36-year-old Raphael Holiday, was convicted for intentionally set fire and killed his 18-year-old daughter and 2 step sisters. "Even Texas' 13 executions this year, almost 1/2 of the national total, are down significantly from 2000, when the state executed 40 people," Silberstein noted. "The death penalty is in deep decline throughout the United States, with executions at all-time lows." More than 800 people have been executed in the United States in the past 15 years, according to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center. The state of Texas has executed 329 people since 2000. (source: sputniknews.com) GEORGIAexecution Georgia executes Marcus Ray Johnson for 1994 murder Marcus Ray Johnson has been put to death, the 1st of 7 expected to come over the next weeks and months as issues of the state's lethal injection drug has been resolved and death penalty cases complete the usual round of appeals. The appointed time of his death was 7 p.m., but actual execution almost never comes until hours later, after all the courts have reviewed last-minute appeals and decided. He was pronounced dead at 10:11 p.m. Johnson visited with 3 paralegals, an attorney, 2 investigators, 1 friend and 5 family members until around 3 p.m., and then was moved to a holding cell just a few steps from the death chamber. He declined to make a recorded final statement. Johnson, 50, had asked for a 6-pack of beer for his last meal but that request was turned down because, the Department of Corrections said, alcohol is "contraband" inside a prison. Instead, Johnson settled for the same meal served to the rest of the inmates at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison about 50 miles south of Atlanta. But he did not eat his dinner. Outside the prison, death penalty opponents gathered at the edge of the prison property and about a mile from the building that houses the execution chamber. They prayed as they waited on final word. Wednesday night the state Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Johnson's request for clemency and court after court on Thursday also rejected his appeals, in which he claimed he was innocent of murdering Angela Sizemore. Johnson and Sizemore met at an Albany bar called Fundamentals shortly after midnight on March 24, 1994. They drank, danced and kissed before leaving for a nearby empty lot where they had sex. Johnson told police he remembered little because he had drank so much tequila, but he did recall punching Sizemore because she wanted to cuddle. He insisted, however, that she was alive when he left her sitting in the field, crying. Her body was found around 8 a.m. inside her SUV, which was parked behind an apartment complex on the other side of town from the bar. She had been stabbed 41 times. Johnson's lawyers said there was little physical evidence connecting the 2 - a drop of her blood on his jacket (which Johnson said got on him when he punched Sizemore) and the remnants of their sexual relations. His lawyer said there would have been copious amounts of blood on his clothes if he had stabbed her, and his fingerprints and other DNA would have been inside her SUV if he had driven it across town. He also challenged the eyewitnesses who said they saw him in the neighborhood where Sizemore's Suburban was found. The Parole Board, as is its practice, did not give a reason for denying Johnson's clemency request, writing in the order only that the 5 members had "thoroughly and painstakingly reviewed and considered all of the facts and circumstances of the offender and his offense, the clemency application, argument, testimony and opinion in support of and against clemency." The courts turned down his appeals on the basis that his arguments had been heard before and were not new. Johnson becomes the 4th condemned inmate put to death in Georgia this year and the 59th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Johnson becomes the 27th and final condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA, and the 1,421st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. The 27 executions continues a downward trend in the USA since 2010, and represents the fewest amount of executions in the USA since 1991, when the nation carried out 14 executions. The next scheduled execution in the US is set for January 20, 2016, in Texas. (sources: Atlanta
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., DEL., GA., LA.
Nov. 18 TEXASimpending execution Texas Set To Execute Man Who Says His Lawyers Have "Abandoned" HimRaphael Holiday is set to be executed Wednesday for burning 3 children to death in 2000. Holiday has asked the Supreme Court to stop his execution, claiming his court-appointed lawyers have refused to help him. A Texas man is slated to be executed Wednesday for burning 3 children to death - including his 18-month-old daughter - despite his claims that his court-appointed attorneys have "abandoned" him. In March 2000, Raphael Holiday moved out of the house he shared with Tami Lynn Wilkerson and their 18-month-old daughter, Justice, along with Wilkerson's 2 other daughters - Jasmine DuPaul, 5, and Tierra Lynch, 7. Wilkerson had filed charges against Holiday and sought a protective order against him after she learned he had sexually assaulted Tierra, according to court documents. On Sept. 5, Holiday returned with a gun and threatened to "burn the house down with everyone it it." He then ordered everyone to sit on the couch and made Wilkerson's mother, Beverly Mitchell, pour gasoline all over the house, court records show. Mitchell said she saw Holiday "bend down," after which the fire started. All 3 children died in the fire, while Holiday stood outside and watched, court documents stated. Holiday has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution on the grounds that his 2 court-appointed attorney abandoned him when he wanted to pursue avenues of legal appeal that had not yet been exhausted. His appeal, filed by a pro-bono lawyer, claims that Holiday's 2 lawyers, appointed under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA), announced that they were through with the case "and then actively blocked Mr. Holiday's efforts to substitute" them, despite having instructed him to look for other death penalty lawyers. Holiday says his execution should be stopped for new counsel to be appointed. He also claims that after the 2 lawyers, James "Wes" Volberding and Seth Kretzer, refused to file petitions seeking clemency - on the "cynical assumption that clemency has no chance" - they eventually "hrew together" a "sham clemency application" in 48 hours without Holiday's knowledge. "We decided that it was inappropriate to file [a petition for clemency] and give false hope to a poor man on death row expecting clemency that we knew was never going to come," Volberding told The Dallas News. Kretzer said in a court letter that they also recognized the "political realities" of Texas. Last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion to replace the 2 attorneys. Holiday's most recent appeal states that "irreparable harm" will occur if he is executed without him having a "meaningful opportunity to seek clemency and develop unexhausted constitutional claims." The state responded by saying Holiday's appointed counsel have "sworn their commitment" to represent him and that he had failed to propose alternative counsel to take their place. After the Supreme Court denied a petition to review the case in June, Volberding and Kretzer informed Holiday in a letter that they would not file additional appeals or seek clemency from the governor, Dallas News reported. They also opposed a motion filed by an appellate lawyer who helped Holiday by asking the court to assign him new attorneys and threatened her with sanctions. Holiday could become the 13th person to be executed by Texas this year. (source: buzzfeed.com) * Area man set to be executed for arson-related deaths A 36-year-old man convicted of killing 3 children by setting fire to their rural Madison County home 15 years ago is set to be executed today. Raphael Holiday's execution warrant becomes valid at 6 p.m. If there are no ongoing appeals at that time, officials will go ahead with the execution by lethal injection. The United States Supreme Court denied a petition in June by Holiday's lawyers to review the case, after which his lawyers decided they would not take any further appeals, saying it would only give the inmate "false hope." Gretchen Sween, a lawyer in Austin, agreed to try to find new attorneys for Holiday, saying he had the right to "conflict-free counsel willing to pursue all relief available to him." That request was denied by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, so Sween appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court didn't immediately make a ruling. Sween couldn't be reached for comment. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Holiday will begin his day in Livingston -- where death row inmates are housed -- with extended visits with family and friends. He will be transported to Huntsville at an undisclosed time, then checked in and given a new uniform. Prison officials will take the Grimes County native to a small holding cell just outside the execution chamber, where he'll be able to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., ALA., NEV.
Nov. 18 TEXASexecution Texas man executed for setting fire that killed 3 children A Texas inmate was executed Wednesday for setting a fire that killed his 18-month-old daughter and her 2 young half-sisters at an East Texas home 15 years ago. Raphael Holiday, 36, became the 13th convicted killer put to death this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. It has accounted for 1/2 of all executions in the U.S. so far this year. Asked by a warden if he had a final statement, Holiday thanked his "supporters and loved ones." "I love y'all," he said. "I want you to know I'm always going to be with you." He thanked the warden. As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began, he took 2 deep breaths and appeared to yawn, his mouth remaining open as he wheezed several times. Then all movement stopped. 19 minutes later, at 8:30 p.m. CST, he was pronounced dead. Holiday never addressed or looked at witnesses, including the children's grandfather and mother, his former common-law wife. The mother initially stood at the back of the death chamber witness area, watching from behind a corrections officer. About 10 minutes later, with Holiday motionless on the death chamber gurney, she walked toward a window to see him. She and other relatives of the slain children declined to speak with reporters afterward. The punishment was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal seeking to halt Holiday's punishment so new attorneys could be appointed to pursue additional unspecified appeals in his case. Austin-based lawyer Gretchen Sween argued that Holiday's court-appointed attorneys abandoned him after the justices in June refused to review his case. Those lawyers advised Holiday his legal issues were exhausted and new appeals and a clemency petition would be fruitless. Earlier Wednesday, the judge in Holiday's trial court stopped the execution after Holiday's trial attorney filed an appeal saying the conviction and some trial testimony were both improper. The judge agreed the issues should be reviewed and withdrew his execution warrant. The Texas attorney general's office appealed, the judge's order was voided and the warrant reinstated, clearing the way for the lethal injection to move forward more. The execution took place about 2 1/2 hours later than scheduled because of the late state court appeal. Holiday told The Associated Press recently from a visiting cage outside death row that he didn't know how the log cabin he once shared with his wife and the children in the Madison County woods about 100 miles north of Houston caught fire in September 2000. "I loved my kids," Holiday said. "I never would do harm to any of them." Evidence and testimony showed Holiday was irate over a protective order his estranged wife obtained after his arrest for sexually assaulting one of the children. Holiday, from prison, contended he knew nothing about the assault. According to court records, he showed up at the home and forced the girls' grandmother at gunpoint to douse the interior with gasoline. After it ignited, he sped away in the grandmother's car, hit a police car that arrived outside the cabin and then led officers on a chase that ended 2 counties away when he wrecked. Defense attorneys at his trial suggested an electrical problem or a pilot light started the blaze in the early hours of Sept. 6, 2000, killing Holiday's daughter, Justice, and her half-sisters, Tierra Lynch, 7, and Jasmine DuPaul, 5. The girls' grandmother told a jury she watched Holiday bend down and then the flames erupted, court records show. Jurors convicted him of capital murder and decided he should be put to death. The lethal injection was the last one scheduled for Texas this year, but at least 5 inmates have execution dates set for early next year. Texas carried out 10 executions in 2014. Holiday becomes the531st condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982; he is the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death since Greg Abbott became governor in January of this year. Holiday becomes the 1420th inmate to be put to death overall in the USA since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present13 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-531 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 14-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson532 15-January 27---James Freeman-533 16-February 16--Gustavo Garcia534 17-March 9--Coy Wesbrook--535 18-March 22-Adam Ward-536 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) GEORGIAimpending execution Marcus Ray Johnson's request for clemency denied The
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., PENN., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., LA., ARK.
Nov. 17 TEXASimpending executuion Condemned man's lawyers stop helping, cite 'false hope' From his cell on death row, Raphael Holiday drafted letter after desperate letter to lawyers who represent the condemned. He begged for their help to plead for mercy from Gov. Greg Abbott, to try any last-ditch legal maneuvers that might stave off his impending execution. Holiday's appointed lawyers had told him that fighting to stop his punishment was futile, and they wouldn't do it. The 36-year-old thought he'd be left to walk to the death chamber with no lawyer at his side. Less than a month before his execution - scheduled for Wednesday - Holiday secured help. Austin attorney Gretchen Sween agreed to ask the court to find new lawyers willing to try to keep him from dying. But Holiday's federally appointed lawyers - the ones who said they would do no more to help him - are opposing their client's attempts to replace them. Now, just hours before he is set to face lethal injection for burning to death 3 children, including his own daughter, Holiday is awaiting word from the U.S. Supreme Court on his latest request for help. 'False hope' argument Lawyers James "Wes" Volberding and Seth Kretzer said they worked diligently to find new evidence on which to base additional appeals for Holiday, but that none exists. Seeking clemency from Abbott, a staunch death penalty supporter, would be pointless, they say. The 2 contend they are exercising professional judgment and doing what's best for their client. "We decided that it was inappropriate to file [a petition for clemency] and give false hope to a poor man on death row expecting clemency that we knew was never going to come," Volberding said in a telephone interview. But others say the law under which death row lawyers are appointed doesn't allow that kind of discretion. It requires attorneys to make every possible effort to save a client's life, if that's what the inmate wants. "This seems unconscionable," said Stephen Bright, president and senior counsel of the Southern Center for Human Rights and a teacher at Yale Law School. "Lawyers are often in a position of representing people for whom the legal issues are not particularly strong, but nevertheless they have a duty to make every legal argument they can." So far, appeals courts have sided with Volberding and Kretzer. Last Thursday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion to have them replaced. On Monday, Sween appealed to the Supreme Court. Holiday was convicted of intentionally setting fire to his wife's home near College Station in September 2000, killing her 3 little girls. He forced the children's grandmother to douse the home in gasoline. After igniting the fumes, Holiday watched from outside as flames engulfed the couch where authorities later found the corpses of 7-year-old Tierra Lynch, 5-year-old Jasmine DuPaul and 1-year-old Justice Holiday huddled together. Volberding and Kretzer were appointed in February 2011 to represent Holiday in his federal appeals. They filed a 286-page petition in federal court, alleging dozens of mistakes in Holiday's case, ranging from assertions that he was intellectually disabled to charges that clemency is so rarely granted in Texas that the process has become meaningless. On June 30, the Supreme Court denied Holiday's petition for a review of his case. Such rulings are common; the high court declines thousands of cases each year. Still, it's a major blow to an inmate whose life depends on the court's mercy. Many lawyers for death row inmates deliver the news in person, knowing how devastating it can be when a last, scant shred of legal hope disintegrates. Volberding sent Holiday a letter. 'The end of work' "I am sorry, but the Supreme Court just denied your appeal," the Tyler-based lawyer wrote. "This marks the end of work for your appeals I regret." The 1 1/2-page message informed Holiday that his lawyers would not file additional appeals or seek clemency from the governor. Neither option, Volberding wrote, presented a real chance of sparing Holiday's life. In the letter, Volberding told Holiday he could seek the help of pro bono lawyers if he wanted to pursue those options. So Holiday blanketed the small community of Texas death penalty lawyers with letters seeking help. When none responded, he wrote to the court. "Your honor, I beg you to consider new appointment of effective counsels to my case," Holiday wrote. "They have refused to help me and it is a disheartening conundrum I am not fit to comprehend." Kretzer countered with a letter to the court insisting that he and Volberding were still working on the case despite its hopelessness. They refused to seek clemency or file additional pleadings not out of laziness or antipathy toward Holiday, Kretzer said, but because they recognized the "political realities" in Texas. In late October, Sween, an
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., GA., OHIO, NEB., ORE., USA
Mov. 15 TEXAS: Human, monetary cost-cutting There is little common ground between those who are pro-death penalty, and the abolitionists. If we assume, however, that only guilty people should be punished and that taxpayers want to save money, the system can be improved. Cost is always an issue. In 1992 The Dallas Morning News calculated the costs of an average Texas execution was $2.3 million compared to $750,000 for life imprisonment. Since 1992, the cost of lawyers, extra time in jury selection, inmate housing, and appeals has risen substantially. Nueces County has had 16 executed offenders which ranks as 5th most in the state. San Patricio, Kleberg and Aransas counties have each had 1. Nueces County currently has three offenders on death row, which includes Larry Hatten who has been sitting there since January 1996 for shooting a 5-year-old boy. Neither Hatten, Richard Vasquez, nor John Ramirez, the other area death row offenders, has as of yet, received an execution date. Here are some suggestions: Videotape all confessions. Many states and the U.S. Department of Justice already require this, but not Texas. According to the Innocence Project, false confessions were a factor in 25 percent of convictions overturned by DNA testing. Younger offenders, those who have mental or emotional defects, those "under the influence," or faced with law enforcement pressure, have all falsely confessed. In the past, implementation of videotape would have been costly and cumbersome, but smartphones, tablets and the like have foreclosed any excuses. Regional mental health panels: If you think lawyers are expensive, try hiring a medical expert witness. When the mental state of the accused is an issue, experts are hired by both prosecution and defense. However, as most capital murder cases involve indigents, taxpayers have a dog, or perhaps are the dog, on both sides of the fight. Smaller counties often have no resident experts. Although we may think medical professionals are unbiased, there are lists of experts who always testify for just one side, and their testimony is not contrary to their paycheck. Regional, neutral panels nominated by their peers would be an improvement. They would review the defendant's interview and other evidence, yet only one would testify. While not totally dispositive of other experts, their objective views would carry overwhelming credibility. National standards for scientific testing: A few years ago I defended a murder case in Corpus Christi where the main issue was the defendant's location. The state's expert used cellphone "pings" and tower locations to demonstrate that the defendant was in the wrong spot at the right time. We had an attorney who rattled off scientific terms and numbers that no one understood, resulting in a costly, hung jury and retrial. Other "science" such as hair microscopy, bite mark analysis, and shoe print comparisons, have all resulted in errors. Faulty analysis is behind 47 % of wrongful convictions, according to the Innocence Project. Let's set some standards! Fair division of costs: To "get away with (capital) murder" in Texas or at least not be executed, commit your crime in an average or small county. When I was Willacy County District Attorney I feared capital cases, knowing we couldn't afford them, either in cash or personnel. A Texas Tribune study found more than 1/2 (135) of Texas counties have never executed anyone, and 60 % of the death sentences in the past 5 years have originated from 2 % of our counties. A check of the Texas execution "waiting" list confirms very few small to medium counties pursue the death penalty. The state, not the county, needs to pick up the tab. Without more safeguards, innocent people inevitably will be executed. Each day we are paying for the 60 % of death row inmates who have been there more than 15 years, as well as for 78-year-old Jack Smith, and 10 other inmates who waited more than 30 years. We can't placate those with extreme positions, but we can cut costs, improve our justice system, and enhance our reputation as a state. (source: opinion, Steve FischerCorpus Christi Caller-Times) CONNECTICUT: Komisarjevsky lawyer says uncovered police calls should be added to Cheshire case A lawyer for convicted killer Joshua Komisarjevsky is filing to rectify the record in his case after additional police calls from the deadly 2007 home invasion were found in a cabinet by town employees. The calls show police may have tried to stop Komisarjevsky's partner, Steven Hayes, as he drove back from a bank where he had forced Jennifer Hawke-Petit to withdraw money. The motion, filed Friday morning, claims the calls "support the defense's theory at the guilt-innocence phase that the police response in this case was inadequate" and provide evidence of Komisarjevsky's mental state when he was questioned by police. Moira Buckley,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., S.C., FLA., OHIO, TENN.
Nov. 13 TEXAS: Some changes would improve the death penalty process There is little common ground between those who favor the death penalty and those who want to abolish it. Still, if we assume that only guilty people should be punished and that taxpayers want to save money, the system can be improved. Cost is always an issue. In 1992, The Dallas Morning News calculated that the cost of an average Texas execution was $2.3 million compared to $750,000 for life imprisonment. Since 1992, the costs of lawyers, extra time in jury selection, inmate housing and appeals have risen substantially. Data reported by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice show Tarrant County has had 38 offenders executed since 1976, the 4th-most in the state. Dallas County ranks 2nd with 55 executed, while nearby Parker County has had 2 and Denton County 6. Johnson and Hood Counties have not fulfilled a death penalty sentence since 1976. Some suggestions: -- Videotape all confessions. Many states and the U.S. Department of Justice already require this, but not Texas. According to the Innocence Project, false confessions were a factor in 25 % of convictions overturned after DNA testing. Younger offenders, those who have mental or emotional handicaps, those "under the influence" or faced with law enforcement pressure have all falsely confessed. In the past, videotape would have been costly and cumbersome, but smart phones, tablets and the like have foreclosed any excuses. -- Require regional mental health panels. When the mental state of the accused is an issue, experts are hired by both prosecution and defense. As most capital murder cases involve indigents, taxpayers pay for both sides of the fight. Smaller counties often have no resident experts. Regional, neutral panels nominated by their peers could review the defendant's interview and other evidence, yet only one would testify. While not totally dispositive of other experts, their objective views would carry great credibility. -- Set national standards for scientific testing. I once defended a murder case in Corpus Christi in which the main issue was the defendant's location. The state's expert used cellphone "pings" and tower locations to demonstrate that the defendant was in the wrong spot at the right time. We had an attorney who rattled off scientific terms and numbers that no one understood, resulting in a costly, hung jury and re-trial. Other "science" such as hair microscopy, bite mark analysis and shoe print comparisons have all resulted in errors. Faulty analysis is behind 47 % of wrongful convictions, according to the Innocence Project. -- Have a fair division of costs. To "get away with (capital) murder" in Texas, or at least not be executed, commit your crime in an average or small county. A Texas Tribune study found more than 1/2 (135) of Texas counties have never executed anyone, and 60 % of the death sentences in the past 5 years have originated from 2 % of our counties. The state, not the county, needs to pick up the tab. Without more safeguards, innocent people will inevitably be executed. We can't placate those with extreme positions, but we can cut costs, improve our justice system and enhance our reputation as a state. (source: Opinion; Steve Fischer of Rockport has been Willacy County district attorney, a criminal lawyer and a professor of criminologyFort Worth Star-Telegram) Jury delivers verdict in death penalty trial A Houston man escaped the death penalty Thursday when jurors opted for a punishment of life without parole. Jurors deliberated more than 12 hours over 3 days before deciding to spare Johnathan "J-Boi" Sanchez in the shooting deaths of 3 people. The same jury convicted the 27-year-old last week of capital murder for killing 3 people and wounding 2 others in a Copperfield-area apartment on the afternoon of Nov. 20, 2013. Sanchez went to an acquaintance's apartment and opened fire, killing Yosselyn Alfaro, who was celebrating her 21st birthday, and Daniel Munoz and Veronica Hernandez, both 17. The 2 survivors, who were also shot in the head, were able to tell police Sanchez was the gunman. The trial, in state District Judge Mark Ellis' court, was the 1st death penalty trial in Harris County this year. (source: Houston Chronicle) CONNECTICUT: Crime and punishment in Connecticut In 2012, Connecticut's Democrat dominated General Assembly abolished capital punishment but carved out an exception for convicted murderers awaiting the death penalty on death row. The carve-out for the 11 death row prisoners was a blatant violation of what used to be called the natural law, a series of political, philosophical and penological assumptions that informs all laws, statutory and constitutional. The abolition should have been applied retroactively to Connecticut prisoners awaiting death, for reasons lucidly stated by
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MO., CALIF., WASH.
Nov. 13 TEXAS: Appeals court refuses to stop execution set for next week A federal appeals court has refused to stop next week's scheduled execution of an East Texas man condemned for setting a fire that killed his young daughter and her 2 half-sisters at their home 15 years ago. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday rejected a petition from an attorney for 36-year-old Raphael Holiday. Austin-based lawyer Gretchen Sween is arguing Holiday's court-appointed attorneys have abandoned him and his lethal injection scheduled for Wednesday should be stopped so new attorneys can be named for him and pursue appeals. Sween said Friday she'll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Holiday's court-appointed attorneys say his legal issues have been exhausted. Holiday is facing execution for the three fire deaths at the rural Madison County home of his estranged former common-law wife. (source: Associated Press) MISSOURI: Missouri hearing in double killing postponed until next year A Missouri change-of-venue hearing on murder charges linked to a double slaying has been postponed for the suspect already serving life sentences for 6 killings in Illinois. 36-year-old Nicholas Sheley was to have had a hearing Friday in Jefferson County, where he argues he can't get a fair trial on charges related to the deaths of an Arkansas couple during an alleged 2-state killing spree seven years ago. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. But the hearing was pushed back Thursday until Jan. 8. Sheley was extradited to Missouri in February from Illinois. 4 of the people he was convicted of killing were bludgeoned with a hammer and ranged in age from 2 years to 29. The other 2 victims were 65 and 93. (source: Associated press) CALIFORNIA: Proposed death penalty fix may fall short Both friends and foes of the death penalty agree the state???s current system is broken and that voters should do something about it in 2016. Of course, the 2 sides part ways from there. Opponents want it replaced by a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a plan the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office has estimated would save the state more than $100 million annually. Proponents want to preserve and fix it with a plan that the LAO has said could save the state "tens of millions" in prison costs annually. That savings would reverse the current phenomenon of death-row inmates costing the state more than those serving life sentences, backers say. State voters have cast ballots in favor of the death penalty three times, most recently in 2012 when 52 % rejected a ban on executions similar to the one being prepared for next year's election. If both sides are succeed in qualifying their measures for the ballot next November, the outcome could be in the hands of the voters in the middle - those more concerned about the practical and financial aspects of the law than whether the death penalty is right or wrong. That's where the plan to resume executions may fall short. Waiting and waiting The state hasn't executed anybody since 2006, when the courts determined the 3-drug lethal injection used could cause "cruel and unusual suffering." Not that the death penalty was working well before then. The bureaucracy of the appeals process, the lack of available defense attorneys and a backlog of cases at the Supreme Court has resulted the state's death row population growing to 747. Since 1978, 87 have died of natural causes or suicide on death row - 6 times as many as have been executed during that period. Death penalty advocates cheered 2 incremental steps this month: the Department of Corrections will proceed with the review process toward replacing the 3-drug cocktail with a single drug and an appeals court made a narrow technical ruling that favors the death penalty. But neither move makes it any clearer if and when executions will resume. District attorneys throughout the state, including Orange County???s Tony Rackauckas and San Bernardino County's Mike Ramos, had already begun pushing for a ballot measure to get executions back on track. The measure, which is awaiting state approval so that signature petitions can be circulated, calls for several key changes: -- Streamlining the process for approving a single-drug injection that would address the 2006 court order. -- Expanding the pool of defense attorneys available to represent death row inmates in their appeals process. It now takes 3 to 5 years for an attorney to be assigned because there are so few. -- Streamlining the appeals process, which takes years to reach the state Supreme Court once attorneys are assigned. -- Eliminate the single-cell housing of death-row inmates. This, along with expediting the appeals process, would account for the projected savings. A remaining obstacle There are currently 18 inmates who've exhausted all appeals and are cleared for death once
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, OKLA., CALIF., USA
Nov. 12 TEXAS: Woman gave birth before being charged in connection with son's death A 21-year-old mother went into labor Tuesday before she could be charged with capital murder in connection with the death of her 10-month-old child. Fabiola Lopez was more than 9 months pregnant when she was arrested Tuesday in connection to the death of her son and went into labor while in custody. She was taken to a local hospital, where she delivered, according to Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office spokesman J.P. Rodriguez. After giving birth, she was charged with capital murder of person under 10 years old, a capital felony, by Justice of the Peace Marcos Ochoa. She remained in the custody of the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office with a $500,000 bond at a local hospital Wednesday night. The sheriff's office began their investigation Nov. 3, when they were called to Rio Grande Regional Hospital in reference to a 10-month-old boy suffering from critical injuries. The child died Nov. 6 after spending several days on life support, Rodriguez said. Lopez told doctors her child had fallen off the bed at their home near Edinburg. An autopsy determined the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head, but during the investigation deputies found probable cause that Lopez caused the death of her child, Rodriguez wrote in an email Tuesday. Investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Lopez and took her into custody. If convicted of a capital murder, Lopez faces the death penalty or life in prison. (source: The Monitor) FLORIDA: Admitted cartel hit-man faces death penalty trial for 2 murders in Florida An admitted Mexican cartel hit-man convicted of murders in California and Alabama is also facing a possible death sentence in Florida for 2 additional killings. Authorities say 53-year-old Jose Manuel Martinez is being charged with 1st-degree murder in the slayings of 20-year-old Javier Huerta and 28-year-old Gustavo Olivares-Rivas in Florida. The victims were found in a pickup truck bound and shot multiple times on a road in Ocala National Forest. Martinez has already been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to 9 murders in California over 3 decades. Last year, Martinez pleaded guilty in Alabama to killing a man for making derogatory remarks about his daughter. The Ocala Star-Banner reports (http://bit.ly/1ROM2KP) that prosecutors in Marion County will seek to extradite Martinez from California. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Youngstown murder now death penalty case A Mahoning County grand jury indicted a Youngstown man in what is now a death penalty murder case. Lance Hundley, 46, of Warren, was charged with aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, aggravated felonious assault, and aggravated arson in connection to the Nov. 6 beating death of 41-year-old Erika Huff. Prosecutors say Hundley beat Huff inside a Cleveland Street house and then set it on fire to cover up the crime. Huff's mother was also beaten by Hundley, but survived the attack, according to police. Police say Hundley went to the house and beat Huff, leaving her unconscious. The victim's mother came later after her daughter's medic alert alarm went off and encountered Hundley and was assaulted. Hundley set fire to the house and tried to leave as police were arriving. Hundley is being held in the Mahoning County Jail on $2 million bond. (source: WKBN news) OKLAHOMA: Tulsa County prosecutors no longer seeking death penalty against 1999 double-murder convict Tulsa County prosecutors are no longer seeking the death penalty for a man who remains convicted of murdering a retired Tulsa banker and an Owasso trucking company owner in 1999. Victor Cornell Miller, 52, has been fighting a legal battle against the state since before a jury first convicted him in 2002. First Assistant District Attorney John David Luton announced in court Tuesday that he will no longer seek the death penalty for Miller. Luton said the decision came after talking with the victims' family members. "The consensus of the family was that this was a way to create some finality in the case," Luton said, noting that the matter is already 16 years old. Miller was convicted in the shooting deaths of Mary Agnes Bowles, 77, a retired Tulsa banker and a former Saint Francis Hospital Auxiliary president, and Jerald Thurman, 44, the owner of an Owasso trucking company. Prosecutors maintained that Miller shot Thurman before Miller's accomplice, John Fitzgerald Hanson, shot Bowles. Thurman's son, Jake Thurman, said Wednesday that while this was not his preferred outcome of the case, he and his family are ready to move on. "I'm not really happy with all of it, but at the same time I'm happy that the family will get some closure and not have to keep opening the wound and stitching it closed again," he said. At a trial in 2002,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., ALA., OHIO, ARK.
Nov. 11 TEXAS: Waxahachie Representative John Wray: A True Texas Hero If ever there was a story that needed a hero, it is the Lake Waco Triple Murder. Jan Thompson, aunt of Lake Murder victim, Jill Montgommery, in her quest for the simple truth via DNA, has gone to many people for help in what seems to many to be a simple case of basic subtraction and a situation begging for a man with common sense. Unfortunately, time after time, people in positions to help have not. Case in point: Senator Rodney Ellis, Democrat, Houston, Texas The formerly heroic Senator Ellis, known by reputation as a defender of the innocent and poor, really dropped the ball on this one. Contacted many times in person and by letter since 2011, Senator Ellis has ignored this case and questionably has not seen fit to quiz members of the Innocence Project of Texas about this case. Happily, taken out of the hands of the lawyers, this case is now in the hands of the TEXAS FORENSICS COMMISSION. Anthony Melendez, in a letter to his attorney, Innocence Project VICE PRESIDENT, Walter Reaves, demanded that Reaves take his case to the TEXAS FORENSICS COMMISSION. He also asked that they "run the DNA" and Melendez has told Reaves in writing to "take the tapes to the TEXAS FORENSICS COMMISSION". It makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER for the Commission to go after only "bite marks" in the Lake Waco case when there is obvious DNA sitting in Arkansas, that has not been run against the DNA of Spence, Melendez, or Deeb. The case of Juanita White (mother of David Wayne Spence) has already fallen to the wayside by DNA clearing of Calvin Washington and the overturning of the case of Joe Sidney Williams. Senator Rodney Ellis and his Chief of Staff, Brandon Dudley, merely decided that those who have questions about the handling of the case are "nuts". One must wonder IF and when the DNA comes back and clears the Lake Murder defendants how Senator Ellis is going to explain the obvious lack of interest. Representative John Wray hand delivered a letter to Senator Rodney Ellis himself, then informed Jan Thompson that he believed Senator Ellis would soon be contacting her soon to help. You see, Representative John Wray is a young man, still interested and still questioning. Representative Wray is a lawyer and has grown up in Waxahachie where Jan Thompson is somewhat of an icon. MANY people have questions about this case without the glaring question, "why hasn't the DNA been run"? Jan Thompson waited for Senator Ellis or someone from his office to contact her. Months passed and there was nothing. Jan Thompson called Representative Wray's office again and in early September, things began to happen. The TEXAS FORENSICS COMMISSION is going to look at the case, the National Innocence Project has been contacted and thanks to Representative John Wray of Waxahachie, Texas, a woman who deserves to know the truth, Jan Thompson, finally will. Wray, instead of berating and questioning motives of those involved, has seen evidence and knows "ridiculous" when it is served up. Representative Wray, when faced with the DNA of this important case going to a lab in Arkansas in 2013, not having samples from the convicted, run on a whim by a lawyer with a New York writer as Puppetmaster, was as confused as the rest of us. THE DNA IS FUNDED AND IS BEING RUN We would like to thank Representative Wray, finally a true hero in a saga that sorely needed one! (source: wordpress.com) CONNECTICUT: State: Hold Off On Changing Cheshire Home Invasion Killers' Death Sentences The issue of whether the death sentences of Cheshire home invasion killers Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky should be corrected in state court should not be addressed until the state Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the death sentence of Russell Peeler Jr., prosecutors said in recently filed court papers. It was not known Tuesday when the state's highest court is expected to rule on the death penalty appeal of Russell Peeler Jr., who was sentenced to death for ordering the 1999 killings in Bridgeport of 8-year-old Leroy "B.J." Brown Jr. and his mother, Karen Clarke. But while the decision is pending, the trial court should not consider changing death sentences to punishments of life in prison without the possibility of parole, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Robert J. Scheinblum wrote in a motion filed Monday for a stay of Hayes' motion filed on Friday in Superior Court to correct what he calls his "illegal" sentence. Komisarjevsky filed a similar motion on Friday but the state's response only references Hayes' motion. "To mitigate the risk that the questions presented in Peeler will become moot before this Court addresses them, no action should be taken by the trial court on the defendant's motion to correct his death sentence until there is a final judgment in Peeler, Scheinblum wrote. On Monday,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OKLA., USA
Nov. 10 TEXAS: Condemned Killer of Houston Girl, 2, Loses Court Appeal A federal appeals court has refused an appeal from a 56-year-old Houston man on Texas death row for the rape and fatal beating of his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter 15 years ago. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments from Kerry Dimart Allen that his lawyers at his Harris County trial in 2001 were deficient. The court late Monday also turned down arguments that the state, its death penalty law and the trial court's actions during jury selection all violated Allen's constitutional protections. Allen already was a convicted sex offender when he was arrested for the May 2000 slaying of Kienna Lashay Baker. He'd been living with the child's mother and watched her 4 children when she went to work. Allen does not yet have an execution date. (source: NBC news) FLORIDA: Last chance to spare Tommy Zeigler's life may be modern scienceDeath row inmate files motion for additional DNA testing It's a thrift store on Dillard Street now, but in 1975, a Christmas Eve nightmare unfolded inside the Zeigler Furniture store in Winter Garden when 4 people were murdered, and the owner, Tommy Zeigler was wounded. Within days, Zeigler was charged in the killings of his wife, Eunice, her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards, and customer Charlie Mays. They were shot, some with multiple guns, and the men were beaten. The prosecution, led by then-State Attorney Robert Eagan, called it a plot devised by the businessman to collect $500,000 on insurance policies he'd taken out on his wife months earlier. The state also persuaded a jury that Zeigler tried to frame Mays, a customer and local citrus worker. Just 7 months later, in July 1976, Zeigler was sent to death row. A jury that originally deadlocked on the case before reaching a guilty verdict recommended a life sentence. But presiding Judge Maurice Paul, who now sits on the U.S. District Court of North Florida, sentenced Zeigler to death. WESH 2 News has previously reached out to Paul, but he has declined to discuss the case. Recently, Zeigler wrote to WESH 2 News from his jail cell at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford. In the letter, Zeigler said there are 2 major developments in his case. 1 involves DNA testing and the other is a document. "I did not kill my wife," Zeigler said. "I did not kill Mr. and Mrs. Edwards. I did not kill Mr. Mays." Greg Fox, reporter: "You're innocent?" Zeigler: "Yes." Zeigler claims he was jumped by the killers. "It was dark in there, and like I said, I was being bounced around like a ping pong ball, off the walls and everything," Zeigler said. "And I was shot!" Nearly 40 years later, Zeigler's last chance to spare his life may be modern science. He's filed a motion for "additional DNA testing" on "every single bloodstain" on his shirts, his wife's clothing and father-in-law's "finger nails." Zeigler claims today's testing, not available years ago, will prove he's innocent. "It was a bloody mess. How can you beat somebody to death and not get their blood on you?" he said. Zeigler's legal team has also uncovered court documents in Colquitt County, Georgia, where victims Perry and Virginia Edwards lived, that show his in-laws withdrew and were changing their will to make Zeigler the executor, giving him control of millions of dollars. Zeigler recalls the proposed change in the will infuriated his late brother-in-law Perry Edwards Jr., who was the executor, along with Eunice Zeigler, at the time. Photos shows Edwards Jr. looked similar to Zeigler in 1975, and the death row inmate believes Edwards Jr. designed the murder plot to keep control of his family's money. Zeigler is counting on the new evidence to win an acquittal or a new trial. "The facts are what they are," said State Attorney Jeff Ashton. "None of this stuff changes that. It never has, and it never will." Ashton has been prosecuting the Zeigler case since he took over in the 1980s. He said Zeigler's fifth motion for DNA testing is irrelevant, citing the Supreme court ruling that reads: "...we do not believe that Zeigler has presented a scenario under which new evidence resulting from DNA typing would have affected the outcome of the case." "If Mr. Zeigler got every DNA test he asked for today, he'd find something else to ask for," Ashton said. Zeigler's attorney, Dennis Tracey, who's been on the case since 1986, said the evidence is a slam dunk. "40 years later, we are very confident that if we test this DNA, we will find out who the killer was." Tracey said. "You don't execute someone when there is definitive evidence in the courthouse that you haven't looked at." Tracey also told WESH 2 News that a key witness in the case, Felton Thomas, has given a recorded statement, recanting some of his testimony. Thomas said in the interview that authorities told him the night of the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., FLA., KY., CALIF., USA
Nov. 9 TEXAS: Man who killed wife returns to court for retrial of punishment William "Billy the Kid" Mason was convicted of beating his wife to death for playing her radio too loudly. Mason hogtied 33-year-old Deborah Ann Mason, put her in the trunk of a car and drove her to Humble where he bludgeoned her with a piece of concrete. Her body, bound and gagged, was found Jan. 27, 1991, near the San Jacinto River. Mason, who became a member of the Aryan Brotherhood gang while in prison, had been paroled on a murder conviction 3 weeks before his wife's death. He is scheduled to go trial later this year. William "Billy the Kid" Mason is a like a wrecking ball, prosecutors said Monday during opening statements of the 2nd death penalty trial in Harris County this year. "Everything he touches, he destroys," Assistant Harris County District Attorney Katherine McDaniel told jurors hearing testimony in the re-trial on the punishment phase of Mason's capital murder case. "The choices William Mason has made continue to wreck the lives of everyone around him." Mason was convicted of kidnapping and bludgeoning 33-year-old Deborah Ann Mason in 1991 under the Hwy. 59 bridge over the San Jacinto river in Humble. He faces the possibility of death or prison time with a chance at parole in as little as 15 years. On Monday, the 61-year-old sat quietly in a powder blue button-down shirt and round black glasses and listened as prosecutors laid out their case. His defense team did not make an opening statement. Attorney Terry Gaiser has said the case should have been tried as a murder, but because Mason tied up his wife, put her in the trunk of a car, the underlying felony of kidnapping made it a death penalty case. Gaiser has said Mason would agree to a plea deal that ensures he will spend the rest of his life in prison, if offered. That offer has apparently not come, as prosecutors prepared for at least a week of testimony to detail the crime and Mason's behavior before and after the slaying, including another murder conviction during a crime spree more than a decade earlier. McDaniel said Mason is a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a violent white supremacist prison gang. She said he robbed and killed a black man in 1977 after spending hours seeking out a black victim. "Don't you know he went through that man's pockets and then shot him dead?" McDaniel said. She said Mason also committed an armed robbery of a Mexican food restaurant later that year, then fled to California, where he was arrested. After spending 13 years in prison for murder, McDaniel said, he was paroled. It was only 18 days after getting out that he beat his wife to death by smashing her head with concrete blocks, then weighing down her body in the San Jacinto river. Her body was found days later by passersby after storm waters receded. The case, in state District Judge Marc Carter's court, is the 2nd death penalty trial in Harris County this year. (source: Houston Chronicle) PENNSYLVANIA: Delco ex-cop, awaiting murder trial, guilty of stalking A former Delaware County police officer awaiting trial for the slaying of an ex-girlfriend pleaded guilty Monday to stalking another woman. Stephen Rozniakowski, 33, of Norwood, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 23 months in prison as part of a plea deal under which 75 counts of stalking and harassment were reduced to one court of stalking. His attorney said the plea would allows Rozniakowski to focus on the murder charges he faces in Delaware County, where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Rozniakowski, a former Colwyn Borough police officer, was charged in Montgomery County in April 2014 with stalking an ex-fiancee. Prosecutors said 6 months of harassment began after the woman broke off her engagement with Rozniakowski in September 2013. "He would not let her have peace," said Assistant District Attorney Brianna Ringwood. "He called repeatedly at all hours of the day and night. He called her cell phone, he called her at work, he called family and friends. He texted her incessantly." While out on bail, Rozniakowski began dating Valerie Morrow, whom he is now charged with killing. He began stalking Morrow when she ended their relationship months later, police said, and in December broke into her Glendolden, Delaware County, house, killed her, and shot her daughter. The 2 cases are "totally unrelated," said defense attorney Martin Mullaney. But prosecutors in Delaware County could choose to use the stalking case as evidence in the murder trial, Ringwood said. "My client made a prudent decision today to enter a guilty plea in this case so he can focus his attention on his much more serious charges in Delaware County," said Mullaney, who is not representing Rozniakowski in the murder case. (source: philly.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Suspect in North Hills murder looks to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF., USA
Nov. 7 TEXAS: State To Seek Death Penalty In Shotgun-Slaying Of Local Woman McLennan County prosecutors announced late Friday afternoon that they'll seek the death penalty against James Ray Brossett, 48, of Arlington, who was indicted last month for capital murder and attempted capital murder in connection with an early-morning shooting on July 6 in a home in the China Spring area outside of Waco that left a woman dead and her 18-year-old son injured. Prosecutors made the announcement during a late-afternoon hearing in 54th State District Court during which Brossett pleaded not guilty to capital murder and attempted capital murder charges. His request for a bond reduction from $5 million to $500,000 was denied. Laura Lynn Easter Patschke, 48, was shot several times at close range with a shotgun. Her son was shot in the arm after he heard "the sound of someone forcing entry into the house," grabbed a gun and went to his mother's bedroom "where he was confronted by a subject shining a flashlight in his eyes," an arrest warrant affidavit said. The teenager, who told investigators he recognized Brossett's voice, ran out of the house after he was shot and heard several more shots from inside the home while he was running, the affidavit said. He said he recognized the voice because Brossett "had recently been involved in a dating relationship with his mother." Patschke was shot several times at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with large 000 buckshot rounds, the affidavit said. Investigators found 12-gauge shotgun shell casings around her body, the affidavit said, but later said just five were recovered. 2 other children, a 13-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy, were inside the home when the shooting happened but neither of them was injured. Patschke was a global deployment, engagement and improvement manager at Shell Oil Company where she had worked almost continuously since 1992, according to her profile on LinkedIn. She was a graduate of Lorena High School and Texas A University, which she attended on a track scholarship, earning degrees in safety and industrial engineering. Authorities say Brossett parked his pickup truck a mile or more from the home and made his way through a wooded area along a trail that led to the rear of the house. After the shooting, authorities say, he stole a car that Patschke had rented and fled, driving back to where the pickup was parked. The rental car was found abandoned in a ditch along State Highway 6. Authorities were searching for Brossett at the time of the shooting and had urged Patschke, to leave her home several days before she was killed, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said in an interview after the incident. Patschke, however, said she wouldn't leave the house, he said. McLennan County deputies, police in Arlington and the U.S. Marshal's North Texas Fugitive Task Force were all actively looking for Brossett as early as July 3 after the sheriff's office obtained warrants for him on stalking and violation of bond charges, McNamara said. Documents show that Brossett was arrested on a warrant charging harassment on June 30, posted bond and was released. 2 days later Patschke told an investigator that "she was in fear for her safety" after receiving more than 200 texts on July 1 from Brossett that indicated he was coming to her home, and additional texts and more than 10 phone calls from him on July 2. Warrants were issued for violation of bond/protective order and stalking, and those were still active at the time of the shooting. One of the affidavits issued in the case shows Patschke had made a complaint about an assault in which she named Brossett as the attacker, but that case remained under investigation and no warrant had been issued, McNamara said. (source: KWTX news) * Judge denies bail in Crawford murder case, DA to seek death penalty Judge Matt Johnson of Waco's 54th State District Court denied a request from James Ray Brossett to lower his $5 million bond after Reyna recounted Brossett's extensive criminal past and his obsession with Laura Patschke that eventually led to her death. The stocky Brossett, 48, a former bodybuilder, wore black-and-white jail garb to the brief hearing. He pleaded not guilty to capital murder and attempted capital murder charges, although Reyna told the court that Brossett has confessed to the crimes. Brossett was free at the time of Patschke's death on 2 bonds related to stalking and violating a protective order involving Patschke. He also is charged with shooting Patschke's 18-year-old son, Trevor, in the arm during the early-morning incident at their home. Reyna told the court it was no accident that Brossett drove from Arlington to Crawford that Sunday night or early Monday morning when Trevor and his younger brother and sister had just returned to their mother's home from a holiday visit
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., DEL., N.C., MO., ARK., NEB., USA
Nov. 4 TEXAS: Court upholds death penalty for man's killing of 2 sons Texas' highest criminal court has upheld the death sentence of a Dallas man convicted of drowning his 2 young sons in a creek 4 years ago because he was angry with their mother for breaking up with him. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday rejected arguments from attorneys for 36-year-old Naim Rasool Muhammad that there were 54 errors at his 2013 Dallas trial. Among their claims, attorneys contended evidence was insufficient, improper jury selection left Muhammad with a biased jury, and some autopsy photos, testimony and prosecution closing arguments all were improper. Evidence showed Muhammad forced the boys, 5-year-old Naim and 3-year-old Elijah, and their mother into a car. After she managed to flee, he drove to a creek and held their heads under water. (source: Associated Press) NEW JERSEY: Council weighs in with support for death penalty in New Jersey An impassioned plea for the return of the death penalty for certain crimes was delivered by the Jackson Township Council in a recent show of support for 2 bills in the state Legislature. Council members recently passed a resolution in support of bills S-1741 and A- 2429 which call for the restoration of capital punishment for the murder of law enforcement officers. "It is extremely important that we let the brave men and women who protect us 24 hours a day know we stand behind them and support the most significant punishment possible for this heinous crime," council President Barry Calogero said. Council members said the bills have been in limbo in the state Assembly since 2011. "While irresponsible groups promote rhetoric that threatens police officers, it is crucial that we support our peace keepers," said Assemblyman Ronald Dancer (R-Ocean, Burlington, Monmouth and Middlesex), a sponsor of the bill. Councilman Robert Nixon said the use of the death penalty for individuals who kill a police officer would help protect officers. "While you can argue about the legitimacy of the death penalty as a deterrent, you cannot question the heinousness of that crime," Nixon said. "I think it was a mistake that we abolished the death penalty for the murder of police officers back when we did." According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, there have been almost 30 shooting-related deaths of police officers in 2015. Compared to 2014, that number is a decrease of about 16 %. "This is sickening and an appalling lack of respect for the law and the public servants tasked to keep peace in our neighborhoods," Dancer said. "Open season on police officers has to stop. An attack on the police is an attack on law-abiding citizens everywhere." The proposed state legislation also seeks to enact the death penalty on individuals who are convicted of murdering anyone under the age of 18 or during an act of terrorism. Nixon said he believes the bills would help to protect more than just those individuals if they are enacted into law. "When somebody is going to assassinate a police officer while the officer is on duty or because the (perpetrator) knows an individual is a police officer, they will stop at nothing to kill anybody else in our society," Nixon said. (source: Tri-Town News) DELAWARE: Coalition aims to rid Delaware of death penalty Repealing capital punishment is at the forefront of a series of meetings targeting racial disparities in the state's justice system. The campaign is led by the Delaware Repeal Project, a group of organizations and individuals against the death penalty, and the Complexities of Colors Coalition, which tackles issues pertinent to the black community. The campaign includes a series of community meetings meant to educate the public about the death penalty, and to influence legislators to pass Senate Bill 40 repealing the death penalty. Introduced in March 2015, SB 40 barely passed the Senate April 2 by an 11-9 vote. It has since been blocked by the House Judiciary Committee, and it won't move any further until the General Assembly reconvenes. One such community meeting was held Oct. 29 at Whatcoat United Methodist Church in Dover, the 2nd of 3. The next will be held in Wilmington Nov. 17, 7 p.m., at the Tabernacle Full Gospel Baptist Church. The meeting's panel was made up of the Rev. Rita Paige of Star Hill AME Church; the Rev. Michael Rodgers of Central Baptist Church; Samuel Hoff, a professor at Delaware State University, and Mary Batten, a senior political science major at Delaware State University. Rep. Sean Lynn, who is the primary sponsor of the bill, was asked to be the keynote speaker. Donald Morton, executive director of the Complexities of Color Coalition, moderated. "It's important that we mobilize and engage as many members of the community as a whole to address mass incarceration and the criminal justice system at
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., OHIO, MO.
Nov. 4 TEXAS: Death warrant for Ward delivered Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks was scheduled Tuesday to deliver the death warrant for Adam Kelly Ward. Meeks traveled to the Texas Department of Corrections Tuesday, as the death warrant has to be hand delivered to the agency's director by the sheriff of the county in which the conviction occurred. The death warrant was signed Monday by 354th District Court Judge Richard Beacom. Ward is set to die by lethal injection on the evening of March 22, 2016. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 for the 2005 death of Michael "Pee Wee" Walker, a City of Commerce Code Enforcement Officer. (source: Greenville Herald-Banner) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present12 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-530 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 13-November 18--Raphael Holiday---531 14-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson532 15-January 27---James Freeman-533 16-February 16--Gustavo Garcia534 17-March 9--Coy Wesbrook--535 18-March 22-Adam Ward-536 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) FLORIDA: Convicted Cop Killer Dies on Death Row A man convicted of killing a Tallahassee Police officer has died on death row. The Department of Corrections confirms that Clarence Jones died of what appears to be natural causes last week. He'd been on death row for 26 years. Jones was sentenced to death for ambushing Tallahassee Police Officer Ernie Ponce de Leon during a traffic stop back in 1988. David Ferrell worked with Ponce de Leon at TPD back then. "When Ernie got murdered that morning it just... personally made me realize how dangerous this job really is," Ferrell said. "Ernie and Greg responded to a suspicious persons call down on Lake Bradford Road. It was a standard, common call and the first thing you know, it turns into a running gun battle." Ferrell says Jones' death does not bring him any closure. He still misses his fellow officer and friend and continues to fasten Ponce de Leon's picture to his bike as a way to honor him during remembrance rides. A DOC spokesman says Jones died last Tuesday, October 27th. Both FDLE and the DOC's Inspector General are investigating, which the DOC says is standard protocol in any unattended deaths. (source: WCTV news) * Convicted murderer's lawyer appeals death sentence The case against a prison escapee found guilty of killing a Florida State University student and dumping his body in a field off State Road 16 will head to the Florida Supreme Court. In June 2014, a St. Johns County jury unanimously voted to recommend the death penalty for Kentrell Feronti Johnson, who was found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping relating to the death of Vincent Binder, a 29-year-old FSU graduate student. But the judgment was appealed Tuesday by Johnson's lawyer, Michael Reiter, who said the Seventh Judicial Circuit "acted in bad faith" when the court failed to uphold an agreement between Johnson and the state attorney's office in Tallahassee. The Seventh Judicial Circuit serves Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties. Tallahassee is in the Second Judicial Circuit, which covers Franklin, Liberty, Gadsden, Leon, Wakulla, and Jefferson counties. When Johnson was arrested in South Florida, he was interviewed by attorneys representing the Second Judicial Circuit who said they wouldn't pursue the death penalty if he helped him find the body, according to Reiter. "Johnson relied upon his bargain with the State of Florida not to pursue the death penalty if he helped locate the body of Vincent Binder. As a result of Florida's reneging on their agreement, Johnson's constitutional rights were violated," the appeal states. Reiter added, "No matter where the body was found, the death penalty was not an option (per the agreement)." He also said since Johnson had already been charged of the crimes in Tallahassee, there was no reason for St. Johns County to charge him as well. "There was no reason other than to avoid the agreement," he argued. But one state attorney's office can't bind another, Vivian Singleton, assistant state attorney for the Florida Attorney General's Office, argued. "Attorneys only have the power to prosecute in their circuit," Singleton said. "And the judge can't take sentencing guidelines away from a state attorney." And since there was no formal agreement, the Seventh Judicial Circuit has no way of knowing what the actual agreement was, she said. During the trial, Judge Raul Zambrano said he didn't have the authority to enforce the agreement, but Reiter pointed to Florida statutes that would allow it in some cases. "I believe he did have authority," he said. Johnson was not
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., MO., USA
Nov. 3 TEXAS: Jury convicts man of capital murder in triple slaying Johnathan "J-Boi" Sanchez did not react Tuesday as he was convicted of capital murder. Eyewitnesses, the murder weapon and blood on his clothes combined to put the 27-year-old in the middle of a Copperfield-area massacre 2 years ago. Wearing a blue pull-over sweater and high-collared shirt that hid gang tattoos on his neck, Sanchez gazed down as state District Judge Mark Ellis read the decision handed down by the jury after deliberating five hours over 2 days. On Wednesday, jurors will return to court to begin hearing a week of evidence in the punishment phase of Harris County's first death penalty trial this year. Sanchez was convicted of killing three people and wounding two others on the afternoon of Nov. 20, 2013 The jury deliberated about 4 hours Monday after hearing closing arguments in the grisly triple slaying. They returned Tuesday to deliberate for another hour before reaching a decision. Prosecutors have said Sanchez, allegedly a member of the 59 Piru street gang and affiliated with the Houstone Tango Blast, was taking hallucinogens and threatening violence in the days before the shooting. Prosecutors Traci Bennett and Lisa Collins did not comment after the verdict. Sanchez went an acquaintance's apartment and opened firing, killing Yosselyn Alfaro, who was celebrating her 21st birthday and Daniel Munoz and Veronica Hernandez, both 17. 2 survivors were rushed by Life Flight helicopter ambulance to the hospital after telling authorities Sanchez shot them, investigators said. They still have not fully recovered from their wounds. Defense attorneys Skip Cornelius and Rudy Duarte said they were disappointed but did not comment further. Jurors had been sequestered Monday night while deliberating the guilt or innocence. Sequestration is rare in the hundreds of trials that take place every year in Harris County, but it is not unusual for jurors in death penalty cases to spend the night in a downtown hotel if their deliberations stretch into the evening. (source: Houston Chronicle) GEORGIAnew execution date Execution date set for Marcus Ray Johnson for 1994 Albany murder Georgia has scheduled the execution of Marcus Ray Johnson for Nov. 19, making him the 1st to be put to death since Kellie Gissendaner was executed Sept. 30 and the 1st of 7 men who have exhausted their regular appeals and are eligible to be executed. Johnson, now 50, was sentenced to die for the murder of Angela Sizemore, a woman he had met at an Albany nightclub. The morning after they were last seen together, March 24, 1994, her battered and bloody body was found in her Suburban parked behind an apartment complex. Johnson told police Sizemore became angry because he did not want to "snuggle" after sex so he punched her in the face. He told police he remembers walking away after he punched her but nothing more until he woke up in his front yard as the sun came up. Investigators said Sizemore was stabbed or cut 41 times and she had bruises and marks from being struck and dragged. At least 6 other men are eligible for execution and their dates should be set over the next few months. (source: Atlanta Journal Constitution) MISSOURIimpending execution Man with IQ of 63 set to become Missouri's 7th execution this year An appeal claims execution drugs could cause violent and painful seizures for Ernest Lee Johnson, who had a most of a benign brain tumor removed in 2008 Ernest Lee Johnson is scheduled to die on Tuesday for the 1994 killing of 3 convenience store workers in Missouri. He would be the 26th person executed in the US this year and the 7th in Missouri. Only Texas, with 12, has performed more executions. Johnson, 55, had most, but not all, of a benign brain tumor removed in 2008, and a recent MRI revealed up to 20% of his brain tissue was also removed. An appeal to the US supreme court claims the brain tumor and damage, combined with the execution drug, could cause a violent and painful seizure upon injection. A 2nd appeal, to the Missouri supreme court, claims Johnson's life should be spared because he is mentally disabled. The Missouri attorney general's office says both claims are without merit. Johnson was convicted of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder for killing 46-year-old Mary Bratcher, 57-year-old Mable Scruggs and 58-year-old Fred Jones during a closing-time robbery of a Casey's General Store in Columbia on 12 February 1994. Johnson wanted money to buy drugs, authorities said. All 3 workers were beaten to death with a claw hammer, but Bratcher was also stabbed at least 10 times with a screwdriver and Jones was shot in the face. Johnson hid the bodies in a cooler. He was arrested after police found a bank bag, stolen money and store receipts at Johnson's home. Johnson grew up in a troubled home and his attorney, Jeremy Weis, said his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Nov. 3 TEXASnew execution date Adam Ward has been given an execution date for March 16 (2016); it should be considered serious. (source: NH/RH) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., OHIO, MO.
Oct. 29 TEXAS: Lawyers reinstated for death row inmate Brandon Daniel Brandon Daniel has apparently changed his mind about representing himself in an attempt to expedite his execution. The death row inmate, convicted in the 2012 killing of Austin police officer Jaime Padron, has reinstated the Office of Capital Writs to defend him in his appeals process. The reasons remain unclear. The capital writs office declined to comment but confirmed that they were now representing Daniel. Travis County District Judge Brenda Kennedy in July found Daniel competent and allowed him to dismiss his appellate lawyers, a request he initially filed in March, saying he understood the weight of his actions. The capital writs office appealed the decision, but in an opinion issued Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared that appeal moot, saying only that the office had been reinstated as counsel. Standing in a faded jail jumpsuit in Kennedy's courtroom in July, Daniel declined to make a statement. But in responses to Kennedy, he said he had given plenty of thought to his decision. The ruling had no bearing on the automatic direct appeal to his conviction - given to all defendants sentenced to death - which will continue and could take up to another year. But without appellate lawyers and representing himself, Daniel then would have been able to waive all other appeals that could delay his execution. Lawyers Robert Romig and Jeremy Schepers, appointed to represent Daniel under the Office of Capital Writs, told Kennedy that allowing Daniel to let go of his counsel would be akin to state-assisted suicide. Daniel, 27, first made his request to Kennedy through a letter he penned in March. He understood the weight of his actions, he wrote, and was prepared for the consequences. Daniel said he wanted to spare his family and Padron's any more anguish. He also said he wanted to limit his time in prison. Daniel was sentenced in February 2014 to execution in the 1st death penalty case Travis County had seen in nearly 3 years and the 1st in more than 3 decades to involve the slaying of an officer. The former software engineer shot and killed Padron on April 6, 2012, as the 2 struggled on the floor of a Wal-Mart near Interstate 35 and Parmer Lane in North Austin. Padron, a Marine veteran and father of 2 young girls, had been responding to a call about a possible shoplifter who was likely intoxicated. (source: Austin American-Statesman) Court Again Denies DNA Tests in Death Row Case The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for the 2nd time Wednesday reversed a state district judge's order that would have allowed East Texas death row inmate Larry Swearingen to test DNA from evidence in his murder case. Swearingen, 44, was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing 19-year-old Melissa Trotter, then a Lone Star College student in 1998. He was sentenced to death in 2000. His execution date has been set and stayed multiple times. The death row inmate has argued that he couldn't have killed Trotter because he was in jail when she was murdered, and DNA testing would prove that someone else committed the crime. State District Judge Kelly Case twice granted Swearingen's requests for evidence to be tested. Montgomery County prosecutors appealed each time, and now, the state's highest criminal court has sided with the state again. Each time, the court ultimately has ruled that results from DNA testing would not have overcome the "mountain of evidence" establishing Swearingen's guilt. (source: Texas Tribune) Accused shooter in death penalty trial was "ready to kill" The 1st witness in Johnathan Sanchez death penalty trial HCSO Clint Meyers testify in Hon. Mark Kent Ellis' ceremonial courtroom on the 20th floor of the criminal courthouse, Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, in Houston. Criminal Defense Attorney Skip Cornelius and lawyer Rudy Duarte with defendant Johnathan Sanchez during opening statements in Sanchez death penalty trial inside the ceremonial courtroom on the 20th floor of the criminal courthouse, Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, in Houston. Johnathan "J Boi" Sanchez was expressionless when he walked out of a northwest Houston apartment bathroom in 2013 and started shooting, a survivor testified Wednesday. "He just came out and started shooting," Luis Baez said as he testified in Sanchez's death penalty trial. "No expression. Just ready to kill, I guess." Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Sanchez, who is accused of shooting 5 people, 3 fatally, at a drug den in the middle of the day on Nov. 20, 2013. The 3 who died were Yosselyn Alfaro, 21, and Daniel Munoz and Veronica Hernandez, both 17. Baez, who testified wearing handcuffs and an orange jail uniform, is serving 15 years in prison for burglary. In his testimony, he outlined working with a web of people who burglarized cars and homes to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., CALIF.
Oct. 28 TEXAS: Court documents: Zoe Hastings was stabbed, found dead outside of minivan An 18-year-old woman killed 2 weeks ago on her way to church was stabbed and left for dead near a creek, police say. Police had previously declined to say the way Zoe Hastings was slain. But new details emerged in court documents in the case obtained Tuesday by The Dallas Morning News. Detectives obtained a search warrant for Antonio Lamar Cochran's northeast Dallas apartment. Cochran, 34, was arrested and accused of abducting and killing Hastings on Oct. 11. He is charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty. Authorities say his DNA was found at the crime scene. Police returned from Cochran's apartment with a piece of carpet, a rug, several pocket knives, a container of clothes, tennis shoes, a cellphone and a blanket and pillows, according to court documents. Investigators also said they recovered a pill bottle and photos from Cochran's car. Hastings was on her way to church Sunday evening when she stopped at a pharmacy to return Redbox movies. There, Cochran got out his car and approached Hastings, police said. One affidavit says witnesses saw the 2 arguing. Cochran then allegedly forced his way into Hastings' minivan, getting in the driver's seat and pushing her over to the passenger's side. Hastings was reported missing when she didn't show up to church. The next morning, she was found dead outside of the minivan in a creek near the 11700 block of Dixfield Drive. Police said she was stabbed and had suffered "obvious homicidal violence," but do not give any more detail about the way she died. That day, detectives turned their attention to people Hastings may have known. They requested Hastings' online social media information, posts and messages from Facebook and Tinder. But Hastings and Cochran did not know each other and police went on a two-week hunt for information that might lead to the accused killer. Authorities credited efforts by friends and complete strangers to Hastings for their efforts to find a suspect. A police official also called Cochran "a sexual predator." Cochran has not been charged with a sex crime in connection with Hastings' slaying, but was acquitted of a rape charge earlier this year in Texarkana. Cochran moved to Dallas after that. Cochran's public defender attorney in that Bowie County case said Monday that problems with the 17-year-old accuser's testimony there gave the jury doubts. Meanwhile, Dallas County First Assistant District Attorney Messina Madson said in an email Tuesday that no decision has been made whether to pursue the death penalty against Cochran. Family spokeswoman Shonn Brown said Monday that Hastings' parents will support whatever sentence the evidence calls for, but added that they are focused currently on their 4 other children. (source: Dallas Morning News) DELAWARE: Thursday town hall meeting on racial justice planned The Complexities of Color Coalition, the NAACP Delaware State Conference, the Delaware Repeal Project, and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice will host their 2nd of 4 town hall meetings to address racial inequities in Delaware's criminal justice system on Thursday. The meeting will take place at Whatcoat United Methodist Church in Dover at 7 p.m. "We believe the system is broke," said Dr. Donald Morton, Executive Director of the Complexities of Color Coalition. "We have some structural issues and we just want to educate people on the racial disparities in the criminal-justice system." One of the main issues that will be discussed at the meeting will be the death penalty repeal. In May, The House Judiciary Committee voted 6-5 not to release the bill to the House floor. "There are real issues in our state about fairness in the administration of justice, especially as it relates to blacks not getting a fair trial in the courts and the death penalty," said Richard Smith, NAACP Delaware State Conference president. "Our leaders continue to neglect the basic needs of the black community and we will hold them accountable unless there's a change." The meetings will be held in each of the counties, as the 1st meeting was held in Sussex County in September. Daniel Walker, committee organizer for the Delaware Repeal Project for Kent and Sussex County, said he was pleased with the turnout. "It was very engaging," Mr. Walker said. "About 70 people came out. It was great, as we hope to increase that number during the next meeting and just continue to educate people." Dr. Morton said each county is different, but the problems remain the same. "Each country brings its own temperament," Dr. Morton said. "We have different panel members, so we expect for the conversation to be slightly different. It just happens that way at times." The next meeting will be held on Nov. 17 in Wilmington. The final meeting will be an online
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, LA., OHIO, ARK., MO.
Oct. 25 TEXAS: Rally against the death penalty held at State Capitol Despite the rain, protesters held a rally Saturday afternoon at the State Capitol calling on State leaders to get rid of the death penalty Terri Been says her brother should not be on death row. Jeff Wood was convicted of capital murder for the 1996 killing of a convenience store clerk in Kerrville. He did not pull the trigger - and she says he didn't know his friend would. A federal judge agreed to stay Wood's execution back in 2008. "We came within hours of losing him. We said what we thought would be our final goodbyes. And they had to pull me out of the prison screaming for him so it affects us, it affects family members. We're here to kind of bring attention to that. You know, yes we feel for the victims in the situations but we are victims of the system itself as well," said Terri. "The way that the law is worded, it's very poorly worded. It allows for people like my brother to be railroaded by the system. It said that he should have anticipated a murder, um, is the way that the law, you know, so basically he has to be a mind-reader." The killer, Daniel Reneau, was executed in 2002. The family of Rodney Reed also attended Saturday's rally. Rodney was sentenced to die after a jury believed he killed Stacey Stites in 1996. He insists he's innocent. Saturday's rally comes just 1 day after an attorney says he has new evidence showing Stites' boyfriend - former police officer Jimmy Fennell - actually killed her and another police officer looked into her death. "It makes us feel good knowing that there is an investigation going on, it gives us hope. It shows the content of his character. You know, he's doing 10 years in prison right now," said Roderick Reed, Rodney's brother, "We're very optimistic and hopefully the truth will prevail and justice will prevail." (source: KXAN news) LOUISIANA: Stewart, Thompson in runoff for Caddo DA Retired state appeals court Judge James Stewart and prosecutor Dhu Thompson emerged as the top 2 vote-getters Saturday in the Caddo Parish district attorney's election. They will meet in a runoff on Nov. 21. Stewart led the six-candidate field but was well short of the majority of votes needed to win outright. Thompson was a strong 2nd. The winner will serve the remainder of the term of the late District Attorney Charles Scott, who died in April of a heart attack. Stewart received 41 % of the vote, according to complete but unofficial returns. Thompson, an assistant district attorney, received 36 %. They were followed by LaLeshia Walker Alford, with 8 % of the vote; Casey Simpson, with 6 %; Lee Harville, with 5 %; and Mark Rogers, with 4 . The race received national attention. Billionaire George Soros of New York, a philanthropist known for his support of liberal causes and racial justice, put a quarter of a million dollars into a local political action committee that backed Stewart, a Democrat. Republicans complained about outside money being put into a local race. Soros' money came after national media attention focused on the Caddo district attorney's office and the number of times it seeks the death penalty. The latest report came from CBS News' 60 Minutes, which reported on the case of Glenn Ford, who served nearly 30 years on Louisiana's death row before he was released when evidence showed he was not the killer. The man who prosecuted Ford, Marty Stroud, made a public apology for how he handled the case. Caddo Parish gets more death sentences per capita than any other parish or county in the United States. Acting District Attorney Dale Cox ignited the firestorm after comments he made when he was an assistant district attorney: He said the death penalty should be sought more often. (source: KTBS news) OHIO: Cost of capital punishment far exceeds its value On Monday, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction revised its execution schedule, canceling all executions set for next year and giving 12 men a few more years of life, including Cleveland R. Jackson, of Lima, who was scheduled to die July 20 for the 2002 Eureka Street killings. The state took this action because it is having difficulty obtaining the proper drugs needed to continue its own serial killing spree. To date, the state has killed 393 people under the color of law. Jackson's case is the perfect example of one of the many things wrong with capital punishment. On Jan. 3, 2002, Jackson and his half brother, Jeronique D. Cunningham, robbed a group of 8 people at a home on Eureka Street and then fired their weapons into the group from close range. 3-year-old Jayla Grant and 17-year-old Leneshia Williams died of gunshot wounds. Jackson is scheduled to die Sept. 13, 2018 - 16 years, 8 months and 11 days after the shooting. The likelihood that Jackson is actually executed on that date is extremely slim. This length of time
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., OHIO
Oct. 24 TEXAS: Texas execution drug shipment seized by federal authorities The U.S. Food and Drug Administration intercepted an international shipment of an unapproved lethal injection drug called sodium thiopental that was ordered by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a federal official said Friday. The shipment originated in India in July, according to the online news site Buzzfeed, which first reported the seized shipment. "FDA has detained and is holding shipments of sodium thiopental that the state correctional facilities in Arizona and Texas attempted to import into the United States," FDA spokesman Jeff Ventura said. "Courts have concluded that sodium thiopental for the injection in humans is an unapproved drug and may not be imported into the country for this purpose." But Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said that state officials had received federal clearance to import the drug. "The Texas Department of Criminal Justice obtained an import license from the Drug Enforcement Administration prior to the importation," Clark said. "In accordance with federal law and prior to shipment of the drug, TDCJ filed notice with the DEA of the anticipated shipment." Clark said the state acquired the license on Jan. 21 and notified the DEA "more than 2 weeks prior to its arrival." He wouldn't say how much the state paid for the shipment or where it came from, citing a new state law that keeps the source of execution drugs secret. Sodium thiopental is an anesthetic that had been used in conjunction with 2 other drugs to perform lethal injections in Texas. Death penalty states have struggled to find new suppliers of execution drugs amid a nationwide shortage. Texas stopped using sodium thiopental in 2011 because it couldn't identify a supplier, and switched to pentobarbital and other drugs. The state has been using pentobarbital alone since 2012. Clark wouldn't say whether Texas was considering using a different execution drug but said there was enough pentobarbital to execute all 253 inmates on death row. In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled that the FDA could no longer allow the importation of sodium thiopental because the drug lacks FDA approval. The seized shipment highlights a regulatory overlap between the FDA and DEA. The FDA regulates prescription and nonprescription drugs - including sodium thiopental. But the drug is also a Schedule III controlled substance, which falls under DEA jurisdiction. DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said it is possible that Texas could have obtained a permit to import the drug despite the FDA prohibiting the drug. The news of the shipment has worried death penalty opponents, who cite concerns about the secrecy surrounding the state's lethal injection program. "It shouts for the need for transparency," said Maurie Levin, 1 of the lawyers representing complainants in a federal lethal injection case in Houston. "Nobody knew that Texas was attempting to obtain sodium thiopental." A new law that went into effect in September allows state prison officials to keep confidential the names of pharmacies or companies that sell execution drugs to Texas. The Texas House sponsor of the bill, Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, said secrecy was needed to protect pharmacies from retaliation, but Democrats argued that the protection is unnecessary because there have been no proven cases of such threats. Condemned inmates and defense lawyers can still learn when the drug was purchased, when it expires and results of lab tests on the drug's potency and purity. (source: Austin American-Statesman) VIRGINIA: Confounding case: Amid court pleas, execution was kept on schedule His crimes were horrific and there was no hint of innocence or remorse. Alfredo Prieto had been denied clemency and his appeals turned down before his last words Oct. 1 at at 9:08 p.m.: "Get this over with." The commonwealth of Virginia complied and Prieto was pronounced dead at 9:17 p.m. in an execution that is apparently the 1st in modern state history carried out while a request for a stay was pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Terry McAuliffe's office was notified at 9:05 p.m. that the stay application was being filed and he could have, as have other governors, delayed proceedings until the Supreme Court ruled - a red telephone receiver held by a prison official inside the execution chamber kept open a direct line to the governor's office. McAuliffe, under no obligation to hold things up, did not. Barry A. Weinstein, a former director of the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, conceded Prieto's chances for a stay appeared slim and agreed that without a stay in place the execution could proceed. Nevertheless, he was surprised the governor did not wait. "Let's assume the Supreme Court would have ruled in favor of Prieto's stay and he had been executed -
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., FLA., LA., OHIO
Oct. 23 TEXAS: Grand jury indicts ex-Austin cop VonTrey Clark in Samantha Dean case A capital murder charge against VonTrey Clark will go forward after a Bastrop County grand jury indicted the former Austin police officer in the death of Kyle police victims counselor Samantha Dean. Clark, 32, could face the death sentence if convicted, but Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz told the American-Statesman it was too early in the case to determine whether his office will seek the highest penalty. (source: Austin American-Statesman) SOUTH CAROLINA: Judge assigned 3rd defense attorney to Emanuel AME case A 3rd attorney will join the defense in the case of the man accused of gunning down nine black parishioners inside a downtown Charleston church. The order from Judge JC Nicholson comes after the currently appointed defense team of Ashley Pennington and William McGuire asked that the trial be pushed back from July 2016 until the fall. Nicholson denied the request, and instead assigned attorney Teresa Norris of Blume, Norris, and Franklin-Best. She has been approved for up to 500 hours of work on the case by Nicholson, according to the filing -- but more hours could be added as the case goes on. Norris will also be protected from further cases under the order of protection Nicholson issued for the attorneys handling the case, meaning they will not be handed more cases until 90 days after the conclusion of the trial. The state has said it will seek the death penalty for Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old man from outside of Columbia who is accused of killing nine members of the Emanuel AME Church on June 17. After the shooting, investigators say Roof fled the state and was captured near the town of Shelby, North Carolina. He is being in isolation at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center without bond. Attorneys said during a hearing to discuss the lifting of a gag order on the case that Roof was willing to plead guilty in the case if the state removes the threat of death penalty. However, nothing further has been made public about that potential deal. (source: WCIV news) FLORIDA: Florida death row inmate becomes state's 1st to demand the electric chair For the 1st time in nearly 2 decades, a Florida prison inmate is demanding that he be put to death in the antiquated electric chair and not by a lethal injection method that has been repeatedly challenged in court. Wayne Doty, 42, of Plant City, has been on death row since 2011 after he killed a fellow inmate. In a state where condemned inmates often wait for decades to be executed, Doty wants to die immediately, in part to attain "spiritual freedom." "I think his goal is to get put to death as quickly as possible," said Sean Fisher, a private investigator in Gainesville who once worked for Doty. "I think he's nervous about lethal injection being found unconstitutional." Fisher said Doty learned the reality of life in prison: "It's 10 times worse than you expected and you have no hope." Executions in Florida have been on hold for much of the past year because of lawsuits alleging that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment and thus unconstitutional. But the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld it, and the next execution is set for next Thursday, Oct. 30. Florida is 1 of 8 states, mostly in the South, that have kept the electric chair as a form of capital punishment. Tennessee reinstated it last year because of challenges to lethal injections. Florida's electric chair, cynically nicknamed "Ol' Sparky," has been idle for 16 years after a 2nd botched execution forced the Legislature and then-Gov. Jeb Bush to change the method. During the 1997 execution of Pedro Medina, who came to Florida from Cuba during the 1980 Mariel boatlift, a mask covering his face caught fire and filled the death chamber with smoke. At the 1999 execution of triple murderer Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis, blood appeared as 2,300 volts of electricity coursed through his 350-pound body. The state Supreme Court temporarily halted executions but later ruled in a 4 to 3 decision that electrocution was not a form of cruel and unusual punishment. The state switched to a lethal injection of chemicals that sedate an inmate and stop the heart. But in changing the method of execution, Bush and the Legislature also gave inmates the one-time option of selecting electrocution. Doty is the 1st inmate to do so. In a handwritten affidavit, Doty wrote: "I'm invoking my right of free will to choose execution by electrocution due to confliction (sic) surrounding executions through lethal injection." Doty initially was sentenced to life in prison for the fatal shooting of Harvey Horne II, a watchman at a Plant City manufacturing plant, during a drug robbery in 1996. He was 23. Sentenced to life at Florida State Prison in Raiford, Doty was a "runner" who fetched meals for fellow inmates. He and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., GA., UTAH, USA
Oct. 22 TEXAS: E. Texan among historical low on Texas death row A Smith County man is officially on Texas death row for the murder of his ex-wife and abduction of their child James Calvert was taken from the Smith County Jail on Oct. 16 and transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Polunsky Unit in Livingston. Calvert was sentenced to death on Oct. 14 for killing his ex-wife, Jelena Sriraman, on Halloween 2013. Calvert is the 2nd inmate to be sent to death row in 2015, making it the lowest number of inmates to receive that sentence the lethal injection death penalty started in Texas in 1976. Gabriel Hall, 22, of College Station was sent to death row on a capital murder conviction from Brazos County just weeks before Calvert. A 3rd person has been sentenced to death, pending a competency trial, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Calvert will be the 7th person from Smith County to be on death row. The last person from the county to be sent to death row was Kimberly Cargill, she is at the women's death row in Gatesville. According to figures from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, Texas death sentences have dropped significantly after hitting a record number of 48 in 1999. Prior to 2015, the lowest number to receive the death penalty in Texas was 8 in both 2010 and 2011. Inmates from Smith County on currently on death row include: --Allen Bridgers, received: 05/1998 --Troy Clark, received: 03/2000 --Tracy Beatty, received: 08/2004 --Clifton Williams, received: 10/2006 --Demontrell Miller, received: 11/2009 --Kimberly Cargill, received: 06/2012 --James Calvert, received: 10/2015 (source: KLTV news) NEW HAMPSHIRE: Addison lawyers raise questions in appeal to U.S. Supreme CourtLawyers cite judge's decisions, 8th Amendment in appeal New Hampshire's only inmate on death row is seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn his sentence. Michael Addison was sentenced to death in December 2008 for killing Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs. Addison's appeal was rejected by the state Supreme Court, so he is now raising federal issues about his sentence. Addison's attorneys raised four main questions for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider. The first question involves a statement that Addison made in which he cried and said he didn't purposely shoot Briggs. The judge found the statement to be full of lies and excluded it from the jury. Defense attorneys asked whether a court can bar the admission of evidence based on the court's belief that the defendant lied. The 2nd question has to do with Addison's life in prison. During sentencing, the jury heard that Addison would be able to watch cable TV and would have access to other amenities. "By admitting this evidence, (the court) permitted the jury to weigh in its sentencing decision whether the privileges (that) may be afforded are too good for Addison," defense attorneys wrote. "That ruling violates the Eighth Amendment." The defense also claims that the victim impact statements were excessive, saying that the state "made a cradle-to-grave presentation about the victim's life that included 5 photographs of the adult victim as a child, stories about the victim's childhood, 20 photos of the victim with his children and 3 video clips of the victim playing with his children." The defense said lower courts are divided on how much testimony is appropriate, and the Supreme Court should resolve the issue. The final question is whether the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. The defense said there have been 3 other recent cases eligible for the death penalty, but Addison is the only one who was sentenced to death. "His case thus frames the questions of arbitrariness, deterrence and continued utility of capital punishment," the defense wrote. The state has 30 days to file a response or waive its right to respond. (source: WMUR news) GEORGIA: The secrets of the death penaltyGeorgia's execution process is a 'classified' information under law In the shadow world of Georgia's death penalty, a doctor who is not practicing medicine writes a prescription for a patient who is certain to die. The doctor's role in this part of the execution process is shrouded in secrecy and wrapped in contradiction, an examination by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found. The doctor violates the canon of medical ethics simply by issuing the prescription, so the state has rewritten the law to stipulate that the doctor is not practicing medicine when prescribing an execution drug. If the doctor's name were to get out, lawsuits and harassment would probably follow, so the state has declared the doctor's identity - and any document that includes his name - a "state secret." The killing drug is pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly used by veterinarians to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., MASS., FLA., ARK., UTAH, NEV.
Oct. 22 TEXAS: Death sentence marks 1st in Bexar County in years For the 1st time in 6 years, a convicted killer from Bexar County has been sentenced to death. That sentence from a jury Tuesday was just the 2nd death sentence handed down in the entire state of Texas this year. The 1st earlier this month in Brazos county marked the longest the state has gone without convicting someone to death, 10 months. "In my opinion the jury came back with the proper verdict," said Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood. Jurors deliberated Mark Anthony Gonzalez's fate for more than a day and one of those 12 reached out to Fox San Antonio Wednesday to provide insight into how they reached their decision. They said, "The natural response is to continually question yourself, pray that you are doing the right thing and that you can live with the answers that you gave. Not one person in that room took the decision lightly or decided in haste." A law passed in 2009 greatly reduced the amount of death penalty cases. We spoke to a law professor about that law and what makes a crime eligible for death. "It's an extra heavy decision when you decide to have someone executed." St. Mary's Law Professor Geary Reamey closely followed the trial and said life sentences are more attractive to jurors now that inmates serving them are not eligible for parole. That was the law Reamey said passed in 2009. The only other death sentence given this year in Texas was earlier this month out of Brazos County Gabriel Hall, 22, convicted of murdering a retired professor and trying to kill his disabled wife. It's these kind of unique cases that both men said the jury will determine require the ultimate punishment. "This was one of those cases that was so egregious and the facts were such that it was appropriate," said LaHood. (source: foxsanantonio.com) ** Anti-death penalty argument fails It has been awhile since commentary on capital punishment has come across our desk, but a letter to the editor submitted to this page this week is worth a response. The letter referenced why the state of Nebraska (or the Legislature) was correct in recently abolishing the death penalty. Far be it from us to tell the good folks of the Cornhusker State how to administer justice, but permit us to respond to the arguments in the letter supporting this decision. According to the letter, capital punishment "wastes millions" because it costs more than life without parole. And why is this? If the cost of the lengthy appeals process (which is often picked up by taxpayers) is a factor in this determination, then this statement is correct. In the Lone Star State, the average time on death row for an inmate before execution is almost 11 years. Those who are so concerned about the financial impact on states when it comes to the death penalty need to be specific. Are the legal costs associated with the capital punishment process being included? Another part of the argument centered around the death penalty being "applied unfair with regard to race and economic status." This statement paints all capital punishment cases with the same brush - and does not represent truth or justice. For example, the state of Texas has one execution scheduled for the rest of 2015 - Nov. 18. While the offender is a black male, the specifics of his case should not be overlooked. This offender was convicted of killing 3 children by burning a home in 2000. The victims were a 7-year-old female, a 5-year-old female and a 1-year-old female. All were black. Should race automatically be a factor in this case? We think not. Predictably, the argument is also made that capital punishment "risks executing innocent people." Science can help alleviate this concern. What about capital punishment cases that include DNA evidence? In these cases, should the guilty not face the ultimate form of punishment? Then there is the irony of throwing abortion into the mix - "pro-life advocates should not be about killing people." We fail to see the logic in comparing abortion to the death penalty. One involves an innocent life, and whether that life should be respected. The other involves justice and punishment. We worry about those who cannot comprehend the difference between the 2. Hopefully, Texas will not follow in Nebraska's footsteps. (source: Editorial, Amarillo Globe-News) * Texas Poised to See New Low in Death Sentences Gabriel Hall and James Calvert were the 1st inmates received on Texas' death row in 2015. Texas is on track to see fewer death sentences handed down in 2015 than in any other year since the state's death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In the last 2 weeks, 2 new inmates arrived on Texas' death row - the state's 1st 2 death sentences of 2015. A jury sentenced a man to death in a 3rd case. But he is awaiting a competency trial, so that sentence is unofficial.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., ALA., OHIO
Oct. 21 TEXASnew death sentence Gonzalez gets death sentence in Sgt. Vann's fatal shooting A jury that began deliberating Monday afternoon in the penalty phase of the trial of Mark Anthony Gonzalez in the death of Bexar County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Kenneth Vann decided on the death penalty for Gonzalez on Tuesday afternoon. The jury last week found Gonzalez guilty of capital murder in Vann's shooting death. Vann's wife Sgt. Yvonne Vann testified she believes Gonzalez was "full of rage" when he shot at her husband more than 40 times on May 28, 2011. Vann was responding to a non-emergency call and was parked at a red light near Loop 410 and Rigsby Avenue when the shooting happened. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning the guilty verdict, but deliberations in the penalty phase went on for more than 24 hours across 2 days. Gonzalez did not testify during his trial. He is the 1st person sentenced to death in Bexar County since 2009. (source: KENS news) ** Was this Texas case the strangest death penalty trial ever? When we last told you about James Calvert, his trial in Tyler, Texas was just beginning. Accused of murdering his ex-wife Jelena Sriraman and kidnapping their 4-year-old son Lucas, Calvert had refused to take attorneys and was instead representing himself in court, despite no real legal training. Last week, a jury sentenced him to death by lethal injection - but only after a trial that included a shock belts, screams, and the defendant being dragged through court. Some legal experts believe that the courtroom antics suggest grounds for a successful appeal. Thousands of defendants around the country choose to defend themselves in court - but only a rare few do so during capital murder trials. Calvert's trial is perhaps a case study of what can go wrong for those who do. The 44-year-old defendant had already unnerved Judge Jack Skeen, Jr., in the months leading up to the trial, when he acted out during preliminary hearings. Once, he had to be dragged into the courtroom. He also apparently waived his Fifth Amendment rights before the trial even began. Once the trial began, he led long, rambling questionings of witnesses, filed many, many motions, and objected constantly to the prosecution???s testimony. The trial took a turn for the dramatic on Sept. 15, when Calvert refused to stand up while talking to Judge Skeen. Fed up, the sheriff's department activated Calvert's shock belt - essentially a wearable taser placed on most defendants - sending 50,000 volts of electricity coursing through his body. He writhed in pain and screamed loudly for several seconds. Common trial procedure says that a shock belt should only be used when a defendant poses an immediate security threat. It's not clear whether the jury heard his screams - they were out of the courtroom at the time - although they later heard testimony that he had been shocked. The judge then revoked Calvert's right to self-representation, something he had threatened to do for weeks. 2 new attorneys who had the unenviable task of taking up his defense in the middle of the trial moved for a mistrial, but Skeen denied the motion. The prosecution continued making its case, while the attorneys tried to work with what they had. The closing arguments sound like something out of a Law & Order episode. Here's the description from KLTV: First Assistant District Attorney April Sikes closed for the state in a very emotional, passionate argument for the jury. "I have waited a very, very, very long time to stand here and speak on behalf of Jelena Sriraman and Lucas Calvert," Sikes said. "He tried to silence her," Sikes said as she showed the jury a picture of Jelena and her 2 children. "That's why we're here!!" Recovering from throat surgery, Sikes made her argument with the help of a microphone ... "I'll tell you this - voice or no voice -I got a lot of fight left in me," she said ... She got very emotional at times, even being handed a tissue by the court bailiff to wipe away tears. The jury quickly convicted Calvert of murder. The sentencing phase of the trial focused on how bad an inmate he was, with witnesses from the county jail staff noting that he had been an "uncooperative" inmate who talked back and didn't follow orders. Jason Cassel, one of Calvert's defense attorneys, told me that he had tried to argue that a life sentence made sense because Calvert was only a danger to his ex-wife - and would be unlikely to encounter any more ex-wives while serving a life sentence. But the jury didn't buy it. "Because he represented himself for so long, they got to experience his personality and how he is, and there weren't any signs of remorse," Cassel said. "It just kind of changed how the jury looked at him." Calvert's case was automatically appealed to Texas' highest court after he was sentenced to death. Some experts believe the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., S.C., OHIO
Oct. 18 TEXAS: "I want to thank Corporal Frazier and his candor in his recollection and reporting of the events surrounding the execution of Licho Escamilla on October 14, 2015. Mrs. James has suffered a terrible, tragic and unnecessary loss during the killing of her husband. This is a loss she will, most likely, never overcome and my heart goes out to her and the children. However, I would like to take exception to how Corporal Frazier recalls the events surrounding the execution. I have no doubt that the motorcycle officers "agreed to not say or do anything when Escamilla's family came out". According to Corporal Frazier, "They avoided eye contact. No one wanted to provoke the family". He goes on to state that "they [Escamilla's family] were losing someone close to them, too and no one was there to condemn the family. They [the officers] were there to condemn the murderer." But, unfortunately, that is not what happened. The unspeakable happened. The laughter ensued. From the officers. Laughter so loud that the family and supporters half a block down could hear. Laughter that seemed to last for ages. The family, friends and supporters could not believe it. The organization "Journey of HopeFrom violence to Healing" were there and, along with all of us, were appalled. I had to hold up a very close friend of the family because she collapsed when the laughter would not stop. This action was not in line with "No one was there to condemn the family. They were there to condemn the murderer". So, Corporal Frazier and all the other officers from Dallas: I can understand why you may want to tell the readers in Dallas your version of what happened. But, please be honest and tell the whole story. Let the population of Dallas hear what actually took place. My sincere thoughts and condolences are with both the James and the Escamilla family, who are the innocent victims in the whole horrible tragedy." Pat Hartwell (source: Dallas Morning News) ** see: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/378/682/201/help-save-wesley-lynn-ruiz/ (source: the petitionsite.com) PENNSYLVANIA: Death row inmates suit to continue A class-action lawsuit by Pennsylvania's 184 death row inmates can continue despite objections from attorneys for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The Commonwealth Court on Thursday refused to throw out the lawsuit brought by convicted Lehigh Valley mass murderer Michael Eric Ballard and 4 others on behalf of the state's other death row inmates. They claim the Department of Corrections has illegally changed the drugs it uses in lethal injections, which is the method of capital punishment used in Pennsylvania. David Rudovsky, the lawyer for the inmates, say the key issue is whether corrections officials can change the drugs used without action by the General Assembly. The Department of Corrections changed the drugs it plans to use because of difficulties in getting some drugs from manufacturers who have come under fire from death penalty opponents. (source: Associated Press) Candidates for Pennsylvania Superior Court differ on role of the court The 2 candidates for a single spot on the Pennsylvania Superior Court both have years of experience as trial court judges and attorneys to prepare them for service on an appellate court. They are separated, they say, by a difference in judicial philosophy. Judge Emil Giordano, a Republican elected in 2003 to the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County, describes himself as a "strict constructionist." "I would follow the black letter of the law," he said in an interview. "I firmly and unequivocally believe that it's the sole function of the Legislature to change the law." By contrast, Judge Alice Beck Dubow, a Democrat elected in 2007 to the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia, says that while she respects the limits imposed by the Legislature and the precedent set by the courts, she also believes the courts have a role in reflecting changes in society. "My sense is that he does not want to deviate from the existing law, and I believe that its the court's responsibility to deviate slowly and deliberately so the law reflects changes in society," Judge Dubow said. As an example, Judge Dubow cited a case in which she ruled that a woman who had pleaded guilty should get a new trial after the district attorney threw out charges against other defendants whose cases, like the woman's, involved narcotics officers who were themselves investigated by the federal government. The woman argued that if she had waited to plead guilty, the charges would have been dismissed. "My sense of fairness was, yeah, she deserves a new trial because it was an arbitrary date that she had pleaded guilty," the judge said. The Superior Court reversed the decision, she said. Judge Giordano and Judge Dubow differ, too, when it comes to the issue of the death
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS. GA., FLA., OHIO, LA., OKLA., USA
Oct. 16 TEXAS: A police widow witnesses the execution of her husband's killer For veteran Dallas Police Officer Frederick Frazier, the state's execution of convicted cop killer Licho Escamilla wasn't an occasion for celebration. It was about justice for the family of Kevin James, the officer who was shot mercilessly the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2001. And it was about closure - for the family of officers that James left behind and for his widow, Lori, and his daughter Shelby, who was only 8 when her father was killed. "The only closure this family has is that the guy who did this is now gone," Senior Cpl. Frazier said Thursday, after returning late Wednesday night from Huntsville where the execution occurred. "I asked Lori if this feels better and she just shook her head 'yes' and started crying," said Frazier, the First Vice President of the Dallas Police Association and chairman of the Kevin James Endowment Fund, which benefits the Assist the Officer Foundation. The intense pain, that deep indelible sense of loss, is often lost on those who don't just stand steadfastly against the death penalty, but mock or malign those who support it. No one is gloating here; no one is dancing over Escamilla's dead body. I'm sure not. Nor is Lori James, the slain officer's widow, who had been waiting for this day for nearly 14 years. But when the moment finally arrived, she didn't even want to go into the room where she could watch Escamilla take his last breath. "At the last minute," Frazier said, "Lori did not even go in there. She did not want to see him." And Shelby, the officer's daughter, didn't even make the trip to Huntsville. "This really messed her up," Frazier said, explaining how the brutal and sudden loss of her father damaged the young woman. Frazier and 21 other current and former Dallas police officers drove down to Huntsville for the execution. They were joined by law enforcement from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Marshal's Office and other Texas police departments. They all met at a Mexican restaurant before the execution, and the gathering was not what many might expect. They were there to comfort each other and, above all, to reflect on the life of the victim of this heinous crime. "Lori went and brought about 6 big photo albums in the room, and we all just started passing them around," said Frazier. "And every time we opened one, someone said 'remember this, remember that.'" "No one talked about the execution," Frazier said. "No one talked about the night of. We talked about Kevin and Lori, and it was good." One of the books they thumbed through was a wedding album, which showed how happy Lori and Kevin were on their wedding day about 6 weeks before he was killed. "You have to remember," Frazier said, "they had a wedding and funeral within 6 weeks." So they all laughed and cried. And then they parted ways. The James family headed to the prison to prep for the execution - "They had to go through some videos of what to expect," Frazier explained. Most of the officers, Frazier included, stayed outside the prison, ready to show support for the victim's family and friends as they came out. They all agreed to not say or do anything when Escamilla's family came out, including avoiding eye contact. They didn't want to provoke that family, which they realize was losing someone close to them, too. "We wanted to keep it as professional as possible," Frazier said, adding, "No one was there to condemn them, the [Escamilla] family, they were there to condemn the murderer." A group of Houston-area officers called the Thin Blue Line Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club showed up about 20 minutes before the set execution and lined up by the prison. "They only come for cop-killer executions," Frazier said. "And when they got the word that he [Escamilla] was strapped down" and all the witnesses were present, "they light up their motorcycle and rev them for 10 minutes straight as loud as they can go." They rev the bikes until they get word the execution is done. "When they did it," Frazier said, "I almost started to cry. The emotions that ran through me were overwhelming." It was the 1st execution Frazier has attended. "The pressure of waiting," is over, he said, and that's a relief "because there's always a doubt that justice won't be served." For those with serious misgivings about the death penalty - with legal, practical or moral objections to it - Wednesday's state-sanctioned killing was another tragic turn of the screw. But for those who lost a husband/father/friend/colleague in James, it was a necessary and long-overdue day of reckoning. It was a day to which they were entitled. (source: James Ragland, Dallas Morning News) GEORGIA: Georgia death-row inmate: 'I'm still kicking' Death-row inmate John Wayne Conner was eager to talk. Introducing himself, with a broad grin that
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., S.C., FLA., LA.
Oct. 16 TEXAS: New program for attorneys in death penalty cases Jefferson County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to authorize County Judge Jeff Branick to execute an interlocal agreement with Lubbock County and the organization Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases to provide for the defense of indigent inmates charged with the offense of capital murder. Jack Stoffregen is the chief public defender for the organization and has run the office since it was established in Lubbock in 2008. He told The Examiner they were handling cases like this for 158 Texas counties at the end of last year and expect that number to grow to more than 200 counties this year. Stoffregen said planning is currently underway to open a regional public defenders office in Beaumont. In an earlier workshop, commissioners were informed of the cost savings offered by this plan while meeting the county's obligation to provide effective defense counsel for those facing the death penalty who do not have enough money to mount an effective defense - which turns out to be the majority of those facing such charges. In 2015, the 84th Texas Legislature appropriated additional funding through the Texas Indigent Defense Commission Multi-Year Discretionary Grant Program. The high cost of prosecuting a death penalty case - which includes providing lawyers for indigent defendants - has strained the budgets of many smaller counties who can now pay a fee proportionate with their population to participate. Jefferson County declined an opportunity to join this program in the past, but the additional funding has brought the annual cost to the county down to a level where commissioners decided it made fiscal sense. The county will pay $92,442 per year to be covered by the Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases. This contrasts with more than $2 million spent in the last 5 years, including 2015 to date. The annual amounts in the past have varied with the number of capital murder cases in a given year. In 2013, there were 13 new cases with ongoing cases on appeal bringing the total number to 22. The cash outlay for Jefferson County was $732,711, which makes the annual payment of $92,442 seem like a bargain. There are some potential additional expenses for the county. In cases where there are co-defendants in capital murder cases, the Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases will only represent the 1st defendant. The county will be responsible for appointing - and paying - for lawyers for the other defendants. The public defender will be responsible for the fact investigators and the mitigation specialists required to explore all punishment options when the death penalty is sought. The cost of any additional expert witnesses will also fall to the county. The need for additional counsel in the multi-defendant cases will keep local capital murder defense attorneys in the game, although probably at reduced compensation levels. For the years 2011-15 to date, attorney Doug Barlow was paid a total of $1,094,702 to represent indigent inmates charged with capital murder. During that same period, attorney James Makin was paid $546,104, with others receiving lesser amounts. Most attorneys are not qualified to represent defendants in capital cases. A list of certified capital case attorneys who can take the lead role in defending these cases is maintained by the judicial district, and all of the Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases attorneys will be on that list. Cases where prosecutors seek the death penalty have become increasingly rare in recent years for a variety of reasons. The high cost of prosecuting such cases and seeing them through the lengthy appeals process, the availability of long sentences including life without parole and a growing ambivalence about the death penalty in some circles are all contributing factors. (source: The Examiner) PENNSYLVANIA: Defense attorney wants case dropped in death of Wolfe sisters Attorneys for a man accused of killing 2 East Liberty sisters have asked a judge to halt the prosecution, alleging that the district attorney's office improperly obtained their client's educational, physical and mental health records over a judge's orders. Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski will convene a hearing on the issue Tuesday. Allen Wade, 44, is charged with 2 counts of homicide, robbery, burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and a firearms count in the deaths of Susan and Sarah Wolfe, who were found dead in their Chislett Street home on Feb. 7, 2014. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against Wade if they obtain convictions on 1st-degree murder. Late last week, defense attorney Lisa Phillips filed a motion seeking to bar Wade's prosecution after she alleged that the commonwealth violated an order issued by Judge Borkowski on Sept. 18. According to Ms. Phillips' motion, the prosecution in February
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ALA., USA
Oct. 15 TEXAS: Lawyer considers morality of death penalty 2 1/2 hours after her lecture concluded, one of Meg Penrose’s clients was executed for killing a police officer. “Today is a somber day. It’s a difficult thing to talk about,” she said. “Tonight, as my client is executed, there are many people who will feel vindicated.” Penrose, a professor of law at Texas A University and death penalty expert, spoke Wednesday evening at Eck Hall of Law about the moral debate surrounding death row, in a lecture titled “The Death Penalty, Dignity and Doing Justice.” Meg Penrose, a professor at Texas A and Notre Dame law graduate, reflects on her experiences as a lawyer for people on death row at a lecture in Eck Hall of Law on Wednesday evening.Chris Collins | The Observer Meg Penrose, a professor at Texas A and Notre Dame law graduate, reflects on her experiences as a lawyer for people on death row at a lecture in Eck Hall of Law on Wednesday evening. “He’s been on suicide watch for about a month in his cell, and they keep him on camera watch, and they will take him to the place, and I presume he’ll have his last meal and perhaps he’ll have discussions with people close to him, perhaps a spiritual advisor,” Penrose said. “Members of the victim’s family will be driving down, and they’ll witness what they believe to be justice. But law and justice are not certainly the same thing.” Penrose, a Notre Dame Law School graduate, said her client’s — 33-year-old Licho Escamilla — case moved through a number of courts before eventually being tried in the U.S. Supreme Court. “I was literally the last attorney this client was permitted to have,” she said. “My boss called me up and said, ‘Meg, I need you to take this client. He’s fired everyone else before this.’ I said that’s a pretty bad way to start, but I was his last option. He tried to fire me, but I was all he had.” As Penrose’s client’s case moved through the various courts, she said the juries scrupulously looked at the evidence and the previous jury’s decision. “We live in a society defined by laws, and the jury gave a sentence that was looked at several times,” Penrose said. “They actually sought the record, they wanted to actually look at the case.” Penrose said this particular case caused her to continue discussing her ongoing personal conflict regarding the death penalty. “I’m at a point in my career where I’m conflicted,” she said. “I don’t understand it from my religious background — I agree with the Pope. I don’t understand it from my moral perspective. But we need to find a just penalty that preserves the human dignity of the person.” Penrose said her mother played a role in her decision to represent people who had committed heinous enough crimes to warrant the death penalty. “I got this from my mother. She didn’t agree with the death penalty,” Penrose said. “She got it from Matthew, the verse ending with ‘for what you do for the least of my brothers, you did for me.’” Penrose said her Notre Dame education shaped her to be a better person. “I’ve learned about service, about serving those who are least deserving of justice, those who are least deserving of my time, my effort, the least deserving and yet, we help them,” she said. “The work is not popular. I would say it’s thankless. Every individual in the United States deserves representation. That’s not necessarily why I took that case. I’m not here to justify the crime, but the crime and the penalty are separate issues.” Penrose also said there are unique opportunities and responsibilities for lawyers, particularly lawyers graduating from Notre Dame. “You’ll learn about other cultures and other people and that will shape who you are, and it will make you a better person,” she said. “You are a part of the Notre Dame family. You are a different kind of lawyer. You are a Notre Dame lawyer. Do something to help someone. Do justice.” (source: ndsmcobserver.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Racial Justice Act ruling: 18 months later, still no decision in N.C. It's been 18 months since the N.C. Supreme Court heard arguments in the state's controversial Racial Justice Act cases and the court still hasn't issued issued a decision. Most cases don't take that long, said former Associate Justice Ed Brady of Fayetteville. He strove to get court opinions finished in three to six months, he said. The other four cases that the state Supreme Court heard in April 2014 were all decided before the end of that year. The Racial Justice Act rulings may be put off until next year because the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a similar matter, a death penalty lawyer said. In the meantime, the four defendants in the Racial Justice Act cases - each convicted in some of the Fayetteville area's highest-profile murders - and the families of their victims are waiting to hear whether the defendants will be sent back to death row. The defendants
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., OHIO, OKLA., MONT., CALIF.
Oct. 15 TEXAS: Another execution in Texas, another argument for capital punishment Licho Escamilla is — or was — that charming fellow who will be remembered for a courtroom riot. It was a melee he started by throwing a water pitcher at the Dallas County jury that had just sentenced him to death. Let’s also remember what put him in that courtroom. On Thanksgiving weekend in 2001, Escamilla took Dallas police Officer Kevin James from his wife and 8-year-old daughter. Escamilla, already with a warrant out for his arrest in the shooting death of a West Dallas neighbor, got into a fight outside a fairly infamous northwest Dallas nightspot, Club DMX. Kevin James was a decorated 7-year officer who graduated tops in his cadet class. Like many cops, he worked off-duty security to supplement a city paycheck that fell far short of his societal value. In his case, he just wanted to save up enough to buy a house for his young family. In the fight outside Club DMX, Escamilla pulled a gun and fired into the darkness. James was the more seriously wounded of 2 off-duty officers hit by gunfire. 2 shots from Escamilla’s gun put James on his knees. Escamilla strolled up and put 3 more shots into the back of a wounded cop’s head. After a chase, Escamilla was caught. He bragged about the killing to EMTs trying to patch him up. He told them he’d be out in 48 hours. He later admitted to killing James in a television interview. The state of Texas ended his life Wednesday night. He was the 24th person executed this year in the U.S. and 12th in our state. My only sympathy goes to Kevin James’ friends and family. My colleagues on the editorial board believe Texas should rid itself of the death penalty. They believe, in good conscience, that it’s a sentence of irrevocable finality too inconsistently applied, that once it’s carried out there’s no do-over on mistakes. Licho Escamilla might agree, if he could. In my mind, it’s better that he can’t. (source: Opinion; Mike Hashimoto, Dallas Morning News) Campaign to END the Death Penalty austinc...@nodeathpenalty.org http://www.facebook.com/austincedp http://www.nodeathpenalty.org 16th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty! Saturday, October 24 at 2PM Texas State Capitol https://www.facebook.com/events/652987168171485/ http://marchforabolition.org/ Donate here: http://marchforabolition.org/?page_id=35 Come to the 16th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty back in Austin, Texas this year! Featuring special guest Alfred Dewayne Brown - Dewayne was released on June 8, 2015 after more than 10 years on Texas Death Row for a crime he did not commit. Come to the march and welcome him back to freedom with a warm collective embrace. More special guests include exonerated death row survivors and members of Witness to Innocence: Ron Keine, Shujaa Graham, Sabrina Butler, and Gary Drinkard. And members of Journey of Hope … from Violence to Healing: Bill Pelke (grandson of murder victim), Randy Gardner (brother Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by the state of Utah on June 18, 2010), Edward Mpagi (over 18 years on death row). Sponsored by: Texas Moratorium Network, the Austin chapter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty, Witness to Innocence, Kids Against the Death Penalty, International Socialist Organization, the Journey of Hope ... from Violence to Healing, Texas Democrats Against the Death Penalty, and Dallas Amnesty International. *If you would like to list your business or organization as a sponsor of the march, please message any administer of this event. * Fighting the Death Penalty and Mass Incarceration: THE TIME IS NOW! November 14, 2015 at 8AMKing-Seabrook Chapel, Jackson-Moody Building Huston Tillotson University, 900 Chicon St., Austin http://nodeathpenalty.org/events/fighting-death-penalty-and-mass-incarceration https://www.facebook.com/events/1495460054102266/ The death penalty abolition movement continues to make strides as support for the death penalty declines. Meanwhile, new movements against racist police murders and for criminal justice reform have emerged. The time is now to link our struggles together in the fight to end the New Jim Crow! Our convention this year will feature panels and workshops that take on the system - from policing to death row. Discussions will take up issues like police violence, abuse of prosecutorial discretion, harsh sentencing, execution methods, solitary confinement and prison conditions, and more. We’ll focus on specific cases and we will feature the voices of family members and former and current prisoners as highlighted speakers, including: Sabrina Fulton Former MS death row prisoner * Sara Kruzan Former California juvenile life without parole prisoner * Sandra Reed Mother of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MASS., FLA., OHIO, KY., ARK.
Oct. 14 TEXAS: Journey of hope speakers ask students to reconsider the death penalty The Law Center, in conjunction with the Graduate College of Social Work, hosted a talk on the death penalty Monday at the University Center to promote forgiveness during times of loss and hopelessness. Members of Journey of Hope, an organization led by families of murder victims, shared their stories with students in hopes of ultimately altering the government’s system of capital punishment. UH professor of law, David Dow said this event focuses on a different way of responding to violence — through healing instead of revenge. He believes students can benefit from this program in part because they are not immune from violence. Larry Hill, research professor at the Graduate College of Social Work, talked about why this conversation about healing and mercy in the face of death is important. “When you’re talking about the death penalty, it centers on restorative justice,” Hill said. “So, I want students to understand really what that means. If someone commits a crime, what kind of punishment should they get? Does the punishment fit the crime?” Journey of Hope member Terri Steinberg’s son was falsely accused of murder and has been on death row. “Can you imagine what it’s like as a mom to get that phone call that says we’re going to kill your son on Oct. 28?,” Steinberg said.“The death penalty is a cruel, degrading, merciless act. It’s a pre-meditated murder in its worst form. If we get it wrong, we can’t undo it.” Shujaa Graham, another Journey of Hope member, shared his story of being exonerated on death row after he was framed for the murder of a prison guard. On his 4th trial, after spending 3 years on death row, he was found not guilty. “All I can do with my final days is make sure what happened to me, will never happen to another citizen as long as I live,” Graham said. President and Co-founder of Journey of Hope, Bill Pelke said he forgave his grandmother’s murderer that he chose the road to healing instead of vengeance. “When my heart was touched with compassion, the forgiveness became automatic,” Pelke said. “When forgiveness took place, it brought tremendous healing.” Human development and family studies junior Mary Ifebuzor said what intrigued her to attend the event was the aspect of healing and forgiveness relating to the death penalty. “I saw a video about forgiving those people that show violence,” Ifebuzor said. “So, it makes me realize, maybe I should go and check this out; see what they will really talk about.” Dow said the goal for the event is to focus on how to alter punishments for crime in the U.S. and that students can play a large role in. Journey of Hope stressed the importance of raising awareness, and providing education about America’s justice system as it pertains to the death penalty. “The answer is love and compassion for all humanity,” Pelke said. “And, if you have love and compassion for all humanity, you’re not going to see anybody put into the death chamber, and their life taken from them.” (source: The (Univ. Houston) Daily Cougar) MASSACHUSETTS: Bill to reinstate death penalty in Massachusetts to be heard at Statehouse hearing Wednesday A bill that seeks to reinstate the death penalty will be considered by Massachusetts lawmakers on Wednesday. The effort to reinstitute capital punishment is one of several dozen bills to be heard by the Judiciary Committee during a public hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. James R. Miceli, D-Wilmington. Massachusetts abolished the death penalty in 1984 when the state Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional. State legislators have sought to reinstate the death penalty multiple times in decades since, including in 1997 when the legislature was 1 vote short from passing such a bill, following the murder of a 10-year-old Cambridge boy. Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death in federal court this summer. (source: masslive.com) FLORIDA: Florida judges have too much say in death penalty cases, supreme court told Justices weighing case of man sentenced to die for 1998 murder concerned that powers of judges compromise constitutional right to trial by jury US supreme court justices expressed concern on Tuesday that Florida gives judges undue sway in determining death sentences at the expense of juries as the court weighed the appeal of a man convicted of murdering a fried-chicken restaurant manager. Timothy Hurst, 36, described by his lawyers as mentally disabled with “borderline intelligence” and an IQ between 70 and 78, was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of Cynthia Harrison, a manager at a Popeyes restaurant in Pensacola where he worked. Hurst cut and stabbed Harrison with a box cutter, the jury found. He left her body, bound and gagged, in the freezer and stole about $1,000 from
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., ARK., OKLA., WYO.
Oct. 14 TEXASimpending execution Sometimes, sadly, the death penalty is the only justice left Let the record show that I was against the death penalty before I was for it. OK, the uncomfortable truth is that my feelings about capital punishment are complicated, wrought with the sense that an eye-for-an-eye form of justice is not only primitive but hopelessly ineffective. We’ve executed more than 1,400 people in the United States over the past 40 years, and where has that gotten us? The South, which accounts for more than 80 % of executions, has some of the highest murder rates in the nation, according to a 2013 FBI report. Throw in some botched executions and a disturbing number of exonerations, and you can easily argue that Texas and the 30 other death penalty states can come across as barbaric to a civilized world that, for the most part, has moved away from using death as punishment. I tend to lean that way, too. Until that is a case like Licho Escamilla’s comes along, shattering my fragile and idealistic belief that there’s a better way to derive justice. Escamilla brutally executed a Dallas police officer – Kevin James – nearly 14 years ago. The facts are bloodcurdling: First Escamilla shot James and another officer who — incredibly — were trying to keep other men from attacking Escamilla. Then Escamilla, already wanted on a murder warrant for shooting a West Dallas neighbor, shot James 3 more times in the head while the officer lay on the ground. His terror didn’t end there. He attempted but failed to carjack a woman and exchanged gunfire with officers who chased him down. A year later, it took a jury just 33 minutes to convict the 19-year-old of capital murder. When the jurors sentenced him to death, he threw a pitcher of water at them. Bill Hill, the Dallas County district attorney at the time, called Escamilla “evil” and said “we need to do everything we can to protect society from people like that.” Hill’s observations must give you pause: It makes you wonder why, if we as a society still embrace the death penalty – and recent polls show roughly 6 in 10 Americans favor it for convicted murderers — it still takes so long to carry out punishment in a case such as this? The short answer, of course, is that the convoluted appeals process in death penalty cases takes years and years to complete, typically at taxpayers’ expense. That’s understandable to a point: When you’re doling out the ultimate, irrevocable form of justice, we must make sure we get it right. There can be no room for error. Fine, I get that. But Escamilla’s situation points up how readily the current system is manipulated to drag these death penalty cases out. He and his appellate attorneys – who I don’t fault for doing their job — used every trick in the book to get him off the hook for brutally murdering the officer. We can appreciate that he was indigent and represented at trial ill-prepared attorneys, who asked jurors to convict Escamilla of murder rather than capital murder on the technicality that the officer was working an off-duty security job. His latest attorneys pointed to that flawed strategy as one of many reasons Escamilla shouldn’t be executed and deserved a new trial. They’ve brought up Escamilla’s abusive upbringing. They’ve suggested that our state’s lethal injection protocols violate the Eighth Amendment. And yet, his relentless petitions for relief have been rejected at every turn, at the state and federal levels, including a failed motion for a new trial in 2012. Back in February, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reverse the decision on his execution. And on Monday, the Supreme Court denied his final petition for relief. That means that later today, Escamilla stands to be the 12th Texan executed this year, and the 530th Texan put to death since 1976. I don’t like those numbers. They are certainly nothing for our state or our nation to be proud of. But when you learn the particulars of Escamilla’s crime and see the damage he’s inflicted on society, it can quickly make that anti-death penalty pendulum swing the other way in your head, if not in your heart. The only question I’m wrestling with now is this: What took so long? (source: James Ragland, Dallas Morning News blog ** RGV gang member on death row loses appeal in massacre that left 6 dead The state's highest criminal court has turned down an appeal from a former Rio Grande Valley gang member sent to death row for participating in a robbery where nearly a dozen men posed as police and killed 6 people during a raid at an Edinburg drug stash house. Juan Raul Navarro-Ramirez was the 1st of 3 Tri-City Bombers members condemned for the January 2003 massacre of rival gang members. A 4th man involved in the staged raid was given the death penalty in another case. Attorneys for the 31-year-old Navarro-Ramirez raised 19 allegations
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Oct. 14 TEXASexecution Texas executes inmate for Dallas police officer’s 2001 death A man already being sought for a neighbor’s slaying when he killed a Dallas police officer outside a club was executed Wednesday. Licho Escamilla was given a lethal injection for the November 2001 death of Christopher Kevin James who was trying to break up a brawl involving Escamilla. The 33-year-old prisoner was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. Escamilla became the 24th convicted killer put to death this year in the United States. Texas has accounted for 12 of the executions. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case last week and no additional appeals were filed as his execution neared. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday decided against a reprieve and clemency. James and three other uniformed officers were working off-duty when the brawl started. Escamilla pulled out a gun and opened fire on the officers as they tried to end the fight. The bullets from his 9 mm semi-automatic handgun struck James twice, knocking him to the ground. Escamilla then calmly walked up to the officer and fired three more shots into the back of his head before running and exchanging shots with other officers, witnesses said. A second officer wounded in the shootout survived. A wounded Escamilla was arrested as he tried to carjack a truck. About a half-dozen Dallas police officers stood at attention and saluted as relatives of the slain officer entered the prison in Huntsville ahead of the execution. “It’s taken longer than we would have liked,” Frederick Frazier, first vice president of the Dallas Police Association, said. He said he and others showed up to support James and make sure he’s remembered for the work he did. While officers know they’re risking their lives every day, James’ death has been difficult for them because of how it happened, Frazier added. James, 34, had earned dozens of commendations during his nearly seven years on the Dallas police force after graduating at the top of his cadet class. He was working the off-duty security job to earn extra money so he and his new wife could buy a house. Escamilla was 19 at the time of the officer’s killing and a warrant had been issued for him in the shooting death of a West Dallas neighbor nearly three weeks earlier. Escamilla’s trial attorneys told jurors he was responsible for James’ slaying but argued it didn’t merit a death sentence because James wasn’t officially on duty, meaning the crime didn’t qualify as a capital murder. He was sentenced to death in October 2002. At his trial in Dallas, Escamilla grabbed a water pitcher off the defense table and threw it at the jury as the judge was reading his sentence. “We were worried about outbursts during the trial but he managed to keep that under control until the very end,” Wayne Huff, Escamilla’s lead trial lawyer, recalled Tuesday. Escamilla also started kicking and hitting people and hid under the table until he was subdued by deputies who triggered an electronic stun belt he was wearing. “Licho is a poster child for the death penalty,” one of the trial prosecutors, Fred Burns, said Tuesday. “That’s pretty much it.” Testimony showed Escamilla bragged to emergency medical technicians who were treating his wounds that he had killed an officer and injured another and that he’d be out of jail in 48 hours. He also admitted to the slaying during a television interview from jail. Escamilla becomes the 12th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 530th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. He is the 12th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Greg Abbott became Governor in Jan. 2015. Escamilla becomes the 24th condemned inmnate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1418th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) ** http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_scheduled_executions.html Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present12 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-530 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 13-November 18--Raphael Holiday---531 14-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson532 15-January 27---James Freeman-533 16-February 16--Gustavo Garcia534 17-March 9--Coy Wesbrook--535 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., S.C., FLA., ALA., OHIO
Oct. 13 TEXASstay of impending execution Texas Appeals Court Stays Julius Murphy Execution The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday stayed the execution of Julius Murphy, 36, which was set for Nov. 3, after his legal team presented claims of prosecutorial misconduct in his 1998 Bowie County capital murder trial. Murphy was convicted of killing a stranded motorist. His attorneys, seeking access to the district attorney's files in the case, claimed in court filings Friday in Bowie County that prosecutors threatened and coerced witnesses to testify against Murphy. They filed similar claims in late September in a petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals, citing a new statement from a witness who testified against Murphy at his trial. “Mr. Murphy’s conviction and death sentence were procured through prosecutorial misconduct. Jurors considered evidence from two key witnesses while the prosecution unlawfully concealed the fact that those witnesses were pressured into testifying with threats of prosecution and promised leniency if they testified," Cate Stetson, one of Murphy's attorneys, said in a statement. "And one of the witnesses has now identified Mr. Murphy’s co-defendant as the true shooter. We look forward to continuing to raise the constitutional infirmities underlying Mr. Murphy’s conviction and death sentence before the courts.” Murphy was convicted of fatally shooting Jason Erie, a man who was stranded on the side of a road in Texarkana. In fall 1997, after helping Erie with his stalled vehicle, the 18-year-old Murphy robbed, shot and killed Erie, prosecutors argued at his trial. Others present that day testified against Murphy, including his then-girlfriend and a friend from whom he supposedly borrowed the gun used in the killing. But Murphy's trial lawyers were not told that two of those witnesses had been threatened with prosecution for murder or conspiracy if they did not testify to Murphy's guilt, his lawyers now claim. One has since recanted his testimony, saying Murphy was not the killer. (source: Texas Tribune) * Texas court halts execution of inmate after questions raised on testimony The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday halted the planned execution next month of a death row inmate whose lawyers argued he was sentenced to death based on tainted testimony from major witnesses. The court stayed the Nov. 3 execution of Julius Murphy, without elaborating on its decision. Murphy, 36, was convicted in 1998 of fatally shooting Jason Erie in the head during a 1997 robbery. Lawyers for Murphy asked the court last month to put the execution on hold, saying they had new evidence that pointed to evidence that prosecutors forced false testimony. "Mr. Murphy’s conviction and death sentence were procured through prosecutorial misconduct," said Catherine Stetson, a lawyer for Murphy. The Office of the Texas Attorney General was not immediately available for comment. It previously said Murphy was properly convicted. Murphy's lawyers said prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of two witnesses, Javarrow Young and Christina Davis. The lawyers said they had sworn statements that show the two witnesses were unduly coerced into testimony and also provided false testimony. The lawyers said Young was threatened with a murder charge if he did not testify against Murphy. In his new statement, Young said one of Murphy's co-defendants was the actual shooter. The other witness was threatened with a conspiracy to commit murder charge if she did not testify, they said. Lawyers for Murphy have tried unsuccessfully to halt the execution by arguing he was mentally disabled and that putting him to death would be unlawful. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Texas has executed 529 inmates, the most of any state. The state has also instituted reforms in the judicial process in recent years designed to increase financing for public defenders and provide greater oversight of prosecutors. (source: Reuters) *** Texas Prepares for Execution of Licho Escamilla on October 14, 2015 Licho Escamilla's execution is scheduled to occur at 6 pm CDT, on Wednesday, October 14, 2015, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 33-year-old Licho is convicted of the murder of 34-year-old off-duty Dallas police officer Christopher Kevin James on November 25, 2001, outside of a nightclub in Dallas, Texas. Licho has spent the last 12 years on Texas’ death row. Licho alleges he grew up in an abusive home. Licho’s father testified that Licho’s personality drastically changed after the death of his mother, with whom he was close. Licho also started drinking after his mother’s death. At the age of 11, Licho was physically assaulted by two adult males at a party. They had mistaken Licho for another individual.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA.
Oct. 13 TEXAS: Convicted killer faces death penalty in deputy murder case The sentencing phase was set to begin Tuesday morning in the trial of Mark Anthony Gonzalez, the man convicted of shooting and killing a sergeant with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. Gonzalez shot Sgt. Kenneth Vann more than 40 times at an East Side intersection more than 4 years ago. The defense attorney had argued that Gonzalez was drunk, was suffering from a head injury and had not eaten prior to the murder. He said the combination of those circumstances led Gonzalez to 'black out.' The jury did not buy that defense, taking only about an hour on Monday to find him guilty of capital murder. He could get the death penalty. (source: foxsanantonio.com) FLORIDA: U.S. justices press Florida over death penalty sentencing A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday expressed skepticism about Florida's process for death sentences as they weighed the appeal of a man convicted of murdering the manager of a Popeye's Fried Chicken restaurant. Timothy Hurst, whose lawyers describe as mentally disabled with "borderline intelligence" and an IQ between 70 and 78, was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of a manager at the restaurant in Pensacola where he worked. Key findings that determined whether he received the death penalty were impermissibly made by a judge rather than a jury, Hurst's lawyers argued as the high court heard oral arguments in the case. The Florida procedure violates the right to trial by jury guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment based on a 2001 Supreme Court ruling, his lawyers said. The high court said in that ruling that aggravating factors that can lead to an enhanced sentence must be determined by juries, not judges. (source: Reuters) Supreme Court debates Florida death penalty case--Results could affect high-profile trail of Bessman Okafor in Orange County The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up debate Tuesday over a Florida death penalty case. The case before the Supreme Court occurred in Pensacola in 1998. Timothy Lee Hurst was convicted of murdering his manager inside a Popeye's restaurant. and the jury recommended a death sentence by a 7-5 vote. Hurt's lawyers argue that their client's rights were violated, because Florida is the only state in the country that allows the death penalty with a simple majority vote. Justices will determine whether the death penalty should be enacted if the jury does not reach a unanimous decision. The results could affect another high-profile trial in Orange County. Bessman Okafor was found guilty in August of killing a man who was going to testify against him in a home invasion trial. As in Hurst's case, the jury's decision was not unanimous. Lawyers in Okafor's case are expected to be back in court Tuesday afternoon to continue their final arguments. (source: clickorlando.com) LOUISIANA: Innocent death-row prisoner released with $30 gift card after 30 years Glenn Ford spent three decades in solitary confinement for a murder he didn’t commit. After 30 years wrongfully imprisoned for murder on death row, Glenn Ford was released with a $30 gift card. Under Louisiana law, Ford was entitled more than $400,000 in compensation for the time he spent in solitary confinement at notorious maximum-security facility Angola. Instead, he died penniless on the street. In an astonishing interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes, the prosecutor who convicted him said the mistake had ruined both their lives. “I did something that was very, very bad,” Marty Stroud told the TV show. “I was arrogant, narcissistic, caught up in the culture of winning.” Stroud, then 32, helped to convict Ford of robbing and murdering jeweller Isadore Rozeman, for which he was sentenced to death in 1984. Ford had done yard work for Rozeman and was known to be a petty thief. He had even pawned some of the stolen jewellery. But was it enough to convict? No weapon or witness put Ford at the scene. Stroud admitted a number of mistakes were made during the case. “There was a question about other people’s involvement,” he said. “I should have followed up on that. I think my failure to say something can only be described as cowardice. I was a coward.” Ford’s court-appointed lawyers had no experience of criminal law, with backgrounds in wills and estates. “I snickered from time to time saying … we’re going to get though this case pretty quickly,” Stroud said. There were no African Americans on the jury. “I felt that they would not consider a death penalty where you had a black defendant and a white victim,” Stroud said. “I was wrong.” It took the jury less than three hours to find Ford guilty. Afterwards, Stroud went out to celebrate with drinks, songs and slaps on the back, a performance he now calls “disgusting”. While Stroud’s career soared after the case, Ford became one of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., NEB., CALIF.
Oct. 13 TEXASimpending execution Man convicted in Dallas officer's 2001 death faces execution The 19-year-old was already wanted in Dallas in the fatal shooting of a neighbor when he got involved in a brawl outside a club, pulled out a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and opened fire on police as they tried to break up the fight. Licho Escamilla's bullets twice struck Christopher Kevin James, among 4 uniformed Dallas officers working off-duty security that 2001 Thanksgiving weekend, knocking him to the ground. Escamilla then calmly walked up to James and pumped 3 more shots into the back of his head before running and exchanging shots with other officers, witnesses said. A wounded Escamilla was arrested as he tried to carjack a truck. On Wednesday night, Escamilla is slated to become the 24th convicted killer put to death this year in the United States — with Texas accounting for 1/2 of the execution. The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to review the 33-year-old's case, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday decided against a reprieve and recommending clemency and no new appeals were in the courts Tuesday. "He's a really bad guy," trial prosecutor Fred Burns said Tuesday. "I think what happened is the guy already committed one murder and figures that's what (officers) were coming after him for." A warrant had been issued for Escamilla in the shooting death of a West Dallas neighbor nearly three weeks before James' death on Nov. 25, 2001. Escamilla's trial attorneys told jurors he was responsible for James' slaying but argued it didn't merit a death sentence because James was not officially on duty, meaning the crime didn't qualify as a capital murder. As the judge in October 2002 read his death sentence, Escamilla threw of pitcher of water at the jury, started kicking and hitting people and hid under the defense table until he was subdued by sheriff's deputies. "It was a real scene," Wayne Huff, Escamilla's lead trial lawyer, said. "I don't think there was any real doubt he was going to be found guilty." Testimony showed Escamilla bragged to emergency medical technicians who were treating his wounds that he had killed an officer and injured another and that he'd be out of jail in 48 hours. He also admitted to the slaying during a television interview from jail. James, 34, had earned dozens of commendations during his nearly 7 years on the Dallas police force after graduating at the top of his cadet class. He was working the off-duty security job to earn extra money so he and his new wife could buy a house. A 2nd officer wounded in the gunfire survived. According to court documents, Escamilla and some older brothers were involved in gang activities and sold and used drugs from an early age. He was involved in 2 high-speed police chases and an assault on an assistant principal in school, where he dropped out after the eighth grade. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: Death row attorney: Firing squad is a 'feasible' option Alabama could easily form a firing squad – it has the bullets and the marksmen to do it - to execute Alabama death row inmate Tommy Arthur, an attorney for the condemned man states in a court filing. Arthur's attorney, Suhana S. Han, on Friday filed a motion asking U.S. District Court Judge Keith Watkins to reconsider his Oct. 5 order that denied Arthur the chance to argue the firing squad as a feasible alternative to the state's three-drug lethal injection method. "Mr. Arthur has alleged numerous facts showing that the firing squad is 'feasible' and 'readily available'," Han stated in her motion. Those facts, Han states, includes that Alabama would be able to supply officers to carry out an execution by firing squad, that numerous people employed by the state have the training necessary to successfully perform an execution by firing squad, and the state already has a stockpile of both weapons and ammunition. Han also states that by adopting a firing squad protocol, "the State of Utah has shown that it is a practicable option." Watkins had stated in his order that any suggestion of an alternate method had to be one that complied with the rules set out by the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in an Oklahoma case this summer. That requires that the alternate execution method has to be already permitted by the state's law. Han argued that's not the case. "The ease with which Alabama could implement a firing squad protocol, including by passing any necessary legislation, is properly the subject of discovery and adjudication on the merits after a full evidentiary hearing," Han argues in her filing. If the judge doesn't want to reconsider his order, then Han asks that the judge allow his order be appealed on that one point regarding the firing squad. Arthur is among at least eight Alabama death row inmates who have filed lawsuits challenging Alabama's lethal injection method.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., OKLA., USA
Oct. 8 TEXAS: After rare 10-month respite, Texas death row gets 1st new inmate in 2015 Death row in Texas is getting its 1st new inmate in 2015, ending a 10-month hiatus in death sentences imposed by juries in the nation's most active capital punishment state. A Brazos County jury decided after 7 hours of deliberation Wednesday that 22-year-old Gabriel Hall should be put to death for an attack that left a 68-year-old man dead and his wife injured at the couple's home in College Station. It is the 1st death sentence imposed in Texas since last December. Jurors rejected the option of sending Hall to prison for life with no chance of parole - the outcome in 3 other Texas capital cases this year where the death penalty was a possibility. Brazos County is about 100 miles northwest of Houston. (source: Associated Press) CONNECTICUT: Connecticut Court Stands By Decision Eliminating Death Penalty The Connecticut Supreme Court is standing by its decision to eliminate the death penalty, but state prosecutors are challenging that ruling in another capital punishment appeal. Justices on Thursday rejected a request by prosecutors to reconsider their landmark 4-3 decision in August. The majority ruled a 2012 state law abolishing capital punishment for future crimes must be applied to the 11 men on death row for killings committed before the law took effect. The decision came in the case of convicted killer Eduardo Santiago. Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane said Thursday that prosecutors have filed a motion in the pending death penalty appeal of Russell Peeler Jr. to make the arguments they would have made in the Santiago case, if the Supreme Court had granted their motion to reconsider. (source: Hartford Courant) OKLAHOMA: Autopsy: Oklahoma Used The Wrong Drug To Execute Charles Warner Corrections officials in Oklahoma used the wrong drug to execute Charles Warner back in January. The revelation was included in Warner's autopsy report, which was just made public by the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. According to the report, officials used potassium acetate - not potassium chloride, as state protocol calls for - to stop Warner's heart. Warner, 47, had been scheduled to die on the same night as Clayton D. Lockett. If you remember, Lockett's 2014 execution was also botched. A report issued after his death, found that a phlebotomist misplaced the IV line intended to deliver the lethal cocktail of drugs directly into Lockett's bloodstream. Instead, the cocktail was delivered to the surrounding tissue and Lockett eventually died of a heart attack. According to The Oklahoman, which first reported on Warner's autopsy report, explains: "The drug vials and syringes used in Warner's execution were submitted to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner after his death. 2 of the syringes were labeled with white tape '120 mEq Potassium Chloride,' his autopsy report shows. "However, the 12 empty vials used to fill the syringes are labeled '20mL single dose Potassium Acetate Injection, USP 40 mEq\2mEq\mL,' the autopsy report shows." Back in September, Gov. Mary Fallin stopped the execution of Richard Glossip, saying that the state had received potassium acetate rather than potassium chloride. Following that stay, Robert Patton, Oklahoma's prisons director, told reporters that the state's drug provider told them that the 2 drugs were interchangeable. Medical professionals say they are 2 different drugs. In a statement, Fallin said she had not been made aware that the 2 drugs may have been switched during the Warner execution until she was told the wrong drugs were procured for the the Glossip execution. "The attorney general's office is conducting an inquiry into the Warner execution and I am fully supportive of this inquiry," she said. "It is imperative that the attorney general obtain the information he needs to make sure justice is served competently and fairly." Fallin said that until the state has "complete confidence in the system" she will delay any scheduled executions. Glossip's attorney, Dale Baich, said in a statement that Oklahoma cannot be trusted to get this procedure right. "The State's disclosure that it used potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride during the execution of Charles Warner yet again raises serious questions about the ability of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to carry out executions," Baich said. "The execution logs for Charles Warner say that he was administered potassium chloride, but now the State says potassium acetate was used. We will explore this in detail through the discovery process in the federal litigation." According to the AP, Oklahoma's execution protocol does allow for some wiggle room in the kind of drugs used in executions. "The protocols include dosage guidelines for single-drug lethal injections of pentobarbital or sodium pentothal, along
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., S.C., FLA.
Oct. 7 TEXAS: With his last words, a killer apologized to his victim's widow. Could she forgive him? On Sept. 17, 1998, Juan Martin Garcia fatally shot Hugo Solano during a robbery. Garcia was a 18-year-old gang member with a long rap sheet and a reputation for violence. Solano was a Christian missionary who had just moved from Mexico to Houston to raise his 2 children in the United States. For killing a good man, Garcia garnered just $8. He was caught 11 days later, convicted of murder, and sentenced to die. On Tuesday evening, the heinous crime came full circle. Garcia, now 35, lay on a gurney in a Texas execution chamber and used his final words to try to make peace with what he had done. As real tears rolled down over the teardrop tattoos already at the corner of his eyes, he spoke to Ana Solano, Hugo's widow, and her daughter. "The harm that I did to your dad and husband - I hope this brings you closure," he said, his voice breaking, according to the Associated Press. "I never wanted to hurt any of you all." For almost 2 decades, Garcia had made excuses for the murder. Now he was apologizing. But could Ana forgive him? 15 years ago, the answer was unclear. On Feb. 21, 2000, Ana Solano took the stand in a Houston courtroom. Days earlier, a jury had found Garcia guilty of murdering her husband. Jurors had heard how Garcia was a teenage gangster with a record of theft, trespassing and assault. As a student, he had made a "terroristic threat" against one of his teachers. Jurors also heard how Garcia and fellow gang members went on a brazen robbery spree in weeks before the murder, terrorizing Houston residents and seriously injuring several victims. And they heard how Garcia rapped on the glass of Solano's truck window with his gun, just as the missionary was on his way to work on Sept. 17, 1998. What happened next has been disputed ever since. Prosecutors said Garcia demanded Solano's money. When he refused, Garcia shot him 3 times and took his wallet - with only $8 in it. In a videotaped confession, Garcia said he didn't mean to shoot Solano but pulled the trigger in a moment of panic. He was scared, he told police officers, and so was Solano. "When we were leaving he still kept on talking to me," Garcia said in his confession, according to a Houston Chronicle article on the trial. "He was asking for help in Spanish." "I beg of you, please don't take my son away from me," Garcia's mother, Esther, tearfully asked jurors. But when it was Ana Solano's time to testify as to what sentence her husband's killer should receive, the Christian missionary equivocated. "I can't say," she said on the stand. "That is why the jury is here and there is established law. All I know is that my husband is not coming back here. "My loved one ...," she began before trailing off into tears, according to the Houston Chronicle. It was hard to question the testimony of a grieving widow. After all, Ana had lost so much. She and her husband and their 2 kids had moved to Houston with hopes of a better life just two months before Hugo's murder. The slaying had taken a terrible toll on her family. "In the beginning, they didn't want to go out. They just wanted to be around me," she said of her then-teenage children. "We were an extremely loving family. They loved their father very much." Ana also had been tested by her husband's murder. "I went into an intense depression," she told the court, according to the Houston Chronicle. "I did not want to speak to my family or talk on the phone. I knew if I continued in the same way, my children would suffer more so." In the hopes of persuading the jury to spare Garcia's life, defense attorney Stephanie Martin asked Ana if, as a Christian missionary, she would rather see Garcia serve life in prison than face the death penalty. "I feel badly as well for him," she said. "But to forgive your enemies is very difficult." Jurors gave Garcia the death sentence. For the past 15 years, Garcia tried to evade his sentence. He launched several unsuccessful appeals. And in an interview with the AP last month, he gave still more reasons why he didn't deserve to die. He was "railroaded," he claimed. He was on drugs during the incident and thought the missionary was going to try to kill him. On Friday, however, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Garcia's final petition for clemency. And so it was that guards wheeled Garcia into a Huntsville prison's execution chamber on Tuesday night. This time, Garcia didn't make any excuses. And Ana Solano didn't equivocate. As the convict apologized for killing her husband, Ana and her daughter sobbed and said that they loved Garcia. As pentobarbital flowed into the inmate's veins, Garcia winced, shook his head, gurgled and then stopped moving, according to the AP. Meanwhile, Ana and her daughter raised their arms in apparent prayer in a nearby
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA.
Oct. 6 TEXASimpending execution Texas inmate set for execution for $8 robbery, slaying No late appeals have been filed on behalf of a Texas inmate who says he shouldn't die for fatally shooting a Mexican man who was robbed of $8. Juan Martin Garcia's execution is scheduled for Tuesday. He was convicted of capital murder for the September 1998 killing and robbery of Hugh Solano in Houston, where Solano had moved with his family weeks earlier. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Garcia's case in March. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a 5-2 vote, refused a clemency request from Garcia last week. Garcia acknowledges shooting Solano outside Solano's apartment complex, but insists it's not a capital case and that jurors penalized him unfairly because he didn't take the witness stand in his own defense at trial. "If it's God's will, it's his will," Garcia, 35, told The Associated Press last month in a prison interview near Livingston. His lethal injection to be held in Huntsville would be the 11th this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. Three more executions are scheduled in upcoming weeks. "At least I'm going home and I won't have to suffer this pain anymore, because I know that as the Bible says there is an afterlife with no problems and no sorrow," said Garcia, who spoke to the AP on a phone inside a caged-in visitors' area outside the state's death row. "And that's all I look forward to." Evidence at his 2000 trial and testimony from a companion identified him as the ringleader of four men involved in the shooting and robbery. The slaying and a string of other violent crimes tied to Garcia, who was 18 at the time of the killing, convinced a jury he should be put to death. Garcia, his two cousins and another man had already carried out a carjacking when they spotted Solano during the early morning hours of Sept. 17, 1998, getting into his van to go to work, according to the evidence. Solano's relatives said the 36-year-old, who did Christian missionary work in Guadalajara, Mexico, had moved with his wife to Houston weeks earlier so their children could be educated in the U.S. Eleazar Mendoza, who pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to 55 years in prison, testified that Garcia approached Solano and pointed a gun. Mendoza said Garcia gave Solano orders in Spanish to surrender any money he had and then shot him when he refused. Garcia, from prison, said it was Mendoza who came up with the idea to rob Solano and that Solano escalated the confrontation by resisting. "He punches me," Garcia said. "First thing that came through my mind is that the dude is going to try to kill me. He grabbed the gun with both of his hands and it discharged." Solano was shot 4 times in the head and neck. Garcia was arrested more than a week later when he dropped a gun while getting out of a car that police had pulled over for a broken headlight. He was released but arrested again when the gun was matched to Solano's slaying. Evidence and testimony tied him to at least 8 aggravated robberies and 2 attempted capital murders in the weeks before and after Solano's death. Another defendant, Raymond McBen, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was paroled a year ago. The fourth man charged, Gabriel Morales, went to trial and was sentenced to life on a capital murder conviction. (source: Associated Press) Faculty members from Capital Punishment Center review capital punishment cases in the Supreme Court Even though the death penalty is less used within the U.S. judicial system now in comparison to previous decades, it still commands a large portion of the Supreme Court???s time and resources, according to UT law professor Jordan Steiker. Faculty members belonging to the Capital Punishment Center at UT reviewed Supreme Court capital punishment cases that occurred during the past year at a case review Monday. While the death penalty aims to act as a deterrent and a method of retribution, a large number of Americans have begun to turn their back on it, Steiker, director of the Capital Punishment Center, said. Ashley Alcantara, Plan II and government junior and communications director for University Democrats, said capital punishment should be outlawed. "Capital punishment is not a good deterrent," Alcantara said. "There is always a risk of killing an innocent person." Madison Yandell, government junior and president of College Republicans, said capital punishment should be reserved for cases that involve heinous crimes. "People value life, so if they know the punishment is going to be life, it deters crime," Yandell said. "Capital punishment serves the family of victims because it is a small way of achieving justice for them." The faculty panel discussed Glossip v. Gross, a 2015 Supreme Court case
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.Y., PENN., N.C., FLA., MONT., USA
Oct. 6 TEXASexecution Texas executes inmate for killing man in $8 robbery A convicted killer in Texas was executed Tuesday for fatally shooting another man in a robbery that yielded just $8. No late appeals were filed for Juan Martin Garcia, who was lethally injected for the September 1998 killing and robbery of Hugo Solano in Houston. Solano, a Christian missionary from Guadalajara, Mexico, had moved his family to the city just weeks earlier so his children could be educated in the U.S. Garcia, 35, apologized to Solano's relatives in Spanish in the moments before the execution. Solano's wife and daughter sobbed and told the inmate they loved him. "The harm that I did to your dad and husband - I hope this brings you closure," he said from the death chamber gurney, his voice breaking. "I never wanted to hurt any of you all." He told his sister and several friends in English that he loved them. "No matter what, remember my promise," Garcia said. "No matter what, I will always be with you." As the dose of pentobarbital began, he winced, raised his head and then shook it. He gurgled once and snored once before his movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 12 minutes later, at 6:26 p.m. CDT. Solano's wife, Ana, and her daughter raised their arms in an apparent prayer inside a death chamber witness room. Afterward, Ana Solano said she wished the execution had not taken place and that she accepted Garcia's apology because it came "from his heart." She said a person deserves to survive so they can share what they learn from their mistakes with others in similar situations. "It's about God. It's about Jesus," she said. In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Garcia acknowledged he shot Solano but denied the robbery, an accompanying felony that made it a capital case. Garcia, who was linked to at least 8 aggravated robberies and 2 attempted murders in the weeks before and after Solano's death, also insisted jurors had unfairly penalized him because he didn't take the witness stand in his own defense at trial. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Garcia's case in March. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected a clemency request from him last week. Evidence at the 2000 trial and testimony from a companion identified Garcia, who was 18 at the time of the killing and a street gang member, as the ringleader of 4 men involved in Solano's shooting and robbery. Garcia, his 2 cousins and another man had already carried out a carjacking when they spotted the 36-year-old Solano early on Sept. 17, 1998, getting into his van to go to work. Eleazar Mendoza, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison for aggravated robbery, testified that Garcia approached Solano and pointed a gun. Mendoza said Garcia ordered Solano to surrender his money then shot him when he refused. Garcia told the AP that it was Mendoza's idea to rob Solano and that Solano escalated the confrontation by resisting. "He punches me," Garcia said from a visiting cage outside death row. "First thing that came through my mind is that the dude is going to try to kill me. He grabbed the gun with both of his hands and it discharged." Solano was shot 4 times in the head and neck. Another defendant, Raymond McBen, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated robbery and paroled a year ago. The 4th man charged, Gabriel Morales, was given a life sentence for capital murder. 3 more Texas inmates are scheduled for executions in upcoming weeks. They include Licho Escamilla, who is set to die next week for the 2001 shooting death of Dallas police officer Christopher Kevin James. Garcia becomes the 11th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 529th overall since Trexas resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982; Garcia becomes the 11th condemned inmate to be put to death since Greg Abbott became Governor in Jan. 2015 Garcia becomes the 23rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1417th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present11 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-529 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 12-October 14---Licho Escamilla---530 13-November 3---Julius Murphy-531 14-November 18--Raphael Holiday---532 15-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson533 16-January 27---James Freeman-534 17-February 16--Gustavo Garcia535 18-March 9--Coy Wesbrook--536 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) *** Death penalty still on table Trial could start in April Prosecutors said as of Tuesday they still plan to seek the death penalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., USA
Oct. 5 TEXASimpending execution Texas Set To Execute Inmate Who Murdered A Man Over $8Juan Garcia is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Tuesday for fatally shooting a man during a 1998 robbery in which he stole $8. Texas is set to execute Juan Martin Garcia on October 6 for the 1998 murder of Hugo Solano during a robbery. Garcia, 35, is sentenced to die for fatally shooting Solano, a Mexican missionary in Houston, during a robbery where then 18-year-old Garcia stole $8. Garcia had 3 other accomplices, 2 of whom are serving sentences related to the robbery and 1 was paroled after serving 14 years of a 30-year sentence. Garcia's lawyers have unsuccessfully appealed to the courts that Garcia suffered from ineffective counsel during his trial and is intellectually disabled making him ineligible for the death penalty. In March, the Supreme Court also refused to intervene in the case. Garcia has appealed to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant him clemency. He has no outstanding appeals, his lawyer told the Houston Chronicle. Garcia's lawyers have argued that he had an "extremely poor school record" according to his friends and family. His mother had testified that he was a slow learner enrolled in special education classes. He also had "significant limitations in his adaptive functioning," which he exhibited before committing the crime, according to his lawyers. However the courts have denied his appeals stating there was no evidence, such as school records and IQ test scores, to prove his intellectual disability. His lawyers also argued that Garcia's trial counsel had failed to show that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of his "tortured childhood" at the hands of an abusive stepfather. Garcia would become the 11th inmate executed in Texas this year, the most of any state. While several states have faced a shortage in the supply of lethal injection drugs, Texas has been consistently able to procure pentobarbital which it uses in its 1-drug execution protocol. The state is making its own execution drugs and supplied it to Virginia for the execution of serial killer Alfredo Prieto on Oct. 1, the Virginia Department of Corrections confirmed. Garcia, who started committing crimes at the age of 12, was involved in several aggravated robberies by the time he was 18. He engaged in a crime spree with his accomplices before and after the murder of Solano. On Sept. 17, 1998, Garcia and his 3 accomplices approached Solano, 36, who was walking to his van in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Garcia demanded money from Solano and then fatally shot him 3 times in head as he sat in his car. He took $8 in cash from the victim. Garcia was arrested 11 days later when he was found with the murder weapon while being pulled over in a traffic stop. He confessed to the crime after his arrest. In a 2010 post titled "Letters to a Future Death Row Inmate" featured on the Minutes Before Six blog, Garcia wrote: "People can sentence another to die only if they think he isn't human, so the only thing a prosecutor ever has to do is make you a dog. No, dogs get national campaigns to save them from the pound. They just have to make you into something that can be killed free of guilt. That's all. They don't want to hear about the hells of your childhood, the rough life you had and it makes me so mad that I never tried to get help, maybe I would still be out there, who knows." (source: BuzzFeed News) GEORGIA: Justices reject appeal from inmate over juror's racial slur The Supreme Court has rebuffed an appeal from an African-American man on Georgia's death row over a white juror's use of a racial slur. The justices did not comment Monday in rejecting Kenneth Fults' appeal. He was sentenced to death for the 1996 killing of Cathy Bounds, who was shot 5 times in the back of her head. Fults has been trying for 10 years to get a court to consider evidence that racial bias deprived him of a fair trial. Fults' lawyers obtained a signed statement from juror Thomas Buffington in which Buffington twice used the racial slur when referring to Fults. Buffington died last year. The case is Fults v. Chatman, 14-9740. (source: Associated Press) Even with the pope in her corner, Gissendaner had no hope Pope Francis had some mojo going. Adoring crowds thronged the streets during his recent visit. It was in the wake of that communal enthusiasm that the pontiff forwarded a plea to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles: don't give Kelly Gissendaner the needle. The board, which operates in a cloud of secrecy, was unmoved. Soon, she was dead. Lobbying efforts from candle-holding crowds, Gissendaner's kids (who were also the victim's) and even God's wingman himself didn't nudge the board to sympathy. Nor did the countless legal appeals. Gissendaner made news in February
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., N.C., GA., FLA.
Oct. 3 TEXASnew execution date Coy Wesbrook has been given an execution date for March 9; it should be consideed serious. Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present10 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-528 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 11-October 6Juan Garcia---529 12-October 14---Licho Escamilla---530 13-November 3---Julius Murphy-531 14-November 18--Raphael Holiday---532 15-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson533 16-January 27---James Freeman-534 17-February 16--Gustavo Garcia535 18-March 9--Coy Wesbrook--536 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) PENNSYLVANIA: Death penalty sought in Owego native's Pa. murderJury trials in Lancaster County, Pa., are scheduled for next year The 2 men accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Owego native Nicole Mathewson in Pennsylvania will face jury trials next year, and 1 suspect could face the death penalty if convicted. Thomas Moore, 26, and Marcus Rutter, 16, were charged in the Dec. 15 death of Mathewson, then a 32-year-old Lancaster school teacher. Police say they intended to commit a burglary at her residence. Prosecutors in January announced an intention to seek the death penalty for Moore, whose jury trial in Lancaster County is expected to be held in April. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf declared in February a moratorium on the state's death penalty, but the prosecution's intent to seek it remains intact for Moore's trial, Moore's defense lawyer Jeff Conrad said. "The Commonweath can still proceed with an intention to seek the death penalty," Conrad, of Lancaster, said Friday. "Whether or not it will be imposed is another story." Rutter is not eligible for the death penalty due to his age, according to prosecutors. His trial was scheduled for Jan. 11, 2016. Both trials are expected to last up to 3 weeks, according to court records. Mathewson, a 2000 graduate of Owego Free Academy, has been remembered by her family for her contagious laugh and good heart. She was employed a 6th-grade teacher at Brownstone Elementary School in the Conestoga Valley School District. "Nicole served here in exemplary fashion for 7 1/2 years. She will be greatly missed," Superintendent Gerald Huesken said in an email after her death. The morning of Dec. 15, Lancaster police were dispatched on a report of an unresponsive woman in a house on North Franklin Street. The woman was identified as Mathewson, police said. Detectives later identified Rutter as a suspect, court papers said, and he was taken into custody that same evening in a residence less than a mile from where Mathewson was found. From there, investigators say, Moore was also linked to the crime and he was taken into custody Dec. 16 in Lancaster Township. Mathewson died as a result of "multiple traumatic injuries," police said. Moore and Rutter have been charged with multiple felonies related to her murder, including criminal homicide, burglary, criminal conspiracy to commit burglary and robbery, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. They are being held in the Lancaster County jail while awaiting trials. (source: pressconnects.com) VIRGINIAexecution The execution of Alfredo Prieto: Witnessing a serial killer's final moments It is undeniably disturbing to drive to the scheduled killing of another. A hurricane brewing in the distance, slicing steady rain through the gray day. The 1st song on the car radio: "Enter Sandman," by Metallica. Passing the old Lorton prison on the way out of Fairfax County. But the state of Virginia handles the execution of convicted murderers in a precise and professional way. Similarly, serial killer Alfredo R. Prieto lived the final moments of his life with his own version of professionalism, maintaining the same passive look he held through his 3 long trials in Fairfax, and defiantly refusing to show any remorse or regret as he issued a rehearsed final statement similar to a pro athlete being interviewed after a game. He thanked his "supporters" and then snapped, "Get it over with." They did. He entered the death chamber at 8:52 p.m. Thursday, and was dead by 9:17 p.m. A diverse crowd of witnesses watched every moment intently, some in the chamber with him, some victims' family members and friends in a room peering through 1-way glass, and then about 18 more people - lawyers, corrections officials, and 4 reporters including me - facing him straight on from another room. We watched what appeared to be an utterly painless death for a man who brutally killed 9 people and devastated 9 families, and here is how it unfolded: 3 p.m.: 6 hours before Prieto's scheduled execution, there is a court order in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OKLA., COLO.
Oct. 2 TEXAS: Texas, top state for executions, may go a year without a death penalty conviction Texas may end 2015 without imposing a sentence of capital punishment, a milestone that parallels declining public support for capital punishment in a state that had been sending the most prisoners to the death chamber. So far this year, the state's courts have sentenced no defendant to execution. Even if all 3 capital cases still on the docket end with the death penalty, this would be Texas' lowest number for any year since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to public defenders. The last time the state imposed no death sentences was 1974, when a national moratorium was in effect. Since then, Texas has led the United States in the number of convicts put to death at 528, or about 37 percent of the national total. The state's Republican leaders have said the death penalty is an appropriate way to punish offenders whose crimes have caused enormous pain for the families of murder victims, and surveys show that the majority of Texans still support this punishment. "Folks support the death penalty for the same reason they support all sanctions - justice," said Dudley Sharp, a death penalty advocate from Houston. But in Texas and the rest of the United States, executions and death penalty convictions have been dropping for years. Even so, the high cost of prosecuting capital cases, with years of appeals, has caused cash-strapped prosecutors to proceed with caution in seeking the death penalty. Legislation that makes life in prison without the possibility of parole an alternative has also influenced sentencing decisions. "You let people know about the option of life in prison without parole, and death sentences drop," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. While the group opposes the death penalty, both sides on the debate use its data. Across the United States, new death sentences hit a 40-year-low in 2014, and the 35 executions were the fewest in 20 years, it said. Texas has allowed for life in prison as a sentencing option since 2005. Previously, capital murder convicts were eligible for parole after 40 years. "It really boils down to public safety," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which specializes in defending those facing capital punishment. "If you can lock somebody up for life and know that they are not going to get parole, why wouldn't you do that?" LEVEL PLAYING FIELD Under former Governor Rick Perry and with the support of the state's Republican-controlled legislature, Texas enacted a series of reforms designed to level the playing field in the courtroom. The state increased support for public defenders for murder defendants and provided greater oversight of prosecutors. This piece of legislation and other laws came after years of complaints from capital punishment opponents, who said some of court-appointed defense lawyers were incompetent, drunk or indifferent, or that a few prosecutors hid evidence that could vindicate the accused. The state was also prompted to move by the 2011 exoneration of Michael Morton, who spent a quarter-century in prison after being wrongfully convicted of killing his wife. From 2005, when life without parole became a sentencing option, through last year, Texas averaged 10.5 new death penalty sentences. That is down from 48 in 1999, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. The death row population has dropped to its current size of 253 inmates from 460 in 1999, the group said. Meanwhile, the number of inmates serving sentences of life without parole nearly tripled to 96 last year from 34 in 2007. Surveys show that public support for the death penalty among Texans has declined even in traditional bastions. In Harris County, which produced the most death sentences in the nation, support has dropped from 75 % in 1993 to 56 % in 2015, according to surveys conducted by Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research. Kase, of the Texas Defender Service, said life without parole was both cheaper and more palatable to juries. "If you make a mistake, we can undo it," she said. "You can't do that with the death penalty." (source: Reuters) OKLAHOMA: Richard Glossip Updates: Pope Francis Seeks Commutation of Death Sentence Aaron Cooper, spokesman for Attorney General Scott Pruitt, said the Corrections Department "advised the attorney general's office that it did not have the specific drugs identified in the execution protocol". An Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesman told Daily Mail Online Glossip ate his pre-ordered last meal in his cell less than 24 hours before his sentence was planned to be carried out. "That's just insane", Glossip said when told of the drug mix-up Wednesday. "Having them all strung out in this 2-week period
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., OHIO, TENN., KAN., CALIF.
Oct. 1 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: After Appeal Denied, Death Row Inmate to DieClaims of mental retardation did nothing to stop the state's next execution Juan Martin Garcia goes to the gurney on Tuesday, Oct. 6, after 5 weeks in which the state of Texas didn't execute any inmates. Garcia, 35, was arrested in Houston in Nov. 1998 after police pulled him over for driving with a broken headlight, and authorities found a .25 caliber pistol in his possession. He was released after the arrest, but apprehended a few days later after police tied Garcia's pistol to the Sept. 17, 1998, murder of Hugo Solano. Court records indicate that Solano was murdered after a botched stickup that concluded with Garcia and an accomplice - Eleazar Mendoza - shooting and killing the man while he was sitting in his car. Both Garcia and Mendoza were charged with capital murder, but Mendoza had his charge reduced to aggravated assault in exchange for testifying against Garcia. Garcia was convicted and sentenced to death in Feb. 2000. In Oct. 2001, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his sentence. He submitted a petition for writ of habeas corpus to the state in Aug. 2001 and a federal petition in Sept. 2008, but he was unsuccessful in both attempts. His points - that he was the recipient of deficient counsel, a victim of PTSD as a result of his traumatic upbringing, and mentally retarded - did nothing to sway either court, largely because he did not have a solid case on the retardation claim, his most pressing argument. As his federal appeal noted, by 2008 he had acquired no records of any mental deficiencies, pointing only to grade school transcripts and anecdotal information gleaned from interviews to prove his case. In June 2014 Garcia tried to appeal to the Supreme Court, but justices refused to hear his case. His attorney, David Dow, tells the Chronicle that Garcia has no outstanding appeals except for a plea for clemency. He'll be the 11th Texan executed this year, and 529th since the state's 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. The state has plans to execute 3 more inmates - Licho Escamilla, Christopher Wilkins, and Julius Murphy - in the next month. (source: Austin Chronicle) PENNSYLVANIA: Trial begins in death penalty case of White Oak shotgun slaying Stephanie Pavlovic was asleep in bed with her boyfriend the morning of June 26, 2013, less than 2 hours before she was to start her shift at Book Country Clearing House in McKeesport, when she awoke to a shotgun blast. A man, standing between her bed and the doorway, fired four more times before fleeing the house on Versailles Avenue. When Ms. Pavlovic, who had curled into the fetal position and covered her head until the man left, got up, she realized part of her right hand had been shot off and ran to a neighbor's house for help. Her boyfriend, Brian Cook, was dead. Ms. Pavlovic was the 1st witness called by the prosecution to testify Wednesday in the opening day of the trial of Talon Perozich, 22, of White Oak. He is charged with criminal homicide and attempted homicide and related charges and could face the death penalty if found guilty of 1st-degree murder in the jury trial before Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski. Deputy district attorney Janet R. Necessary told the jury during her opening statement that Perozich killed Mr. Cook because he owed him $230 for fronting Mr. Cook marijuana. She characterized Mr. Cook, who stayed home during the day to care for the couple's son, as a "small-time dealer," who also liked to smoke his own product. 4 days before Mr. Cook, 24, was killed, Ms. Necessary said, Perozich sent him a text message that said, "You trying to get me that [money] today?" That was the last communication between them. During her testimony, Ms. Pavlovic told the jury that her hand was blown off by the shotgun, and that doctors rebuilt it. She has had four surgeries and is missing 2 fingers. Soft-spoken and quiet, Ms. Pavlovic maintained her composure throughout her testimony until she was asked to hold her hand up to show the jurors. Although she initially told 911 she didn't know who shot her, Ms. Pavlovic later told a paramedic, "'Tell the police it was Talon,'" Ms. Necessary said. "She'd known him for years, been in high school with him, saw him the previous week." When Ms. Pavlovic was interviewed by police, she admitted she did not see the shooter's face, but that she recognized his build and that he stood with a slouch. She also knew Perozich had a shotgun because he'd tried to sell it to Mr. Cook. Adding to the prosecution's case, Ms. Necessary said, would be testimony from two of Perozich's friends, who told police they were with him that night before the shooting and went with him to Mr. Cook's house. The 2 men, who have been given immunity for their testimony, told police that Perozich drove his mother's van to Mr.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA.
Sept. 28 TEXAS: Texas Prison Guard Union Urges Death Row Reforms In a move that surprised many in the prison reform community, the president of the local chapter of a Texas prison guards' union wrote a letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) on January 20, 2014, urging officials to introduce major reforms in the state's handling of death row prisoners. Lance Lowry, president of Huntsville's Local 3807 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), wrote the letter amid the TDCJ's review of conditions at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, where Texas death row prisoners are held. Prisoners at Polunsky are housed in solitary confinement, confined to their cells 23 hours a day. "Recreation" comes in the form of exercise 1 hour per day, alone in a dog-run type enclosure. Televisions are not permitted, nor are prisoners allowed to use the telephone or participate in education, work or religious programs. While a 3-tiered classification system allows some condemned prisoners a radio and occasional non-contact visits, all prisoners remain on death row until their execution or, in the rare case, release, for several decades on average. According to Lowry, the draconian conditions at Polunsky are a "knee-jerk reaction" to a 1998 escape from death row, in which convicted murderer Martin Gurule escaped only to drown in a stream nearby. 6 months later, the death row prisoners at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville were moved to Polunsky. "This has not been a positive thing for the inmates or the staff," Lowry said. "There has been increased aggression toward the officers." In his letter to the TDCJ, Lowry wrote that "staff incompetency and lack of proper security equipment" were the biggest factors in the 1998 escape. As a result, "the agency ignored the root of the problem," and in the current death row management model, "inmates have very few privileges to lose and staff become easy targets." The AFSCME letter called for greater privileges to be used as a management tool. Certain death row prisoners should be housed 2 offenders to a cell and [given] privileges such as work assignments and allowed TV privileges by streaming over-the-air television to a computer tablet using a closed Wi-Fi network." Lowry added, "Lack of visual r auditory stimulation results in increased psychological incidents and results in costly crisis management." A coalition of prisoners' rights advocates including mental health groups, religious organizations, security experts and civil rights activists also sent a letter to TDCJ officials urging similar reforms. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) said the TDCJ's current system of long-term solitary confinement causes suicide, depression, paranoia, psychosis and other anti-social behaviors. "Sticking with the status quo is alarming," stated NAMI policy coordinator Greg Hansch. TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said the agency is "currently reviewing and updating the [department's] Death Row Plan." As of September 9, 2015, 6 women and 247 men were awaiting execution in Texas. (source: Prison Legal News) Texas Murder Trial Set to Resume After Shock Belt Used on Defendant Representing Self A Texas capital murder trial is set to proceed Monday - but the defendant has already experienced a very small taste of how an electric chair might feel: He was given a shock in court for refusing to comply with a judge's orders. James Calvert, 45, has represented himself in the possible death penalty case since 2012, when he was charged with killing his estranged wife and abducting their son. Calvert was outfitted with a shock belt after Judge Jack Skeen raised security concerns and said Calvert was acting erratically, Reuters reported. The belt was used when Calvert didn't follow a judge's order to stand up. Kathryn Kase, executive director of Texas Defender Service, told NBC News that Calvert appears to be mentally ill and shouldn't have been allowed to act as his own lawyer in the first place. "The Supreme Court has ruled: People with a history of mental illness are supposed to show a much higher level of competence to represent themselves," she said. It does not appear that Calvert has shown that level of competence, Kase said, adding that earlier in the trial, Calvert told the judge that all of his objections "will be phrased as 'foxtrot.'" "That's something that someone with mental illness does," she said. "That says to me, someone is losing their grip on reality." A sheriff's lieutenant told Reuters that the shock belt is used like a Taser, and it is less obvious to a jury than leg irons and handcuffs. It was unclear who ordered it to be used, Kase said. Skeen did not respond to interview requests on Sunday, and Reuters reported that he issued a gag order on the trial. After the shock was administered, Skeen told Calvert that would no longer be
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA
Sept. 26 TEXAS: Questions raised after shock belt used at Texas murder trial A potential death penalty trial in East Texas is set to resume on Monday after it was put on hold when a judge was said by a TV station to have had a shock belt used on the defendant for misbehaving. James Calvert, 45, of Tyler, Texas, is on trial in Smith County, where prosecutors allege he beat and fatally shot his former wife at her home and abducted their 4-year-old son in October 2012. Judge Jack Skeen allowed Calvert to defend himself, over objections from attorneys specializing in the death penalty, at the outset of the trial in August. Skeen also ordered a shock device be placed on Calvert for security reasons because of his unpredictable behavior, legal officials said. On Sept. 15, when Calvert did not stand up at the judge's request, Skeen had an electric shock administered on the defendant that caused him to twist in pain before the jury, local TV broadcaster KLTV reported. "Calvert refuses to stand up when talking to judge. Shock belt is administered, Calvert scream 'ahh' for about 5 seconds," Cody Lillich, a KLTV reporter, tweeted from the courtroom. After Calvert was shocked, Skeen allowed public defenders who had been monitoring the hearings to defend him, court officials said. The trial is set to resume on Monday after it was put on recess on Sept. 16. The judge has issued a gag order in the case, a court official said. Skeen did not respond to requests for comment. Legal experts said the judge's conduct could open the door to appeals if Calvert is convicted and possible sanction for abuse of the shock belt, which is to be used only if the defendant poses an immediate security risk. "This is just a travesty of justice as far as I'm concerned. This man is facing an execution if he's convicted," said George Parnham, a Houston lawyer who represented Andrea Yates, who drowned her 5 children and was found innocent by reason of insanity on appeal. Skeen, who was Smith County district attorney before he was elected a district judge, has had no disciplinary sanctions, according to the Texas Bar Association. Calvert has been disruptive because of mental illness, making it all the more reasonable to have had a lawyer represent him from the start, said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which has been monitoring the case. "I know of no death penalty trial in the state of Texas where the defendant has been able to represent himself who got life in prison," Kase said. It is common to have a shock belt on defendants at jury trials for safety, and the device is less obvious than handcuffs or leg irons, Smith County Sheriff's Lieutenant Gary Middleton said. "It's really pretty effective when we use it. It's kind of like a Taser," he said. (source: Reuters) USA: International Community Condemns U.S., Recommends End to Police Deadly Force, Racial Profiling and Death Penalty America's racist practices - including police violence and the implementation of its criminal justice system - have human rights implications and face international scrutiny. The United Nations has reviewed the country's human rights record and the international body slammed the U.S. for its racial profiling and use of deadly force, and its implementation of the death penalty. Of the 343 recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, the U.S. accepted 44 recommendations for eliminating racial discrimination and addressing excessive use of police force and racial bias in the death penalty, as Al Jazeera America reported. In addition, the U.S. supported another 20 recommendations "in part" and rejected 1 - calling for an independent commission to prosecute racially motivated crimes. During the peer review process - in which 117 UN member states participated, and each state must undergo every four years - the international community was able to weigh in and offer comments and recommend changes. The panel called on the U.S. - which often characterizes itself as a beacon of human rights and criticizes other nations on their human rights record - to abolish the death penalty, end extrajudicial killings, and protect the human rights of indigenous people and immigrants. The council also urged the U.S. to punish torturers, and close its Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. The French delegation recommended the U.S. "take necessary measures to fight against discriminatory practices of the police based on ethnic origin." Meanwhile, Malaysia suggested the U.S. "double its efforts in combating violence and the excessive use of force by law enforcement officers based on racial profiling through training, sensitization and community outreach, as well as ensuring proper investigation and prosecution when cases occur." The U.S. accepted these peer recommendations, while also explaining its criteria for
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., OHIO, MO., OKLA., NEB.
Sept. 25 TEXAS: Texas Is Making Its Own Execution Drugs, Oklahoma Inmate Alleges Many death penalty states have struggled to obtain a lethal injection drug that Texas has consistently been able to procure. In a filing Thursday in Oklahoma, lawyers provided evidence that Texas sold pentobarbital to Virginia in August. The state of Texas is making its own execution drugs and has sold them to at least 1 other death penalty state, an inmate facing execution in Oklahoma alleges in a court filing Thursday. His attorneys point to documents that show the Texas Department of Criminal Justice sold pentobarbital to Virginia in late August. Pentobarbital is a sedative that many death penalty states, including Oklahoma, have claimed is impossible for them to get their hands on. As a result, some states have turned to midazolam, a drug that critics argue is significantly less effective. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in executions this June. The records submitted as part of the new filing show that Virginia received 150 milligrams of the drug. Under the heading "Name of Supplier," the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is listed. The labels do not identify the pharmacy that prepared the drug. However, the lawyers for the Oklahoma inmate state that the labels were created by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which they also allege "is compounding or producing pentobarbital within its department for use in executions." On Friday, Texas confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it sent the execution drugs to Virginia. A spokesman said it was to repay Virginia for having given Texas drugs in the past. "In 2013, the Virginia Department of Corrections gave the Texas Department of Criminal Justice pentobarbital to use as a back up drug in an execution," spokesman Jason Clark said. "Virginia's drugs were not used." "The agency earlier this year was approached by officials in Virginia and we gave them 3 vials of pentobarbital that [were] legally purchased from a pharmacy. The agency has not provided compounded drugs to any other state. Texas law prohibits the TDCJ from disclosing the identity of the supplier of lethal injection drugs." In a statement, the Virginia Department of Corrections said it intended to use the pentobarbital next week. "The Department did recently obtain pentobarbital from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice," spokesperson Lisa Kinney said. "That pentobarbital is scheduled to be used in the Oct. 1 execution of Alfredo Prieto. There was no payment involved." Kinney added that questions about who made the drug would have to be directed to Texas. The lawyers raise these issues to make the argument that Oklahoma could avoid the use of the controversial midazolam drug in its executions. It could do so, they argue, by purchasing pentobarbital from Texas, like Virginia, or by "compounding or producing pentobarbital in the same manner as does TDCJ." States have struggled to obtain execution drugs for years after makers enacted more stringent guidelines to keep them away from states that would use them for executions. The idea of a state-run lab making its own death penalty drugs is something Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster raised last year, although many wondered how it could be done. Missouri, like Texas, has had no trouble obtaining pentobarbital. (source:BuzzFeedNews.com) * Texas shared its execution drugs with Virginia Texas prison officials acknowledged on Friday that they have supplied at least 1 other state with execution drugs - but the original source of those drugs remains shrouded in secrecy. The disclosure came the day after a death-row inmate claimed in court papers that Texas is now making its own lethal injection drugs and had shared vials of them with Virginia. In a statement, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed it gave three vials of pentobarbital to the Virginia Department of Corrections. "The drugs have been tested for purity and will expire in April 2016," the statement said. "State law prohibits the agency from disclosing the identity of the supplier of lethal injection drugs," it said. Several death penalty states have passed laws to keep the source of their execution chemicals confidential to protect pharmacies that mix them from negative publicity and protests. Defense lawyers say the secrecy rules also prevent inmates from investigating whether the drugs that will be used to kill them are unadulterated. States across the nation have struggled to obtain execution drugs because pharmaceutical companies have been pressured to stop selling them to prisons for lethal injections. Virginia has not executed anyone since the 2013 electrocution of Robert Gleason. Texas, on the other hand, has put to death 10 prisoners this year. The details of its shipment to Virginia were first revealed in a court filing by Richard Glossip, who is
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., TENN., ARK., MO., OKLA., USA
Sept. 25 TEXAS: Execution of mentally ill man serves no greater good Any reasonable debate over the value and efficacy of the death penalty must eventually return to the greater good. Those who support the continued application of capital punishment believe a greater good is served by putting to death the worst of the worst, those whose criminal acts forever brand them as evil beyond redemption. And while recognizing that moral argument, this newspaper disagrees that any greater good can result from a penalty of such irrevocable finality so inconsistently applied. When the life in question is a schizophrenic who demanded to represent himself at trial dressed as a TV cowboy and sought to subpoena the pope, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ, where is the point of contention? Scott Panetti has struggled with mental illness for 4 decades. In the 6 years before he shot his estranged wife's parents, Joe and Amanda Alvarado, in Fredericksburg, he was hospitalized more than a dozen times, diagnosed with schizophrenia, delusions and hallucinations. On 1 occasion, he became convinced the devil had possessed his home and buried his furniture in the back yard. Today he believes that prison guards have implanted a listening device in one of his teeth. If the state of Texas puts him to death, as a jury ruled in 1995, he will take his last breath believing it was the end of a plot to silence his allegations of prison corruption and attempts to preach the gospel. Panetti is caught in a fatal Catch-22: He has no money to hire an expert to evaluate his condition, yet the state argues that courts already have rejected his claims and that he's not entitled to funding because he cannot show that he's too mentally ill to face execution. He hasn't been evaluated by a mental health professional in nearly 7 years. A neuropsychologist who reviewed his records pro bono at his lawyers' request concluded that his condition was worsening, exacerbated by age and the stress of living under a death sentence. In what could be his last hope, a panel of 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals justices heard testimony this week and will decide whether to grant his lawyers access to funding that could prove his incompetence. So we're back to that fundamental question: What greater good is served by putting Scott Panetti to death? This newspaper finds common ground with Richard A. Viguerie, speaking for a group of national conservative thought leaders, and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Tom Price, who dissented from his Republican colleagues on allowing Panetti's execution to go forward. Because no matter where you come down on capital punishment, the evidence in this case is clear: Carrying out this sentence, especially in the absence of a complete and timely mental health evaluation, serves neither deterrence nor retribution. It only diminishes us as a state, as a nation and as a people. There's no greater good in this. No good at all. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) VIRGINIAimpending execution Group asks Virginia Gov. McAuliffe to delay man's execution A group that advocates for people with intellectual disabilities wants Gov. Terry McAuliffe to delay the execution of a man convicted of killing a young couple in Virginia. Alfredo Prieto's attorneys have asked McAuliffe to grant a temporary reprieve of his Oct. 1 execution so he can be transferred to California and assessed on whether he's intellectually disabled. Jamie Liban, executive director of The Arc of Virginia, said in a letter supporting Prieto's request that the group has serious concerns about the upcoming execution. Liban says allowing it to go forward would be "unjustified scientifically." Prieto was already on California's death row for raping and killing a 15-year-old girl when he was sentenced to death in 2010 for the shooting deaths of Rachael Raver and Warren Fulton III. (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Tennessee Supreme Court Sets October Oral Arguments The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear 2 civil cases, 2 Board of Professional Responsibility cases and 1 death penalty case when it sits for oral arguments in Nashville Oct. 1. State v. Howard Hawk Willis - This death penalty case comes to the Supreme Court on a direct appeal. The Supreme Court is required by law to review all death penalty cases. Mr. Willis was convicted of the 2003 murders of a teenage husband and wife near Johnson City and sentenced to death. The defendant, who represented himself at trial after changing lawyers multiple times, has raised 20 issues on appeal for the Court to consider regarding his conviction and sentence. Oral arguments, which are open to the public, begin at 9 a.m. CDT at the Supreme Court building, 401 7th Ave, N., Nashville. (source: The Chattanoogan) *** TN Supreme Court to review Howard Hawk Willis' death penalty case Oct. 1 The
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., N.C., GA., FLA., LA.
Sept. 24 TEXASstay of impending execution Execution date put off for Fort Worth killer The execution of a convicted Fort Worth killer, scheduled for next month, has been called off while a state commission addresses concerns raised recently about DNA statistics and interpretation. Tarrant County prosecutors filed a motion Monday in 297th District Court, asking the judge to recall the death warrant for Christopher Chubasco Wilkins, who was scheduled to be executed Oct. 28. The prosecutors wrote that they were seeking the recall because the Texas Forensic Science Commission "is in the process of addressing emerging issues involving the calculation of DNA population statistics and DNA mixture interpretation." "While the State has no reason to believe that these DNA issues are material to or have any effect on [Wilkins'] conviction and death sentence, the State believes that a stay of [Wilkins'] currently scheduled execution should be granted in order to allow the parties to more fully investigate these matters." State District Judge David Hagerman signed an order that day, withdrawing the execution date and recalling the death warrant. DNA, including mixed DNA, was among evidence presented at the 2008 trial of Wilkins, who was convicted of fatally shooting 2 men - Willie Freeman and Mike Silva - on Oct. 27, 2005. Other evidence implicating Wilkins included fingerprints found inside and outside Silva's vehicle. A pentagram and the numbers 666 were carved into the hood of Silva's vehicle - matching tattoos on Wilkins. But perhaps most damning was Wilkins' own testimony, in which he admitted to jurors that he killed Freeman out of revenge after Freeman ripped him off in a dope deal. He said he killed Silva, who had been with Freeman, simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wilkins also told jurors that he killed another man, Gilbert Vallejo, the day before outside a south Fort Worth bar during a dispute about a pay phone. He told jurors that he didn't care whether he lived or died, and he said whatever they chose for him was fine. "I am as undecided as you are," Wilkins told jurors. "You've got a job to do. You tell the judge, 'Get a rope' or not. ... "Look, it is no big deal. It is no big deal." The jury chose death, and prosecutors still intend to see that the sentence is delivered, said Sam Jordan, a spokeswoman for the Tarrant County district attorney's office. In an email responding to questions from the Star-Telegram on Wednesday, Jordan said the office has had the DNA recalculated and has received an amended report that confirms compliance with current lab interpretation and reporting protocols. Prosecutors hope to proceed with the Wilkins case after the state commission meets in October, when the DNA mixture issue is expected to be addressed. "It is our intention to enforce the jury's decision in this case," Jordan said. Hilary Sheard, Wilkins' attorney, said, "That funny sound you hear is heads being scratched across the state as people try to figure this out." "It is clearly a major issue in many cases, and I think that the state acted entirely appropriately in choosing to withdraw, or asking the court to withdraw, the warrant in these circumstances." Sheard said she hopes the delay will "allow sufficient time for other issues in the case to continue to be litigated." DNA concerns arise Concerns arose this spring when the FBI notified all Combined DNA Index System laboratories that minor discrepancies had been identified in the DNA statistical population database used by labs nationwide since 1999. The discrepancies in the database, which is used to calculate DNA match statistics in criminal and human identification cases, were attributed to human error and technological limitations. The FBI has since provided corrected data to labs. "The immediate and obvious question for the criminal justice community was whether the discrepancies could have impacted the outcome of any criminal cases," the Texas Forensic Science Commission wrote as part of a letter and attached memo to the criminal justice community. The letter was posted on the commission's website Aug. 21. Concerns arose this spring when the FBI notified all Combined DNA Index System laboratories that minor discrepancies had been identified in the DNA statistical population database used by labs nationwide since 1999. "The widely accepted consensus among forensic DNA experts is the database corrections have no impact on the threshold question of whether a victim or defendant was included or excluded in any result." Mixed DNA interpretation But adding to the concerns is that many labs have interpreted DNA mixtures found on evidence differently over the years. The scientific acceptability of some of those approaches has now been brought into question, and several labs are adopting a new standard of interpreting mixed
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., OHIO, ARK.
Sept. 23 TEXAS: Case of Texas killer puts spotlight on executing the mentally ill Scott Panetti believes that the gold filling in his mouth is a Bluetooth device that transmits his thoughts to the prison guards who watch over his cell on death row. He told his lawyer that the state wanted to kill him to keep him quiet about prison corruption and stop him from preaching the gospel. He thinks actress-singer Selena Gomez is his daughter and is convinced that CNN's Wolf Blitzer has his prison ID card. "Communicating with Scott is done through the screen of his mental illness," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents Panetti and other death row inmates. "He has been transformed by this severe mental illness that he will carry to his grave." On Wednesday, Panetti's lawyers will tell a panel of federal appellate judges in Dallas that their client is too disturbed to face execution for fatally shooting his in-laws, and they will ask for money to hire experts to evaluate his mental condition. Prosecutors will argue that Panetti understands why he was sentenced to death and that the continued delays in his punishment should end. Panetti, whose execution was stayed by a federal court in December, has become the poster child for a national debate over the execution of people with mental illness. His case raises difficult questions for the criminal justice system about whether people with serious mental illness ought to be exempted from the death penalty and how courts can fairly evaluate whether a criminal's mind is so addled by illness that his execution would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. "The Supreme Court has said that you can be mentally ill - and even seriously mentally ill - and still be executed, and that is very controversial," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which advocates for ending the death penalty. For nearly 40 years, Panetti has struggled with mental illness, Kase said. In the 6 years before he shot his estranged wife's parents, Joe and Amanda Alvarado, in Fredericksburg, he was hospitalized more than a dozen times, diagnosed with schizophrenia, delusions and hallucinations. On 1 occasion, he became convinced the devil had possessed his home and buried his furniture in the backyard. Despite that history, Panetti was allowed to represent himself at his 1995 trial, where he wore a cowboy get-up with a purple bandanna and demanded the testimony of Jesus Christ, JFK and the pope. His outrageous behavior frightened jurors, who rejected his insanity plea and sentenced him to death. In the 2 decades since, Panetti's appellate lawyers have tried to convince the courts that he is too mentally ill to face execution. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court took up his case, issuing a landmark decision requiring inmates to have a "rational understanding" of their punishment to be considered competent for execution. In other words, they must know that they are being executed as retribution for their crime. The court left it up to states to determine what constitutes a rational understanding. In Texas, the courts have interpreted that ruling broadly. "This is the irony of that" ruling, Kase said. "The state of Texas is still trying to kill him, notwithstanding the extensive history of severe mental illness and delusions." Since that ruling, Panetti's lawyers argue, his condition has deteriorated, but he hasn't been evaluated by a mental health professional in nearly seven years. Though he had been a well-behaved inmate, in recent years, they say, his behavior has become aggressive. Prison staff reported that he banged loudly on his cell door, threw urine on the walkway and threatened to "smite" officers for their "wickedness." A neuropsychologist who reviewed Panetti's records for free at his lawyers' request concluded that his condition was worsening, exacerbated by age and the stress of living under a death sentence. They want the court to grant Panetti funds to hire an expert to determine whether he is competent for execution. Lawyers in the attorney general's office, which is handling the appeals, argue that he has had plenty of time to prove his incompetence and that the courts have rejected his claim. They say he is not entitled to funding because he cannot show that he is too mentally ill to face execution. "Panetti's mental status has at best been severely exaggerated by his counsel," state lawyers wrote in a legal brief. Dr. Joseph Penn, a psychiatrist at the University of Texas Medical Branch who works for the Texas prison system, wrote in an affidavit after reviewing Panetti's records that the inmate "may have had some baseline or chronic residual psychosis ... but nothing severe enough to warrant treatment with medications." State lawyers also argue that in recorded conversations with his parents, Panetti
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., OKLA., IDAHO
Sept. 23 TEXAS: SALVADORIAN MAN FACES IMMINENT EXECUTION Alfredo Prieto, a Salvadorian man, is scheduled to be executed in Virginia on 1 October. He was convicted in 2008 of two capital murders committed in 1988. There is evidence that he has intellectual disability which would render his execution unconstitutional. Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format, including case information, addresses and sample messages. Rachael A. Raver and Warren H. Fulton III were murdered near Reston, Virginia in December 1988. In 2005, Salvadorian national Alfredo Prieto was identified as a suspect through DNA evidence. His first trial in 2007 ended in a mistrial due to juror misconduct. At his retrial in 2008, he was convicted on two counts of capital murder. The two death sentences were overturned in 2009 because of problems with the jury’s verdict forms. Alfredo Prieto was again sentenced to death in 2010 and these death sentences have survived the appeals process. The question of Alfredo Prieto’s intellectual functioning has been an issue throughout the case. In 2002, the US Supreme Court banned the execution of individuals who have intellectual disability (previously known as “mental retardation”). At the time of Alfredo Prieto’s trial, Virginia law required a capital defendant to have an IQ of 70 or less in order to be considered a person with intellectual disability. Of Alfredo Prieto’s three IQ scores, two were well below 70 (64 and 66), but a third was 73. Prosecutors argued that the two scores below 70 were invalid. The jury agreed and sentenced Alfredo Prieto to death, finding that intellectual disability had not been proved. In 2014, the US Supreme Court ruled in Hall v. Florida that states cannot use a fixed IQ score as the measure of whether an inmate can be put to death. Intellectual disability, it said, “is a condition, not a number… Courts must recognize, as does the medical community, that the IQ test is imprecise”. It found that Florida’s rigid IQ of 70 cut-off, which blocked the presentation of evidence other than IQ that would demonstrate limitations in the defendant’s mental faculties, was unconstitutional. Alfredo Prieto’s lawyers argue that Virginia has erred by relying on the unconstitutional definition of intellectual disability to reject Alfredo Prieto’s claim, and that procedural technicalities are preventing them from arguing the claim to the Virginia courts in a full and fair hearing. Governor McAuliffe has indicated that he will make a decision on the case well in advance of 1 October. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION In Hall v. Florida issued on 27 May 2014, the US Supreme Court wrote of Florida’s rigid IQ of 70 cut-off law: “Pursuant to this mandatory cut-off, sentencing courts cannot consider even substantial and weighty evidence of intellectual disability as measured and made manifest by the defendant’s failure or inability to adapt to his social and cultural environment, including medical histories, behavioral records, school tests and reports, and testimony regarding past behavior and family circumstances. This is so even though the medical community accepts that all of this evidence can be probative of intellectual disability, including for individuals who have an IQ test score above 70.” Hall v. Florida reiterated the Supreme Court’s view that dignity is the basic concept underlying the US constitutional ban on “cruel and unusual punishments”, and asserted that this “protection of dignity reflects the Nation we have been, the Nation we are, and the Nation we aspire to be.” Florida’s IQ cut-off law, it ruled, “contravenes our Nation’s commitment to dignity and to its duty to teach human decency as the mark of a civilized world”. The states of the USA, the Hall v. Florida ruling said, “are laboratories for experimentation, but those experiments may not deny the basic dignity the Constitution protects”. Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format. Name: Alfredo Prieto (m) Issues: Imminent execution, Unfair trial, Legal concern UA: 198/15 Issue Date: 23 September 2015 Country: USA Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact! EITHER send a short email to u...@aiusa.org with "UA 198/15" in the subject line, and include in the body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent, OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action. Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office if taking action after the appeals date. If you receive a response from a government official, please forward it to us at u...@aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below. HOW YOU CAN HELP Please write immediately in English or your own language: * Calling on the Governor to commute the death sentence of Alfredo Prieto; * Noting evidence that he has intellectual disability and expressing concern that procedural
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., GA., FLA., LA.
Sept. 19 TEXAS: Hall's competency called into question in capital murder case A man facing the death penalty for capital murder told a judge there are times when the trial gets so intense he is unable to focus or assist his counsel in his defense. The court examined Gabriel Hall's competency Friday to determine whether he was fit to continue the trial. Judge Travis Bryan III found Hall competent after hearing Hall's answers to questions such as: "Do you know what you're on trial for?" "Do you understand the roles of the attorneys?" Hall said there were times he is unable to participate in his defense because he is overwhelmed, but one of his attorneys agreed he was competent at the time of the evaluation. A competency evaluation is simply to determine a defendant's mental state at a point in the trial. If Hall would have been found incompetent, the court would have had to make a decision on how best to continue. Competency is not the same as insanity. Insanity is a legal issue determined by a jury's verdict. Hall faces life in prison or the death penalty for killing 68-year-old Edwin Shaar in the College Station man's Deacon Drive garage in October 2011, and seriously injuring his wife, Linda. A jury found Hall guilty on Sept. 11. The majority of the day was committed to hearing expert witness testimony out of the presence of the jury to make sure the testimony is valid and admissible in court. Law requires expert testimony to be validated before a jury can hear it. The jury will return Monday at 9 a.m. to continue the punishment phase of the trial. 4 mental health professionals told lawyers what their testimony would include. They're to present mitigating evidence to try and show the jury that Hall deserves life in prison without parole over the death penalty. Bethany Brand, a psychologist at Towson University in Maryland, streamed in via webcam as the first expert witness of the day. She specializes in trauma and dissociative, or multiple personality, disorders. She said at the time of the crime, Gabriel Hall suffered from a dissociative disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression that contributed to his behavior. She said he also suffered from an anxiety disorder characterized by pulling out his hair. She said this didn't contribute to the crime, but speaks to Hall's anxiety. She said Hall did not lack the ability to know right from wrong, and did not lack the ability to make choices -- though the mental disorders may have influenced him. Another psychologist, Jolie Brams, said Hall was negatively impacted by trauma experienced in his early childhood and after he was adopted by Wes and Karen Hall when he was 11. She said he did not receive the proper nurturing from his adoptive family that would have helped him cope with the damage extreme poverty did to him in the Philippines. (source: The Eagle) VIRGINIA: Va. Supreme Court decision lets officials withold more government records The state Supreme Court protected execution manuals and other materials from public view this week, a decision with potentially far reaching implications for public access to a slew of government documents unrelated to Virginia's death penalty. With the decision, a majority of the justices determined that much of Virginia's Freedom of Information Act doesn't require government agencies to redact sensitive information from requested documents. In many cases, state and local officials can simply decline to release anything at all if the law exempts part from release. "The question before us is whether an agency is required to redact an exempt document that may contain non-exempt material," Justice Cleo Powell wrote for the court. "We agree with the Commonwealth that an agency is not required to redact under these circumstances." Open government advocates lamented the decision, fearing some government officials will now deny access to otherwise public records because of minor inclusions. Coalition for Open Government Executive Director Megan Rhyne said the decision goes against one of FOIA's most basic tenets: That Virginia governments should lean toward access. "I'm fairly depressed about this," Rhyne said Friday. The case dealt detailed information about Virginia's execution protocols. Del. Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, requested the floor plan of the state's execution chamber, schematics of the state electric chair and various manuals from the Department of Corrections. Department officials said releasing that information would have endangered security, and argued that they shouldn't have to produce redacted copies. The resulting high court opinion seems to indicate that, unless the relevant area of FOIA includes key phrases, state agencies don't have to redact documents. By Rhyne's count only 4 FOIA exemptions include both key phrases. More than 30, but not nearly all of them, use at least 1.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., FLA., TENN., MO., OKLA., NEB.
Sept. 17 TEXAS: Executing Scott Panetti would be a moral failure for conservatives We are still talking about executing Scott Panetti, the lifelong schizophrenic who famously insisted on representing himself while on trial for his life wearing a TV-Western cowboy costume. He attempted to subpoena the Pope, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus Christ. On Sept. 23, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on a motion submitted on Panetti's behalf. The motion asks that the case be returned to the federal district court with orders to authorize funds for expert assistance, appoint counsel and allow counsel adequate time to file a petition raising the claim that he is currently incompetent for execution. Earlier this year, I joined with other leaders of the national conservative movement - some of us are death penalty supporters, while others oppose it - in a friend-of-the-court brief stating that we are united in our belief that the execution of Scott Panetti would serve no purpose to promote public safety. Rather than serving as a proportionate response to murder, the execution of Mr. Panetti would only undermine the public???s faith in a fair and moral justice system. And it would be a glaring and unwelcome example of excessive governmental power. As a conservative, I believe putting Panetti, a severely mentally ill man whose condition has only deteriorated on death row, to death would be senseless. He is not competent to be executed. Instead, he should spend the rest of his days under confinement - a common-sense solution that would keep the public safe and respect human dignity. Panetti's severe mental illness pre-dates the crime for which he was convicted and sentenced to death. In the decade before the offense, he was hospitalized a dozen times due to his psychotic behavior. As far back as 1986, the evidence shows, Panetti has believed he was engaging in spiritual warfare with Satan. In an affidavit his 1st wife signed to have him involuntarily committed, she testified that he engaged in a series of bizarre rituals to exorcise their home. In one instance, Panetti even buried his furniture in the backyard, believing that the devil was in it. If Panetti were executed today, he would be strapped to the gurney believing that he was being put to death for preaching the Gospels and saving souls on death row, not for murder. Panetti has not been evaluated by any mental health experts since late 2007. The last evidentiary hearing on his competency occurred in February 2008. Records indicate that his mental illness is worse now than it was 7 or 8 years ago. In any event, the only competency hearing that matters is the one that takes place when execution is imminent. As a civilized nation, we don't execute people with severe mental illness for the same reasons we don't execute people with intellectual disabilities or juveniles. All 3 categories of offenders have diminished capacities to understand what they have done. They have less moral culpability than the "worst of the worst" offenders who the death penalty is supposedly meant to punish. The rationales for the death penalty - retribution and deterrence - simply do not apply to a severely mentally ill individual like Panetti, who believes that a listening device has been implanted in one of his teeth. Panetti is not competent for execution. Others should be given the chance to make that legal argument. Meanwhile, this conservative makes the moral argument. (source: Column; Richard A. Viguerie is a longtime conservative activist and chairman of ConservativeHQ.comDallas Morning News) PENNSYLVANIA: Congregation to pope: Help us stop death penalty On the altar of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Germantown sits an oil painting of Pope Francis holding a tiny prisoner in his hands. The artist - the inmate pictured in the painting - resides at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, the prison where the pope will stop during his visit to Philadelphia later this month. "We're here to build a fire," Magdaleno Rose Avila, executive director of the Philly-based group Witness to Innocence, told the Daily News yesterday as he waited for Mass to begin at St. Vincent de Paul. Avila, an activist against the death penalty for three decades, said he has found flaws in the criminal-justice system that often lead to the death of an innocent person. "The government cannot give you life," Avila said. "Why should they take it away?" Avila's organization and the York-based Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty gathered yesterday with religious leaders from across the state to preach their moral and religious convictions against sentencing prisoners to death. Capital punishment is as much as 8 times more expensive than life in prison without parole, said Kathleen Lucas, executive director of the York-based group. The additional costs
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., S.C., FLA., LA., ILL.
Sept. 16 TEXAS: An Unfinished Prison Story In 1967, Danny Lyon, a young photographer from New York who had spent the beginning of his career documenting the civil-rights movement, was granted permission by the Texas Department of Corrections to photograph freely inside the state's penitentiaries. He spent the next 14 months among the inmates at 6 institutions, producing a raw and revealing portrait of prison life that was published, in 1971, in the volume "Conversations with the Dead." Lyon wrote, in the book's foreword, that he had tried "to make a picture of imprisonment as distressing as I knew it to be." Several of the inmates Lyon had met in the jails stood out as the book's main characters, especially Billy McCune, a prisoner who was convicted of raping and beating a woman in a Fort Worth parking lot, in 1950. Originally condemned to die in the electric chair - at the time, rape cases were eligible for the death penalty - McCune had his sentence commuted to life, in 1952, after he cut off his own penis on death row. Diagnosed as psychotic, he lived in a 9-by-5-foot cell in a prison psych ward. However, after meeting Lyon, McCune began mailing the photographer a series of letters and colorful drawings that revealed him to be a person of artistic sensitivity and intelligence. In his book - which included facsimiles of McCune's art and transcriptions of his letters, along with mug shots and prison reports on him and other inmates - Lyon wrote, "Sometimes I would get as many as 3 envelopes a week, and sometimes only two in a month. But inside there was always something incredible, something beautiful, something a man had painted or written from a place where nothing should grow In the letters and drawings of a supposed madman, I have found someone much more eloquent than I to explain to the free world what life in prison is like." In the afterword to a new version of "Conversations with the Dead," just reissued by Phaidon, Lyon tells the chapters of McCune's story that unfolded after the book's initial publication. Released from prison in 1974, McCune visited Lyon at his home in Bernalillo, New Mexico, once, in 1982, then "vanished" from his life for the next 20 years. In 2000, though, Lyon received a letter from a nun at a homeless shelter in Kansas City, saying that McCune, a regular visitor to the shelter, was old and frail and hoped to see Lyon once more before he died. The 2 reunited in Kansas City several months later; McCune died in October, 2007. Reflecting on the decades since he made his remarkable body of work, Lyon writes, "If, back in 1968, I thought I could bring down the mighty walls of the Texas prison system by publishing 'Conversations with the Dead' and the work of Billy McCune, then those years of work are among the greatest failures of my life. . . . Prison is part and parcel of America, part of the American way. It's like a cancer inside us." (source; The New Yorker) ** Man convicted in 1970s Tyler killing seeks to clear name Attorneys for a man convicted in the murder of an East Texas woman have filed paperwork to declare their client's innocence. Kerry Max Cook was convicted in the 1977 killing of Linda Jo Edwards, 21, of Tyler. Though originally sentenced to death, Cook maintained his innocence and a court overturned the verdict, spurring 2 subsequent trials. The 2nd ended in a mistrial and the 3rd sent him back to death row. Facing a 4th trial in 1999, with the State again pursuing the death penalty, Cook pleaded no contest and was granted a sentence of time served after spending more than 20 years on death row. On Tuesday, Cook's lawyers, Cheryl Wattley and Steven Rosen, sought to clear his name based on 5 different grounds: --That he is innocent of the rape and murder of Linda Jo Edwards --New scientific evidence requires that Cook's conviction be vacated --The State suppressed exculpatory evidence it possessed prior to entry of Cook's no-contest plea --Cook's due process rights were violated by the State's alleged destruction of exculpatory evidence --Cook's due process rights were violated by the presentation of false testimony from James Mayfield The documents were filed with the 114th Judicial District Court of Smith County. According to the documents, Edwards lived in the same apartment complex as Cook at the time of her death. Lawyers called the original accusations against him "bizarre and wholly unsupported," saying prosecutors' theory was that "Mr. Cook (who is heterosexual) was a closeted gay man who brutally raped, mutilated and murdered his female neighbor in an act of 'lust' and rage over his own so-called 'sexual ambivalence.'" Lawyers argue that new post-conviction DNA testing supports Cook's claim of innocence, saying that of the tests conducted on dozens of samples and cuttings from evidence at the scene, none yielded a trace of his DNA. Instead,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Sept. 15 TEXAS: Years after being freed from death row, East Texas man fights to clear name Nearly 40 years after Linda Jo Edwards was murdered and mutilated in her Tyler apartment, the man convicted of the crime - and almost executed for it - wants to be exonerated, based on new DNA tests. Lawyers for Kerry Max Cook, who Smith County prosecutors contend killed Edwards in a perverse rage in June 1977, filed documents Monday urging the court to declare the former death row inmate innocent. They argue that 6 rounds of extensive DNA testing from 1999 through 2015 failed to identify any evidence that Cook was at the scene of the crime. Instead, the tests confirmed the presence of semen from Edwards' former lover, a longtime suspect in the case and a dean at the local university whose extramarital affair with the young woman had ended badly, the lawyers say. In a separate motion filed Monday, the lawyers also asked Smith County state district Judge Christi Kennedy to recuse herself from overseeing the case. They allege that Kennedy is too closely tied to prosecutors the courts have said engaged in misconduct to win Cook's conviction, including suppressing evidence and securing false testimony. The saga has been the most high-profile case in small Smith County's history. It's resulted in 3 lengthy trials, books and movies, and worldwide attention. Cook and his lawyers, including Barry Scheck from the New York-based Innocence Project, declined to comment, referring to the legal documents filed in court. Mike West, an assistant Smith County district attorney, said he hadn't had time Monday afternoon to review the latest filings in the decades-old case. "We're going to look at it and give it a serious look," West said. Cook was convicted in 1978 of stabbing and beating Edwards to death in a sexual frenzy, and he was sentenced to die. He maintained that he was innocent, and the guilty verdict was overturned. A 2nd trial produced a mistrial, and a 3rd trial sent Cook back to death row. An appeals court threw out that verdict, too, finding prosecutors had engaged in "pervasive" and "egregious" misconduct. In 1999, just days before what would have been Cook's 4th trial, Smith County prosecutors offered him a no-contest plea deal that allowed him to be released from prison. Cook didn't admit the crime but remained guilty in the eyes of the law. Cook has been out of prison since then. He's married and has a young son, and they've traveled the world to tell his story. But the conviction hangs over Cook, preventing him from voting and making it difficult to find work. He's hoping the new evidence will finally clear his name. Before Cook accepted the 1999 plea deal, prosecutors had sought DNA testing on semen found in Edwards' underwear. Cook took the deal before the results came back, but the report eventually showed that the semen belonged to James Mayfield, Edwards' boss and former lover. Mayfield has never been charged in relation to the crime, and prosecutors have said the DNA testing doesn't mean Cook is innocent. Efforts to reach Mayfield and his former lawyer for this report were unsuccessful. In the past, he has denied any role in the crime. In 2012, Cook asked for a new round of more advanced DNA testing on the underwear and other evidence at the crime scene, including the murder weapon and a hair found on Edwards' body. Lawyers discovered, though, that an investigator in the case had taken the knife used in the murder home for "field testing." They also learned that the state destroyed the hair just after lawmakers, in 2001, approved a statute that allowed inmates access to DNA evidence in their case files that might help prove their innocence. The knife, the underwear and dozens of other items collected from the crime scene were tested. None of the testing matched Cook???s DNA, according to lawyers. The only match, they said, was an even more conclusive finding that the skin and sperm cells in Edwards' panties belonged to Mayfield. "The DNA profile shared by Mayfield and the male donor on the samples tested by Cellmark, respectively, are shared by just 1 in 3.112 trillion and 1 in 10.07 billion unrelated Caucasians - i.e., fewer than 1 such individual out of the entire current population of the Earth," the lawyers wrote. In the filings, Cook's lawyers allege that Smith County prosecutors failed to fully investigate Mayfield despite knowing that he had a relationship with Edwards and that he matched a witness description of the perpetrator at the scene and despite reports from friends who said the man had a violent temper. Mayfield testified at trial that he was with his family the night of the murder, and he said he hadn't had sex with Edwards for weeks before she was killed. With the newly obtained evidence, Cook's lawyers argue, a jury would never convict him of Edwards' murder, and they want the court to declare
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., ALA., ARK.
Sept. 12 TEXAS: Capital murder defendant fails in bid for new attorneys A Waco man facing the death penalty in a May 2014 double slaying failed Friday in his bid to replace his 2 court-appointed attorneys. Judge Ralph Strother of Waco's 19th State District Court denied a motion from Todric McDonald to fire attorneys John Donahue and Jon Evans after a closed-door conference in the judge's chambers. Donahue, Evans and McLennan County First Assistant District Attorney Michael Jarrett all declined comment after the hearing, citing a gag order Strother has placed on parties involved in the capital murder case. In a notarized motion McDonald filed with the court Aug. 31, McDonald tried to make it appear that Donahue was the one filing the motion and seeking to withdraw as counsel. But the motion was not signed by Donahue, and the person who notarized it is an officer at the Jack Harwell Detention Center, where the 28-year-old McDonald is housed with access to a law library and computer. McDonald is charged with capital murder in the deaths of Justin Javier Gonzalez, 24, and Ulysses Gonzalez, 30, at the Pecan Tree Apartments, 2600 Grim Ave. The district attorney's office has said it will seek the death penalty if McDonald is convicted of capital murder in the cousins' deaths. No date has been set for his trial. McDonald's motion reads, in part, "The defendant and counsel are in fundamental and unalterable disagreement over the conduct of the defense and the objectives that should be pursued in preparing and presenting the defense. This disagreement affects the very basis of the attorney-client relationship and impairs both counsels (sic) ability to exercise his best professional judgment and the defendants (sic) right to the effective assistance of counsel." Other charges McDonald also is indicted in separate cases for assault family violence, 2 counts of evading arrest in a vehicle, 2 counts of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault. He also has pending unindicted cases after arrests for unlawfully carrying a firearm by a felon, endangering a child and theft, according to court records. The cousins' bodies were found lying on the living room floor of a 2nd-story apartment. Each suffered multiple gunshot wounds, Waco police said. The 2 men did not live at the complex and were there visiting a friend, according to police reports. McDonald was arrested 3 days after the killings following a short police chase. Police said McDonald was working on a car outside his residence when officers from several agencies came to arrest him. He fled eastbound on Bosque Boulevard in his vehicle with a woman and a toddler inside. McDonald rammed a U.S. Marshals Service vehicle at North 26th Street and Bosque Boulevard, and McDonald's car was forced onto the curb, officers said. He tried to run, but his door was stuck on the curb and he could not get out of the vehicle, according to reports. (source: Waco Tribune) PENNSYLVANIA: Elytte Barbour claims councel was ineffective The attorney for admitted murderer Elytte Barbour claims his client's prior legal counsel was ineffective for not seeking a guilty but mentally ill plea in his amended petition under the state's Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act. Attorney Richard Feudale, of Mount Carmel, who filed the amendment Thursday in the Court of Common Pleas, claims a breakdown in communication between Barbour and his previous legal counsel inadvertently led to his 2nd-degree murder plea over a year ago in connection with the stabbing and strangulation death of Port Trevorton resident Troy LaFerrara. The Barbours were charged with killing LaFerrara and stealing $150 from his wallet. Elytte Barbour claims his wife took the money. Feudale said Barbour's plea was defective for multiple reasons including his prior defense team's failure to pursue his wish of a temporary insanity plea. He claims Barbour had no intention to rob LaFerrara and that his plea was not knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered. Feudale also claims Barbour was coerced or induced into pleading guilty to second-degree murder because he was threatened by his prior counsel that if he did not plea, he would face the death penalty at trial. Barbour claims if he had been made aware of all the mitigating factors involved with seeking the death penalty, he would not have been afraid to face a death sentence at trial. The petition said Barbour was not provided a June 23, 2014, psychiatric report and mitigation reports until he entered the plea Aug. 26, 2014. Feudale said a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship during the time required for filing a direct appeal also occurred. In the petition, Feudale asks the court to schedule an evidentiary hearing on the defendant's post conviction issues and authorize payment for Dr. Neil Blumberg to testify at the hearing about Barbour's mental state.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., S.C., FLA., LA., OKLA., CALIF., WASH.
Sept. 4 TEXAS: DA considers whether to seek death penalty in Dean case As the Bastrop County district attorney prepares to seek indictments for 2 suspects in the murder of Samantha Dean, he also has another consideration: whether he will pursue the death penalty. Court records indicate that former Austin Police Officer VonTrey Clark believes he was the father of Dean's unborn child. Dean was found dead in Bastrop County in February. After being in Indonesia for more than a month, federal agents extradited Clark back to Texas Wednesday. He arrived in Austin after midnight. Representatives from the Texas Highway Patrol, Texas Rangers, FBI, and Bastrop County agencies gathered Thursday to announce Clark and his friend Kevin Watson were both in custody for capital murder. However, grand juries have not indicted either of the men and Clark's attorney denies the claims from authorities about his client's involvement in Dean's killing. "Capital murder is an offense in the state of Texas that can carry the death penalty. The decision to seek the death penalty rests solely with me, my office," said Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz. "While this is still ongoing, that's a very complicated not only factual, but legal question. [A decision] will have to be made in the coming months. It will be made before trial. But I am not going to commit to when or what that decision is." The decision about whether to pursue the death penalty has implications for not only a suspect and his or her family, but for the length and cost of the legal process, and how long the victim???s family must wait before reaching a resolution in the case. "[A death penalty case] is just a completely different ball game," said Keith Hampton, an Austin criminal defense attorney who has been involved in capital murder cases. "If you seek death, there won't be a resolution for at least 7 years. Because if you get death, he gets an automatic review. Hampton and Austin attorney Mindy Montford say preparing for a death penalty case is like preparing for 2 trials. "You're going to have to prove that he is a future danger to the public and to people. You're also going to have to say that there are no mitigating circumstances at play," said Montford. "[A prosecutor has to show] he committed this crime and there's nothing like abuse or any kind of mental or physical condition that he has or he suffers from." "[In death penalty cases lawyers prepare] a defense and a mitigation study, which is basically deconstructing this person, going from before he was even born leading right up to the day that he did what he did, if he's guilty." said Hampton. "Then you have to prepare to present that to a jury. It is grueling, horrific work. None of us like this stuff." There is also a reason for the years it can take to see a death penalty case through to its end. "We make 2 promises to the public: that everybody gets a fair trial, everybody no matter what they get a fair trial," said Hampton. "And 2, we get it right. So that we do not execute another innocent person." In the Dean case, the district attorney has yet to decide whether he will try for the death penalty, if prosecutors secure indictments. The final decision of whether to proceed in seeking the death penalty rests with the DA. However, reaching that decision takes various forms across Texas. Montford and Hampton say some DAs take votes from within their offices about how to move forward. Still, each decision includes weighing a host of factors. "The DA has got to weigh the evidence in the case, what the victim's family wants to happen in this case, what the community probably wants in this case," said Montford. The Bastrop County DA is also working with the Texas Attorney General's Office for assistance in prosecuting the case. (source: KXAN news) NEW JERSEY: Andrzejczak and Land Join Fiocchi in Supporting Death Penalty for Killings of Police Incumbent Assemblyman Bob Andrzejczak (D-1) and running mate Bruce Land joined their GOP rival Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi (R-1) in praising a bill that would suspend New Jersey's 2007 ban on capital punishment in homicide cases where police officers are killed. Citing the recent killings of officers in Illinois and Texas, Fiocchi said Wednesday that the bill would be necessary to ensure that those responsible in such murders see retribution. "Communities are in shock and families are emotionally scarred at the indefensible actions of individuals with such little respect for life," said Fiocchi in a statement. "These senseless acts must stop and reinstating capital punishment for those found guilty will suffer the appropriate consequences under this bill." On Thursday, Andrzejczak and Land issued statements saying that they will also be supporting the bill. "The men and women who put on a badge every day to protect our communities need to know our laws are
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., S.C., OKLA., USA
Sept. 3 TEXAS: Records: Man linked to Samantha Dean case charged with capital murder A man police believe VonTrey Clark hired to kill Samantha Dean has been charged with capital murder in her death, a law enforcement official said. Kevin Leo Watson, 31, had been in the Harris County Jail since April on an unrelated drug charge. Watson is 1 of 2 men that police believe former Austin police officer VonTrey Clark hired to kill Dean, according to court documents. The location of the other suspect, Freddie Lee Smith, 29, was unknown. Police believe Watson is a longtime associate of Clark's. Investigators connected Watson and Smith to the case earlier through cellphone records of so-called burner phones that police suspect were used to coordinate Dean's killing. Police uncovered that link after tracking down Aaron Lamont Williams, another Clark associate who police say sent a threatening text message to an Austin police employee who knew Dean, court documents said. While in the Bastrop County Jail in June, Williams told investigators that Clark had offered $5,000 for Dean's death to avoid paying child support for her unborn child. Watson and Smith committed the killing with Clark present, setting the scene up to look like a drug deal gone bad, according to court documents. Williams, 32, was charged with retaliation in connection with the threatening text message. He was released from the jail in June, records showed. Watson's girlfriend Kyla Fisk, 50, has also been connected to the case. Fisk was also still in the Harris County Jail on Thursday on a charge of tampering with evidence. Police believe she hid from investigators clothing that Watson wore during Dean's murder. Earlier: The president of the Austin police union, who has so far been silent about the murder investigation involving one of his officers said prosecutors should consider the death penalty against VonTrey Clark if he is convicted in Samantha Dean's death. In his first public comment about the case Thursday, Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday said "this whole ordeal has been very trying for the Austin Police Department and a tragedy for Samantha Dean's family. VonTrey Clark is our member and we hope he gets a fair trial, and if he is convicted, the state should consider the death penalty." Clark was fired from the Austin police force in July. Dean was a crime victims counselor working for the Kyle Police Department. Casaday's comments come after the former patrol officer returned to Texas late Wednesday in the custody of FBI agents and was handed over to Bastrop County officials. Federal and local law enforcement will publicly address the case at a planned news conference at the Bastrop County Sheriff's office at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. (source: Austin American-Statesman) PENNSYLVANIA: Gov. Wolf made the right call on death penalty moratorium When Gov. Tom Wolf put executions on hold in Pennsylvania, I joined many of my colleagues in publicly supporting this reasonable and appropriate action. The state Senate's bipartisan Pennsylvania Advisory Committee and Task Force on Capital Punishment requested that no executions should take place until their study of the death penalty in Pennsylvania is complete. Wolf was absolutely correct to ensure he has all the information and the committee's recommendations before proceeding with an execution. In using his constitutional reprieve power to delay executions pending the outcome of the study, he followed the lead of numerous other governors - both Republican and Democrat - across the nation. I have served as a Judge, prosecutor and public defender in Pennsylvania courtrooms, and I am strongly invested in making our system of justice work. Like many of my colleagues, I am highly concerned about the fairness of the capital punishment system. There are multiple, serious problems with the death penalty in our Commonwealth as it functions now. Even a cursory look at three issues reveals some of the problems. For example, the reversals of most death sentences, the poor compensation of public defenders in capital cases, and the racial bias in Pennsylvania's imposition of death sentences are all areas in dire need of improvement. The ultimate horror would be the execution of an innocent person. During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the death penalty, information was shared by a deputy Philadelphia district attorney and a representative of the Death Penalty Information Center on the impact Gov. Tom Wolf's death penalty moratorium on capital cases making their way through the federal appeals process. Of the more than 400 death sentences imposed in Pennsylvania since 1978, the majority have later been reversed on appeal, due to serious flaws or misconduct at trial. This rate of error is of great concern to many professionals in the criminal justice system. Trials must be fair and reliable,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., ALA.
Sept. 2 TEXAS: Oklahoma Chases the Texas Political Homicide Record The question is not whether you will execute an innocent person in a state that executes criminals. Oklahoma and Texas are engaged in a competition right now, a sort of Red River Shootout off the football field, to address the real question. For context, remember that Texas has the 4th largest Indian population among the states in the 2010 Census. Oklahoma is number 2. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 16 Indians have been executed, a percentage of executions over twice the percentage of Indians in the general population. Of those, Oklahoma killed one and Texas killed 2, which would put Texas ahead if the competition were simply how many Indians do you kill. There are currently 31 Indians on death row. 12 are from California and the rest are distributed among Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, and there is 1 federal prisoner under sentence of death. There are no identified Indians currently on the Texas death row. Can an innocent man be convicted of capital murder in these United States? Since 1973, 155 people have been exonerated off of death row after an average stay of 11.3 years. Only 20 were exonerated by DNA, but to make the list, the defendant must have been (1) acquitted after a new trial or (2) had all charges dropped or (3) gotten an absolute pardon based on new evidence of innocence. No American Indians appear among the 155 exonerations, but since only 60 of the innocent death row residents were white, the dearth of Indians is a combination of luck and the fact that only 1 tribe has opted in to the federal death penalty. Texas Texas is gearing up for Mark Norwood's capital murder trial. If that name is too obscure, try Michael Morton, the man who got life in prison for the murder of his wife and served 25 years before DNA evidence that exonerated him pointed to Norwood, who has been convicted and is serving the sentence he put off on Michael Morton. 6 of those years were served during the legal battle to get the DNA testing. Besides the tragedy of an innocent man serving 25 years, another woman, Debra Baker, was killed with the same modus operandi, leading to speculation that Baker died because of a now-deceased sheriff and a district attorney named Ken Anderson too lazy to follow the evidence beyond the obvious suspect in a criminal homicide, the spouse. DA Anderson was later appointed a district judge by Governor (and presidential candidate) Rick Perry, but after the Morton exoneration Anderson lost his judgeship, his law license, and did 10 days in jail, reduced to 5 for good behavior. While this pales before the 25 years his victim served, the fact that Anderson's misconduct caught up with him and destroyed his career is an exceedingly rare and therefore welcome result. Anderson's protege John Bradley, the district attorney appointed by Perry to replace Anderson and who opposed the DNA testing that freed an innocent man for 6 years, was defeated in the next election. Besides keeping Michael Morton behind bars for an extra 6 years, John Bradley made history when Gov. Perry replaced the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission with Bradley just 2 days before it was scheduled to review an expert report on Cameron Todd Willingham's case. Willingham was executed for homicide by arson after Perry refused to stay the execution on the ground that the 1st real expert investigation showed there was no arson. The expert Perry ignored would not be the last to opine on the Willingham evidence. Huffpost published the narrative that is the Willingham story: Willingham was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 17, 2004. Yet the efforts to exonerate Willingham only intensified, and in 2005, the Texas Forensic Science Commission decided to re-examine the case. The commission hired a nationally known fire scientist, Craig Beyler, to evaluate the evidence, and in his report, he came down on the same side as the scientists who had evaluated the case prior to Willingham's execution: there was no credible scientific basis for the conclusion that arson had been committed. Beyler was eventually scheduled to testify before the commission on Oct. 2, 2009. 2 days before Beyler's appearance, however, Rick Perry put a stop to it. There was speculation at the time that Perry did not wish to grant a stay of Willingham???s execution because he was locked in a serious battle for reelection against former Senator Kay Baily Hutchinson. Perry???s appointee Bradley called off the review, but in spite of their best efforts, the Willingham case has come to represent a political execution of an innocent man, since the science did not go away when Bradley stopped the hearing. Governor Perry, to be fair, was elected in a state that has been rabid about killing killers. Former Gov. Ann Richards took a political bath when she gave a man on
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
Sept. 2 TEXASstay of impending execution Execution for Houston convicted killer postponed The Harris County District Attorney's Office Wednesday postponed a scheduled Sept. 29 execution for Houston convicted killer Perry Eugene Williams to allow a federal judge time to appoint an appellate lawyer in the case. Williams, 34, was sentenced to die for the September 2000 killing of Matthew Carter, who was abducted from the parking lot of a video rental store. After forcing Carter into his own vehicle, Murphy and 3 accomplices drove around the area. When Carter attempted to escape, Murphy shot him in the head, officials said. According to court documents, Murphy then took items from the victim. Murphy told authorities that the gun accidentally discharged when the victim jostled him. (source: Houston Chronicle) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present10 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-528 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 11-October 6Juan Garcia---529 12-October 14---Licho Escamilla---530 13-October 28---Christopher Wilkins---531 14-November 3---Julius Murphy-532 15-November 18--Raphael Holiday---533 16-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson534 17-January 27---James Freeman-535 18-February 16--Gustavo Garcia536 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) OHIOnew (2017) execution date Ohio Supreme Court sets 2017 execution date for condemned killer of 2 in robbery spree The Ohio Supreme Court has set an execution date for a man condemned to die for fatally shooting 2 people in a 1992 robbery spree. A 3-judge panel sentenced Gary Otte to die for killing Robert Wasikowski in an apartment in Parma in suburban Cleveland on Feb. 12, 1992, and for killing Sharon Kostura in the same apartment complex the next day. The high court on Wednesday set a March 15, 2017, execution date for the 43-year-old Otte, who has lost previous appeals of his death sentence. The decision makes Otte the 24th inmate on death row with an execution date. The prison system is scheduled to resume executions in January but hasn't been able to obtain new supplies of lethal injection drugs. (source: Associated Press) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., MO.
Aug. 31 TEXAS: Hall Murder Trial Now Expected to Start Wednesday The trial of an accused College Station killer that has seen a number of delays has one more that will keep it from starting Monday as scheduled. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Gabriel Hall, 22 of College Station. Jury selection for the trial, which involves individual interviews with each potential juror because the state is seeking death as punishment, started July 27. The trial was scheduled to start Monday, but the jury of 12 and 2 alternates has not been selected. The majority of the panel has been chosen. Judge Travis Bryan III now hopes to have opening arguments and the 1st witness testimony on Wednesday. Hall is accused of shooting and stabbing 68-year-old Edwin Shaar to death in October 2011. Police say Shaar's wife, Linda, witnessed the attack and called 9-1-1, but was also stabbed by the 22-year-old as she sat in her wheelchair. She survived the attack. Hall later admitted to the crimes, according to police. The start of the trial has been delayed multiple times. Interviews with people in the Philippines, where Hall lived before he was adopted, and additional DNA testing required by a Texas law change have been among the reasons. Once the trial begins, Bryan says it could take anywhere from 4-to-6 weeks to complete both the guilt-innocence and punishment phases if Hall is found guilty. (source: KBTX news) FLORIDA: Jurors to decide whether Bessman Okafor gets death penaltyOkafor convicted in 2012 shooting death of Alex Zaldivar, 19 Testimony is scheduled to continue Monday in the sentencing hearing of convicted killer Bessman Okafor. Convicted murderer Bessman Okafor returned to court Friday as jurors continue to hear testimony to determine whether he should be sentenced to death. Jurors will decide whether Okafor, who was convicted last week in the 2012 shooting death of Alex Zaldivar, 19, should get the death penalty or life in prison. The defense claims that Okafor, who is already serving a life sentence, was abused as a child, and that led to problems throughout his life. A psychologist called by the defense said Okafor suffered nine out of 10 factors that cause lasting psychological and medical effect, including physical and sexual abuse. Okafor's brother and stepmother had previously testified that Okafor's biological mother beat him. "The more factors, the more likely problems. Higher dose, greater range of difficulties and greater the severity of the difficulties. It would be severely rare and surprising if someone grew up with nine out of the 10 factors, and it didn't lead to severe consequences," said Dr. Steven Gold, a psychologist who interviewed Okafor. Zaldivar's parents were in the courtroom as Gold testified that, give Okafor's background, his chances of growing up to be a successful adult were extremely low. State Attorney Jeff Ashton repeatedly interrupted Gold with objections to the defense attorney's line of questioning. Zaldivar was a witness who was set to testify against Okafor in another trial. (source: WESH news) *** 4 young suspects in machete murder could be eligible for death penalty A grand jury will be asked to issue an indictment for 1st-degree premeditated murder in the case of 4 ex-Homestead Job Corps students charged with the vicious machete killing of 17-year-old Jose Amaya Guardado. An indictment means defendants Kaheem Arbelo, Desiray Strickland, Christian Colon and Jonathan Lucas will be eligible for the death penalty. The announcement, made in court by a prosecutor on Monday, was not unexpected. Miami-Dade detectives say the group planned the grotesque murder, even digging a grave 2 days before Jose was hacked to death in June. The hearing Monday was for Strickland, 18, who appeared before the trial judge for the first time for an arraignment. The slender teen, cupping an inhaler, did not say anything in court. She sat, armed crossed, wearing a red jumpsuit designated for high-profile inmates. The case will be presented to the grand jury next month as the panel reconvenes for the fall, Miami-Dade prosecutor Alejandra Lopez told the judge. Authorities say Arbelo, Strickland and the others conspired for 2 weeks to kill Jose, a fellow student at the federally run residential school for at-risk youth in South Miami-Dade. Law enforcement sources have told the Miami Herald that the killing may have stemmed from a debt owed to Arbelo, 20, and that the accused students were known as bullies at the campus. Jose's shocking murder in June has drawn increased scrutiny on Job Corps, which operates 125 campuses across the country and falls under the U.S. Department of Labor. The program helps at-risk people between the ages of 16 and 24 earn their high-school degrees and learn vocational skills. After the arrests, federal authorities suspended fall classes at
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., MO., KAN., OKLA.
Aug. 30 TEXAS: Suspect arrested in 'execution-style' killing of Texas deputy sheriff A Texas man faces a capital murder charge in the execution-style shooting of a sheriff's deputy while he was fueling his patrol car near Houston, authorities said. Deputy Darren H. Goforth was in uniform when he was shot in the back Friday night in what authorities described as an unprovoked killing. The suspect, identified as Shannon J. Miles, has been in police custody since Saturday. His criminal history includes convictions of resisting arrest, trespassing and disorderly conduct with a firearm, Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said. 'Senseless and cowardly' The motive in the shooting, which Hickman described as senseless and cowardly, is still unclear. But Goforth appears to have been targeted because he wore a uniform, the sheriff said. We found no other motive or indication that it was anything other than that, said Hickman, adding that he doesn't believe the suspect and Goforth knew each other. Hickman said a big gun ... a handgun was used in the shooting and ballistic tests on a weapon recovered matched the one used to kill the deputy. Residents join search for suspect Residents near the scene of the shooting as well as the tracking of a vehicle used by Miles helped lead investigators to the suspect. Our deputies returned to the streets ... to hold a delicate peace that was shattered last evening, Hickman said. Earlier Saturday, Sgt. William Kennard of the Texas Department of Public Safety said a man believed to be the alleged gunman was in custody and being questioned, though he hadn't been charged. The sheriff said surveillance video shows people drove up to the Chevron station while the shooting was happening. He asked them to come forward. This is the kind of thing that drives you right down to your soul, Hickman said. It strikes at the heart of who we are as peace officers. ...This was just a cold-blooded execution. Shot multiple times The suspect shot Goforth, 47, while the deputy was filling up his patrol car at the gas station, Hickman said. Deputy Goforth was refueling his vehicle and returning to his car from inside the convenience store when, unprovoked, a man walked up behind him and literally shot him to death, he said. He was shot multiple times from behind and then fell to the ground, where the suspect fired at him some more, said Deputy Thomas Gilliland, a spokesman for the sheriff's office. The 10-year veteran of the Harris County Sheriff's Office died at the scene in an unprovoked, execution-style killing, Hickman said. I have been in law enforcement (for) 45 years, the sheriff said. I don't recall another incident this cold-blooded and cowardly. 'Absolute madness' Investigators say they believe Goforth was targeted because of his uniform. The motive appears to be absolute madness, Hickman said. At a new conference before the arrest was announced, Hickman and Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson talked about the nationwide debate over the relationship between the police officers and the public, with the sheriff referring to what he called dangerous national rhetoric. Anderson said law enforcement officials need the country's support. There are a few bad apples in every profession, Anderson said. That does not mean there should be open warfare declared on law enforcement. All #LivesMatter Hickman warned that the tension against officers is getting out of hand. When the rhetoric ramps up to the point where calculated, cold-blooded assassination of police officers happen, this rhetoric has gotten out of control, Hickman said. We've heard 'Black Lives Matter,' 'All lives matter.' Well, cops' lives matter too. So why don't we just drop the qualifier, and just say 'Lives Matter,' and take that to the bank. After announcing the arrest, Hickman said investigators were still trying to determine a motive. The general climate of the that kind of rhetoric can be influential on people that do thing like that, he said. The sheriff's department posted #BlueLivesMatter. #BlackLivesMatter. All #LivesMatter. on its Twitter page Saturday. (source: CNN) VIRGINIA: Virginia relaxes restrictions on death row inmates Virginia prison officials have relaxed the restrictive conditions under which death row inmates live and are in talks to settle a lawsuit over those prisoners' near constant placement in solitary confinement - a signal that state authorities are willing to at least modify the incarceration practice that is facing increasing criticism across the country. State officials revealed in a recent court filing that Virginia's 8 death row inmates are allowed weekly contact visits with family members and more opportunity for showers and recreation - including daily sessions in which they are allowed to mingle in person with up to 3 others slated to die. Victor M. Glasberg, an attorney
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., N.C., ALA., OHIO, TENN., MISS.
Aug. 28 TEXAS: Scheduled Execution Date Withdrawn for Joe Franco Garza The scheduled execution date for Joe Franco Garza has been withdrawn. Garza was scheduled for execution on September 2. He was found guilty of the 1998 murder of Silbiano Rangel and sentenced to death. There is an agreed order that said his execution would be stayed while more DNA testing is completed. The Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney's Office and Garza's attorneys both agreed to this, according to court records. The agreed order states that a number of pieces of evidence, including clothing, fingernails, and hair among others, be tested. It's not an admission by the DA's office that he's entitled to relief, David Guinn, a Lubbock criminal defense attorney, said. It's a good thing for the court to do. As a matter of fact, it takes a smart judge with a lot of courage to stop an execution date, but in light of recent scientific revelations and material, why not be safe? Why not make sure? Guinn added, If he's a bad guy he's not going anywhere, and if we get it wrong, well, thank goodness for justice. Several pieces of physical evidence are going to be evaluated by the lab. Both parties agreed to that as set forth in the order, and that the results of that testing will come back to Mr. Garza's attorneys, and the State of Texas, Guinn said. And when they get that back, they'll look at it and decide what to do next. (source: everythingnlubbokc.com) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present10 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-528 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 11-September 29-Perry Williams529 12-October 6Juan Garcia---530 13-October 14---Licho Escamilla---531 14-October 28---Christopher Wilkins---532 15-November 3---Julius Murphy-533 16-November 18--Raphael Holiday---534 17-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson535 18-January 27---James Freeman-536 19-February 16--Gustavo Garcia537 (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) *** Texan Sentenced to Death Largely Because of His Race Denied a New Sentencing Hearing A Federal Appeals Court has rejected the appeal of an east Texas man who was sentenced to death largely because a psychologist testified at the punishment phase of his trial that he is 'more likely to commit more crimes because he's African American,' News Radio 1200 WOAI reports. The Fifth Court of Appeals ordered a new execution date set for Duane Buck, who has been in prison since the late 1990s after he murdered his ex girlfriend and a man at her Houston apartment in 1995. Christina Swarns, the lead attorney in Buck's appeal, said, especially with the current emphasis on the alleged unfairness of the criminal justice system to African American defendants, now more than ever the courts must be free of the taint of racial prejudice. This decision can only deepen the growing skepticism of the fairness of the criminal justice system, Swarns told News Radio 1200 WOAI. No competent capital defense attorney would invite the sentencing jury to make a life or death decision based on racial fears and stereotypes, and no court should enforce a judgment in which race was explicitly proffered as the basis for a death sentence. Swarns says she will ask the Fifth Court of Appeals to reconsider, and if no relief is granted, she will take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. The main argument in Buck's defense is that his defense lawyers were negligent in allowing the testimony of the psychologist without objection. The jury later said it relied largely on that testimony to issue its death sentence. Whether an offender will commit another crime is a key guideline in determining whether that offender is eligible for execution. In fact, Republican Senator John Cornyn, when he was Attorney General in 2000, identified six cases where a link was made between race and future dangerousness, and each of the other five received new sentencing hearings. The attorneys for Buck aren't arguing that he is innocent, should be released, or even that he get a new trial. They want a court to order Buck to receive a new sentencing hearing, free of the taint of racial animosity. (source: woai.com) DELAWARE: Delaware Supreme Court to hear death penalty case The Delaware Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in October on a case that could deal a hefty blow to the state's death penalty law. Jermaine Wright was convicted of murder in 1991, with state prosecutors relying on a heroin-fueled confession to convict him. In his 71-page opinion, Superior Court Judge John Parkins Jr. ruled that police had also not sufficiently given Wright his Miranda
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., NEB.
Aug. 26 TEXASnew execution date Gustavo Garcia has been given an execution for Feb. 16, 2016; it should be considered serious. Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present10 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-528 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 11-September 29-Perry Williams529 12-October 6Juan Garcia---530 13-October 14---Licho Escamilla---531 14-October 28---Christopher Wilkins---532 15-November 3---Julius Murphy-533 16-November 18--Raphael Holiday---534 17-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson535 18-January 27---James Freeman-536 19-February 16--Gustavo Garcia537 (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) GEORGIA: Warner Robins man wins battle to leave death row A Warner Robins man fighting to leave death row won that battle Wednesday. Roger Collins, who was the second longest-serving inmate on Georgia's death row in early 2015, was resentenced in Houston County Superior Court by Judge George Nunn to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The resentencing followed mental evaluations requested by both the prosecution and defense attorneys that found Collins suffers from mental retardation. The law prohibits the execution of mentally retarded people. The option of a life sentence without parole was not an option for the court. The former Warner Robins city sanitation worker was under a death sentence for nearly 38 years. At least twice his execution was ordered but then stayed. Collins was convicted and sentenced to death for the Aug. 6, 1977, rape and slaying of a 17-year-old girl in a pecan orchard near Kathleen. He was 18 then. He was convicted of bludgeoning DeLores Luster with a car bumper jack after he and another man raped her at knifepoint. William Durham, who was dating Collins' mother at the time, was sentenced to life for the murder and rape. A 3rd man, Johnny Styles, who waited in the car after the rape while Luster was killed, was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony. Collins originally told Houston County sheriff's investigators that he and Durham both struck Luster with the jack but later told authorities he confessed to that because Durham told him to, and he never struck her. He admitted to dropping the jack out of a moving car afterward and discarding her clothes in a convenience store dumpster, according to his statement included in the case file in Houston County Superior Court. In 1991, a Butts County Superior Court judge remanded the case to Houston County Superior Court on the mental retardation issue after a forensic psychologist found that Collins had an IQ of 66. But a trial to determine whether Collins was mentally disabled never took place. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of mentally retarded people but left up to each state how determinations of mental capacity are made. Georgia is the only state that requires the defense to prove mental retardation beyond a reasonable doubt. The standard has stood up under appeal. Collins' case languished for more than 20 years until Decatur-based Watchdogs for Justice petitioned the Attorney General's Office in September 2012 to intervene. The nonprofit group asked that the death penalty be vacated for a life sentence with the possibility of parole. In January 2013, Houston County Chief Deputy Assistant District Attorney Dan Bibler wrote a letter to Nunn about the need to get the case moving and requested a new psychiatric evaluation of Collins. State attorneys who represent people charged in capital cases mounted a defense to prevent prosecutors from challenging Collins' 1991 diagnosis of mental retardation and asked Nunn to vacate the death sentence for a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Nunn declined. The prosecution???s mental evaluation was completed in late July of this year. A diagnosis of mental retardation ... is based on significant deficits in intellectual and adaptive functioning, which are evident beginning in childhood or adolescence, according to the evaluation performed for the prosecution, which was included in the court record. Bibler said Wednesday that while Collins was convicted of a brutal murder, the prosecution has to abide by the law, which prohibits the execution of a person deemed mentally retarded. I have no misgivings about it, Bibler said. Amber Pittman, the lead capital defender representing Collins, could not be reached for comment. (source: Macon Telegraph) NEBRASKA: Death penalty supporters turn over 166,000 signatures Death penalty supporters turned in petitions Wednesday to the Secretary of State's office to be verified. They say the have almost 167,000 signatures,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., ALA.
Aug. 25 TEXASimpending execution Nicaragua pleads with US to call off execution Nicaraguan officials and activists called on the United States Monday to cancel the execution in Texas later this week of Bernardo Tercero, the only Nicaraguan national on death row in the US. Tercero is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday for killing high school English teacher Robert Berger while robbing a Houston dry cleaning business in 1997. The impending execution has sparked protests in Nicaragua, which abolished capital punishment in 1979, when the leftist Sandinista rebels came to power. For us here in Nicaragua, where we don't have the death penalty and embrace a spirit of humanitarianism and solidarity, it seems pathetic to be on the verge of a Nicaraguan citizen's execution, said the country's ambassador to the Organization of American States, Denis Moncada. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has been pleading for clemency for Tercero with US officials at the highest level, including President Barack Obama, Moncada told Channel Two news. Activists have called a demonstration later in the day to demand Tercero be spared. Nicaraguan national Bianca Jagger, a campaigner for the abolition of the death penalty, is one of those leading the protest movement. His execution would constitute an egregious miscarriage of justice, she wrote in an online petition signed by more than 500 people. Jagger, the ex-wife of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, said Tercero had abysmal legal representation and that his case was fraught with errors. Church leaders in the majority Catholic country also joined the appeal. I call with all my heart on the US authorities to accept the petitions to save Bernardo Tercero's life, said Cardinal Miguel Obando. (source: Global Post) CONNECTICUT: Death Penalty Abolition Ruling Leaves Racial Disparity Argument Unresolved For years, death penalty opponents have claimed that prosecutors are far more likely to argue for capital punishment for people of color than for white defendants.M Several years ago, a group of death row inmates challenged their sentences, arguing that decisions on who should be charged with capital felony and made eligible for a potential death sentence in Connecticut were made with racial bias. More than half the men who were on death row are African-American, though blacks comprise about 10 percent of the state's population. While that racial disparity argument was shot down by a trial judge in 2013, the case, In re Death Penalty Disparity Claims, has remained on appeal before the state Supreme Court. That appeal became moot this month when a divided court ruled it was unconstitutional to execute those who were on death row when the General Assembly in 2012 repealed the death penalty for future murder cases. Those who were on death row will now serve life sentences. However, the racial disparity issue was not a moot point for retired Justice Flemming Norcott Jr., who was part of the panel that repealed the death penalty, and Justice Andrew McDonald. They took the opportunity to pen a 23-page decision on the topic despite it having little to do with the merits of Eduardo Santiago's criminal case, which gave rise to the justice's majority opinion. We write separately to express our profound concerns regarding an issue of substantial public importance that will never be resolved by this court in light of the majority's determination that the imposition of the death penalty is an unconstitutionally excessive and disproportionate punishment, wrote Norcott and McDonald. Specifically, we cannot end our state's nearly 400-year struggle with the macabre muck of capital punishment litigation without speaking to the persistent allegations of racial and ethnic discrimination that have permeated the breadth of this state's experience with capital charging and sentencing decisions. The decision proceeded to discuss the history of racial disparity in death sentences in Connecticut and elsewhere for decades, even centuries. The justices noted that of the 160 executions in the state's history, more than 1/2 the defendants were black. They said since 1693, only black men have been executed for rape in Connecticut, and each for the rape of a white woman. In contrast, they wrote, in almost 400 years, no white person has ever been executed in Connecticut for the murder of a black person. It may be that every black man ever executed for raping a white woman and every Native American ever executed for murdering a white man in Connecticut was guilty as charged, and received his due process and his proper punishment under the laws then in effect, the justices wrote. But white men in Connecticut have also killed Native Americans over the past 400 years, and raped black women. None has ever hanged for it. To the extent that a criminal justice system operates such that only racial
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., OHIO, NEB., ARIZ., USA
Aug. 24 TEXASimpending execution An Austin Resident is Scheduled for Execution This Week A Harris County resident, Bernardo Aban Tercero, is scheduled for execution after 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015, pursuant to a court order by the 232nd District Court, said a press release from The Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton's office. A Harris County jury found Tercero guilty of murdering a man by the name of Robert Berger during an aggravated robbery in October 2000. According to the facts of the case, Berger, on March 31, 1997, and his young daughter entered a Park Avenue Cleaners in Austin near closing time, and at about the same time, an employee, Ricardo Toruno, unlocked the back door of the cleaners to take the trash out to the dumpster. As Toruno made his way back inside, one of Tercero's accomplices put a gun to Toruno's head and accompanied him through the door. Tercero then entered the cleaners and proceeded to the front of the store where the manager, Michelle Johnson, testified that Tercero said something to Berger, but the man did not respond. Tercero then grabbed Berger by the arm and pushed him back. Berger attempted to get away from Tercero, but the gunman shot him in the back of the head, and he fell to the ground. During this exchange, one of the robbers with Tercero demanded money. Afterward, Tercero and his accomplice fled the cleaners through the back door with a cash drawer each in hand. The press release stated that during his testimony, Tercero said he robbed the cleaner because he and his live-in girlfriend, Marisol Lima, were having economic difficulties. Lima, who worked for Park Avenue Cleaners with her sister told Tercero that he could easily get money from it and the 3 of them discussed how to commit the robbery. Tercero and the sisters cased the dry cleaners the day before the incident and devised a pager code so Lima's sister could page Tercero and his accomplice when there were no customers in the shop. Tercero also testified that when he pulled out his gun in the dry cleaners, waved it in the air, and asked for money, Mr. Berger began to advance on him. The 2 men began struggling over the firearm and the gun went off. However, Tercero's story did not coincide with witness testimony. According to this testimony, after the robbers escaped the dry cleaners with the money from the cash drawers, Tercero stayed with another woman, Sylvia Cotera, who he later told about the shooting. He told her he did so because the person didn't have any money and that made him mad. He also told Cotera that he shot Berger because he was afraid he had seen his face and could identify him. He then threatened Cotera with burning down her apartment if she said anything. Additional evidence in the case showed this incident wasn't Tercero's 1st run-in with the law for a similar crime. Tercero previously robbed 3 men at gunpoint in his home country, Nicaragua, where he shot 1 victim and kidnapped his 4-year-old son. He also shot at officers who pursued him. On November 20, 1997, a Harris County grand jury indicted Tercero for the capital murder of Robert Berger during the robbery. He was sentenced to death on October 20, 2000. Tercero filed an application for state habeas corpus relief and pro se petition for a write of habeas corpus, but was denied. On May 19, 2015, the 232nd state district court issued an order setting Tercero's execution date for Aug. 26, 2015. (source: sanangelolive.com) *** see: http://www.amnestyusa.org/get-involved/take-action-now/ usa-stop-the-execution-of-bernardo-aban-tercero-ua-17615 (source: Amnesty International USA) ALABAMA: Dad potentially faces death penalty in death of toddler son The Houston County District Attorney Doug Valeska called the case filed against a Dothan father potentially a death penalty case in connection to the death of his 2-year-old son. Valeska spoke shortly after the 1st appearance in court for Jose Rosales, 25, of Fortner Street, held Monday morning in front of District Court Judge Benjamin Lewis. Lewis informed Rosales he currently faces a felony 1st-degree domestic violence-assault charge. Valeska told the court during the hearing he expected to hear results from the victim's autopsy later Monday. Deputies with the Houston County Sheriff's Office arrested Rosales late Saturday night. Rosales, son, Jose Rosales, Jr. was pronounced dead in the emergency room at Flowers Hospital at 4:54 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Houston County Coroner Robert Byrd said Saturday rescue units were called to a home on Fortner Street at about 4:18 p.m. Following the death, the Houston County Sheriff's Office initiated an investigation. Valeska said Sheriff Donald Valenza, Sheriff's Capt. Bill Rafferty and the case investigator contacted him multiple times over the weekend about the circumstances surrounding the death of the 2-year-old boy. We'll
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., FLA.
Aug. 22 TEXAS: Capital murder charge filed for woman's death on west side of town A man already charged with killing his girlfriend could now face the death penalty. Ronald Jackson appeared in court Friday as prosecutors upgraded his charges to capital murder in the beating death of 38-year-old Jennifer Herrera. Prosecutors say Jackson kidnapped Herrera with the intent of killing her and that is the reason for the upgrade. She was found dead last September inside a westside home. Jackson was arrested later that night during a traffic stop. His trial date is scheduled for November 16th but that is likely to be delayed. (source: KRIS tv news) CONNECTICUT: Death penalty, murder case rulings expose rift in high court 2 major rulings this year on the death penalty and a murder case yielded highly unusual criticism from Connecticut Supreme Court justices against their colleagues, reaching levels of acrimony that some legal experts say hasn't been seen since the 1990s. The recent conflicting opinions shine a rare light on the people whose decisions have had wide-ranging effects on residents of the state, whether it was approving gay marriage, abolishing the death penalty or ruling Hartford schools needed to be desegregated. I think it does show a depth of passion, said Todd Fernow, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. You really know where these people are coming from. I think we all benefit by that. The last thing you want is a decision that is robotic and psychically distant from the issues of the day. The court ruled 4-3 on Aug. 13 to abolish the death penalty for the 11 men on the state's death row, overturning a 2012 state law that eliminated the death penalty for future crimes only. Chief Justice Chase Rogers wrote a dissenting opinion saying there was no legitimate legal basis for the majority's decision. She also joined Justices Peter Zarella and Carmen Espinosa in accusing the majority justices of tailoring their ruling based on personal beliefs. I can only conclude that the majority has improperly decided that the death penalty must be struck down because it offends the majority's subjective sense of morality, Rogers wrote. The majority opinion, written by Justice Richard Palmer, took issue with Rogers' comments, accusing her of refusing either to consider or to recognize the import of the words of our elected officials, the actions of our jurors and prosecutors, the story of our history, the path trodden by our sister states, and the overwhelming evidence that our society no longer considers the death penalty to be necessary or appropriate. Justices Dennis Eveleigh and Andrew McDonald and now-retired Justice Flemming Norcott Jr. joined Palmer in the majority. Espinosa used especially strong language in her dissents in the death penalty ruling and in a 4-2 decision in March that granted a new trial for Richard Lapointe, a brain-damaged man sentenced to life in prison for the 1987 killing of his wife's 88-year-old grandmother. Espinosa wrote that the Lapointe decision was unfettered judicial activism and a gross parody of judicial economy, and she accused the majority of being partial toward Lapointe. Justice is most certainly not attained by doffing one's judicial robe and donning an advocate's suit, Espinosa wrote. The majority opinion, again written by Palmer, took Espinosa, who arrived on the court in 2013, to task. Rather than support her opinion with legal analysis and authority ... she chooses, for reasons we cannot fathom, to dress her argument in language so derisive that it is unbefitting an opinion of this state???s highest court, Palmer wrote. Justice Espinosa dishonors this court. Fernow said he thought Espinoza???s language has been particularly forceful. I think that Justice Espinosa has brought a more intense language in advancing her positions here and perhaps has been directly name-calling the people she disagrees with in ways that have led Justice Palmer and others to take umbrage at it, he said. Palmer, Espinosa and Zarella declined to comment for this story. Rogers said in a statement that despite the strong disagreements, the court is functioning well, as shown by its 134 decisions issued since last September. There is no question that some of the issues that we are called upon to decide are extremely challenging and it should not come as a surprise to anyone that on occasion we do not agree about the result in a case and strongly express our views in our opinions, she said. Acrimonious and lively language is nothing new in the world of state and federal appeals courts. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is known for his colorful dissents. Espinosa's dissents may be the most strongly worded on the Connecticut court since those of former Justice Robert Berdon, who retired in 1999 after 8 years on the high court. Berdon accused fellow
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OKLA., NEB.
Aug. 21 TEXAS: Fifth Circuit Rejects Duane Buck's Appeal of Racially Biased Death Sentence Should a person's skin color help determine whether or not they get the death penalty? A doctor at Duane Buck's sentencing hearing told the Harris County jury that Buck's race was a factor that made him more likely to commit violent crimes in the future. While some would say that's evidence of the death penalty's racial bias, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has once again looked at Buck's case and declared there's nothing wrong here. Nope, not a thing. Buck was sentenced to death by lethal injection by a Harris County jury in 1997 for the murders of his ex-girlfriend, Debra Gardner, and the man who was with her, Kenneth Butler. He also shot his stepsister, Phyllis Taylor, but Taylor survived. 2 witnesses identified Buck as the shooter, according to the Fifth Circuit ruling issued Thursday. Buck laughed during and after the arrest and stated to one officer that Garnder got what she deserved. The big problem with Buck's case has never been a question of Buck's guilt, but why he was sentenced to death. His lawyers contend that it was because he's black. During his murder trial psychologist Walter Quijano testified that Buck was more of a danger to society because he is African American. Quijano had actually been called by Buck's lawyer but the prosecutor cross-examined the psychologist. You have determined that the sex factor, that a male is more violent than a female because that's just the way it is, and that the race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons, is that correct? the prosecutor asked, according to court records. Yes, Quijano said. A few years after Buck was convicted, Quijano was cited by then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn for giving racially influenced testimony to juries. Cornyn, now a U.S. senator, identified seven cases that needed to be reviewed for sentencing, and Buck's was one of them. All of the other cases have been allowed new sentencing hearings, but Buck's has been denied. In 2009, the Fifth Circuit concluded Buck's lawyer was responsible for the introduction of Quijano's race-as-dangerousness testimony. He was scheduled to be executed in September 2011 but the U.S. Supreme Court stepped and granted a stay of execution while the justices reviewed the case. (The Supremes also got the ball rolling on this issue years ago when they found that race was improperly used in sentencing Victor Saldano, who was set to die for the murder of Paul Ray King, the man Saldano abducted from a grocery store, robbed and shot to death. Quijano was the psychologist who testified on that case as well.) Ultimately, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, though Justices Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented on that call. With that the issue got kicked to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals where it was decided 6-3 not to allow Buck a new sentencing hearing in 2013. His lawyers immediately went back to bat with a request for relief that was rejected by the district court, a decision that was then bounced back up to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. (This is the third time the Fifth has looked at Buck's case, a fact noted in the 11-page opinion.) On Thursday, a panel of Fifth Circuit judges, including Judge Jerry Smith, Judge Priscilla Owen and Judge Catharina Haynes (all Republican appointees) issued their decision. The opinion completely dodged the question of whether race should be allowed to be considered as a factor in deciding whether to issue a death penalty. The justices restricted themselves to asking only whether the district court's resolution of the claim 'was debatable among jurists of reason.' The trio decided the district court decision they were reviewing wasn't, in fact, up for debate. They nodded at the race issue and then ignored it. Yup, that's right, the Fifth Circuit won't even address whether it's okay to consider race when issuing the death penalty. The Fifth ruled that Buck's petition did not show a violation of a constitutional right or any indication that the district court had made the wrong decision in previously denying Buck's appeal. Buck's request for a certificate to appeal included eleven points that his lawyers claimed made his case extraordinary but the Fifth ruled that none of these points, including the contention that Buck had been promised his case would be reviewed and he would be re-sentenced the way the other Quijano cases were, qualified as extraordinary. One of Buck's lawyers, Kathryn Kase, stated that they'll ask the Fifth to review the case again and that they'll ask the Supreme Court to weigh in if they need to. (source: Houston Press) OKLAHOMA: April trial set for defendant in Duncan family deaths An April trial has been set for Alan J. Hruby, 20, who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., N.C., S.C., FLA., OKLA., ARIZ., NEV.
Aug. 20 TEXASimpending execution//foreign national Death Watch: After Little Help From Counsel, Inmate to DieTercero's execution would be 12th in Texas this year On March 31, 1997, Robert Berger and his 3-year-old daughter walked into the Park Avenue Cleaners in Houston at the same exact time Bernardo Aban Tercero and an accomplice were trying to pull off a robbery. His interruption irked Tercero, and the 2 started scuffling. When Berger tried to separate himself, Tercero shot him in the head. Tercero returned to his native Nicaragua after the robbery, but on Nov. 20, 1997, he was indicted for capital murder. He was found thanks to the help of a female acquaintance in July 1999 in Mexico, attempting a return to the United States. Tercero's attempts to take control of his own fate suffered mightily immediately thereafter. Apprehended, his requests to speak with the Nicaraguan Consulate-General (a right under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations) was denied, and he was returned to Harris County, where a trial began in October of 2000. There, he received the counsel of 2 attorneys - Gilbert Villarreal and John Denninger - who did little to aid their client, filing no motions to request a mitigation investigator or any other experts that could conduct background investigations or prepare a social history. In fact, of the $21,670 trial counsel was provided by the court in order to perform due diligence in preparing a case to defend Tercero against capital murder, the 2 only used $13,200 - to travel to Nicaragua (2 weeks before the trial), and pay for travel and lodging for Tercero's family during the trial. There, they did an inept job of representing Tercero, calling one witness to the state's 17. That 1 witness was Tercero himself; he testified that the murder was unintentional. Nevertheless, a weeklong trial returned a guilty verdict. The state called 6 witnesses at punishment, most of whom were Nicaraguan and could testify to Tercero's history of robberies and kidnappings. He was sentenced to death on Oct. 20, 2000. Attorneys Dick Wheelan and James Crowley, assigned at different times to aid Tercero's appeals process, did little to help his case, either. They glossed over interview opportunities with jurors, trial counsel, or any of the involved witnesses. Further, in Wheelan's case, he neglected to secure any type of background records, including birth records - an important item as Tercero maintained that his age - 17 - barred him from the death penalty under the Supreme Court's decision in Roper v. Simmons. No surprise, then, that his claims for relief weren't upheld in federal court, where a judge ruled that each was either exhausted and/or procedurally defaulted, or at the Court of Criminal Appeals or the state habeas court. On Tuesday, Tercero's counsel filed a petition for a stay of execution based on their client's mental competency (a prison doctor has diagnosed Tercero with psychosis), as well as a motion to reconsider certain claims that had been barred. He's currently scheduled for execution at 6pm on Wednesday, Aug. 26. Should it happen, he'd be the 11th Texan executed this year, and 529th since the state's reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. (source: Austin Chronicle) ** IACHR Concludes that the United States Violated Bernardo Aban Tercero's Fundamental Rights and Requests that his Execution be Suspended The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urges the United States of America to stay the execution of Bernardo Aban Tercero, a Nicaraguan citizen, which is scheduled to take place on August 26, 2015, in the state of Texas, and to grant him effective relief, including the review of his trial in accordance with the due process and fair trial guarantees set forth in the American Declaration. The United States is subject to the international obligations derived from the Charter of the Organization of American States and the American Declaration since it joined the OAS in 1951. Accordingly, the IACHR urges the United States, and in particular the state of Texas, to fully and properly respect its international human rights obligations. The IACHR granted precautionary measures to protect the life and physical integrity of Bernardo Aban Tercero on April 4, 2013. The request for precautionary measures was filed in the context of a petition alleging the violation of rights recognized by the American Declaration. Through the precautionary measures, the Commission asked the United States to refrain from carrying out the death penalty until the IACHR had the opportunity to issue a decision on the petitioner's claims regarding the alleged violations of the American Declaration. The IACHR decided the case was admissible on June 24, 2015. On August 18, 2015, the IACHR adopted Report No. 50/15 on the merits of the case and determined that the United States is
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., KAN., OKLA.
Aug. 20 TEXASimpending execution//foreign national Petition to Greg Abbott, Governor of the State of Texas: To stay the execution of Bernardo Aban Tercero and grant him clemency see: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Greg_Abbott_Governor_of_the_State_of_Texas_To_stay_the_execution_of_Bernardo_Aban_ Tercero_and_grant_him_clemency/ (source: avaaz.org) NORTH CAROLINA: Crime lab backlog continues to delay death penalty case Nearly 3 years after an Ardmore woman was shot to death, only 1/3 of the physical evidence that Winston-Salem police seized in their investigation has been sent to the State Crime Lab, according to a letter from an attorney representing one of the defendants. And only about 20 % of the evidence sent has been examined, David Botchin, an attorney representing Anthony Vinh Nguyen, writes in a July 29 letter to Jennifer Martin, the chief assistant district attorney who is 1 of 2 prosecutors in the case. Nguyen, 23, is charged with 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree burglary, 1st-degree kidnapping and armed robbery in the death of Shelia Pace Gooden, 43. Authorities say Nguyen and 2 other men -- Daniel Aaron Benson, 24, and Steve George Assimos, 23 -- broke into Gooden's house at 700 Magnolia St. on Oct. 11, 2013, held her against her will and stole a flatscreen television valued at $200. Benson, Assimos and Nguyen are all facing the same charges, but only Nguyen is facing the death penalty because prosecutors allege that Nguyen shot Gooden in the head. The delay is largely due to protocols that the State Crime Lab has put into place for dealing with backlog. The State Crime Lab sets limits on the amount of evidence that law-enforcement agencies send at one time. According to the State Crime Lab guidelines, homicides are limited to 10 pieces of evidence per discipline for the 1st submission and 5 items for subsequent submissions. The lab has been criticized for having too few analysts to handle the backlog of requests from law enforcement to review evidence. At this rate it will take, as a minimum, another year-and-a-half to complete the process, Botchin wrote in his July 29 letter. Has your office made any inquiries of the Lab about the long delays in examining the evidence or what can be done to move things along? Botchin said in the letter that Martin has told him previously that she waits closer to the trial to let defense attorneys review physical evidence and that she would want all three defendants in this case to view the evidence at the same time. Botchin and Nguyen's other attorney, John Bryson, also had complained last year about delays in getting access to physical evidence. We have a statutory right to examine the evidence and we know of no statutory right that permits the State to determine when and how it is to be viewed, Botchin wrote. Martin said the rules of professional responsibility prohibited her from commenting on pending criminal matters. Martin had filed a motion last September asking the state Crime Lab to waive the policy. She said in the motion that the policy would cause lengthy delays in the prosecution of the case and could potentially prejudice both prosecutors and Nguyen's attorneys. At a hearing in October 2014, she said that she and Assistant District Attorney Ben White had talked to officials at the State Crime Lab about the policy. She said she had confidence that some of the items could be analyzed without too much delay in the case. Some progress has been made. Last fall, a Forsyth County judge ordered that defense attorneys can have access to cellphones and laptops that were seized. A hearing on Botchin's request to view physical evidence is scheduled for Sept. 10. No trial date has been set. All 3 defendants are in the Forsyth County Jail with no bond allowed. (source: Winston-Salem Journal) ALABAMAfemale may face death penalty Heather Keaton to be sentenced in deaths of stepchildren Heather Keaton, who was convicted of killing her 2 stepchildren, will be sentenced on capital murder and manslaughter charges on Thursday. Keaton could face the death penalty for the killing of Jonathan and Natalie DeBlase. A jury convicted Keaton in May of capital murder for the death of Jonathan Chase DeBlase, and manslaughter in the death of Natalie DeBlase. If sentenced to death, Keaton would be the 1st woman in Mobile County to face the death penalty. In January, her common-law husband, John DeBlase, was sentenced to death by lethal injection for his role in the murders. The 2 young children, were killed on separate occasions, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said Keaton played a vital role in their deaths, knowing that the children were mistreated, knowing that their lives were in danger and then willingly participated in the disposal of the bodies in a wooded areas near Vancleave, Mississippi and Citronelle, Alabama. When questioned in the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., N.C., FLA.
Aug. 19 TEXASimpending execution//foreign national Texas Prepares for Execution of Nicaraguan Bernardo Tercero on August 26, 2015 Bernardo Aban Tercero is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CDT, on Wednesday, August 26, 2015, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 37-year-old Bernardo is convicted of the murder of 38-year-old high school teacher Robert Keith Berger on March 31, 1997, in Houston, Texas. Bernardo has spent the last 15 years of his life on Texas' death row. Bernardo was born in Chinadega, Nicaragua. He dropped out of school following the 7th grade and came to the United States at the age of 17. Bernardo had previously been convicted on 2 counts of theft in the United States. Prior to his arrest, he worked as an auto mechanic and laborer. On March 31, 1997, 2 men, Bernardo Tercero and Jorge Becencil Gonzales, forced their way through the back door of a dry cleaning establishment. Gonzales held the employees at gunpoint while Tercero went to the front of the store and demanded money. Robert Berger, who was there with his 3 year old daughter, approached Tercero. The 2 became physical and Robert was shot. He died from his injuries. Tercero and Gonzales fled. Tercero went to Florida, while Gonzales left the country. Tercero eventually fled to Nicaragua, where he is alleged to have been involved in a series of violent crimes, including robberies, shootings, and a kidnapping. Tercero was extradited to the United States upon request. Bernardo Tercero has 2 conflicting birth certificates. The one (not used for this article) alleges that he was under 18 at the time of crime, making him ineligible for the death penalty. Bernardo alleges that this is his correct birth certificate. This discrepancy has been the focus of many appeals, non of which have been successful. His attorney is also asking for a stay of execution to allow further litigation. Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Robert Berger. Please pray for strength for the family of Bernardo. Please pray that if Bernardo is innocent or ineligible for the death penalty, that evidence will be presented prior to his execution. Please pray that Bernardo will come to find peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if he has not already found one. (source: theforgivenessfoundation.org) * Texas prosecutor made secret deals in more than 1 death penalty case, report says A now-retired Texas prosecutor struck secret deals to secure key testimony in more than 1 death penalty case, according to a new report. After uncovering evidence last summer that Navarro County prosecutor John Jackson arranged such a deal in 1 death penalty case, The Marshall Project, a news nonprofit focused on criminal justice issues, reported Tuesday that Jackson did the same in another, earlier case. In both instances, the report says, defense attorneys were not told about the deals and those testifying reported feeling pressured into doing so and guided in what to share. The new story alleges that Jackson bolstered a 1986 case against Ernest Baldree - who was charged with murdering a husband and wife during a robbery - with testimony from Kyle Barnett, who was an inmate with Baldree. But Barnett says he never wanted to testify against Baldree: The prosecutors there had me in a position where it would be real hard on me if I refused, he said, according to the report. Barnett said Baldree admitted to the murders, but was also remorseful, saying he was high on speed and didn't know what he was doing - a fact, he says, prosecutors were uninterested in hearing. The scenario that Barnett described strongly echoes allegations later made in the far more famous case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for the arson murder of his three young daughters, Maurice Possley and Maurice Chammah write. Jackson had, for more than 20 years, denied making a deal in that case, too, but a story by Possley republished by The Washington Post last summer cast doubt on his denial. The former inmate who provided testimony against Willingham in that case, Johnny E. Webb, told Possley that he had been coerced and his testimony that Willingham confessed was a lie. Jackson at the time called the allegation a complete fabrication. Jackson has also alleged that he and Barnett have never had contact. But Barnett says Jackson and his prosecution team told him that they needed his testimony. They told me that, if I would testify, they would allow me to the Cenikor Drug Rehabilitation program in Fort Worth for violating my probation, Barnett explained in an affidavit, according to the new report. They said if I didn't testify, I'd be going back to the prison for a long time. (source: Washington Post) ** Junk Science RevisitedForensic commision right to scrutinize bite analysis The Texas
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., OHIO, OKLA., NEB., COLO., ARIZ., USA
Aug. 19 TEXAS: Mother of slain Killeen man speaks out Mitchell Jaudon shot dead last week at A.A. Lane Neighborhood Park The mother of Mitchell Jaudon, 22, of Sylvania, Ga., who was shot dead at A.A. Lane Neighborhood Park in north Killeen last week, is speaking out against the violence that led to her son???s death. In an interview with the Herald, Jaudon's mother, Rachael Roberson, said Killeen's culture of violence bears some responsibility for the death of her son and at least 10 others who died from gun violence. In 2015, 15 have died from homicides, according to Killeen police. 15 homicides? Roberson exclaimed. Whoever is in charge here, what are they going to do to make sure families that leave the safety of their hometown to come here for the military - for their family to serve this country - can be able to feel safe? My mother is leaving. My son is leaving. My family is torn apart. My mom doesn't feel as though she can walk to the mailbox. After their family moved from Georgia to Killeen in 2008, Roberson said she began to notice her son changing. Mitchell was headed to the 9th grade when we moved here, Roberson said. Probably around the 10th or 11th grade, I started noticing some changes in my son. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything about him. She said Jaudon did not graduate from high school and worked odd jobs as he struggled to complete his GED classes at Central Texas College. She said he also struggled with marijuana addiction, but completed rehab. On the night of his death, Roberson said, Jaudon was at their home, but didn't tell them he was going to A.A. Lane Neighborhood Park, an area neighbors said has become a hotbed for drug and sex activity. Mervis Hancock, whose home and adjacent gazebo have overlooked the park for years, said he often sees and hears drug use, fights and other chaos. He said at least one other person was stabbed to death last year. It's scary, Hancock said. I don't want to stay here any longer. It's right up under our nose that someone's getting killed. Although Jaudon was at his mother's home before his death, she would not elaborate on what he told his family that night. We have a slight idea, but we're not allowed to say because of the investigation, Roberson said. He was here with me, so I know what he said he needed to do. Killeen police spokeswoman Carroll Smith said it's important for community members and residents to cooperate with each and share information with police. She said it's also important to prevent domestic violence, which has been linked to many of 2015's deaths. The police and the community can work together to decrease opportunities by being good witnesses, contacting the police at the first sight of trouble, reporting crimes and being active in the community, Smith said. Refrain from engaging in illegal drug activity and domestic violence. If and/or when police are able to catch Jaudon's killer or killers, Roberson said she plans to seek the death penalty. I'm a Christian and people say, 'Oh, well you're not supposed to,' Roberson said. Listen. They left him there to die. ... They intended for my son to die. They left him there. It's too late for teaching them morals or teaching them values. I think that they are cowards of the worst kind, she said. They took something from me that is irreplaceable. He's my oldest son, but he was also my friend. It's up to the Killeen community to end the trend of increased homicide, Roberson said. We need to come together as a community to say that violence can???t be tolerated, she said. It can't. Something has to change. Some way, something needs to be done. (source: Killeen Daily Herald) CONNECTICUT: In Death Penalty Decision, Voice of Justice Berdon Heard Congratulations to Justice Robert Berdon, who patiently served on the Supreme Court for years waiting for the majority of the court to catch up to him. It was 1st in 1996 when all seven justices on the court considered an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty under the state constitution. In that case, Berdon noted: Today is the 1st time that each of the justices of the Supreme Court of Connecticut has had an opportunity to speak on the issue of whether the death penalty violates our state constitution. The majority of this court, consisting of Chief Justice [Ellen Ash] Peters and Justices [Robert] Callahan, [David] Borden and [Richard] Palmer, now concludes that death at the hands of the state is not cruel and unusual punishment, while 3 justices - Justices [Flemming] Norcott, [Joette] Katz and myself - would hold that the penalty is unconstitutional under the state constitution. The majority's decision today prevents Connecticut from joining those humane and enlightened states and nations that continue to ban the penalty of death. The only remaining issue in this case is by which means Mr. [Daniel] Webb
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
TEXASnew execution date Raphael Holiday has been given an execution date for Novermber 18; it should be considered serious. Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present10 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-528 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 11-August 26Bernardo Tercero--529 12-September 29-Perry Williams530 13-October 6Juan Garcia---531 14-October 14---Licho Escamilla---532 15-October 28---Christopher Wilkins---533 16-November 3---Julius Murphy-534 17-Novermber 18-Raphael Holiday---535 18-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson536 19-January 27---James Freeman-537 (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Aug. 17 TEXAS: The Trials of Ed GrafIn 1988, he was convicted of killing his stepsons - based on arson science we now know is bunk. A quarter of a century later, Texas granted him a new trial, one that pitted modern forensics against old-fashioned Texas justice. Ed Graf was a bad employee. While working at Community Bank in Texas in the 1980s, he allegedly embezzled from his employer, eventually paying the bank more than $75,000 to avoid prosecution. Ed Graf was a bad husband. His ex-wife, Clare, would call him the most possessive person I've ever known. Clare's best friend, Carol Schafer, said her husband, Earl, saw Graf having sex with another woman the night of Graf's bachelor party. Ed Graf was, according to Clare and her family, a bad father. 2 of Clare's family members accused him of beating his adopted stepsons, Joby and Jason, with a board and belt. In 1988, a Texas jury found that Ed Graf was also a murderer. Prosecutors argued that 2 years earlier, on Aug. 26, 1986, Graf had knocked out Joby, 9, and Jason, 8, and placed the boys in the back of their family shed. Graf had then spread gasoline, locked the shed, and set the boys ablaze. The 2 inseparable, athletic, blond-haired brothers died of smoke inhalation and severe burns in the backyard of their home. The address was 505 Angel Fire Drive. On the day of the fire, Graf broke the news to his wife, telling Clare that both boys had been lost in the blaze. But Graf had been informed that the body of 1 child had been found, not both. It was one of many pieces of circumstantial evidence that prosecutors would pile up to present Graf as a calculating, greedy, and callous monster who murdered the children in a desperate attempt to keep his troubled marriage together. Other small clues seemed to point to Graf's guilt. Multiple witnesses say they saw a gasoline container on the porch, not far from the kids' bikes. Graf also acted strangely after the fire. He suggested the boys be buried in 1 coffin, according to multiple witnesses. He didn't offer his wife consolation, or apologize that they died in his care. A few weeks after the fire, Graf returned about $50 worth of Joby and Jason's new school clothes that he had previously insisted they keep the tags on. There was more of what others saw as signs of foreknowledge. The normally meticulous Graf, who was said to keep lists for everything, neglected to buy the boys' cereal or fill Jason's Dimetapp prescription the week of their deaths. In addition to the circumstantial evidence, prosecutors were able to present motive. Weeks before the fire, Graf had taken out $100,000 worth of combined life insurance on the boys if they were to die in an accident. The policies had been mailed out the day before the fire. The real motive, prosecutors argued, was to get the boys - a source of regular bickering between Graf and his wife - out of their lives. His wife testified that shortly before the fire, she had threatened to leave him over his strict discipline of Joby and Jason, sons from a previous marriage, and to take their newborn 3rd son, Edward III, with her. The case was still largely circumstantial, though. The thing that likely clinched Graf's conviction was the scientific testimony of a pair of forensic examiners. Joseph Porter, an investigator with the State Fire Marshal's Office, testified that, based on his analysis of photos of the remains of the scene, the door of the shed must have been locked from the outside at the time of the fire, which would indicate foul play. He also said there were obvious charring patterns on the floor of the shed left by an accelerant. The fire was definitely incendiary, Porter declared. The prosecution's other expert, a top fire investigator from New York known for his report on the Osage Avenue fire, a notorious fire set by Philadelphia officials that destroyed a primarily black neighborhood, was brought in to testify that there was no doubt that this was arson. If the fire was intentionally set, then Graf was the only suspect with means, motives, and opportunity. Even if there was no direct evidence connecting him to the crime, the circumstantial evidence and the word of 2 arson experts was enough. The jury deliberated for 4 hours before pronouncing him guilty of capital murder. The jurors then had to decide the punishment. The district attorney, Vic Feazell, said that the facts of the case cry out for the death penalty - 2 boys burned alive, murdered by a trusted parent. Defense attorney Charles McDonald gave an impassioned plea that the jurors had convicted an innocent man and would make the injustice irreversible if they chose execution over life in prison. I'm asking for this man's life because if you did make a mistake there's going to be some folks, somewhere down the line, it may be years ... but maybe the mistake can be corrected, McDonald argued. If you take this
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., FLA., TENN.
Aug. 15 TEXAS: Death penalty foes to hold vigil Aug. 26 The Lubbock chapter of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty will host a vigil from 5:45-6:15 p.m. Aug. 26 at the corner of University Avenue and 15th Street, in front of St. John's United Methodist Church. The prayer vigil will coincide with a scheduled state execution of a prison inmate. The public is invited. (source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal) Former Texas DA an opponent of death penalty Advocates looking for a death penalty opponent would be hard-pressed to find one more convincing than Texas lawyer Tim Cole. Currently Cole, who has recently made headlines in his home state for speaking out publicly against capital punishment, is a Fort Worth-based criminal defense attorney. But for 14 years, Cole was the district attorney in rural North Texas (he spent time as assistant DA before and after he served in that elected position). 20 years a prosecutor, Cole has tried 36 murder cases, he tells me in a phone interview. Of these, he says, 3 were death penalty cases. In another case (not one that he tried), he granted a request from a childhood acquaintance - to die on his birthday. Texas is, perhaps, one of the least likely places to find a prosecutor, even a former one, willing to speak out publicly against capital punishment. Since 1976, according to statistics kept by the Death Penalty Information Center, the state far outstrips any other in executions with 527 inmates put to death. By contrast, Pennsylvania has executed 3 people over that same period. If you want to have an erudite conversation about shades of legal gray, Cole doesn't seem like your guy. As recounted in a wrenching essay in the Texas Monthly (about a decades-old murder trial that still troubles him), Cole became known for his uncompromising stances. As a young prosecutor, he had a man sentenced to a 45-year prison term for stealing a tractor. But the DA who had few qualms about imposing tough sentences, and an evident and profound respect for justice, had never been a death penalty advocate, he says, because it left life and death in one person's hand. Interestingly, it is in part the lack of clear criteria for capital punishment cases that bothered Cole - where he might view a certain crime as death-penalty-eligible, the DA in the next county over would look at the same set of circumstances and come to a different conclusion. It became pretty obvious that the death penalty is arbitrarily decided depending on the county and the prosecutor, he says. In addition, says Cole, capital punishment cases can be ruinously expensive. The increased cost of the death penalty is enormous he says, noting that in Montague County, an area with few economic resources, the commissioners had to raise the tax rate on the heels of a death penalty prosecution. Like others during the 1990's, when DNA evidence began to be widely available and used in trials, the numbers of exonerations jumped - and it became evident that testimony had sometimes been tainted, both by the use of jailhouse snitches and the poor judgment of a few prosecutors. It just showed that we prosecutors had it wrong more often than we thought, says Cole. Personally I don't believe keeping the death penalty is worth the execution of an innocent person. We can correct incarceration. We can't bring someone back to life. In addition, suggests Cole, political considerations, and the grief of the victim's family, may affect a prosecutor's decision to seek the death penalty or a less final sentence. Now, he says, prosecutors seem to be seeking death penalty verdicts less often, suggesting to him that it's seen as more acceptable to make the choice of life without parole. (Texas was one of the last states to adopt that as a possible sentence, he says). Last February, Cole was the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Texas Coalitions to Abolish the Death Penalty. Though he's not surprised that he hasn't heard from his former colleagues in DA's offices across the state, he's got a hunch that some of them agree that capital punishment is both exceedingly expensive and a long drawn-out process (on average in Texas, an inmate can spend 12 years on death row before he or she is executed, he says). As a nation we are moving away from the death penalty, says Heather Beaudoin one of the national coordinators for Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a project of the criminal justice reform group Equal Justice. Beaudoin, who comes from a conservative religious background, works particularly closely with evangelicals. The more we know about the death penalty, the more public opinion has shifted away from it, she says. It's just not worth it anymore. While Cole also emerged from a solidly conservative religious background, he says that in the case of capital punishment, it's not religious conviction or his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Aug. 15 TEXASnew execution date James Freeman has been given an execution date for January 27, 2016; it should be considered serious. Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present10 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-528 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 11-August 26Bernardo Tercero---529 12-September 29-Perry Williams-530 13-October 6Juan Garcia--531 14-October 14---Licho Escamilla-532 15-October 28---Christopher Wilkins-533 16-November 3---Julius Murphy--534 17-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson535 27-January 27---James Freeman--536 (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., FLA., LA., OHIO
Aug. 13 TEXAS: David Conley, alleged killer of 6 children, says they were becoming 'monsters' Inside a segregation cell in a Houston jail, David Conley waits, passing the time talking to reporters about the tumultuous relationship he had with his on-again, off-again girlfriend over more than a decade. Earlier this week, he was charged with numerous counts of capital murder after he allegedly slipped through an unlocked window at her home and fatally shot her, her common-law husband and her 6 children - 1 by 1 - in the back of the head. Authorities said Conley, 49, killed Valerie Jackson, 40, her husband, Dwayne Jackson, and the 6 children, including his son, 13-year-old Nathaniel. I love Nate. I love Nate to death, he told KPRC-TV earlier this week. Though, he said, he has questioned for years whether he is the child's biological father. Conley spoke Wednesday about the children who were growing into monsters and Jackson whom he blamed for letting them run wild like they were gangsters. I understand how it looks, but it's not like that, he told the Houston Chronicle. The Bible says, 'Thou shall respect your mother and father or your days shall be short. I'm not God, but you know, then, I'm the man of the house. Conley said his attorney advised him not to talk about the allegations against him but in an interview he told a KHOU-TV reporter: I'm only human. In jailhouse interviews, Conley has instead focused on his relationship with Jackson who, over the years, bounced back and forth between him and Dwayne Jackson. He claimed Valerie Jackson had cheated on him with Dwayne - a demon and a monster who was harassing him. He tried to pimp out over me and take everything, rule over my house. How would you feel? he told KPRC-TV. Dwayne was a monster and Valerie, she was no Good Samaritan either. They did evil things all the time. Conley also said Jackson wouldn't discipline the children so they were growing up to be monsters, talking back and refusing to clean up after themselves. They were disrespectful, rude in school, he told the TV news station. I'm not saying they're dead because of that. I'm not even saying I killed them. When Conley met Jackson in 1999, he said, he was trying to do the right thing in life. He had been in trouble for auto theft, cocaine possession and evading arrest, according to court records. The next year, the 2 had a daughter. Jackson's mother has reportedly had custody of the daughter for years. Around that time, Conley was arrested and charged in a domestic violence dispute. Jackson told police Conley had cut her neck, punched her in the face and wrapped an electrical cord around the baby's neck. The handling of that case became an issue this week after he was charged in the murders when local media reported that, given Conley's previous felony convictions, the prosecutor in that case could have sought the maximum sentence - 25 years to life - but opted in 2002 to accept a plea deal instead for 5 years behind bars. Conley said the domestic abuse allegations against him were all lies. Basically what happened to that case is what happens with so many domestic violence cases: The victim recanted her story, Jeff McShan with the Harris County District Attorney's Office told KHOU-TV. McShan said Jackson then blamed the alleged abuse on an ex-boyfriend. We went all the way up to the trial date hoping she would tell the truth about what happened, show up for court, but we couldn???t even locate her, he said. Conley and Jackson then reportedly had a son, Nathaniel, though Conley said paternity was never proven. For years, Jackson went back and forth between Conley and Dwayne Jackson. I never tried to hold her back, Conley told the Houston Chronicle, but then she would always try to run off and be with him. Conley had 5 children with Dwayne Jackson. Early on, Conley was reportedly married to another woman. His estranged wife, Vernessa Conley, told Fox News that Conley had abused her years ago. He grabbed me by my hair and dragged me out of the bed and he drug me over the floor and he took an extension cord, the orange ones that you use, she said, and he wrapped it around my neck and I blacked out. If I hadn't left he probably would have killed me, she added. Conley and Jackson's troubles came to a head last month when Conley allegedly attempted to discipline Jackson's 10-year-old with a belt. Police said she tried to grab the belt from him but he slammed her head into a refrigerator. Police issued a warrant for his arrest. Conley told the Houston Chronicle he left the house that he claims he shared with Jackson and went to a motel. Ultimately, he decided to move out but, when he realized he didn't have anywhere else to go, he went back, according to KPRC-TV. On Saturday morning, Conley discovered Jackson had changed the locks, police said, so he slipped through an unlocked window. At some point
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, COLO., CALIF., USA
Aug. 12 TEXAS: please see (and sign): https://www.change.org/p/dallas-da-susan-hawk-dallas-da-susan-hawk-reopen-the-darlie-routier-case?recruiter=759443utm_source=share_petitionutm_medium=emailutm_campaign=share_email_responsive Dallas DA Susan Hawk Dallas DA, Susan Hawk , reopen the Darlie Routier case. Dear Madam District Attorney, we the signees , kindly request that you open the Darlie Routier case. She has been on DR since 1997 for something she did not do. She did not kill her sons; Damon and Devon and there is plenty evidence to back that up. Some of it is dealt with , but still there is a lot to be done. At the time of the investigation chaos ruled. Items in the home were touched and moved improperly so that many of the pictures did give the wrong ideas, evidence was mishandled. If you look at the time frame in which it is suggested the crime was staged, and compare with the 911 call, you will see it does not add up. There was no time for staging. Pictures of Darlie proves she could not have done it herself. There are many things and DNA tests that still need to be done. Madam, please look into the case. It has been too long and it is high time the whole truth came out. It is time for the real killer to face justice. Darlie and her family deserve that much, so does the entire state of Texas. Thank you for your attention! (source: EW/RH) *** Man accused of killing son, 7 others: 'I'm only human' In a jailhouse interview, the man being held without bond for allegedly murdering a family of eight inside their north Harris County, Texas, home, repeatedly said, I'm only human. Advised not to talk about the night his ex-girlfriend, her husband and 6 children - including his own son - were tied up and killed, David Conley did admit to being in the home. Conley, 48, is charged with capital murder in the case. 13 years ago, Conley could have been in prison for life after being charged with felony retaliation against Valerie Jackson - his on-again, off-again girlfriend who he is now accused of killing. Because of 2 previous felony convictions, Conley could have received 25 years to life if convicted on that third felony. However, Devon Anderson, the current Harris County district attorney who oversaw the court handling of the case as a prosecutor, signed off on a five-year plea deal for Conley. Her office said Jackson forced the prosecution's hand in how it handled the case. Basically what happened to that case is what happens with so many domestic violence cases: The victim recanted her story, said Jeff McShan with the Harris County District Attorney's Office. McShan said not only did Jackson say on several occasions that the incident never happened, she blamed it on an ex-boyfriend. But because of Conley's long, violent history, including domestic violence against Jackson, McShan said prosecutors pursued the case for months. We went all the way up to the trial date hoping she would tell the truth about what happened, show up for court, but we couldn't even locate her, McShan said. Complicating things even further were Jackson's open warrants from Wisconsin for theft and bail jumping, along with previous convictions, including 3 for prostitution in 2001 and 1 for trespass in 1995. Conley served 5 years. During his jailhouse interview, Conley said he had been living with Jackson for some time, and that her husband was out of the picture. But he said, the 2 started having problems, so he moved out. That's when Jackson's husband moved back in. Conley said he was in shock when he found out. Conley said his son Nathaniel had become a problem child. He described his 13-year-old son as disrespectful, saying Jackson wouldn't all him to discipline the boy. He admitted he was at a breaking point, and admitted he was in the home the night of the murders. When asked whether he had a gun, Conley said he wasn't allowed to own any. Asked whether his son was in a better place, without admitting anything, Conley altered a scripture from the Bible. Thou shall honor your mother and father or your days are short, he said. At the end of Conley's interview, he broke down crying. He said he prays all the time and is sad so many people are dead. Anderson's office has another chance to put Conley away for good, but this time they could ask for the death penalty. On Monday, Anderson said it could be three or four months before that decision is made. Conley's next court appearance is Sept. 15. (source: KHOU TV news) FLORIDA: Man accused in 2013 Metro PCS slaying is scheduled to go on trial in May 2016 A trial date has been set for the man accused of the 2013 execution-like killing of 20-year-old phone store manager Shelby Farah, but the trial will not take place for almost a year. Circuit Judge Tatiana Salvador scheduled May 2, 2016, for James Xavier Rhodes, who is facing a potential death sentence.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
Aug. 12 TEXASexecution//volunteer Texas executes man who struck and killed police lieutenant with SUV during 2009 chase Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez, 27, got his wish Wednesday when he was executed for striking and killing a police lieutenant with an SUV during a chase more than 6 years ago. The lethal injection was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from his attorneys, who disregarded Lopez's desire to die and disagreed with lower court rulings that found Lopez was competent to make that decision. I hope this execution helps my family and also the victim's family, said Lopez, who spoke quietly and quickly. This was never meant to be, sure beyond my power. I can only walk the path before me and make the best of it. I'm sorry for putting you all through this. I am sorry. I love you. I am ready. May we all go to heaven. As the drugs took effect, he took 2 deep breaths, then 2 shallower breaths. Then all movement stopped. The roar of revving motorcycles on the street outside the Huntsville prison, from a group of bikers supporting police, could be heard as Lopez spoke, along with rumbles of intermittent thunder. He was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. CDT - 15 minutes after the lethal dose began. Lopez's obvious and severe mental illness was responsible for him wanting to use the legal system for suicide, illustrating his well-documented history of irrational behavior and suicidal tendencies, attorney David Dow, who represented Lopez, had told the high court. Dow also argued the March 2009 crime was not a capital murder because Lopez didn't intend to kill Corpus Christi Lt. Stuart Alexander. The officer's widow, Vicky Alexander, and four friends who were witnesses with her prayed in the chamber before a physician pronounced Lopez dead. At the same time, some people selected by Lopez as witnesses sang Amazing Grace from an adjacent room. This has nothing to do with revenge, Vicky Alexander said afterward, and after hugging more than a dozen police officers who stood at attention as she departed the prison. This has to do with the law. And when you break the law, there's punishment for what you do. He broke the ultimate law, and he had to pay the ultimate price, as my husband did. She said as a nurse of 25 years, it was totally against my grain to see something like this. But it's justice for my husband. It is the law. It's part of the system he believed in and worked for, and society has to have rules to maintain peace. Stuart Alexander, 47, was standing in a grassy area on the side of a highway where he had put spike strips when he was struck by the SUV Lopez was fleeing in. Lopez, who also wrote letters to a federal judge and pleaded for his execution to move forward, said last week from death row that a Supreme Court reprieve would be disappointing. I've accepted my fate, he said. I'm just ready to move on. Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka said Lopez showed no regard for human life when he fought with an officer during a traffic stop, then sped away, evading pursuing officers and striking Alexander, who had been on the police force for 20 years. Even when he finally was cornered by police cars, Lopez tried ramming his SUV to escape and didn't stop until he was shot. He had no moral scruples, no nothing. It was always about Daniel Lopez, and it's still about Daniel Lopez, Skurka said Tuesday. He's a bad, bad guy. 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 to the punishment. Deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false compartment in the console of the SUV. Records showed 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. Testimony at his trial showed he had at least 5 children by 3 women, and a 6th was born while he was jailed for Alexander's death. Court records show Lopez had sex with girls as young as 14 and had a history of assaults and other trouble while in school, where he was a 10th-grade dropout. Lopez becomes the 10 condemned inmate to be put ot death this year in Texas and the 528th overall since Texas resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Lopez becomes the 19th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1413th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated press Rick Halperin) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present10 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-528 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 11-August 26Bernardo Tercero--529 12-September 29-Perry
[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, N.C., GA., FLA., LA., MO., OKLA., NEB., COLO.
Aug. 11 TEXAS: Texas man accused of killing 8 formally charged in Houston court The Texas man accused of killing 8 people, including his son and an ex-girlfriend, during the weekend in a Houston-area home was formally charged on Monday with 3 counts of capital murder, a crime punishable by death. District Attorney Devon Anderson said her staff will take 3 to 4 months to decide whether to seek the death penalty for David Conley but added, At this point, it's a no-brainer. Conley, 48, wearing a yellow Harris County Jail uniform and with his hands cuffed in front of him for his court appearance, quietly answered yes when asked to confirm his identity at a hearing. Assistant District Attorney Alycia Harvey said Conley, who does not yet have an attorney, has made a statement to authorities about his relationship to the victims, who included 2 adults and 6 children between the ages of 6 and 13. She said the dead included Conley's son, Nathaniel Conley, 13, and the boy's mother, Valerie Jackson. Conley was outraged that Jackson had changed the locks on her home, preventing him from getting inside, prosecutors said. Each of the 3 counts of capital murder can cover multiple offenses. Conley slipped into the home through a window, tied up 8 people - Jackson, her husband, and the 6 children - and shot them all in the head, according to the indictment. After a standoff with sheriff's deputies who went to the house after a relative of one of the victims asked for a check on the family's welfare, the suspect opened fire on officers when they entered the home. Conley, who has a long history of violent crimes, was ordered held without bond at a hearing Sunday and will remain in the Harris County Jail. In addition to Nathaniel Conley, authorities identified the slain children as Honesty Jackson, 11, Dwayne Jackson, 10, Caleb Jackson, 9, Trinity Jackson, 7, and Jonah Jackson, 6. (source: Reuters) NORTH CAROLINA: The conservative conscience of Beverly Lake and the NC death penalty As someone who has spent a lifetime fighting on behalf of condemned defendants, I never imagined I would sing the praises of a man who, as a legislator, fought passionately for the death penalty. Who, as a trial judge, seemed to possess a blind faith in our justice system, even as it caused irreparable harm to the poor and mentally ill. Who refused to repudiate the views of his father, a prominent segregationist who called Martin Luther King Jr. a man of deplorable character. Today, however, all I can think is how much better off North Carolina would be if our legislators followed the example of I. Beverly Lake, the former Republican chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, who crossed ideological lines to create the N.C. Actual Innocence Commission. Lake is the subject of a profile by the Marshall Project detailing his courageous efforts to bring about reforms that made our state a national leader in preventing and remedying wrongful convictions. One result of Lake's efforts was the Innocence Inquiry Commission, a 1st-of-its-kind state agency with subpoena power that works to root out innocent people in North Carolina's prisons. In September, that commission proved the innocence of Henry McCollum, the state's longest-serving death row inmate, and his half-brother, Leon Brown. The men spent 30 years wrongly imprisoned. Freeing innocent people from prison, however, was only one of the Lake's achievements. His Actual Innocence Commission crafted the nation's first guidelines for preserving DNA evidence and allowing defendants access to it and the nation's 1st standards for conducting police lineups in ways that discouraged false identifications. It also suggested the law requiring all confessions to be videotaped - a reform that might have helped Henry McCollum had it been in place when he was coerced into confessing to a rape and murder he did not commit. In retrospect, these reforms all sound like common sense. But, at the time, they were controversial and difficult steps that could have been taken only by a man like Lake, who had conservative law-and-order credentials and was brave enough to alienate part of his base to do what was right. Lake convened his 1st meeting about the commission in 2002, after the exoneration of Ronald Cotton, who spent 10 years in prison for rape before being exonerated by DNA testing. Lake invited judges, prosecutors, victims' rights advocates and law enforcement, as well as those who had traditionally been considered their enemies: defense attorneys and liberal law professors. The Marshall Project writes: The reaction to Lake's out-of-the-blue invitation was mixed. Some conservatives were hurt, even stunned, by what they saw as an out-of-character attempt to go back on my values and start over fighting for the bad guys, the criminals, as Lake puts it. I got letters from longtime friends saying, 'You've
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., MISS., LA., COLO., UTAH, USA
Aug. 10 TEXAS: Accused killer faces death penalty in executions of 6 children, 2 adults at Houston homeDavid Ray Conley, 49, is accused of tying up his ex-wife, her husband and their 6 children before shooting each once in the head. Texas authorities have arrested and charged a man in the execution-style murders of 6 children and 2 adults inside a Houston home -- where it's believed the killer crawled through a window to get to the victims. According to investigators, David Ray Conley, III, entered the home Saturday night through the unlocked window -- despite the fact that the owner had a restraining order against him and had changed all the door locks recently. Once inside, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said, Conley tied up all 8 victims and shot each once in the head -- including several small children. The victims all died at the scene. We do not -- cannot fully comprehend the motivation of an individual that would take the lives of so many innocent people. Especially the lives of the youngest, Harris County Chief Deputy Tim Cannon said. The killer's motives appear to be related to a dispute with Valerie, who was a former domestic partner. Investigators believe Conley, 49, was previously married to the home's owner, Valerie Jackson, and helped her support the children during the marriage. The victims were identified as parents Dewayne Jackson, 50, his wife Jackson, 40, and children Nathaniel, 13, Dewayne, Jr., 10, Honesty, 11, Caleb, 9, Trinity, 7, and Jonah, 6. Nathaniel was believed to be Conley's son from his relationship with Jackson. We are all hurting. It's a difficult day for us at the sheriff's office. Once again, a tragedy has struck, Cannon said. The documents, which charge Conley with numerous counts of capital murder, revealed that the surnames of the 4 identified victims as either Jackson or Conley. He restrained, shot and killed 8 people, Celeste Byrom, an assistant district attorney said during a brief court hearing Sunday. Authorities responded to the Jackson home at around 9 p.m. Saturday for a welfare check. When no one answered the door, deputies became aware that Conley was inside. Recognizing his outstanding warrant for aggravated assault, backup units arrived on the scene and surrounded the house, The Washington Post reported. Deputies then spotted what appeared to be a body lying inside and entered the home. Upon entry, they say Conley started shooting at them and they retreated. After a terse standoff, Conley was taken into custody. The sheriff's office told the Post that the relationship between Conley and Jackson was unclear, although Facebook posts indicate that the 2 were previously married. Officials say Conley has a domestic violence record that goes at least back to 2000, and was arrested just last month for assaulting Jackson during a domestic dispute. He has other crimes on his rap sheet that go back to 1988, USA Today reported. In 2013, before she received a protective court order against Conley, she posted that Conley was the best father in the whole world, my baby, my best friend, my forever. A subsequent post read, You have always put me and our kids ahead of your self and always take care of home, the Chronicle reported. (source: United Press International) ** 35 years served without conviction, Texas man gets new trial For more than 35 years, a Texas man has been in a prison even though an appeals court threw out his conviction on a 1976 murder charge that initially had him on death row. On Monday, 59-year-old Jerry Hartfield will return to court for a retrial, facing a life sentence if convicted of killing a woman who sold tickets at a Bay City bus station. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have haggled over who's to blame for decades of inaction and whether Hartfield's right to a speedy trial have been violated. But the trial judge has refused to dismiss Hartfield's indictment and prosecutors recently took the death penalty off the table, citing a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring execution of mentally impaired people. At a hearing Friday, a psychologist testified Hartfield's IQ is 67, below the threshold of 70 considered mental impairment. Regardless of how the time is parsed out, the delay between the initial conviction in 1977 and the trial ... is extraordinary, defense attorney Jay Wooten said in court documents. Potential trial jurors are to arrive Monday for questioning. Matagorda County District Attorney Steven Reis has said while prosecutors may be partially responsible for not retrying Hartfield earlier, the state hasn't acted in bad faith. Hartfield also bears some responsibility for not filing for nearly a quarter-century, Reis said. I don't hold no grudge, Hartfield told The Associated Press in 2012 from a Texas prison. All I want to do is just get things right and get back on with my life again. Hartfield
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., TENN., OHIO, OKLA., NEB.
Aug. 7 TEXAS: Prosecutors consider death penalty The Cameron County District Attorney's Office has 2 weeks to decide whether it will seek the death penalty for 1 of 3 men accused in the 2004 shooting death of Tomas Hernandez Zapata. 1 of the suspects, Jose Nicolas Acosta, 29, pleaded not guilty in the 103rd state district court Thursday morning. Hernandez Zapata's body was found Sept. 9, 2004 on Houston Road , between North Dakota and Vermillion roads. Authorities said he suffered severe head trauma and received 5 gunshot wounds to the front of his body and 1 shot to the back. Acosta, Alejandro Gutierrez Hernandez ( aka Alejandro Teran Teran ) and Jose Luis Garcia were named in a 2009 indictment, which alleges the 3 kidnapped and fatally shot Hernandez Zapata. In 2010, Garcia pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to 35 years in an Texas Department of Criminal Justice institution. In 2010, The Brownsville Herald reported Teran was arrested in Mexico City in connection to an unrelated murder. A status hearing is set for Aug. 20 at which time the DA's office will determine whether or not Acosta will face the death penalty if convicted. Acosta is set to go to trial for Hernandez Zapata's killing in November. (source: The Brownsville Herald) NORTH CAROLINA: Jury selection in capital murder trial concludes 20 weeks of jury selection concluded Thursday when attorneys selected the 3rd and final alternate in the triple murder capital case for 45-year-old Carl Kennedy, according to court officials. Kennedy and 2 others - David Earl Manning and Leigh Williams, both 44 - have been charged with 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in the November 2011 deaths of Sharon F. Rushing, 61, Angela Dawn Soles, 43, and Gary Lynn Seward, 52, all of 101 Rotary Lane, Thomasville. The state is seeking the death penalty against all 3 people, but Kennedy's case is being tried 1st. The lengthy time to select jurors was due to an individual voir dire process. The process meant each juror was questioned individually. Christopher Bragg, the presiding judge, has maintained it was his decision to question jurors this way. Some jurors have been questioned for over 3 hours before they were seated as a juror. Hundreds of Davidson County residents were called for jury duty. Robert Campbell, 1 of Kennedy's attorneys, has said he believes the jury selection is the longest ever for a capital case in North Carolina. The actual trial is expected to begin early next week, and procedural hearings for the case will be heard Friday morning. (source: the-dispatch.com) *** McCrory signs executions, gun bills Gov. Pat McCrory on Thursday signed into law a bill keeping secret the drugs used in lethal injections of death-row prisoners. House Bill 774 also removes the requirement that physicians be present during executions. That provision is meant to eliminate one of the legal hurdles that currently block the death penalty in North Carolina. The ACLU and a national organization of conservatives who question the death penalty had asked the governor this week to veto the bill. McCrory also signed HB562, a once controversial gun bill that had all its controversial parts stripped out as it made its way through the legislature. Gone is a provision that would have repealed the state's pistol permit system, and allowed lawmakers and their staffs to carry concealed weapons in the legislature. SB233 allows for the automatic expunction of criminal records in cases of mistaken identity. The law in this state already allows for expunction in cases of identity theft. This new law includes mistaken identity in the identification of the person who committed a crime, or when a witness or law enforcement officer has been given the wrong information about a suspect. The bill came about because of the false arrest of a Durham native mistakenly identified as a bank robbery suspect in California. He had to go through a lengthy process to have the arrest record sealed and destroyed. The bills were among 27 he signed on Thursday. He issued a statement on the record expunction bill, but not on any of the others. (source: The News Observer) TENNESSEE: Judge to Rule on Use of Pentobarbital for Death Penalty A trial challenging Tennessee's method for executing prisoners concluded Wednesday with attorneys for 33 death row inmates asking a judge to declare the lethal injection protocol unconstitutional. Throughout the trial that began July 7, attorneys discussed technical aspects of the procedure, including the role of compounding pharmacists in producing the lethal injection drug pentobarbital. Those discussions were rehashed during closing arguments Wednesday in Davidson County Chancery Court. The judge has 30 days to rule in the case. About 2 years ago, the state moved from a 3-drug lethal injection method to a one-drug method using
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, OKLA., ORE., USA
Aug. 7 TEXAS: From seeking the death penalty to fighting it Sam Millsap Jr.'s resume reads like the start of a John Grisham novel. In 1982, he became the youngest big-city district attorney in the nation, telling Texas Monthly a year later that it was the job he was born and bred for. I was 35 years old and the smartest guy in the room, Millsap told CNN over the phone. I was very proud of what I had achieved as DA. After achieving a perfect record on capital murder cases in 5 years, he had every reason to be. It wasn't until 2005, when Lise Olsen, an investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle, asked to meet with Millsap that he ever doubted his spotless reputation. A high-schooler on death row For months, Olsen had been looking at the case of Ruben Cantu after a tip from one of her death penalty sources. In 1985, Cantu, a south San Antonio teenager, was convicted of capital murder for the death of Pedro Gomez. I was 20 years removed from the DA's office, Millsap said. I hadn't given much thought to any specific cases in a long time. Gomez, along with friend Juan Moreno, had each been shot nine times during a burglary at a home where they'd been working construction. The home's owner had asked the men to spend the night in the house to protect it against burglars who had recently stolen a water heater. Gomez, who was shot in the head, died on the scene. Moreno survived and managed to call for help, but he would later lose a lung, kidney and part of his stomach because of his injuries. Police never found the murder weapon and didn't gather any physical evidence from the scene. Millsap's prosecution was based on the eyewitness account of Moreno, who allegedly identified Cantu twice as Gomez's murderer -- once from a photo lineup and a 2nd time during in-court testimony. The jury convicted Cantu of capital murder after deliberating for just an hour and a half. 4 days after his conviction, Cantu wrote an impassioned letter to the residents of San Antonio saying he was framed in Gomez's murder case. Defense attorneys, who appealed Cantu's case multiple times, attacked police for coercing the only witness to the crime. Their appeals were futile, and on August 24, 1993, Cantu was executed at the age of 26. Dusting off a case file after a bar fight While claims of innocence from convicted criminals are common, Olsen's research suggested that Cantu might have been speaking the truth in his letter. Olsen's report, which came more than a dozen years after Cantu's execution, said that Gomez's murder had gone unsolved for 4 months with few leads. That's until Cantu had a run-in with an off-duty police officer at a nearby pool hall. The scuffle intensified, and Officer Joe De La Luz testified that Cantu, completely unprovoked, shot him 4 times. (His injuries were nonfatal.) But Cantu was never prosecuted for that crime. In her article, Olsen surmises that without enough evidence to indict Cantu in the bar shooting, officials instead began looking at him as a possible suspect in the Gomez murder. She also uncovered that Moreno's eyewitness account was flawed. He had initially identified the suspects who shot him and Gomez inside the house only as 2 Mexican teenagers. It wasn't until the 3rd time police visited Moreno -- and after they said the name Ruben Cantu -- that Moreno identified Cantu in a photo lineup. Moreno, who was an undocumented immigrant, later recanted his testimony against Cantu, saying he felt pressured by authorities to identify him. 'There is no victory in this story' Millsap said his feelings about capital punishment had already started to shift before his 1st meeting with Olsen. In 2000, he went on record calling for a moratorium on the death penalty, saying he was no longer convinced our legal system guarantees the protection of the innocent in capital murder cases. But when he looked at Olsen's research, Millsap's opinion on the death penalty took a personal turn. It wasn't that I suddenly decided that Cantu was innocent, Millsap said. But I was shocked. Though the specifics are still a bit hazy, Millsap said his meeting with Olsen, and her article, really threw (him) into a real funk. It never occurred to me that a case I had prosecuted would end up becoming one of the poster children for innocence in the death penalty debate, he said. Eyewitness testimony, Millsap said, is not as reliable as he believed it to be when he was a young district attorney. If he had the opportunity to do it again, he said, he would not have sought the death penalty in the Cantu murder case. Olsen's investigation garnered a great deal of attention and even led to a post-mortem investigation in 2007 by then-District Attorney Susan Reed. However, she found Cantu's conviction and execution to be justified. For the last 10 years, Millsap has been an advocate for ending the death penalty, a stance that isn't
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.Y., FLA., OHIO, COLO., USA
Aug. 6 TEXAS: NICARAGUAN NATIONAL FACING EXECUTION IN TEXAS Bernardo Aban Tercero, a Nicaraguan national, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 26 August for a murder committed in 1997. The poor quality of the legal representation he received at trial and during state-level appeals is at the center of his clemency bid. Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format, including case information, addresses and sample messages. Robert Berger was shot dead on 31 March 1997 during a robbery of a dry cleaners in which he was waiting with his five-year-old daughter, in Houston, Texas. Bernardo Aban Tercero was arrested in 1999 when re-entering the USA having returned to Nicaragua after the crime. In 2000, he was convicted of capital murder. At the sentencing, the prosecution argued that this crime and his alleged involvement in crimes in Nicaragua after he left Texas showed that he would be a future danger – a prerequisite for a death sentence in Texas. Among other things, the prosecutor described the defendant as a “beast” and a “demon”. The defense lawyers did not object to these inflammatory comments meaning that this issue was forfeited on appeal. In a bare mitigation case, the defense presented members of the defendant’s family as character witnesses and to argue that he was capable of rehabilitation. A jail chaplain testified that he had shown remorse. The jury voted for the death penalty. The defendant’s inexperienced lawyers had done little investigation into possible mitigation and presented no expert testimony to the jury – such as from a mental health expert – or from anyone else who could describe how the defendant’s childhood in Nicaragua – marked by abject poverty, war and exposure to toxic pesticides as a child laborer – might have impacted his life and conduct. Following the trial, the lawyer appointed for state habeas corpus appeals failed to raise a single claim outside of the trial record (the purpose of such appeals), and did not conduct his own investigation of the case or of the mitigation failure by the trial lawyers. In 2006 a leading Texas newspaper published an investigation into the poor quality of capital defense representation in the state. The two lawyers appointed to represent Bernardo Aban Tercero for state level appeals featured prominently in this review. Bernardo Aban Tercero grew up in extreme poverty in Nicaragua. He was raised by his elderly grandmother after he was abandoned by his mother as a baby and his father refused to have anything to do with him. The family had no electricity or running water, and no access to health care. They lived in an area greatly affected by the civil war in the 1970s and 80s. Poverty meant that even the children worked. According to his clemency petition, which provides the executive authorities with mitigating evidence not presented to the jury, Bernardo Aban Tercero worked in the fields for years from the age of 10. Planes would spray toxic pesticides every two days, with the workers below not provided protective gloves or masks. Bernardo Aban Tercero was among those who became sick and vomited after such sprayings, and suffered severe headaches. Relatives have said that he was one of the worst affected. A neuropsychological assessment is currently being produced for the clemency effort. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION An employee of the dry cleaning business where the murder occurred said that she had helped to orchestrate the robbery with Bernardo Aban Tercero, who lived with her sister and needed money. According to the record, there was a co-defendant who fled to Mexico and was never tried. At his trial in 2000, the defense argued that Bernardo Aban Tercero had lacked the intent necessary for capital murder. The only witness called by the defense, to counter the 17 witnesses presented by the prosecution, was the defendant himself. He testified that the victim Robert Berger had tried to grab his gun and it had gone off during the ensuing struggle. He also alleged that the employee had been a willing participant in the plan. The prosecution maintained that specific intent could be inferred from evidence that he had used threats to coerce the employee into her participation, that he had taken a loaded gun with him into the dry cleaners, and that he had shot the victim because he could identify him. The jury convicted him ofor capital murder and, after voting yes to the “future dangerousness” question and finding no mitigation to warrant a life sentence, sentenced him to death. Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format. Name: Bernardo Aban Tercero (m) Issues: Death penalty, Unfair trial, Legal concern UA: 176/15 Issue Date: 6 August 2015 Country: USA Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact! EITHER send a short email to u...@aiusa.org with “UA 176/15” in the subject line, and include in the body of the email the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., LA.
Aug. 6 TEXASimpending executions Death Watch: 2 Set to DieBoth death row inmates claim murder was not intentional Although Clifton Williams narrowly avoided execution July 16, 2 Texans are scheduled for the gurney next week. Both inmates maintain that they didn't mean for the individuals they killed to die, though their opinions about their pending fates differ. Corpus Christi native Daniel Lee Lopez is scheduled to die first; he's currently slated to be strapped in at 6pm on Wednesday, Aug. 12. Lopez was driving 60 miles an hour through a neighborhood in March 2009 trying to evade cops and avoid arrest for outstanding warrants when he hit and killed 20-year veteran police officer Stuart Alexander as he was laying Stop Sticks near the highway. Lopez was eventually apprehended after being shot in the arm, neck, and chest. Then 21, he was indicted for 10 offenses, including the capital murder of Alexander. He initially pleaded not guilty, but later changed his stance. He was assigned to a psychologist, who reported that Lopez held an increasingly firm opinion that he'd rather a death sentence than live the rest of his life in prison. The state offered life in prison in exchange for a guilty plea, but Lopez pleaded not guilty and went to trial. Central to the case was debate on whether or not Lopez intentionally ran over Lt. Alexander. At times, he told attorneys that he didn't mean to do it, that his sight was affected by shots of pepper spray deployed by other officers. Yet, just prior to closing arguments, attorneys informed the judge that Lopez insisted on testifying that he did in fact mean to swerve and hit Alexander. The court rejected Lopez's request, but the jury still found him guilty on all counts, including capital murder. Lopez waived his right to a state petition for habeas corpus in April 2012 and filed his federal papers that May. The brief, largely blank application asserted 1 solitary ground for relief: that the death penalty in Texas violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. He underwent a series of competency exams and hearings in 2013, and soon after received his right to waive appeal from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. His attorneys - James Rytting, David Dow, and Jeffrey Newberry - maintain that he should never have been found guilty of capital murder, as his testimony concerning his actions continuously flipped from intentional to unintentional. They thus contest that the district court erred in accepting Lopez's waiver, as Lopez does not understand that the conduct to which he admits - an unintentional murder - does not fall within the definition of capital murder. Lopez, however, remains convinced he's made the right call. In April, he told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that he accepts his punishment. It wasn't on purpose, he said. I killed a police officer because I tried escaping. And it was never intentional but I feel responsible. The 2nd individual, Tracy Beatty, goes to the gurney one day after Lopez. Beatty, 54, was arrested for the Nov. 25, 2003, murder of his mother, 62-year-old Carolyn Click. Beatty strangled, smothered, and/or suffocated Click during an argument at her home, and left her in the tub for 2 days before burying her in the ground beside her house and making off with her car and possessions. When questioned, he told authorities that a man named Junior Reynolds had actually killed his mother; that he then killed Reynolds and dumped him in water before returning to his mother's house to ice her in the tub and eventually bury her by the house. But the investigation turned to Beatty. During his arrest, as he was being delivered from Henderson County to the Smith County Jail, he told authorities: I really didn't mean to kill her. I came in drunk. She started bitching at me, and I just started choking her. I didn't even know she was dead until the next morning when I found her still laying on the living room floor. He was indicted for capital murder the following May and found guilty on Aug. 9, 2004. Deemed a future threat because of 2 prior felony convictions - injury to a child in 1986 and a robbery in 1988 - he was sentenced to death on Aug. 10. Attorney Jeff Haas argued in petitions for habeas corpus and appeals to the 5th Circuit that his client received ineffective assistance from counsel in two different forms: Trial counsel failed to discover and present mitigating evidence, and failed to properly present enough facts to prove Click's killing was a murder rather than capital murder. Haas pointed to one instance in particular, unmentioned during trial, in which Click and an acquaintance had an argument that a witness indicated looked as though they would rip each other's heads off. He attempted to use that testimony as evidence that Beatty had no intention to kill his mother when he showed up at her house; that a heated conversation
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., S.C., ALA.
Aug. 4 TEXASimpending execution Texas Prepares for Execution of Daniel Lopez August 12, 2015 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has denied a request for a stay of execution by Daniel Lee Lopez. Daniel had previously asked the Court to waive his herbs corpus review. After granting that request, Daniel asked for a stay of execution, arguing that the court should not have agreed. Daniel's request was denied and the Court's previous decision upheld. Daniel's execution remains scheduled for August 12, 2015. Daniel Lee Lopez is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CDT, on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 27-year-old Daniel is convicted of the murder of 20-year veteran of the Corpus Christi Police Department Lt. Stuart Alexander, on March 11, 2009. Daniel has spent the last 5 years of his life on Texas' death row. Daniel dropped out of school after the 10th grade. Throughout his childhood, Daniel was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, a learning disability, and poor impulse control. At the age of 12, Daniel assaulted his mother. By the age of 17, Daniel had numerous encounters with law enforcement. Before his arrest, Daniel attempted to commit suicide twice. Shortly after midnight on March 11, 2009, Daniel Lopez was observed running a stop sign by a police officer. The police officer pulled Lopez over, where a confrontation ensued. Allegedly, the officer attempted to use pepper spray to subdue Lopez. Lopez was able to escape when taser and radio wires became wrapped around his legs. Lopez claims that he fled because he thought there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest and because he had drugs in the car. Lopez led police on a car chase. Police eventually laid down spike strips to flatten Lopez's tires. Lopez saw the strips and swerved, hitting Lt. Stuart Alexander with his car, killing the officer. Police were eventually able to surround Lopez's vehicle, at which point Lopez attempted to run over another officer to escape. Lopez was finally subdued when he injured by a police officer shooting him. Lopez has asked that his execution be expedited, waiving his rights to the normal appeals process. Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Stuart Alexander. Please pray for strength for the family of Daniel Lopez. Please pray that if Daniel is innocent or lacks the competency to be executed, evidence will be revealed prior to his execution. Please pray that Daniel may come to find peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if he has not already found one. (source: theforgivenessfoundation.org) NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty possible in Richlands homicide Atrocious, heinous or cruel. The words ushered declaration of Onslow County's 5th capital murder case on Monday. Christopher Michael Skaggs, 33, appeared in Onslow County Superior Court on Monday morning after an awaited autopsy report revealed new information about his wife's death. Jordan Skaggs' chest was shot multiple times 9:45 p.m. July 13, 2014, at the family's home on Cherry Blossom Lane in Richlands in the presence of the Skaggs children, according to Daily News reports. She was shot 15 times and suffered traumatic head injury, District Attorney Ernie Lee said of information from the autopsy report and a pathologist at East Carolina University. In July, Lee asked the court to delay the Rule 24 hearing - to determine whether a defendant could face the death penalty - because the case still lacked an autopsy report. North Carolina requires any of its 11 aggravating circumstances to consider the punishment of death, according to General Statutes. The aggravating circumstance submitted as that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel pursuant, Lee said. Superior Court Judge Ebern Watson III signed an order qualifying the case as capital. The defendant is eligible for the death penalty, Lee said. Jacksonville attorney Richard McNeil is representing Christopher Skaggs. Because the death penalty is possible, the Office of the Capital Defender will appoint a 2nd attorney to represent Skaggs' case. Christopher Skaggs was charged by Onslow County Sheriff's Office with 1st-degree murder. Monday's ruling leaves 5 Onslow County Jail inmates, including Skaggs, awaiting trials with possible death penalties: -- Larry Forrest, 23, a former Marine who lived on Piney Green Road, was charged in connection with the deadly shooting of 65-year-old Kim Hua Flournoy, a grandmother who frequented TNT Beach Bingo on Henderson Drive. She was killed about 7:40 p.m. Dec. 30, 2012, outside the bingo hall, according to previous Daily News reports. He was arrested in April 2013 by Jacksonville Police Department and is charged with 1st-degree murder, attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, Lee
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., USA
Aug. 5 TEXAS: Capital murder charge dropped in 2012 death of Hearne city councilman A contaminated crime scene and lack of evidence prompted Robertson County's top prosecutor to drop capital murder charges Tuesday against a man accused of killing former Hearne City Councilman Charles Workman almost 3 years ago. Kevin Aundrell Godfrey, 21, pleaded guilty to arson in the torching of the dead councilman's Jaguar. Godfrey, who never before had been convicted of a felony, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars and waived any appeal. District Attorney Coty Siegert said he made the decision to drop the case after looking at all the evidence and talking to Workman's family. He said the crime scene was contaminated after 25 to 30 people walked through it before police were called, the murder weapon was never found and there wasn't direct DNA evidence tying Godfrey to the crime. Someone even went through his pockets to find his phone before officers arrived at the scene in September 2012. There also was a high chance that the state could not carry its burden of proving at trial murder beyond a reasonable doubt, Siegert said of the case in which, if convicted, Godfrey would have faced life in prison or the death penalty. While there was strong evidence of his involvement, being in possession of a stolen vehicle does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Kevin Godfrey committed murder. Godfrey was indicted after authorities said there was enough evidence linking him to Workman's death. Workman, 63, was shot in the face and torso 6 times and his home was burglarized, according to a copy of the indictment. The night before Workman's body was discovered, firefighters responded to a car fire north of Texas 6 at Old San Antonio Road, where Godfrey was spotted asking firefighters for a ride, according to Godfrey's arrest report. The vehicle was later determined to be Workman's white 2000 Jaguar containing some of his belongings, including clothing, compact discs and paperwork, according to the court document. Godfrey was found in College Station after investigators linked him to the burning vehicle through witnesses and security footage from the Get-N-Go convenience store at Texas 6 and Harvey Mitchell Parkway. He also was charged at the time with arson, which is a 2nd-degree felony carrying a punishment of up to 20 years in prison. That's the crime he pleaded guilty to Tuesday rather than face the capital case. David Barron, who represented Godfrey along with Phil Banks and Amy Banks, said not only does he believe his client wasn't involved in the shooting, but Workman's family also doesn't think Godfrey was responsible. There were several other suspects, but once police linked Mr. Godfrey to the stolen car, the case was closed to them, Barron said. Phil Banks said Godfrey likely will be eligible for parole consideration within a few years since he's already served three years behind bars, which counts toward his 15-year sentence. Siegert said Godfrey's DNA was found on a cigarette at Workman's house, but that wouldn't have been out of the ordinary since he was friends with Godfrey's nephew, and the pair sometimes stayed with Workman. The nephew found Workman dead after entering the house through an open window because the doors were locked, according to authorities. The prosecutor said that's likely the same way the killer gained access to the house. If any new evidence is brought forth, we can pursue that, said Siegert, who was elected to office several months after the slaying. The facts of this case demonstrate why it is so important to contact law enforcement immediately to allow them to preserve all evidence without contamination, he said, adding that since taking office he's been taking steps with law enforcement to work better as a team. It is my goal that we all do our sworn duties to the best of our abilities not just to convict but to see that justice is done. (source: The Eagle) NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina kickstarts its machinery of death When he finally died, Dennis McGuire had gasped, choked, writhed against his restraints and clenched his fists for more than 20 minutes. I saw a man murdered, says Father Lawrence Hummer, a pastor who witnessed McGuire's death by lethal injection last January in Ohio. It was just ghastly. McGuire's gruesomely lengthy execution - it was supposed to take about 5 minutes - was performed with the untested combination of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone. The victim's family members say McGuire, convicted of raping and murdering a pregnant woman in 1989, got what was coming to him. Regardless, his death was 1 of at least 3 lengthy, torturous executions in the U.S. last year, the result of states' desperate experimentation to find reliable lethal injection drugs from a shrinking supply of willing drug providers. There are 148 prisoners on death
