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.com----Dallas 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 usually come during the appeals process that follow
a trial of a person sentenced to death, she said.
In the United States, 155 people since 1973 have been exonerated from death row
- many of whom, Avila said, had inadequate counsel, research or evidence.
The York group regards the upcoming papal visit as a vehicle to spread its
message and get Philadelphians involved.
"Pope Francis has voiced his beliefs against capital punishment," Lucas said,
adding that many religions oppose it.
Avila and Lucas were joined by members of the church's congregation and leaders
of parishes across the city and state to pray for Richard Glossip, who was
scheduled to be executed yesterday in Oklahoma for the 1977 death of a motel
owner.
Just hours before Glossip was scheduled to die, an Oklahoma appellate court
yesterday granted a two-week stay of execution, a temporary reprieve for a man
whose lawyers say is innocent.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Wolf has put a moratorium on all 186 prisoners who've
received death sentences and await a final date. A state Senate task force will
study the death penalty.
In February, Wolf called the system an "endless cycle of court proceedings as
well as ineffective, unjust and expensive."
Avila, Lucas and many of the parish leaders agreed that the governor is headed
in the right direction, but said injustice and systemic errors won't be
corrected until capital punishment is abolished.
The Rev. Christopher Neilson, of the Living Church in Philadelphia, told the
congregation that he was proud to be doing God's work.
"You have called us to be light," he said. "You have called us to be your
mouthpiece."
At the end of Mass, St. Vincent de Paul's pastor, the Rev. Sy Peterka,
announced, "While we've been praying, a court in Oklahoma gave stay of
execution" to Glossip.
"There's an army rising up," he said, "and that's what we've started today."
(source: philly.com)
VIRGINIA----impendingexecution
California killer faces Virginia execution
For the 1st time in nearly a decade, a California murderer who was sentenced to
death is facing execution - but in Virginia..
Alfredo Prieto, a serial rapist and killer, was convicted of 3 murders in
Southern California and northern Virginia and has been identified as the prime
suspect in 6 more.
He is due to be put to death in 2 weeks at a state prison in Jarratt, Va.
"At this time, we are not aware of any litigation by Mr. Prieto challenging his
Virginia convictions or sentence," said Michael Kelly, a spokesman for the
Virginia attorney general. "The commonwealth is preparing to carry out the
sentence on Oct. 1."
Prieto, 49, a native of El Salvador, moved with his family to the Los Angeles
area when he was a teenager. He became a member of the Pomona Northside gang.
In 1990, he was arrested, charged and convicted of raping and murdering a
15-year-old girl in a field near Ontario.
Prieto and 2 other men had kidnapped and assaulted 3 women, 2 of whom survived
stabbings and testified against Prieto. A jury sentenced him to death.
Prosecutors opted not to pursue further charges even though they had DNA and
ballistics evidence that made Prieto the prime suspect in 4 murders and 2 rapes
near Riverside.
A federal judge in California put a moratorium on executions in 2006 because of
doubts about the drugs used in lethal injections.
Prieto languished on California's death row for more than a decade while his
appeals churned through the courts.
But when his DNA was entered into a national database in 2005, Virginia
authorities said it matched evidence collected from crime scenes of several
unsolved rapes and homicides.
In 1 case, 2 22-year-old women disappeared after they left a holiday party at a
Washington restaurant in December 1988. Their bodies were found in a field off
the highway that leads to Dulles International Airport.
1 had been shot in the back, and the other had been raped and killed. The DNA
test on the sample taken from the rape victim's body pointed to Prieto.
DNA also identified Prieto as the suspect who raped and shot a young woman in
Arlington, Va., earlier that year. A ballistic test separately linked him to
the shooting death of a 27-year-old man in the fall of 1989, prosecutors said.
Police theorized Prieto fled back to California after his suspected crime
rampage in northern Virginia.
In 2005, in response to a request from prosecutors, California authorities
agreed to send Prieto back to Virginia to stand trial for 2 homicides in
Fairfax County.
The county's chief prosecutor said he pursued murder charges against Prieto
"because he'll never get the death penalty in California. I think it was time
to bring him to justice for his horrible crimes."
Prieto's 1st prosecution in Virginia ended in mistrial when a single juror
refused to deliberate.
But in a retrial, Prieto was convicted of murdering the young couple near
Dulles airport, and in 2010 he was sentenced to die. The state Supreme Court
upheld his conviction and sentence, and the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals
rejected his appeals in May.
Prieto launched his own lawsuit contending that it was cruel and unusual
punishment to hold him in solitary confinement. An attorney in Richmond said he
had filed a motion seeking to stop his execution so his appeals can proceed.
The 2 states could not differ more on carrying out death sentences.
California has 747 inmates condemned to die but has carried out just 13
executions in the last 40 years, and none since 2006.
By contrast, Virginia has only 8 inmates on death row but has carried out 110
executions since 1976.
When the "Beltway sniper" was arrested for 10 killings in the Washington area
in 2002, federal authorities opted to send him to Virginia for prosecution even
though most of the shootings took place in suburban Maryland.
John Allen Muhammad was convicted in 2003 and executed in Virginia 6 years
later.
Kent Scheidegger, a lawyer for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in
Sacramento and a supporter of the death penalty, says the difference in the 2
states can be explained by judges, not prosecutors and juries.
"It's the willingness of the judges to work through the appeals and to get it
done," he said.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
FLORIDA:
Jury selection goes a little faster Wednesday in Tisdale murder trial but still
dragging out
Jury selection in the 1st-degree murder trial of Eriese Tisdale went more
quickly Wednesday than the day before, but it could be next week before a panel
is seated.
Tisdale, 28, is accused of killing St. Lucie County Sheriff Sgt. Gary Morales,
who was found shot to death in his patrol car on Naylor Terrace, south of
Edwards Road in Fort Pierce. Tisdale faces the death penalty if convicted of
the Feb. 28, 2013, slaying.
Morales, 35, was shot 3 times during an attempted traffic stop, according to
prosecutors and sheriff's officials.
Tisdale entered court wearing a brown suit, off-white shirt and a blue-and-gray
tie. He spent much of the day observing quietly as his team of public defenders
and the prosecutors individually quizzed nearly 30 people about what they'd
heard or read about the case.
By day's end, a judge had asked about 40 people to return Thursday for
additional questioning. At least 25 people were permanently released from the
jury pool. One woman said her strong Christian beliefs meant she would be
unable to support recommending a sentence of death if Tisdale were convicted.
Another woman said because of her Christian upbringing, she was a firm believer
in capital punishment. Both were dismissed from the case.
Before court recessed Wednesday, Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn noted a new group of
125 was scheduled to arrive Thursday morning but attorneys won't get to them
for hours because of the slow pace of questioning. Vaughn ordered that the 125
who arrive Thursday should be told to return Friday or as late as Monday.
A panel of 12 plus alternates are required for a death penalty trial.
After taking the bench Wednesday, Vaughn appeared peeved when he was told 6
jurors who were in court Tuesday failed to return. He ordered the people be
contacted to learn why they didn't come back.
Vaughn suggested there could be consequences for "folks who don't show up and
don't have a good reason."
(source: tcpalm.com)
***************
5 young people could face death penalty in Homestead machete death of
17-year-old----Body of Jose Santos Amaya Guardado, 17, found in wooded area
behind vocational school
5 people have been indicted in the machete murder of a 17-year-old and could
now face the death penalty.
The body of Jose Santos Amaya Guardado, who was hacked to death with a machete,
was found partially buried in a wooded area behind Homestead Job Corps in
Homestead.
Desiray Strickland, 18, Kareem Arbelo, 20, Jonathan Lucas, 18, Christian Colon,
19, and Joseph Michael Cabrera, who are all former students of the vocational
school, were charged with 1st-degree murder, according to the Miami-Dade Office
of the State Attorney.
The group is accused of plotting to kill Guardado for weeks before executing
the plan on June 28.
A motive for the attack remains unclear, but a police source said the victim
had been bullied before by the group and that Guardado may have owed Arbelo
money.
(source: local10.com)
TENNESSEE:
Professors explore racial bias in Tennessee death penalty cases
It's a matter of life or death. Literally.
As a part of both Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, the Howard H. Baker Jr.
Center for Public Policy will be holding a discussion entitled, "The Death
Penalty in Tennessee: A Statistical Perspective," on Sept. 17, hosted by UT
political science professors John Scheb and Hemant Sharma.
Rather than discussing whether imposing the death penalty is moral or immoral,
the speakers plan to base their presentation off of an article published
approximately 2 years ago and put together with the help of David Houston and
Kristin Wagers, who both work for the political science department at UT.
The article, entitled "Race and the Death Penalty: an Empirical Assessment of
First Degree Murder Convictions in Tennessee after Gregg v. Georgia," analyzes
up to 1,500 cases involving 1st-degree murder and the death penalty in the
state of Tennessee, dating all the way back to 1977.
"It is the 1st comprehensive study of its kind," Sharma said. "No one has ever
looked at this data over this time period in the state of Tennessee."
After examining the cases, the article makes an assessment on the different
factors that influence the prosecutor's and the jury's decision to impose the
death penalty upon a defendant who is proven guilty in court.
The results of the study indicate that there was no "systematic bias" against
the defendants from a specific race when the prosecutor or the jury would make
the decision to use the death penalty.
The article also comments that prosecutors would most likely ask for a death
sentence if the victim involved in the case was white.
In addition to race, prior criminal convictions and law enforcement casualties
are also taken into consideration in the publication.
Updated for 2015, the article is available to download at the Tennessee
Research and Creative Exchange digital archive.
Sharma also emphasized the importance of the presentation and the discussion of
the practice, given Tennessee's history in handling the death penalty.
"I think it's important that individual students take stock into how the death
penalty is applied into specific situations, and I would encourage them to come
by and hear more about how the death penalty has been applied in Tennessee
since 1977," Sharma said.
Additionally, Nissa Dahlin-Brown, associate director at the Baker Center,
pointed out that because the death penalty is such a heavy topic, there will be
no lack of discussion during the event.
"(The death penalty) has seen many controversies," Dahlin-Brown said. "From
euthanasia drugs that do not work to new DNA testing that has over-turned death
row convictions, there is plenty to talk about."
(source: The (Univ. Tenn.) Daily Beacon)
MISSOURI:
Man accused of strangling Branson girl found unfit to stand trial - for now
A judge ruled Wednesday the man accused of strangling and killing a 6-year-old
girl in his Branson hotel room is mentally unfit to stand trial, but that could
change after he is treated at a mental hospital.
John P. Roberts, 55, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the February killing
of 6-year-old Jasmine Miller. Branson police say Roberts lured the girl into
his room with snacks and strangled her.
A state psychiatrist said in court Wednesday that Roberts has an IQ of 57 and
"a very basic low comprehension that he is in trouble."
Roberts appeared in court looking nothing like his police mug shot. He was
clean shaven and had short hair and appeared to have lost quite a bit of
weight.
Forensic psychiatrist James Reynolds interviewed Roberts for 90 minutes in June
and on Wednesday while on the witness stand recommended that Roberts be sent to
a secure unit in the Fulton State Hospital.
Judge Eric Eighmy agreed with that recommendation after hearing Reynolds
testify. The goal is to treat and evaluate Roberts at the mental health
facility so he can assist his attorneys in his defense and eventually stand
trial.
Eighmy said he expected a progress report on Roberts from the Missouri
Department of Mental Health by March 15.
The psychiatrist testified he asked Roberts about various aspects of the legal
proceedings against him.
He said Roberts told him that a jury was "6 girls and 6 guys and they hear your
story."
He said that Roberts' understanding of witnesses was that "they could be for
you or against you and Jesus knew what happened."
Roberts told the psychiatrist that he believed the range of punishment ranged
from having his "brain cooked" and "injecting him with poison" - possibly
referring to the death penalty - to having to go to schools and tell students
about the evils of drugs and alcohol.
Roberts' attorney said in court that she has been telling her client for months
that if he is convicted there are only 2 options: life in prison without parole
or possibly execution.
The psychiatrist also testified that Roberts suffered from diabetes and
hypertension and that his mental acuity possibly could improve if those health
problems lessen while at Fulton.
Regardless, Reynolds testified, over a span of 45 years Roberts has had his IQ
tested 5 times - with scores ranging from 57 to 69.
In general terms, the psychiatrist said, a person often is considered
developmentally disabled with a score under 70.
Prosecutor Jeff Merrell pointed out that Roberts was a high school graduate.
The psychiatrist quickly responded: "He was in special ed."
Jasmine was in kindergarten at Cedar Ridge Primary School in Branson at the
time of her death. She and her family had only recently moved from Springfield,
where she was a student at Mann Elementary.
Police say her naked body was discovered under a bed in a guest room at the
Windsor Inn on Missouri 76 in Branson on Feb. 21. Police say Roberts was the
only inhabitant of the room. The Windsor Inn is used as an extended-stay motel,
often inhabited by those who might otherwise be homeless.
Roberts' attorney Lindsey Phoenix asked the psychiatrist if his opinion of
Roberts' mental competency would change if there was testimony that Roberts
tried to cover up the crime by hiding the girl's body under a bed.
The psychiatrist said no.
Roberts was also questioned while in the Taney County Jail by child welfare
investigators. He told them he had been high on "devil poison" -
methamphetamine - when he gripped Jasmine's neck "to scare her" for taking
snacks from his room, according to documents. Investigators also said Roberts
appeared to be "disoriented."
Almost all details of the investigation are from those Children's Division
documents. The probable cause statement used to file the charge against Roberts
was sparse, prompting his defense attorney to move, unsuccessfully, for the
case to be thrown out.
The girl's stepfather, Jason Ballew, told Children's Division investigators the
family had returned home from Wendy's about 5:30 p.m. the night Jasmine died.
He said she went outside to play, according to Children's Division documents.
He said he knew Jasmine was playing outside and that he kept the blinds and
door open to keep an eye on her. He said he noticed she was missing about 6:15
p.m. and called police 15 minutes later.
Ballew said the family knew Roberts and had twice given him a ride. Ballew said
he had been to Roberts' room at the hotel once or twice and that Jasmine was
"never alone when they went."
(source: Springfield News-Leader)
OKLAHOMA:
In Winning Execution Stay, Attorneys Also Claim Other Lethal Drug Is Available
Oklahoma was 3 hours away from executing Richard Glossip Wednesday when the
court system threw 2 major wrenches into the state's execution process: An
appellate court will review new evidence in Glossip's case, and the state's
controversial drug of choice faces a new federal challenge.
Glossip had been served what was supposed to be his final meal when the
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued a 2-week stay to examine claims of
new evidence presented by his attorneys in a last-minute court filing Tuesday.
Glossip's attorneys asked for the stay based on what they say is new evidence
indicating Glossip's accomplice, Justin Sneed, may have lied about their
client's role in the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese to avoid a death sentence.
However, in an exclusive interview with The Frontier, Sneed maintains he told
the truth at trial about Glossip planning Van Treese's murder for money.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals issued its stay shortly before noon
Wednesday, 3 hours before Glossip was set to die. The court said the stay was
issued "in order for this Court to give fair consideration" to Glossip's claims
in the "last-minute filing."
Gov. Mary Fallin, who had rebuffed calls by Glossip's supporters for a 60-day
stay, issued a written statement.
"As I have repeatedly said, court is the proper place for Richard Glossip and
his legal team to argue the merits of his case. My office will respect whatever
decision the court makes, as we have throughout this process.
"My thoughts and prayers go out to the Van Treese family who has suffered
greatly during this long ordeal."
Sister Helen Prejean, the nun and anti-death penalty activist who has been an
outspoken advocate for Glossip, was jubilant as she addressed a throng of
reporters outside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, where death row is located.
Public opinion, including an appearance on the Dr. Phil show, made a difference
in the case, she said.
In describing the public's reaction to the Glossip case, Prejean said, "You
mean a man's really going to go to his death on the word of one other man
without physical evidence and the one who did the murder is serving a life
sentence in a medium-security facility? ... That doesn't seem right."
Meanwhile, federal public defenders continued to pursue an injunction seeking
to block the state's plans to use the sedative midazolam to execute Glossip and
2 other inmates set to die next month.
In a filing Wednesday, Glossip's attorneys asked a federal judge for a
preliminary injunction staying the execution due to new information about the
availability of lethal drugs.
The motion stated they had identified pharmacies that can supply compounded
pentobarbital.
That anesthetic has proven far more reliable than midazolam, which was used in
several prolonged executions throughout the U.S. in 2014. However, as drug
manufacturers refused to supply pentobarbital for executions, supplies ran
short. Oklahoma and several other states turned to midazolam seeking an
alternative.
"The defendants have placed Glossip in an unbreakable box that prevents the
Constitution from reaching him," the request for a preliminary injunction
states.
The motion was filed as part of a challenge to Oklahoma's death penalty process
brought by Glossip and other death row inmates. That case was eventually
decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected the challenge by a 5-4 vote.
"First, defendants claimed that they looked for compounded pentobarbital, but
they refused to explain to Glossip why they were unable to get that drug.
Consequently, Glossip conducted his own investigation and discovered that
compounded pentobarbital is available in Oklahoma," the motion said.
Attorneys told state officials the names and locations of the 4 Oklahoma
pharmacies they had identified as suppliers of pentobarbital, said Dale Baich,
a federal public defender who represents the death row inmates.
The filing was accompanied by an affidavits from by 2 paralegals who said they
talked to representatives of the pharmacies on Sept. 3.
"In the course of calling the pharmacies on my half of the list, I contacted an
Oklahoma compounding pharmacy that indicated that it is able to compound
sterile injectables and that it is willing and able to compound pentobarbital
as a sterile injectable," 1 of the affidavits states.
According to an affidavit from paralegal Julie Gardner, another pharmacy stated
"it does not compound sterile injectables, but that it could order the
pentobarbital in injectable form and distribute it for use."
2 other pharmacies agreed they could supply compounded pentobarbital, the
affidavits state.
However, it is unclear from the documents whether any of the pharmacies said
they would supply the drugs for executions.
Baich said the Oklahoma Department of Corrections informed defense attorneys
about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday that it planned to go forward with Glossip's
execution using midazolam. He said he is unsure what, if anything, state
officials did to follow up on the new information.
"You have to wonder how hard the state tried," said Baich, standing outside the
prison where Glossip was to be executed.
Records detail a last-minute flurry of letters and emails between the state and
attorneys representing Glossip and 2 other death row inmates set for execution
next month.
Assistant Attorney General Jeb Joseph sent a letter, which arrived about 2:30
p.m. Tuesday, to one of Glossip's defense attorneys seeking additional
information about the pharmacies.
"Please provide the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the relevant
Oklahoma pharmacies by 5 o'clock today so that steps may be taken to possibly
secure the drug in question in time for upcoming executions," his letter to
Assistant Federal Public Defender Patti Palmer Ghezzi states.
In a reply, Ghezzi challenged the state to turn over proof it was following up
on the new information. Her letter apparently listed the pharmacies, but that
information was redacted from court filings due to Oklahoma's law prohibiting
release of such information.
"We ask that you provide us the detail of efforts you have made to locate
sources for pentobarbital for the executions of Mr. Glossip, Mr. Cole and Mr.
Grant," her letter to Joseph states.
"At this juncture you need not provide the names, addresses, and phone numbers
of the pharmacies you have contacted, but we do require the number of
pharmacies contacted, the dates they were contacted, and who contacted them.
Please provide this by 6:00 p.m. today."
In an email to Joseph at 6:27 a.m. Wednesday, Ghezzi wrote: "We have not heard
back from you concerning our request in the letter we sent yesterday at 4:30
p.m. Considering Mr. Glossip's execution is set for 3:00 p.m. today, your
immediate response is required."
Aaron Cooper, a spokesman for Attorney General Scott Pruitt, said the federal
court has ordered Oklahoma's response to be filed Sept. 23. There is also a
hearing scheduled Sept. 25 in U.S. District Court for the Western District.
Cooper said DOC should answer any questions about the lethal injection
protocol. However, DOC has repeatedly refused to address questions about its
drug supplies, citing the pending litigation.
In a written statement, Pruitt said Van Treese's family has waited "18
agonizing years for justice to be realized for his brutal death."
"The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals indicated it needs more time to review
the filings. I'm confident that the Court of Criminal Appeals, after reviewing
the filings, will conclude there is nothing worthy which would lead the court
to overturn a verdict reached by 2 juries who both found Glossip guilty and
sentenced him to death for Barry Van Treese's murder."
The motion filed on behalf of Oklahoma death row inmates states defense
attorneys "gave this information to defendants ... in response to defendants'
assertion that they wanted to follow up on Glossip's information.
"Now, almost 19 hours later, and less than 4 hours before Glossip's scheduled
execution, defendants declared that they will not change the drug being used in
his execution despite being provided information that pentobarbital is
available."
A key issue in the U.S. Supreme Court case that bore Glossip's name, Glossip v.
Gross, involved whether the state has access to pentobarbital, an anesthetic
that has proven reliable in past executions, or other viable alternative drugs.
The state has claimed it could not obtain pentobarbital and thus turned to
midazolam, a sedative that defense attorneys say is unconstitutional.
The drug was used in botched executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona, in which
the inmates gasped for air or writhed long after they were expected to be
unconscious. In a case that originated in Oklahoma, a divided Supreme Court
upheld the use of midazolam in lethal injections in June.
The court's ruling rejecting the inmates' challenge notes that the legal
standard requires them to show that the risk of harm from midazolam "was
substantial when compared to a known and available alternative method of
execution."
Because pentobarbital and sodium thiopental, another drug previously used by
the state, were not available, the state had no other alternative to midazolam,
the majority opinion states.
"The record shows that Oklahoma has been unable to procure those drugs despite
a good-faith effort to do so," the court's June 29 opinion states. "Petitioners
do not seriously contest this factual finding, and they have not identified any
available drug or drugs that could be used in place of those that Oklahoma is
now unable to obtain."
News of Glossip's stay came after he had been served a last meal.
Glossip's attorneys said a prison official told them about the stay while they
were visiting Glossip around noon.
Attorney Don Knight said Glossip???s reaction was "a look of pure joy."
"What did he say? I'll tell you what he said: 'Hell yes!'"
(source: oklahomawatch.org)
***************
Bob 'Cowboy' Macy sent Richard Glossip to be executed alongside 53 others
Condemned man Richard Glossip has reportedly already eaten his last meal and
was just 3 hours away from being executed when the news came in.
He had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 3pm local time (6am AEST)
but the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to delay the execution,
granting a request from Glossip's attorneys, who say they needed more time to
explore new evidence.
Glossip was twice convicted of ordering the 1997 killing of his boss Barry Van
Treese, who owned the Oklahoma City motel where Glossip worked. His co-worker,
Justin Sneed, was convicted of fatally beating Van Treese and was a key
prosecution witness in Glossip's trials. Glossip has always maintained that he
was framed.
His lawyers say they have new evidence, including a signed affidavit from
another inmate who claims he heard Sneed admit he set Glossip up.
Glossip's daughter, Ericka Glossip-Hodge, says she and several family members
were driving to the prison in McAlester when she learned her father's execution
had been stayed.
Glossip-Hodge says they had to get off the road and pull over. She says,
"everybody is freaking out. We're really excited."
One of Glossip's lawyers says he was inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary
speaking to the condemned inmate when news came down that his execution had
been put on hold.
Lawyer Don Knight said Glossip was stunned to learn of the court's decision.
Glossip's case has gone around the world, with Hollywood celebrities including
Susan Sarandon, campaigning to have him freed.
But the story is far from over.
The court has rescheduled his execution for September 30.
THE DEATH ROW COWBOY WHO PUT HIM THERE
His signature look was a cowboy hat, thin-framed circle glasses, a white shirt
and a skinny black tie. His signature move was sending killers to death row.
Bob "Cowboy" Macy was remembered as the hard-nosed lawyer who, before his death
in 2011, cleaned up Oklahoma. He put 54 men in front of a needle to die for
their sins.
He grew up with nothing - he didn't go to university and his parents lived in a
house without running water until he was 18 - but he forged a career for
himself doing the work others wouldn't.
He attended every crime scene to see the grim details for himself, before
exacting his own form of cowboy justice on behalf of the victims. His track
record was immaculate, but maybe, just maybe, it wasn't perfect.
Enter Richard Glossip, the man on death row in Oklahoma. Glossip is, according
to Macy's account of evidence, the "mastermin" behind the motel room murder of
Barry Van Treese.
But others, including a host of Hollywood's elite and a woman with inside
information on the case, say Glossip had nothing to do with it and Macy got it
very, very wrong.
THE KILLING
Van Treese, 54, was beaten to death with a baseball bat in room 102 of the Inn
motel in Oklahoma on January 7, 1997.
Justin Sneed, aged 37, confessed to police that he bludgeoned Van Treese, then
the motel owner. He said he killed the father-of-5 at the request of Glossip.
Sneed told police Glossip ordered the murder because there were shortfalls in
the motel's receipts and he was worried he would lose his job.
The conviction was carried despite a number of holes in the story.
Even Justin Sneed's daughter O'Ryan said her father framed Glossip in order to
avoid the death penalty.
In a letter to the Oklahoma clemency board on October 23, 2014, she wrote: "I
strongly believe he (Glossip) is an innocent man on death row.
"1 innocent life has already been taken by my father's actions. A 2nd one
doesn't deserve to be taken as well."
Kim Van Atta, who has known Glossip for more than 16 years, said his friend's
innocence was "clear from the start".
"There's no physical evidence, no rational motive. It just makes no sense," Mr
Van Atta told news.com.au
He speaks with Glossip regularly over the phone from his New York home and over
the past 12 months has become actively involved in the desperate effort to
clear Glossip's name.
"There's a view that people on death row must've done something wrong. But
Richard's an outlier. He's just a normal, decent guy," he said.
"He has no criminal record, no history of violence."
The lawyer representing Glossip performed so poorly that he lost his licence to
practise as a result. On the other side of the courtroom, "Cowboy" Macy was
merciless.
Macy painted Glossip as a "mastermind" criminal and, like so many trials
before, he was convincing.
'NOBODY CAN DO IT LIKE BOB'
An Oklahoma City Police Department officer noted after Macy's death that
"nobody can do it like Bob". He was right.
"The way Bob handled the crime scenes - coming out to the scene, getting to
know the victims' families, tears in his eyes - that's what Bob instils in his
people," he told the Oklahoma Gazette.
"Nobody can do it like Bob. Who else is going to defend these victims'
families? Bob understands the misery they've been through. That's his claim to
fame. What a defender this man has been for all of us."
The man who died aged 81 grew up in Indianapolis, the son of a truck driver and
his wife. He had 4 brothers and the family didn't have 2 pennies to rub
together.
He joined the United States Air Force in 1956 and went to the University of
Oklahoma where he studied law. He found a job with the city's police department
and was sworn in as District Attorney in 1980.
That's when the phone started ringing and the bodies started piling up. Case
after case landed on Macy's desk and he rarely lost.
Asked in 2001 about the risk of sending innocent men to their deaths, he said:
"I feel like it makes my city, county and state a safer place for people to
live. I embrace it, not because I get any enjoyment out of it."
Macy is no stranger to controversy. In 1986 he sent a 16-year-old boy, Sean
Sellers, to death row. Sellers murdered a sales assistant at a convenience
store in Oklahoma because, according to the New York Times, he "wanted to see
how it felt".
Some prosecutors were reluctant at the time to sentence minors to death but
Macy never blinked.
"He may very well have been the brightest person I sent to death row," he told
the Times of Sellers, who also killed his parents.
Some crimes stayed with him longer than others. The murder of the Lorenz family
was particularly hard to forget.
Roger Dale Stafford was executed - sent to death row by Macy - after
slaughtering Melvin Lorenz, 38, Linda, 31, and their son Richard, 12. The
family stopped on a highway to help Stafford's wife who was pretending to have
car trouble.
"The thing I remember is the little boy was in the camper - he had massive
open-heart surgery and was kind of retarded," Macy said.
"Coming out of that camper were the handprints of the little boy, in blood.
They were still there at the crime scene. The one image in my mind was that
poor boy being taken out of there and executed."
A LAST-DITCH EFFORT TO OBTAIN A STAY
Advocating for Glossip are billionaire Richard Branson and actress Susan
Sarandon. Both have been vocal in their opposition to the death sentence and to
Glossip's conviction.
Joining them is a prominent Catholic nun in Oklahoma named Helen Prejean.
Sister Prejean said this week the wrong man was on death row.
"I firmly believe, as do so many others, that Richard is innocent of the crime
that sent him to Oklahoma's death row," she said.
Online, a petition requests Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin grant a stay. More
than 23,000 people have signed it.
The website saverichardnow.org lists in order the reasons Glossip should be let
go. Among them are that he did not kill anyone, that he "had no prior history
of violence", that he was sentenced on evidence of a convicted killer and that
his lawyer failed him.
Oklahoma's track record with administering the death penalty was marred in
April 2014 when death row inmate Clayton Lockett took an agonising 43 minutes
to die. He was writhing in pain on his stretcher. The incident led to calls to
ban death by lethal injection.
Macy is no longer around to see Glossip die. He wouldn't have watched anyway,
as was his choice.
"I don't go to the executions," he said in 2001.
"My son said: 'Dad, that's not your job. That's someone else's job. Let them do
it.'"
Macy has done his job, but in doing so he might have sent an innocent man to
his death.
(source: news.com.au)
***************
The Troubling Case of Richard Glossip----He was scheduled to be executed
Wednesday evening, but an Oklahoma court granted a last-minute stay to consider
evidence Glossip may be innocent.
Oklahoma's highest criminal-appeals court granted Richard Glossip an
eleventh-hour stay of execution Wednesday until September 30 to hear new
evidence he may have been framed.
Glossip's name is already synonymous with the problems plaguing American
capital punishment. After the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma
last year, he and 3 other death-row inmates sued the state department of
corrections to prevent their own executions with the controversial sedative
midazolam. In Glossip v. Gross, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oklahoma's
lethal-injection protocol in a sharply divided 5-4 opinion.
Now, Glossip is challenging his conviction itself on grounds of innocence. A
number of excellent reporters have written extensively about the case and the
questions swirling around it. Liliana Segura and Jordan Smith at The Intercept
first wrote about Glossip's case in July, just days after the Supreme Court
ruled against him and the other death-row inmates.
All sides agree that Justin Sneed fatally bludgeoned motel owner Barry Van
Treese to death in January of 1998. But the stories diverge on whether Glossip
commissioned Sneed to commit their boss's murder. Murder-for-hire can make the
conspirator eligible for the death penalty in many states, even if he or she
was not present at the murder. But Segura and Smith reported that Sneed's
daughter tried to alert Oklahoma officials last October that her father's
testimony about Glossip's role in the murder could be inaccurate:
In a letter to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, she wrote that, based on
her many communications with her dad, she "strongly believe[s]" that Richard
Glossip is an innocent man. "For a couple of years now, my father has been
talking to me about recanting his original testimony," she wrote. "I feel his
conscious [sic] is getting to him."
The case for Glossip's innocence hinges solely on whether or not Sneed lied.
His motive would be obvious: Prosecutors spared Sneed the death penalty in
exchange for his testimony against Glossip. In a recent interview with Cary
Aspinwall at The Frontier, Sneed refused to recant his earlier testimony that
Glossip paid him to commit murder. According to Aspinwall, Sneed's family
members suggest his daughter was manipulated into sending the letter, which
didn't reach the parole board in time to be considered.
As concerns about Glossip's possible innocence grew over the summer, a broad
array of public figures urged Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to stay Glossip's
execution for 60 days to allow new evidence to be heard, including Sister Helen
Prejean, former Senator Tom Coburn, and former University of Oklahoma head
coach Barry Switzer. Oklahoma City District Attorney David Prater dismissed
their efforts a "bullshit P.R. campaign" on Monday.
Fallin announced Tuesday she saw "no reason to cast doubt on the guilty verdict
reached by the jury or to delay Glossip's sentence of death" and ruled out a
temporary reprieve. Glossip's legal team then petitioned the Oklahoma Court of
Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal-appeals court, to intervene. The
court granted the stay less than eight hours before his scheduled execution at
5 p.m.
(source: The Atlantic)
NEBRASKA:
Attorneys debate Neb. death row inmate's legal options ---- Attorneys for John
Lotter said in federal court Tuesday that there are unanswered legal questions
Attorneys for a Nebraska death row inmate say the state's recent struggle over
capital punishment has raised new legal questions that they need to explore,
while a state attorney says the prisoner has exhausted all options except for
clemency.
Attorneys for John Lotter said in federal court Tuesday that there are
unanswered legal questions stemming from the Legislature's vote to abolish
capital punishment, a subsequent ballot measure to reinstate it and the
governor's efforts to obtain lethal injection drugs.
Lotter and co-defendant Thomas Nissen were convicted in the 1993 slaying of
Teena Brandon, a 21-year-old woman who lived briefly as a man, and two
witnesses, Lisa Lambert and Philip DeVine, at a rural Humboldt farmhouse. The
crime inspired the 1999 movie "Boys Don't Cry."
At trial, Nissen testified against Lotter as part of a deal with prosecutors,
saying he stabbed Brandon while Lotter fired the shots that killed all 3.
Nissen got a life sentence, and in 1996 Lotter was sentenced to death.
Nissen has since changed his story and said he, not Lotter, shot all 3. Lotter
appealed, but his appeals were rejected by the Nebraska Supreme Court, the U.S.
District Court of Nebraska and the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The arguments on Tuesday came during a hearing over whether Lotter, 44, should
be allowed to keep his court-appointed attorneys for anything other than a
request for clemency. Lotter was convicted in a state district court but filed
a legal challenge in federal court arguing that his sentence was unlawful. U.S.
Senior District Judge Richard Kopf previously ruled that Lotter had exhausted
all other legal remedies.
"He has significant potential claims that he has to investigate before he can
present them," said Lotter's attorney, Rebecca Woodman of the Kansas City-based
Death Penalty Litigation Clinic.
Woodman declined to elaborate after the hearing, but said the repeal law
creates new legal uncertainty in Lotter's case.
"Time will tell as to what issues might arise," she said.
Woodman argued in court that Gov. Pete Ricketts' efforts to obtain lethal
injection drugs from a supplier in India are illegal. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration has said it won't allow state officials to import two required
drugs, for which the state paid $54,400. Ricketts has said his administration
is still working with the federal government to bring the drugs to Nebraska.
Assistant Nebraska Attorney General James Smith said the state believes that
Lotter has run out of all options except to request clemency, and that his
death sentence remains in effect.
Nebraska lawmakers voted in May to abolish the death penalty over Ricketts'
veto, triggering a ballot drive to place the issue before voters in 2016. The
group Nebraskans for the Death Penalty announced last month that it had
collected nearly 167,000 signatures, which are now being verified to confirm
whether the issue will appear on the November 2016 ballot.
(source: Associated Press)
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