Feb. 3
CONNECTICUT:
Expectant mom's killer, once condemned, collapses and dies
A former Connecticut death row inmate convicted of fatally stabbing a pregnant
woman over a drug debt collapsed in prison Monday and died, according to prison
officials.
Robert Courchesne, 57, was walking inside the Garner Correctional Center at
about 10:35 a.m. when he collapsed, the Correction Department said in a
release.
He was taken to Danbury Hospital and pronounced dead about an hour later.
Courchesne was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death for killing Demetris
Rodgers in Waterbury in 1998.
Rodgers was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she was killed. Her baby, Antonia
Rodgers, was delivered by emergency cesarean section minutes later, but the
infant was pronounced dead after 42 days on life support.
Prosecutors had charged Courchesne with capital felony under the section of the
statute that allowed the state to seek a death sentence when there is more than
1 victim.
The court upheld Courchesne's conviction in the slaying of Demetris Rodgers but
overturned his 2 capital felony convictions and his murder conviction for the
baby's death.
The court ruled prosecutors failed to prove during the trial that the baby's
brain was functioning when she was born.
Prosecutors decided to let Courchesne's 60-year murder sentence stand rather
than retry the capital case.
The state has since abolished the death penalty, although it still applies to
inmates already on death row when the law was passed in 2012.
State police are investigating Courchesne's death, but the Correction
Department said it does not suspect he was the victim of foul play.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Florida Won't Follow Ohio and Oklahoma in Halting Executions----Florida, which
still uses a controversial lethal injection drug, says an execution scheduled
for later this month will continue as planned.
Florida's Department of Corrections says it has no plans to delay an execution
scheduled for later this month, despite other states putting their executions
on hold in light of an upcoming Supreme Court review of the constitutionality
of certain lethal injection protocols. Florida uses the drug midazolam
hydrochloride for lethal injections -- the same drug involved in problematic
executions in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona in recent months.
"As far I know, the execution that is scheduled for later this month is still
scheduled and nothing about our procedures are changed," McKinley Lewis,
communications director of the Florida Department of Corrections, tells U.S.
News. "The duty of the department is to carry out the sentence of the court.
The death penalty is our most solemn duty ... to my knowledge nothing has been
changed."
Of the states that used midazolam in 2014 according to the Death Penalty
Information Center, only Florida has an execution scheduled for 2015 without
any plans to find an alternative methods. Recent issues with lethal injections
are believed to be the result of a shortage of death penalty drugs, due in part
to a European sanctions against selling drugs used for executions to the U.S.
States have been experimenting with mixes of drugs intended for other uses --
midazolam, for instance, is typically used to produce drowsiness before surgery
-- without full knowledge of their effects.
Last year, Florida executed 8 inmates using a 3-drug protocol that included
midazolam, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, and it also used
midazolam in an execution last month. The Attorney General's office of Florida
did not immediately respond to U.S. News' request for comment.
On Jan. 28, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Oklahoma's request to temporarily
stay the three executions using midazolam scheduled in the state this spring,
ahead of Supreme Court arguments slated for mid-April as to whether Oklahoma's
combination of drugs violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual
punishment. Oklahoma officials signaled they believed they could carry out the
executions if they found an alternative drug.
Ohio announced Jan. 30 that it would postpone the 7 lethal injection executions
it had scheduled for 2015 while it seeks out new drugs. Arizona's Department of
Corrections said in December it would abandon the 2-drug cocktail, also
involving midazolam, after a July 2014 lethal injection lasted an unprecedented
90 minutes and the inmate was described as gasping "like a fish on shore
gulping for air." Arizona will continue to use midazolam in a 3-drug
combination if it cannot acquire the preferred Pentobarbital or Sodium
Pentothal,? but the state has not scheduled any executions scheduled for this
year.
"The fact that Florida uses midazolam has been forcefully called to the
attention of the Florida Supreme Court and if necessary, will be called to the
attention of the U.S. Supreme Court," says Hofstra University law professor
Eric M. Freedman, who has written about the high court's history staying
executions.
He says there is "as low a probability as anything in the legal system" that
Florida's execution of Jerry Correll -- who was sentenced to death for the 1985
murders of his his ex-wife, 5-year-old daughter, mother-in-law and
sister-in-law -- will happen Feb. 26, when scheduled.
"It would be responsible of the Attorney General of Florida not to clutter the
courts" with appeals, Freedman says, "but rather make the responsible
announcement that it will not seek to execute anyone until the matter is
resolved by the Supreme Court."
The last time the Supreme Court heard a case concerning the constitutionality
of lethal injection, 2008's Baze v. Rees, it resulted in "a quasi moratorium"
of the death penalty across the country, says Deborah Denno, a Fordham
University law school professor who is an expert in lethal injection protocols.
The justices individually stayed a number of executions between when it
announced it was reviewing the case in 2007 and when it issued its decision,
which ultimately upheld the constitutionality of the Kentucky's 3-drug
protocol.
Unlike the 2008 case, which was considering a method widely used around the
country, this time around, "less than a handful of states are using this
particular drug," Denno says. "It's very different situation."
(source: US News & World Report)
ALABAMA:
2-time convicted killer who avoided execution dies in prison from cancer
A 2-time convicted killer who avoided the death penalty because of a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling against executing the mentally retarded died in an Alabama
prison Sunday.
James Henry Borden Jr., 65, was an inmate at William E. Donaldson Correctional
Facility. Borden was convicted and sentenced to die for the Sept. 5, 1993,
murder of 63-year-old Nellie Ledbetter, who was slain in front of her young
grandchildren.
Borden died from pancreatic cancer in the prison infirmary at 7:53 p.m., said
Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates. He had been in the infirmary
since Dec. 22, and had a do-not-resuscitate order.
Borden, also convicted of a murder 20 years prior to Ledbetter's death, was 1
of 3 men who drove to Ledbetter's home near Moulton. The other 2 men stayed in
the car, according to a Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama case summary,
while Borden began talking to Ledbetter, who was sitting on the porch with her
2 grandchildren.
When Ledbetter's husband came out onto the porch, Borden and his companions
left. Borden returned alone about 45 minutes later, put a knife to her throat
and told her to come with him. When she refused, he fatally stabbed her in the
stomach and chest.
He was convicted of capital murder because of his previous murder conviction,
the Associated Press reported at the time.
In 2002, the Supreme Court issued a decision that said mentally retarded
killers can't be executed. Experts determined Borden had an IQ of 53.
In 2005, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals agreed that Borden should not
face the death penalty.
(source: al.com)
OHIO:
Jury selection begins in death penalty case
Jury selection began in a death penalty trial Tuesday for a man accused of
killing 2 people in 2009 and setting a fire to cover it up.
Hager Church is charged with 2 counts of aggravated murder and 1 count of
aggravated arson in the June 14, 2009, house fire that killed Massie "Tina"
Flint, 45, and her boyfriend, Rex Hall, 54. The fire was at a house at 262 S.
Pine St., Lima.
Church is serving a life sentence with no chance for parole for a separate case
in 2010. He was convicted of beating a woman to death inside her home for a few
dollars and costume jewelry.
(source: limaohio.com)
KANSAS:
Kansas state rep. on government's wasteful spending on the death penalty
During the 2015 legislative session, Kansas legislators will be looking for
ways to balance the budget by cutting wasteful spending. One area where
legislators should look is the millions of dollars that Kansas spends on its
death penalty with nothing to show for it; there hasn't been an execution in
Kansas since 1965.
In 2014, a Judicial Council report commissioned by the Kansas Legislature
investigated and provided figures on the fiscal impact of a prosecutor deciding
to seek the death penalty. This report deserves more attention this year,
especially as legislators look for ways to trim the state budget.
This study does not rely on questionable assumptions or complicated models to
come to its conclusions. Instead, it takes the straightforward approach of
comparing the costs incurred in 2 similar sets of cases: death-eligible cases
where the death penalty is sought and death-eligible cases where the death
penalty is not sought.
The report's findings make clear that seeking the death penalty proves costly.
Specifically, defense and district court costs in Kansas for cases where the
death penalty is sought are on average 3 to 4 times more expensive than in
similar cases where the death penalty is not sought.
The high costs of Kansas' death penalty are hardly an outlier. Studies
commissioned by state legislatures in Indiana, Nevada, and New Hampshire all
found the death penalty to cost more than the alternative of life without
parole. In Illinois, the state immediately saved $4.7 million from its budget
after repealing the death penalty in 2011.
Despite all this evidence, some remain incredulous that the death penalty costs
more than life without parole. If attorneys were not working on capital cases,
they reason, we would still be paying them just to work on different cases,
right?
In reality, death penalty trials require extra attorneys and also have a
separate sentencing phase, which means they last longer. The Kansas Judicial
Council found that the decision to seek the death penalty more than doubles the
average length of a trial (40.13 v. 16.79 days). If more attorneys are working
on a case for a longer period of time, the case inevitably will be more
expensive.
Recent budget requests in counties facing capital cases illustrate this point.
Franklin County had to set aside $100,000 for an upcoming capital case in 2015.
Labette County set aside $150,000 for a capital trial in 2015, and the county
was advised that the costs for the case could go up to $350,000 or more. The
Shawnee County District Attorney in 2014 requested $150,000 from his county to
prosecute capital cases after indicating that the cases were stretching his
office's resources. Back in 2010, Osage County had to raise property taxes in
part to pay for an upcoming capital trial.
Given the emphasis this legislative session on identifying cost savings, I
fully expect repealing the death penalty to be part of the discussion. When we
debate the death penalty, it is important that we're honest about its costs and
not ignore its fiscal impact.
As legislators look for cuts in the budget, it is our duty to continue to
adequately fund core government functions, such as ensuring public safety. If
the death penalty saved lives, that would be a compelling reason to justify its
high costs. But the death penalty doesn't make us safer. The 18 states that
have abandoned capital punishment actually have an average murder rate lower
than the rest of the country.
Today, life in prison without parole can keep dangerous individuals removed
from society at a much lower cost. That cost savings, importantly, frees up
more dollars for law enforcement measures that - unlike the death penalty -
have a proven track record of success.
(source: Bill Sutton, Opinion; Watchdog.org)
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