Feb. 13
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death Penalty Moratorium Declaration----Published by Governor Tom Wolf
Governor Tom Wolf Announces a Moratorium on the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania
Today, Governor Tom Wolf announced a moratorium on the death penalty in
Pennsylvania that will remain in effect until the governor has received and
reviewed the forthcoming report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory
Commission on Capital Punishment, established under Senate Resolution 6 of
2011, and there is an opportunity to address all concerns satisfactorily.
"Today's action comes after significant consideration and reflection," said
Governor Wolf. "This moratorium is in no way an expression of sympathy for the
guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous
crimes. This decision is based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an
endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and
expensive. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 150 people have been
exonerated from death row nationwide, including 6 men in Pennsylvania.
Recognizing the seriousness of these concerns, the Senate established the
bipartisan Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission to conduct a study
of the effectiveness of capital punishment in Pennsylvania. Today's moratorium
will remain in effect until this commission has produced its recommendation and
all concerns are addressed satisfactorily."
This morning, Gov. Wolf took the 1st step in placing a moratorium on the death
penalty by granting a temporary reprieve to inmate Terrance Williams, who was
scheduled to be executed on March 4, 2015. Governor Wolf will grant a reprieve
- not a commutation - in each future instance in which an execution for a death
row inmate is scheduled, establishing an effective moratorium on the death
penalty in Pennsylvania. For death row inmates, the conditions and confinement
will not change.
(source: scribd.com)
********************
Death penalty cases in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding area
Some of the Lehigh Valley's most notorious murder cases are affected by
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's announcement Friday of a moratorium on executions.
Wolf said he wants to review a forthcoming task force report on the death
penalty. You can see the current list of state inmates awaiting execution here.
Pennsylvania has had 3 executions since the death penalty was reinstated in the
state in 1974, and those were after the inmates waived their appeal rights,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center
In the past 30 year, 29 Pennsylvania death row inmates died of natural causes
while awaiting execution and three committed suicide, the center said.
Northampton County death row inmates
--Michael Ballard, who pleaded guilty to murdering 4 people in 2010 in a
gruesome knife attack in Northampton. Ballard, who had been released from
prison for a killing in Allentown, killed his ex-girlfriend Denise Merhi; her
father, Denis Marsh; her grandfather, Alvin Marsh; and Steven Zernhelt, a
neighbor who rushed into Merhi's home after hearing screaming inside.
--George Hitcho Jr., convicted by a jury in the shooting death of Freemansburg
police officer Robert Lasso in August 2011.
Lehigh County death row inmates
--Harvey Miguel Robinson, an Allentown serial killer who raped and murdered
three women in the early 1990s. Robinson's victims were Joan Burghardt, a
29-year-old nurse's aide; Charlotte Schmoyer, a 15-year-old newspaper carrier;
and Jessica Jean Fortney, a 47-year-old grandmother.
--George Lopez and Edwin Romero, both convicted in the strangling death of
architect David Bolasky in 1995 in Allentown.
--Raymond Solano, who fatally shot Almondo Rodriguez in an Allentown park in
2001.
--Junius Burno, who fatally shot an Allentown nightclub disc jockey, Carlos
Juarbe, and his cousin, Oscar Rosado III, in April 2003 in Allentown.
There are also criminal cases with local ties where prosecutors planned to seek
the death penalty in the event of a conviction of 1st-degree murder:
--Eric Frein, accused of using a .308-caliber rifle Sept. 12 outside the state
police barracks at Blooming Grove in Pike County to fatally shoot Cpl. Bryon
Dickson II and wound Trooper Alex Douglass.
--Tyrell Young, a Reading man accused of fatally shooting an Allentown
businessman during a Craigslist car deal in April 2014.
--Michael Wilkins and Maurice Wilkins, Reading brothers accused of killing a
Palmer Township man, and in a separate incident in December 2012 kidnapping,
torturing and strangling a woman and dumping her body in Lehigh County.
--Jillian Tait and Gary Lee Fellenbaum, accused of torturing to death Tait's
3-year-old son, Scott McMillan.
(source: lehighvalleylive.com)
ALABAMA----impending execution
Alabama death row inmate seeks stay of execution
Attorneys for an Alabama death row inmate scheduled to die next week asked a
federal court Friday to stop the execution.
Thomas Arthur, convicted in 1982 in a murder-for-hire scheme, has been at the
center of an ongoing battle over the drugs Alabama uses to conduct executions.
The inmate first sued in 2011, saying the state's 3-drug cocktail violated his
Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Arthur and attorneys have argued the anesthetic used in the execution would not
work fast enough to prevent pain resulting from 2 succeeding drugs that
paralyze the body and stop the heart.
A messages left with Suhana Han, an attorney representing Arthur, was not
immediately returned Friday morning. Mike Lewis, a spokesman for Alabama
Attorney General Luther Strange, said Friday the office had no comment.
Arthur is currently scheduled to be executed on Feb. 19.
The inmate's challenge is one of several facing the state's administration of
capital punishment. When it the state adopted lethal injection as its primary
form of execution in 2002, Alabama officials used sodium thiopental as its main
sedative in the procedure. In part due to pressure from European anti-death
penalty activists, Hospira stopped manufacturing the drug in the United States
in 2011; the company said in a statement at the time that it "never condoned"
the use of the drug in executions.
Alabama officials then switched to pentobarbital as the main sedative; Arthur
and his attorneys argued that drug would take too long to render him
unconscious before the other drugs took effect.
State officials acknowledged early last year that they had run out of the drug.
The state last conducted an execution on July 25, 2013, when Andrew Reid Lackey
was put to death for the 2005 murder of Charles Newman, an 80-year-old World
War II veteran.
In filings with the Alabama Supreme Court last September, the Alabama attorney
general's office announced that the Department of Corrections had adopted a new
drug protocol, using midazolam hydrochloride, a sedative. Arthur and his
attorneys successfully petitioned the court to amend their complaint to target
midazolam, which was present in botched executions last year in Ohio, Oklahoma
and Arizona. Alabama officials have cited Florida's use of the drug in
executions, which has not resulted in any reported incidents.
The U.S. Supreme Court last month agreed to hear a challenge to the use of
midazolam from 3 inmates on Oklahoma's death row.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday allowed a 2012 stay on Arthur's
execution to expire, saying it dealt specifically with the timing of certain
court filings. However, the panel also said that "nothing herein precludes Mr.
Arthur from seeking an injunction or restraining order as to the February 19,
2015 execution," though it directed the petition to be filed in district court.
Most of the filings in the Arthur case are under seal. Last year, the
Department of Corrections denied separate Freedom of Information Act requests
from the Advertiser, The Anniston Star and the Associated Press seeking
information on the state's death penalty protocol, citing the Arthur seal.
The state has until Sunday morning to respond to the Arthur filing.
Christopher Price Lee, convicted in 1991 of the brutal murder of a Tuscaloosa
minister, filed a separate lawsuit last October challenging the state's new
execution protocol. The lawsuit is still pending before U.S. District Judge
Kristi DuBose.
(source: Montgomery Advertiser)
MONTANA:
Effort reborn to abolish death penalty in Montana
Montana lawmakers are again considering a bill that would abolish the death
penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without parole.
Republican Rep. David Moore of Missoula introduced House Bill 370 Friday in the
House Judiciary Committee.
Supporters say the practice is expensive and using it models the idea that
killing is a legitimate way to end a conflict. Opponents say it's a needed tool
in the justice system. People on both sides of the issue spoke emotionally
about their experiences with violence and the death penalty.
Similar bills have made it through the Senate in prior years but in the past
two legislative sessions it has failed to gain traction in the House.
The committee did not take action on the measure Friday.
(source: Associated Press)
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