April 14
PENNSYLVANIA:
Pennsylvania DAs take aim at Wolf's death penalty moratorium
Pennsylvania's prosecutors are warning Gov. Tom Wolf's death penalty moratorium
could affect plea bargains and how judges and juries view executions.
The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association released a friend-of-the-court
brief Tuesday that said the Democratic governor has misinterpreted the term
"reprieve," arguing his moratorium violates the state constitution.
The prosecutors say reprieves can only halt a criminal sentence for a defined
period of time and for a reason that relates specifically to a particular
convict.
Wolf announced the moratorium in February, suspending plans to execute Terrance
Williams for a 1984 robbery and fatal tire-iron beating of another man in
Philadelphia.
The governor argues the current system is error-prone and expensive. He plans
to issue reprieves while a legislative committee prepares a report about the
state's use of capital punishment.
(source: Associated Press)
OHIO----new execution date (2017)
Ohio Supreme Court sets execution date for man on death row nearly 3 decades
The Ohio Supreme Court set an execution date Tuesday for Melvin Bonnell Jr., a
man sentenced to die nearly 3 decades ago for a murder he committed in
Cleveland.
In a 6-1 decision, the court ordered that Bonnell, 57, is to be executed Oct.
18, 2017. Justice William O'Neill, who objects to the death penalty as
unconstitutional, dissented.
Bonnell was convicted of shooting and killing 23-year-old Robert Bunner in 1986
in Bunner's apartment.
Bonnell has exhausted his state and federal appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court
declined to take up his case in 2007.
In 2009, the results of DNA testing indicated the victim was the source of
blood on Bonnell's jacket, the Associated Press reported.
Bonnell will be one of 17 inmates scheduled for execution beginning next year.
Executions have been on hold in the state since January 2014, when murderer
Dennis McGuire took an unexpectedly long 25 minutes to die from a controversial
2-drug cocktail of midazolam and hydromorphone.
A federal judge ordered a temporary moratorium on Ohio executions that expired
in January. By then state officials announced they would turn to 2 other drugs,
sodium thiopental and pentobarbital, but that executions will be delayed until
next year to give the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction time to
secure a supply of those drugs
In December, state lawmakers passed legislation shielding the identities of
small-scale drug manufacturers that sell execution drugs to the state.
The 1st death-row inmate set to die under the revised schedule is Akron killer
Ronald Phillips, convicted of the 1993 rape and beating death of a 3-year-old
girl. His execution, now set for Jan. 21, 2016, had previously been scheduled
to take place next month.
(source: cleveland.com)
*********************
Exonerated men speak out against death penalty, urge change
6 men who spent 207 years on death row for crimes it was ultimately shown they
did not commit spoke against capital punishment this morning at the Statehouse.
The former inmates, now free after being exonerated in court, spoke in
conjunction with Ohioans to Stop Executions which is pushing a campaign to
either "fix" or end the death penalty. They are urging lawmakers to accept
recommendations made last year by an Ohio Supreme Court task force on the death
penalty.
Kwame Ajamu, Joe D'Ambrosio, Ricky Jackson, Derrick Jamison, Dale Johnston and
Wiley Bridgeman were the former inmates who spoke at a press conference.
Johnston, who was sentenced to death in 1984 for killing his stepdaughter and
her boyfriend, was exonerated in 1990.
"I wasn't wrongfully convicted. I was intentionally framed."
Several of the men shed tears as they spoke of decades spent in prison for
crimes they didn't commit.
Ricky Jackson, a Cleveland man freed last November after 39 years, said death
row "isn't a place fit for human beings. If we did this to canines, people
would be in an uproar. But we do this to human beings every day."
Kwame Ahamu, also of Cleveland who was prosecuted for the same 1975 murder as
Jackson, said time stands still in prison.
"You don't know how much you missed out on until you've been out in the world."
Asked if any amount of money could compensate them for the years they lost, all
6 men said "no."
Rep. Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood, a death penalty opponent, also spoke.
Ohio has not had an execution since Jan. 16, 2014, when Dennis McGuire was put
to death using a previously untried, 2-drug combination. McGuire gasped and
struggled against his restraints during the 20-minute process.
Executions have since been halted by a combination of orders from a federal
judge and Gov. John Kasich's clemency decisions. The next execution is
scheduled for January next year.
The General Assembly passed and Kasich signed a new law late last year which
authorizes the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to buy drugs
under secret contracts from small "compounding pharmacies" which mix drugs to
customer specifications.
(source: Columbus Dispatch)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Judge halts Missouri execution, decision quickly appealed
A district judge agreed to halt the lethal injection of a Missouri death-row
inmate, but the decision was quickly appealed to a federal appeals court just
hours ahead of the execution scheduled for Tuesday evening. Andre Cole, 52, was
sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a man in St. Louis County in a fit of
anger over having to pay child support in 1998. His execution is scheduled for
6 p.m.
Although similar arguments were rejected by the Missouri Supreme Court last
week, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry ruled late Monday that Cole was
incompetent to be executed because of mental illness.
"He hears voices over the TV, over the prison intercom. Everywhere," Cole's
attorney, Joseph Luby, told The Associated Press. He said Cole believes that
Gov. Jay Nixon, prosecutors and others "are giving him messages about his
case."
But the Missouri Attorney General's Office quickly appealed to the 8th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing there was no legal reason for the judge to
overturn the Missouri Supreme Court ruling that allowed the execution to
proceed.
Regardless of the appellate court's ruling, the case will likely be appealed to
the U.S. Supreme Court. Cole's attorneys have already asked the high court to
stop the execution based in part on concerns over Missouri's execution drug,
which was purchased from a compounding pharmacy that the state refuses to
identify.
Several outside groups, including the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties
Union, are pushing Nixon to stop the execution and appoint a board to examine
concerns about racial bias in Missouri's jury selection process. Cole, who is
black, was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury.
"The criminal justice system in this country is unfair," said Jeffrey Mittman,
executive director of the ACLU in St. Louis. "It targets persons of color. It
treats the African-American community differently."
Nixon's spokesman said the clemency petition was under review.
Cole's brother said the brutal crime was out of character, a sudden act of
passion that doesn't merit the death penalty.
"It was a 1-time thing," said DeAngelo Cole, 38, of Las Vegas. "He didn't have
a history of that kind of behavior."
Cole and his wife, Terri, divorced in 1995. The couple had 2 children and
fought about visitation. Evidence showed that Andre Cole was upset that the
government had ordered $3,000 in unpaid child support to be taken from his
wages over the course of several paychecks.
The 1st deduction appeared on his paycheck dated Aug. 21, 1998. Hours later,
Cole forced his way into his ex-wife's home and was confronted by Anthony
Curtis, who was visiting. Andre Cole stabbed Curtis and Terri Cole repeatedly.
Curtis died, while Terri Cole survived.
Andre Cole fled the state but surrendered 33 days later. He claimed at trial
that he did not bring a weapon into Terri Cole's house and that Curtis
initiated the attack with a knife.
St. Louis County prosecutors removed three black potential jurors from the pool
of candidates, according to Cole's supporters. Mittman said one black man was
removed because he was divorced, but a white juror was not removed even though
he was paying child support.
(source: Associated Press)
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