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 another inmate murdered a fellow
prisoner in 2011.
Court records state that after inmate Xavier Rodriguez insulted Doty and
allegedly stole a package of cigarettes from him, Doty decided to retaliate.
He handcuffed Rodriguez with a torn bed sheet and strangled him, and doctors
said Rodriguez was stabbed in the abdomen 25 times with a homemade knife that
Doty had wrapped in a newspaper.
At his trial, Doty acted as his own lawyer, pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder
and was sentenced to die after a jury in Bradford County recommended the death
penalty by a 10-2 vote.
Gov. Rick Scott has not issued a death warrant, but Doty has waived his right
to all appeals, and the Department of Corrections says his execution can be
scheduled at any time.
Doty signed his affidavit on Aug. 12, soon after the Florida Supreme Court
upheld his death sentence after a mandatory review of his case. He said he did
not want his guilt to be challenged again.
"My decision on method of execution is a self-driven motive allowing the state
of Florida to exercise their duly sworn duties to deliver my sentence in an
expeditious manner," Doty wrote, "thus bringing peace to the victim's family as
well as my spiritual freedom."
(source: Tampa Bay Times)
LOUISIANA:
Baton Rouge DA says Alonso could face death penalty
District Attorney Hillar Moore said the man accused of murdering a Baton Rouge
couple earlier this week, could face the death penalty if brought back to
Lousiana.
This morning, Alonso remained quiet before a Florida judge, while his lawyer
said law enforcement agents will have to go through the public defender's
office before they proceed with any further questioning.
Moore says the 42-year-old accused killer may fight the extradition process,
"Just any chance they have to fight coming back because obviously Louisiana
wants him for either a life imprisonment case or a death case."
Police say Ernesto Alonso beat Dennis and Suzanne Duplantier until they opened
the safe inside their Highland Road home. According to investigators, he
strangled the couple and then left their bodies inside a car parked outside a
truck stop in Hammond. Alonso then fled thousands of miles away, to the Miami,
Florida area, where he remains under police custody.
(source: WBRZ news)
OHIO:
Dead man waiting
Ohio decided this week to delay executions for at least a year, because of a
shortage of the drugs used to carry out lethal injections.
It delays death for at least 3 killers from Franklin County.
I interviewed one of them on death row back in 1997.
"Would you rather have the injection or the electric chair?" I asked Warren
Henness.
"I think that would be suicide, because you would be picking 1 death or the
other," he said. "I consider that suicide. They'll have to make that decision,
whoever kills me."
Henness is still alive, 18 years after I visited him on death row and 23 years
after he was convicted in the Short North robbery and murder of 51 year old
Richard Meyers.
Until Ohio had problems with the effectiveness of its lethal cocktail, Henness
was scheduled to die July 15th of this year.
When we went to death row back in 1997, Ohio's electric chair was still ready
for use - even though the state had not executed a prisoner in 40 years.
At that time, capital punishment advocates were angry at the long appeals
process that allowed prisoners like Henness and Fred Treesh to languish in
prison.
"The public out there blames us for extending our appeals over and over and
saying we're slow walking and dragging our feet and everything else," Treesh
said. "That's not true. That's not true. They're forcing us to have our
appeals. They're forcing us, they're saying you must have this appeal. Well if
that's the case what is wrong with the system if they are forcing us to check
their system over again?"
Capital punishment opponents argued then, and now, that the long and expensive
appeals process is necessary to ensure justice. Death penalty advocates argue
that the rights of the victims and their families are forgotten.
I asked Henness if he would want his family at his execution.
"Absolutely not," he said. "I couldn't look out there and see my mom and know
she was getting ready to face that."
He said if he could have anyone there, it would be a priest.
Neither Henness nor Treesh denied their guilt. Both claimed to be ready to
accept their fate.
"They could come right now you know and I would go along with them," Henness
said. "A lot of these guys, you're going to see them kick, scream, holler. Why?
I am paying my debt to society and this is what they say I have to do ... I
don't agree, but if that's what they are saying then do it."
And they did - on March 6, 2013, Fred Treesh received a powerful single dose of
pentobarbital and it took less than a minute for him to die.
(source: WCMH news)
***************
"I'll fight 'til my knuckles bleed for others on death row": The remarkable
story of a man once sentenced to die ---- Wrongfully accused & sentenced to
die, now Derrick Jamison is free - and fighting back
Derrick Jamison dresses keenly. Tonight he's wearing black slacks and polished
black loafers with a Cincinnati Reds jersey over a long-sleeve black t-shirt, a
large silver cross dangling from a chain around his neck. A brand new
flat-brimmed Reds ball cap presses down a large shock of hair that just peaks
out from beneath. Derrick is black, 6 foot 4, and almost always grinning. He
stands out in most places, but he really stands out in this section of the
baseball stadium of mostly white males.
"I'm looking forward to this! It's been a long time," Derrick says as we all
sit down in the Great American Ballpark, just behind the Mets dugout. "There
sure are a lot of Mets fans here. You think they travel with the team?" he says
aloud, and then taps a guy in front of him on the shoulder who's wearing a Tom
Seaver jersey. "Are y'all following the Mets around the country?" he asks
sincerely.
The Mets fan barks dismissively, "No. I live here," and turns back around,
quickly working into the conversation he's having with another fan that he was
at Game 7 of the 1986 World Series between the New York Mets and the Boston Red
Sox. While he was at that game in 1986, Derrick Jamison was on Ohio's death
row.
Since 1977, there have been 155 death row exonerations. Derrick is number 119.
In all, he spent 20 years inside, seventeen of them on death row. He had six
stays of execution, 1 of which came just 90 minutes before death. He had
already had his last meal and made arrangements for his body.
And yet, here he is now at a Reds game on a cool September evening, on the same
day that Pope Francis addressed Congress and called for the abolition of the
death penalty. A month from now, on October 25, it will be the 10-year
anniversary of his release from prison.
For Derrick though, celebrating that release is a mixed bag. He's living proof
of what's at stake when we talk about the problems of the death penalty.
Derrick was accused of the brutal murder of a Cincinnati bartender named Gary
Mitchell,who was killed during a robbery in 1984. 2 months later, Derrick was
arrested for robbing a Gold Star Chili restaurant, and was wearing Pony shoes,
as had been Mitchell's killer. When a man named Charles Howell was arrested for
being an accomplice to the murder, he claimed that Derrick was the killer.
Howell got a reduced sentence for his testimony.
Derrick was sentenced to death on October 25, 1985, becoming one of 26 people
sentenced to death in Hamilton County, Ohio, between 1981 and 1992. For
context, this 1 county sentenced more people to death than 18 of the 38 states
that enforced capital punishment during this time period.
But witness descriptions of the suspects didn't match Jamison's actual
appearance. When 1 eyewitness to the robbery and murder was shown photos he
identified 2 men - neither was Derrick Jamison. This evidence was suppressed by
the police department. In 2000, Derrick was granted a new trial and a Federal
judge said that the prosecutor working on the case, Mark Peipmeier, withheld
evidence. The charges were dismissed in 2005.
According to the Innocence Project, over 1/3 of death row exonerees haven't
been adequately compensated. When Derrick was released, the prison gates were
opened, and that's about it. He received no restitution, no support. Despite
enduring 6 stays of executions, eating what he was told was his last meal each
time, and being 90 minutes away from his execution, Derrick received no
compensation, because Ohio could claim he would have been incarcerated anyway
for robbing the Gold Star Chili restaurant.
A few years later, Derrick was walking across the street from the justice
center in Cincinnati and he passed Piepmier. He looked over and it was clear
that he recognized him.
"He knew he was wrong, but I don't hold in anger. How you gonna enjoy life like
that? I saw those prison guards and their anger," he pauses. "They killing
people and then going home and kissing their kids goodnight." Derrick says his
faith got him through. And, perhaps, his kindness, his gentle demeanor. While
in prison, he helped organize care packages for other inmates who did not have
support from the outside. On the way into the ballpark, despite his limited
resources, he stopped to talk to a homeless man and then gave him a dollar.
Derrick has a lot that he could be angry about. While on death row, his mother
and father passed away - he blames their early deaths on the stress of his
situation. "The death penalty not only kills inmates," he says, "it kills
families." In some strange ways, though, he has a new family - that of death
row exonerees, a group that forms a singular tribe of the once-incarcerated.
They meditate daily not only on their newfound freedom, but on the fact that
they were almost killed.
"Just to be clear, you know, I'm not just an exoneree, I'm an abolitionist. I
got friends who are still inside." After spending 20 years of his life in the
system, Derrick spends his time trying to change it. He has spoken in every
death penalty state and has travelled to other countries to fight against the
U.S. death penalty. "I'll fight 'til my knuckles bleed for others on death
row," he says, "but I can't go back to visit them. I can't have that door close
behind me again."
Tonight provides Derrick with a temporary break in this fight. Tonight he's
most concerned with his Cincinnati Reds. It's been a rough season. They've
traded away starting pitchers Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake. And it shows.
They're at the bottom of the National League Central and the Mets are at the
top of the East.
After the Reds got 1 back to tie the game in the 6th, one of the Mets tossed a
ball to our section that was caught by the Mets fan wearing the Tom Seaver
jersey. Derrick is delighted to be so close, and after the fan shows it off to
one of his friends, he shoves the ball into the side pocket of his cargo
shorts. Derrick asks him if he can see it. "No!" he yells back to Derrick,
barely turning to look at him.
"There are some rude people in this world," Derrick mutters under his breath.
Throughout the game, Derrick talks openly about his experience in prison among
this crew of Mets fans. He tells a story of his basketball team, the one made
of death row inmates who could beat the guards when the general population
couldn't.
At the end of the 7th inning, as the Mets jog off the field to their dugout,
second basemen Danny Murphy tosses a ball several rows behind Derrick, there's
a mad scramble, and Derrick, along with Jack and Sean, the authors of this
article, turn to their right to see who would catch it. Almost immediately
after turning to follow the ball's path, Sean sees that the ball has been
knocked forward by fans competing to catch it and sticks his left hand out to
catch it.
Derrick asks, "Where did the ball go?"
"Right here," Sean says, handing the ball to Derrick. "Now you have your own."
Derrick is ecstatic.
Soon after, a man who was sitting in our row a few seats down from us
approaches Derrick after watching us take photos with the ball.
"Didn't you talk at our church on Martin Luther King Day?"
"Yes, I did," he replies.
"I recognized you. It's good to see you. Congratulations!"
Derrick Jamison's presence is testimony - an argument for abolishing the death
penalty. Exonerees like Derrick give people a name and a face, a story to
attach to the numbers and often vague pronouncements about capital punishment.
But since 2005, Derrick's life has been rough at times. He struggles
financially and psychologically, mostly with the personal trauma of being so
close to death, and so often.
In the soft glow of the lights in the 8th inning, thumbing the caught ball in
his hands, none of that matters. And it doesn't matter that the Reds are
losing. It's just a game. There will be more chances, more games.
(source: Sean Dunne is assistant professor of Sociology at Shawnee State
University. He has published articles in The Irish Times, The Irish
Independent, Z Magazine, and elsewhere. Jack Shuler is author of 3 books
including "The 13th Turn: A History of the Noose" (PublicAffairs, 2014). His
writing has appeared in Salon, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Truthout, among
others. He teaches at Denison University----salon.com)
***************
Heroin as an execution drug?
As Ohio continues to struggle to find the drugs needed to carry out executions
of death row inmates, the president of the Ohio Senate says it may be time to
find other methods.
"If we can't get the drugs that our protocol calls for, either we need to
change our protocols, or we need to think about other solutions," said Senate
President Keith Faber, R-Celina.
"There are a lot of people out there talking about other solutions. I've heard
everything from using heroin, to using nitrogen, to going back to the electric
chair. That's a debate we probably need to have."
The state's has not executed an inmate since Jan. 16, 2014, when Dennis McGuire
struggled and gasped for several minutes before succumbing to a combination of
drugs being used for the 1st time anywhere in the U.S. The state last week
canceled all executions for 2016 and there are now 24 inmates with executions
scheduled into 2018.
A law that Gov. John Kasich signed in December allowing prison officials to
secretly buy lethal-injection drugs from compounding pharmacies has not worked
in getting Ohio the necessary drug mixture. Pharmacies have generally been
unwilling to participate in a process that leads to little in sales but a
potential for harsh blowback from the public if they are discovered.
The federal government has thus far blocked Ohio's efforts to import the drugs
from overseas, thought the state continues to seek ways to do that.
Asked if the state would bring back the electric chair known as "Old Sparky,"
Faber said, "there are options out there."
Meanwhile, Rep. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, takes a different approach to
Ohio's execution problems - get rid of the death penalty in favor of sentences
of life without parole.
"Lawmakers would serve Ohioans well to catch up with public opinion, which
increasingly favors life sentences over the use of the death penalty," she
said, noting that 19 states have abolished capital punishment. "We can condemn
the violent offensive acts of those who commit heinous crimes, but no execution
brings back a loved one and we as a society must be better than our worst
criminals and our flawed system."
(source: The Columbus Dispatch)
*************
Appeals court reinstates death sentence for 2005 Portage County slayings
A federal appeals court has reinstated the death sentence of a Brimfield
Township man who, in a drug and alcohol-fueled rage, killed his live-in
girlfriend, her child and a Kent State University student in 2005.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision released Thursday,
ruled that James Trimble does not need to have his case re-heard. While a juror
showed that he favored the death penalty, he also demonstrated to the judge
that he understood how the penalty phase of a capital trial worked and would
follow the law, the decision states.
The decision is another blow to Trimble's case. He has sat on death row for
nearly a decade for one of Portage County's most gruesome murders. An execution
date has not been set.
Trimble, 55, shot and killed Renee Bauer, 42, and her 7-year-old son, Dakota,
on Jan. 21, 2005. Bauer, who was preparing to leave Trimble when he entered the
house, was shot 13 times with an assault rifle. She shielded her son but he was
killed by 6 bullets that passed through her body.
Trimble, who was high on methamphetamine, prescription drugs and alcohol, then
ran into the woods with the rifle and a revolver. He later broke into the home
of Sarah Positano, a fine arts and gymnastics student at Kent State, and held
her hostage.
The next day, he fatally shot the 22-year-old in the neck while she was on the
phone with a police dispatcher during negotiations. Trimble, after he was
arrested, confessed to his crimes. A jury found him guilty in 2005 and a judge
sentenced him to die.
But U.S. District Judge James Gwin in 2013 overturned Trimble's death sentence.
Gwin concluded that a juror who was chosen as an alternate, but then
participated in deliberations during the penalty phase of the trial, should
have been eliminated because of a statement he made about the taking of a life.
According to court filings, the juror said the death penalty is in place
because "if you take a life why should you be allowed to live?"
The 6th Circuit, in an opinion authored by Judge Alice Batchelder, disagreed
with Gwin's reading. She wrote it was clear that the juror showed that he
understood how the penalty phase of a capital trial worked and that he would
follow the law.
Judge Eric Clay, in a dissenting opinion, wrote that overwhelming evidence
exists to show that the juror should not have participated in deliberations.
"In this case, all of the evidence indicates that Juror 139 single-mindedly
favored the death penalty and that he would possibly consider a life sentence
only if the defense could prove that Trimble 'was under the influence or
something, or not quite right in the head,'" Clay wrote.
Prosecutor Vic Vigluicci said he is pleased with the 6th Circuit's decision and
that Trimble is "pretty much at the end of his rope" as far as challenging his
convictions.
Joseph Wilhelm, the federal public defender who argued Trimble's case in front
of the 6th Circuit, said he is considering asking the full court to review the
case.
Trimble is in the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.
Positano's family sued the county and several law enforcement agencies for $150
million, claiming their actions exacerbated the shooter's rage. A judge
dismissed the case.
(source: cleveland.com)
*****************
Brother testifies he suspected Daniel French in 2012 homicide
The brother of a man accused of murdering an 87-year-old woman said he grew
suspicious as he read about the case.
Daniel French has been charged with murder in the death of Barbara Howe in
October of 2012.
French's brother, Kenneth, testified in a Butler County court Thursday that he
had a hunch Daniel was involved in Howe's death because Daniel disappeared
around the same time that news broke of the woman's death at Daniel's former
workplace.
"As soon as I get out of my truck, he comes up and gives me a hug and tells me
he loves me," Kenneth French said. "He hasn't really done that before, as far
as just giving me a hug and telling me he loved me, be honest with you. It's
like I told the detective: it felt like he was telling me goodbye for the last
time."
Howe's daughter, Donna Wesselman, also testified Thursday. She said her mother
was an orderly person, and she knew something was wrong when she saw things out
of place in her mother's bungalow in October of 2012.
Wesselman was the one who called police after discovering her mother was
missing.
"There would never be a towel thrown on the floor of my mother's house. She's
just 'everything had its place.' At the very least, she would have just laid it
on the bed, or probably she would have just put it on the bathroom countertop,"
Wesselman said.
Prosecutors said Daniel French was behind the disappearance, and Howe's death.
French pretended to work for the Mount Pleasant retirement community and told
Howe he needed to fix her medic alert system, they said.
French shocked Howe with a stun gun, then killed her and put her body in the
trunk of her car, prosecutors said.
Butler County Deputy Coroner James Swinehart testified Thursday that Howe had
four knife wounds to her throat. French's defense attorney has argued that
French sliced Howe's throat after he accidentally strangled her; Swinehart said
the evidence doesn't support that.
"In my opinion, you have to have some kind of heart action to completely empty
the heart, to exsanguinate," Swinehart said. "You just can't bleed to death
postmortem."
French faces the death penalty if he's convicted.
(source: WCPO news)
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