July 27
MISSISSIPPI:
Jury to hear more evidence before deciding life or death for Scotty Street
A Jackson County jury will hear a second day of evidence before heading back to
a conference room and determining whether Scotty Street should receive the
death penalty. That jury found Street guilty of capital murder in the 2014
stabbing death of Frankie Fairley, the retired special education teacher from
Hurley.
Fairley's family breathed a sigh of relief as the verdict was read. Street's
family walked out of the courtroom sobbing.
After the verdict was read, testimony started almost immediately in the
sentencing portion of the trial. The jury will now decide if Street will spend
the rest of his life in prison or if he will face the death penalty.
Defense attorney's called several witnesses to the stand to talk about Street's
mental state. One of Street's sisters testified their mother tried to get him
help several times. She said Street would talk to himself when he wasn't taking
his medication and used recreational drugs at one point.
Another sister testified, describing Street's behavior growing up as "erratic."
"Scotty's had a lot of mental issues," she said. "Scotty's been
institutionalized so much, it's beyond my count."
A mental health professional who treated Street at Singing River Health System
was also called to the stand. She told the court she had to give Street
injections every few weeks for his mental illness. She said Street suffered
from schizophrenia and needed to be in a group home with a caregiver.
Court will resume at 8:00 a.m. Thursday.
According to autopsy results revealed in court Tuesday, Street stabbed Fairley
37 times. He then stole Fairley's van and drove to D'Iberville, where he
reportedly robbed a convenience store.
The district attorney's main argument in this case focused on circumstantial
evidence, like the time line of events on Dec. 9, 2014 leading up to the
discovery of Fairley's body, video evidence showing Street and Fairley in the
same store, Fairley's blood found on Street's discarded clothing, and the fact
that Street committed an armed robbery that same night in Fairley's van.
"The verdict is overwhelmingly clear," District Attorney Tony Lawrence told the
jury before deliberations.
(source: WLOX news)
OHIO----execution
Lethal Injection Execution of Ohio Child Killer 'Too Easy,' Victim's Family
Says
Ohio carried out its 1st execution in more than 3 years Wednesday morning when
it put to death Ronald Ray Phillips, 43, a convicted child murderer, using a
new, controversial 3-drug cocktail.
The mix of midazolam, a sedative-hypnotic, rocuronium bromide, a paralytic
agent that inhibits breathing, and potassium chloride, an electrolyte solution
that prevents the heart from beating, had been challenged by Phillips and other
death-row inmates who say it causes an agonizing death.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently reviewed appeals about
whether midazolam's use in lethal injections constituted cruel and unusual
punishment. Midazolam is often used to sedate patients before invasive medical
procedures such as colonoscopies. However, it has been associated with multiple
prolonged executions. In January 2014, Dennis McGuire became the f1st inmate in
Ohio to receive midazolam during an execution rather than a sedative drug from
the pentobarbital class.
The state was unable to obtain the previously used barbiturate drug from
Lundbeck, the only manufacturer approved to sell the drug in the U.S. The
European pharmaceutical company, tasked with manufacturing life-saving and
life-enhancing medications, issued a statement: "Lundbeck adamantly opposes the
distressing misuse of our product in capital punishment."
Alan Johnson, a state reporter, witnessed McGuire's execution, "There were
powerful choking sounds that were wracking up his body. He was straining
upward." After Ohio suspended its use of the controversial 3-drug mixture,
Arizona used it to execute Joseph Wood. His execution lasted for approximately
2 hours - over 640 gasps - prompting his attorney to call a judge and request
that life-saving measures be instituted.
Phillips' attorneys mounted appeals related to the use of midazolam in
Wednesday's execution. They also noted that no pain medications are being used
in the current lethal injection protocol. The federal judge assigned to the
appeal upheld Ohio's right to use the cocktail. Although Phillips' attorneys
submitted another appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, it was not accepted for
further review.
At 10:23 a.m., masked staff inspected both of Phillips' arms for veins. Within
5 minutes, he had intravenous lines placed in both. At 10:31 a.m., Phillips
prayed as the midazolam flowed into his body. He apologized to the family of
his victim, 3-year-old Sheila Marie Evans, who he raped and killed, and gave a
thumbs-up to his own family. By 10:34 a.m., witnesses reported he was
motionless except for a solitary tear escaping from his eye. His time of death
was recorded as 10:43 a.m. Johnson noted, "no heaving, no coughing, no gasping,
no struggling, no trying to raise up. It was incredibly different from the
traumatic execution {of McGuire] I witnessed 3 1/2 years ago."
"It was too easy," Renee Mundell, the victim's half-sister stated after
witnessing the execution. "[Sheila Marie] suffered. It was awful what we had to
see in the courtroom, at the clemency hearings ... those pictures."
After the execution, Allen Bohnert, an assistant federal public defender,
stated: "While Ohio will try to characterize today's execution as problem-free
... [midazolam] cannot render a person insensate to the unconstitutional pain
and suffering of the 2nd and 3rd drugs." Bohnert intonated that Ohio was
essentially "hiding visible evidence" of suffering. He noted that both Oklahoma
and Alabama require at least a 5-minute interval between the injection of the
sedative and the injection of the fatal drugs. In this case, Ohio gave the
drugs in rapid succession. There was only 1 minute between the injections of
the 1st and 2nd drugs. Bonnert implied those actions may have masked visible
signs of distress caused by midazolam.
"There have been so many different appeals in this case," notes Sherri
Bevan-Walsh, the Summit County prosecutor. Walsh was a victims' advocate at the
time of the crime and is now serving her fifth term as the elected prosecutor.
"No matter what drug is being used, no matter what method is being proposed,
there is always going to be a fight ... I can't think of a case more deserving
of the death penalty than what Ronald Phillips did to Sheila Evans."
At the age of 19, Phillips had raped, tortured and murdered Evans, his
girlfriend's child. "She was a typical little 3-year-old," her aunt, Donna
Hudson, explained tearfully, "happy, smiling, running around." Hudson had met
Phillips before the crime. "At the time, you would think he would never do no
wrong," she noted. "Then, walking down the hallway at the hospital, all of a
sudden ... a nurse [said to me], 'I don't think your niece is gonna make it."
The coroner spent more than 2 hours counting all 125 bruises on Sheila's bloody
body, according to the autopsy report. Phillips' blows caused bleeding around
her heart. The bleeding around her brain increased the pressure in her skull
and pushed her brain down toward her neck. Moreover, part of her intestine
died, releasing feces and digestive enzymes into her belly. The freed digestive
juices fed on her organs for approximately 48 hours before she finally
succumbed to death. During this time, Phillips sodomized the small child.
"I flipped out and beat up Sheila ... I hit all over her body and also threw
her around," Phillips admitted. However, he initially asserted it was her
mother, Fae Evans, who dealt the child the fatal blow. Fae Evans was sentenced
to 13 to 30 years in prison for her involuntary manslaughter and child
endangerment. She died of leukemia before her release. Meanwhile, Phillips was
sentenced to death for Sheila's murder.
After the execution, Phillips' attorney Tim Sweeney stated, "Ron Phillips
committed an unspeakable crime when he was 19 ... The grown man who woke up
this morning at age 43 did not in any way resemble that broken troubled teen
... No one is beyond redemption." During his incarceration, Phillips became a
certified minister and prepared his 1st sermon, which his attorneys stated
occurred Wednesday - by his dying with dignity and courage.
"God forgave him, but I'm sorry - I don't think I can," Donna Hudson, Sheila
Marie's aunt, stated today. "This is the 1st time in 24 years, we have seen any
remorse in this man ... [he shed] 1 tear when they gave him his court sentence
... nothing else until today."
Sheila Marie's half sister, Renee Mundell, added: "I have mixed feelings right
now. After so many years, it's time to remember my little sister: innocent and
loving ... with the whole world ahead of her. It's time to say goodbye to the
man who took it all away from us."
(source: newsweek.com)
***************
Ohio Executed Death Row Inmate Wednesday----The lethal injection execution was
the 1st for the Buckeye state in more than 3 years.
Ohio executed a death row inmate Wednesday for the 1st time in more than 3
years.
Ronald Phillips, 43, was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's
3-year-old daughter in Akron, Ohio, in 1993. The execution was completed at
10:43 a.m. without complications, according to multiple reporters at the scene.
Delayed by controversies over the drugs used in lethal injections, the Buckeye
state has not put an inmate to death since the botched execution of Dennis B.
McGuire, 53, of Preble County, in January 2014. Witnesses reportedly watched
McGuire struggle with the drugs - a combination of midazolam, a sedative, and
hydromorphone, a morphine derivative - for 26 minutes before he died.
Court decisions and Republican Gov. John Kasich delayed executions following
the incident with McGuire as the state struggled to find a more humane and
available lethal injection. Last fall, state officials announced a new lethal
injection combination that blends midazolam along with rocuronium bromide and
potassium chloride, according to court records.
While Phillips tried to stay his execution, calling the new lethal injection
combination into question, a divided federal appeals court reversed his stay in
June.
Ohio has 139 inmates on death row, according to Ohio's Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction.
(source: US News & World Report)
*************
Execution reduces Ohio's death roll to 138
The state of Ohio now has 138 people sentenced to death, among the nation's
highest death row populations.
The number of those on death roll has dropped by one in the state of Ohio,
following an execution on Wednesday; the 1st time the state will carry out a
death sentence in more than 3 years.
At 10:43 a.m. Wednesday, inmate and convicted murderer Ronald Phillips was
pronounced dead, executed via lethal injection.
He was executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
Phillips' death may mark the end of one chapter in the state's battle to find a
legally permissible means of execution.
The state may soon begin carrying out many more death sentences.
Ohio paused its executions after a lethal injection in 2014 caused inmate
Dennis McGuire to gasp and snort during the 15 minutes before he died.
Ohio has executed 54 people since 1999. And it has a number of executions
scheduled through 2020, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
As NPR's Debbie Elliott reported in April, the number of executions in the
United States has declined significantly in recent years, as states have
struggled to find drugs that can kill death row inmates in a constitutional
manner.
Phillips, 43, was convicted in 1993 of the rape and murder of Sheila Marie
Evans, his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter.
He was 19 at the time, and his lawyers had argued that his young age should
have been taken into consideration.
Phillips had appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay, saying that he "bears no
resemblance to that teenager" sentenced to death long ago, and asking for more
time to pursue legal arguments in his case, the Associated Press reports.
But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied his request, and the state went
forward with his execution. Phillips was killed using the 3 drugs that comprise
Ohio's new method, including "a sedative, midazolam, used in some troubled
executions in Ohio, Arkansas and Arizona."
(source: npr.org)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Urgent Action
MULTIPLE CONCERNS AS MISSOURI EXECUTION SET
Marcellus Williams, aged 48, is due to be executed in Missouri on 22 August for
a 1998 murder. He maintains his innocence of the crime. An African American, he
was tried before an almost all-white jury. Two of the four federal judges to
review his case have concluded that he received constitutionally inadequate
representation at his sentencing.
Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:
* Calling on the governor to stop the execution of Marcellus Williams and to
commute his death sentence;
* Noting the circumstantial nature of the case, the lack of forensic or
eyewitness evidence against the defendant, and the reliance on the notoriously
unreliable form of evidence, jailhouse informant testimony;
* Expressing concern at the prosecutor's dismissal of African Americans during
jury selection, and that the jury never heard mitigating evidence of the
defendant's background of severe abuse, poverty and mental disability
Friendly reminder: If you send an email, please create your own instead of
forwarding this one!
Contact below official by 22 August, 2017:
Office of Governor Eric Greitens
PO Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
USA
Fax: +1 573 751 1495
Email (via website):
https://governor.mo.gov/get-involved/contact-the-governors-office (Note: if you
do not have an address in the US, select "outside the US" where it asks for
your state, and write in "00000" where it asks for your zip code)
Twitter: @EricGreitens
Salutation: Dear Governor
(source: Amnesty International USA)
ARIZONA:
Trial Ends In Case Over Execution Information
An Arizona prisons official says companies will no longer sell drugs that will
be used to carry out the death penalty for fear that their businesses would be
harmed.
Carson McWilliams says it got more difficult over the years to find companies
to sell drugs to the state, even though a law protects their identity from
being revealed.
McWilliams testified at a trial over whether Arizona must reveal its source of
lethal-injection drugs and the qualifications of its executioners.
News organizations argue the public has a First Amendment right to information
that would help determine whether executions are carried out humanely.
The 1-day trial ended Tuesday afternoon.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow didn't say when he would issue his ruling.
(source: Associated Press)
USA:
What Is Midazolam and Why Do Protesters Claim Its Use in Executions Is Cruel?
In January 2014, convicted rapist and murderer Dennis McGuire was strapped to a
gurney in an Ohio prison execution chamber and injected with the sedative
midazolam and the opioid hydromorphone.
McGuire's priest, Lawrence Hummer, who witnessed the execution, described what
happened next.
"Over those 11 minutes or more, he was fighting for breath, and I could see
both of his fists were clenched the entire time. His gasps could be heard
through the glass wall that separated us. Toward the end, the gasping faded
into small puffs of his mouth. It was much like a fish lying along the shore
puffing for that one gasp of air that would allow it to breathe."
McGuire's death took 26 minutes, and protesters believe that the cause of his
extended death was the drug that was supposed to ensure the execution was
painless: midazolam.
Midazolam slows brain activity, allowing for relaxation and sleep, according to
the National Institutes of Health. It is sometimes used as a sedative before
anesthetics are administered in operations.
States first started using the drug as part of a cocktail of chemicals for
executions after pharmaceuticals companies stopped selling them the anesthetic
sodium thiopental. The companies said they didn't want the drug used in
executions.
5 U.S. states have used midazolam as part of their chemical cocktails for
executions: Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Virginia and Arkansas.
McGuire's execution is 1 of a series in which prisoners injected with the drug
have appeared to suffer agonizing deaths. In 2014, rapist and murderer Clayton
Lockett moaned and writhed after being injected with drugs including midazolam
in Oklahoma. His death took 43 minutes.
Prisoners Kenneth Williams, in Arkansas in April, and Joseph Wood, in Arizona
in 2014, heaved and struggled for breath after being injected with the drug
during their executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Alabama's use of midazolam in the execution of Ronald Smith in December 2016
was followed by Smith heaving and gasping for breath for nearly 15 minutes.
In February, several death row inmates brought a case before the Supreme Court,
challenging the use of the drug for executions.
Dr. David Lubarsky testified that the drug's effectiveness as a sedative was
limited if administered with drugs that cause severe pain, as in the case in
executions.
"From the doses that have been looked at, [midazolam] provides sedation, but
not true anesthesia," Patrick Forcelli, an assistant professor of pharmacology
at Georgetown University Medical Center, told Livescience.
In the end, the justices sided with another expert, who argued that at high
doses the drug in effect paralyzes the brain, meaning it is effective as an
anesthetic in face of extreme pain.
However, 4 justices dissented.
"In reaching this conclusion, the court sweeps aside substantial evidence
showing that, while midazolam may be able to induce unconsciousness, it cannot
be utilized to maintain unconsciousness in the face of agonizing stimuli," they
wrote.
Some states have rejected the use of midazolam in executions.
Florida in January stopped using midazolam in executions as part of its 3-drug
protocol, and in December 2016, Arizona abandoned its use of midazolam in 2- or
3-drug protocols.
Ohio, after abandoning the drug following the execution of McGuire,
reintroduced its use in 2016, to be administered as part of a different
combination of drugs.
On Wednesday, child killer Roland Phillips became the 1st person to be executed
in Ohio since McGuire, and midazolam was among the drugs used.
(source: newsweek.com)
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