December 6
TEXAS----death sentence overturned
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturns death sentence for inmate Kenneth
Wayne Thomas----Thomas' conviction stands, but he is entitled to a new
punishment hearing based on modern standards for assessing intellectual
disabilities, the court ruled.
Death row inmate Kenneth Wayne Thomas could see his sentence adjusted after the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday ordered a new punishment hearing
based on Thomas' claims of intellectual disability.
In 1987, Thomas was convicted of capital murder for the 1986 slayings of
Mildred and Fred Finch, who he stabbed to death and whose bones he broke after
breaking into their home in South Dallas. He was sentenced to death despite
claims of mental illness.
Most recently, after a slew of appeals, in 2014, a jury found that Thomas was
not “a person with mental retardation,” according to court documents. But the
state’s highest criminal court wrote Wednesday that the jury had based its
decision on antiquated standards for determining intellectual disability, and
that Thomas is entitled to a new punishment hearing in which jurors employ
modern standards.
“As a matter of due process, Thomas is entitled to a new punishment hearing,”
Judge Bert Richardson wrote for the majority on a divided court.
In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Bobby Moore that Texas was
relying on decades-old medical standards and thus violating the Eighth
Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Since that case,
Richardson wrote, the Court of Criminal Appeals has sent at least 6
intellectual disability cases down to lower courts for additional fact-finding.
(source: Texas Tribune)
*********************
Death Watch: Lucky 13?----The state on pace for a baker’s dozen of executions
by year end
If all goes according to the state's plan, Texas will have executed 13 inmates
by 2018's end. After 5 failed attempts to secure a stay from the U.S. Supreme
Court, Joseph Garcia was executed just before 7pm on Tuesday – with the very
drug challenged in his last-minute appeals.
In the last week, Garcia's attorneys filed several new motions for a stay due
to a "belief" that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice acquires its
execution drug pentobarbital "from a compounding pharmacy that has been
repeatedly cited for safety and sanitation violations by state and federal
regulators, and has been on probation with the Texas State Board of Pharmacy
since 2016." The filings argued that execution would violate Garcia's 8th and
14th Amendment rights, since "substantial concerns" have been raised that the
drug "will not be what it purports to be, will be contaminated, or will be
otherwise substandard."
These filings came in response to a BuzzFeed News article published Wednesday,
Nov. 28, based on documents identifying one of two manufacturers for Texas'
lethal injection drugs: Houston's Greenpark Compounding Pharmacy, on probation
for compounding the wrong drug for several children and forging quality control
documents. It's also been cited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
potential sterility violations.
Texas is currently defending a 2014 lawsuit that challenges the state's refusal
to identify its drug suppliers so as to avoid botched executions. BuzzFeed
reported that, after receiving lethal injection, Texas inmates Anthony Shore,
Juan Castillo, Troy Clark, Christopher Young, and Danny Bible all made
declarations of pain and a "burning" feeling before dying.
Now Alvin Braziel Jr. is staring down a death date of Dec. 11, for the 1993
robbery-murder of Douglas White on a Eastfield College trail in Mesquite;
White's wife Lora was brutally raped by his killer. 8 years later, after DNA
linked Braziel - then serving time for another sex crime – to the rape, he was
found guilty of capital murder. During the trial, Braziel maintained he did not
kill White.
SCOTUS denied Braziel's last round of appeals in 2016. Attorneys Jeff Newberry
and David Dow were later appointed substitute counsel, and on Dec. 3 filed a
stay request and appeals at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. At press time,
the filings had not been made available, nor had Dow or Newberry returned the
Chronicle's requests for comment. But according to documents shared by the
Attorney General's Office, Braziel's argument is based in an Atkins claim,
which ruled executing the intellectually disabled is cruel and unusual
punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment. The state's response claims that
relief for that request has already been denied by the CCA. If executed,
Braziel will be the 558th Texan to be killed by the state since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1976.
(source: Austin Chroncile)
**********************
Border agent indicted for capital murder in 4 Texas deaths
A U.S. Border Patrol agent who confessed to killing four sex workers told
investigators he wanted to “clean up the streets” of his Texas border hometown,
a prosecutor said Wednesday while announcing that a grand jury had indicted the
man for capital murder.
Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said he will seek the death penalty
for the September slayings and that evidence presented to the grand jury showed
Juan David Ortiz killed the women “in a cold, callous and calculating way.”
“The scheme in this case, from Ortiz’s own words, was to clean up the streets
of Laredo by targeting this community of individuals who he perceived to be
disposable, that no one would miss and that he did not give value to,” Alaniz
said at a news conference.
Alaniz said Ortiz, 35, believed law enforcement didn’t do enough to curb
prostitution, so he was “doing a service” by killing the women.
A suspect can be charged with capital murder if he is suspected in more than
one killing in the same scheme with an overarching motive, Alaniz said. Three
of the women were shot to death, and the fourth was also shot but died of blunt
force trauma.
Alaniz said the horrific nature of the killings and Ortiz’s vigilante mentality
were factors in his decision to pursue the death penalty. Ortiz, who has been
held on murder charges in the Webb County jail on a $2.5 million bond since his
Sept. 15 arrest in Laredo, presents a clear danger to society, he said.
The Border Patrol intel supervisor and Navy veteran seemed to be living a
typical suburban life with his wife and two children when the killings
occurred. He was only arrested after 1 victim was able to escape him and asked
a state trooper for help.
“By day, he was a family man. The evidence shows that he was a supervisor, that
he would go about his daily activities like anybody here. He appeared normal by
all accounts and circumstances,” Alaniz said. “At the nighttime, he was
somebody else — hunting the streets ... for this community of people and
arbitrarily deciding who he was going to kill next.”
Alaniz said Ortiz knew some of the victims but he wouldn’t elaborate on what
kind of relationship they had. Melissa Ramirez, 29, was slain on Sept. 3, and
42-year-old Claudine Luera was killed on Sept. 13.
On Sept. 14, he picked up another woman, Erika Pena, who told investigators
that Ortiz acted oddly when she brought up Ramirez’s slaying and later pointed
a gun at her while they were in his truck at a gas station, according to court
documents. Pena said Ortiz grabbed her shirt as she tried to get out of the
truck, but she pulled it off and ran, finding a state trooper who was refueling
his vehicle.
Ortiz fled and, he later told investigators, he then picked up and killed his
last 2 victims — 35-year-old Guiselda Alicia Cantu and 28-year-old Janelle
Ortiz, a transgender woman whose birth name was Humberto Ortiz.
With Pena’s help, authorities were able to track Ortiz to a hotel parking
garage where he was arrested.
“I believe that if Erika Pena would not have escaped that day that there would
be more victims right now in this case,” Alaniz said.
Ortiz also was indicted Wednesday on charges of aggravated assault with a
deadly weapon and unlawful restraint in the attack on Pena, and a charge of
evading arrest or detention.
Ortiz’s attorney did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.
The Border Patrol placed Ortiz on indefinite, unpaid suspension after his
arrest. On Wednesday, the agency did not respond to a request for an update on
his employment status.
(source: Associated Press)
NEW JERSEY:
Colts Neck killings spur calls for death penalty in N.J.
Following the grisly deaths of a family in Colts Next last month, lawmakers in
a mostly rural swath of northwest New Jersey are calling for the reinstatement
of the death penalty in the state.
“The gruesome murder of the Caneiro family is proof that we must reinstate the
death penalty," state Sen. Steven Oroho and Assemblymen Parker Space and Harold
Wirths, all Republicans from District 24, said in a statement.
Paul Caneiro, 51, is accused of killing his brother, Keith, 50, Keith’s wife,
Jennifer, 45, and the couple’s 2 young children, 8-year-old Sophia and
11-year-old Jesse.
Caneiro, of Ocean Township, is charged with 4 counts of 1st-degree murder. His
attorneys have maintained he is innocent and that he loved his family dearly.
Calling this the “most brutal” case in his career, Monmouth County Prosecutor
Christopher Gramiccioni said last week that he would approve this as a capital
punishment case, if it was an option in New Jersey.
Caneiro faces 30 years to life in prison on each count of murder, along with
additional prison time on weapons offenses and aggravated arson charges.
In 1982, state Sen. John F. Russo, a Democrat from Ocean County, wrote the
statute that reinstated the death penalty in New Jersey. Russo was motivated by
the death of his 77-year-old father, who was fatally shot during a robbery
attempt in Asbury Park on New Year’s Eve in 1970.
In December 2007, the state Legislature voted to make New Jersey the 1st state
to abolish the death penalty in 42 years. The state Assembly voted 44-36 to
pass the bill, and Gov. Jon Corzine signed it into law days later.
Oroho, Wirths and Space, who together represent parts of Sussex, Warren and
Morris counties, made an attempt in 2016 to get legislation passed to reinstate
the death penalty to no avail. Their current bills have yet to receive a
committee hearing. District 24 is among the most conservative parts of New
Jersey.
Space said the “most effective deterrent out there” is the death penalty.
Cases in federal court, however, can still be tried with the death penalty.
In 2015, the Justice Department authorized former U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman to
seek the death penalty against Farad Roland, a leader of a violent sub-set of
the Bloods street gang in Newark. Roland, 33, admitted in January to having a
role in five shooting deaths and accepted a plea deal that will have him behind
bars for 45 years.
“The Colts Neck murderer deserves nothing less than the death penalty,” Oroho
said in the statement. “We can no longer ignore the public calls for action in
gruesome cases like these."
(source: nj.com)
ALABAMA:
US Supreme Court Weighs Execution of Prisoner With Severe Dementia----The U.S.
Supreme Court is considering whether the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against
cruel and unusual punishment bars the execution of an inmate suffering severe
dementia.
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether the Eighth Amendment’s
prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment bars the execution of an
inmate suffering severe dementia. Put bluntly, can a state execute a prisoner
who no longer remembers his own name, much less committing the capital crime of
conviction? In October, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Madison v.
Alabama, a case that will determine whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the
execution of a prisoner whose medical condition deprives him of any memory of
his offense.
In 1985, Vernon Madison killed a police officer in Mobile, Alabama. Madison was
convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. While awaiting execution on
Alabama’s death row, Madison suffered several strokes and was diagnosed with
acute vascular dementia; his cognitive functioning is massively impaired and he
has a very limited ability to remember events. In particular, Madison cannot
recall any details of his crime or trial.
In January 2018, Madison requested a stay of execution. In his petition,
Madison claimed that he lacked the competency to be executed. The state court
denied Madison’s petition, but the Supreme Court granted the stay—and
ultimately a full writ of certiorari—in order to consider Madison’s Eighth
Amendment claim.
Madison argued that his execution would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on
cruel and unusual punishment and would contravene U.S. Supreme Court precedent
barring the execution of mentally disabled or insane prisoners, see Panetti v.
Quarterman (2007) (mentally disabled); Ford v. Wainwright (1986) (insane).
Additionally, Madison stated that his execution would not serve the underlying
rationales of the death penalty; because Madison does not understand why he is
being executed, his execution would not deter future crimes and would not
punish Madison for his crime.
By contrast, Alabama maintained that whether Madison remembers his crime is not
dispositive in determining whether he may be executed for that crime. Rather,
Alabama contended that Madison understands the reasons for his execution and
therefore may be executed in accordance with the Eighth Amendment. In support
of this argument, Alabama relied on the findings of the court-appointed
psychologist, who concluded that “Madison has a rational understanding that he
is to be executed for killing a police officer in 1985."
At oral argument, Chief Justice John Roberts took a lead role in trying to
clarify the issues presented in Madison’s case. For Roberts, the first issue
was whether “someone who doesn’t remember the details of their crime” is
properly analogized to the examples of insane or disabled prisoners whose
execution has been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In response to
this first issue, Madison’s lawyer quickly acknowledged that Madison’s
inability to remember the details of his crime does not, without more, make his
execution unconstitutional.
Second, Roberts stated that the court needed to examine whether dementia meets
the Ford standard for incompetence—and therefore renders unconstitutional the
execution of a prisoner suffering dementia. On this second point, Thomas Govan,
Alabama’s deputy attorney general conceded that, “if someone has vascular
dementia or any other mental illness, if it precludes them from having a
rational understanding of their punishment, and that they will die when they’re
executed, they would meet the Ford and Panetti standard.” With this concession,
Roberts articulated the narrow issue in this case as “whether Madison himself
meets the Ford and Panetti standard?”
Alabama did not appear to persuade a majority of the justices that Madison fell
short of that standard. Govan explained that “there is no confusion from
Madison’s perspective” regarding his incarceration or execution. Further, Govan
argued that a state court had already decided that, even now, Madison possessed
a rational understanding of his crime and execution. Justice Sonia Sotomayor
curtly rejected this interpretation, stating that Madison is “just not rational
in the way you and I understand it.” Madison’s attorney further emphasized that
Madison cannot have this understanding because dementia robs its victims of the
ability to sustain understanding over a period of time. More fundamentally,
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan appeared to discount Govan’s
argument that the state court’s inquiry into Madison’s rationality was
sufficiently thorough.
The court could issue its decision anytime between now and June 2019. When
announced, the Madison case will provide important insights about the Eighth
Amendment’s restriction on capital punishment of the mentally disabled.
(source: Stephen A. Miller practices in the commercial litigation group at
Cozen O’Connor’s Philadelphia office. Prior to joining the firm, he clerked for
Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court and served as a federal
prosecutor for 9 years in the Southern District of New York and the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.----Rachel Collins Clarke also practices in the firm’s
commercial litigation group. Prior to joining the firm, she served as an
Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia and graduated from Georgetown
University Law Center.----law.com)
WEST VIRGINIA:
Local Author Details Executions Conducted at Former West Virginia Penitentiary
in Moundsville
Moundsville author C.J. Plogger spoke Tuesday about his new book, “Pronounced
Dead: The Executions at the West Virginia Penitentiary,” at the Ohio County
Public Library.
Drawing upon penal records and old newspaper accounts, Moundsville author C.J.
Plogger has researched the 94 executions conducted at the former West Virginia
Penitentiary over a 60-year period from 1899 to 1959.
He appeared Tuesday at the Ohio County Public Library’s Lunch With Books
program to talk about his new book, “Pronounced Dead: The Executions at the
West Virginia Penitentiary."
Plogger serves as pastor of Ash Avenue Church of God in Moundsville and leads
tours at the former prison. Regarding the book’s topic, he said, “I personally
do not believe in capital punishment."
He said 94 men were executed at the penitentiary; a woman was sentenced to
death, but received a last-minute pardon. The executions included 85 hangings
and nine electrocutions. The state abolished the death penalty in 1965.
The last execution occurred on April 3, 1959, when Elmer David Bruner was
electrocuted for the killing of a Huntington woman. While Bruner was on death
row, he received a letter from an 11-year-old Moundsville girl; in response, he
sent her “a beautiful letter” and a jigsaw puzzle that he had made, Plogger
said. The framed puzzle was displayed during Plogger’s presentation.
14 men were put to death for killing their wives, he said. They included Frank
Hyer who, according to a newspaper account, was so heavy that his head popped
off when he was hanged on June 19, 1931.
Of those executed, 40 were black, he said. Noting the racial disparity, he said
they accounted for 43 % of the executions, at a time when the state’s
population was only 8 % black.
The last public execution in the state occurred in 1897 at Ripley, where
souvenirs and food were sold beforehand and pandemonium ensued, he said.
In reaction to that incident, the Legislature ordered that a special enclosure
be built within the penitentiary’s walls to exclude public view of executions.
The so-called “death house,” a brick and stone building, was constructed at a
cost of $6,000 in September 1899, he said.
For hangings, prisoners walked 13 steps to the gallows and were placed in a
noose with 13 knots as a symbolic nod to the 13 people — 12 jurors and a judge
— who convicted them, he said.
Shep Caldwell, of McDowell County, was the first man to be hanged at the new
facility on Oct. 10, 1899. Caldwell, a married man, fatally shot his mistress
in a rage after he saw her with a boyfriend, Plogger said.
Frank H. Johnson, the state’s first serial killer, was hanged July 17, 1908. On
the eve of his death, he confessed to five murders. Plogger showed a Wheeling
Register article about the hanging, under the headline, "Black Friday at the
Penitentiary."
Harry F. Powers, a con man who allegedly murdered 55 women, was hanged in March
1938. Moundsville native Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel, “Night of the Hunter,” and
Jayne Anne Phillips’ 2013 novel, “Quiet Dell,” were inspired by Powers’ story.
A triple hanging — of Philip Cannizzaro, Dick Ferry and Nick Salamante, members
of the Sicilian “Black Handers” — took place Jan. 4, 1924, the author said. The
group acquired its nickname for a habit of dipping victims’ hands in ink, he
explained.
Another triple hanging occurred in 1938 for men convicted of kidnapping a
minister who later died. Plogger said they were sentenced under a federal law
enacted after the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby.
The youngest man executed was Phillip Eumen, 18, hanged Aug. 20, 1926, for
killing a grocery store owner.
Inmate Henry Jackson was hanged Sept. 10, 1926, for stabbing guard Earl
Langfitt with a homemade shank in March of that year. Langfitt was the first
correctional officer to die in the line of duty, Plogger said.
The only Moundsville native to be executed was Raymond Styres, put to death on
May 13, 1938, for killing the wife of a Wheeling casino owner, Plogger said.
(source: The Intelligencer)
LOUISIANA:
Man's death sentence in 2011 CarQuest double murder thrown out; convictions
affirmed
A Baton Rouge man's death sentence in the 2011 slaying of 2 CarQuest Auto Parts
employees at the company's Airline Highway store near Siegen Lane was thrown
out Wednesday by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
The high court, however, affirmed Lee Turner Jr.'s 2015 1st-degree murder
convictions in the fatal shooting of Edward "Eddie" Gurtner III, 43, of Denham
Springs, and Randy Chaney, 55, of Greenwell Springs.
Turner began working for CarQuest in Baton Rouge just 11 days before he killed
the men during a Sunday afternoon robbery.
The Supreme Court said it tossed Turner's death sentence because state District
Judge Richard Anderson issued a ruling in the middle of jury selection that
prevented the defense from inquiring into prospective jurors' ability to fairly
consider voting for a life sentence in a case involving a double murder
committed during an armed robbery.
The high court sent the case back to Anderson for a new sentencing hearing.
One of Turner’s appellate attorneys, Caroline Tillman with the Capital Appeals
Project in New Orleans, hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“The importance of a fair jury in a death penalty trial cannot be overstated,
and we are thankful that the Louisiana Supreme Court has stepped in,” she said.
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said his office is
grateful that Turner’s convictions were affirmed “but nonetheless express our
respectful disappointment … with respect to sentencing.""
“After enduring 13 days of jury selection followed by 9 days of trial,
resulting in unanimous convictions and verdicts of death, the victims’ family
members are still without closure with regard to the consequences (Turner) will
face for killing Randy Chaney and Eddie Gurtner,” Moore said.
Moore said his office will “evaluate our future actions with respect to the
sentencing after the new year."
Turner’s trial attorneys, East Baton Rouge Parish assistant public defenders
Margaret Lagattuta and Scott Collier, noted Wednesday that they objected to
Anderson’s ruling at the time it was made.
Collier said he knew the trial court’s ruling during jury selection excluding
questions about armed robbery “would be a major issue on appeal."
“Our objections then have saved Lee Turner’s life today,” Lagattuta added.
Scott Crichton authored the Supreme Court decision and wrote that Anderson’s
ruling categorically prohibiting Turner’s attorneys from referencing armed
robbery to potential jurors “runs afoul” of prior state Supreme Court
decisions.
“The general allegations of the case at hand necessarily included the fact that
there were 2 victims and that the victims were killed during an armed robbery.
Indeed, these were the exact statutory aggravators set forth in the state’s
notice of intent to seek the death penalty,” Crichton stated. “The trial
court’s blanket prohibition against referencing armed robbery was therefore an
abuse of discretion."
Turner’s appellate attorneys argued that Anderson’s ruling mandated reversal of
his convictions as well, but the Supreme Court disagreed, saying the error
required only overturning his death sentence.
Justices Greg Guidry and Jeff Hughes agreed with their Supreme Court
colleagues’ upholding of Turner’s convictions but dissented with their decision
to reverse his death sentence and order a new sentencing hearing.
Turner, 28 and formerly of New Orleans, confessed the day after the March 27,
2011, killings that he shot Chaney first, then Gurtner after forcing him to
open the store safe. Gurtner died with the store's keys, including a key to the
safe, in his hand. A search warrant led to the discovery of bank bags and
CarQuest deposit slips in a garbage can outside the Ritterman Avenue home where
Turner was staying with an uncle.
Gurtner managed the store where the shooting occurred. He wasn't scheduled to
work that day but went in to catch up on restocking and to hang a mirror in the
store's bathroom. He was shot a dozen times, including several times in the
back, as he tried to run from Turner. Chaney was the assistant manager of the
company's Staring Lane location but was helping out at the Airline Highway
store that ill-fated day. He was shot once in the back of the head.
(source: The Advocate)
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