February 7
PENNSYLVANIA:
Execution date set for York County man who murdered friend's ex-wife during
burglary
Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel has signed a notice of execution
for Timothy Jacoby, a man who fatally shot his friend's ex-wife when he
burglarized her home in York County.
Wetzel signed the notice on Monday, which set the date of the execution for
March 8, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. But it’s
unlikely that will happen.
In an interview, Jeff Marshall, Jacoby’s attorney, said he’s going to file a
motion to stay the execution. He said his client has filed a post-conviction
relief act petition — and, under the law, the death penalty can’t be carried
out while that or any resulting appeals are pending.
Gov. Tom Wolf has also placed a moratorium on executions, describing the system
for capital punishment as “riddled with flaws, making it error prone,
expensive, and anything but infallible.” In Pennsylvania, no one has been put
to death since 1999.
In 2014, Jacoby, 45, of West Manchester Township, was found guilty of
1st-degree murder and related offenses and sentenced to death. He killed Monica
Schmeyer, 55, of West Manheim Township, on March 31, 2010.
Jacoby was a member of an informal group that met at a Hooters on Route 30
called the Orange Shorts Society. It was named after the color of the shorts
that the waitresses wore at the restaurant.
Schmeyer’s ex-wife, Jon, was part of the group. He talked about his divorce and
noted that he paid her $1,700 in alimony each month in cash. She had a habit of
keeping money in white envelopes throughout her home.
On the day of the murder, Jacoby didn’t show up for a meeting of the Orange
Shorts Society. Law enforcement conducted a years-long investigation and
charged him in the killing.
(source: York Daily Record)
NORTH CAROLINA:
NC public opinion on the death penalty appears to have reached a tipping point
There is powerful new polling data today on the public attitudes of North
Carolinians toward the death penalty.
A press release from the good people at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation
explains:
New poll shows death penalty supporters now in the minority among N.C.
voters----Public concerns grow over racial bias and the execution of innocent
people
North Carolina has long been considered a solidly pro-death penalty state, but
a new poll finds that N.C. voters overwhelmingly believe the death penalty is
error-prone and racially biased – and a majority believe it should be replaced
with alternative punishments.
The poll of 501 voters across the state, conducted last week by Public Policy
Polling, comes as a capital trial begins in Wake County. It is the 1st
comprehensive statewide survey of death penalty views in North Carolina.
It reveals that a steep decline in new death sentences – North Carolina juries
have sent only a single person to death row since 2014 – is the result of a sea
change in public opinion about the death penalty that reaches across political
divides. Of those polled, 47 percent voted for Donald Trump and 45 percent for
Hillary Clinton.
“I was stunned when I saw these numbers,” said David Weiss, a capital defense
attorney at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham. “70 % of people
believe an innocent person has likely been executed in North Carolina. Almost
60 % believe that racial bias affects who is sentenced to death in our state.
With these kinds of serious concerns about the death penalty, it’s
inconceivable that North Carolina could execute anyone or even continue to
sentence people to death.”
The poll found that voters have concerns about the death penalty’s fairness on
several fronts: More than 70 % said defendants should have the right to bring
forward evidence of racial discrimination in capital trials and jury selection.
70 % believe it is likely that an innocent person has been executed in North
Carolina.
68 % said they support the creation of a new law to exempt people with severe
mental illness from the death penalty.
61 % said they believe the courts should reexamine the death sentences of
prisoners who were tried before a series of legal reforms were enacted to
protect defendants’ rights and ensure fair trials. More than 3/4 of North
Carolina’s death row prisoners were sentenced before these reforms.
57 % said it is likely that racial bias influences who is sentenced to death.
The poll also showed that voters are willing to consider a range of
alternatives to the death penalty:
When given a choice between the death penalty and a maximum sentence of life
without parole, more than 50 % of voters said they favor life without parole,
while only 44 % leaned toward keeping the death penalty. The rest were unsure.
When offered a larger range of alternatives, including requirements that
offenders work and pay restitution to victims’ families, only 25 percent of
those polled favored the death penalty.
58 % said they would prefer to eliminate the death penalty if the millions of
dollars spent on it each year were redirected to investigating and prosecuting
unsolved rapes and murders.
59 % said they would support a decision by Gov. Roy Cooper to investigate
unfairness in the death penalty and, if necessary, replace it with life without
parole.
57 % said they would support a decision by their local district attorney to
stop seeking the death penalty because of concerns about fairness, wrongful
convictions, and cost.
North Carolina has not executed anyone since 2006. In the years since, 5 people
who were sentenced to death in North Carolina have been exonerated, more than 2
dozen others have been removed from death row after the courts found serious
errors in their cases, and a statewide study found that black jurors are
systematically removed from capital juries, violating defendants’ right to be
judged by a fair cross section of the community. Meanwhile, murder rates have
declined.
Also, in fall 2018, a new report revealed that more than 3/4 of North
Carolina’s 140 death row prisoners were sentenced before a series of reforms
that are now considered essential to fair trials. Among other things, the
reforms ensured qualified capital defense lawyers, allowed defendants access to
all evidence in the prosecution’s files, created protocols to prevent false
confessions and mistaken identifications, and protected people with serious
intellectual disabilities from execution.
Executions are currently barred in North Carolina by court order in a case that
challenges the state’s lethal injection procedures. However, that case is on
hold while the courts address other systemic questions of fairness in the
state’s capital punishment system. First among those are cases filed under the
state’s Racial Justice Act, which uncovered evidence of statewide race
discrimination in capital cases. Those cases are currently before the N.C.
Supreme Court and are expected to be argued later this year.
“The capital punishment system has so many problems that the public has lost
faith in it,” said Weiss, who is among several attorneys spearheading statewide
litigation about racial bias and the lethal injection process. “And after 12
years without executions, North Carolinians have seen that we can maintain
public safety without the death penalty. When there is this level of mistrust
in the system, we can no longer have a death penalty in North Carolina.”
(source: Commentary; Rob Schofield, NC Policy Watch)
********************
Death to the death penalty in North Carolina
For the 1st time since 2016, the state of North Carolina has sentenced another
person to the death penalty. The latest indictment of Chauncy Askew reinforces
our state’s position as having the 6th-largest death row in the nation.
Although no executions have been performed in the state since 2006, this
position is a moral blemish on our state.
North Carolina has a long history of capital punishment, going all the way back
to 1910 when the power to execute criminals was placed in the hands of the
state. All executions in the state have taken place right underneath our noses,
just 2 miles away at the Central Prison in Raleigh.
The death penalty itself is inherently flawed because it offers no recourse in
the case of a false positive. A grim, yet illuminating 2013 study released by
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. (PNAS) found
that conservative estimates would suggest that at least 1 in 25 (4.1 %) of
death-sentenced defendants between 1973 and 2004 were innocent.
On the contrary, the rate at which death-sentenced defendants were exonerated
was found to lag behind, at 1.6 percent. The only logical conclusion of what
happens to the leftover 2.5 % is the reason why the death penalty should be
abolished: a number of potentially innocent people may have been wrongfully
executed.
North Carolina has exonerated nine innocent men that the state placed on death
row. Between the nine of them, they had served a total of 112 years in prison
for crimes they were wrongfully accused of.
Each of them has a harrowing story about the haphazard nature of their due
process and the sheer luck of their exonerations coming before the execution.
The tales of these survivors leads one to wonder just how many innocent
people’s stories end on the opposite side.
Take the latest case of Askew, for example. Askew has been charged with an
utterly heinous and unforgivable crime in the shooting of State Trooper Kevin
Conner. With this being said, Askew’s attorney has argued that his client is
incompetent to stand trial. Askew scored a 52 on an IQ test he took earlier in
January and a 56 on a test he took in 2015. Both scores are well within the
range of how an intellectual disability is defined.
This brings up yet another problem of the death penalty: Is our criminal
justice system properly equipped to determine if someone is eligible to live?
Our current justice system has a number of flaws within it, including the
mishandling of mentally ill patients and the over-prosecution of people of
color. Because of this, these 2 groups disproportionately make up our
incarcerated population and thus, our death row population as well.
The Washington Post reports that 43 % of inmates executed between 2000 and 2015
had been diagnosed with some type of mental illness, and estimates that around
20 % had a personality disorder. Many of these mental illnesses are
debilitating disorders that co-occur with patterns of impairment and brain
dysfunction.
In North Carolina, about 53 % of the 144 people on death row are black, despite
only composing 22 % of our state’s population. The way in which sentencing
occurs is also racially biased, with the race of both the victim and
perpetrator greatly influencing the likelihood of death penalty sentencing. 22
% of black defendants who killed white victims are given the death sentence,
while only a mere 3 % of white defendants who killed black victims are
sentenced.
None of this is meant to be interpreted as a vindication for perpetrators of
some of the most serious crimes; however, it should serve as an indictment on a
system that executes some of its most vulnerable people. The people who are
guilty of such vile crimes should face punishment, but it should take into
consideration the social contexts of these people.
Raleigh cannot and should not stand idly by as people undeserving of death are
still being sentenced to executions. Although we greatly need comprehensive
criminal justice reform, lawmakers should at least strive to abolish the death
penalty. The difference, in this case, is quite literally a life-or-death
matter for those who are innocent.
(source: Opinion, Kevin Moye, Technician)
GEORGIA:
Federal judge orders new trial for Eric Alexander Perkinson----Death sentence
vacated for man found guilty of 1998 Bartow murder
A United States district judge has overturned the death sentence of a
Cartersville man found guilty of murdering a 16-year-old in Bartow County
almost 21 years ago.
Judge Amy Totenberg of the United States District Court for the Northern
District of Georgia issued the ruling Jan. 31, in turn ordering current death
row inmate Eric Alexander Perkinson, 40, to receive a new trial within 120
days.
Perkinson was found guilty of killing Louis G. Nava on June 6, 1998.
He and an accomplice carjacked Nava and 17-year-old Dakarai Sloley in DeKalb
County. Nava was then taken to a wooded area near Paga Mine Road, where
Perkinson fatally shot the 16-year-old victim in the head. Perkinson attempted
to execute Sloley in a similar fashion, only for the Sloley to flee, wave down
a passing motorist and escape.
Perkinson’s fingerprints were found on the vehicle stolen from Sloley and the
murder weapon was recovered from the same automobile.
On Aug. 27, 1999, a Bartow County Superior Court jury found Perkinson guilty of
1 count of malice murder, 3 counts of felony murder, 2 counts of aggravated
assault, 1 count of aggravated battery, 2 counts of false imprisonment, theft
by taking, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and
possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
In her order from late last month, Judge Totenberg said Perkinson’s attorney —
Alan Medof, who died last year — did not provide the defendant adequate
representation during the 1999 trial.
“At minimum, the history of [Perkinson’s] legal representation leading up to
and during his trial is troubling,” Totenberg wrote. “In fact, during the
motion for a new trial hearing, the trial judge commented ‘the court would find
as a matter of fact that not only was Mr. Medof ineffective, but he was
incompetent.’”
According to court documents, not only had Medof never tried a murder case
before Perkinson’s trial, he admitted to falling asleep during portions of the
court proceedings. He was previously suspended by the state bar of Florida due
to a substance abuse problem and during Perkinson’s trial, he was arrested in
Florida for attempting to solicit a prostitute.
Furthermore, Totenberg said Perkinson’s subsequent attorney, Christopher G.
Paul, was not afforded enough time to prepare for the trial, nor was he
allotted enough time to “properly develop his case with regard to the adaptive
functioning prong of his mental retardation defense.”
Had jurors heard evidence presented in a state habeas corpus hearing regarding
Perkinson's possible intellectual disabilities, Totenberg suggested they may
have found him ineligible to receive the death sentence.
The State of Georgia has had a statute prohibiting the execution of prisoners
with intellectual disabilities since 1988. The 2002 Supreme Court ruling in
Atkins v. Virginia determined execution of the mentally retarded to constitute
a violation of the Eighth Amendment, barring the death sentence for individuals
with intellectual disabilities nationwide — albeit, with a provision allowing
states to legally determine what constitutes an "intellectually disabled"
individual. The 2014 Supreme Court ruling in Hall v. Florida further barred the
use of “bright-line cutoffs” in IQ testing to determine whether an individual
is eligible for a death sentence.
The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the death penalty for Perkinson in 2005.
“Although mental retardation, unlike insanity, is not a defense to guilt, the
jury would logically understand that some benefit must accrue to Perkinson if
found to be guilty but mentally retarded because he vigorously attempted to
prove his mental retardation at trial and the State’s experts opined that he
malingered on IQ testing in an attempt to portray himself as mentally
retarded,” wrote Georgia Supreme Court Justice Carol W. Hunstein in the
majority opinion. “The prosecutor did not inform the jury that Perkinson could
not receive a death sentence if found to be guilty but mentally retarded, and
the trial court correctly charged the jury on the sentencing consequences of
such a verdict.”
The new trial ordered by Totenberg would focus on whether or not Perkinson is
intellectually disabled and whether or not he should be resentenced to life in
prison.
“The best outcome is to avoid being executed,” Perkinson's attorney,
Atlanta-based Douglas A. Bennett, told The Daily Tribune News. "We certainly
feel for the victims in this case, but also we think because of the
overwhelming evidence that could’ve been presented that wasn’t because of what
happened, that perhaps a better outcome for everybody would be a different
result.”
Continuing, Bennett said the retrial would likely be held in Bartow, but a
change of venue may be requested.
"We expect the Attorney General's Office to file an appeal, and if that
happens, that will certainly delay the retrial for a significant period of
time," he said. “We hope that the district attorney would see the overwhelming
evidence of his intellectual disability, and we would like to resolve this
without trial."
(source: The Daily Tribune News)
ALABAMA----stay of impending execution
Stay of execution granted for Alabama inmate; appeals court says state violated
First Amendment
An Alabama death row inmate scheduled to be executed Thursday night has been
granted an emergency stay.
Domineque Ray’s execution is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at Holman Correctional
Facility in Atmore, nearly 20 years after he was convicted of killing
15-year-old Tiffany Harville in Selma. On Wednesday afternoon, the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals granted Ray’s request for an emergency stay regarding an
appeal centering on Ray’s religious freedom.
Ray’s lawyers filed a lawsuit last month claiming Ray’s religious freedom was
being violated because the Alabama Department of Corrections would not allow
his Muslim spiritual adviser to be in the execution chamber. Officials told the
inmate he would be allowed to meet with his imam up until being prepared for
execution, the lawsuit claims, but the imam would have to watch the execution
in a witness room with 2-way glass.
The appeals court’s ruling states, “We do not doubt that Alabama has a powerful
interest in the secure and orderly administration of the death penalty… And the
prison’s concerns may be at their apex during the most consequential act of
carrying out an execution. As a general matter and at least at first blush,
this seems as obvious to us as it did to the district court. Moreover, we can
imagine many practical reasons as well why Alabama may wish to provide
religious support and pastoral comfort of this kind to a condemned prisoner.”
Last week, a federal court in the Middle District of Alabama denied Ray’s
request for a stay of execution and also denied his request to have his Muslim
spiritual adviser, or imam, in the execution chamber during the lethal
injection procedure. The court did order the ADOC to remove the Christian
chaplain, who is typically in the execution chamber, from the room and ensure
Ray cannot see the chaplain.
Bob Horton, spokesperson for the ADOC, said the department follows protocol
“regardless of the chaplain’s spiritual belief or that of the inmate.” Horton
said the ADOC protocol “only allows approved correctional officials, that
includes the prison’s chaplain, to be inside the chamber where executions are
lawfully carried out. The inmate’s spiritual advisor may visit the inmate
beforehand and witness the execution from a designated witness room that has a
2-way window.”
The appeals court said, “Notably, Alabama did not provide the Court with any
affidavit from the Warden or from any other prison official addressing in any
way why there were not lesser measures available to protect its interests and
provide the same faith-based benefits to Christians and non-Christians alike.
Nor did Alabama offer anything from its Chaplain or from anyone else about the
perceived risks or the things that a cleric might need to learn in order to
undertake this solemn and sensitive task. Alabama has presented us with nothing
in support of its claims.”
The appeals court noted in its order that the clerk should “expedite” the
appeal “so that we may promptly resolve these claims.”
“Nevertheless, in the face of this limited record, it looks substantially
likely to us that Alabama has run afoul of the Establishment Clause of the
First Amendment,” the appeals court said. “What is central to Establishment
Clause jurisprudence is the fundamental principle that at a minimum neither the
states nor the federal government may pass laws or adopt policies that aid one
religion or prefer one religion over another. And that, it appears to us, is
what the Alabama Department of Corrections has done here. Alabama’s policy
facially furthers a denominational preference.”
Harville was fatally stabbed in 1995 and her body was found by a farmer off a
country road in Selma. Ray was convicted of raping the teen and robbing her of
approximately $6 she had in her purse.
(source: al.com)
******************
Jury recommends life without parole for Huntsville man who murdered wife,
son----Marc Stone killed his family members inside their south Huntsville home
in 2013
A Madison County jury says the Huntsville man who brutally killed his wife and
son in their home should spend the rest of his life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
9 of the 12 jurors recommended that punishment for Marc Stone over the death
penalty on Wednesday after hours of deliberations. Madison County Circuit Judge
Donna Pate will take that recommendation into consideration and will issue a
final order on Stone’s sentence in the coming weeks.
The victims’ relatives spoke to the media after hearing the outcome of the
case.
“The term I use is bittersweet. It’s a relief to have it finished. It’s a
verdict I thought they should have reached but it’s tough to see the man you
once entrusted to take care of your daughter be convicted as well,” said David
Kowalsky, the father and grandfather of the victims.
The prosecution and defense also provided comments to reports coming out of the
courtroom.
“Obviously, we’re saddened by the verdict this week. After 6 years, it’s hard
to come to a conclusion like that. But with the verdict this afternoon, with
his life being spared, we feel fortunate in that aspect for our client,” said
Brian Clark, one of Stone’s defense attorneys.
“With what he did, that man never needs to walk the streets again and he won’t
and justice has been served,” said Madison County District Attorney Rob
Broussard.
(source: WAFF news)
LOUISIANA:
Death penalty prosecution is murky in case of Dakota Theriot, accused of
killing 5 people
On its face, the man who authorities say admitted to killing 5 people,
including his own parents, in a 2-parish shooting rampage last month would be a
clear candidate for the death penalty.
But the top prosecutor in Ascension Parish has not come to a decision on the
matter. And the district attorney in Livingston Parish said he is giving it a
hard look, citing in particular reports that Dakota Theriot has struggled with
mental illness.
"I think it's just prudent to get as much information as we can, especially in
light of the reports that he might have had a mental health issue," District
Attorney Scott Perrilloux said.
Perrilloux is taking the case to a Livingston Parish grand jury Thursday
morning, seeking formal charges against Dakota Theriot on three counts of
1st-degree murder in the deaths of his girlfriend, Summer Ernest; her brother,
Tanner Ernest; and her father, Billy Ernest.
1st-degree murder opens up the possibility of the death penalty. But a
mitigating issue like mental illness is just one of a number of factors, from
the opinion of the victims’ families to the cost of a years-long appeal
process.
Authorities have said Theriot was staying with the Ernests in a trailer
outsider Walker when on the morning of Jan. 27 he took a handgun stolen from
his father and shot 3 residents inside, killing each with a single bullet to
the head. Shortly thereafter, authorities said, he jumped in Billy Ernest’s car
and drove down to Ascension Parish, where he killed his parents in the same
fashion before fleeing to Virginia.
Theriot confessed to killing all 5 people but did not offer a motive, law
enforcement authorities have said.
In the years before the shooting rampage, Theriot had had repeated run-ins with
the police and involuntary mental health holds, law enforcement records show.
He threatened to burn down the family house with his parents inside,
hallucinated and beat his ex-wife, who told Kenner Police that Theriot was
schizophrenic.
Ascension Parish Ricky Babin has not presented his case to a grand jury in that
parish, said office spokesman Tyler Cavalier.
Should grand juries in either Ascension or Livingston return an indictment for
first-degree murder, the prosecutors could seek the death penalty. But if they
did so, they would be bucking a national trend away from the punishment. The
number of death sentences given each year across the U.S. has fallen from a
high of 315 in 1996 to 42 in 2018, according to the Death Penalty Information
Center, a nonprofit that studies the issue.
(source: theadvocate.com)
KENTUCKY:
4 plead guilty in death of pregnant woman shot during theft
4 men have pleaded guilty in the 2016 death of a pregnant Kentucky woman who
was fatally hit by a stray bullet during a robbery.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports 22-year-old Demetrioun Boaz pleaded guilty
to charges including murder Tuesday. 21-year-olds Joseph Fain and Saquan
Freeman and 23-year-old Skylar Stigall pleaded guilty that day to charges
including manslaughter.
22-year-old Maryiah Coleman was 8-months pregnant when fatally shot while
walking her family’s dog in September 2016. Her fetus also died. Authorities
have said the men were trying to rob someone nearby when the victim ran and
shots were fired.
Sentencing for the men is set for March 14. The 4 sought to have the death
penalty excluded, but a judge overruled that motion in December.
(source: Associated Press)
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