March 19
TEXAS:
Lawmakers consider death penalty procedures
A bill filed in the Texas House would require a judge, when the death penalty
is on the table, to determine before the case is tried whether a defendant has
an intellectual disability, a change in procedure that has garnered bipartisan
support.
House Bill 1139, authored by Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, would move the
determination phase from after a trial.
In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited the use of the death penalty for
felons with an intellectual disability. That case and others since have shown
it is necessary for Texas to legislate the issue, Thompson told the
American-Statesman.
“When the Supreme Court told us 2 or 3 times it’s time for us to change our
methodology and how we assess these individuals, I mean, this is just too
critical,” Thompson said. “If you don’t get it right here, that person’s gone.”
Several witnesses at the bill’s public hearing in the House Criminal
Jurisprudence Committee on Monday said the bill would save the court time and
money because sentencing phases after the trial would not have to be redone.
Texas courts created the current system in response to the Supreme Court
decision. State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said judges have been asking the
Legislature to outline a proper procedure.
“When we don’t do something in this arena, specifically this one, they have to
fashion a judicial remedy,” Moody said. “That remedy was imperfect and proven
to be imperfect over time.”
Reps. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and James White, R-Hillister, are joint authors of
the bill, and Jason Vaughn, policy director of the Texas Young Republicans,
testified in its favor.
“I’m so glad to see this has received bipartisan support,” Vaughn said,
detailing the issues he read in the case of Bobby Moore, whose death sentence
the U.S. Supreme Court overturned in February on the grounds that he had an
intellectual disability.
Vincent Giardino, a legislative liaison for the Tarrant County district
attorney’s office, was the only witness to testify against the bill. He said he
supports moving the determination to before a trial but that the hearing should
take place at least 180 days before the trial date.
“These cases take a long time to pend,” Giardino said, adding that prosecutors
and the court start lining up hundreds of personnel for the trial date. “45
days before trial, we’re too close to the trial.”
The bill was left pending in committee. 2 other bills on the death penalty were
also slated for a hearing Monday evening
(source: Austin American-Statesman)
GEORGIA:
Top U.S. court spurns Georgia death row inmate's racist juror claim
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for a black Georgia death row
inmate to be executed, turning away his bid to challenge his death sentence for
the 1990 murder of his sister-in-law on the basis that the trial was tainted by
a racist white juror who questioned whether black people have souls.
Keith “Bo” Tharpe was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury of 10 white
people and 2 black people in Georgia’s Jones County. The allegations of racial
bias arose from an interview with one of the jurors years later, not comments
made during the trial.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a statement agreeing with the court’s
decision not to hear the case, noting that it turned on whether Tharpe could
appeal and not the merits of his claim. But Sotomayor said she was “profoundly
troubled” by the evidence Tharpe had uncovered.
“These racist sentiments, expressed by a juror entrusted with a vote over
Tharpe’s fate, suggest an appalling risk that racial bias swayed Tharpe’s
sentencing,” Sotomayor wrote.
Tharpe, 60, had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection in 2017
but the Supreme Court granted him a last-minute stay of execution.
Tharpe’s lawyers, as they were preparing an appeal in the case in 1998, spoke
with the trial jurors including a man named Barney Gattie, who has since died.
“After studying the Bible, I have wondered if black people even have souls,”
Gattie told Tharpe’s lawyers in an affidavit, according to court papers.
Gattie also told the defense lawyers that there are 2 kinds of black people,
one who he called “regular black folks” and another group he referred to using
a racial slur.
“Because I knew the victim and her husband’s family and knew them all to be
good black folks, I felt Tharpe, who wasn’t in the ‘good black folks’ category
in my book, should get the electric chair for what he did,” Gattie added.
Tharpe kidnapped and raped his estranged wife, Migrisus Tharpe, and used a
shotgun to kill Jaquelin Freeman, her sister, in September 1990, according to
court records. He was sentenced to death in 1991.
This marked the 2nd time Tharpe’s appeal had reached the Supreme Court. In
January 2018, the justices in a 6-3 unsigned decision - without hearing oral
arguments - threw out a lower court’s ruling that had rejected Tharpe’s biased
jury assertion. Tharpe again appealed the Supreme Court after the Atlanta-based
11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August 2018 refused to let him pursue his
claim.
His appeal was built upon a March 2017 Supreme Court ruling in favor of a
Hispanic man over a juror’s racist comments. The justices on a 5-3 decision in
that case threw out a Colorado state court decision that upheld the conviction
of Miguel Pena Rodriguez, who was accused of sexually groping two teenage
sisters in 2007.
A juror in that trial said during deliberations that Pena Rodriguez, a
Mexican-born lawful permanent U.S. resident, “did it because he’s Mexican, and
Mexican men take whatever they want.” The question Tharpe’s lawyers had raised
was whether that decision applied retroactively to his case, meaning he could
raise the same claim.
(source: Reuters)
***************
Sotomayor Is 'Profoundly Troubled' by Racial Bias in Georgia Death Penalty
Case----"I concur in the denial of Tharpe’s petition. I write because I am
profoundly troubled by the underlying facts of this case," Justice Sonia
Sotomayor said
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied the latest petition from a black
Georgia death row inmate who is claiming juror racial bias, prompting an angry
statement from Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Sotomayor agreed that the denial may have been justified because the latest
decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Keith
Tharpe’s case did not turn on the merits of his claim, but rather on procedural
issues.
But Sotomayor, who has raised concerns about capital cases in the recent past,
said she was “profoundly troubled by the underlying facts of this case.”
Sotomayor wrote:
“I therefore concur in the court’s decision to deny Tharpe’s petition for
certiorari. As this may be the end of the road for Tharpe’s juror-bias claim,
however, we should not look away from the magnitude of the potential injustice
that procedural barriers are shielding from judicial review.”
Sotomayor recounted the statements made in an affidavit by a white member of
the jury, Barney Gattie, who has since died, that “there are 2 types of black
people: 1. Black folks and 2. Niggers” and that Tharpe, “who wasn’t in the
‘good’ black folks category in [his] book, should get the electric chair for
what he did.”
Tharpe, Sotomayor noted, has not received a hearing on the merits of his
racial-bias claims. Gattie’s statements, Sotomayor wrote, “amount to an
arresting demonstration that racism can and does seep into the jury system. The
work of ‘purg[ing] racial prejudice from the administration of justice’ … is
far from done.”
Tharpe was convicted of murder and 2 counts of kidnapping in the September 1990
death of Jaquelyn Freeman.
The high court blocked Tharpe’s execution in a per curiam decision in January,
asserting that Gattie’s statement “presents a strong factual basis for the
argument that Tharpe’s race affected Gattie’s vote for a death verdict.” The
court sent the case back to the Eleventh Circuit, over the dissent of Justice
Clarence Thomas.
In a column published last month by The National Law Journal, Samuel Spital,
director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, said
Tharpe’s petition “is the one thing standing between Tharpe and execution.” He
urged the justices to “intervene in Tharpe’s case and prevent the state of
Georgia from executing Tharpe before any court has considered the compelling
evidence that Tharpe was sentenced to death, at least in part, because he is
black.”
Tharpe is represented by Brian Kammer and Marcia Widder of the Atlanta-based
Georgia Resource Center.
“Today’s decision from the U.S. Supreme Court takes giant steps backwards from
the Court’s longstanding commitment to eradicating the pernicious effects of
racial discrimination on the administration of criminal justice,” Widder said
in a statement. “What happened in Mr. Tharpe’s death penalty case was wrong.
There is compelling evidence that a juror who voted for Mr. Tharpe’s death
sentence was influenced by racist beliefs he held about African Americans in
general and Mr. Tharpe in particular.”
(source: law.com)
ALABAMA:
Court: Alabama can’t keep its lethal injection method secret
A federal appeals court sided with news media organizations Monday in ruling
that Alabama can't keep its lethal injection protocol secret from the public.
A 3-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected
Alabama's argument that its execution method is not a court record and thus
should remain secret.
"Judicial records provide grounds upon which a court relies in deciding cases,
and thus the public has a valid interest in accessing these records to ensure
the continued integrity and transparency of our governmental and judicial
offices," the court stated in its ruling.
At issue is what the court described as the botched execution of Doyle Hamm on
Feb. 22, 2018. The court said that after several failed attempts to insert a
needle into his veins, the execution was called off as midnight approached. The
Associated Press and other news outlets then sought the state's execution
protocol and related records.
"Alabama is the most secretive state in the country with respect to its
protocol," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty
Information Center.
"The intense secrecy has obvious problems," he said. "The Doyle Hamm case is
one classic example of that because the difficulties in finding a vein all
happen out of the view of the public."
Representatives of the Alabama Attorney General's Office did not immediately
respond to requests for comment on Monday's decision, so it wasn't known
whether they would appeal.
Alabama could ask the appeals court for reconsideration of the case, or appeal
to the United States Supreme Court, Dunham said. The state also could ask for a
stay of Monday's ruling as appeals play out, he said.
Monday's decision upheld a federal judge's ruling last year that the public has
"a common law right of access" to the records. In that May 2018 ruling, U.S.
Judge Karon Bowdre decided that some information can remain secret in the
interest of security, such as the names of low-level prison employees involved
in executions.
Last year's ruling found that the execution protocol and related records
"clearly concern a matter of great public concern, i.e., how Alabama carries
out its executions," the appeals court wrote in Monday's ruling.
(source: Associated Press)
****************
Jury recommends death sentence in Samantha Payne murder case
The State of Alabama v. Michael Belcher was never about whether he’s guilty or
innocent. It was about whether he will live or die.
The same jury that convicted Belcher of capital murder last week voted
unanimously Monday to sentence him to die by lethal injection. Tuscaloosa
County Circuit Court Judge Brad Almond will consider the recommendation when
deciding the final sentence on April 3.
Belcher, 34, was 1 of a group of 5 people accused in the 2015 death of Samantha
Payne, who was beaten for several hours and left to die, naked and tied to a
tree, in the Talladega National Forest.
Prosecutors called him the ringleader of the group. His attorneys said he was
just as culpable, or less so, than the others and deserves a similar prison
sentence.
“We respect the jury’s verdicts and appreciate their hard work,” said attorney
Stuart Albea, who represented Belcher alongside attorney Nettie Blume. “Even
so, our collective sense of fairness is strained when co-conspirators are not
treated equally. The State choosing to impose the ultimate punishment upon Mr.
Belcher while his co-defendant remains free in society should give us pause. We
are disappointed.”
(source: Tuscaloosa News)
*****************
Centreville man receives death penalty for 2015 murder in Tuscaloosa
A Tuscaloosa County jury reached a unanimous decision recommending the death
penalty for a man convicted of capital murder of a 29-year-old woman in 2015.
Michael Belcher was convicted in December of 2015 for the death of Samantha
Payne. Her body was found 1 week after her death by hunters who discovered her
in the forest near South Sandy Road.
The warrant for Michael Belcher states that Payne may have been stabbed to
death, court documents say. Investigators know that Payne and Belcher knew each
other and were together a few days prior to her murder.
In December of 2015, 5 people were charged in connection to the murder of
Payne. Investigators believed that Payne, Belcher, and others were together in
Bibb County on the night of November 1, 2015. They also said they believed
Payne was assaulted by Belcher, on or around Nov. 2, 2015, and then driven to
the area where her remains were discovered by the hunters.
(source: WIAT news)
********************
DA to seek death penalty in 1999 slayings
A prosecutor says he'll seek the death penalty against a man charged in the
slayings of 2 Alabama teenagers nearly 20 years ago.
District Attorney Kirke Adams says 45-year-old Coley McCraney can be prosecuted
for capital murder in the killings of 17-year-olds Tracie Hawlett and J.B.
Beasley. Adams says he decided years ago to pursue the slayings as a
death-penalty case.
Adams told a news conference Monday that 1 of the multiple capital counts
against the man includes a charge that 1 of the victims was sexually assaulted
during her slaying in 1999.
Authorities say they used DNA matching to confirm that evidence from the
killings was tied to McCraney.
McCraney was arrested Saturday. A defense lawyer says the man is cooperating
with authorities.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall released a statement about the case
Monday. It appears below.
“For 2 decades the families of Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley have sought
answers and a suspect in the unsolved brutal murders of their 17-year-old
girls. On the night of July 31, 1999, Hawlett and Beasley went together to a
party in nearby Headland and lost their way. Sadly, they never made it back to
their families. Their bodies were found the next day in the trunk of Beasley’s
car. Both girls had been shot in the head.
“DNA evidence recovered from Beasley’s body and clothing helped to create a
profile of the suspect, but despite our best combined efforts law enforcement
were never able to find a genetic match, until now. On Friday, March 15, 2019,
members of the Ozark Police Department’s Investigations Division, as well as
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Alabama Attorney
General’s Office arrested Coley Lewis McCraney in Dale County, Alabama, on
charges of capital murder and rape. McCraney, a resident of Dothan, had no
prior criminal record which would have previously provided his DNA profile to
law enforcement in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) run by the FBI.
McCraney has remained anonymous to investigators until new DNA testing of
forensic evidence utilizing family genetic analysis finally led law enforcement
to McCraney as a suspect.
“I wish to commend Chief Marlos Walker and the Ozark Police Department for
their exemplary investigative work that ultimately led us to identifying a
suspect and making an arrest on Friday. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office,
the Ozark Police Department, the Dale County Sheriff’s Office, the Alabama
Department of Forensic Sciences, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, District
Attorney Kirke Adams, and other law enforcement agencies have been supporting
this investigation for many years. We will continue our efforts to assist in
the investigation including providing digital forensic evidence analysis.
“Today, all who have sought justice for Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley,
including all the residents of the Wiregrass, are finally near closure in this
long and painful case.”
(source: Associated Press)
TENNESSEE:
Tennessee House passes bill to bypass court of appeals in death penalty cases
The House of Representatives has passed a bill that removes a step in the
state's death penalty appeal process, despite concerns from some in the legal
system.
The "Sgt. Daniel Baker Act" was named after a Dickson County sheriff's deputy
who was shot and killed in the line of duty in May 2018. 2 suspects, Steven
Wiggins and Erika Castro-Miles, were each charged with 1st-degree murder in
Baker's killing.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both defendants, whose trials are
set for August.
Sgt. Daniel Baker was killed in the line of duty in May 2018. 2 suspects,
Steven Wiggins and Erika Castro-Miles, were each charged with 1st-degree murder
in Baker's killing.
House Bill 258 was approved 72-22. If passed in the Senate and made law, the
legislation would remove the appeal to the court of criminal appeals after a
defendant is sentenced to death, a step that currently precedes the case being
heard by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
The Baker Act has three times been scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor,
but has been deferred each time. It is on the calendar again for Thursday.
While the bill received pushback both from Democrats and representatives from
the court system while moving through committees, Republicans backing the
legislation have said the state's current system delays justice by dragging out
cases for too long.
Several Democrats spoke against the bill on the House floor Monday evening.
"When it comes to death penalty cases, we have to get it right," said Rep.
Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis. "It's mostly the people who look like me who are
getting charged with the death penalty more than anybody else. And that's a
fact.
"I don’t know why we would want to rush or speed up a process when you're
talking about taking someone's life."
Of the 30 states where the death penalty is permitted, Tennessee is 1 of only 2
that uses a 2-step appeal process.
Sponsored in the House by Rep. Mary Littleton, R-Dickson, the bill was
originally filed a few years ago by Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntington, who is
again the Senate sponsor.
Baker's family stood in the gallery of the House chamber on Monday evening as
the discussion and voting took place.
Littleton said the bill was "not influenced by (Baker's) death or the pending
trial.”
Among those who spoke out against the bill during the committee process was
Judge John Everett Williams, who current presides over the state’s Court of
Criminal Appeals and rebutted the notion that his court could be drawing out
the death penalty cases.
"We are not the reason these cases are taking 30 years,” said Williams to the
Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 27.
Williams said death penalty cases in his court are normally handled in a 3 to 5
month period and are “given priority."
(source: The Tennessean)
***********************
Tennessee House OKs bill to nix 1 court death penalty review
As U.S. executions hover near historically low levels, a bill passed by the
Tennessee House aims to remove 1 state court's review before putting inmates to
death.
The House voted 73-22 Monday for Republican Rep. Mary Littleton's legislation
to skip Tennessee's Court of Criminal Appeals and provide automatic state
Supreme Court death penalty reviews. The Senate could follow this week.
Court of Criminal Appeals Judge John Everett Williams has said his court's last
4 death penalty reviews took 3 to 6 months. Federal courts account for most of
the sometimes-3-decades of death penalty court reviews.
The bill is named for Dickson County Sheriff's Sgt. Daniel Baker, who was
killed in May. Baker's family applauded from the gallery Monday. 2 people
charged in Baker's death are approaching trial.
Tennessee executed 3 inmates in 2018.
(source: Associated Press)
LOUISIANA:
D.A. to seek death penalty for man accused of killing 5 in Louisiana
A Louisiana district attorney said Monday that he will seek the death penalty
for a man accused of killing 5 people, including his parents in January.
District Attorney for the 24th Judicial District Court Scott Perrilloux said
his office would pursue the case of 21-year-old Dakota Theriot as a capital
case and seek the death penalty after he pleaded not guilty to 3 charges of
1st-degree murder.
"We're dealing with something tragic and horrific that took place in this
community and now we have to do our job and moving forward that's what we'll
do. I don't take any pleasure in accepting a capital case, but again, after
reviewing all the circumstances, the facts that we have before us, all the
considerations we had to make, and we didn't make it lightly, we felt like the
death penalty was the appropriate course of action," Perrilloux said.
Perrilloux said he expects Theriot's attorneys to pursue an insanity defense.
The three murder charges stem from accusations that Theriot killed 20-year-old
Summer Ernest, who authorities and her family members have described as his
girlfriend, as well as her father, 43-year-old Billy Ernest, and a brother,
17-year-old Tanner Ernest, in Livingston Parish.
"You had 3 completely innocent victims. By all accounts, no justification or
mitigating reasons why this took place," Perrilloux said.
He was also indicted on 2 additional 1st degree murder charges in Ascension
Parish for allegedly killing his parents Keith Theriot, 50, and Elizabeth
Theriot, 50.
Theriot is next set to appear in court on May 9.
(source: United Press International)
**************
DA will seek death penalty for accused killer Dakota Theriot
Prosecutors say they'll be seeking the death penalty for confessed multi-parish
killer Dakota Theriot.
On Monday, District Attorney Scott Perrilloux in Livingston Parish said he
would pursue the death penalty for the 21-year-old accused of killing 5 people
earlier this year. Theriot pleaded not guilty in court Monday morning.
Theriot was arrested in January after he allegedly went on a killing spree in
Ascension and Livingston Parishes, killing five people including his own
parents in Gonzales. After the shootings, he fled the state and drove to
Virginia.
Theriot is being held without bond for his 5 murder charges.
(source: WBRZ news)
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