April 30
TEXAS:
Texas House offers a new way to determine whether a defendant has intellectual
disabilities — and is ineligible for execution----The lower chamber gave
initial approval to a bill creating a pretrial process to determine if a
capital murder defendant is intellectually disabled — more than 15 years after
the U.S. Supreme Court said executing such prisoners is cruel and unusual
punishment.
For almost 2 decades, the state of Texas has struggled with a question: What’s
the process for deciding whether a death penalty defendant has intellectual
disabilities and is, therefore, ineligible for execution?
On Monday, the Texas House moved to come up with an answer — after the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing people with such disabilities
amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. House Bill 1139 would allow a capital
murder defendant to request a pretrial hearing to determine if he or she is
intellectually disabled. If a judge makes such a determination, the death
penalty would be off the table. That defendant, if eventually convicted, would
instead receive an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The measure was authored by state Sen. Senfronia Thompson, a Houston Democrat,
but was championed by members of both major parties. It tentatively passed the
lower chamber along a voice vote with no debate. The bill needs a final stamp
of approval before it can head to the Senate.
"Often, the bills that we debate on this floor are about what we want to do,"
state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, one of the authors of the bill, told the
chamber Monday. "This is about what we must do."
Since the 2002 ruling from the high court, states have come up with their own
methods of defining whether a defendant has an intellectual disability. But the
Texas Legislature never set a method — despite repeated pleas from the state’s
highest criminal judges. That resulted in a patchwork system set by the courts
to determine whether a person facing the death penalty should be spared from
execution.
Eventually, the state’s top criminal appeals court established its own test for
deciding intellectual disability for death row inmates — but the nation’s
highest court struck it down in 2017 as unconstitutional in the case of Bobby
Moore. The justices knocked Texas’ method for using decades-old medical
standards and a set of nonclinical questions, including how well an inmate
could lie, that advanced stereotypes. After a second attempt by the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals to comply with the Supreme Court ruling, the high court
again slammed the method.
The bill approved by the House on Monday aims to take the life-or-death
decision out of the hands of judges at the Court of Criminal Appeals —
sometimes decades after a person has been sentenced to death — and instead set
up a process to tackle it ahead of the murder trial.
Critics of the legislation have argued that it could add costs to death penalty
trials by adding another hearing to an already lengthy trial process.
Meanwhile, advocates for the bill argue that the state could save millions by
reducing the number of appeals — a point Thompson made as she laid out the
proposal during a committee hearing in March.
“When we have capital murder cases in this state, it costs Texas for each case
about $2.5 million,” Thompson told the committee. “We’re not complaining about
the cost for justice to be brought for the victims of crimes such as these. …
What we’re merely saying is, if a person is going to raise the issue of
intellectual disability, let’s do it at the beginning of the trial.”
Advocates for the bill point out that legislatures in most other death penalty
states have created a uniform pretrial procedure guiding courts on how to
determine whether a defendant is intellectually disabled. But in a
Republican-controlled state with the busiest execution chamber in the nation by
far, state lawmakers have generally been wary of any changes that appear to
weaken the state’s tough death penalty laws.
If the governor signs the bill into law, it would take effect Sept. 1. The new
law would then apply to trials that begin on or after that date.
(source: The Texas Tribune)
*************************
Harris County DA to seek death penalty on resentencing of convicted cop killer
The Harris County District Attorney is once again seeking the death penalty
against a convicted cop killer who won a new punishment trial nearly three
decades after the slaying of a Houston police officer.
Shelton Jones was originally sent to death row for the April 1991 murder of
Officer Bruno D. Soboleski, but a federal district court overturned his
sentence in light of bad jury instructions.
"We put police officers in harm's way to protect us from violence, and it is
our duty to forever protect society from this killer," District Attorney Kim
Ogg said in a statement Monday. "Sgt. Soboleski's family was forever changed by
this horrific attack, and no matter how long it takes, Jones deserves the
ultimate punishment."
The night of the slaying, Soboleski was on patrol and driving in his squad car
with a grand juror when he spotted 2 men at the intersection of Calhoun and
Hull near the University of Houston.
Soboleski stopped the pair, though it's not entirely clear why. As he searched
them, Jones pulled out a 9mm pistol and started shooting, according to court
records. After the officer fell to the pavement, Jones shot him again, then
fled with his confederate.
Afterward, a 3rd man opened fire, getting off 6 rounds but missing the officer.
Instead, he shot up the lawman's patrol car where the grand juror was trying to
radio for help.
The grand juror escaped unscathed, while Soboleski lingered in the hospital for
5 days, undergoing multiple surgeries before dying in intensive care.
Longtime Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes prosecuted the case
personally, winning a guilty verdict and a death sentence.
But for nearly 3 decades, Jones has fought his sentence, raising a slew of
concerns including claims about the effects of widespread publicity and police
presence in the courtroom.
The media coverage at the time included a letter to the editor suggesting Jones
be hung from a "tall tree" with a "short rope," according to court filings. He
tried for a change of venue in light of the press, and later argued that the 15
to 25 officers in the courtroom had prejudiced jurors, implicitly demanding a
guilty verdict with their presence.
At one point, Jones also asked for additional funding for investigative
findings and discovery, but the courts determined that they weren't "reasonably
necessary." Even though the courts denied his appeals on those grounds, Jones
won a new punishment phase over on bad jury instructions.
And, since life without parole was not a sentencing option at the time of his
crime, Jones could be eligible for parole some day if the jury rejects a death
sentence, Ogg said. Defense attorneys did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
****************************
‘Cold Justice’ prosecutor a no-show at Houston for death penalty hearing
An ex-prosecutor and star of a TV show about delivering justice knowingly
failed to appear at a federal court hearing Monday for a death row inmate who
is challenging her conduct regarding key witnesses in the lead up to his 2002
capitol murder trial in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison told lawyers last week that he could hold
the “Cold Justice” lawyer, Kelly Siegler, in contempt of court if she didn’t
show up. But when she failed to appear in court Monday morning, the judge opted
to give Siegler another chance.
U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison told lawyers last week that he could hold
the “Cold Justice” lawyer, Kelly Siegler, in contempt of court if she didn’t
show up. But when she failed to appear in court Monday morning, the judge opted
to give Siegler another chance.
(source for both: Houston Chronicle)
****************************
Why There Are So Few News Stories About Women On Death Row
Texas news outlets often report on death penalty stories, given that the state
leads the nation in prisoner executions. But rarely do reports tell the stories
of women on death row. Those women are housed in a prison in Gatesville, and as
I wait for the guards to bring over inmate Linda Carty, I notice the room is
very different from the crammed spaces where I’ve interviewed men on death row.
There’s still glass separating us, but this room is spacious and well-lit.
Carty has been on death row for 17 years. In 2001, she and three men invaded
25-year-old Joana Rodriguez’s Houston home. They were convicted of kidnapping
Rodriguez’s three-day old baby and leaving Rodriguez tied in a trunk where she
died.
For her crimes, Carty was sentenced to death – a sentence that’s rare for
women. You can count those women on death row in Texas with your fingers: Carty
is one of six. By contrast, there's more than 200 men in Texas who are awaiting
execution.
That’s the 1st of 5 reasons you’ll rarely hear about the women on death row:
there’s very few of them.
Reason No. 2 is closely related to reason No. 1.
“Of the close to 1,500 executions in the United States since the 1970s, only 16
have been women,” says Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center in
Washington.
He says since fewer women are executed, there are fewer headlines about them.
The last time Texas executed a woman was 5 years ago.
Now for reason No. 3: Women on death row are treated differently than men.
Their living conditions are less stringent. Linda Carty, for instance, has a
job.
“We get to work four hours, and then we have two hours for rec:
Tuesday/Thursday we get outside for two hours. Then, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday you are allowed to watch TV for two hours,” Carty says.
But life on death row has its limitations. One is the phone: Carty is only
allowed four phone calls a year, five minutes each. And guards carefully watch
her every move. Then, there’s the death sentence itself.
“A death sentence is basically, how should I put it – it’s an onus that no one
should have to live with; it’s added stress. It’s like an albatross you carry
around – that burden to worry about,” Carty says.
Houston Attorney Wallis Nader specializes in prisoner’s rights. She says while
stress is a challenge for all on death row, the men live in de facto isolation.
“That’s a difference that should not exist,” Nader says.
They don’t have the same freedom of movement as women, and are not allowed to
have jobs. Their recreation also takes place in a cell, 1 hour a day.
“They are placed in an outside cage that is relatively small, and is often
covered in bird feces," Nader says. "[It] tends to be not very different from
the cell they were in before going to the recreation chamber.”
Nader and other attorneys have challenged the conditions the men face because
they believe some are unconstitutional. The news media often cover those
challenges, so that's another reason why we hear more about the men.
Reason No. 4: Robert Dunham with the Death Penalty Information Center says it’s
the types of crimes women commit that tend to be different than those committed
by men.
“Women are more likely to have committed an act of domestic violence – an act
that prosecutors would describe as a 'crime of passion,' so it’s less likely
that you’d have a woman who is prosecuted for premeditated murder,” Dunham
says.
Even though the crimes are different, Dunham has noticed that women get a lot
of attention before they’re sentenced, especially when the victims are
children.
Lastly, reason No. 5 for the difference between the coverage of women and men
on death row is that many women actually try to keep their stories out of the
news, Dunham says. But he says that's sometimes to their detriment. When Dunham
was an attorney, he suspected some of his female clients were living with
mental health issues, or had experienced trauma, abuse or neglect by others. He
often thought that by them sharing their experiences with the news media, that
could help “humanize” them when they faced a jury.
“Juries think it’s necessary to kill monsters, but they really, really don’t
want to kill people,” Dunham says.
But the women often asked their attorneys not to bring up their past traumas.
Dunham says their stance was, “I would rather be dead, than be revictimized.”
They didn’t want to feel exposed in front of their loved ones, or ridiculed.
Death row inmate Linda Carty says her outcome would’ve been different had she
told her whole story. Now, after 17 years, she’s not worried about being
ridiculed or exposed, and has asked an attorney to look into her case.
“If I didn’t know what I have, I probably would be worried. But I do know what
we have,” Carty says.
What she has is the hope of a new trial, and if she were to get it that would
be at least one time the public would hear about a woman on death row before
her death.
(source: Associated Press)
CONNECTICUT:
State high court hears appeal of former death-row inmate
The Connecticut Supreme Court is hearing the appeal of a former state death row
inmate.
Lawyers for Lazale Ashby argue that a jailhouse informant should not have been
allowed to testify during his trial in the 2003 rape and strangulation of
Elizabeth Garcia in Hartford.
They also say the judge improperly excluded evidence and mishandled
instructions on Ashby's claim that he had consensual sex with the victim and
that another man's DNA was found on her body.
Oral arguments are scheduled for Monday morning.
Ashby is one of 11 former death row inmates now serving life in prison after
the state's highest court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 2015.
He also is serving a 25-year sentence for fatally shooting another Hartford
woman, Nahshon Cohen, in 2003.
(source: thenewstribune.com)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Bobby Wayne Stone awaiting execution for 22 years in South Carolina, shortage
of drugs for lethal injection means he will have to wait some more
54-year-old Bobby Wayne Stone has been on death row since 1997 after being
convicted of the murder of a sheriff's sergeant. As of 2019, there is still no
end in sight.
Last week, it was reported that South Carolina lawmakers were considering a
legislation that would not only add firing squads as an execution option in the
state but also bring back the electric chair.
The proposal already passed the state Senate by a 26-13 vote this past January,
and while a similar proposal died in the House last year, it is expected to
pass through this time around without any hitches.
The news came at a time when the House Criminal Laws Subcommittee approved a
Senate proposal on Thursday, April 25, which changed South Carolina's default
execution method to the electric chair. So, what happened to the default
method, the lethal injection?
This change has been forced, in part, because prison officials have complained
to lawmakers that they do not have the drugs to carry out the lethal injection
because pharmaceutical companies are refusing to sell it to them.
Speaking in 2017 as the state prepared for what would have been its first
execution since 2011, Gov. Henry McMaster said, "They are afraid that their
names will be made known, and they don’t want to have anything to do with it
for fear of retribution, or exposure of themselves, their families, their
businesses."
That prisoner, 54-year-old Bobby Wayne Stone, had been on death row for 20
years at that point in time. Two years later, there seems to be no respite in
sight for Stone, with the state still struggling to procure the three drugs,
including pentobarbital, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride, required
for the lethal injection.
Numerous human rights organizations have argued that Stone, while guilty of
murder, is not deserving of the death penalty because of several mitigating
circumstances, and it does remain to be seen whether higher courts share that
view.
The story of his slow march to death row began on February 26, 1996, in Sumter
County, when he decided to purchase two firearms and some alcohol so he could
have fun. Towards the end of that day, Stone tried to visit an acquaintance,
Mary Ruth McLeod, who lived nearby with her aunt Ruth Griffith. But Mary
refused to let him into her home and asked him to leave the property, reporting
the incident to the police immediately.
A short while later, Griffith heard banging on her door and gunshots outside.
Because McLeod had already left the house at this point, she once again called
the police. Sumter County Sheriff Sergeant Charlie Kuala was the first to
respond to the scene and went to the side porch to investigate the noise, which
is when Griffith claims she heard a voice yell "halt" or "hold it" followed by
several gunshots.
As Kuala approached Stone, he was shot twice, once in the neck and once in the
ear. He died almost immediately at the scene. Stone was tracked down just hours
later by Sumter County Sheriff officers and was found lying on the murder
weapon. He confessed to the crime the next morning, though he insisted he only
fired his weapon accidentally because he had been startled by Kuala.
Kuala was shot twice, once in the neck and once in the ear. He died
immediately.
During Stone's subsequent trial, it emerged that he suffered from brain damage
which allegedly affected the area of the brain that regulates behavior, as well
as significant intellectual impairment. It was also told that he had a family
history of schizophrenia and depression, which in turn, saw them struggle to
hold down jobs and develop alcohol and drug abuse problems. He also reportedly
struggled in school because his family couldn't help him.
But he was sentenced to death after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder
in 1997. He has been on death row ever since, with even the setting of his
execution date in 2017 mired in controversy.
The South Carolina Attorney General requested the State Supreme Court to move
ahead with the execution and it was announced that he would be executed at 6 pm
EST, on Friday, December 1, 2017, at the Brood River Capital Punishment
Facility at the Brood River Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina.
The problem with that announcement was twofold: One, he had not yet exhausted
his appeals process and it was common knowledge that any execution date would
be stayed by the federal court because of this reason. And 2, the state, as
previously mentioned, did not have the drugs to carry out Stone's preferred
method of execution, the lethal injection.
The move to set a date was slammed by Justice 360, a human rights organization
which fights for fairness, reliability, and transparency in the criminal
justice system for people facing the death penalty in South Carolina. In a
statement, they criticized the Director of the South Carolina Department of
Corrections, Bryan Stirling, for making public statements promising the death
of Stone and attempting to force the General Assembly to pass a “secrecy” bill
that would allow the State to purchase unsafe drugs for execution and shield
their source from the public
Stone isn't the only prisoner on death row in the state either. Currently, 35
others are waiting for their execution dates, and it seems increasingly
likelier by the day that they will meet their fate at the hands of a firing
squad or an electric chair, and not the lethal injection.
(source: meaww.com)
GEORGIA----female faces death penalty
Gwinnett woman guilty of starving stepdaughter
A Gwinnett County jury on Monday convicted Tiffany Moss of the murder of her
10-year-old stepdaughter Emani in the fall of 2013.
Moss, 36, was convicted on all counts of murder, felony murder, cruelty to
children and trying to conceal Emani’s death by burning her body. Moss showed
no emotion as the verdict was read aloud.
In a powerful closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Lisa Jones accused
Moss of deliberately starving Emani to death over the course of several weeks.
“She wasn’t a child to her,” Jones said. “She was nothing. She was a nuisance.
She was ugly. She was a pain. She was disposable. She was trash.”
But Emani was a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend and a young girl with an
easy smile who brought happiness to her teachers, Jones said.
“She was Emani and she mattered,” said Jones, holding up a photo of the girl to
the jury. “She mattered.”
The trial moved immediately to the sentencing phase. Moss is facing the death
penalty.
District Attorney Danny Porter thanked jurors for their verdict and asked them
to “take the next step, take the hard step and render the punishment verdict
that this case deserves.”
Moss offered no witnesses or mitigating evidence for jurors to consider as they
weigh whether to sentence her to death.
Prosecutors will first have to prove what’s known as an “aggravating
circumstance” for the case to be eligible for capital punishment. In Moss’s
case, the jury will be asked to find the crime was “outrageously or wantonly
vile, horrible or inhuman” and that it involved “torture, depravity of mind or
an aggravated battery to the victim. If the jury makes such a finding, the
prosecution can then present additional evidence in favor of a death sentence.
Moss who is representing herself, can also present mitigating evidence on her
own behalf. That appears unlikely, however, because she has put up no defense
at all on her own behalf.
Moss did not ask a single question of the witnesses who testified against her.
She also did not offer an opening statement or closing argument.
“I don’t want to make a closing argument,” Moss told Superior Court Judge
George Hutchinson.
Jones’ closing argument summed up the gruesome crime.
As Emani’s life dwindled away, her stepmother was taking care of her own 2
children where the family lived in an apartment complex in the Lawrenceville
area. She was cooking and texting photos of the meals she prepared to her
husband Eman Moss, while he was at work.
All the while, Emani was held in her bedroom, which Jones called her “own
personal prison.”
Jones said it’s likely Emani died on Oct. 29, 2013, based on phone records and
Eman Moss’s own testimony against his wife during the trial. Moss, who pleaded
guilty and is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole, wrapped
Emani’s body in bedding and put her in the apartment’s computer room.
He and Tiffany Moss would later take Emani’s body to a remote area off
Satellite Boulevard, put it in a trash can and set her body on fire, using
charcoal and lighter fluid. On the witness stand, Eman Moss said he and his
wife turned away from the blaze.
“It is that unthinkable,” Jones said of Moss’s testimony. “And that
unimaginable.”
Moss would extinguish the fire when he realized Emani’s body was not going to
be cremated. He later called police and ultimately admitted to what had
happened to his daughter.
Jones implored jurors not to look away from the horrors that befell Emani.
“Emani Moss lived with the evils in this world,” Jones said, looking at Tiffany
Moss at the defense table. “The evils in the world and in her life lived in the
next room.”
(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
FLORIDA:
Motion filed to block death penalty in Russell Tillis case----Tillis charged
with kidnapping & murder of Joni Gunter
Having convinced a judge to delay a trial in May, attorneys for Russell Tillis,
the man charged with kidnapping, killing and burying a woman in the yard of his
Southside home, have filed a motion to block prosecutors from seeking the death
penalty.
Attorneys Chuck Fletcher and John Rockwell were appointed in March as the 10th
and 11th lawyers to represent Tillis.
Their motion asks Judge Mark Borello to declare Florida’s death penalty law
unconstitutional. In addition, the attorneys have filed a motion seeking a
mental competency evaluation for Tillis.
Tillis is charged in the murder of Joni Gunter, whose dismembered remains were
found buried in his yard in 2016.
Tillis is due back in court Tuesday.
(source: news4jax.com)
_______________________________________________
A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
