May 3
TEXAS-----new execution date
North Texas man convicted of killing Godley woman during crime spree gets
September execution date
A North Texas man sentenced to die for killing a 61-year-old woman during a
2010 crime spree is now scheduled for execution later this year.
A Johnson County judge last month signed off on a Sept. 10 death date for Mark
Anthony Soliz, who was sent to death row 7 years ago following a 2-county
string of violence.
"I will fight this execution date with every legal tool in my kit," said
Houston-based defense attorney Seth Kretzer, vowing to file another appeal and
pursue a clemency request from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
In June 2010, Soliz and his buddy Joe Ramos stole long guns and a 9-millimeter
semiautomatic in a burglary, according to court records. For the next week,
they robbed strangers at gunpoint, shot a man in the ear, killed the driver of
a beer delivery truck, pulled off a carjacking, burglarized homes, and shot a
man repeatedly in a drive-by.
Most of the crimes were in the Fort Worth area, but on June 29, Ramos and Soliz
drove to the Johnson County home of Nancy Weatherly and knocked on her door,
then pulled out a gun when she answered and pushed inside to rob her. Before
leaving, according to state records, Soliz shot Weatherly in the back of the
head.
During trial, Soliz barely paid attention and sometimes fell asleep even as the
jury heard how Weatherly begged for her life before she was killed, the Fort
Worth Star Telegram reported at the time.
The jury also heard about Soliz's rough childhood, surrounded by drugs and
poverty. He saw his aunt stabbed to death when he was young and started
breaking into parking meters when he was 9 or 10.
In the years since he was sent to death row, Soliz has filed appeals alleging
bad lawyering and claiming his death sentence should be considered
unconstitutional because he suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
But the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his latest claims earlier this year, and
he's now one of three Texas men with pending execution dates.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
*****************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----43
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----561
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
44---------Aug. 21----------------Larry Swearingen--------562
45---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------563
46---------Sept. 10--------------Mark Anthony Soliz-------564
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Supporters of Death Penalty Repeal Bill Holding Vigils
Supporters of a bill to repeal the death penalty are starting daily candlelight
vigils outside of the New Hampshire Statehouse to express their hope that Gov.
Chris Sununu will sign it, or allow it to become law.
Both the House and Senate have voted with veto-proof majorities to repeal the
state's capital punishment law. Sununu, a Republican, vetoed a death penalty
repeal bill last June and is expected to do the same this year.
The vigils, which started Thursday, are being led by the New Hampshire Council
of Churches. The Rev. Jason Wells, the group's executive director, says the
people of New Hampshire have spoken clearly that the state can live without the
death penalty.
(source: nhpr.org)
*****************************
Death penalty repeal awaits Sununu's veto
On Wednesday, Senate President Donna Soucy signed HB 455, repealing the death
penalty for capital murder.
The New Hampshire Senate previously voted 17 to 6 to pass the bill, while the
House voted 279 to 88 — reaching a veto-proof majority.
The bill now awaits action from Gov. Chris Sununu, who is expected to veto it.
“The death penalty has been an issue every New Hampshire legislator has
grappled with over many years," said state Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, in a
statement after the signing. "My journey on this topic began 25 years ago in an
ethics class at Saint Anselm College.
“While our conclusions may differ, I have the utmost respect for my colleagues
who have been on similar journeys and for the votes they have cast. At its
core, repealing capital punishment is a matter of public policy and conscience.
It has been my privilege to speak with my constituents and my fellow lawmakers
about this important issue and it was my privilege today to take the historic
step of signing the death penalty repeal bill.”
Sununu indicated he will veto the bill.
“I will continue to stand with crime victims, members of the law enforcement
community, and advocates for justice in opposing this bill,” he said.
(source: eagletribune.com)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Study: Republicans are abandoning the death penalty in record numbers
So if you thought it was weird that one of the most progressive Democrats in
the state House was teaming up with one of its most conservative members on a
bill calling for the abolition of Pennsylvania’s broken death penalty statute,
think again.
The Odd Couple pairing of Reps. Chris Rabb, D-Philadelphia, and Frank Ryan,
R-Lebanon, is becoming more commonplace as Republican lawmakers across the
country not only reevaluate their support for capital punishment, but also step
up to sponsor bills calling for its elimination.
Indeed, criminal justice reform is one area where civil justice-minded
progressives and fiscal conservatives have managed to find common ground, both
in Pennsylvania and nationwide. Through sentencing reform and other measures,
the Keystone State is viewed as a national leader.
So far, the death penalty hasn’t been a part of that conversation, but a recent
report is indication of a shift in the tone of the debate.
According to a group calling itself Conservatives Concerned about the Death
Penalty, Republican lawmakers in 10 more states — Georgia, Louisiana, Kansas,
Wyoming, Kentucky, Montana, Missouri, Colorado, New Hampshire and Washington
State — are sponsoring death penalty repeal bills.
And according to a 2017 study by the conservative anti-death penalty group,
Republican sponsors of death penalty abolition proposals doubled between 2013
and 2016, going from 20 sponsors to 40 sponsors.
And because some legislatures only meet for 2-year sessions, or only in odd
years, the study also took that into account. It concluded that “in the
2001/2002 legislative sessions, 6 Republicans in 5 states sponsored bills to
end the death penalty. By the 2015/2016 biennium, more than 11 times as many
Republicans were sponsoring death penalty repeal bills – 69 Republicans in 11
states.”
In addition, “the percentage of legislative sponsors that are Republican
increased alongside the number of sponsors. By 2017, the percentage of sponsors
who were Republican was more than 6 times the same figure in 2007, with over 31
% of all death penalty repeal sponsors being Republican,” the study noted.
And before our conservative readers go all, “Well these are only RINOs in blue
or purple states,” consider this: According to the study, “the data show that
Republicans in red states are taking on even more leadership than those in blue
states.”
“Among the states where Republicans sponsored death penalty repeal bills, more
than 40 percent of them (10 states) were red states,” the report reads. “Of the
total number of Republican sponsorships of death penalty repeal bills, more
than 67 % were in red states (143 red state sponsorships out of 211 total
Republican sponsorships).”
So why is this happening?
The report, coupled with our conversation with Ryan, a tax-and-spending hawk
who’s avowedly opposed to abortion rights, provides some indication: When it’s
not about the bottom line, it’s about the morality of the death penalty.
One lawmaker, Sen. Paul Wieland, sponsored an abolition bill in Missouri. It
cleared committee, and was debated on the Senate floor, but didn’t become law.
Nonetheless, Wieland considered it a win.
Wieland told the study’s authors that that he doesn’t “think it’s a fiscally
smart thing that we do as far as dealing with the death penalty. I think we
spend a lot more money with the appeals and going through the process of
putting people to death than if we just give them life in prison.”
As we noted earlier this week, Pennsylvania has carried out just 3 executions
in the nearly half-century since the U.S. Supreme Court again declared the
death penalty constitutional, at a combined cost to the taxpayers of $816
million. In a memo seeking sponsors for his repeal bill, Rabb pointed to an
Urban Institute Study of Maryland’s death penalty that concluded that a capital
case costs $2 million more than a non-capital case.
In addition, Wieland told an in-state newspaper that that the issue was a
religious one for him, as well.
“One of my motivations [in running run for office] was defending human life,”
Wieland told The Missouri Times after his bill made it out of committee, the
report indicated. “As a pro-life person, I needed to be congruent with my
conscience.”
Speaking to The Capital-Star, Ryan echoed that moral argument, saying “I’m
pro-life, which means conception to natural death,” he said. “Capital
punishment isn’t natural death to me.”
Rabb and Ryan are seeking co-sponsors for their bill and hope to introduce it
soon. A similar measure, sponsored by Democratic Sens. Katie Muth, of Berks
County, and Sharif Street, of Philadelphia, is making the rounds on the other
side of the Capitol. They’re seeking Republican co-sponsors.
If this recent study is any indication, they might just find 1 or 2 of them.
(source: Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
GEORGIA----execution
Georgia executes Scotty Morrow for 1994 murders of 2 women----Final words: ‘I
love you all. God bless’
Georgia executed Scotty Morrow on Thursday night for the 1994 murders of two
women, marking the state’s 1st execution this year.
The 52-year-old Gainesville man was pronounced dead at 9:38 p.m. at the Georgia
Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. He became the 50th Georgia
inmate killed by lethal injection since the death penalty was reinstated in
1976.
The father of 2 and grandfather of 4 said in his petition for clemency that he
thought every day about what happened on Dec. 29, 1994. Spurned over the phone
by his ex-girlfriend, Barbara Ann Young, Morrow drove to her house and fatally
shot her and her friend, Tonya Woods. He shot a 3rd woman in the face and arm
but she survived.
The murders were witnessed by Young’s 5-year-old son.
Minutes before his lethal injection, Morrow expressed remorse for the killings.
“I’m truly sorry for all that happened,” he said. “I would like to give my
deepest and sincerest apology to the Woods family and to the Young family.”
He also thanked his family for their support and asked for their forgiveness.
Morrow was very composed, and an imam, after saying a prayer, told Morrow hat
he loved him.
Morrow’s final words: “I love you all. God bless.”
Although his execution was set for 7 p.m., Georgia does not move forward with
lethal injections until all courts have weighed in.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Morrow's appeal for mercy at about 9 p.m.
Thursday, two and a half hours after his defense team petitioned the nation's
highest court.
That followed the decision Thursday afternoon from the Georgia Supreme Court to
reject an appeal from Morrow’s attorneys.
Morrow, 52, was denied clemency Wednesday by the state Board of Pardons and
Paroles. His attorneys argued that unplanned crimes of passion, such as the
ones Morrow was convicted of, are rarely punished by death. Morrow was found
guilty of the 1994 murders of his ex-girlfriend and another woman in Hall
County.
A Butts County judge dismissed a petition filed Tuesday claiming Morrow’s death
sentence was unconstitutional because it was improperly imposed. Lawyers for
the Gainesville man said the judge in Morrow’s criminal trial decided which of
the 2 murders he committed warranted the death penalty, a decision they said
the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled must be made by jurors.
The Butts County judge on Wednesday agreed with attorneys for the state that
those claims had already been rejected by higher courts.
On Thursday, the state Supreme Court agreed in a unanimous decision. The court
described Morrow’s appeal “as lacking in arguable merit” and it also denied a
request from his lawyers for a stay of execution.
Earlier in the day, Morrow was visited by one friend, 10 family members, two
members of the clergy, and four of his attorneys. At 5 p.m., he was afforded
the opportunity to record a last statement while holding onto the faintest hope
that the U.S. Supreme Court would stay his execution.
That didn’t happen.
Morrow took immediate responsibility for his crimes after his arrest, saying
something “snapped” inside of him. His lawyers point to a childhood fraught
with trauma.
At age 3, Morrow watched his father stomp on his pregnant mother’s abdomen,
causing her to miscarry. Mother and son eventually fled to a relative’s home
but found no solace. That relative started raping Morrow when he was 7, his
attorneys said. Another relative raped him one year later. Later, after moving
to New York, Morrow was beaten repeatedly by his mother’s new boyfriend,
according to his clemency petition.
Jurors in Morrow’s murder trial heard few of those details, leading a state
court judge to overturn his sentence in 2011. A new trial was ordered, but the
Georgia Supreme Court later reversed that decision and reinstated the death
sentence.
Morrow’s attorneys made a compelling case for clemency, arguing that the
murders were out of character for their client.
“Mr. Morrow’s acts of violence were aberrations in a life otherwise
characterized by kindness and compassion, and the man he became in December of
1994 bears no resemblance to the man he was before and the man he has worked to
be since,” they wrote in his clemency petition Wednesday to the Georgia Board
of Pardons and Paroles.
Prison officials testified Morrow was a model inmate who sought redemption for
his crimes. His son and namesake said he was a positive influence on his four
grandchildren. Counselors told the parole board he had been fully
rehabilitated.
Morrow’s attorneys said his punishment bucked precedent, arguing the murders
were unplanned and emotionally charged, circumstances that rarely result in a
death sentence.
But the parole board was unswayed.
****************************
Gwinnett woman’s competence could be focus of death sentence appeal
The recent trial that sent a Gwinnett County woman to death row for the
starvation of her stepdaughter was extremely disturbing, with ghastly autopsy
photos documenting the 10-year-old’s unimaginable suffering. It was also one of
the most lopsided death-penalty trials in Georgia history because Tiffany Moss,
acting as her own attorney, did nothing to defend herself.
Moss’s unsettling decision to present no evidence during the sentencing phase
of her trial was extraordinarily unusual. It happened at a time when state
capital defenders routinely conduct extensive investigations into a defendant’s
childhood, schooling and background so they can introduce mitigating evidence
to try and convince a jury to impose a sentence of life, not death.
The strategy has been so effective that Moss’s death sentence was the first one
handed down in Georgia in more than five years. But her inaction during trial
made the jury’s final verdict seem inevitable. And maybe that was the point,
some said.
“Was this a suicide by trial?” wondered Denise de la Rue, a jury consultant in
Decatur.
The Georgia case played out very differently than a similar one in Florida that
played out more than a decade ago. In that case, judge appointed a lawyer to a
convicted man who refused to fight his death sentence.
Then there is the question Moss’s mental fitness.
In pretrial rulings, Superior Court Judge George Hutchinson found Moss both
competent to stand trial, and free to represent herself. She had said she was
putting her case in God’s hands, although capital defenders who initially
represented her disclosed that she had suffered brain damage.
But the 6-man, 6-woman jury in Moss’s case heard none of that.
What they did hear were the gruesome details of Emani Moss’s death in the fall
of 2013. They heard how Tiffany Moss cared for and fed the 2 children of her
own who lived with Emani in an apartment near Lawrenceville. 10-year-old Emani
Moss weighed just 32 pounds when her charred body was discovered in a trash can
on Nov. 2, 2013. Her stepmother has been convicted of her murder.
And they heard how Moss and her husband kept Emani in her bedroom and out of
public view as she wasted away. After Emani died, the couple tried to cover up
her death by stuffing her emaciated body into a galvanized trash can and
setting it on fire.
“Representing yourself is very different than sitting there and doing nothing,”
said de la Rue, who has assisted lawyers defending high-profile clients such as
former NFL star Ray Lewis and Centennial Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert
Rudolph. “How can anyone be considered competent when they do nothing?”
Atlanta lawyer Leah Ward Sears, a former chief justice of the state Supreme
Court, said there is a low bar for criminal defendants to be found competent to
stand trial.
Leah Ward Sears, forner chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, called the
Moss case “a terrible tragedy” but said she has faith in the jury system.
“This whole thing is a terrible tragedy, but it was her decision,” Sears said.
“I really believe in the jury system in this country. And this jury spoke. They
saw herself representing herself. They saw her doing nothing. They had a chance
to give her something less than death. But they didn’t.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that juries should know the character and
record of an offender because of “the possibility of compassionate or
mitigating factors stemming from the diverse frailties of humankind.”
This type of individualized information for the jury is “a constitutionally
indispensable part of the process of inflicting the penalty of death,” the high
court said in a 1976 opinion. Without it, “the fundamental respect for
humanity” cannot be given.
After Moss, 36, was convicted, Hutchinson reminded her she could address the
jury to help them decide what the appropriate sentence should be. She could
also call upon family members who’d attended the trial to testify on her
behalf, the judge said.
He added, “Is there anything I can do to assist you?”
“No, your honor,” Moss replied politely, as she did throughout the trial.
But when it came time for her to put up mitigation evidence or talk to the
jury, she declined.
Moss’s only participation in the trial occurred during jury selection, which
lasted little more than a week.
Early on, she nervously asked a few questions to a handful of jurors. On two
occasions, she won challenges to keep jurors who seemed favorable to the
defense in the final pool.
But as jury selection wore on, Moss appeared to shut down. Her easy smile
disappeared. She asked no more questions and raised no more objections, and
this behavior continued during both the guilt-innocence and sentencing phases
of the trial.
When it became clear Moss would not defend herself, two capital defenders who
once represented her and were appointed “standby counsel” sought to intervene
and represent Moss during the penalty phase of the trial. But Hutchinson, after
hearing from Moss that she wished to continue representing herself, declined
the defenders’ request.
That decision by the judge and his previous ruling finding Moss competent to
represent herself are sure to be the key thrusts of appeals filed on her
behalf.
Those appeals are certain to cite the case of James Barnes, who represented
himself at his death-penalty trial in 2007 for the sexual assault and murder of
a Melbourne, Fla., woman. Barnes confessed to this killing while he was in
prison for the murder of his wife.
After the state rested its case during the sentencing phase, Barnes said he
would present no evidence. Upon hearing that, the trial judge appointed an
attorney to investigate and present mitigating evidence on Barnes’ behalf and
over Barnes’ objection. The lawyer, with help from a court-appointed
psychologist and mitigation expert, made the presentation at the continuation
of the trial a few months later. Barnes was sentenced to death anyway.
In his appeal, Barnes contended the trial judge improperly trampled on his
right to defend himself. But in 2010, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the
judge’s decision. It said it was not prepared to rule that a judge may never
appoint counsel when a pro se defendant’s refusal to present mitigating
evidence “impedes or prevents the trial court’s exercise of its constitutional
duty to provide individualized sentencing.”
Last year, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sets precedents for
cases in Georgia, Florida and Alabama, agreed with the Florida high court’s
decision.
“A defendant shouldn’t be in a situation to stipulate to a death sentence,”
said Sam Baxter Bardwell, the Titusville, Fla., lawyer appointed to represent
Barnes. “The government has an interest in making sure a death sentence is
imposed in the fairest manner possible and only against the most evil among
us.”
Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter wondered whether Moss was trying to
gain sympathy from the jury. As for what she did to Emani, he said, “This was
one of the worst cases I’ve ever seen.”
But Stephen Bright, a professor at Georgia State and Yale law schools, said
Moss’s trial should never have gone so far.
(source for both: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
**********************************
USA----countdown to nation's 1500th execution
With the execution of Scotty Morrow in Georgia on May 2, the USA has now
executed 1,495 condemned individuals since the death penalty was re-legalized
on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision. Gary Gilmore
was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below is a list of
scheduled executions as the nation approaches a terrible milestone of 1500
executions in the modern era.
NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.
1496-------May 16-------------Donnie Johnson-----------Tennessee
1497-------May 16-------------Michael Samra------------Alabama
1498-------May 23-------------Bobby Joe Long-----------Florida
1400-------May 30-------------Christopher Price--------Alabama
1500-------Aug. 15------------Stephen West-------------Tennessee
1501-------Aug. 21------------Larry Swearingen---------Texas
1502-------Sept. 4------------Billy Crutsinger---------Texas
1503-------Sept. 10-----------Mark Anthony Soliz-------Texas
1504-------Sept. 12------------Warren Henness-----------Ohio
Learn more about efforts to #StopThe1500th Execution and how you can be
involved at http://deathpenaltyaction.org/1500th [deathpenaltyaction.org]
(source: Rick Halperin)
FLORIDA:
With Bobby Joe Long's execution date set, many Tampa Bay inmates still wait on
death row
Bobby Joe Long, now 65, was convicted of killing 8 women in Hillsborough County
and at least 2 other women in Pinellas and Pasco counties in the 1980s.
Although Long's is the 1st execution the DeSantis has ordered since taking
office in January, he is in the company of 341 other men and women who are
currently on Florida's death row roster.
When he is put to death on May 23, Long will be the 98th person executed in
Florida since the state's reinstatment of the death penalty in 1976.
See the graph below to see where in Tampa Bay Florida's current death row
inmate population comes from.
If the state follows through with the scheduled conviction, Long will have
spent 34 years on death row — not far behind the nation's longest serving death
row prisioner, Gary Alford, who spent 40 years on death row after strangling 3
women to death in Tampa.
(source: WFLA news)
************
From victim to survivor to deputy: Lone survivor of a Tampa serial killer will
witness execution----Serial killer set to be executed
On the night Lisa McVey Noland, a 17-year-old with her entire life in front of
her, was abducted and raped by a serial killer; she had planned to kill
herself.
That irony isn't lost on Noland, now in her 20th year with the Hillsborough
County Sheriff’s Office.
“One bad situation got me to another bad situation is what saved my life,”
Noland said. “Because the night before I’m doing my suicide note and the next
night I’m fighting for my life.”
THE ABDUCTION
On November 3, 1984, Noland said God had other plans for her. If she made it
home, Noland noted there is no doubt in her mind she would’ve followed through
with the suicide.
“All my childhood I was abused, most of my life in and out of foster care five
years,” Noland said. “I was being sexually abused at home. My grandmother’s
boyfriend used to put a gun to my head every time he molested me for three
years. It was nothing new to me.”
When Long put a gun to her head, Noland had enough.
“I wasn’t going to allow someone else to take anything else from me.”
For the next 26 hours, Noland said her survival instincts kicked in and she did
everything Long asked her to do. What happened inside Long’s Tampa apartment is
forever seared into her memory.
"I was brutally raped by this monster and I’m going to put it out there: it’s
not molestation, sexual assault," Noland said. "It is rape. I endured that for
26 hours... I survived, got him caught.”
REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY
Noland said she used reverse psychology on Long and got him to see her as a
person rather than an object.
“He had mentioned that he had raped other women. I said ‘why are you doing this
to me,’ and he goes ‘because just to get back at women in general.’ I said,
‘I’ll be your girlfriend. I’ll do whatever you want. It’s unfortunate how we
met we don’t have to tell anyone how we met; let’s do this.’ He said ‘no, I
can’t keep you.’”
THE ARREST
Long let Noland go and drove off.
“He tells me stand here for 5 minutes and you are free to go,” Noland said.
After Noland’s rape case was linked to the murders, a task force was formed the
next day. Tampa Police, Hillsborough County deputies, and the FBI began
searching for a red Dodge Magnum in the area Noland described the area Long
took her. She was blindfolded but able to peek through to see different
landmarks.
THE EXECUTION
An emergency motion is scheduled for May 3 in Tampa. Long will be transferred
from the Florida State Prison to the Hillsborough County Courthouse. His
lawyers are planning to argue that “Florida’s lethal injection procedures
constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Eye for an eye tooth for a tooth,” Noland said. “Yeah, there’s forgiveness,
OK, but there’s also a price to pay for that forgiveness and his time is
coming. He knows it and ironically, he is very scared and it’s about time. Your
life’s about to end. Because where is the justice where is the humanity for
those victims that he took?”
“I’m right there beside my victim's families. I’m going to hold their hand and
walk them through it,” Noland said.
Noland’s dedicated her life to helping others. She is currently a master
sergeant with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office where she works as a
school resource officer at Davidson Middle School.
“Just to be a role model and help make a difference in their lives every day I
learn something new, and they make a difference in me,” Noland said.
(source: ABC News)
******************
Florida man on death row for murdering cellmate indicted in death of another
cellmate
A man who has already been sentenced to death for killing an inmate in July
2012 was indicted Thursday on charges connected to the death of another inmate
at the Santa Rosa County Jail in January 2017.
The State Attorney's Office announced Thursday that Rocky Ali Beamon, 41, was
indicted by a Santa Rosa County grand jury on a charge of first-degree
premeditated murder.
The charge stems from a Jan. 22, 2017, incident where Beamon allegedly killed
his cellmate, 27-year-old Nicholas Anderson.
Prosecutors say shortly after the midnight inmate count, Beamon bound Anderson
and strangled him in their cell. He also allegedly used a homemade weapon to
cut the man's neck.
The charge carries a penalty of either death or life in prison. The State
Attorney's Office will make a decision on whether to seek the death penalty in
the case within the next 30 days, according to a news release. Prosecutors
previously told the News Journal the state intended to seek the death sentence
in the case if a grand jury indicted Beamon.
Beamon was sentenced to death in January for a separate incident where he
killed his cellmate at Apalachee Correctional Institution in Sneads on July 5,
2012. In that incident, Beamon watched the victim, Bruce Hunsicker, for several
days to learn his schedule, and then killed him by choking him and stabbing him
80 times in the shower area of the prison dormitory with a homemade shank.
Beamon then rinsed himself off and flushed the shank, a towel and a pair of
boxers before proceeding to dinner.
Beamon had been serving, and is still serving, a life sentence for murder in a
2005 case in Hillsborough County.
(source: Pensacola News Journal)
LOUISIANA:
Slow wheels of justice: A look at capital punishment in Louisiana
There are about 70 inmates currently on Louisiana's death row.
The state hasn't carried out any executions since 2010, and there's no sign
they'll resume any time soon. Louisiana is currently under a court order,
stemming from a challenge to lethal injection protocol, halting all executions
in the state until at least July.
More legal challenges can delay executions even further.
Still, death penalty cases continue to drag out in Louisiana's courts, leading
to legal battles that sometimes span decades, with no guarantee that the
sentence will be carried out.
A proposed constitutional amendment to stop executions in the state is being
debated by lawmakers during the current legislative session.
Waiting for Justice
On Nov. 20, 1995, a man who’d just been fired from a Baton Rouge restaurant
stormed the local eatery with a gun. He killed a former co-worker and Stephanie
Guzzardo, the manager who’d fired him.
"It was very heartbreaking and devastating," said Michelle Perkins, a friend of
Guzzardo’s. "Stephanie was the sweetest person-- and she knew the guy."
23 years later, Perkins continues to keep a close eye on her friend’s case,
because the man who pulled the trigger still sits on death row.
Todd Wessinger spent years fighting his conviction. It was overturned in 2015,
and re-instated two years later by a federal appeals court.
"To lose a loved one, and to sit through trial after trial -- of every minute
detail of your loved one being killed -- is horrible," Perkins said. "I started
questioning what has been going on in our state, as to why he hasn't been held
accountable."
Cause for Delay
Hugo Holland is a prosecutor based in Caddo Parish, who handles cases in other
parishes as well. He did not handle Wessinger’s case, but has seen many like
it. Holland said drawn-out legal sagas have become a norm in cases that involve
capital punishment.
"Every (inmate) on death row -- I don't care how good his lawyer was -- claims
on appeal that his lawyer … was ineffective, (and the) prosecutor hid evidence.
Same two things, they claim every time," Holland said.
Most people accused of capital murder in Louisiana have the same lawyers. To
defend someone in a capital case in the state, an attorney needs to meet
certain criteria. There are very few in the state who do.
For the defendants who can't afford an attorney, their case will automatically
be sent to one of three private law firms in south Louisiana, which are paid by
the state to handle these cases. It's called the Capital Defense Project of
South Louisiana, led by director Kerry Cuccia.
Cuccia explained that each firm is bound by a contract with the state.
"It specifies what we are supposed to do, which specifically, is to provide
high quality legal services to indigents charged with capital cases,” Cuccia
said. “And when I say ‘high quality,’ I'm not talking about extraordinarily
high, or what some people would refer to as ‘Cadillac’ defense, but one that is
constitutionally sufficient."
The Louisiana Public Defender Board also pays different law firms, under
similar contracts, for appeals and post-conviction work.
In addition to the contracts, all of these attorneys adhere to a lengthy set of
guidelines. The document listing the guidelines states they comply with capital
defense guidelines set forth by the American Bar Association.
Many of those guidelines are standard code of conduct. For instance, attorneys
must “manifest a professional attitude toward the judge, opposing counsel,
witnesses, jurors, and others in the courtroom,” and provide defendants with
“high quality legal representation” throughout each stage of their case.
Holland, however, believes some of the guidelines are overreaching.
"For example, (appellate attorneys) completely re-investigate everything. If
the cops take an audio/videotape statement from a witness, they can't look at
it and go, 'Oh crap. This is what that witness says,'” Holland said. “They have
to go and re-interview the witness. If we do DNA testing, it doesn't matter
what the state police crime lab does. They're going to get stuff and retest
it."
An example of that is in DeSoto Parish, where Brian Horn was convicted 5 years
ago of killing 12-year-old Justin Bloxom. Horn is now getting a new trial, for
which the judge gave Horn’s CDP attorneys two years to prepare. The attorneys
plan to start from scratch and interview all of the witnesses again.
Holland said it’s causing an unnecessary delay,which just adds to the emotional
strain for the Bloxom family.
The guidelines and contracts also set case limits for the attorneys. According
to a contract for one of the CDP law firms, an attorney can handle no more than
three to five cases at a time. The guidelines further require that each capital
case have at least 2 defense attorneys.
"I have more death penalty cases than any one of these lawyers that works for
these boutique law firms, and my job is harder,” Holland said. “I have to prove
the case. They don't have to prove anything."
When the death penalty is on the table, the quota could put the case on hold
until an attorney becomes available.
This happened in 2018, when Johnathan Robinson was charged with capital murder
in the death of his ex-girlfriend. Circumstances changed and the case closed
when Robinson pleaded guilty and accepted a life sentence.
"We do not have the capacity to take any more cases,” Cuccia said. “To do so,
we would not be able to provide professionally appropriate services to anyone
new, or the other persons coming in, or we would be overloaded-- overworked."
Then, there are the motions.
Motions are typical in any criminal or civil proceeding, as attorneys make
requests of the court.
Some motions are arguably meaningful. For instance, when attorneys for Grover
Cannon, a man accused of killing a Shreveport police officer, asked for a new
jury pool when they discovered that a computer glitch excluded people between
the ages of 18 and 26 from jury duty.
Other motions might be considered more trivial.
A motion filed in St. John Parish on behalf of Brian Smith, who is accused of
killing two law enforcement officers, argues that it us unconstitutional to
prohibit Smith’s attorneys from “purchasing him a caffeinated beverage during
court hearings.”
Every time an attorney files a motion in court, the opposing attorney must file
a response, and the judge must consider both sides before making a decision.
"It's just a horrible waste of time and resources,” Holland said.
When asked to respond to critics who say death penalty cases take too long to
play out, Cuccia responded, "I disagree with the idea that there is some
objective standard about how long any one particular case of any type should
take.”
He continued, “A lawyer’s code of professional responsibility and the rules of
professional conduct require that a lawyer pursue the defense or the
prosecution of a case diligently and in good faith. And that's what we do."
Holland said as long as the death penalty is on the books in Louisiana, he'll
pursue it when he sees fit.
There are currently two bills in the Louisiana Legislature that seek to end
capital punishment in the state. The Senate bill just gained approval in
committee.
A study by the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law found that over the
past 15 years, the state has spent more than $200 million on its death penalty
system, while having carried out only one execution during that time.
(source: KTBS news)
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