Oct. 1
OHIO----execution date moved
Governor delays execution of Lima murderer
Convicted Lima murderer Cleveland R. Jackson’s date with Ohio’s lethal
injection gurney has again been delayed, this time for more than a year.
Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday cited a disciplinary complaint filed against
Jackson’s former attorneys as he issued another reprieve for the man who, with
half-brother Jeronique Cunningham, opened fire 17 years ago on a crowded
apartment kitchen in a robbery.
2 died — Jayla Grant, 3, and Leneshia Williams, 17. He faces execution for Ms.
Williams’ death but is serving life in prison without parole for Ms. Grant’s
murder. The execution, previously set for Nov. 13, has been postponed until
Jan. 13, 2021.The move by the Republican governor follows a disciplinary
complaint that was made public on Friday against the attorneys who previously
represented Jackson, 41. The attorneys have been accused of all but abandoning
him, leading to the appointment of new counsel.
A news release from Mr. DeWine’s office also cited the state Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction’s continuing difficulties in obtaining the drugs
it wants to use as part of its three-drug protocol.
The governor previously had cited a federal court’s ruling in which the
magistrate judge expressed his opinion that Ohio’s lethal injection protocol
amounts to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. But that Dayton
magistrate judge never issued an order to postpone an execution, and the U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently overturned his decision in which he
registered his opinion.
Although they’ve each tried to blame the other for firing the gun, Jackson and
Cunningham were both convicted of corralling eight people into an apartment
kitchen on Jan. 3, 2002, robbing them, and then opening fire at close range.
The next person scheduled to be executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional
Facility in Lucasville is James Galen Hanna, convicted of stabbing his
cellmate, Peter Copas, in the eye and bludgeoning him with a sock containing a
padlock in 1997.
Hanna was serving a life sentence in the Lebanon Correctional Institution at
the time for the 1978 murder of a clerk in a West Toledo convenience store. He
is scheduled for execution Dec. 11.
(source: Toledo Blade)
TENNESSEE:
Tennessee governor hands-off as AG moves for more executions
Tennessee's governor is refraining from weighing in on the attorney general's
request to schedule executions for 9 death-row prisoners and restore a 10th
inmate's death sentence.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee said Thursday that it is Attorney General Herbert
Slatery's prerogative to request the execution dates and to challenge a court's
decision commuting an inmate's death sentence to life in prison. Lee said he
and Slatery haven't discussed the decisions.
If Slatery's 2 moves are successful, Lee would have to decide 12 separate times
whether to spare the life of a prisoner on death row: 2 other executions have
already been scheduled.
Tennessee, which performed three executions last year, was second only to
Texas, which carried out 13. Most states have been moving away from the death
penalty.
"The Supreme Court and the attorney general make determinations about
executions ... and how that process unfolds," Lee told reporters Thursday. "So
I will let that process ... play out. That's their responsibility."
As a 2018 gubernatorial candidate, Lee touted his Christian faith and
highlighted his participation in inmate-mentoring programs.
Last week, Slatery announced he would challenge a Nashville criminal court's
decision to commute the death sentence of black inmate Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman's
to life in prison after concerns were raised that racism tainted the jury
selection pool. Slatery argued in his appeal that the court's order
"circumvented established legal procedures."
He also asked the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for 9 death row
prisoners.
Tennessee has executed five people since August 2018, including three by
electrocution — an option for inmates convicted of crimes before January 1999.
Two of the executions have taken place since Lee took office. In those cases,
the governor denied each of the inmates' requests for clemency.
In Tennessee, the attorney general can request execution dates once juries have
delivered death sentences and inmates have exhausted their three-tier appeals
process in state courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court
then schedules the executions.
Lee is expected to reveal a slate of criminal justice reform proposals for the
upcoming legislative session in January, but changes to the death penalty are
not expected to be among them.
Asked Thursday if he thought the death penalty law should be changed, the
governor replied, "That's a decision for the people of Tennessee and the
Legislature. The death penalty is appropriate for those most heinous of crimes,
and that has been the belief of the people of the state."
Department of Correction spokeswoman Dorinda Carter declined to respond
directly to a question from The Associated Press on Thursday about whether the
state had enough lethal injection chemicals for all 9 death row inmates. The
state allows use of pharmacist-compounded drugs.
"We feel confident we can carry out the orders of the court when dates are
set," Carter said in an email.
Executions in Tennessee are carried out through lethal injection unless the
drugs are unavailable, in which case the electric chair is used.
(source: Associated Press)
******************
The State Attorney General’s Role in Tennessee’s Death Penalty Revival -- In
the past month, Herbert Slatery’s actions have highlighted the state AG’s
influence over executions
Since August 2018, as the state of Tennessee has executed 5 death row prisoners
with plans to kill at least 2 more in the coming months, Attorney General
Herbert Slatery has stayed out of the spotlight. A deputy from his office
attends executions to represent the state, and Slatery himself has not
commented publicly on the streak of executions — the state’s most prolific use
of the death chamber since the 1940s.
In the past month, Slatery’s actions have highlighted his central role in
Tennessee’s death penalty. As executions have approached in recent months, the
governor’s office has been the focus of attention while it deliberates over
clemency petitions from condemned men. But if executions become an ever more
typical part of life in Tennessee, it is also because Slatery wills it.
Slatery’s aggressive approach was first on display in February 2018. As the
state was moving to resume executions for the first time in nearly a decade,
Slatery asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to schedule 8 executions within 4
months. The reason for the rush, he said at the time, was concern that the
state might run out of lethal injection drugs and be unable to obtain more. The
high court denied Slatery’s request for a quick run of killings, but it did
begin scheduling executions.
Last month, Slatery made 2 more significant moves that have attracted scrutiny.
The first was announcing he would use his office’s resources to attempt to keep
Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman on death row. At a remarkable court hearing in August,
Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk agreed with defense attorneys that
Abdur’Rahman’s 1987 trial had been tainted by racial discrimination in jury
selection and other prosecutorial misconduct. He proposed an order vacating
Abdur’Rahman’s death sentence but keeping him in prison for the rest of his
life. Nashville Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins approved the agreement. On
Sept. 20, Slatery announced he would fight that deal in court, taking direct
aim at Watkins and Funk in a press release that called the move “unlawful” and
“unprecedented.” Funk stood by his decision, and Abdur’Rahman’s attorney,
Bradley MacLean, said Slatery lacked standing to challenge it. More recently,
Slatery asked the state Supreme Court to intervene and rule on the matter in
time for Abdur’Rahman to be executed on April 16 as originally scheduled.
But it turned out that wasn’t the only case on Slatery’s agenda on Sept. 20.
His office also filed motions with the state Supreme Court asking the justices
to schedule executions for 9 death row prisoners, including all 4 remaining
prisoners from Nashville. The request surprised federal public defenders who
learned about it days later. Instead of sending the motions out to all parties
electronically, Slatery’s office had sent them in the mail. The move was also
unsettling to observers who saw a potential connection between the appointed
AG’s spat with the elected Nashville DA and his request for the rest of
Nashville’s death row contingent to be scheduled for execution.
In a statement responding to the AG’s motions, federal Assistant Public
Defender Kelley Henry, who represents seven of the nine men, said: “We were
surprised by the request for mass executions. Each case is unique and
represents a number of fundamental constitutional problems including innocence,
racism, and severe mental illness.”
Through a spokesperson, Slatery declined to be interviewed about how he
approaches his role and the process of seeking more executions. His office also
declined to make a deputy available to comment, but did provide a brief
explainer on the process:
The Attorney General’s Office, on behalf of the Tennessee Department of
Correction, moved to set execution dates in nine capital cases because the
Office is required to do so by the Tennessee Supreme Court Rules 12.3 and 12.4
(A) when a death row inmate has completed his or her 3-tier review process,
which is what has now happened in the 9 cases. This office does not control
when or which capital cases complete that process. The timing varies depending
on each individual defendant’s case and the courts considering their claims.
Now, both the Tennessee Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court have
rejected challenges to Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol, which has
triggered this office’s obligation to comply with the Rules and file Motions to
Set for these 9 inmates who have completed their review process.
Of the 9 men for whom Slatery is seeking execution dates, some have reached the
end of the 3-tier reveal process and been denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in
recent months. Others, however, exhausted their appeals years ago.
Samantha Fisher, the director of communications for the AG’s office, says the
office held off on filing the motions while the lethal injection case was still
being litigated and decided to file them all together now instead of
arbitrarily picking some before others.
While the AG asks for executions to be scheduled, it falls to the Tennessee
Supreme Court to decide when they occur and in what order. That’s another part
of the death penalty process with very little transparency. In response to
questions about how the court makes those decisions, a court spokesperson sent
the Scene a statement from Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivins briefly outlining the
process, but saying that “the setting of execution dates is part of the Court’s
deliberative process and is, therefore, confidential.”
(source: Nashville Scene)
ARKANSAS:
Grifffen tries again with Arkansas Supreme Court
Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen has asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to
reconsider its order refusing to reinstate his ability to hear cases related to
the death penalty.
Griffen says the Court styled the brief order as denial of a petition for a
rehearing of its order. Griffen argues that the court has it wrong. Rather, he
said, he’s bringing an original action on his status and is entitled to a full
hearing. The court tossed him from death penalty cases after his participation
in a death penalty demonstration.
(source: Arkansas Times)
MISSOURI----impending execution
Governor won't grant clemency in Bucklew execution----Man scheduled to die
Tuesday night
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will not interfere with the scheduled execution of a
man convicted of murder.
Parson's office said he has declined to grant clemency to Russell Bucklew, who
is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Bucklew's lawyers have argued his
execution would be unconstitutional because of a rare condition that could
cause him severe pain during the execution.
He is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Potosi
Correctional Center in eastern Missouri.
Bucklew's execution date has been moved three times but stopped over concerns
about his medical condition. The condition causes blood-filled tumors to grow
in his head, neck and throat. Bucklew has argued the throat tumor could burst
during the execution, causing him to choke on his own blood.
The United States Supreme Court ruled in April that the state could go forward
with the execution.
Activists are set to protest at the governor's office in the Missouri Capitol
at noon Tuesday. A demonstration is also scheduled at the Boone County
Courthouse at 5 p.m.
A Boone County jury convicted Bucklew of first-degree murder, kidnapping and
first degree burglary and recommended the death sentence, court documents show.
The case out of Cape Girardeau County was heard in Columbia on a change of
venue.
Bucklew was accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend's presumed new
boyfriend, Michael Sanders, and firing at Sanders' son, 6, before kidnapping
her. After raping his ex-girlfriend, he engaged in a gunfight with authorities,
during which Bucklew and a Missouri state trooper were injured, according to
court documents
(source: ABC News)
******************
Lawyers want clemency for Missouri inmate to avoid ‘especially gruesome’
execution
Russell Bucklew faces an Oct. 1 execution at the Potosi Correctional Center in
Missouri for a 1996 slaying in southeast Missouri. Bucklew has filed a petition
for clemency from Gov. Mike Parson. Attorneys for Bucklew
A Missouri man convicted in a 1996 slaying rests his final hope with Gov. Mike
Parson to avoid what his lawyers say could be an “especially gruesome”
execution on Tuesday.
Russell Bucklew is scheduled to receive an injection of lethal drugs at the
Potosi Correctional Center at 6 p.m. Tuesday unless Parson intervenes and
grants clemency for the condemned prisoner. Bucklew has twice come close to
execution but his killing was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court to further
review his case.
He has now exhausted his appeals with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bucklew suffers from a rare condition known as cavernous hemangioma that
results in clusters of malformed blood vessels and tumors that grow on his
face, neck and throat. Bucklew’s attorneys say his condition could lead to a
cruel punishment and a “gruesome spectacle” for execution witnesses as he may
choke on and spit up blood during the procedure.
Bucklew made similar arguments before the Supreme Court, a slim 5-4 majority of
which found his pleas unpersuasive.
Parson’s office said the governor reviews all death penalty cases and “takes
seriously both his duty and responsibility to see that lawfully entered capital
sentences are carried out in accordance with state law.”
“Governor Parson has consistently supported capital punishment when merited by
the circumstances and all other legal remedies have been exhausted and when due
process has been satisfied,” Parson press secretary Kelli Jones said in a
written statement.
Bucklew on March 21, 1996, murdered Michael Sanders in southeast Missouri.
Prior to killing Sanders, Bucklew violently assaulted Stephanie Ray when she
told him she wanted to end their relationship.
Ray retreated with her children to Sanders’ house. Bucklew broke into Sanders
house, shot Sanders in the chest, shot at and missed Sanders’ 6-year-old son
and kidnapped Ray and later raped her at gunpoint.
Bucklew doesn’t contest committing the crime.
“Russell committed a terrible crime and for that he remains incredibly
remorseful for his conduct and the pain and suffering he caused the Sanders and
Ray families,” his petition for clemency reads.
Bucklew’s petition says his trial attorneys failed to investigate his
background and present it to the Missouri jury that sentenced him to death.
Bucklew’s lawyers argue that an incomplete accounting of his upbringing led the
jury to hear of a “sunny and superficial narrative of life in the Bucklew home”
as opposed to problems in the family growing up that may have mitigated the
jury’s view of the defendant.
They add that Bucklew has no record of serious infractions in the 22 years he’s
been imprisoned at the Potosi Correctional Center.
Several groups have pleaded with Parson to offer clemency to Bucklew, including
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Its president, Esmeralda
Arosemena de Troitino, said U.S. courts had “failed to provide him with
effective access to judicial protection regarding his right to be free from
cruel and inhuman punishment.”
(source: kansascity.com)
********************
Missouri Prisoner With Rare Disease Seeks Clemency to Prevent “Gruesome”
Execution
A Missouri death-row prisoner whose rare medical condition, he says, risks
making his execution by lethal injection a gruesome and grisly spectacle is
seeking clemency from Missouri Governor Mike Parson ahead of his October 1,
2019 execution date.
Russell Bucklew (pictured) suffers from cavernous hemangioma, a condition that
causes blood-filled tumors to form in his head and neck. His lawyers have asked
Parson to commute his death sentence on humanitarian grounds, saying his tumors
are likely to burst and he is likely to suffocate and drown in his own blood if
he is subjected to lethal injection. They also say that mercy is appropriate
because his trial lawyers mishandled his defense and Bucklew is a
“fundamentally different person” than he was when he committed the murder 23
years ago.
The constitutionality of Bucklew’s execution was the subject of a controversial
5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision in April 2019 after he argued that execution by
lethal injection would constitute cruel and unusual punishment for a person
with his medical condition. Permitting the execution to go forward, Justice
Neil Gorsuch wrote for the Court majority, “[t]he Eighth Amendment does not
guarantee a prisoner a painless death.” For an execution method to be
considered unconstitutionally cruel, Gorsuch wrote, it must “intensif[y] the
death sentence by ‘superadding’ terror, pain, or disgrace” to the punishment.
This, the Court said, requires the to show that the state had available to it a
“feasible and readily implemented alternative method [of execution] … that
would significantly reduce a substantial risk of severe pain” and that,
“without a legitimate penological reason,” the state had refused to adopt that
method. The Court ruled that Bucklew had not proven that Missouri had a
feasible alternative method to execute him.
Bucklew’s clemency petition argues not only that his execution by lethal
injection would be excruciating, but that, “Russell’s compromised medical
condition make it highly likely that the state’s protocol will cause a visually
gruesome execution that will traumatize corrections personnel and witnesses
alike.” His lawyers suggest that the spectacle of such an execution could have
ongoing ramifications for the state: “The aftermath of Russell’s execution will
have a lasting impact on those present to witness the moment and will likely
affect the public’s attitude about the death penalty and, in particular, how
this state carries out the ultimate punishment.”
The clemency petition also presents mitigating evidence that Bucklew’s trial
attorneys failed to uncover. While his parents characterized his upbringing as
“tranquil” and “idyllic,” interviews with other family members and friends
revealed that this characterization was false and self-serving. Instead, they
said, his father’s relentless abusiveness and extra-marital affairs contributed
to Russell’s mother having a nervous breakdown and attempting suicide. At the
time of his crime, Bucklew was addicted to opioid painkillers that he had been
prescribed for his cavernous hemangioma, which he said affected his thinking
and mood: “I felt angry from the meds. It was much harder to keep my feelings
under control. I no longer feel that way and have changed a lot.” A
psychiatrist who met with Bucklew only once and relied largely on conversations
with his parents that misrepresented Russell’s background diagnosed Bucklew
with Antisocial Personality Disorder. Prosecutors then used that diagnosis
against him, arguing that Bucklew was a “sociopath” who deserved a death
sentence. After being provided with further information about Bucklew, the
psychiatrist retracted the diagnosis. Bucklew’s current attorneys also
discovered that his previous clemency attorney, John Simon, had borrowed
$27,000 from Bucklew’s parents, possibly contributing to his failure to fully
investigate Bucklew’s upbringing.
Bucklew’s clemency plea has received support from Missouri bishops, The Kansas
City Star, and the ACLU. In a letter to the governor, Missouri’s four Catholic
bishops said, “[a]s Catholic bishops, we have consistently opposed the use of
the death penalty. Evidence shows that the death penalty is often unfair and
biased in its application. By ending the use of the death penalty, we can
hopefully begin to break the cycle of violence.” They added that Bucklew’s
“particular medical situation warrants special consideration.” In an editorial,
The Kansas City Star urged Governor Parson to reduce Bucklew’s sentence,
saying, “a grisly death at our collective hand is a dishonorable answer to
51-year-old Bucklew’s bloody behavior 23 years ago.” The ACLU collected 30,000
signatures in support of Bucklew, and is also presenting his case to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights seeking a determination that his
execution would violate U.S. treaty obligations. Bucklew himself provided a
statement to The Appeal, saying, “The law doesn’t take into consideration that
with age comes wisdom. I am absolutely a different person. I am more
even-keeled than I was when I was younger. I feel terrible about what happened
to Stephanie Ray and Michael Sanders.”
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
NEBRASKA:
Omaha Sen. Chambers sends long 'open letter' to Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts
Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers last week delivered a 44-page "open letter" to Gov.
Pete Ricketts, calling him out for what Chambers said was a "tell-tale pattern
of problematic behavior."
The most serious part of Chambers' complaint, he said, implicates
"respect/disrespect for the law, personal and professional integrity, the
higher duty of an elected official and moral rectitude.
"If one would land a slippery fish, one must employ a net of finest mesh," he
wrote. "Hence this letter, of necessity, must be detail-rich."
The senator spent a portion of the letter on what he called Ricketts' arbitrary
enforcement of law, in the illustration of his "picking and choosing which laws
to enforce and which to frustrate," a violation of his mandate, Chambers said,
to see that all laws are faithfully enforced.
Chambers, a longtime critic of Ricketts, asked why the governor would be
foot-dragging on enforcing a law that would enhance the availability of medical
care for the working poor and save lives, after moving swiftly to bring back
the death penalty.
The Nov. 8, 2016, vote on whether to retain the Legislature's death penalty
ban, a referendum that Ricketts backed with $300,000 of his own money and his
father, Joe Ricketts, backed with at least $100,000, was defeated, with 60.6%
of Nebraska voters opting in favor of keeping the death penalty.
Ricketts approved a new execution protocol within three months. One year from
the vote, condemned prisoner Jose Sandoval was informed of the drugs that would
be used in his execution, and two months after that, Carey Dean Moore was given
the same information.
Moore was executed Aug. 14, 2018, one year and eight months after the vote.
The November 2018 vote on an initiative petition to expand eligibility for
Medicaid to cover certain adults ages 19-64 whose incomes are 138% of the
federal poverty level was approved by 53.6% of voters.
The state Department of Health and Human Services announced five months after
the vote the expansion would not begin until Oct. 1, 2020, nearly two years
after the vote.
The 2-year delay, the department said, was necessitated by the need to build
and implement a new system to manage the Medicaid benefits that are targeted at
a new category of recipients composed largely of Nebraskans who work at
low-wage jobs. It also is expected to contain work requirements and benefit
limits.
Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld, who led the Medicaid expansion drive, said the delay
was "in violation of the law and completely against the clearly expressed will
of the people."
Chambers went on to write about accusations of Ricketts launching attacks on
Chambers and others who supported overriding his veto of the death penalty
abolition bill; on University of Nebraska-Lincoln football players who took a
knee to exercise their right of free speech; on weighing in on criticism of
Nike regarding the flag shoes controversy; the snubbing of the One Book One
Nebraska selection of "This Blessed Earth" by Ted Genoways, saying the book was
written by a political activist, someone out of touch with Nebraskans and that
would not unite them.
And, Chambers said, Ricketts disrespected the mayor of La Vista by attacking
his restaurant tax proposal via social media, and would not meet with him to
discuss the matter.
He also discussed Ricketts' father and media attention Joe Ricketts got this
year for emails in which he laughed at and liked racist jokes and for writing
anti-Muslim sentiments. Joe Ricketts said when they were posted online that he
deeply regretted some of the exchanges and apologized.
Chambers also called out the Ricketts family for backing an anti-Donald Trump
super PAC with $3 million during the 2016 primary, with the governor's mother,
Marlene Ricketts, saying Trump was too unpredictable to be president, then
reversing course, Chambers said, after Trump got the nomination and after Trump
tweeted, "They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!" aimed at the
family.
Chambers ends the letter with this: "Well, Governor, all things come to an end.
I've said enough and have 'made the points' I set out to make. Time and events
will determine whether I deem any additional action to be warranted."
Asked if Ricketts or his spokesman wanted to respond to the letter, Taylor
Gage, communications director for the governor, said: "What about this is
newsworthy?"
(source: Norfolk Daily News)
NEVADA:
Death sentence in Fernley murder spree upheld by Nevada Supreme Court
The Nevada Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the conviction and death
sentence for Jeremiah Bean, who shot and killed five people during a crime
spree in May 2013.
Bean was convicted of entering the home of Robert and Dorothy Pape in Fernley,
shooting both of them in the head then fleeing with some of their property and
their truck.
When that truck got stranded on Interstate 80, Bean flagged down Elliezear
Graham and shot him to death before driving Graham’s truck back to the Pape
residence and setting it on fire.
Then he entered the home of Andie Duff and Lester Leiber, shot Leiber to death
and then stabbed Duff to death.
He was convicted of all 5 murders, use of a deadly weapon, burglary with a
firearm, grand larceny, larceny of a motor vehicle, arson, robbery and grand
larceny of a firearm.
In November 2015, he was sentenced to death for each of the 5 murders and
consecutive terms of imprisonment for a number of the other offenses.
In his appeal, he argued the district court erred in denying a defense motion
that he was mentally impaired but several tests showed he was not significantly
impaired because his IQ was consistently between 78 and 83.
He argued the court abused discretion by limiting defense questioning of
potential jurors but the justices agreed with the district court in Lyon County
that the questions the defense wanted to ask went beyond what was needed to
determine if the jurors could apply the law.
They said his motion for a change of venue had to be based on inflammatory
pretrial publicity and actual bias on the part of jurors.
“Bean showed neither,” the order states.
They ruled the district court had the right to allow evidence of Bean’s drug
use since he stole property, pawned it and used the money to buy drugs.
Finally, the high court rejected his argument that the death penalty violates
the 8th Amendment to the Constitution.
(source: The Nevada Appeal)
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