[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., MO., NEV., CALIF., USA
Nov. 2 ARKANSASimpending execution Death Row Inmate Scheduled To Be Executed Next Week An inmate on death row is set to die next Thursday (Nov. 9), but the American Bar Association and the killer's lawyers are trying to stop it. It will be Arkansas' 1st execution since it put 4 men to death at the end of April. Just before those executions, Jack Greene's former girlfriend broke her silence to 5NEWS in her 1st on-camera interview. Donna Johnson said Greene abused and tortured her for years. "I'm always on edge," she said. "I myself cannot be at peace until I know 100 % that he's dead." Johnson and Greene met in 1984 in North Carolina. They eventually moved to Springdale and had a daughter. Johnson said that soon after, she realized Greene had a dark side. Johnson said Greene told her if she ever left him, he would kill her and her entire family. During July of 1991, she decided to leave him. Records show Greene went back to North Carolina, kidnapped his niece and killed his brother. His niece, 16 at the time, survived. A week later, he went back to Arkansas, which Johnson believes to look for her, but police had surveillance watching the house where she was staying. Greene went to Sidney Burnett's house, a pastor in Johnson County and someone Donna Johnson confided in. "He beat that old man, tied him to a chair, beat that old man with a hominy can, slit him from ear to ear, stabbed him," Johnson explained back in April. During October 1992, a jury sentenced Greene to death for the slaying of the pastor. Greene's attorney said Greene is delusional and that the death penalty is not the appropriate punishment. "It's not constitutional to execute someone who is suffering from a mental illness that prevents him from rationally understanding his execution," John Williams, Greene's federal public defender, said. In the meantime, Greene waits on death row at the Varner Unit in Eastern Arkansas. The American Bar Association wrote a letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson asking for Greene's clemency because of his mental illness, but the governor has yet to make a decision. (source: KFSM news) * Hearing scheduled regarding death row inmate's mental state A motion hearing for an Arkansas death row inmate scheduled to be put to death in November has been set for this week. Attorneys for inmate Jack Greene filed a civil suit against Wendy Kelley, the director of the Arkansas Department of Correction, saying Greene is incompetent to be executed due to his mental state. They argue holding his execution would be unconstitutional. ADC attorneys filed to dismiss the complaint. The case goes before Jefferson County Circuit Court at 10 a.m. Thursday. Jack Greene is set to die on November 9 after he was convicted in the 1991 death of Sidney Burnett. (source: KATV news) MISSOURI: 2 men arrested in Deerfield Township in deaths of elderly Missouri couple A southern Missouri prosecutor will seek the death penalty against 2 men accused of killing an elderly couple during a robbery, he said Monday. Timothy Callahan, 44, of Farmington, Missouri, and David Young, 67, of Ironton, Missouri, were arrested Saturday without incident at a motel in Deerfield Township, Ohio, near Cincinnati. Both were charged with 2 counts each of 1st-degree murder. Reynolds County, Missouri, prosecutor Michael Randazzo said in an interview with The Associated Press that he will file additional charges of armed criminal action, robbery and assault against both men, who are jailed without bond in Ohio awaiting extradition. Randazzo said there was evidence the crime was premeditated and he planned to pursue the death penalty. The men are accused in the shootings of 86-year-old James Nance, his 72-year-old wife, Janet, and a 73-year-old friend of the family on Oct. 18 at the Nance home near Ellington, Missouri, about 125 miles southwest of St. Louis. The third victim was shot twice in the head but survived. Young was on probation after pleading guilty in 2016 to financial exploitation of the elderly or disabled in Pulaski County, according to Missouri Case Net, the state's online court reporting system. He was arrested again in September and charged with scamming an elderly couple out of thousands of dollars by convincing them to write multiple checks for the same job - painting their barn. "He would drive around looking for decent-looking homes, elderly couples, and try to do work for them," Randazzo said. Authorities believe the men may have originally planned a similar scam on the Nances. Randazzo said it appeared they had contacted the couple about doing work at their home, but ultimately decided instead to rob James Nance. Randazzo said the robbery was in progress when Janet Nance and her friend returned home from a shopping trip and encountered the gunmen. (source: Associated Press) NEVADAimpending volunteer
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., ALA., MISS., OHIO, KY.
Nov. 2 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: Forced Testimony Over Evidence?No physical evidence implicates Cardenas in his cousin's murder Ruben Cardenas, a Mexican national convicted of capital murder for kidnapping, raping, and killing his 16-year-old cousin in McAllen, is scheduled for execution on Nov. 8, but his fight is far from over. This week, Cardenas' legal team, led by Maurie Levin and funded by the Mexican government, filed 2 appeals with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: one to reverse the Hidalgo District Court's Oct. 25 decision to deny DNA testing, the other seeking relief and a new hearing. Stories vary about Mayra Laguna's Feb. 22, 1997, abduction, but a 2016 interview with KRGV/Channel 5 News has Cardenas saying that his cousin asked him to fake her kidnapping and take her away. He said he drove her outside of town, where they got into a fight about her wanting to marry him and began hitting each other. "By the time I knew it, she was already just laying there," he said. In a panic, he dumped her body in a canal. According to his appeals, however, there was no physical evidence linking Cardenas to the crime - including no forensic evidence of sexual assault. Instead, prosecutors relied primarily on statements Cardenas made after his arrest. Levin writes: "His conviction and death sentence bear all the indicia of a wrongful conviction, including questionable eyewitness testimony, coerced, uncounseled confessions, and unreliable forensic evidence." Further, Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program director Greg Kuykendall insists that as a Mexican national, Cardenas had a right to consult with Mexico's consulate for legal advice and representation under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. But Cardenas was never informed of that right after his arrest, nor was the consulate alerted. It took the state 11 days to appoint Cardenas' legal counsel; during that time, Kuykendall said, Cardenas' Miranda rights were "violated and he confessed." The consulate didn't learn of the charges against Cardenas until 5 months later. Kuykendall says Mexico has been "deeply involved in the case ever since, but a significant amount of damage" had already been done. Should his appeals be denied, Cardenas would be the 7th Texan executed in 2017. Executions have been largely unpredictable this year: Larry Swearingen was scheduled for Nov. 16 (and still is, according to the Department of Criminal Justice website), but the Houston Chronicle reported on Sunday that his execution had been stayed now that both sides have agreed to DNA testing. (Swearingen was convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of Melissa Trotter, but maintains he's innocent.) If Swearingen's name sounds familiar it's because he's partially responsible for Anthony Shore's 90-day stay last month. The state believes Shore colluded with Swearingen and was planning to claim responsibility for Trotter's murder. Meanwhile, Juan Castillo, whose August execution was delayed due to Hurricane Harvey, is back on the clock with a new execution date, Dec. 14. He's the last person scheduled to die by the state's hand in 2017. (source: The Austin Chronicle) *** Mexican national set for execution in Texas files last-minute appeal over DNA testing A Mexican national set to die by lethal injection next week in Huntsville is begging courts for a stay of execution as part of a last-minute appeal over DNA testing in a case that has sparked pushback from south of the border. A lawyer for Ruben Cardenas Ramirez filed papers Monday in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeking to reverse a lower court's refusal to allow testing on fingernail scrapings from 16-year-old Mayra Laguna, who was murdered and tossed in a canal in 1997. Her cousin, a high-school dropout born in Mexico and raised in Texas, later admitted to the crime and was sentenced to death. But his lawyers argue the confessions were coerced and potentially exculpatory DNA evidence should be looked at before his Nov. 8 execution. "His conviction and sentence of death were obtained through the use of unreliable, coerced and false evidence, and DNA testing that is meaningless by today's scientific standards," attorney Maurie Levin wrote in Monday's filing. (source: Associated Press) *** Execution date set for Battaglia An execution date has been set for a man who shot his 2 daughters at his Deep Ellum loft in 2001 while their mother helplessly listened on the phone. John Battaglia, 62, is scheduled to be executed Feb. 1 in Huntsville. He had sought to delay or stop his lethal injection bysaying he was not mentally competent. But after a hearing last November, state District Judge Robert Burns found he was competent, and the Court of Criminal Appeals agreed. Battaglia shot and killed 9-year-ol Faith and 6-year-old Liberty in an act of revenge against hie ex-wife. "No,
