[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
April 25 TEXASexecution Texas executes man for killing 2 at party Texas has executed a 31-year-old prisoner condemned for killing a 5-year-old girl and her grandmother in a gang-related shooting at a child’s birthday party in Fort Worth a decade ago. Erick Davila received lethal injection Wednesday evening for using a semi-automatic rifle to spray bullets at about 20 people - more than a dozen of them children. Annette Stevenson, a 48-year-old grandmother, and her granddaughter, Queshawn Stevenson, were killed in the April 2008 attack. Four others were wounded, including the girl who was celebrating her 9th birthday. Authorities said the gunfire was in apparent retaliation against the slain child’s father, who had a previous run-in with Davila. The U.S. Supreme Court refused appeals to block the punishment. Davila becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 550th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Davila becomes the 9th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1474th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present31 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-550 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 33--May 16-Juan Castillo--551 34-June 21Clifton Williams552 35-June 27Danny Bible-553 36-July 17Christopher Young---554 37-Sept. 12---Ruben Gutierrez-555 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ___ 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
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 25 ALGERIA: Death penalty for alleged Mossad spy sentenced in Algeria 7 individuals accused of spying on behalf of the Mossad, Israel's secret spy agency, were sentenced on Monday by a criminal court in Algeria, with 1 of the accused given the death penalty, local media reported on Tuesday. The leader of the squad, a man of Lebanese descent with Liberian citizenship, was charged with seeking "to harm the security of Algeria" and was given the death penalty. The other 6 members of group, who were said to be of African origin, were given 10 year jail sentences and each fined 20 million Algerian dinar. According to Jerusalem Post citing local Algerian media, they were charged with espionage "possession and dissemination of documents that glorified terrorism," and undermining state security. The defendants reportedly pleaded not guilty to their charges. Algeria's Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui said the exposure of the "international spy ring" working for Israel was clear proof that the Mossad and other foreign entities were trying to undermine the country's security and stability, Ynet reported. In January 2016, security services in Algeria announced they had exposed the aforementioned spy network and subsequently arrested at least 10 agents. Site of assassination of Dr Fadi al-Batash in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 21, 2018 The Algerian incident follows on from gunning down of a Palestinian and Hamas-affiliated engineer, Dr Fadi Mohammad al-Batash, 35, in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur last week. Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad terrorist group have claimed it to be an assassination carried out by the Mossad. Israel has dismissed claims that the country's spy agency was behind Batash's killing, suggesting instead that his killing was a "settling of accounts" between sparring terrorist factions. Hamas has previously accused the Mossad of assassinating another one of its drone experts -- Mohamed Zouari -- in Tunisia in 2016. The Mossad is believed to have assassinated Palestinian militants and scientists in the past, but rarely confirms such operations. Back in November of last year, Lebanese authorities arrested and raided the home of prominent writer and actor Ziad Itani on charges of "collaborating and communicating with the Israeli enemy." He was detained and eventually confessed to having been "tasked to monitor a group of high-level political figures" and their associates. However, in February of this year, he was released as authorities claimed the the "confession" was extracted under duress and that the security apparatus had received the wrong information. Muslim countries have in the past accused its locals and foreigners of acting as agents on behalf of the Jewish State. (source: i24news.tv) UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Blood money spares 5 Indians death penalty in UAEThey are now back home after group fight victim's family pardons them and benefactor arranges part of blood money 5 Indians, who were spared death penalty for murdering a compatriot in a group fight, are now back home after the victim's family accepted the blood money and pardoned them. The unmarried youths had a reunion with their families - 2 of them after 9 years - after they served about 6 1/2 years in jail following the murder of Virendra Chauhan. Dharmendra, Harwinder Singh, Ranjit Ram, Dalwinder Singh and Sucha Singh had been sentenced to death after they were convicted of killing Chauhan during a brawl between 2 groups of bootleggers in Sharjah in November 2011. "I wanted them to feel guilty for indulging in the fight and work hard to repay their families. So, I gave them only the amount that their families were falling short of." - S.P. Singh Oberoi | Indian hotelier who helped the convicts Their release became possible after their appeal to be spared death was taken up by Indian hotelier S.P. Singh Oberoi, who is known for rescuing many from death penalty by paying blood money to the victims' families. Speaking to Gulf News from India, Oberoi said he took up the case of the youngsters as he was convinced that it was not an intentional murder and their families would suffer if their capital punishment was executed. He said he wasn't justifying the convicts and wanted them also to serve the jail sentence the court would order. The court reduced their sentence to 3 1/2 years in jail after Oberoi managed to convince Chauhan's family to pardon them. "I went to his house with some family members of these boys to seek their pardon by accepting the blood money." A total of Rs2.1 million (Dh116,245) was paid in blood money to Chauhan's wife and 6 children, of which Rs1.3 million was raised by the convicts' families, he said. "I wanted them to feel guilty for indulging in the fight and work hard to repay their families. So, I gave them only the amount that their families were falling short of." Since
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., FLA., OHIO, IND., NEB.
April 25 TEXASimpending executions Erick Davila's death penalty case made it in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, he's set for execution.Erick Davila is scheduled to die Wednesday evening for a 2008 shooting at a child's birthday party that left his rival gang member's mother and 5-year-old daughter dead. His case was heard and ultimately rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. A year ago, his death penalty case was being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, he is set to die. Erick Davila, 31, is scheduled for execution Wednesday evening after a relatively short 9 years on Texas' death row. He was convicted in 2009 for repeatedly shooting at a Fort Worth house hosting a child's birthday party, killing a rival gang member's mother and 5-year-old daughter. Davila has asked the court to stop his execution based on new claims of drug use during the murders and a conflict of interest with the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office. Davila has continually fought his sentence, maintaining to the courts that he only intended to kill his rival, Jerry Stevenson, not the man's daughter, Queshawn, or her grandmother, 47-year-old Annette. It was an important distinction because the jury had to find that Davila intended to kill multiple people to be eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors argued Davila always intended to kill more than his rival, pointing to his statement to police that he was trying to get "the guys on the porch" and "the fat dude." "I wasn't aiming at the kids or the woman and don't know where the woman came from," Davila said in a written statement to police, according to court documents. "I don't know the fat dudes name, but I know what he looks like, so I recognized his face." It was the question of intent that eventually led Davila's case to the nation's high court last April on a legal technicality. His current lawyer, Seth Kretzer, argued that when jurors at his trial questioned if they needed to decide whether Davila intended to kill his 2 victims or if he intended to kill someone and in the process fatally shot 2 others, the judge - who is know the Tarrant County criminal district attorney - erred in her answer. The judge responded that Davila would be responsible for a crime if the only difference between what happened and what he wanted was that a different person was hurt - without affirming to them that Davila must have intended to kill more than one person. The jury found him guilty. Though his lawyer at trial objected to the judge;s instructions, the objection was overruled, and the issue wasn't brought up again in Davila's state appeals, which Kretzer said was bad lawyering. The question that landed in front of the U.S. Supreme Court was whether Kretzer could raise the jury instruction in federal courts because of ineffective appellate lawyers. Generally, federal courts can't take up issues that could have been raised in state courts, but there is an exception when the trial lawyer is found to have been ineffective. But in Davila's case, it was the appellate lawyers, not the trial lawyer, who were being accused of dropping the ball. In June, the justices decided in a split ruling that the 2 types of attorneys can't be treated equally, and Davila became eligible for execution. He didn't stop fighting. After Tarrant County set an execution date, Davila filed new appeals, and one is still pending before the U.S Supreme Court. In the petition, Kretzer asks the court to delay the execution because he recently discovered that Davila's original co-defendant told the judge that Davila was "heavily intoxicated" during the shooting - a fact that was apparently unknown by defense attorneys. Kretzer wants time to further develop claims that the prosecution may have failed to disclose information about Davila being on drugs at the time of the murders. "While intoxication is not a defense to murder, it would have been an issue that would have been relevant to mitigation and sentencing," Kretzer said Tuesday, indicating a jury could have been persuaded to hand down the lesser sentence of life in prison without parole if it was brought up at trial. The Texas Attorney General's office argued against the appeal in its court filing, saying that Davila himself would obviously be aware of his own intoxication, so it was information the defense could have found earlier, disqualifying it from court review now. Lower courts have agreed with Texas, denying Davila's motions. Davila's team has also asked the nation's high court to remove the Tarrant County District Attorney's office from his case since the criminal district attorney, Sharen Wilson, was the judge who oversaw his trial, and his former state appellate attorney now works for her. "The clients should obviously be able to trust their lawyers," Kretzer said. "You can't get confidential information from your client and then turn
