Sept. 3
TEXAS:
Man on death row 2 decades wins appeal
A Harris County man on Texas death row for 20 years has won a federal court
appeal that allows him to pursue claims he's mentally impaired and ineligible
for the death penalty.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in the case of 50-year-old
John Reyes Matamoros.
The Mexican Mafia gang member was convicted in 1992, 2 years after his
70-year-old neighbor, Eddie Goebel, died of 25 stab wounds during a break-in at
his home in Houston. Matamoros was on parole at the time after serving prison
time for another break-in where a pregnant woman was sexually abused.
Matamoros' lawyers contended he deserved a court review because of trial
testimony from a Fort Worth psychiatrist whose methodology and credibility have
been questioned in other capital cases.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Former West Palm Beach doctor could face death penalty in patients' deaths
State prosecutors have filed court documents announcing their intent to seek
the death penalty against a former West Palm Beach doctor facing 2 counts of
1st-degree murder for the overdose deaths of his patients.
Authorities with the state attorney's office said Tuesday they have not made a
final decision about whether to pursue the ultimate punishment for former West
Palm doctor John Christensen, 61, but want to keep that option open. The case
will go before the office's death penalty committee, which is expected to
review it and decide whether to pursue the penalty within the next month, Chief
Assistant State Attorney Brian Fernandes said.
"This is a case that's potentially eligible for the death penalty," he said.
"We want to make sure that we preserve our rights."
If the state does pursue a death sentence against the doctor, it would be
highly unusual. Just a handful of Florida physicians have faced homicide
charges for the overdose deaths of their patients, and the majority have been
manslaughter cases.
West Palm Beach defense attorney Grey Tesh, who until last month represented
Christensen, said he was surprised when the state sent its notice of intent to
seek the death penalty. The doctor's new attorney, Richard Lubin, did not
return a call seeking comment Tuesday.
"At least in Palm Beach County, I don't know of any doctor who has faced the
death penalty on a case like this," Tesh said.
In 2002, West Palm Beach doctor Denis Deonarine became the 1st in the state to
be indicted for 1st-degree murder in the death of a patient who was prescribed
painkiller OxyContin. He was ultimately acquitted of 1st-degree murder charges,
and released from prison in December, according to the state Department of
Corrections. After the trial ended, one juror told the Sun Sentinel the jury
ultimately believed the patient was responsible for his own death.
Christensen, who operated medical offices in West Palm Beach, Port St. Lucie
and Daytona Beach, was arrested in July, after a 2 1/2 year investigation that
focused on the deaths of 35 of his patients. He's facing multiple charges,
including the 2 counts of 1st-degree murder for prescribing oxycodone,
methadone and anti-anxiety drugs to 2 patients who later overdosed.
One woman who said her 21-year-old son died as result of the drugs Christensen
prescribed said Tuesday she doesn't know how to feel about the possibility he
could face the death penalty.
"We feel that there are consequences that need to be paid, and we'll leave it
up to the authorities who are involved to make the right decision," said Jacque
Lauzerique, 59, of Wellington, speaking for herself and her husband.
Christensen is not being charged specifically for the death of her son, but she
said she was still relieved to hear of his arrest.
"That is not what a doctor does," she said.
Tesh said he expects it will be an uphill battle for the state to get a
conviction against Christensen, making the death penalty irrelevant. He said it
will be difficult to connect the deaths to him, noting that 1 of the patients
had other substances in her system when she died.
"I would be surprised if he's convicted," Tesh said. "The evidence is just not
going to be there, not to be proved beyond reasonable doubt."
(source: Sun-Sentinel)
**********************
Witnesses testify in convicted killer's penalty phase of trial
Convicted killer Donald Williams could learn this week if a jury will let him
live the rest of his life in prison or die on death row.
Williams was convicted of murder and kidnapping last Thursday in the death of
81-year-old Janet Patrick in 2010.
The penalty phase in the 54-year-old's trial began Tuesday in Lake County, and
the state called victim impact witnesses to the stand.
The state is trying to get a death recommendation.
Witness Darla Blackwell was called to the stand.
She was a victim of a carjacking at the hands of Williams 13 years ago.
The 34-year-old told jurors how she was abducted from a Tavares parking lot
when she was 21 years old, sexually assaulted and had her life threatened.
Blackwell is 1 of 3 victims being called to testify.
It's an effort by the state to show the jurors that Williams is a dangerous
criminal who deserves to die.
"At one point, I said, 'Get it over with. I'm ready to die.' Then I said, 'I
don't want to die. My little girl needs her mom,'" said Blackwell.
Williams, who had been representing himself until last week, complained to the
court he was unhappy with his defense team.
The judge asked if he would like to replace the team or represent himself, and
was reluctant, but opted to keep his attorneys.
A total of 12 witnesses between the defense and state are expected to testify
before the penalty phase finishes on Wednesday.
(source: WFTV News)
**********************************
Which U.S. State Has the Most Error-Prone Capital Punishment System?
It is an affront to human rights that the state, any state, should have to
power to kill a prisoner; and it is an affront to common sense that this
irreversible punishment can be imposed by a system as unreliable and fraught
with error as the U.S. criminal justice system.
In most states, a jury must at least be unanimous before issuing a sentence of
death. But in the state of Florida, the state that leads the nation in number
of wrongfully convicted prisoners exonerated from death row, only a bare
majority of jurors is required. In the Sunshine State, although judges
ultimately decide the sentence, a jury by a 7-5 vote can recommend execution.
No other state allows this.
In a recent op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel, Raoul Cantero, a former state
Supreme Court justice who was appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush and Mark Schlakman
with the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State
University, notes that "more death sentences reportedly were imposed in Florida
than any other state during the past 2 calendar years."
They are jointly urging the state of Florida, a state with ??? using number of
exonerees as a yardstick - the most error-prone capital punishment system in
the country, to require juries to be unanimous before recommending a death
sentence.
Of course, this would not eliminate the problem of error (unanimous juries can
be, and have been, wrong). Nor would it address the even more fundamental
problem that executing prisoners is a profound violation of human rights and
human dignity.
But perhaps this would be a small step in the right direction.
(source: Brian Evans, Amnesty International blog)
ALABAMA----new death sentence
Smith sentenced to death in teacher's killing
A judge this afternoon sentenced Nicholas Smith to death by lethal injection
for the kidnapping and killing Wellborn Elementary School teacher Kevin
Thompson on April 2011.
In July, a jury recommended that Nicholas Smith, 24, be put to death for his
involvement in the teacher's murder.
Prosecutors said during the nine-day trial that Smith, Tyrone Thompson and
Jovon Gaston kidnapped the 3rd-grade teacher on April 20, 2011, from his
Jacksonville apartment, took him to several ATMs, robbed him of $400 at
gunpoint and stabbed him to death with a steak knife.
Brian McVeigh, Calhoun County District Attorney, asked Circuit Judge Brian
Howell to consider the jury's recommendation.
"There is no other sentence justified in this case than death," McVeigh said.
McVeigh said 29-year-old Kevin Thompson had a promising future, and the teacher
was going to make a difference.
"He was the type of person Nicholas Smith needed in his life," McVeigh said.
Tim Burgess, one of Smith???s three court-appointed attorneys, told the court
that Smith's "chaotic" childhood, which involved physical, sexual and emotional
abuse, had a traumatizing impact on Smith.
Burgess told the court that Smith???s only positive role model, his father,
died when he was 5 years old.
"Kevin Thompson had a loving, nurturing family. Nick Smith didn't. I'm not here
to make excuses," Burgess said.
Burgess asked the judge to sentence Smith to life in prison based on his
tumultuous upbringing.
Chrisandra Smith, the defendant's mother, was asked by the defense if there was
anything else the court should know about her son before making its decision.
The mother spoke mostly of Smith's father and told the court that she knew his
father had prayed a lot for his son.
"He was a good man. Don't kill that good man's son," she said.
Howell asked Smith to stand before the bench with his attorneys and gave the
convicted man a chance to address the court. Smith only shook his head.
Howell told Smith while he was sorry for the way he was raised, the judge did
not believe Smith showed remorse for his actions.
"I see no other option," Howell said. "This case clearly calls for the death
penalty."
The judge told Smith he would appoint two new lawyers to work on his appeal.
Smith was shackled and taken out of the courtroom while his mother watched.
Frances Curry, Kevin Thompson's mother, said she feels like justice was served.
"We're going to fight for our children. They have a right to have a good life.
To live a good life and to never have it taken away from them," Curry said.
Curry questioned why Smith didn't talk to the people who abused him, instead of
killing her son.
"If you have a problem with the people that abused you why do you kill an
innocent person?" Curry asked. "It is wrong and I will never agree with it. I'm
glad to see that justice has prevailed."
Tyrone Thompson will be the next defendant to be tried, prosecutors previously
told The Star. A trial date has yet to be set.
(source: Anniston Star)
ARKANSAS:
37 convicted killers await fate on Arkansas' 'Death Row'
While Arkansas officials grapple with the methods of execution in Arkansas, 37
convicted killers languish on "death row" in the Varner Supermax Unit at the
state Department of Correction prison near Grady, 28 miles south of Pine Bluff.
It's no country club, of course, but it is a life of sorts that seems to be the
preferred alternative to the death sentences hanging over these 37 prisoners,
all male. Most of them continue to fight to stay alive, and so far they are
succeeding, thanks largely to the help of people opposed to capital punishment.
Earlier this year a legislative committee held hearings on the state's system
of carrying out executions after a succession of legal challenges left the
latest method in doubt. Earlier, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, whose office
represents the state in capital punishment cases, expressed doubt that the
system can be fixed and called for an open discussion on whether to abolish the
death penalty.
The state has not carried out a death sentence since Eric Randall Nance was
administered a lethal dose of sodium pentathol on Nov. 28, 2005. He had been
convicted of murdering an 18-year-old Malvern cheerleader, Julie Heath, in
October 1993. Press reports afterward said Nance had found her standing beside
her broken-down car alongside U.S. 270 between Malvern and Hot Springs. She was
raped and her throat cut with a box cutter.
If we're going to have a discussion about whether to continue the death
penalty, we should start by looking at the 37 men that Arkansas juries have
decided are deserving of that fate.
You can find a current list on the Arkansas Department of Correction Web site
(http://adc.arkansas.gov). From that list you can find more information about
each. Of the 37, 15 are white and 22 are black.
The oldest is Steven Wertz, 63, a former law enforcement officer convicted in
2007 of murdering a couple in their Ash Flat (Sharp County) home, apparently as
part of a long-running domestic dispute. An accomplice pleaded guilty to lesser
charges in return for his testimony and spent less than a year in prison before
gaining parole.
The youngest is Gregory Decay, 28, a Hurricane Katrina refugee convicted in
2008 of murdering a young couple in their Fayetteville home, allegedly over a
drug dispute. His case has been sent back to Washington County Circuit Court
for additional findings of fact. An accomplice pleaded guilty and is serving 50
years in prison.
Roger Lewis Coulter, 53, has been on Death Row the longest, having been
sentenced in October 1989 by an Ashley County jury of murdering and raping a
5-year-old girl. He was living with the victim's mother at the time and hid the
child's body in a wooded area nearby.
The newest death row resident is Jerry D. Lard, 39, sentenced to death in July
2012 in Greene County on a change of venue. He had been charged with the murder
of Trumann police officer Jonathan Schmidt during a traffic stop in April 2011.
The list of crimes for which these 37 men have been convicted is much too long
to detail in this column, but let's look at some of the most horrendous.
-- Jack Harold Jones Jr., now 49, in 1995 raped and strangled to death a Bald
Knob bookkeeper, Mary Phillips, and beat her 11-year-old daughter so severely
that police first thought she was dead, too.
-- Kenneth Williams, 33, was convicted in 1999 of murdering a Lincoln County
farmer, Cecil Boren, 57, after escaping from the Cummins Unit prison. He had
been serving life in prison for the murder of Dominique Hurd, 19, a University
of Arkansas-Pine Bluff cheerleader.
-- Marcell W. Williams, 43, was convicted in the 1994 rape and murder of Stacy
Errickson, 22, after kidnapping her from a Jacksonville convenience store,
where the mother of 2 had stopped to get gas on her way to work.
-- Bruce Earl Ward, 56, in 1989 attempted to rape and then strangled to death
an 18-year-old Little Rock convenience store clerk, Rebecca Lynn Doss. He was
arrested at the scene by a police officer who happened to drive by. Ward had
previously been convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the 1977 strangulation
of a woman in Pennsylvania.
-- Alvin Bernal Jackson, 43, already serving time for the 1990 murder of
Charles Colclasure and attempted killing of 2 other people, got the death
penalty after stabbing prison guard Scott Grimes to death with a homemade knife
in 1995.
-- Stacey Eugene Johnson, 43, in 1993 stripped, beat, strangled and slit the
throat of Carol Jean Health, 26, at her De Queen apartment while her 6-year-old
daughter and 2-year-old son hid in a closet. The 6-year-old helped identify her
mother???s killer.
-- Justin C. Anderson, 32, murdered 87-year-old Clara Creech while she was
gardening in her yard at Lewisville, then burglarized her home. A week earlier
he robbed and shot a man.
-- Kenneth Isom, 46, in 2001 broke into the trailer home of an elderly Drew
County man, robbing and killing him, then raped and attempted to murder his
72-year-old caregiver, leaving her for dead. Fortunately, she survived and
identified him.
Which of these do you want to put into our parole system?
(source: Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun)
MISSOURI:
Missouri Death Penalty: ACLU Casts Doubt on Doctor Slated to Execute 2 Inmates
As we reported last month, Missouri has set execution dates for 2 death row
inmates, a major turning point in the drawn-out legal battles surrounding
capital punishment in the state. Since the Missouri Supreme Court granted the
state's request to schedule those executions, activists nationally have raised
concerns about the planned use of propofol, a sedative that has never been used
before to administer the death penalty.
And now, a local group critical of the death penalty is speaking out against a
different part of the process -- directly targeting the doctor slated to carry
out the execution.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri says that the
executioner is a certified anesthesiologist who has conducted at least one
execution in the past. This is in direct violation, the ACLU argues, of the
American Board of Anesthesiology standards, which prohibit certified
anesthesiologists from participating in executions.
"You cannot be board-certified and participate in an execution," Jeffrey
Mittman, ACLU-EM executive director, tells Daily RFT. "The state of Missouri
should certainly be aware of this standard."
The ACLU last week sent a letter, full document on view below, to the American
Board of Anesthesiology (ABA), asking it to suspend this Missouri execution
doctor's board certification.
The ACLU's letter explains that the certified anesthesiologist is known in
court documents only as M3 and that his identity remains unknown to the public
(though known to state officials). Regarding the alleged conflict with ABA
standards, the letter elaborates:
M3 is defying the American Board of Anesthesiology's standards by
simultaneously holding himself out as a certified anesthesiologist and
providing effective anesthesia for the purpose of causing his patients' death.
We request that the Board suspend his certification until such time as he has
an opportunity to respond, which will prevent him from harming patients under
the guise of being a certified anesthesiologist...
Time is of the essence. Missouri has scheduled executions for October 23, 2013,
and November 20, 2013. Absent from the Board, M3 will openly flout the
standards required of certified anesthesiologists while holding himself out as
a certified anesthesiologist.
Those dates are set for Allen Nicklasson, guilty of murdering a good samaritan,
and Joseph Franklin, a white supremacist and serial killer who famously claimed
responsibility for shooting Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt.
"He's clearly flouting and defying the rules of his own licensing
organization," Mittman says of the execution doctor.
"There are so many yellow and red flags," he continues. "The ACLU hopes that
the state will do the right thing. If the state is putting forward a protocol
to engage in executions, we believe they have a responsibility to do so
ethically and transparently."
He argues that the state also has an obligation to reveal the doctor's
identity. "It's improper for the state to refuse to disclose who this
individual is."
The ABA standards are in place for a reason, Mittman adds. "A physician's duty
is to care for and make better, not to harm."
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Chris Koster declined to comment to Daily
RFT. And a spokesman for the Department of Corrections did not respond to our
requests for comment.
To see the full letter: http://www.scribd.com/doc/164987035/ACLU-letter
(source: River Front Times)
COLORADO:
Lawyers for James Holmes seek to throw out the death penalty
Lawyers for Aurora movie theater shooting defendant James Holmes want the judge
in the case to declare Colorado's death-penalty laws unconstitutional.
In multiple motions filed Friday and made public Tuesday, lawyers for Holmes
say the state's death-penalty laws are unconstitutionally arbitrary, that the
jury-selection process unfairly skews the jury pool and that the punishment is
sought and used so infrequently in Colorado as to make it cruel and unusual.
"Imposition of the death penalty is rare, unusual, freakish, and inconsistently
applied throughout the State of Colorado," the defense lawyers write in 1
motion.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Holmes, whose lawyers have
admitted that he killed 12 people and wounded dozens more in an attack on the
Century Aurora 16 movie theater last summer. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by
reason of insanity.
A number of the motions are based on the findings of a study by 2 University of
Denver law professors - a study commissioned by the defense team in another
murder case - that found almost all murder cases in Colorado are eligible for
the death penalty.
According to the study, 92 % of the 544 1st-degree murder cases in Colorado
between 1999 and 2010 were eligible for the death penalty. But prosecutors
pursued the death penalty at trial in only five of those cases, according to
the study. Based on those findings, Holmes' lawyers argue in the motions that
Colorado's laws don't limit the use of the death penalty enough to comply with
U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
They also argue that, when the death penalty is used, it is applied
inconsistently. The only district attorney's office to take death penalty cases
to trial in the past decade is the 18th Judicial District attorney's office,
the same one prosecuting Holmes.
And the defense attorneys say the process of selecting a jury in a
death-penalty case - known as "death qualifying" the jury - results in a jury
biased against the defendant. Any juror selected for a death penalty case has
to be willing potentially to impose capital punishment, meaning people opposed
to the death penalty are disqualified from service. Citing "social science
research," Holmes' attorneys say that selection process results in jurors that
"are both partial to the prosecution and prone to convict."
Finally, Holmes' attorneys argue evolving attitudes toward the death penalty
should render the punishment inapplicable in the case.
"The death penalty is in steep and consistent decline in Colorado," the
attorneys wrote in one motion. "Thus, even if this Court restricts its view to
the Colorado Constitution, it should strike the death penalty as inconsistent
with the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing
society."
Prosecutors are due to respond in court filing to the motions in November, and
a gag order in the case prevents them from commenting publicly about the case.
In past statements, 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler has said
the death penalty is used fairly and cautiously in Colorado.
"[O]ur elected prosecutors prudently exercise discretion as to which few murder
cases truly warrant the pursuit of the death penalty," Brauchler wrote earlier
this year in an editorial in The Denver Post. "Which killer currently facing
death in Colorado deserves a lesser sentence?"
The motions were filed Friday to meet a deadline for raising all death
penalty-related issues in the case. They are scheduled to be debated during
weeks of hearings in December.
(source: Denver Post)
*****************
Lawyers for Colorado theater gunman renew efforts to toss death penalty
Lawyers for accused theater gunman James Holmes, who could face execution if
convicted of killing 12 Colorado moviegoers last year, have renewed their push
to have the state's death penalty law ruled unconstitutional, court documents
showed on Tuesday.
In a series of motions, public defenders for the former University of Colorado
graduate student challenged the statute on several fronts, saying state
lawmakers have passed "a dizzying assortment of overlapping laws" regarding
capital punishment.
Holmes, 25, is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and
attempted murder for opening fire in a suburban Denver movie theater during a
screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" last July.
The shooting rampage left 70 others wounded or injured, some of whom are now
permanently paralyzed.
Defense lawyers noted in one motion that Colorado has executed just one
convicted murderer in 46 years, and all three of the state's death-row inmates
were tried and convicted in the same jurisdiction where Holmes is charged.
"Imposition of the death penalty is rare, unusual, freakish and inconsistently
applied," defense lawyers wrote.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyers have said in
court filings that the California native was "in the throes of a psychotic
episode" when he opened fire in the movie theater.
Defense attorneys also argued that aggravating factors that make a defendant
death-penalty eligible under Colorado law, such as the killing of the youngest
victim, six-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan, are likewise "capricious."
"While the intentional killing of a child under 12 is undoubtedly an incredibly
awful and tragic event, designating death-eligibility soley on the status of
the victim is unconstitutionally arbitrary," the motion said.
Previous motions filed by Holmes' public defenders seeking to have Colorado's
death-penalty statute ruled unconstitutional - under different theories - have
been rejected.
Prosecutors have yet to file their responses. In previous filings they said
Colorado's death-penalty law has been upheld by higher courts.
Former Denver prosecutor and legal analyst Craig Silverman said the defense is
unlikely to prevail on the constitutional questions at the trial court level.
They are, however, setting up possible appellate issues should Holmes be
convicted and sentenced to death, he added.
"You never know what argument might resonate with a particular appeals court
judge or the Colorado governor," said Silverman, referring to Governor John
Hickenlooper, who earlier this year granted a reprieve to the state's
longest-serving condemned prisoner who was scheduled to be executed last month.
Holmes' trial is scheduled to begin in early February.
(source: Reuters)
**************************
New group of theater-shooting documents filed
A new host of theater shooting documents have been filed by the defense team,
9Wants To Know has learned.
Most of Tuesday's documents are motions filed by the defense team in an effort
to thwart the death penalty.
The defense says they want the jury to visit 3 prisons and death row if the
case results in a death penalty sentencing phase . They also want to limit
amount of "victim impact evidence."
The defense attorneys also want to video record the voir dire process. Voir
dire is a legal phrase that refers to a variety of procedures connected with
jury trials. It originally referred to an oath taken by jurors to tell the
truth, what is objectively accurate or subjectively honest, or both.
Defense attorneys also want the court to declare the death penalty and
aggravating circumstances unconstitutional. "Aggravating circumstances" means
circumstances that increase the seriousness or outrageousness of a given crime,
which will increase the wrongdoer's penalty or punishment. For example, the
crime of aggravated assault is a physical attack made worse because it is
committed with a dangerous weapon, results in severe bodily injury, or is made
in conjunction with another serious crime. Aggravated assault is usually
considered a felony, punishable by a prison sentence.
Theater shooting suspect James Holmes is accused of killing 12 and injuring at
least 70 people on July 20, 2012.
(source: 9News)
ARIZONA----new execution date
Arizona court schedules Oct. 9 execution for Schad
The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday scheduled an Oct. 9 execution for
71-year-old death-row inmate Edward Harold Schad Jr. for the 1978 killing of a
Bisbee man, 74-year-old Lorimer "Leroy" Grove.
The state Supreme Court considered Schad's case last week but postponed action
until Tuesday. In the meantime, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday denied a
request for a rehearing for Schad.
Schad's scheduled execution last March was postponed when the U.S. Supreme
Court denied the state's request to lift a lower court's order blocking the
execution.
The U.S. Supreme Court then reinstated Schad's death sentence in June. That
cleared the way for the state to press ahead with execution plans.
Grove's body was found in Yavapai County. He had left Bisbee on a trip to
Washington state.
(source: Associated Press)
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