Oct. 5
TEXAS----stay of 2 impending executions
Texas Courts Halt 2 Imminent Executions
Texas state courts have halted the executions of 2 condemned prisoners who had
been facing imminent execution dates. On October 4, 2019, the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals stayed the October 10 execution of Randy Halprin and directed
a Dallas trial court to consider his claim that the religious bigotry of the
judge who presided over his case denied him a fair trial before an impartial
tribunal. The previous day, a Henderson County District Court judge withdrew
the death warrant that had scheduled Randall Mays to die on October 16, amid
concerns that Mays may be mentally incompetent.
The twin rulings were a dramatic development in the continuing saga involving
the Lone Star State’s efforts to execute 13 prisoners in the last 5 months of
2019. A DPIC analysis of those cases found that they raised troubling questions
of innocence, significantly flawed legal proceedings, junk science, and
diminished culpability arising from one or more of mental illness, intellectual
disability, youthfulness, and chronic exposure to trauma.
Supported by a coalition of national and local Jewish organizations, Halprin,
who is Jewish, filed petitions in the state and federal courts seeking a stay
of execution and a new trial based upon recently discovered evidence of his
trial judge’s virulently anti-Semitic statements and beliefs. He supported his
claim with affidavits from court personnel who said that his trial judge,
Vickers Cunningham, disparaged Halprin as “a f***in’ Jew” and “g**damn k**e,”
and made racist comments about his Latino co-defendants. One court employee
said Cunningham had bragged that, during their trial, “[f]rom the w**back to
the Jew, they knew they were going to die.”
Halprin’s defense team began investigating Cunningham’s possible anti-Semitic
bias after learning from a report in The Dallas Morning News in 2018 that
Cunningham had put provisions in his will that conditioned his children’s
inheritance upon marrying a straight, white Christian. Halprin’s current
counsel, assistant federal defender Tivon Schardl, praised the state court’s
decision, as “a signal that bigotry and bias are unacceptable in the criminal
justice system.” “A fair trial requires an impartial judge, and Mr. Halprin did
not have a fair and neutral judge when his life was at stake,” Schardl said.
Mays’ death warrant was withdrawn by Henderson County District Judge Joe
Clayton after defense lawyers moved to have May declared incompetent to be
executed. The defense motion said that prison mental health personnel had
recently diagnosed Mays with schizophrenia and prescribed him anti-psychotic
medication. A forensic psychiatrist reported that Mays’ mental health condition
has deteriorated, that he is increasingly delusional and incoherent, and that
he claims the prison guards are poisoning the air vents in his cell.
Mays was convicted and sentenced to death for killing 2 county sheriff’s
deputies. The competency pleading says he believes he is to be executed because
he has designed a process for creating renewable energy that threatens the
interests of the oil companies. Judge Clayton wrote that he withdrew the
execution date so the court could have time to “properly review all medical
records submitted.”
(source: Death Penalty Information Center)
***********************************
"Texas 7" member Randy Halprin wins stay of execution amid claim of
anti-Semitic judge----Halprin's lawyers had requested the stay amid allegations
that the judge who handled his case made racist and anti-Semitic comments
during his time on the bench.
Editor's note: This story contains explicit language and has been updated
throughout.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted the execution of Randy Halprin on
Friday, less than a week before he was to be put to death.
Halprin, one of the infamous "Texas Seven" — who were convicted in the 2000
murder of a police officer during a more than month-long prison escape — had
recently argued that his trial was biased because his judge was "a racist and
anti-Semitic bigot."
Halprin, who is Jewish, said in his latest appeal that former Judge Vickers
Cunningham had described Halprin as “a fuckin’ Jew” and “goddamn kike” shortly
after the trial. Cunningham also admitted to putting stipulations in his will
that his children could only receive inheritance by marrying a straight, white
Christian, as was first reported by The Dallas Morning News in 2018.
The Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court, stopped Halprin’s
execution, set for next Thursday, and sent the case back to the Dallas County
trial court for further review of the claims.
"A fair trial requires an impartial judge – and Mr. Halprin did not have a fair
and neutral judge when his life was at stake," one of Halprin's attorneys,
Tivon Schardl, said in a statement after the ruling. "We are very grateful the
CCA has given Mr. Halprin the opportunity to seek a new trial, free of
religious discrimination."
Cunningham did not immediately return requests for comment Friday afternoon.
Dallas District Attorney John Creuzot, who did not file a response to Halprin's
latest appeal, said Friday evening it was too early to determine what his
office's next steps would be in the case.
Halprin, 42, was sentenced to death in 2003 in the high-profile murder of
Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins on Christmas Eve 2000. Seven prisoners at
a South Texas prison escaped more than a week earlier, and were robbing a
sporting goods store when Hawkins arrived on scene. The 31-year-old officer was
shot repeatedly and run over as the escapees fled. Halprin was found about a
month later in an RV in Colorado with Larry Harper, who killed himself when
police surrounded them. The other five were captured within a couple of days.
Halprin’s lawyers said in their filing they had recently learned about
Cunningham’s anti-Semitic slurs, as well as calling some of his co-defendants
“wetbacks.” They also claimed Cunningham said people of color would “go down”
in his courtroom and that Jews “needed to be shut down.” The filings attributed
the allegations to first-hand accounts. Cunningham has denied the bigoted
comments in previous interviews with the Morning News.
4 of the other Texas 7 have already been executed — including at least one
tried under Cunningham. Aside from Halprin, only one member, Patrick Murphy,
remains alive, and he is set for execution in November. Murphy's scheduled
execution in March was halted because the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
would not allow a Buddhist spiritual adviser into the execution chamber with
him.
Halprin’s was the 2nd Texas execution stopped by different courts in 2 days. On
Thursday, a Henderson County court withdrew the execution date of Randall Mays,
set for Oct. 16, to review his mental competence.
(source: The Texas Tribune)
************************************
Judge halts execution for man convicted of killing 2 Henderson County
deputies----Randall Mays was scheduled to be executed Oct. 16, but the judge
removed the death warrant amid questions that Mays may not be mentally
competent to be put to death.
A Texas judge has withdrawn a death row inmate's execution date amid questions
that he may not be mentally competent to be put to death.
On Thursday, less than two weeks before Randall Mays’ scheduled Oct. 16
execution, Judge Joe Clayton of Henderson County withdrew the death warrant.
Mays’ attorneys had filed a motion to find him incompetent for execution
because he was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia and believes he is to be
executed because he has a renewable energy design that threatens oil companies.
Clayton said in his order that he stopped the execution to “properly review all
medical records submitted.” The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that for an
execution to be conducted, the inmate must know that they are about to be
executed and why.
Mays, 60, was sentenced to death in 2008 after killing 2 Henderson County
sheriff's deputies in a standoff that began with a domestic disturbance call,
according to court records. Mays and his wife were yelling, and a neighbor said
Mays was shooting at her, on their property in Payne Springs, a small town
southeast of Dallas.
At first, deputies said Mays was calm and polite, and that his wife told them
to leave because they were “just having a spat.” When the neighbor wanted to
press charges for the gunshots and a deputy attempted to arrest Mays, however,
his face changed, court briefings state. He ran inside with a rifle , but
continued talking with deputies through a window and at one point outside for
about 20 minutes, telling them he feared the deputies would kill him.
Mays then shot two deputies, Tony Ogburn and Paul Habelt, in the heads, killing
them. Another deputy was shot in the leg but survived. Mays surrendered after
he was shot himself.
In 2015, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stopped Mays’ first scheduled
execution because of competency questions, but ultimately the same Henderson
County judge found he was fit for execution. A reason for that finding, Mays’
lawyers claim, was because the Texas prison system had not diagnosed or treated
Mays for any relevant mental illness at that time.
That has since changed. In 2018, prison mental health officials diagnosed Mays
with schizophrenia and other disorders and prescribed him antipsychotics, the
lawyers wrote in a motion last month.
A forensic psychiatrist who visited Mays before also said that as of August,
his cognitive functions and delusional beliefs have worsened. Mays had trouble
staying on topic, quickly veered conversation to comments that the guards were
poisoning the air vents and was frequently incoherent.
Mays’ execution was the s2nd stopped this week. On Friday, the execution of
Randy Halprin, set for Oct. 10, was halted by the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals.
(source: The Texas Tribune)
***********************************
Mays receives stay of execution
Henderson County District Attorney Mark Hall has confirmed, Randall Mays
received a stay of execution for the 2007 murder of 2 Henderson County
Sheriff's Deputies.
Visiting Judge Joe D. Clayton had set Mays to be executed for 6 p.m.,Wednesday,
Oct. 16. Henderson County District Attorney Mark Hall said Clayton has stayed
the executive due to the fact his attorneys have file an appeal on Mays
competency.
Mays' attorneys are appealing a decision made June 5, by the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals affirming the decision by Clayton that Mays is competent to be
executed.
In May of 2008, Mays, 58, of Payne Springs was convicted and sentenced to death
for killing Deputy Tony Ogburn. He also killed HCSO investigator Paul Habelt
and seriously wounded Deputy Kevin Harris.
Ogburn and Habelt were a pair of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office’s most
experienced lawmen. Habelt had more than 40 years to his credit. Ogburn was a
veteran deputy who had worked around the courthouse for several years.
Mays’ trial in early 2008 again brought the story to the forefront. For days,
witnesses recounted the events until the decision finally went to the jury.
They returned with a guilty verdict almost a year to the day after the
shootings.
The original execution date of March 18, 2015, was stayed by the Court of
Criminal Appeals. The appellate court justices found Mays, 58, of Payne
Springs, made “a substantial showing that he is incompetent to be executed” and
ordered further competency hearings, including the appointment of mental-health
experts.
No date has been set for Mays execution. Hall said Mays is entitled to other
appeals before an execution is carried out by the state of Texas.
(source: Athens Review)
***************************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----47
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----565
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
48---------Oct. 30----------------Ruben Gutierrez---------566
49---------Nov. 6-----------------Justen Hall-------------567
50---------Nov. 13----------------Patrick Murphy----------568
51---------Nov. 20----------------Rodney Reed-------------569
52---------Dec. 11----------------Travis Runnels----------570
53---------Jan. 15----------------John Gardner------------571
54---------Mar. 11----------------Carlos Trevino----------572
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
***********************
USA----impending/scheduled executions
With the execution of Russell Bucklew in Missouri on October 1, the USA has now
executed 1,507 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 further scheduled executions as the nation continues its shameful
practice of state-sponsored killings.
NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.
1508-------Oct. 30------------Ruben Gutierrez----------Texas
1509-------Nov. 3-9-----------Charles Rhines-----------South Dakota
1510-------Nov. 6-------------Justen Hall--------------Texas
1511-------Nov. 7-------------James Dailey-------------Florida
1512-------Nov. 13------------Patrick Murphy-----------Texas
1513-------Nov. 20------------Rodney Reed--------------Texas
1514-------Dec. 5-------------Lee Hall Jr.-------------Tennessee
1515-------Dec. 9-------------Daniel Lewis Lee---------Federal - Ark.
1516-------Dec. 11------------James Hanna--------------Ohio
1517-------Dec. 11------------Travis Runnels-----------Texas
1518-------Dec. 11------------Lezmond Mitchell---------Federal - Ariz.
1519-------Dec. 13------------Wesley Purkey------------Federal - Mo.
1520-------Jan. 13-----------Alfred Bourgeois----------Federal - Tex.
1521-------Jan. 15-----------Dusten Honken-------------Federal - Iowa
1522-------Jan. 15-----------John Gardner--------------Texas
1523-------Jan. 16-----------Kareem Jackson------------Ohio
1524-------Mar. 11-----------Carlos Trevino------------Texas
(source: Rick Halperin)
FLORIDA:
Court filings give insight into how defense may keep convicted murderer Everett
Miller off death row
Court filings in the case of convicted murderer Everett Miller have given some
insight into how the defense may be trying to keep Miller off death row.
The retired marine was convicted last month in the 2017 murders of Kissimmee
police officer Matthew Baxter and Sgt. Sam Howard.
Channel 9’s legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said the defense can use as many
mitigating factors as they can come up with to try to spare their client's
life.
Mental health is often a big one and it’s something Miller’s attorney’s have
already notified the court they plan to use. They have also received extra
funding for a psychological expert.
This is an issue they couldn’t raise in the guilt phase of the trial, but can
use in the penalty phase.
Prosecutors have also listed a neurologist as a possible expert witness, a
doctor known for testifying about abnormalities in the brain, perhaps to
counter any mental defect the defense may raise.
Both sides know the law now requires a unanimous jury to come back with a
recommendation for death, which might be what the defense is hoping by raising
mental health concerns for the former marine.
“They hope this mental health issue touches at least one juror and if it does,
they keep their client off death row,” Sheaffer said.
The sentencing phase will begin next month and will be like a small trial with
the same jurors who found Miller guilty
(source: WFTV news)
ALABAMA:
February trial set for Coley McCraney
A trial has been set for a Dothan man charged with the 1999 murders of 2
teenage girls whose bodies were found in a trunk of a car.
Court records show Dale County Judge William Fillmore scheduled a trial date of
Feb. 3 for Coley McCraney, who was arrested earlier this year and charged with
capital murder in the deaths of J. B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett.
Beasley and Hawlett, who were both 17 and from Dothan, went missing, and it was
2 days before their bodies were found in the trunk of Beasley’s car on a side
street in Ozark on Aug. 1, 1999. The crime scene, where the bodies were found,
indicated the 2 girls had been shot in the head with a 9mm handgun.
McCraney faces 3 capital murder charges for Beasley and 2 capital murder
charges for Hawlett. His charges stem from DNA test results performed by
Parabon Labs in Virginia, which matched McCraney's DNA to evidence collected
from the crime scene. Results were also confirmed by the Alabama state lab.
In an unrelated case, McCraney was ordered to submit DNA by a judge as part of
a paternity petition from a woman who claimed McCraney was the father of her
child born in September 1998, according to court documents reviewed by the
Dothan Eagle. The order for DNA submission was made July 30, 1999, by Ozark
judge Fred Steagall.
According to the paternity petition, McCraney lived on Lisenby Drive in Ozark
in the summer of 1999, a 1.08-mile straight walk from where the teens’ bodies
were found near the intersection of Herring Avenue and James Street.
If convicted, McCraney faces either life in prison without parole or the death
penalty. Dale County District Attorney Kirke Adams previously said he will seek
the death penalty upon conviction.
Andrew Scarborough and David Harrison, defense attorneys who represent
McCraney, believe their client is innocent of the murder charges. McCraney has
professed his innocence through attorneys and his wife.
McCraney has a hearing scheduled Monday for the court to address multiple
motions requested by defense attorneys.
(source: Dothan Eagle)
***************
6 death penalty cases pending in Madison County
6 potential death penalty cases await their day in court in Madison County.
At least 1/2 of them are to go before a judge in the next 12 months, but
prosecutors say the time needed to prepare for those will push other death
penalty cases down the road.
It's been more than 4 years since prosecutors say a married couple murdered 5
people, including a 9-month pregnant woman, and set their New Market home on
fire.
Christopher Henderson and Rhonda Carlson will be tried separately.
Henderson's trial, which is expected to last 3 weeks, is set to begin June 8,
2020. Henderson was also married, at the same time, to the pregnant victim in
the case, Kristen Henderson.
Carlson is set to go on trial on October 19, 2020. The state is requesting the
death penalty for both defendants.
The 1st death penalty case on the 2020 calendar invlves Warren Hardy. He is
charged with killing 72-year-old Kathleen Lundy, of Huntsville, during a crime
spree.
The Huntsville Police Department said the crime spree included an attempted
kidnapping and a carjacking before Hardy approached Lundy outside her home.
"He walks up and asks for the keys and then shot her and killed her before
taking off in her car," Huntsville Police Department Lt. Michael Johnson said
in August 2016.
Hardy is set to go on trial April 6, 2020.
Tim Gann, chief trial attorney for the Madison County District Attorney's
office told a judege last week that the caseload means that the trial for 2
other defendants facing a possible death sentence will have to wait.
Israel Palomino and Yoni Aguilar, aren't likely to go to trial until late 2020.
The 2 men are accused of killing Oralia Lopez and beheading her 13-year-old
granddaughter, Mariah Lopez. And investigators say the case has ties to
Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel.
Another death penalty case awaiting a trial date in Madison County is against
Otis Mayes. He's charged with killing 2 women in Five Points in September 2017.
Mayes doesn't yet have a trial date.
(source: WHNT news)
NEVADA:
Groups urge no death penalty for severely mentally ill people
The American Bar Association and several local attorneys groups want Nevada’s
high court to ban the death penalty for defendants with severe mental illness.
The American Bar Association filed an amicus brief Thursday urging the Nevada
Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s decision to impose the death penalty
on Siaosi Vanisi, who was convicted of killing a police officer in Reno in
1998.
Several local groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada,
state and county public defenders and Nevada law professors, filed similar
briefs Thursday, asking the court to ban executions of people who suffer from
severe mental illness.
In their brief, the ABA points to prior U.S. Supreme Court decisions that
barred the execution of defendants with intellectual disabilities, and said the
reasons for those rulings “apply equally to those suffering from symptoms
related to severe mental illness at the time of their crimes.”
Vanisi, 49, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1998 hatchet murder of
George Sullivan, a University of Nevada, Reno campus police sergeant who was
attacked while in his patrol car.
In prior appeals, Vanisi’s lawyers argued that a judge had erred in determining
that he was mentally competent to assist in post-conviction appeals. The high
court had previously upheld the conviction, but in 2017 sent the case back to
the lower court to consider if Vanisi’s lawyers had failed to show evidence of
mental illness that might have influenced jurors’ decision to levy the death
penalty, and that appeal was also denied.
Washoe County Chief Appelate Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Noble said
Friday that Vanisi had been found competent at the time of his trial and
initial sentencing.
“Certainly if someone is found incompetent, that is a different story,” Noble
said. “But Mr. Vanisi has been found several times over the years to be
competent.”
The ACLU’s brief argued that when people with severe mental illness commit a
violent crime, their behavior can be traced directly back to the symptoms of
their condition.
“Such symptoms, as the facts of Mr. Vanisi’s case plainly demonstrate, can also
impair the trial and appellate proceedings, making the reliability in capital
sentencing required under the Nevada Constitution impossible to accomplish,”
the ACLU wrote.
(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Felon Who Killed Lover, Jail Cellmate Sentenced to Capital Punishment
A death sentence was imposed Friday on a convicted felon who stabbed his
ex-girlfriend to death along Interstate 10 in Whitewater and, 4 months later,
strangled his 82-year-old cellmate at the Smith Correctional Facility in
Banning.
In July, a Riverside jury unanimously recommended capital punishment for
43-year-old Rigoberto Villanueva of Fontana for the 2016 killings of Rosemary
Barrasa, 37, and Tom Carlin.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher affirmed the panel’s findings,
rejecting a defense motion for a sentence modification.
In June, Villanueva was convicted of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, and jurors
found true a special-circumstance allegation of taking multiple lives, making
the defendant eligible for the death penalty.
According to prosecutors, the 6-foot-2-inch, 300-pound defendant had been in a
relationship with Barrasa in the late 1990s, and in the fall of 2015, he
persuaded her to join him at his brother’s residence in Salida, Northern
California.
Deputy District Attorney Anthony Orlando said the defendant and Barrasa lived
together at the property for the ensuing 6 months, during which time,
Villanueva became abusive, inflicting injuries to the victim’s arms and legs
and cutting away some of her hair.
Barrasa left the house at the end of April 2016, heading to Fontana to stay
with a friend. Within a week of her leaving, Villanueva went searching for the
victim and arrived in the Inland Empire on May 7. Several days later, he
located Barrasa at her friend’s residence.
“The defendant expressed that Barrasa had his heart, which Barrasa responded to
by laughing,” Orlando said. “However, Barrasa seemed happy after talking with
the defendant.”
Despite being happy to see him, the victim told friends she was concerned about
Villanueva’s behavior, and at least one witness recalled her hesitating to get
into his car on the night of May 11, 2016, according to the prosecutor.
Shortly before 2 a.m. the next day, her body was found in Villanueva’s sedan,
which appeared to have crashed on eastbound Interstate 10, near Tipton Road, in
Whitewater. She had been stabbed 34 times with a screwdriver, the wounds
patterned in the shape of an ”X” across her upper body, according to Orlando.
California Highway Patrol officers encountered Villanueva a quarter-mile west
of the scene, walking in the freeway center median. When they attempted to
question him, he took off running and resisted officers when they caught up to
him, prompting them to deploy a Taser to gain control and handcuff him.
He was immediately jailed and charged with Barrasa’s murder. He was paired with
Carlin in Housing Unit 17 at the Smith Correctional Facility.
Other inmates described Villanueva as extremely moody and sometimes physically
aggressive — a deep contrast with Carlin, who was “happy-go-lucky” and
generally liked by the men in his cell block, according to the prosecution.
One inmate told sheriff’s investigators that in the days leading up to Carlin’s
murder, Villanueva had suggested his cellmate was a child molester, even though
the elder man was charged with felonious assault and making criminal threats —
not sexual offenses. Villanueva also conveyed to the same inmate that he wanted
to choke Carlin.
The prosecutor said that on the afternoon of Sept. 17, 2016, Villanueva knotted
a bed sheet and used it to strangle Carlin, trying to make it appear as though
he had hung himself while sitting on the bedside commode.
Villanueva was charged with the murder and was relocated to a high-security
unit at the Riverside jail.
Court records did not specify his prior convictions.
(source: mynewsla.com)
USA:
Indiana clergy sign letter calling for renewed moratorium on federal executions
5 Roman Catholic clergy from Indiana, including the administrator of the
Diocese of Gary, signed a letter Friday calling for a renewed moratorium on
federal executions.
In July, the federal government announced it will resume executing death-row
inmates for the first time since 2003, ending an informal moratorium on capital
punishment.
Attorney General William Barr instructed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule
executions starting in December for 5 men, all accused of murdering children.
Although the death penalty remains legal in 30 states, executions on the
federal level are rare.
“The Justice Department upholds the rule of law -- and we owe it to the victims
and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice
system,” Barr previously said.
The Indiana clergy, 4 bishops and the Rev. Michael Yadron, who is currently
administrator of the Diocese of Gary, wrote Friday that the decision to end the
moratorium“is regrettable, unnecessary and morally unjustified,” according to
the letter.
“As we observe Respect Life Month in the Catholic Church, we, the Bishops of
Indiana, in as much as federal executions are conducted in our State, ask
President (Donald) Trump to rescind the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to
resume capital punishment later this year,” the letter reads. “We respectfully
implore that the sentences of all federal death row inmates be commuted to life
imprisonment.”
The letter states that by “seeking to end the use of the death penalty," the
clergy “do not dismiss the evil and harm caused by people who commit horrible
crimes, especially murder.”
But, capital punishment “undermines the dignity of human life,” according to
the letter. “In the case of incarcerated prisoners, the aggressor has been
stopped and society is protected. Hence, it is no longer permissible to take
the life,” according to the letter.
The death penalty remains legal in 30 states, but only a handful regularly
conduct executions. Texas has executed 108 prisoners since 2010, far more than
any other state.
In Indiana, Odell Corley remains on federal death row. He was convicted of bank
robbery and capital murder, and was sentenced to death on Oct. 27, 2004. Corley
was allegedly involved in an Aug. 27, 2002, bank robbery that results in the
death of 2 people and paralyzing a 3rd.
Executions on the federal level have long been rare. The government has put to
death only three defendants since restoring the federal death penalty in 1988.
There are 61 people on the federal death row, according to Death Row USA, a
quarterly report of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Some of the
highest-profile inmates on federal death row include Dylann Roof, who killed 9
black church members during a Bible study session in 2015 at a South Carolina
church, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who set off bombs near the Boston Marathon’s
finish line in 2013, killing 3 people and wounding more than 260.
Capital punishment continues the cycle of violence and “precludes the
possibility of reconciliation and rehabilitation,” according to the letter from
Indiana bishops. P> In 2014, following a botched state execution in Oklahoma,
President Barack Obama directed the Justice Department to conduct a broad
review of capital punishment and issues surrounding lethal injection drugs.
That review has been completed, Barr said in July, and it has cleared the way
for executions to resume.
(source: Associated Press) **************
Suspect in San Diego-area synagogue shooting pleads not guilty
A Rancho Penasquitos man appeared at a brief San Diego court hearing Thursday
to enter a plea of not guilty to charges of murder, three counts of attempted
murder and hate crime allegations in the Poway synagogue shooting in April.
John Timothy Earnest, 20, is accused of killing one member of Chabad of Poway
and wounding two others, along with a rabbi. He also is charged with arson at
an Escondido mosque in March, where several people were sleeping but got out
safely.
Prosecutors say hatred fueled the crimes, as evidenced by an anti-Jewish and
Muslim diatribe posted online by someone who identified himself as Earnest.
The hearing on Thursday came as a pretrial formality. Deputy District Attorney
David Grapilon said the hearing gives defendants in felony cases a chance to
hear any new charges or allegations that may have been filed.
The only change from the original complaint, Grapilon said, was to a
firearm-use allegation. It now alleges that Earnest used a firearm causing
great bodily injury or death to all 4 shooting victims.
It may be another month before the district attorney’s office decides whether
to seek the death penalty against Earnest, Grapilon said. He said prosecutors
will research the defendant’s background and consult with victims, families and
congregants from the synagogue before deciding.
Earnest could face the death penalty in a federal case, filed separately from
the state case but involving the same offenses. He is charged in a 113-count
federal indictment alleging hate crimes, using a firearm and obstructing the
free exercise of religious believes by using a weapon causing death and injury.
He was arrested April 27 after he called 911, told a dispatcher that he had
just shot some people at a synagogue, and waited for police to arrive. He
surrendered quietly. Authorities found an AR-15 rifle, ammunition and a
tactical helmet in his car.
Killed at the synagogue minutes earlier was Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, shot as she
stood in the lobby to greet congregants arriving for a special service on the
last day of Passover. Almog Peretz, 34, was wounded, as was his 8-year-old
niece, Noya Dahan. Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein was wounded in both hands and lost a
finger.
On Sept. 20, Superior Court Presiding Judge Peter Deddeh ordered Earnest to
stand trial after finding, at the end of a preliminary hearing, that enough
evidence had been presented against the nursing student. Peretz testified to
hearing gunshots from the lobby and grabbing his niece and another girl while
he herded children away from a playground to safety. He realized later that
he’d been wounded, he said.
Attorneys agreed to meet again Dec. 5 to discuss any trial issues and perhaps
set a date for the trial. Grapilon said he expects the trial could begin in
late spring or early summer.
(source: San Diego Union-Tribune)
*******************
Abolish the death penalty in the U.S.
It is time that the U.S. follow the standard of the rest of the modern world
and abolish its use of the death penalty. For both being, barbaric antiquated
practice, immoral and more importantly impractical for a civilized society to
as a means of punishment for anything.
America is unique in terms of its use of the death penalty in this “developed
world.” There are 30 states in the U.S. that currently use the death penalty.
The death penalty is legal penalty under the federal justice system as well. In
contrast practically every country in the developed world has stopped using the
use of the death penalty as a punishment. Every country in Europe has ceased
using the death penalty decades ago. Australia and Canada have similarly ceased
using it as a punishment a long time ago. Even Russia, a dictatorship, has
ceased using the death penalty. The last time someone was executed in Russia
was in 1999. The last time someone was executed in America was on September 10,
2019.
[my note----the most recent execution in the USA occured on October 1, 2019]
Many hold the misconception that the death penalty is relatively inexpensive.
Even cheaper to use than merely giving a prisoner life-imprisonment. The death
penalty actually costs the public substantially more than simply providing a
prisoner life-imprisonment.
“The prosecution and defense of capital cases costs $467,000 more per case than
noncapital cases. A capital case also involves increased court costs, as well
as the need for a high-security, expensive death row—dollars our state could
use to help victims’ families in a time of fiscal crisis,” said The American
Civil Liberties Union of Washington.
Using conservative rough projections, the Commission estimates “the annual
costs of the present system ($137 million per year), the present system after
implementation of the reforms … ($232.7 million per year) … and a system which
imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death
penalty ($11.5 million),” said the California Commission on the Fair
Administration of Justice.
The death penalty is actually expensive. We as a public should not be wasting
so much money on something such as permanently removing a dangerous individual
from society. We should be doing it in the most efficient way possible.
Life-imprisonment accomplishes that goal without the cost ramifications of the
death penalty.
With the money saved from utilizing only the life-imprisonment to deal with
murder cases the public could fund projects that could help prevent killings in
the future, such as giving more funding to our educational system, our police
departments and other things we rely on to keep our society safe and
prosperous.
But even ignoring the cost incentives to do away with the death penalty it is
still a fundamentally gross practice for the government to continuously engage
in. The government should not be legally killing its citizens if said citizen
does not actively prove a threat. Killing someone who is not attacking another
or capable of defending in him or her is little nothing more than state
sanctioned murder, an act that we as a civilized society should treat as
revulsion.
There is also the real possibility of an innocent person being executed. The
National Academy of Sciences reported that “at least 4.1 percent of defendants
sentenced to death in the United States are innocent.” That number roughly
translates to mean one in 25 people on death row are innocent. As a civilized
society we should see this as a travesty that cannot continue.
The U.S’s use of the death penalty is a unjustifiable. It is time for the
nation to recognize it as such and do away with it.
(source: Dante Harrold, The (Los Medanos College) Experience)
_______________________________________________
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
