October 10
TEXAS:
Judge recommends new trial for Texas death row inmate Rigoberto Avila----The
state's highest criminal court will now weigh the recommendation.
An El Paso judge on Tuesday recommended a new trial for Rigoberto Avila, a
death-row inmate sentenced in the 2000 death of a 19-month-old, based on new
doubts over the scientific testimony used to convict him.
That's largely the result of a trailblazing 2013 Texas law that allows courts
to overturn a conviction when the scientific evidence that originally led to
the verdict has since changed or been discredited. While that law, often
referred to as the "junk science law," has sent several death penalty cases
back to court for further review, Avila, 46, is the 1st inmate to receive a
favorable recommendation from a district court. The case now heads to the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals, which will weigh Perez's recommendation.
In a 2001 trial, El Paso County prosecutors claimed Avila had killed his
girlfriend’s infant son, Nicolas Macias, while babysitting him in 2000. Avila's
lawyers claimed he did not hurt the child and that the fatal injuries could
have been caused by Nicolas' 4-year-old brother. Prosecutors said it would have
been practically impossible for a toddler to have caused such injuries so it
must have been Avila.
"There's no other way the kid could have died," prosecutors told the jury at
trial.
Judge Annabell Perez examined new scientific evidence and concluded that if
that evidence had been available at trial it "probably would have led jurors to
harbor reasonable doubt about his guilt" and that "the State presented false
and misleading evidence and argument" that likely affected the jury's judgment.
Avila was originally set for execution in 2013, but he petitioned for a new
trial the same week the new law went into effect. In March 2017, the court held
a multi-day hearing, which included expert testimony indicating the 4-year-old
"may have been physically capable of" causing the fatal injuries, according to
Perez's Oct. 9 order.
"The new scientific evidence creates a compelling case for Mr. Avila's
innocence, and a judge has now found that the verdict against him rests on
false and misleading testimony," Avila's attorneys, Cathryn Crawford and Rob
Owen, said in an emailed statement. "After spending 17 years on death row - and
facing 4 serious execution dates - for a crime he did not commit, Mr. Avila is
anxious to present the reliable scientific evidence to a jury."
(source: The Texas Tribune)
***************
U.S. Supreme Court rejects appeal in Coble death penalty case----Billie Wayne
Coble has been on death row since 1990.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Billie Wayne Coble's final appeal in his 1990
capital murder case Tuesday, all but guaranteeing him the death penalty. Coble,
70, was convicted of killing the parents and brother of his estranged wife in
1989 in Axtell.
In 2007, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Coble’s original death
sentence and ordered a new punishment trial, saying jurors faced two
unconstitutional questions during sentencing.
Trial evidence showed Coble was upset over the failure of his marriage and
killed his wife's parents, Robert and Zelda Vicha, and her brother, Waco police
Sgt. Bobby Vicha, in their homes in Axtell.
J.R. Vicha, a Waco attorney and former McLennan County prosecutor, was 11 at
the time of the slayings of his father and grandparents and was tied up by
Coble, along with 2 cousins. Coble kidnapped his estranged wife, Karen, and
threatened to rape and kill her. Coble and his wife were injured after a
high-speed chase with police in Bosque County.
"Just as there are many men who have died that deserved to live, there are some
who live that deserve death," Vicha said in an email on Monday. "Mr. Coble is
without question one of those that deserves death. Although this justice has
been delayed for nearly 30 years, it still needs to be done and I'm glad it's a
step closer."
Crawford Long, who prosecuted Coble's case in the 2008 punishment trial, once
said Coble has a "heart full of scorpions."
Coble's attorney, A. Richard Ellis of California, could not be reached Tuesday.
(source: Waco Tribune-Herald)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Gov. Tom Wolf wrong that report backs his death penalty moratorium
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has twice claimed recently that a state Senate
report released this summer recommended continuing his moratorium on the death
penalty.
The Democratic governor, who has called Pennsylvania's death penalty system
"ineffective, unjust and expensive," instituted the moratorium shortly after
taking office in 2015, fulfilling a campaign promise. He said it would remain
in place until he could review the Senate report, which was already years in
the making when he took office.
Although Pennsylvania has 144 people on death row, the most recent execution
was nearly 2 decades ago.
Capital punishment is a politically divisive issue in the state, and Wolf has a
month left in a re-election campaign against a Republican opponent, Scott
Wagner, who is an ardent death penalty supporter.
During a debate with Wagner on Oct. 1, and again in a meeting with the
Pennlive.com editorial board in Harrisburg on Monday, Wolf contended a Senate
report recommended continuing the moratorium.
THE CLAIM: "I want our system of justice to be fair, and I put the moratorium
on, waiting for the bipartisan Senate commission to make their report. They did
make their report and they suggested - they recommended - the moratorium. So I
will continue that."
THE FACTS: Wolf is wrong when he claims the Senate-ordered report released in
June recommended he continue the moratorium.
The set of recommendations in the report, "Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania:
The Report of the Task Force and Advisory Committee," included having the state
set up a publicly funded agency to provide legal representation for those
facing the possibility of a death sentence. It also recommended making public
the state's lethal injection protocol and using "an appropriate and effective
drug."
It made no mention of Wolf's moratorium, and took no position about whether the
death penalty should remain in place.
Challenged on the claim, the Wolf campaign on Monday cited 3 references in a
separate report by the state court system, issued in 2003, that had been
attached to the Senate report as an appendix.
A campaign spokeswoman then said that earlier report was cited in error and
said Wolf "always believed" that the Senate report "implied that the moratorium
should continue until these problems are properly addressed."
As governor, Wolf has been granting reprieves - not commutations - when inmates
are scheduled for execution. The inmates who receive reprieves remain on death
row.
When Wolf imposed the moratorium, he said he had concerns about a "flawed
system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well
as ineffective, unjust, and expensive."
Although the death penalty has been legal in Pennsylvania since the 1970s, the
state has executed only 3 people in the intervening years, and all 3 had
voluntarily given up their appeals.
State and federal courts have prevented any other convicted murderers from
being subject to capital punishment, so it's not likely executions would begin
if Wolf were to stop issuing reprieves.
(source: The Morning Call)
VIRGINIA:
District attorney seeking death penalty for Donald Scott Layne
Caswell County District Attorney Jacqueline Perez filed a notice of intent to
seek the death penalty Tuesday afternoon, October 9, 2018 against Donald Scott
Layne, 52.
The notice comes after a Caswell County grand jury indicted Layne on 1st degree
murder, attempted 1st degree murder, kidnapping, rape, breaking and entering,
and forcible sexual offense Tuesday morning.
Layne was charged after allegedly killing Juanita Hankins at her New Walter's
Mill Road home in Caswell County on September 14, 2018.
Additionally, Layne allegedly shot Stephanie Snead, a former employee of
Layne's.
According to court documents, Layne was notified by letter addressed to the
Caswell County Jail of the grand jury's decision.
The 2-day trial for Layne that was scheduled for November 19 and 20 is no
longer occurring on those dates according to Commonwealth's Attorney Michael
Newman.
"I have had several conversations with the DA office down in North Carolina.
The charges here will still be the same - the cases will not be heard on
November 19/20. At this time we will still see if we can get custody of him
from NC for the limited purpose of trying our cases first - but at this time no
new date or timetable," Newman said.
Layne was charged with rape, abduction, and kidnapping in Virginia which
stemmed from a rape allegation at Megabounce in March 2018.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. in the
Caswell County Courthouse.
(source: chathamstartribune.com)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Report: Obsolete Laws Used to Sentence Most NC Death Row Inmates
In North Carolina, 141 men and women currently face death sentences, making the
state home to the 6th-largest death row population in the country. This week, a
new report from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation reveals that about 3/4
of these people were sentenced before a number of reforms were passed to ensure
fairness and prevent wrongful convictions.
Gretchen Engel, the center's executive director, said the difference between
then and now is significant - and frustrating.
"We know that if these crimes happened today, that most of the people would not
face the death penalty at trial," she said, "and if they went to trial, would
very unlikely be sentenced to death."
The report, called "Unequal Justice," found that 92 % of people on death row
were sentenced before 2008, when a package of state reforms took effect. Many
were tried in the 1990s, when 25 to 35 were sentenced to death each year.
Public opinion largely has shifted on capital punishment since then, although
supporters of the death penalty have argued it is needed in the most heinous of
crimes.
The report comes as North Carolina passed its 12th year without an execution
and is on track for another year with no new death sentences. 1 person has
received a death sentence in the last 4 years.
With the current knowledge of better trial practices and shifting public
opinion, Engel said, the 141 cases should be reconsidered.
"Given that we have decided that the fairer way and the more reliable way of
imposing the death penalty is under our current system," she said, "we have to
go back and figure out a mechanism to evaluate these old cases."
Many of the reforms came after multiple exonerations in the Tar Heel State and
elsewhere, where some people on death row were found to be innocent.
The report is online at cdpl.org.
(source: publicnewsservice.org)
************************
Most people on NC death row don’t belong there, new report says. Here's why.
With 142 inmates waiting to die, North Carolina has the 6th largest death row
in the country.
But a report released Tuesday says most of the prisoners would not be awaiting
execution if their cases were investigated and tried today.
In "Unequal Justice: How obsolete laws and unfair trial created North
Carolina's outsized death row," the Center for Death Row Litigation in Durham
says the state's death row is stuck in time while the views of capital
punishment continue to evolve.
"They are prisoners of a state that has moved on, but refuses to reckon with
its past," the report says. "Today, the death penalty is seen as a tool to be
used sparingly. Instead of a bludgeon to be wielded in virtually every
1st-degree murder case."
According to the report, almost 3/4 of the men and women on N.C. death row were
tried before 2001. That's when a series of reforms - from how police and
prosecutors handle investigations and share evidence to DNA testing and higher
performance standards for defense attorneys - began reducing the number of
capital cases.
The state also eliminated a law - the only one of its kind in the country -
that forced prosecutors to seek the death penalty in every case of aggravated,
or 1st-degree, murder.
"If these people on death row had been tried under modern laws, most of them
would be serving life without parole sentences instead of facing execution,"
said Gretchen Engel, executive director of the litigation center, in a
statement accompanying the report.
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather was not available for
comment Tuesday.
More than 100 of the condemned inmates were convicted in the 1990s, when the
state operated under radically different laws, Engel says.
Today, the state's death row inmates are stuck in legal limbo. North Carolina
has not executed a prisoner in 12 years.
Juries across the state have handed down only a single death penalty in the
past 4 years, the report says. Mecklenburg County, the state's largest local
court district has not sent a prisoner to death row in almost a decade.
The Durham-based center compiled the report based on the case files of the
death penalty Among the report's findings:
-- 92 % of the death row prisoners were tried and convicted before a 2008
reform package aimed at limiting false confessions and mistaken eyewitness
identifications.
-- 82 %, 118 prisoners in all, were sent to death row before North Carolina
passed a law giving the defense the right to view all the prosecution's
evidence. Up to then, district attorneys routinely withheld vital information
until it was presented at trial, giving the accused little time to prepare a
defense, the report says.
-- 73 % of the death row population, 103 inmates in all, were sent there
before the passing of laws barring the execution of people with intellectual
disabilities.
-- That same percentage were convicted before the state eliminated the only
law in the country that required prosecutors to pursue the death penalty in
every aggravated 1st-degree murder case. Now, district attorneys have the
discretion to limit death penalty cases to the most heinous of crimes.
The impact of those reforms has been significant. In the 1990s, according to
the report, North Carolina averaged about 50 death-penalty murder cases a year.
Today, there are fewer than 5.
Prisoners on the North Carolina death row make their way back to their cell
block at Central Prison in Raleigh in 2002, not long after a series of reforms
began sharply reducing the number of death-penalty cases in the state. A new
report by a death penalty advocacy group says most of the death row prisoners
would not be there had they been investigated and tried using today's laws.
Mistaken ID
Mistaken identifications are a leading cause of wrongful convictions around the
country, the report says. To illustrate, it homes in on the case against Elrico
Fowler of Charlotte.
In 1997, Fowler was sentenced to death in Mecklenburg for the murder of a
Howard Johnson's motel employee during a 1995 robbery in Charlotte. 4 years
later, his conviction and sentencing were upheld by the state Supreme Court.
"Elrico Fowler executed an unarmed man lying face down on the floor," one of
his prosecutors said in 2001. "He's an exceptionally dangerous human being, and
the ultimate punishment is the only we can ensure he doesn't murder another
innocent person."
The report, however, says Fowler was largely convicted based on the
questionable eye-witness identification of the manager of the motel restaurant.
He told Fowler from the witness stand during the trial, "I hope you fry, man."
What the jury did not know, according to the report, is that the restaurant
manager identified Fowler after weeks of shifting descriptions and after
undergoing multiple photo lineups, including one that occurred after police had
publicly circulated photographs of Fowler and another suspect.
"Every practice now required to prevent false identification was violated,"
according to the report. The lineups were not recorded. The police conducted
them (now, someone who does not know the suspect's identification must run the
lineup), and the investigators did not take a statement from the witness on his
level of confidence in the identification, among other missteps, the report
says.
Gerda Stein, a spokeswoman for the litigation center, said the goal of the
report is to educate the public and decision-makers about the inequities in the
state's history with capital punishment.
Eventually, she said, the center hopes that "these injustices" would be
remedied by the courts, the General Assembly or the governor.
(source: Charlotte Observer)
OHIO:
US Supreme Court to reconsider if they'll take up Danny Lee Hill case
The nation's highest court has not yet passed judgment on whether they'll hear
arguments in the decades-old capital murder case against Danny Lee Hill.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins announced Tuesday that the U.S.
Supreme Court has decided to "relist" the petition asking them to hear the
case. Essentially, the court's ruling means they'll reconsider whether or not
to hear arguments in the case.
Watkins said the court turned down applications for more than 200 other cases
during their session on Tuesday.
"The mere fact that the Court has relisted this petition indicates the Supreme
Court of the United States is strongly considering hearing and reviewing the
case on its merits" a portion of a release from Watkins reads.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office filed a formal petition in July, asking that
the Supreme Court of the United States intervene in the capital murder case
against Danny Lee Hill. Hill was convicted of torturing, raping, and murdering
12-year-old Raymond Fife in 1985.
The Attorney General's filing asks the nation's highest court to either hear
the case or overturn a previous decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In that February decision, the appellate court upheld Hill's conviction for the
kidnapping, rape, and murder of Raymond Fife, but also found that Hill
demonstrates several of the prerequisites to be considered mentally deficient.
According to that ruling, Hill's IQ varies between a low of 48 and a high of
71.
After review of videotapes of Danny Lee Hill's interrogation, the court found
Hill to be "childlike, confused, often irrational, and primarily self
-defeating".
Attorneys for the state argue in their petition that the Sixth Circuit Court of
Appeals based their decision on case law from 2014 and 2017, which could not be
applied retroactively to the case.
A previous U.S. Supreme Court decision found that persons with diminished
capacity are not subject to the death penalty.
Hill's case has been sent back to the lower court for re-sentencing.
In addition, prosecutors argue that the Sixth Circuit has a history of
decisions that go against federal law. The state's petition cites half a dozen
cases in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned decisions by the appellate
court.
Following a denial by the Sixth Circuit to rehear the case, Trumbull County
Prosecutor Dennis Watkins sent a letter to the Ohio Attorney General's Office
asking them to take the case either.
"The bottom line is that Ohio has nothing to lose and everything to gain with
an appeal," wrote Watkins, who adds that federal courts have not adequately
considered the "many Ohio court decisions affirming that Danny Hill was not
mentally retarded..."
According to court records, on September 10, 1985, Raymond Fife's father found
his son burned, naked and beaten in a wooded field behind the Valu-King
supermarket on Palmyra Road in Warren.
The boy's underwear was found tied around his neck and appeared to have been
lit on fire.
He died in the hospital 2 days later.
The coroner testified during the trial that Fife had been choked and burned.
There was damage to Fife's rectal-bladder area and bite marks on his penis.
3 Warren Western Reserve High School students testified that Hill and Timothy
Combs were in the area of the Valu-King and the bike trails on the evening
Raymond Fife was assaulted. One of the students had also seen Fife riding his
bike in the store parking lot.
A student who said he saw Combs on the trail also said he heard a child's
scream. Another student says he saw Combs pulling up the zipper of his blue
jeans.
2 days after Fife was found, Hill, who was 18-years-old at the time, went to
the Warren Police Station to inquire about a $5,000 reward that was being
offered for information concerning the murder.
Eventually, police say Hill admitted on audio and videotape that he was present
during the beating and sexual assault of Fife, but that Combs did everything to
the victim. Combs was eventually convicted of felonious sexual penetration,
arson, rape, kidnapping and aggravated murder.
Since Combs was 17-years-old at the time of the crime, he was not eligible for
the death penalty and is serving a life sentence. He will be eligible for his
first parole hearing in 2049.
Hill was convicted on the same charges, but since he was 18-years-old at the
time Fife was assaulted, he was sentenced to death.
The Supreme Court can now choose to order the lower courts to forward all case
information to them, can reverse the Sixth Circuit's decision meaning Hill
would face execution again or abstain from the case.
Several years ago the U.S. Supreme ruled in a similar case involving
33-year-old Sean Carter who was convicted of raping and murdering his adoptive
grandmother in 1997.
In that case, the federal court ruled that the death-row inmate could not
indefinitely prevent his execution based on the claim that he was mentally
incompetent.
The U.S. Supreme Court could decide as early as Friday, October 12th whether or
not they'll take up Hill's case.
(source: WFMJ news)
TENNESSEE----impending execution
Tennessee inmate moved to death watch
Tennessee inmate Edmund Zagorski has been placed on death watch in anticipation
of his Thursday execution by electric chair.
According to the Tennessee Department of Correction, inmates on death watch are
placed in a cell next to the execution chamber where they are under 24-hour
surveillance.
All visits are non-contact until the final day before the execution, when the
warden will decide whether Zagorski can have a contact visit.
Zagorski's spiritual adviser, the Rev. Joe Ingle, says he will be with Zagorski
every day but will not be a witness to his death.
Ingle says, "I'm not going to watch my friend get executed."
Zagorski's attorney announced on Monday that Zagorski has chosen to die by
electrocution rather than lethal injection because he believes it will be
quicker and less painful.
*********************
Tennessee denies inmate's request to die by electric chair
A Tennessee inmate on death row for a murder he committed in the early 1980s
was denied his request to die in the electric chair, his attorney said.
Inmate Edmund Zagorski, 63, announced his preference to die by electrocution
instead of lethal injection on Monday, his attorney Kelley Henry said. In
Tennessee, death row inmates whose offenses came before January 1999 can choose
either lethal injection or the electric chair.
But prison officials refused Zagorski's request because he waiting too long to
decide, the Tennessean of Nashville reported, citing a member of his legal
team.
Zagorski is 1 of 32 death row inmates in Tennessee suing over the state's
3-drug method of lethal injection. They claim the 1st drug, midazolam, leaves
prisoners unable to cry out as their lungs fill with fluid, while they
experience drowning, suffocation and burning.
The Tennessee Supreme Court, in a split decision Monday, ruled against the
inmates. The state will now proceed with its plans to execute Zagorski by
lethal injection on Thursday, Henry said.
Henry had asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay earlier in the day after
announcing Monday that Zagorski had chosen to die by the electric chair because
he believed it would be quicker and less painful.
"Between 2 unconstitutional choices I choose electrocution," Zagorski told
prison officials. "I do not want to be subjected to the torture of the current
lethal injection method."
Tennessee has not put someone to death by the electric chair since 2007.
Zagorski was sentenced in 1984 for murdering 2 men during a drug deal the year
before. Prosecutors said Zagorski shot the 2 men, then slit their throats after
robbing them in Robertson County in April 1983.
A spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Correction did not immediately
respond to messages asking whether the state will be ready to use the electric
chair Thursday, but she did send out an email stating Zagorski has been moved
to death watch, a normal procedure during the 3-day period before an execution
in Tennessee.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he will not intervene in Zagorski's case.
(source: Fox News)
*************************
Lawyer: Inmate's choice of electric chair won't buy him time
An attorney for Tennessee death row inmate Edmund Zagorski says his choice of
death by electrocution over lethal injection is not a ploy to buy time.
Kelley Henry announced Zagorski's decision Monday night. He's scheduled to be
executed Thursday.
Henry said some people will see the choice as a stall tactic, but Zagorski
cannot legally challenge the use of the electric chair after choosing to die by
that method.
Henry said Zagorski's decision is based on evidence that Tennessee's lethal
injection method would cause him 10 to 18 minutes of mental and physical
anguish. He believes the electric chair will be quicker.
"It was certainly a difficult decision," Henry said. "It's impossible to know
which is better of the 2 unconstitutional choices."
Zagorski is 1 of 32 death row inmates in Tennessee suing over the state's
3-drug method of lethal injection. They claim the 1st drug, midazolam leaves
prisoners unable to cry out as their lungs fill with fluid and they experience
drowning, suffocation and chemical burning.
The Tennessee Supreme Court, in a split decision, ruled against the inmates on
Monday. Henry said she intends to ask for a stay of Zagorski's execution in
order to allow the U.S. Supreme Court time to review the merits of the lethal
injection case.
Henry will argue that the fact Zagorski has now chosen to die by the electric
chair should not prevent the court from granting a stay because he was forced
to make that choice as the lesser of 2 evils, she said.
In Tennessee, death row inmates whose offenses came before January 1999 can
choose either lethal injection or the electric chair. The last time Tennessee
put someone to death by electrocution was in 2007.
An Associated Press reporter who witnessed the execution of Daryl Holton wrote
that a black shroud was placed over his head before a 20-second shock was
administered. The shock caused Holton to straighten his back and move his hips
up out of the chair before he slumped back. There was a 15-second pause before
he was given a 2nd shock that lasted 15 seconds.
A report from the state medical examiner later found that Holton had suffered
minor burns to his head and legs but there were no signs of the severe burning
and other major injuries that had been seen in some past electrocutions.
A spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Correction did not immediately
respond to messages asking whether the state will be ready to use the electric
chair Thursday, but she did send out an email stating Zagorski has been moved
to death watch, a normal procedure during the 3-day period before an execution
in Tennessee.
Gov. Bill Haslam already has said he won't intervene in Zagorski's case.
(source for both: Associated Press)
****************
WKRN Reporter recalls witnessing last time Tennessee's electric chair used
The State of Tennessee's electric chair is suddenly is getting a lot of
attention after death row inmate Edmund Zagorski chose it late Monday as his
method of execution scheduled for Thursday, October 11th.
Here is WKRN's Chris Bundgaard's account from 2007, just hours after the
"chair" at Nashville's Riverbend Prison was last used:
WHEN THE ELECTRICITY CAME ON
For a few brief moments, it felt like watching a movie---a very late-night
movie. The window blinds to a chamber next to the room where I was sitting had
just been raised. Along with nine other individuals, we peered through the
glass from comfortable chairs. We were told to stay seated. On the other side
of the 2-way window, Daryl Holton sat in a much different, much more
uncomfortable chair. He too, could not leave it. The chair was made of wood,
with straps and braces holding him there. It was electric.
The time was shortly after 1 a.m. on Sept. 12 at Nashville's Riverbend Prison.
Daryl Holton's late-night date with death was just beginning for the six media
witnesses selected to watch his execution. Reluctantly, I was one of them, but
reporters are often assigned to stories, not of their choosing. No one really
wants to see someone die. Unfortunately, in the helter-skelter world of
covering news, reporters get tossed into situations where they sometimes see
and hear the passing of life. That's how I got to Riverbend Prison. Daryl
Holton's journey there began more than a decade earlier.
The crime that led to the death sentence for the Shelbyville man is hideous.
Daryl Holton shot his kids--execution style. The oldest was 12, the youngest 4.
At his trial for the 1997 killings, prosecutors said Holton did not want the
children in the custody of his ex-wife. Defense attorneys said Daryl was
temporarily insane with the idea the kids were suffering and might be better
off dead than with a woman who had alcohol problems. Holton always admitted
guilt and decided to drop any appeals beyond mandatory ones. He was also given
a choice between lethal injection and electrocution. Daryl chose electrocution.
His lawyers say their client possessed a highly rigid sense of ethics--a moral
code that made him crazy. Holton said the electric chair was the legal means of
execution at the time of his crime. So, the chair it would be on this September
night.
After glancing quickly at the one clock in the two rooms, it did not take long
for the movie image to be replaced by stark reality. The 45-year-old Holton
seemed larger than expected strapped in the chair just a few feet from me. He
was no longer the guy with the shock of red hair seen in news pictures.
Instead, his head was freshly shaven. It wasn't glistening like the look many
guys now have. Holton's scalp was pasty-looking, chalky white. So was his face
and seemingly everything else in the execution chamber. The walls, the lights,
the garments of the condemned man and the rest of his visible skin all carried
that off-white look---washing out any other color in the room.
Then I looked directly into the eyes of Daryl Holton. They opened and closed in
unison with his mouth. I was now reminded of a tiny bird in a nest waiting for
its mother to bring something. Like the rest of the media witnesses, I wondered
if Holton had been sedated. Prison officials later said, "he was just
hyperventilating." The movements sort of stopped when Holton was asked by the
prison warden if he had any last words. The condemned man mumbled something
about "having just 2, I do." Holton's spiritual adviser Dixie Gamble says she
did not discuss with him what he might say. She guessed the words had something
to do with his failed marriage. It may have harkened back to Daryl's rigid
moral code. Dixie says he would have taken his wife back. Normally the speaker
himself is asked to clarify. Not this time.
After his last words, Daryl was brought something. The bird-like figure in the
chair would no longer have his mouth open. The execution chamber attendants put
a headgear on him. We all thought it looked like an old-time football helmet
complete with a chin strap. Inside the headgear was a sea sponge. It was soaked
in saline solution. The fluid all poured all over him. The attendants
momentarily mopped him down with towels, but then Daryl Holton spoke a new set
of last words: "don't worry about it, ain't going to matter much." Moments
later, the attendants flipped a leather shroud over the condemned man's face.
No one would see the expressions of the death row inmate as he was executed.
After another minute or so it was time. Some kind of electrical sound softly
moaned in the execution chamber. A few seconds later Daryl Holton's body jerked
violently upward about 6 inches above the chair's base. For 20 seconds it
remained that way. It was the same length of time that 1750 volts of
electricity coursed through his body. I felt that if he had not been strapped
in tight, the body would have shot through the roof.
The witnesses strained in their chairs to look for signs of life. Not a finger
twitched in the chair through the window. There was no smoke, no flame, no
smell. The fingers clenching the side of the chair seemed to become a darker
shade of pink. The procedure was repeated with 2 more 20-second shocks of
electricity. Then there was a 5-minute wait. One person familiar with
electrocutions said it was literally a cooling down period. Daryl Holton's body
was just too hot to handle.
Then the blinds came down. For 5 minutes we had looked at a shrouded corpse
strapped in an electric chair. Another couple of minutes passed before the
voice of Warden Ricky Bell came over the room's intercom. He said, "Daryl
Holton was pronounced dead at 1:25 p.m. This ends the legal execution of Daryl
Holton, please exit." Any thoughts about a movie were over.
I can't remember much about walking out of the prison. We passed Holton's
spiritual adviser Dixie Gamble who was seated in a large room just outside the
witness chamber. She mouthed the words, "are you OK?" My head nodded, but I
really wasn't sure. As we quickly passed through the various gates and barriers
of the maximum-security institution, notes got compared among the media
witnesses. A primary spokesperson, The City Paper's Clint Brewer, was selected
just before we went out the prison's front door. A small group of reporters and
photographers waited in front of TV lights. Our job was now to tell them what
had happened. Speaking at a podium in the middle of the night, Clint seemed to
remember things as I did, but he deftly tossed in many details I would have
forgotten. My head seemed like the fog that had just rolled in from the nearby
Cumberland River.
Like Daryl Holton just a few minutes earlier, I mumbled a few things when asked
questions. Thankfully, Clint had covered most of what my fellow reporters
wanted to know. Away from the gathering, I was then interviewed by fellow WKRN
reporter Scott Fralick for my perspective, Snippets of the short conversation
would run throughout newscasts later in the day. He asked if seeing an
execution changed me. So many others during the next few hours and days--either
by phone or in person--would ask related questions: Do I believe in the death
penalty? What was it like? Did I think of Daryl's kids during the execution?
Would I watch it again? Only the last question brings a definitive answer: No,
I do not want to see another execution.
But I think others should. Maybe all of us. If inmates are going to be executed
why not show the pictures? Imagine a couple of cameras inside the witness room
trained on the execution chamber. You would see things almost as we saw them.
Why not? Every step of the legal process for a murder case is publicly
photographed. Every step except the final one. If you could see it, perhaps you
might have answers for questions that are always asked about a legal execution.
It isn't like the movies, this was real life--and death.
(source: WKRN news)
********************
POLL: Do you support the death penalty for people convicted of murder?
Tennessee death row inmate Edmund Zagorski is scheduled for execution on
Thursday, October 11. He is asking the state to use the electric chair instead
of lethal injection and is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of
execution. Zagorski was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder of 2 men
during a drug deal in Robertson County.
poll:
https://www.wkrn.com/news/poll-do-you-support-the-death-penalty-for-people-convicted-of-murder-/1510061204
(source: WKRN news)
USA:
Lawyers Fight to Ban Death Penalty From Truck Attack Trial
Lawyers for a man charged with killing 8 people when he drove his truck onto a
New York City bike path said Tuesday that the death penalty should be ruled out
because President Donald Trump was "uninformed and full of rage" when he called
for it.
The lawyers said in papers filed in Manhattan federal court on behalf of
Sayfullo Saipov that Trump irrevocably tainted the legal process when he
tweeted in all capital letters a day after the attack that Saipov "SHOULD GET
DEATH PENALTY!"
Saipov was arrested immediately after the Oct. 31, 2017, destruction. He's
pleaded not guilty. Authorities say he told them after his arrest that he was
inspired by Islamic State videos and had used a truck in the attack to inflict
maximum damage against civilians.
Lawyers wrote that prosecutors were out of line when they notified the court
last month that the Justice Department had authorized them to seek death.
They said Trump spoiled options for death with his tweets.
"His impetuous decision was uninformed and full of rage; he actually reveled in
the prospect of condemning Mr. Saipov to die in the 'home of the horrible crime
he committed.' But the Constitution does not tolerate a death-penalty scheme
driven by bloodthirst or revenge," the lawyers said.
They said Trump's words prevented Attorney General Jeff Sessions from acting
independently and following due process.
"President Trump's emotionally-charged directives were designed to constrain
Sessions's decision-making and discourage him from genuinely considering the
pursuit of a sentence less than death," they said.
The 30-year-old Saipov moved to the United States legally in 2010 from
Uzbekistan. He lived in Ohio and Florida and worked as a commercial truck
driver before living more recently with his family in Paterson, New Jersey.
A trial is scheduled for October 2019. A jury, if it finds Saipov guilty, will
be asked to decide in a 2nd phase of the trial if he should be executed.
In 2001 just weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, a jury in Manhattan federal
court declined to impose death on 2 men convicted in the deadly bombings of 2
U.S. embassies in Africa.
(source: Associated Press)
****************
Letter: Dying 'anxiously' on death row is good deterrent
George Will, in his essay published in The Greenville News on Oct. 1, argues
against the death penalty. He argues that executing a man held in jail for most
of his adult life and who has become senile, has no deterrent effect. I
strongly disagree.
The deterrent effect of the death penalty is hotly debated. Even so, the best
statistical evidence is that it does have a deterrent effect, and I argue that
part of that is the vision of spending the rest of one's life in constant fear
of dying at the hands of the state and then not dying. Surely, to the thugs who
harass society, the thought of dying quickly has little threat. They face that
every day. I think the thought of dying very slowly and bureaucratically
unpredictably, has more deterrent than the cop's bullet.
I want people who do horrendous things to know they will suffer. I think that
the threat of dying anxiously of old age on death row is good punishment.
Michael T. Maloney, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Clemson Clemson
(source: Letter to the Editor, Greenville News)
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