Sept. 2
NORTH CAROLINA:
Testimony in capital murder trial starts Tuesday
After 4 weeks of jury selection, testimony will begin Tuesday in the capital
trial of a man accused of hiring men to kill his stepmother.
Robert Dennis Dixon, 49, could face the death penalty if a jury finds him
guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder and
1st-degree burglary. Sara Jones Bright Dixon was found dead of gunshot wounds
inside her McCray Road home Nov. 30, 2007.
The last of 3 alternate jurors was selected Thursday. Robert Dixon's case will
be heard by a jury of 7 women, 5 men and 3 female alternates.
Testimony is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the superior courtroom
of the Alamance County Historic Courthouse. Testimony in the case is expected
to last between 3 and 4 weeks.
Alamance County District Attorney Pat Nadolski and Alamance County Assistant
District Attorney Sean Boone will argue for the state. Defense attorneys Terry
Alford and Stephen Freedman represent Robert Dixon.
Robert Dixon allegedly hired Thomas Clay Friday, 40, to kill Sara Dixon for
$10,000. The state believes Robert Dixon was angry with her for putting his
father in a nursing home and selling the family land to pay for the care.
Friday pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder, conspiracy and 1st-degree burglary
last year in exchange for a life sentence. He testified that Robert Dixon
agreed to pay him. Friday said he hired Matthew Devon Fields, 25, to assist
with the staged burglary and kill Sara Dixon.
Friday is expected to testify for the state.
Depending on the verdict, the trial could stretch weeks longer.
If found guilty of 1st-degree murder, the jury must then weigh a life sentence
versus the death penalty in a sentencing phase. Prosecutors and defense
attorneys would argue their sides before the jury began to deliberate the
sentence.
(source: The Times-News)
OHIO:
Ohio's vanishing stock of execution drugs is yet another sign that its time to
eliminate the death penalty in Ohio: editorial
There's a reason most doctors won't administer the lethal drugs now used to
execute prisoners under sentence of death. It's the same reason Ohio is about
to run out of pentobarbital, the current drug of choice on death row: Most
medical professionals and many of those who manufacture drugs do not want to
participate in the taking of a human life.
Ohio's depleted stock of death-penalty drugs is yet another reason why Ohio and
other states that still execute prisoners should reconsider on moral, ethical,
legal and practical grounds.
Pentobarbital is essentially the same drug used to put many animals to sleep.
Like other drugs previously used for human executions, how humanely it executes
a grown man (or woman) has never been systematically studied.
A federal court filing earlier this month suggested Ohio will run out of
pentobarbital after executing Garfield Heights killer Harry Mitts Jr. on Sept.
25. Mitts was convicted of murdering one of his neighbors in what was believed
to be a racially motivated assault and then killing a Garfield Heights police
sergeant.
That means Ohio will need another execution plan for Ronald Phillips of Akron,
scheduled to die in November for the rape and murder of a 3-year-old girl.
The Associated Press reports that will be the third time Ohio has had to shift
drug execution protocols.
Ohio first switched to a single drug method in 2009 after the botched execution
of Romell Broom, called off after numerous unsuccessful efforts to find a vein
to inject the three-drug cocktail then used to execute prisoners. Questions
also were raised about whether the paralytic drug in that cocktail prevented
the prisoner from expressing pain during the execution.
Ohio then moved to a single drug, sodium thiopental, but had to switch again in
2011 to pentobarbital.
The problem, according to The New York Times, is that many drug makers will no
longer supply drugs to prisons to be used in executions. Pentobarbital supplies
are dwindling because the Danish manufacturer restricted supplies to U.S.
corrections departments, the Times reported.
In Georgia, documents the AP obtained show the state turned to a compounding
pharmacy for pentobarbital after its supply of conventionally manufactured
pentobarbital expired in March. Yet questions have been raised about quality
control at some compounding pharmacies after more than 50 people died from
contaminated drugs distributed by the New England Compounding Center last year.
Missouri meanwhile is moving ahead with plans to use propofol, the drug that
contributed to the death of Michael Jackson.
It's hard to feel sympathy for murderers and rapists. But if the state is going
to assume the awesome burden of taking a human life, it better have the best
people and the best drugs to do it, and that clearly isn't happening.
It is time to end the death penalty and the inequities and injustices it
fosters, including the impact it has on those who must carry it out, along with
all the other practical, moral and ethical problems it engenders.
(source: Editorial Board, Cleveland Plain Dealer)
US MILITARY:
Before execution date is set, US Fort Hood shooter faces years of appeals
If the U.S. Army psychiatrist convicted in a deadly attack on a military base
really welcomes the death sentence he received Wednesday, the rules of military
justice won't let him go down without a fight - whether he wants one or not.
Nidal Hasan was sentenced Wednesday to die for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting
rampage that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30. But before an execution
date is set, he faces years, if not decades, of appeals. And this time, he
won't be allowed to represent himself.
"If he really wants the death penalty, the appeals process won't let it happen
for a very long time," said Joseph Gutheinz, an attorney licensed by the United
States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. "The military is going to want to
do everything at its own pace. They're not going to want to let the system kill
him, even if that's what he wants."
The U.S.-born Muslim offered almost defence in his trial, and the attorneys
appointed by the court to help him accused him of seeking a death sentence.
Hasan opened fire at a Fort Hood medical centre packed with soldiers heading to
or recently returned from overseas combat deployments. He also was set to soon
go to Afghanistan to counsel soldiers there.
He has said he carried out the attack to protect Muslim insurgents on foreign
soil.
Hasan has suggested in writings that he would "still be a martyr" if he
received death.
That process is anything but fast. The military hasn't executed an active-duty
U.S. soldier since 1961.
Now that Hasan's been sentenced to death, a written record of the trial will be
produced and Fort Hood's commanding general will have the option of granting
clemency. Assuming none is granted, the case record is then scrutinized by the
appeals courts for the Army and armed forces.
If Hasan's case and death sentence are eventually affirmed, he could ask the
U.S. Supreme Court for a review or file motions in federal civilian courts. The
president, as the military commander in chief, also must sign off on a death
sentence.
Military appeals courts have overturned 11 of the 16 death sentences of the
last 3 decades.
There's no way to estimate how long the appeals process could take for Hasan.
As the appeals proceed, Hasan is going to military death row.
Once his appeals begin, Hasan will be assigned military counsel. He could also
choose to retain civilian lawyers.
John Galligan, a retired Army colonel who was Hasan's former lead civilian
counsel, said he doesn't believe he is seeking execution. He has met with Hasan
frequently during the trial and said several civilian attorneys - including
anti-death penalty activists - have offered to take on his appeal.
"This will invariably be an appeal that will take decades," Galligan said,
"and, Maj. Hasan, I don't know if he'll ever survive it." He added: "If
anything's going to kill Hasan in the short term ... it will probably be
natural causes due to his medical conditions."
Hasan was shot in the back during the rampage, paralyzing him from the waist
down.
(source: Associated Press)
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