July 17
TEXAS----new execution date
'Very psychotic' Fort Worth killer who murdered bus rider gets November death
date
A Fort Worth killer once deemed too insane to execute now has a date with
death.
Emanuel Kemp of Tarrant County is slated for execution on Nov. 7 in the
Huntsville death chamber, according to prison spokesman Jeremy Desel.
The high-school dropout had been out of prison for just 5 days when he hijacked
a public transit bus at knifepoint in 1987, forcing the driver to drive around
town while he raped and murdered the only passenger, Johnnie Mae Gray.
The 34-year-old died from 9 stab wounds to the chest and throat according to
Texas prison records. The driver was stabbed in the neck but lived.
Kemp was arrested 3 days later, and sent to death row the following year after
a whirlwind 6-day trial.
In the years after his conviction, Kemp was diagnosed with paranoid
schizophrenia, according to his attorney, Greg Westfall.
"He has been very psychotic to entirely utterly out there since about 1990,"
Westfall said.
By the mid-90s, a court deemed Kemp incompetent for execution. After years of
medication, a higher court reversed that decision and he was given a death date
in 1999.
But with days to go, a federal court intervened and spared his life.
In the years that followed, Kemp's attorneys raised claims of bad lawyering,
violations of due process, questions about jury selection and denial of funds
to get mental health experts.
The courts rejected some of the arguments on technical grounds, and decided his
mental health claims weren't "ripe." That is, he couldn't argue he was too
insane to execute unless he had an execution scheduled.
But, according to Westfall, even after he lost in federal court in the early
2000s, the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office under another
administration agreed not to seek another death date.
"It was agreed that he was too insane to execute," Westfall said. "But since
then, the leadership there has changed and now they have sought an execution
date. It was really out of the blue."
The district attorney's did not address any prior agreements or considerations
regarding an execution date, but did offer a statement late Monday.
"The defendant has a court-appointed attorney, and there has not been an
objection to the setting of this date by the defense," said spokeswoman
Samantha Jordan. "Should a potential issue of mental illness be raised, we'll
consider the evidence presented at that time."
Currently there are no pending appeals, but Westfall said he plans to file
claims questioning his client's competency for execution.
The Lone Star State has executed 7 men this year. Including Kemp, there are 8
more death dates on the calendar. The next, Christopher Young, is slated to die
Tuesday.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
********************************************************
Before his scheduled execution, Chris Young fights the Texas parole
board----The death row inmate claims that the parole board likely rejected his
clemency petition because he is black. The argument highlights a long-standing
criticism of clemency in Texas.
In a final fight before his execution, set for Tuesday evening, Chris Young is
targeting Texas' secretive clemency process.
On Friday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected Young's
clemency petition - often the final check in the death penalty process before
an inmate is sent to the death chamber. Hours later, Young's lawyers filed suit
against the board members, claiming that they likely voted against a
recommendation to reduce his sentence or halt his execution because he is
black.
The filing highlights a long-established criticism of Texas clemency - the
reasoning for the board's decision is unknown to the public, usually with
individual members casting their votes remotely without comment or a hearing.
Though members must certify that they do not cast their votes because of the
inmate's race, they also don't have to give any reason for their decision.
"Their procedures and everything else are internal; you don't get to see it,"
said Keith Hampton, a defense lawyer who worked on 2 of the 3 successful
capital clemency petitions in Texas in the last 20 years. "They've got lawyers
back there ... they all go over it, but I have no idea why they reject it, and
they don't have to say why."
Young's case is a long shot. A Texas appellate court previously upheld the
boards' ability to explain rejections of clemency solely by vote counts. And
the state noted in its response that the appeal doesn't point to any specific
evidence of racial discrimination.
Young was 21 when he entered Hasmukh Patel's San Antonio store in 2004 and
fatally shot Patel during an attempted robbery, according to court records. He
was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2006.
In his recent petition to the parole board asking for a sentence of life
instead of death, his lawyers cited his growth in prison - they claim he
prevented both an inmate's assault on a guard and a suicide and that he eased
racial tensions on death row - and the fact that Patel's son, Mitesh, has also
pleaded for the state to spare his father's killer
They tried to draw comparisons between Young and another young man whose life
was recently spared by the board and Gov. Greg Abbott - Thomas Whitaker - who
was convicted in the planned deaths of his family in 2003, killing his mother
and brother and wounding his father in a plot to get inheritance money.
Whitaker's father became his strongest advocate, fighting for the life of his
son who killed the rest of his family and nearly killed him as well. Others on
death row also wrote to the parole board detailing how helpful Whitaker was to
his fellow inmates. "Whitaker and Young are very much alike," wrote Young's
attorney, David Dow, in the recent filing. "Both Whitaker and Young were
transformed. Both expressed genuine remorse. Both were forces of positive good
in prison. And perhaps most significantly of all, the closest surviving
relatives of the murders opposed the execution."
Earlier this year, the parole board unanimously voted for Whitaker,
recommending that the governor change his sentence to life in prison and halt
his upcoming execution. Minutes before his execution, Abbott granted clemency,
and Thomas Whitaker has since been moved off death row, though he will still
spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The opposite outcomes between Young and Whitaker, according to Young's
attorneys, is probably because Whitaker is white.
"This vote is most likely explained by a single variable - a variable the
Constitution precludes decision-makers from taking into account: race," Dow
wrote, citing the racial disparities that plague all aspects of the criminal
justice system.
The state responded to Young's allegations of racial discrimination in court
Sunday, claiming Young's case for clemency was "far weaker" than Whitaker's.
Assistant Attorney General Stephen Hoffman highlighted factors left out of
Young's petition, including an alleged sexual assault just before Patel's
murder, previous misdemeanor convictions and disciplinary reports from death
row. The response also notes that, unlike Young, Whitaker wasn???t the
triggerman in his relatives' murders.
"Young provides no direct evidence that any member of the Board acted with
racial animus and only infers discrimination based on the disparate treatment
in Whitaker's case," Hoffman wrote.
Jeff Newberry, who is also representing Young, said Monday that Young's growth
from criminal activity toward helping others in prison is what the board should
look at, noting that there were no new disciplinary actions against Young after
2012.
"If you're looking for the maturation process, you definitely see that with
Chris Young," Newberry said.
A veiled decision
Since 1998, a Texas governor has spared the life of someone facing imminent
execution only 3 times, according to data obtained by the parole board. In the
same 2 decades, there have been more than 400 Texas executions.
Clemency petitions are designed to be a final check of the system immediately
before an inmate is put to death. Inmates who have received execution dates can
petition for the parole board and the governor to change their death sentence
to one of life in prison.
Staff gather all relevant materials from other officials and then, generally,
the board members fax in their votes for a tally 2 business days before the
execution. If a majority opt for leniency, the recommendation goes to the
governor for approval.
This almost never happens.
Abbott's predecessor, Republican Rick Perry, chose to reduce a death sentence
to life in prison for only 1 inmate (U.S. Supreme Court decisions forced him to
reduce other sentences) in his 14-year tenure. He also rejected board
recommendations in at least 2 other cases. The Whitaker clemency was the 1st
and only board recommendation under Abbott so far.
Because of the minuscule success rate of these cases and the secrecy that
surrounds the process, attorney groups and several lawmakers have criticized
Texas clemency procedures in capital cases for decades.
In 1998, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks called it "extremely poor and certainly
minimal." Sparks railed on how the public is kept from the board's dealings and
said no member fully reads the petitions, stating "a flip of the coin would be
more merciful than these votes."
In 2005, then state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, unsuccessfully filed
legislation to require that the board hold a live hearing for each death row
case. Hampton said lawmakers were convinced it would be too costly to hold
clemency hearings before every execution.
The board now is able to hold hearings but isn't required to do so. Defense
attorneys have said the members don't meet on capital clemency cases. A
spokesman for the parole board wasn't able to give an immediate answer
regarding hearings Monday.
Hampton also noted the lack of guidelines for board members to use in
determining whether to grant clemency. For the 2007 case of Kenneth Foster, who
also won a rare board recommendation for clemency, Hampton said he wrote
multiple versions of the petition because he didn't know what the board would
weigh on.
He said it's important to note the appeal of a victim's immediate family member
and an inmate's growth in prison, which were both focused on in Whitaker and
Young's petition. But the center of his argument for Foster was something else.
"I was told years later that the argument that resonated was a religious
argument that I had made," he said. "Knowing that, I made that front and center
[in Whitaker's case]."
(source: Texas Tribune)
*******************************
With execution looming, victim's son meets his father's murderer
Mitesh Patel, whose story of forgiveness and activism has received national
attention, met his father's murderer Monday, the day before the man is to be
executed.
Patel, whose wish is to see death row inmate Christopher Anthony Young live,
had sought a meeting with Young since late June when Patel publicly came
forward to support Young's bid for clemency.
Patel wanted to judge for himself whether Young truly is a changed man who
feels deep remorse for the 2004 murder of Hasmukh "Hash" Patel during a robbery
on the Southeast Side.
Mitesh Patel, who has previously said he believed Young, said he could not
speak in detail about the meeting - a mediation arranged by the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice. Patel did say, however, "those feelings were
validated."
"I don't agree with the state's choice to execute him," he said, adding that he
no longer plans to attend the execution.
The Victim Offender Mediation Dialogue allows crime victims or victims' family
members to initiate an in-person meeting with an offender. The mediation is
confidential.
Later Monday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to hear a claim filed
by Young's attorneys in a last-minute move to halt the execution. The claim
alleged the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles' decision to reject Young's bid
for clemency was influenced by racism.
The claim hinges on comparisons to another death row case that ended in a rare
clemency granted by Gov. Greg Abbott this year. In that case, the condemned
killer, Thomas "Bart" Whitaker, was white. Young is black.
Young's lawyers have filed a similar claim in federal court. Late Monday, the
court had not yet issued a ruling.
*******************
Man set to die by execution in 24 hours shares final thoughts----Christopher
Young shot, killed convenience store owner in 2004
In less than 24 hours, a 34-year-old East Side man is scheduled to be executed.
Christopher Young admits he was drunk and high when he went into an East Side
convenience store, then robbed and murdered the owner, Hasmukh Patel, 14 years
ago.
"There are times when I can actually be sitting there typing a letter and feel
the needle in my veins," said Christopher Young, contemplating the moment he'll
be executed. "I just found out the Texas Court of Appeals has denied my case."
If you were to ask the 6-year-old version of Christopher Young what he'd be
doing with his life at the age of 34, being a death row inmate scheduled to die
by lethal injection would've never come to mind.
"I was considered a nerd. I played 4 instruments," he said. "I played violin,
viola, bass, the cello."
But Young says after his father died, he began using drugs, drinking alcohol
and hanging around gangs.
"I embraced the roughness, looking for a name for myself," Young said.
On Nov. 21, 2004, he made a choice he regrets. Young said it began as an
attempt to confront the 55-year-old store clerk about an alleged argument the
clerk had with his girlfriend at the time.
"But because of me being drunk, it turned into a robbery. I wasn't even trying
to kill an individual. I wasn't trying to kill 'Hash' that day. It just
happened," Young said.
Young is often visited by family, including his aunt who brings kids from her
church. Young uses the opportunity to mentor them, hoping they won't follow in
his footsteps.
"Until I'm gone, this is what's going to be done. That's why I have the hope,"
Young said. "It's all psychological. They've got to really feel comfortable in
themselves. You got to help them get rid of their insecurities, get rid of
their complexes, get rid of that materialism."
The father of 3 hopes his message of positivity resonates, but most
importantly, he says he wants lawmakers to understand the factors that
contribute to youth ending up in situations like his.
"The east side shouldn't be like it is," Young said. "It shouldn't be
impoverished like it was."
Still, Young says he's not making excuses for the choices he's made, and in the
end, knows he must accept the consequences.
"The only way to triumph over death is to make your life a masterpiece," Young
said.
The execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in Huntsville, which is
approximately 4 hours from San Antonio.
When asked what his last statement will be, Young said he didn't know. He wants
it to come from the heart.
(source for both: San Antonio Express-News)
*******************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----34
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----552
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
35---------July 17----------------Christopher Young-------553
36---------Sept. 12---------------Ruben Gutierrez---------554
37---------Sept. 26---------------Troy Clark--------------555
38---------Sept. 27---------------Daniel Acker------------556
49---------Oct. 10----------------Juan Segundo------------557
40---------Oct. 24----------------Kwame Rockwell----------558
41---------Nov. 7-----------------Emanuel Kemp------------559
44---------Dec. 4-----------------Joseph Garcia-----------560
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
*******
Death sought for San Antonio man accused in 'disturbing, violent crime'
Bexar County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a San Antonio man
accused of killing 2 people and severely wounding a 3rd in a brutal shooting
and stabbing at a Northwest Side apartment in 2016.
Luis Antonio Arroyo was 39 when he was arrested and charged with capital
murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Rodney Spring, 47, and Quickether
Jackson, 36. Spring was pronounced dead at the scene, and Jackson was taken to
an area hospital where she later died.
A woman described at the time as Jackson's mother also was stabbed in the back
and stomach and survived.
(source: mysanantonio.com)
FLORIDA:
3 men avoid death penalty in Florida deputy's fatal shooting
3 men convicted in the fatal shooting of a Florida deputy won't receive the
death penalty.
The Sun Sentinel reports that Eloyn Ingraham, Bernard Forbes and Andre Delancy
were sentenced to life in prison Monday after 12 jurors didn't unanimously vote
for execution. The same panel convicted the three men in March of 1st-degree
murder and other charges.
Authorities say Ingraham was a passenger in a vehicle that Broward County
Deputy Brian Tephford pulled over near an apartment complex in November 2006.
Prosecutors say Ingraham used his cellphone to call Forbes and Delancy, who
showed up and opened fire. Tephford was killed, and another deputy who
responded as backup was injured.
(source: Associated Press)
LOUISIANA:
Order barring Louisiana executions is extended by 1 year
A federal judge's order on Monday bars Louisiana from carrying out any death
sentences for at least 1 more year.
At the request of state authorities, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick agreed to
impose a 12-month extension in an order temporarily staying all executions in
Louisiana.
A lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection protocols has prohibited
Louisiana from carrying out any death sentences since 2014. Its last execution
was in 2010.
Drug shortages have forced Louisiana's corrections department to rewrite its
execution plan several times since 2010. Under the current execution protocols,
the state's primary method is a single-drug injection of pentobarbital, a
powerful sedative. The alternative method is a 2-drug combination of the
painkiller hydromorphone and the sedative midazolam. The corrections department
has none of those drugs in its inventory, according to department spokesman Ken
Pastorick.
In a court filing last Wednesday, an attorney for the state said litigating the
case now would be "a waste of resources and time." Jeffrey Cody, the state's
lawyer, asked Judge Dick to extend the court-ordered halt in executions for 1
additional year "because the facts and issues involved in this proceeding
continue to be in a fluid state."
Dick's order suspends the litigation through at least July 18, 2019.
Louisiana has 71 inmates on death row. The state's last execution was in
January 2010, when prison officials put to death Gerald Bordelon, who was
convicted of killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002.
(source: The Republic)
OHIO----impending execution
'A gruesome, gruesome murder:' Cincinnati killer Robert Van Hook to die
Wednesday
For the 1st time in 7 years, Ohio will execute a Cincinnati killer this week.
Convicted murderer Robert Van Hook is slated for execution Wednesday more than
30 years after he brutally stabbed a man to death in his Hyde Park apartment.
David Self, 25, was found nearly disemboweled by his neighbor in Feb. 1985. The
gaping wound in his torso revealed his internal organs and was stuffed with a
cigarette butt and the murder weapon itself, a paring knife.
The night of the slaying Van Hook, also 25, met Self at Subway bar, a Downtown
establishment popular among gay men. Both men's sexualities would come up in
the case. Back at Self's apartment, Self approached Van Hook in a sexual
manner, according to court records.
During a recent appeal, Van Hook's case garnered national attention when his
defense team said "homosexual panic" may have prompted the killing.
Investigators said Van Hook, formerly of Sharonville, strangled Self to the
point of unconsciousness then began stabbing him. In addition to cutting open
his abdomen, Van Hook attempted to cut Self's head off, according to the
records.
After the attack, Van Hook took several items from the apartment and smeared
his own bloody fingerprints to hide his identity from police, prosecutors said.
'A parasite on society'
About a month and a half later, Van Hook was arrested in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida.
In an interview with police shortly after his arrest, Van Hook admitted to the
killing and said: "My objective was to lure a homosexual to whatever place I
could with intentions to rob the person." Court records show Van Hook had been
robbing gay men since he was 15.
"This case never would have been a death penalty case if Van Hook had kept his
mouth shut," said lawyer Stew Mathews, who represented Van Hook. He told The
Enquirer when Van Hook admitted to taking items from the apartment, it
increased the potential penalty.
"Had he not told them that, they never would have known it," Mathews said.
Van Hook pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and elected to have his case
heard by the panel of 3 judges instead of a jury.
"It was gruesome, gruesome murder," Mathews said. "The brutality of it all was
why we tried it to a 3-judge panel instead of a jury."
During the trial, Van Hook and his lawyers argued that he went "berserk" and
thought Self was a Viet Cong soldier.
County court psychologist Nancy Schmidtgoessling said Van Hook suffered from a
personality disorder and had both heterosexual and homosexual identities.
However, she and another psychiatrist agreed Van Hook knew what he was doing
was wrong, and was therefore not insane during the attack.
The judges did not accept that Van Hook was insane and convicted him on July
30, 1985.
After the conviction, Van Hook's defense team also argued that Self knowingly
put himself in lethal danger.
"There's no question but that David Self facilitated his own death," lawyer
Stew Mathews said. According to reports at the time, Mathews said by being at a
bar that caters to homosexuals and taking Van Hook home, Self accepted the
risk.
The judges acknowledged that Van Hook had a bad childhood filled with abuse and
neglect, but said that did not excuse what he did. In their opinion, they
called Van Hook "a parasite on society preying on homosexuals for a
livelihood."
Van Hook was sentenced to death on Aug. 8, 1985.
A new 'homosexual panic' argument
His case has been appealed multiple times. Van Hook was scheduled to be killed
in 1994, but federal appeals delayed the execution.
In 2008, a Cincinnati federal appeals court set aside the death penalty for Van
Hook due to inadequate representation in court, but that decision was
overturned the following year in a rare move by the U.S. Supreme Court.
One of the appeals cited a report that was withheld from Van Hook during the
trial. The psychologist, Schmidtgoessling, said in the report that "homosexual
panic" was a possible motive for the killing. The term describes the panic Van
Hook might have felt upon the realization he has sexual cravings that he may
view as perverse.
Van Hook's defense team said the report would have strengthed his insanity
defense. However, the courts disagreed, noting Van Hook's history of robbing
gay men.
In May, the Ohio Parole Board voted against clemency for Van Hook, now 58.
At this point, several of the attorneys and judges who work on the initial
trial have died.
"He's outlived many of the principal players in this trial," Mathews said
Thursday. "It makes an excellent case against the death penalty. He's already
been in jail for 33 years. They ought to let him live out his days in prison."
On Thursday, Mathews said he was still hoping the execution would be stopped or
delayed.
In 2011, the Danish company that distributes pentobarbital said it would no
longer provide it to agencies for the purpose of lethal injections. Ohio ran
out of its stockpile of the drug in 2013. Pentobarbital was used alone or in
conjunction with other drugs for executions.
Jan. 16, 2014, Dennis McGuire was executed using a mix of 2 different drugs and
it took 25 minutes for him to die. Executions were stopped in the state until
July 2017 when Ronald Phillips was killed using a 3-drug combination. Gary
Wayne Otte was also executed later that year.
Van Hook will be the 1st person from Hamilton County executed in over 7 years.
According to the death penalty information center, the last person from the
county to be killed by the state was Daniel Bedford. He killed his
ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend in 1984. He was put to death in May 2011.
Earlier this year, another man from Hamilton County, Raymond Tibbetts, was
given a reprieve until October. In 1997, Tibbetts beat his wife to death and
fatally stabbed the only possible witness, his landlord, Fred Hicks.
A juror in the case wrote to Governor John Kasich and said he would not have
supported the death penalty for Tibbetts had he known more about the mitigating
factors surrounding the case.
Tibbetts and Van Hook are among 24 convicted killers from Hamilton County on
death row today. 10 others from the county have been executed since the death
penalty's return in 1999.
************************
Yes, we used to hang people on Fifth Street: A brief history of Cincinnati
executios----Hamilton County's history with capital punishment dates to the
gallows of the 18th Century and continues to the lethal injection table of the
21st Century. Dan
Cincinnati's 1st hangman went to work on a patch of land that's known today as
Government Square.
This was a frontier town then, with enough trouble to keep the gallows busy.
Drunken soldiers. Carousing young men. Shawnee raiders. No one was too good for
the rope.
A straight line runs from those hangings of the 18th Century to the electric
chair of the 20th Century to the table where the condemned today are injected
with enough poison to stop a human heart.
Hamilton County's long, complicated history with capital punishment is filled
with stories. Here are 5 of them.
'Shoot him and bring his head'
The 1st known executions in the territory that would become Hamilton County
took place a few years before the gallows went up.
2 Army deserters, Mathew Ratmore and John Ayres, were captured in 1789 and
brought back to Fort Washington, where a small garrison watched over the
frontier. Desertion was a serious offense and the punishment was swift.
According to the "Centennial History of Cincinnati," the men were shot where
they stood in the southeast corner of the fort.
The fort's commander, John Wilkinson, later declared shooting might not be
punishment enough. "It will be well for the scout to shoot him and bring his
head to you," he wrote of deserters.
A hanging draws a crowd
Lawlessness outside the fort was a problem, too. The solution was to build the
gallows on Fifth Street, at present-day Government Square.
The 1st to hang there - and the 1st civilian executed in Hamilton County - was
a man named Mays. His 1st name was either John or James, according to the
"Centennial History," but all that mattered to Sheriff John Ludlow was his
crime.
Witness accounts say Mays had been "drinking and carousing" with an old friend
named Sullivan, when they got into a fight. Sullivan got the best of Mays, who
vowed to kill him the next time he saw him.
Sometime later, the 2 men bumped into each other at a friend's log cabin and
Sullivan extended his hand, hoping to let bygones be bygones. Mays plunged his
hunting knife into Sullivan's heart.
A crowd gathered to see Mays hang, with some traveling as far as 50 miles.
Electricity provides 'perfect' execution
The electric chair replaced the noose in Ohio in 1897, and the 1st to die were
from Hamilton County.
William Haas assaulted and killed a woman whose husband he'd befriended.
William Wiley shot and killed his wife in a jealous rage.
Because the chair had broken down on the day Haas originally was supposed to
die, both men were scheduled for execution the same day. Some said the men
flipped a coin to determine the order.
Haas lost, apparently, because he went 1st. Minutes later, Wiley got the same
1,750 volts of electricity, according to the Sacramento Daily Union.
"Both executions were eminently successful," the paper reported. "Physicians
and experts pronounced the executions as perfect as it was possible to make
them."
'God knows what came over me'
Anna Marie Hahn begged for her life before she became the 1st woman to die in
Ohio's electric chair. It did her no good.
She'd been convicted of killing an elderly man in Cincinnati for his money.
She'd also been suspected of poisoning as many as 4 others, 3 of them fatally.
Gov. Martin Davey initially expressed reservations about executing a woman, but
he got over it.
"The crimes committed by Mrs. Hahn were so cold blooded," he told the Chicago
Daily Tribune.
Before she was strapped to the chair in 1938, Hahn confessed her crimes in a
letter published in The Enquirer. "I don't know how I could have done the thing
I did in my life," she wrote. "Only God knows what came over me."
Serial killer faced death in 3 states
Alton Coleman and his companion, Debra Brown, went on a multi-state rampage in
the early 1980s, killing, raping and robbing along the way. He was on death row
in 3 states by the time he died by lethal injection in 2002.
Several of Coleman's victims were teenagers and children. One was a 15-year-old
girl in Cincinnati.
Coleman became a follower of a televangelist before he died and was baptized
days before his execution. His last words were from Psalm 23: "The Lord is my
shepherd. I shall not want. He leadeth me to green pastures."
When Coleman was pronounced dead, the father of one of his victims broke the
silence in the room.
"Thank you, Jesus," he said. "Thank you, Lord."
(source for both: cincinnati.com)
*****************************
Ohio begins preparations to execute killer of man met in bar
Ohio planned Tuesday to move a condemned killer to the state death house as it
begins preparations for its 1st execution in several months.
Inmate Robert Van Hook was sentenced to die for fatally strangling and stabbing
David Self after picking him up in a bar in Cincinnati in 1985. Van Hook, 58,
has no remaining appeals, and Republican Gov. John Kasich rejected his request
for clemency without comment.
At the time of the killing, Van Hook was suffering from long-term effects of
untreated mental, physical and sexual abuse as a child and was depressed that
his life seemed to be falling apart, his attorneys argue.
Kasich should have given more weight to Van Hook's military service and his
inability to receive care from Veterans Affairs for his mental health and
addiction issues after his honorable discharge, according to Van Hook's
attorneys.
The Ohio Parole Board said that despite Van Hook's tough childhood, he was
shown love and support by relatives he stayed with for long periods as a child.
But that positive influence doesn't outweigh the "gratuitous violence" Van Hook
demonstrated, the board said.
Previous attorneys representing Van Hook attempted a "homosexual panic" claim
in his defense, or the idea that self-revulsion over sexual identity confusion
contributed to a violent outburst. Van Hook's current lawyers say that was
misguided, and overlooked his diagnoses of borderline personality disorder and
post-traumatic stress disorder from his childhood.
Seizing on that claim, prosecutors have dismissed the idea as nonsense, saying
Van Hook made a practice of luring gay men to apartments to rob them.
Prosecutors note Van Hook has an extensive history of violence while
incarcerated, including stabbing a fellow death row inmate in November.
Self's family support the execution, telling the parole board last month that
their slain loved one is missed every day. Self's sister, Janet Self, said her
brother had been reduced over the years to "a gay man in a bar," when he in
fact he was so much more.
"He had a great personality, was very smart, wickedly funny, and a good
conversationalist," she said, according to the parole board account of her
testimony.
Authorities say Van Hook met Self at the Subway Bar in downtown Cincinnati on
Feb. 18, 1985. After a couple of hours, they went to Self's apartment where Van
Hook strangled the 25-year-old Self to unconsciousness, stabbed him multiple
times in the neck and then cut his abdomen open and stabbed his internal
organs, according to court records. Van Hook stole a leather jacket and
necklaces before fleeing, records say.
While separate federal courts have ruled in favor of a retrial for Van Hook,
the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 2009.
In September 2017 the state put Gary Otte to death for the 1992 murders of 2
people during robberies over 2 days in suburban Cleveland.
(source: bradenton.com)
KENTUCKY:
Prosecutor seeking death penalty in Owensboro murder case
A man accused of killing an Owensboro woman will face the death penalty in
court.
According to Daviess County Commonwealth Attorney Bruce Kuegel, paperwork has
been filed to seek the death penalty in the case of Matthew Adams.
Kuegel added that he's also filed additional paperwork centered around
aggravating circumstances.
According to Kentucky law, aggravating circumstance in a death penalty case
include instances where "the offense of murder or kidnapping was committed
while the offender was engaged in the commission of arson in the 1st degree,
robbery in the 1st degree, burglary in the 1st degree, rape in the 1st degree,
or sodomy in the 1st degree."
On Wednesday, Matthew Adams was indicted by a grand jury on charges of murder,
burglary, theft, tampering with physical evidence, and violation of a domestic
violence order.
Adams is accused in the death of Erica Owen.
Owensboro police said Owen was found dead in a home on Placid Place last
Tuesday.
Her cause of death was strangulation.
Owen had a domestic violence order against Adams.
According to court records, the theft charge stems from Adams taking Owen's
2017 Honda Pilot.
The official indictment also alleges Adams tampered with evidence at the scene
of the crime.
Adams is scheduled to appear in circuit court Wednesday.
(source: tristatehomepage.com)
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