[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARKANSAS
April 20 ARKANSASexecution Arkansas executes death-row inmate Ledell Lee After a series of challenges to the U.S. Supreme Court failed, Ledell Lee was put to death by lethal injection Thursday night in the 1st execution in Arkansas since 2005. Lee, who was sentenced to death in 1995 for the killing 2 years earlier of Debra Reese in Jacksonville, was the first to die of 8 inmates whose executions were scheduled over 11 days this month. 3 others whose deaths were scheduled before Lee — Bruce Earl Ward, Don Davis and Stacey Johnson — had their lethal injections halted through court challenges. Lee pursued multiple appeals in the hours before his death, and while some resulted in temporary stays that pushed his lethal injection past its original 7 p.m. scheduled start time, none spared his life before the death warrant expired at midnight. Lee was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m., 12 minutes after the execution process began. He was 51. Lee did not make a final statement. On Feb. 9, 1993, Lee bludgeoned Reese to death with a tire iron that her husband had given her as a form of protection. Lee was arrested within an hour of Reese's death after some of the cash taken from her wallet was used to pay a bill at a Rent-A-Center store. Reese's family declined to speak to reporters after the execution and said they would release a written statement later. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge noted that the family "has waited more than 24 years to see justice done." "I pray this lawful execution helps bring closure for the Reese family,” Rutledge said. 3 other executions are scheduled for next week. Lee becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Arkansas and the 28th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Lee becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1449th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Arkansas Online & Rick Halperin) ___ 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
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARKANSAS
April 20 ARKANSASimpending execution Supreme Court denies stay, more appeals possible A divided Supreme Court has rejected appeals that would have put off the execution of Arkansas inmate Ledell Lee. Advertisement More appeals to the high court were possible Thursday night. The four liberal justices dissented from a court order late Thursday that would not only have stopped Lee's execution, but also three more the state intends to carry out before the end of the month. That's when its supply of a key execution drug expires. New justice Neil Gorsuch voted with the majority of five to deny the stay of execution sought by Lee and the other inmates. Justice Stephen Breyer said he was troubled that the main reason for wanting to proceed with the executions was the looming expiration of the drug midazolam. Breyer asked, "Why these eight? Why now?" Arkansas had scheduled eight executions over an 11-day period before the end of April, when its supply of one lethal injection drug expires. The first three executions were canceled because of court decisions. Legal rulings have put at least one other in doubt. (source: 4029tv.com) ___ 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
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARKANSAS
April 20 ARKANSASimpending execution Arkansas poised to carry out first execution since 2005 Arkansas was poised Thursday to carry out its first execution since 2005 after officials scrapped the third of eight lethal injections that had been planned before the end of the month in the face of court challenges. A ruling from the state Supreme Court allowing officials to use a lethal injection drug that a supplier says was obtained by misleading the company cleared the way for Arkansas to proceed to execute Ledell Lee on Thursday night, although he still had requests for stays pending with a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Temporary stays from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court delayed Lee's execution until at 9:15 p.m. central time, to give them time to review his case. The U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote rejected appeals that would have halted Lee's execution, but more were pending before the high court Thursday night. Arkansas dropped plans to execute a second inmate, Stacey Johnson, on the same day after the state Supreme Court said it wouldn't reconsider his stay, which was issued so Johnson could seek more DNA tests in hopes of proving his innocence. The state originally set four double executions over an 11-day period in April. The eight executions would have been the most by a state in such a compressed period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The state says the executions need to be carried out before its supply of one lethal injection drug, midazolam, expires on April 30. Three executions were canceled because of court decisions, and legal rulings have put at least one of the other five in doubt. Lee was set to be executed for the 1993 death of his neighbor Debra Reese, who was struck 36 times with a tire tool her husband had given her for protection. A prison spokesman said Lee on Thursday declined a last meal and opted instead to receive communion. Justices on Thursday reversed an order by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Alice Gray that halted the use of vecuronium bromide, one of three drugs used in the state's lethal injection process, in any execution. McKesson Corp. says the state obtained the drug under false pretenses and that it wants nothing to do with executions. McKesson said it was disappointed in the court's ruling. "We believe we have done all we can do at this time to recover our product," the company said in a statement. Justices also denied an attempt by makers of midazolam and potassium chloride — the two other drugs in Arkansas' execution plan — to intervene in McKesson's fight over the vecuronium bromide. The pharmaceutical companies say there is a public health risk if their drugs are diverted for use in executions, and that the state's possession of the drugs violates rules within their distribution networks. The legal maneuvers frustrated Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who had set the execution schedule less than two months ago. The state's elected prosecutors also criticized the roadblocks to the execution plans. "Through the manipulation of the judicial system, these men continue to torment the victims' families in seeking, by any means, to avoid their just punishment," the prosecutors said in a joint statement issued Thursday. The Arkansas Supreme Court said in a 4-3 ruling that it would not reconsider its decision to stay Johnson's execution. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office said she would not appeal that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lawyers for the state have complained that the inmates are filing court papers just to run out the clock on Arkansas' midazolam supply. Prisons director Wendy Kelley has said the state has no way to obtain more midazolam or vecuronium bromide. At one point in the proceedings before a federal judge last week, Arkansas Solicitor General Lee Rudofsky declared, "Enough is enough." New justice Neil Gorsuch voted with the majority of five on the U.S. Supreme Court to deny the stay of execution sought by Lee and the other inmates. Justice Stephen Breyer said in a dissent he was troubled by Arkansas' push to execute the inmates before its supply of midazolam expires. "Apparently the reason the state decided to proceed with these eight executions is that the 'use by' date of the state's execution drug is about to expire...In my view, that factor, when considered as a determining factor separating those who live from those who die, is close to random," Breyer wrote. (source: Assocciated Press) ___ 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
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VIRGINIA
April 20 VIRGINIA: Governor commutes death sentence of Virginia inmate Ivan Teleguz Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe called a 3:30 p.m. press conference to make a public statement “regarding his review of Ivan Teleguz’s petitions for a pardon and for commutation of his death sentence.” Teleguz was scheduled to be executed on April 25. “As a result of the thorough review process that we have gone through I have decided to deny Mr. Teleguz’s petition for a pardon,” McAuliffe said. “However, I am commuting his capital sentence to life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole.” “Mr. Teleguz will spend the rest of his life in a jail cell,” McAuliffe added. “What has come to light, however, in my review of the circumstances regarding his death sentence, is that the sentencing phase of his trial was terribly flawed and unfair,” he said. The governor said that false information was presented regarding an alleged murder and mob ties. “Our judicial system is based upon fairness,” McAuliffe said. Teleguz, 38, was convicted in a 2001 murder-for-hire plot in Harrisonburg which involved ex-girlfriend Stephanie Sipe, a 20-year-old mother of a young child. After the case went cold for years, evidence implicated Michael Hetrick as the person who committed the murder, and he, along with two others, implicated Mr. Teleguz as having paid for the murder of Sipe. Prosecutors argued Teleguz ordered his ex-girlfriend murdered so he could avoid paying child support. His attorneys have argued for years that Teleguz in an innocent man. “Two witnesses critical to the prosecution’s case have now admitted in sworn, written statements they lied at the trial,” Peiffer Elizabeth, with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, said earlier this month. “They have no reason to believe that Mr. Teleguz was involved in this crime.” DNA evidence linked Hetrick to the crime, and he made a deal with prosecutors to testify against Teleguz in exchange for an agreement not to seek the death penalty. Hetrick was sentenced to life in prison for the crime; however, Teleguz was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. “American values demand that every person, no matter their crime, be given due process of law,” McAuliffe said. ” In this case, we now know that the jury acted on false information, and that it was driven by passions and fears raised – not from actual evidence introduced at trial – but from inference. To allow a sentence to stand based on false information and speculation is a violation of the very principles of justice our system holds dear.” (source: WTVR news) ___ 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
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
April 20 VIETNAM: Beware Vietnam's Death MachineA closer look at capital punishment in the Southeast Asian state. One Thursday in July 2013, Barack Obama and his Vietnamese counterpart, Truong Tan Sang, sat down in the Oval Office to discuss Thomas Jefferson. Sang brought to this historic meeting between the 2 nation's presidents a letter Ho Chi Minh had sent Harry Truman, prior to the Vietnam War, seeking cooperation with the United States. Uncle Ho's words, said Obama, were "inspired by the words of Thomas Jefferson." In fact, when the Proclamation of Independence was read by Ho in 1945, he chose to begin with an extract from America's Declaration of Independence, its principal author being Jefferson. While a visit to the White House by the Vietnamese president was an occasion for historical reflection, the here-and-now was what really mattered. Indeed, diplomacy and trade were the main talking points, signaling the start of an emboldened relationship between the 2 nations. But the U.S. president did at least mention Vietnam's human right's record. "All of us have to respect issues like freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. And we had a very candid conversation about both the progress that Vietnam is making and the challenges that remain," Obama said after the meeting. Sang's only comment was that the 2 men "have differences on the issue." Little reported afterwards was the execution of a 27-year old Vietnamese man named Nguyen Anh Tuan, a convicted murderer, which took place on August 6, just 2 weeks after Sang's visit to White House. Tuan's execution was the 1st in years, and the 1st since Vietnam replaced firing squads with lethal injections in 2011. However, a ban on importing "authorized" lethal drugs meant it had to use untested domestic poisons. Tuan took 2 hours to die, reportedly in harrowing pain. Between the date of Tuan's death and June 30, 2016, Vietnam executed 429 people (or an average of 147 executions per year; or 12 each month). Additionally, 1,134 people were given death sentences between July 2011 and June 2016. The number remaining on "death row" is not known. These figures only came to light after the public security ministry decided to release them in February. They are normally classified as state secrets and rarely revealed. Surprising many around the world who thought the numbers to be much lower, Amnesty International reported this month that Vietnam is now the world's third-most prolific executioner of prisoners. Only China and Iran are thought to have executed more people. In June 2016, the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights provided a lengthy report on the death penalty???s mechanisms in Vietnam, explaining that capital punishment is applied for 18 different offenses, down from 44 in 1999. Like many of its Southeast Asian neighbors this includes harsh drug laws, and Vietnam metes out the death penalty for those caught in possession or smuggling 100 grams or more of heroin or cocaine, or 5 kilograms or more of cannabis and other opiates. Other crimes, including murder and rape, also carry a death sentence. After reforms during the 2000s, "the death penalty was effectively abolished on certain crimes, such as robbery, disobeying orders or surrendering to the enemy. But in other cases, crimes were simply re-worded to mask their appearance and deceive international opinion," the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights report reads. Particularly troubling is the fact that the Vietnamese regime wields capital punishment for vaguely-defined crimes of "infringing upon national security," explains the report. These include carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people's administration (Article 109 of the reformed Criminal Code), rebellion (article 112), and sabotaging the material-technical foundations of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (article 114). Returning to the recent execution figures, it is worth considering why the regime would choose to announce them in February - knowing the reaction they would cause - and whether they are not masking a far larger number of executions. One problem is that they came with no information as to what the prisoners were being executed for. We might assume that most were for drug offenses or murder, as has been the case in the past, but it is by no means certain. That leads one to wonder whether any of the people executed were arrested for simply protesting against the regime. Even if they weren't, capital punishment and human rights are by no means detached issues, as some claim. What is the connection between the drug trafficker, the murder and the human-rights activist in the regime's eyes? They are all a risk to national security. Indeed, in his famed essay, "Of Crimes and Punishments," Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria described the death penalty as a "war of the whole nation against a citizen whos
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., NEB., IDAHO, CALIF., USA
April 20 ARKANSASstay of 1 impending execution Arkansas Supreme Court issues stay for death row inmate The Arkansas Supreme Court has halted 1 of 2 executions set for Thursday, saying the condemned inmate should have a chance to prove his innocence with more DNA testing. Stacey Johnson claims that advanced DNA techniques could show that he didn't kill Carol Heath, a 25-year-old mother of 2, in 1993 at her southwest Arkansas apartment. In a 4-3 ruling late Wednesday afternoon, the state's highest court issued a stay for Johnson and ordered a new hearing in lower court for Johnson to make his claims. Johnson was set for execution Thursday night along with inmate Ledell Lee, who is also seeking a stay in a separate case. The Innocence Project previously asked the state's circuit court to grant Johnson new DNA testing, CBS affiliate KTVH reports. In a press release, the group said newer DNA testing has "never been performed" in his case that could potentially prove his innocence. The evidence in the case shows Heath was stabbed in the throat and raped. Johnson has maintained his innocence throughout his entire time in prison. KTVH reports that anti-death penalty protesters have camped out in front of the governor's mansion in Little Rock in the weeks leading to the decision. (source: CBS News) * SWAR death row inmate set to be executed Thursday A DeQueen, Ark., man is scheduled to be executed Thursday after twice being sentenced to death for a brutal murder 24 years ago. However, court filings recently have picked up throughout the state trying to block the executions of Stacey Eugene Johnson and 7 other death row inmates. "It is certainly not a done deal that he will be executed on Thursday," said Arkansas Circuit Judge Tom Cooper, who was the prosecuting attorney in Johnson's 2nd trial. "I would like to see justice done. And, in my opinion, that (execution) would be justice in this case," he continued, "I was there in trying this case, I know what he did." Johnson was convicted in 2 separate trials for killing DeQueen mother Carol Heath in 1993. Investigators found Heath's throat had been cut. Around her body were the footprints of her 2 small children. "I was not surprised of the verdict nor the sentence," said attorney Mickey Buchanan, who represented Johnson in 1997 during his 2nd murder trial. "The evidence in the 1st trial was presented and he was found guilty and was given the death penalty," Buchanan explained. "And it was moved to another county and the same evidence was presented. And the opinion was the same in both cases." Yet the appeals keep coming. Brian Cheshir, the Ninth Judicial District prosecuting attorney, says mounds of paperwork and appeals in this case, including new DNA testing, have kept his office busy. "Stacey Johnson was not entitled to the relief he was requesting post conviction DNA based on the fact it was untimely under the stature to ask for new DNA testing. He had to do it within 36 months of the time of his conviction." Cheshir and Cooper said they plan to be there as witnesses if the execution is held as scheduled Thursday. (source: KSLA news) *** Arkansas Determined to Fight Challenges to ExecutionsThe company who sold the drug to the prison system said it would not have done so had it known it would be used in executions, and is demanding the drug be either returned or confiscated. Arkansas has said it will appeal a court ruling that bars the U.S. state's use of a lethal injection drug and effectively puts a stop to its plans to execute 8 prisoners in 11 days. A state circuit judge issued the temporary restraining order on Wednesday after the U.S. pharmaceutical firm McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc accused the state of obtaining the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide under false pretences. The company, a unit of McKesson Corp, said it would not have sold the drug to the Arkansas prison system had it known it would be used in executions, and is demanding the drug is either returned or confiscated. The ruling delivered a further setback for the state, which last carried out an execution a dozen years ago and contends it must act quickly because its supply of another of the three drugs used in the lethal mix expires at the end of April. A spokesman for State Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, said she would appeal the ruling before the state's Supreme Court. The execution of 8 death row inmates would be the most by any U.S. state in such a short period since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Arkansas officials have said they cannot obtain the drug from any other source, and have acknowledged in court papers that should McKesson prevail, all pending executions would be blocked. Governor Asa Hutchinson said he was "both surprised and disappointed" by the latest legal delays. The state had original
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., VA., FLA., LA., OHIO
April 20 TEXAS: Texas man convicted in double slaying gets Supreme Court hearing MondayThe U.S. Supreme Court, including its newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, will decide on a legal technicality in the case of a Fort Worth man who killed a 5-year-old girl and her grandmother. The now-9 justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday morning in the Texas death penalty case of a Fort Worth man who killed a 5-year-old and her grandmother during a children's birthday party. The issue before the court in the case of 30-year-old death row inmate Erick Davila focuses on a legal distinction between ineffective lawyering in the trial court and during state appeals. The high court's newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, previously ruled against an argument similar to Davila's when he sat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Seth Kretzer, the lawyer who will argue on behalf of Davila in front of the court Monday, told The Texas Tribune it might be difficult to obtain Gorsuch's vote in the case, but if the new, seemingly very vocal justice has questions, "I'll be happy to answer each and every one of them," he said. The Texas Attorney General's Office did not respond to an interview request on Davila's case. Davila landed on death row 8 years ago after the April 2008 murders. He drove to the house of a rival gang member, Jerry Stevenson, and opened fire on the porch before speeding off, according to court filings. Davila didn't hit Stevenson, however; instead, he fatally shot the man's mother and daughter, Annette Stevenson and 5-year-old Queshawn, who were outside during another girl's birthday party. For a jury to have found Davila guilty of capital murder in this case, they needed to have determined that he intended to kill multiple people. Davila's main defense in trial was that he only intended to kill Jerry Stevenson. Tarrant County prosecutors countered that argument by pointing to Davila's confession to police: "I was trying to get the guys on the porch, and I was trying to get [Jerry Stevenson]." As jurors deliberated, they focused on the intent issue, asking the judge if they should decide if Davila intended to kill his 2 victims or if he intended to kill someone and in the process fatally shot 2 others. In his answer, the judge sent the definitions again and instructed jurors that Davila would be responsible for a crime if the only difference between what happened and what he wanted was that a different person was hurt - without affirming to them that Davila must have intended to kill more than 1 person. "The judge responded with a misleading instruction, which permitted the jury to convict Davila based only on the intent to kill Jerry Stevenson," Kretzer wrote in Davila's brief to the high court. Davila's lawyer during his trial objected that the judge should not add that instruction at that time, but he was overruled. It was the right move by the lawyer but one that hurt Davila in the long run, Kretzer claimed. This instruction wasn't brought up during Davila's automatic, direct appeal concerning the trial record. And his lawyer in his state habeas appeal - which focuses on facts outside of the trial record - never claimed his direct appellate lawyer was wrong to not bring it up. 2 big mistakes, according to Kretzer. Death penalty cases can also be appealed in the federal courts system, but it is generally ruled that issues that could be raised at the state level can't be reviewed federally until they go through state courts. So, when a federal lawyer tried to raise the claim that Davila's direct appellate lawyer was ineffective for not faulting the judge's instruction, federal courts said they couldn't rule on that because it could have been brought up during the state habeas appeal. There is an exception to this rule, created in the Supreme Court decision Martinez v. Ryan, which says that if state habeas lawyers fail to raise the issue of ineffective trial counsel, the federal courts can still hear it to ensure that the defendants are guaranteed their Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial. What Kretzer will argue before the high court Monday is that Martinez should be interpreted to include issues of ineffective appellate counsel as well. Kretzer said that if trial counsel had not objected to the judge's instruction, the federal courts could rule on the merits of the case based on the Martinez exception. "A defendant should not be worse off because appellate counsel - rather than trial counsel - rendered the ineffective assistance," Davila's brief states. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller will argue against opening up the Martinez exception, and 30 other state attorneys general filed a brief in support of Texas in the case. The list includes all states with the death penalty except 4, and 5 states without. "The right to appellate counsel, while surely important, is not foundational and cann
