[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----NMEX, UTAH, NEV., ARIZ., USA
July 20 NEW MEXICO: Group scores criminal justice legislation A New Mexico advocacy group supporting criminal justice reform efforts released its report card Wednesday on legislation from the 2017 regular legislative session. Specifically, the group, NM SAFE, analyzed legislation aimed at changing criminal penalties. At a press conference, a few members of the group spoke about the analysis and what it means for New Mexico. Tanya Romero with the Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families said the state needs more reforms instead of tougher criminal penalties. "Domestic violence, a good percentage of it, is through historical trauma," Romero said. "It is time for us to break the cycle, it is time to educate many about the acts of violence." Steve Allen, with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, criticized Gov. Susana Martinez for vetoes of bills NM SAFE supports. "It's great idea after great idea that this governor refuses to get on board with," Allen said. "We are never going to move this state forward with proactive, creative criminal justice reform until we have a new governor in office." Martinez's office did not comment on the group's criticisms before press time. Of the 2-dozen proposals NM SAFE looked at, only 1 became law. The rest either failed in committee or was vetoed by Martinez. Martinez signed a bill that limits when school officials can physically restrain a student. The bill was a bipartisan effort, sponsored by Rep. Jim Smith, R-Sandia Park, and Rep. Debbie Armstrong, D-Albuquerque. The legislation with the worst grades were generally sponsored by Republicans and focused on increasing criminal penalties. A high profile bill from the House aimed at reinstating the death penalty, for example, received an "F," the lowest possible grade. NM SAFE, which includes various advocacy groups and community members, said the death penalty bill sponsored by Rep. Monica Youngblood, R-Albuquerque, "fails every element of the SAFE test and is the ultimate misguided public safety." The group also gave low grades to proposed penalty enhancements like including crimes against police officers and first responders as protected classes under the state's hate crime law and bolstering the state's "3 strikes law." Bills that focused on alternatives to criminal sentences or eliminated punishments, like one that proposed to legalize recreational cannabis, received higher grades. NM SAFE also praised legislation that focused on reform and prevention rather than punitive actions after crimes are committed. A bill that would have increased penalties for crimes involving firearms, for example, received a "C" for focusing too heavily on increased sentences and not on gun control. "Rather than incarcerating after-the-fact, the only way to prevent gun violence is to make guns unavailable to high risk individuals," the report read. In its report, NM SAFE wrote each bill was judged on its ability to make New Mexico safer, whether it was apolitical, fiscally responsible and whether there is sufficient evidence to support the respective bill. NM SAFE is made up of 30 groups and individuals and was created in October 2016, when Gov. Susana Martinez called for a special session primarily focused on increasing criminal penalties. (source: nmpoliticalreport.com) UTAH: Ending the death penalty would save money and save souls 19 states have abolished the death penalty. Utah isn't one of them. In fact, Utah is the only state in the modern era to use the firing squad. That's not something to shout from mountaintops. Granted, Utah doesn't see many capital offense cases. Since 1976 Utah has executed seven people. Utah currently has nine inmates on death row. But on these most important of cases, attorneys struggle to get paid. This tension between budgets and priorities puts attorneys in the unfortunate position of choosing between zealous representation, which ethics require, and adequate representation, or even barely-competent representation. Death penalty cases require a specialized skillset. In 2008 the state Supreme Court noted it would start overturning death penalty sentences and sending cases back for re-sentencing if qualified attorneys were not available to take the cases. Yet counties are still limiting the pool of qualified attorneys by capping case costs at a rate that makes representation, especially by solo practitioners, economically impractical. Unnecessarily strict limits on the number of defendant visits and witness, investigative and expert resources is completely inapposite to zealous representation. The state's Division of Finance has capped payment for a capital offense case at $60,000. If you reduce an attorney's rate to $100 an hour, $60,000 equates to 15 weeks at 40 hours a week. Few attorneys work 40 hours a week, and no capital offense cases are ever resolved in 15 weeks. The
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, KY., ARK.
July 20 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: Represented by WikipediaTaiChin Preyor did not get the legal expertise he deserved The exact details of the crime that delivered Taichin Preyor to death row remain unclear and continue to be investigated by his current team of attorneys. What's clear is that Preyor was denied certain constitutional rights during both his trial and the appeals process. But unless Gov. Greg Abbott grants him clemency or he receives a stay, he will be executed next Thursday, July 27. Three recently filed motions by Preyor's latest attorneys argue that Preyor was represented through his appeals by a disbarred attorney, Phillip Jefferson. His current lawyer, Catherine Stetson, of the Washington, D.C., firm Hogan Lovells, told the Chronicle that Jefferson used Brandy Estelle, a California attorney who works in real estate, as his legal stand-in to represent Preyor. A federal court in San Antonio originally denied Estelle's motion to represent Preyor, but the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals later granted her request and began paying the real estate lawyer for her services. (Estelle was also collecting money from Preyor's mother for much of the same work.) What's more egregious is the possibility that Estelle may have relied on Wikipedia to file Preyor's federal appeal. The latest motion, filed on July 14, states within Estelle's files was "a copy of the Wikipedia page" titled "Capital punishment in Texas" on the printout with a Post-It note reading "Research" next to highlighted passages of "Habeas corpus appeals" and "Subsequent or successive writ applications." A July 11 supplement also argues that Preyor's previous attorneys "completely overlooked" the physical and sexual abuse Preyor experienced as a child. The mitigating evidence, says Stetson, could have convinced the trial jury to spare him a death sentence. Stetson said she and her team are currently investigating Preyor's past as well as the crime itself that landed him on death row. ? The state claims that Preyor "fatally stabbed" his "girlfriend" Jami Tackett after breaking into her San Antonio apartment in February 2004, and in the process stabbed another man. But in Preyor's appeals, Estelle argued that Tackett was actually his drug dealer (not his girlfriend), and that Preyor acted in self-defense against her and her male companion. Preyor was arrested shortly after the attack, covered in Tackett's blood. In March 2015, a judicial clerk reviewing death penalty cases contacted the Texas bar to seek new counsel for Preyor. The clerk, Stetson said, had concerns about how Estelle and Jefferson had handled the case. "When the federal court system sees this and asks for help, it tells you something awful happened," said Stetson. Austin attorney Hilary Sheard took over Preyor's case (one year after the 5th Circuit denied his appeal), and ushered in Stetson's firm in May after she fell ill. That month, the court approved her budget request of $45,000 to further investigate the case. The new motions seek a stay on Preyor's execution so that his new attorneys can prepare a case for mitigation. A week before Preyor's execution date, Stetson said his team remains "in the dark" about what or when a ruling will come, but they're "continuing their investigation to better expose" Estelle and Jefferson's fraud. Should their efforts be unsuccessful, Preyor will be the 1st Texan killed by the state since James Bigby in March, and only the 5th this year. 542 Texans have been executed since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. (source: Austin Chronicle) FLORIDA: State Attorney to seek Death Penalty in CR 340 murder case The State Attorney plans to seek the Death Penalty in the Staleys murder case. Bill Cervone, State Attorney for the 8th Judicial Circuit said on Monday, July 17, "We intend to pursue the Death Penalty in this case." Cervone went on to say that they are working on the case, but he did not expect the case to come to trial until sometime in 2018. On April 28, 2017, Phillip David Wheeler was indicted for the murder of Kevin Lawrence Staley, 49 and Kevin Justice Staley, 19. The Gilchrist County Spring Term Grand Jury returned a True Bill indicting Phillip David Wheeler at the Gilchrist County Courthouse. The Staleys were found dead back in November of 2015. The murders occurred at a mobile home located off CR 340 near Bell. Phillip David Wheeler was 37 when he was indicted and a resident of Old Town and a former resident of Newberry. (source: Gilchrist County Journal) *** 3rd death penalty sentencing for convicted killer J.B. Parker likely a year away State prosecutors will try for a third time to get a death sentence that will stick for convicted killer J.B. "Pig" Parker, but it will be at least a year before they will have the chance. Parker is 1 of 4 men convicted of the April 2,
