Feb. 11
GEORGIA:
Man, woman indicted in Monroe County child's death, prosecutor considers
seeking death penalty
Monroe County grand jurors have indicted 2 people in the 2014 death of a young
girl who authorities say suffered broken bones and other injuries.
District Attorney Richard Milam said Wednesday that he's considering seeking
the death penalty against Amanda Hendrickson and Roderick Buckner who each are
charged with murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and cruelty to
children.
The deadline for his decision is the April 16 arraignment hearing for
Hendrickson and Buckner.
Forsyth firefighters responded to a 911 call May 20 at the home where
5-year-old Heaven Woods lived with her mother, Hendrickson, on Brookwood Drive.
She wasn't breathing and died at the Monroe County Hospital emergency room soon
after she arrived.
An autopsy later revealed Woods had suffered injuries to multiple parts of her
body in the weeks before her death. Some injuries had healed while others were
more recent.
The girl's cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to her
abdomen.
Buckner had been living with Henrickson and Woods since early May.
Milam said Hendrickson additionally was indicted on a charge of making a false
statement.
Hendrickson and Buckner are being held at the Monroe County jail on $1 million
bond.
(source: Macon Telegraph)
KANSAS:
Veteran death-penalty lawyer now representing man charged in killing 3 at
Kansas Jewish sites
A white supremacist accused of killing 3 people outside Jewish sites in Kansas
has been assigned a new attorney in his capital murder case.
The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1AndIAk ) reports veteran death penalty
defense lawyer Mark Manna of Topeka has been assigned to represent 74-year-old
Frazier Glenn Miller Jr.
Miller's previous attorney withdrew last week, citing a breakdown in
communications with Miller.
Miller, of Aurora, Missouri, is accused of fatally shooting 3 people on April
13, 2014.
Prosecutors say he killed 69-year-old William Corporon and his 14-year-old
grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, outside the Jewish Community Center in
Overland Park, then fatally shot 53-year-old Terri LaManno at the nearby
Village Shalom care center.
Miller has said he wanted to kill Jews. None of his victims was Jewish.
(source: Associated Press)
OKLAHOMA:
Nitrogen Gas Death Penalty Bills Clear Oklahoma Panels
Oklahoma could become the 1st state to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates
under a proposal to reinstate a method of execution that hasn't been used in
the U.S. in decades but which supporters say would be painless and foolproof.
With no questions or debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-0 Tuesday
to authorize "nitrogen hypoxia," which causes death by depleting the supply of
oxygen in the blood, as Oklahoma's backup method of execution if lethal
injection is ruled unconstitutional or if the deadly drugs become unavailable.
A similar bill later passed 7-2 in a separate House panel without debate.
"It is a method that has been recognized as the most humane by those who oppose
the death penalty," said Moore Republican Sen. Anthony Sykes, the chairman of
the Senate committee. "It causes a very quick and sudden loss of consciousness
and of life almost simultaneously."
The proposal comes as executions in Oklahoma are on hold amid a U.S. Supreme
Court review of its lethal injection method. The case, which was sparked by a
botched execution last spring, centers on whether the sedative midazolam
properly renders an inmate unconscious before the 2nd and 3rd drugs are
administered. Oklahoma officials concede midazolam is not the preferred drug
for executions, but death penalty states have been forced to explore
alternatives as manufacturers of more effective drugs refuse to sell them for
use in lethal injections.
Under current Oklahoma law, if lethal injection is declared unconstitutional,
the state would revert to death by electrocution 1st and then firing squad.
Sykes says it's likely his proposal will undergo changes before the session
ends in May, and he solicited members' input.
A House committee held a pre-session study on nitrogen hypoxia, which is
similar to what scuba divers or pilots at high altitudes may mistakenly
encounter if oxygen supplies diminish.
Rep. Mike Christian, a former highway patrolman who wrote the House bill, said
pilots who were subjects of hypoxia studies reported feeling a sense of mild
intoxication just before becoming unconscious.
"The people who have experienced it up to the point of unconsciousness said it
was a euphoric feeling," said Christian, a Republican from Oklahoma City. "If
they're saying it's euphoric, I'd say it's more humane."
Christian suggested the state could avoid paying for a new gas chamber - a
projected cost of $300,000 - by using a mask or bag over an inmate's head.
But Ryan Kiesel, director of the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union, described the legislators' effort as a "fool's errand."
"It's absurd to try to chase down a more humane way to intentionally take the
life of another human being against their will," Kiesel said.
House Bill 1879: http://bit.ly/1vetcRn
Senate Bill 794: http://bit.ly/1EVExy9
(source: Associated Press)
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