July 26
TEXAS:
Death row inmate Scott Panetti to get further competency review
Scott Panetti, 59, remains on death row in Huntsville, convicted of killing a
Fredericksburg couple in 1992.
"It's still so fresh in my mind, " said Rowena Alvarado. Alvarado's parents,
Joe and Amanda Alvarado, were shot and killed by Panetti.
Panetti was the couple's son-in-law, and married to Rowena's sister. "We never
saw it in him."
Panetti has already been sentenced to death and has been granted stays of
execution.
From the very beginning, Panetti's case has been about mental illness.
Panetti's attorneys claim he's suffered from severe mental illness for nearly 4
decades and that he's also a paranoid schizophrenic.
Panetti represented himself during his 1995 trial, he also dressed up as a
western TV cowboy and tried to subpoena the Pope, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus
Christ.
"We had no idea, nor did he have any episodes. He was just a normal guy,"
Alvarado went on to say.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has now returned Panetti's case
to the federal district court in Texas to further review Panetti's competency.
"The taxpayers have been paying for this for many years, and that is just not
fair for us," added Alvarado.
While Alvarado says she has forgiven Panetti.
"I'm kinda in between because I do feel that the death penalty would be too
good for him," she said.
Panetti's legal team issued the following statement:
"We are grateful that the court found that Mr. Panetti's nearly 4 decades of
documented schizophrenia and severe mental illness provided a sufficient
showing to obtain experts and resources to pursue the claim that he is
currently incompetent for execution. And we are grateful to the Texas Defender
Service for their support, which allowed us to obtain a stay and to litigate on
behalf of Mr. Panetti in the Fifth Circuit. Mr. Panetti has not been evaluated
by any mental health experts since 2007 and his severe mental illness has only
worsened while in prison. We are confident that when the lower court is
presented with all the evidence, it will find that Mr. Panetti, a schizophrenic
man who insisted on representing himself at trial and attempted to subpoena the
Pope, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus Christ, is not now competent for execution.
Ultimately, commuting Mr. Panetti's sentence to life in prison without parole
would keep the public safe and affirm our shared beliefs in a humane and moral
justice system."
(source: foxsanantonio.com)
FLORIDA:
'NICOLE WAS LEFT TO DIE': Prosecutors call 1st witnesses in Sean Bush death
penalty trial
Jurors heard the 1st day of testimony Monday as prosecutors began laying out
their case against Sean Alonzo Bush, who is facing the death penalty should he
be convicted of 1st-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife Nicole
Bush.
During her opening statement in Circuit Judge Howard Maltz's St. Johns County
courtroom, Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Dunton told the all-white jury
that Nicole Bush was shot 5 times in the face, stabbed, and beaten with an
aluminum baseball bat in the early morning hours of May 31, 2011, in her
Julington Creek townhome.
"Nicole was left to die, but she didn't die right away," Dunton said.
Instead, she explained, the mother of 2 managed to get a phone call out to a
friend who, in-turn, called another friend who called 911 and travelled to the
home to see what was the matter.
Jurors heard from both of those friends Monday morning as well as the 1st
responding deputy and a paramedic who was at the scene. The 1st friend, Tracie
Walker, testified that she only heard Nicole Bush whisper "help" into the phone
when she answered a call around 6 a.m. When the call went silent, Walker called
another friend, Lenora Jerry, who said that she called Nicole Bush who answered
but was "whispering" like "she was struggling to speak."
Jerry said her friend told her, "Send help, I can't make it to the door."
A deputy, she said, arrived at the home shortly after she made it to Julington
Creek.
That deputy, Graham Harris, told jurors that he found Nicole Bush lying in a
pool of a blood in the doorway to her bedroom. She was wearing only a bra and a
pair of ripped underwear.
Lieutenant Michelle Grant with St. Johns County Fire Rescue, who was a
paramedic at the time, described some of the efforts to save the woman and the
wounds that were apparent at the scene.
Grant said Nicole Bush had at least 1 exit wound from a gunshot on top of her
head and was suffering from a good deal of swelling. She said she appeared
"like her head was dipped in blood."
Grant and Harris both testified that Nicole Bush was speaking somewhat when
they began rendering aid but she could not identify who attacked her.
Nicole Bush died later that day after being flown to a Jacksonville hospital.
Through the testimony of St. Johns County Sheriff's Office crime scene
technician Stefanie Whittington, jurors were shown dozens of photos taken from
inside the home that detailed the massive amount of blood spatter on the walls
and door of Nicole Bush's bedroom. That door and a portion of one of the walls
were on display in the courtroom for part of the day Monday.
The defense team worked hard to highlight what they saw as holes in the state's
case, including Nicole Bush's inability to identify her attacker, and possible
"tool markings" that were photographed on the door between the garage and the
kitchen, despite courtroom testimony that Sean Bush had access to keys to the
home.
Lead counsel for the defense, Ray Warren, with the Public Defender's Office,
told jurors in his opening statement that he believed there were likely 2 men
who entered the home that morning. He promised jurors that they will learn
during the trial that a man's DNA was recovered from a bath towel at the scene
that didn't belong to Sean Bush. There was also male DNA found on a laptop
computer recovered from the home.
"Their DNA is at the scene and the state will never be able to explain it
away," he said.
The trial continues today with jurors set to hear a roughly 50-minute interview
that Sean Bush recorded the afternoon he learned his wife had been killed.
Dunton and Assistant State Attorney Mark Johnson are expected to have all of
their witnesses called by the end of the week, leaving Warren and the defense
team of Rosemarie Peoples and Joshua Mosley to call any of their own witnesses
after the state rests its case.
Maltz has set aside 2 weeks for the trial.
Sean Bush is also facing a single count burglary of a dwelling with a person
assaulted.
(source: St. Augustine Record)
MISSISSIPPI:
Man accused of killing deputy, 7 others due in court
A Mississippi man charged with killing a deputy, his mother-in-law and 6 others
who were his relatives or acquaintances is due in court on Wednesday.
Willie Cory Godbolt has been jailed without bond since his arrest May 28,
shortly after the fatal shootings that started after witnesses say Godbolt was
arguing with his estranged wife.
The killings May 27 and 28 occurred at three homes in and around the south
Mississippi city of Brookhaven, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of
Jackson. A deputy responded to a disturbance call at Godbolt's in-laws' home,
and the shootings started there.
Deputy William Durr, Godbolt's mother-in-law Barbara Mitchell and 2 others were
killed at the 1st home in the small town of Bogue Chitto. An 11-year-old and an
18-year-old, who were each other's cousins, were killed at the 2nd home, in
Brookhaven. A husband and wife were killed at the 3rd home, also in Brookhaven.
Defense attorney Gus Sermos said Godbolt is scheduled to attend Wednesday's
hearing, where prosecutors will ask a judge to send the case to a grand jury
for the possibility of indictment.
Godbolt is charged with 1 count of capital murder, which could carry the death
penalty, in the deputy's killing. He's also charged with 7 counts of murder,
which could carry life without parole.
Moments after he was arrested May 28, a handcuffed Godbolt told a reporter from
The Clarion-Ledger, on video, that someone in the 1st house called law
enforcement while he was talking to his wife and in-laws about his wish to take
his children home.
"My pain wasn't designed for him. He was just there," Godbolt said of the
deputy.
Godbolt also said in the video: "My intentions was to have God kill me. I ran
out of bullets. Suicide by cop was my intention. I ain't fit to live, not after
what I done."
(source: Associated Press)
OHIO----impending execution
US Supreme Court denies stay of execution for Ohio convict
A condemned child killer was scheduled to die on Wednesday in the state's 1st
execution in more than 3 years after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his requests
for more time to pursue legal challenges.
Ronald Phillips was transported to the death house at the Southern Ohio
Correctional Facility in Lucasville on Tuesday morning, about 24 hours before
his execution was planned. He was convicted of the 1993 rape and killing of his
girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter in Akron.
Justices denied the 43-year-old Phillips a stay on 3 requests, with a pair of
justices dissenting on a request by Phillips that was joined by 2 other death
row inmates with upcoming execution dates. The inmates had asked the court for
a delay while they continue challenging Ohio's new lethal-injection method.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissented,
arguing the inmates had demonstrated a likelihood of success at trial.
Sotomayor objected to the court's "failure to step in when significant issues
of life and death are present."
The death penalty has been on hold in Ohio since January 2014, when a condemned
inmate repeatedly gasped and snorted during a 26-minute procedure with a
never-before-tried drug combination. Republican Gov. John Kasich halted
upcoming executions after that, and delays have continued because the state had
trouble finding new supplies of drugs and death row inmates sued on the grounds
the state's proposed new 3-drug execution method represented "cruel and unusual
punishment."
Phillips' arguments were backed up by 15 pharmacology professors, who stepped
in Monday to argue that a sedative used in the process, midazolam, is incapable
of inducing unconsciousness or preventing serious pain.
A federal court last month upheld the use of midazolam, which has been
problematic in several executions, including Ohio's in 2014 and others in
Arkansas and Arizona.
Phillips also sought a delay based on his age at the time of the killing. He
was 19, older than the Supreme Court's cutoff of 18 for the purposes of barring
executions of juveniles. His request argued the age should be 21. His lawyers
said he had such "psychosocial deficits" when he was picked up by police that
they initially took him to a juvenile, rather than an adult, facility.
Attorneys for the state argued Phillips made meritless, often conflicting,
legal claims.
"Phillips argues that youth, like IQ, cannot be reduced to a number. But he
also argues that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of adults under
age 21," they wrote in a court document filed Tuesday. "He cannot have it both
ways; if age cannot make one eligible for death, it cannot make one ineligible
for death."
They added that continued delays in Phillips' case were harming the state by
costing time and resources.
Phillips has had several previous delays to scheduled executions, most notably
in 2013, when he made a last-minute plea to donate his organs. He said that he
wanted to give a kidney to his mother, who was on dialysis, and possibly his
heart to his sister. His request was denied. His mother has since died.
Phillips was being permitted to see family, friends, spiritual advisers and
attorneys on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
(source: Associated Press)
***********************
ABA expresses concern about Ohio plan to resume executions
The ABA is "deeply concerned" about Ohio's plans to resume executions,
according to a statement by ABA President Linda A. Klein.
Ohio has not implemented important reforms to improve the accuracy and fairness
of the death penalty that were recommended in a 2007 report, according to
Klein's statement.
The ABA had worked with Ohio experts to produce the report, which found
geographic and racial bias had resulted in inconsistent and unfair
administration of the death penalty. The report also found inadequate
protections for defendants with mental illnesses.
Ohio has not executed an inmate since January 2014, when inmate Dennis McGuire
gasped for air and made guttural noises for about 10 minutes during a
longer-than usual execution process, the Associated Press reports. The
execution used a 2-drug cocktail, the Akron Beacon Journal reports.
Executions are set to resume Wednesday when Ronald Phillips is scheduled to die
for the 1993 rape and murder of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter. The state
will use 3 drugs in the execution.
The ABA does not take a position on the death penalty as a means of punishment,
but it does believe the death penalty should be implemented fairly, accurately
and with due process.
Ohio has implemented a handful of death-penalty reforms in the last few years,
but a majority of the recommendations in the 2007 report have not been
implemented, Klein says in the statement.
(source: abajournal.com)
***************************
Kasich must halt July 26 execution of Ronald Phillips: editorial
To ensure that justice is done, Gov. John Kasich must stop Ohio from resuming
executions until the legality of the state's death-drug cocktail can be fully
evaluated.
That's not to pander to murderers. Ronald Phillips, scheduled to die Wednesday,
committed particularly heinous crimes, savagely raping and murdering his
girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter.
Ohio's executions shouldn't resemble torture.
Rather, it is about ensuring a just process in imposing the ultimate penalty.
Last Monday, after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a temporary
halt on Ohio executions intended to allow a deeper legal review, lawyers for
death-row inmates Phillips, Gary Otte and Raymond Tibbetts asked the U.S.
Supreme Court for a stay.
Yet Kasich must be the ultimate guardian of justice in Ohio.
Our editorial board has long opposed the death penalty on fairness, ethical,
moral, cost and legal grounds. But resuming executions before the new 3-drug
death cocktail -- unveiled in October -- can get a full judicial review simply
would be wrong.
First is the mounting evidence that midazolam, the sedative that Ohio wants to
use in place of hard-to-get barbiturates, may not actually knock people out,
opening the door to possible excruciating pain. Florida and Arizona already
have stopped using midazolam.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz cited these problems in part in
temporarily halting Ohio executions in January.
Other drugs in Ohio's 3-drug cocktail are ones the state pledged not to use in
2009 during an earlier federal court challenge of its death-drug protocol. This
allowed Ohio to proceed with executions using a different drug. Merz found that
created an effective legal bar to reinstating the drugs now.
The 6th Circuit, ruling en banc and along largely ideological lines, overturned
Merz's ruling late last month, allowing use of the new drug combination to
proceed.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday said it would allow the
state of Ohio to use a certain 3-drug mixture to carry out lethal injections,
paving the way for the state to resume executing those on death row.
But this is not an ideological question. It's a question of justice. Justice
requires Kasich to step in and insist on a fuller legal examination of the
state's death-drug protocol before the state puts anyone else to death.
(source: Editorial Board, ThePlain Dealer)
**********************
Group hopes to stop executions in Ohio, delivers petition with 100,000
signatures
Nearly a dozen anti-death penalty groups are hoping nearly 100,000 signatures
will get Ohio Governor John Kasich to put the state's 1st execution in more
than 3 years on hold.
Ronald Phillips, 44, is scheduled to die Wednesday for raping and beating his
girlfriend's young daughter in Summit County in 1993.
"Any death penalty case has some pretty tough, terrible circumstances. You
could also look at who is serving a life sentence without parole today and
there really is no difference," said Kevin Werner, Executive Director with
Ohioans To Stop Executions.
Phillips date with death was put on hold in 2014, after a federal judge stopped
all state lethal injections, when a botched execution involving Dennis McGuire,
who raped and killed a woman, gasped for breath after being given 2 drugs
designed to take his life.
"Frankly, we don't have confidence, that the same mistakes made in the past
won't be made again," said Werner.
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections says it's made changes to its
execution protocol to prevent further mishaps. A 3rd drug has now been added to
the lethal injection cocktail.
Monday, the group dropped off nearly 100,000 signatures to the Governor's
office, requesting Kasich doesn't go through with resuming the state's death
penalty.
"Ohio doesn't need the death penalty anymore, most of the capital punishment
cases end up with life in prison without parole, or less," said Werner.
Equal Justice U.S.A., The American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio, and Amnesty
International, among the groups that gathered signatures that were delivered to
Kasich. ABC 6/FOX 28 contacted Kasich's office after the signatures were
dropped off. A spokesman for the governor says he has no plans to change his
decision.
The Governor will be skipping opening day of the fair to monitor events in
Lucasville at the statehouse.
Last week, Phillips' legal team made a 2nd appeal to the US Supreme Court
requesting an emergency stay of his execution claiming he was under 21 at the
time of the murder. Phillips was 19 when he killed his young victim.
(source: ABC News)
************************
On the Eve of Phillips' Execution, the Bar Association Raises Questions About
Ohio's Death Penalty
After hiatus of more than 3 years, Ohio is set to resume executions at 10 this
morning by putting Ronald Phillips of Akron to death. His lawyers filed
last-minute arguments that the drug combination Ohio plans to use has a
troubling history. But as WKSU???s M.L. Schultze reports, that's not the only
argument being offered.
Ronald Phillips is to be the 1st die, but more than 2 dozen other executions
are set in Ohio over the next 4 years. The American Bar Association says it is
"deeply concerned" about the state resuming executions because it has yet to
address major concerns over accuracy and fairness in death-penalty cases.
The lawyers' group worked with Ohio on reviews of its death penalty dating back
to 2007. The studies found big problems with geographic and racial bias that
the bar association says "resulted in inconsistent and unfair administration."
It also says Ohio has inadequate protections for people with mental illness.
A task force appointed by the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Ohio State Bar
Association endorsed many of the reforms recommended, but they weren't
implemented.
The bar association notes that it has no position on the death penalty as means
of punishment, but says it should be implemented equitably.
Phillips was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old
daughter. The now 43-year-old has been on death row for 23 years.
(source: WKSU news)
************************
Court rules convicted killer will still face death penalty
A man convicted of killing 10-year-old Harrison girl in 1991 will still face
the death penalty, Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The court upheld Jeffrey Wogenstahl's death sentence for the murder and
kidnapping of Amber Garrett, who was found stabbed and beaten to death in
Indiana.
In March, Wogenstahl claimed Ohio didn't have jurisdiction to try him for
murder because evidence could not determine where Garrett was killed. The
appeal was filed after his execution date was set, the court said.
In the slip opinion, the court said Ohio had jurisdiction over aggravated
murder charge because Garrett was killed in either Ohio or Indiana but it could
not be determined which.
A Hamilton County trial court sentenced Wogenstahl to death in early 1993 after
a jury found him guilty of aggravated murder, kidnapping, and aggravated
burglary, according to the Supreme Court. He also lost appeals in 1994 and
1996.
According to court documents, an employee of a United Dairy Farmers store in
Harrison saw Garrett alive in the front seat of Wogenstahl's car as he drove
toward Indiana around 3:15 a.m. Police later found blood smears and stains in
his Ohio apartment., documents said.
Despite witness testimony, it could not be determined where Garrett was killed.
The 10-year-old had 11 stab wounds and suffered head trauma, documents said.
(source: Cincinnati Enquirer)
***********************
Key evidence challenged in Greene County capital murder case
2 Greene County common pleas judges must decide whether critical evidence in a
potential death penalty case will be allowed in trial.
Motions to suppress evidence have been filed by the defense attorneys for
Dustin and Bret Merrick, 2 brothers who stand charged with murder in the Jan.
15 fatal shootings of their neighbors near Yellow Springs -- William "Skip"
Brown and Sherri Mendenhall.
The Merrick brothers are being tried separately and could face the death
penalty if convicted. Bond was set at $5 million for each defendant as they are
being held in the Greene County Jail on suspicion of aggravated murder,
aggravated burglary and other charges.
Judge Michael Buckwalter presided over a motion to suppress hearing in Dustin
Merrick's case last week. in which the investigators were called to the stand
to testify.
According to the motion filed by Dustin's attorney Gregory Meyers, Dustin
Merrick did not consent to his 9 mm handgun being seized by detectives during
an interview at his home Jan. 20.
Dustin allowed the officers to see and handle the gun, but he "expressly and
clearly denied consent" for it to be seized, but the officers cited "exigent
circumstances" and seized the gun anyway, according to the defendant's motion
to suppress.
"Law enforcement officials cannot merely utter 'exigent circumstances' to
magically make their constitutional duties vanish. The state bears a heavy
burden to prove with specific, articulable facts that the circumstance in this
case constitutionally justified a warrantless seizure," the defendant's motion
to suppress reads.
Buckwalter must decide whether the evidence will be presented in Dustin
Merrick's case, and Judge Stephen Wolaver must decide on the issue in Bret
Merrick's case.
A date has not been scheduled for Buckwalter's ruling. A motion to suppress
hearing is scheduled in September in Bret Merrick's case.
A response from the prosecutor's office for this story has been requested.
(source: Dayton Daily News)
TENNESSEE:
Parents in Gatlinburg hot car toddler death charged with felony
murder----Police Chief Randall Brackins said he did not know yet whether
charges will be brought up in the case of the 2-year-old boy who died after
being left in a hot car overnight.
The parents of a 2-year-old boy who died after being left in a vehicle
overnight were arrested Monday on felony murder charges, according to a news
release from Fourth District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn.
A grand jury returned presentments against 24-year-old Jade Elizabeth Phillips
and 26-year-old Anthony Dyllan Phillips, charging them with 1st-degree murder
committed in perpetration of aggravated child neglect, 1st-degree murder
committed in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse, aggravated child
neglect and aggravated child abuse, according to the release.
The Phillips were arrested in Westmoreland, Tenn. Each is being held in the
Sumner County jail in lieu of a $250,000 bond. Their court dates have not yet
been set.
Gatlinburg police found the Phillips' son, Kipp, dead around 2 p.m. on July 14,
after 1 of the parents called E-911 and reported they had left him in a vehicle
overnight and into the afternoon as the temperature outside approached 90
degrees.
Authorities released little information about the case the following week,
choosing to withhold the names of the child and the parents, the address where
the child was found, and whether anyone had been taken into custody.
Next-door neighbor Freeda Hall said the couple "seemed like good parents," and
that they both worked at the Apple Barn in Sevierville on opposite shifts so
they could take care of their son. A manager at the restaurant declined to
comment Thursday.
Hall said the couple was friendly and offered to cut her yard and bring her
food.
"They seemed like good people, but I guess you never know," Hall said.
Last week Gatlinburg Police Chief Randall Brackins said of the parents, "They
were distraught, very upset. They were very unbelieving of what was occurring.
They just couldn't believe it was happening."
The Phillips are charged under a section of the 1st-degree murder statute known
as felony murder. Under that law, the state must only show the child was killed
as a result of the felony crimes of abuse and neglect, not that they planned to
kill the child.
There is no difference in penalty. A person convicted of 1st-degree murder is
subject to the death penalty, life without parole or life with a mandatory
51-year prison term.
(source: The Tennessean)
ARIZONA:
Official: Firms won't sell execution drugs to Arizona
An Arizona prison official in charge of buying drugs to carry out the death
penalty testified Tuesday in a media lawsuit over access to execution
information that pharmaceutical companies will no longer sell drugs to carry
out the punishment.
Carson McWilliams, a division director in charge of prison operations for the
Arizona Department of Corrections, testified at a 1-day trial in Phoenix over
whether the state must reveal its source of lethal-injection drugs and the
qualifications of executioners.
Like other states, Arizona is struggling to obtain execution drugs after U.S.
and European pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of products for
lethal injections.
McWilliams said it has gotten more difficult to find companies to sell drugs to
Arizona, even though a law protects the firms from being publicly identified.
McWilliams said he was once shown an anonymous letter in which a supplier was
threatened and told the business would be ruined if it sold drugs to state
prisons.
"I don't know anyone in the United States where we could acquire chemicals to
do executions," McWilliams said. "No one that I know will do business with the
Department of Corrections."
The news organizations, including The Associated Press, filed the federal
lawsuit after the 2014 death of condemned Arizona inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood,
who was given 15 doses of a 2-drug combination before he died in what his
attorney called a botched execution.
The lawsuit asserts that the public has a First Amendment right to information
that would help determine whether executions are carried out humanely.
The trial ended after 3 witnesses testified. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow,
who will decide the case, didn't say when he would issue his ruling.
Despite McWilliams' testimony, a lawyer for the news organizations said the
state didn't prove that drug suppliers were refusing to do business with
Arizona. Instead, attorney John Langford said suppliers don't want to be
involved with the death penalty.
"The execution of an individual is the most significant exercise of state
power, bar none," Langford said. "The public is entitled to the information
necessary to understand how that power is being exercised."
The plaintiffs say information about executions has historically been open to
the public and noted that journalists witness executions as proxies for the
general public. They argued such information helps promote public confidence in
the criminal justice system.
The state countered that the confidentiality that protects the identity of an
execution team extends to suppliers of the drugs.
Jeffrey Sparks, an attorney representing prison officials, said the public is
already given information about executions, including the types of drugs that
will be used and the qualifications for execution team members putting IV lines
in condemned inmates.
The lawsuit was filed by the AP, Arizona Republic, Guardian News & Media,
Arizona Daily Star, CBS 5 (KPHO-TV) and 12 News (KPNX-TV).
The news organizations won a partial victory last year when a judge ruled the
state must let witnesses view the entirety of an execution, including each time
drugs are administered.
Arizona currently has 118 prisoners on death row.
(source: Associated Press)
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