[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI, USA
October 1 MISSOURIexecution Former prosecutor says Russell Bucklew's death was a 'stark contrast' to that of his victim The State of Missouri executed Russell Bucklew on Tuesday, 23 years after violent episodes left a man dead. Bucklew was declared dead at 6:23 p.m. at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, after authorities administered a lethal dose of pentobarbital. The Associated Press reported no outward signs of distress as he died and said Bucklew’s attorneys, Cheryl Pilate and Jeremy Weis, said Bucklew was remorseful for his crimes. Former Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney H. Morley Swingle, who tried the case, said Bucklew did not appear in any pain. “His death was gentle and painless. He just closed his eyes and went to sleep,” he said in a cellphone interview. “That is in stark contrast to the violent, brutal death he inflicted on Michael Sanders.” In 1996, Bucklew shot and killed Michael Sanders, who at the time was living with Bucklew’s ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Pruitt Ray. He shot Sanders in front of Ray, her two daughters and Sanders’ two sons. Bucklew abducted Pruitt, taking her to a remote area and raping her. He fled to St. Louis, getting into a gunfight with a law enforcement officer. After being taken into custody, he escaped from jail and hid in the home of Ray’s mother, who he beat with a hammer. Swingle did not mince words when he contrasted Bucklew’s execution with his crimes. “Michael Sanders was on the ground begging for his life as Bucklew stood over him. You couldn’t have a bigger difference between that and the peaceful death he went through tonight,” he said. Bucklew had been set for execution before, but because of a rare medical condition, cavernous hemangioma, his case bounced from court to court, ultimately landing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which stayed the execution twice before but ruled in April that Bucklew could be put to death. His attorneys had argued execution would be unconstitutional because of the blood-filled tumors in his head, neck and throat. Swingle dismissed the concerns, saying Bucklew did not die a gruesome death as some had suggested. He added the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment does not require a painless death. “But it turned out to not be a painful death,” he said. “As I watched it, I was thinking this was the final chapter in a saga that lasted 23 years.” Recently, Catholic bishops across the state and the American Civil Liberties Union lobbied on behalf of leniency for Bucklew. Gov. Mike Parson announced Tuesday morning he would not stop the execution. Russell Bucklew timeline * April 1997: A Boone County, Missouri, jury, on a change of venue, convicted Russell Bucklew of rape, kidnapping, murder, burglary and armed criminal action. He was found guilty of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Pruitt Ray, at gunpoint minutes after he shot and killed Michael H. Sanders, Ray’s new boyfriend, in March 1996 in Cape Girardeau County. * May 1997: Sentenced to death * 1998: Missouri Supreme Court upholds Bucklew’s conviction and death sentence, but execution stayed while he sought review in state and federal courts. * May 2014: The U.S. Supreme Court halted his execution within hours of the scheduled time and sent the case back to a lower federal court amid concerns about Bucklew’s medical condition. The condition, cavernous hemangioma, causes blood-filled tumors to grow in his head, neck and throat. * 2015: Attorneys for Bucklew suggest a firing squad would be a better method of carrying out the death sentence. * March 2018: U.S. Supreme Court grants second stay of execution just before lethal injection was set to begin. * April 2019: The U.S. Supreme Court rules the state could move ahead with the execution. The decision came on a 5-4 vote, with the court’s five conservative justices rejecting Bucklew’s argument subjecting him to lethal injection would violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The opinion, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, said the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment “does not guarantee a painless death.” * February 2019: Zach Sanders wants Bucklew, his father’s killer, and other Missouri death-row inmates to be allowed to donate organs for transplant and/or their bodies for science * June 2019: Missouri Supreme Court sets Oct. 1 execution date * September 2019: Missouri’s Catholic bishops and the American Civil Liberties Union ask Gov. Mike Parson to halt the scheduled execution and reduce Bucklew’s sentence to life in prison. Attorneys for Bucklew say the tracheostomy tube he relies on to breathe increases the risk of a “grotesque execution process” if he is put to death. * Oct. 1: Bucklew executed, more than 23 years after he committed the murder. Bucklew becomes the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
October 1 MISSOURIimpending execution Missouri governor denies clemency in execution case Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has denied clemency for a convicted killer hours before the man is scheduled to be put to death. Russell Bucklew has a rare medical condition that his attorneys have said could result in a gruesome execution, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday. Defense attorney Cheryl Pilate confirmed Parson denied clemency. Bucklew was convicted of killing Michael Sanders in 1996. He suffers from cavernous hemangioma. He has blood-filled tumors in his head, neck and throat. A permanent tracheostomy in his throat helps him breathe. His attorneys said in the clemency request that if one of the throat tumors bursts, Bucklew could choke to death. The U.S. Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the execution in April; Pilate didn't say if any last-minute court appeals are planned. (source: Associated Press) *** Governor won't grant clemency in Bucklew execution Man scheduled to die Tuesday night Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will not interfere with the scheduled execution of a man convicted of murder. Parson's office said he has declined to grant clemency to Russell Bucklew, who is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. Bucklew's lawyers have argued his execution would be unconstitutional because of a rare condition that could cause him severe pain during the execution. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Potosi Correctional Center in eastern Missouri. Bucklew's execution date has been moved three times but stopped over concerns about his medical condition. The condition causes blood-filled tumors to grow in his head, neck and throat. Bucklew has argued the throat tumor could burst during the execution, causing him to choke on his own blood. The United States Supreme Court ruled in April that the state could go forward with the execution. Activists are set to protest at the governor's office in the Missouri Capitol at noon Tuesday. A demonstration is also scheduled at the Boone County Courthouse at 5 p.m. A Boone County jury convicted Bucklew of first-degree murder, kidnapping and first degree burglary and recommended the death sentence, court documents show. The case out of Cape Girardeau County was heard in Columbia on a change of venue. Bucklew was accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend's presumed new boyfriend, Michael Sanders, and firing at Sanders' son, 6, before kidnapping her. After raping his ex-girlfriend, he engaged in a gunfight with authorities, during which Bucklew and a Missouri state trooper were injured, according to court documents. (source: ABC 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----MISSOURI
March 20 MISSOURIstay of execution Missouri inmate Bucklew receives reprieve before execution The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for a Missouri inmate who argued that a medical condition could result in the process causing him undue suffering. Russell Bucklew was scheduled to die by injection Tuesday evening for killing a former girlfriend’s new boyfriend during a violent rampage in 1996. In a statement, the Supreme Court said it granted the stay in the execution. But the court says that 4 justices — John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — would have allowed the execution to go ahead. It is the 2nd time that the nation’s highest court has halted the execution of Bucklew over concerns about his rare medical condition, cavernous hemangioma. The ailment causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, tumors in his head and throat and on his lip, and vein problems. His execution was stopped in 2014. Bucklew, 49, was within an hour of execution in May 2014 when the U.S. Supreme Court halted it over concerns about Bucklew’s rare medical condition, cavernous hemangioma. The ailment causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, tumors in his head and throat and on his lip, and vein problems. His attorney, Cheryl Pilate, had asked the Supreme Court to intervene, claiming Bucklew’s condition had gotten worse. The tumor on Bucklew’s lip has grown substantially since 2014 and is now the size of a grape, Pilate said. She believes the internal tumors have grown, too, and will likely rupture and bleed during the execution, potentially causing Bucklew “to choke and cough on his own blood during the lethal injection process.” Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley disagrees, writing in his filing to the Supreme Court that the growth in Bucklew’s mouth shrunk 10 percent between 2010 and 2016. The condition also compromises his veins, and Pilate said the fatal injection couldn’t be administered in a typical way through an arm vein. Hawley wrote that the lethal dose of pentobarbital could be administered through a leg or other vein instead of the arm. Pilate also has asked for clemency from Republican Gov. Eric Greitens. A spokesman for the governor declined to comment. Bucklew’s appeals have suggested that if the execution is carried out, the state should use lethal gas instead of an injection of pentobarbital. Missouri law still provides for the option of lethal gas, but the state no longer has a gas chamber and has not used the method since 1965. None of the 20 inmates executed since Missouri began using pentobarbital in 2013 have shown obvious signs of pain or suffering. Bucklew became angry when his girlfriend, Stephanie Ray, ended their relationship in 1996. Hawley said in court filings that Bucklew slashed Ray’s face with a knife, beat her and threatened to kill her. She took her children and left. Over the next 2 weeks, Bucklew stalked Ray, even as he stole a car, firearms, 2 sets of handcuffs and duct tape. He eventually found out where she was staying and broke into the southeastern Missouri trailer home of Michael Sanders, Ray’s new boyfriend, fatally shooting him. When Sanders’ 6-year-old son came out of hiding, Bucklew shot at the boy and missed. Bucklew pistol-whipped Ray, put her in handcuffs and dragged her to his car, where he raped her. Police pursued Bucklew — a chase ending in a gunfight that wounded an officer. Once in jail, Bucklew managed to escape and went to the home of Ray’s mother, where he attacked her with a hammer before he was finally captured. Some civil rights organizations have joined in asking that Bucklew be allowed to live out his life in prison. In a letter last week to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote that executing Bucklew “would be egregious, torturous, and in violation of the U.S. and international law prohibiting torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.” (source: Associated 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----MISSOURI
August 22 MISSOURI: Statement of Robert Dunham, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, on Marcellus Williams’ Stay of Execution Governor Greitens’ decision to stay Marcellus Williams’ execution is an important step in ensuring that Missouri does not execute an innocent man. The Governor did the right thing in creating a Board of Inquiry to look into Mr. Williams’ case. Executing Mr. Williams without the courts or any agency of the executive branch meaningfully considering his evidence of innocence would have been intolerable and indefensible. It is important to note, however, that Mr. Williams’ petitions for review are still pending in the U.S. Supreme Court and still present some very important issues. Irrespective of whatever the Board of Inquiry ultimately recommends, the Court should still review Williams’ case and should clearly declare that the constitution guarantees that death-row prisoners who present substantial evidence of their innocence be given a meaningful opportunity to prove it in court. ### (source: The Death Penalty Information Center (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) is a national nonprofit organization that for a quarter century has provided information and analysis on issues concerning capital punishment. DPIC prepares in-depth reports and issue analyses, conducts briefings for the media, and serves as a resource to those working on death penalty issues) ___ 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----MISSOURI
Urgent Action MULTIPLE CONCERNS AS MISSOURI EXECUTION SET Marcellus Williams, aged 48, is due to be executed in Missouri on 22 August for a 1998 murder. He maintains his innocence of the crime. An African American, he was tried before an almost all-white jury. Two of the four federal judges to review his case have concluded that he received constitutionally inadequate representation at his sentencing. Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet: * Calling on the governor to stop the execution of Marcellus Williams and to commute his death sentence; * Noting the circumstantial nature of the case, the lack of forensic or eyewitness evidence against the defendant, and the reliance on the notoriously unreliable form of evidence, jailhouse informant testimony; * Expressing concern at the prosecutor’s dismissal of African Americans during jury selection, and that the jury never heard mitigating evidence of the defendant’s background of severe abuse, poverty and mental disability Friendly reminder: If you send an email, please create your own instead of forwarding this one! Contact below official by 22 August, 2017: Office of Governor Eric Greitens PO Box 720, Jefferson City, MO 65102, USA Fax: +1 573 751 1495 Email (via website): https://governor.mo.gov/get-involved/contact-the-governors-office (Note: if you do not have an address in the US, select “outside the US” where it asks for your state, and write in “0” where it asks for your zip code) Twitter: @EricGreitens Salutation: Dear Governor ___ 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----MISSOURI----Action for Earl Forrest
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty MISSOURIimpending execution A motion has been filed to stay the execution of EarlForrest. The motion requests the Court issue a stay on grounds that the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) knowingly and deliberately violated the Sunshine Law. Additionally, there is evidence which suggests that Missouri officials violated state procedures, Missouri State Auditor’s recommendations, and federal tax laws in the manner in which they obtain lethal injection drugs from an unknown supplier. We are awaiting updates. What You Can Do * Contact Governor Nixon to urge that he stay Earl Forrest’s execution until the issues of cash payment, lack of documentation regarding the source of execution drugs, and violation of audit recommendations can sufficiently be addressed. Call 573-751-3222; write a letter, mailing it to Rm 216, State Capitol, Jefferson City MO 65101/faxing it to 573-751-1495; e-mail via www.governor.mo.gov. * Contact Attorney General Chris Koster to urge that he ensure justice by facilitating the stay. Call 573-751-3321; write: PO Box 899, Jefferson City MO 652101; e-mail www.ago.mo.gov. * Contact your Missouri Senator and Representative to urge them to ensure the establishment of transparency around the suppliers of execution drugs and the government’s use of our tax dollars. To find your legislator: http://www.senate.mo.gov/legislookup/default.aspx * Attend the execution watch May 11, 2016 Spread the word! Forward this email to a friend. Get involved in our campaign to end the death penalty! Follow us on Facebook! Support our efforts with a contribution. (source: Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty___ 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----MISSOURI
Oct. 30 MISSOURIimpending execution Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Vigil information for Tuesday, November 3, unless otherwise noted. Bonne Terre: A candlelight vigil will be held outside the prison where the execution takes place, 2727 Highway K. For more information email stlo...@madpmo.org, or call Margaret at 314-322-5159. Columbia: 5 pm to 6 pm, Boone County Courthouse, in front of the columns, corner of Walnut and 8th. For more information contact 573-449-4585. O-Fallon: Monday, November 2, 7 p.m. Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in O'Fallon. Coordinatior: Sr. Ellen Orf: email: el...@cpps-ofallon.org phone: 636-293-8253 Instructions to the Chapel: I-70 to O'Fallon K--M exit (Main St.). Turn right from the exit ramp and head north to railroad tracks; after crossing tracks, you will see the O'Fallon City Hall complex, the former convent and junior college; go past the entrance to the next right and turn in there. Jefferson City, Capitol vigil: 12 pm - 1pm. A respectful Vigil for Life outside of the Governor's office, Second Floor (Room 216) of the State Capitol Building. Jefferson City: Prayer service, 4:30 pm, in St. Peter's Chapel, Broadway St. 5- 6 pm. Vigil across from the Supreme Court Building at 207 West High Street, 4:30-5:30. For more information contact 573-301-3529. Joplin: Prayer begins at 5:30 pm. St. Peter the Apostle Church, Mass begins at 6 p.m. followed by continued prayer. Contact Fr J. Friedel for more information, at 417-623-8643. Kansas City: Watch to occur at Intersection of 39th and Troost, 4-5 pm. For more info contact 816-206-8692. Kirksville: Time and place TBD, check with Truman State University's Amnesty International chapter. Springfield: Park Central Square, 12 noon to 1 pm. For more information call Donna, 417-459-2960. St. Joseph: 4:30 pm at the intersection of Belt & Frederick. Contact Jean at 816-671-9281 for more info. St. Louis: 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. Vigil on the steps of St. Francis Xavier Church at the corner of Grand and Lindell. A group will carpool from there to reach Bonne Terre before 6 p.m.. For more information email stlo...@madpmo.org, or call Margaret at 314-322-5159. Spread the word! Forward this email to a friend. Get involved in our campaign to end the death penalty! Follow us on Facebook! Support our efforts with a contribution. (source: Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty) ___ 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----MISSOURI
EXECUTION ALERT Stop the execution of a wrongfully convicted man, Kimber Edwards To be killed by the State of Missouri on October 6, 2015 Kimber Edwards was sentenced to death for the August 22, 2000 murder of his ex-wife, Kimberly Cantrell. The actual shooter, Orthell Wilson, lied to police several times, even saying the victim was a complete stranger he’d been hired to kill. Orthell Wilson’s later admission that victim Kimberly Cantrell was actually his girlfriend is substantiated by several neighbors who witnessed the two together as a couple on multiple occasions. 1. False Testimony 2. Coerced Confession 3. Prosecutorial Misconduct I. In 2015, Orthell Wilson signed a sworn affidavit that he acted alone in killing his girlfriend Kimberly Cantrell. The couple often fought over Orthell’s drug addiction and constant need for money. It’s what their heated argument was about on August 22, 2000, the day Orthell shot Kimberly to death, unintentionally, in the heat of the moment. This truth makes sense given the re-enactment of the crime police did with Orthell Wilson at the apartment where Kimberly was murdered. On the way to the scene, Orthell grew visibly distraught; police had to pull over to calm him down. Inside the apartment, Orthell “fell to the floor upset and crying.” This behavior is not consistent with murder for hire of a total stranger. It is completely consistent with an unintended shooting of a lover. One part of Orthell’s version of events is plausible: Kimberly was startled, she screamed, Orthell panicked, and the gun went off. In the interrogation room in 2000, Orthell Wilson was panicked for a different reason – he could face a death sentence for murdering Kimberly Cantrell. Police already had their suspect - Kimberly Cantrell’s ex-husband Kimber Edwards whom they’d fingered as soon as they found Kimberly’s body. So they offered Orthell Wilson a life sentence if he handed them Kimber Edwards. So he did. Orthell Wilson told police that Kimber Edwards hired him to kill Kimberly Cantrell. But after Kimber Edwards was wrongly convicted for this murder, Orthell Wilson felt bad. He stepped forward to set the record straight, but Kimber Edwards’ attorneys did nothing in response to Orthell’s recantation. Not until 2015 has Orthell Wilson’s truth been recorded in a sworn format, an affidavit. In it, he states, “Kimber Edwards is completely innocent.” Kimber Edwards never asked Orthell to harm Kimberly Cantrell. Orthell Wilson acted alone. 2. The only other “evidence” against Kimber Edwards is his own statement to police. But that statement was also coerced. Reflexively targeting him, police took Kimber Edwards and his current wife and two small children to the station, putting the children in a separate squad car from their parents. For seven hours of interrogation, Kimber Edwards proclaimed his innocence. Then an officer put in motion the removal of Kimber’s daughter from his home on the grounds that her father was a suspect in the death of the girl’s mother. The child was placed into immediate DFS custody and taken from the station. Kimber’s current wife was also interrogated and fingerprinted. Police brought Kimber out of his interrogation room to watch his wife be photographed. Kimber Edwards finally agreed to tell the police what they wanted to hear, if they would leave his family alone. Self-incriminating statements were coerced. They are additionally unreliable because Kimber Edwards has an autistic spectrum mental disorder. It makes an individual susceptible to suggestion. In fact, to minimize victimization, many law enforcement agencies have issued guidelines and manuals to instruct personnel on care and precautions to be taken when dealing with witnesses or suspects on the spectrum. 3. Finally, Edwards suffered from prosecutorial misconduct, since all African-American jurors were deliberately excluded from his jury pool. In St. Louis County, this racially infected approach to criminal justice has been the source of public outcry. Today, even with substantial doubts about his guilt, a wrongfully convicted man, Kimber Edwards, is facing imminent execution, while the actual shooter, Orthell Wilson, has a life sentence. * Missouri is burying its mistakes, and has executed 17 men since November 2013. * The Death Penalty in Missouri is Broken. The 2012 Assessment Study said Missouri is “substantially out of compliance” with the American Bar Association guidelines, and made 94 recommendations for reform. Not one has been implemented by the State. * According to a 2013 study by the Death Penalty Information Center St. Louis County ranked #9 among jurisdictions in the nation in executions. ACTIONS NEEDED CONTACT Gov. Jay Nixon, urging him to commute his death sentence. Call 573-751-3222; write a letter-- mailing it to Rm 216, State Capitol, Jefferson City MO 65101, fax it
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news:----MISSOURI----Roderick Nunley Execution Set for September 1
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Execution Alert: Roderick Nunley Faces Lethal Injection Execution Date: September 1, 2015 Missouri plans to execute Roderick Nunley on September 1 at 6 p.m. The state charged Nunley with first-degree murder for the abduction and death of a young woman, Ann Harrison, who was waiting for a school bus in Kansas City, Missouri. Expressing genuine remorse, Roderick immediately took responsibility for his crime following his arrest. He gave the police a detailed statement, told his attorney he was guilty and accepted that he deserved punishment. He was ready to accept life in prison without the possibility of parole. Despite repeated judicial directives, a jury never heard Roderick’s social history or received mitigation evidence to evaluate the sentence appropriate to his case. A judge alone made the capital sentencing decision. Medical examiners testified that Roderick suffers from “severe personality disorder,” stemming, in part, from a “seizure disorder from numerous [childhood] head injuries.” Finally, they also indicated cocaine use rendered Roderick “acutely intoxicated” during the time in question. While the rest of the nation is moving away from the death penalty because of concerns about systemic geographic and racial arbitrariness, cost, and the impact on those with serious mental health problems and intellectual disabilities, Missouri is continuing on pace for a record number of executions this year. MADP extends its condolences to the Harrison family and all families that have lost loved ones to violence, but we firmly believe that the death penalty only continues the cycle of violence and fails to make our society safer. Actions Needed Immediately * Contact Governor Nixon to urge that he stay Mr. Nunley’s execution. Call 573-751-3222. * Contact Attorney General Chris Koster to urge that he ensure justice by facilitating the stay. Call 573-751-3321. Please join us as we gather around the state to remember victims of violence and urge the state to not commit another act of violence in their names. Missouri is planning vigils in cities across the state to raise awareness and call attention to the case of Roderick Nunley, who faces execution on Tuesday, September 1 at 6 p.m. The vigils will take place on September 1, unless otherwise noted. Bonne Terre: A candlelight vigil will be held outside the prison where the execution takes place, 2727 Highway K. For more information email stlo...@madpmo.org, or call Margaret at 314-322-5159. Columbia: 5 pm to 6 pm, Boone County Courthouse, in front of the columns, corner of Walnut and 8th. For more information contact 573-449-4585. O-Fallon: Monday, August 31, 7 p.m. Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in O'Fallon. Coordinatior: Sr. Ellen Orf: email: el...@cpps-ofallon.org phone: 636-293-8253 Instructions to the Chapel: I-70 to O'Fallon K--M exit (Main St.). Turn right from the exit ramp and head north to railroad tracks; after crossing tracks, you will see the O'Fallon City Hall complex, the former convent and junior college; go past the entrance to the next right and turn in there. Jefferson City, Capitol vigil: 12 pm - 1pm. A respectful Vigil for Life outside of the Governor's office, Second Floor (Room 216) of the State Capitol Building. Jefferson City: Prayer service, 4:30 pm, in St. Peter's Chapel, Broadway St. 5- 6 pm. Vigil across from the Supreme Court Building at 207 West High Street, 4:30-5:30. For more information contact 573-301-3529. Joplin: Prayer begins at 5:30 pm. St. Peter the Apostle Church, Mass begins at 6 p.m. followed by continued prayer. Contact Fr J. Friedel for more information, at 417-623-8643. Kansas City: Watch at Intersection of 39th and Troost, 5-6 pm. For more info contact 816-206-8692. Springfield: Park Central Square, 12 noon to 1 pm. For more information call Donna, 417-459-2960. St. Joseph: 4:30 pm at the intersection of Belt Frederick. Contact Jean at 816-671-9281 for more info. St. Louis: 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. Vigil on the steps of St. Francis Xavier Church at the corner of Grand and Lindell. A group will carpool from there to reach Bonne Terre before 6 p.m.. For more information email stlo...@madpmo.org, or call Margaret at 314-322-5159. 6320 Brookside Plaza, Suite 185 Kansas City, MO 64113 United States___ 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----MISSOURI----Updated execution alert for David Zink
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Updated alert: July 14, scheduled execution of David Zink. If you have already called Governor Nixon, many thanks. Please call again with more on why he should not be executed: Missouri plans to execute David Zink on Tuesday, July 14 for the murder of Amanda Morton. Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (MADP) condemns his wrongdoing and mourns with her loved ones over her violent passing. Killing him, however, only perpetuates a vengeful cycle of violence, suggests more death promotes healing and ignores the additional suffering the execution would cause his family members and others who care for Mr. Zink. Other issues worth considering and further meriting mercy include: Jurors were Unaware of Brain Damage from Serious Childhood Illness. As a 3-year old, David Zink contracted meningitis/encephalitis, leading to an 8-day hospitalization, according to his clemency petition to Gov. Nixon. Neuropsychologist D. Malcolm Spica, who recently evaluated him, confirmed the illness very likely led to organic brain damage as demonstrated in cognitive tests. In one he per-formed in the first percentile, meaning that 99% of subjects do better in so-called executive function-ing, including the abilities to control impulses, process complicated information and make decisions. Represented Self in Trial Due to Public Defender Neglect. Mr. Zink was to be represented by the Western Capital Division of the Missouri Public Defender System when the office was in turmoil. Requests from initial attorneys for resources were denied; continuances by attorneys delayed the trial. Unaware of office infighting, the mentally-impaired defendant became so frustrated he opted to represent himself—a request the judge honored. His public defenders chose not to acknowledge to the trial judge their inability to “successfully represent Mr. Zink” because they did not want judicial interference with managing their system, the petition notes. “Mr. Zink was sacrificed to the organizational concerns.” Model Prisoner Who Could Spend Life in Prison. Mr. Zink has had no significant conduct violations after being sent to prison and has lived nearly all his time in the Honors Dorm. The psychologist reports, “Mr. Zink is likely to continue functioning well in a highly structured environment (which).. decreases the need for complex problem-solving under pressure.” Eighteen prisoners submitted affidavits of support noting he helps keep the peace, provides a positive role model, is always respectful of guards and has shown genuine remorse for the murder. Actions Needed Immediately * Contact Governor Nixon to urge that he stay Mr. Zink’s execution. Call 573-751-3222. * Contact Attorney General Chris Koster to urge that he ensure justice by facilitating the stay. Call 573-751-3321. Vigils on Tuesday, July 14 at the following times and communities: Bonne Terre: A candlelight vigil will be held outside the prison where the execution takes place, 2727 Highway K. For more information email stlo...@madpmo.org, or call Margaret on 314-322-5159. Columbia: 5 pm to 6 pm, Boone County Courthouse, in front of the columns, corner of Walnut and 8th. For more information contact 573-449-4585. O-Fallon: Monday, July 13, 7 p.m. Sisters of the Most Precious Blood in O'Fallon.Coordinator: Sr. Ellen Orf: email: el...@cpps-ofallon.org phone: 636-293-8253. Directions to the Chapel: I-70 to O'Fallon K--M exit (Main St.). Turn right from the exit ramp and head north to railroad tracks; after crossing tracks, you will see the O'Fallon City Hall complex, the former convent and junior college; go past the entrance to the next right and turn in there. Jefferson City, Capitol vigil: 12 pm - 1pm. A respectful Vigil for Life outside of the Governor's office, Second Floor (Room 216) of the State Capitol Building. Jefferson City: Prayer service, 4:30 pm, in St. Peter's Chapel, Broadway St. 5- 6 pm. Vigil across from the Supreme Court Building at 207 West High Street, 4:30-5:30. For more information contact 573-301-3529. Joplin: Prayer begins at 5:30 pm. St. Peter the Apostle Church, Mass begins at 6 p.m. followed by continued prayer. Contact Fr J. Friedel for more information, at 417-623-8643. Kansas City: JC Nichols Fountain on the Plaza, 5-6 pm. For more info contact 816-206-8692. Springfield: Park Central Square, 12 noon to 1 pm. For more information call Donna, 417-459-2960. St. Joseph: 4pm at the intersection of Belt Frederick. Contact Jean at 816-671-9281 for more info. St. Louis: 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. Vigil on the steps of St. Francis Xavier Church at the corner of Grand and Lindell. A group will carpool from there to reach Bonne Terre before 6 p.m. For more information email stlo...@madpmo.org, or call Margaret at 314-322-5159. Spread the word! Forward this email to a friend. Get involved in our campaign to end the death
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
Feb. 10 MISSOURIimpending execution Supreme Court declines to stay Missouri execution The Supreme Court denied the stay request on Tuesday evening. The same four justices who would have granted a stay in an Oklahoma execution last month would have granted the stay, according to the order. While it would take five justices to stay an execution, only four justices have to agree to accept a case, which is why the court declined to stop that execution but agreed not long after to consider lethal injection. Earlier: An inmate who is scheduled to be executed in Missouri asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to halt his execution, arguing that the sentence should be delayed until after the justices hear a lethal injection case this spring. Walter Timothy Storey, who was convicted and sentenced to death for killing his neighbor 25 years ago, is set to be the first person executed by Missouri this year. His execution is scheduled for after midnight Wednesday. His stay request, filed Tuesday, points to the impact of the court’s decision to hear a lethal injection case. Last month, the justices said they would hear arguments over Oklahoma’s lethal injection procedures, and a short time later they agreed to postpone three upcoming executions in that state until after they issue a ruling in the case. The Oklahoma case centers on the drug midazolam, which has been used in several problematic executions in the United States. This drug is not used to carry out executions in Missouri, though it has been given to inmates before their executions. Instead, lethal injections in Missouri use the drug pentobarbital, according to a protocol that was adopted in 2013 by the state’s Department of Corrections. Storey’s request says it does not object specifically to the use of pentobarbital in the execution, but points to the fact that Missouri “plans to tell him nothing about who prepared the drug, and how the drug is prepared.” (Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster was critical of “the creeping secrecy” involved last year, though he defended the state’s practices as legal.) In addition, Missouri has used midazolam on inmates before they were executed, something first reported by St. Louis Public Radio and confirmed by Koster’s office. Storey’s request, citing these reports, says that the use of midazolam should cause the execution to be postponed, at least until the justices have ruled in the Oklahoma case. In response to the request, Missouri argued that the court’s decisions to hear the Oklahoma case and stay executions in that state are not relevant. It also argues that the Supreme Court is not going to determine that “rapid and painless executions of the type Missouri routinely carries out violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment” when it rules on the Oklahoma case. While admitting that Missouri uses midazolam or a drug like valium as “a pre-execution sedative,” the filing argues that midazolam is given as an option to inmates and is not used as a lethal chemical. The Supreme Court’s upcoming case involving lethal injections could reshape the way executions are carried out in the United States. In taking that case, the justices are also acknowledging that the lethal injection landscape has dramatically changed since they last considered the issue in 2008. States including Missouri have scrambled since then to find the drugs needed to carry out executions, switching drugs and protocols and adopting new layers of secrecy. Missouri, for example, planned to use propofol, an anesthetic, but halted an execution and switched to pentobarbital after the European Union threatened to curb exports of the drug. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent that seemed to foreshadow that the justices would hear a lethal injection case, specifically questioned “states’ increasing reliance on new and scientifically untested methods of execution.” Last week, the Supreme Court stayed an execution in Texas, a case that does not focus on lethal injections. Instead, that inmate’s attorneys argued that executing him after three decades on death row would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. (source: Washington Post)___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
Jan. 22 MISSOURIstay of impending execution Supreme Court stays execution for man who fatally stabbed former Post-Dispatch reporter The Missouri Supreme Court has issued a stay of execution for Marcellus Williams, who had been scheduled to die on Wednesday for the fatal stabbing of former Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle at her home in University City in 1998. Williams had argued that he was entitled to additional DNA testing. Although the state's high court did not say why the execution was delayed, it could provide more time for courts to consider his claim. Williams killed Gayle, 42, at her home in the gated Ames Place neighborhood on Aug. 11, 1998. Williams was burglarizing the home when Gayle, who had been taking a shower, surprised him. He stabbed her repeatedly while she fought for her life. A jury convicted Williams at a trial in 2001. He was sentenced to death by St. Louis County Circuit Judge Emmett M. O'Brien. The judge also ordered Williams to serve consecutive terms of life in prison for robbery, 30 years for burglary and 30 years each for 2 weapons violations. Before sentencing, Williams told the judge he lacked jurisdiction - that only God had that authority. Gayle was a Post-Dispatch reporter from 1981-92. She left the paper to do volunteer social work with children and the poor. (source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
June 17 MISSOURI: U.S. appeals court lifts stay of Missouri execution set for Wednesday A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday overturned a stay of execution for a Missouri murderer, clearing the way for the state to proceed with plans to lethally inject the inmate on Wednesday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated a stay of execution for John Winfield, 43, who was sentenced to die for the 1996 murders of two friends of his ex-girlfriend. U.S. District Court Judge Catherine D. Perry of St. Louis had issued the stay and a preliminary injunction on June 12 based on allegations by Winfield's attorneys that state corrections officials intimidated and threatened a prison employee who was supportive of an application by Winfield for clemency. A panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the stay on Monday, but the state appealed and received the favorable ruling after a rehearing. Winfield's attorneys are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, where they already had raised objections to the state's lethal injection practices. We are disappointed by the court's ruling but we have already filed our pleadings in the U.S. Supreme Court, and we are confident that Mr. Winfield’s stay will be reinstated, said attorney Joseph Luby.Winfield is set to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. (0501 GMT) on Wednesday. His scheduled execution comes as a spotlight is on lethal injection methods now after a botched execution in Oklahoma on April 29. Oklahoma officials called off that execution when the lethal injection process went wrong, and inmate Clayton Lockett then died of a heart attack. In Winfield’s case, his lawyers have argued in court filings that the state's secrecy about where it gets its lethal injection drugs and how they are made are also grounds for a stay. Winfield was sentenced to die in 1998 after convictions on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, and four counts of armed criminal action after he went on a rampage in September 1996, attacking an ex-girlfriend leaving her blind and disfigured, killing two of her friends, and trying to kill another. A Georgia inmate was also scheduled to die by injection on Tuesday. Marcus Wellons, 58, was sentenced to death for the 1989 rape and strangulation of his 15-year-old neighbor, India Roberts, whom he abducted as she walked to a school bus stop. (source: Reuters)___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
May 20 MISSOURIstay of impending execution Federal court stays Missouri execution hours before controversial injection; Appeals court agrees with medical evidence presented by Russell Bucklew's lawyers, who argue the risks of a botched procedure are too high The 8th US circuit court of appeals has granted a stay of execution for Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew, hours before he was to be put to death. Bucklew, 46, was scheduled to die with a lethal injection at 12.01am CT on Wednesday at a state prison in Bonne Terre, despite questions over the secrecy with which the state has shrouded its procedures and particularly the source of the drugs it intends to use to kill him. The stay is valid for 60 days. On Tuesday, Bucklew's lawyers lodged their petition with the 8th circuit court of appeals calling for a stay of execution. They argued that the inmate's rare congenital condition, known as cavernous hemangioma, had caused malformations of the veins in his face, head and throat that could easily rupture during the execution. The petition said that his medical problem, combined with the one-size-fits-all procedure enshrined in Missouri's death penalty protocol, could cause him to 'cough and choke on his own blood. His vascular abnormalities could also impair the circulation of the lethal drug - leading to a prolonged and excruciating execution. The appeals court agreed. Bucklew's unrebutted medical evidence demonstrates the requisite sufficient likelihood of unnecessary pain and suffering beyond the constitutionally permissible amount inherent in all executions. (source: The Guardian) * Appeals Court Halts Execution of Missouri Inmate Russell Bucklew A federal appeals court has halted the execution of Missouri death row inmate Russell Bucklew hours before his scheduled lethal injection. Bucklew - who murdered a man in front of his kids, kidnapped and raped his ex-girlfriend, and shot at a cop - argued a rare birth defect would make a lethal injection excruciating, in violation of the Constitution. In a 2-1 ruling on Tuesday evening, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state had failed to show that Bucklew was wrong and put the execution on hold. The irreparable harm to Bucklew is great in comparison to the harm to the state from staying the execution, the justices wrote. On Monday, a lower court rejected Bucklew's claim that the execution would be unconstitutionally cruel because a medical condition - large masses in his head that cause hemorrhages - could prevent the drug from circulating properly and might prolong his death. The appeals court reversed that decision less than 8 hours before Missouri was set to inject Bucklew with a deadly dose of pentobarbital. If the execution had gone ahead, he would have become the first inmate executed since the bungled lethal injection of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma - a debacle that prompted the White House to order a review of state procedures. Lockett appeared to regain consciousness and struggle in pain while strapped to the gurney midway through the injection, which involved a new 3-drug protocol. Prison officials said at the time that his vein collapsed, but an investigation into what went wrong has not been completed. Lockett's death brought more attention to the controversy over state policies that keep their lethal-injection suppliers - often less-regulated compounding pharmacies - anonymous. Bucklew's challenge cited Missouri's drug secrecy but was more focused on his vascular disorder, which his lawyers argued would almost inevitably lead to a bloody, prolonged and excruciating execution. I'm worried it could be painful, Bucklew told the Associated Press from prison last week. I'm worried about being brain-dead. I understand the family (of the victim) wants closure, but we're victimizing my family here, too. The children of Bucklew's victim, Michael Sanders, had planned to be in the death chamber if the execution went forward. Sanders was killed because he opened his home to Bucklew's ex-girlfriend after she was repeatedly threatened by Bucklew. Bucklew later escaped from jail and attacked the former girlfriend's mother with a hammer. It's up to God what God does with him, Sanders' mother, Dorothy, told the Southeast Missourian newspaper. I don't forgive the guy, because I don't think I could ever do that, even though I'm supposed to. I'll just be glad when it's over with and leave the rest of it up to God and let him take care of it. She said that while her grandsons will be at the prison in Bonne Terre, she won't witness the execution. I have no interest in that, she said. ... I never asked for the death penalty anyway. All I wanted was for him just to be locked up. (source: NBC news) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
Dec. 11 MISSOURI (impending execution): Missouri still waiting word from Supreme Court on execution Hours after Allen Nicklasson, the Good Samaritan killer, was scheduled to be put to death in Missouri, the execution was still on hold Wednesday. Nicklasson had been scheduled to die just after midnight, Missourinet.com reported. The state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to lift a stay imposed Tuesday by a federal appeals court. The Missouri Supreme Court's death warrant expires at 11:59 p.m. midnight, so if the high court does not act, Nicklasson will live until the state court sets another execution date is set. Nicklasson and 2 other men were convicted of killing Richard Drummond, a businessman who offered them help when their vehicle broke down on I-70 in 1994. Dennis Skillicorn was put to death in 2009 for the killing. Tim DeGraffenreid, who was 17 in 1994, is in prison. Nicklasson has also been sentenced to life in prison in Arizona, where he and Skillicorn killed a couple who offered to help them after they got stuck in the desert. Mike O'Connell, a Public Safety spokesman, said the prison in Bonne Terre is on alert, waiting for information from the high court or the state attorney general. (source: United Press International) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
Dec. 9 MISSOURIimpending execution Missouri prepares for 2nd executions in 3 weeks After going nearly 3 years without an execution, Missouri is preparing for its 2nd in 3 weeks. Allen Nicklasson, 41, is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing Richard Drummond, a businessman from Excelsior Springs, Mo., who stopped to help when he saw a car stranded along Interstate 70 in eastern Missouri in 1994. Nicklasson and 2 others forced Drummond to drive to a secluded area, where Nicklasson killed him. One of the other men in the car, Dennis Skillicorn, was put to death in 2009. The 3rd, Tim DeGraffenreid, pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder and was spared the death penalty. The state executed racist serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin on Nov. 20. It was the 1st execution in Missouri using a single drug, pentobarbital. Nicklasson's attorney has asked the Missouri Supreme Court to intervene and will petition Gov. Jay Nixon for clemency, she said Monday. The crime happened in August 1994. Nicklasson, Skillicorn and DeGraffenreid left Kansas City to buy drugs in St. Louis. They were heading back home when their 1983 Chevrolet Caprice stalled on I-70, soon after they stole guns and money from a home near Kingdom City, about 100 miles west of St. Louis. Drummond, a technical support supervisor for ATT, saw the stranded motorists in the late afternoon and decided to help. Nicklasson put a gun to Drummond's head and ordered him to drive west. They directed him to a secluded wooded area in western Missouri, where Nicklasson shot Drummond twice in the head. His remains were found 8 days later. Nicklasson and Skillicorn stole Drummond's car and drove to Arizona. When the vehicle broke down in the desert, they approached the home of Joseph Babcock, who was shot and killed by Nicklasson after driving the pair back to their vehicle. The victim's wife, Charlene Babcock, was killed at the couple's home. Both men were convicted of the Arizona killings and sentenced to life in prison, then got the death penalty in Missouri. Nicklasson has been on death row since 1996. The group Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty plans vigils in support of Nicklasson in seven Missouri locations Tuesday night, including outside the prison in Bonne Terre where executions take place. Rita Linhardt, board chairman for Missourian for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Nicklasson suffered from abuse and mental illness. He was institutionalized and released as a young man, even as he pleaded to stay because he felt he needed more help, Linhardt said. He became homeless, got hooked on drugs, and his crimes escalated, Linhardt said. There were opportunities along the way where he could have been helped, but the state dropped the ball, Linhardt said. Nicklasson grew up with a mother who was a stripper. He declined interview requests on Monday, but in a 2009 interview with The Associated Press, he recalled his mother shooting up heroin and bringing home a series of abusive boyfriends. He said he still has scars from one who burned him. He met Skillicorn at a drug rehab center in Kansas City in 1994. Skillicorn was out of prison following a 2nd-degree murder conviction for killing a man during a robbery. The men, along with DeGraffenreid, decided to go on the drug run, leading to the fateful meeting with Drummond. Missouri previously used a 3-drug method of executions, but changed protocols after drugmakers stopped selling the lethal drugs to prisons and corrections departments. The pentobarbital used in Missouri executions comes from an undisclosed compounding pharmacy. The Missouri Department of Corrections declines to say who makes the drug, or where. * new execution date Mo. Supreme Court sets Jan. 29 execution date for man convicted of killing jewelry store owner The Missouri Supreme Court has set an execution date for a man convicted of killing a jewelry store owner more than 2 decades ago. On Monday, the state high court ordered that Herbert Smulls be executed Jan. 29. Smulls was convicted of the 1991 murder of Chesterfield jeweler Stephen Honickman. Smulls was originally sentenced to death by a St. Louis County jury in 1992. His attorney filed several appeals but the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal in April 2009. The state Supreme Court set the most recent execution date days before Missouri was scheduled to carry out another execution at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday. The execution of Joseph Franklin in November was Missouri's 1st in nearly 3 years. (source for both: Associated Press) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
Jan. 27 MISSOURI: Prosecutor: Death penalty system unfair to victims Landis Shippert goes down into his basement every day, turns on some light music and spends a few quality moments near the urn holding the ashes of his daughter. When Quintin O'Dell killed 22-year-old Alyssa Shippert in May 2011, Landis lost his youngest daughter, a well-liked young woman who soon before her death was inquiring about a mission trip to Joplin to help victims of the deadly tornado. O'Dell admitted on Thursday to hacking Shippert to death with a hatchet, and seven months later slicing another friend open with a razor so badly that her intestines fell out onto her living room floor. The second woman, who also was sexually assaulted by O'Dell, survived and was able to identify her attacker for authorities. Landis Shippert, of Platte City, thinks O'Dell should die for his crimes, but he said the prospect of spending the next several years in courtrooms listening to graphic details of his daughter's brutal slaying was too much for his family to bear. I'm a very faithful person and the Bible tells us we have to forgive, Shippert said. One day I wanted to hate him, but I just can't. His family has lost a member, too. Platte County prosecutor Eric Zahnd said he accepted O'Dell's offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence to spare the Shippert family of the continued nightmare of a capital murder trial. He said the state's death penalty process puts victims' families in a tragic dilemma. Zahnd, president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said the organization is looking for ways to streamline the system and cut out some of the appeals - especially in cases like O'Dell's in which the defendant confessed and was guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. He said a bill filed by state Sen. Joe Keaveny, a St. Louis Democrat, to address costs of death penalty cases could open the door for a broader discussion of the state's capital punishment system. Keaveny, a death penalty opponent, agreed that if his bill is approved, the results of an audit could lead to further discourse. If it's as expensive as I think it is, I would hope it sparks a much broader debate on the viability of the death penalty, Keaveny said. We need to take some of the emotion out of criminal prosecutions, and in my mind, the death penalty is strictly driven by emotion. I'm not saying some people don't deserve to die for what they do. I'm saying, who am I to kill them? O'Dell's public defender, Thomas Jacquinot, said he has handled death penalty cases for 15 years and has seen instances in which prosecutors overreached by insisting on the death penalty. But that wasn't the case this time. The prosecutor saw this as somebody who had done some very serious, graphic crimes that appeared to be perhaps the early stages of a pattern, Jacquinot said. I think it was appropriate to settle the case, but if they had filed for the death penalty, I don't think you'd consider it overreaching by any stretch. Sean O'Brien, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor who was chief public defender in Kansas City from 1985 through 1989, said Zahnd apparently doesn't remember efforts in Missouri decades ago to streamline the death penalty system. He said in the 1980s, the state experimented with egregious time limits that created chaos in the public defender system because there were not enough qualified death penalty attorneys to represent those on death row. O'Brien, who noted 3 men who were sentenced to death in Missouri later were exonerated, said Zahnd's argument also ignores the already-overwhelming caseloads being handled by the public defender system. The government spends vast resources, but a public defender has to work cases into a budget stretched too thin to begin with, assigned to lawyers whose caseloads are way too high, he said. (source: The Daily Journal) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
Nov. 23 MISSOURI: Death penalty sought for alleged child murderer Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen P. Sokoloff has gone on record saying unless circumstances of the case change, he will be asking for the death penalty in the case of the State vs. Shawn Morgan, alleged murderer of 3-year-old Breann Rodriguez of Senath, Mo. Papers have already been filed with the court in the event Sokoloff decided to seek the death penalty. I have filed a motion of aggravating circumstances which means unless circumstances change, yes, he said in answer to the question of whether he would seek the death penalty. In the most recent court appearance, Prosecuting Attorney Sokoloff represented the State of Missouri and Morgan appeared with his attorney Thomas Marshall. It was during this time that a ruling on the motions that Morgan's attorney had filed with the court earlier were heard, including a motion to continue trial. The continuance was allowed and Morgan's trial has been taken off the court docket for Dec. 10, 2012. Sokoloff noted that the motions that were filed were the Public Defender Capital Unit Packet and are filed in every case. Others sustained included: -- Defendant's motion to submit juror questionnaires. It was noted in Missouri Case Net that both parties will try to agree on questionnaires. If this cannot be done, the court will determine the questionnaires to be submitted; -- Defendant's motion to compel state to provide instructions prior to trial. The instructions are to provided 10 days before the trial begins; -- Defendant's motion to invoke rule prior to voir dire is sustained. Sokoloff explained that this means witnesses cannot be in the courtroom prior to their testimony; -- Defendant's motion to compel notice of intent to offer nonstatutory aggravators is sustained. If I intend to offer evidence that matters in sentencing that are not among the ones that are specifically listed that the jury may consider in assessing punishment, I'm supposed to give them notice of that, Sokoloff said. -- Defendant's motion in limine to exclude any testimonial statements is sustained in part. -- Any statements that are determined to be testimonial under the ruling of Crawford versus Washington is sustained. That's just basically saying courts compile the law, Sokoloff commented. -- Defendant's motion to discover arrest and conviction reports of witness is sustained. **All conviction information will be provided. Arrests concerning current pending charges shall be disclosed as well, Sokoloff said, adding, Arrest records in conjunction with cases where no charges were filed or where they were subsequently dismissed are not. When asked why the trial was removed from the court docket of Dec. 10, he explained, There's a number of additional issues that need to be taken up prior to a trial. There's a whole mariot of things. 3 year-old Rodriguez went missing from near her home on Aug. 6, 2011. A search of the area was conducted by various agencies which included the Federal Bureau of Investigation Task Force, the Dunklin County Sheriff's Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol, Kennett Police Department and the Bootheel Drug Task Force, as well as members of the community. 10 days later the child's remains were located near the floodway ditches northeast of Hornersville, Mo., approximately 8 miles southeast of her home in Senath. At this time, a date has not been set for the trial. Jurors will still be selected from Phelps County, Mo. -- Some information for this article has been taken from Missouri Case Net. (source: Dexter Daily Statesman) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI----Please Sign Our Petition
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty MADP is pleased to announce a partnership with People of Faith Against the Death Penalty. Together we have launched two petitions, one for Faith Leaders in Missouri and one for lay people of faith. PLEASE sign this and pass it on to as many people as you can. for faith leaders: www.morepeal.org for lay people of faith http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1576/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=11438 Thank you for your support. Kathleen Holmes State Coordinator MADP___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
May 25 MISSOURI: Anesthesiologist joins Missouris execution team, violating ethical guidelines Despite the medical professions ethical guidelines against it, an anesthesiologist has joined the team that will carry out executions in Missouri. The doctor's presence on the team was revealed recently in a federal court case brought by several death row inmates concerning the qualifications and training of Missouris execution team members. With all the pieces of its execution team apparently in place, the state is now ready after a hiatus of 2 years to once again execute condemned prisoners whenever the Missouri Supreme Court issues the order. The Missouri Department of Corrections will not reveal the doctor's name or specific role on the team. The doctor's identity also will not be provided to the attorneys representing the death row inmates in the federal case, although they will be given information about licensure and qualifications. Citing the ongoing litigation, attorneys for the death row inmates said they could not comment. Department of Corrections officials also declined to comment, except to say that the team's doctor and 2 nurses will perform the duties assigned to them in the DOC's lethal injection protocol. Those duties include preparing the chemicals, inserting intravenous lines, monitoring the prisoner and supervising the injection of chemicals by corrections employees. All of those actions violate the American Medical Association's policy against physician participation in executions. The American Society of Anesthesiologists has adopted the AMA's stance. It is a fundamental and unwavering principle that anesthesiologists, consistent with their ethical mandates, cannot use their art and skill to participate in an execution, the society stated in a brief it filed last year in the U.S. Supreme Court. The AMA first adopted its ethical stance in 1980. Its current policy states: A physician, as a member of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so, should not be a participant in a legally authorized execution. But neither professional group has an official policy on capital punishment in general. The AMA policy states: An individual's opinion on capital punishment is the personal moral decision of the individual. And neither group has the power to discipline a doctor who does not comply with the ethics policy. Physician participation in executions long has been controversial, with some arguing that the best way to ensure that inmates are put to death humanely is to have a highly-trained professional involved. The good news is that if the anesthesiologist is qualified such involvement should heighten the likelihood that lethal injections will be carried out humanely, said death penalty expert Deborah Denno, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law. On the other hand, the anesthesiologist who has volunteered in Missouri is violating the ethical prohibitions of his or her profession, and attorneys should be entitled to investigate why such a physician would be willing to do that. The issue drew attention to Missouri in 2006 when the surgeon who previously oversaw the state's executions testified in another court case that he was dyslexic and sometimes transposed numbers. Identified in court as John Doe I, the doctor also admitted using only half the prescribed dose of anesthesia during the state's last execution in October 2005 without notifying corrections officials. (source: Kansas City Star)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
Feb. 1 MISSOURI: Death Penalty Decisions Back in 1989, Michael Taylor kidnapped a Kansas City area girl from her own front yard. He later raped and murdered the girl. Taylor's execution was scheduled to happen 2 years ago. 90 minutes before Taylor's scheduled execution, a Court of Appeals ruled Missouri's method of execution was cruel and unusual punishment. The state of Missouri favors the death penalty, but it has been more than two years since an execution has been carried out. We don't take a position for or against the death penalty, said Larry Crawford, Missouri's Corrections Director. Most of the executions are done in three to five minutes. It's a fairly swift process. He says Missouri's method of execution is a small part of a much bigger issue. This is more about the folks that are opposed globally to the death penalty than it is actually about the process, said Crawford. It's more about whether or not we should have the execution and since they can't overturn that legislatively, they're trying to do that some way through the courts. Rep. Bill Deeken favors the death penalty but says we need to know for sure we have the right man. I'm looking at a moratorium to try to save the right person from not being put to death, said Deeken. At the request of the Catholic Church, Deeken hopes Taylor and Missouri's 44 other death row inmates are DNA tested to prove their guilt. Even though Deeken is pushing the moratorium at the Capitol, he doesn't support the cruel and unusual punishment theory. He didn't stop and think about how he killed the person before, so I don't know why we're being cruel an unusual to anybody. Maybe I'm wrong on that. I don't want to say an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but the thing of it is, that person did something drastically bad, said Deeken. Crawford points out that of the 66 inmates executed since 1989, Missouri has never executed an innocent man. He also defends criticism that Missouri's execution team is improperly trained. It's not really a medical procedure that gets lost in the debate, said Crawford. This carries out under the law. Taking a life where a medical procedure is normally to enhance or save someone's life, they're two different things. Michael Taylor's life is waiting for a decision that goes well beyond the state of Missouri. Whether you are for or against the death penalty, there are some facts to know. The Corrections Director says it costs more to execute an inmate then to keep that person in prison for life because of the high cost of the appeals process. Lawyers make more money than prison guards. One guard can watch several prisoners, but one death row inmate can use several lawyers for several years - at taxpayer's expense. Missouri and several other states are keeping an eye on a Kentucky case to see if the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the issue of cruel an unusual punishment. (source: KOMU News)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI
Friends see: http://www.doc.missouri.gov/newsreleases/pdf/NewsRelease_031307.pdf Missouri will walk the same way of Florida. no more pen pal pages after June 1st.
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----MISSOURI
URGENT ACTION APPEAL 12 October 2005 UA 269/05 Death Penalty USA/Missouri: Marlin Gray Marlin Gray(m), black, is scheduled to be executed in Missouri on 26 October. He was sentenced to death in December 1992 for his role in the rape and murders of Julie Kerry and her sister, Robin, in 1991. Julie and Robin Kerry were raped and then thrown into the Mississippi river from a bridge near St Louis on 4 April 1991. Their cousin, Thomas Cummins, was robbed and also pushed off the bridge. He survived but the two sisters drowned. Gray and three other men were tried and convicted. Two of Gray's co-accused were also sentenced to death but one had his sentence commuted in 2003 because the jury had not voted unanimously for the death penalty in his case. The third, who testified at trial that Gray had raped one of the victims and then left the bridge, was given a prison sentence in exchange for this testimony. Gray was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. The state conceded at trial that he had not been present at the time the murders took place, but maintained that Gray had been the ringleader in the crimes. In a statement to police during interrogation, Gray confessed to raping the women but said he did not participate in the killings. He maintains that his confession was extracted as a result of ill-treatment in police custody during his arrest and interrogation. Despite repeated requests during his interrogation, Gray was given access to a lawyer only after he had confessed. According to Gray's clemency petition, the prosecutor at his trial made numerous errors which violated his right to due process and ''were so egregious, that they rendered his trial fundamentally unfair.'' These included failing to disclose information to the defense that Thomas Cummins had reported to him a year and a half before the trial that during his interrogation he had also been threatened, verbally abused and physically assaulted by the same interrogating officers who had interrogated Gray, in an attempt to coerce him into implicating himself in the crimes. Thomas Cummins was subsequently paid $150,000 in damages by the St Louis Police Department. Gray's clemency petition cites a study of prosecutorial misconduct released in 2003, which found that Gray's trial prosecutor's record ''of eight reversals due to misconduct and 17 other findings that he committed prosecutorial error is extreme.'' Amnesty International opposes all executions, regardless of issues of guilt or innocence. This is a punishment that is an affront to human dignity and a part of the culture of violence rather than a solution to it. It has not been shown to have a unique deterrent effect, denies the possibility of rehabilitation and reconciliation, carries the risk of irreversible error as well as inconsistent and discriminatory application, and consumes resources that could be used to fight violent crime and assist those affected by it. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: - expressing concern that Marlin Gray is scheduled to be executed on 26 October; - expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Julie and Robin Kerry, and explaining that you are not seeking to excuse the manner of their deaths or to minimize the suffering caused; - pointing out that the state conceded at Gray's trial that he had not been present at the time the murders were committed; - expressing concern at Gray's allegations that he was ill-treated by police during interrogation, and not allowed to see a lawyer until after he had confessed; - expressing concern at allegations of improper behaviour by the prosecutor at Gray's trial; - calling on Governor Blunt to grant clemency to Marlin Gray. APPEALS TO: Matt Blunt Governor Missouri Capitol Building, Room 216 PO Box 720 Jefferson City, MO 65102-0720 Fax: 1 573 751 1588 Email: via: www.gov.mo.gov Salutation: Dear Governor Blunt PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. All appeals must arrive before 26 October. Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights. This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal. Urgent Action Network Amnesty International USA PO Box 1270 Nederland CO 80466-1270 Email: u...@aiusa.org http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/ Phone: 303 258 1170 Fax: 303 258 7881 -- END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL --
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MISSOURI-----impending execution
NCADP: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Timothy Johnston Missouri August 31, 2005 Take action at www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1129 The state of Missouri is scheduled to execute 44-year-old Timothy Johnston, a white man, on Aug. 31, 2005 for the June 30, 1989 murder of his wife Nancy. Johnston claims law enforcement officials violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures when they recovered evidence without benefit of a warrant. Johnston asserts police used this illegally seized evidence to obtain Johnston's subsequent confession and that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress both the evidence and the confession. The appeals court ruled that the evidence that convicted him was legally obtained and that the evidence illegally obtained was only circumstantial. Johnston alleges that there was prosecutorial misconduct at trial. Johnston assigned error to references the prosecutor made in closing argument to Satan. The state said, referring to Johnston, Ladies and gentlemen . there sits Satan. There sits embodiment of evil. Even though the objections were upheld and the jury was to disregard the statement there is a high likelihood that the jurors would not be able to forget this statement. The trial court refused to uphold the objection when the prosecutor said domestic violence is ten times more violent on the average than when violence happens on the streets. If this statistic was true, it was not a fact in evidence. Johnston also claimed that his defense counsel failed to investigate and present mental health evidence of a psychiatrist's apparent finding that Johnston could not deliberate because of head injuries, alcohol dependence and either organic or personality disorder. Johnston claimed his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to obtain and present to certain experts' objective evidence of his alleged brain damage. He argues he should have received an MRI test to determine the existence of any brain abnormalities. The appeals court ruled that the tests given were adequate and that it was not ineffective assistance of counsel by not giving him an MRI. His final claim is that lethal injection is a violation of his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. He contends that state's chemical mixture of sodium pentothal pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride will cause him to consciously suffer an excruciating, painful and protracted death. He also argues that inadequately trained personnel with inappropriate equipment will administer the dose. Johnston is a man with a possible mental illness, his trial was surrounded by prosecutorial misconduct. It would be cruel and unusual to put this man to death. Please contact Gov. Blunt and the Missouri Board of Pardons and Paroles and ask them to spare the life of Timothy Johnston. (source: NCADP)
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- MISSOURI
death penalty news April 20, 2005 MISSOURI: Ban on execution sought by group - The supporters hope to reduce the risk of wrongful executions. Paul Hinshaw has opposed the death penalty since it was reinstated in Missouri in 1989. After years of working in the low-income housing business, Hinshaw said he has seen how the death penalty disproportionately affects people who can?t always afford good defense attorneys. ?As a businessman with a conscience, I believe in this stance,? said Hinshaw, a managing partner of Hinshaw Family Partnership. Hinshaw Family Partnership was one of 50 local businesses and organizations that called for a moratorium on executions Tuesday. Business owners, religious leaders and community activists spoke at a news conference held to show support for a resolution that calls for fairness and impartiality in capital cases. The resolution asks the Missouri General Assembly to ensure constitutional due process of law and competent legal representation for defendants, and to eliminate the risk of innocent people being executed. There is more fervor behind the resolution at this time, as the state is planning the April 27 execution of Donald Jones. He would be the 63rd inmate executed in Missouri since the death penalty?s reinstatement. The moratorium resolution is sponsored by the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation, a social justice advocacy group. FOR has lobbied Missouri legislators to support HB 408 and SB 303, identical bills supporting the establishment of a death penalty commission and a moratorium on all executions until Jan. 1, 2009. The commission would be responsible for researching the adequacy of counsel and resources at trial, race issues, post-conviction procedures, forensic testing and uniformity of procedure. The committee would then make recommendations to the Governor, the General Assembly and the Missouri Supreme Court. Although a house hearing has yet to be scheduled, a date will be set before the end of the legislative session, said an aid to Rep. Sherman Parker (R-St. Charles), who sponsored the house bill. Columbia Rep. Judy Baker showed her public support of the moratorium in a letter read at Tuesday?s news conference. ?The residents of our state, not just those who are charged with murder, deserve a system that is fair and which doesn?t execute individuals who were wrongly convicted,? she said. Jeff Stack, the organizer of resolution efforts, said some local organizations were hesitant to endorse the resolution for fear of alienating patrons. Two Columbia businesses on the list of supporters said that although they endorsed the bill personally, they did not want their business to be publicly named as a supporter. Stack and Robert Schultz, a field organizer with Amnesty International, have been working in a five-city area ? Columbia, Kansas City, Springfield, St. Louis and Cape Girardeau ? this year to promote the moratorium. The resolution has received over 200 signatures across the state, Stack said, and he hopes to rouse more support in the coming months. ?I believe that every life is sacred,? he said. ?The moratorium is an instrument that can bring people together of all different perspectives.? (source: Missourian)
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- MISSOURI
death penalty news May 18, 2005 MISSOURI --- execution: Twice Convicted Killer Executed in Mo. A twice-convicted murderer who strangled a 9-year-old girl in St. Louis in 1986 was executed early Wednesday after a split vote by the U.S. Supreme Court. Vernon Brown, 51, was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center, nearly 2 1/2 hours after his execution was scheduled. The execution was delayed when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a temporary stay shortly after midnight. But on a 5-4 vote, the court later lifted that stay and denied the stay. Lawyers for Brown had argued that the drugs used in lethal injection could cause him excessive pain. They also said he was sexually and physically abused as a child, suffered a head injury and was on the drug PCP at the time of the murder. But Dianne Perkins, the aunt of murdered fourth grader Janet Perkins, said the killer had the benefit of almost two decades of life denied to her niece. He lived for years, but she only saw nine, Perkins said. Perkins and other family members did not attend Brown's execution. Brown has been convicted of first-degree murder twice, both times receiving the death penalty, though Wednesday's execution was for the killing of the child. In the other case, Brown stabbed 19-year-old Synetta Ford and strangled her with a curling iron cord in 1985. On Oct. 24, 1986, Janet was walking home from school when Brown enticed the child into his home. He locked his stepsons in their bedroom and took the girl to the basement. There, he bound her feet and a hand with a wire coat hanger and strangled her with a rope. Her body was found wrapped in trash bags in an alley behind Brown's house the next day. Perkins said Janet was fond of animals and jumping rope with her friends. She would have been 28. He took her away from her family and friends. She never had a chance to really experience life, she said. Brown becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death in Connecticut in this year, and the 64th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1989. Brown becomes the 23rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 967th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (source: AP / Washington Post Joerg Sommer)
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----MISSOURI
July 12 MISSOURI: To: Matt Blunt, Governor of Missouri Don't execute Marlin Gray! We are turning to you because we are deeply concerned about Mr. Marlin Gray, a death row inmate at Potosi Correctional Center / Mineral Point. We know that you are aware of his case, since you have just recently (March 2005) received the Application for Executive Clemency by his attorney Joanne Descher. As stated in this clemency writ, there are many unclear issues surrounding the Chain of Rocks case. The state clearly failed in Marlin Gray's case. All it established was that Marlin Gray was not present, did not tell anyone to kill, and was unaware of what others were doing (or even where they were) on an unlit bridge spanning the Mississippi River. On the night of April 4th 1991 Thomas Cummins was on the Chain of Rocks Bridge spanning the Mississippi River, with his two cousins, the sisters Julie and Robin Kerry. On that evening Julie and Robin Kerry were pushed off a bridge and drowned. On the same evening, Marlin Gray (black) was there, too. Along with Marlin on the bridge were A. Richardson (black) R. Clemons (black) and D. Winfrey (white). Allegedly the four of them robbed Cummins and the sisters, raped the sisters and then pushed the two women off the bridge and ordered Cummins to jump into the river; who then swam to shore and survived. The state was not able to prove that Marlin Gray was on the bridge when the young women were pushed off the bridge. The only witnesses connecting Marlin Gray to any crime were Daniel Winfrey, the only white defendant in this case, who had made a deal with the state; and Thomas Cummins, who was the original suspect. However, neither of them testified that Marlin Gray killed anyone, directed anyone to kill, or even knew that any killing would take place. Matter of fact, the state conceded he was not present at the time the murders were committed. The district attorney against Gray was Nels Moss. He had a record of 8 reversals due to misconduct and 17 other findings that he committed prosecutorial error. Following his testimony in the trials of Marlin Gray and the two others charged as the principal actors in the crimes, Cummins filed a civil lawsuit against the City of St. Louis and the individual police officers who interrogated him. He claimed the police had beaten him into making a statement, threatened him, and denied him his right to counsel. The defendants paid Cummins $150,000.00 in a confidential settlement to resolve that case. Marlin Gray was interrogated at the same police station by the same officers and accused the same police officers of the same kind of beating. This interrogation led to a coerced confession, in which he admitted to raping the victims, but not to any role in their murder. This coerced confession was the only time that Marlin admitted to any guilt. He filed a complaint within a day of his interrogation, in which he gave a detailed account of his beating by the same police officers later accused of interrogating and beating Thomas Cummins. In Marlin's case, however, there was no $150,000.00 cash payment. He was not even believed. It is difficult to know what really happened on the bridge that night. But it is clear, that without Marlins statement, the only evidence against Marlin Gray would have been that Cummins (who was the original suspect and gave several conflicting accounts to the police) believed Gray put him on the ground and told him this was a robbery, and Winfrey, a co-defendant with inherent credibility problems due to his plea agreement with the state, testified Gray raped one of the victims and then left the bridge. And it is clear that the police used force to get testimony from Cummins and Gray. Under these circumstances, Marlin Gray shouldn't have been convicted for first degree murder and sentenced to death. A coerced confession and testimonies from witnesses with credibility problems is certainly not enough to reach a conviction for capital murder. There are many open questions in this case that need to be properly investigated and taken into consideration before coming to an ultimate judgment of what really happened. We, the undersigned, are asking you to comply with the attorney J. Descher's Application for Executive Clemency, for contemplation of the fact that only Cummins was granted recognition of the police brutality at his interrogation and for thorough investigation of all the facts to get a coherent picture of the events of that night. Sincerely, NameCity/CountrySignature
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----MISSOURI
July 19 MISSOURI: Executed Man May Be Cleared in New Inquiry The corner of Sarah and Olive looks almost nothing as it did 25 years ago when a 19-year-old drug dealer named Quintin Moss was gunned down from a slow-moving car. The boarded-up houses have been replaced by a new townhouse development marked by sleek stone gates; the drug dealers and prostitutes are gone. And the man convicted of the killing, Larry Griffin, was executed 10 years ago. Yet the city's top prosecutor has decided to re-investigate the murder as if it just happened, out of new concerns that the wrong man may have been put to death for the crime. Prompted by questions raised in a report by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the prosecutor, Jennifer Joyce, hopes to decide once and for all whether Mr. Griffin was guilty or innocent - though she acknowledges that 25 years later it may be hard to do more than show the flaws in the earlier prosecution. Still, should Ms. Joyce, the St. Louis circuit attorney, demonstrate Mr. Griffin was not the killer, as the report and even some members of the victim's family contend, it would be the first proven execution of an innocent person, so far as death penalty advocates or opponents can recall. Though dozens of people have been exonerated while on death row - from 30 to 75 in the last two decades, depending on which side of the debate is talking - proving Mr. Griffin's innocence would hand death penalty opponents the example that they have lacked in arguing for the abolition of capital punishment. Already, Ms. Joyce's decision last week to investigate has prompted newspaper editorials to suggest that the case could be cause for a moratorium on the death penalty. Even some death penalty supporters say that her willingness to officially re-open the investigation is a remarkable, and perhaps unprecedented, development in the debate. If they prove that he was innocent, that would be the gold standard, said Joshua Marquis, the prosecutor in Clatsop County, Ore., and a frequent speaker in support of the death penalty. I'm not sure opponents of the death penalty would start prevailing, but they'd be able to say to people like me, 'What about Mr. Griffin?' Still, Mr. Marquis said, innocence is very different than saying this guy maybe didn't do it. And it is hard to sort out an absolute truth 25 years later. Unlike many cases that have resulted in exonerations, this case has no DNA evidence. The man whose testimony is now being challenged died last year. Other witnesses have changed their stories; memories are hazy. And like the debate about the death penalty itself, beliefs about what really happened here that June afternoon in 1980 are colored by race. The prosecutor has seen three exonerations since taking office in 2001. Every prosecutor conceptually has the notion that someone innocent can be convicted, Ms. Joyce said. I've seen it firsthand. Her decision to revisit the Griffin case followed the report by the NAACP group, which began investigating the case last year after people here expressed long-simmering doubts about Mr. Griffin's guilt. The report contends that 3 other men killed Mr. Moss. Mr. Moss's family joined the NAACP group in raising questions about Mr. Griffin's guilt. According to the report and interviews, Mr. Moss's siblings had warned him to get out of town in the summer of 1980; people said he was a target because he was believed to have killed Dennis Griffin, a reputed drug dealer and Larry Griffin's older brother. On June 26, Mr. Moss was at the corner of Sarah Avenue and Olive Street, a crime-infested strip known as the Stroll, when a 1968 Chevrolet Impala drove by slowly. 2 black men leaned out and shot him 13 times, killing him almost instantly. Another man, standing 75 feet away, was hit by a stray bullet but told the police he did not see the gunmen. The car was found abandoned that night with the murder weapons, as well as a traffic ticket made out to Reggie Griffin, the 19-year-old nephew of Larry Griffin. At Larry Griffin's trial a year later, the only eyewitness testimony came from Robert Fitzgerald, a career criminal from Boston and an admitted drug addict who was in St. Louis in the federal witness protection program. Mr. Fitzgerald said he and a friend had heard the shots from behind the hood of a car while replacing a battery. Mr. Fitzgerald testified that he had a good view of the gunmen and memorized the license plate. He identified Larry Griffin in a lineup of photographs at the police station and later identified the abandoned car. On June 26, 1981, exactly a year after the murder, Larry Griffin was convicted. Mr. Fitzgerald, who was then facing felony fraud charges, was cleared and released. After losing several appeals, Mr. Griffin was executed by lethal injection at age 40 in June 1995. But some doubts about Mr. Fitzgerald's testimony were raised in the appeals process. A judge who dissented from a decision that upheld
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----MISSOURI
August 1 MISSOURInew execution date Missouri Supreme Court sets Aug. 31 execution date for St. Louis man In Jefferson City, the state Supreme Court on Monday set an Aug. 31 execution date for a St. Louis man convicted of killing his wife in 1989. Timothy Johnston, 44, is one of Missouri's longest-serving death row inmates. He was convicted of kicking and beating his wife to death June 30, 1989, after a night of drinking at a south St. Louis tavern near their home. In recent appeals, Johnston has claimed that the lethal injection would violate his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- MISSOURI, OHIO, IND./U.S.
death penalty news July 14, 2004 MISSOURI: Jurors say they could consider death penalty Potential panel members for David Zink's murder trial also would consider life in prison. More than two-thirds of a second group of potential jurors for David Zink's murder trial indicated Tuesday they could consider the death penalty if he is convicted. Several of the 33-member panel assembled at the Lafayette County Courthouse for a second day of jury selection also said they could consider life in prison if punishment must be assessed. Those are the only two options facing the St. Clair County man if he is found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the July 12, 2001, death of 19-year-old Amanda Morton of Strafford. If you can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, then yes, a female panel member said when Assistant Attorney General Robert Ahsens asked if she could consider sentencing a defendant to death. You go do your job, and I'll do mine. However, a couple appeared hesitant ? a reaction that Ahsens acknowledged was understandable. The question is not whether it will be tough. The question is whether you could, said Ahsens, who is assisting the St. Clair prosecuting attorney's office in the case. This is not the kind of thing we sit and talk about with our family over a lemonade on a Sunday afternoon. Attorneys continued to ponder potential jurors late Tuesday after quizzing the panel throughout the day. Circuit Judge William Roberts said the jury trial should start in Osceola on Thursday or Friday once a jury is selected. Officials conducted jury selection in Lexington to choose people outside southwest Missouri who could not only be fair and impartial, but agree to be sequestered for the estimated 10-day trial. Attorneys narrowed down an initial group of more than 40 jurors on Monday. Jurors could be chosen from either panel. None of Tuesday's panel recognized Zink or were familiar with Morton or her family. The group also did not know any of the more than 100 names of potential witnesses, which will mostly get called from southwest Missouri. I don't think anyone north of Interstate 70 or Clinton will be testifying in this case, Roberts said. The judge reviewed some basic, undisputed facts in the 3-year-old case, emphasizing that nothing should be considered evidence until the trial begins. He told the panel that Morton was driving home around midnight, but a Strafford police officer found her vacant vehicle running on Missouri 125. Morton was found dead in St. Clair County early July 13, 2001, and Zink was arrested and accused of killing her, the judge said. Roberts also noted that Zink admitted he killed the Strafford woman, but denies he is guilty of the charges against him. An autopsy has shown that Morton died of strangulation and stabbing. While most potential jurors had no knowledge of the case, a few had either read about the case in the Kansas City Star or heard reports from relatives in the Springfield area. Attorneys asked panel members if they had relatives who were convicted, family members or friends who were law enforcement officials, and if they members of victim advocate organizations or anti-death penalty groups, among other questions. The possible jurors included a part-time Lafayette County Courthouse bailiff, a Higginsville city alderman, a former FBI employee, and a Lafayette County criminal law firm assistant. People were allowed to speak with the judge and attorneys in private if they indicated they were victims of serious crime on a questionnaire. Zink appeared in court wearing a light striped shirt and brown slacks as he had on Monday. He was uncuffed to handle documents, but a Lafayette County sheriff's deputy guarded his side throughout the proceeding. Although the defendant opted to represent himself, he allowed Kansas City public defender Thomas Jacquinot to handle jury selection questioning. Zink periodically turned to an adjacent table with public defender assistants to ask a question or request a document. Despite frequent whispers to Jacquinot and others, he spoke little during the proceeding. One prospective juror was eliminated before the panel was even brought in Tuesday. Roberts discovered the man entered a guilty plea to a felony sodomy charge in 1987 in Lafayette County. The man told the judge he received a suspended five-year prison term and probation, and indicated that any rights lost upon conviction had been restored. Jacquinot argued that disqualifying the prior felon as a potential juror would violate Zink's right to a fair trial. I concur, Zink said from the defense table with a nod. Roberts disagreed, though. He also immediately cut another panel member who said he could not sit in judgment on a jury. The good Lord is the only one who should decide, the released man said before leaving. (source: Springfield News-Leader) == OHIO: Prosecutor drops
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- MISSOURI
death penalty news October 9, 2004 MISSOURI: Mo. Case Center of Death Penalty Debate Eleven years later, the chilling imagery of her sister's murder still makes Pertie Mitchell shiver. During a burglary, two teens stretched duct tape across Shirley Crook's mouth and eyes, then muscled her into her van. An hour later, the hogtied woman was dumped off into the murky Meramec River. Bubble, bubble, witnesses later said they heard Christopher Simmons snicker as the woman's body sank. It makes your hands sweat, your stomach sick, Mitchell said, hoping for the day that Simmons is put to death. I will be there. I will watch him die. The execution is not certain, though. Using the Simmons case, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether it is constitutional to execute killers who were juveniles when the crimes were committed. The court agreed to hear the case after the Missouri Supreme Court last year struck down executions of juveniles and re-sentenced Simmons, now 28, to life in prison, deciding that such executions violate evolving standards of decency. Nineteen states allow executions of killers who were 16 or 17 at the time of the crime. Since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty, 22 people - 13 of them in Texas - have been executed for crimes committed as 16- or 17-year-olds. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1988 barred the death penalty for those 15 and younger. Simmons and his attorneys did not reply to interview requests. His advocates have said that executing people who kill as juveniles would be just as wrong as putting to death the mentally challenged, a practice outlawed by the Supreme Court in 2002. People less than 18 years old, they argue, don't have fully developed brains and are incapable of making rational decisions. Mitchell believes Simmons, who was then 17, was old enough to know right from wrong. You know how many people get married or join the service when they're 17 or 18 years old? said Mitchell, 66. This man has nothing to justify what he did. Simmons' advocates argue that he led a tough life, from the time his parents separated. Abuse by a relative, they said, included tying him as a toddler to a tree for hours to keep him from wandering while the man fished - or taking him to a bar and plying him with alcohol for the amusement of patrons. By 13, Simmons was smoking marijuana and swilling hard liquor. He dabbled with mushrooms, cocaine and LSD, and broke into cars and homes. About 2 a.m. on Sept. 9, 1993, Simmons and Charles Benjamin, then 15, found an open window at the home of Crook, a neighbor near St. Louis. Crook was sleeping alone inside; her husband Steven - like her, a trucker - was away on the road. Simmons bound her and forced her - wearing only underwear and cowboy boots - into her van. They drove 16 miles to Castlewood State Park, led her to the middle of the trestle above the Meramec and tossed her into the water. Two fishermen found the body 12 hours later. Authorities said Simmons privately boasted of killing Crook because she had seen his face. He was arrested the next day. I have a picture in my mind that she can't see, she can't speak, she can't scream out, Crook's daughter, Kimberly Hawkins, said at Simmons' trial. I can imagine the terror that she's thinking. Prosecutors called the crimes anything but impulsive. They said Simmons believed he could escape punishment because he was a juvenile. Simmons later claimed that any scheming was just stupid talk, and he denied ever believing he could get away with it because he was a minor. He was ordered condemned in 1994. Benjamin, tried separately as an adult but not eligible for the death sentence, given his age, was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Benjamin, now 26, said he hopes Simmons prevails, thinking adolescence mitigates culpability. I believe age should factor in some way - not the death penalty, Benjamin said from prison. Crook's death, he said, is not something that can be easily blocked out. These days, Mitchell talks of little successes, like paring to just one the number of antidepressants she still takes to deal with the crime that never leaves you. Can you imagine what Shirley must have been feeling, fighting for a breath of air and what her mind must have been saying to her? I think of that all the time, she said. You'd think I'd cried enough, but it never ends. (source: AP)
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----MISSOURI
Feb. 24 MISSOURI: Life After Death Row From maximum security in Potosi to a bungalow in Maplewood: The odyssey of Rabbit, a.k.a. Robert Driscoll Fueled by a fresh pack of unfiltered Camels, a penchant for one-upmanship and twenty-plus years on death row, Robert Driscoll is braving westbound I-70 on a soggy December afternoon. The temperature is dropping fast, and the Saab's old wipers yelp as they scrape across the windshield. The gray landscape speeds by, as does the occasional big rig. A fine mist of road-sullied water sprays the car's interior each time Driscoll cracks the window for a smoke, which is often. He's headed for the Callaway County Courthouse. Specifically, Driscoll aims to pay a visit to Michael Fusselman and Robert Ahsens, the two prosecutors who ten months ago lost their fight to keep him on death row. The last time they seen me, I was about an eighth of an inch from dying, Driscoll says, fumbling with the power-window switch. I thought it would be enjoyable to make my appearance -- let them know that I'm walking. He means it literally. The last time Fusselman and Ahsens saw Driscoll, he was wheelchair-bound and ailing, having spent the previous year in a prison hospital bed battling a nasty bout of hepatitis C. The disease had withered his legs to the point that when he testified, courtroom bailiffs had to pick him up and deposit him on the witness stand. Driscoll shed the wheelchair soon after his release. But showing off his regained mobility is only a pretext for his surprise visit. Driscoll has another, more fundamental reason for driving 100 miles west to see these 2 men. He has come to gloat. Upon arrival in Fulton, he's careful to place both feet firmly on the curb before hoisting himself from the car. His right foot slaps the ground as he walks -- another hep C souvenir. The rain has exhausted itself for the moment, and the country air smells freshly washed. Driscoll pauses to scrape out a final butt before entering the stone courthouse. Inside, Ahsens and Fusselman are immersed in the murder trial of a drug runner who allegedly panicked when a deal went sour. From the looks of it, he's panicking still; he doesn't so much as look up when Driscoll lumbers into the sparsely populated gallery. Young and wiry, sporting spiked hair and an oversize suit, the defendant keeps his eyes trained on the table before him. The only sign of recognition is his enormous Adam's apple, which scrapes twice along its narrow track. Ten months ago in Rolla County, Driscoll sat at a similar table as prosecutors attempted to prove, for the 3rd time, that he had stabbed a prison guard to death during a riot at Moberly Correctional Center in 1983. Twice juries had found him guilty of the murder. Twice judges had sentenced him to death. And twice higher courts had reversed the sentence. Driscoll hadn't taken the stand during his prior trials, figuring the jury would see him as anything but a sympathetic figure. But this time, faced with the choice of death by lethal injection or death by hepatitis C, he decided to take his chances. I got to thinking: 'I'm in the penitentiary for a guard killing,' he says today. 'What difference does it make if the jury knows I done did a robbery here, or done did this or done did that?' Of course, he says, there was another factor working in his favor the 3rd time around: They can't use the AB -- it can't be brought up. He's referring to the Aryan Brotherhood, one of the most powerful and vicious gangs in the U.S. prison system. Back in the '70s, when Driscoll was doing time in California, he was a loyal member who went by the nickname Rabbit. During his first 2 trials, prosecutors had played up Rabbit's AB involvement, painting him as a racist with a penchant for killing blacks and guards. It didn't endear him to the juries. But this time, thanks to some savvy defense-counsel sleight of hand, Ahsens and Fusselman were barred from bringing up testimony that linked Driscoll to the Aryan Brotherhood. Rather than the racist killer prosecutors had earlier described, the jury saw a wheezing old man in a wheelchair. And while they may not have been convinced of his innocence, they weren't convinced he was a cold-blooded killer, either. So they compromised, finding him guilty of manslaughter. Given that he'd already served twenty years in prison since the killing, Rabbit went free. Today, as the afternoon's proceedings wind down, Driscoll sits unmoving on one of the courtroom's straight-backed benches. Through his unbuttoned plaid work shirt, his gut bulges over his jeans. His pale blue eyes set off his clean-shaven cheeks, and his hair, a combed-back sweep of blond and gray, has been marshaled to order. A dental plate conceals his missing bottom teeth. Other than the small swastika tattooed into his left index finger, Robert Driscoll could be mistaken for any courthouse gadfly. Prosecutor Ahsens, who maneuvers around the courtroom with the aid of a cane,
