[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., ALA., MISS., OHIO
Feb. 13 TEXAS: Rodney Reed deserves justice Everything is bigger in Texas, including the state's death toll. It is well-known that Texas has executed hundreds more than any other state, and openly executes the mentally ill. Advocacy groups have documented the many cases of wrongful executions in Texas, as well as wrongful convictions that have been proven through exonerating DNA testing (though typically only after the exoneree has been waiting for a decade on death row). Relevant for the Black Lives Matter movement is that the Texas death penalty regime is incredibly racist - while black people are only 12 % of the state's population, they are over 40 % of the executed. This will come to a head on March 5, when Texas plans to execute an innocent black man named Rodney Reed. In 1998, Reed was convicted by an all-white Bastrop jury for the murder of Stacey Stites. Following DNA testing which found Reed's semen inside Stites, the prosecution argued that Reed had raped and murdered her. Reed (as well as many eyewitnesses) maintained that they were having a consensual affair, which was kept secret because Stites' then-fiance was police officer Jimmy Fennell - he also maintained that a black man was dating a white woman who was engaged to a white officer would be incredibly scandalous and dangerous if revealed. In 2012, the medical examiner who originally testified about the DNA came forward and challenged this link, saying that the decaying state of the semen implied it had been deposited well before the time that the prosecution alleges the crime was committed, fitting the defense's version of events. The prosecution has not offered any other evidence to link Reed to the crime. There is, however, ample evidence to link Fennell to the crime. Fennell was found to be deceptive on 2 polygraph tests when asked if he had murdered Stites and could not prove his whereabouts at the time of the crime. Stites had been found on the side of a road, dumped from a truck that belonged to Fennell. Beer cans found near Stites' body contained the DNA of Fennell's neighbor and close friend. In the medical examiner's 2012 declaration, he also stated that it appeared Stites had been sodomized by a rod-like instrument, such as a police baton. In 1995, Fennell was quoted by another officer as saying that if he caught Stites cheating, he would strangle her with a belt to avoid leaving fingerprints - this is how Stites was killed. As detailed by The Intercept, Fennell has a history of misogynistic violence, having harassed and stalked multiple ex-girlfriends and innocent women. He is currently serving a prison sentence for raping a woman while on duty and threatening to kill her if she reported him. This woman and nearly a dozen of Stites' relatives have spoken up in defense of Reed and implicated Fennell as the real killer. There is also ample evidence of New Jim Crow racism by the state: a police cover-up, inadequate defense and prosecutorial misconduct. First, the cover-up. The polygraphs that Fennell failed were in late 1996, while Reed wasn't charged due to the DNA match until April 1997. In the intervening time, Fennell was not and still has not been treated as a real suspect - his apartment (the last place Stites was seen alive) was not searched; his truck (which Stites was dumped out of) was released to and promptly sold by Fennell, meaning a third party (such as Reed's defense) could never confirm its contents or test any DNA; the crime scene and important evidence were purposefully contaminated by police investigators; the friend of Fennell's, whose DNA was found near Stites' body, was also a police officer; and the police decided to officially dismiss Fennell as a suspect, stating that it would be logistically impossible for Fennell to have committed the crime, even though this depended on the baseless assumption that Fennell acted alone. Next, Reed's defense was clearly inadequate - the court-appointed lawyers only called 2 of Reed's many willing witnesses and did not counter the prosecution's original medical testimony (from the examiner who later recanted his incrimination of Reed) with its own medical examiner. Finally, the immense prosecutorial misconduct amounts to a cover-up in its own right. The prosecution withheld the crime scene DNA evidence from the defense, suppressed witness testimony that Fennell and Stites were arguing loudly the day before her death, suppressed Fennell's 1995 statement about strangling Stites if she was found cheating and used racist smears against Reed to sway the all-white jury, portraying him as a criminal for whom it was inevitable that we would be here at some point. Reed???s mother, Sandra Reed, has bravely fought for her son while enduring this injustice - the courts, meanwhile, continue to reject potentially exonerating DNA testing. She reflected with The New Abolitionist about her experience,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., ALA., MISS., OHIO
Oct. 7 TEXAS: Supreme Court Rejects 4 Death Row AppealsThe U.S. Supreme Court rejects the appeals of 3 Texas inmates facing execution. The U.S. Supreme Court, without comment on Monday, rejected the appeals of three Texas men convicted of murder. Gregory RusseauM The high court refused to review the case of 44-year-old Gregory Russeau, an East Texas man condemned for the slaying of a 75-year-old auto mechanic during a robbery in Tyler more than a decade ago. Russeau was convicted and sent to death row for the fatal beating of James Syvertson at his auto repair shop. Syvertson's wallet and car were stolen. Russeau was arrested the next day in Longview in the stolen car. Russeau's initial death sentence was thrown out on appeal and he was sentenced a second time. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March rejected an appeal that argued his trial legal help was deficient and that trial prosecutors used planted evidence against him. Derrick Dewayne Charles The court then rejected the appeal of 32-year-old Derrick Dewayne Charles, a Houston man on Texas death row for the slayings of 3 people at their home 12 years ago. Last November, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments he had shoddy legal help at his trial. A Harris County jury in 2003 decided he should die for strangling his 15-year-old girlfriend, Myiesha Bennett, raping and strangling her 44-year-old mother Brenda Bennett, and fatally beating his girlfriend's 77-year-old grandfather, Obie Lee Bennett. Charles, then 20, was arrested a day after the 2002 attack at the Bennetts' Houston home. At the time, he was on parole following a burglary conviction. He confessed to the slayings. Robert Ladd The court also refused rejected the appeal of 57-year-old Robert Ladd's appeal, a Texas death row prisoner convicted of the slaying of a Tyler woman at her apartment. In April, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had turned down his appeal that he's mentally impaired and ineligible for execution. Ladd was convicted of killing 38-year-old Vicki Ann Garner in 1996. She'd been beaten with a hammer and her body, bound at the legs and wrists, was set on fire. At the time, Ladd was on parole after serving 13 years in prison for pleading guilty to 3 other slayings in Dallas. In 2003, he received a reprieve from the 5th Circuit about 9 hours before his scheduled execution. Scott Louis Panetti The highest court refused to consider an appeal from 56-year-old Scott Louis Panetti, convicted of fatally shooting his in-laws at their Fredericksburg home more than 20 years ago in front of his estranged wife and young children. Attorneys contend that Panetti is so delusional he can't understand why he was convicted and condemned. A year ago, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with state lawyers and rejected arguments that Panetti is incompetent to be executed. Panetti's attorneys then took their case to the Supreme Court. Panetti has a history of mental problems and his case has made multiple trips through the courts. He was convicted of killing in-laws Joe and Amanda Alvarado. (source: nbcdfw.com) Supreme Court rejects appeal The family of a Mount Pleasant woman who was brutally raped and murdered 18 years ago can finally look forward to her killer receiving the death penalty. Vicki Ann Garner, a member of the Mount Pleasant High School class of 1977, was killed on Sept. 25, 1996 in Tyler. The convicted killer, Robert Charles Ladd, was sentenced to death less than a year later, on Aug. 27, 1997. On Monday, her family received word that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied Ladd's appeal. Members of Garner's family now hope a date can be set for Ladd's long-awaited visit to the death chamber in Huntsville. Her younger sister, Teresa Wooten, said she got a call from a member of the state Attorney General's staff Monday morning. I cried. It was very emotional. It's been a long time coming, and it was like reliving the whole thing, Wooten said. As a result over the years of being driven by the need to find justice for Vicki, today she serves as the sexual assault director at the SAFE-T center here in Mount Pleasant. Wooten said the state AG's office will now contact the district attorney in Tyler to set a date for Ladd's execution. On September 25, 1996, Vicki Ann Garner was found dead in her home. She had been raped and strangled to death. In addition, her home was robbed and then set on fire. A police investigation quickly connected Ladd to Garner's murder. Ladd's DNA was found on Garner, his hand print was found in Garner's kitchen, and Ladd had sold a TV set that had been taken from Garner's residence in exchange for crack cocaine. Soon after, Ladd was indicted for capital murder, because the murder occurred during the commission of burglary, robbery, sexual assault, and arson. On August 23, 1997, a Texas state
