June 8 MARYLAND: Oken hoping appeal will delay execution Tuesday could be convicted killer Steven Oken's last chance to delay his execution by the state of Maryland. Oken was convicted of killing 3 women in 1987, 2 of them in Maryland and one in Maine. An appeals court hearing is set for Tuesday in Annapolis. Unless the court intervenes, Oken is slated to die next week for the rape and murder of Dawn Marie Garvin. Oken's lawyers allege that the state's method of execution, which uses three separate drugs, inflicts unnecessary pain and suffering. Oken was taken into custody in Freeport the day after the murder of Lori Ward, a motel clerk in Kittery. He received a life sentence for that killing. (source: Associated Press) USA: Federal inmate Hammer won't be executed today Federal inmate David Paul Hammer will not be executed today at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed Monday. "The execution is not going to occur," said spokesman Dan Dunne. Dunne said federal prosecutors decided over the weekend that they would not challenge a stay issued Thursday by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. But uncertainty over whether prosecutors would appeal had prompted prison officials to continue moving ahead with plans for the execution, said Ronald Travis, one of Hammer's attorneys. When federal officials declined Friday to reveal their plans, Travis said three of the six people assigned to witness the execution were headed to Indiana. It wasn't until Saturday -- after the witnesses had arrived -- that lawyers for Hammer learned the stay would not be challenged. Hammer, 45, an Oklahoma native, was sentenced to death after being convicted in the 1996 killing of a cellmate in a Pennsylvania penitentiary. Travis said the next step in the case involves transferring Hammer back to Pennsylvania, where he is scheduled to appear Oct. 6 in federal court. At that time, Travis said, Hammer will be asked to give a "quote unquote, final answer" on whether he wants to continue appealing the execution. Hammer has changed his mind several times about challenging the death sentence issued in 1998, most recently telling a federal judge in January that he did not want to appeal. That prompted the setting of the June 8 date for his execution, which would have been the fourth at the federal prison in Terre Haute since the federal government ended a 38-year hiatus on executions in 2001. "He said he wants to go forward with the appeal," Travis said Monday. "There is no reason to believe he will go back to his 'I want to die' mode." (source: Indianapolis Star) SOUTH DAKOTA: Death penalty deadline July 15 in Frame case Prosecutors have until July 15 to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Neil Frame, the man accused of murdering a traveling magazine saleswoman here in April. Frame, 41, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the April 21 death of Kristina Denise Moore, a 21-year-old woman from Lancaster, Calif., who went to Frame's home at 3030 Gypsey Road in Rapid Valley to sell magazines. Moore's nude body was found two days later in a field near Hermosa. Autopsy results indicated Moore suffered a blow to the head but died of asphyxiation due to strangulation. Seventh Circuit Judge Janine M. Kern set the July 15 deadline during a motions hearing Monday. If the state does not seek the death penalty, Frame would spend his life in prison if convicted. Pennington County Deputy State's Attorney Kevin Krull said prosecutors are waiting for test results from the state laboratory before making a decision on whether to seek life in prison or death for Frame. Kern ordered prosecutors to provide the defense with copies of any taped statements that Frame made to police before his arrest. Prosecutors were also ordered to turn over all statements of witnesses in the case. Frame's next court appearance is at 1:15 p.m. July 26. No trial date has been set. (source: Rapid City Journal)
