June 16 MARYLAND: Supreme Court lifts stay of Oken's execution---Decision clears way for convicted murderer to be put to death by lethal injection this week; Defense awaits Ehrlich's response to petition for clemency The Supreme Court has lifted a stay of execution for Steven Oken, apparently clearing the way for the convicted killer to be put to death by lethal injection this week. At 7:35 p.m., the full court granted the state's application to lift the stay, which had been granted yesterday by a federal court and upheld earlier today by a federal appeals court. The Supreme Court did not say how each justice voted, but 3 justices -- John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer -- went on record opposing the majority's action. The high court also denied a petition in which Oken claimed that the way Maryland performs lethal injection executions is unconstitutional. Defense lawyers have questioned whether a barbiturate that was to be the first of three drugs administered to Oken would keep him from feeling pain, inflicting cruel and unusual punishment. "We're obviously disappointed," Fred Warren Bennett, one of Oken's lawyers, said tonight. "We'll communicate with our client and see what has to be done. There will be no further action taken today. We'll review the matter and take what action we deem appropriate tomorrow." Bennett said he had previously filed a petition for clemency with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. "We will seek action from the governor, we will seek a partial commutation. We will seek that he spare the life of our client." Shareese Deleaver, a spokeswoman for Ehrlich said, "The governor isn't going to make any decision tonight. The governor has said that each appeal for clemency will receive his full attention, which this case will receive. "The governor will have conversations with his legal counsel and his senior staff, including the lieutenant governor [Michael Steele], who is traveling abroad in Africa, and will make his decision shortly. "He recognizes the separation of powers, and once all legal options are exhausted, he will make a decision." A spokesman for the state attorney general's office declined to comment. The death warrant expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. A judge would have to approve another warrant for the execution to happen after that. There is a minimum 4-week waiting period between the time an execution warrant is signed and the day it can take place. Oken was sentenced to death in 1991 for the 1987 rape and murder of Dawn Marie Garvin, a White Marsh newlywed. He also was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering two other women: Patricia Antoinette Hirt, his wife's older sister, and Lori Elizabeth Ward, a motel clerk in Maine. Outside the prison where Oken would be executed, Fred J. Romano, Garvin's father, marched with about a dozen death penalty supporters. He received word about 7:55 p.m. that the high court had vacated the stay. "I was elated," Romano said, adding that cheers broke out among the crowd as he shouted out the news. "This is a win for us. This is a good win. "Today was stressful. We just kept waiting and waiting. We were in a really down mood today." Michael Stark of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a group of about 30 people who oppose the death penalty who were also at the prison, "This is a tragedy," comparing it to the murders Oken committed. "The state of Maryland is about to murder someone in our name." Oken's fate has been uncertain amid the flurry of appeals this week. This morning, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Va., let stand a federal judge's ruling that imposed an indefinite stay of execution. That judge, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte, also ordered the state to turn over documents about its lethal injection procedures and set a hearing in his court for July 19. Messitte called for the July 19 hearing to determine whether Maryland's execution procedures violate the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." Monday, Oken's attorneys had argued before Messitte in his Greenbelt courtroom that there had been a leak in the intravenous line that delivered the anesthetic and deadly chemicals during the execution of Tyrone X. Gilliam in 1998, meaning he may have suffered before death. Lawyers for the state did not deny that a leak had occurred, but asserted that the procedure did not constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services issued a statement yesterday, saying that the Gilliam execution was "performed humanely and painlessly." Oken asked the state last month for its execution protocol, according to his attorneys. Messitte wrote that he found it "troubling" that the state did not quickly provide a complete copy of its procedures, which had been recently amended. "Fundamental fairness, if not due process, requires that the execution protocol that will regulate an inmate's death be forwarded to him in prompt and timely fashion," the judge wrote. Messitte wrote that he is "deeply solicitous of the family and friends of Dawn Marie Garvin and acknowledges their desire, after so many years, to see closure in this case. "Nevertheless it is the court's duty ... to see that the guarantees of the U.S. Constitution are respected, even in the case of someone who may be despised by the entire polity." By early yesterday afternoon, the Maryland attorney general's office had sent its written argument to the Richmond court via fax. Oken's team quickly filed its response. At day's end, the Virginia judges had the documents before them. Both sides had already prepared appeals to the Supreme Court in response to the 4th Circuit's decision today. 3 inmates have been put to death by lethal injection since the state resumed executions a decade ago. Death penalty opponents who gathered near the Supermax prison last night said they were pleased with the federal judge's ruling. "What's the problem with waiting until July 19?" asked Max Obuszewski, a peace activist who lives in Charles Village. "What's the rush to kill the guy?" Earlier yesterday at East Madison Street and Greenmount Avenue, Garvin's friends and relatives gathered with signs that urged the state to "kill the beast" and noted that the women Oken murdered "weren't given any appeals." Garvin's brother said yesterday his family has grown accustomed to the delays and appeals that have accompanied Oken's capital-murder conviction. "If the criminal justice system was there for justice, Steven Oken would have been dead 17 years ago," said Fred A. Romano, wearing a sign with photographs of his sister and the 2 other women Oken killed. Romano said he hopes the state legislature will pass a law limiting the number of appeals death row inmates can file. And he said he and his family remain optimistic that Oken will be put to death. "I'm only sorry he will fall asleep peacefully," he said. "Call it vengeance. Call it revenge. Call it what you will. I call it justice." (source: Baltimore Sun) ******************** How Much Do Executions Cost In Maryland?----Average Maryland Death Penalty Case Costs State $2.3 Million How much does it cost to execute a person in Maryland? It may be more than you think. According to statistics from the Maryland Department of Legislative Services, the average death penalty case costs taxpayers $2.3 million. The cost of keeping a person in jail for 40 years costs about $768,000. In comparison, The Palm Beach Post found that between 1976 and 2000, the state of Florida spent about $24 million for each of its 44 executions. Those numbers take into account the small number of prisoners on death row who are actually executed as well as the time and effort spent on capital defendants who were tried but convicted of a lesser murder charge, and those whose death sentences were overturned on appeal. Another interesting statistic from the Death Penalty Information Center: Only about 10 % of death sentences nationwide actually end in execution. (source: The BALChannel) SOUTH CAROLINA----new execution date State sets date for Wise execution A July 9 execution date has been set for a man who killed 4 co-workers and injured 3 others during a 1997 shooting rampage at an Aiken County plant. Arthur Hastings Wise, 50, will be the 5th person executed this year in South Carolina. Bob Petersen, the deputy general counsel for the South Carolina Department of Corrections, confirmed Wednesday that the date had been set for Wise's execution. Wise would be executed by lethal injection unless he chose to be electrocuted, attorney general's spokesman Mark Plowden said. Wise was sentenced to death in Beaufort County in February 2001. His trial was held in Beaufort County because of pretrial publicity in Aiken. Prosecutors said Wise killed four co-workers and injured 3 others during a Sept. 15, 1997, attack at the R.E. Phelon lawnmower ignition plant. Wise, who had been fired from his job as an assembly line worker 6 weeks earlier, picked out his targets and looked for people who had been given jobs he wanted or who had helped to get him fired, prosecutors said. He killed Sheryl Wood, 27; David Moore, 30; Leonard Filyaw, 31; and Charles Griffeth, 50. Wise told his lawyers not to call any defense witnesses during the trial and subsequent penalty phase. They had planned to call 13 relatives, friends or church members to plead for Wise's life. Prosecutor Barbara Morgan said Wise should die because he shattered the lives of every person working in the plant. "They could never return to a place where bullet holes will remind them of the loss of their friends forever," Morgan said. In an attempt to save Wise's life, lawyer Carl B. Grant told jurors, "In the midst of this misery, you have a chance to choose mercy. You can say there has been enough dying in this case." But it was Wise's own decision to keep family members off the stand and that hurt his case, Grant said. "I've never had a client tie my hands behind my back, then tell me to go out and save his life." Judge Thomas W. Cooper Jr. ruled that as long as Wise was competent, he could conduct his defense as he wished. Wise still has options for appeals, Plowden said, but he would have to initiate those actions. No automatic appeals remain. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Pottstown man is portrayed as just a witness to killings Matthew Eshbach's attorney pointed the finger at his accomplice. The trial began yesterday. The Pottstown man facing the death penalty is sticking to the statement he gave police: He merely witnessed the strangulation deaths of a man and his wife, who was 22 weeks pregnant. In his opening statement to the jury, defense attorney Christian J. Hoey acknowledged that his client, Matthew Eshbach, "was present" when Kerry and Katherine Schadler were executed on Nov. 22, 2002. But Hoey said that Eshbach, who had never met the Schadlers, had no motive to harm them. "This case is strictly and unequivocably about one person: Michael McGrory," said Hoey, calling Eshbach's co-defendant a "remorseless sociopath" and a "cold-blooded killer." Hoey has good reason to discredit McGrory, 30, of Pottstown, who took a deal with prosecutors to spare himself the death penalty. His life sentence is contingent upon his truthful testimony at Eshbach's trial. Chester County District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll, who is prosecuting Eshbach, promised a string of witnesses as "disturbing" as the facts of the crime. Even unlikable, convicted felons can corroborate evidence, Carroll said. Both sides agreed on several key issues: McGrory organized a gang of young men to conduct a string of armed robberies that extended from Montgomery and Chester Counties to Somerset, Butler and Erie Counties. During the fall of 2002, the heists became increasingly violent. One of McGrory's minions, Joshua Sheeler, 22, bragged about the holdups at his "other job" at Rockland Immunochemicals, a Boyertown-area pharmaceutical firm that also employed Kerry Schadler. Eshbach, who played no role in the robberies, was socializing with McGrory at the Touch of Glass bar on Nov. 21, 2002, when McGrory learned that police were turning up the heat on the robbery investigation and that Kerry Schadler might have tipped them off. Hoey argued that Eshbach accompanied McGrory to the Schadlers' Pottstown apartment in an effort to calm him down. Carroll said that Eshbach insisted on going along because he wanted to help his best friend, McGrory, as well as his nephew, Travis Drumheller, one of McGrory's robbery cohorts. Police said McGrory and Eshbach bullied the Schadlers at their apartment, forced them at knifepoint into McGrory's car, killed them in the vicinity of St. Peter's Village, and dumped the bodies in Towpath Park in East Coventry Township. The attorneys also dispute Eshbach's level of participation in Katherine Schadler's death. Hoey suggested that the prosecution witnesses, who will include McGrory and Eshbach's former cellmate, Robert Lecates, have no credibility. "The only two people who put Matthew Eshbach's hands on anyone in this case are Michael McGrory and Robert Lecates," Hoey said. Carroll said McGrory started to strangle Katherine Schadler, who was putting up a valiant fight, and then stopped, at which point Eshbach took over. "The finger imprints deep into her throat... were made by Matthew Eshbach," Carroll said. In addition to law-enforcement testimony, Carroll offered several witnesses yesterday with lengthy rap sheets, including Sheeler and Ian Taylor, a fellow armed robber. McGrory is expected to take the stand today. (source: Philadelphia Inquirer) NEW JERSEY: Camden man charged in Pennsauken businessman's murder A Camden man was charged yesterday with felony murder in the slaying of a Pennsauken businessman whose decomposed body was found last week near the Admiral Wilson Boulevard. Miguel Serrano, 21, of the Pyne Poynt section, was ordered held after failing to post $650,000 bail set by state Superior Court Judge Linda G. Baxter. Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said Serrano had received $5,000 for his role in luring Thong Minh Huyhn on June 3 to a Camden house where he was robbed of $17,000. Investigators were searching for at least 1 other participant in the killing. Sarubbi said Serrano, an unemployed father of a 1-year-old, spent his proceeds on a new TV, an all-terrain vehicle and clothing. Investigators have recovered a little more than $1,000. "It was premeditated and well thought out," Sarubbi said after Serrano's arraignment. "They knew Huyhn would have a substantial amount of money on him. "First they took his money. Then they took his dignity. Then they took his life." Serrano was arrested at his home Monday afternoon on a bench warrant for a traffic violation, Sarubbi said. It was unclear how Serrano would have become acquainted with Huyhn, 20, who ran a temporary-employment agency in Pennsauken. Serrano told investigators that "he had been conspiring with several others for a period of time to rob Huyhn," according to a statement of probable cause presented during the arraignment. Huyhn was carrying $17,000 after cashing checks at the Peronace Financial Exchange in North Philadelphia. Serrano allegedly was at the Camden house about 3 p.m. when at least 2 men brought in Huyhn. Serrano said that he was supposed to assist in the robbery, but that his participation soon became unnecessary, according to the statement. Huyhn was overpowered, hog-tied, and gagged with duct tape. An unnamed man strangled Huyhn, then turned Huyhn's pockets inside-out, Sarubbi said. After killing Huyhn, the men wrapped his body in a sheet. Serrano allegedly helped place Huyhn's body in a vehicle and later dumped the corpse in an overgrown lot. Sarubbi said that he would consider seeking the death penalty, and that additional charges likely would be filed. (source: Philadelphia Inquirer) CALIFORNIA: Jury deadlocks on bank robbery death penalty case A San Mateo County jury deadlocked Wednesday in the case of a bank robber who has already pleaded guilty to murder and has repeatedly asked to be put to death. The jury split 9-3 in favor of the death penalty after 10 days of deliberations in the case of Seti Scanlan. Scanlan has already admitted to being the ringleader of a bank robbery crew whose exploits included the 2002 robbery of a Burlingame bank during which Scanlan admittedly shot and killed Alice Martel, the bank manager. Scanlan has also confessed to 10 armed robberies of gas stations, convenience stores and restaurants stretching from Mountain View to Pacifica. Prosecutors haven't decided whether to retry the case. They're scheduled to make that decision by June 28. If they don't retry the case, Scanlan would automatically receive life in prison. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Attorney General's office asks for death penalty stay to be dissolved The state Attorney General's office filed a motion Wednesday to dissolve a stay of execution of Sammy Perkins. Perkins, 50, had been scheduled to be executed May 21 for the 1992 death of Lashenna "Jo Jo" Moore. On May 11, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle ordered a stay while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a case that challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection for some inmates. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in late May that the case of an Alabama man who contended the punishment would be unfairly cruel for him could go forward. Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper, then said that the state would resume efforts to carry out lethal injections. Wednesday's motion, filed in U.S. District Court, also asks for an expedited hearing regarding the motion. Perkins was 1 of 4 death-row inmates who filed a petition in January seeking to prevent the state from carrying out or scheduling their executions, saying lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Authorities say Perkins sexually assaulted Lashenna, who was his girlfriend's granddaughter, and smothered her with a pillow. He was sent to death row the following year. (source: Associated Press) NEW YORK: Senate passes bill stemming from Cahill death penalty case A bill approved by the state Senate Wednesday would make killers like the one who entered a Syracuse hospital room to poison his wife eligible for the death penalty. The legislation spells out that, under the state capital punishment law, 1st- or 2nd-degree burglary is committed when someone trespasses with the intention of committing a crime. Though it may seem like a bit of legal hairsplitting, this definition may have prevented the state's highest court from throwing out the death sentence against James Cahill III in November 2003. Then, the Court of Appeals ruled 4-2 that Cahill's case lacked the aggravating factors required to elevate charges against him to a capital crime. The court said a burglary charge could not be sustained because, although Cahill entered his wife Jill's hospital room in 1998 with the intent of poisoning her with potassium cyanide, he did not steal anything. Cahill's wife was hospitalized several months earlier, when he beat her severely with a baseball bat. "What the court determined is that breaking and entering and trespassing in a hospital ... is not a crime," said Syracuse Republican state Sen. John DeFrancisco. "I believe it was a crime." DeFrancisco said the legislation will force judges to read the statute "in the common, ordinary sense" of what constitutes burglary. He said the change cannot affect the Cahill case. Cahill, 43, was sentenced again in January to 37 1/2 years to life. He will be eligible for a parole hearing in 34 years. State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, said the bill was an attempt to expand the death penalty. He opposes capital punishment and favors a moratorium on death penalty cases in the state. Republican Sen. Dale Volker, the chief sponsor of the 1995 death penalty statute, blasted the Court of Appeals from the floor of the Senate for its ruling in the Cahill case. Based on that decision, and others the Republican Senate has objected to in recent years, Volker said he would vote against the nomination of Chief Judge Judith Kaye if given the opportunity. According to Volker, the legislation "says to the judges who said, 'We are more capable of judging a person's intentions and looking into the issue of how a crime is determined than jurors are.' It's an outrageous case." "The Court of Appeals, to a certain extent, has lost its way," Volker added. "Our Court of Appeals is playing a game with the law." There is not yet a sponsor for the bill in the Democratic Assembly. (source: Associated Press)
