[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., OHIO, NEV.

[Rick Halperin]

May 18



ALABAMA:

Burton found guilty, avoids death penalty----Jury rejects capital murder
charge in wife's burning


A jury convicted Willie Thomas Burton Jr. on charges of universal malice
murder and 1st-degree arson Wednesday in the 2004 death of his wife,
Teresa Burton.

Tracy Wilson, Teresa Burton's daughter, wept after the jury returned its
verdict. She declined to comment but was disappointed that the jury
rejected the original capital murder charge. The one-woman, 11-man panel
opted instead for a lesser charge carrying a maximum punishment of up to
life in prison.

The prosecution had sought the death penalty on the capital murder charge.

Willie Burton, 54, of 6061 Belgrade Drive was accused of dousing his
56-year-old wife with gasoline and setting her on fire. The incident
occurred at the couple's Belgrade Drive home on March 25, 2004.

Defense attorney Alan Mann said the jury returned a fair verdict.

"We didn't ever feel it should have been charged as a capital offense, and
obviously the jury agreed," he said.

The jurors deliberated for about 8 hours Tuesday and Wednesday and
returned their verdict around lunchtime Wednesday. The trial started May
8.

Universal malice murder, a killing with extreme indifference to human
life, and 1st-degree arson are Class A felonies carrying maximum sentences
of up to life in prison.

Prosecutors Leann White and Don Rizzardi said they will seek the maximum
penalties on both charges. They said they will ask the judge to increase
the sentence to life without parole, because Burton has prior felony
convictions.

"It pales to what happened to Teresa Burton in March 2004," Rizzardi said.

2 witnesses said they saw Burton trying to get his wife out of the burning
house.

Teresa Burton died of severe burns on March 26, 2004, in the burn unit of
University Hospital in Birmingham. Before she died, she told nearly a
dozen witnesses that her husband doused her with gas and set her afire.

Prosecution witnesses testified about past domestic fights. The incidents
illustrated a pattern of domestic abuse by Burton, they said.

Burton surrendered to Huntsville police March 26, 2004. He had burns on
his hands and arms and told police that gasoline sloshed on his wife
during a struggle over a gasoline can. A lit cigarette probably ignited
the gas, he said.

Police testified that Burton's clothes were not burned. Huntsville fire
investigators testified that the flame on a cigarette would not have been
hot enough to ignite the gas.

Circuit Judge Karen Hall scheduled a sentencing hearing for June 23 at
1:30 p.m.

(source: The Huntsville Times)






OHIO:

Ohio officials spar over Clark execution


Several members of an Ohio Senate committee yesterday balked at a
Democratic member's characterization of the execution May 2 of Joseph
Clark as "botched."

So did new Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Terry
Collins, who has ordered an internal review on a "very narrow issue" in an
execution that lasted nearly an hour and a half.

"Are you concerned that this botched execution will bolster the case
defendants are making all over the country that lethal injection is cruel
and unusual punishment?" asked state Sen. Marc Dann, a Youngstown-area
Democrat, during Mr. Collins' confirmation hearing before the Senate
Judiciary Committee on Criminal Justice.

"I'm concerned with the word 'botched,'?" Mr. Collins said, noting that
arguments against the lethal injection have been around for years and are
before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The fact that we had an occurrence in a very narrow issue in an execution
in the state of Ohio, I don't think that will make a difference," he said.
"I think that will be a piece of information that people may use in their
argument about lethal injection."

"I'll take that as a yes," responded Mr. Dann, a candidate for attorney
general who says he supports enforcement of Ohio's death penalty.

Clark, 57, was executed for the 1984 shooting of David A. Manning, 23,
during a 9-day Toledo robbery rampage that also claimed the life of a
second man, Donald B. Harris, 21.

After the hearing, Sen. Tim Grendell (R., Chesterland), a committee
member, said he believed the execution was not botched.

"I thought Mr. Collins gave the explanation that they did the best they
could given the condition of the individual's vein structure, which was
the result of his drug use, not any missteps by the Department of
Corrections," he said. "To botch something, you have to have done
something wrong."

The committee went on to unanimously recommend Mr. Collins' confirmation.
The full Senate later agreed.

Mr. Collins, a 29-year veteran of the department, was in his second day in
his new job when Clark's execution, Ohio's 21st since 1999, occurred.

An execution team with medical technician training was unable to find
usable veins in both of Clark's arms through which drugs could flow. The
team ultimately decided to break with procedure and continue with just one
heparin lock in his left arm.

That vein apparently collapsed after the process began, prompting Clark to
raise his head and repeatedly protest, "It don't work." The execution team
closed the curtain, but witnesses could hear Clark's groans for several
minutes.

Incident reports filed by the team later revealed Clark had asked if he
could take something by mouth to complete the process before falling
asleep.

The team found another vein after about 30 minutes, reopened the curtain,
and proceeded with the execution.

Mr. Collins told the committee he plans to make final report by June 30 to
Gov. Bob Taft and the Senate committee. He said the review will focus only
on "the very narrow issue" of the intravenous line process.

"The information that has already been released indicates some serious
issues," said Alan Konop, the Toledo attorney retained by Clark's family.
"One of those issues is that they do not have doctors or nurses in
attendance. Even one who strongly supports the death penalty, I'm sure,
does not believe that the actual carrying out of the death penalty should
result in a slow and torturous death."

Samantha Luckett, a 37-year-old Toledo resident, said she doesn't
understand the debate.

"If it were up to me, people who murder other people would be executed in
the way they executed that person," she said. "They say he [Clark] was in
discomfort when they were trying to find a vein. So what? It's hard to
feel sorry for someone who killed another person."

(source: Toledo Blade)






NEVADA:

Inmate questioned about slayings was on death row in Ga.


A man sentenced to death for a murder in Georgia - and then paroled when
his sentence was thrown out - is being questioned by Arkansas
investigators about the deaths of three women hitchhikers in the
mid-1970s.

Roland Hamilton, 51, is now serving multiple life sentences in Nevada for
a Las Vegas sex crime.

Hamilton, whose death sentence in Georgia was tossed out by the U.S.
Supreme Court, is at Nevada's maximum-security Ely State Prison. Fort
Smith, Ark., police said last week they were questioning Hamilton, but
wouldn't name him at that time.

"We're cooperating with the (Arkansas) officials and providing them access
to the inmate," Glen Whorton, head of Nevada's prison system, said Tuesday
when asked about the case.

Hamilton got a death sentence for the 1978 fatal beating and stabbing of a
Savannah man but the nation's highest court threw out the penalty in 1985
and he was paroled for good behavior in 1993.

In 1995, Hamilton was accused of attacking and sexually assaulting a
49-year-old Las Vegas woman who was walking along a city street. He
pleaded guilty to kidnapping, battery and sexual assault with substantial
bodily harm and was sentenced to 3 life terms without possibility of
parole. Fort Smith police spokesman Sgt. Jarrard Copeland said last week
that the Nevada inmate was cooperative with investigators, providing
details about 3 women hitchhikers along Interstate 40 between 1975 and
1977. Copeland said the 3 victims may be buried in the Fort Smith area.

Copeland said investigators got a tip in early April that led to the
questioning. Police Cpl. Mike Bates said Tuesday that investigators now
are trying to contact people who may have known the victims.

The 1st victim is believed to have been Debbie Anderson, in her late teens
or early 20s. Investigators were told she was picked up along I-40 outside
Memphis, Tenn., during spring or summer 1975, possibly on her way to
northern California.

The 2nd victim is believed to have been named Cheryl. Her last name is
unknown. She was apparently picked up hitchhiking on I-40 between Oklahoma
City and Clinton, Ark., on her way to Nashville, Tenn., during spring or
summer 1976.

The 3rd victim is believed to have been Pamela Williams, in her late 20s,
who was apparently picked up along I-40 near Forrest City, Ark., around
June 1977. She may have been traveling from Columbus, Ohio, on her way to
Las Vegas.

(source: Associated Press)