Sept. 19
TEXAS----impending execution
Killer of 5 at Dallas-area car wash set to die
The Texas parole board has rejected a clemency request from a convicted killer
set to die this week for a robbery and shooting spree that left 5 people dead
at a Dallas-area car wash 12 years ago.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down the request from 40-year-old
Robert Wayne Harris on Tuesday. He still has appeals before the U.S. Supreme
Court to try to keep him from lethal injection Thursday evening in Huntsville.
Harris was condemned for the massacre at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving in
March 2000 a week after he'd been fired from his job there. He's never denied
the crime.
He also was charged but never tried for the abduction-slaying of an Irving
woman 4 months before the car wash killings.
(source: Associated Press)
OHIO----impending execution
Condemned Ohio Man To Be Prepped For Execution
A condemned Ohio man is set to be moved from the state's death row in
Chillicothe to the site of his Thursday execution in Lucasville.
State officials are expected to move Donald Palmer to death row on Wednesday,
the day before he is set to be executed by lethal injection for a crime
committed 23 years ago.
The 43-year-old was convicted of aggravated murder for fatally shooting two
strangers along a Belmont County road on May 8, 1989.
Palmer's attorney says he hadn't planned on filing any other appeals and
expected the execution to proceed.
Palmer also decided not to request mercy from the Ohio Parole Board, which can
recommend clemency for a condemned inmate to the governor.
Including Palmer, 10 Ohio inmates are scheduled for execution through March
2014.
(source: NBC News)
************************
Ohio's execution drug supply expires in 1 year
Ohio has enough of its now-off-limits execution drug to complete 7 of its 10
scheduled lethal injections, meaning that over the next year it must somehow
acquire new batches or again switch to a different drug, according to a review
of state pharmacy documents by The Associated Press.
The state's supply of pentobarbital expires next September, and the sedative's
manufacturer has agreed to prevent its sale to prisons for executions. Ohio and
other states stockpiled supplies before that went into effect.
The state plans to put a killer of 2 men to death Thursday and has executions
scheduled through March 2014. Those include three executions after the drug
expires at the end of September 2013.
Prisons agency spokeswoman JoEllen Smith told the AP on Tuesday that the
department will be working with state pharmacists and the attorney general's
office to address the issue. She declined further comment.
It's unclear what Ohio would do once the supply runs out. Prisons director Gary
Mohr testified in federal court in March that an altered version of
pentobarbital or a supply imported from overseas would not necessarily violate
the prison's execution policies. Expired batches of the drug would violate the
policies, he said.
Other states are also facing possible pentobarbital shortages, and Missouri
switched to another drug altogether earlier this year.
That drug, propofol, is perhaps best known as the drug that killed pop star
Michael Jackson in 2009. It has never been used in a U.S. execution.
The Missouri Supreme Court has declined to set execution dates for 6 condemned
killers, saying doing so is "premature" until the courts decide if Missouri's
new method is constitutional.
Arizona's supply is running low, with enough pentobarbital on hand for at least
2 more executions, Kent Cattani, the state???s chief death penalty prosecutor,
said Tuesday.
In July, Texas prison officials disclosed they have enough pentobarbital to
execute as many as 23 people. The same month, Oklahoma announced it had secured
20 new doses of pentobarbital.
Pentobarbital is a surgical sedative that is sometimes employed in assisted
suicides and is commonly used to destroy dogs and cats.
Last year, the only U.S.-licensed maker of pentobarbital sold the product to
another firm. Denmark-based Lundbeck Inc. said a distribution system meant to
keep the drug out of the hands of prisons would remain in place as Lake Forest,
Ill.-based Akorn Inc. acquired the drug.
Several states, including Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, had
switched to pentobarbital after supplies of a previous execution drug dried up.
(source: Associated Press)
************************
480-pound death row inmate can't be executed until he loses weight talk shows
According to an article on the Huffington Post website on September 18, 2012, a
death row inmate says he is too obese to be executed when scheduled.
Ronald Post, 53, who weighs at least 480 pounds, is scheduled to be executed on
January 16, 2013 for the 1983 shooting and killing of Helen Vantz, a hotel
clerk in northern Ohio.
Post has requested that his upcoming execution be delayed because of obesity.
He claims that his weight could lead to a "torturous and lingering death." And
medical experts tend to agree with him.
Post says that his weight, vein access, scar tissue and other medical problems
raise the likelihood his executioners would encounter severe problems. His
lawyers added that he's also so big that the execution gurney might not hold
him. Therefore, his lawyers have filed papers in the federal court to delay the
execution.
Papers filed included the following statement:
"Indeed, given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial
risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and
psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and
lingering death."
This is not the 1st time an inmate's weight has come up in death penalty cases
in Ohio and in other states.
Ohio executes inmates with a single dose of pentobarbital, usually injected
through the arms. Executioners have had a hard time inserting IVs into the
veins of obese inmates. Some death row inmates are too heavy to hang because of
the risk of decapitation which would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
This is a strange situation because usually people try to lose weight to live a
better life. However, Post has been encouraged to lose weight so he can be
executed.
A lot of things stand in Post's way of losing weight.
--Post's request for gastric bypass surgery has been denied.
--He's been encouraged not to walk because he's at risk for falling.
--Severe depression has contributed to his inability to limit how much he eats.
--While at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, Post used the prison's
exercise bike until it broke under his weight.
(source: The Examiner)
MISSOURI:
Hearing in Clemons case put on hold for a day
A special review of the case involving Missouri death row inmate Reginald
Clemons resumes Wednesday.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/PwFOzM ) reported that attorneys met
privately with the judge Tuesday morning before a bailiff announced the hearing
was on hold for the day. The Post-Dispatch cites unspecified legal issues as
the reason.
Clemons is expected to testify Wednesday before a specially-appointed judge who
will issue a report to the Missouri Supreme Court. Clemons' lawyer is asking
that his death sentence be commuted and that he receive a new trial, citing
allegations that police beat a rape confession out of Clemons, and other
problems.
Clemons was convicted in the 1991 murders of Julie and Robin Kerry on the old
Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis.
(source: Associated Press)
**************************
Reggie Clemons Death Penalty Case Resumes Wednesday
Reginald Clemons is expected to take the stand Wednesday after a special review
of the Missouri death row inmate???s case was delayed 1 day because of legal
issues.
Clemons, now 41, is 1 of 4 men convicted of raping 19 and 20 year old Julie and
Robin Kerry on the Chain of Rocks Bridge and then forcing them to jump to their
deaths back in 1991.
Clemons initially confessed and was convicted and sentenced to death in the
case. But Clemons has said for years his confession was beaten out of him and
that he???s innocent.
Now, the court will hear evidence in the case and claims of wrongdoing by
authorities.
(source: KTVI)
USA:
Cruel death penalty not worthy of great nation
I have opposed death penalties all of my life. Those who support it must
certainly feel it deters others from committing heinous crimes. There has been
no proof of that. In fact, counter to that thought, we know we have executed
people wrongfully, and that penalty is a rather final one. It also disgraces
us.
Recently, Arthur Bright did a survey on the use of the death penalty in
conjunction with information from Amnesty International. A review of all the
issues is on the table now because of the actions of India, which still has the
law but doesn't exercise it. Sri Lanka has the law but has not exercised it
since 1976. Even Russia has the right but has effectively outlawed the death
penalty. Belarus still does it. Latvia no longer does it. Even Cuba has ceased.
The United States, Japan and Taiwan still enjoy the privilege and exercise it.
South Korea has a moratorium. St. Kitts and Nevis are giving it up. Joining
with us are Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. Mexico and Argentina
have quit.
Where do we really belong? Talk about cruel and unusual; the death penalty is
the most cruel and the most unusual, and not worthy of a great nation like the
United States.
The climate is changing all over the world. Let's get on the bandwagon. Let's
show the world we are still a moral nation and we honor greatly the right to
life.
Karl B. Friedman ---- Birmingham
(source: Letter to the Editor, Birmingham News)
*********************
see: http://www.mvfhr.org/sites/default/files/MVFHRnlfall%2712.pdf
(source: MVFR)
NEW MEXICO:
Death penalty remains option in NM murder case
The death penalty remains an option for punishment in the case of a former
Arizona inmate accused of killing a couple in New Mexico.
John McCluskey is charged with carjacking and murder in the deaths of Gary and
Linda Haas of Tecumseh, Okla. Their remains were found with their burned-out
camping trailer on an eastern New Mexico ranch.
A federal judge this month rejected McCluskey's arguments that the death
penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. A motion to exclude the
testimony of informants and witnesses for the prosecution also was denied.
McCluskey was 1 of 3 people who authorities say escaped from a medium-security
prison near Kingman, Ariz., in July 2010 and went on a multi-state crime spree.
The Arizona Court of Appeals recently upheld McCluskey's conviction and
sentencing on escape and other state charges.
(source: Associated Press)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death row inmate files to reconsider clemency bid
Attorneys for death-row inmate Terrance Williams have filed a request for the
Board of Pardons to reconsider its rejection of his clemency bid.
3 of the board's 5 members voted on Monday to recommend that Gov. Tom Corbett
grant clemency, but a unanimous vote is required in sentences of death or life
imprisonment. Williams, who was convicted in 1986 of 1st-degree murder, is
scheduled to be executed on Oct. 3.
In their request for reconsideration, attorneys for Williams claim a
representative of the Philadelphia district attorney's office was dishonest in
his response to a question from a board member. When asked about allegations
that prosecutors withheld evidence that they agreed to help Williams's
co-defendant obtain parole in exchange for testimony, the attorneys wrote, Tom
Dolgenos, chief of the federal litigation unit at the district attorney's
office, answered that courts have heard and rejected the claim. The attorneys
wrote that they recently obtained a letter from a prosecutor to the Board of
Probation and Parole showing otherwise.
"The jury that sentenced Mr. Williams to death never heard about this
consideration that [Marc] Draper was given in return for his testimony because
the state suppressed this evidence and in fact presented false testimony to the
contrary," the request states.
In a phone interview, Mr. Dolgenos disputed the claim and said there is no
evidence of a deal between prosecutors and Draper, a co-defendant at Williams'
trial, other than an agreement, described to the jury, that he would not face
the death penalty if he testified truthfully.
"It's ridiculous," Mr. Dolgenos said. "What I told the board yesterday, that is
absolutely true."
The attorneys for Williams asked the board to consider the request before its
next scheduled hearing.
"Given that Mr. Williams is currently scheduled to be executed on October 3,
2012, and the next public hearing is not scheduled until December 12, 2012, Mr.
Williams respectfully requests that the Board give this request expedited
consideration so as not to render it moot," they wrote.
A Philadelphia judge has agreed to hear on Thursday a request for a stay of
execution based on claims that Williams was sexually abused by the man he
murdered and others.
(source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
******************
Death-row inmate gains support despite a chilling rap sheet
5 months before Terrance Williams, at age 18, murdered the man whose slaying
has landed him on Pennsylvania's death row, he murdered another man.
Between those murders, Williams pulled an armed robbery, court records show.
Before that, at age 16, Williams broke into the Mount Airy home of an elderly
couple on Christmas Eve. He woke them by pressing the muzzle of a rifle against
the woman's neck, threatened to blow her head off, fired the gun 3 times above
the couple and ransacked their home before fleeing with valuables, according to
the District Attorney's Office.
This is the chilling criminal history of the man who has supporters coming out
of the woodwork trying to save his life as his Oct. 3 execution date nears.
Williams, 46, the former quarterback of Germantown High School's public-league
championship team of 1982 and a former student at Cheyney State University, is
worthy to be saved, say his supporters, because he was allegedly raped
repeatedly, beginning at age 13, by his victim, Amos Norwood, 56.
Williams' team of federal public-defense attorneys will be in court Thursday
trying to persuade Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina to grant a stay of
execution on the grounds that a city prosecutor withheld evidence of the
alleged sex abuse during Williams' 1986 trial.
If the stay is denied, an appeal will be filed to the state Supreme Court,
defense attorney Shawn Nolan said, noting that on Tuesday a motion for
reconsideration was filed with the state Board of Pardons. The board rejected
Williams' clemency request Monday.
In the coalition that has spoken out to save Williams are Norwood's widow,
Archbishop Charles Chaput, more than 350,000 online petitioners, retired judges
and 26 child advocates.
"There can be no doubt that Terry was repeatedly and violently abused and
exploited as a child and teenager by manipulative older men," the child
advocates wrote in a letter to Gov. Corbett and the pardons board. "Terry's
acts of violence have, alas, an explanation of the worst sort: enveloped by
anger and self-hatred, Terry lashed out and killed 2 of the men who sexually
abused him and caused him so much pain."
Nolan said that Williams has attracted so much support in part because the
public is now more aware of the plight of juvenile victims of sexual abuse due
to the recent trials of Catholic priests and former Penn State assistant
football coach Jerry Sandusky.
"Those things have taught us what happens to people who are severely sexually
abused," Nolan said. "It's a rare case that cries out for mercy."
As for Williams' criminal activity in addition to the Norwood murder, Nolan
said: "Those crimes were committed when he was a juvenile. Terry was just over
18 when he murdered Mr. Norwood. He was a damaged person and he made mistakes,
but those bad decisions were a manifestation of the things that happened to
him."
In June 1984, Williams beat Norwood with a tire iron, set his body on fire,
stole his car and credit card and drove to Atlantic City with friends. He
received the death penalty for the crime.
In January 1984, Williams lured Herbert Hamilton, 50, to bed and stabbed him
repeatedly until he was dead. The 2 had been involved in a sex-for-money
relationship, according to trial testimony. Williams was convicted of
third-degree murder in that case.
Nolan alleges that Williams was 13 when a sexual - and, at times, violent -
relationship began with Norwood. This year, for the first time, the defense
began asserting that Norwood raped Williams the day before the murder.
District Attorney Seth Williams all but scoffs at that assertion. "In the 28
years since the murder of Amos Norwood, these new allegations only came to
light just a few months ago, and he is not the one making the allegations,"
Williams said in a statement. "Not once has Williams actually testified under
oath about all the abuse he allegedly suffered. . . . Instead, the allegations
have generally been offered through friends and experts who were 'told' about
the allegations."
(source: Philadelphia Daily News)
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