July 11
ALABAMA:
Jury recommends death penalty for Calhoun Co. capital murder suspect
A jury recommends the death penalty for a man convicted of killing a Calhoun
County school teacher.
It took the jury less than 3 hours to recommend that sentence for suspect
Nicholas Smith.
Smith admitted in a statement to police he cut Kevin Thompson's throat and
stabbed him to death, but claimed someone else made him do it.
Defense attorneys had hoped for a life sentence without parole, describing
Smith as a "kid who never had a chance."
"I believe it was a correct verdict, but these should not be easy decisions to
make. It obviously wasn't an easy decision to make, but I still think they did
the right thing," Calhoun County DA Brian McVeigh said.
Smith will be sentenced in September and the judge is not bound by the jury's
recommendation. 2 other suspects in the case are set to go to trial sometime
next year.
(source: WBRC news)
MISSISSIPPI:
Miss. death row inmate returns to state court with post-conviction petition
A man sentenced to death for raping and drowning a 19-year-old Long Beach woman
has asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to vacate his sentence or give him a
new trial, saying his attorneys were inadequate.
Alan Dale Walker said in court documents his attorneys were inadequate at 2
stages of his case - during the penalty phase of his trial and in the following
post-conviction proceedings.
Walker has lost 1 post-conviction round before the Mississippi high court. A
federal court also rejected his claims in 2012.
Walker said some of his arguments had not been raised in previous motions in
the state Supreme Court. Among those arguments are that his post-conviction
lawyers did challenge the ineffectiveness of his defense team at his capital
murder trial.
Walker, now 47, was convicted of kidnapping, raping and drowning Konya Edwards
on Sept. 8, 1990. She met Walker in a nightclub and an accomplice testified
Walker forced the woman into sexual acts at Crystal Lake in Harrison County.
The accomplice said he and Walker held Edwards under the water until she died.
Walker was sentenced to death in 1991. He was given consecutive sentences of 35
years for rape and 30 years for kidnapping.
The case is among dozens before the Mississippi court in its July-August term.
Oral arguments are not scheduled.
In 2003, the state high court denied Walker's petition to file a
post-conviction appeal. The court said Walker had raised no new issues that
could persuade a judge to grant him a new trial. The U.S. Supreme Court denied
a petition from Walker in 2004.
In 2009, Walker and 2 other death row inmates lost a challenge to Mississippi's
method of lethal injection. The courts found inmates waited too long to file a
lawsuit challenging the combination of drugs the state uses to put inmates to
death. The other 2 inmates have since been executed.
In 2012, U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett denied Walker's arguments,
including one that challenged the performance of his defense attorney. Walker
has asked Starrett to reconsider his ruling.
The judge has put the proceedings in his court on hold until the Mississippi
Supreme Court handles Walker's latest appeal.
(source: Associated Press)
LOUISIANA:
Sanity hearing for Richard Matthews gets delayed again
The decision on whether a man accused of walking into his former place of
employment and opening fire will be allowed to assist in his own defense will
be made at a later date.
Judge Tony Marabella was expected to hand down a ruling during a sanity hearing
for Richard Matthews, 55, but the hearing was delayed because the psychiatrist
did not show up for court.
Matthews faces 2 counts of 1st-degree murder. He is suspected of killing 2
women at the Grady Crawford Construction Company near Central 2 days before
Christmas.
Dianna Tullier, 44, of Walker and Cheryl Boykin, 55, of Denham Springs were
shot to death. A 3rd woman was also shot, but survived.
He was initially set to appear for a sanity hearing in April, but it was also
delayed. The reason for that continuance was not given.
In January, Marabella ordered 3 psychiatrists to evaluate Matthews. The
prosecution requested the evaluation. Defense attorneys objected but to no
avail.
Matthews has stated to the media several times that he actually meant to kill
his former boss.
"I went in there to kill Trey Crawford, that's who I went in there to kill,"
Matthews has said. "I was going to the back and they went to hollering. I
panicked."
He has also expressed remorse in the deadly shooting.
"I feel sorry for the family, I didn't want to do that," Matthews said as he
left the courtroom in July 2010. "If I would have gotten my unemployment,
wouldn't none of this have happened. "I'm willing to give up my life for what I
did. I know I did wrong. I just wanted my unemployment. I couldn't pay my rent.
I lost my job."
He pleaded not guilty to 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in April. Prosecutors
said they will seek the death penalty if Matthews is convicted of 1st-degree
murder. Louisiana law does not allow him to plead guilty to 1st-degree murder
with the death penalty on the table.
"It wasn't worth it. I took them people's lives. I'm going to give my life up
for it. I'm going to die for it. I don't mind dying for it," he added.
The day he was arrested he did not try to deny the charges, even giving an
explanation why the shooting happened.
"I got fired with 2 more guys. 3 of us got fired, 2 of them got their
unemployment. I didn't get my unemployment. I don't understand that. We all got
fired the same day. That's all I wanted was my unemployment," he said.
He pleaded not guilty to 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in April 2010.
Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty if Matthews is convicted of
1st-degree murder. Louisiana law does not allow him to plead guilty to
1st-degree murder with the death penalty on the table.
(source: WAFB)
ARKANSAS:
Ark. AG: Current death penalty system is broken
Arkansas' top lawyer said Wednesday that the current death penalty system is
broken.
The state hasn't executed an inmate since 2005. Attorney General Dustin
McDaniel said he doesn't expect that to change anytime soon as Arkansas
grapples with legal challenges and a shortage of drugs used in lethal
injections.
9 of the state's death row inmates are suing Arkansas over its new execution
law, and the Department of Correction is scrambling to find a different drug to
use in lethal injections after it lost its account with a company that
previously supplied it with chemicals.
"I continue to support the death penalty, but it's time to be frank. Our death
penalty system as it currently exists is completely broken," McDaniel told the
state Sheriffs' Association at a conference in western Arkansas.
McDaniel's comments come a week after Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster
said that state may have to resort to the gas chamber to carry out executions.
He said he consulted with Koster before Wednesday's talk, but McDaniel shied
away from suggesting a similar solution.
"I believe that the majority of Arkansans, if polled, would say that they still
support the death penalty," McDaniel said. "However, I would be surprised if
the majority of Arkansans would support death ... by gas chamber or firing
squad or electric chair. I think most people would think that those methods are
too barbaric for a civilized society."
McDaniel called for a discussion about the future of the death penalty and
mentioned abolishing capital punishment as a possibility, but he stopped short
of advocating that.
"18 states have abolished the death penalty," McDaniel said. "The voters of
Arkansas can certainly choose that route. The Legislature could choose that
route."
So could the courts, he said.
"If the Arkansas Supreme Court decides to abolish the death penalty by
declaring it unconstitutional, I would acknowledge that that is an acceptable
use of their power," McDaniel said. "But none of those things are happening.
... Rather, we have the current situation, one that I strongly oppose."
For now, the state doesn't have any pending executions, even though McDaniel
asked Gov. Mike Beebe in May to set dates for 7 of Arkansas' 37 condemned
prisoners.
Beebe, a Democrat like McDaniel, said last month that he didn't have any
immediate plans to schedule executions.
That hadn't changed by Wednesday, Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said, as the
Department of Correction still plans to rewrite its lethal injection procedure
to include a different drug and as prisoners continue to challenge the state's
new execution law in court.
That new law came about after the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the
state's previous lethal injection law in 2012, saying legislators had ceded too
much control over execution procedures to correction officials. This year,
legislators enacted a new law that said the state must use a lethal dose of a
barbiturate in lethal injections. However, the new law leaves it up to the
Department of Correction to pick the drug - a move that critics say still gives
too much control to the prisons.
The Associated Press first reported in April that Arkansas planned to use an
anti-seizure drug called phenobarbital in executions, even though that chemical
has never been used in a lethal injection in the United States.
Arkansas has since changed its mind because the state can't get a hold of that
drug anymore.
"But let's assume that a viable supply magically appeared in front of us and
all the court hurdles disappeared," McDaniel said. "Would that allow us to set
a lethal injection? I don't think so."
(source: Associated Press)
*******************
Dustin McDaniel calls for state discussion on "broken" death penalty process
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel spoke to the state's sheriffs in Fort Smith
this morning and dipped his toe into a potentially huge and emotional topic -
the death penalty.
Exhale. McDaniel is not calling for abolition of the death penalty.
But McDaniel told the sheriffs that our execution process is "completely
broken."
Challenges to lethal injection have become a whole new federal court legal
industry. There's no real prospect of executing anyone by injection in Arkansas
for probably years to come.
The approved drugs aren't available. Other suitable drugs haven't been found
and cleared. Or else they must be administered by physicians. Physicians won't
perform executions.
So the process languishes. McDaniel has staff members working on death cases
who'll retire before anyone is executed. No one should be angered at the
governor for refusing to set executions that won't be carried out. Nor should
they blame the attorney general for failing to put more men (and they are
currently all men) down more quickly.
McDaniel will release a statement on all this shortly. He wants a conversation
by the legislature and the people.
Given problems with lethal injection, do they want an alternative, more brutal
method - electric chair, gas chamber, firing squad? Probably not, but if so,
let them say so by referendum. Is it worth talking about an end to the death
penalty, which is extravagantly more expensive than simply locking someone up
for life (and, some might argue, death is more merciful than a lifetime in a
maximum security isolation cell.)
The Arkansas Times favors abolition of the death penalty. 1) It doesn't deter
capital crime. 2) It is impossible to rectify execution of innocent people. 3)
It is discriminatory, with black people more likely to be executed. It is
particularly discriminatory against poor people, who can't afford adequate
counsel. 4) It prolongs the anguish of victims' families. 5) Allowing the state
to kill people on a somewhat random basis (widely different approaches
depending on prosecutorial district) is troubling for any number of reasons.
Many states and many western countries have opted to opt out.
McDaniel didn't offer solutions today. But he did suggest new discussions. I
fear that the eve of an election season will only encourage the reflexive
reaction from Republican and Democratic candidates alike, but particularly
Republicans. But perhaps there are some thoughtful people among them who'll
acknowledge that our system is broken and that the usual bloodthirsty
commentary - though popular on a surface level - isn't particularly insightful
or constructive.
Here are McDaniel's prepared remarks. He outlines possibilities - from
alternative execution to abolition to a court ruling that the death penalty was
unconstitutional. He throws it open for debate.
His closing follows:
I believe that the majority of Arkansans, if polled, would say they support the
death penalty. However, I would be surprised if the majority of Arkansans would
support the death penalty if they knew the only methods of carrying it out are
a firing squad, the gas chamber or an electric chair.
I think that most people would find those methods to be too barbaric for a
civilized society.
I think that it is high time for a new debate on what to do about the death
penalty.
18 states have abolished the death penalty. The voters of Arkansas can
certainly choose that route. The legislature may choose to abolish the death
penalty. The voters or legislature may decide to change methods of execution,
recognizing that lethal injection sounds acceptable but is a legal fallacy.
If the Arkansas Supreme Court decides to abolish the death penalty by declaring
it unconstitutional, I'd acknowledge that that would be an acceptable use of
their power.
But none of these things are happening and without pressure from the people,
none of them will. Rather, we have our current situation, which I strongly
oppose.
I am opposed to the courts and drug manufacturers continuing to neutralize our
death penalty through the imposition of practical hurdles that cannot be
overcome.
You are key leaders in our law enforcement community. We must be frank about
this situation, and, if we don't like what we hear, we need to go about the
business of trying to change it.
(source: Arkansas Times)
INDIANA:
SW Indiana man sentenced to death for killing 2
A southern Indiana judge has sentenced a man to death for his conviction in a
2010 house fire that killed his fiancee's 2 children.
The Evansville Courier & Press reports (http://bit.ly/1adWciG ) Clark County
Circuit Judge Daniel Moore sentenced 37-year-old Jeffrey Weisheit on Thursday,
following the sentence unanimously recommended by a jury last month. Weisheit
was found guilty of murder and arson in the April 2010 deaths of 5-year-old
Caleb Lynch and 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch.
Prosecutors cited the number of victims and their ages as aggravating factors
warranting a death sentence. Defense attorneys called 2 doctors as expert
witnesses to testify that Weisheit suffers from bipolar disorder.
The trial was moved to Jeffersonville, about 100 miles west, of Evansville,
because of media coverage.
(source: Associated Press)
MISSOURI:
Are Missouri Gas Chambers Being Revived?
Missouri has 2 legalized methods of executing prisoners on death row - 1 is by
lethal injection and the other is the gas chamber. 21 inmates awaiting
execution have sued the Department of Corrections over the state's proposed
single injection of propofol, stating that it "constitutes cruel and unusual
punishment." As a result, the Missouri Supreme Court has stopped all executions
by lethal injection until this lawsuit is settled.
The propofol issue came up because companies that make the drugs used
previously in lethal injections did not want their products used for that
purpose. According to ABC News, Richard Dieter, who is the executive director
of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that as European manufacturers
stop exporting drugs that are used to implement the death penalty, states will
have "to scramble to find other drugs they could use." Meanwhile, the U. S.
division of the German-based manufacturer, Fresenius Kabi, is not fulfilling
orders for propofol from any corrections department because the drug was not
approved by the FDA for lethal injections.
With the current dispute surrounding lethal injections, Missouri attorney
general Chris Koster has said the state may have to consider "alternative
methods of execution." The gas chamber is the state's only other legalized
method. The last time Missouri executed a prisoner by lethal gas was in 1965. A
moratorium was issued in 1968 and the gas chambers have been closed since then.
Whether or not gas chambers will be revived will be up to the courts to decide.
Prior to the implementation of gas chambers, prisoners were executed by public
hanging. According to written descriptions at the time, hangings were treated
as events similar to carnivals. People, including children, gathered in the
town square to watch. In September, 1937, Governor Lloyd Crow Stark signed the
bill to execute prisoners by lethal gas instead of hanging.
The Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, built in 1836, was the 1st
penitentiary west of the Mississippi. This prison was known as "the Walls"
because a high stone wall enclosed the grounds. It was about a mile from the
state capitol building and sat on a steep bluff above the Missouri River. By
the time it was nearing its 100th year in operation, it had the largest prison
population in the United States of 5,100 inmates.
The location for the gas chamber was at the back of the property, down the hill
away from the buildings that contained cell blocks. It was small and made of
rock, cost $3,570, and constructed entirely by inmates. In addition to the
chamber itself, a rock walkway leading to the doors was also added, containing
a horizontal cross surrounded by a names of prisoners engraved in the stones.
The chamber housed 2 cells - 1 where the prisoner spent his last few hours, and
the other was the actual gas chamber. It was first used in March, 1938.
The Missouri State Penitentiary was decommissioned in 2004 following 168 years
of continuous use. Viewing is available by guided tour and includes the
prisoners" final walk before execution.
(source: Guardian Express)
**************
Gas Chamber Returning to Missouri? Gov. Jay Nixon's Not Endorsing Execution
Method
Due to ongoing legal battles around how Missouri administers the death penalty,
Attorney General Chris Koster suggested last week that the state may have to
revert to the gas chamber.
Governor Jay Nixon, however, is not endorsing the idea.
"We don't have a gas chamber," Nixon said when questioned about it yesterday at
a press conference on a different matter.
As the governor stated, Missouri does not currently have an active gas chamber.
The execution method has not been used in the state since the 1960s.
It is, however, still on the books.
Koster, a Democrat who is expected to run for governor, alluded to the
possibility of the gas chamber's return in the context of his recent call on
the Missouri State Supreme Court to set execution dates for 2 men on death row.
He said in a statement last week, "Unless the Court changes its current course,
the legislature will soon be compelled to fund statutorily authorized
alternative methods of execution to carry out lawful judgments."
The only other method allowed in statue is the gas chamber.
The courts have not set those dates due to ongoing federal litigation around
the death penalty. Koster argues that these longstanding pending legal battles
should not block the state's capital punishment altogether -- and points out
that Missouri's supply of its lethal drug will soon expire.
But is Nixon interested?
"I don't want to get into it," he told reporters, KMOX reports. "Once again,
most of those issues involving it are part and parcel of what is going on in
the courts about the various methods and I think it's best handled by...we'll
just let the judicial branch deal with that."
Missouri Director of Corrections George Lombardi declined to comment, the
station reports.
(source: River Front Times)
***************************
Mo. gov. won't sign on to idea of gas chamber, says courts must resolve death
penalty issues
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon isn't ready to embrace the idea of using the gas
chamber to execute prisoners.
Attorney General Chris Koster last week suggested that if lethal injection
issues are going to remain tied up in the courts, Missouri might consider using
the gas chamber. State statutes allow for either method of execution.
KMOX Radio (http://cbsloc.al/12DzMlK ) reports that Nixon was asked about
Koster's suggestion when the governor was in St. Louis for a news conference on
Tuesday. Both men are Democrats.
Nixon's response: Missouri doesn't have a gas chamber, and the issues related
to the death penalty need to be worked out in the courts.
(source: Associated Press)
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