Nov. 13
TEXAS----impending execution
Texas Is Going To Execute A Schizophrenic Who Wore A Cowboy Costume To
Represent Himself In Court
In 1992, Scott Panetti shaved his head. Then, he murdered the parents of his
estranged wife and held his wife and daughter hostage for a night before
surrendering to police.
On Dec. 3, Texas plans to execute the 56-year-old for his crimes.
Despite knowing he was severely mentally ill, the court allowed Panetti to
represent himself - in a cowboy costume. In a clemency petition filed
Wednesday, Nov. 12, dozens of prominent individuals and organisations urged the
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Rick Perry to stop the execution.
Panetti reportedly had his 1st delusion well before his crime. In 1986, he
embarked upon "spiritual warfare with Satan," his sister Victoria wrote in her
own petition. He tried to exorcise the devil from his home by burying furniture
in the backyard. That same year, the Social Security administration determined
his severe schizophrenia entitled him to benefits, according to clemency
petition.
During his 1995 trial, Panetti acted as his own lawyer. Dressed as a cowboy, he
reportedly attempted to call over 200 witnesses, including John F. Kennedy, the
Pope, and Jesus Christ.
Panetti also scribbled and drew crosses on many of his court documents,
according to a video published by the Texas Defender System along with the
petition. For that reason, the judge ruled some of Panetti's medical records
unfit for evidence, according to his father Jack.
"He was up there by himself," Jack said in the video. Nonetheless, the Texas
court system sentenced him to death.
In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled in Ford v. Wainright that executing an insane
prisoner violates the Eighth Amendment. But the high court never specified a
definition of mental illness for these purposes, as The New York Times
reported.
Texas has interpreted the 1986 decision to mean that a person is sane enough to
be executed if they know why they're being put to death, according to executive
director of the Death Penalty Information Center Richard Dieter.
"That's the issue," he told Business Insider, "How narrow can Texas be when
determining his mental competence?" At one point, according to Dieter, Panetti
made on-record comments implying he understood the nature of his punishment.
Evidence suggests, however, that Panetti's mental state may have changed since
he made those statements. "The devil has been trying to rub me out to keep me
from preaching," he told The New York Times in 2006 when asked about his
impending execution. He also mentioned being stabbed in his death row cell by
the devil.
In 2007, the Supreme Court overturned Panetti's death sentence after finding
the court hadn't adequately examined whether he was sane enough to be executed.
"A prisoner's awareness of the State's rationale for an execution is not the
same as a rational understanding of it," the court ruled.
"It's not enough to just look at response to one question," Dieter said,
explaining the court's decision. "You have to look at the larger history."
Although the Fifth Circuit court reaffirmed his execution in 2013, Panetti
hasn't undergone an evaluation for mental competency in nearly 7 years,
according to the Texas Defender Service. In 2014, the trial court in Kerrvile,
Texas refused to withdraw or modify his execution date to allow for a
competency test.
Keith Silverman, a forensic psychiatrist, currently classifies Panetti as a
paranoid schizophrenic with severe delusions. "It's rare that I've seen someone
that sick," he said in the video. Panetti's medical records show the same,
according to the petition.
"Evidence of [Panetti's] incompetency runs like a fissure through every
proceeding in his case - from arraignment to execution .... [His execution]
would cross a moral line," the petition, filed by Panetti's attorneys, reads.
In 2004, the European Union also sent a letter of clemency to Governor Rick
Perry on Panetti's behalf.
Panetti's case continues a wave of controversy over states executing the
mentally ill. In August 2013, Florida executed John Ferguson, a 65-year-old
schizophrenic man who called himself the "Prince of God." The Supreme Court
declined to hear a final argument from his lawyers. Advocates also said Andrew
Reid Lackey, an Alabama man executed in July 2013, suffered from mental
illness.
(source: Business Insider)
**************************
Death row inmate resentenced to life in prison
A convicted murderer whose death sentence for a 2001 slaying in far northeast
Texas was thrown out by an appeals court has been sentenced to life in prison.
Bowie County prosecutors chose to not seek the death penalty again for
34-year-old Chris Wayne Shuffield of Texarkana and he was resentenced Wednesday
to life. He's eligible for parole after 40 years.
Shuffield was convicted of the 2001 shooting death of 36-year-old Lance Luke
Walker of Simms. Walker was shot at least three times and his truck was taken
from his home.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his death sentence after a
fellow inmate acknowledged he provided false information that was used during
Shuffield's original punishment hearing.
(source: Associated Press)
CONNECTICUT:
Florida Man Sent Death Threats to Connecticut Governor, Judges:
Prosecutors----Prosecutors say Garrett Santillo also wrote a death threat to
President Barack Obama but never sent it.
The South Florida man accused of mailing death threats to Connecticut Gov. Dan
Malloy, 2 federal judges and a dozen other Connecticut residents also wrote a
letter threatening the president but never sent it, prosecutors said.
According to federal prosecutors, 35-year-old Garrett Santillo, of Hollywood,
Florida, mailed hand-written letters to home addresses in Connecticut over the
summer and threatened to kill recipients who did not comply with his requests.
A federal judge received the first letter in July, which read, in part, "You
[sic] home addresses in Conn. are public information and if you mask your
identity by name or appearance, we can still track you to wherever you go and
will kill you if you don't follow what this letter instructs," the U.S.
Attorney's Office said.
A total of 15 Connecticut residents, including the governor, received
threatening notes, which each contained "a demand for action," including orders
to lock up or release various killers.
According to paperwork filed in federal court, Santillo sent Malloy a letter on
Aug. 15 saying the governor "will most definitely be killed for signing a bill
ending the death penalty in CT."
He demanded that the Cheshire home invasion suspects be executed by 2016 or he
would kill the judge who sentenced them and "multiple people at random,"
according to the documents.
Another letter demanded that the recipient find JonBenet Ramsey's killer and
send the murderer to prison before Dec. 31, 2017, otherwise "you and others you
know will be killed by ways no FBI or even God will be able to STOP," the
paperwork says.
The letters were all postmarked from Miami and threatened to kill the
recipients if they didn't follow his orders, prosecutors said.
One of the victims also received threatening voicemails from a number that
investigators linked to Santillo and his family, according to the paperwork.
Santillo was arrested Sept. 29. Prosecutors said he threatened to kill himself
when law enforcement showed up and used a Taser on Santillo to prevent him from
hurting anyone.
Authorities said he admitted to writing the letters in a recorded statement but
pleaded not guilty in court.
A federal grand jury indicted him on 2 counts of impending, intimidating,
influencing or retaliating against a federal judge by threats and 7 counts of
mailing threatening communications.
Santillo could face 60 years in prison if convicted. Information on an attorney
for Santillo was not immediately available.
(source: NBC Connecticut)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Michael Ballard seeks delay of his execution, challenges Pa.'s lethal cocktail
Mass murderer Michael Eric Ballard, who previously told a judge he accepts his
death sentence, petitioned a Northampton County judge Thursday to stay his Dec.
2 execution so he could challenge the legality of state's death penalty.
Ballard has joined a state Commonwealth Court lawsuit in which death-row
inmates say the new lethal injection cocktail that Pennsylvania would use
doesn't meet the requirements of state law.
In federal court, he is part of a class of death-row inmates arguing the
state's protocol for lethal injection violates their 8th Amendment protections
against cruel and unusual punishment.
"Defendant has no adequate remedy at law to address the harm that he would
suffer if his warrant of execution is not stayed until the above-mentioned
litigation is addressed and resolved," defense attorneys James M. Connell and
Michael Corriere said in the petition filed Thursday in Northampton County
Court.
The petition comes as county Judge Emil Giordano is scheduled next week to
consider whether the 41-year-old condemned killer is mentally competent to
decide to stop his appeals.
In an interview with The Morning Call last month, Ballard made a distinction
between the post-conviction appeals he is seeking to waive and a federal suit
questioning the drugs the state uses during executions and the way they are
administered. He said he didn't want to be tortured to death.
District Attorney John Morganelli, who has called Ballard the "poster boy for
the death penalty," has said he isn't surprised by Ballard's reversal and that
he has been through it before with Martin Appel, who murdered 3 people during a
1986 bank robbery in East Allen Township, asked the state to put him to death,
then ultimately decided to appeal.
Ballard pleaded guilty to a June 26, 2010, rampage in Northampton. He admitted
to savagely knifing to death his former girlfriend, Denise Merhi, 39; her
father, Dennis Marsh, 62; her grandfather, Alvin Marsh Jr., 87; and Steven
Zernhelt, 53, a neighbor who heard screams and tried to help.
At the time of the crime, Ballard had recently been paroled from prison, where
he served 17 years for murdering an Allentown man nearly 2 decades earlier. The
state Supreme Court upheld Ballard's death sentence in November, citing
overwhelming evidence in support of it.
(source: Morning Call)
***************************
Death of 3-year-old 'tortured by his mom and her boyfriend' COULD have been
prevented if school checking up on his brother had the correct address,
prosecutor says----Scott McMillan died on November 4 after being hung upside
down and repeatedly hit with a frying pan
The tragic death of a 3-year-old boy who was tortured by his mom and her
boyfriend might have been prevented if school authorities trying to check up on
the boy's older brother had had the family's correct address.
Scott McMillan died on November 4 after being hung upside down and repeatedly
hit with a frying pan, in what Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan
has referred to as 'an American horror story'.
Jillian Tait, 31, and Gary Lee Fellenbaum, 23, of Chesco, Pennsylvania, were
charged on Thursday with murder following Scott's death and aggravated assault
in the beating of his 6-year-old brother.
The unnamed brother had been absent from kindergarten for 2 weeks prior to
Scott's death and prosecutors have revealed that staff at a Coatesville
elementary school had visited an old address while attempting to check up on
the missing boy.
Chester County First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone said on
Wednesday that the Coatesville Area district's files weren't updated to reflect
a mid-October move, reports NBC10.
Superintendent Cathy Taschner said staff followed protocols and made multiple,
unsuccessful attempts to contact the boys' parents by telephone, in writing and
by visiting an address on file.
She has ordered an internal review of processes following Scott's death and the
failure of school officials to contact the family.
The district says it relies on parents to provide up-to-date contact
information.
Following the couple's arrest last Thursday, it has been revealed that they
went car shopping, bought pizza and engaged in sexual activity even as the
unresponsive 3-year-old boy lay dying after weeks of escalating abuse that
ended in 3 days of systematic torture.
The pair are accused of laughing as Scott was hung upside down and whipped,
striking him repeatedly with a frying pan, and eventually beating him to death.
At the time of Scott's death, Tait and Fellebaum shared their trailer home with
his wife, 21-year-old Amber Fellenbaum and her three children.
Amber, who allegedly witnessed the beatings but did nothing to stop the
violence has been charged with child endangerment for failure to call police.
Photos taken by investigators inside the trailer home show the mattress where
the youngster died, the whips that were allegedly used to beat him and holes in
the wall where Fellenbaum is said to have repeatedly smashed the youngster's
head.
A bent, metal curtain rod was also found, which attorneys believe was another
item used during the child's relentless torment, which is believed to have
lasted for weeks before his death.
The young boy's torture included being beaten with blunt objects, tied to a
chair with electrical tape and several punches to the face and stomach.
When his body was taken to the emergency room, nurses are said to have wept at
the sight of his injuries.
'This is just evilness,' Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan said at
a press conference on Friday. 'It is an unspeakable act of depravity.'
He also said that Tait's elder son also showed signs of abuse. 'It is going to
take us years to put him back together again physically and mentally,' he said.
The abuse had been going on for months, but the beatings and violence
intensified between Sunday and Thursday last week.
Announcing the charges on Thursday, Hogan said: 'Let me tell you about an
American horror story. Little Scotty McMillan is dead.
'Over a 3-day period ... he was systematically tortured and beaten to death. He
was punched in the face and in the stomach, he was scourged with a homemade
whip, he was lashed with a metal rod, he was tied to a chair and beaten, he was
tied upside down by his feet and beaten, his head was smashed through a wall
and at the end of that he had bruises on top of bruises all over his body.'
'When his body went into the emergency room our ER nurses - who see a lot of
terrible things - when they saw his body, they wept.'
Holding back tears he said: 'Say a prayer for little Scott McMilan. The brief
nightmare that was his life is over.'
Hogan concluded that his team would be seeking the death penalty as the victim
was under 12 and there are allegations he had been tortured.
The couple met working at Wal-Mart and last month moved in together, along with
Fellenbaum's estranged wife and three children - Tait's 6 and 3-year-old sons
and the Fellenbaums' 11-month-old daughter.
The 6 lived in a mobile home park in West Caln Township, Chester County, about
35 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
The 3 adults told authorities 'that Scott McMillan had been punched and beaten
with blunt and sharp objects, whipped, taped to a chair with electrical tape
and beaten, hung up by his feet and beaten, and suffered other acts of
violence,' police said in affidavits released Thursday.
Amber Fellenbaum, 21, was charged with child endangerment for allegedly failing
to help the toddler. She ultimately called 911 Tuesday night, authorities said.
By then, Scott had been unresponsive for hours, and had been put in a shower
for more than 30 minutes by his mother and her boyfriend, investigators said.
When the boy failed to awaken, they placed him on an uninflated air mattress
and went out shopping, authorities said.
Fellenbaum had severely beaten the boy for refusing to eat toast on both Monday
and Tuesday morning, authorities said.
The 'discipline' included throwing him against a wall, knocking him off a chair
with a punch and then taping him to the chair to keep him upright for more
beatings, police said.
Tait told police that she also took part in the abuse and saw the scars on her
younger son, court documents said. Her older son also showed signs of abuse,
authorities said.
She and Fellenbaum are being held without bail after their arraignments
Thursday. They are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on November 14.
When authorities searched their home, they only had one picture of Scott.
Prosecutors also showed off pictures of the weapons that were used. Included in
the items were a makeshift whip, a curtain rod, an aluminum strip and photos of
holes in the wall where Fellenbaum slammed Scotty and his 6-year-old brother's
heads into the wall, according to NBC Philadelphia.
On the night that the youngster died, Tait told police that she and Fellenbaum
left Scott on the mattress so he could sleep then went out to pick up pizza for
dinner.
At that time, Tait told police that she and Fellenbaum engaged in sexual
activity then she took a nap, according to investigators.
After waking up around 7:30 pm Tait said she found Scotty wasn't breathing so
she screamed for someone to call 911. Amber Fellenbaum then called 911 and
medics arrived.
A judge denied bail to both Fellenbaum and Tait at a Wednesday arraignment.
Hogan announced a total of 16 charges against Gary Fellenbaum including 1st-
and 3rd-degree murder charges, homicide, endangering the welfare of a child,
assault and reckless endangerment. Tait faces 15 charges including the most
serious murder charges, according to court records.
According to Chester County's Daily Local News, Fellenbaum picked on the
younger boy because he didn't know what was happening and tried to resist. The
older boy, who was 6, tried not to irritate Fellenbaum any more by struggling.
In a statement to investigators, Tait admitted that she had participated in the
assaults on her sons.
An affidavit states: 'During one incident, Gary hung Scott and (his brother) up
by their feet one at a time and beat the boys while they were hanging upside
down' (Tait) stated that she and Gary were laughing during the incident.'
Scott had been unable to eat the breakfast of toast and cinnamon sugar that
Fellenbaum made for him and kept spitting it out.
She said she and Fellenbaum tried to force the toast into his mouth but that he
still would not eat.
Fellenbaum, angry at the child, began punching him in the stomach and face, and
took him to his room where the 2 continued punching him.
At some point, she said, Fellenbaum picked the child up by his back and slammed
him into a wall, according to the affidavit.
On Tuesday, when the child woke up he had a very red, swolen face. Again he
didn't eat breakfast, so Fellenbaum said he was being disrespectful.
He then punched him so hard that the boy fell off of his chair. Fellenbaum then
put him back on the chair as he squirmed, took out some electrical tape and
tied the boy's feet.
He also strapped his arms to the posts of the chair so they were elevated.
Fellenbaum began punching Scott again, causing him to vomit and become
unresponsive, according to the police documents.
The pair, according to the affadavit, then tried to wake the boy up. Failing to
do so they allegedly put him in a bath of ice cold water and changed his
clothes.
Fellenbaum is believed to have seen this as another sign of disrespect, so put
the boy on the mattress and left the house to go and collect pizza. When they
returned he will still unresponsive, so Tait said she ate some of the pizza
then had sex with Fellenbaum.
(source: Daily Mail)
DELAWARE:
Efforts to repeal death penalty begin again with new Delaware legislature
Supporters of ending capital punishment in Delaware are gearing up for another
attempt to have a bill passed in Dover.
The 148th General Assembly will begin their session in January and the Delaware
Repeal Project has been busy coordinating a series of upcoming town hall forums
to generate public support.
The town halls will be held Nov. 18-20 and will feature law enforcement
officials from New Hampshire, New Jersey and Connecticut who will share their
reasons why they oppose the death penalty.
Delaware legislators have made previous attempts to end capital punishment and
replace it with life without parole, but faced strong opposition from First
State law enforcement agencies.
"Some of the most significant opposition has come from law enforcement
organizations in the state so we wanted to bring in some folks representing
different aspects of law enforcement to give their point of view," explained
Kathleen MacRae, executive director of the Delaware Repeal Project.
Senate Bill 19, was introduced in 2013 and received bipartisan support from
house and senate members. It narrowly passed the senate but stalled in the
House Judiciary Committee. Since, the 147th General Assembly was not able to
pass the bill during their term, a new bill will need to be introduced.
"It may be January, it may be March but we definitely have plans," MacRae
added. "We're working with legislators in the Senate and in the House to
introduce repeal legislation."
Following the outcome of the election earlier this month, a handful of new
lawmakers and a new Delaware new attorney general will be helping to shape
policy in the state. MacRae said there's a lot of "unknowns" as to how a bill
would fare in the new General Assembly but hopes the town halls will provide
education and raise curiosity about the issue.
"The death penalty is a controversial issue, there's a lot of different points
of view on it from law enforcement prospective, from victim's family
perspective," MacRae said. "It's an emotional issue, sometimes it's a hard
issue to talk about."
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell has been relatively neutral on the subject.
"If it does come back up it's certainly a conversation I'm more than willing to
have," Markell said during a recent interview on "First."
Markell granted clemency to convicted murder Robert Gattis in 2012 after the
Delaware Board of Pardons votes to reduce the sentence.
There are currently 16 inmates on Delaware's death row.
(source: newsworks.org)
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