Jan. 29
TEXAS----execution
Texas Executes Man for 1996 Strangling, Beating Death
A Texas man convicted of killing a 38-year-old woman nearly 2 decades ago while
he was on parole for a triple slaying years earlier was executed Thursday
evening.
Robert Ladd, 57, received lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court
rejected arguments he was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death
penalty. The court also rejected an appeal in which Ladd's attorney challenged
whether the pentobarbital Texas uses in executions is potent enough to not
cause unconstitutional pain and suffering.
Ladd was executed for the 1996 slaying of 38-year-old Vicki Ann Garner, of
Tyler, who was strangled and beaten with a hammer. Her arms and legs were
bound, bedding was placed between her legs, and she was set on fire in her
apartment.
Ladd came within hours of lethal injection in 2003 before a federal court
agreed to hear evidence about juvenile records that suggested he was mentally
impaired. That appeal was denied and the Supreme Court last year turned down a
review of Ladd's case. His attorneys renewed similar arguments as his new
execution date approached.
"Ladd's deficits are well documented, debilitating and significant," Brian
Stull, a senior staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union Capital
Punishment Project, told the high court.
Kelli Weaver, a Texas attorney general, reminded the justices in a filing that
"each court that has reviewed Ladd's claim has determined that Ladd is not
intellectually disabled."
Ladd's lawyers cited a psychiatrist's determination in 1970 that Ladd, then a
13-year-old in custody of the Texas Youth Commission, had an IQ of 67. Courts
have embraced scientific studies that consider an IQ of 70 a threshold for
impairment. The inmate's attorneys also contended he long has had difficulties
with social skills and functioning on his own.
Ladd also was a plaintiff in a lawsuit questioning the "quality and viability"
of Texas' supply of its execution drug, pentobarbital. The Texas Attorney
General's Office called the challenge "nothing more than rank speculation."
When he was arrested for Garner's slaying, Ladd had been on parole for about 4
years after serving about a third of a 40-year prison term for the slayings of
a Dallas woman and her 2 children. He pleaded guilty to those crimes.
Ladd becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and
the 520th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7,
1982. Ladd is the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death since Greg Abbott
became governor on Jan. 21.
Ladd becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA
and the 1400 overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
****************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----2
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----520
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
3------------Feb. 4--------------------Donald Newbury-------521
4------------Feb. 10-------------------Les Bower, Jr.-------522
5------------Mar. 5--------------------Rodney Reed----------523
6------------Mar. 11-------------------Manuel Vasquez-------524
7------------Mar. 18-------------------Randall Mays---------525
8------------Apr. 9--------------------Kent Sprouse---------526
9------------Apr. 15-------------------Manual Garza---------527
10-----------Apr. 23-------------------Richard Vasquez------528
11-----------Apr. 28-------------------Robert Pruett--------529
12-----------May 12--------------------Derrick Charles------530
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
USA:
Lawyers Snipe as Jury Selection Resumes in Tsarnaev Trial
As jury selection resumed Thursday in the federal death penalty trial of Boston
Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a prosecutor accused 1 of
Tsarnaev's lawyers of trying to "encourage" a hung jury.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said attorney David Bruck asked a
"wholly inappropriate" question when he probed a man with a supervisory job
about whether he would listen to the opinions of other jurors.
Weinreb told Judge George O'Toole Jr. he viewed Bruck's question as an
"instruction" that no juror could change another juror's view about whether the
death penalty would be an appropriate punishment.
Bruck said he was merely asking the juror if he understood that in the end, all
jurors have to make their own decisions. Bruck said it was appropriate to ask
if the juror could respect the fact that other jurors might have different
moral views.
Judge George O'Toole Jr. said the questions asked by lawyers in the case should
be aimed at discovering bias or some other issue that would disqualify them as
serving as jurors in Tsarnaev's trial.
Tsarnaev, 21, is accused in the 2013 bombing that killed 3 people and injured
more than 260. He has pleaded not guilty.
The testiness between the two sides came on the 8th day of questioning
prospective jurors. O'Toole has questioned 105 people so far, but has not
revealed how many of those people have been excused.
Many have said they can't be impartial because they already believe Tsarnaev is
guilty or have said they would be unwilling to impose the death penalty under
any circumstance. In order to be seated on the jury, jurors must express a
willingness to consider both the death penalty and life in prison as possible
punishments.
Jury selection was suspended for 2 days this week as a blizzard dumped 2 feet
of snow in Boston.
On Thursday, O'Toole, prosecutors and Tsarnaev's lawyers questioned seven
prospective jurors, including an events planner and former social worker who
said she could keep an open mind about Tsarnaev and had not yet formed an
opinion on whether he should receive the death penalty if he is convicted.
"If it was myself or someone I knew who was in this situation ... I would want
that fair trial," she said.
Jury selection is set to resume Friday.
(source: Associated Press)
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