Feb. 20
TEXAS:
Rodney Reed From Death Row: "I'm Not Giving Up"
About 4 hours east of Bastrop, in the small town of Livingston, is a maximum
security prison better known as death row.
For the past 17 years, it's been Rodney Reed's home. He spends about 22 hours
each day in a cell, clinging to hope and maintaining his innocence.
"It's not just what I'm going through, it's what my family is going through,"
Reed said. "I kind of get emotional when I think about what's going on with
them."
At the moment, Reed said a radio is his only contact with the world.
As the days tick down on his life, he can't see the countless protests and
vigils calling for his freedom taking place across the state.
The only updates come when family members see him through the glass.
"My baby boy, he tells me that he has faith," said Reed. "I have to hold on, I
have to hold onto that."
Reed is scheduled to be executed March 5. A Bastrop jury convicted him nearly 2
decades ago for the 1996 murder of 19-year-old Stacy Stites.
"I try not to entertain what the state is trying to do to me, I don't want to
entertain it," Reed said.
But on Wednesday he was forced to.
Reed said that before his interview with KEYE TV he was told to complete
paperwork for the state identifying which of his family members could be in the
room when he's executed. It also outlines what to do with his remains.
KEYE TV asked Reed if he thinks it's possible the state will put him to death.
"I think that it's possible," he said. "I hope that they don't, but it's
possible that they will."
Reed says he has known others on death row who have left and never come back,
and he knows the routine, but it's not something he wants to focus on.
"I have to treat every day the same," he said. "I mean I'm not going to curl up
in a corner -- nothing like that -- and stare at the celling all day. I'm going
to continue to listen to my music, continue to read and continue to be me."
Reed also knows, as have others before him who have also maintained their
innocence, that you can return from the brink.
At the moment Rodney Reed's fate rests with the courts and Governor Greg
Abbott.
While campaigning for governor, Abbott spoke to KEYE TV in 2014 on his position
on the death penalty in general, saying, "I want to ensure sure that it's
administered with absolute fairness and justice."
Abbott said, "I led the advancement in this last session to ensure we would
have broad-based DNA testing in any death penalty case. If the death penalty is
going to be imposed we must be sure that the person who receives the death
penalty really did commit the crime."
But at each recent hearing, the state consistently fought against additional
DNA testing, along with new testing for evidence that's never been through the
process, including the belt used to strangle Stites.
Reed's attorneys believe the state is ready to move forward with the execution,
rather than admit the possibility that the new findings and testimony in Reed's
defense show he's innocent.
"What the state is trying to do here, in our view, is rush the execution date
before we can get to the evidence that establishes Mr. Reed's evidence," said
Reed's attorney Andrew MacRae.
Their latest appeal argues new forensic evidence, from three renowned forensic
pathologists, which they say shows it's impossible for Rodney Reed to be
guilty.
There are also affidavits from 2 of Stites' coworkers saying they kncew Reed
and Stites were in a relationship. It would back up the story Reed has been
telling since his conviction.
"I've been in this fight, this struggle that long. I'm not giving up -- not my
hope, not my faith," Reed said.
For now he waits, spending the majority of his time reading, thinking about
family and supporters, and glancing at pictures.
"I look in their eyes, I look at their smiles, and I see the love," he said.
With lingering questions, did the state get it right or will an innocent man
run out of time?
KEYE TV reached out to the office of the Governor and Attorney General for a
comment on this case, but have not heard back.
(source: KEYE TV news)
********************
Man who killed officer loses death row appeal
A convicted killer sent to Texas death row for fatally shooting a Dallas police
officer working an off-duty security job at a club more than 13 years ago has
lost a federal appeal.
Lawyers for 32-year-old Licho Escamilla argued before the 5th Circuit Court of
Appeals that his trial attorneys were deficient for not producing evidence
about his troubled childhood - evidence that could have persuaded jurors to
sentence him to life in prison, the lawyers said.
But the 5th Circuit ruled late Wednesday that evidence of the crime outweighed
any mitigating evidence not presented to jurors. Court records show that
Escamilla had a history of violence and that Officer Christopher James was 1 of
2 people he killed.
James was shot multiple times in the head by Escamilla while working off-duty
as a security officer at Club DMX in northwest Dallas on Nov. 25, 2001.
At Escamilla's 2002 trial, he threw a pticher of water toward jurors.
(source: Associated Press)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Death sentence in name only
Gov. Tom Wolf last week declared a "moratorium" on capital punishment in
Pennsylvania, citing a "flawed system that has ... proven to be an endless
cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive."
The outrage was swift and included a rebuke from York County District Attorney
Tom Kearney.
Wolf's action is "an affront to the memory of those murdered and their
families," he said in a statement, adding the governor doesn't understand "the
weight placed on a prosecutor" who seeks the death penalty.
"In one swift action this past Friday, Gov. Wolf has revictimized the very
victims that we fight for each and every day by dismissing the tireless efforts
of our juries," Kearney stated.
What the DA failed to mention is that Pennsylvania, for all intents and
purposes, does not execute death row inmates.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States nearly 40 years
ago, Pennsylvania governors have signed 434 death warrants.
In that time, just 3 people have been executed - and only then because they
abandoned their appeals.
They basically left this world in control, having decided, perhaps, that death
was preferable to life in a cage.
Does Kearney explain that to victims' survivors?
Does he tell grief-stricken family members that a death sentence in
Pennsylvania means endless, expensive appeals that will regularly reopen
emotional wounds ... but almost certainly will never end in an execution?
We hope so, because otherwise the DA is not being honest with survivors. That
would be the real affront to them and their loved ones.
There are 186 condemned inmates - 13 convicted in York County - in
Pennsylvania, making ours the 5th-largest death row population in the country.
But we haven't actually meted out a capital punishment in nearly 16 years.
Critics argue Wolf doesn't have the authority to declare a "moratorium" on our
phantom executions and say he'll face a legal challenge.
But Wolf certainly does have the power to grant temporary reprieves to
condemned inmates, and his spokesman says he intends to use it.
Never mind the moral question the rest of the civilized world long ago
answered.
Forget the astronomical cost - $370 million, based on one study - we spend on
these lost causes.
Set aside the unacceptable risk of condemning an innocent person.
The reality is Pennsylvania has a death penalty only on paper.
It disrupts nothing to suspend the meaningless death warrants until the task
force - a state Senate group that predates Wolf by about 3 years - finishes its
study on the broader issues of capital punishment.
(source: Editorial, York Dispatch)
**********************
Why Gov. Wolf's so-called death penalty moratorium will fail
What the governor did last week was to grant a reprieve to 1 death row inmate
who was scheduled for an imminent execution. The granting of a reprieve is one
of the governor's powers with respect to clemency in Article IV, Section 9(a)
of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The other 2 are the power to commute a death sentence to life and to grant a
pardon. The latter 2, however, cannot be exercised by the governor unless
recommended by the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons. With respect to commuting a
death sentence to life, the recommendation must be unanimous.
Under Pennsylvania law, the issuance of execution warrants by the executive
branch is a mandatory duty. That precedent was established in Morganelli v.
Casey, a case I brought in 1994 against then-Gov. Robert Casey.
Today, the governor is given 90 days to sign a death warrant after receiving
the case from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If the governor does not sign the
execution warrant, the execution date must be set by the Department of
Corrections and the execution proceeds without the governor's signature.
Accordingly, Judge Lewis advised the governor that executions must proceed and
that the use of the reprieve power was the only constitutional basis for
creating a de facto moratorium. The governor has stated that he will grant
reprieves for subsequent scheduled executions for each death row inmate, at
least until the release of an impending study being done by a task force
established by the state Legislature.
The governor's objective is unlikely to succeed. In Morganelli v. Casey, the
court held that a reprieve exists only to afford an individual defendant the
opportunity to temporarily postpone an execution for a particular proceeding
involving that defendant - i.e., a pending application for a pardon,
commutation or judicial relief.
It is unlikely that a court will allow a governor to grant reprieves based on a
governor's concern about the fairness of the process or the release of a report
that has no legal significance. If this was permitted, it would, in effect,
allow a governor to commute death sentences to life by passing the Board of
Pardons in contravention of Article IV of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
Only the Legislature has the power to repeal the death penalty, and only the
judiciary has the power to suspend the death penalty or declare it null and
void as unconstitutional or in violation of due process.
Pennsylvania's death penalty was deemed constitutional by the U.S. Supreme
Court many years ago in the case of Blystone, and, therefore, the governor will
not be able to derail Pennsylvania's death penalty by continuously granting
reprieves in individual cases.
As someone who has personally litigated these issues, I predict that ultimately
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will find the governor's action outside of the
intended purpose and scope of a reprieve.
(source: opinion; Northampton County District Attorney John M. Morganelli is a
past president of the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association and in 1994
successfully prosecuted an unprecedented case against the governor of
Pennsylvania to enforce Pennsylvania's death penalty by signing death warrants
for Josoph Henry and Martin Appel----Morning Call)
*******************************
DA: Death penalty stay will not affect Frein case
The district attorney prosecuting trooper ambush suspect Eric Frein says the
state's new moratorium on the death penalty will not affect the case. Governor
Tom Wolf on Feb. 13 halted the further execution of death row inmates until the
state senate approves a report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory
Committee on Capital Punishment, which will make recommendations on how to
prosecute capital cases more fairly. Wolf said he would issue a reprieve for
every scheduled execution until the recommended improvements are in place.
"If we are to continue to administer the death penalty, we must take further
steps to ensure that defendants have appropriate counsel at every stage of
their prosecution, that the sentence is applied fairly and proportionally, and
that we eliminate the risk of executing an innocent," Wolf said in a memorandum
announcing the policy.
Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin said Wolf's decision will not stop him
from pursuing the death penalty for Frein.
The head of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, Joseph Kovel, called
the decision "a travesty because it prevents the commonwealth and the family of
Cpl. Dickson from securing the penalty that is deserved. This decision also
will affect the families of victims from all across the state who have had
their loved ones torn from them due to senseless acts of violence from
dangerous criminals."
Jeff Sheridan, Wolf's press secretary, confirmed that defendants in
Pennsylvania can still be sentenced to death, and that prisoners on death row
face the same fate as they did before the moratorium.
The governor's stay is part of a temporary reprieve for inmate Terrence
Williams, scheduled for execution March 4 for killing 2 men. He admitted
killing them while in his teens but now says both men had been sexually abusing
him.
'An unending cycle' of appealTonkin opposes the moratorium, calling it a
"potentially unlawful action." He said he believes state law requires the
moratorium specify a time frame.
"This unilateral action will only cause more pain and confusion to families who
have suffered the actions of the worst criminals," Tonkin said.
Wolf said families suffer more grief from an appeals system that has kept most
Pennsylvania death penalty cases tied up in the courts for years without
resolution.
"This unending cycle of death warrants and appeals diverts resources from the
judicial system and forces the families and loved ones of victims to relive
their tragedies each time a new round of warrants and appeals commences," Wolf
said. "The only certainty in the current system is that the process will be
drawn out, expensive, and painful for all involved," Wolf said.
Sheridan said the state's constitution gives the governor the power to grant
reprieves, and that Wolf has in fact stated when he will lift the moratorium.
5th-largest death row
Death row in Pennsylvania currently has 186 inmates, making it the 5th-largest
death row in the country. The commonwealth is mostly surrounded by states that
have abolished capital punishment, including New York, New Jersey, West
Virginia, and Maryland, which repealed its death penalty law in 2013.
Delaware and Ohio are the only neighboring states with the death penalty still
in place. On Jan. 30, Ohio Gov. John Kasich postponed all 7 executions
scheduled for 2015 in his state, after a series of lethal injections were
botched last year. Delaware abolished capital punishment only briefly in its
history, from 1958 to 1961.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 in Pennsylvania, only 3 inmates
have been executed - even though governors have signed death warrants for 434
prisoners.
The high cost of capital casesTonkin said in a statement that he is
"disappointed that the governor failed to respond to correspondence from the
Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association" before announcing the moratorium.
The association said Wolf "turned his back on the silenced victims of
cold-blooded killers."
Wolf said that among his chief concerns are the approximately 150 people on
death row nationwide who have been exonerated over the past 39 years.
Sheridan said Wolf believes the crimes Frein is accused of committing "are
heinous." He said the moratorium is meant only to give the commonwealth time to
correct problems in its death penalty trials, including their high cost.
"If the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is going to take the irrevocable step of
executing a human being, its capital sentencing system must be infallible.
Pennsylvania's system is riddled with flaws, making it error prone, expensive,
and anything but infallible."
(source: Pike County Courier)
GEORGIA:
Deacons witness execution of Catholic inmate Warren Hill
The State of Georgia executed Warren Lee Hill, who had received the sacraments
of the Catholic Church while on death row, the evening of Jan. 27.
Hill, sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of a fellow inmate, died by lethal
injection. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his application for a stay of
execution earlier that day.
Hill's original prison sentence was a life term for the killing of his
girlfriend.
In the years leading up to the execution, Hill had been granted reprieves from
execution as attorneys representing him challenged Georgia's Lethal Injections
Secrecy Act and also brought forward evaluations that Hill's sentence should be
commuted to life imprisonment due to mental retardation.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the death penalty cannot be applied if an
inmate is mentally retarded, but left it to each state to determine how that
standard is met. Georgia has the highest such standard to meet of any state.
3 men executed in Georgia since December, woman may be executed in February
Hill's death was the latest of 3 executions at the Georgia Diagnostic and
Classification Prison in Jackson since December.
Robert Wayne Holsey was executed Dec. 9, 2014, and Andrew Brannan on Jan. 13.
Deacon Richard Tolcher, head of the archdiocesan prison ministry, had provided
spiritual ministry to all 3 men.
Deacon Tolcher baptized Hill on Feb. 14, 2013, the culmination of their meeting
regularly since the fall of 2012. The deacon taught him about prayer,
sacraments and the Catholic faith. The late Father Austin Fogarty, who
regularly celebrated Mass at the prison, gave Hill his 1st Communion the same
day and then confirmed him with the permission of Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.
"Archbishop Gregory heard his confession about a month ago," said Deacon
Tolcher.
Hill asked Deacon Norm Keller and Deacon Tolcher to witness his execution.
Although Hill declined offering any last words, he did want a prayer said.
Throughout the evening of the execution, Deacon Tolcher kept Archbishop Gregory
and Bishop David Talley apprised of developments. Bishop Talley celebrates Mass
for death row inmates each month.
Deacon Tolcher had also been meeting with Brannan, convicted of killing a
police officer, in his final days. Brannan asked the deacon to witness his
death and called his name out as he was dying.
"All of them sought and begged for forgiveness from the victims' families. None
of them said, 'I didn't do it,'" said Deacon Tolcher. "Each of them faced their
execution in full confidence of their faith."
The deacon said his goal was to "let them know that God loved them" and that
they were "valuable human beings with human dignity."
When present at an execution, witnesses sit behind a glass window at the feet
of the inmate. The prisoner's arms are extended outward and strapped down, and
the upper body is elevated slightly.
The experience reminded Deacon Tolcher of the crucifixion.
Deacon Tolcher said jailhouse conversions are often ridiculed by the public or
make prisoners seem weak in the eyes of other inmates.
"I'll take any kind of conversion," he said.
8 inmates on death row participate in weekly Mass
At the Jackson facility, 8 inmates, 7 of them Catholic, regularly attend Mass,
held each Thursday. Priests celebrating Mass include Father John Adamski and
Father Richard Tibbetts.
The inmates are often worried about their family members, and Deacon Tolcher
said they pray regularly for them and for the loved ones of victims. In a
sense, family members are additional victims of violence, he said.
There have been 57 men executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty in 1973. Georgia's only female on death row, Kelly
Gissendaner, is set to be executed Feb. 25 for planning and convincing her
boyfriend to murder her husband. She is imprisoned at Lee Arrendale State
Prison in Alto.
Recently, Deacon Tolcher offered to meet with 2 more death row inmates as a
spiritual director.
The deacon is often asked how he can manage the emotional weight of prison
ministry, particularly working with those on death row.
"How can I not do that?" he answered.
(source: The Georgia Bulletin)
FLORIDA:
Death Penalty Sought in Bradenton Killings
Tampa Bay area prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty for a man
accused of killing 3 people.
Assistant State Attorney Art Brown said he sent the death penalty notice to
Andy Avalos' attorney on Wednesday.
Avalos is charged with 1st-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Amber
Avalos, neighbor Denise Potter and pastor James "Tripp" Battle.
Brown said he looked at "aggravating factors" in the crimes when considering
the death penalty.
Officials said Avalos killed his wife and neighbor, then shot the pastor at his
church.
(source: The Ledger)
***********
Death-penalty defendants Donald Smith, Randall Deviney get new lawyers
2 Jacksonville men facing the death penalty have new lawyers after an appeals
court removed the public defenders from the cases at their request.
Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper on Friday appointed attorney Julie Schlax as the
new attorney for Donald James Smith. Smith, 58, is charged with abducting,
raping and murdering 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
Schlax was special assault director for the State Attorney's Office and
departed when Angela Corey replaced Harry Shorstein as state attorney in 2009.
She has been a defense lawyer since then.
Cooper appointed veteran defense attorney Jim Hernandez on Thursday to
represent Randall Deviney. Deviney, 25, is accused of slitting the throat of
65-year-old Delores Futrell.
Smith and Deviney were both originally scheduled to go on trial in January but
their trials were delayed due to uncertainty over whether the Public Defender's
Office had a conflict of interest representing both men.
Deviney said he has information on another murder that Smith committed and
wrote several letters to prosecutors and media saying he'd reveal all he knew
if prosecutors would drop the death penalty against him and allow him to get
out of prison at some point in his life.
Prosecutors said they had no interest in talking with Deviney and implied they
didn???t think he was telling the truth. Both Cooper and the prosecution said
the Public Defender's Office had no conflict since authorities weren't going to
talk with Deviney.
But the appellate court decided the public defenders had to be taken off both
cases because a conflict existed with representing both men even if authorities
chose not to act.
Smith and Deviney have no money, so their new attorneys will be paid with
taxpayers' funds via an hourly rate set by the state.
It will likely take Schlax and Hernandez months to get up to speed on the
cases. New trial dates for both men have not yet been set.
(source: Florida Times-Union)
ALABAMA:
Company says it didn't sell execution drug to Alabama
Officials with a company identified in state court filings as a supplier of a
drugs used in executions said Thursday that, according to their records, the
manufacturer did not sell the drug to Alabama.
"We have no evidence of a direct purchase of midazolam from the state of
Alabama, and records we have received from wholesalers indicate no shipments of
Akorn midazolam product to the state of Alabama," wrote Dewey Steadman,
director of investor relations for Illinois-based drug manufacturer Akorn, in
an email to The Star on Thursday.
State court filings this week suggested that Akorn is the manufacturer of
midazolam the state plans to use in lethal injections, and referred to Akorn's
drug manual twice as "the manufacturer's package insert." The drug was used in
botched executions last year in Oklahoma, Arizona and Ohio.
Steadman said Thursday that the company "strongly objects" to the use of its
products in executions. He said the company won't sell its products directly to
prison systems, and will restrict the sale of its products to distributors who
"use their best efforts" to keep these products out of prisons.
It was the 1st time Akorn has commented on the controls it uses to keep its
drugs from being used in executions. For nearly a year, death penalty opponents
have asked Akorn to put such controls in place, but the company remained
largely silent on the issue until Thursday.
Restricted sales
Steadman wrote that the wording used in the state's filing "is a disclosure
attached to all labeling pulled directly from our website and is not present in
printed labeling shipped with our products. If the state was trying to make an
argument based on the label, any company's midazolam label could serve as an
exhibit as they all are the same."
Company records show no sales of the drug midazolam to Alabama, Steadman said,
speaking by phone Thursday.
"That's not 100 % guaranteed, but that's from the records that we've received
from our wholesalers," Steadman said.
Steadman added Akorn's share of the market of that drug was 1 % in the 1st
quarter of 2014.
Steadman also wrote that at least 8 other companies make midazolam. One of
those, a U.S. company, suspended all drug manufacturing in 2013. Still 2 other
U.S. company Steadman named have denounced the use of its drugs in executions,
and have taken steps to limit that use. Another drug maker listed, based in
Germany, no longer ships drugs used by prisons in executions.
Another company on Steadman's list is banned by the FDA from importing the drug
into the U.S. from its Mumbai facility, and a London-based company in 2013 said
it would begin restrictions on those sales as well.
Joy Patterson, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said Thursday
there would be no comment from the office to questions about which company
supplies Alabama with the drug.
Lethal injection in Alabama
Uncertain sources
Alabama held its last execution in 2013. Numerous legal challenges from inmates
claim that new drugs used in lethal injections could cause unnecessary pain and
violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
European drug makers have largely stopped selling the lethal drugs to U.S.
prisons, and Alabama switched to using pentobarbital as the 1st drug in a
3-drug protocol. Under pressure from death-penalty opponents, drug makers
curbed sales of pentobarbital for use in executions, causing many states to
switch to new combinations of drugs. Alabama plans to use midazolam as a
substitute.
In 2014 a state representative presented an Alabama House committee with a bill
that would make the identity of death penalty drug suppliers secret. The
lawmaker said he wanted to protect drugmakers from "blowback" from death
penalty opponents. He proposed the bill at the request of corrections
officials, and acknowledged that the identity of drug manufacturers isn't
currently protected by law. Alabama law states that "every citizen has a right
to inspect or take a copy of any writing of this state ... except as otherwise
provided by statute."
Still, prison officials at the time rejected requests by The Anniston Star and
other newspapers for information on the state's death penalty protocol, saying
it was not released as a matter of department policy.
Asked why Akorn remained silent after pressure both in the U.S. and
internationally from death penalty opponents asking the company to set
safeguards against the drug's use by prison systems, Steadman said it came down
to staffing. The company at the time wasn't large enough to employ people able
to communicate with the media, he said. He was hired in November.
Akorn did not respond to calls from the British newspaper The Guardian in July
2014 after midazolam was used in a botched execution in Oklahoma. The newspaper
claimed at the time that Akorn appeared to have no controls regulating sale of
the drug to wholesalers who could then sell to prison systems. "People respond
to pressure," said Esther Brown, director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death
Penalty, an Alabama group that advocates for the end of capital punishment.
"Often people maybe haven't thought things through. That they are responsible.
That there's no such thing as an innocent bystander," Brown said.
Brown applauded Akorn's newly announced policy, and said as more companies set
such guidelines, others will be forced to as well.
Steadman said Akorn's safeguards were already in place informally before they
were announced Thursday.
"It's something that the company has always believed, but had never
formalized," Steadman said. "Now is as good a time as any."
(source: Anniston Star)
OHIO----new execution date
Execution set for Ohio man who killed cellmate
A man serving time in a southwestern Ohio prison for a 1978 West Toledo robbery
and murder faces execution Jan. 12, 2017, for brutally murdering his cellmate
19 years later.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday set the date for the lethal injection of
James Galen Hanna, 65, for stabbing cellmate Peter Copas, 43, in the eye and
bludgeoning him with a sock containing a padlock at the Lebanon Correctional
Institution in 1997.
Copas died nearly 3 weeks later.
Hanna has exhausted his state and federal appeals.
The sole dissent in setting a date came from Justice William O???Neill, a death
penalty opponent who routinely refuses to schedule executions.
In a letter sent to an inmate at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, Hanna
called Copas, who was serving a sentence for corruption of a minor, a "maggot
baby-raper-killer." He bragged that he "made him suffer pretty good" as he
repeatedly stabbed him with a knife fashioned from a paintbrush and beat him
for 2 hours until morning head count.
"He lived for 20 1/2 hours after that before he croaked," he wrote.
Hanna was in the prison in Warren County serving a life sentence for the murder
of Edward V. Tucker, 18, who was working his 1st solo night shift at a West
Toledo convenience store.
A recent high school graduate, Mr. Tucker planned to study chemistry that fall
at the University of Toledo.
Hanna stabbed him numerous times and then turned on the district manager who
surprised him by walking in on the morning robbery. Harvey W. Blitz, then 26,
also was stabbed numerous times but survived. Hanna was convicted of attempted
aggravated murder in that case.
Ohio executions are currently scheduled to resume in early 2016 and continue
into 2017 at the pace of roughly 1 a month. Gov. John Kasich imposed a
moratorium on executions through this year because of the state's continuing
struggles to acquire its preferred execution drugs as well as pending
execution-related litigation.
Hanna is a defendant in the pending challenge in federal court to Ohio's death
penalty process, but he has not been granted a stay of execution.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Hanna's conviction and death sentence in 2013,
prompting Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell to request the setting of
a date.
(source: Toledo Blade)
*******************
3 to face death penalty in Uniopolis murder
3 men were indicted this week in the June slaying of an Uniopolis man beaten to
death inside his home.
All 3 will face the death penalty, Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce said
Friday.
Aaron M. Dietrich Sr., 26, of Wapakoneta, Joseph R. Furry, 30, of Van Wert, and
James P. Dinsmore, 28, all are charged with 2 counts of aggravated murder and 1
count each of aggravated burglary, kidnapping and intimidation of a witness.
The arrests come this week, about 8 months into a lengthy investigation,
Auglaize County Sheriff Al Solomon said.
(source: limaohio.com)
**************************
Judge Throws Out Ohio Inmates' 'Kafkaesque' Lethal Injection Lawsuit
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by 4 death row inmates who
challenged an Ohio law that shields the names of companies providing lethal
injection drugs.
The inmates argued the new law violates free speech rights, contending in part
that the measure restricts information that helps inform the public debate over
capital punishment. Their attorneys have sought to stop provisions from taking
effect in March.
But U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost ruled Tuesday that the inmates lacked
standing, saying their challenge was not tied to "actual or imminent injuries."
Attorneys for the state had requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.
In a filing last month, Ohio's attorneys argued that nothing in the law
infringes on prisoners' First Amendment rights or affects their ability to
argue issues in court. They said the law denies inmates access to information
in the state's hands, which is not the same as suppressing free speech.
Frost sided with the state in his decision. He wrote that the law does not
suppress speech or the ability to oppose the death penalty.
"Rather, the statutory scheme simply cuts off Ohio and its employees as a
source of specific information for both proponents and opponents of the death
penalty," the judge said.
The inmates also allege the restrictions treat them differently than other
groups, arguing that state lethal injection expert witnesses could have their
identity shielded under the law, while defense witnesses wouldn't get the same
protection. The state has disputed the unequal treatment allegation.
Frost noted that the dismissal "unquestionably handicaps" related litigation
over Ohio's execution protocol.
"In order to challenge the use of a drug that will be used to execute them,
inmates must explain why use of that drug presents a risk of substantial harm,"
he said. But he acknowledged that inmates aren't allowed to know where the drug
came from, how it was manufactured or who was involved in its creation.
"A proponent of Kafkaesque absurdity might be proud of such a byzantine method
for pursuing the protection of a constitutional right, even if the drafters of
the United States Constitution might not," Frost wrote.
Supporters of the new law say shielding the names of companies that provide
lethal injection drugs is necessary to protect drugmakers from harassment and
ensure the state gets supplies of the drugs.
Ohio executions have been on hold since a troubling 26-minute execution a year
ago during which a prisoner getting a first-ever two-drug combo repeatedly
gasped and snorted.
The state has ditched that 2-drug method and said it will use 1 of 2 different
anesthetics in the future, neither of which it has on hand and both of which
may be hard to find.
Attorneys for the inmates say there is no evidence whatsoever of companies
being harassed.
The lawsuit was filed in December on behalf of Ohio death row prisoners Ronald
Phillips, Raymond Tibbetts, Robert Van Hook and Grady Brinkley.
Cleveland attorney Timothy Sweeney, who represents Phillips, said they will
appeal the decision.
"This extreme law needs to be fully evaluated by the courts prior to its
implementation," Sweeney said in a written statement.
(source: Associated Press)
***********************
Anthony Apanovitch's 3 decades on death row another argument for ending the
death penalty
In 1985, Anthony Apanovitch was sentenced to death in Ohio for the rape and
murder of Mary Anne Flynn, a young nurse-midwife. Last week, after spending 30
years on death row, he was granted a new trial.
His case is yet another lesson in why the death penalty makes no sense -- for
the accused, for taxpayers, or for the families of victims.
Death penalty cases arouse the strongest emotions and generate the greatest
uproar. A dreadful crime creates horror and fear in the public and grievous
suffering in the victim's family. There is intense pressure on police and
prosecutors to find the perpetrator and get a conviction. But when the state
seeks the penalty of death -- the 1 punishment that is irreversible -- there is
a need for certainty that is at odds with the outrage of the public and the
pressure on prosecutors.
In 1993, with Apanovitch nearing execution, his attorneys prepared a clemency
video appeal for then-Gov. George Voinovich that presented evidence withheld by
the state and not considered by the courts. They asked me to narrate it.
Because the U.S. Court of Appeals accepted a last-minute plea for
reconsideration, the video was put on hold pending its decision. No one
expected the appeal to sit on the court's docket for the next 10 years.
That court's eventual finding led to further litigation, time-consuming motions
and hearings, a claim of destroyed evidence on the part of the state --
evidence that magically appeared later -- withheld DNA evidence and a report
from an expert witness eventually shown to be incomplete. All of this kept the
case in the system for many more years.
The video, never submitted to the governor, was evidently shown to some of
Flynn's family. In 2007, they asked me to apologize for using my "time, talent
and good name to get a guilty man out of prison."
Claiming that a DNA test had "proved that Anthony Apanovitch and nobody else
was the stalker/rapist/murderer" of their sister, the angry and frustrated
Flynns complained that I "and a lot of other people were duped." Among the
others they listed "the second-guessers -- the anti-death penalty crowd that
portrayed Apanovitch as a victim; The Cleveland Plain Dealer and their
often-wrong-but-never-in-doubt editorials; and even a Catholic priest enlisting
school children in a letter-writing campaign for a new trial."
Understanding their feelings, I responded to the Flynns that I was sorry for
what happened to their sister and for the pain they had suffered. I explained I
had not heard about the DNA test results and would check into it. But, I said,
I could not apologize "for calling to the attention of the governor and the
authorities the untested and unconsidered evidence that may have argued for Mr.
Apanovitch's innocence. I believe that in these cases every piece of evidence
has to be carefully considered before one makes a determination of guilt or
innocence."
Last week, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Robert McClelland ruled in the
matter of the murder of Mary Anne Flynn. He acquitted Apanovitch on one count
of rape, dismissed a second rape count and removed the rape specification from
the murder charge. What remains is a charge of murder and a charge of burglary.
Because the facts have changed from the original trial and a DNA test actually
excludes Apanovitch, the judge concluded he is entitled to a new trial. The
judge also agreed to set bond, which means Apanovitch could be released pending
the new trial.
For 30 years, the Flynn family has lived with nearly unendurable pain while
those in charge of our system have struggled to justify killing Anthony
Apanovitch.
Meanwhile, Apanovitch has remained in prison, living under the threat of
imminent death while asserting his innocence. At one point, he was 5 days from
execution.
Since 1976, when the United States reinstated the death penalty, 150 death row
inmates have been exonerated: Their convictions have been overturned and they
have been set free. The rate of exonerations has increased in recent years,
with DNA testing and careful reinvestigation repeatedly revealing wrongful
convictions.
It is too soon, even after 30 years, to call this case resolved. But it is not
too soon to say that the death penalty system is a failure. In fact, it is long
past time for us to declare that the death penalty does not serve the interests
of society, the interests of victims, or the interests of justice.
(source: Opinion; Mike Farrell, who portrayed B.J. Hunnicutt on M*A*S*H, is
president of Death Penalty Focus and author of "Just Call Me Mike; A Journey to
Actor and Activist" and "Of Mule and Man."----cleveland.com)
WEST VIRGINIA:
Death penalty bill introduced in House
A bill to reinstate the death penalty in West Virginia has been introduced in
the House of Delegates.
House Bill 2855, introduced by Delegates John Overington, Marty Gearheart,
Steve Westfall, Rupie Phillips, Geoff Foster, Eric Householder, Saira Blair,
Ron Walters and Michael Moffatt,calls for a person convicted of first degree
murder to face the death penalty in certain circumstances, including if the
victim was a member of law enforcement.
West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1965, but the last execution was
in 1959. Previous attempts by the Legislature, as recently as 2011, to
reinstate the death penalty were rejected.
(source: Charleston Daily Mail)
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