Aug. 26
TEXAS----new execution date
Gustavo Garcia has been given an execution for Feb. 16, 2016; it should be
considered serious.
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----10
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----528
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
11---------September 29-------------Perry Williams--------529
12---------October 6----------------Juan Garcia-----------530
13---------October 14---------------Licho Escamilla-------531
14---------October 28---------------Christopher Wilkins---532
15---------November 3---------------Julius Murphy---------533
16---------November 18--------------Raphael Holiday-------534
17---------January 20 (2016)-----Richard Masterson--------535
18---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------536
19---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------537
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
GEORGIA:
Warner Robins man wins battle to leave death row
A Warner Robins man fighting to leave death row won that battle Wednesday.
Roger Collins, who was the second longest-serving inmate on Georgia's death row
in early 2015, was resentenced in Houston County Superior Court by Judge George
Nunn to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The resentencing followed mental evaluations requested by both the prosecution
and defense attorneys that found Collins suffers from mental retardation. The
law prohibits the execution of mentally retarded people.
The option of a life sentence without parole was not an option for the court.
The former Warner Robins city sanitation worker was under a death sentence for
nearly 38 years. At least twice his execution was ordered but then stayed.
Collins was convicted and sentenced to death for the Aug. 6, 1977, rape and
slaying of a 17-year-old girl in a pecan orchard near Kathleen. He was 18 then.
He was convicted of bludgeoning DeLores Luster with a car bumper jack after he
and another man raped her at knifepoint. William Durham, who was dating
Collins' mother at the time, was sentenced to life for the murder and rape. A
3rd man, Johnny Styles, who waited in the car after the rape while Luster was
killed, was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.
Collins originally told Houston County sheriff's investigators that he and
Durham both struck Luster with the jack but later told authorities he confessed
to that because Durham told him to, and he never struck her. He admitted to
dropping the jack out of a moving car afterward and discarding her clothes in a
convenience store dumpster, according to his statement included in the case
file in Houston County Superior Court.
In 1991, a Butts County Superior Court judge remanded the case to Houston
County Superior Court on the mental retardation issue after a forensic
psychologist found that Collins had an IQ of 66. But a trial to determine
whether Collins was mentally disabled never took place.
In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of mentally retarded
people but left up to each state how determinations of mental capacity are
made. Georgia is the only state that requires the defense to prove mental
retardation beyond a reasonable doubt. The standard has stood up under appeal.
Collins' case languished for more than 20 years until Decatur-based Watchdogs
for Justice petitioned the Attorney General's Office in September 2012 to
intervene. The nonprofit group asked that the death penalty be vacated for a
life sentence with the possibility of parole.
In January 2013, Houston County Chief Deputy Assistant District Attorney Dan
Bibler wrote a letter to Nunn about the need to get the case moving and
requested a new psychiatric evaluation of Collins. State attorneys who
represent people charged in capital cases mounted a defense to prevent
prosecutors from challenging Collins' 1991 diagnosis of mental retardation and
asked Nunn to vacate the death sentence for a life sentence with the
possibility of parole. Nunn declined. The prosecution???s mental evaluation was
completed in late July of this year.
"A diagnosis of mental retardation ... is based on significant deficits in
intellectual and adaptive functioning, which are evident beginning in childhood
or adolescence," according to the evaluation performed for the prosecution,
which was included in the court record.
Bibler said Wednesday that while Collins was convicted of a brutal murder, the
prosecution has to abide by the law, which prohibits the execution of a person
deemed mentally retarded.
"I have no misgivings about it," Bibler said.
Amber Pittman, the lead capital defender representing Collins, could not be
reached for comment.
(source: Macon Telegraph)
NEBRASKA:
Death penalty supporters turn over 166,000 signatures
Death penalty supporters turned in petitions Wednesday to the Secretary of
State's office to be verified. They say the have almost 167,000 signatures,
enough to suspend repeal and put death penalty before voters next year.
It appears voters in Nebraska will have the final say on the future of the
death penalty.
Supporters of the death penalty in Nebraska said they turned over 166,692
petition signatures Wednesday, which if verified, would suspend the repeal of
capital punishment in the state until the issue goes before voters in November
2016.
Nebraskans for the Death Penalty needed about 57,000 verified signatures -- 5
% of the state's registered voters -- to put the issue to a vote and about
114,000 -- 10 % of registered voters -- to stop the repeal from going into
effect until after the 2016 vote takes place.
Standing in front of boxes and boxes of signed petitions at a Wednesday news
conference, state Sen. Mike Groene said Nebraskans -- the 2nd house -- will
now have their say.
State Treasurer Don Stenberg, state Sen. Beau McCoy, and Vivian Tuttle, mother
of Evonne Tuttle, who was killed in 2002 during a bank robbery in Norfolk, were
at the news conference. Stenberg and McCoy co-chaired the petition drive.
Groene, of North Platte, and Tuttle said they gathered more than 1,700 and
1,900 signatures, respectively.
Groene said people "flocked" to sign petitions.
The group began collecting signatures June 6, and paid circulators and
volunteers spent every day since circulating petitions in all counties across
the state. McCoy said over 1/2 of the 595 petition circulators were volunteers.
Organizers of the petition drive said they expected to have no problem meeting
the additional threshold of signatures from 5 % of registered voters in at
least 38 counties. Petitions, they said, include signatures from 10 % of
registered voters in 70 of the state's 93 counties.
In May, Nebraska made international headlines when the Legislature voted 30-19
to override Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto of LB268, introduced by Omaha Sen. Ernie
Chambers, which repealed the death penalty. The count included votes to repeal
cast by senators who identify as conservative. One of the senators who worked
hard to gather repeal votes in the Legislature was Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash,
who identifies himself as a conservative Republican, and who is also Catholic.
Ricketts and his father, Joe Ricketts, have been reported as the largest
individual financial contributors to the campaign, which had raised $652,000 by
the end of July, as reported to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure
Commission. At the last filing with the commission, the governor and his father
had contributed at least $300,000.
The Judicial Crisis Network, a group committed to the U.S. Constitution and to
limited government, contributed $200,000 on July 27.
Nebraskans for Public Safety, which favors repeal of the death penalty, had
raised $433,500 as of the end of July. About $400,000 of that came from the
Proteus Action League of Amherst, Massachusetts, a civil rights and social
action advocacy group.
Another group, Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, is closely
monitoring the initial results of the death penalty referendum
signature-gathering campaign and will await an official decision from the
Nebraska Secretary of State's office, the group said in a news release.
"Just like the legislators they elected, we believe the more Nebraskans learn
about the failures of capital punishment, the more they will be inclined to get
rid of it," said the Rev. Stephen Griffith, incoming executive director of the
organization.
Griffith said that while it looks like the pro-death penalty group got
signatures from 10 % of registered voters, it appears to have failed to attract
broad-based financial support because Gov. Pete Ricketts, his father and a
handful of their associates provided the bulk of funds.
"It is evident that grassroots Nebraskans have already rejected the death
penalty with their pocketbooks," Griffith said.
During the next 14 months, he said, Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty will continue to do what it has done for 3 decades: Have conversations
with Nebraskans across the political spectrum about why capital punishment has
failed in the state.
Matt Maly, coordinator for Nebraska Conservatives Concerned About the Death
Penalty, said he's sure Nebraskans who learn about capital punishment will turn
against it.
"Once our state's Second House learns all of the facts, we are confident they
too will reject our broken death penalty," Maly said.
The petitions will go to Secretary of State John Gale's office, where they will
be counted, separated by county and numbered, and then sent to local officials
for verification.
Local election officials in each county will verify whether the signer is a
registered voter. Each signature will be compared with voter registration
records.
Those officials must return the verified petitions to the secretary of state
within 40 days after receiving them, although an additional 10 days can be
granted in unusual circumstances. The secretary of state will then review the
petitions and total the number of valid signatures. If there are sufficient
valid signatures, he will certify the measure for the general election ballot.
Attorney General Doug Peterson will write the ballot question or title that
summarizes in 100 words or less the purpose of the measure. He will also
provide material that explains the effect of a vote for or against the measure
to appear on the ballot.
If the language is not challenged in court, a pamphlet written and produced by
the secretary of state that contains the ballot title and arguments for and
against the measure will be made available to voters at least 6 weeks prior to
the election.
Public hearings on the measure will be conducted in each congressional district
within 8 weeks prior to the election.
(source: Lincoln Journal Star)
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