Jan. 21
TEXAS:
New info cast light on execution of 17-year-old murderer Joseph John Cannon
New information in the case of Joseph John Cannon, being revealed for the 1st
time today, casts a fresh look at the murder trial that reached the Supreme
Court, prompted reaction from the Pope, and caused a nation to debate executing
someone who committed at crime at age 17. If Cannon was alive today, he would
have turned 56 on January 13, 2016. But on April 22, 1998 the 38 year-old ate
his last meal. Cannon ordered "fried chicken, barbecue ribs, baked potato,
green salad with Italian dressing, chocolate cake or chocolate ice cream or
both, a thick chocolate shake or malt and iced tea."
The meal was delivered in the afternoon, not long after he entered a holding
room located about 30 feet from where he was set to die. While eating, little
did Cannon know that 160 miles away, at the State Capitol, Texas Governor
George W. Bush had received pleas from Pope John Paul II at the Vatican,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa, and members from the Parliament in
Italy, to stop the execution. About 3 p.m. Warden Jim Willett reviewed the file
of Cannon, known as inmate 634. Willett said he prayed for Cannon and asked
"God to make this a smooth and trouble-free day for him." By 4 p.m. Willett
entered the holding cell to find that Cannon had completed his meal. He
verified that Cannon would make a last statement as this would help the warden
cue the execution's commencement. Chaplain Jim Brazel stayed with Cannon while
Willett went back to the office.
Wayne Scott, the director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, along
with a few regional and deputy directors waited with Willett until about 5:45
when they received a phone call from Gov. Bush's office confirming they could
proceed. Shortly afterwards, the State's attorney general's office called to
ratify the execution. Willett walked down to hall to the cell holding Cannon
and the chaplain.
"Inmate Cannon," Willett announced, "it's time for you to go into the next room
with me."
Cannon stood up and followed Willett without saying a word. When Cannon reached
the doorway to the 9-by-12-foot death chamber, he paused. No one knows what was
going through Cannon's mind at the moment, but what he saw was a tie down team
of corrections officers waiting for him in the light green room with white
floors and brown coving. He immediately walked to the gurney and laid down. The
team began strapping Cannon in place with 5 yellowish-tan straps buckled across
him. Looking up, he could see a 2-by-6 foot rectangle fixture crossing over
him, casting light. As the straps began to tighten, he observed to the left of
the light. Coming out of the ceiling, was a dark escutcheoned conduit bent to
the right and downward so a microphone could record his last words.
Looking downward to his left, Cannon saw the executioner's room through a
window. He closed his eyes and gazed to his right. There were 2 curtained
windows, both with light green colored jail bars. Each window represented 2
separate rooms, 1 for his family, and 1 for the victim's family to watch him
being executed.
Knowing Cannon was securely strapped, Warden Willett stood at the head of the
inmate, while the chaplain stood at his feet. 2 members of the medical team
entered the room, while the third member, the executioner, stayed in the room
to Cannon's left. Typically, the medical team takes about 5 to 10 minutes to
insert and secure 2 IVs into an inmate, with 1 serving as a backup. Willet and
the chaplain could tell the medical techs were having difficulty as the female
tech prodded and poked Cannon's arm.
Later, Willett would admit it was the longest IV preparation he'd ever
witnessed. It took over 20 minutes before the technician peered up and asked,
"Warden, I think we've got a good one in this arm. Can we go with just the 1?"
Willett nodded affirmatively and the technician left the room. Cannon gazed at
the IV in his arm and looked right to see people entering the 1st witness
viewing room. Through the window, Cannon saw his mother. He looked at her with
no expression. When someone nudged her she moved in closer to the plate glass
window.
Cannon then looked over to the next window as members of his victim's family
entered their viewing room. It was the 1st time some of them had seen Joseph
John Cannon since the day he brutally murdered their mother.
The 5 sons of Anne C. Walsh noticed the man strapped to the gurney appeared far
different from the way he looked in 1977. After spending decades in prison,
Cannon was now haggard and weighed far more than when he was 17, the age he
decided to leave his home in Houston to hitchhike to Las Vegas, Nevada.
In September 1977, the teenage Cannon thumbed a ride as far as San Antonio
where he was soon arrested on a burglary charge. He was given a court-appointed
attorney, Dan Carabin, who secured probation for Cannon. Knowing he was
homeless, Carabin called his sister, Anne Walsh, also an attorney, to discuss
the situation. Mrs. Walsh, the mother of 8, had teenage children living at her
home on North Babcock Road and decided to allow Cannon to stay with them while
they helped him locate a job.
The teenagers found Cannon to be somewhat socially awkward, but kindly invited
him to various social events and family activities. Walsh's 13-year old son
became especially alarmed after a few nights of Cannon staying in their home.
He later told an investigator assigned to the case that Cannon had threatened
his family.
It was a week into Cannon's stay with the Walsh family, on Sept. 30, 1977, that
Cannon called Mrs. Walsh's brother, his attorney Dan Carabin. It was about 9:30
a.m. and Carabin had clients in his office, but took Cannon's call. The
teenager wanted to know how he was going to pay him or his sister for staying
in their home. Carabin, testified that this question didn't make much sense
because there had no talk about Cannon having to pay them anything. He told
Cannon he would call him back after he finished with the clients in his office.
When he returned the call about an hour later, no one answered the phone at his
sister's house.
At about 10:30, Stephani Walsh, Anne's daughter went to her mother's office to
trade their cars. After agreeing they would meet at home for lunch, Stephani
drove off in her mother's stationwagon, leaving her 1974 white Ford Maverick
for her mother.
Shortly afterwards, Anne Walsh drove home and saw Cannon trimming bushes near
the entrance to her property with a sickle. She rolled her window down and
Cannon walked toward her.
"That's looking good Joseph," commented Walsh. "I am going to make some
sandwiches. Why don't you wash up and come in to get a bite and something to
drink to cool off for lunch?"
Later, downtown in an interrogation room of San Antonio Police Department,
Cannon told Homicide Detective Frank Castillon that he guessed he "just went
crazy...The next thing I knew was that Anne was on the floor of the den crying
and saying ???please don't shoot again???" and I don't know why but I kept
shooting."
As Anne Walsh cried for him to stop, Cannon shot her 3 times in the chest, 1 in
the center of the abdomen, once in her head and 2 in her arms.
"While I was shooting her she crawled under the pool table. I then pulled her
out from under the pool table and ripped her clothes off," Cannon continued as
he explained he attempted her rape her dead body. ???I then got up and pulled
up my jeans and went to the kitchen where I found Anne's purse on the counter."
Cannon kept the gun while he gathered money and prescription drugs from Mrs.
Walsh's purse. He ran outside to the white Maverick and sped off almost hitting
a car on Babcock Road. Reserve Deputy Constable Robert Wenzel was driving by
the Walsh home when he saw Cannon get into the Maverick. Through his rear view
window, Wenzel saw the Maverick traveling erratically behind him. It soon sped
past him and Wenzel gave chase.
A bartender, Kenneth Kizer in "Al's Corner" bar, saw Cannon crash into a
chainlink fence, get out and run across the street to a brushy wooded field at
Babcock and Huebner Road. Kizer called the police as he noticed Cannon throwing
his shirt down. About 20 minutes later, Cannon walked into the bar and bought a
Coke. When Cannon heard police vehicles approaching, he tried to escape but
Wenzel restrained him until officer Shelton Spears arrived. When Spears
discovered Cannon was not the owner of the wrecked vehicle, he took the
teenager to the Walsh home where he found Anne Walsh lying in a pool of blood.
During his 1980 trial in Bexar County before Judge Mike Machado, Cannon was
assigned a court appointed attorney, William Brown. Private investigator Jack
Dennis was hired by Brown and the Sheriff's Department to assist in the case.
Dennis was asked to track down Cannon's mother and any other family member who
might be helpful to the investigation. After a few days of tracing Mrs. Cannon
who was thumbing rides with truck drivers in truck stops along Texas highways,
Dennis found her in a dance hall at the western city of Odessa and brought her
back to San Antonio.
On the return trip, Mrs. Cannon detailed her son's troubled history. At age
four, Joseph was hit by a car and remained in the hospital for almost three
months. Doctors told her Joseph had sustained brain injury. Mrs. Cannon said
Joseph could barely talk "to where no one could even understand him until he
was around 5 or 9."
"He was also hard to handle and caused so much trouble that the schools would
not keep him," Mrs. Cannon maintained. "He even broke one little girl's arm.
That was, I guess, the last straw."
As Dennis was able to gain more trust on the ride back, Mrs. Cannon revealed
several bombshells. When Joseph was nine, and they were living in Louisiana, he
pushed a boy into a bayou where he drowned. Before age 16, he had been arrested
6 times on burglary and theft charges. She blamed Joseph's violent tendencies
on shocking reasons, including the brain injury.
The other 2 explanations were family oriented. Mrs. Cannon admitted she had a
big problem with relationships and that was why she traveled from truck driver
to truck driver often. Although she???d been married and had several longer
lasting relationships, she had a tendency to choose violent men. Some of these
men had viciously and sexually abused Joseph. She then became very emotional
and revealed a family secret that has never been publically revealed until this
article.
Joseph's mother said her own father had kidnapped her from her Houston
residence after she was ran way as a teenager. Her father took her to his home
in south Texas. He chained her to a tree or post and repeatedly raped her.
"I think my father, his grandpa, may be Joseph's father," Mrs. Cannon sobbed.
"It was after he let me go, that I found out I was pregnant with Joseph."
When Mrs. Cannon revealed this to Joseph's attorney, William Brown, at his
Tower Life Building office in San Antonio, he advised her to keep that
information to herself unless she could prove it. He also asked Dennis to
locate Mrs. Cannon's father, Joseph's grandfather so he could question him.
Several days later the old man came to Brown's office and admitted his grandson
"was crazy, but I think she (his daughter) is crazier and don't believe
anything she tells you because everything out of her mouth is a lie."
Brown elected not to have the grandfather testify at the 1980 trial. Cannon
pleaded insanity with Brown presenting psychologists and other experts to
testify to his low intelligence and mental instability.
During a mid-morning break in Judge Machado's court, a bailiff and Dennis
remained with Cannon in a holding room in the courthouse to keep from sending
him back and forth from the Bexar County Jail. Cannon was sitting across a
table from Dennis, when he suddenly admitted that a couple of nights before he
murdered Walsh, "I woke up in the middle of the night feeling real sick and I
could see like bubbles floating around. Something inside my brain kept telling
me to kill everyone in the house that was sleeping."
When Cannon saw Dennis and the bailiff look at each other in surprise, he
followed up with "I don't know what was wrong with me. They were all very nice,
very good to me. They were helping me. They were good people. I just don't know
why I was thinking that way."
The inmate then asked for a pencil so he could draw something. Cannon asked
Dennis if he could tell what his drawing was. Dennis said it was a lightbulb.
Cannon laughed as he sketched 2 lines to make it appear like someone was
bending over exposing their buttocks.
"It's magic," Cannon giggled and then tried to stab Dennis with the pencil.
Dennis wrestled the pencil from Cannon as the bailiff ran to help restrain the
inmate. "You are not treating me right and I will kill that DA (District
Attorney) motherfxxxxr."
The bailiff and Dennis went into the judge's chambers to explain what had
occurred. When court was back in session the bailiff testified for the record
about the threat to the district attorney. Mrs. Cannon testified about Joseph's
violent childhood. The jury sentenced him guilty and to death.
Cannon was granted a second trial in 1982, with new attorneys and was again
sentenced to death. Because Cannon was 17 when he killed Anne Walsh, his case
worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. His attorneys argued Cannon should
be spared because international law sets 18 as the minimum age for executions.
The high court rejected the appeal without dissent.
Laying strapped in the death chamber gurney in 1998, Cannon could see a dozen
people peering at him through the plate glass window. In what was intended to
be his last statement, he mumbled something no one could understand. He then
closed his eyes for a moment and suddenly turned back to the witnesses.
"It's come undone," he said.
A prison official shut the draped curtain to block Cannon from the witnesses.
"His blood vein blew. He's doing fine. They're just going to restart it,"
Chaplain Brazel told them. Awkwardly, the 2 groups of witnesses were escorted
outside while the prison medical technicians attempted to establish another
injection. It took about 15 minutes before they were led back into the rooms.
"I kind of lost my cool a while ago," a smiling Cannon greeted the returning
witnesses. He could see his mother and friends crying and praying for him. He
peered over to the adult children of Anne Walsh and spontaneously gave last
attempt of his final statement.
"I'm sorry for what I did to your mom," Cannon stated. "It isn't because I'm
going to die. All my life I have been locked up. I could never forgive what I
done. I am sorry for all of you. I love you all. Thank you for supporting me. I
thank you for being kind to me when I was small. Thank you, God. All right."
Warden Willett gave the signal to the medical technician who released the first
solution, sodium pentathol into Cannon's veins to shut down his central nervous
system. This was followed by pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant causing his
diaphragm to stop. When Cannon let out his last breath, potassium chloride
flowed through the line to end his heartbeat. After several minutes, Willett
called the doctor in to pronounce him dead. It was 7:28 p.m., 70 minutes from
the time Cannon was originally escorted from his holding cell to the death
chamber.
The witnesses were then led outside separately where Cannon's mother fainted
and was taken to a nearby hospital to be examined. Moments later, the family of
Anne Walsh came out. When a reporter asked the sons for a comment, Christopher
Walsh simply responded, "Job well-done, end of story."
Note: Jack Dennis, the writer of this article, was the private investigator in
the first trial of Joseph John Cannon in 1980.
(source: The Examiner)
*************
Death row inmate convicted in Houston murder becomes Texas' 1st 2016 execution
A Texas man put to death Wednesday for a killing 15 years ago became the busy
death penalty state's 1st prisoner executed in 2016.
Richard Masterson, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m., 25 minutes after the
lethal injection began.
"I'm all right with this," he said. "Sometimes you have to live and die by the
choices you make. I made mine and I'm paying for it."
He said he was being sent "to a better place."
He mouthed a kiss to relatives and friends who were watching the execution
through a window and told them he loved them. As the pentobarbital took effect,
he began snoring. After about a dozen snores, he stopped moving.
Masterson had claimed the January 2001 strangulation of Darin Shane Honeycutt
was accidental and had several appeals before the courts, including 4 with the
U.S. Supreme Court. His last-day efforts to stop his execution were rejected.
Texas is the nation's busiest death penalty state, having carried out 13 lethal
injections in 2015, which accounted for nearly 1/2 of the 28 executions
nationwide.
Masterson had testified at his trial that the death of the 35-year-old
Honeycutt in Houston happened accidentally during a chokehold that was part of
a sex act. The 2 had met at a bar and then went to Honeycutt's apartment.
Honeycutt was an entertainer who performed dressed as a woman. Honeycutt's
stage name was Brandi Houston.
No family members or friends of Honeycutt witnessed Masterson being executed.
Court records showed Masterson confessed to police, told others about the
killing and acknowledged Honeycutt was slain on purpose in a letter to the
Texas attorney general in 2012.
"I meant to kill him," Masterson wrote to then-Attorney General Greg Abbott,
who is now the state's governor. "It was no accident."
Evidence showed Masterson stole Honeycutt's car, dumped it in Georgia, and was
arrested at a Florida mobile home park more than a week later with another
stolen car. That car belonged to a Tampa, Florida, man who testified he was
robbed by Masterson but survived a similar sex episode where he was choked.
Masterson's attorneys argued Honeycutt's death was accidental or the result of
a heart attack, that a Harris County medical examiner whose credentials have
been questioned was wrong to tell jurors it was a strangulation, that
Masterson's earlier lawyers were deficient and that his prolonged drug use and
then withdrawal while in jail contributed to his "suicide by confession" when
he spoke to police and in the letter to Abbott.
Lawyers also contended trial jurors were given an incomplete instruction before
their deliberations and that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied
Masterson his rights to due process and access to the courts by refusing their
challenge to a new state law that keeps secret the identity of the provider of
pentobarbital that Texas prison officials use for lethal injections.
State lawyers argued that Masterson's attorneys offered no scientific evidence
about Honeycutt's death that hadn't been previously raised and rejected,
including by jurors at Masterson's 2002 trial. Federal courts had no
jurisdiction in the execution drug secrecy because it was a state matter, they
contended.
Masterson had a long drug history and criminal record beginning at age 15.
Court documents showed he ignored advice from lawyers at his trial for the
killing and insisted on telling jurors he met Honeycutt at a bar and they went
to Honeycutt's Houston apartment where Masterson said the chokehold was part of
an autoerotic sex act.
Honeycutt's body was found Jan. 27, 2001, after friends became worried when he
failed to show up for work.
Masterson also told jurors he was a future danger - an element they had to
agree with in order to decide a death sentence was appropriate.
Masterson's case recently drew the attention of Pope Francis, who has
reinforced the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment.
At least 8 other Texas death row inmates have executions scheduled for the
coming months, including 1 set for next week.
(source: ABC news)
**************
As Supreme Court Clerk, Ted Cruz Made Death Penalty His Cause
The memos of Supreme Court clerks evaluating death row petitions usually
consist of a brief review of the facts and then a dispassionate legal analysis
as to whether the court should hear the case.
Not so for Ted Cruz.
Mr. Cruz, the most ardent death penalty advocate of Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist's clerks in the 1996 term, became known at the court for his
signature writing style. Nearly two decades later, his colleagues recall how
Mr. Cruz, who frequently spoke of how his mentor's father had been killed by a
carjacker, often dwelled on the lurid details of murders that other clerks
tended to summarize before quickly moving to the legal merits of the case.
"That, I think, was a special interest of his," said Renee Lerner, then a clerk
for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who said she was impressed with how deeply Mr.
Cruz delved into the facts and history of a murder case. "It was unusual for a
Supreme Court clerk to do that."
Other clerks, however, had a less admiring view. In interviews with nearly two
dozen of Mr. Cruz's former colleagues on the court, many of the clerks working
in the chambers of liberal justices, but also several from conservative
chambers, depicted Mr. Cruz as "obsessed" with capital punishment. Some thought
his recounting of the crimes - "dime store novel" was how one described his
style - seemed more appropriate for a prosecutor persuading a jury than for a
law clerk addressing the country's 9 foremost judges.
Melissa Hart, who clerked for one of the liberal justices, John Paul Stevens,
said Mr. Cruz's memos on death penalty appeals basically boiled down to
"frivolous, meritless, deny," and added that his writing approach "made a lot
of people really angry."
In Mr. Cruz's time as a Supreme Court clerk, a coveted step in a legal career
that he had meticulously plotted out, he showed his now familiar capacity to
infuriate colleagues. He also worked hard to please his boss, delved into the
nuances of constitutional law for long, grueling hours and sought to smooth
over harsh feelings at clerk happy hours.
But when he left, he was most remembered by his fellow clerks for his fervor
for capital punishment cases, a cause that would define his legal career and
help him break into politics.
"I believe in the death penalty," Mr. Cruz wrote in his book "A Time for
Truth." As he saw it, it was his duty to include all the details and "describe
the brutal nature of the crime."
"Liberal clerks would typically omit the facts; it was harder to jump on the
moral high horse in defense of a depraved killer," he wrote.
As Texas solicitor general from 2003 to 2008, 5 of Mr. Cruz's 8 appearances
before the Supreme Court were death penalty cases, including his successful
advocacy for the preservation of the death penalty for a Mexican citizen
convicted of raping and murdering 2 teenage girls. That case became a talking
point in his campaign for Senate, just as his eye-for-an-eye sense of justice
appeals to voters looking for a tough president.
Mr. Cruz's path to the Supreme Court started early. As a member of a group
called the Constitutional Corroborators, a teenage Mr. Cruz recited the
founding document across Texas. At Princeton, he wrote his undergraduate
thesis, titled "Clipping the Wings of Angels," on the Ninth and 10th
Amendments. At Harvard Law School, he sought work as a researcher for
ideologically diverse professors, among them Alan M. Dershowitz, whose
recommendations carried weight with the justices. He landed a clerkship at the
federal appellate court in Virginia with Judge J. Michael Luttig, a top feeder
to the Supreme Court's conservative justices who was often mentioned as a
potential one himself.
Judge Luttig engendered enormous loyalty from his clerks, who sat behind him as
he wrote multiple drafts of an opinion over 20-hour days. But the ideological
and intellectual connection between Mr. Cruz and Mr. Luttig also had an
emotional element.
In 1994, a carjacker murdered Mr. Luttig's father in Texas. (The carjacker was
executed in 2002.) When Mr. Cruz began clerking for the judge the next year,
the wound remained raw. "Something that horrible creates some personal bond,"
said John Wood, another clerk for Mr. Luttig who went on to clerk for Justice
Clarence Thomas.
(Mr. Cruz and Mr. Luttig, now an executive at Boeing, declined to be
interviewed.)
Mr. Cruz became devoted to Mr. Luttig, whom Mr. Cruz has described as "like a
father to me." During his clerkship, he presented his boss with a caricature of
him and other clerks pulling a stagecoach driven by the judge. According to
someone who saw the illustration, there was a graveyard behind them with
headstones representing the number of people executed in their jurisdiction
that year.
Mr. Cruz's careful planning paid off when, at 25, he began a clerkship with
Chief Justice Rehnquist, well known for his support of the death penalty.
When Mr. Cruz began his one-year term, the number of executions in the country
was surging, reaching a peak of 98 in 1999 (last year, 28 people were put to
death). Only months earlier, President Bill Clinton, who faced a coming
election in a tough-on-crime era, signed into law a bill that curbed the number
of habeas corpus petitions by death row inmates.
Mr. Cruz, a decorated college debater with a contentious streak, clearly loved
his time in a workplace rife with ideological differences. In the glass-encased
room of the cafeteria where clerks could discuss cases in confidence, he
sharpened his arguments. Playing basketball in the building's "highest court in
the land," he said "my bad" to the colleagues he elbowed wildly on his way to
the hoop. He organized a poker game with conservative clerks, and in the
courtyard, he participated in the weekly happy hour, with alternating chambers
taking on catering duties. (Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's clerks impressed with
fajitas. Justice Thomas's clerks did not with cereal.)
Neal Katyal, a clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer who went on to become the
principal deputy and later acting solicitor general of the United States under
President Obama, said he had befriended Mr. Cruz on their 1st day at the
cafeteria. He said that it was "superfun" debating politics and law with Mr.
Cruz, and that they had also hit the library with legal pads together and
discussed life, love and "who we wanted to spend our lives with."
But Mr. Cruz mostly had time for Chief Justice Rehnquist. Mr. Cruz and he
played croquet together, and on Thursday mornings, Mr. Cruz struggled through
doubles matches with the tennis-loving chief and his 2 other clerks. (So as not
to disappoint his boss, Mr. Cruz had taken lessons before officially starting
the job.)
In honor of Chief Justice Rehnquist's 25th year on the court, Mr. Cruz helped
hold a reunion of his 70-plus former clerks. Among them was John G. Roberts
Jr., the current chief justice, whom Mr. Cruz now laments as a traitor to the
conservative cause for his 2 opinions upholding the Affordable Care Act.
Instead, Mr. Cruz has suggested that, as president, he would appoint to the
Supreme Court a more "rock-ribbed" conservative like "my former boss Mike
Luttig."
Clerks for liberal justices expressed the strongest distaste for Mr. Cruz's
death penalty memos, and sometimes made their antipathy known. Several clerks
for conservative justices said that while they usually agreed with his
conclusions, his writing needlessly provoked the death penalty opponents
working at the court. Those clerks declined to be quoted criticizing Mr. Cruz,
however, saying they did not want to anger someone who could become the next
president.
The year Mr. Cruz and the others clerked, many of the roughly 80 cases taken up
by the justices made major news. For a case about the constitutionality of a
law regulating Internet pornography, Mr. Cruz watched X-rated sex scenes on a
computer with Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O'Connor.
There were cases about whether there was a constitutional right to assisted
suicide, whether gun regulations infringed on states' rights and, in Clinton v.
Jones, whether a private lawsuit against a sitting president needed to be
postponed until he left office. (The clerks knew the case would break against
Mr. Clinton as they watched his second inauguration on the Mall.)
But Chief Justice Rehnquist often gave the historic decisions to his fellow
justices to write, meaning that Mr. Cruz did not get much chance to draft
landmark opinions. According to several other clerks, he wrote the draft
decision for Ohio v. Robinette, a modest Fourth Amendment case giving the
police more latitude for searches at traffic stops.
Ms. Lerner, the clerk for Justice Kennedy, also recalled Mr. Cruz once
excitedly rushing into her office after his research revealed that a liberal
clerk had mistakenly recommended that the court hear a case based on a legal
issue that was not actually part of the case. "It's not here!" said Mr. Cruz,
whose discovery resulted in a rare (and mortifying for the clerk who made the
error) dismissal of the case as "improvidently granted."
But Mr. Cruz usually reserved his enthusiasm for his unsparing death penalty
memos or the late nights when a prisoner from the appeals circuit under Chief
Justice Rehnquist's oversight was slated for execution. On those nights, when
he was responsible for addressing the flurry of 11th-hour defense motions, he
would rouse the chief justice at home, give his recommendation, get the chief
justice's vote and then write up a memo that explained why the chief justice
had voted to deny an emergency postponement of the execution.
Per custom, Mr. Cruz, whom some clerks recalled as speaking flippantly of the
execution during those solemn nights, would circulate that memo to the other
clerks on duty, who would then call their bosses to vote on the appeal.
During one of those late-night executions, some clerks received an additional
message from Mr. Cruz on the internal email pleading for more collegiality,
especially toward him.
"We should all try and get along," Mr. Cruz wrote.
(source: New York Times)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Death penalty should be suspended in state
Editor, Citizen
Senate Bill 463-FN has been filed in the New Hampshire Senate by 2 Republican
senators and 2 Democrat co-sponsors.
New Hampshire voters are urged to contact their Senate members and ask them to
vote yes on this bill, as it will create an indefinite suspension of the death
penalty in New Hampshire until such time as a mechanism is in place to ensure
that no one who is innocent can be executed.
Since 1972, 156 death row inmates have been exonerated in the U.S. - 6 people
just in 2015.
We may never know how many more innocents are on death row now or have even
been executed. As voters, we should urge our NH senators to vote yes on this
bill.
Ilse Andrews
Coordinator, AIUSA Group 550
(source: Letter to the Editor, citizen.com)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Alleged SC church shooter facing possible death penalty
State prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty against the alleged South
Carolina church shooter, they announced Wednesday.
In a court filing released Wednesday, state prosecutors indicated that they
will be seeking the death penalty when Dylann Roof, 21, is tried in the killing
of 9 people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in June.
That more than 2 people were killed and others' lives were put at risk were
cited in the filing as the rationale for seeking capital punishment, ABC News
reported.
Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said that the decision came after "many, many
meetings" with the survivors and the victims' relatives.
"Many have expressed the need for the hope to find forgiveness in order to heal
and to move forward in their lives," Wilson said this afternoon. "We all agree
that forgiveness is an important part of the healing process, but know that
forgiveness does not necessarily mean forgoing consequences, even severe
consequences.
"Some victims, some family members of victims, because of their faith, do not
believe in the death penalty under any circumstances. Some believe the death
penalty is just too easy. It's not a religious consideration. It's a
philosophical consideration, a practical consideration," she said.
(source: ABC news)
FLORIDA:
Grand jury issues 1st degree murder indictment against Egypt Robinson; Death
penalty still an option
A Bay County Grand Jury has issued an indictment for 1st degree felony murder
and aggravated child abuse against Egypt Moneek Robinson, the woman accused of
stabbing her 3-year-old son and stuffing him in a suitcase in late December.
That leaves open the possibility of prosecutors seeking the death penalty.
Right now, prosecutors tell WJHG/WECP that no decision has been made as to
whether to seek the death penalty. But if the state attorney seeks the advice
of a grand jury in a case like this, it usually means the death penalty is
going to be sought.
The indictment comes days before a memorial service that's scheduled to be held
on Saturday for the victim, Aries "A.J." Acevedo. The service will be held at
4:30 p.m. at the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 715 MLK Jr. Blvd in
Panama City.
Robinson is accused of stabbing her son and letting him bleed to death before
stuffing him in a suitcase and putting the suitcase in a shallow body of water
behind her Callaway home. An acquaintance turned Robinson in to authorities in
the days after the killing allegedly happened.
Investigators haven't been able to rule out "ritualistic sacrifice" as a reason
for the killing.
Robinson is being being held without bond in the Bay County jail. Her next
court date is Feb. 2, 2016.
(source: WJHG news)
****************
Death Row Inmates In Limbo After Florida's Death Penalty Scheme Scrapped----A
Supreme Court ruling has left the state's judicial system with a lot of
question marks.
The 389 inmates on Florida's death row gained something last week that they
haven't had since before they were sentenced: the possibility -- however faint
-- that they won't die in an execution chamber.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida struck down Florida's death penalty
sentencing scheme as unconstitutional, ruling that a jury, not a judge, must
specify the reason a defendant should be punished with death.
Florida's sentencing scheme has been an outlier: Unlike in most states, juries
could recommend the death penalty without a unanimous decision, they did not
have to reveal to the judge which aggravating factors informed their decision,
and judges could ultimately override a jury's recommendation.
While the high court made it clear that juries must determine sentences, its
ruling leaves the fate of inmates who were sentenced under the
now-unconstitutional scheme in cloudy waters.
"It's all in the hands of the Florida Supreme Court. They could reverse every
one of those sentences. They could reverse only those currently still on
appeal," said Michael Radelet, a sociologist and capital punishment expert at
the University of Colorado Boulder. "Predicting is pretty complex, because like
all death penalty issues, it comes down to 3 things: 1 is politics, 2 is
politics and 3 is politics."
The Florida Supreme Court's ruling on a death row inmate facing execution next
month will provide clues as to how the state will handle the cases of many
inmates who were sentenced to death before the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the
state's death sentencing scheme unconstitutional.
No one knows how the Florida Supreme Court and the state legislature will move
forward with capital sentences in one of the nation's most prolific death
penalty states. Legal experts are further divided on whether the Hurst ruling
will apply to some or maybe all of those already on death row.
"There are really, really good arguments for the [state] Supreme Court to find
this retroactive," said Seth Miller, a lawyer and the executive director of the
Innocence Project of Florida.
The Florida Supreme Court decided last year that 1 previous landmark rulings on
juvenile sentencing by the U.S. Supreme Court applied retroactively to Florida
inmates who were sentenced as juveniles, Miller noted. O.H. "Bill" Eaton, a
retired Florida trial judge and death penalty expert who trains lawyers on
capital cases, agreed there was a good argument for applying the ruling
retroactively, even if just to a small group.
"It's at least retroactive to all the cases pending 'in the pipeline' --
everyone arrested or will be arrested before the new statute is passed," Eaton
said. "It could affect everybody on death row, depending on how the Florida
Supreme Court reviews the retroactivity aspect."
Florida Dept. Corrections The case of Cary Michael Lambrix could provide clues
to how Florida's Supreme Court might retroactively apply the landmark Hurst v.
Florida ruling to inmates who were sentenced to death row under a
now-unconstitutional scheme.
How Florida handles the case of Cary Michael Lambrix, who is scheduled to be
put to death on Feb. 11, may provide clues as to how the state will proceed
with the more than 140 inmates who have already exhausted their appeals at the
state level.
"We will get some hints with Michael Lambrix's execution," Radelet said. "If
the court grants relief in his case, they're going to have to grant relief in a
lot of other cases as well."
Lambrix's attorneys cited the Hurst ruling as a reason to delay the execution
and grant their client a new sentencing hearing. "The potential retroactivity
of Hurst," attorney William Hennis wrote, applies to his client's case and
"potentially to many, many other cases."
But Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi argued that the Hurst ruling does not
apply retroactively to Lambrix's case. The Florida Supreme Court declined
Hennis' motion to delay the execution, though it will hear oral arguments Feb.
2 on whether Lambrix's case is eligible for relief.
Several legal experts outlined various ways the Hurst ruling could affect
Florida's condemned inmates.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia that the
inconsistent way the death penalty was applied in various ways was
unconstitutional. Florida's response, Eaton said, was to simply knock every
death sentence down to life in prison without parole.
"The Florida Supreme Court entered an order reducing all the Florida death
sentences to life in prison to avoid transferring all the prisoners to county
courthouses for re-sentencing," Eaton said.
Teresa Reid, assistant director of the University of Florida College of Law,
pointed to a section of Florida's statutes that could potentially be
interpreted in a way that would give a do-over to anyone sentenced under the
previous scheme.
Reid noted that particular outcome is also rife with challenges.
"What if the system says, 'everyone needs a new trial'? That would create such
a thing -- there are witnesses who are dead, evidence that is gone," she said.
"It would be almost impossible to have any fair trials."
When the state legislature begins its 60-day session in March, it will have
little time to craft a new death penalty statute that passes constitutional
muster.
If it can't do this, the state will need to get rid of the death penalty
altogether, House Criminal Justice chairman Carlos Trujillo (R-Miami) told the
Miami Herald last week. "Those are our 2 options," he said.
Most experts do agree one 1 thing: Even if the Florida legislature finds a fix
to the state's death penalty system, it won't be comprehensive.
"I predict the Florida legislature will do the minimum of what they have to
do," Eaton said, noting that trial judges have urged the legislature to address
problems with Florida's death penalty for nearly 25 years. "And I predict in 10
years or less, we'll be back before the Supreme Court and a bunch of people
will be released from death row with life sentences."
Radelet said he's even more cynical about the prospect of a lasting legislative
fix.
"I would go further and say they'd just do a gloss-over repair job. If they
don't fix it, someone else will," he said. "The chickens have come home to
roost. [Lawmakers] have all these years to fiddle with it and no fiddling is
done."
(source: Kim Bellware, Huffington Post)
*****************
Sorrento killer among death penalty cases to be reviewed
In another sign of the impact of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a
key part of Florida's death-penalty sentencing system, the state Supreme Court
has issued orders allowing 6 death row inmates to file briefs about how the
ruling might apply to their cases.
This includes Eric Lee Simmons, 41, convicted and sentenced to death in the
murder of Deborah Tressler, 48, whose body was found beaten, stabbed and raped
in a wooded area in Sorrento in December 2001.
Crime scene technicians determined Tressler was murdered elsewhere and dumped
in the woods. Detectives went to the laudromat where she worked, found Simmons'
name on a piece of paper in her purse and blood stains in his car. They never
did find out where the murder took place.
The Florida Supreme Court's orders, issued Tuesday, are in cases that already
had been scheduled for oral arguments during the 1st week of February. The
orders will allow lawyers for the inmates and the state to file briefs next
week about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in advance of the oral arguments.
The Florida Supreme Court initially vacated Simmons' death sentence, imposed
shortly after his 2003 murder conviction, due to questions surrounding the
defendant's mental state and IQ. In 2014, he was re-tried and sentenced to
death again, with the sentence up for automatic review by the Florida Supreme
Court.
The review is set for 9 a.m. on Feb. 4.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, found Jan. 12 that Florida's system
of imposing death sentences was an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth
Amendment right to trial by jury because it gave too much decision-making power
to judges instead of juries.
A key question is whether - or how - the ruling might apply to people already
sentenced to death.
(source: Daily Commercial)
************
Recent death penalty ruling won't impact local cases
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down Florida's death penalty
sentencing system will not have an immediate effect on 2 pending St. Johns
County cases, the 7th Circuit State Attorney's Office has said.
The 8-1 decision, announced Jan. 12, said the sentencing system in the state's
capital cases is flawed because the ultimate decision between death or life in
prison is made by a judge and not a jury.
Under the current system, juries deliberate during the sentencing portion of
the trial and submit a recommendation to the judge. That recommendation does
not have to be unanimous, and the judge is not bound by it.
Spencer Hathaway, spokesman for the 7th Circuit State Attorney's Office, said
Tuesday that the 2 pending cases in St. Johns County aren't close enough to
going to trial that any immediate action needs to be taken in light of the
decision.
State Attorney R.J. Larizza's office is seeking the death penalty in the case
against 35-year-old James Colley Jr. A grand jury indicted Colley in September
on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the Aug. 27 shooting deaths of his
estranged wife, 36-year-old Amanda Cloaninger Colley, and her friend, Lindy
Mosler Dobbins, 39, in a MuraBella home. He is also facing 2 counts of
attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, burglary with assault or battery,
armed burglary, and aggravated stalking after injunction.
Colley is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on Feb. 3.
Prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty in the case against Sean Bush,
who is accused of killing his estranged wife, Nicole Bush, in 2011. She was
found alive in her Fruit Cove home, suffering from multiple gunshot and stab
wounds. She was taken to UF Health Jacksonville, where she later died from her
injuries.
Jury selection for Bush's trial is scheduled for April 18.
Hathaway said the high court's decision "did raise a lot of uncertainties for
the death penalty" in the state, and has already led to the postponement of
Luis Toledo's trial in the 7th Circuit.
Toledo, 34, has been charged with 2nd-degree murder in the death of his wife
Yessenia Suarez, 28, and 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of her 2
children. The mother and children were reported missing from their Deltona home
in October 2013, but their bodies have not been found. Prosecutors are seeking
the death penalty in that case.
Because of heavy media coverage, 7th Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano ruled in
December that the trial should be moved from Volusia to St. Johns County.
Jury selection was scheduled for Jan. 19, but prosecutors moved last week to
have the trial postponed, Hathaway said.
That isn't yet necessary for Colley's or Bush's cases, he said.
"Neither of them are in a trial posture in the immediate future," he said. "I
anticipate the legislature will address these uncertainties prior to them going
to trial."
But with Bush's date about 3 months off, that trial, too, might have to be
postponed if the death penalty matter isn't solved by lawmakers.
Prosecutors "will address that case as it gets closer if those uncertainties
haven't been resolved,' Hathaway said.
As for the 5 inmates from St. Johns County already sitting on death row,
Hathway said it remains unclear what the Supreme Court decision means for them.
"I think we are going to have to continue to review the decision and see how it
will be applied to the cases that have already been litigated," he said.
***
According to the Florida Department of Corrections' death row roster the 5 St.
Johns County cases are:
-- John Marquard: Convicted in 1993 for the 1991 murder of Stacy Ann Willets
near State Road 13.
-- Norman McKenzie: Sentenced to die in 2007 for murdering Randy Wayne Peacock
and Charles Frank Johnston with a hatchet in 2006.
-- James Turner: A South Carolina prison escapee. He was convicted in 2007 and
sentenced to death in 2008 for the 2005 murder of Renee Boling Howard.
-- Quentin Truehill: A Louisiana prison escapee. He was convicted and
sentenced to death in 2014 for kidnapping and murdering Vincent Binder, a
Florida State University graduate student, near Commercial Drive just off State
Road 16 in 2010.
-- Kentrell Johnson: A fellow escapee with Truehill, also sentenced to death
in 2014 for the 2010 murder of Binder.
(source: St. Augustine Record)
*****************
State Attorney Hess authors death penalty amendment----A week after the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty sentencing system unconstitutional,
State Attorney Glenn Hess of the 14th Judicial Circuit has drafted an amendment
he says will correct the system to align with the decision.
A week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida's death penalty sentencing
system unconstitutional, State Attorney Glenn Hess of the 14th Judicial Circuit
has drafted an amendment he says will correct the system to align with the
decision.
Hess, who is President of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association (FPAA),
said the amendment will address two of the main concerns cited in the Hurst v.
Florida ruling handed down by the nation's highest court earlier this month. If
the amendment is approved, juries will be required to find by a 12-0 vote that
the aggravators presented by the prosecution were proven beyond a reasonable
doubt. The vote for a death sentence would have to be by a supermajority - 9-3
or more. They also will be required to specify what aggravators were proved.
"We proposed amendments to the statute so our amendments look like Hurst." Hess
said.
The FPAA will vote on the amendments this week, Hess said, and they will be
sent to staff attorneys in the state legislature. From there, he expects the
changes to be taken up by lawmakers in a workshop by next week and hopefully
brought to a vote soon.
"Everyone seems to be hoping that the legislature can quickly pass these
changes," he said.
Florida is one of only three states, along with Louisiana and Oregon, where a
death penalty sentence could be recommended by a jury without a unanimous vote.
If the amendment passes, juries would have to present a 12-0 decision for the
death penalty in the trial???s sentencing phase.
Another change with Hess' amendment is the disclosure of what aggravators or
mitigators were found and considered by the jury in their decision. Aggravators
are factors that make an offense particularly worthy of the death penalty, like
if the crime was committed during a robbery or with a firearm. Mitigators are
factors that would promote life imprisonment such as the defendant's background
or mental disturbance.
Previously, the judge and jury could potentially find and factor in different
aggravators and mitigators when handing down a sentence, leading to conflicting
conclusions.
1 aspect of the Hurst decision not addressed by Hess' amendment is the fact
that in Florida, a judge, not a jury, has the final decision on whether the
death penalty is imposed. The jury could recommend life in prison, but
afterwards, according to Hess, as the judge reviews the aggravators and
mitigators, along with the jury's decision, they may instead settle on the
death penalty.
Hess stated the Hurst ruling does not address this particular aspect of Florida
law. However, several Supreme Court justices cited it as unconstitutional in
their decisions. Hess said it's possible lawmakers could tack on these changes
later.
"The bill the legislature might pass might very well say the judge can't
override a jury," Hess said.
With 390 inmates currently on death row, Hess said the Supreme Court's decision
likely would not open the floodgates for a barrage of appeals and inmates
hoping to have their sentence overturned or even a new trial. Ongoing cases, or
those still in appellate court, would be subject to Hurst and could potentially
be argued but Hess said any cases before 2002 would likely not be appealed.
As for the 10 inmates from Bay County on death row, Hess said "it's possible"
some of the more recent cases could be appealed.
"We have a few out there," he said. "It just depends on how far back they go."
(source: News Herald)
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