Oct. 5
TEXAS----impending execution
Texas man who killed 2 neighbors wants execution to proceed
An East Texas man who pleaded guilty to killing a neighbor couple during a
shooting rampage 13 years ago and who has said he wants to be put to death for
the crime appeared headed for execution Wednesday.
Barney Fuller Jr. has asked that all his appeals be dropped to expedite his
death sentence.
Fuller, 58, would be the 7th convicted killer executed this year in Texas and
the 1st in 6 months in the nation's most active capital punishment state.
Fuller surrendered peacefully at his home outside Lovelady, about 100 miles
north of Houston, after a middle-of-the-night shooting frenzy in May 2003 that
left his neighbors, Nathan Copeland, 43, and Copeland's wife, Annette, 39, dead
inside their rural home. The couple's 14-year-old son survived 2 gunshot
wounds, and their 10-year-old daughter escaped injury because Fuller couldn't
turn the light on in her bedroom.
Court records show Fuller, armed with a shotgun, semi-automatic carbine and a
pistol, fired 59 shots before barging into the Copeland home and opening fire
again. Fuller had been charged with making a threatening phone call to Annette
Copeland, and the neighbors had been engaged in a 2-year dispute over that.
Fuller pleaded guilty to capital murder. He declined to appear in court at his
July 2004 trial and asked that the trial's punishment phase go on without his
presence. He only entered the courtroom when jurors returned with his sentence.
Last year, Fuller asked that nothing be done to prolong his time on death row.
"I do not want to go on living in this hellhole," he wrote to attorney Jason
Cassel.
Fuller had no late change of heart, Cassel said Tuesday.
A federal judge in June ruled Fuller competent to drop his appeals. He had
testified at a hearing that he was "ready to move on."
Fuller had irritated neighbors with his frequent gunfire and was summoned to
court in 2003 to address a charge that he made a threatening phone call 2 years
earlier after complaints he shot out an electrical transformer providing power
to the Copelands' home.
"Happy New Year," he told Annette Copeland in the Jan. 1, 2001, call. "I'm
going to kill you.:
William House, 1 of Fuller's trial lawyers, said Fuller thought when he got a
court notice "that they were stirring up some more stuff and he just kind of
twisted off."
Court records showed he seethed over the court appearance and began drinking. 2
nights later, he grabbed his guns and extra ammunition clips and went to the
Copelands' home about 200 yards away.
House described Fuller as "just a strange bird" who was "very adamant" about
not attending his own murder trial.
"I think we did everything we were supposed to and did the best we could but
didn't have a whole lot to work with," House said.
A sheriff's department dispatcher who took Annette Copeland's 911 call about
1:30 a.m. on May 14, 2003, heard a man say: "Party's over, bitch," followed by
a popping sound. Annette Copeland was found with three bullet wounds to her
head.
Cindy Garner, the former Houston County district attorney who prosecuted
Fuller, described him as mean and without remorse.
"It's not a cheerful situation," she said of the execution. "I just regret that
this little, plain, country, nice, sweet family - bless their heart - moved in
next door."
Fuller's execution would be only the 16th in the U.S. this year, a downturn
fueled by fewer death sentences overall, courts halting scheduled executions
for additional reviews, and some death penalty states encountering difficulties
obtaining drugs for lethal injections.
(source: Associated Press)
******************
Texas Inmate Barney Fuller Not Challenging His Execution
Executions in the United States are generally accompanied by an element of
uncertainty, with the condemned prisoner filing 11th hour appeals all the way
to the highest court in the land and sometimes winning a reprieve at the last
minute.
That's unlikely to be the case when Barney Fuller's date with death arrives
this evening.
The Texas inmate - who admitted murdering neighbors Nathan and Annette Copeland
in front of their kids after a long-running dispute - ordered his lawyer not to
file challenges to his lethal injection.
In a letter to his attorney last year, Fuller said he he wasn't keeping track
of the status of any proceedings.
"But I also really do not care and do not want to go on living in this
hellhole," he wrote. "Do not do anything for me which will prolong my appeals
and time here on Texas death row."
During a hearing in the spring, he testified that he had no issues with his
death sentence and was "ready to move on."
"What's the point of sentencing someone to death, you know, if you're not going
to carry on through with what you ordered," Fuller said.
In an affidavit sworn almost a decade ago, Fuller's sister, using her brother's
nickname, said "Rory" was tormented by emotional "demons" from a young age.
"Rory's attempt to drop his appeals are his way of trying to escape, as quickly
as possible, from a negative situation," Robin Fuller said in that statement.
"Rory may believe he deserves the death penalty because he believes in an 'eye
for an eye,' that if you take someone's life you give your life. Mostly though,
Rory has an inability to cope with anything negative."
Robin Fuller declined to comment this week, saying the subject of her brother's
execution was too upsetting for her family.
Barney Fuller, 58, has been has been on death row since 2004, when a jury voted
for the ultimate punishment after he pleaded guilty to killing the Copelands
the previous year.
The Copelands had filed charges against Fuller after he shot up their electric
transformer, and he took revenge with an AR-15 rifle, according to prosecutors.
After firing 60 rounds into the side of their home, he stalked the couple
inside, shooting Nathan Copeland in the head and then gunning down Annette as
she dialed 911.
"Party's over, bitch," Fuller was heard saying as the shots were fired.
1 of the couple's 2 children was wounded in the rampage but survived. They were
raised by an aunt and "both bear scars and have nightmares," their grandfather,
David Copeland, told NBC News.
He said several family members plan to attend Wednesday's lethal injection,
which will be the 16th in the U.S. this year - a year that is on pace for the
lowest number of executions in a quarter-century, largely because many states
are having trouble obtaining the drugs.
Even though Fuller has waived his appeals, Copeland said that after a decade of
delays, he's not convinced there won't be another one.
"That last minute still hasn't got here," he said.
(source: NBC news)
******************************
--2 new execution dates set--
Christopher Wilkins has received an execution date for Jan. 11, 2017, and Paul
Storey has been given an execution date of April 12; both dates should be
considered serious.
(sources: MC & Rick Halperin)
************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----19
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----537
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
20---------October 5----------------Barney Fuller---------538
21---------October 19---------------Terry Edwards---------539
22---------November 2---------------Ramiro Gonzales-------540
23---------December 7---------------John Battaglia--------541
24---------January 11---------------Christoper Wilkins----542
25---------February 7---------------Tilon Carter----------543
26---------April 12-----------------Paul Storey-----------544
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Prosecutors will seek death penalty for accused killer of Candace Pickens
Buncombe County's district attorney will seek the death penalty for the man
charged with killing his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child, then
shooting her 3-year-old son and leaving him for dead in a North Asheville park.
Back in May 2016, Pickens' body was found in Jones Park by a jogger, with her
son clinging to life beside her. Police say Candace Pickens was pregnant,
allegedly with the child of Nathaniel Dixon, her accused killer.
Nathaniel Dixon is charged with 2 counts of murder and 1 count of attempted
murder for the shooting on May 11 earlier this year. Investigators say Dixon
shot Candace Pickens and her son Zachaeus late that night in Jones Park after
leaving the toddler's 3rd birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.
Dixon, 24, was arrested in Ohio on May 13, 2016, just 1 day after Pickens was
found dead with the gravely injured Zachaeus next to her. Both of them had been
shot in the face.
Family members told police that Dixon and Pickens had been dating for 5 or 6
months and were together the evening she was shot. Pickens' close friends told
News 13 that Dixon told her he didn't want the child, and was willing to do
anything to stop her from having it.
Zachaeus lost his left eye in the shooting, but recovered after multiple
surgeries.
Candace's father and stepmother, Ricky and Charlene, were invited to the
courtroom by the district attorney. They said even though Justice needs to be
served, they don't believe in the death penalty.
"She accepted (the) lord as her savior," said Ricky Pickens. "She stood up for
what she believed in. She did not believe in abortion, so if that was the main
case, and she stood up for that, then my daughter did the right thing by
standing up for what she believed in."
"Candace deserves justice for what happened to her," said Charlene. "Yesterday
we seen him for 1st time, we'd never met him before. That was shocking to us."
Ricky and Charlene are hosting a Bowl 4 Justice 4 Candace event on Saturday,
October 15 at Tar Heel Lanes in Hendersonville. There will be a raffle with
lots of donated prizes from local businesses supporting the Pickens family.
"We have gotten so many donations," said Charlene Pickens. "We're so thankful
for all of the partners around Buncombe and Henderson Counties."
(source: WLOS news)
OHIO:
A look at the death row inmates Ohio plans to execute in '17
Ohio said Monday it plans to use a new 3-drug combination of lethal chemicals
to execute 3 death row inmates in 2017.
A look at the inmates and their crimes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inmate: Ronald Phillips, convicted in Summit County.
Execution date: Jan. 12.
Crime: Phillips, 43, was sentenced to die for the rape and murder of Sheila
Marie Evans, his girlfriend???s 3-year-old daughter, in Akron in 1993. His
execution has been put on hold several times, including in 2013 when he made a
last-minute request that was ultimately denied to donate a kidney to his
mother, who was on dialysis, and possibly his heart to his sister.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inmate: Raymond Tibbetts, convicted in Hamilton County.
Execution date: Feb. 15.
Crime: Tibbetts, 59, killed his wife, 42-year-old Judith Crawford, by beating
her with a bat and stabbing her during an argument over Tibbetts' crack cocaine
habit. Tibbetts then stabbed 67-year-old Fred Hicks to death at Hicks'
Cincinnati home. Hicks had hired Crawford as a caretaker and allowed the couple
to stay with him. Tibbetts was sentenced to death for the killing of Hicks and
life imprisonment without parole for the death of Crawford.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inmate: Gary Otte, convicted in Cuyahoga County.
Execution date: March 15.
Crime: Otte, 44, shot 61-year-old Robert Wasikowski to death on Feb. 12, 1992,
and stole about $400 after asking to come inside his apartment in Parma in
suburban Cleveland to use the phone. The next day, Otte shot 45-year-old Sharon
Kostura to death in the same apartment and stole $45 and her car keys after
forcing his way inside. Otte was sentenced to death for both slayings.
(source: The Tribune)
TENNESSEE:
Supreme Court to Hear Lethal Injection Protocol Case in Nashville Oral
Arguments
The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear 6 cases October 5th and 6th in Nashville,
including a case concerning the constitutionality of Tennessee's lethal
injection protocol.
--Stephen West, et al. v. Derrick Schofield, et al.-- In this case concerning
the constitutionality of Tennessee's lethal injection protocol, 33 death-row
inmates are suing various people and entities representing the State of
Tennessee in the execution process. This case comes to the Supreme Court
straight from the trial court, as the Court used a special provision in state
law that allows them to assume jurisdiction "in cases of unusual public
importance." The Court will consider whether Tennessee's execution protocol
creates a substantial risk of a lingering death and serious harm that violates
the Eighth Amendment; and whether execution under the protocol constitutes
cruel and unusual punishment under Tennessee's Constitution.
Despite the arguments against lethal injection, some on death row say that the
courts are taking up cases about the death penalty even though they are ready
to die.
WGNS spoke to Stephen Lynn Hugueley who reportedly killed 4 people and he said
that he is ready to be executed, but the state and federal government won't
allow it to happen.
Hugueley was sentenced in 2003 and he is still alive today.
(source: WGNS news)
NEBRASKA:
Judge: Nikko Jenkins' death penalty hearing wasn't set to sway voters
A judge accused by a state senator of trying to stoke support for the death
penalty among Nebraska voters has denied the accusation.
Sen. Ernie Chamber of Omaha recently mailed a critical letter to the judge
overseeing the death penalty proceedings against Nikko Jenkins, convicted of
the 2013 spree killings of 4 Omahans. Chambers accused the judge of setting the
sentencing hearing a week after the Nov. 8 election to keep the notorious
killer fresh in the minds of voters as they go to the polls to decide the fate
of capital punishment.
Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon responded in writing to the
senator, saying the death penalty referendum had nothing to do with his court
schedule.
"Please be assured that there was no intent by this court or any of the
attorneys involved to schedule this hearing to influence in any way the vote by
the citizens of Nebraska regarding the repeal of the death penalty," Bataillon
wrote.
The judge further explained that the prosecutors and defense lawyers have
"extremely busy trial schedules this fall" and that Nov. 7 was the earliest
date available for the hearing. Bataillon said he chose Nov. 14 so the
"election week would not be a distraction."
Chambers, who sponsored the 2015 repeal legislation, said Tuesday that the
judge's explanation was "at least plausible." But he was adamant that the "ends
of justice must never be tyrannized by schedules of lawyers."
"There is no escaping the grim reality that the likely practical effect of your
action is an unwarranted, skewing impact on the upcoming vote," Chambers wrote
in reply to the judge.
Lawmakers repealed the death penalty in 2015, which ignited a petition drive by
capital punishment supporters that put the repeal on hold until voters could
decide the issue at the ballot box.
On Sept. 20, the judge declared Jenkins competent to face a death penalty
hearing for the August 2013 murders of Juan Uribe-Pena, Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz,
Curtis Bradford and Andrea Kruger. The killings took place within weeks of
Jenkins' release from prison, where he had served 10 years for carjacking.
Jenkins claims he is mentally ill, and has engaged in several acts of
self-mutilation. Some psychiatric professionals say he is bipolar or
schizophrenic, but state psychiatrists say he is acting out in an attempt to
manipulate authorities.
(source: World-Herald)
****************
38 Nebraska sheriffs voice support for death penalty
Some Nebraska sheriffs are voicing support for the death penalty in advance of
the Nov. 8 election when voters will decide whether to keep the punishment.
The group Nebraskans for the Death Penalty released a list Tuesday of 38 county
sheriffs who have endorsed capital punishment. The list was gathered at the
Nebraska Sheriffs' Association's annual meeting in Kearney.
Among those on the list are the sheriffs from Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy
counties, the 3 most populous in the state. Nebraskans for the Death Penalty
says the list is likely to grow.
The anti-death penalty group Retain a Just Nebraska released a statement on
behalf of Joe Jeanette, a former Nebraska law enforcement officer. Jeanette
says studies have shown the death penalty doesn't deter crime.
(source: Associated Press)
NEW MEXICO:
Death penalty not popular with NM juries
If one believes in the death penalty as a just punishment for murder, then
Robert Fry was deserving.
The Farmington man was 28 when he and a friend offered a ride to Betty Lee, a
sobbing, stranded 36-year-old mother of five from Shiprock in the summer of
2000. He stabbed her, stripped her, stalked her and bashed in her skull with
the swing of a sledgehammer off a lonely stretch of highway in San Juan County.
Fry's trial 2 years later was moved to Albuquerque because of the publicity it
had generated in Farmington, which is how I stumbled upon it.
It was a fortuitous stumble for a crime reporter like me because it led me to
witness the last case in which the state of New Mexico condemned a man to
death.
The shocking sentence appeared to stun everyone, including San Juan County
prosecutor Joe Gribble, who moments before the jury came back predicted that
Fry would be given the alternate sentence of life plus 46 years.
"New Mexico juries just don't like to give out the death penalty," he said.
He was right then and, 14 years later, he is right now.
For all our outrage and hand-wringing over recent horrific homicides of
innocent children, law enforcement officers and others, it's just not in our
nature to approve of state-sanctioned executions. In the 7 years between Fry's
trial in 2002 and 2009 when the state repealed the death penalty, New Mexico
has had enough heinous murders to keep an executioner busy.
Yet no other defendant has been sentenced to death. Even Fry faced the death
penalty twice more in 2 separate trials involving gruesome murders of 3
victims. Each time, jurors opted for a life sentence.
Fry and Timothy Allen, sentenced to death in 1995 for the rape and murder of a
San Juan County teenager, are the only 2 occupants on death row. Neither has a
death date. The last execution happened in 2001.
Yet here we are considering reinstating the death penalty during the special
session of the Legislature, the ongoing $50,000-a-day jamboree in Santa Fe
called by Gov. Susana Martinez last Friday to dig out the state from a huge
budget hole.
Martinez, a Republican and former district attorney whose tough on crime stance
has always been her fallback position when the going gets tough, tossed the
death penalty debate into the hastily called session, fulfilling her promise to
bring the issue out of mothballs after a spate of horrific and high-profile
killings of children and police officers. The polarizing issue is also sure to
provide enough campaign literature ammo against Democratic House and Senate
politicos who are in opposition of the bill.
But what a bill! Apparently, the session was such a surprise - called during
Balloon Fiesta week when even hotels in Santa Fe are higher priced and harder
to find - that an appropriately worded death penalty legislation could not be
crafted in time.
Instead, it appears House Bill 7 - sponsored by Rep. Monica Youngblood,
R-Albuquerque - is a dusted-off version from barbaric days of yore when it was
acceptable to use offensive words like "retarded" and humiliate a woman by
forcing her to be examined by 3 "disinterested physicians of good standing" in
the presence of a judge should pregnancy be a concern before she is put to
death. All that was included in the bill.
(Side note: Since statehood, New Mexico has sought the death penalty for a
woman only once, but jurors demurred.)
Late Monday, the House Appropriations and Finance Committee yanked out the
offensive portions of the bill and passed it on a 8-6 vote along party lines.
The bill now goes to the House floor and then onto the Senate, where it is
expected to be just as condemned as the 2 men on death row.
I suspect, though, we will not have heard the last of it.
My newspaper ran a poll that found that 65 % of New Mexicans favor reinstating
the death penalty for those convicted of killing children, law enforcement
officers or correction officers. That goes against a national survey released
this month by the Pew Research Center that found just 49 % of Americans say
they support capital punishment, a 45-year low.
And I get it. The Journal poll comes at a time when New Mexicans feel
heartbroken, helpless and enraged over recent monstrous murders. Reinstating
the death penalty, to some, must seem like a way to stem the bloodshed.
But perhaps the solution should be, among other things, one New Mexico is
actually willing to implement. If history is any indication, the death penalty
is not it.
(source: Joline Gutierrez Krueger, Albuquerque Journal
*****************
Death penalty expected to go before full New Mexico House
A proposal to reinstate the death penalty in New Mexico is expected to go
before the full House of Representatives.
The GOP-controlled House could take up the proposal Wednesday amid objections
from Democrats who say lawmakers should be spending time during a special
session to tackle the state's budget crisis.
The House Appropriations and Finance Committee recommended approval Monday of a
bill to reinstate capital punishment for convicted killers of police, children
and corrections officers.
Republican New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Legislative allies are pushing
to revive the death penalty in response to the recent killings of 2 police
officers and the sexual assault, killing and dismemberment of a 10-year-old
Albuquerque girl.
Committee members voted 8-6 along party lines to advance the bill, with
Democrats in opposition.
(source: Associated Press)
CALIFORNIA:
Former Victorville man, currently on death row, charged with '91 cold case
murder
A former Victorville man previously sentenced to death row for a 1992
kidnapping and murder was charged Tuesday with the 1991 murder of a Devore
woman, authorities said.
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department officials announced Deputy District
Attorney Denise Yoakum charged Dean Eric Dunlap, 57, with the murder of Cynthia
"C.J." White, who was 24 at the time of death.
Authorities responded to the 18000 block of Santa Fe Avenue, in Devore, on May
27, 1991, and found White dead inside a home.
"Detectives from the Sheriff's Specialized Investigations Division-Homicide
Detail responded to the location and conducted a homicide investigation,"
sheriff's officials said in a statement Tuesday. "The cause of death was
determined to be strangulation. Homicide detectives conducted numerous
interviews until all leads were exhausted and the case went cold in 1993."
The sheriff's cold case team reviewed the case in 2012 and submitted potential
evidence for DNA analysis. Dunlap was identified as the potential murder
suspect the following year. However Dunlap had been arrested on April 26, 2000,
for a kidnapping and murder in San Bernardino.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman confirmed on Tuesday that Dunlap's listed
address during his arrest was on Stoddard Wells Road in Victorville.
A jury found Dunlap guilty of various counts, including murder and he was
sentenced to the death penalty in 2006, court records show. Dunlap is currently
serving time in a California prison and will be transported to the San
Bernardino County to face charges.
Court records did not show a scheduled arraignment date for Dunlap on Tuesday.
(source: vvdailypress.com)
USA:
More states should ban the death penalty
Most of the civilized world has come to regard killing someone held in
captivity as barbaric. The death penalty has been abolished in the European
Union and 19 U.S. states. Governors in 4 states that do permit capital
punishment - Colorado, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington - have imposed a
moratorium on executions.
The rest of America is getting there. For the first time in almost 50 years,
less than half the public supports the death penalty, according to a new Pew
Research Center survey. Even states that still put inmates to death seem to be
losing the stomach for it. The United States is set to carry out fewer
executions this year than it has since the early '90s.
This November, voters in 2 very different places, Nebraska and California, will
have an opportunity to remove state-sanctioned killing from their books. (Going
the other way, a referendum in Oklahoma calls for amending the state
constitution to protect the use of the death penalty.)
The most heated battle over the death penalty has taken place in Nebraska. It's
also the most significant one, for it shows how conflicted even conservative
Americans have become over the practice. In fact, Nebraska hasn't performed an
execution in nearly 20 years. Conservatives in red states such as Missouri,
Kentucky, Kansas, Wyoming and South Dakota, meanwhile, have sponsored bills to
end the death penalty.
In Nebraska, lawmakers from both parties voted last year to eliminate the death
penalty and replace it with mandatory life in prison for first-degree murder.
Nebraska's pro-capital punishment governor, Pete Ricketts, vetoed the bill. The
Legislature overturned the veto.
Ricketts then pushed a successful petition drive to put the matter on the
ballot. Nebraskans will vote on whether to accept the Legislature's decision to
strike the death penalty and instead require life without parole.
The outcome is hard to predict. "In certain issues, particularly with a
populist strain, Nebraska is not nearly as doctrinaire conservative as people
might think," Paul Landow, professor of political science at the University of
Nebraska Omaha, told me.
Ernie Chambers, a progressive from Omaha and the longest-serving state senator
in Nebraska history, has introduced a measure to repeal the death penalty 37
times. "That kind of persistence has left an indelible mark on the issue,"
Landow noted.
In California, a ballot measure to end the death penalty failed 4 years ago.
This time, there are 2 referendums that seem at odds with each other. One would
abolish the death penalty. The other would speed up the appeals process and
thus hasten executions.
The case against the death penalty is well-known by now. Capital punishment
exposes a state to the moral horror of killing an innocent person. Over the
past 40 years, some 156 people on death row have been exonerated, many with the
help of DNA evidence.
Citing church doctrine on the sanctity of life, the Nebraska Catholic
Conference is urging voters to retain the repeal of the death penalty. One who
opposes abortion on "pro-life" grounds, its argument goes, must also oppose the
death penalty.
There's little evidence that the death penalty deters murder. That leaves the
questionable value of retribution - that erasing the monster who committed a
heinous crime will bring comfort to the victims' loved ones.
More and more survivors are countering this line of reasoning. Despite having
suffered immeasurably, they hold that executing the criminal would just add to
the toll. The state would somehow be justifying the crime of murder by
committing it.
The movement away from capital punishment is clearly gathering force. This is
one good direction in which our history is moving.
(source: The Exponent Telegram)
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