Dec. 16
KANSAS:
Kansas Supreme Court hearing arguments in Kahler death penalty case
The state high court has set aside the entire morning for arguments in the case
after Kahler was convicted in the murder of his estranged wife, 2 daughters and
his wife's grandmother in Burlingame in November 2009. He was sentenced to
death 5 years ago.
Kahler's defense team says Kahler was dealing with severe depression when he
committed the murders, and it says the death penalty is a violation of a
mentally ill defendant's Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual
punishment, so both the conviction and sentence should be wiped out. Kahler's
defense also says there were several trial errors.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, say the jury was properly instructed in death penalty
law and claims of misconduct don't hold up on appeal.
Kahler is currently 1 of 10 inmates on the state's death row. That list
includes Scott Cheever, convicted of killing Greenwood County Sheriff Matt
Samuels in 2005. It also includes Kyle Flack, arrested in Emporia three years
ago shortly after he killed 2 men, a woman and the woman's infant daughter in
Franklin County.
(source: KVOE news)
NEBRASKA:
Nebraska prisons chief gets new license for death penalty drugs, with 'no
immediate plans' to use it
Nebraska's top prison official has obtained a new license to import
foreign-made death penalty drugs but so far has taken no steps to use it.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration issued the importer's license to
Scott Frakes, director of the State Department of Correctional Services, about
2 weeks after the Nov. 8 vote that reinstated the death penalty in Nebraska.
Frakes submitted the application Sept. 22, according to documents obtained this
week by The World-Herald through an open records request.
"No new effort has been made to import lethal-injection drugs," said Dawn-Renee
Smith, spokeswoman for the Corrections Department, in response to follow-up
questions. "There are no immediate plans to utilize the (importer's) license.
The license was renewed in the normal course of business."
The detail comes about 2 weeks after the department proposed changes in how it
carries out lethal injections. Among other things, the department wants to hide
the identity of its drug supplier and allow the director to choose what drug or
combination of drugs to use.
Smith said corrections officials are focused on the lethal injection protocol
changes, which will be the topic of a Dec. 30 public hearing in Lincoln.
In 2015 the Legislature repealed the death penalty over the veto of Gov. Pete
Ricketts. But last month, 61 % of voters overturned the repeal and reinstated
capital punishment.
Ricketts has said he will make every effort to carry out the will of the
majority and proceed with the executions of the 10 men on Nebraska's death row.
Although state officials have been vague about how they intend to obtain the
drugs, the protocol changes seem designed to go through a domestic supplier,
most likely an independent compounding pharmacy. Maintaining a valid importer's
license, however, would give prison officials another option.
Nebraska's current lethal injection protocol requires the use of 3 drugs in a
prescribed sequence. State officials have twice imported drugs from India, but
the supplies expired before they could be used.
In 2015 Ricketts announced that the Corrections Department had purchased 2 of
the drugs through the same broker in India. But the state's attempt to import
was thwarted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which said one of the
drugs is no longer permitted for use in this country.
The broker, Chris Harris, has refused a demand for a refund. The Corrections
Department has not taken additional steps to acquire the drugs it paid Harris
to deliver, Smith said Thursday.
Danielle Conrad, executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska, has been a critic
of the plan to shroud parts of the death penalty protocol in secrecy. She said
the state's acquisition of a new importer's license prompts more questions than
answers.
"The bottom line is this department and this process requires more, not less,
transparency to ensure the constitutional rights of all are respected and that
Nebraska's long tradition of open government remains," Conrad said.
(source: Omaha World-Herald)
NEVADA----new death sentence
Las Vegas man who killed teen girl gets death penalty
A Las Vegas man should be executed for shooting and killing 15-year-old Alexus
Postorino inside her home, a jury decided Thursday.
It was the sentence 41-year-old Norman Belcher asked for.
Just before being convicted of 1st-degree murder a day earlier, Belcher, a
longtime felon, told District Judge Elissa Cadish he was "fine with the death
penalty."
Prosecutors said Belcher shot Alexus, the daughter of a man he thought shut him
out of an illicit drug trade, 4 times at close range while she was in her
father's bedroom.
Belcher said he preferred a solitary life on death row to being housed with
other inmates in the general population of a prison.
"We gave him something he wanted, but we felt he deserved it," said jury
foreman Jason Platner. "He might outlive it, and so be it, but he can't hurt
anybody else in the meantime."
Belcher refused to show up to court Thursday, instead sitting in jail, while
his attorneys argued for a sentence of life in prison.
The day also saw emotional testimony of Alexus's friends and family, which
brought tears to the eyes of jurors and prosecutors alike.
Alisiana Brooks had hoped to confront the killer of her "god sister," a girl
she described as a weekend rollerskating partner and sidekick in mall
shenanigans.
"I wanted to address Norman Belcher," Brooks said. "I wanted to let him know
how he changed my life. And he's a coward."
An image of Alexus flashed on a large television facing the jury. Even as a
young girl, she dreamed of becoming a lawyer so she could make a difference in
the world around her, Brooks told jurors.
"She was better than this," she said. "She shouldn't have her face up on this
screen. We were raised in a certain lifestyle, but we were determined to be
better than what happened."
Alexus lay dying as Belcher stood over her and fired perhaps the last of 4
shots into the girl's body, according to trial testimony. 2 of her wounds were
from gunshots fired at close range into her chest.
Prosecutors alleged that Belcher, also known as Norman Bates, broke into the
Postorino home in December 2010 because of a drug-related dispute with the
girl's father, who was at a casino at the time of the killing.
In the days before Alexus was gunned down, Belcher sent threatening text
messages to William Postorino, whom he thought owed him $450 for forged drug
prescriptions.
"I'm actually hoping that you don't pay me, because I then feel like I'm
following protocol," Belcher wrote in one message. "So 450 or war. An element
of surprise."
Another man who was inside the home, Nicholas Brabham, testified at the start
of trial that he recognized Belcher after he burst into the home.
Throughout trial, Belcher's lawyers suggested that William Postorino's
involvement in illicit drugs meant that anyone could have been out to rob him.
Outside of court, after jurors delivered the sentence, defense attorney Robert
Draskovich pointed to years of possible appeals guaranteed to Belcher because
of the death penalty.
"They've now guaranteed decades of litigation and more strict scrutiny of the
verdict. Norman Belcher knew this. And the state knew this ... He knew he'd
have better housing conditions, and he'd have mandatory appeals paid for by the
state. Both he and the state of Nevada were complicit in furthering the
litigation of this matter."
Chief Deputy District Attorney Giancarlo Pesci disputed the comments.
"The idea that a life without (sentence) ends the process is just not accurate
and that's a misguided approach," the prosecutor said. "It's not true that a
life without sentence ends the appellate process."
(source: Las Vegas review-Journal)
USA:
Dylann Roof Found Guilty on All 33 Counts in Federal Death Penalty Trial
Dylann Roof has been found guilty on all 33 counts in the federal trial in
connection with the June 2015 shooting at a Charleston, South Carolina, church.
He showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
Roof, who is white, was accused of fatally shooting 9 black parishioners during
a Bible study at the predominantly black Emanuel AME Church on June 17, 2015.
According to the federal indictment against him, Roof, 22, entered the church
armed and "with the intent of killing African-Americans engaged in the exercise
of their religious beliefs."
The 33 federal counts against Roof included hate crimes resulting in death and
obstruction of exercise of religion resulting in death.
The trial next moves into the sentencing phase, in which the same jury will
determine whether Roof will be sentenced to death or life in prison. That will
begin on Jan. 3.
After the reading of the verdict, the judge explained to Roof the gravity of
the sentencing phase, asking him whether he wants to reconsider representing
himself during that phase.
Roof told the judge that he understood and that he plans to represent himself
in the sentencing phase. The judge said that he will give Roof until Jan. 3 to
reconsider but that once the sentencing phase begins, the decision to represent
himself will hold.
In a statement, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said, "It is my hope that the
survivors, the families and the people of South Carolina can find some peace in
the fact that justice has been served."
Roof also faces a state trial, set for early next year, in which he may also
face the death penalty.
(source: ABC news)
******************
No Death Penalty for Man Charged in 2003 Fatal Shooting and Robbery
Federal prosecutors say they will not seek the death penalty against the man
accused in the 2003 deadly Xerox Federal Credit union shooting and robbery.
Richard Wilbern was escorted into the Federal Building Thursday morning by
guards for his court appearance.
The ground was covered with fresh snow, a stark contrast to the warm October
weather for his last court appearance.
Wilbern, a former Xerox employee is accused of robbing the credit union in
Webster and fatally shooting Raymond Batzel who was a customer in the bank at
the time.
His next court appearance is set for January 18th.
(source: twcnews.com)
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