Feb. 15
TEXAS----new execution date and impending execution
San Antonio lovers' lane killer gets 4th execution date in less than a year
A San Antonio killer this month was handed his 4th execution date in less than
a year.
Juan Castillo, who was sent to death row for his role in a 2003 lovers' lane
slaying, is now slated to die by lethal injection on May 16, according to the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Last year, his string of death dates were
called off for everything from Hurricane Harvey to a witness who recanted.
But before the setting of the most recent date, defense attorneys say they
never got to weigh in.
Instead, when the appeals court bounced the case back to the trial court in
November to examine false testimony claims, prosecutors filed a brief - and the
judge decided against Castillo one day later, according to court filings.
"It's really unusual and strange," said Amanda Marzullo, executive director of
Texas Defender Services, which is representing Castillo. "It's a clear due
process violation."
The Bexar County District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
The 36-year-old condemned man was originally convicted in 2005 of killing
teenage rapper Tommy Garcia Jr. during a botched robbery.
Castillo's then-girlfriend lured the targeted man to a secluded spot with the
promise of sex and drugs. But while the 2 were making out in his Camaro,
Castillo and another man attacked.
Wearing ski masks and carrying weapons, they dragged Garcia from the car - and
Castillo shot him 7 times in the process.
Castillo was 1 of 4 people convicted in the crime, but the only one hit with a
capital sentence. During the punishment phase, he represented himself.
He was found guilty on what would have been his victim's 21st birthday.
Last May, he was scheduled for execution, but saw the date cancelled after
prosecutors failed to give 90 days notice to the defense. In September, he was
scheduled to die, but the date was pushed back again, this time in light of the
impacts of Hurricane Harvey.
Then in November, his December execution date was canceled and his case
remanded to the trial court in light of claims of false testimony from a
jailhouse snitch.
"I described what Juan Castillo supposedly told me about the capital murder,"
former Bexar County inmate Gerardo Gutierrez wrote in 2013, according to court
records. "Juan Castillo never told me this information about this capital
murder case. This testimony was untrue about Juan Castillo. I made up this
testimony to try to help myself."
Although prosecutors argued that appeals based on the 2013 revelation were
procedurally barred and not credible, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
looked to a 2009 decision mandating that - whether or not it's intentional -
the use of false testimony violates due process. Accordingly, on Nov. 28, the
appeals court sent the case back to Bexar County.
There, the trial court on Dec. 1 decided that Gutierrez's testimony wasn't what
made the difference in Castillo's conviction, as everything he testified to
matched statements from other witnesses. The decision came one day after the
judge voluntarily recused himself and was replaced.
Although the prosecution was able to file its recommended findings before the
court ruled, the defense was not able to do the same.
Now, Castillo's defense has plans to file a motion for reconsideration,
Marzullo said.
The next scheduled execution in Texas is Thomas "Bart" Whitaker, a Sugar Land
man convicted in a murder-for-hire plot to kill his own family. If his appeals
fail, the 38-year-old will be the fourth Texas man executed this year.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
****************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----30
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----548
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
31----------Feb. 22----------------Thomas Whitaker--------549
32----------Mar. 27----------------Rosendo Rodriguez III--550
33----------Apr. 25----------------Erick Davila-----------551
34----------May 16-----------------Juan Castillo----------552
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
*******************
Death Watch: Justice for Whom?----Kent Whitaker never wanted execution for his
son
Thomas Whitaker is up for execution next Thursday, Feb. 22. Whitaker, 38, was
convicted of capital murder for conspiring to kill his brother and parents in
December of 2003. He had arranged for his family to go out to dinner. When they
returned home, a gunman was set up in their house. Chris Brashear shot and
killed Whitaker's mother and brother; his father, Kent, was shot in the chest
but survived. Fort Bend County prosecutors secured a life sentence for Brashear
but sought the death penalty for Whitaker, who they said concocted the plan to
collect on a 7-figure inheritance - a figure Kent Whitaker maintains was
sharply exaggerated and beside the point; his son had been suffering from
mental illness.
Whitaker has lived a relatively consequential life in the last 5 years on death
row. In 2013, he filed a joint lawsuit with Michael Yowell and Perry Williams
that questioned the purity of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's
then-current stock of pentobarbital (the state's execution drug of choice). The
case was originally dismissed for Whitaker and Williams because neither had
been issued an execution warrant at the time. (Yowell was also unsuccessful,
and executed with the state's 1st known dosage of compounded pentobarbital.)
But in 2015, the Attorney General's Office agreed the state should retest
Whitaker and Williams' doses shortly before their executions. The next summer,
Williams saw his execution date withdrawn after the state failed to procure
test results on his dosage (or that's what the TDCJ told the general public).
Meanwhile, Whitaker's case is currently pending in the U.S. Supreme Court,
where justices are set to conference on Feb. 23, 1 day after his scheduled
execution. Whitaker will request a stay to allow the justices time to
conference.
Whitaker is currently represented in those efforts by Maurie Levin, and on
clemency by James Rytting and Austin attorney Keith Hampton. In January,
Hampton and Rytting filed a request with Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board
of Pardons and Paroles on the specific grounds that Kent Whitaker never wanted
his son to be executed (indeed, he lobbied for a life sentence at trial) and
would not be brought any form of closure, healing, or justice through his
surviving son's execution.
Texas has already killed 3 people this year, including William Rayford and John
Battaglia over the past 3 weeks. Whitaker would be the 4th. There are 2 more
inmates on the Huntsville calendar at this time: Rosendo Rodriguez III on March
27 and Erick Davila on April 25.
(source: Austin Chronicle)
*******************
Texas prison system stalls release of public information on
executions----Earlier this month, defense lawyers claimed Texas was botching
its executions with old drugs. Now, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
has stalled the release of information on how many lethal doses the state has
and when they expire.
The cloud of secrecy surrounding Texas executions has grown a little darker
lately.
After death penalty defense lawyers claimed the state's first 2 executions of
the year were botched because of old lethal injection drugs, the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice has stalled the release of public information
regarding the state's supply of lethal doses. Without providing a reason, the
department told a Texas Tribune reporter last week that it would take an
estimated 20 business days - until the day before the state's next scheduled
execution - to provide information on how many lethal doses the state has and
when they expire.
In the past, the records have been provided in 1/2 the time, and even that
could be unlawful. The Texas Attorney General's Office handbook on the state's
public information law says that a governmental body must produce public
information promptly, without delay. The handbook says it is a "common
misconception" that agencies can wait 10 business days before releasing the
information, as the Department of Criminal Justice has regularly done in the
past regarding execution drugs.
"There's absolutely no excuse," said Joe Larsen, a lawyer who serves on the
board of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. "The only reason
they're doing it is to cause problems ... to delay the story."
Asked for comment about the prolonged waiting period, TDCJ spokesman Jason
Clark said Wednesday that the department fully complies with the Texas Public
Information Act and that inventory logs of execution drugs are expected to be
released this week, instead of the previously estimated date of Feb. 21. The
Tribune requested the information Jan. 23.
9 days later, lawyers for death row inmate John Battaglia filed a last-minute
appeal before his execution claiming that the state's previous 2 executions
used old, relabeled drugs for the lethal injection that likely caused 1 inmate
to say he felt burning and the other to jerk on the gurney. Clark denied the
executions were botched, saying both men lost consciousness almost immediately
and were pronounced dead 13 minutes after being injected with pentobarbital,
the drug Texas currently uses in executions.
Battaglia lost the appeal, and during his execution he sighed and said, "Oh,
here, I feel it," according to The Dallas Morning News.
The defense lawyers said in the appeal that the drugs used this year were more
than a year past their "beyond-use date," similar to an expiration date. (The
lawyers also claim the beyond-use dates set by the state are "unscientific" and
not viable). One batch of drugs was previously set to expire on Jan. 22, but
more than a month ago, the drugs were re-tested and given a new expiration date
of November, according to the Battaglia appeal. The TDCJ has said it doesn't
discuss specifics on the current inventory of its execution drugs, but this
testing has happened at least one other time in the past year, since it last
reported a purchase of pentobarbital.
According to TDCJ records received by the Tribune last year, drugs set to
expire in July were removed from stock, and, on the same day, the same number
of vials were added back to the inventory with an expiration date set for
exactly one year in the future.
"They haven't gotten any new drugs, and they just appear to keep extending the
beyond-use date," said Maurie Levin, one of the lawyers on the Battaglia filing
who is involved in multiple lawsuits regarding Texas execution drugs. "The
thinking is they're only getting older; it's only going to get worse."
Now, the public release of information on the drugs has been stalled. For a
year, the prison system provided inventory logs and expiration dates to the
Tribune regularly, releasing the information exactly 10 business days after it
was requested, often just before 5 p.m.
Justin Gordon, head of the attorney general's office's open records division,
said government bodies can't wait out the clock to release public information.
Agencies must release the information "promptly," which in most cases is sooner
than 10 days, he said. He said the most common reasons agencies give for a
delay is because a large request requires a lot of time and compilation or
because the department is handling requests chronologically and has not yet
gotten to a request yet, even if it's straightforward.
Gordon said his division hammers home to those who repeatedly wait until the
last minute to provide records that they aren't giving good customer service
and can't expect requesters to cooperate with them. He said an unnecessary
delay "just ends up backfiring, in our experience."
The Tribune filed a complaint to the Attorney General's Office against TDCJ's
repeated delays Monday.
State Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and chairman of the chamber's
Criminal Justice Committee, said through his chief of staff that he has
questioned TDCJ about delays in execution information in the past and that the
department has cited security reasons.
The chairman of the Texas House Corrections Committee, state Rep. James White,
R-Hillister, said he has no reason to believe the department would delay the
release out of hostility or without legal advice.
"I don't see any reason why they would purposefully wait until the 11th hour or
withhold this unless they have a lawful reason to do it," White said.
A precedent of secrecy
The Tribune has tracked Texas' execution drug supply for about a year while
states around the country struggle to find lethal doses to carry out
executions. Though there has not been a shortage of drugs reported in Texas in
several years, the state is always looking for new doses. The prison system is
currently embroiled in a legal fight with the federal government over the
attempted overseas import of another drug used in executions.
In 2015, state legislators passed a law to cement an existing practice of
shielding the identities of all people involved in executions, from the drug
supplier to the one who inserts the needle. In lobbying for the law, the
attorney general's office said suppliers reported being threatened by death
penalty opponents and wouldn't sell to the state anymore unless their
identities were kept confidential. The existence of any such threats has been
disputed.
White opposed the new secrecy law, 1 of only 2 Republicans to do so during the
2015 session. He said Tuesday that he wasn't known as a cheerleader for the
press, but transparency in government is important. In a statement in the House
Journal explaining the reason for his 2015 vote, he said potential threats
against drug suppliers do not mean the government can butcher accountability
and transparency.
"What if there is an abortion provider or someone connected to an abortion
provider doing indigent women's health services that receives threats?" he
wrote. "Could they also ask for anonymity?"
The state is now appealing to the Texas Supreme Court lower court decisions
that called for the release of supplier information before the secrecy law was
enacted. Texas' most recent order of compounded pentobarbital came from an
unknown supplier last February, and it's unknown how long the same supplier had
been providing drugs to the department.
The most recent records on Texas' inventory came from legal filings from
lawyers with clients facing imminent execution. If the drugs set to expire in
January were all given a new beyond-use date, there would likely be 12 lethal
doses in the state's supply, more than enough for the 4 executions scheduled
through May. But that number can't be confirmed because the department has yet
to provide the inventory logs.
(source: Texas Tribune)
DELAWARE:
Kathy Jennings running for attorney general----Democrat joins growing field for
soon-to-be-vacant seat
As state prosecutor, in 2013, Kathy Jennings helped then-Attorney General Beau
Biden craft the 1st draft of a piece of gun legislation that limits access to
firearms for those who present a danger to themselves or others.
5 years later, Jennings is now 1 of 3 Democrats who have announced their
candidacy for attorney general and Gov. John Carney is supporting the most
recent version of the legislation.
"There's no question it's the right bill," Jennings said Jan. 17.
It's still early in the 2018 election cycle, but the race for attorney general
is shaping up to be the most interesting statewide competition. Attorney
General Matt Denn, a Democrat, announced in August he would not run for
re-election in 2018. He has held the position since 2015.
In addition to Jennings, Democrats Timothy Mullaney of Dover and LaKresha
Roberts and Chris Johnson, both of Wilmington all say they may seek the seat.
Mullaney is a former U.S. marshal and the Department of Justice chief of staff.
Roberts was Delaware chief deputy attorney general before resigning from her
position a couple of days after Jennings to pursue the soon-to-be vacant seat.
Johnson is an attorney and voting rights advocate who is running on a platform
of justice-based reform.
Wilmington Republican Thomas Neuberger has also expressed interest in the seat.
Neuberger is an attorney and is currently representing the widow of Lt. Steven
Floyd Sr. and 5 other prison staff held hostage during a prisoner siege at the
James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in February 2017. Floyd was killed during
the siege.
As of Feb. 8, Mullaney was the only person to file election paperwork, which he
did Jan. 29.
Jennings, who also served as chief deputy attorney general under former
Attorney General Charles Oberly, said she welcomes the field of candidates. It
gives everyone an opportunity to focus on the issues, she said.
Jennings said she is in favor of bail reform, because the current cash-based
system unfairly targets the poor. She said she's supports House Bill 204,
modernizes pretrial detention and bail by reducing reliance on monetary
conditions.
Jennings also said people who are sent to prison need to be equipped to make an
honest living after their sentence is up.
Jennings said she is not a proponent of the death penalty, but as attorney
general she would be required to enforce the law if it were reinstated in
Delaware.
In August 2016, the state Supreme Court ruled Delaware's capital punishment law
is unenforceable because the law, without a unanimous jury's consent, allows a
judge to rule a crime's aggravating circumstance justifies a death sentence.
In May 2017, a bill reinstating the death penalty passed through the House.
House Bill 125 would require that a jury must determine unanimously that at
least one statutory aggravating circumstance exists before the death penalty
can be imposed.
If the General Assembly chooses to reinstate the death penalty, Jennings said
she would recommend narrowly defining what crimes would trigger its use.
"The worst of the worst," she said.
The deadline for candidates to file for a statewide office and all other
offices is noon, Tuesday, July 10.
The statewide primary election is Thursday, Sept. 6. The deadline to register
to vote in the primary is Saturday, Aug. 11.
The statewide general election is Tuesday, Nov. 6. The deadline to register to
vote in the general election is Saturday, Oct. 13.
(source: Associated Press)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Allen hearing focuses on his psychological state
A hearing for death-row inmate Scott Allen continued Tuesday with testimony by
expert psychologists.
The defense hopes to get Allen's death sentence reduced to life in prison by
showing that mitigating circumstances presented in the original trial in 2003,
when he was sentenced by a jury to the death penalty, were inadequate.
Allen was convicted of the July 1999 murder of Chris Gailey on a secluded trail
in the Uwharrie National Forest. Smith's 1-time girlfriend, Vanessa Smith, had
been arrested along with Allen, but she testified against him under an
agreement with the prosecution in exchange for her own murder charge to be
dropped.
Monday's defense witnesses had attempted to throw doubt on Smith's credibility,
portraying her as abusive toward Allen, becoming vindictively jealous when he
began dating another women.
Taking the stand Tuesday during the hearing, presided over by Superior Court
Judge Brad Long, were Dr. John Warren, an examining psychologist, and Dr. Kris
Herfkens, a neuropsychologist. Both said their evaluations of Allen showed a
man with no major mental disorders but who had used poor judgment in some of
his life decisions.
Warren told Nick Vlahos, assistant N.C. attorney general who heads the
prosecution in the hearing, that he "didn't have information (on Allen) for a
nexus between a personality disorder and capital murder." He also described
Allen as "an average 30-year-old male with no problems with major mental
disorders. He used poor judgment ... suggested by his history ... (such as)
drug abuse with cannabis by his history that was in remission by
incarceration." Warren also ruled out any personality disorder.
Herfkens testified that she found Allen to have ADD (attention deficit
disorder), which, she said, "can interfere with relationships" and prevent a
person from achieving his potential. "There was evidence of problems all the
way through school, developmental problems," she said.
When asked by defense attorney Margaret Lumsden if the factors in Allen's
history were mitigating factors in sentencing, she said, "Yes."
Lumsden presented Herfkens with affidavits by family and friends of Allen that
were used as mitigating factors. After each affidavit was read, Lumsden asked
Herfkens if she thought they were mitigating factors and Herfkens said "yes" to
almost every one. Then Lumsden asked what the jury had checked beside each
affidavit and Herfkens said each time, "No."
"Do you see these materials supporting mitigating factors?" Lumsden asked.
"Absolutely," replied Herfkens.
"How did the jury mark them?"
"No."
Lumsden told Long that she had new material to address with Herfkens that would
be lengthy. So Long decided to adjourn a few minutes early before beginning
again Wednesday morning.
(source: The Courier-Tribune)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Here is how firing squads work in the only state to use them in modern history
On June 18, 2010, convicted double-killer Ronnie Lee Gardner was strapped into
a chair in a special room on the grounds of a Utah state prison with his head
held by a halo brace while a prison employee pinned a white, circular target
over his heart.
Minutes later, a firing squad of law-enforcement volunteers let loose a volley
of .30-caliber Winchester rifle shots from 25 feet away, killing Gardner
quickly.
He was the last person in the nation to be executed by a firing squad. No other
state has employed a firing squad in at least 4 decades.
But some lawmakers in South Carolina and elsewhere want to use firing squads
again. They're determined to bypass the legal and practical logjams that have
cut off the supply of lethal-injection drugs as well as controversy over
botched executions.
"At this point, the firing-squad bills seem to be more of an expression of
frustration by death-penalty proponents at the inability to carry out
executions," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty
Information Center, which collects data on executions but takes no position on
capital punishment.
He said firing squads is a "false issue" in this state "because there is nobody
imminently facing execution."
Yet Rep. Joshua Putnam, an Anderson County Republican, disagrees with that
notion.
Putnam last week filed a bill to allow the use of a firing squad in South
Carolina executions, which are currently to be carried out using
lethal-injection unless an inmate chooses the electric chair.
A bill pending in the Senate would allow the state to use the electric chair if
lethal injection is not available regardless of the inmates' choice. Another
pending bill would make secret the source of the drugs used in lethal
injection, though a judge could open that identity to legal discovery upon a
finding of good cause.
South Carolina has not executed anyone since 2011 - because of ongoing appeals.
Officials say the state's supply of lethal-injection drugs have expired and
they cannot get any more because drug companies have refused to sell them if
they are to be used in executions.
"A firing squad sounds barbaric - it sounds inhumane, I'm guessing," Putnam
told The Greenville News last week, "but if you look at the data, it paints a
whole different picture."
Dunham said firing squads have fewer botched executions than other means but
they also have been used less in recent decades.
Only 3 states use them as an alternative to lethal injection, according to his
organization: Utah, Oklahoma and Mississippi. The vast majority of those
executed in Utah since the 1850s have died from firing squads.
Their initial use in Utah has been traced to a past Mormon belief in blood
atonement, the spilling of blood to atone for certain heinous crimes. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints no longer accepts such beliefs.
Utah inmates can select a firing squad as their means of execution, though it
was stopped in 2004 then brought back as an alternative in 2015.
A state manual unearthed by MuckRock.com and confirmed by the state's prisons
agency lays out the details of how firing squads work there.
A month before the execution, the prison system assembles a planning team and
selects the 5 firing-squad volunteers plus 2 alternates. Each are
law-enforcement officers, and each must pass a proficiency test at the rifle
range, firing at a target of the same size as the one used in executions from a
minimum of 21 feet. To qualify, the officer must hit the target at least once.
The manual calls for the use of Winchester .30-caliber rifles.
At the time of execution, the condemned inmate is led to a sturdy steel chair
in a special execution chamber. The chair sits on an elevated platform. Large
sandbags are piled high on each side of the chair to catch any ricocheting
bullets. Every part of the platform, including the sandbags, is colored a
charcoal gray.
The inmate is strapped to the chair, a black hood placed over his face. A halo
brace holds his head in place. He is asked for any final words and is limited
to 2 minutes. If he goes over that time or uses foul language, according to the
manual, the execution proceeds.
Once the warden receives word that any final appeals have been exhausted and
there are no stays, he directs a supervisor to proceed and a countdown begins.
The firing squad is assembled behind a wall with rifle ports about 25 feet away
from the chair. Each is given a rifle with 2 rounds. One is given non-lethal
wax bullets but none of the officers, whose identities are kept secret, knows
who has the dummy rounds.
A target is pinned over the inmate's heart.
At the end of the countdown, the officers fire.
Officials look for signs of consciousness. If there are some when the medical
examiner checks for a pulse, a 2nd firing volley can be ordered. If the inmate
is unconscious but still has a pulse, officials wait for 10 minutes and check
again. If there still is a pulse, a 2nd volley can be ordered.
Just how lethal a firing squad is has been explained by Gardner's brother,
Randy, who tried unsuccessfully to persuade Utah lawmakers in 2015 not to bring
it back as an alternative.
He said he could stick 4 fingers into the hole in his brother's chest where the
shots went, saying he believed the heart was blown out through his back.
Witnesses to Garner's execution said when an official asked Gardner if he had
any last words, he said, "No, I do not."
After the volley at 12:15 am, witnesses said they saw his hand clench and then
loosen. He was pronounced dead a few minutes later.
Gardner was sentenced to death after a 1985 failed courthouse escape attempt
during which he killed a lawyer. He was in court at the time facing another
murder charge over a killing at a bar.
"May God grant him the mercy he denied his victims," Utah Attorney General Mark
Shurtleff said at the time of his execution.
Putnam believes the reliability of a firing squad's work and the speed with
which the inmate is killed make the method more humane than the current
lethal-injection process.
But in 2015, YouGov, an international internet-based market research firm,
conducted a poll asking respondents which execution methods they found to be
cruel and unusual punishment.
According to the poll, 18 % found lethal-injection cruel and unusual while 53 %
found a firing squad cruel and unusual. Of other forms, the poll found 54 %
classified the electric chair as cruel while 67 % used that classification for
hanging, 52 % for the gas chamber and 81 % for beheading.
"The problem with other methods is the public just doesn't like them," Dunham
said.
He said what has happened with execution methods in the nation is both a
paradox and an irony.
"States moved away from methods of execution, especially the electric chair,
because of the growing public perception that, when done properly, an execution
in the electric chair is cruel and unusual punishment," he said.
It became worse, he said, after botched executions in Florida. Afterward, state
supreme courts in Georgia and Nebraska declared electrocution unconstitutional
under their state constitutions, Dunham said.
"It is likely that any attempt to bring back the electric chair will face very
substantial constitutional challenges," he said.
There are fewer constitutional challenges to a firing squad, he said.
"The difficulty with a firing squad is one of public perception and public
taste," Dunham said.
Alternatives to lethal injection are seen as too gruesome by the public, he
said. Lethal injection had an appearance of peacefulness and civility until
botched executions.
He said, however, that the image of peacefulness was made possible by drugs
which caused the body to be sedated and paralyzed, preventing any indication of
pain. Now that states are using other drug combinations, witnesses are
reporting indications of pain, and those images are upsetting people, Dunham
said.
"I think it's paradoxical and ironic that the method of execution that states
moved to to try and make executions more humane and to try and make them less
overtly violent is now under attack for being inhumane and tortuous," he said.
(source: Greenville News)
GEORGIA:
Sister Helen Prejean speaks at death penalty event in Atlanta
Sister Helen Prejean will join other faith leaders on Thursday for a forum on
the death penalty in the United States.
Prejean is the author of "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death
Penalty in the United States," which was developed into a movie starring Susan
Sarandon as Sister Helen and Sean Penn as a death row inmate.
The forum will be followed by a reception and book signing of "A Case for Life:
Justice, Mercy, and the Death Penalty."
This event will be held at Holy Innocents' Episcopal Church, 805 Mount Vernon
Highway, N.W.
Doors open at 6 p.m. for registration and book sales.
The event begins at 7 p.m. with Prejean speaking at 7:30 p.m. The panel
discussion starts at 8:10 p.m.
Panelists include Bishop Robert Wright of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta;
Susan Casey, appeals attorney for Kelly Gissendaner; and Justice Norman S.
Fletcher, retired chief justice, Supreme Court of Georgia.
(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
FLORIDA:
Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz could face death penalty for 17 counts of
premeditated murder
Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the mass shooting at a Florida high school on
Wednesday, could face the death penalty after being charged with 17 counts of
premeditated murder.
Sheriffs in Broward County, Florida, posted custody records online the morning
after they arrested Cruz. They listed 17 separate counts of premeditated
murder, matching the latest casualty figures from officials.
Cruz, at 19, will stand trial as an adult. If found guilty, his alleged attack
on Majory Stoneman Douglas high school could qualify as a capital crime, as he
may have knowingly created a great risk of death to many people.
In Florida, if a sentencing jury unanimously recommends the death penalty, the
judge can impose it.
Between 1973 and 2016, the state of Florida executed 95 individuals, sometimes
after they had spent decades on death row.
Cruz's lawyer told the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel that the AR-15 allegedly
used in the shooting was possessed by Cruz legally.
(source: businessinsider.com)
***************
Donald Smith Trial----In his own words: Why Donald Smith wants the death
penalty; Smith fears he'll be 'raped and murdered' in prison, police report
shows
From almost the moment he was arrested, Donald Smith saw his conviction coming
and feared what might follow.
Smith, 61, wants the death penalty, not a life sentence. He told his mother as
much when she visited him in jail in July 2013.
He said he couldn't go to prison because he would be "raped and murdered
there," according to a police report. death row, on the other hand, meant his
death would be "simple, happy and peaceful."
The decision is not Smith's to make. It will be up to the jurors who found him
guilty Wednesday of 1st-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery in the
death of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.
Smith astonished his defense attorneys with instructions not to cross examine
Cherish's mother, Rayne. His defense stunned observers when they did not call
any witnesses and skipped closing arguments.
But while those decisions surprised some courtroom observers, details contained
within a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office informational report indicate that may
have been part of Smith???s plan all along.
The report shows Smith waffled over whether to hire a high-powered defense
attorney June 27, 2013, less than a week after his arrest. At first, he told
police to ask his mother to retain Ann Finnell.
But later the same day, he changed his mind. "Tell my mother don't call Ann
Finnell. They're going to kill me anyway. There's no sense in spending the
money," Smith told an officer, according to the report.
(Finnell, who currently represents high-profile murder suspect Ronnie Hyde, is
widely known in Jacksonville circles for being one of the best criminal defense
attorneys money can buy.)
Smith made his intentions known to his mother during a July 19, 2013,
visitation. He said he needed a book -- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders -- to find out if he qualified for treatment.
"It's a 1-shot deal," he told his mother. "I need to know what I have."
Beyond that, Smith made one thing clear: Death row was the best outcome. The
jury will return to court on Tuesday to decide if they agree.
(source: news4jax.com)
***************
'Walmart Monster' facing death penalty
Harrowing images of the battered body of an 8-year-old girl who was raped and
brutally killed have left an entire jury traumatised and in tears.
Cherish Perrywinkle was abducted from a Florida Walmart before being sexually
assaulted and strangled until her eyes bled by a man who convinced her he was
just a 'good Samaritan', reports The Sun.
Donald Smith, 61, has appeared in court charged with 1st-degree murder,
kidnapping and rape of the 8-year-old girl in June 2013. He denies the charges.
He faces the death penalty if convicted.
At his trial, the court was shown video of the moment Smith led the child away
from her family while out shopping.
The court was also shown graphic images of the state of the child's body,
leading jury members to gasp in horror and break down in tears.
The images were so disturbing that the medical examiner giving evidence about
the injuries sustained looked so traumatised that she needed a break in
proceedings.
Jacksonville chief medical examiner Dr Valerie Rao stopped her testimony as
images of the child were displayed in the Florida courtroom, saying: "She had
so much trauma, the anatomy was totally distorted by the injury she suffered.
"She died after she sustained tremendous force on her neck such that she could
not breathe."
Dr Rao, visibly shaken, then asked the court for a 5-minute break.
Sources from the courtroom claim the man accused of the child's horrific murder
"turned his back when autopsy pictures were shown". Smith had been released
from prison just 21 days before he allegedly abducted and murdered the little
girl and had been on the sex offenders register since 1993. He is seen luring
the child away from her mother, reportedly offering to take her to McDonald's.
The CCTV footage documents the last time the child was seen alive.
Post-mortem reports found severe injuries and contusions all over her body, and
concluded that the eight-year-old had been strangled with a piece of clothing
after being tortured and raped.
Smith was arrested 10 hours after the child was abducted after his vehicle was
spotted by a police officer.
The little girl's half-naked body was found outside a church the following day.
(source: The Bulletin)
ALABAMA----stay of impending execution lifter; execution re-set
Execution back on for Alabama death row inmate, convicted of killing Cullman
motel clerk in 1987
The execution for Alabama death row inmate Doyle Lee Hamm is back on after an
appeals court vacated a lower court's stay. Records show the 11th Circuit Court
of Appeals granted the state of Alabama's emergency motion to vacate Hamm's
stay, which was issued earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Karon O
Bowdre.
"We conclude the district court abused its discretion by staying Hamm's
execution without making sufficient findings to establish a significant
possibility of success on the merits," the court wrote in its order issued
Tuesday afternoon.
The court wrote that the Supreme Court requires a "significant possibility of
success on the merits" for a stay to be issued; however, the district court
only stated Hamm showed a "substantial likelihood of success," which isn't
sufficient.
The 11th Circuit Court also ordered the lower court to immediately appoint an
independent medical examiner to evaluate Hamm-- whose lawyer says he suffers
from lymphatic cancer-- and announce the findings no later than February 20 by
5 p.m. central time.
Hamm's execution is set for Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. at Holman Prison in Atmore.
"Since the district court's findings establish only the existence of genuine
factual disputes concerning whether, as applied to Hamm, Alabama's method of
execution carries a significant risk of being ineffective and painful, we
conclude that the court abused its discretion in granting a stay," the order
stated.
Hamm, 60, has been on death row since 1987 after being convicted of killing
Patrick Cunningham-- a Cullman motel clerk.
According to information revealed in court and through records, Hamm was
diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and underwent treatment. The Alabama Department
of Corrections said Hamm's cancer went into remission in March 2016, and no
scans from an oncologist have been performed since. In the spring of 2017, Hamm
complained of having lumps on his chest and abdomen area. An X-ray was
preformed, but no PET scans or biopsies were completed. Earlier this month,
doctors said there was no evidence of cancer in his clavicle, but did not have
a definitive answer about the other lumps.
In Bowdre's 25-page order granting the stay, she states: "If his current
medical condition includes compromised peripheral veins, lymphoma untreated for
3 years, and lymphadenopathy... the injection of fluid could 'blow out' his
veins with infiltration of drugs into the surrounding tissue; and efforts to
place a central line could be hindered by enlarged lymph nodes creating a
higher risk of puncturing a central artery--all resulting in severe and
unnecessary pain." She also called the scenario "gruesome."
(source: al.com)
*************************
Court: Execution OK for Inmate Claiming Damaged Veins----A federal appeals
court overturns stay of lethal injection for Alabama murder convict who says
his veins are damaged.
A federal appeals court says Alabama, at least for now, can proceed toward the
execution of an inmate who argues that a lethal injection would be cruel
because lymphoma and hepatitis C have damaged his veins.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned a federal judge's
stay of execution for Doyle Lee Hamm, who is scheduled to be put to death on
Feb. 22 for the 1987 murder of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham.
The appellate court ruled that a judge prematurely stayed the execution, but
agreed there are unsettled questions about Hamm's health.
The 3-judge panel said an independent medical expert should review Hamm's
condition immediately.
(source: Associated Press)
************************
Bill to allow execution by nitrogen hypoxia clears committee
A bill to create a 3rd method of execution for death penalty inmates in Alabama
won approval today in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill, by Sen. Trip Pittman, would allow death row inmates to choose
execution by nitrogen hypoxia.
Current law requires that executions in Alabama be carried out by lethal
injection unless the condemned inmate chooses electrocution.
Pittman said he believes the death penalty is appropriate for some heinous
crimes and that nitrogen hypoxia would be a more humane method.
Pittman said Oklahoma has already made nitrogen hypoxia one option for
execution.
The committee approved the bill by a vote of 11-1, moving it to the Senate
floor.
Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, said she opposed the death penalty
but said she believed nitrogen hypoxia would be a more humane method.
Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, voted against the bill.
(source: al.com)
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