April 19
TEXAS----impending execution(s)
Death Watch: The Constitutionality of Intent----What if the people you killed
were not who you hoped to kill?
Erick Davila is scheduled to die on Wednesday, April 25. The 31-year-old from
Fort Worth was convicted of capital murder for the 2008 deaths of 5-year-old
Queshawn Stevenson and her grandmother Annette at a child's birthday party.
Though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Davila last June, his lawyers
Jonathan Landers and Seth Kretzer on Friday filed an appeal at the high court
to stay the execution.
Like the first effort, this appeal challenges the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals' April 9 decision to deny Davila's most recent appeal in that court,
which argued that, among other things, his appellate attorney David Richards
provided ineffective counsel. In particular, Davila's current attorneys argue,
Richards never mentioned Davila's assertion that on the day he shot the
Stevensons, he was "dangerously intoxicated" and shot them unintentionally;
Davila had entered the party and began shooting, but has maintained that he
intended to shoot a single rival gang member. Richards also did not argue that
should Davila's story be true, he wouldn't have been eligible for a capital
murder conviction and therefore the death sentence. And the trial jury was
never informed that Davila could only be sentenced to death if they believed he
intended to kill multiple people. Seeing all this, Justice Clarence Thomas
wrote in SCOTUS's first opinion that because a prisoner "does not have a
constitutional right to counsel in state postconviction proceedings,
ineffective assistance in those proceedings does not qualify as cause to excuse
a procedural default."
Landers and Kretzer on Monday filed a successor petition with the 5th Circuit
Court of Appeals seeking permission to file a 2nd appeal and motion to stay
Davila's execution. Meanwhile, Davila's petition for clemency is pending. In
February, Gov. Greg Abbott commuted Thomas Whitaker's death sentence 1 hour
before his scheduled execution, but that was the 1st such commutation in Texas
in over a decade, and the circumstances were rather unique. Kretzer told me
Monday he's "hopeful," but he also acknowledged, "all I can do is make the
legal arguments. Then I leave it to powers-that-be to resolve them. But we will
fight for Mr. Davila and all his constitutional rights to the last hour of the
last day."
Death Row Details
SCOTUS on Monday refused without comment to hear the case of Daniel Acker,
convicted of murdering his girlfriend Marquetta George in 2000. That decision
will likely bring a death warrant to Hopkins County. Next on the state's
schedule is Juan Castillo, scheduled to die on May 16. The San Antonio man is
on his 4th execution date. He had a May 2017 date withdrawn on a technicality
associated with the filing of his death warrant; Hurricane Harvey caused the
2nd to be rescheduled; and a December date was called off due to claims of
false testimony.
(source: austinchronicle.com)
CONNECTICUT:
Death Row Inmate Jessie Campbell Resentenced To Life In Prison Without
Possibility Of Release
Death row inmate Jessie Campbell III, guilty of killing his son's mother and
her friend in Hartford during the summer of 2000, on Wednesday became the
latest of the state's death row inmates to have their sentence revised to life
in prison without the possibility of release.
Campbell, now 39, was 20 when he gunned down La-Taysha Logan, 20, and her
friend Desiree Privette, 18, and shot Privette's aunt Carolyn, a witness to the
deadly slaying in August 2000 outside a friend's home in Hartford.
Judge Edward J. Mullarkey sentenced Campbell to death in August 2007. After
hearing an argument from Campbell's lawyers of a troubled past that plagued
their client, Mullarkey handed down his ruling.
"Nothing justified the murder, but the cold-blooded execution is startling,"
Mullarkey said at the time. "The Privettes were shot "because they were there.
The fact that Carolyn Privette feigned death is the true miracle. Now, even
with her survival, she will live a life of pain. ... I don't know what causes
this kind of conduct to wholly eliminate or attempt to eliminate 2 witnesses."
It was Mullarkey on Wednesday morning, now a senior judge, who sentenced
Campbell to life in prison without the possibility of release in a hearing that
lasted fewer than 10 minutes. Family of the victims were not in attendance and
no statements were made on their behalf.
Campbell's sentence was revised Wednesday in light of a ruling by the state
Supreme Court in 2015 that abolished the death penalty. All 11 inmates on death
row are to be resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.
A jury convicted Campbell in 2004 of 2 counts of murder, 1 count of attempted
murder, assault and criminal possession of a pistol or revolver. However, that
jury was torn in whether the crime merited the death penalty or a life in
prison without parole.
Another jury convened in 2006 to reexamine the penalty phase and voted for the
death sentence.
Caroline Privette said she pretended to be dead after she was shot. Campbell
shook her body, but she refused to move. As paramedics arrived to help her, she
recalled yelling out Campbell's name, not wanting to die without sharing the
identity of the killer.
Authorities said immediately after the murder, Campbell burned his clothes and
fled to Michigan, but he was taken into custody not long after the killing.
Campbell, who is said to have an IQ of 78, was reported to be combative,
refusing to help his defense attorneys. In recordings played during trial, he
is heard telling his mother he would only discuss his case with God.
At times, Campbell referred to himself as "the Chosen One."
Campbell's attorneys in the past have argued to have the their client???s death
sentence revoked, saying there is no uniformity in how prosecutors bring
charges of capital felony, which a jury convicted Campbell of in 2004.
Campbell has been in Northern Correctional Institution since his sentencing in
2007. It is there where the inmates on death row were housed as they awaited
execution.
(source: Hartford Courant)
GEORGIA:
Lawyers: Inmate set for execution should be resentenced
A man set for execution next month should be resentenced because he wouldn't
get the death penalty if he were sentenced today, his lawyers argued in a court
filing Wednesday.
Robert Earl Butts Jr., 40, is scheduled to die on May 3 at the state prison in
Jackson. Butts and 41-year-old Marion Wilson Jr. were convicted and sentenced
to death in the March 1996 slaying of Donovan Corey Parks in central Georgia.
The state and federal constitutions prohibit "cruel and unusual" punishment,
and the state prohibition on such punishment depends on the "evolving standards
of decency of the people of Georgia," Butts' lawyers wrote in a filing seeking
a new sentence in Baldwin County Superior Court, where he was originally
sentenced.
The murder for which Butts and Wilson were sentenced had a single victim and 1
aggravating factor, a circumstance that increases the severity of a crime and
increases the possible sentence. According to sentencing data obtained and
analyzed by Butts' lawyers, no one has been sentenced to death for a murder
with 1 victim and 1 aggravating factor in over a decade.
"In other words, the people of Georgia no longer consider single-decedent,
single-aggravator murder to be among the 'worst of the worst' offenses for
which the death penalty must be reserved," Butts' lawyers wrote.
For that reason, they argue, he should be resentenced.
The Georgia attorney general's office on Wednesday declined to comment on
Butts' lawyers request to halt his scheduled execution and to hold a new
sentencing trial.
Butts' lawyers analyzed 246 cases in which the state filed a notice to seek the
death penalty and a sentence was imposed from 2006 to 2017.
During that time, of the 166 cases with a single victim, only 7, or 4.2 %,
resulted in a death sentence. And in the 21 cases with aggravating factor, only
1, or 4.8 %, resulted in a death sentence.
Under the state and federal constitutions, "cruel and unusual" punishments
"include a sentence that is arbitrarily or rarely imposed," Butts' lawyers
wrote. The fact that no one in Georgia has been sentenced to death for a single
victim, single aggravator murder in 10 years "raises a threshold inference that
Butts' death sentence is grossly disproportionate," they argue.
Attorneys for Butts have also argued repeatedly that his trial lawyers were
ineffective and failed to thoroughly investigate his case or to present
mitigating evidence, including a childhood characterized by abuse and neglect
that could have spared him the death penalty. State and federal courts have
rejected his appeals.
His lawyers argued in a federal court filing earlier this month that a Georgia
Supreme Court opinion published in January opens the door for a federal judge
to consider his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. The state rejected
that argument in a filing Wednesday.
Butts and Wilson asked Parks for a ride outside a Walmart store in
Milledgeville, about 93 miles (150 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta. After
they'd gone a short distance they ordered him to stop the car, dragged him out
and killed him with a single shot to the back of his head, prosecutors said.
They tried unsuccessfully to sell Parks' car and ended up driving it to a
remote part of Macon and setting fire to it.
Appeals in Wilson's case are still pending.
(source: Associated Press)
FLORIDA:
Testimony ends in death penalty trial of Sanel Saint-Simon
Jurors will begin deliberating Thursday about whether Sanel Saint-Simon should
be sentenced to death or to life in prison in the murder of 16-year-old
Alexandria Chery, his long-time girlfriend's daughter.
Testimony ended in the case Wednesday. Jurors heard from Saint-Simon's ex-wife,
who said he never helped her care for their 2 children, now 15 and 16 years
old, and said his financial support was limited to $600 over the last 15 or so
years.
"He was never asking me how I was, not even 'good evening.' He would not say
anything," Helene Achat, who now lives in Canada with her 2 children, said
through a Haitian-Creole translator.
Achat's testimony was presented to contrast what the defense presented over the
last 2 days - that Saint-Simon regularly sent money to 3 children he had in
Haiti to send them to school and help them with basic needs.
Saint-Simon chose not to take the stand. The last defense witness jurors heard
from was Gerald Murray, a cultural anthropologist and retired University of
Florida professor who has researched the culture, economy, and politics in
Saint-Simon's native Haiti.
To prepare for the trial Murray interviewed Saint-Simon and seven of his family
members, and planned to tell jurors about Saint-Simon's life and how he fit
into the country???s history and cultural norms.
But after a preview of his testimony after jurors left for the day on Tuesday,
Circuit Judge John Marshall Kest ruled the details Murray gathered about
Saint-Simon's life were not acceptable in court under the rules of evidence.
Murray was allowed to speak about Haiti in general, but not tell jurors about
Saint-Simon.
Jurors convicted Saint-Simon of Alexandria's 1st-degree murder in February.
Alexandria, an Olympia High School student, was reported missing on July 28,
2014, when her mother came home and found her and all her belongings missing
from their West Orange County apartment. Landscapers found her body Aug. 1,
2014 on the Osceola-Polk county line.
Before her death, Alexandria told her boyfriend that Saint-Simon touched her
inappropriately.
(source: Orlando Sentinel)
ALABAMA----impending execution
Alabama to execute Walter Moody, 83, oldest in modern US history----Moody's age
reflects the aging of death row across the US, where over 2,000 people are to
be executed.
Alabama has scheduled the execution of Walter Moody Jr for April 19. If the
state carries out the execution, Moody will be the oldest inmate killed in the
modern history of the US, according to the Death Penalty Information Center
(DPIC), a group that tracks capital punishment.
Though reports listed Moody's age as both 82 and 83, Bob Horton, the Alabama
Department of Corrections public information officer, confirmed to Al Jazeera
that Moody's age is 83 on Wednesday.
Moody was convicted in 1991 of 71 charges related to the 1989 pipe-bomb deaths
of federal appeals judge Robert Vance and civil rights attorney Robert
Robinson. Moody has maintained his innocence.
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) declined to review Moody's case
in January. An appeals court further denied relief for Moody on Wednesday.
Moody is expected to appeal to SCOTUS again on Thursday.
Executions were blocked by SCOTUS in 1972, but the court reinstated the death
penalty in 1976 after placing "stricter standards for the constitutionality of
capital punishment", Robert Dunham, the DPIC's director, told Al Jazeera.
"Nobody aged 80 or older has been executed since executions resumed in the
1970s," which is considered the modern era of capital punishment in the US,
Dunham said.
These stricter standards included guaranteeing deaths that were not "cruel and
unusual," as prohibited in the US Constitution, as well as a mandating that a
jury decide to impose the death penalty, among other measures.
Though the number of executions is declining in the US, Moody's age is
indicative of the aging population of the roughly 2,800 people on death row,
the DPIC director continued.
"9 people in their 70s" have been executed in the US since capital punishment
was reinstated, Dunham said, and all of them died in the 21st century.
"When we look at people who have been executed before 2000 in the modern era,
no one in their 70s or 80s" has been put to death, he said.
The previous oldest person to be executed was John Nixon, 77, who died in
Mississippi in 2006.
Though many believe the lengthy appeals process is to blame for the ageing
population, Dunham explained that the "primary reason" for the advancing age of
death row inmates is that the convicted "typically ... had their convictions or
death sentences overturned several times and have been resentenced."
It can take up to 20 years for a case to be overturned. The case could take
another 15 years after that to work its way through the system, Dunham said.
Often, appeals are filed that claim death row inmates were not properly
represented or evidence was not presented in previous trials - which can cause
a new trial - or are suffering from mental illness or impairment, which bars
them from execution, if proven.
Arkansas scheduled 8 executions in 11 days in 2017, an unprecedented even in US
history. 4 of the 8 men had their executions stayed due to appeals such as
those listed above.
Motive for the killings
According to local media reports, prosecutors originally thought the killings
of Vance and Robinson, who was African American, were racially motivated.
They later alleged that Moody was angry at the court system over a 1972
conviction for another bombing incident that injured his then-wife.
He allegedly hoped the suspicion of racist motivations in the bombings would
confuse investigators.
Bob Vance, son of the assassinated judge who is also a judge himself, was
quoted in local media as saying there "wasn't any real good reason" for Moody's
targeting of his father.
Vance's family does not plan to attend Moody's execution. Bob told local media
he got "closure" when Moody was convicted in 1991, realising he "would never be
in the position to hurt anyone else.
"The execution coming up ... doesn't add anything to that," Vance said.
(source: Al Jazeera News)
*********************************
Walter Moody's Appeal Rejected By Federal Appeals Court----Moody's Scheduled To
Be Put to Death on Thursday
A federal appeals court has rejected a death row inmate's argument that he must
serve out his federal sentence before Alabama can put him to death for the 1989
killing of a federal judge.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that Walter Leroy
Moody does not have a right to demand that he serve his federal sentence first.
Moody is scheduled to be executed Thursday for killing 11th Circuit Judge
Robert Vance with a bomb mailed to his home.
Authorities said Moody mailed 4 bombs in 1989. He was sentenced in federal
court in 1991 to 7 life terms plus 400 years. He was later convicted of capital
murder for Vance's death and sentenced to the death penalty.
(source: Associated Press)
OHIO:
Sierah Joughin's family speaks after Worley receives death sentence
After hearing emotional pleas from Sierah Joughin's family and her convicted
killer's rambling claim of innocence, Fulton County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey
Robinson kept his comments brief after sentencing James D. Worley to death.
"If I thought there was a snowball's chance in hell you were innocent, I would
have given you life," the judge said.
Wednesday's sentencing closed one painful chapter in the nearly 2 years since
the 20-year-old Metamora woman disappeared July 19, 2016, while riding her
bike. Worley, 59, of rural Delta, was convicted in March of her kidnapping and
aggravated murder. The jury then recommended he be put to death.
Ms. Joughin's mother, Sheila Vaculik, made the last of several victim impact
statements Wednesday and called her daughter "compassionate and vibrant."
"This was a soul that embraced living and everything it had to offer," she
said. "It is hard to put into words the feelings I've experienced over the last
year and 9 months; the hole that will never heal in my heart."
Worley, she said, dehumanized her daughter but did not take away her worth to
her family and friends.
"Sierah's life was worth far more than the 20 years she was able to live... As
her mother, I could not be prouder of the person that she was," she said.
Before he was sentenced, Worley gave a nearly 45-minute, rambling and
disjointed statement that was at times defiant but not remorseful. He turned to
face the gallery and did not address the judge.
He repeatedly said he believes someone else kidnapped Ms Joughin. He said
someone framed him by leaving evidence at his home and leaving his lost
motorcycle helmet - which had Ms. Joughin's blood on it - and other items at
the suspected abduction scene where Ms. Joughin's bike was found.
He added there are still unanswered questions about DNA that was found, which
could one day prove his innocence, but he also offered remarks about his
defense team, his encounters with police after Ms. Joughin's disappearance, and
his own past.
"Before you judge me harshly, think about these things one last time," Worley
said. "There will be an appeals process and I just have to pray that I will be
vindicated because I can't... I didn't do anything."
Members of the gallery became increasingly more upset as he continued. At one
point Worley referred to Ms. Joughin as a "beautiful girl." Members of her
family stood up and walked out of the courtroom.
Worley paused and watched as they stood and filed out.
"The family isn't taking this well, and I can understand it. I get it," Worley
said. "The bottom line is you need to look at all the other facts that support
my innocence."
(source: Toledo Blade)
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