October 31
GEORGIA:
New defense lawyer delays Georgia death penalty trial
There will be a delay in a death penalty trial for a man accused of raping and
killing his stepdaughter.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported a defense attorney representing
Dafareya Hunter told a Cobb County judge Monday that she could no longer
represent him because of a family illness.
Jerilyn Bell with the Georgia Public Defender Council told the judge she didn't
know when a new attorney will be assigned. The new attorney will have to be
given time to study the case before the trial can begin.
Police found the teen's body in a burned home in Marietta on July 23, 2016.
(source: Associated Press)
ALABAMA:
Sotomayor Calls Out Alabama Judge in Death Penalty Case
Justice Sonia Sotomayor Oct. 29 called out an Alabama trial court's failure to
preserve critical records in a capital case.
Just a month into the court's new term, Sotomayor has already written
separately on matters of sentencing, solitary confinement, and capital
punishment.
Here, Sotomayor agreed that Tawuan Townes' petition for review should be
denied. But the trial court's "failure to preserve the original recording gives
cause for deep concern," she wrote.
Townes was convicted of capital murder committed in the course of a burglary
and sentenced to death. His intent was the only issue for the jury to resolve
at trial, Sotomayor wrote. That's because he admitted he had planned to rob the
victim, Christopher Woods, during a burglary. But he "adamantly disclaimed any
intent to kill Woods, insisting that he shot at Woods only to scare him."
It came down to the jury instructions. The constitutionality of Townes'
conviction hinges on whether the trial court instructed jurors that they "may"
infer his intent to kill a victim or that they "must" do so. The former is
constitutional but the latter isn't, Sotomayor wrote.
But due to 2 court reporters' conflicting transcripts and the fact that the
trial court no longer has the original recording, there is no way to know for
sure which instruction the trial court gave.
Still, Sotomayor criticized the trial judge's handling of the matter. The
initial transcript said the judge instructed the jury that it "must" find
intent to kill. The Alabama state appeals court reversed the conviction because
"the trial court's instructions took that pivotal question away from the jury."
But after the reversal, the trial judge filed a "supplemental record" with the
appeals court "asserting that the certified trial transcript - or rather, a
single word of that transcript - had been mistranscribed."
The judge had insisted that he properly instructed the jury and that the audio
recording of Townes's trial confirmed his account. The appeals court then sent
the case back to the trial court to appoint a new court reporter to listen to
the recording and do another transcription. The 2nd reporter found just 1
difference from the original: that the judge said "may" instead of "must."
Based on that, the appeals court changed its ruling and upheld Townes's
conviction and death sentence.
So Townes appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But when the justices requested
the record in the case - including the recording - the trial court said the
recording no longer exists.
Even though it's impossible based on the record to know what happened, "the
absence of demonstrable constitutional error makes the doubts raised by the
trial court's unusual handling of this matter no less troubling," Sotomayor
said.
"In a matter of life and death, hinging on a single disputed word, all should
take great care to protect the reviewing courts' opportunity to learn what was
said to the jury before Townes was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to
death," she said.
She also noted that it wasn't the 1st time this particular judge - and this
particular reporter - sought to amend the record while a case was on appeal.
"The court reporter - the same one who prepared the 2nd transcript in Townes'
case - stated that she had reviewed her notes and the recording of the
defendant's trial and concluded that the judge had said 'inference' instead of
'innocence,' curing an allegedly erroneous instruction that the defendant
challenged on collateral review," Sotomayor wrote in a footnote, referring to
another instance.
"By fostering uncertainty about the result here, the trial court's actions in
this case erode" confidence in what happened in Townes's case, Sotomayor wrote.
"That gives me - and should give us all - great pause."
The case is Townes v. Alabama, U.S., 17-7894, review denied, statement of
Sotomayor respecting the denial 10/29/18.
(source: bloomberglaw.com)
OHIO:
Prosecutors seek death penalty for Garfield Heights Homeland Security
contractor charged in double killing
A grand jury on Tuesday indicted a man accused of fatally shooting his
girlfriend's children on charges that would make him eligible for the death
penalty if he is convicted.
Matthew Nicholson, 29, of Garfield Heights, is charged with aggravated murder,
murder, attempted murder and felonious assault charges in the Sept. 5 killings
that spurred an hours-long SWAT standoff on Garfield Heights's East 86th
Street.
The aggravated murder charge carries what's known as a "course-of-conduct
specification" that accuses Nicholson of carrying out the purposeful killings
of 2 or more people. A jury would have to find Nicholson guilty of that charge
at a trial to spur the sentencing phase, where it could recommend that a judge
sentence Nicholson to life in prison or face execution. The judge would then
decide whether to impose the death penalty.
Nicholson argued with his girlfriend before he shot her children Giselle Lopez,
19, and Manuel Lopez Jr., 17, police said. The fight began after Nicholson
became angry over text messages his girlfriend received from an ex-boyfriend,
police said.
Nicholson worked as a private security officer contracted by the United States
Department of Homeland Security at the time of his arrest.
(source: cleveland.com)
*******************
Former security guard accused of killing two teenagers could face death penalty
if found guilty
A grand jury has indicted a former security officer, who is charged with
killing 2 teenagers. The indictment states he would face the death penalty if
found guilty.
Matthew Nicholson, 29, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder.
Officers from the Garfield Heights police department responded to a home on the
4800 block of East 86th Street in September to find 17-year-old Manuel Lopez
Jr. and 19-year-old Giselle Lopez lying in the driveway. Both were transported
to the hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.
Police said the 2 victims were the children of the suspect's girlfriend and
that all 4 of them lived in the home together.
(source: news5cleveland.com)
TENNESSEE----impending execution
Electric chair builder worried Tennessee execution will fail
If Tennessee electrocutes Edmund Zagorski on Thursday, it will be in an
electric chair built by a self-taught execution expert who is no longer welcome
in the prison system and who worries that his device will malfunction.
Fred Leuchter had a successful career in the execution business before his
reputation was tainted by his claim that there were no gas chambers at
Auschwitz.
Tennessee's chair, which hasn't been used since 2007, is just one of many
execution devices that Leuchter worked on between 1979 and 1990, according to
an article by Fordham University professor Deborah Denno in the William and
Mary Law Review. In addition to electric chairs, Leuchter built, refurbished
and consulted on gas chambers, lethal injection machines and a gallows for at
least 27 states.
After his comments about the Holocaust, it came to light that he had neither an
engineering degree nor a license, even though he promoted himself as an
engineer. His rise and fall was portrayed in a 2000 documentary.
Nonetheless, Leuchter stands behind the electric chair he rebuilt in 1988,
relying on skills picked up designing navigational and surveillance equipment
and a careful study of documents describing early executions. His concern is
that Tennessee's chair will fail because of changes others made to it after he
was no longer allowed to service it.
"What I'm worried about now is Tennessee's got an electric chair that's going
to hurt someone or cause problems. And it's got my name on it," Leuchter said.
"I don't think it's going to be humane."
Gov. Bill Haslam said he is confident the execution can be carried out without
problems.
"I have a great deal of confidence in our Department of Correction folks. ...
We've spoken with them regularly and they've assured us" the chair is ready.
Leuchter said he was familiar with prisons because he accompanied his father to
his job as superintendent of transportation in the Massachusetts state prison
in the 1940s and '50s, from about age 4 to age 16.
As a teenager, Leuchter helped his father move the state's old electric chair
when the prison relocated, and he remembers they had to do it on a Sunday
because the warden didn't want the news media to know.
"I helped put the chair in the truck. We covered it up with canvas," he said.
Years later, when it looked as though Massachusetts might restart capital
punishment after a long hiatus, a prison steward who knew Leuchter's father
asked Leuchter to come in and see whether the old chair was still usable.
From there, "my name was given to other states," Leuchter said.
He said many of their electric chairs were "decrepit, defunct, didn't work
properly - if they ever had in the first place."
Denno, a law professor at Fordham who has studied execution methods for more
than 25 years, said Leuchter filled a void. Often "the most qualified people
don't want to be involved" in executions, she said.
Even after he was no longer welcome as a prison contractor, Denno said prison
officials continued to contact Leuchter for help "because they literally had no
one else to go to."
Tennessee asked Leuchter to refurbish its chair in 1988, when it was facing the
possibility of its 1st execution in decades.
"It looked like it was made for a midget or something," Leuchter said.
So he built a new chair that incorporated wood from the original, which he was
told was from the old gallows, and replaced the chair's electrodes. He also
replaced the old leather straps that tether prisoners to the chair with
quick-release nylon belts, to aid guards tasked with removing bodies after
executions.
He trained prison workers and gave them certificates as "electrocution
technicians."
Leuchter said he sold the original chair. A collector of "murderabilia" listed
it on eBay in 2000. It now resides in the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in the
Smoky Mountains.
Denno said electric chairs have "a history of botches that has only gotten
worse."
In 2 Florida executions in the 1990s, smoke and flames shot from the condemned
inmates' heads. In 1999, blood spilled from under an inmate's mask.
Shortly afterward, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the electric
chair violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
But the case was dropped after Florida switched to lethal injection.
Tennessee has executed only 1 person in Leuchter's electric chair. Daryl Holton
died that way in 2007.
In preparation, an electrical engineer reduced the voltage from 2,640 to 1,750
and raised the amperage from 5 to 7. The timing was also changed, from two,
one-minute jolts with a 10-second pause between, to a 20-second and 15-second
jolt with a 15-second pause between.
The execution was successful.
The chair was inspected on Oct. 10 of this year and found to meet the criteria
for an execution, state documents show.
But Leuchter said he feels the chair now is "defective and shouldn't be used."
"It worked the 1st time, but I think they were lucky," he said.
(source: Associated Press)
**************************
Zagorski appeals electric chair decision to Court of Appeals
2 days before his scheduled execution, Edmund Zagorski is appealing a ruling
this week from a federal judge.
On Monday, Federal District Judge Aleta Trauger ruled that death by the
electric chair -- Zagorski's chosen method -- is constitutional, as was the
choice Zagorski had to make between dying by lethal injection or the electric
chair.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals will now decide what to do with those 2
decisions, which may then be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court -- a typical
maneuver in the days leading up to an execution.
Meanwhile, a temporary restraining order still remains over Thursday's
execution after Trauger ordered that Zagorski's attorney must have access to a
phone before and during the execution. However, in making the ruling, the judge
said she didn't expect the execution to be delayed before a phone is installed.
The Tennessee Department of Correction has said they are reviewing the judge's
order to determine its next steps.
While the legal battle continues in the courts, TDOC said Zagorski was moved to
death watch early Tuesday morning. This is the second time Zagorski has been
moved to the special area of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution adjacent to
the execution chamber where additional security procedures are in effect in the
days ahead of an execution. Zagorski was placed in death watch and then removed
on October 11, after he was given a 10-day execution reprieve from Gov. Bill
Haslam.
The electric chair has been used only 2 other times in the last 60 years in
Tennessee to put a condemned inmate to death, 1 in 1960 and the other in 2007.
Zagorski was convicted of the 1983 double murder of John Dale Dotson and Jimmy
Porter after setting up a bogus drug deal. Zagorski was said to have shot both
men and slit their throats before robbing them and stealing their truck.
(source: newschannel5.com)
******************************
Vigil planned in Knoxville protesting execution of death row inmate Edmund
Zagorski
Statewide vigils, including one in Knoxville, are planned for Nov. 1
demonstrating opposition to the planned execution of Edmund Zagorski.
The death row inmate was moved to death watch Tuesday morning. Zagorski was
sentenced in the 1984 killings of John Dotson and Jimmy Porter in Robertson
County. Prosecutors say he shot the 2 men and slit their throats after robbing
them.
Leading up to the execution, Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
have planned vigils in Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis.
"This is simply about we have other sentencing options that don't require the
state to take this man's life, that can hold him accountable," said Stacy
Rector, Executive Director of TADP.
Zagorski will be the 2nd execution in Tennessee within 9 years.
"More and more we see states moving away from the death penalty which makes it
even more unfortunate that Tennessee has resumed executing when we've been a
state that's historically has simply not executed very many people," said
Rector.
Zagorski has been on death row for 34 years now, over the next two days he'll
be under 24-hour observation in a cell adjacent to the execution chamber.
"The jurors in his case, six of whom have asked for clemency and are now going
to be faced with his execution. The correctional staff who are going to be
tasked to carry this out with the electric chair, what will that do to them?
What's the mental health impact," added Rector.
She says at the core, vigils are a way to pray, reflect and support families
who've endured loss because of a violent crime, "It's a very painful time, I
know, for a lot of people in this state."
WATE 6 On Your Side reached out to the HOPE For Victims organization, which is
made up of family members who've lost loved ones to violent crimes.
Joan Berry, who has been active with the organization after her daughter Johnia
Berry was murdered in Knoxville in 2004, said the majority of HOPE For Victims
advocates believe in the death penalty and that it's justice.
Berry says their loved ones never get a 2nd chance and there's never closure.
It's why HOPE For Victims is fighting for truth in sentencing legislation in
Tennessee.
If you would like to attend the vigil planned by Tennesseans for Alternatives
to the Death Penalty, it will be held Thursday, Nov. 1 in Market Square at 6:30
p.m.
The history of capital punishment in Tennessee dates back to 1796, the first
method of execution was death by hanging. It wasn't until the 1900s when
electrocution became state law for death penalty cases.
In 2000, Tennessee resumed capital punishment and by then lethal injection was
the new method of execution which continues to be used today despite moral
challenges.
(source: WJHL news)
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Death Row Inmate Uses Last Words Before Execution to Tell a Traffic Joke
A South Dakota murderer on death row used his last words before his execution
by lethal injection to make a joke about traffic.
Rodney Scott Berget, 56, was sentenced to death for killing 63-year-old
corrections officer Ronald Johnson in 2011. Berget beat Johnson to death with a
pipe during a failed escape attempt the South Dakota State Penitentiary in
Sioux Falls with another inmate.
Berget's multiple appeals against the death penalty failed and his sentence was
carried out at the South Dakota State Penitentiary on Monday evening just hours
after a final rejection by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Sorry for the delay, I got caught in traffic," Berget joked with state
officials as he prepared for the lethal injection, Fox News reported. He also
thanked people for their support, mentioning 2 by name, and made a peace sign
with his hand.
Rodney Scott Berget, 56, was sentenced to die for the 2011 slaying of Ronald
Johnson, 63, a corrections officer at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in
Sioux Falls. South Dakota Department of Corrections
"The execution of inmate Rodney Berget was carried out this evening in
accordance to state law," said a statement from South Dakota’s Secretary of
Corrections Denny Kaemingk.
"South Dakota Codified Law assigns the responsibility for carrying out the
warrant of death sentence and offenders that are sentenced to death to the
Department of Corrections. We take that responsibility very seriously.
"Director of Prison Operations and Chief Warden Darin Young and his staff spent
extensive time preparing to ensure that the warrant of death sentence and
execution was carried out in a professional, humane and dignified manner and in
accordance to state law."
Before the murder of Johnson, Berget was already serving life without parole
after a conviction for attempted murder and kidnapping in 2003.
In 2012, Eric Robert, the other inmate convicted of murdering Johnson, was
executed. A 3rd inmate involved in the escape attempt, Michael Nordman, was
sentenced to life in prison for handing the other 2 a plastic wrap and the pipe
used to kill the officer.
After killing Johnson in an area of the penitentiary where inmates worked on
manual projects such as upholstery, Robert put on the officer's uniform.
Berget hid in a large box and Robert pushed it toward the prison gate but they
were caught, according to the Fayette Commonwealth Attorney's Office.
He is only the 4th person to be executed in South Dakota since the state's
reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. All 4 executions have taken place
since 2007.
In 2000, Berget's older brother Roger Berget was executed in Oklahoma after
spending 13 years on death row for murdering a man, The Argus Leader reported.
(source: Newsweek)
USA:
Lethal Injection Drugs and the Death Penalty, Explained----Botched procedures
have left many in prolonged agony while dying.
Scott Dozier is one of almost 3,000 incarcerated people awaiting execution in
the United States. But unlike many others on death row, Dozier, who was
convicted of murder, actually wants the state of Nevada to execute him. In late
2016, after an Arizona superior court denied his latest appeal, he gave up his
attempts at fighting execution and wrote to the Clark County district judge
asking that the state proceed with the death sentence. Dozier's case was also
unique for another reason: He was set to be executed using the opioid fentanyl,
a drug that has been responsible for thousands of overdose deaths across the
country.
The execution would have used a 3-drug cocktail: fentanyl, midazolam, and
cisatracurium. It was postponed in July after Alvogen, a pharmaceutical company
that manufactures the sedative midazolam, sued the state of Nevada. Alvogen
alleged that the state had obtained the drug through improper means, arguing
that its products were intended for legitimate medical purposes only, and a
judge agreed, blocking the use of the drug in the state's planned execution of
Dozier.
Since a shortage of lethal injection drugs began 7 years ago, controversy has
been the norm surrounding this procedure. Scratch beneath the surface and
you'll find pharmaceutical companies using all means available to keep their
drugs away from these procedures, states using secrecy and deception to ensure
executions continue, and botched procedures that left many in prolonged agony
while dying.
In addition to the federal government and the military, 30 states allow for
capital punishment. Nevada is just 1 of the many states that have changed or
attempted to change the drugs used in their lethal injection procedure
following the shortages.
Prior to the use of injections, other methods were used to execute incarcerated
people: gas chambers, electric chairs, and firing squads. In 1977, Jay Chapman,
an Oklahoma medical examiner came up with a three-drug cocktail to use during
executions of incarcerated people - a barbiturate (of which there are many
types) to initially anesthetize the person; pancuronium bromide to paralyze the
lungs and stop breathing; and potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest.
The procedure was proposed and ultimately accepted on the grounds that it
seemed more humane than prior forms of capital punishment. People put to death
via the electric chair often suffered graphic burns, while those who were put
into gas chambers visibly choked to death.
On December 7, 1982, the first execution by injection took place in Texas,
killing Charles Brooks, Jr., who was injected with the drug cocktail. According
to The New York Times, reporters who witnessed the procedure reported that
Brooks "appeared to have suffered some pain." The procedure was met with
opposition from doctors who felt the procedure violated medical ethics.
Sodium thiopental, the barbiturate used in the injection that killed Brooks,
and pancuronium bromide are typically used in medical settings to anesthetize
patients - they were not designed for use in lethal injection procedures.
According to Maya Foa, the director of the legal charity Reprieve,
pharmaceutical companies have never approved of their drugs being used for the
purposes of capital punishment.
"Pharmaceutical companies have always opposed the misuse of their medicines in
lethal injection executions, in a stance which aligns with the longtime
positions of major health-care bodies, such as the American Medical
Association, the American Pharmacists' Association, and the Association for
Accessible Medicines," Foa tells Teen Vogue.
Since Brooks's death in 1982, more than 1,300 executions have been performed by
lethal injection. The most recent execution took place on Monday, October 29,
when South Dakota executed Rodney Berget.
In 2001, Abbott Laboratories, the manufacturer of a drug marketed as Pethothal
(sodium thiopental) and used in executions in 29 states and by the federal
government, told Mother Jones that it strongly opposed its drug being used for
this purpose and that it had already requested that officials not use its drugs
in these procedures. The company conceded that there was nothing more it could
do because correctional officials were officially purchasing the drugs for use
as a medical anesthetic. (A separate company, Hospira, was created from Abbott
in 2004 and took over the manufacturing of sodium thiopental, suspending
production indefinitely in 2011.)
With the shortage in sodium thiopental, states sought replacements, and some
pharmaceutical companies responded by placing strict distribution controls on
their drugs. These controls effectively mean that any distributor that
contracts with a drug company cannot sell the drug to correctional facilities
or any other distributor that may sell to them. After Oklahoma started using
pentobarbital in place of sodium thiopental in late 2010, the Danish
pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck restricted the sale of pentobarbital for use in
capital punishment. As a result, states looking to use pentobarbital in their
procedures had to look elsewhere to buy the drug.
As more states have moved to incorporate their drugs in lethal injection
procedures, other companies have followed suit. After Arkansas announced in
2013 that it would be moving to use 1 drug, phenobarbital, instead of 3, the
British maker of the drug, Hikma, put distribution controls on it. More
recently, the giant Pfizer announced that it would be putting distribution
controls on multiple drugs that states were attempting to use in executions.
These drugs include propofol, midazolam, and hydromorphone - all of which are
used to sedate - as well as the drugs pancuronium bromide, which is a muscle
relaxant, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
State governments have responded in different ways to the restrictions, with
some attempting to use other drugs. Delayed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and
running out of previously stockpiled drugs, in 2017 Florida executed Mark Asay
using a combination of drugs that had never been used for lethal injection
before, and in August, Nebraska became the 1st state to execute someone using
fentanyl. Earlier this year, Indiana got the green light from its supreme court
to use a new drug cocktail consisting of methohexital, pancuronium bromide, and
potassium chloride; however, due to the shortage, Indiana, which last executed
someone in 2009, may not be able to obtain the drugs.
Some states have resorted to using compounding pharmacies to obtain their
drugs. These smaller institutions are less regulated by the FDA and allow a
pharmacist to mix drugs together to fill prescriptions. A compounding pharmacy
in Oklahoma that supplied drugs for Missouri's state executions in 2013 and
2014 was found to have violated several pharmacy regulations. Later, a BuzzFeed
News investigation discovered that, from 2014 onward, the state obtained drugs
from a compounding pharmacy in St. Louis, one that has been dogged by
allegations of misconduct. And in 2016, Virginia paid $66,000 to an unnamed
compounding pharmacy for the sedative midazolam and the chemical potassium
chloride.
These transactions can sometimes lack the semblance of official state business,
too. Last August, for instance, the director of the Department of Corrections
in Arkansas, Wendy Kelley, paid $250 in cash to a supplier for midazolam
intended to be used for executions, BuzzFeed News found.
In many states, legislatures have enacted secrecy laws to protect the identity
of their drug suppliers. According to Vice, 15 states have passed such laws,
which keep crucial details private, like how and where drugs were obtained, and
who was involved in the execution. These states' efforts to keep suppliers'
identities hidden protects the reputation of the companies and makes it
difficult for suppliers with distribution controls to determine whether their
drugs are being used for such purposes. According to inmate advocates, secrecy
laws also make it difficult for inmates to mount legal challenges. In 2017,
Arkansas faced lawsuits over its plan to kill 8 men in 11 days in which
attorneys argued that the state's secrecy laws violated inmates' rights to know
about the procedure in advance. As a result of multiple legal challenges, only
4 of the 8 people set to be executed were put to death. The state’s supreme
court has since ruled that the state must partially disclose certain
information related to the drugs they are using.
In the years since the shortages began, there have been a number of botched
executions. In early 2017, when Ricky Gray was put to death in Virginia, the
execution lasted almost 48 minutes (typically procedures are supposed to last
around ten). In December 2016, Alabama executed Ronald B. Smith, who was
reported to have "coughed and heaved" for 13 minutes during the procedure. In
2014, a spate of high-profile botched executions caught the attention of the
nation: Dennis McGuire in Ohio, Joseph Wood in Arizona, and Clayton Lockett in
Oklahoma. All of the aforementioned executions used different drug cocktails,
each containing the sedative midazolam.
Incarcerated people on death row have few options. For some, like Scott Dozier
and the approximately 140 inmates who have abandoned their appeals in the last
4 decades, death represents a better option than a life spent stuck behind bars
hoping for a judge to rule in their favor. Others, who may plead their
innocence to no avail, are exonerated after the procedure has been carried out;
this fact has led even the creator of the 3-drug cocktail to reconsider his
views about the death penalty.
The controversy surrounding lethal injection and capital punishment are part of
a larger reckoning the United States is having about how justice is delivered
and what role the state should play in that process. Many are asking if all of
this - the heartbreak, the legal challenges, the cost in lives and money - is
necessary at all.
(source: teenvogue.com)
**********************
Why accused bike path terrorist is unlikely to face death penalty
Here's a real Halloween horror story: The ex-Uber driver accused of killing 8
people in lower Manhattan last Oct. 31 - saying he "felt good about what he had
done" for ISIS after the bloodbath - will probably never see death row.
Sayfullo Saipov, 30, is slated to go on trial next October - roughly 2 years
after he allegedly used a Home Depot rental truck to mow down dozens of New
Yorkers and tourists in the name of ISIS. The act of terror also injured 12.
The feds say Saipov later requested that an ISIS flag be hung in his hospital
room, where he was recovering after being shot by a cop. He also "stated that
he felt good about what he had done," they said.
The Department of Justice is seeking the death penalty for the Patterson, NJ,
resident, who allegedly chose last Halloween the attack because he believed
there would be more people out on the street for him to harm.
But even if prosecutors get the judge's OK to pursue capital punishment, it's
unlikely he will be put to death, according to Robert Dunham, executive
director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Since 1963, not a single case in New York, either state or federal, has
resulted in an execution in part because Empire State jurors often pass on the
chance to impose the death penalty in favor of life in prison, Dunham said.
It's not for lack of trying. Federal prosecutors in New York have sought the
death penalty close to 50 times since the federal death penalty was reinstated
in 1988 - there hasn't been a state death penalty since 1972 - including 16
times in Manhattan federal court and 30 times in Brooklyn federal court,
according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel.
But in that time, there's only been one death verdict and that was for double
cop-killer Ronell Wilson, who escaped death row in 2016 after a federal judge
ruled he was too "intellectually disabled" to be executed.
Wilson, who killed undercover cops James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews during a
gun buy-and-bust undercover operation on Staten Island, infamously stuck out
his tongue at his victims' families when they applauded his initial death
verdict in 2007.
Saipov has also been known to behave bizarrely in court, including telling the
judge at a recent hearing that he's "not worried about this at all" because
only God can judge him.
"The judgments made here are not important to me because they are judgments of
living things ... not by Allah, made by weak minds," he told the judge in June.
Saipov's defense lawyers, who did not return a request for an interview, have
argued against the death penalty, saying that Sessions' decision to seek death
for Saipov may have been unfairly influenced by President Trump.
They cited Trump's tweets about Saipov calling for Saipov to be put to death -
"Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY," Trump tweeted after Saipov's arrest -
combined with the president's attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. They
said this combination of factors raises questions about whether Sessions wants
the death penalty for Saipov to make the president happy.
Keeping Saipov alive might also prove to be the wiser choice, according to
Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
Sentencing him to death will just "make him a martyr," Dershowitz told The
Post.
"He will be forgotten if sentenced to life."
(source: newyorkpost.com)
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