July 28
KENTUCKY:
Trial date set in death penalty case
A trial date has been set for next spring in a capital murder case involving a
Tennessee man accused of killing a Eubank grandmother.
Bradley Allan McMahan, 35, of Louisville, Tenn., is charged with Murder and
1st-degree Burglary in connection to the death of 59-year-old Johnnie Faye
Davis, whose body was discovered inside her Eubank home the morning of November
1.
In a status hearing held Friday, Special Judge Samuel Todd Spalding scheduled
McMahan's trial for March 16, 2020.
It was the Lebanon-based judge's 1st appearance in the case after taking up the
case last month upon Pulaski Circuit Judge David Tapp's recusal. Also new to
the case is defense attorney Sarah Fightmaster, who is taking over for DPA
(Department of Public Advocacy) Capital Trials Manager Teresa Whitaker as she
retires.
Commonwealth's Attorney Eddy Montgomery filed notice in April that his office
would be seeking the death penalty against McMahan amid aggravating
circumstances. In Kentucky, death penalty consideration is generally reserved
for murder cases in which the homicide occurs during the commission of another
violent crime or where the accused has a prior murder conviction.
In this case, McMahan is accused of killing the mother of his former
girlfriend.
According to preliminary hearing testimony last fall from Detective John
Hutchinson of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office, authorities responded to the
scene on Goodhope Church Road around 6:43 a.m. on November 1. Once inside the
home, the officers found Davis lying unresponsive in the foyer -- with blood
covering her face from what turned out to be a broken nose and the electric
cord from a nearby oscillating fan wrapped around her neck.
Davis lived with her 2 grandchildren, who had been getting ready for school
when the assault began. Det. Hutchinson said Davis' 11-year-old grandson
recognized the assailant as his mother's ex-boyfriend. The boy reportedly ran
to the bedroom of his 15-year-old sister, where together they barricaded the
door and left the home through the bedroom window to seek help at a neighbor's
house.
McMahan was located later that afternoon by Somerset Police Department at the
Dollar General on East Mt. Vernon Street. Once in custody, the suspect
allegedly admitted that he strangled Davis but claimed that "she came at him
with a knife and it was self defense."
Preliminary autopsy results were consistent with Davis dying from
strangulation. Det. Hutchinson also testified that blood evidence was taken
from the home and McMahan's truck, as well his clothing.
DNA results are reportedly back from the Kentucky State Police lab. Fightmaster
advised Judge Spalding that she and her co-counsel Peyton Sands are currently
reviewing discovery that Montgomery's office had provided.
McMahan remains lodged at the Pulaski County Detention Center in lieu of a $1
million cash bond.
(source: somerset-kentucky.com)
ARIZONA:
Arizona to resume executions for first time since 2014 lawsuit over alleged
botched lethal injection
Arizona is poised to resume executions after a five-year hiatus brought on by
an execution that critics said was botched, a subsequent lawsuit challenging
the way the state carries out the death penalty, and the difficulty of finding
lethal injection drugs, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said.
Brnovich said in a letter Friday to Gov. Doug Ducey that the now-resolved
lawsuit removed legal barriers to carrying out executions. He also said a
recent U.S. Justice Department opinion clears the way for states to import
pentobarbital.
"Justice must be done for the victims of these heinous crimes and their
families. Those who commit the ultimate crime deserve the ultimate punishment,"
Brnovich said in the letter. He asked the governor for help in obtaining
pentobarbital.
It's unknown when the next execution will be scheduled. 14 of the 116 inmates
on death row in Arizona have exhausted all appeals of their sentences.
It's also unclear where the state will get the drugs. A judge ruled in
September 2017 that the state does not have to reveal who provides its
execution drugs.
"Regardless of where they go to get the drugs for executions, we expect the
state will be transparent about the transactions and how it is spending
taxpayer dollars," said Dale Baich, chief of the unit in the Federal Public
Defender's Office in Arizona that represents inmates in death penalty appeals.
The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement condemning Brnovich's
decision, claiming that the attorney general "is so eager to resume killing
people given the Arizona Department of Corrections' long history of illegally
obtaining lethal injection drugs and conducting botched executions. Arizona
should work toward smarter, more humane approaches to justice."
Brnovich's letter comes after the U.S. Justice Department's announcement
Thursday that the federal government intends to carry out several executions in
the coming months.
Executions in Arizona were put on hold after the July 2014 death of Joseph
Wood, who was given 15 doses of a 2-drug combination over 2 hours. His attorney
had said the execution was botched.
Wood, 55, was executed for the August 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged
girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz, at an automotive shop in
Tucson.
In recent years, Arizona and other states have struggled to buy execution drugs
after U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies began blocking the use of
their products in lethal injections.
Four years ago, the state tried to illegally import sodium thiopental, which
had been used to carry out executions but was no longer manufactured by
companies approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The state never received the shipment because federal agents stopped it at the
Phoenix airport and lost an administrative challenge to the seizure.
(source: CBS News)
USA:
U.S. Bishops react to revival of federal death penalty----The Catholic Bishops
of the United States express concern over the U.S. Justice Department’s
announcement scheduling the executions of 5 people on death row.
The last time the U.S. federal government executed someone was 16 years ago.
Over the past 2 decades, an informal moratorium on the death penalty at the
national level in the United States has seen the annual number of death
sentences decrease by 85%.
Justice Department announcement
On Friday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, announced that 5 death-row
inmates would be executed by lethal injection within the next 6 months. “We owe
it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by
our justice system”, he said.
Catholic Bishops’ reaction
The Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development
is Bishop Frank Dewane of Florida. In a statement reacting to Mr Barr’s
decision, he said the Catholic Bishops of the United States are “deeply
concerned” by the move and urge the Trump Administration to reconsider.
Pope Francis and the death penalty
“In 2015 Pope Francis, echoing the views of his predecessors, called for ‘the
global abolition of the death penalty’”, reads the statement. At that time, the
Pope added that a “just and necessary punishment must never exclude the
dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation”.
Pope Francis: ‘death penalty inadmissable’
In August last year, Pope Francis made a formal change to the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, declaring the death penalty to be “inadmissible” and
describing it as “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”.
U.S. Catholic Bishops and the death penalty
In 2005, the United States Catholic Bishops Conference issued a statement
echoing the position of the popes and the catechism, and entitled “A Culture of
Life and the Penalty of Death”. “In light of these long held and strongly
maintained positions”, says Bishop Dewane, “I am deeply concerned by the
announcement of the United States Justice Department that it will once again
turn, after many years, to the death penalty as a form of punishment, and urge
that these federal officials be moved by God’s love, which is stronger than
death, and abandon the announced plans for executions”.
According to Amnesty International, 170 countries have already abolished the
death penalty in law or in practice, while Pope Francis continues to call for
the Church to work “with determination for its abolition worldwide”.
(source: vaticannews.va)
*************************
Death penalty incompatible with Christianity----How does executing prisoners
square with the administration's pro-life stance?
On July 25, Attorney General William Barr announced that the Federal Government
would resume executing prisoners. Does anyone else see the hypocrisy here?
The current administration courted the “Christian Right” with the promise of
embracing the sanctity of life by abolishing legal abortions. We are taught
that all life is sacred and man should not decide who will live and who will
die, with the exception of self-defense.
Certainly, those who have committed heinous crimes and have been fairly and
justly convicted, have forfeited their place in society and should spend the
rest of their lives in maximum security prisons with no parole.
It is a fact, that those who are executed in the United States generally are of
lower socioeconomic status and less well educated.
It is also known, that there is a large error rate in the judicial system and
once a person is dead there is no chance for exoneration.
What is troubling with the pro-life stance is that it is applied narrowly to
the unborn and elderly and ignored in years comprising the majority of peoples’
lives.
Last time we checked, one of the Ten Commandments was, “Thou shalt not kill.”
Mary Frances and William Frank
Sanford
(source: Letter to the Editor, Portland Press Herald)
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