[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GEORGIA
June 20 GEORGIAexecution Georgia carries out execution of condemned killer Marion Wilson Marion Wilson was declared dead at 9:52 p.m. after being put to death tonight by lethal injection for a murder committed more than 2 decades ago. The execution was carried out shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the 42-year-old's final appeals. Wilson’s lawyers had asked the high court to halt the execution, and the court waited about 2 hours after the scheduled 7 p.m. execution to issue its decision. The nation’s highest court often waits until well after that hour before deciding whether to intervene. After hearing of the high court’s denial, Wilson’s 23-year-old daughter, Tykecia, screamed, “I want my daddy, I want my daddy back!” A man picked her up as she wailed, carried her to a car and drove away. The Georgia Supreme Court refused to issue a stay of execution this afternoon, and the state Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to grant clemency to Wilson this morning. Wilson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Baldwin County — along with co-defendant Robert Butts — for the 1996 shooting death of an off-duty corrections officer. Donovan Parks, 24, wanted to become a counselor for inmates. The parole board held a lengthy meeting Wednesday, hearing from members of Wilson and Parks’ family. Clemency hearings in Georgia are closed to the media. The board’s deliberations are also private. Shortly after the parole board denied clemency, a Butts County Superior Court judge rejected Wilson’s latest petition. In a recent court filing, Wilson’s lawyers contended the district attorney who prosecuted the case made misleading arguments to Wilson’s jury. They also said Wilson was not eligible for the death penalty because he was not the person who shot and killed Parks. But Judge Thomas Wilson dismissed the petition, saying one claim was raised too late and the other had already been decided in prior appeals. Marion Wilson’s lawyer are now expected to appeal the judge’s ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court. This afternoon, the Georgia Supreme Court, by a pair of 7-1 votes with Justice Robert Benham dissenting, also dismissed Wilson’s appeal as well as his request for new DNA testing and a new trial. On March 28, 1996, Wilson and Butts, who was executed last year, spotted Parks at a Milledgeville Walmart and asked for a ride while he was buying cat food. Parks, who knew Butts from working with him at Burger King, had just come from Bible study. Wilson and Butts were members of the Folk Nation street gang. Minutes after Parks agreed to give them a lift, he was pulled from his car, shot in the head with a sawed-off shotgun, and left for dead in the road. Wilson’s attorneys have argued there is no evidence Wilson was the trigger man, or that he knew Butts was going to shoot Parks. Wilson has said he thought Butts was likely going to rob Parks. The petition points out then-District Attorney Fred Bright had offered Wilson a sentence of life with the possibility of parole before his 1997 trial. Wilson's attorneys have also said in filings that Bright, who died last year, took advantage of ambiguity in the evidence about which man pulled the trigger to accuse them both of it at their separate trials. Bright later said he believed Butts pulled the trigger. The DA's office noted in filings this week that Georgia law doesn’t require a person to physically kill someone to be guilty of murder. Helping in a murder is enough. Christopher Parks, who was 18 when his brother was murdered, wants Wilson to pay with his life as soon as possible. “Donovan was someone who cared about people. He was someone who was trying to help someone who said they were stranded and needed a ride. Within 30 minutes, they took his life," Parks told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Treated him like he was gum on the bottom of a shoe. Like he wasn’t worth anything.” Outside the prison, a group a protesters gathered before 7 p.m. They’d driven from around the country to stand against the 1,500th American execution since 1976. “That person has a family too,” SueZann Bosler said of Wilson. Bosler was the rare protester who had a family member murdered. Her father, Rev. Billy Bosler, was stabbed repeatedly in front of her on Dec. 22, 1986, by James Bernard Campbell in South Florida. Campbell also seriously wounded the daughter, 24 at the time. Campbell ended up on death row, but the daughter eventually joined the successful fight to get him resentenced to life. “My father told me 8 years before this happened, If someone ever murdered me, I would not want that person to get the death penalty,’” she said. “My dad taught me about forgiveness.” Chrisopher Parks, for his part, disagrees with death penalty abolitionists, because he believes the only punishment appropriate for taking his brother’s life is death itself. Wilson becomes t
[Deathpenalty] Press Release: GEORGIA CLEARS WAY FOR THE U.S.’S 1,500TH EXECUTION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 20, 2019 GEORGIA CLEARS WAY FOR THE U.S.’S 1,500TH EXECUTION ATLANTA -- With the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denial of clemency for death row prisoner Marion Wilson, Jr., the State of Georgia has cleared the way for his June 20th execution. Barring any unforeseen delays, his execution will become the United States’ 1500th execution since resumption began in 1977. “This is a horrific milestone in our country’s barbaric practice of killing prisoners. Even with the death penalty in steady decline throughout the country, it is still troubling each time a state decides to take a life,” said Scott Langley, co-director of Death Penalty Action, a national organization which has been providing resources and leadership to highlight pervasive issues of concern as the count reaches 1500. (See www.DeathPenaltyAction.org/1500th) Petition signatures from around the country and the world are being delivered today to the office of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. The pace of executions is only one indicator of the steady decline of capital punishment. It took 7 years between the 500th and 1,000th executions. Then it took almost 14 years to get to the 1,500th. While 29 states still have the death penalty on the books, Georgia is on a small list of only a handful of states that are still actively executing prisoners. It has carried out 73 of the 1,499 executions to-date making it the sixth-most executing state in modern history. Georgia has also figured prominently in some of the most significant rulings and executions this country has seen in the last 50 years. 1972’s Furman v. Georgia decision ruled that all death penalty laws in the United States were “arbitrary and capricious” and therefore unconstitutional. The 1976 Gregg v. Georgia decision upheld the new laws and allowed the resumption of executions. The death penalty is no less arbitrary today. Georgia is also the state that carried out the controversial 2011 execution of Troy Davis, a man largely believed to have been innocent. A searchable database covering the 1,499 executions to-date was made available last week by the Death Penalty Information Center at www.DeathPenaltyInfo.org (not affiliated with Death Penalty Action). Since the 1000th execution, which took place in 2005, nine states have ended the death penalty by legislation or court order, including New Hampshire just last month, while another four have put a moratorium in place. Protestors are planning to vigil around the State of Georgia Thursday night in protest of the execution. Other solidarity vigils will be taking place around the world, including in Washington, DC, Dallas, Paris and the UK. At the prison in Jackson where the execution is to be carried out, Death Penalty Action Advisory Board Members Randy Gardner of Utah and SueZann Bosler of Florida will be there to add their voices to the protest against the execution of Mr. Wilson. Randy's brother was executed by firing squad in Utah, and SueZann witnessed her father’s murder and she herself was stabbed and left for dead. # # # (source: Scott Langley, Abolitionist Action Committee) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
June 20 BELARUS: Declaration by the Committee of Ministers on the execution of Alyaksandr Zhylnikau in Belarus The Committee of Ministers deeply deplores the execution of Mr Alyaksandr Zhylnikau, announced on 13 June 2019. It calls on the Belarussian authorities not to carry out the execution of Mr Vyachaslau Sukharko, condemned for the same crime as Mr Alyakasandr Zhylnikau. The Committee of Ministers reaffirms its unequivocal opposition to the death penalty and reiterates its strong call on Belarus to establish a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition of the death penalty. The Committee of Ministers remains ready to assist the Belarussian authorities to promote a public debate on the issues relating to the full abolition of the death penalty, as foreseen in the Belarussian Constitution (source: coe.int) PAKISTANexecution Death row convict hanged in Haripur jail A death row convict was hanged in the Haripur Central Jail here on Wednesday morning. Chanzeb, a resident of Peshawar, had been awaiting execution since 2006 when Federal Shariat Court had awarded him death penalty for raping and murdering a minor girl who happened to be his sister-in-law in 1996. After issuance of his black warrants the jail administration arranged his last meeting with his family on Tuesday. According to jail sources, his execution was carried out at 4.30am amid tight security. According to deceased’s last will, his real sister received his body and took it to Peshawar for burial. Police and witnesses said Sheikh Abdul Fatakh of Kalas village was on way to pick his daughter from university when his bike collided with a speeding van, injuring him critically. The locals shifted him to Haripur Trauma Centre where he succumbed to injuries. (source: dawn.com) INDIA: State to HC: No deliberate delay in executing death penalty of 2 convicts The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that there has been no “deliberate or inordinate delay” on its part in deciding and executing the death penalty imposed on two convicts in the 2007 Pune BPO employee's gang-rape and murder case. The state home department and Superintendent of Yerwada jail in Pune, where the 2 convicts are lodged, filed their affidavits in response to the pleas filed by the duo seeking to halt their execution scheduled on June 24. The petitions filed by Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade have claimed that the “inordinate delay” in executing the sentence violated their fundamental rights. They urged the high court to commute their death sentence to life imprisonment. In the affidavit, the government said the Pune sessions court delayed in issuing warrants for the convicts' execution despite several reminders sent by the Yerwada prison superintendent and Additional Director General, Prisons Department, Pune. The home department, in its affidavit, stated that the superintendent of Yerwada prison was informed on June 19, 2017 that the convicts' mercy petitions were rejected by the President. “The Yerwada prison superintendent informed the convicts about the decision on the same day and also wrote a letter to the sessions court concerned, intimating it about the rejection of the mercy petitions and seeking for appropriate orders to be passed regarding the death penalty imposed,” the affidavit said. From June 19, 2017 to December 2018, the Yerwada prison superintendent as well as additional director general, prisons, Pune wrote letters to the sessions court, requesting for appropriate orders to be issued. “There has not been any delay... on the part of the state government as such, either in intimating the convicts, or in forwarding the documents to the government of India,” the state government said in the affidavit. The affidavit filed by the present superintendent of the Yerwada prison said no blame can be put on the then jailor as he had followed the procedure and had sent repeated letters to the sessions court in Pune, requesting for necessary orders for execution of the death penalty. “It was entirely within the jurisdiction and totally in the absolute discretion of the sessions court to issue the death warrant. There is no delay in executing the death sentence of the two convicts by the state of Maharashtra,” the affidavit said. Meanwhile, the affidavit filed by the Union government Wednesday said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) received the mercy petitions filed by the two convicts on May 18, 2016 and these were decided on May 26, 2017 after taking into account all relevant considerations, such as the convicts' age, background, role in the offence and so on. The convicts' counsel, Yug Chaudhry, claimed that this is the first case in the country that has witnessed such an inordinate delay. A division bench headed by Justice B P Dharmadhikari will continue hearing arguments in the case on Thursday
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., UTAH, NEV., CALIF., USA
June 20 MISSOURI: Missouri woman to spend life in prison after plea agreement A Missouri woman will spend the rest of her life in prison after admitting that prosecutors had evidence to convict her of killing a mentally disabled man in what authorities believe was part of a complicated plot to divert attention from another homicide case. Pamela Hupp, 60, of O'Fallon, entered an Alford plea Wednesday that calls for life in prison without the possibility of parole at sentencing in August. Hupp could have faced the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the August 2016 death of 33-year-old Louis Gumpenberger. St. Charles County prosecutor Tim Lohmar said after the hearing that the evidence was overwhelming and he believes Hupp "deserves to be put to death." But he cited several factors in the plea deal, including the fact that the victim's family preferred that she spend life in prison. He also cited the expected $300,000 cost of a trial. St. Charles County authorities believe Hupp killed Gumpenberger to distract from the re-investigation of the stabbing death of Betsy Faria in 2011 in neighboring Lincoln County. Russ Faria was convicted of killing his wife in 2013, but the conviction was overturned and he was acquitted in a 2015 retrial. Russ Faria blamed Hupp, saying she had a motive after becoming the beneficiary of a $150,000 life insurance policy shortly before Betsy Faria was killed. Lincoln County prosecutor Michael Wood told The Associated Press that he wants to re-examine the Faria investigation now that Hupp's case is resolved in St. Charles County. Wood said he hasn't determined if Hupp is a suspect in Betsy Faria's death, but "people in the community believe she's the leading suspect." A phone message left with Hupp's attorney was not returned. Gumpenberger, who was mentally and physically impaired from a 2005 car wreck, was killed on Aug. 16, 2016, the victim of a bizarre plot staged by Hupp to make it look like she was a kidnapping victim acting in self-defense, police said. Hupp originally told police that she got out of her car on her driveway and Gumpenberger, whom she described as a stranger, pulled a knife and demanded she take him to a bank "to get Russ's money," an apparent reference to the insurance money she collected from Betsy Faria's death. Hupp told authorities she knocked the knife out of Gumpenberger's hand and ran into her house on a quiet, middle class street. She said she got a gun and fatally shot Gumpenberger, who had followed her inside. The story quickly unraveled. Lohmar said that days before the killing, a woman reported that someone matching Hupp's description in an SUV approached her claiming to be a producer for the TV show "Dateline" and promised to pay $1,000 if she would record a scripted sound bite about 911 calls. The woman at first agreed but backed out when the woman failed to show any credentials. Lohmar said a surveillance camera showed the SUV's license plate, which matched Hupp's. He has said authorities believed Hupp was "vetting a potential victim." Data from Hupp's cellphone indicated that Gumpenberger was not a stranger as Hupp had claimed — GPS showed she was at his apartment, 13 miles (20.92 kilometers) from her home, less than an hour before the fatal confrontation. Police found $900 in plastic bags in Gumpenberger's pocket after his death, and a note that appeared to be instructions to kidnap Hupp and collect Faria's money. Authorities said the money and note were planted. Lohmar said that after Hupp was arrested in Gumpenberger's death she stabbed herself with a ball point pen multiple times in the neck and arms in the O'Fallon police station, requiring hospitalization. (source: kansascity.com) UTAH: Weber County alleges unethical misrepresentations by death penalty attorney in billing disputes Weber County says it fired a death penalty appeal lawyer for "misrepresentations and falsehood," not because he sought more money to defend murder convict Doug Lovell and complained to a judge and the media. In a January 2018 U.S. District Court lawsuit, indigent appeals attorney Sam Newton charged the county violated his First Amendment right of free speech by terminating his contract more than a year early. He also argued the county was miserly in its funding of capital appeals, which are guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment. But in a June 14 motion for summary judgment, Kristin VanOrman, an attorney representing the county, urged Judge Robert Shelby to dismiss the suit. She contended the county did not violate Newton's freedom of speech and planned to cancel Newton's contract regardless. Newton and the county jousted through 2017 over his requests for more funding to handle Lovell's latest round of appeals. Lovell was sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of Joyce Yost of South Ogden and the case has been on appeal ever since.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., S.C., GA., FLA., ALA.
June 20 TEXASnew execution date Randall Mays has received an execution date for October 16; it should be considered serious. (source: MC/RH) * Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present43 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-561 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 44-July 31Ruben Gutierrez-562 45-Aug. 15Dexter Johnson--563 46-Aug. 21Larry Swearingen564 47-Sept. 4Billy Crutsinger565 48-Sept. 10---Mark Anthony Soliz--566 49-Oct. 2-Stephen Barbee--567 50-Oct. 16Randall Mays568 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ** Houston judge questions capability of federal prosecutor in San Jacinto County death penalty case A federal judge publicly rebuked a Justice Department prosecutor in a Houston death penalty case over allegations the Washington, D.C., lawyer hid exculpatory evidence in another capital case in Indiana federal court. U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes, who is known to air his feelings candidly about government employees and policies, made his opinion of Assistant U.S. Attorney James D. Peterson clear Wednesday during a discovery hearing. “I think that America could find a better representative of its values and ideals than Mr. Peterson,” Hughes told another prosecutor on the case. It was the second time in the past year the judge has clashed in court with Peterson. The judge’s admonition came during a hearing for James Wayne Ham, of San Jacinto County, who faces a capital trial on charges that in 2013 he fatally shot Eddie “Marie” Youngblood, a 52-year-old Coldspring postal worker and then burned her remains. Ham’s defense lawyers say that amid a dysfunctional culture in their unit, Peterson and two other Justice Department lawyersdemonstrated a pattern of misconduct in other death penalty cases around the country that warrants further scrutiny of their work regarding Ham. If the judge orders the release of additional documents, the defense team will assess whether they believe evidence that weighs in favor of Ham’s innocence was withheld. The lead defense lawyer in the Houston case, Kimberly C. Stevens, also noted that Peterson’s Texas Bar license has been suspended since 1996 for failure to pay his dues. She told the judge that becoming ineligible due to an administrative suspension constitutes a violation of the federal and local rules. Peterson has an active law license in Virginia and could appear in federal court without a Texas license, according to the state bar association. Evidence presented in a civil suit in Connecticut that Peterson and Steve Mellin, another prosecutor previously tied to the Ham case, had destroyed or failed to produce evidence favorable to the defense in other federal death penalty cases. And a declaration by Amanda Haines, a former co-worker, in an Indiana death penalty case stated that she had resigned due to ethical breaches she had reported that were never addressed by management. Haines, the aggrieved ex-prosecutor, said in a sworn statement that Peterson “committed a fundamental error in judgment” and a violated protocol in the Indiana case when he interviewed dozens of witnesses who had evidence favorable to the defendant without law enforcement present. Peterson then compounded the error, in her view, by destroying his notes and then denying he had disposed of them. Haines said that attorney Mellin, who worked on the Ham case in Houston from 2013 to 2014, had missed deadlines and failed to review documents or identify exculpatory Brady material boxes of evidence in the Indiana case. Justice lawyers said under oath that Peterson’s department was riddled with personnel problems, including allegations of a sexualized environment at the office that was both hostile to and discriminatory against women. Male lawyers accused of failing to cover the basics won awards and got plum assignments, like the Boston Marathon bombing case, while female prosecutors got short shrift, the women said. Stevens, the defense lawyer in Houston also asked the judge to review the conduct of Kevin Carwile, who previously headed Mellin and Peterson’s unit at the Justice Department and Carwile’s deputy, Gwynn “Charlie” X. Kinsey Jr. Both men appeared at Ham’s death penalty determination hearing in Washington opposite 2 female defense lawyers. These top capital prosecution officials subsequently faced scrutiny and were ousted from their roles in the wake of allegations of misconduct and disparate treatment. Hughes, the judge in the Houston case, ordered the prosecutors to produce a list of all events and documents involving Peterson and the other Justice lawyers. The jud
