August 9
TEXAS----new execution date
Local death row inmate set with execution date
District Attorney Randall Sims came forward with an official execution date for
the ongoing death penalty case for Travis Runnels.
Runnels has been on death row for 13 years for the murder of a prison
supervisor of a shoe-making shop in Amarillo’s Clements unit.
Thursday, the 47th District Attorney announced the date of his execution is set
for December 11, 2019.
Travis Runnels Criminal History Timeline:
Runnels criminal history started in 1993, where he was convicted of 2nd-degree
felony of burglary. He would go on the accumulate 2 more felony charges.
His 2nd felony charge of aggravated robbery included carrying a deadly weapon.
He was sentenced to 70 years in prison and would be eligible for parole in
2025.
His final felony charge while in prison in Amarillo would later lead to his
death penalty.
In 2003, Runnels was working on the cleaning staff in the Clements unit boot
shop, and had disputes because he wanted to work in the prison’s barbershop. On
the day of the murder, Runnels asked another inmate for his boot knife where he
would later walk behind the shop’s supervisor, Stanley Wiley, and slit his
throat.
He was charged with murder after pleading guilty.
In 2005, the charge then turned into a Capital murder conviction, and 2 days
later he was sentenced with the death penalty.
After many appeals were denied, on August 8th 2019, the 47th District Attorney
announced Runnels execution date is set for December 11, 2019.
At the news conference, NewsChannel10 asked the District Attorney why the
courts decided to pursue the death penalty when many prosecutors have been
shying away due to expense.
“I’m not going to let expense or politics ever interfere with the decision
about what I’m going to do on that. I’ve got office policies, I’ve got 5 things
in it, the very first one is always do the right thing,” explained 47th
District Attorney Randall C. Sims.
The District Attorney also explained how inmates came forward with no reward on
behalf of Wiley.
“There were 8 inmates that testified against Travis Runnels and the reason they
did it, I’ll sum it up as 'he’s the nicest man out there, he treated us as
equals and was very nice to everybody out there, including the inmates. The
inmate that gave the boot knife to Mr. Runnels, while he was the stand, he
cried just nearly the whole time,” said Sims.
There are 219 inmates currently on Texas’ death row. Texas, which reinstated
the death penalty in 1976, has the most active execution chamber in the nation.
(source: KFDA news)
*****************************
Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----43
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----561
Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #
44---------Aug. 15----------------Dexter Johnson----------562
45---------Aug. 21----------------Larry Swearingen--------563
46---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------564
47---------Sept. 10---------------Mark Anthony Soliz------565
48---------Sept. 25---------------Robert Sparks-----------566
49---------Oct. 2-----------------Stephen Barbee----------567
50---------Oct. 10----------------Randy Halprin-----------568
51---------Oct. 16----------------Randall Mays------------569
52---------Oct. 30----------------Ruben Gutierrez---------570
53---------Nov. 6-----------------Justen Hall-------------571
54---------Nov. 20----------------Rodney Reed-------------572
55---------Dec. 11---------------Travis Runnels-----------573
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
********************************
USA----impending/scheduled executions
With the execution of Marion Wilson Jr. in Georgia on June 20, the USA has now
executed 1,500 condemned individuals since the death penalty was re-legalized
on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision.
Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below
is a list of further scheduled executions as the nation continues its shameful
practice of state-sponsored killings.
NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.
1501------Aug. 15-------------Dexter Johnson-----------Texas
1502-------Aug. 15------------Stephen West-------------Tennessee
1503-------Aug. 21------------Larry Swearingen---------Texas
1504-------Aug. 22------------Gary Ray Bowles----------Florida
1505-------Sept. 4------------Billy Crutsinger---------Texas
1506-------Sept. 10-----------Mark Anthony Soliz-------Texas
1507-------Sept 25------------Robert Sparks------------Texas
1508-------Oct. 1-------------Russell Bucklew----------Missouri
1509-------Oct. 2-------------Stephen Barbee-----------Texas
1510-------Oct. 10------------Randy Halprin------------Texas
1511-------Oct. 16------------Randall Mays-------------Texas
1512-------Oct. 30------------Ruben Gutierrez----------Texas
1513-------Nov. 3-9-----------Charles Rhines-----------South Dakota
1514-------Nov. 6-------------Justen Hall--------------Texas
1515-------Nov. 20------------Rodney Reed--------------Texas
1516-------Dec. 5-------------Lee Hall Jr.-------------Tennessee
1517-------Dec. 9-------------Daniel Lewis Lee---------Federal - Ark.
1518-------Dec. 11------------James Hanna--------------Ohio
1519-------Dec. 11------------Travis Runnels-----------Texas
1519-------Dec. 11------------Lezmond Mitchell---------Federal - Ariz.
1529-------Dec. 13------------Wesley Purkey------------Federal - Mo.
1521-------Jan. 13-----------Alfred Bourgeois----------Federal - Tex.
1522-------Jan. 15-----------Dusten Honken-------------Federal - Iowa
1523-------Jan. 16-----------Kareem Jackson------------Ohio
(source: Rick Halperin)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Prosecutors Pursue Death Penalty For Murder Of Pregnant Bristol Twp. Woman
Prosecutors filed paperwork Thursday to pursue the death penalty against
28-year-old Jaleel Lamar Loper.
Loper, a Philadelphia resident, is accused of killing 30-year-old Anna Angok,
who was pregnant, inside her unit at the Glen Hollow Apartments off
Newportville Road in Bristol Township’s Croydon section on September 26, 2018.
The lifeless body of the 30-year-old woman was discovered with her 2-year-old
daughter in tears sitting nearby.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office notice of aggravating circumstances
requested the right to seek the death penalty is Loper is found guilty of
1st-degree murder. Prosecutors listed 2 aggravating circumstances - a history
of felony convictions and the fact Angok was in her 3rd trimester of pregnancy.
No date for trial has been set.
Angok died of strangulation. Her body was found with black and blue bruising
around her neck and abrasions.
Loper told investigators after the death that he had been arguing with his
ex-girlfriend Angok in the days leading up to her murder. He also said he knew
she was pregnant.
As of August 1, 139 people are on Pennsylvania’s death row, but the governor
has imposed a moratorium on executions. Those from Bucks County are: Robert
Flor, Robert Diamond, Marcel Johnson, and Richard Laird.
(source: levittownnow.com)
FLORIDA:
Resentencing for convicted cop killer Paul Beasley Johnson delayed
Convicted cop killer Paul Beasley Johnson, who’s been on Florida’s death row
for nearly 4 decades, will have to wait another 4 months before he’s
resentenced for the 1981 killing rampage that left one Polk County Sheriff’s
Office deputy dead.
Chief Circuit Judge Ellen Masters agreed to delay the hearing, which was
scheduled to begin Monday, after lawyers for the state and for Johnson each
sought to postpone the resentencing. The hearing, which is expected to take 3
weeks, has been rescheduled to Dec. 2.
The postponement comes on the heels of a ruling last week to deny the state’s
request to delay the trial.
In that motion, prosecutors had sought to delay the resentencing until the
Florida Supreme Court ruled on a related pending case that, if decided in the
state’s favor, likely would negate the need for Johnson to be resentenced.
Johnson is being resentenced after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January 2016
that the state’s death penalty process was unconstitutional, forcing the
Florida Legislature to change state laws regarding death sentence cases. The
Florida Supreme Court ruled about a year later that the new laws, which require
jurors, not judges, to determine whether the state has proven its aggravating
factors supporting a death sentence, should be retroactive to June 2002. That
date reflects a U.S. Supreme Court ruling mandating the change that Florida
eventually imposed.
The new sentencing laws also call for a unanimous jury recommendation for
death. The former law required only a simple majority.
Although Johnson was first convicted in 1981, he had been granted a new
sentencing hearing that was held in 2013. Jurors recommended death for each of
3 murders for which Johnson was convicted, and the judge followed that
recommendation.
Since Johnson’s most recent sentencing came after 2002, he automatically became
eligible for a resentencing hearing.
However, in January, 3 of the 7 Florida Supreme Court justices retired and new
justices joined the bench, shifting the balance to a more conservative Supreme
Court. The new court is considering a case that would overturn that
retroactivity, and if granted, that action could halt the resentencings in an
estimated 150 death penalty cases statewide, including 6 in Polk County.
Assistant State Attorney Paul Wallace made that argument, in part, to Circuit
Judge Donald Jacobsen last week, but Jacobsen ruled that he had a mandate to
hold a sentencing hearing for Johnson and he needed to proceed with that
mandate. Jacobsen was on medical leave this week, so the joint request for a
postponement went to Masters.
On Wednesday, Assistant Public Defender Peter Mills, who had argued against the
state’s postponement request last week, came forward seeking to delay the
hearing. He declined to comment Thursday on his reasons for seeking the delay
Thursday.
Johnson, 70, was convicted of killing William Evans, a Winter Haven cab driver,
during the early morning hours of Jan. 9, 1981, then hitching a ride in
Lakeland with Darrell Ray Beasley and Amy Reid. When he asked them to stop
along Drane Field Road so he could relieve himself, he held Beasley at gunpoint
outside the car. Johnson fatally shot Beasley as Reid jumped behind the wheel
to seek help. Deputy Theron Burnham responded to the call, and Johnson shot the
deputy with his own service revolver. Johnson was taken into custody a day
later.
In its most recent decision, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the murder
convictions against Johnson, so only his sentence is before the Circuit Court
now.
(source: newschief.com)
************************
State calls for the death penalty for man accused of killing pregnant niece
On Thursday morning, Jonathan Quiles, the man accused of killing his pregnant
teenage niece may face the death penalty.
Quiles pleaded not guilty, but the state said it plans to ask for the death
penalty during his trial.
He is the sole suspect in the disappearance of Iyana Sawyer, and during his
arraignment for 1st-degree murder charges, he walked into the courtroom with
his hands shackled together. In July, Action News Jax news told you the State
Attorney’s Office charged Quiles with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and 1 count
of sexual battery.
On the other side of the room the prosecutor stood up and told the judge based
on the evidence in the case the state would seek the death penalty.
4 months ago Action News Jax went through hours of interrogation video where
they found evidence the 2 were in a relationship together.
They also said Sawyer wrote about her pregnancy in her diary and claims Quiles
was upset about it, but he denied any inappropriate relationship with his
niece.
The 16-year-old disappeared in December while she was 5 months pregnant.
Police she was last seen leaving Terry Parker High School.
Sources revealed in January that a landfill search off Otis Road was related to
the teen’s case.
Sawyer’s body has never been found.
As soon as Quiles left the courtroom, Iyana Sawyer’s family stood up, all of
them wearing T-shirts with the teen’s face, some with the words “We love and
miss you Princess Ya-Ya."
We also asked Sawyer’s family if they had anything to say after the arraignment
but they told us "no comment."
(source: WOKV news)
ALABAMA:
HELLISH DEATH -- Baby died in ‘horror and pain’ with 89 injuries on his 1st
birthday after being ‘sexually tortured by monster mother and her boyfriend’
A BABY died in "horror and pain" on his first birthday having suffered horrific
sexual abuse at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend, prosecutors said.
Hoss Wayne Benham was found to have 89 injuries across his body after being
brought unresponsive to a hospital in Cullman, Alabama.
His mother, Crystal Ballenger, and her boyfriend, Jeffrey Hugh Brown, at first
claimed he had died in the bath tub at their trailer home, the Cullman Times
reported. An autopsy later revealed Hoss had 38 injuries to his head and neck
inflicted by blunt-force trauma.
He had 4 injuries to each eye, 19 across on his arms and legs, 6 on his torso,
and 7 to his genitalia and anus.
He died on March 11 2014, a year to the day after his birth.
Ballenger and Brown both face charges of capital murder and sexual torture, and
could receive the death penalty or life in prison if found guilty.
Both reportedly tested positive for drugs including methamphetamine after
Hoss's death.
Brown had been due to stand trial later this month, almost four years since he
was indicted, but at a hearing on Tuesday a request by his attorney that the
trial be adjourned was granted.
He will now stand trial no earlier than September, with no reason for the delay
having been given.
It is not clear when Ballenger will stand trial.
'BEAUTIFUL SMILE'
Speaking after the couple were indicted in October 2015, prosecutor Wilson
Blaylock said: "It’s really unbelievable and just hard to read what happened to
this infant child.
"His last 36 hours were spent in horror and pain."
A woman identifying herself as Hoss's great grandmother on an online memorial
to the one-year-old wrote: "He was my 1st great grand son and I miss him every
single day and he is always on my mind.
"I look to heaven every night and tell him goodnight, because I know he is in
heaven and he watches over us all.
"I Love You and miss you and I miss that beautiful smile that was always on
your face.
"From your great nana."
(source: thesun.co.uk)
TENNESSEE:
Death Row Prisoners to Governor: Come Pray With Us ---- 'We understand you are
a man of faith and we would like to ask you to please come pray with us'
With another execution scheduled for next week, death row visitors and death
penalty opponents are increasing pressure on Gov. Bill Lee to respond to an
invitation from 32 death row prisoners. The condemned men want the governor to
come pray with them.
Dan Mann, who has been visiting death row with his wife since 2011, says the
men first made the request after Don Johnson's execution in May but have gotten
no response from the governor or his office.
The letter is short and simple.
"We understand you are a man of faith and we would like to ask you to please
come pray with us."
With the Lee administration ignoring the death row prisoners, the people who
visit them and others who oppose the death penalty are planning a march on
Saturday from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution - which houses death row -
to Legislative Plaza. Mann says they'll hold a vigil there until Monday
morning, when they'll bring the letter to Lee's office.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Rev. Kevin Riggs of Franklin
Community Church - in Williamson County, where Lee is from - noted that one of
the men who signed the letter, Kevin Burns, was ordained as a pastor by his
church.
Riggs said he was there "to ask my neighbor, my governor to honor this request.
He's a man of faith and I believe that with all my heart. I admire his prison
ministry, he's been involved in prison ministry most of his adult life."
On the campaign trail, Lee spoke often about his Christian faith and his work
with the prison ministry Men of Valor. Nevertheless, he denied clemency for
Johnson - himself a Christian and ordained elder in the Seventh Day Adventist
Church - in May, clearing the way for the first execution during his tenure as
governor.
A visit to death row would not be unprecedented for a Tennessee governor. Gov.
Frank Clement famously visited condemned inmates, and in 1965 he commuted the
sentences of every man on death row.
(source: nashvillescene.com)
***********************
Friends of current inmates facing the death penalty are demanding answers from
the Governor of Tennessee in a "March 4 Mercy" on Thursday.
The friends gathered outside Legislative Plaza, asking why Governor Lee has not
responded to a letter the inmates sent to him back in June.
They asked the Governor to pray with them.
Organizers said inmates on death row were hopeful for a response.
The group re-delivered the original letter to the Governor's Office on
Thursday, hoping to hear back.
They attempted to speak with Governor Lee, but have only been able to talk to
his staff.
(source: WSMV news)
*************************
Death penalty sought for Tennessee man accused of killing 8
The state says it will seek the death penalty in its case against a Tennessee
man charged with killing 8 people.
Sumner County District Ray Whitley confirmed a grand jury returned a 12-count
indictment Thursday against 25-year-old Michael Cummins. Whitley filed a notice
to seek the death penalty.
Cummins is charged with killing his parents, uncle and a 12-year-old girl in
rural Westmoreland in April. 6 bodies were found at one home, and 2 more
elsewhere. Affidavits say the victims died from blunt-force head injuries.
At the time, Cummins was close to being arrested for probation violations. He
was on probation after serving just 16 months of a 10-year sentence on a
conviction for attempting to burn down a neighbor's house and assaulting her
when she tried to put out the fire.
(source: Associated Press)
_______________________________________________
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
