[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO
June 17 TEXAS: Larry Fitzgerald, face for Texas death row, dies at 79 Larry Fitzgerald, former Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman, sits on the sofa in his living room in what had been his quarters in Huntsville. He witnessed more than 200 executions during his 8 years as the face of the nation's busiest death chamber. He died June 12. As prison system spokesman, Fitzgerald was the face of the nation's busiest death chamber for 8 years. Friends and relatives remember his wit, empathy with death-row inmates and his notorious gallows humor. Larry Fitzgerald, who for years was the Texas prison system's spokesman, working as the public face of the busiest death chamber in the nation, died June 12 at his Austin home, according to his family. Fitzgerald was the Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman for 8 years during which Texas was building new prisons and dealing with the attention drawn by then Gov. George W. Bush's run for the presidency. He was inevitably drawn into stories about the death penalty and Texas' approach to it, fielding inquiries from American media he said were generally cordial and foreign outlets that he said treated him as if he personally sharpened the executioner's axe. A hard-drinking, chain-smoking archetype of a public relations era now past, Fitzgerald, according to a 2014 Texas Monthly article, once showed his mischievous streak by taking a newly hired spokeswoman to a prison on the pretense of educating her about the business - only to lead her "past dozens of newly shorn arrivals who had been divested of not just their hair but all their clothes." Fitzgerald's obituary - most of which he wrote himself - notes that as a prison system spokesman he "witnessed 219 executions, allowing him to meet many state, national and international media types. Big whoop." But as the public face of a notorious prison system, "If Larry said it, you could take it to the bank," said Michelle Lyons, the co-worker Fitzgerald had led past the cluster of nude inmates. "He was, quite simply, the face of TDCJ and he always will be." Fitzgerald is survived by his wife, Marianne Cook Fitzgerald; daughter, Kelly Anne Fitzgerald; and son, Kevin Lane Fitzgerald. He died from what his wife said was a serious internal disease, for which he had been in hospice care. The family is planning a public memorial, though they are still working out the details, Marianne Fitzgerald said. Clyde Larry Fitzgerald was born Oct. 12, 1937, in Austin, according to his obituary. He was the son of a government land man and a schoolteacher, according to an article by Houston Chronicle reporter Mike Ward, one of the many Texas journalists Fitzgerald grew to know over the years. Fitzgerald graduated from McCallum High School and attended the University of Texas. He worked for years at radio stations around Texas as a disc jockey, reporter and news director, developing the authoritative voice he would employ before the cameras. He worked in political campaigns for Bill Hobby, who was then the lieutenant governor, and Ann Richards during her run for governor. His obituary notes that he "was proud that he kept one particular promise he had made to himself: never vote Republican." (source: Austin American-Statesman) PENNSYLVANIA: Convicted killer 'should go to the very top' of execution list, judge says A Lancaster County man has been formally sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a woman and her 16-year-old daughter because they were going to testify against him in a child sexual assault trial. Lancaster County President Judge Dennis Reinaker ordered the sentence Friday for 40-year-old Leeton Thomas and said if Pennsylvania lifts a moratorium on the death penalty, Thomas "should go to the very top of the list." Thomas, 40, was found guilty by a jury Tuesday of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the June 2015 killings of 44-year-old Lisa Scheetz and her daughter. The Quarryville man was also convicted of attempted homicide for severely wounding Scheetz's then-15-year-old daughter after breaking into the family's East Drumore Township home. She testified at trial and identified Thomas as the killer. The jury decided on the death sentence Wednesday night. (source: WHTM news) GEORGIA: Prison bus was 'tank of piranhas' as guards slain; death penalty sought for escapees Convicts on a Georgia prison bus appeared to laugh and jump around as 2 corrections officers were shot to death earlier this week in an escape that prompted a nationwide manhunt. The callousness of the crime has authorities preparing to seek the death penalty for accused killers Ricky Dubose and Donnie Russell "Whiskey" Rowe. "We've got too many of these savages out here. We need to keep them caged up and send those to hell that we can," Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said Friday, a day after Rowe and Dubose were caught south of Nashville,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, W.VA.
Feb. 20 TEXAS: Rodney Reed From Death Row: I'm Not Giving Up About 4 hours east of Bastrop, in the small town of Livingston, is a maximum security prison better known as death row. For the past 17 years, it's been Rodney Reed's home. He spends about 22 hours each day in a cell, clinging to hope and maintaining his innocence. It's not just what I'm going through, it's what my family is going through, Reed said. I kind of get emotional when I think about what's going on with them. At the moment, Reed said a radio is his only contact with the world. As the days tick down on his life, he can't see the countless protests and vigils calling for his freedom taking place across the state. The only updates come when family members see him through the glass. My baby boy, he tells me that he has faith, said Reed. I have to hold on, I have to hold onto that. Reed is scheduled to be executed March 5. A Bastrop jury convicted him nearly 2 decades ago for the 1996 murder of 19-year-old Stacy Stites. I try not to entertain what the state is trying to do to me, I don't want to entertain it, Reed said. But on Wednesday he was forced to. Reed said that before his interview with KEYE TV he was told to complete paperwork for the state identifying which of his family members could be in the room when he's executed. It also outlines what to do with his remains. KEYE TV asked Reed if he thinks it's possible the state will put him to death. I think that it's possible, he said. I hope that they don't, but it's possible that they will. Reed says he has known others on death row who have left and never come back, and he knows the routine, but it's not something he wants to focus on. I have to treat every day the same, he said. I mean I'm not going to curl up in a corner -- nothing like that -- and stare at the celling all day. I'm going to continue to listen to my music, continue to read and continue to be me. Reed also knows, as have others before him who have also maintained their innocence, that you can return from the brink. At the moment Rodney Reed's fate rests with the courts and Governor Greg Abbott. While campaigning for governor, Abbott spoke to KEYE TV in 2014 on his position on the death penalty in general, saying, I want to ensure sure that it's administered with absolute fairness and justice. Abbott said, I led the advancement in this last session to ensure we would have broad-based DNA testing in any death penalty case. If the death penalty is going to be imposed we must be sure that the person who receives the death penalty really did commit the crime. But at each recent hearing, the state consistently fought against additional DNA testing, along with new testing for evidence that's never been through the process, including the belt used to strangle Stites. Reed's attorneys believe the state is ready to move forward with the execution, rather than admit the possibility that the new findings and testimony in Reed's defense show he's innocent. What the state is trying to do here, in our view, is rush the execution date before we can get to the evidence that establishes Mr. Reed's evidence, said Reed's attorney Andrew MacRae. Their latest appeal argues new forensic evidence, from three renowned forensic pathologists, which they say shows it's impossible for Rodney Reed to be guilty. There are also affidavits from 2 of Stites' coworkers saying they kncew Reed and Stites were in a relationship. It would back up the story Reed has been telling since his conviction. I've been in this fight, this struggle that long. I'm not giving up -- not my hope, not my faith, Reed said. For now he waits, spending the majority of his time reading, thinking about family and supporters, and glancing at pictures. I look in their eyes, I look at their smiles, and I see the love, he said. With lingering questions, did the state get it right or will an innocent man run out of time? KEYE TV reached out to the office of the Governor and Attorney General for a comment on this case, but have not heard back. (source: KEYE TV news) Man who killed officer loses death row appeal A convicted killer sent to Texas death row for fatally shooting a Dallas police officer working an off-duty security job at a club more than 13 years ago has lost a federal appeal. Lawyers for 32-year-old Licho Escamilla argued before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that his trial attorneys were deficient for not producing evidence about his troubled childhood - evidence that could have persuaded jurors to sentence him to life in prison, the lawyers said. But the 5th Circuit ruled late Wednesday that evidence of the crime outweighed any mitigating evidence not presented to jurors. Court records show that Escamilla had a history of violence and that Officer Christopher James was 1 of 2 people he killed. James was shot multiple times in the
