[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ARK., OKLA., N.MEX., CALIF., ORE.
Oct. 21 TEXAS: New hearing set in death penalty capital murder appeal Another hearing has been scheduled concerning an appeal of the capital murder conviction of Micah Crofford Brown. Brown remains in custody at the Hunt County Detention Center after being transferred from state prison in April. A status hearing concerning the appeal which had been scheduled July 1 was not conducted, due to an elevator fire which forced the evacuation of the Hunt County Courthouse. A hearing is now set in the court on Jan. 5, 2017. Brown, 37, of Greenville, was convicted in May 2013 and sentenced to death by lethal injection in connection with the 2011 murder of Stella Michelle "Doc" Ray. He does not yet have an execution date scheduled. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the conviction and sentence, but a separate post conviction writ was filed by the Office of Capital Writs, listing multiple alleged issues with Brown???s conviction and sentence, including ineffective assistance by the trial and appeals defense attorneys, improper arguments by prosecutors during the punishment phase, and failure to present evidence during the punishment phase that Brown suffers from an Autism Spectrum Disorder, which may have mitigated the jury's decision to issue the death penalty. The First Administrative Judicial Region has appointed 196th District Court Judge J. Andrew Bench to oversee the proceedings. (source: Herald Banner) FLORIDA: State Supreme Court suspends death penalty For the 2nd time this year, a court has ruled that Florida's death penalty statute is unconstitutional. This time, it was the Florida Supreme Court, handing down a pair of historic rulings on Oct. 14 that shifted Florida into the legal mainstream and are expected to cut the number of people sent to death row. Florida has not executed anyone since Jan. 7 because of uncertainty about its death penalty, and Friday???s rulings are expected to extend that moratorium indefinitely. 'A clear outlier' In the 1st case, the Florida high court threw out the death penalty given to a Pensacola killer, Timothy Lee Hurst, because jurors had not unanimously recommended it. Their vote was 7-5. In the 2nd case, the court ruled that the Florida Legislature botched its rewrite of the statute this year. The problem: The new law required just 10 of 12 jurors to agree on a death sentence. "The Florida Supreme Court said today that is has to be unanimous under Florida law," said Stephen K. Harper, a death penalty specialist at Florida International University College of Law. Until the Oct. 14 rulings, Florida was 1 of 3 states that did not require a unanimous jury recommendation in death penalty cases. The high court said that made the state "a clear outlier." Called historic As a consequence of last Friday's rulings, Florida currently has no death penalty. Former Circuit Judge O.H. "Bill" Eaton Jr. called the rulings historic, pointing out that for the 1st time in 44 years, no inmates will be sent to Florida's death row without all 12 members of a jury agreeing that that is the right punishment. In the Hurst case, the high court ruled that the defendant must be given a new sentencing hearing. Still unclear, though, is what will happen to the other inmates on Florida's death row and to murderers given the death penalty under the new statute, which was signed into law March 7 by Gov. Rick Scott. Blow to Bondi Some attorneys had urged the court to automatically convert all Florida death sentences to life in prison, but the recent opinions did not order that. The new rulings were a blow not just to the Florida Legislature but also to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had defended the old and new laws. Both of the Oct. 14 rulings were a consequence of an opinion handed down Jan. 12 by the U.S. Supreme Court. It ruled that Florida's death penalty was unconstitutional because it required a judge - not a jury - to decide whether a defendant should be put to death. Bondi had argued that the error was harmless, but in that January ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the court disagreed but left it to the Florida Supreme Court to hash out who, if anyone, was harmed. Huge backlog? The Florida Supreme Court answered that question last Friday, but only in part. Hurst was harmed, the court wrote, so he should be resentenced. It was silent about all other death penalty cases. Belvin Perry Jr., former chief judge of the Orange-Osceola circuit, predicted that all 385 death-row inmates would now file paperwork, arguing that they, too, were harmed. It might mean a huge backlog for the Florida Supreme Court and for trial courts, he said. But Harper and Eaton predicted the rulings could apply to far fewer cases, primarily those with active appeals and those that have not gone to trial. All 3 legal experts faulted members of the Florida Legislature. Eaton said they
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., VA., GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, TENN.
Oct. 19 TEXAS: Legislature must prioritize death penalty appellate counsel The state of Texas's continued reliance on the death penalty as a method of punishment is one of the most divisive issues in state criminal justice policy. But this premise garners consensus: If we are to execute people, we must execute the right people, those who actually committed the crimes and who actually merit capital punishment under the laws of our state. Unfortunately, Texas's inattention to a major hole in its provision of representation for those facing the death penalty is substantially undermining that protection. Under Texas and federal law, the primary vehicle for correction of error in a criminal case is the 1st direct appeal, taken immediately after a conviction. Following that direct appeal, all subsequent courts that hear challenges to a conviction will defer to many of the factual and legal findings made by that appellate court. Errors not raised or caught at that critical 1st appeal are in many instances forever forfeited. Indeed, Texas has recognized the significance of direct appeal in capital cases by providing that in only capital cases the state's highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, handles direct review. Yet Texas has failed to ensure that death row inmates receive adequate appellate counsel in death penalty cases. While the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs provides well-funded and well-supervised counsel in post-appellate habeas proceedings, appointment of appellate counsel happens through a patchwork of county-level policies with little quality oversight. Contrary to the American Bar Association's standards for fairness, Texas provides only one, not 2 appellate lawyers for death-sentenced defendants and has poor mechanisms in place to screen lawyers for their skill in litigating appeals prior to appointment. Compensation set by counties for appellate counsel is frequently grossly inadequate and creates pressure on appellate lawyers to take on unmanageable caseloads. The deficiencies are all the more glaring given the superior resources of the state in most capital appeals, which are typically handled by large county district attorney offices with specialized appellate units and multiple lawyers assisting in briefing. Such were the conclusions of a statewide taskforce of attorneys, legal scholars and former judges, which I chaired from 2011 to 2013. Our report's findings were powerfully amplified in a recent report issued by the Texas Defender Service, which detailed findings from analysis of direct appeals in capital cases from 2009 to 2015. That report found that the majority of death penalty appeals are handled by solo practitioners; that those lawyers often face vastly superior litigation resources from the state; that appellate defenders are commonly overburdened with caseloads that greatly exceed the norms in other death penalty states; and that the lawyers routinely render substandard performance by filing boilerplate briefs, waiving opportunities to submit reply briefs and failing to seek review before the Supreme Court. Critically, in the time period studied, only 3 defendants had their death sentences reversed on appeal; all were represented by 2 lawyers. These issues should be given priority attention in the upcoming legislative session. A statewide appellate defender office, comparable to the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs, would be a substantial improvement on the patchwork of appointment, oversight and compensation that currently characterizes capital appellate defense in Texas. Death-sentenced defendants should, as the American Bar Association recommends, enjoy the assistance of two lawyers in their appeals. At a minimum, the Legislature must shore up oversight of appointment and compensation standards that are currently fragmented and inadequate. More than 150 years ago, Texas was in the vanguard in creating a right to trial counsel for defendants facing the death penalty, over half a century before the Supreme Court required it. But Texas has not kept up its commitment to fairness and accuracy in capital cases. Removing structural impediments to accurate determinations of who should live or die is a moral imperative. It is well within the capacity of the Texas Legislature to respond to that challenge. (source: Opinion; Jennifer Laurin is a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. She was the chair of the American Bar Association Texas Capital Punishment Team that produced the 2013 report "Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems: The Texas Capital Punishment Assessment Report."Austin American-Statesman) CONNECTICUT: High Court Hears Death Penalty Arguments Connecticut's repeal of the death penalty for future murders last year violates the constitutional rights of the 11 men on the state's death row who still face execution, a public
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., FLA., ALA., LA.
Oct. 18 TEXAS: 3 reasons the death penalty is dying Have you ever killed somebody? The question in and of itself is haunting. Have you ever killed somebody? Each word rattles my soul. Have you ever killed somebody? The more times I ask the question, the more times I'm brought face-to-face with my own complicity in killing. Most people don't think about it like that. The more times I ask the question to others, the more times I get adamant denials of ever being involved in killing anyone. Yet in the midst of a quickness to absolve ourselves of any evil, there is our death penalty. Each time the State of Texas kills someone, the citizens are responsible. Since 1982, we have killed 538 people. There is no hope to be found in what we are. There is only hope to be found in what we can become. Recently, the Pew Research Forum reported that support for the death penalty hit its point lowest in four decades. I grabbed my heart and almost fell over. Though I'd known that support for the death penalty has been declining for a number of years nationally, this was the first time that I'd realized had fallen so low. Just under 1/2 of Americans now support the death penalty (49 %), while 42 % oppose it. Support is down from a high of 80 % in 1994. Support has even dropped 7 % since March of last year. The death penalty is dying. How could this be? We've had that killer instinct for so long. People are changing. While I can't say for sure why, 3 possible reasons are worthy of deep thought. 1. The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. How do you teach someone not to kill by killing? The death penalty is supposed to be a deterrent to killing. But how could it be? Capital punishment teaches people that there are ethical ways of killing. We can't persuade people to stop killing by showing them how to do it again and again. The Death Penalty Information Center has consistently reported that the murder rates in death penalty states are higher than in states that don't have the death penalty. The death penalty is not a deterrent to murder. Some people are finally figuring out they are less safe with a death penalty than they are without one. 2. The death penalty costs too much. A Dallas Morning News article in 1992 showed that the death penalty costs multiple times the amount that it would cost to put someone in a maximum security prison for life. And the cost isn't going down, as the newspaper reported a few years ago that the cost of execution drugs had skyrocketed. Pharmaceutical companies don't want to sell drugs meant to save lives to people dedicated to taking lives. The cost to carry out these executions is only going to continue to grow. The bottom line is that we know it is far more expensive to execute someone than to put them in prison for life. The death penalty is starting to earn a reputation for being another expensive failed government program. 3. What if we execute someone who is innocent? That's a question that eats at the souls of those with knowledge about the death penalty. I think we already have. Surely out of the hundreds, there's got to be at least one. Was it Carlos De Luna? Was it Cameron Todd Willingham? Or was it someone else entirely? In 2014, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences released a study concluding 1 in 25 sentenced to death in the U.S. is innocent. Despite recent exonerations, Texas has still probably executed many innocent people. There is no way to stop the execution of the innocent without stopping executions entirely. The 3 reasons to abolish the death penalty meet to form 1 question. Is the death penalty worth it? (source: Jeff Hood is a Baptist pastor and activist in DallasDallas Morning News) DELAWARE: Poll: Delawareans support keeping death penalty The poll revealed 55 % of registered voters are in favor of the death penalty. "Delaware is a historically a blue state, you'd expect a liberal position, which I take as being repeal of the death penalty to come out stronger, but on this issue there is that party divide as well," said Brewer. The Democrats who are in favor of repealing are in line with the majority opinion of their party, but not necessarily in line with the public as a whole." (source: WDEL news) GEORGIAimpending execution Georgia board scheduled to hold clemency hearing for man set to executed The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles is scheduled to hear arguments for clemency from representatives of an inmate scheduled for execution this week. Gregory Paul Lawler is scheduled to die Wednesday by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. A clemency hearing is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday. The 63-year-old was convicted of murder in the October 1997 shooting death of Atlanta police Officer John Sowa. Authorities say Lawler also critically injured Officer Patricia Cocciolone. Prosecutors say Lawler shot the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., DEL., FLA., OHIO, IND.
Oct. 16 TEXAS: Murder suspect denies wanting to represent selfMan charged in guard's death files motions without his lawyers' input A Texas prison inmate accused of beating a Barry Telford Unit guard to death last year was asked at a hearing Friday if he wants to represent himself. Billy Joel Tracy, 38, appeared Friday afternoon before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart for a pre-trial hearing in his capital murder case. The state is seeking the death penalty for Tracy in the July 15, 2015, death of correctional officer Timothy Davison. Tracy is represented by Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant, Texas, and Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana, and the court has approved an investigator and mitigation expert for the defense team at state expense. However, Tracy continues to file motions and pen letters to Lockhart without his lawyers' input. "I'm going to look you in the eye right now and ask you a question," Lockhart said to Tracy at the beginning of Friday's hearing. "Do you want to represent yourself?" Tracy quickly responded. "I have no intention of representing myself," he replied. "But I do want us (Tracy and his lawyers) to be on the same page." Tracy has filed motions complaining that the state has refused to return personal property, including a hot pot, noodles and a typewriter, since he was transferred from Telford after allegedly beating Davison to death with a tray slot bar. The typewriter is being held as evidence and the food items have been disposed of because of their age, according to prior court discussions. Tracy has also filed motions requesting a speedy trial, and in a letter he penned last month to Lockhart, he complains about Cobb. Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said her office is concerned Tracy might be plotting for his appeal in the event of a conviction. "(District Attorney Jerry) Rochelle wants me to put on the record that the state is ready for trial. We were ready at the last trial setting and we're ready now," Crisp said. Rochelle asked Lockhart if the court wants the state to respond to Tracy's filings or if the state is only required to respond to motions filed by his lawyers. "I think he's laying land mines for you," Crisp said of the defense team. "I think he's setting up a claim of ineffective (assistance of counsel) for down the road." Also discussed at Friday's hearing was Tracy's request for copies of the documents the state has provided to the defense. At earlier pre-trial meetings, the state has handed over boxes containing thousands of pages of evidence and reports. Crisp said it is not uncommon for inmates to have "stacks" of papers in their cells concerning their cases. Inmates are not allowed to have computers or other devices capable of reading electronic media, such as might be stored on a flash drive. Lockhart said he has no intention of ordering TDC to alter its policies to accommodate Tracy's desire for copies of court records. Crisp said she does not object to Tracy having the material so long as sensitive information, such as a witnesses' personal information, is redacted. The case is scheduled for jury selection in September 2017. Tracy allegedly slipped a hand free of its cuff and grabbed a metal tray slot bar from Davison, which officers use to manipulate the opening in cell doors, wielding it like a baseball bat to strike him again and again in full view of multiple prison surveillance cameras. Davison was transporting Tracy back to his cell in administrative segregation following an hour of recreation when the inmate allegedly attacked. Tracy has a long history of violence both in and out of prison. Tracy's prison history began in 1995 when he was just 18 and sentenced to a 3-year term for retaliation in Tarrant County, Texas. 3 years later, Tracy was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, plus 20 years for burglary, aggravated assault and assault on a public servant in Rockwall County, Texas. In 2005, Tracy received an additional 45-year term for stabbing a guard with a homemade weapon at a TDCJ unit in Amarillo, Texas. Tracy was sentenced to 10 years in 2009 for attacking a guard at a TDCJ unit in Abilene, Texas. Lockhart scheduled Tracy's next pre-trial hearing for December. (source: Texarkana Gazette) NEW HAMPSHIRE: 10 years after Briggs' murder, no rush to repeal death penalty While the wheels of justice are moving slowly, it might not be another 10 years for all appeals to be exhausted for Michael "Stix" Addison, the man convicted of murdering Manchester patrolman Michael Briggs. Meanwhile, the election this November could hold the key to whether New Hampshire becomes the 21st state and the last state in New England to repeal capital punishment. The New Hampshire Supreme Court decided last January to unanimously uphold the death sentence for Addison, concluding that the sentence was not "under the influence of passion, prejudice
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, LA., IDAHO
Oct. 13 TEXAS: A story of Revenge, Change and Forgiveness He was a "Lone Wolf" - years before the term was appropriated to describe self-inspired individuals on a killing rampages who use religion as vindication of their actions. In the days following the 9/11 attacks, Mark Stroman began "hunting Arabs," - as he described it - his nights occupied by prowling the highways and running victims off the road. To avenge the deaths of the twin towers, he graduated to shooting people whom he believed were Muslims from the Middle East - they were actually immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and a Hindu from India. He killed 2 and partially blinded a young man from Bangladesh. Thankfully, he was arrested before he could commit his planned massacre of dozens of Muslim worshipers at a local Dallas Mosque. Stroman was going to make a statement "like Muhamad Atta (the hijacker of the first 9/11 plane) did" trying to avenge the senseless killing of innocent Americans by killing innocent Muslim worshipers. To his friends, he had said that he planned to die in the carnage and mayhem. Luckily police got to him first. The Press at the time described Stroman as an "American terrorist." Today we might as well call him an "American Lone Wolf." From 2004 and for the next 7 years, filmmaker Ilan Ziv met and befriended Mark Stroman on Texas' infamous death row, where he had been since his capital murder conviction in 2002. At trial Stroman was described by the prosecutor as a "monster, a cancer to society", yet Ilan was perplexed to meet a complex man full of contradictions, who shared the same troubled soul as the most recent "lone wolves" who used Jihad as a cover for their personal failings and justification for their crimes. By then, Stroman had become a man in search of meaning and redemption. So Ziv set out to document what he called "the enigma of Mark Stroman." The result is a fascinating portrait of a serial killer, and a unique insight into the profound changes he went through. Ziv chronicled his relationship on film, but also set up a blog for Stroman. Unbeknownst to both the filmmaker and Stroman, among the growing readership was Rais Bhuiyan, Mark's only surviving victim. An Islamic pilgrimage seeded in Rais a desire to forgive Mark and to spare his life. He had a "strange" idea: if he was ever to be whole, he must reenter Stroman's life. He longed to confront Stroman and speak to him face to face about the attack that changed their lives. Mark asked for forgiveness from his victims and Bhuiyan publicly forgave him, in the name of his religion and its notion of mercy. Then two months before Mark's execution, Rais waged a legal and public relations campaign against the State of Texas and Governor Rick Perry, to have his attacker spared from the death penalty. An Eye for an Eye is the record of this riveting human drama of revenge, change and forgiveness, and of the surprising friendship that developed between the Israeli born filmmaker and Mark Stroman, who by his own admission, had never travelled beyond Dallas let alone Texas. It is a tale that stands as a poignant message in times when fear, hate and revenge are part of the daily rhetoric. 3 days before his execution, Mark Stroman declared in an interview; "If a terror attack happens again, stay united and do not stereotype the Muslims ... Don't be a dumbass ... do not be a Mark Stroman." Those words are more relevant today than when they were recorded just 5 years ago. In theatres October 28th New York - Cobble Hill Cinemas Dallas/Ft. Worth - AMC Grapevine Mills 30 Houston - AMC Studio 30 Los Angeles - Laemmle Music Hall New York Cobble Hill Cinemas 265 Court St, Brooklyn, NY 11231, USA Phone: 718-596-4995 Dallas- Ft. Worth AMC Grapevine Mills 30 Grapevine Mills, 3150 Grapevine Mills Pkwy, Grapevine, TX 76051, USA Phone: 972-539-5909 Houston AMC Studio 30 2949 Dunvale Rd, Houston, TX 77063, USA Phone: 713-977-4431 Los Angeles Laemmle Music Hall 9036 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211, USA Phone: 310-478-3836 (source: vimeo.com) LOUISIANA: DA to seek death penalty in killing of deputy The Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty for the man suspected of fatally shooting a Sheriff's Office deputy earlier this year. District Attorney Paul Connick announced the decision Thursday morning after a grand jury indicted Jerman Neveaux on a count of 1st-degree murder in the death of Deputy David Michel. Authorities have said Neveaux shot Michel during a struggle after Michel stopped Neveaux on Manhattan Boulevard in June. "We believe the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Detective Michel warrant the harshest penalty," Connick said in a prepared statement. "After consulting with my staff and Detective Michel's family, I have decided that my office will seek the death penalty." Neveaux also was charged with
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., LA., OHIO
Oct. 13 TEXAS: Texas death row inmate Danny Bible loses at US Supreme Court The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused an appeal from Texas death row inmate Danny Paul Bible, who was convicted of the 1979 icepick slaying of a woman who went to his house in Houston to use a telephone and was found later stabbed 11 times, raped and dumped on the bank of a bayou. The high court offered no comment on its rejection. Bible, 65, does not yet have an execution date. Court records show Bible has confessed to 4 killings, including 20-year-old Inez Deaton, whose slaying went unsolved for nearly 2 decades. He wasn't tied to her death until 1998 when he was arrested in Fort Myers, Florida, for a Louisiana rape and told authorities about killing Deaton in Houston and a woman and her baby west of Fort Worth in North Texas. Bible previously served prison time after pleading guilty in 1984 in Palo Pinto County to killing another woman. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show he arrived in prison with a 25-year sentence for that slaying plus 20 years for a robbery conviction in Harris County but was released in February 1992 to Montana. While out of prison on a form of parole known as mandatory supervision, Bible "lived a life of extreme violence," according to a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling earlier this year when Bible's appeal of his death sentence was rejected. It's that appeal that went to the Supreme Court. At his 2003 capital murder trial in Houston for Deaton's death, prosecutors provided evidence of robberies, thefts, assaults and abductions, including the rape of an 11-year-old girl in Montana and his confessions to repeated sexual assaults of young nieces from 1996 to 1998. Bible contended in his appeal that his lawyers, during the punishment phase of his capital murder trial in Houston, were deficient for not objecting to prosecutors' re-enacting a rape and how Bible tried to stuff his victim into a duffel bag. He also said in the appeal that he is disabled and in permanent pain after the prison van carrying him to death row in 2003 crashed, killing a corrections officer and the driver of another vehicle involved in the wreck. Bible's appeals attorney, Margaret Schmucker, said Tuesday that her next option could be to seek clemency from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, although Abbott and previous governors have little history of commuting death sentences to life in prison. Bible is "not a danger to anybody," Schmucker said. "He can't get out of a wheelchair by himself. He can't lift his arms. He can't do anything." He also has a Louisiana sentence of life without parole, she said. (source: Associated Press) *** Race shouldn't matter in sentencing, but it does In 1995, Duane Edward Buck was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend and her friend. During his sentencing hearing, the prosecution presented evidence of Buck's potential for recidivism, based on his criminal history, conduct, and demeanor. In defense, his court appointed attorney called a clinical psychologist, Dr. Walter Quijano, as an expert witness, who stated that he believed Buck's "black" race increased the likelihood of future dangerousness. Buck was subsequently sentenced to death and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence. On October 5, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court heard an oral argument on Buck's case. His new attorney, Christina A. Swarns, claims that his previous counsel was ineffective by knowingly calling an expert witness who testified that race was a factor in evaluating future dangerousness. Although the circumstances of Buck's conviction were not up for debate, his attorney asked the Justices to order "a new, fair sentencing hearing." Although the Justices described what happened during the sentencing phase of Buck's case as "indefensible" and "abysmal," they raised considerable concern that the outcome of his case wouldn???t be impacted, if a new sentencing hearing were granted. The circumstances surrounding Buck's arrest were aggravating. His crimes were gruesome, he wasn't remorseful, and he had committed various acts of domestic violence prior to the murders. However, his defense attorney maintained that, "putting an expert scientific validity to this pernicious idea that Mr. Buck would be more likely to commit criminal acts of violence because he's black" led to an arbitrary death sentence decision. Her argument centered on the fact that the expert witness' testimony directly impacted the jury's future dangerousness determination, which is the prerequisite for a death sentence in Texas. The attorney for the State, Scott A. Keller, did not defend the competency of Buck's public defender nor the racially bias statements made by the expert witness. Instead, he focused on the fact that the prosecutors did not use the expert witness' testimony to make their claims for capital
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., N.Y., ALA., OHIO, ARK.
Oct. 11 TEXAS: Texas will see lowest number of executions in 20 years For the 1st time in 20 years, the number of Texas executions will fall out of double digits this year. The 7 men put to death this year are the fewest since 1996, when executions halted amid legal challenges to a new state law intended to hasten the death penalty appeals process, according to data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Only 1 more execution is scheduled for 2016. "There is clearly a change going on in Texas," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Judges and appellate courts rescheduled or stopped executions 15 times for 11 people in 2016. At least 2 judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have said better lawyering by defense attorneys - including bringing forward better arguments and challenging "junk science" convictions - has contributed to the recent stays. The state's highest criminal court sent multiple cases back to trial courts this year to resolve claims relating to potentially faulty evidence, including that of Jeff Wood, who didn't pull the trigger in a murder and claims his sentencing trial was tainted by misleading testimony from a highly criticized psychiatrist nicknamed "Dr. Death." "Texas courts are now aware of the dangers associated with forensic sciences and are closely scrutinizing this evidence," said Greg Gardner, a capital defense attorney who represents John Battaglia, the man scheduled for the last execution of the year for killing his 2 daughters. 2 death penalty cases pending in the U.S. Supreme Court could also be affecting decisions on setting execution dates, Dunham said. Duane Buck and Bobby Moore are currently fighting their death sentences in the nation's highest court. Some experts think the enforcement of the death penalty - carrying out executions - is an indicator of the status of the punishment. "Looking at the number of executions as a measure of the usage of the death penalty, it shows the death penalty is declining in Texas," Dunham said. "I think even more importantly in the long term is that new death sentences continue to be low. That means there will be fewer and fewer people on the row subject to execution in the future." The number of new sentences dropped significantly after 2005, when life without parole became the alternative for jurors in death penalty trials, but the past 2 years have seen even lower numbers. Texas counties have sentenced 3 men to death this year, and only 2 received the penalty last year, according to TDCJ. Robert Kepple, executive director of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said the answer may be as simple as fewer murders. "Could it simply mean there are a lot less murders in Texas these last 15 years, so naturally the number of death-eligible defendants is way down as well?" he said in an email. "That, coupled with life without parole option, means less death penalties." Murder rates in Texas steadily decreased from 1996 to 2013, dropping from 7.7 to 4.4 murders per 100,000 people, according to FBI crime data. The rate increased slightly the next 2 years. Aside from lower murder rates, national support for the death penalty is also declining, according to a recent poll by Pew Research Center. Just under 1/2 of Americans support the punishment, the lowest number in four decades. The poll did not highlight Texas in its report. While Texas is seeing a record low in executions, the country's dip is even larger. Nationwide, there have been 16 executions, the fewest in 25 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The decrease in Texas plays a major role in the national scope - the state usually accounts for the largest share of the country's executions - but issues with finding and using lethal injection drugs and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Florida's death sentencing process have affected the numbers as well, Dunham said. In Texas, there are currently 243 men and women on death row, the lowest in almost 30 years, according to the Bureau of Criminal Justice Statistics. The number peaked at 460 in 1999 and has been steadily dropping since. Experts were unsure if the drop in executions and new sentences would continue in the future. The numbers seem to ebb and flow, Kepple said. (source: KHOU news) ** Texas bishops call for abolition of death penalty "Capital punishment vitiates our hearts' capacity for mercy and love," the Texas bishops said in a statement released by the Texas Catholic Conference in Austin. "The death penalty not only does not correspond to the common good, it actually does great harm to it." The Catholic bishops of Texas Oct. 10 called for the abolition of the death penalty, denouncing its effects not only on victims and others immediately affected, but also on society. "Capital punishment vitiates our hearts'
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, KY., OHIO, ARK., NEV., CALIF.
Oct. 8 TEXAS: Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-December 7---John Battaglia539 22-January 11---Christopher Wilkins540 23January 25-Kosoul Chanthakoummane541 24-January 26---Terry Edwards-542 25-February 7---Tilon Carter--543 26-April 12-Paul Storey---544 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) KENTUCKY: More DNA tests requested in Timothy Madden case Timothy Madden's defense attorney has requested forensic testing on additional items. The court document lists 5 DNA tests. The Commonwealth's reply to this request is due on October 21, 2016. Madden is accused of raping and killing 7-year-old Gabbi Doolin on the campus of Allen County-Scottsville High School on November 14, 2015. He is facing the death penalty. Madden will be back in court on November 9, 2016 at 1:30 pm. (source: WBKO news) OHIO: Ohio adds details on new 3-drug combination for executions Ohio has laid out the dosages it would use in a new 3-drug combination to be administered when the state resumes executions in January. Rules for the procedure were filed Friday in federal court, formalizing changes announced Monday. Since early 2014, Ohio has been under an unofficial execution moratorium blamed on shortages of lethal drugs. The updated execution policy calls for using 500 milligrams of midazolam, which puts the inmate to sleep; 1,000 milligrams of rocuronium bromide, which paralyzes the inmate; and 240 milliequivalents of potassium chloride, which stops the heart. Another 500 milligrams of midazolam would be kept in reserve and administered if the 1st dose is insufficient. Additional doses could be added to assure the inmate is unconscious before the second and third drugs are administered. (source: Daily Journal) ARKANSAS: State justices won't tip hand on death stay Inmates' lawyer asks U.S. for more time to file appeal Arkansas' highest court is not saying if it will accept a hypothetical U.S. Supreme Court decision that eight death row inmates need more time to mount an appeal of the state's execution law. The prisoners -- who have had their executions stayed as they mount their case -- sought a clarification from the Arkansas Supreme Court if that stay would continue should a U.S. justice extend their filing deadline. The Arkansas court on Thursday declined to offer its opinion. After the state court's ruling, Jeff Rosenzweig, the head lawyer for the 8 prisoners, said he would file an appeal on time. The law on the 3-drug method of lethal injection used in Arkansas was upheld in June by the Arkansas Supreme Court, which also ordered the executions of inmates be placed on a 90-day hold, the time in which a normal appeal to the U.S. high court must be filed. The stay could be extended, the Arkansas court said, "for good cause." The original deadline to file their case with the U.S. Supreme Court is Oct. 19, though Rosenzweig has sought a 30-day extension with Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees such requests within the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Arkansas. Alito has not said if he will allow an extension. In his motion filed Sept. 23, Rosenzweig asked if the Arkansas justices would view a possible extension from Alito as "good cause," or if they would leave that determination to themselves. If the petition is filed and the U.S. Supreme Court decides to take the case, the stay on the inmates' executions will remain until the justices decide the case. Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office has filed responses with Alito and the Arkansas Supreme Court arguing that further delaying the inmates' appeal would unfairly limit the state's ability to execute them because one of the drugs used in executions expires Jan. 1. Rutledge asked the Arkansas Supreme Court not to address Rosenzweig's request for clarification. She also asked Alito not to allow an extension. Thursday, the Arkansas court denied Rosenzweig's motion for clarification as premature, and did not give a written opinion explaining its decision. Justice Paul Danielson was the only member of the court to dissent, though he did not say if he would allow an extension or not. Rosenzweig, a Little Rock attorney who often works on death-penalty cases, wrote in his request to the Arkansas court that he is also preparing for an unrelated murder trial in November and that other lawyers working with him are busy with cases of their own. In order to ease their burden, Rosenzweig said a Washington, D.C., law firm, Venable LLP, has agreed to provide free assistance with the inmates' appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. "We're going to file
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ARK. KAN., NEB., WASH., USA
Oct. 7 TEXASnew execution date Kosoul Chanthakoumanne has been given an execution date for January 25, 2017; it should be considered serious. (sources: MC/Rick Halperin) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present20 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-538 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 21-October 19---Terry Edwards-539 22-November 2---Ramiro Gonzales---540 23-December 7---John Battaglia541 24-January 11---Christoper Wilkins542 25-January 25---Kosoul Chanthakoumanne543 26-February 7---Tilon Carter--544 27-April 12-Paul Storey---545 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ARKANSAS: Jury in Arkansas killing out 9 1/2 hours, to return; suspect told police he was preparing for zombie apocalypse Jurors deliberated for more than 9 1/2 hours Thursday in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing a 90-year-old woman but didn't emerge with a verdict as the evening wore on. Craighead County Circuit Judge Cindy Thyer told the jury of 6 men and 6 women to return to court today at 8:15 a.m. to continue their deliberations. Richard Jordan Tarver, 31, of Bay is charged in the July 3, 2015, slaying of Lavinda Counce, also of Bay. Prosecutors say Tarver entered Counce's home, forced her into the trunk of her car and then drove her to a cornfield east of the Craighead County town where he shot her. After the slaying, police say he drove her car to the NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital on U.S. 49 in Jonesboro and left it in the hospital parking lot, then walked to a friend's house behind the hospital and asked for a ride back to his Bay home. Tarver's wife, Samantha Tarver, testified Wednesday that her husband stayed with her all day that July 3, other than to go to a nearby Wal-Mart to buy cat food. Prosecutors contend that Tarver fatally shot Counce because he wanted to see what see what it was like to kill someone. Tarver confessed to the shooting when arrested July 17, 2015, and prosecutors played a 59-minute video of his confession during the trial. In it, Tarver said he had watched multiple episodes of the television program The Walking Dead the evening before the killing, and wanted to prepare for a zombie apocalypse by learning what it felt like to shoot someone. Randel Miller, a Jonesboro attorney defending Tarver, said Tarver concocted the confession because investigators threatened to arrest his wife and take away his children if he didn't admit to killing Counce. The jury began deliberations at 1 p.m. Thursday in Jonesboro, and at 3:25 p.m. they asked bailiffs if they could watch the confession video again. At 5:30 p.m., deputies took several boxes of pizza to the jurors. At 9:30 p.m., Thyer asked jury members if they wanted to go home for the evening, but jurors opted to stay for another hour before she released them for the evening. As jurors deliberated, attorneys milled around the courthouse. Tarver sat with his parents on a courtroom bench and joked with them. Tarver is also charged with kidnapping, residential burglary, abusing a corpse and possession of a defaced firearm. In his closing statement Thursday morning, Miller said Tarver was concerned about his wife when authorities entered his home on the evening of July 17, 2015, and arrested him. Samantha Tarver has several medical conditions, including dangerously low blood pressure, and her husband feared the stress of the arrest would harm her, Miller said. "'Please don't hurt my wife,'" Miller quoted Tarver as pleading with police that night. "'Please don't hurt my wife.' "It's important to understand his frame of mind," Miller said. Miller contended that Craighead County investigator Justin Rolland threatened Tarver that he would arrest his wife and turn his two daughters over to the state Department of Human Services. Miller told jurors that Rolland placed Tarver in a sheriff's vehicle and told him details of Counce's slaying. In the video confession, Tarver outlined specific items of the case. In his closing, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said there was no way Tarver would know so many details if he had not killed Counce. "You didn't see a false confession," Ellington told jurors. "You saw the most credible witness the state has. "What we all know about the death of Mrs. Counce comes from that video," he said. Ellington is seeking the death penalty. If the jury returns with a guilty verdict, it will then decide if Tarver should be executed or given a life sentence without parole. (source: arkansasonline.com) KANSAS: Court didn't let Carr brothers 'off the hook' The embellishment "the Kansas Supreme Court let the Carr brothers off the hook" is nothing
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, TENN., NEB., N.MEX., UTAH., CALIF., USA
Oct. 6 TEXAS: Texas judge confronts 'serious deficiencies' in death penalty cases The state broke its longest streak without an execution. But the highest criminal court has issued multiple late stays - and the legal process may be changing At the time, in the state that executes more people than any other, it was hardly surprising that Barney Fuller was sentenced to die. On 1 January 2001, Fuller phoned Annette Copeland, a neighbour in the tiny Texas town of Lovelady, a hundred miles north of Houston. "Happy New Year," he told her. "I'm going to kill you." 2 years later, he did. A dispute that stemmed from Fuller's habit of annoying his neighbours by firing weapons at his home escalated into a murderous rampage that took the life of Annette and her husband, Nathan. In the 911 call that Annette Copeland made at about 1.30am that May night, the operator heard a man saying: "Party's over, bitch." Then a popping sound; presumably 1 of the 3 pistol shots that Fuller fired into her head. Fuller was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday night; there are another 253 inmates on Texas's death row and 2 more men are scheduled to die on the gurney at the state penitentiary later this year. But the 58-year-old's death broke a remarkable streak: it was the 1st Texas execution in 6 months. That was the longest run without a judicial killing since 2007-08, when executions stopped nationwide while the US supreme court considered whether the lethal injection method violated the constitution. When Texas resumed in June 2008, 18 inmates died in the space of 5 months. Less than a decade later, with a Pew survey suggesting public support for capital punishment is the lowest it has been in more than 40 years, both giving death sentences and completing them are on the decline in Texas, like elsewhere in the country. In 2015, Texas executed 13 prisoners; Fuller's death brings this year's total to 7 so far. Only 5 new inmates have been added to death row in 2016 and 2015, compared with 20 in the 2 years prior. And though traditionally unmoved by the pleas of those on death row, the state's highest criminal court, the Texas court of criminal appeals, has issued multiple late stays of execution - 3 in August alone. Meanwhile one of the court's judges, Elsa Alcala, has drawn attention for writing opinions questioning the state's process, including 1 in June that said it has "serious deficiencies" that have "caused me great concern". Like 8 of the 9 judges, Alcala is a Republican. She was appointed in 2011 by former governor Rick Perry - dubbed the "killingest" governor in modern history for presiding over 279 executions in 14 years. Despite her misgivings, Alcala has not advocated for or against the death penalty overall. She worries that inmates have been convicted and died as a result of the poor quality of their lawyers at trial and during appeals, and because bad evidence was taken seriously. "These things are coming to light - but I wonder about how many cases have not come to light," she said last month during a panel discussion at the Texas Tribune Festival. There, Alcala floated "legislative fixes that wouldn't cost a dime", such as forbidding the execution of the severely mentally ill, disallowing the testimony of co-conspirators who cut deals with prosecutors, and no longer asking juries to decide whether a defendant is a continuing danger "to society" given that Texas now allows an alternative sentence of life without parole. Last year the Texas legislature passed a law requiring a defendant's most recent attorney to be notified when an execution date is set. It was a progressive move according to Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, a not-for-profit group that helps clients facing the death penalty. Kase represents Scott Panetti, a mentally ill man who represented himself at trial dressed as a cowboy and tried to subpoena Jesus Christ, John F Kennedy and the pope. In fall 2014, Kase discovered that Panetti was scheduled to die in a little over a month when she read about it in a local newspaper. That sent her scrambling to argue that his lethal injection should be put on hold. It was, on the day he was due to die - but by a federal appeals court, after the Texas court of criminal appeals voted 6-3 to reject a stay. That prompted one of its members, the now-retired Tom Price, to write a dissent calling for the abolition of the death penalty. 40 years on since the supreme court reinstated capital punishment in the US, Kase believes the system is "as imperfect as ever". But, she said, "all the players have become sensitized to all the reasons that executions might be unjust," and when restored to its full nine members, the court might before long be ready to take up the issue of whether capital punishment violates the constitution. "These are clues that the body politic is changing its mind,"
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., MISS., OHIO, TENN.
Oct. 6 TEXAS: Texas inmate Duane Buck argues he received death sentence due to his race The Supreme Court left little doubt Wednesday that it will side with a black Texas prison inmate who argues improper testimony about his race tainted his death sentence. The justices often are divided on death penalty cases, but conservatives and liberals alike agreed that inmate Duane Buck is entitled to a new court hearing. The only issue in arguments at the high court appeared to be whether to throw out Buck's sentence altogether and order a new punishment hearing. The court also could merely instruct lower courts to decide whether the death sentence can stand. Buck has been trying for years to get federal courts to look at his claim that his rights were violated when jurors were told by a defense expert witness that Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he is black. In Texas death penalty trials, one of the "special issues" jurors must consider when deciding punishment is whether the defendant they've convicted would be a future danger. "What occurred at the penalty phase is indefensible," Justice Samuel Alito said in a comment that was widely shared by the 6 other justices who asked questions Wednesday. Justice Clarence Thomas asked no questions, as is his custom. The high court appeal is not a broad challenge to the death penalty in Texas, the nation's leader by far in carrying out 537 executions since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume. Rather, it shows the justices' heightened attention to the process in capital cases, from sentencing to execution. This is especially true in older cases, like Buck's, in which the quality of defense lawyers is at issue. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused attempts by Buck's attorneys to reopen the case, blocking them from moving forward with an appeal contending Buck's constitutional right to a competent lawyer was violated. Buck's case was among 6 in 2000 that then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn in a news release said needed to be reopened because statements by the expert witness, Dr. Walter Quijano, were racially charged. In the other 5 cases, new punishment hearings were held and each convict again was sentenced to death. Cornyn, a Republican, is now the state's senior U.S. senator. Buck's lawyers contended the attorney general, by then Cornyn's successor Greg Abbott, broke a promise by contesting his case, although the 5th Circuit said while that circumstance was "odd and factually unusual," they could find nothing in the case record to indicate the state made an error or promised not to oppose any move to reopen the case. Abbott now is the state's governor. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller defended the appellate ruling Wednesday because he said there is ample evidence to support a death sentence. Buck, now 53, does not dispute that he shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, Debra Gardner, 32, about a week after breaking up with her, and another man in 1995. He also shot his stepsister, who survived. Buck at the time was on parole after serving about a year of a 10-year prison term for delivery of cocaine. He also had a previous conviction for unlawfully carrying a weapon. Still, no justice appeared to endorse Keller???s argument that the appellate ruling should be upheld. Christina Swarns, Buck's lawyer at the Supreme Court, sought at one point to place Buck's case in the broader context of issues of race in the criminal justice system, telling the justices that the need to eradicate racial prejudice "is as urgent today as at any time in our nation's history." The debate at the court was mostly over how the justices might rule in Buck's favor. The justices could decide there was a "constitutional violation in this case and the court of appeals was wrong to say there wasn't," Chief Justice John Roberts said. Such a ruling would result in a new sentencing hearing for Buck. Justice Elena Kagan said a decision instead could focus on the appeals court's approach to inmates who wish to reopen their cases in unusual circumstances, which would leave the decision on the death sentence to a lower court. Such a ruling might affect other inmates in the 3 states covered by the 5th Circuit - Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Kagan cited figures produced by Buck's lawyers that prisoners in the 5th Circuit are far less likely to be allowed to pursue their appeals than prisoners in other Southern states. (source: CBS news) ** Texas cases put spotlight on death penalty The U.S. Supreme Court heard several key cases from Texas during its last session, and this term it is reviewing 2 with life-or-death consequences. There's no way to predict whether the Texas cases will bring favorable decisions for two condemned prisoners, much less lead to a sweeping reevaluation of the death penalty. But
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., TENN., OKLA., CALIF., USA
Oct. 5 TEXASexecution Execution of Man Who Killed Neighbors First in Months 6 months after the Texas death chamber held its last execution, Barney Ronald Fuller Jr. was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday for the 2003 shooting deaths of his neighbors in rural East Texas. Fuller's execution broke the longest gap between executions in Texas since 2008, when the U.S. Supreme Court was considering the constitutionality of lethal injection. It also marks the 1st time Houston County has put someone to death since the penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976. Laid out in the Texas death chamber with an IV in his arm, Fuller declined to give a last statement. At 6:23 p.m., a lethal dose of pentobarbital started running through his veins, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. Fuller, 53, was sentenced to death for killing Annette and Nathan Copeland, his neighbors on the outskirts of Lovelady, a small town with around 600 residents at the time about 100 miles north of Houston. In the early morning of May 14, 2003, he fired into their home with an assault rifle before breaking in and killing them both with a pistol, according to court documents. "We got a call in the middle of the night that our family had been murdered," said Ona Presto, Annette's older sister who became guardian of the Copelands' 2 children. The tension between the neighbors began several years earlier. In 2001, Fuller was charged with making terroristic threats against the Copelands after he allegedly shot and damaged their electric transformer, then threatened them when they called the sheriff's office, according to testimony from the sentencing trial. The Copelands called deputies to their home several other times claiming Fuller was firing weapons, but no action was ever taken. On May 13, 2003, more than 2 years after charges were filed, Fuller received a letter from the Houston County courthouse about his upcoming trial, sending him into a rage, according to testimony from Fuller's wife, Linda. He drank through the day and night and eventually sent Linda and their children from the house. At around 1:30 a.m., he walked the 200 yards to the Copeland's home and fired 60 rounds into the house with an assault rifle, according to court documents. He then broke down the back door, and first went into the bedroom of the Copeland's 10-year-old daughter, but left when he couldn't turn on her light. He went into the master bedroom and fatally shot both Nathan, 43, and Annette, 39, with a pistol before heading to their son's room. Cody, 14, was shot twice in the shoulder, but survived. During the initial gunfire, Annette managed to crawl into the bathroom to call 911. During the call, the operator heard a man say, "Party's over, bitch" before hearing pops, then silence, according to court testimony. "It's just a heinous crime," said Randy Hargrove, an investigator for the Houston County District Attorney's Office and former sheriff deputy who worked the crime scene in 2003. "The man doesn't need to be on this earth." Fuller was arrested at his home several hours later, and pleaded guilty to the murders in court. After a sentencing trial, the jury handed down the death penalty. Hargrove said he couldn't remember another case in Houston County where the death penalty was pursued. Fuller's was the 1st execution from the county on record, and no other current death row inmates were sentenced by the county. Hargrove said he believes the death penalty was right for Fuller but hopes there will be no future cases. "It's really sad for both families," Hargrove said, adding that he feels for Fuller's mother as well as the Copelands. "But you reap what you sow. If you plant corn, you don't harvest peas ... That's just the way it is." Presto has always believed the death penalty was the right punishment for her sister's killer, she said. "I do believe that God made this determination, and that he is getting justice done for what he did to 2 innocent people," she said. Fuller's direct appeal was denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court, and the one other appeal he filed was also denied. Among the appellate claims was his incompetence to stand trial or enter a guilty plea because he acted irrationally and removed himself from the courtroom for most of the jury selection process and trial. Fuller waived all further review of his case in May, according to his lawyer, Jason Cassel. The execution on Wednesday evening was the 7th of the year. 2 other executions are scheduled for 2016. Presto, along with her sister and the Copelands' 2 children, planned to witness the execution in Huntsville, though she said beforehand she didn't know what to expect. "I don't know if this is our answer or not," Presto said of the execution. "We're hoping to see a closure once this has all
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., USA
Oct. 5 TEXAS: Death-Row Inmate Gets 1 Last Chance A Texas inmate can argue that his death sentence is invalid because prosecutors did not disclose their deal with a jailhouse snitch who testified that he had confessed to murder, a federal judge ruled. A Harris County jury convicted Chuong Duong Tong of capital murder in March 1998 and a judge sentenced him to death. The jury found Tong guilty of killing Houston police Officer Tony Trinh, who was off duty working at his parents' Houston convenience store on April 6, 1997, when Tong entered, pulled a Glock handgun and demanded Trinh's wallet and jewelry. "Tong attempted to open the cash register. Trinh then identified himself as a police officer, showed Tong his badge, and told Tong that he 'was not going to get away with this.' Tong shot Trinh once in the head at close range," according to U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas' summary in her Sept. 30 order. Tong stole Trinh's jewelry and fled to a waiting car. Police arrested Tong, then 21, several months later and he was charged with capital murder. He claimed in a statement he gave police that he accidentally shot Trinh while jumping over the store counter. He said he took apart the gun after fleeing from the store and showed police the storm drains where he dumped threw the parts. "While in a jail holding tank, Tong told a fellow inmate, Stephen Mayeros, why he was in jail," Atlas' 78-page ruling states. "Mayeros asked Tong how close he was when he shot Trinh, and Tong responded by touching his finger to Mayeros's forehead and saying 'bang.' When Mayeros asked Tong if he felt bad about killing Trinh, Tong replied that he felt terrible and cried himself to sleep, and then laughed." Several Houston police officers were clients of Mayeros' home-cleaning business when he was arrested for driving without a license and placed in the cell with Tong. Mayeros testified that after Tong confessed to him, he mentioned the conversation to one of his police clients, who put him in touch with a detective in the Houston Police Department's homicide division. Mayeros' charges were dropped 10 days after he gave a statement to police. Tong asked prosecutors for information about any deals they made with witnesses before trial, but they did not disclose their agreement with Mayeros. "Tong now contends that Mayeros admitted to Tong's prior habeas counsel, John McFarland, that he got a deal for testifying against Tong," Atlas' order states. Prosecutors must disclose evidence favorable to the defense under the Supreme Court's 1963 ruling in Brady v. Maryland. Finding that Tong's Brady claims should be vetted at a hearing, Judge Atlas ordered his defense and Texas prosecutors to submit a joint report proposing a discovery, briefing and hearing schedule by Oct. 31. Though Tong raised 16 categories of habeas claims, Atlas approved only his Brady claims. She dismissed all his other claims with prejudice. "We're happy that we're getting a hearing," Tong's attorney Jonathan Landers said in an interview, noting how rarely prisoners win relief in habeas cases. "We're disappointed that our other claims weren't granted," he said. Landers mentioned another Harris County case involving Linda Carty, the only United Kingdom citizen on death row in the United States, and an unusual post-conviction hearing she got in July after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals told a state judge to consider allegations of prosecutorial misconduct made in witness affidavits. Harris County Judge David Garner ruled on Sept. 1 that prosecutors did withhold evidence from Carty, but that that was not enough to prejudice the jury. "The State was operating under a misunderstanding of Brady at the time of the Carty trial. ... The Harris County District Attorney's Office did not believe that impeachment or exculpatory evidence needed to be disclosed if the prosecutor did not find the testimony credible," Garner wrote. Garner's order says prosecutors did not tell Carty's counsel that they had agreed a witness could avoid prison if Carty received the death penalty. A jury convicted Carty of capital murder for the death of Joanna Rodriguez, after prosecutors persuaded them Carty suffocated Rodriguez so she could steal her newborn son. A judge sentenced Carty to death in February 2002, four years after Tong received his death sentence. Landers said Carty's case illustrates a pattern of obstruction at the District Attorney's Office. "Harris County during this time period was having some problems at the DA's office of not notifying attorneys about deals they made with clients," the attorney said. In capital murder cases, Texas district attorneys' offices represent the state in state post-conviction appeals; the Texas Attorney General's Office handles federal habeas appeals. Harris County Assistant District Attorney Lori DeAngelo is assigned to Tong's state case. She
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., OHIO, TENN., NEB., N.MEX., CALIF., USA
Oct. 5 TEXASimpending execution Texas man who killed 2 neighbors wants execution to proceed An East Texas man who pleaded guilty to killing a neighbor couple during a shooting rampage 13 years ago and who has said he wants to be put to death for the crime appeared headed for execution Wednesday. Barney Fuller Jr. has asked that all his appeals be dropped to expedite his death sentence. Fuller, 58, would be the 7th convicted killer executed this year in Texas and the 1st in 6 months in the nation's most active capital punishment state. Fuller surrendered peacefully at his home outside Lovelady, about 100 miles north of Houston, after a middle-of-the-night shooting frenzy in May 2003 that left his neighbors, Nathan Copeland, 43, and Copeland's wife, Annette, 39, dead inside their rural home. The couple's 14-year-old son survived 2 gunshot wounds, and their 10-year-old daughter escaped injury because Fuller couldn't turn the light on in her bedroom. Court records show Fuller, armed with a shotgun, semi-automatic carbine and a pistol, fired 59 shots before barging into the Copeland home and opening fire again. Fuller had been charged with making a threatening phone call to Annette Copeland, and the neighbors had been engaged in a 2-year dispute over that. Fuller pleaded guilty to capital murder. He declined to appear in court at his July 2004 trial and asked that the trial's punishment phase go on without his presence. He only entered the courtroom when jurors returned with his sentence. Last year, Fuller asked that nothing be done to prolong his time on death row. "I do not want to go on living in this hellhole," he wrote to attorney Jason Cassel. Fuller had no late change of heart, Cassel said Tuesday. A federal judge in June ruled Fuller competent to drop his appeals. He had testified at a hearing that he was "ready to move on." Fuller had irritated neighbors with his frequent gunfire and was summoned to court in 2003 to address a charge that he made a threatening phone call 2 years earlier after complaints he shot out an electrical transformer providing power to the Copelands' home. "Happy New Year," he told Annette Copeland in the Jan. 1, 2001, call. "I'm going to kill you.: William House, 1 of Fuller's trial lawyers, said Fuller thought when he got a court notice "that they were stirring up some more stuff and he just kind of twisted off." Court records showed he seethed over the court appearance and began drinking. 2 nights later, he grabbed his guns and extra ammunition clips and went to the Copelands' home about 200 yards away. House described Fuller as "just a strange bird" who was "very adamant" about not attending his own murder trial. "I think we did everything we were supposed to and did the best we could but didn't have a whole lot to work with," House said. A sheriff's department dispatcher who took Annette Copeland's 911 call about 1:30 a.m. on May 14, 2003, heard a man say: "Party's over, bitch," followed by a popping sound. Annette Copeland was found with three bullet wounds to her head. Cindy Garner, the former Houston County district attorney who prosecuted Fuller, described him as mean and without remorse. "It's not a cheerful situation," she said of the execution. "I just regret that this little, plain, country, nice, sweet family - bless their heart - moved in next door." Fuller's execution would be only the 16th in the U.S. this year, a downturn fueled by fewer death sentences overall, courts halting scheduled executions for additional reviews, and some death penalty states encountering difficulties obtaining drugs for lethal injections. (source: Associated Press) ** Texas Inmate Barney Fuller Not Challenging His Execution Executions in the United States are generally accompanied by an element of uncertainty, with the condemned prisoner filing 11th hour appeals all the way to the highest court in the land and sometimes winning a reprieve at the last minute. That's unlikely to be the case when Barney Fuller's date with death arrives this evening. The Texas inmate - who admitted murdering neighbors Nathan and Annette Copeland in front of their kids after a long-running dispute - ordered his lawyer not to file challenges to his lethal injection. In a letter to his attorney last year, Fuller said he he wasn't keeping track of the status of any proceedings. "But I also really do not care and do not want to go on living in this hellhole," he wrote. "Do not do anything for me which will prolong my appeals and time here on Texas death row." During a hearing in the spring, he testified that he had no issues with his death sentence and was "ready to move on." "What's the point of sentencing someone to death, you know, if you're not going to carry on through with what you ordered," Fuller said. In an affidavit sworn almost a decade ago, Fuller's sister, using her
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., OHIO, KAN., NEB.
Oct. 4 TEXAS: Supreme Court rejects Texas death row inmate's plea for DNA testing in murder case The Supreme Court will not allow additional DNA testing of evidence a death row inmate in Texas says could show he didn???t kill a suburban Houston college student. The justices on Monday rejected an appeal from Larry Swearingen, who was convicted of abducting, raping and killing 19-year-old Melissa Trotter in 1998. Swearingen has sought to test fingernail scrapings from Trotter, items of her clothing and cigarette butts found near her body. The trial court in his case has twice ordered the testing, but was reversed by the state Court of Criminal Appeals on both occasions. (source: KFOR news) NORTH CAROLINA: DA wants death penalty in Asheville mom-child shooting case Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of killing a woman police say was his girlfriend and of shooting her 3-year-old child in the head. Nathaniel Elijia Dixon, 24, is charged with 1st-degree murder and 1st-degree attempted murder and child abuse while inflicting serious injury. He is also charged with 1st-degree murder of an unborn child. That is because Candace Elaine Pickens, 22, was pregnant May 12 when she was shot twice in the head in Jones Park in North Asheville. She was in her 1st trimester of pregnancy. "We believe the evidence will show at least one aggravating circumstance," Buncombe County Assistant District Attorney Frank "Pat" Patton told Superior Court Judge Alan Z. Thornburg at Monday's brief afternoon hearing, where prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty. District Attorney Todd Williams was also present and spoke with Pickens' family members. This is the 3rd time Williams has sought the death penalty since he took office in January 2015. Dixon appeared in a brown jump suit and shackles with long hair and a ponytail and beard. He did not speak during the proceeding but at one point made an obscene gesture at a photographer taking his picture. Dixon's attorney Jack Stewart said he would be working with attorney Stephen Cash as co-council and said they would be ready to proceed. Dixon's next court date is set for March 6. Stewart did not return a call to his office Monday after the hearing. Pickens' father and stepmother, Richard and Charlene Pickens, were at the hearing and afterward said they don't want Dixon executed if he is found guilty. "For me, because of my faith, I don't believe in the death penalty," said Richard Pickens, who said he attends the First Church of the Nazarene in Hendersonville. "But justice has to do what it has to do." Charlene Pickens said the death penalty "is too easy." "He should sit there for the rest of his life and suffer for what he's done to our daughter and our grandson," she said. Her stepmother said she helped raise Candace Pickens. She said she asked her whether she was pregnant and said she knew her stepdaughter was even though she denied it. The couple said Candace never introduced them to Dixon, though the 2 dated for 5 or 6 months, according to police reports. But Charlene Pickens said her stepdaughter did send her a cell phone photo of Dixon at her request. The couple said they have not missed a court hearing. Richard Pickens said he has decided not to despair and considers the time he spent with his daughter a blessing. "I know she was a gift the Lord gave me," he said. An early-morning jogger found Pickens dead in the park with her son Zachaeus. Zachaeus underwent 2 surgeries to repair the damage to his eye and head. He remained in the hospital and rehab for about 2 months before returning home. Family members said the boy made a full recovery. He is now with his father Daquan Waters, a Fletcher native who has gotten help from community members and even famous entertainers such as rapper The Game. When news of Pickens' death first broke, some attention around her killing focused on whether she was threatened because of her pregnancy. Friend Vanessa Peterson said Pickens came to her house to get away from Dixon after an argument. Pickens told her Dixon said he would kill her if she didn't have an abortion, Peterson said. But Peterson said the 2 women didn't take it seriously. Police said Dixon and Pickens had been at Chuck E. Cheese in Asheville before the shooting, but they had an argument and Dixon left. Court documents say after Pickens and Zachaeus had been shot, Dixon ditched Pickens' car in Weaverville, about 10 miles from Jones Park. He then called a friend for a ride, according to search warrants. Later, cellphone records placed Dixon in his mobile home where he had been living with Pickens since the beginning of April. Dixon and a West Asheville woman left for Columbus, Ohio, about 10 the next morning. Columbus police arrested Dixon later that day, and he was extradited to Asheville. Dixon had three appearances in Buncombe
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., OHIO, IND., OKLA., CALIF., US MIL., USA
Oct. 3 TEXAS: SCOTUS considers if man may be executed after 'expert' testified that black people are dangerousCount the failures of justice in Duane Buck's case. As a devout Christian, he spends much of his time praying and atoning for his past sins. For 2 decades, he's encouraged young people around him to self-reflect and better themselves. All the while, Buck has maintained a clean disciplinary record - always doing what is asked of him and never stepping out of line. And he's done it all on while awaiting his execution. "On death row, inmates are routinely written up for trivial things like refusing to shave, having too many postage stamps, putting up art or photos on the wall or windows, refusing to shower on a given day," Kate Black, a staff attorney for the Texas Defender Service who works closely with Buck, told reporters last week. "So for Mr. Buck to have existed for over 20 years in these circumstances, and to not have been written up one time, it's really remarkable." Black also spoke of Buck's unrelenting faith, which has become an integral part of his character growth in the decades he's spent behind bars. "Mr. Buck is a deeply faithful man, and he spends most of his time in prayer," she said. "Not just prayer for people who are on his side? - for his lawyers, his legal team? - but also for people we would see as our adversaries. He spends time praying for the district attorney, for the attorney general, for the solicitor general." A case about errors If Buck's life was not at stake in Buck v. Davis, and if his case did not raise grave questions about the reliability of our justice system, then the parade of errors that the case brings to the Supreme Court would almost be comic. There's a good chance that he is there because of 2 sets of incompetent lawyers, a psychologist's racist testimony, a bait-and-switch perpetrated by Texas's current governor, and an opinion authored by one of the most dismissively ideological judges on the federal bench. As ThinkProgress previously explained, Buck is "not simply a case of ineffective assistance of counsel, this is a case of ineffective assistance of counsel aggravated by even more ineffective assistance of counsel." And that is only part of the story. Buck was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and a man he believed to be his girlfriend's lover. At trial, he was represented by Jerry Guerinot, an attorney widely viewed as one of the worst, if not the worst, capital defense attorneys in the nation. Guerinot represented nearly three dozen people facing the death penalty and never won a case. 20 were sentenced to die. As the New York Times' Adam Liptak wrote, "a good way to end up on death row in Texas is to be accused of a capital crime and have Jerry Guerinot represent you." During the sentencing phase of Buck's trial, the phase that determined whether or not Buck would receive a death sentence, Guerinot and his co-counsel introduced testimony from Dr. Walter Quijano, a psychologist with a history of racist testimony in capital cases. At Buck's trial, Quijano testified that African Americans and Hispanics are especially likely to be dangerous as they are "over represented in the Criminal Justice System." Buck is African American. Quijano's testimony matters because Texas law requires the prosecution to show that a capital defendant is likely to be dangerous in the future before that defendant may be sentenced to die. Moreover, as Buck's current legal team explains in their brief to the Supreme Court, it is likely that Guerinot's decision to introduce Quijano's testimony violates the Constitution. "This information was presented in an expert report. It was elicited during Dr. Quijano's testimony. It was referred to by the prosecutor that directed the jury to pay attention to that testimony," Sherrilyn Ifill, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's president and director of counsel, said during a press briefing last week. Under the Supreme Court's decision in Strickland v. Washington, a criminal defendant receives unconstitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel when their lawyers' incompetence prejudices the outcome of the trial. This prejudice does not need to be shown with certainty. Rather, a defendant who received ineffective assistance should prevail when there is a "probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome" of the trial that attorney incompetence impacted the trial's result. In Buck's case, his Supreme Court legal team explains, "it took 2 days for jurors to reach a decision about the special issues" in the case, one of which was whether Buck was likely to be dangerous in the future. Over the course of this time, they sent a note to the judge asking "can we talk about parole with a life imprisonment?" and another requesting the very same psychological report where Quijano said that Buck's race "meant an 'Increased probability' of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., ARK., N.MEX., CALIF.
Oct. 3 TEXAS: Duane Buck deserves a color-blind sentencing trial Gerald Kogan, a former assistant state attorney and chief prosecutor in the Dade County, Fla., State Attorney's Office, served as a justice on the Florida Supreme Court from 1987 to 1998, including 2 years as chief justice. Tim Cole served as an elected Texas district attorney from 1993 to 2006. The authors are co-signers of an amicus brief filed in the Buck case. As former prosecutors, we recognize that the state's decision to seek a death sentence involves the utmost ethical responsibility. Capital cases, more than any other, require meticulous adherence to prosecutorial ethics. Thus, the prosecutors' ethical code, adopted by the National District Attorneys Association, as well as the U.S. Constitution, make clear that no death sentence can be based on a factor as arbitrary as race. But the pernicious use of race, among other troubling issues, including astonishingly ineffective defense lawyering, is at the center of the Duane Buck death-penalty case, which will be argued to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Following Buck's 1997 conviction in the murder of his former girlfriend and her friend, Buck's court-appointed trial counsel relied on an "expert" who testified during the trial's sentencing phase that, because he is black, Buck was more likely to commit violent crimes in the future. Setting aside for the moment that this claim is patently false, it was particularly significant because in Texas, jurors must find that a defendant will pose a "future danger" before they can impose a death sentence. The prosecutor, on cross-examination, asked the expert to repeat his opinion that Buck's race increased the probability that he would be a danger in the future and, at closing, encouraged the jury to rely on the expert's testimony in support of a finding of future dangerousness. After deliberating for 2 days, and requesting the expert reports, jurors found Buck to be a future danger and he was sentenced to death. This is an extraordinary case that demands extraordinary relief. One reason is the uniquely injurious nature of racial discrimination itself. The testimony connecting Buck's race to his likelihood of dangerousness not only deprived him of his fundamental right to a fair trial, it also compromised the integrity of the criminal-justice system overall. An assessment of future dangerousness is properly based on an individual's personal history, not on innate, immutable traits. It is also extraordinary because Texas recognized the unconstitutional nature of the testimony and promised Buck a new sentencing hearing, but incomprehensibly refused to honor that promise. In 2000, Texas's then-attorney general, John Cornyn, became aware of this particular expert's problematic testimony about race and future dangerousness when another capital defendant challenged it in a U.S. Supreme Court appeal. On behalf of the state of Texas, Cornyn admitted that the introduction of such testimony "violated [the defendant's] constitutional right to be sentenced without regard to the color of his skin." He agreed to have the defendant's sentence vacated so that a new sentencing hearing untainted by such racial discrimination could be held. Following that concession, Cornyn conducted a thorough investigation of Texas's death row to determine if any other cases were similarly tainted by this expert's unconstitutional race-equals-dangerousness testimony. His office concluded that the sentences of 6 death-row inmates, including Buck, were poisoned by such evidence. Texas promised new sentencing hearings for all 6 prisoners but, without explanation, reversed course in only Buck's case. The failure of the prosecutors involved in this case to honor their ethical and professional obligations has been compounded by the failure of the judiciary to recognize the urgent need for relief. Incredibly, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied Buck's request for permission to appeal the denial of relief on his resentencing request, declaring that Buck had "not made ... even a minimal showing that his case is exceptional" as required under the relevant federal rule. We would be hard-pressed to think of a more extraordinary case. Prosecutors play a critical role in maintaining public confidence in the criminal-justice system. They are entrusted with the responsibility to seek justice and enforce state and federal law. In Buck's case, that trust was violated by the trial prosecutor's exploitation of the defense counsel's constitutionally deficient performance in introducing the race-as-dangerousness testimony and by the Texas attorney general's failure to keep his promise to ensure that Buck received a new, fair sentencing hearing. Our Constitution, and the integrity of our criminal-justice system, require more from our prosecutors. We call on the Supreme Court to grant relief to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., TENN., NEB.
Oct. 2 TEXAS: North Texas man to face death penalty in wife's drowning Prosecutors in North Texas say they will seek the death penalty against a man accused of drowning his wife by throwing her off a bridge after tying a rope attached to concrete around her neck. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/2dghpmc ) court records show the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office filed a notice on Sept. 16 of intent to seek the death penalty against 34-year-Rodolfo Arellano. Arellano, from Fort Worth, is charged with capital murder in the death of his 28-year-old wife, Elizabeth. Her body was pulled from Lake Worth after authorities were called April 16 about a possible suicide from a freeway bridge. Authorities say the couple had separated and Elizabeth Arellano was planning to divorce her husband. Rodolfo Arellano remains jailed on a $500,000 bond. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Virginia's lethal injection costs set to skyrocket to $16.5K In the span of a year, the cost for the state of Virginia to obtain lethal injection drugs has leapt from about $525 per execution to $16,500. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the price rose after the General Assembly passed a law allowing the state to buy execution drugs from compounding pharmacies whose identities are secret. The law, which took effect July 1, was passed after lawmakers feared executions in the state would grind to a halt as pharmaceutical companies stopped participating in the death penalty nationwide. The Department of Corrections says it had cost slightly less than $250 in 2014 to receive the drugs directly from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Gov. Terry McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy says the $16,500 price tag is "the cost of enforcing the law." (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Death-penalty cases rack up big dollars in Miami-Dade Nearly a decade after 5 reputed members of a street gang known as the Terrorist Boyz were charged in connection with nine murders and dozens of shootings, the first defendant has pleaded guilty in a legal saga that holds a unique distinction: Taxpayers have been billed $4.2 million to help defend the men - making it the most expensive death-penalty case in recent Florida history. And it's far from over. The case's plodding path though the legal system underscores this: Defense against the death penalty is by far more expensive in Miami-Dade County than anywhere else in the state. Miami-Dade accounts for 38 % of all billings in Florida, but only 18 % of the state's cases. And taxpayers have been billed $50 million for court-appointed defense lawyers, investigators, experts and others in Miami-Dade in 352 1st-degree murder cases stretching back to the late 1990s, according to a Herald analysis of state records. That's more than triple the cost spent in the next highest county, Broward, where $13.8 million was spent, albeit on 131 fewer cases. Of the $50 million billed over the years, $47.4 million was paid, with the remaining money waiting to be processed on pending cases. Florida's highest-paid capital litigation lawyer, Terry Lenamon of Miami, has earned $5 million over the course of 59 capital cases since 2000. He doesn't shy away from the distinction, pointing out that he has kept all but 2 clients off death row, and 1 of those had his sentence overturned on appeal. "It's money well spent. In many places in Florida, there is very little spent on the death penalty and there is a rush to complete the cases," said Lenamon, who founded a non-profit group called the Florida Capital Resource Center that assists lawyers in in death-penalty cases. "I have the responsibility to make sure no stone is left unturned. It's a very expensive proposition, but there is a simple solution: End the death penalty." So why is Miami so much more expensive? The answer lies in the complicated process of how death-penalty cases unfold after a grand-jury indictment. In Miami-Dade, a small but seasoned group of defense lawyers get court appointed to handle death-penalty cases. Their task: convince a committee of senior prosecutors to drop the death penalty as punishment for someone accused of 1st-degree murder. But the process can last years as the bills rack up. 8 years, for instance, passed before prosecutors waived the death penalty in December against Robert St. Germain, 34, the 1st of the alleged Terrorist Boyz to close his case. He finally pleaded guilty Friday to 2 murders, half-a-dozen attempted murders and a firebombing. The bill to defend St. Germain was $1.03 million, according to state records. His sentence: 12 years in prison, of which he's served nine. The 4 others are awaiting trial, and still face the death penalty. Each side blames the other for legal foot-dragging. Defense lawyers insist that prosecutors simply take too long to waive the death option, perhaps hoping to use the potential
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., OHIO, KY.
Oct. 1 TEXAS: Justices, give Duane Buck a 2nd chanceInmate on death row because he's black? Duane Buck was sentenced to death in Texas because he is black. I know his case well because I was one of his prosecutors. And as the US Supreme Court considers his appeal this October, I ask the court to remedy this racial bias. I served the people of Harris County, Texas, for 25 years as a prosecutor, helping to remove offenders from our streets and to advocate for justice in our courts. Buck's case is the only one of thousands of cases I've handled and 150 jury trials I have tried in which I have called for a new sentencing hearing. In 1997, Buck was prosecuted for capital murder in Houston. Under Texas law, the state must prove that a defendant constitutes a "future danger" to the public in order to secure a death sentence. At the sentencing hearing, Buck's attorneys introduced a now-discredited "expert" who asserted on cross-examination that Buck's race increased the probability that he would commit acts of violence in the future. The prosecutor who elicited that response reiterated the importance of this expert's opinion on future dangerousness during closing arguments, stating that the jury should rely on it to conclude that Buck was likely to be a "future danger." Buck's ineffective defense counsel did not object, and the jury returned a verdict of death. What occurred in Buck's sentencing hearing is shocking and cannot stand, because it renders the resulting sentence of death reprehensible and biased. As prosecutors, our duty is to ensure, first and foremost, that justice is done. That is the keystone to guarantee the integrity of the criminal justice system. Should the integrity of the system fail, it is our duty to acknowledge it and work diligently to set it right. In Buck's case, first the system failed when he was represented by ineffective lawyers who incomprehensibly introduced a racially biased "expert" for the proceedings -- and then continued to poorly represent Buck during the appellate process. 2nd, the prosecution failed to provide a fair and just sentencing hearing, free from racial bias. This was recognized in 2000, when then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, after reviewing all of the cases in which this "expert" testified, stated that there were 7 defendants whose capital sentencing proceedings were tainted by the racial bias of the same discredited "expert" and that they were all entitled to new and fair sentencing hearings. Cornyn said, "It is inappropriate for race to be considered as a factor in our criminal justice system." Buck was one of those 7 defendants. And all of the defendants named by Cornyn received their new sentencing hearings -- all except Buck. Without reason or explanation, Texas broke its promise of a fair sentencing hearing. His death sentence, although tainted by racial bias, still stands. Third, the criminal justice system failed to protect his constitutionally mandated right to a fair trial. Numerous studies show that the criminal justice system has treated African-American men, like Buck, more harshly. For example, from 1992 to 1999 -- during the time Buck was tried and sentenced to death -- the Harris County District Attorney's office was more than 3 times more likely to seek the death penalty against African-American defendants than it was to seek death against a similarly situated white defendant. And, compounding this systemic bias, Harris County juries were more than twice as likely to impose death on African-American defendants. Texas -- as well as the country at large-- has reached a tipping point. But we have been afforded a rare opportunity to right a past wrong. It is time to acknowledge the mistakes made in Buck's case and finally ensure that he receives justice. On October 5, as the US Supreme Court hears Buck v. Davis, the court will consider Buck's appeal of a Texas court's decision that his case was not "extraordinary" enough to merit review on its core issues. Buck's case, however, is the most extraordinary death penalty case I have ever encountered. The issues his case raises require a complete and comprehensive review and demand a remedy free from bias. In short, Buck deserves a new sentencing hearing. Moreover, the public deserve to know that the racial bias that has permeated our criminal justice system will no longer be tolerated, and that we as a nation can and should strive for a fair and just future for all citizens. (source: Opinion; Linda Geffin was the second chair prosecutor in Duane Buck's case while an assistant district attorney in the Harris County District Attorney's Office. She subsequently held positions as senior assistant county attorney and chief of the Special Prosecutions Unit for Harris County Attorney's Office. The views expressed in this commentary are her own---CNN) NORTH CAROLINA: Jury starts deliberating on death
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, ARK., NEB., CALIF.
Sept. 29 TEXAS: Man accused of tossing wife off bridge will face death penalty trial Tarrant County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man accused of kidnapping his wife and killing her by throwing her body from the Lake Worth bridge in April. Rodolfo Montes "Rudy" Arellano, 34, of Fort Worth, is accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Pule Arellano and tying a rope that was attached to concrete around her neck and throwing her off the bridge. He remains in the Tarrant County jail with bond set at $500,000 on the capital murder charge, jail records show. The Tarrant County district attorney's office filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty on Sept. 16, records show. The last person to get the death penalty in Tarrant County was Cedric Ricks of Bedford, who was convicted in 2014 for killing his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son. He remains on death row. Fishermen on a Lake Worth dock had called 911 at 3:20 a.m. April 16 - some 10 hours before Elizabeth Arellano, a 28-year-old mother of four, was reported missing - after seeing what appeared to be a person falling from the bridge across Loop 820. When the Fire Department's swift-water rescue team pulled the woman's body from the water, Elizabeth Arellano's body was still clad in maroon scrubs she wore as a medical assistant. 10 days after her disappearance and death, police arrested her estranged husband on a capital murder warrant. Family members say the couple had been sweethearts at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School and had been together 13 years. The couple recently separated, however, and Elizabeth Arellano had planned to divorce him. Arellano told homicide detectives that he last saw his wife 2 days before she died and that he last spoke to her at 2:39 a.m. on the day she disappeared. He said she told him in that phone call that she had just arrived at her parents' house and would soon be bringing their four children to his house. Arellano said that when his wife and children never arrived, he assumed she had decided to stay at her parents' home. Asked about his whereabouts that night, Arellano told the detectives he had spent most of the evening of April 15 with a friend, tinting the man's windows. He said he arrived home about midnight and didn't leave the house again until 7:30 a.m. Through interviews, investigators learned that Arellano had torn down and replaced a wooden fence for an acquaintance within the past year. The fence included wood posts set in concrete. In the back yard of Arellano's Fort Worth home in the 1400 block of Jasper Street, police found pieces of concrete similar to the one used to weigh down Elizabeth Arellano's body. In the bed of his pickup, they uncovered a small piece of concrete consistent with that found at the crime scene. A large piece of concrete was also found in the driveway directly behind his truck, the affidavit states. (source: star-telegram.com) FLORIDA: Florida Death Penalty Still On Hold As Courts Seek Answers Executions are on hold, judges are postponing death penalty cases, and defense lawyers are seeking additional reviews after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in January that struck down Florida's death penalty sentencing process. Supreme Court justices ruled that Florida gave too much power to judges, instead of juries, in deciding whether defendants should be executed. But the 8-1 ruling also created uncertainty by failing to address whether jury recommendations for death sentences should be unanimous. The focus is now on the Florida Supreme Court. "Defense lawyers are trying to push the cases off, waiting for the court, and in some instances judges are going along with it," said Bernie McCabe, the state attorney in the 6th Judicial Circuit in Pasco and Pinellas counties. "And if they don't go along with it, defense lawyers file other motions claiming other stuff, to try to push it. So the frustration is we're not getting the cases to trial that ought to be tried. And, unlike fine wine, my cases don't get better with age." Of nearly 3 dozen states that have the death penalty, Florida is 1 of only 3 states - including Delaware and Alabama - that do not require unanimous jury recommendations for death. Delaware's death penalty is also in flux. The Delaware Supreme Court in August decided that the state's death-penalty process, similar to Florida's, was unconstitutional. In contrast to Florida, Delaware's last execution was in 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a case known as Hurst v. Florida dealt with the sentencing phase of death-penalty cases after defendants are found guilty, and it focused on "aggravating circumstances" that must be determined before defendants can be sentenced to death. The ruling cemented a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision, in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, requiring that determinations of such aggravating circumstances must be made by juries,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., OHIO, IND.
Sept. 29 TEXASimpending execution Terry Edwards of Texas Receives Execution Date of October 19, 2016 Terry Darnell Edwards is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CDT, on Wednesday, October 19, 2016, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 42-year-old Terry is convicted of murdering 34-year-old Tommy Walker and 26-year-old Mickell Goodwin on July 8, 2002, in Dallas, Texas. Terry has spent the last 12 years of his life on Texas' death row. Terry graduated from high school. Prior to his arrest he worked as a carpenter, laborer, and warehouseman. Terry had previously been arrested, convicted, and served time for possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and theft of property. He was paroled in 1999. In early June of 2002, Terry Edwards was fired from his job at a Subway sandwich shop in Dallas, Texas, allegedly for stealing money. On the morning of July 8, 2002, Terry returned to the store, along with his cousin Kirk Edwards. Kirk was armed. Terry and Kirk ordered the people in the store to lie down, while they stole the security camera footage and money. Tommy Walker and Mickell Goodwin were the 2 employees working. They were both shot in the head from inches away. The testimony of Michael Weast, who was preparing to leave when Terry and Kirk entered the store, identified them as the robbers. Michael also identified Kirk as the man with the weapon. Terry was arrested later that day while trying to dispose of the weapon. He denied being the trigger man, instead claiming that AT-Bone had shot Tommy and Mickell and later gave Terry the gun. Terry and Kirk were both convicted. Terry received a death sentence. Kirk was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Terry was scheduled to be executed earlier this year on May 11, 2016. His execution was rescheduled to October 19, 2016. The reason for rescheduling Terry's execution was not given. Please pray for peace and healing for the families of Tommy Walker and Mickell Goodwin. Please pray for strength for the family of Terry. Please pray that if Terry is innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for any other reason, that evidence will be presented prior to his execution. Please pray that Terry may come to find peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if he has not already. (source: theforgivenessfoundation.org) *** The Legal Fiction That Could Kill Duane Buck A man's life hinges on the Supreme Court's evaluation of racist testimony during his sentencing. The island of Minorca is now part of Spain. Roughly 270 square miles in area, it basks in the sunny Mediterranean some 75 miles east of its larger sibling, Mallorca. Minorca is also, however, located entirely within the Ward of Cheap, a district covering the half-mile between Farringdon Street and Old Jewry within the City of London. You could look it up. The island was magically imported into Cheap by the English Court of Common Pleas in 1774. This ludicrous geographical fiction was the only way the court could assert jurisdiction over a claim by a Minorca resident that the British royal governor had assaulted and falsely imprisoned him. Like the wandering island, most legal fictions grow up because they allow the law to do things more easily. But legal fictions can kill. Consider this one: The acts of a lawyer in a capital murder trial are the actions of the defendant. This fiction will be in play next week when the Supreme Court hears Buck v. Davis, a last-ditch death penalty appeal from Texas. Duane Buck is asking the Court to void his death sentence and order a new sentencing hearing because the jury heard testimony that Buck, a black man, was more dangerous than he would have been if he had been white. If Buck's appeal is rejected, it will be largely because the incompetent lawyer who let this impermissible, false, and unconstitutional "expert" testimony go to the jury was his own state-supplied lawyer - and thus in a legal sense, Buck himself. No one questions that Buck is guilty of 2 horrible murders. After he was convicted in 1997, the case, like all capital murder cases, moved on to the "sentencing phase." In this phase, the prosecution can provide evidence to the jury that the crime was "aggravated" by certain statutory factors (such as having been especially cruel, or committed for money). The defense can present almost any evidence it wants, in an attempt to "mitigate" the crime - to show, for example, that a history of trauma or child abuse shaped the defendant's actions, or that, if imprisoned for life, he will not commit violent acts again. After this testimony, the jury can choose between death and life imprisonment without parole. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution requires that, if an accused can't afford private counsel, a lawyer must be provided. Buck's trial lawyer, Jerry
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MO., N.MEX., ARIZ., CALIF.
Sept. 26 TEXAS: HCN wins Dallas Bar Association award The Hood County News is the recipient of a 2016 Stephen Philbin Award for excellence in legal reporting from the Dallas Bar Association. Winners were announced Friday during a luncheon at the Belo Mansion in downtown Dallas. Since 2008, the HCN has won 5 Philbin Awards. 2 have been grand prizes. The HCN won in the suburban category for its 2-year death penalty research project, which involved going through every death penalty case file at the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin and working with staff at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Documents obtained through the research show the time between indictment and judgment, which could indicate whether a defendant was rushed to trial, as well as the names of individual defense and state attorneys involved in each case. The data was compiled into a spreadsheet and made available to researchers, journalists and students through the Texas Center for Community Journalism. (source: Hood County News) MISSOURI: Pharmacy Argues There's A First Amendment Right To Secretly Sell Execution DrugsSelling execution drugs "is an expression of political views, no different than signing a referendum petition or selling a t-shirt," an anonymous pharmacy argues in a new court filing. A pharmacy whose drugs have been used in 16 Missouri executions is arguing that its actions are political speech protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and that its identity should remain secret. Death row inmates in Mississippi subpoenaed information from the Missouri Department of Corrections - including about the drugs and supplier - months ago. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has attempted to have the subpoena quashed, but so far has been unsuccessful. In the past 2 weeks, the supplier has spoken up for the 1st time, under the pseudonym "M7." In a motion filed late Friday night, M7 said its drug sales are political speech. The "decision to provide lethal chemicals to the Department was based on M7's political views on the death penalty, and not based on economic reasons," M7 wrote in an affidavit. Although the pharmacy argues its execution drug sales are not based on economic reasons, it has made considerable money in the process. Missouri has paid M7 more than $125,000, all in cash, for execution drugs, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News. The amount they are paid per execution - $7,188.88 for 2 vials of pentobarbital - is well above market value, and experts have expressed concern that the cash deals could violate federal tax law. "The fact that M7's expression of political views involves a commercial transaction does not diminish M7's First Amendment rights," the pharmacy's attorneys wrote in Friday's court filing. Selling execution drugs "is an expression of political views, no different than signing a referendum petition or selling a t-shirt." Although M7 repeatedly cites a Supreme Court case - Doe v. Reed - for the proposition that "compelled disclosure of signatory information on referendum [is] subject to First Amendment review," M7 does not mention the outcome in the 2010 case: The Supreme Court ruled that petition signers, in general, are not protected by the First Amendment against having their identity revealed under a state's public records law. While the court was split on whether petition signers' names could ever be shielded from public scrutiny, a majority of the court appeared skeptical. The court, however, left the possibility open, with Chief Justice Roberts writing for the court, "[T]hose resisting disclosure can prevail under the First Amendment if they can show 'a reasonable probability that the compelled disclosure [of personal information] will subject them to threats, harassment, or reprisals from either Government officials or private parties.'" It is that possibility that M7 uses to press its case for avoiding disclosure here. Mississippi death row inmates have subpoenaed the Missouri execution drug information to help make their case against the Mississippi Department of Corrections in a challenge to its current execution protocol. In order to succeed, the inmates have to come up with a better method of execution. Their attorneys have subpoenaed information from several other states who have carried out executions recently. M7's attorneys say the pharmacy will not sell execution drugs to Mississippi - and speculated that the subpoena would be "nothing more than a sham.": "At issue in this matter is whether the discovery process can be used to find out the names of lethal chemical suppliers so that anti-death penalty activists may harass and boycott those suppliers in an effort to coerce them into not supplying lethal chemicals," the attorneys wrote. M7 argues - using the Doe v. Reed case - that it is afraid of facing boycotts, harassment, and even
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., MISS., OHIO, CALIF.
Sept. 25 TEXAS: Death Watch: Appeals, Waived Appeals, and Conflicting Findings5th Circuit strikes down request to test death drugs The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a motion for stay of execution pending appeal for Terry Edwards and Ramiro Gonzales, 2 death row inmates named in the 5-inmate petition seeking to require that the state of Texas test their doses of compounded pentobarbital (the drug used for executions) before carrying out each killing. 3 judges from the federal court were "not persuaded these prisoners have made the showing required" for the stay, the 5th stated in a Sept. 12 opinion. Circuit judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote that the petitioning inmates "failed to reach the Eighth Amendment bar on unnecessarily severe pain that is sure, very likely, and imminent." The 3 other named inmates - Jeffery Wood, Rolando Ruiz, and Robert Jennings - have each received stays on their executions for reasons outside of this particular issue. In the court's denial, Higginbotham wrote that since unconsciousness precedes death when pentobarbital is the sole drug used to execute, the "problem of conscious pain and suffering" is "effectively obviat[ed]." Essentially, if inmates aren't alert to feel and express their pain, does it really matter if their death is painful? The logic is rooted in part on the belief that the state has used compounded pentobarbital to execute 32 inmates "without issue" since turning to the compounded drug in 2013. But the inmates have argued that this thinking is flawed: The state's acquisition of compounded pentobarbital is hardly an aboveboard process, with shipments of the drug coming to Huntsville from unidentified compounding pharmacies, and a Department of Criminal Justice that won't disclose what's in the cocktail. The state granted 1 inmate the right to have his dose tested for purity before his execution in 2015 when the Attorney General's Office extended the courtesy to Perry Williams. But then a state district judge withdrew Williams' July 14, 2016, execution date when TDCJ curiously failed to run its promised test in the 6 months after Williams received his death date. Wood et al.'s attorneys have argued that if the state sees fit to grant Williams new testing, it should serve as precedent for other inmates. Higgin???botham's brief indicates that the 5th Circuit will rule otherwise, writing that an equal protection claim premised on differential treatment for those not considered a "class" (as inmates aren't) may only be reviewed in the context of a "class of one." That, he said, would apply to Williams, not the other 5 inmates: "The prisoners' primary contention now is that re-testing in [Williams' case] created a right to re-testing for all prisoners, a novel and flawed invocation of equal protection doctrine." Edwards is currently scheduled for execution on Oct. 19. Gonzales is set for the gurney two weeks later: Nov. 2. They await word on their appeal alongside Wood, Ruiz, and Jennings. "A knowing, intelligent, and voluntary decision" Barney Fuller was the 6th inmate with a death date as of Aug. 12 - the only one not named on the petition seeking new testing on compounded drugs. Last December, Fuller filed a motion to hold a hearing on whether he's competent enough to waive his outstanding appeals and get on with his execution. The 58-year-old was sentenced to death in July 2004 for the grisly double murder of his Houston County neighbors, Annette and Nathan Copeland, with whom Fuller had a court date to determine what should be done about his habit of shooting guns off at their house. (Fuller pleaded guilty to the charge of capital murder at his trial.) A federal appeal filed in January indicates that efforts to save Fuller's life hinged on arguments that his trial attorneys provided him with weak counsel, but in late May Fuller went before U.S. federal judge Ron Clark in an effort to waive the appeal. In a June 1 opinion and order of dismissal, Clark wrote that Fuller "understands his legal position and the options available to him. He understands that a determination that he is competent to waive any further proceedings would stop his habeas review and allow the State to proceed with his execution." He said Fuller feels deserving of the punishment and is "ready to move on." Fuller is scheduled for execution on Wednesday, Oct 5. He'll be the 538th Texan executed since 1976 but only the 7th put to death this year. He'll be the 1st since Pablo Vasquez, killed on April 6. Supplemental copies of supplemental findings of Reed's facts Bastrop Visiting Judge Doug Shaver has taken rubber stamping to a new level. On Sept. 9, the retired judge appointed to consider the re-testing of DNA evidence in Rodney Reed's case, signed 2 pre-prepared Findings of Fact - one presented to him by the state and one by the defense - and sent both off to the Court of Criminal Appeals to rule
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., N.C., FLA., OHIO, MO.
Sept. 21 TEXAS: Report highlights 'broken' death penalty appeals process A new report is raising concerns about an appeals system for death penalty cases in Texas. The analysis from the non-profit law firm Texas Defender Service found issues with the legal representation for defendants sentenced to death and who cannot afford attorneys. The report concludes that the mandatory appeals process in Texas death penalty cases called "direct appeal" is failing. "We have attorneys that submit briefs that reuse the same losing arguments over and over again," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of Texas Defender Service. The report states that some attorneys have skipped oral arguments or taken on case loads big enough for 3 or more attorneys to handle. "These deficiencies reflect systemic problems with the state's indigent defense apparatus and not merely isolated failures by a handful of attorneys," the report notes. Anthony Graves spent more than 18 years in prison. He was sentenced to die for multiple murders in Somerville, Texas - murders he did not commit. "I lost the opportunity to see my kids grow up," Graves said in a Skype interview with KXAN. Graves says he looked at the report from Texas Defender Service. Graves also did not succeed in his direct appeal. "At the end of the day it's a rubber stamp system," Graves said. "The easy fix is to establish a statewide office responsible for representing death sentenced inmates," said Jordan Steiker, co-director of the Capital Punishment Center at the University of Texas School of Law. Now, it will up to the legislature to decide whether to establish such an office. A member of Texas Defender Service estimated the office would likely need a budget of around $500,000 per year. Austin lawyer Ariel Payan, who has defended clients in death penalty cases, says he agreed with the findings he was able to examine in the report. He believes the system needs changes. However, he questions how a centralized office for direct appeals would work. KXAN News also reached out to staff at the Texas District and County Attorneys Association and Travis County District Attorney's Office, but did not immediately hear back. (source: KXAN news) NEW HAMPSHIRE: A death penalty story Since 1976, 156 death row inmates have been released from American prisons because new evidence proved their innocence. One of them will be in New Hampshire later this month to show a documentary film about his narrow escape from execution. In 1985, Kirk Bloodsworth, a former Marine with no prior criminal record, was erroneously convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He spent nearly a decade in prison, including 2 years on death row, before DNA evidence exonerated him. New Hampshire is the only New England state that hasn't abolished the death penalty. As citizens of New Hampshire, we must ask ourselves whether we're willing to be complicit in the practice of legalized killing in retribution for crime. Is justice really served by taking a human life? Should we accept the occasional, but inevitable, execution of an innocent person as the price of retaining the capital punishment option? Please spend an evening with Mr. Bloodsworth and hear his perspective on these issues. He'll be showing his film and answering questions at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester (Robert Frost Hall) on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 6 p.m. Admission is free. Go to nodeathpenaltynh.org for more information, including additional dates and times. MARY WILKE, Concord (source: Letter to the Editor, Concord Monitor) NORTH CAROLINA: NC attorney general hopefuls debate: When is it OK not to defend a state law? There's no incumbent in this year's attorney general race, but a debate Tuesday night between the 2 candidates for the office largely centered on Roy Cooper's record. Cooper, a Democrat, is running for governor after 12 years as attorney general. Republican Sen. Buck Newton of Wilson and former Democratic Sen. Josh Stein of Raleigh are vying to replace him. Newton repeatedly criticized Cooper during the debate, which was held in Asheboro and is the only forum featuring the attorney general race. Newton said Cooper has refused to defend laws such as voter ID that he disagrees with. Cooper has defended the laws but declined to pursue some appeals sought by Republican lawmakers. "As an attorney general, your job is to defend the laws of this state," Newton said. "It's a very dangerous thing for the concept of rule of law if you have an attorney general deciding which law fits their agenda." Stein defended Cooper's approach, noting that the incumbent defended the voter ID law in court for 3 years, but he declined to appeal further after a federal court ruled it discriminated against black voters. "When you've been told that you're denying people their constitutional rights, it's an appropriate time to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, NEB., N.MEX., CALIF.
Sept. 20 TEXAS: TEXAS DEATH PENALTY APPEALS LAWYERS OVERWORKED, SOMETIMES SLOPPY Texas' appeals system for indigent convicts facing the death penalty suffers from poor representation, plagiarized boilerplate legal arguments and other flaws that could result in innocent people being executed, according to a scathing new report by a prominent lawyers group. The report by the nonprofit Texas Defender Service highlights cases in which attorneys never visited their condemned clients in prison, missed filing deadlines and even missed court hearings because they were busy on other cases. The group, which has a reputation for challenging Texas' frequent use of the death penalty, called the legal deficiencies "multiple and severe." "Because Texas uses the death penalty so much, that makes this report extra ugly," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the group, which was created in 1995 to improve Texas' justice system and the quality of legal representation afforded to convicts facing the death penalty. "These findings are about as bad as you can get." The report is focused on direct appeals, those started immediately after a conviction, in which trial errors and other issues can be legally vetted before an execution occurs. Those can include complaints of racial bias, ineffective counsel and other legal issues. Condemned Texans who cannot afford to pay for their own lawyers - a majority on death row - typically get attorneys appointed by local judges, who generally award those cases to friends or lawyers willing to take on those appeals, the report said. It recommends that Texas create a state office to oversee death-penalty direct appeals, to appoint 2 lawyers to each direct appeal instead of one, and to reform the system to provide minimum standards and better compensation for lawyers in some parts of the state to guard against ineffective counsel. With public support for the death penalty in Texas waning, and as life without parole has become a more popular alternative, the group's findings almost assure that the oft-criticized appeals system in capital cases will be a topic of debate when the Legislature convenes in January. A growing chorus of critics in recent years has warned that, absent reforms, Texas' current system is likely to face increasing scrutiny by appeals courts. Patrick McCann, a Houston defense lawyer with expertise in capital appeals, characterized the report's findings as horrible, astounding and disheartening. "This report is a very sad commentary on how the system runs and whether or not it should be revamped or scrapped," he said. "There's nowhere to go from here but up." The report, "Lethally Deficient," was set for release early today. An advance copy obtained Monday showed the group reviewed 84 death penalty appeals decided by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals between January 2009 and December 2015. Of those, Kase said, convictions were overturned in only 3 cases. The report targets Texas' practices for selecting direct-appeal attorneys for its harshest criticism. While death-penalty trials require 2 attorneys be appointed to each case, direct-appeals appointments get only 1. "This leaves the defense short-handed and runs counter to the recommendations from the State Bar of Texas and the American Bar Association that 2 lawyers represent a defendant through a death-penalty case," the report states. 2/3 of the cases in the study sample were handled by solo practitioners, who "may lack ready access to direct supervision, consultation or support staff." The report also contends that low pay rates in some rural counties could lead to ineffective or sloppy representation. "Some lawyers who handled appeals in our survey had a capital and noncapital workload during the 2014 fiscal year that equaled the recommended workload for three or more lawyers," the report states. Additionally, the report's authors said, a lack of direct supervision led to instances in which appointed lawyers copied text in their filings directly from other appeals. Lawyers in other states have been sanctioned for copying and pasting such wording in filings, but none in Texas has been penalized, the report notes. In one example cited by the report, a lawyer copied a trial motion "without analyzing the trial court's decision or making her own argument in support of the client's appeal." The report also stated that lawyers in 24 cases did not list any time in billing records dedicated to communicating with their clients. 2 defendants wrote to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to report that they had not heard from their lawyer; 3 defendants wrote that their appellate lawyer had filed briefs without consulting them. Brian Stull, a North Carolina-based senior staff attorney with the Capital Punishment Project of the American Civil Liberties Union who has handled Texas death penalty cases, said the report highlights
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., OHIO, ARK.
Sept. 20 TEXAS: Capital Costs Your right to an attorney. It's a right we all have. Even if we can't afford one, one will be appointed for us. But in the end, who picks up the tab for those lawyers? KIDY's Senora Scott this evening with a look at how many alleged killers are in our jail right now, and how much it's costing us. As of mid-September, in the Tom Green County Jail, there are 4 people charged with murder and 10 people charged with Capital Murder. Of those cases involving Capital Murder, it's estimated they'll cost 1 to 2 million dollars per person. So who's paying for it? You are. "Each county bears the burden of the expense of any death penalty trial," 51st District Attorney Allison Palmer said. So why do they cost so much? If the state is seeking the death penalty, defense attorneys from the regional public defender's office will take the case. These lawyers are based out of Lubbock but have offices all over the state. "Capital murder cases take longer to get to trial and capital murder cases where we're seeking the death penalty are vastly more expensive than other kinds of prosecutions," Palmer said. Travel, scheduling, experts witnesses, gathering all types of evidence, and lab testing are just a few factors that rack up the taxpayer's bill. How many of these current cases are going to potentially fall under this category? "I have given notice that I intend to seek death on 4 offenders, 4 indicted offenders," Palmer said. Allison Palmer is the one who makes those decisions but she says she takes the jury into account when doing so. She asks herself the questions the jury would be asked. Like: Will the defendant be a future danger to society? Is there a criminal history? Did the person act as an accomplice or commit the crime themselves? Still the sheer number of pending cases creates its own set of questions. "I've been here for more than 20 years in this district attorney's office and we've gone for a period of years without any homicide cases, without any murder cases, much less capital offenses," Palmer said. And some of these cases involve juveniles - or people under the age of 17. We can't show their faces or give their names but palmer told me - due to their age, they are not eligible for the death penalty. While there are just a few juveniles involved, most would say, it's a few too many. "It's the 1st time in my experience where offenders under the age of 17 have been charged with a capital offense," Palmer said. If the courts stays on schedule, a few of those trials are slated to begin in October. (source: myfoxzone.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh man charged with killing his wife Ukranian immigrant Volodymyr Kocherhin and his wife, Olha Kocherhina, had both been in trouble with the law in recent years for driving under the influence and minor larcenies. Now Kocherhin, 51, faces the possibility of life in prison or the death penalty, after he was charged over the weekend with the 1st-degree murder of his wife. Kocherhin had called police from behind a Kimbrell's Furniture store on New Bern Avenue early Friday morning to report that he'd found his wife "lying in blood" in the grass after she had gone missing the day before. A sheriff's deputy pushed the wheelchair-bound Kocherhin into a Wake County District courtroom Monday afternoon for his 1st court appearances. A week earlier, he had pleaded guilty in Wake District Court to shoplifting and was given credit for the 20 days he had spent in jail. Kocherhin and his wife were both scheduled to appear in court Nov. 17 in Dare County where police charged him with driving while impaired on July 20. They charged Olha Kocherhina with one misdemeanor count each of aiding and abetting an impaired driver and possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in the passenger area of the vehicle they were traveling in, state records show. Dare County law officials revoked Kocherhin's driver's license for 30 days, pending the outcome of the DWI trial, state records show. In 2007, police in Chatham County, Ga., charged Kocherhin with driving under the influence, along with a misdemeanor count of endangering the life of a child, state records show. Olha Kocherhina was convicted in a Wake County courtroom of driving while impaired on April 6. She was sentenced to 1 year probation, state records show. Investigators reported that Kocherhina???s blood alcohol content was .35, more that 4 times the state limit of .08. Kocherhina spent nine days in jail after her arrest and lost her driver's license. A Wake County judge ordered her to complete child safety and substance abuse programs after she pleaded guilty in 2009 to being intoxicated and disruptive. She was also convicted that year of shoplifting, state records show. In 2008, the couple was convicted of misdemeanor larceny and sentenced to 1 year probation and ordered to complete 45 days of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., OHIO, ARK., MO.
Sept. 17 TEXASnew execution date February execution date set for Fort Worth man An execution date was set this week for a 36-year-old Fort Worth man condemned for smothering an 89-year-old Bell Helicopter retiree in 2004 and robbing him. A date of Feb. 7 was set for Tilon Lashon Carter in 371st State District Court in Fort Worth. It is the 1st execution date for Carter, who has been on death row since December 2006. He was condemned for the robbery and slaying of James Tomlin, who was known to keep cash in containers around his Handley home. Prosecutors said Carter and his girlfriend, Leketha Allen - whose mother, a prostitute, had a 20-year relationship with Tomlin - went to Tomlin's home to rob him. His daughter found him dead later that day. Investigators found more than $20,000 cash hidden in containers inside Tomlin's house and car. Allen and Carter made off with a shotgun and some coins, prosecutors said. Allen reached a deal with prosecutors and received a 25-year sentence. She is in prison with a projected release date of 2029. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court declined without comment to hear Carter's appeal. His appeals have focused on whether his Tarrant County trial attorneys were deficient and whether faulty instructions were given to trial jurors. At his trial, prosecutors portrayed Carter as a longtime criminal whose violence was escalating and who deserved the death penalty. 4 other Texas death row inmates have execution dates in the coming months. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) * Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present19 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-537 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 20-October 5Barney Fuller-538 21-October 19---Terry Edwards-539 22-November 2---Ramiro Gonzales---540 23-December 7---John Battaglia541 24-February 7---Tilon Carter--542 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) Judge's conflicting orders roil Rodney Reed appealJudge signs 2 documents, with conflicting recommendations, on additional DNA tests sought by Rodney Reed. A judge has issued conflicting recommendations for resolving death row inmate Rodney Reed's request for additional DNA testing, throwing into disarray an appeal that has already lasted 2 years and 2 months. The latest legal fight began in July 2014, when Reed - on death row since 1998 - filed a request to conduct DNA testing on crime scene evidence that Bastrop County prosecutors opposed. Visiting Judge Doug Shaver rejected the request toward the end of 2014, and Reed appealed. Last June, the Court of Criminal Appeals returned the case to Shaver to determine whether evidence from the 1996 killing of Stacey Stites was still available for testing, whether its chain of custody was preserved and whether the items were likely to contain DNA traces. Shaver, a retired judge who was appointed to Reed's case after the original judge stepped aside, ordered prosecutors and defense lawyers to draft proposed answers to the questions - a common practice - and both sides submitted a written list of findings and conclusions they hoped Shaver would adopt. Problems arose when Shaver signed both sides' proposals last week and forwarded them to the Court of Criminal Appeals, even though they came to opposite conclusions about the chain of custody and the likelihood that the items contain biological material to test. "This is a new one. I've never quite seen anyone rule for both sides at the same time," said Bryce Benjet, Reed's lawyer. "Not only is he just affixing his name on the bottom, he didn't even figure out whose side he was taking." Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz on Thursday asked the appeals court to return the matter to Shaver with an order to clarify his position within 14 days. As it stands now, Goertz said, Shaver has agreed with defense lawyers who believe the chain of custody is intact, and with prosecutors who insist that some items Reed wants tested could have been cross-contaminated because they were handled without gloves during Reed's trial and weren't stored in separate packages after trial. "Both cannot be right," Goertz wrote. Benjet said he intends to object to returning the case to Shaver, arguing that the Court of Criminal Appeals should be able to decide whether to grant the DNA testing based on a voluminous record that has been developed in hearings and briefs. If the appeals court wants definitive answers from the court below, Benjet said he will ask that the case be assigned to another judge - one who will give proper consideration to a matter involving the death penalty. "We've been waiting for a decision in this case for going on 2 years now," he said.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., N.C., ALA., MISS.
Sept. 16 TEXAS: State to help Coryell County in capital murder trial, set for August 2018 The Texas Attorney General's office is providing a prosecutor to assist the Coryell County district attorney's office with a capital murder case against Chet Michael Shelton, 27, of Gatesville. However, the trial won't begin until August 2018 - which will be almost 3 years after 2-year-old Makai Brooks Lamar was allegedly beaten, sodomized and killed by Shelton, Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd said Tuesday. The date was set so far in the future because of the logistics of scheduling 3 different offices in the death penalty case - the attorney general, Boyd's office and Shelton's regional public defender, Anthony Odiorne, located in Burnet, Boyd said. Odiorne, one of Shelton's attorneys, said Tuesday that the regional public defender's office has a policy of not talking about pending cases. Regional public defenders, contracted by individual counties, defend only in death penalty cases and travel a lot. Finding a date without conflicts was a challenge, Boyd said. Utilizing the services of Lisa Tanner from the attorney general's office will not cost Coryell County taxpayers anything. Tanner will assist Boyd, he said Tuesday. Boyd requested the assistance because a child's death is a unique case and Tanner has a lot of experience with those cases and in prosecuting crimes where a baby's death is involved, he said. Tanner's experience will help the DA's office handle the type of case "we don't necessarily see very often," Boyd said. Boyd has never prosecuted a case involving a child's death, he said, although he has handled cases involving aggravated sexual assault of a child. "Anytime a baby dies, it is catastrophic to any community, no matter the community's size," Boyd said. "It's tough for a community to go through." The district attorney's office will seek the death penalty against Shelton, Boyd said. An autopsy showed Makai died from blunt force trauma and had many injuries to his head and internal organs. The autopsy results also said Makai was sodomized, according to an arrest affidavit. Shelton told a Gatesville Police Department investigator that he was baby-sitting Makai for his girlfriend, who was Makai's mother. The mother reportedly came home for a short period of time and then went back to finish a double shift at a local restaurant, the affidavit said. After eating, Makai fell asleep on the couch, Shelton said. He added that he moved Makai to the child's bedroom and went outside to smoke. He came back inside, checked on Makai and found he wasn't breathing, the affidavit said. Shelton said he started CPR and it wasn't working, so he carried Makai to a neighbor, a Coryell County deputy sheriff, for help. EMS reports said Makai was found naked on the floor. Marks were found on the 2-year-old that weren't consistent with any emergency treatment. Those injuries were on the head, face and abdomen, and his extremities had various bruises and burns. At least 3 lacerations seemed to indicate Makai was hit multiple times on the right side of the head with an object, the affidavit said. A quarter-size stain of blood was found on Makai's pillow and a larger blood stain was found on the comforter. Shelton admitted to the investigator that he'd used methamphetamine during the 48 hours before he baby-sat Makai, according to the affidavit. (source: Copperas Cove Herald) PENNSYLVANIA: 22-year-old on trial for his life in Feltonville shootout that killed 1, wounded 4 It's a case with the elements of a tragedy all too common on Philadelphia streets. It's about young men with guns, and with grudges that began in their teens, and indiscriminate shots that killed an innocent bystander and wounded four other people. Among the wounded: the alleged target, who now says police concocted his identification of his boyhood friend as one of the shooters. It is titled Commonwealth v. Siddiq Shelton, and its namesake, now 22, could end up with a death sentence. Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes told a Philadelphia jury in her opening statement Thursday that the evidence would prove that Shelton and a never-identified 2nd gunman fired 15 shots at a group of people sitting on the front porch of a Feltonville rowhouse at 12:19 a.m. July 29, 2014. The shooters' target was Michael Benjamin, a childhood friend of Shelton's against whom Shelton bore a simmering grudge, according to Watson-Stokes. Benjamin was wounded in both legs and in his scrotum. Elisha Bull, 20, who was on the porch visiting three sisters who lived at the house in the 4900 block of North Front Street, was killed. Bull died after being hit twice in the head, twice in the chest, and once each in the left wrist and right ankle. The sisters were not related to either Bull or Benjamin. 2 of the sisters, both teenagers, were wounded, as
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., N.C., ALA., MISS.
Sept. 16 TEXAS: State to help Coryell County in capital murder trial, set for August 2018 The Texas Attorney General's office is providing a prosecutor to assist the Coryell County district attorney's office with a capital murder case against Chet Michael Shelton, 27, of Gatesville. However, the trial won't begin until August 2018 - which will be almost 3 years after 2-year-old Makai Brooks Lamar was allegedly beaten, sodomized and killed by Shelton, Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd said Tuesday. The date was set so far in the future because of the logistics of scheduling 3 different offices in the death penalty case - the attorney general, Boyd's office and Shelton's regional public defender, Anthony Odiorne, located in Burnet, Boyd said. Odiorne, one of Shelton's attorneys, said Tuesday that the regional public defender's office has a policy of not talking about pending cases. Regional public defenders, contracted by individual counties, defend only in death penalty cases and travel a lot. Finding a date without conflicts was a challenge, Boyd said. Utilizing the services of Lisa Tanner from the attorney general's office will not cost Coryell County taxpayers anything. Tanner will assist Boyd, he said Tuesday. Boyd requested the assistance because a child's death is a unique case and Tanner has a lot of experience with those cases and in prosecuting crimes where a baby's death is involved, he said. Tanner's experience will help the DA's office handle the type of case "we don't necessarily see very often," Boyd said. Boyd has never prosecuted a case involving a child's death, he said, although he has handled cases involving aggravated sexual assault of a child. "Anytime a baby dies, it is catastrophic to any community, no matter the community's size," Boyd said. "It's tough for a community to go through." The district attorney's office will seek the death penalty against Shelton, Boyd said. An autopsy showed Makai died from blunt force trauma and had many injuries to his head and internal organs. The autopsy results also said Makai was sodomized, according to an arrest affidavit. Shelton told a Gatesville Police Department investigator that he was baby-sitting Makai for his girlfriend, who was Makai's mother. The mother reportedly came home for a short period of time and then went back to finish a double shift at a local restaurant, the affidavit said. After eating, Makai fell asleep on the couch, Shelton said. He added that he moved Makai to the child's bedroom and went outside to smoke. He came back inside, checked on Makai and found he wasn't breathing, the affidavit said. Shelton said he started CPR and it wasn't working, so he carried Makai to a neighbor, a Coryell County deputy sheriff, for help. EMS reports said Makai was found naked on the floor. Marks were found on the 2-year-old that weren't consistent with any emergency treatment. Those injuries were on the head, face and abdomen, and his extremities had various bruises and burns. At least 3 lacerations seemed to indicate Makai was hit multiple times on the right side of the head with an object, the affidavit said. A quarter-size stain of blood was found on Makai's pillow and a larger blood stain was found on the comforter. Shelton admitted to the investigator that he'd used methamphetamine during the 48 hours before he baby-sat Makai, according to the affidavit. (source: Copperas Cove Herald) PENNSYLVANIA: 22-year-old on trial for his life in Feltonville shootout that killed 1, wounded 4 It's a case with the elements of a tragedy all too common on Philadelphia streets. It's about young men with guns, and with grudges that began in their teens, and indiscriminate shots that killed an innocent bystander and wounded four other people. Among the wounded: the alleged target, who now says police concocted his identification of his boyhood friend as one of the shooters. It is titled Commonwealth v. Siddiq Shelton, and its namesake, now 22, could end up with a death sentence. Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes told a Philadelphia jury in her opening statement Thursday that the evidence would prove that Shelton and a never-identified 2nd gunman fired 15 shots at a group of people sitting on the front porch of a Feltonville rowhouse at 12:19 a.m. July 29, 2014. The shooters' target was Michael Benjamin, a childhood friend of Shelton's against whom Shelton bore a simmering grudge, according to Watson-Stokes. Benjamin was wounded in both legs and in his scrotum. Elisha Bull, 20, who was on the porch visiting three sisters who lived at the house in the 4900 block of North Front Street, was killed. Bull died after being hit twice in the head, twice in the chest, and once each in the left wrist and right ankle. The sisters were not related to either Bull or Benjamin. 2 of the sisters, both teenagers, were wounded, as
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., OHIO, OKLA., KAN.
Sept. 14 TEXAS: Fifth Circuit Upholds Lethal Injection for Texas Death Row Inmates Denying 5 death row inmates' bid for a stay of execution, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently ruled that Texas' current form of execution by lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The 5 condemned Texas prisoners are the latest to challenge the lethal injection form of execution in the United States. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Glossip v. Gross that the 3-drug cocktail Oklahoma uses to execute prisoners did not violate their Eighth Amendment rights. In 2012, Texas adopted its current execution protocol: a single, 5-gram dose of pentobarbital to induce death. The state had previously purchased pentobarbital from a Danish company that later refused to sell the drug to states that execute by lethal injection. In response, Texas began purchasing pentobarbital that is compounded by pharmacies. Even though 32 people have been executed in the state using compounded pentobarbital without incident, the 5 Texas prisoners requested stays of execution, alleging the compounded drug still posed a risk of unnecessary pain and should be retested before their executions. In a Sept. 12 decision in Wood v. Collier, Fifth Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham noted that when pentobarbital is the sole drug used to execute, unconsciousness precedes death. He also concluded that the 3 prisoners did not have an equal protection right under the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment to have the compounded drug retested before its use in their executions. "However one kneads the protean language of equal protection jurisprudence, the inescapable reality is that these prisoners have not demonstrated that a failure to retest brings the unnecessary pain forbidden by the Eight Amendment," Higginbotham wrote. "Attempting to bridge this shortfall in their submission with equal protection language, while creative, brings an argument that is ultimately no more than word play." While he denied their stays of execution, Higginbotham did note the 5 prisoners have spent decades residing on death row - something that gives the judge pause. "Texas has a strong interest in enforcing the judgments of its courts in criminal cases, but the public interest writ large takes no sides here. The finality of a death sentence and, with it, the inherent risk of uncertainty demand diligent effort by all," Higginbotham wrote. "These prisoners have enjoyed that effort - with 2 of them residing on death row in excess of 20 years. The reality may give pause to the entire enterprise, but does not bespeak neglect of bench and bar," Higginbotham wrote. "To these eyes, a system that leaves persons on death row for over 2 decades more surely taxes the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of undue suffering than does the elusive search for minimum pain for those brief moments of passage across the river." Texas leads the nation in executions and has put 537 people to death since 1976. (source: Texas Lawyer) Defense wants psychological evaluation in case of Border Patrol agent's shooting Attorneys for a Mexican national accused of killing an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent are asking for psychological evaluation of their client. In a hearing yesterday, the attorneys requested 43-year-old Ismael Hernandez-Vallejo be tested for "intellectual disability." He is accused of killing Agent Javier Vega Jr., on Aug. 3, 2014. He appeared before state District Judge Migdalia Lopez in Brownsville, where several criminal motions were addressed. Vega was shot and killed during an apparent robbery attempt while he and his family were out fishing near Santa Monica. His father, Javier Vega Sr., was shot in the back. In December 2015, Lopez granted Willacy County District Attorney Bernard Ammerman's request to move the capital murder trial to Cameron County. Yesterday, both parties expressed concern over the implications that may come with a new district attorney, Annette Hinojosa, having been elected in Willacy County. Considering the psychological evaluation and concerns brought up by the defense about a new DA, the prosecution expressed disapproval for the request because it would stall the trial even further, suggesting someone is "dragging their feet." "Let's get this clear," state prosecutor Chuck Mattingly said. "I'm here right now today. I'll work this case; I'll try this case whenever they want to try it. I'm just letting the court know that there is going to be a power change ... in Willacy County." "Secondly, judge, this case is over a year-and-a-half old. And if they don't know whether their client is intellectually disabled, or incompetent or insane, by this time or wasn't insane at the time of the incident, then I would suggest somebody is dragging their feet. Maybe not Mr.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., N.C., ALA., LA., OHIO
Sept. 13 TEXAS: Why the Death Penalty is Dying in Texas Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service in Houston, says nationwide, there's been a huge drop in death sentences. Texas has had many fewer executions this year than in years past. In 1999, the state sent 30 people to death row. "The rate of death sentencing is dropping dramatically in Texas," she says. "Last year, Texas had only 2 new death sentences. This year we've had 3." Kase says the reduction makes sense because the system allows for life without parole. "[Life without parole] does keep people in prison for life. And if we're wrong, if people are innocent, we can go back and get them," she says, "whereas if they're innocent and they've been executed, we really can't resurrect them." If the availability of lethal injection drugs were a factor, Kase says stays of execution would reference that reason. Instead, we're seeing stays for other reasons: because questions arose about whether the state convicted the right person, because experts gave false testimony, because forensic proof in the case - the science - was bad. "We're understanding that the evidence that used to convict and put people on death row was not infallible," she says. "When you have doubt like that, the courts should properly put the brakes on things." Kase says the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) is responding to the larger conversation nationwide about the viability of the death penalty. Two opinions from CCA judge Elsa Alcala have shown that she thinks the court needs an open discussion of the constitutionality of the death penalty. "Practically any murder in the state of Texas could be capital murder," she says, "and if the death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst, not every murder should qualify for the death penalty for that to be constitutional. She has also observed that the death penalty has been overused in the state of Texas against African-Americans relative to their representation in the population." Texas has led the nation in exonerations, Kase says, which could be a factor in why the state is rethinking the death penalty. "Any state that can admit that it's wrong, about putting the wrong people in prison," she says, "I think can rethink the death penalty." (source: KUT news) PENNSYTLVANIA: In death-penalty case, prosecutors complain of judge's closed-door meeting with defense Told he could face death penalty, Easton homicide defendant has outbursts in court Northampton County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Jeffrey Knoble, the man accused of slaying Andrew "Beep" White of Easton at a downtown hotel in March. Their client facing the death penalty, Jeffrey S. Knoble Jr.'s lawyers were able to persuade a judge to allow them to withdraw from his murder case, citing a complete breakdown in their relationship with a defendant who has had repeated outbursts in court. But the reasons behind Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano's decision this month has sparked a courtroom fight that pits 2 long-held principles of legal fairness against each other. That's because when Chief Public Defender Robert Eyer detailed the reasons he could no longer represent Knoble on charges he killed a man inside a downtown Easton hotel room, Eyer did so during a closed-door meeting in which prosecutors were excluded. The law frowns upon such ex-parte communications, in which one side speaks with a judge without the other side present, fearing that they are on their face unfair. But in holding that discussion with Eyer on Sept. 2, Giordano was seeking to protect another ethical precept: attorney-client privilege, which shields the confidentiality of communications between lawyers and those they represent. Eyer claimed he would be violating those ethical duties if he disclosed to prosecutors why he needed to withdraw from the case. Over the objection of First Deputy District Attorney Terence Houck, Giordano held the closed-door meeting as a result, the transcript of which he ordered sealed. On Monday, that produced a hearing in which District Attorney John Morganelli argued prosecutors had the right to know why Knoble's lawyers were relieved, saying he fears the defendant is playing games with the court and seeking to have his case unnecessarily delayed. Morganelli went through Knoble's history of disruptiveness in court - including repeated attempts to fire his lawyers - and said there is no reason to believe Knoble won't continue those tactics with his new attorneys. "We have to know what's happened to old counsel, so we can know what's going to happen with new counsel," Morganelli said. If not, he said, "we're arguing against a ghost, because we don't even know what we're arguing against." Knoble is charged in the early March 11, 2015, death of 32-year-old Andrew "Beep" White, who was shot in the back of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., N.C., OHIO, TENN., MO., CALIF.
Sept. 12 TEXAS: Condemned Killer in San Antonio Robbery Loses Death Penalty Appeal A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from a 35-year-old man on Texas death row for the fatal shooting of a man during a robbery of a San Antonio ice house more than 16 years ago. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has turned down arguments that Obie Weathers is mentally impaired and shouldn't be put to death. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that mentally impaired people may not be executed. Weathers was 19 in February 2000 when court records show he shot 63-year-old Ted Church twice in the head and once in the abdomen as Church tried to break up the robbery at the bar on San Antonio's east side. Church was a customer. Weathers fled with about $200. He doesn't yet have an execution date. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: In death-penalty case, prosecutors complain of judge's closed-door meeting with defense Their client facing the death penalty, Jeffrey S. Knoble Jr.'s lawyers were able to persuade a judge to allow them to withdraw from his murder case, citing a complete breakdown in their relationship with a defendant who has had repeated outbursts in court. But the reasons behind Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano's decision this month has sparked a courtroom fight that pits two long-held principles of legal fairness against each other. That's because when Chief Public Defender Robert Eyer detailed the reasons he could no longer represent Knoble on charges he killed a man inside a downtown Easton hotel room, Eyer did so during a closed-door meeting in which prosecutors were excluded. The law frowns upon such ex-parte communications, in which one side speaks with a judge without the other side present, fearing that they are on their face unfair. But in holding that discussion with Eyer on Sept. 2, Giordano was seeking to protect another ethical precept: attorney-client privilege, which shields the confidentiality of communications between lawyers and those they represent. Eyer claimed he would be violating those ethical duties if he disclosed to prosecutors why he needed to withdraw from the case. Over the objection of First Deputy District Attorney Terence Houck, Giordano held the closed-door meeting as a result, the transcript of which he ordered sealed. On Monday, that produced a hearing in which District Attorney John Morganelli argued prosecutors had the right to know why Knoble's lawyers were relieved, saying he fears the defendant is playing games with the court and seeking to have his case unnecessarily delayed. Morganelli went through Knoble's history of disruptiveness in court - including repeated attempts to fire his lawyers - and said there is no reason to believe Knoble won't continue those tactics with his new attorneys. "We have to know what's happened to old counsel, so we can know what's going to happen with new counsel," Morganelli said. If not, he said, "we're arguing against a ghost, because we don't even know what we're arguing against." Knoble is charged in the early March 11, 2015, death of 32-year-old Andrew "Beep" White, who was shot in the back of the head at the former Quality Inn on South Third Street. Authorities call White a good Samaritan who rented a room for Knoble that night because he had no place to stay, then was killed for his kindness. In February, Knoble called his public defenders "bums" and "corrupt." A week later, he cursed at Giordano, telling him to "Go [expletive] yourself." In May, Knoble insisted he is a sovereign man who isn't subject to the reach of the justice system. More recently, Knoble was in court last month for what was expected to be a guilty plea in which he would admit murdering White and accept a sentence of life without parole. But instead, the 26-year-old Riegelsville man asserted his innocence, turned to White's family, stuck out his tongue and repeatedly said, "Ha ha, ha ha" to them. The reasons Eyer gave Giordano for withdrawing from the case were, apparently, persuasive. Following the Sept. 2 meeting, Giordano reaffirmed that Knoble would be granted new counsel and ordered his trial - scheduled to begin the next week - to be delayed until January. On Monday, a lawyer for Eyer, Philip Lauer, said that Giordano got it right the first time. Eyer had a ethical requirement not to disclose confidential communications with his client, and that must be respected, Lauer said. "That's the basis on which he made the disclosure to you and I think that has to be honored," Lauer told Giordano, who did not issue a ruling, saying he wanted to do more research. Knoble is now represented by Gavin Holihan and Matthew Deschler. Holihan, an Allentown attorney, was found outside the county's usual crop of court-appointed counsel, considering the paucity of lawyers who are qualified to try death-penalty cases. Holihan will be paid $75 an hour,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., LA., OHIO, OKLA.
Sept. 8 TEXAS: Watch: A Dying BreedCan Texas Even Carry Out an Execution Anymore? Officials down at Texas' once-proud and prolific death chamber must be beginning to wonder if they'll ever execute another inmate. The state hasn't executed anyone since Pablo Vasquez on April 6 and has since seen the past 12 inmates avoid the imminent within a few days of their death dates. Those stays - and in Perry Williams' case, a straight withdrawal (see "Death Watch: A First Time for Everything," July 15) - have come through questions over innocence, certain legal statutes, and a creeping feeling that the death penalty might not be that good of an idea. Look no further than the June opinion from Elsa Alcala, a judge on the traditionally death-friendly Court of Criminal Appeals, in the case of Julius Murphy. The judge saw "serious deficiencies" that have "caused ... great concern about this form of punishment as it exists in Texas today." One begins to sense a changing tide. A stay was the case again late Friday, Sept. 2, when the CCA put the execution of Robert Mitchell Jennings on ice pending further order of the court. Jennings, 58, was convicted in 1989 for the 1988 murder of Houston Police Officer Elston Howard, who was issuing a citation to the owner of an adult novelty store when Jennings burst in to rob the place and shot Howard 4 times. The Houston native already had 2 convictions for aggravated robbery, and 1 for a home burglary, and had only been out for 2 months when he killed Howard. Even during that short time, his appeals attorneys acknowledge, Jennings had committed 5 different robberies. In his CCA appeal this summer, Jennings argued that the state destroyed mitigating evidence that could have spared his life - particularly a recording of a police interview conducted shortly after Jennings' arrest in which he expressed "remorse in the way I feel about the incident that happened." Jennings has said that he had been drinking, that Howard "ran towards him" before he shot, and that he wished he could "take it all back." The trial court issued a "nullification" instruction during punishment, rendering the recording irrelevant during trial. Jennings' attorney Randy Schaffer cites precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court establishing the "nullification" instruction as unconstitutional. The high court has held since 2001 that "nullification" instruction requires reversal of a death sentence if there was mitigating evidence that the jury was not afforded the opportunity to consider. (Jennings has also asserted that he received ineffective counsel during his trial and that the death penalty violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.) Jennings' name has also been included in the joint lawsuit filed Aug. 12 in Judge Lynn Hughes' court with Jeffery Wood, Ramiro Gonzales, Rolando Ruiz, and Terry Edwards - the 5 inmates on the execution calendar at the time of the suit's filing (see "Death Watch: The Quality of State Killings," Aug. 26). The 5 argue that they should be granted the right to have their doses of compounded pentobarbital (the cocktail used in state killings) tested for purity. The state said it would extend the courtesy to Perry Williams earlier this summer after Williams filed his own complaint, but in 6 months never got around to running the quick test (for some reason). Williams eventually got his date withdrawn. Hughes dismissed Wood et al. 3 weeks ago, holding that: "The Constitution protects the rights of the people [to have their death doses tested] - not rights held collectively by groups." An appeal is currently pending in the 5th Circuit. (soure: Ausstin Chronicle) *** Why justice is 'fading away' U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg thinks capital punishment is "fading away" in America. We are confident that the demise of the death penalty - and justice - would make this liberal member of the highest court in the land quite happy. However, let us be realistic. Capital punishment is not "fading away" due to some sudden and significant change in America's attitude. The primary reason the number of executions are declining nationwide is because of a shortage of the drugs used to carry out the death penalty. And why is there a shortage? Because of the devious, nefarious and quite likely criminal acts of those who cannot change laws in America legally through the democratic process, so they resort to violence and threats of violence against drug manufacturers to create a shortage of the drugs used to administer the ultimate form of justice - thereby delaying or halting capital punishment. So much for justice, right? Texas has 4 scheduled executions for the rest of 2016, including the execution of an individual who shot to death 2 of his neighbors in 2003, another individual who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed an 18-year-old girl in 2001
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., N.C, ., FLA., MISS., OHIO
Sept. 7 TEXAS: Death penalty does not represent justice I strongly disagree with the recent Amarillo Globe-News editorial on the death penalty (Editorial: Death penalty can be justified, Aug. 20, amarillo.com.) Society can be protected without taking another human life since we now have "life without parole" as an optional punishment for capital murder. Furthermore, our criminal justice system is very imperfect - many innocent people have been sent to death row - at least 13 in Texas and over 150 nationwide. And there is strong evidence that we have executed innocent people. Even if there is strong evidence that someone is guilty, the death penalty is applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner because of economic, racial and geographic biases in the criminal justice system. Because of these problems, the death penalty will probably be declared unconstitutional in the not-too-distant future. David Atwood Founder of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Houston (source: Letter to the Editor, Amarillo Globe-News) * Texas appeals judge questions fairness of life without paroleOnce a Republican, now a Democrat, Judge Larry Meyers says no-parole sentences lack legal protections. Life without parole is a slow-motion death penalty, longtime Texas judge says. Judge Larry Meyers, the longest-serving member of the state's highest criminal court, has grown uncomfortable with the way Texas allows for life in prison without parole, calling it a slow-motion death sentence without the same legal protections given to defendants who face the death penalty. It can be argued, Meyers said, that the prospect of decades of prison - ended only by death from old age, medical problems or even violence - is as harsh or harsher than execution. Even so, life without parole can be given in some capital murder cases without jurors answering two questions that must be considered before issuing a death sentence - is the defendant a future danger to society, and are there any mitigating factors such as mental disability or childhood abuse that weigh against capital punishment? "I'm not saying the death penalty is unconstitutional. I think right now it's about as fair as it could be," Meyers said. "But there are 2 variations of the death penalty; one is just longer than the other. People are getting a (life without parole) death sentence without the same safeguards and procedures that you get when there is a death sentence." Meyers, the only Democrat on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, plans to make changing the life-without-parole system an issue of his re-election campaign, an admittedly uphill battle after he switched from the Republican Party in 2013 over disagreements in its direction under the surging tea party movement. His Republican opponent in the Nov. 8 election, 22-year state District Judge Mary Lou Keel of Houston, believes Meyers has strayed from his principal task as a judge. "Policy issues like this are best left to the Legislature," Keel said. "Doesn't he have enough work to do as a judge?" Keel and Meyers are vying for 1 of the 9 seats on a court that has the last word on criminal matters in Texas. Death row down 40% Life without parole, an option for capital murder cases since 2005, has been credited with helping to sharply reduce the number of death row inmates by allowing prosecutors to reserve capital punishment for the worst cases, yet ensure that other convicted murderers are permanently removed from society. Since life without parole became an option, the population of Texas' death row has fallen to 244 inmates, down about 40 p%, as the pace of executions has outstripped the number of new death sentences. In contrast, 782 inmates were serving life without parole for capital murder as of July 31. An additional 54 inmates are serving life without parole after repeat convictions for sexually violent offenses, including crimes against children, since the Legislature allowed the punishment for the crime of continuous sexual abuse in 2007. In capital murder cases, life without parole is handed down 2 ways: -- In cases in which the prosecutor seeks death by lethal injection, if jurors convict, a 2nd trial begins over the punishment. Prosecutors try to prove that the defendant will pose a future danger to society unless put to death, and defense lawyers attempt to convince jurors that execution isn't the appropriate punishment. Jurors must be unanimous on the future danger question, and they must all reject the defense's mitigating evidence. If 1 juror disagrees on either point, the sentence automatically becomes life without parole. -- In cases in which the prosecutor waives the death penalty, life without parole is the only available option for capital murder. Seeking life without parole is by far the simpler option. Jurors are easier to seat - death penalty opponents
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., KAN., MO., NEB.
Sept. 2 TEXAS: British woman on Texas death row should not get new trial, judge says -- Linda Carty's lawyers argued that she was denied due process in trial for 2002 kidnapping and murder of neighbor, but judge found evidence insufficient A judge has recommended that a British woman on death row in Texas should not be granted a new trial, dealing a blow to her hopes of avoiding execution. David Garner made his decision on Thursday after listening to closing arguments on Monday at the end of a hearing in which Linda Carty's defence team argued that she was denied due process at trial because prosecutors allowed false testimony, failed to disclose evidence and hid the existence of deals with witnesses. Carty was sentenced to death in 2002 for orchestrating the kidnap and murder of her neighbour in Houston, Joana Rodriguez, who was found bound and asphyxiated in the trunk of a car the previous year. Prosecutors said that after several miscarriages, Carty was desperate for a child, wanted to steal Rodriguez's newborn baby and recruited 3 men to carry out the plot. The baby survived. The 57-year-old former teacher and ex-Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant, who is a British citizen because she was born on the Caribbean island of St Kitts when it was under UK rule, has insisted she is innocent. But Garner, a visiting judge based in nearby Galveston County, recommended that her application be denied, finding that the evidence did not show that Texas knowingly used perjured testimony, failed to correct untrue testimony or presented misleading testimony at trial. His assessment will be passed to the Texas court of criminal appeals, which will review it and decide whether to grant a new trial. "The judge found that the State did not coerce any witnesses to provide false or misleading testimony," Jeff McShan, a spokesman for the Harris County district attorney's office, said in a statement. "The court of criminal appeals will review the case and make a final determination on Carty's writ." Garner did determine that the state withheld or failed to disclose witness statements and information that could have helped Carty's cause - known as Brady violations - but concluded it was unlikely that this would have made a difference to the jury's decisions. He ruled that it is up to the appeals court to decide whether he can make a judgment on the significance of an alleged deal between the state and a witness. Carty has lost multiple state and federal appeals, previously contending that her counsel was ineffective. Her trial lawyers spent only 2 weeks preparing; one, Jerry Guerinot, became infamous for his lack of success when representing capital murder clients. She did not appear at this hearing, which centered on the alleged lengths that prosecutors in a county dubbed "America's death penalty capital" went to in order to secure a death sentence for a high-profile and particularly egregious killing. Connie Spence and Craig Goodhart, 2 trial prosecutors who still work for Harris County, were accused during the hearing in Houston of "gamesmanship" and a "pervasive ends justify the means attitude" by Michael Goldberg, one of Carty's attorneys. He claimed that prosecutors cherry-picked questionable evidence to fit their narrative and withheld information from Carty's trial attorneys, resulting in a distorted picture that persuaded a jury to convict Carty of capital murder. The judge was also told by Carty's lawyers that prosecutors had destroyed documents and emails that might have helped her cause. Charles Mathis, a former DEA agent, testified that Spence threatened to invent a story about him having had an affair with Carty in order to blackmail him into testifying against her. Carty's alleged accomplices avoided the death penalty. One, Chris Robinson, claimed in a 2014 affidavit that he was told to testify that he saw Carty put a bag over Rodriguez's head, which he said was untrue. "Spence and Goodhart had a version of events in their minds and they were alternating between coaching me and threatening me to get me to say their version," he said. Spence and Goodhart appeared at the hearing and denied misconduct, with Spence rejecting Mathis's claim, the Houston Chronicle reported. Judge Garner made it clear in his findings that he was not persuaded by Mathis's testimony or Robinson's affidavit. Joshua Reiss, an assistant district attorney, conceded Monday that standards are now different regarding the ways prosecutors provide information to defence attorneys. "There are things that went on in the trial that today might honestly make us wince a little bit," he said. "[But] that was the law [at the time]." Goldberg disagreed. "The state's basic theory was that they could hide what they wanted because that was the norm back in 2002, but the reality is the constitutional requirements have never changed," he told the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., MO., NEB., ID., WASH., USA
Sept. 1 TEXAS: Texas hasn't executed anyone in 148 days. That's a new record. It's been 148 days since Texas executed someone - a remarkable lull in the use of the death penalty for a state that has killed far more people than any other. In the nearly 5 months since Pablo Vasquez was killed by lethal injection on April 6, execution after execution in the state has been canceled. In fact, there hasn't been a gap between Texas executions this long since June 2008, according to state records. That gap happened when the Supreme Court temporarily halted the death penalty nationwide during a case on the constitutionality of lethal injection. The 2016 hiatus is, in part, a sign of the decline of the death penalty in the Lone Star State. Since 1976, Texas has executed 537 people - more than the next top 6 states combined. At its peak in 2000, the state had 40 executions, more than 1 every other week. That's gradually declined over the years; in 2015, Texas executed 13 people. The lull in executions also comes as more judges, public officials and ordinary citizens are speaking out about the questionable practices in some of the state's death penalty convictions. "Texans are stepping back from this most irreversible punishment," said Kathryn Kase, the executive director of Texas Defender Services, a nonprofit law firm that defends death row inmates. "More and more people are expressing concerns about the way Texas has used the death penalty ... We all benefit from going more slowly on this." The state's execution-free summer was caused by a string of scheduled executions that were stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in the state. Since Vasquez was killed, the Court has heard last-minute appeals from five men scheduled to be executed, and in each case ruled that the execution must be called off. "Cases that would have historically been given a green light with just a cursory glance are now being given more scrutiny," said Kristin Houle, the executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. While each of the inmates' lives were spared for different reasons, each stay underscores the variety of flaws in the state's handling of the death penalty. The men were: --Charles Flores, who was scheduled to die on June 2 and won a stay on May 27. His execution was stayed over his claim that police officers improperly hypnotized the key eyewitness in the case. --Robert Roberson, who was scheduled to die June 21 and won a stay on June 16 because of new scientific evidence discounting the "shaken baby" theory that led to his conviction. --Robert Pruett, who was scheduled to die August 23 and won a stay on August 11 while the court considered whether more DNA testing was necessary. --Jeff Wood, who was scheduled to die August 24 and won a stay on August 19 due to improper expert testimony during his trial. His case attracted national attention because he didn't actually kill anybody; he was involved in a robbery when his accomplice shot and killed a store clerk. --Rolando Ruiz, who was scheduled to die Wednesday and won a stay last week Friday based on his claim that his previous lawyer was incompetent. In addition, Perry Williams, who was scheduled to die July 14, had his execution called off after the state failed to meet a deadline for testing of its execution drugs ordered by a separate federal court. 3 other inmates, Terry Edwards, Ramiro Gonzalez, and Tai'chin Preyor, had their executions postponed for procedural reasons. While the Court of Criminal Appeals has historically had a reputation of being conservative and ruling against defendants, some observers say there has been a change in tone over the last few months. Anti-death penalty activists and lawyers point to the influence of Judge Elsa Alcala, who's become a strong voice criticizing Texas executions. In June, Alcala - the only nonwhite judge on the Court - wrote a powerful opinion questioning the constitutionality of the death penalty. She's been a part of the majority opinions staying all 6 of the recent executions. "She is a thorn in the sides of all the [pro-death penalty] justices who sit up there in Austin," said Pat Hartwell, a longtime anti-capital punishment activist in Houston. "We have been waiting for years for a sitting judge to do this." At the same time that executions in the state have flatlined, Texas juries have sent only 2 new inmates to death row so far in 2016, and sent only 3 inmates in all of 2015 - far fewer than in previous years. "The innocence cases have really shaken people, the forensic science errors that have been discussed, and just the repeated drumbeat of stories about the overall of the failures in how the death penalty is carried out, it's caused people to stop and reflect," Kase said. "They don't like what they see." Spokespeople for the Texas Attorney General's office and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., FLA., OHIO, MO., NEB.
Sept. 1 TEXAS: 3 indicted in shooting death of 5-year-old girl asleep in bed 3 men accused in the murder of a 5-year-old girl were indicted by a Bexar County grand jury on Tuesday. Abdi Abdi, 18, Murjan Abdi, 19, and Christian Lopez, 19, were formally indicted on capital murder charges. Ana Garza was killed on June 1 when someone fired a gun into her home as she slept in her bed. She was hit in the head by a bullet and died several days later. Previous police reports indicated the 3 named suspects and a 4th man went to the home and lured Ana's father out of the house. When he realized the men had guns, he turned to run back inside the house as gunshots were fired. The Bexar County District Attorney's office said there is evidence to indicate the men planned to burglarize the residence. 3 men may face the death penalty if convicted in Garza's murder. (source: news4sanantonio.com) PENNSYLVANIA: Whitehall murder suspect threatens to fire lawyer, then doesn't Larry R. Yaw, facing the death penalty after being charged with beating a Whitehall Township man to death with a baseball bat, tried to fire his lawyer Wednesday morning. "I've been misrepresented, lied to and I don't feel I have the adequate resources to defend myself where I am," Yaw told Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos. "I move to fire him, he's done." Yaw, 32, of Gilbertsville, Montgomery County is charged in the April 3 killing of Brian Frank, 44, in the in the 900 block of Third Street in Whitehall. Yaw said he hasn't seen his court-appointed attorney, James Connell, to discuss his case since his formal arraignment in mid-June, the same day prosecutors said they would be seeking the death penalty. In that time, Yaw has mailed several letters about his case to Connell, Dantos and the prosecutor's office. Also, from Lehigh County Jail, Yaw filed several motions, which were dismissed by Dantos because she said he has a lawyer who should be filing them. Some of the motions include a request to change the venue, permission to inspect the crime scene, and a petition to take a leave so he can hire a private investigator. Though he was on vacation and then became ill, Connell told Dantos he has been working on the case, reviewing about 600 pages of evidence he obtained from Deputy District Attorney Michael T. Edwards. "I can't babysit him," Connell said of Yaw. "He seems to want me at the prison every day and I can't do that." Dantos told Yaw if he fires Connell, he has 2 options: hire his own attorney or represent himself. At the end of the brief court hearing, Yaw remained with Connell, at least until the next pre-trial hearing scheduled for October. Dantos ordered that some of the evidence in the case is to be shared with Yaw. Connell said he would talk to Yaw before the next court hearing to discuss what motions to file. Police say Yaw allegedly beat his 22-year-old girlfriend Chyanne Carwell and held her at gunpoint when he found out that she had slept with Frank on April 2. Carwell told detectives that Yaw threatened to kill her and her father if she didn't take him to Frank's apartment. They drove from Montgomery County to Frank's apartment in Whitehall just before 8 a.m. on April 3. Yaw was carrying a handgun and aluminum baseball bat when he burst into the apartment, according to police. Yaw first kicked in a bedroom door that turned out be Frank's roommate, police say. Yaw then went into Frank's bedroom and the roommate heard loud noises and Frank screaming in pain, according to police. Yaw allegedly warned the roommate, "If you tell the cops I was here, I will be back for you." After Yaw fled, police were called to the apartment and found Frank bleeding from the face and the back of his head, convulsing and in obvious pain. Frank was unable to speak and was taken to an area hospital where he died the next day. Yaw forced his girlfriend to tell police that Frank had drugged and raped her, police say, but she later testified that Yaw forced her to make up the story. Yaw is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, kidnapping and a firearms offense. If nothing happens by the next court hearing, the trial will start the 1st week of January. (source: The Morning Call) DELAWARE: Hearing set in case that led to overturning of death penalty A judge has set a bail hearing for a murder suspect whose case led to Delaware's death penalty being overturned by the state Supreme Court. After meeting with attorneys Tuesday, the judge scheduled a Sept. 16 bail hearing for Benjamin Rauf. Rauf is charged in last year's drug-related killing of 27-year-old Shazim Uppal of Hockessin, a fellow Temple University law school graduate. Prosecutors had planned to seek the death penalty, but after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding Florida's death penalty statute, the judge sought a state Supreme Court opinion on Delaware's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., N.C., GA., FLA., MISS., LA.
Aug. 30 TEXAS: Man Accused of Murdering Spring, TX Family Will Face the Death Penalty Harris County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man charged with killing a Spring, TX family in 2014. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty in the case of a Utah man accused of the execution-style slaying of 6 members of a Spring family in 2014. Roland Haskell, 36, of Utah, will stand trail in the fall of 2017 for the murders of Katie and Stephen Stay and 4 of their children Bryan, 13; Emily, 9; Rebecca 7; and Zach, 4. Another daughter, Cassidy, 15, was shot but survived. On July 7, 2014, Haskell allegedly went to the Stay's home in a FedEx uniform. When Cassidy Stay, who was home alone, answered the door he allegedly pushed his way into the house. He then bound Cassidy, hand and foot, and waited. Haskell allegedly captured and bound each member of the family as they came home. During the ordeal he reportedly interrogated the family about the location of his ex-wife, Katie Stay's sister, who had left him after multiple instances of domestic violence. Haskell allegedly shot each of the family members in the head. On July 9, 2014, when arraigned for the killings, Haskell collapsed in court. Haskell is scheduled for trial in the fall of 2017, his attorneys have indicated that they plan to pursue an insanity defense. (source: patch.com) PENNSYLVANIA: Judge allows Knoble's attorneys to withdraw in Easton hotel murder case Jeffrey S. Knoble Jr., charged with shooting a man inside a downtown Easton hotel room, has spewed crude vulgarities at his attorneys in the courtroom over the last year in his quest to fire them. On Monday, his public defenders got permission from a judge to leave the case a week before the capital murder trial was scheduled to begin. Chief Public Defender Robert Eyer called it a "complete breakdown" of the attorney-client relationship that would make it impossible for him or his co-counsel to represent Knoble. Knoble, 26, of Riegelsville told Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano that his three public defenders were "ineffective" and "corrupt just like you are." He said his attorneys do everything prosecutors want them to do and called the judge and his attorneys a sexual slur. "I'm going to expose the corruption in the courtroom," a shackled Knoble told Giordano after refusing to be sworn in for the court proceeding. Knoble faces a possible death sentence in the March 11, 2015, fatal shooting of Andrew "Beep" White, 32, of Easton, at the former Quality Inn on South Third Street. Authorities have called White a good Samaritan who had rented a room for Knoble that night because he had not place to stay. Authorities say Knoble then shot White and recorded a cellphone video of the man's corpse. Relatives of Andrew "Beep" White left the courthouse on Thursday morning distraught and upset after White's alleged murderer, Jeffery S. Knoble Jr., asserted his innocence in court and stuck his tongue out to them saying, "Ha, ha, ha, ha" to them. Eyer's request to withdraw as counsel came during what was scheduled as a suppression and contempt hearing related to the defense attorneys not providing prosecutors with certain expert reports. The hearing was delayed by 45 minutes after Knoble refused to wear a stun belt around his leg underneath his orange jumpsuit. Knoble was warned that a sheriff's deputy would press a button that would cause a jolt of 50,000 volts of electricity for 5 to 8 seconds if the defendant made any aggressive or sudden moves. The last time he was in the courtroom, Knoble was to plead guilty but decided in the courtroom not to go through with it and, instead, taunted the family of White. Northampton County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Jeffrey Knoble, the man accused of slaying Andrew "Beep" White of Easton at a downtown hotel in March. Lt. Darlene Coia of the Northampton County Sheriff's Department testified Monday that Knoble recently sent another inmate to the hospital after throwing scalding water on him, and now refused to wear the belt. "He said he would fight deputies, spit on them, give them Hepatitis C and just cause problems," Coia testified. Giordano ordered the stun belt and a spit mask be placed on Knoble before the hearing. In the courtroom, Knoble sat in a chair with shackles around his wrists and ankles and wore the mask. He complained about the stun belt, saying he had heart problems and seizures. "This is not legal," he said. Giordano told Knoble it was unfortunate he had such health conditions at his young age, but the defendant's prior actions prompted safety precautions to be taken. After Knoble repeated that he thought his lawyers were ineffective, Giordano instructed him not to use profanity and asked if he intended to represent himself. "How can I adequately represent myself?" Knoble said. "I'm no lawyer. I want a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., MISS., TENN.
Aug. 28 TEXAS: Racial bias found in Texas death penalty cases, Harvard Law School study says Harris County was named 1 of 16 'outlier' counties in the US, where 5 or more death sentences were assessed between 2010 and 2015 A Harvard Law School study has found that racial bias, overly aggressive prosecutions and inadequate representation for poor defendants affect death penalty cases in Harris County, Texas. Juries in the county, which includes Houston, have imposed the death penalty more than any other county in the US since its reinstatement in 1976. The Fair Punishment Project also notes that the number of death sentences handed down in Harris County has fallen to 10 since 2010, from 53 between 1998 and 2003. Harris County was named 1 of 16 "outlier" counties in the US, where 5 or more death sentences were assessed in between 2010 and 2015. In the 8 counties examined by the study, 41% of the death sentences were given to black defendants and 69% to minorities overall. In Harris County, all defendants condemned since 2004 were from racial minority groups. "When you look at what the death penalty actually looks like on the ground in Harris County, you see things that should disturb you," Rob Smith, one of the researchers on the project, told the Houston Chronicle. "There's a pattern of overzealous prosecution that dates back for decades but is still present in the time period for the study, and is matched by under-zealous [defense] representation in cases." Harris County district attorney Devon Anderson said her office was judicious in its use of the death penalty. "When we seek death, it's because we have a solid guilt/innocence case and a very strong punishment case," she said. "The death penalty is only appropriate for the worst of the worst." Anderson said she did not know the race of a defendant or victim whenever she and 4 top staff members met to discuss whether to seek the death penalty. "I think it's very important that it be 'blind' in that regard," she said. Juries across the country are proving to be increasingly reluctant to sentence defendants to death, the Harvard report said, choosing instead the option of life imprisonment without parole. The last Harris County trial in which prosecutors sought the death penalty ended in November: 28-year-old Johnathan Sanchez was given life without parole. The last Harris County jury to assess a death sentence did so in 2014, when Harlem Lewis was sent to death row for the killings of Bellaire police officer Jimmie Norman and "good samaritan" Terry Taylor. The Harris County district attorney's office is currently seeking the death penalty in 2 cases. Ronald Haskell, who is white, is accused of killing 2 adults and 4 children from his ex-wife's family in spring 2014. David Ray Conley, who is black, is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, her husband and 6 children, including his son, last year. (source: The Guardian) * Study: Harris County death penalty cases plagued by bias A Harvard Law School study reports that racial bias, over-aggressive prosecutions and poor representation for indigent defendants plagues the handling of death-penalty cases in the Southeast Texas county where Houston is situated. The report by the school's Fair Punishment Project names Harris County as one of 16 "outlier" U.S. counties where 5 or more death sentences were assessed in 2010-15. Harris County juries have imposed death penalties on more defendants than in any other county since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty. The number of death sentences has fallen from 53 in 1998 through 2003 to 10 since 2010. However, all condemned since 2004 are from minorities. Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/2brIHX6) her office is judicious in its use of the death penalty. (source: Associated Press) PENNSYLVANIA: Death Penalty Sought in Cookout Ambush That Killed 5, Unborn Child Prosecutors in Pennsylvania say they plan to seek the death penalty against 2 men charged in an ambush at a cookout that killed 5 adults and an unborn child. The Allegheny County district attorneys' office filed notice Friday that it would seek capital punishment if Cheron Shelton, 29, and Robert Thomas, 27, are convicted of 1st-degree murder. Prosecutors said the death penalty would be warranted because of the defendants' previous convictions, the multiple felonies alleged and the grave risk posed to others. Defense attorneys say the men are innocent. Shelton's lawyer, Randall McKinney, called the decision to seek capital punishment "disheartening," but said it didn't shake his belief that his client's name will be cleared at trial. The men are each charged with 6 counts of criminal homicide in the March 9 cookout in Wilkinsburg, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Prosecutors suspect a man wounded at the cookout had killed Shelton's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., PENN., FLA., TENN., CALIF., USA
Aug. 27 TEXASstay of impending execution Lengthy Gap In Texas Executions To Continue As State Court Halts Yet Another Ronaldo Ruiz was set to be executed on Aug. 31, but - as with the prior 6 scheduled executions in Texas that have been stayed or delayed - a Texas court ordered a stay of execution for him on Friday. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday halted the upcoming execution of Ronaldo Ruiz, who was set to be put to death on Aug. 31. Texas was set to execute Ruiz, a hit man in the 1992 murder of a 29-year-old woman. Ruiz, 43, was set to die by lethal injection on Aug. 31 after he was convicted in the murder-for-hire of Theresa Rodriguez. Ruiz would have become the 6th inmate to be executed in Texas in 2016. In his latest habeas corpus application, Ruiz raised questions about deficiency of his trial counsel and his initial habeas counsel, as well as questions about the constitutionality of executing him "over 2 decades after his conviction" - a matter the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to consider. In the Court of Criminal Appeals' brief, unsigned order, the court restates Ruiz's claims and then concludes, "After reviewing applicant's writ application, we have determined that his execution should be stayed pending further order by this Court." The country's busiest death chamber has not carried out an execution in nearly 4 months. The past 6 scheduled executions in Texas - including Ruiz's previously scheduled July execution date - were stayed, delayed, or withdrawn for various reasons. This marks the longest period Texas has gone without killing inmates since 2014, when no executions took place for nearly 5 months amid furor over Oklahoma's botched execution of Clayton Lockett and legal challenges related to Texas' drug secrecy. Jason Clark, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), told BuzzFeed News prior to Friday's ruling in Ruiz's case that the agency was "not involved in setting or withdrawing execution dates." He added that the TDCJ "stands ready to carry out" executions. In a year already marked by fewer executions, Texas is the only state with executions scheduled for the remainder of 2016. Other active death penalty states are grappling with a variety of obstacles ranging from the effect of Supreme Court rulings earlier this year to drug shortages and the fallout from botched executions. Even in Texas, in August alone now, 3 scheduled executions have been stayed - while the date for another was changed. Ruiz was hired by 2 brothers, Mark Rodriguez and Michael Rodriguez, to kill Michael's wife Theresa for a life insurance scheme. Ruiz shot and killed Theresa in the couple's garage after following them home from a movie theater. The brothers paid Ruiz $2,000 for the murder. Ruiz was first scheduled to die in 2007, but a federal appeals court gave him a reprieve. His execution was then set for July 27 of this year after the US Supreme Court refused to review his case in May 2015. However, his execution was pushed to Aug. 31 because of the state's failure to sufficiently notify his counsel of his pending execution, Jennifer Moreno, an attorney at the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic told BuzzFeed News. On Aug. 19, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from 5 death row inmates, including Ruiz, who demanded that the state retest its drugs before executing them. That case is now on appeal before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. (source: BuzzFeed News) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present19 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-537 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 20-September 14-Robert Jennings---538 21-October 5Barney Fuller-539 22-October 19---Terry Edwards-540 23-November 2---Ramiro Gonzales---541 24-December 7---John Battaglia542 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) * Death penalty to be sought in accused killer of 6 in family Attorneys say a 36-year-old Utah man charged with shooting 6 members of a suburban Houston family 2 years ago will face the death penalty when he goes on trial for capital murder set for next year. Ronald Haskell wasn't in court Friday as prosecutors and defense lawyers disclosed the trial plans during a court hearing. He's jailed without bond and charged with fatally shooting Stephen and Katie Stay and 4 of their children. A 5th and oldest child, 15-year-old Cassidy, also was shot but survived by playing dead during the July 2014 rampage at her home in Spring. Authorities have said Haskell was trying to find his estranged ex-wife, who is Katie Stay's sister. Haskell's lawyer, Doug Durham, says Haskell's mental health issues likely will be part of the defense. (source:
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., N.C., ALA., MISS.
Aug. 26 TEXAS: Trial date set in Scott's case in death of parents A trial date has been set for Stephen Scott, a Dallas man facing a felony charge of capital murder of multiple persons in connection with the death of his parents earlier this year. The trial, which will begin Dec. 5 and heard by a jury, was set Thursday during Scott's latest court proceeding. His court-appointed attorney, Lee Ann Breading, said Scott was present in the holdover facility for Thursday's court appearance. The proceeding was held in 362nd District Court with Judge Bruce McFarling presiding. A grand jury indicted Scott, 40, in connection with the murder of his parents, Marion Scott, 75, and Linda Scott, 70, on Jan. 21. Scott allegedly stabbed the couple in their home Jan. 10, according to an arrest affidavit. Scott reportedly called 911 and confessed to the fatal stabbings to an emergency dispatcher, police have said. Denton police arrested Scott the same day and charged him with capital murder. He remains in Denton County Jail with his bail set at $250,000, according to jail records. In the time Scott has been behind bars, he's been hospitalized for what's believed to have been a self-inflicted head wound. Breading said earlier this year she would evaluate Scott to determine if his injury impacted his ability to work with the defense. That is yet to be determined. "All those issues are still pending," Breading said earlier this week. If convicted, Scott could face the death penalty or life in prison with no possibility for parole. Whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty has also yet to be determined, according to Jamie Beck, first assistant district attorney. "We have not filed any kind of formal notice that we are, and that's something that must happen before we can," she said. (source: Denton Record-Chronicle) ** Change of venue denied in capital murder case A district judge has temporarily denied a request to move the capital murder trial of a former Texas correctional officer accused of killing his infant son and the boy's grandmother in Walker County more than 3 years ago. Judge Don Kraemer ruled against a change-of-venue motion filed by defense attorneys for Howard Wayne Lewis during a hearing Wednesday afternoon in the 12th Judicial District courtroom at the Walker County Courthouse. Kraemer said he would keep the motion in consideration if anything develops between now and Lewis' trial that could jeopardize his right to a fair and impartial trial. A trial date has not been set at this time as the court awaits the results of additional DNA testing that was requested by Brian Lacour with the Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases office, who is representing Lewis. Kraemer said Wednesday it will likely be next year before the death-penalty case goes before a jury. "It will be after January before we get (the DNA testing results)," Kraemer said. "My hopes to try this in January has been thrown out the window." Lewis was indicted by a grand jury in November 2014 on a charge of capital murder of a child under 10 after DNA evidence allegedly linked him to the July 24, 2013, slaying of his son, 18-month-old Aiyden Benjamin Lewis. Investigators believe the murders were a result of an ongoing custody dispute between Lewis and the baby's mother, Tiffany Crawford. Crawford's husband found the bodies of his wife and grandson at their home on M. Williams Road, about 6 miles west of Huntsville off Highway 30. Autopsies revealed Aiyden died of asphyxiation and his grandmother, 55-year-old Shanta Crawford, was violently beaten to death with a blunt object. Local defense attorneys Frank Blazek and Paxton Adams testified Wednesday for the defense. They said they did not believe Lewis could get a fair trial in Walker County because of the nature of the crimes. "... Inevitably, sympathy will be for the child and grandmother and not your client," Blazek told Lacour. "... (A Walker County jury) wouldn't have any problem choosing death in this case." Blazek also testified to the extent of the media coverage. Lacour introduced into evidence Wednesday 15 reprinted copies of The Huntsville Item, dating from July 26, 2013 to Nov. 11, 2014, which contained stories about the case. "In general, the defense never benefits from media coverage," Blazek said. Adams testified that Shanta Crawford was well-liked in the community, especially among Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees she worked with. He said the few people who have asked him about the case, assuming he knew a lot about it because he is a defense attorney, had come to the "conclusion" that Lewis was guilty of the murders. Blazek said that Walker County had "good people" and they have "picked good juries" during his time practicing law here, but again, he believed the circumstances involving the case made it different than others. "In my
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MISS., CALIF.
Aug. 25 TEXAS: Jeff Wood's Stay of Execution Casts More Doubt on the Texas Death Machine Terri Been was being interviewed by a reporter inside a Whataburger restaurant in East Texas on the afternoon of August 19 when the text came in: Her brother, Jeff Wood, on death row for his alleged involvement as an accomplice in the 1996 murder of his friend, and facing imminent execution, had been granted a stay. She read the text sent by Wood's attorney twice before dialing him up. "Are you serious?" she asked. It had been a long and emotionally taxing day: Been and her husband, her parents, Wood's daughter, and another friend had traveled to Huntsville, Texas, the location of the state's execution chamber, for the first of several 8-hour visits with Wood in anticipation that he would be executed sometime after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 24. The news from the lawyer, Jared Tyler, was a serious relief. "I consider it a miracle," she told The Intercept. "He's stopped Texas from killing my brother." That afternoon the state's highest criminal court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, agreed with Tyler that a state district court should determine whether the punishment hearing portion of Wood's 1998 trial was infected by junk science and misleading testimony offered by the notorious Dr. James Grigson. If the district court agrees that it was tainted, Wood could get a new hearing, and a chance to get off of death row. Grigson, who died in 2004, was known even among peers in the psychiatric community as "Dr. Death" for routinely offering scientifically unsupportable testimony that helped to send defendants to death row in a number of capital cases. He was expelled from the American Psychiatric Association and its Texas counterpart prior to testifying in Wood's case, where he opined that unless sentenced to die Wood would continue to be violent, a determination he made without ever examining Wood. But the court majority sidestepped - at least for now - the biggest question in Wood's case: Is he legally eligible for the death penalty? That prompted a strongly worded opinion from one of the court's 9 jurists, Elsa Alcala, who for at least the 2nd time this year has called into question whether Texas' death system itself is constitutional - an unusual stance for a jurist on such a conservative and notoriously pro-death penalty court in the state with the nation's most active execution chamber. Indeed, Alcala has been airing concerns that have not been expressed in any meaningful way by any member of that court in nearly 2 decades. Wood, she wrote, "may be actually innocent of the death penalty because he may be categorically ineligible for that punishment." An Unconstitutional Sentence Wood is on death row even though he has never killed anyone. He was convicted and sentenced to die for the January 2, 1996, robbery of a convenience store that ended with the shooting death of his friend Kriss Keeran, who worked at the store. But it was another man, Danny Reneau, who entered the store armed, intending to rob the place, and who shot Keeran. Wood, Reneau, Keeran and another store employee had planned an inside-job robbery for the previous day, but the plan had been aborted. Wood said he had no idea that Reneau intended to rob the store that day, and certainly had no idea that Reneau would kill Keeran. After the murder, Wood admits that he did help Reneau steal money from the store, along with a surveillance videotape, but says he did so only after Reneau threatened to harm his daughter. But a quirk of Texas law allows the state to seek the death penalty against a defendant who never killed or intended to kill anyone. Known as the law of parties, the law posits that if conspirators plan to commit 1 crime - in this case a robbery - but in the course of events someone ends up committing another crime (such as a murder) all parties are liable for the crime committed regardless of their individual intent, under the notion that everyone should have anticipated that the crime committed would occur. Advocates and lawyers argue that Wood's impending execution would violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. It is an argument that would appear to be in line with U.S. Supreme Court precedent, which holds that a sentence must be proportional to the crime committed. In 2 cases involving parties to a planned crime that ended in murder, the court determined that the death penalty would be unconstitutional when a person lacked either the intent to kill or failed to exhibit a clear "reckless indifference" to human life. No court has ever considered whether Wood's sentence was proportionate to his crime. Although Tyler finally raised the question directly in Wood???s most recent appeal, in staying the execution last week the Court of Criminal Appeals declined to ask the lower court to address the issue - except for Alcala, who opined in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., LA., KY., CALIF., USA
Aug. 22 TEXAS: The death penalty's essential futility Maybe our society should congratulate itself occasionally on how much progress it's made in the last half-century toward equality and individual rights, especially for women, racial minorities and LBGT. Or maybe self-congratulation isn't called for just for doing the right thing. And some of our steps in the right direction have been timid and tentative. Nevertheless, good things have been done. Yet our ambitious, magnificent experiment in democracy, freedom, human rights and the progress of civilization is hampered by our reluctance to abandon a practice that we share only with repressive countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran: the prerogative of the state to put citizens to death. For many this characteristic of American life is largely invisible. 20 states have abolished the death penalty already, and many of the others haven't executed anyone in decades. Even in my home state, Texas, which is the nation's most active death penalty state, an execution doesn't draw much attention. Every month or so a short article, buried in the B-section of the newspaper, announces that another criminal has been put to death. Even in Texas, executions are generally beyond the public's notice. But a couple of Associated Press articles, literally adjacent in my local newspaper last week, provide the occasion to consider the practice of capital punishment in America in the 21st century. If you were looking for someone who deserves to be executed, John Battaglia would be a good candidate. In 2001, Battaglia murdered his 9-year-old and 6-year-old daughters with gunshots while his ex-wife listened on the phone. The older child, Faith, begged for her life before he pulled the trigger. And, indeed, last week a district judge in Dallas set an execution date of Dec. 7. On the other hand, 3 defense psychiatrists testified at his trial that he has bipolar disorder, which distorts his sense of reality, and he reportedly suffers also from narcissistic personality disorder. The court said Battaglia showed evidence of mental illness and delusions and that his competence is in question. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has ruled that a criminal may be executed if he understands that he has been condemned to die, and why. In accordance with that low standard, Battaglia will be executed in December. The article just above Battaglia's reports the case of Sheborah Thomas, who faces capital murder charges in Houston for drowning her 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter in the bathtub. Apparently, the children fought back, struggling for their lives, but she held their heads under the water until they died. She waited a day and then dumped her children's bodies in a trash container behind her house. Later she tried, unsuccessfully, to bury them and then rolled them under a neighbor's house. To say that a mother who could commit such a crime is mentally unstable seems redundant. In fact, Thomas's attorney says that she has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression. Don't mistake this column for an effort to generate sympathy for Thomas and Battaglia. On the other hand, anger doesn't feel like the right response, either. How about futility, in 2 versions? The 1st is the futility of the principal argument in favor of capital punishment, the idea that it serves as a deterrent to crime. Both Battaglia and Thomas already live in an active capital punishment state, and it's impossible to believe that crimes based in mental instability like theirs could be deterred by the threat of execution. The 2nd futility is the one we feel when we try to give people like Thomas and Battaglia what we think they deserve merely by killing them. We'll never succeed as long as we're limited by the "cruel and unusual" language in the Constitution. And since we've neither figured out how to administer the death penalty equitably, without regard to race, gender or economic status, nor how to prevent the occasional execution of innocent people, maybe it's time for the U.S. to join the rest of the West and to abolish a practice whose only real purpose is an essentially unsatisfying feeling of revenge. (source: John M. Crisp, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, TexasOlean Times Herald) DELAWARE: Delaware death penalty fight not over Mark Eichmann has been covering news in Delaware for more than 10 years. In addition to writing about Delaware for Newsworks, Mark is co-host of WHYY's Delaware focused newsmagazine, First. First airs Friday nights at 5:30 and 11 p.m. After starting as a general assignment reporter for WILM News Radio in Wilmington in 2000, Mark worked his way up to Legislative Correspodent, Managing Editor, and eventually News Director. He joined WHYY in 2008. Over the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, KY., KAN., N. MEX., COLO., CALIF., USA
Aug. 21 TEXAS: Incompetent counsel in death penalty cases Defending people accused or convicted of capital murder is daunting, emotionally draining, and all consuming - when you win. When your client gets executed, it is devastating beyond words. Jerry Guerinot's smiling face in the AP's article, titled Texas lawyer who lost all death penalty cases says he's done, makes my blood boil. How could a professional entrusted with the lives of others show no scars when he finally decides to stop ushering his clients to death row? The article omitted important details that put this question into perspective. The most successful capital trial lawyers rarely go to trial. They work hard to investigate every possible detail about their clients and their crimes. If their clients are innocent, they present firm evidence to the prosecutor to get the case dismissed. If their clients are guilty, they present firm evidence of their clients' humanity to remove death as an option. Guerinot took almost twice as many cases to trial as he resolved without trial; these numbers are an enormous red flag that he did not prepare his cases in a professional manner. Or as the New York Times quoted famous capital attorney David Dow saying, "He doesn't even pick the low-hanging fruit which is hitting him in the head as he is walking under the tree." Pat Hartwell, one of the leading death-penalty activists in Texas, knows nearly every attorney who has represented the prisoners. She knows the good ones and the bad ones; she knows the ones who care and the ones who just want a paycheck or some fame. Hartwell regards Guerinot as one who thought his bravado and connections would protect his reputation. But it has not. Guerinot's record speaks for itself. Guerinot's high-profile cases illustrate his lack of care and preparation when his clients' lives are on the line. The article mentions that the Supreme Court will review Duane Buck's case next term because a psychologist opined that he would be a future danger because he is a black man. What the article omits is that Guerinot called this psychologist, Walter Quijano, to testify on his client's behalf. That's right; Guerinot called an expert witness for the sole purpose of saving Buck's life, and that witness said that Buck would continue to be a danger to society because he is black. Either Guerinot really wanted the jury to kill his client, or he did not put any thought or preparation into Buck's defense. And the conservative Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated Linda Carty's conviction despite Guerinot's proclamation that she received a death sentence "because it was a terrible crime." It may have been a terrible crime, but Carty did not do it. Guerinot seems to miss this minor detail. But a much deeper and more troubling problem is lurking in Texas. Why did Harris County judges continue to appoint Guerinot to represent these defendants? He never won, and an alarming number of his clients have been granted relief due to Guerinot's professional deficiencies. The judges presumably saw Guerinot's billing records and knew that he did not prepare for his trials. Why would they appoint a lawyer who would almost certainly fail to "defend" his clients, as Guerinot acknowledged when he corrected himself to say he only "represents" them? That question remains unanswered as Guerinot retires from capital work. Texas, which executes people much more often than the rest of death-penalty states, should be ensuring that the best lawyers in the state handle these cases. But the best-of-the-best too often enter the case after the damage is done. And even at that late point, these lawyers often face fierce resistance from the Texas courts and local lawyers. People who devote their lives to correcting these wrongs know this tragic reality. Society, however, thinks that Clarence Darrow represents every person accused of capital murder. Certainly, many devoted capital trial lawyers are the cream of the legal crop. But you rarely hear about their clients. When you hear news of someone being executed, someone like Guerinot represented them, and the judges arranged for that representation. As long as this situation exists in Texas and other death-penalty states, justice does not prevail. Until this and the multitude of other problems are corrected, if they can be, the death penalty must be abolished. (source: Opinion; Gregory W. Gardner is a capital habeas attorney in BoulderBoulder Daily Camera) Death penalty can be justified The state of Texas had 2 executions scheduled in the remainder of August - Jeffrey Wood on Wednesday and Rolando Ruiz on Aug. 31. (In the case of Wood, his execution was halted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday. His case has become a national story and resulted in the attention of a state lawmaker who opposes capital punishment for Wood.) According to media
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, IND., CALIF., USA
Aug. 20 TEXAS: Montgomery County DA Going For Death Penalty in 2014 Double Murder The Montgomery County DA is going for the death penalty for a 2014 double murder. For the 1st time since 2009, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is pursuing the death penalty against someone. The DA's office wants to give Russell Lee Ketchum the hot shot for allegedly killing Louis Wilkerson, 58, and Lisa McWashington, 43. In Oct. 2014, Ketchum, 41, allegedly choked Wilkerson to death with his bare hands. He's accused of using a shirt to strangle McWashington. Both bodies were dumped in the 800 block of West Santa Fe, near downtown Conroe. Ketchum was arrested in January 2015 and has remained in custody at the Montgomery County Jail without bond. Ketchum's attorney plans to claim that the killings were self-defense. Although this the 1st death penalty case since 2009, it isn't the 1st capital murder case. The DA's office has tried multiple capital murder cases, the prosecutors didn't think that the circumstances of those cases rose to the level of the death penalty. (source: patch.com) INDIANA: Attorneys argue Indiana death penalty unconstitutional Attorneys for a man who faces charges in the deaths of 7 women have argued in court filings that the state of Indiana's death penalty law is unconstitutional. The Post-Tribune reports that Darren Vann remains in isolation at the Lake County jail. His attorneys argued in an Aug. 5 filing that an Indiana Code statute is unconstitutional in 2 main areas. They question how a jury is supposed to weigh factors that could influence a death sentence. They also say it's unconstitutional to allow a judge to determine a defendant's death sentence when the jury can't. Government prosecutors have until Sept. 7 to file a response to the claim. Lake County prosecutors requested the death penalty for Vann last year. Lake County prosecutors requested the death penalty for Vann last year. He faces charges in connection with the deaths of Anith Jones 35, of Merrillville; Afrikka Hardy, 19, of Chicago; Teaira Batey, 28, of Gary; Tracy Martin, 41, of Gary; Kristine Williams, 36, of Gary; Sonya Billingsley, 52, of Gary; and Tanya Gatlin, 27, of Highland. If convicted, he could join 13 other people on death row in Indiana. Kevin Charles Isom, the other man facing the death penalty in Lake County, also questioned the factors a jury is supposed to weigh before sentencing someone to death. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled against him in 2015. The constitutionality of capital punishment is an issue the country has grappled with for decades as states have altered their death penalty laws. "Pieces of things in the statute have been pulled off and changed (in Indiana)," said Andrea Lyon, dean of Valparaiso University Law School. "But Indiana Supreme Court and, thus far, any other federal court has not said that Indiana, generally, has been unconstitutional." Delaware's highest court ruled its state's death penalty law was unconstitutional less than two weeks ago. It said it gave judges too large of a role over juries in imposing death sentences. Vann's attorneys say in the motion that the situations in Delaware and Indiana are similar. [Information from: Post-Tribune] (source: Associated press) CALIFORNIAfemale faces death penalty Prosecutors Seeking Death Penalty For Tami Joy Huntsman In Death Of 2 Small Children 40-year-old Tami Joy Huntsman will be facing the death penalty when she goes to trial in February for the abuse and murder of 3-year-old Delylah Tara and 6-year-old Shaun Tara in November 2015. Huntsman appeared in Monterey County Superior Court this week alongside boyfriend Gonzalo Curiel, 18, and she collapsed in her chair distraught when Deputy District Attorney Steve Somers announced that they would be pursuing the death penalty. Curiel, who is also charged with the children's murder, is not eligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the alleged crime. The children, who were initially believed to be Huntsman's niece and nephew but may be some other relation, were in Huntsman's and Curiel's care last November in a Salinas apartment along with their older sister, a 9-year-old who was later found severely abused but alive in an apartment in Quincy, California. Sometime on or after November 27, the 2 smaller children were killed, and it's believed that Huntsman and Curiel traveled with their bodies as well as the 9-year-old to Plumas and Shasta Counties, where on December 13 the 2 children's remains were found in a storage facility in Redding. As CBS 5 reports, both defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, torture, child abuse, conspiracy, and special circumstances allegations. Prosecutors say the children's father will testify in the case, as will 3 child witnesses, including, presumably, the 9-year-old sister. She was
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., ALA., OHIO, N.MEX., CALIF., ORE.
aug. 20 TEXASstay of impending execution Execution Halted for Jeff Wood, Who Never Killed Anyone The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted the execution of Jeff Wood - a man who never killed anyone - 6 days before he was set to die by lethal injection. The order was issued on his 43rd birthday. The court issued a brief, 2-page order Friday afternoon sending the case back to the original trial court so it can examine Wood's claim that a jury was improperly persuaded to sentence him to death by testimony from a highly criticized psychiatrist nicknamed "Dr. Death." The order creates the possibility that Wood's death sentence could be thrown out, though not his conviction. "The court did the right thing by staying Mr. Wood's execution," Wood's attorney Jared Tyler said shortly after the order came down. "[He] is grateful for the opportunity to prove that his death sentence is unwarranted." Wood's upcoming execution has gained national attention and highlighted Texas' felony murder statute, commonly known as the law of parties, which holds that anyone involved in a crime resulting in death is equally responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing. Recently, conservative state representatives have spoken out and written letters to the parole board in hopes of saving Wood's life. Wood was convicted in the 1996 murder of convenience store clerk Kriss Keeran in Kerrville, even though he was sitting outside in the truck when his friend, Daniel Reneau, pulled the trigger. During his sentencing trial, prosecutors brought in Dr. James Grigson, nicknamed "Dr. Death" because of how often he testified for the state in capital murder trials, to examine if Wood would be a future danger to society if he was given life without parole instead of death. A jury can only sentence someone to death if it unanimously agrees that person would present a danger. In his recent appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals, Wood's lawyers claimed Grigson lied to jurors about how many cases he had testified in and how often he found the defendant to pose a future danger. He also misled the jury by omitting the fact that he was ousted from the American Psychiatric Association, Wood's appeal claimed. Throughout his career testifying in capital murder trials, the number of times Grigson claimed to have examined defendants for future dangerousness would change randomly and often drastically, the appeal states. In the late 1980s, for example, Grigson testified in one trial that he had examined 180 to 182 cases, but 7 months later, he claimed to have reviewed 156. And a year and a half later, the number jumped to 'no fewer than 391,' according to the appeal. But no matter the raw number of cases, he always claimed he found about, or sometimes exactly, 40 % of defendants to not be a future danger. The order instructs the trial court to not only examine Grigson's truthfulness, but to consider Wood's argument that Grigson's opinion was based on junk science. Grigson did not examine Wood himself but based his projection of Wood's future dangerousness on a hypothetical person presented by the state. The practice was condemned by the American Psychiatric Association. The appeal also claimed that Grigson misled the jury by omitting the fact that he was ousted from the association for reasons relating to how he reviewed capital murder defendants. In 1995, the association's Board of Trustees voted to expel Grigson after an investigation revealed that his method of predicting future dangerousness in capital cases violated the association's practice. 3 jurors from Wood's trial have said they would have discounted Grigson's testimony if they'd known of the expulsion, according to the appeal. Wood's scheduled Aug. 24 execution was thrust into the national spotlight because of the rarity of executions under felony murder statutes. But conservative lawmakers in Texas, who believe in the death penalty under the law of parties, also lost sleep over the case. State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, had been lobbying the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott to change Wood's sentence or issue a stay. Leach said he didn't believe Wood was a part of the murder. He had collected signatures from more than 50 fellow House members on a letter asking that Wood's sentence be commuted to life. Rep. James White, R-Woodville, wrote a letter to the board as well, asking for a change of sentence in order to "preserve the legitimacy of the Law of Parties." And Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, wrote a similar opinion piece for The Texas Tribune. Presiding Judge Sharon Keller and Judge Lawrence Meyers dissented on the court's ruling. Judge Elsa Alcala, though concurring with the court's order, wrote her own opinion, claiming that the court should have sent back other claims to the trial court. "I would also remand claims ... in which applicant
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., ALA.
Aug. 19 TEXASimpending execution Jeff Wood's family trying to stop his execution A petition to stop a death row inmate's execution is now on the governor's desk. 42-year-old Jeff Wood never took a life, but the state is trying to take his next Wednesday. A petition to stop the death row inmate's execution is now on the governor's desk. Thousands of people have signed it, trying to grant him clemency. Now, Wood's family is speaking out since he can't. Steven Been came from San Antonio to Austin to fight. "I'm here to try to save Jeff, save my brother-in-law," Been said. "He's not a murderer and never was. He was my best friend." Thursday morning, he delivered the clemency petition with more than 10,000 signatures to the governor's office and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. "Everyone that knows the truth is really scared for him," Been said. Jeff Wood is set to be executed for his involvement in the 1996 shooting death of Kerrville gas station clerk Kriss Keeran. However, he did not shoot and kill Keeran. His friend, Daniel Reneau, was put to death in 2002 for that crime. Court documents show Wood drove Renau to the gas station. "What it was is that they had stopped there and Danny had told Jeff that he was going in for Gatorade," Been said. Been said Wood was sitting inside the truck when Renau killed the clerk. "He told me, 'Danny came running out with a gun in one hand and a cash box in the other, he pointed the gun at me and told me to come inside,'" Been said. "He's not a murderer and never was." People across the world have signed the petition, saying Wood was wrongly sentenced to death under Texas' law of parties. This law states that anyone involved in a crime resulting in death is equally responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing. "To charge somebody else for the same crime that they did not commit, I don't agree with that," Been said. "It's wrong." Texas State Representative Jeff Leach, of Plano, agrees and said on Twitter "I simply do not believe that Mr. Wood is deserving of the death sentence." "I'm hoping that they let him go," said Bella Sanford, Jeff Wood's childhood friend. "I mean, 20 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit?" Wood's family and friends say there's still time for the parole board to recommend Wood's sentence be changed. "Hopefully, they'll have a heart and look into the case," Wood's nephew, Nicholas Been, said. If they do, Texas Governor Greg Abbott can accept or reject their recommendation. Without it, all he can do is issue a one-time, 30-day delay of execution. KVUE reached out to the Governor's office for a comment but did not hear back. (source: KVUE news) ** Stop the execution of Jeff Wood, in the name of Jesus Some folks will argue that the death penalty is necessary for the most heinous crimes, the "worst of the worst." But it is increasingly clear that when it comes to executions in America, we are not killing the worst of the worst. We are killing the poorest of the poor. One of the best determinants of who gets executed is not the atrocity of the crime, but the resources of the defendant. As renowned death penalty lawyer Bryan Stevenson has said, "Far too often, you are better off being rich and guilty, than poor and innocent." Jeff Wood is a perfect example of why it is time to abolish the death penalty. He is the next person facing execution in the United States - on Aug. 24. And, not surprisingly, it's happening in Texas. In addition to the resources of the defendant, another key determinant in who gets killed is where the crime is committed. Geography often determines who dies. Texas is the death state, accounting for roughly half of all executions. This year six of the 15 executions in the U.S. were in Texas, and every remaining execution of 2016 is in this one state. So what did Wood do that could now cost him his life? Wood didn't rape or torture anyone. He's not a serial killer or mass shooter. In fact, Wood did not kill anyone. He drove the getaway car as his co-defendant, Daniel Reneau, threatened to kill him for disobeying. Texas is 1 of 5 states that have a peculiar law called the "Law of Parties," which allows someone to be condemned for something someone else did. As absurd as it may seem in modern-day America, Wood is guilty by association. It is objectively clear in the case that Reneau orchestrated the robbery, shot the victim and forced Wood to drive the car away from the scene of the crime. Wood was not even inside the building when the crime was committed. And before this event he had no criminal record. Wood's health records dating back to childhood show that he suffers from intellectual disabilities. He was deemed not mentally fit to stand trial and was admitted into a mental hospital. The jury in Wood's case heard false and misleading testimony from a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., OHIO, OKLA.
Aug. 18 TEXASimpending execution Texas death sentence for accessory challenged by defense lawyer Texas is planning to execute a man next week for a murder he did not commit. If the sentence were to be carried out, it would mark the 1st time in the United States that an accessory with so little culpability to a murder was put to death, his lawyer said. Jeffery Wood, 42, is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 24 by lethal injection. He was convicted of taking part in a 1996 convenience store robbery during which clerk Kriss Keeran was fatally shot. Prosecutors and Wood's lawyers agree that he was in a vehicle outside the store when it was robbed. But prosecutors have said Wood knew the clerk might be shot and Wood's lawyers have refuted their argument. Wood's roommate at the time, Daniel Reneau, was convicted of pulling the trigger and executed on June 13, 2002. "I am not aware of a case where a person has been executed with so minimal culpability and with such little participation in the event," lawyer Jared Tyler said in an interview. "When people think of the death penalty, they think of the worst of the worst," Tyler said. "He was sitting in the truck outside a convenience store when somebody else of their own volition decided to kill somebody." Tyler said he has filed motions with the state to halt the execution, citing culpability, tainted testimony and mental competency issues. Ten people have been executed as accessories to felony murder since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which monitors capital punishment. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/those-executed-who-did-not-directly-kill-victim) Under Texas' "Law of Parties," a person can be charged with capital murder even if the offense is committed by someone else. "Each party to an offense may be charged and convicted without alleging that he acted as a principal or accomplice," according to the law. Texas has said that Wood is culpable because he knew the robbery was going to take place. After the killing, he entered the store with Reneau to steal the cash box, store safe and remove a video recorder used for security. (source: Reuters) State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, is hoping to stop the upcoming execution of Jeff Wood. It's not often that a staunch conservative loses sleep over imposition of the death penalty, but state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, says he is up nights over the impending execution of Jeff Wood. The 2-term legislator has spent the past week poring over court documents and speaking with the governor's office and Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, hoping to prevent what would be the state's 7th execution of the year. Wood is set to die by lethal injection Aug. 24. "I simply do not believe that Mr. Wood is deserving of the death sentence," Leach told the Tribune. "I can't sit quietly by and not say anything." In the early morning of Jan. 2, 1996, Wood sat in a truck outside a Kerrville gas station while his friend, Daniel Reneau, went inside to steal a safe said to be full from the holiday weekend, according to court documents. When the clerk, Kriss Keeran, didn't comply or respond to threats, Reneau shot him dead. Reneau was sentenced to death and executed in 2002. Wood received his own death sentence under Texas' felony murder statute, commonly known as the law of parties, which holds that anyone involved in a crime resulting in death is equally responsible, even if they weren't directly involved in the actual killing. According to Nadia Mireles, Wood's then-girlfriend, Wood told Reneau to leave his gun at home the morning of the murder. She said Reneau put the gun down but picked it back up when Wood left the room. Her testimony was not included in Wood's trial, but it was in Reneau's. "This is the reason we have this final step by the Constitution to provide the governor the right to commute a sentence,"- State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano Prosecutors argued Wood knew Reneau would kill Keeran if he didn't cooperate with the robbery. If true, that would make him guilty of capital murder under the law of parties, which states that a person can be charged with a crime he didn't commit if he "should have anticipated it as a result" of another crime. Leach, who ranks among the most conservative Republicans in the House, is for the death penalty in the most heinous cases, he said. And he believes in the death penalty under the law of parties in cases where the accomplice was clearly involved in the murder. But when he came across Wood's case during his work for the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, it didn't seem right. "Jeffery Lee Wood's case has caught my attention unlike any death row inmate in my time in office has," he said. "Once I started digging, I couldn't stop." Now, Leach is trying to use his voice as a lawmaker to stop the execution
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., OHIO, ARK.
Aug. 17 TEXAS: Looming Texas execution illustrates urgency of forgiveness Next week Texas is scheduled to execute a death row inmate who never killed anyone, and who may not even have known a crime was going to be committed. The execution is not only out of touch with Pope Francis and the U.S. bishops, but also growing public opinion against capital punishment. Later this month, on August 24th, the state of Texas is slated to execute Jeffrey Lee Wood - despite the fact that he has never killed anyone. In fact, according to many accounts, Wood was not even aware that the man's death for which he is being punished was going to occur. And by all accounts, the execution of an individual who did not directly kill another individual is exceedingly rare. Tragically, this comes almost a year after Pope Francis called for the abolition of the death penalty in his address to the United States Congress last September, where he praised the U.S. bishops for their efforts in this regard. Continuing to further this cause, 16 bishops from the state of Texas have co-signed a letter to Governor Greg Abbott pleading that he issue a stay in the case. "Mr. Wood has never taken a human life in his own hands," the bishops write. "He was not even in the building at the time of the crime. It is extremely rare for any person in the history of the modern death penalty to have been executed with as little culpability and participation in the taking of a life as Mr. Wood." Now if you???re just hearing about this case for the first time, you may find yourself scratching your head and wondering how such a strange sentence come about in the first place. In short, it's the result of an old and peculiar Texas law called the "Law of Parties," where prosecutors are not required to prove that a defendant was a participant in committing the crime in question-or, for that matter, even intended to participate. Wood was found guilty for waiting outside a convenience store while another man went inside and shot the clerk. Prosecutors charged that Wood and the other man were in cahoots, but Wood has insisted he didn't know a crime would be committed and in fact insisted that his friend not bring a gun to the store. The other man, Daniel Reneau, was executed in 2002. If Wood's case leaves you bewildered and questioning the aggressiveness in which the state of Texas has traditionally pursued capital punishment cases, then you're in good company. Yet despite the pleas of the Catholic bishops and other protests on Wood's behalf, the state of Texas seems intent on pursuing even the most extreme of cases. Such a move not only puts the state at odds with Pope Francis, but also growing public opinion that continues to shift away from support of capital punishment, even in the most obvious cases of wrongdoing. In recent years, television shows such as Making a Murderer, the hit podcast series Serial's recounting of the case of Adnan Syed, and Michelle Alexander's bestselling book The New Jim Crow have all contributed to a greater pubic awareness of the inequalities of our criminal justice system. Yet alongside a growing distrust that our legal system can render justice, I would also like to hope we're becoming more open to something that Pope Francis has been calling all Christians to practice with greater frequency: forgiveness. Earlier this month in Assisi, Pope Francis made it clear that if we are to fully understand and participate in this Year of Mercy, then we must understand that it is linked to the practice of forgiveness. This requires further action than just ensuring innocent men aren't falsely charged with crimes they didn't commit-it requires a disposition of forgiveness toward guilty parties, as well. "The world needs forgiveness; too many people are caught up in resentment and harbor hatred because they are incapable of forgiving," he noted. "They ruin their own lives and the lives of those around them rather than finding the joy of serenity and peace." In that same address he went off script and added, "How truly difficult it is for us to pardon those who have done us wrong!" He revisited this theme just last week during his surprise visit to 20 former prostitutes where he asked their forgiveness for the sins committed against them by Christians-and then he went a step further asking their forgiveness for not praying enough for them and others in similar situations. As the penitential rite reminds us at the start of each Mass, we must ask forgiveness for the things we have done-and what we have failed to do. As Wood's terrible case in Texas serves to remind us, there are times in which the law of the land is flawed and often fails to facilitate justice. But as Pope Francis has continually called to our attention, there is a deeper law written into our hearts that demands that we first recognize our own grievous faults as a starting point towards
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA. ALA.
Aug. 16 TEXASnew execution date Dad who killed girls has new execution date John Battaglia - the man who murdered his young daughters out of revenge while their mother listened over the phone - has a new execution date. State District Judge Robert Burns scheduled the execution for Dec. 7. That doesn't necessarly mean the lethal dose of drugs will be administered inside the state's death chamber in Huntsville. A federal court has ordered a hearing to look into Battaglia's claims of mental incompetency. The execution date had to be set before the hearing could take place. Battaglia, now 61, was scheduled to be executed in March but won a last-minute stay from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals so his lawyer could pursue the incompetency claims. No date has been set for the hearing in Burns' court. Battaglia was sentenced to death for killing Faith, 9, and Liberty, 6, at his Deep Ellum loft in May 2001. He arranged a call with his ex-wife, who listened on the phone as the older girl begged: "No, Daddy! Don't do it!" He later headed to a nearby tattoo parlor to have 2 red roses etched on his arm in memory of the girls. That night, he recorded a message on their answering machine: "Good night, my little babies. I hope you are resing in a different place. I love you." Psychiatrists testified for the defense at his trial that Battaglia suffered from bipolar disorder. An adult daughter from his 1st marriage later said he was also diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, characterized by manipulative behavior, a hyper-inflated sense of self-improtance and lack of empathy. Christine Womble, an appellate attorney at the Dallas County's district attorney's office, has said she's "confident" of Battaglia's guilt and his competency. One of Battaglia's attorneys, Gregory Gardner, argued in court documents that Battaglia has long "exhibited bizarre behavior consistent with severe mental illness." In a 2014 interview with The Dallas Morning News, Battaglia said he was "a little bit in the blank" about what happened to Faith and Liberty. "I don't feel like I killed them," he said. He called his daughters his "best little friends," just the "nicest little kids" imaginable, and said he doesn't grieve for them beacuse they remain with him. "Why would I worry about where they are now?" he asked. "We're all here, we're all gone at the same time. I'm not worried about it." (source: Dallas Morning News) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present19 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-537 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 20-August 24Jeffrey Wood--538 21-August 31Rolando Ruiz--539 22-September 14-Robert Jennings---540 23-October 5Barney Fuller-541 24-October 19---Terry Edwards-542 25-November 2---Ramiro Gonzales---543 26-December 7---John Battaglia544 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina to Mark 10 Years Since Last Execution The death chamber at Central Prison in Raleigh has sat empty since the morning of August 8, 2006. That was the last time an inmate was executed in North Carolina. "In North Carolina in particular, there has been a law change last year to make it easier to implement the death penalty," said Steven Friedland with Elon School of Law. "It's no longer requiring doctors, it's other medical professionals. However, it does not mean that the state will overcome all of these issues that still are on the table." Lawsuits prompted the moratorium, after concerns about the way executions are carried out in North Carolina and additional questions if physicians could give the lethal injections. There are also ongoing questions about racial bias in sentencing and potential botched executions. "The death penalty is, of course, the ultimate protection," said Friedland. "The question is, is it fair? And is it cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment to the Constitution?" In the time since the moratorium has been in place, 4 people have been released from death row and exonerated. Some argue it may be time to put an end to the death penalty in North Carolina. "I think we feel like the writing is on the wall," said Kristin Collins with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. "Nationally the number of executions is going down and down and down each year. There have only been 3 states that have managed to carry out an execution in 2016." Right now, 31 states have the death penalty, but several states have done away with their death penalty in the past few years. "It's been 10 years since we have had an execution, and during that time the murder rate has actually declined," said Collins. "So
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.Y., GA., FLA., MISS., OHIO, NEB., USA
Aug. 14 TEXASimpending execution Texas Readies to Kill Man - Who Killed No One - for Murder Jeffery Wood on track to be the 'least culpable person executed in the modern era of death penalty' His execution is scheduled for Aug. 24, which is "just 5 days after his 43rd birthday, for a crime that everyone, including prosecutors, admits he did not commit,"Jordan Smith wrote at The Intercept. He's been on death row since 1998. 2 years earlier, as the Austin Chronicle reported, he was arrested for the murder of Kris Keeran, a gas station attendant in Kerrville. Wood didn't fire the bullet that killed Keeran. In fact, he wasn't even inside the building. He was in a pickup truck in the parking lot when his friend Daniel Reneau shot Keeran in the face during a botched robbery. Wood jumped out of the car and ran inside when he heard the gunshot. There, Reneau pointed his gun at Wood and told him to make off with the Texaco's surveillance camera and VCR. So why is Wood about to face a lethal injection of pentobarbital? Hooman Hedayati, an attorney and a member of the Texas Moratorium Network Board of Directors, explained in an op-ed at the Austin American-Statesman last month: Wood was convicted and sentenced to die under Texas' arcane felony-murder law, more commonly known as the "the law of parties" - for his role as an accomplice to a killing, which he had no reason to anticipate. Under the law of parties, those who conspire to commit a felony, like a robbery, can be held responsible for a subsequent crime, like murder, if it "should have been anticipated." The law does not require a finding that the person intended to kill. It only requires that the defendant, charged under the law of parties, was a major participant in the underlying felony and exhibited a reckless indifference to human life. In other words, neglecting to anticipate another actor's commission of murder in the course of a felony is all that is required to make a Texas defendant death-eligible. Human rights group Amnesty International issued an "urgent alert" Friday to help stop the execution, noting that Wood "has a history of emotional and intellectual impairments, and an IQ consistently assessed at about 80." An additional troubling aspecting of the case, Amnesty writes, is that A prerequisite for a death sentence in Texas is a jury finding of the defendant's "future dangerousness." At Jeffery Wood's sentencing, the prosecution called Dr. James Grigson, a discredited psychiatrist dubbed "Dr. Death" who regularly testified at Texas capital sentencings as to his certainty that the defendant would commit future acts of violence, a form of testimony for which by 1998 he had already been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association. The prosecution nevertheless presented such testimony at Jeffery Wood's trial, without informing the jury of his expulsion. Meanwhile, the defence lawyers made no arguments, put on no witnesses, and presented no mitigation evidence. They "sat mute" throughout, noted the federal judge in 2005. The case prompted roughly 50 Evangelical leaders from across the county to write to Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday, urging them to stop the execution. "Officials have a moral obligation to rectify this mistake and stop this execution while they still can," they wrote, adding, "It deeply troubles us when the criminal justice system concludes that some of the most vulnerable in society can be executed and disposed of." From the Washington Post's lengthy reporting Friday on the case: "If executed this month, Wood will be the 'least culpable person executed in the modern era of death penalty,' said Scott Cobb, president of Texas Moratorium Network, a group that advocates against capital punishment." (source: commondreams.org) NEW YORK: How Thomas Edison powered the 1st electric chair - and totally botched the execution The streets were still lit by flickering gaslights in the late 1880s and '90s; electricity was a developing technology, one often viewed with fear and skepticism by critics who worried that it was unsafe. During this same time, a fierce battle was being waged throughout the United States. There were no shots fired - just electrical sparks, fierce public safety debates, newspaper editorials and court cases. It was called the "War of Currents," and it referred to the competition between rivals Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse and the 2 large electrical companies they helmed: Edison Electric Light Company and Westinghouse Electric Company, respectively. While the fight was technical and wonky in nature - would the direct-current electricity (DC) used by Edison become the new standard or would the alternating current (AC) used by Westinghouse prevail? - the conflict was ultimately over who really invented the light bulb and who would lay claim to the newer, brighter
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., TENN., ARK., OKLA., NEB.
July 30 TEXAS: Does This Man Deserve to Die?Jeffrey Wood was sentenced to death under the Texas law of parties. But should someone who didn't pull the trigger be executed? A rally for Jeffrey Wood was held outside of the Texas Governor's Mansion on July 23, 2016. Jeffrey Wood and Daniel Reneau had only known each other for a couple of months when, on the morning of January 2, 1996, Wood waited in the car as his new friend entered a Texaco station in Kerrville. When Wood, a 22-year-old with no prior criminal record, heard gunshots, he went inside the store to find the attendant, Kris Keeran, shot dead. Wood says that Reneau then pointed his .22-caliber handgun at him and forced him to steal the surveillance video and drive the getaway car. Witness reports led police to Reneau and Wood, and the pair was arrested the next day. Reneau, who confessed to the crime, was convicted of capital murder in 1997 and sentenced to death. He was executed 5 years later, in 2002. Wood didn't pull the trigger, but prosecutors tried him for capital murder under the Texas Law of Parties, which holds that someone can be held liable for an offense committed by another person. A jury found Wood responsible for either intending or anticipating the murder Reneau committed and sentenced him to death. His execution is scheduled for August 24, 2016. Both Wood';s family and his lawyer have long maintained that his trial was flawed from beginning to end. A jury first found Wood incompetent to stand trial, and he was committed to a psychiatric institution. Less than 3 weeks later, Wood was determined competent by a psychiatrist to stand trial. After he was convicted, he tried to represent himself during his sentencing, but the judge denied that request, effectively finding him mentally incompetent to do so. Lucy Wilke, who prosecuted Jeffrey Wood in his 1998 trial, writes via email, "He did not pull the trigger, but he was definitely the ring-leader [of the robbery]." She confirms that Wood's lawyers did not present any mitigating evidence and that they didn't cross-examine state witnesses during the punishment phase of his trial. "The reason for that was because Wood specifically, on the record, instructed his 2 very experienced and competent attorneys not to present any evidence or cross-examine any State witnesses," Wilke writes. "Unfortunately, even though the judge found him incompetent to represent himself, nobody stopped the proceeding to inquire as to his competency to stand trial at that point or to make these irrational decisions," counters Jared Tyler, who took on Wood's case in 2008. "I believe Wood was incompetent to make the decision not to defend himself. It was irrational and in line with the evidence on which a jury had previously found him incompetent to stand trial." Tyler adds, "I've never seen a case like Mr. Wood's, in which a person has been executed or will be executed in which there was no defense at all on the question of death-worthiness." And it is precisely this - the question of death-worthiness - that should be seriously considered in Wood's case. Wood has an IQ of about 80, which is below average. According to school and psychological records, he has always had trouble processing information. At home he was severely beaten with a razor strap for his poor grades, and in school he craved attention. When he was 12, a psychologist noted his hyperactivity, impulsiveness and short attention span. He also described Wood's anxiety and tension, his poor grooming and hygiene, as well as his "exceptionally poor judgment" and his "faulty reasoning and reality testing." In an affidavit to the state, his father wrote that Wood had problems planning for the simplest things and that "[w]hen he was small, he would take the blame and the punishment for something that another child had done so he would seem to fit in." Wood was put in a Special Ed program and was never able to catch up with his classmates. In his early 20s, he fell in with the wrong crowd. It was easier for him to be around people with whom he didn't have to compete intellectually. This is where Daniel Reneau, a 20-year-old homeless drifter with an extensive criminal history, came into the picture. "Mr. Wood was very vulnerable to the influence of Reneau," Tyler says, adding, "[Wood] is the kind of person who will just acquiesce to questions of authority. He is a boy in a man's body. Because of his psychological and intellectual impairments, he does not understand the legal and other implications of what he says. He is also not a reliable historian. I believe Mr. Wood to be incompetent." Many states have laws comparable to Texas's Law of Parties, but few apply them to the death penalty; fewer still have actually executed people who didn't directly cause someone else's death. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, only 10 individuals who didn???t directly
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., MO., OKLA., CALIF., USA
July 28 TEXAS: High court rejects state appeal in capital murder bond The state's highest criminal court rejected an appeal Wednesday by McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna that challenged an intermediate appellate court's order reducing the bond of a capital murder defendant. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling upheld an April decision by Waco's 10th Court of Appeals that reduced bond for James Ray Brossett from $5 million to $1 million. Reyna's office appealed the 10th Court's ruling, and the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal without comment or written opinion. The legal exercise could prove moot because Brossett likely is still unable to post bond and secure his release, said one of his attorneys, Michelle Tuegel. "We respect the decisions of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the 10th Court of Appeals, and we are pleased to see the 10th Court of Appeal's decision is basically going to be the final decision on the bond issue," Tuegel said. "But I don't think this will result in the release of our client because he has been sitting in jail and unable to work for this period of time. It's hard to own and operate a business when you are sitting in jail." Neither Reyna nor his first assistant, Michael Jarrett, returned phone messages left at their office Wednesday. Brossett, of Arlington, is charged with capital murder in the July 2015 death of Laura Patschke, with whom he once had a dating relationship. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against the 49-year-old Brossett, who they said confessed to the crime. Brossett was free at the time of Patschke's death on 2 bonds related to stalking and violating a protective order involving Patschke. He also is charged with shooting Patschke's 18-year-old son, Trevor, in the arm during the early-morning incident at their home in Crawford. Judge Matt Johnson of Waco's 54th State District Court set Brossett's bond at $5 million and declined to reduce it during a hearing in November. Tuegel and Walter M. Reaves Jr., Brossett's other attorney, appealed Johnson's ruling. No trial date has been set for Brossett, who had been jailed for 387 days as of Wednesday. Tuegel said prosecutors still are waiting for the results of forensic testing, including DNA and ballistics. At the previous bond hearing, Reyna told the court it was not by chance that Brossett drove from Arlington to Crawford that Sunday night or early Monday morning, when Trevor and his younger brother and sister had just returned to their mother's home from a holiday visit with their father. Brossett intended to kill the whole family, Reyna said. Brossett parked his truck about a mile from Patschke's home on Bosque Ridge Boulevard and walked through the woods, Reyna said. He got lost along the way, and it took him more than 2 hours to reach Patschke's house, Reyna said. In arguing against the bond reduction, Reyna told the judge that Brossett sent Patschke more than 200 harassing text messages on the day he was freed from jail the last time. Because of the harassment, Patschke's sons slept with loaded weapons near their beds because they were aware of Brossett's violent nature, Reyna said. Brossett kicked open a door and went to Patschke's bedroom and fired a shot at her, Reyna said. The boys came running from their rooms with guns, and Brossett shot Trevor Patschke in the arm, Reyna said. As their sister hid in her room, the boys fled the house, Reyna said. Brossett then returned and fired 2 more shots at Patschke, striking the 48-year-old at close range with his 12-gauge shotgun, Reyna said. Brossett had a flashlight taped onto his shotgun barrel and went outside to look for the children to "finish what he had started," the district attorney said. Brossett later found the keys to Patschke's car, which he drove to where he had parked his truck, Reyna said. Brossett left her car and drove his truck to the Fort Worth area, where authorities arrested him, Reyna said. Brossett served 3 years in prison after pleading guilty to assault-family violence with bodily injury in 2003 and has a 1997 conviction for violating a protective order. He has 3 other arrests relating to violence against women dating back to 1987, prosecutors said. (source: Waco Tribune) FLORIDA: Republican Liberty Caucus To Host Conservatives Concerned About Death Penalty Event Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a national network of conservatives and libertarians questioning the alignment of capital punishment with their principles, will make a presentation to the Republican Liberty Caucus of Central East Florida on August 1 in Indian Harbor Beach. "I believe that it is important for conservatives and libertarians alike to consider how the death penalty operates and determine if it fits within our political philosophy," said Robert White, Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., MISS., IND., ARK.
July 27 TEXAS: Judge: Man cleared of murder shouldn't be declared innocent A judge refused on Monday to endorse the innocence claims of a former Texas death row inmate even though his murder conviction was overturned after a prosecution witness admitted lying on the stand. Kerry Max Cook was twice convicted in the 1977 slaying of Linda Jo Edwards in Tyler, about 100 miles east of Dallas. Freed in 1999 after taking a deal to plead no contest, Cook has maintained his innocence and finally won the dismissal of his conviction earlier this year. But State District Judge Jack Carter, who approved that dismissal, said Monday that Cook and his lawyers hadn't met the higher legal standard necessary to declare him "actually innocent." Cook likely needs to clear that standard to receive millions of dollars in benefits Texas pays to the wrongfully convicted - $80,000 for every year of wrongful imprisonment, along with an annuity and other benefits. Earlier this year, authorities found that Edwards' boss and former lover, James Mayfield, wasn't truthful when he testified that the 2 had ended their affair 3 weeks before her death. After receiving immunity, Mayfield admitted the 2 had had sex the day before she was killed. Carter agreed Cook's conviction could not stand due to Mayfield's false testimony at trial. But in an order Monday, Carter declined to go further. "The ultimate issue in this case is a determination of who murdered Linda Edwards, not who had sexual relations with Linda Edwards," Carter said, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. Mayfield's recantation "is definitely helpful to Cook's defense, but this court does not find that it unquestionably proves that Cook is actually innocent." Carter's order will go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, which will make the final decision on Cook's claims. Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham told the newspaper he supported Carter's order. He has not ruled out retrying Cook. Cook was not immediately available for comment. (source: Associated Press) NORTH CAROLINA: Iredell County man charged in mother's death An Iredell County man could face the death penalty after detectives said he killed his own mother. Victim Bobbie Frye, 79, shared a home on Alexander Acres in Mooresville with her son, Michael Frye. That is where her niece found her severely beaten before she died on Monday. Her son stood with his hands cuffed and arms crossed Tuesday as the judge announced he's charged with her murder. The maximum sentence could be the death penalty. His relative told Eyewitness News Frye suffers from mental health issues. Looking at his criminal record, Chief Deputy Marty Byers questions whether Frye may have fallen through the cracks. "It shows how broken our judicial system is, whether you need people to be incarcerated or need help, it's obvious that they're not," Byers said. Eyewitness News learned Frye was supposed to be in court for a DWI charge in Rowan County on the day of his mother's death. Over the years, he's been arrested on more than a dozen charges in five counties, including resisting an officer and assault with a deadly weapon. Some of the charges were dismissed. Iredell County deputies responded to a call that Frye assaulted his mother in 2013, but investigators said she signed a waiver asking not to press charges. "It's sad. You know that people do that. I understand they want to protect their families, they want to be forgiven," Byers said. "Unfortunately in this case, they had a tragic ending." The judge decided not to address Frye's bond Tuesday morning. He is being held at the Iredell County Detention Center without bond. His next court date is set for Aug. 16. (source: WSOC news) MISSISSIPPI: Fighting the Lethal Injection Richard Jordan has been on death row in Mississippi for 40 years for kidnapping and murdering Edwina Marter in 1976, even though the average wait time for death-row inmates to be killed is about 14 years. Jordan and fellow death-row inmate Thomas Loden Jr., convicted in 2001 for sexual assault, rape and murder of Leesa Marie Gray in 2000, have filed new challenges to Mississippi's lethal-injection drug law in the Mississippi Supreme Court, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent another drug challenge filed by Jordan, Loden and another death-row inmate Ricky Chase, challenge back to the district court. The district court has not yet considered the plaintiffs' First and Eighth Amendment challenges. Jordan and Loden Jr. could be executed at any point, however, because as the Associated Press reported earlier this month, both men have exhausted their appeals. Gary Carl Simmons was the last man executed by lethal injection in the state of Mississippi back in June 2012, MDOC's website says. A federal court's injunction froze executions due to three prisoners on
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ARK., CALIF., USA
July 24 TEXASimpending execution Rally Questions Death Penalty for Texas Man Who Didn't Pull Trigger Supporters of Jeff Wood gathered on July 23, 2016, in front of the Governor's Mansion to rally against his scheduled August execution. On Saturday, relatives and supporters of death row inmate Jeff Wood braved the Texas summer heat to gather outside Gov. Greg Abbott's mansion, hoping their state's leader will halt the execution and commute Wood's sentence for one reason - Wood never killed anyone. On Jan. 2, 1996, Wood, 22 at the time, waited in a car while Daniel Reneau robbed a Kerrville convenience store and shot the clerk, Kriss Keeran, according to a clemency petition from 2008. Wood was charged with capital murder under Texas' law of parties, which states that a person can be charged of a crime he didn't commit if he helped or "should have anticipated it as a result" of another crime, like a robbery, according to the Texas penal code. Wood was sentenced to death as was Reneau, who was executed in 2002. Huddled under the shade of trees outside the mansion's gates in the 100-degree heat, Wood's family and about 30 other people carried signs with Wood's face on them and wore T-shirts that said "Punish action. Not affiliation." Terri Been, Wood's sister, told the small crowd that her brother did not commit or conspire to commit murder and that he didn't even know Reneau had a gun when he entered the store. "So I ask you, Governor Abbott, how is this justice?" Been said toward the mansion. "My brother is not a monster; he is not a killer." A spokesman for Abbott's office didn't immediately respond to a request to comment for this article. At Saturday's rally, Tommy Ramirez, a trial lawyer from Devine, held a sign calling to save Wood, but said he is not against the death penalty or the law of parties. The law was meant for mobsters or someone who paid to have someone killed, he said. "In this case, we got a ... kid, with no record, hanging with the wrong people," Ramirez said. "He did not know anyone was going to be murdered." Executions under the law of parties or similar laws in other states, are rare. The Death Penalty Information Center has confirmed only 10 cases, 5 of which were in Texas. In 2007, then-Gov. Rick Perry changed Kenneth Foster's sentence from death to life in prison hours before his execution. Like Wood, Foster was the getaway driver in a robbery that turned to murder. But 2 years later, Perry refused to halt the execution of Robert Thompson in a similar case after the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency, according to the Houston Chronicle. The triggerman in that murder received life, not death. Jeff Wood was originally scheduled to be executed in 2008, but the execution was stayed by a federal district court, according to court documents. He has been on death row for more than 18 years. A petition asking the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to stay the execution and commute Wood's sentence will be sent early next month, according to Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network. With sweat on their brows, Wood's supporters hoped Abbott would hear their cries from his gate and stop his execution, scheduled for Aug. 24. "We do not want Jeff Wood to be executed. Not on the 24th, not ever!" said Gloria Rubac, an anti-death penalty activist. "We got a stay for Jeff [before], and we're gonna do it again!" (source: Texas Tribune) * The Life of Texas Death Row Inmate Teddrick Batiste We periodically publish letters from death row inmates. Today we hear from a 29-year-old Texas inmate who describes his life and horrific upbringing, and offers a look behind the walls of a prison from which he will never emerge. Teddrick Batiste was convicted of the 2009 shooting and killing a Houston man during an attempted robbery. Batiste, a Houston native, was a member of the Crips at the time of his crime. He has been on death row in Texas since 2011. Last month, Batiste wrote to me to share his memories of Ray Jasper, a fellow Texas death row inmate who was executed in 2014. Shortly before his death, Jasper wrote us a letter that was viewed more than 2 million times, becoming the most widely read ever in our "Letters from Death Row" series. Batiste told of his close friendship with Jasper, and of Jasper's fierce physical resistance on the day of his execution, forcing a riot team to remove him from his cell. I wrote back to Batiste asking for any further memories of Ray Jasper, and sent him a standard set of questions about his life on death row and his thoughts on the justice system. His letter in response is below. Batiste recounts his relationship with Ray Jasper and his recollections of the time leading up to Ray Jasper's execution. "He decided to not cater to a person smiling in your face to get you to hurry up and sign a piece of paper saying that your
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., ILL., NEB., CALIF., USA
July 20 TEXAS: Judge denies request to speak to doctor in Petetan death penalty case A judge denied a request by death row inmate Carnell Petetan Jr. to speak to a state expert Tuesday after McLennan County prosecutors charged his attorneys were on a "fishing expedition" and assured them they had provided all evidence favorable to the defense. Jeremy Schepers and Ashley Steele of the Office of Capital and Forensic Writs filed a motion seeking an order from 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother that they be allowed to interview Dr. Randy Price and that state prosecutors turn over their notes or other communications with the Dallas neuropsychologist. Price consulted with McLennan County prosecutors in the Petetan capital murder case but did not testify at his trial. Price attended the trial and heard defense expert witnesses testify that Petetan has an intellectual disability that should preclude him from the death penalty. Strother sentenced Petetan to death in April 2014 after jurors recommended the penalty in the 2012 shooting death of his estranged wife, Kimberly Farr Petetan. The attorneys from the capital writ office have not filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in Petetan's case but are in the preparation stages while his initial appeal is pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The deadline to file the writ application with the state's highest criminal court is Oct. 19. Officials brought Petetan from death row in Livingston, 45 miles east of Huntsville, for the 20-minute hearing. Prosecutors Michael Jarrett and Sterling Harmon objected to the defense's request. They assured the judge that the state had provided to the defense all so-called "Brady" material and all subject matter covered by the Michael Morton Act, evidence favorable to the defense. "Dr. Price consulted on the case," Jarrett said. "He never gave us any exculpatory materials. He just agreed with the state's contention that all of Petetan's life, his actions, thoughts and things he did do not support an intellectual disability finding and, in fact, rebut it." Jarrett reminded Strother that Petetan testified at his trial for hours and said the jury could see he is not intellectually disabled. "This is not a case of test scores," Jarrett said. "It is a case of adaptive behavior." The jury in Petetan's case found that Petetan constitutes a continuing threat to society and rejected his claim that he was exempt from execution because of mental impairment. Kimberly Petetan started writing Carnell Petetan in prison in 2009 after a chance meeting with his brother. A recovering drug addict who was studying to be a drug abuse counselor, Kimberly Petetan shared her story with Carnell Petetan's brother, and he thought Carnell Petetan, then serving a 20-year prison term for 3 violent assaults, could benefit from her kindness. Kimberly Petetan and Carnell Petetan were married and after his release from prison lived together in Port Arthur for a short time. Kimberly Petetan moved back to Waco after reporting that her husband had threatened her and her daughter. Carnell Petetan was convicted of breaking into his estranged wife's Lake Shore Drive apartment in September 2012 - about 7 months after his release from prison - and shooting her in front of her daughter and 2 men who rode from Port Arthur with him earlier that day. Both of those men and the girl told jurors that Petetan shot his wife. Petetan claimed 1 of the men with him fired the fatal shots. Petetan served almost 20 years in prison for shooting 2 men and attacking another man with a chair in separate incidents when he was 16. He has been locked up since he was 13, being placed on juvenile probation for attacking a teacher before continuing to do poorly and being sent to a state juvenile facility in Brownwood. Trial testimony showed that in Petetan's early prison years, he sexually assaulted 3 fellow inmates, assaulted guards and was a member of the 357 Graveyard Crips prison gang. (source: Waco Tribune) FLORIDA: Judge denies Tommy Ziegler's request A judge on Monday denied a new request by Tommy Zeigler to analyze bloodstains on his crime scene clothing, the longtime death row inmate's latest attempt to exonerate himself in the 1975 Christmas Eve killings of his wife, in-laws and customer at his Winter Garden furniture store. In the 30-page ruling, Orange-Osceola Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead held that Zeigler's petition for DNA testing was too similar to others that he's made previously and that the potential discoveries would not be great enough to rule him out as the perpetrator. "Having carefully listened to the testimony presented at the evidentiary hearing and argument from the parties, the Court finds the authenticity of the DNA is questionable because it may be contaminated based on a lack of protective equipment when it was handled and/or
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., USA
July 18 TEXASimpending execution In Texas death row case, punishment does not fit crime Jeff Wood has an appointment he hopes to miss. On Aug. 24, 2016, at about 6 p.m., the Texas Department of Criminal Justice plans to inject a lethal dose of pentobarbital into Jeff???s veins to stop his heart as punishment for the 1996 murder of Kris Keeran. What makes this execution controversial is that everyone, including law enforcement and the prosecution, agrees that Wood, the driver of the getaway car, did not kill Kris Keeran inside a Kerrville convenient store on the morning of January 2, 1996. In fact, Daniel Reneau, the actual and sole killer of Keeran, was executed for his crime on June 13, 2002. Wood was convicted and sentenced to die under Texas' arcane felony-murder law, more commonly known as the "the law of parties" - for his role as an accomplice to a killing, which he had no reason to anticipate. Under the law of parties, those who conspire to commit a felony, like a robbery, can be held responsible for a subsequent crime, like murder, if it "should have been anticipated." The law does not require a finding that the person intended to kill. It only requires that the defendant, charged under the law of parties, was a major participant in the underlying felony and exhibited a reckless indifference to human life. In other words, neglecting to anticipate another actor's commission of murder in the course of a felony is all that is required to make a Texas defendant death-eligible. Texas is not the only state that holds co-conspirators responsible for one another's criminal acts. However, it is one of few states that applies the death sentence to them. There have been only 10 people in the U.S. executed under the law of parties - and 5 of those 10 executions were in Texas. The last such execution was in 2009, where the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP) recommended, with a 5-2 vote, that Robert Thompson's death sentence be commuted to life. Rick Perry rejected that vote and allowed the execution to proceed. Thompson was executed, even though it was his co-defendant, Sammy Butler, who actually killed the victim. Butler was given a life sentence. When the convenient store robbery took place, Wood was sitting in a car outside, under the impression that Reneau was going into the store to get "road drinks and munchies." Although it is true that Wood and Reneau had talked about robbing the store at the behest of the manager, Wood had backed out of the idea. Wood had no idea Reneau was carrying a gun and was going to attempt to rob the store. Wood also claims he was forced to drive Reneau away from the crime scene at gunpoint. Wood's actions before the murder, namely sitting in a car unarmed and unaware that another person was going to commit a robbery, does not constitute reckless indifference to human life. Even many supporters of capital punishment agree that the Texas law of parties is wholly unfair. In 2009, the Texas Moratorium Network and Wood's family led an advocacy campaign to end the death penalty for people convicted under the law of parties. The Republican-controlled Texas House overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill. Unfortunately, the bill died in the Senate after Gov. Perry threatened to veto it. Last year, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence voted again in favor of a bill to exclude the death penalty as punishment in law of parties cases. However, the session ended without an opportunity for a floor vote. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles should recommend that the governor commute Wood's death sentence to life in prison or a lesser term consistent with Wood's level of participation in the crime. They have made that recommendation in similar cases, including those of Kenneth Foster in 2007 and Robert Thompson in 2009. Wood might deserve punishment for driving away from the crime scene, but he does not deserve to die. He has never taken a human life with his own hands. (source: Opinion; Hooman Hedayati is an attorney and a member of the Texas Moratorium Network Board of DirectorsAustin American-Statesman) CONNECTICUT: Connecticut Court Reaffirms Ruling Abolishing Death Penalty The Connecticut Supreme Court has upheld its decision to abolish the state's death penalty, including for the 11 inmates on Connecticut's death row. The Connecticut Supreme Court has reaffirmed its decision that Connecticut's abolition of the death penalty must also apply to those already convicted of a capital felony. Monday's ruling comes in the case of Daniel Webb, who was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of Diane Gellenbeck. The 37-year-old bank vice president was killed in a Hartford park after being abducted from a downtown parking garage. The court last August found the 2012 state law that banned executions for future crimes did not go far enough, ruling the death penalty was
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ALA., NEB., ARIZ., CALIF., WASH.
July 16 TEXASrevised impending execution schedule Barney Fuller has been given an execution date for October 5; it should be considered serious. Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present19 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-537 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 20-August 23Robert Pruett-538 21-August 24Jeffrey Wood--539 22-August 31Rolando Ruiz--540 23-September 14-Robert Jennings---541 24-October 5Barney Fuller-542 25-October 19---Terry Edwards-543 26-November 2---Ramiro Gonzales---544 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) TEXAS STATE PRISONS are not air-conditioned. Prisoners and guards suffer in cells and halls above 110 degrees. 20 buys a small fan that can save a life. TX-CURE, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants provides free fans to poor and needy inmates who have no family or friends for financial support. Donate online at http://www.texascure.org [www.texascure.org] http://www.gofundme.com/TEXAS-PRISONERS-NEED-FANS [www.gofundme.com] or mail to: Tx-CURE Fans P. O. Box 381 Dallas, TX 75238 Michael W. Jewell, President mikewaynejew...@hotmail.com Tx-CURE is a 501(c3) (source: TX-CURE) NORTH CAROLINA: Raleigh man charged with death of 2-year-old faces judge A 22-year-old Raleigh man had his 1st court appearance Friday after being charged with the death a 2-year-old boy. Police were dispatched to a "code blue" call at a home in the 5200 block of Somerset Mill Lane on May 19. 2 days later, Raleigh police said the death of Chase Jordan Eaddy was a homicide. William Lee Bell was charged with murder in Eaddy's death. Bell lived at the location where the crime occurred and surrendered to authorities Thursday at the Wake County Detention Center. On Friday, Bell faced a Wake County judge. The judge told Bell, "You are charged with 1 count of 1st-degree murder. The maximum penalty for that would be the death penalty or life imprisonment." Several family members, including Bell's parents were in court. When the court hearing was finished, they quickly walked out. Bell is being held on no bond and is expected to be back in court Aug. 4. (source: WNCN news) FLORIDA: Death row inmate seeks execution A case TV20 has been following on a man requesting to die by the electric chair, took another turn today. TV20's Rebecca Woolard reports from the Bradford County Courthouse with the latest. It's the case of a death row inmate who is arguing not that he shouldn't be executed, but that it should be done sooner, and by an electric chair. Wayne Doty is a 2-time convicted murderer. He admits to those killings and says he deserves the punishment he was given. There's only 1 problem. In January, Hurst v. Florida found the way the state issues the death penalty to be unconstitutional. In light of that case, Doty is now withdrawing his motion to dismiss his counsel and waive his appeals. He hopes in doing so he can have a "new" penalty phase trial and his sentence can be determined in a constitutional manner. But Doty still wants the option of dismissing his attorney later. There was a lot of uncertainty in the courtroom today as the attorneys and judge weren't sure if Doty could have his attorney just argue constitutionality. But the judge did allow Doty's attorney to be reinstated today. There will be another hearing next month to hear DOC objections. (source: WCJB news) ALABAMA: Life of exonerated death row inmate celebratedJames 'Bo' Cochran laid to rest Friday A Tarrant man exonerated after 2 decades on death row has been laid to rest. Funeral services for James "Bo" Cochran were held at Christ's Ministries Church Friday. Cochran was originally convicted of the murder of a grocery store manager in the late 1970s and sentenced to die. Then in February 1997, a Jefferson County jury acquitted Cochran at the end of his 4th trial. After 2 decades on death row, Bo Cochran was a free man. Dr. Mel Glenn worked on Cochran's defense team for that 1997 retrial. "Despite what happened to him, he took it with a grain of salt and didn't have any bitterness, didn't have any malice," Glenn remembered. He said since then, Cochran has flown all over the nation and world speaking out against the death penalty. Glenn believes Cochran has impacted countless lives since he was freed nearly 2 decades ago. "He touched elderly people's lives. He touched elderly people's lives and he pointed people to the Lord. So this day is a day that I will always treasure," Glenn concluded. Cochran died Tuesday. He was 73 years old. (source: WVTM news) NEBRASKA: Murder victim family members kick off 10-day, 20-city
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., OHIO
July 13 TEXAS: Death penalty decision looming for capital murder suspect One of the men accused of gunning down a San Antonio couple on Good Friday will have to wait a few weeks to find out if he'll face the death penalty. During an arraignment this morning, Gilbert Ruiz pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges. The prosecutor was given 30 days to determine if they'll seek the death penalty. The other option for the prosecution would be to seek a life sentence. Meanwhile, Ruiz remains in jail on a $1 million bond. Police say he was involved in the fatal shooting of Elizabeth Martinez and her husband Eric Rodriguez on North Shea Parkway. A 2nd suspect, Daniel Martinez, is also charged with capital murder. He's is also in the Nueces County Jail. (source: KRIS TV news) NORTH CAROLINA: State to seek death penalty in Mount Airy murder case The state will seek the death penalty against Jordan Ross Lowdermilk, according to statements made in Surry County Superior Court on Tuesday. Lowdermilk, 28, of Dobson, is accused of killing Claudia Smith, an 80-year-old Mount Airy woman. He was charged with 1st-degree murder after Smith was found dead in her Franklin Street apartment in May. The defendant was also charged in connection with other crimes that allegedly occurred the night of Smith's death, which include multiple break-ins and stabbing an I-77 motorist. On July 5, a grand jury indicted Lowdermilk with 1st-degree murder, attempted 1st-degree murder, 2 counts of 1st-degree burglary, felony larceny, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or seriously injure, breaking or entering a motor vehicle and misdemeanor injury to personal property. North Carolina rules give prosecutors the discretion to choose if 1st-degree murder cases will be tried capitally. If they choose to do so, notice of their intent to pursue the death penalty must be provided to the defendant within 10 days of indictment. The presiding Superior Court judge must also order the parties to appear within 45 days for a Rule 24 pretrial conference where the state may announce the existence of aggravating factors it believes present. The district attorney's office filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty and request for Rule 24 hearing on July 11. In Superior Court on Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney Tim Watson informed Senior Resident Superior Court Judge A. Moses Massey of the state's intention to seek the death penalty against Lowdermilk. Watson indicated that Lowdermilk's attorney, J.D. Byers, had been served notice of the state's intent, and had consented to a Rule 24 conference. Massey noted for the record the state's intent and ordered the conference scheduled for Aug. 30. Death penalty According to the N.C. Department of Public Safety website, there have been no executions in the state since 2006. "There is still a de facto moratorium on executions," UNC School of Government Professor Jeff Welty said Tuesday in an email. Until 2015, North Carolina statute required a licensed physician be present at executions. In 2007, the North Carolina Medical Board determined that doctors participating in lethal injections violate the code of ethics of their profession. Following a N.C. Supreme Court ruling, in 2009 the board stopped taking disciplinary action against physicians for participating in an execution, according to the organization's website. The N.C. Governor signed the Restoring Proper Justice Act into law in August 2015, which authorizes "a medical professional other than a physician" to monitor a lethal injection at an execution. One factor possibly contributing to a "de facto moratorium" on executions includes litigation about whether the lethal injection process violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, Welty said. "Continued uncertainty about the status of the Racial Justice Act and whether its repeal applies retroactively to inmates who filed claims under the Act when it still existed," also may play a role. "To be clear," he said, "there's nothing that prevents a jury from returning a death sentence - but right now, such sentences are not being carried out." Currently, there are 150 inmates on death row in North Carolina, according to N.C. DPS information. As of January 1, 2016, North Carolina had the 6th-highest number of death row inmates among states that allow the death penalty, according to information available from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). North Carolina is tied with 2 other states as the 5th most exonerations at nine since 1973, according to DPIC. 1 Surry County inmate, who was convicted on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in 1995, is currently on death row, according to N.C. DPS information. 3 Surry County inmates were executed between 1984 and 2006, according to N.C. DPS. (source: The Mount Airy News) GEORGIAimpending
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., LA.
July 12 TEXAS: Jury selection date set in capital murder case The case of a man charged with capital murder in the death of a 5-year-old child has been scheduled for jury selection almost exactly 2 years after the girl's death. Isidro Miguel Delacruz, 26, of San Angelo went before 119th District Judge Ben Woodward for a hearing Monday, his 9th appearance at the Tom Green County courthouse since December 2014. 2 more pretrial hearings are scheduled on August 2 and 22 before jury selection on August 29. No trial date has been set. State prosecutors and the defense counsel both asked the court for time to acquire personal files of Delacruz's family from Child Protective Services and to analyze records recently released by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which might be used as evidence or to prepare for trial. Delacruz is accused of cutting the throat of Naiya Bermea on Sept. 2, 2014, at her home in the 2700 block Houston Street. 51st District Attorney Allison Palmer intends to seek the death penalty. Delacruz's attorney is Robert Cowie. Delacruz has been in jail since September 2014. (source: gosanangelolive.com) Defense for Alleged Murderer Isidro Delacruz Attempts to Quash Death Penalty Alleged capital murderer Isidro Miguel Delacruz, 25, attended Judge Ben Woodward's 119th district court once again for a pre-trial today. The court further addressed accusations that claim Delacruz slit the throat of his ex-girlfriend's 5 year-old daughter, Naiya Villegas. Delacruz has had at least 5 pre-trials for this case since the crime occurred on September 2, 2014. Defense attorneys Robert R. Cowie and William P.H. Boyles of Lubbock represented Delacruz in court today. Much of today's pretrial addressed motions from the defense to preclude the death penalty. The motions claim that the jurors are not informed of certain rules, that 'death qualification' inherently selects 'guilt-prone' jurors," and the statutory definition of mitigating evidence is not satisfactory. Additionally, certain legislation involving the death penalty is unconstitutional, among other claims. As the motions were presented, the attorneys for the state, District Attorney Allison Palmer and Assistant D.A. Megan White, gave their rebuttals. Eventually, the defense decided to address some of the motions out of court with the State. After hearing the defense's motions, Woodward scheduled another pre-trial for August 2 at 1:30 p.m. He said the additional pretrial "might be helpful" for the case. The court will also meet again for a previously scheduled pre-trial on August 22. Further in the future, the jury panel is scheduled to report on August 29 at 9:00 a.m. Furthermore, the jurors will be individually examined on September 12. Finally, the trial will begin on October 31, and is estimated to go on for a week. If Delacruz is found guilty, testimonies concerning Delacruz's punishment are expected to last 2 1/2 weeks before Thanksgiving begins. (source: sanangelolive.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Death penalty sought in NC killings of 2 young women and man The Buncombe County district attorney says he is seeking the death penalty against a man in the deaths of 2 young women and a man in late 2015. The prosecution against Pierre Lamont Griffin was declared a capital case on Monday, officials said. Griffin, 23, is accused of murdering of Alexander King, Tatianna Diz and Uhon Johnson in Buncombe County. He is also charged with attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon in Henderson County. Prosecutors say Pierre Lamont Griffin's new charges come from events that began in Buncombe County and ended with an attempted armed robbery and law enforcement then shooting Griffin in Henderson County, North Carolina on Oct. 27, 2015. Tatiana Diz, 20, and Alexandra King, 22, were both found dead in the French Broad River in early Nov. 2015 after disappearing days earlier. The women had been missing since the night of Oct. 27, 2015, when they left their home and gave a man a ride to apartments nearby. A shooting happened in or around a Volkswagen Jetta owned by Alexandra King, Asheville Police said. The man who was given a ride by the women is charged with fatally shooting a man that same night - the 3rd victim, Uhon Johnson. The abandoned VW Jetta was found bloodied and with a gunshot hole in the passenger headrest. Officials say North Carolina law provides that when acts that constitute part of the commission of a crime occur in more than 1 county, each county has concurrent venue, and jurisdiction, of the charges. "In that the most serious events in this tragic sequence occurred in Buncombe County where the family, friends, and loved ones of the victims reside, I want to thank DA Newman for deferring to us here in Buncombe County so that we may seek justice for the victims and their families locally without putting them through 2 separate
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN. GA., FLA., ALA., TENN.
July 8 TEXAS: British woman on Texas death row may be spared as new evidence surfacesA hearing this week for Linda Carty presents her with hope that she might avoid death penalty amid evidence prosecutors coerced false witness testimonies A British woman who has been on death row in Texas for 14 years has been given renewed hope that she might be spared execution by an appeal hearing at which devastating evidence was presented that prosecutors had coerced false testimony from key witnesses. Linda Carty, 57, has a high profile in Texas as one of just 6 women facing execution in the state and as a British citizen by dint of her birth in St Kitts at a time when the Caribbean island was still a British colony. Her case has been highlighted in documentaries and championed by the likes of Bianca Jagger and the British government. Carty has always protested her innocence on charges that in 2001 she commissioned three men to carry out the kidnapping and murder of her neighbor, Joana Rodriguez, in a plot to steal the victim's 3-day old baby. Previous attempts to appeal her death sentence have failed, despite the absence of any forensic evidence against her and the fact that she was represented at trial by a defense lawyer who spent only 2 weeks preparing the case. Close observers say that this week's hearing before a single judge appointed by the Texas court of criminal appeals takes her plea of innocence to another level. The hearing, that is likely to be concluded with the judge's opinion in early September, presents her with the greatest hope yet that she might secure a retrial. Michael Goldberg of the law firm Baker Botts, who has been Carty's lawyer for the past 13 years, said that it was highly unusual that his client had even reached the stage of a post-conviction evidentiary hearing. "We were very happy when the Court of Criminal Appeals granted us this hearing, since it rarely does in Texas," he said. Goldberg added that "now that we've concluded the hearing, the evidence that we were able to present shows even more conclusively that Linda's rights in the 1st trial were abused and that a new trial is required". During this week's hearing, Goldberg spent 8 hours cross-examining Connie Spence, the lead prosecutor in the case who still works as a supervisor for the Harris County district attorney's office in Houston. Part of that cross-examination related to the explosive affidavit given in 2014 by Charles Mathis, a former agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration. In the affidavit, Mathis recounted how he had recruited Carty as a confidential informant who could provide useful information to the DEA on drug dealing in the city given her expertise as a trained pharmacist. He said that when he told Spence that he did not want to testify at trial against Carty, the prosecutor threatened to concoct a story about him having had an affair with the defendant. "I was shocked when Spence said this ... I felt Spence was threatening and blackmailing me into testifying." The judge heard further allegations that the prosecutors had fabricated evidence, destroyed essential case notes and emails that might have helped the defense and withheld several recorded witness statements that should have been handed over to the defense team. Both Spence and another prosecutor on the case who also still works for the DA's office appeared at the hearing, and both denied that they had done anything to coerce evidence from any of the witnesses. According to a report of the hearing by the Houston Chronicle, Spence told the judge: "Defense had access to the evidence any time they wanted to look." Closing arguments in the appeal will be presented on 29 August, and the judge has indicated he will give his opinion within the first 10 days of September. Should the judge recommend a retrial, it will then be up to the full court of criminal appeals to decide whether or not to act upon his advice. (source: The Guardian) PENNSYLVANIA: Death-row inmates can get federal legal helpThe Federal Community Defender Office represents 4 out of 12 death row inmates in the York County Court of Common Pleas. Hector Morales got on the witness stand in the York County Court of Common Pleas on Jan. 19, 2011, and told jurors that he didn't kill Ronald "Country" Simmons to prevent him from testifying in a drug case. Instead, Morales testified, the 2 worked out an agreement. He was going to give Simmons, 42, a discount on drugs - and the occasional freebie. The jury didn't buy it. And on March 1, 2011, jurors came back with a punishment for the crime: death. Now, Morales, 33, is asserting that his constitutional rights were violated. He's arguing the prosecution committed misconduct during the trial, and that his previous lawyers were ineffective. "I am innocent of the crimes for which I was found guilty," Morales wrote in court documents filed on
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., OHIO, TENN., KY., ARK.
July 7 TEXASstay of impending execution Texas halts scheduled execution pending drug test The scheduled July 14 execution of a man convicted in the slaying of a medical student robbed of $40 has been postponed indefinitely. A Texas prison system spokesman said Wednesday that a state district judge in Houston has withdrawn the execution order for Perry Eugene Williams pending test results for the drugs to be used in his execution. The Texas Attorney General's Office had agreed in a lawsuit filed on Williams' behalf to have the drugs tested before his execution. Williams is set to die for the 2000 slaying of Baylor College of Medicine student Matthew Carter. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says the delay doesn't affect the state's next scheduled lethal injection, the Aug. 10 execution of Ramiro Gonzales for the 2001 slaying of an 18-year-old woman in Medina County. (source: Associated Press) xecutions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present19 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-537 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 20-August 10Ramiro Gonzales---538 21-August 23Robert Pruett-539 22-August 31Rolando Ruiz--540 23-September 14-Robert Jennings---541 24-October 19---Terry Edwards-542 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) Indicted: Man Charged In Shooting Death of Stepson An Olney man is indicted for capital murder for the shooting death of his 3-year-old stepson. Clay County Sheriff Kenny Lemons said the grand jury met Wednesday and indicted George Coty Wayman for capital murder. Sheriff Lemons said he is very proud of the job District Attorney Paige Williams did in presenting the details of the case to ensure a solid indictment. 3-year-old Dominic Castro was shot on the afternoon of May 18. Initially, witnesses told investigators he was jumping on the bed and caused a gun on the bed to accidentally go off. But, Sheriff Lemons said interviews soon revealed Wayman pointed the gun at Dominic. Witnesses also said police that if he did not stop jumping on the bed he'd shoot him. Lemons said Wayman then fired the gun and struck Dominic in the back of the head. At Dominic's funeral, a family friend described him as being a fun-loving and sweet little boy who loved hugs and who never knew a stranger. In Texas, a capital murder conviction can carry a death penalty sentence if prosecutors chose to pursue it. (source: texomashomepage.com) GEORGIAimpending execution Clemency hearing set for Georgia death row inmate Representatives seeking clemency for death row inmate John Wayne Conner are to meet with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the day before Conner is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. Conner received the death sentence, set for 7 p.m. July 14, for the January 1982 murder of James T. White in Telfair County. A jury found Conner guilty of malice murder, armed robbery and motor vehicle theft that July, sentencing him to death. In May 1983, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed his convictions for malice murder and motor vehicle theft and his death sentence, but reversed his armed robbery conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Conner's appeal on Feb. 29. The Parole Board, which has the sole constitutional authority to grant clemency and commute or reduce a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole or to life without the possibility of parole, only considers commutation of a death-sentenced inmate after all judicial avenues of relief appear to have been exhausted. The meeting is expected to be closed, as authorized by Georgia law, and no public comment will be taken at the meeting nor any other business conducted. (source: Albany Herald) *** Panel to hold clemency hearing for Georgia death row inmate The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has scheduled a clemency hearing for an inmate scheduled to be executed next week. The parole board said in a news release Wednesday that supporters of 60-year-old John Wayne Conner can appear before the board on July 13. Conner is set to be executed July 14 at the state prison in Jackson. Conner was convicted of beating his friend J.T. White to death in January 1982 during an argument after a night of drinking and marijuana use. The parole board is the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence in Georgia. Conner's attorneys have also asked a judge to halt his execution. They say Conner is intellectually disabled and, therefore, ineligible for execution. The state counters that those arguments are procedurally barred. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Ohio Supreme Court to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, USA, US MIL.
July 5 TEXAS: Mom and girl slain, family awaits justice Elizabeth Goodman was on the phone in her kitchen with her youngest daughter when the call was dropped. 10 minutes later, she heard from a friend that her daughter had been shot in her doorway on Hartel Street in Beaumont's South End, less than 3 miles from the Goodmans' home on Potts. Mary Goodman, 41, wasn't the only one who was hit. Her 16-year-old daughter, Briana Goodman, was found shot to death in the backyard. "To lose a child and a grandchild like that, I just don't understand," Elizabeth Goodman, 72, said in her 1st interview since the July 31, 2010 double slaying. "No one deserves to be killed in cold blood." Elizabeth and Joseph Goodman, 77, mourn the loss daily. Pictures of anniversaries, birthdays, rodeo and zydeco events fill their home - reminders of what was stolen from them. Briana Goodman, the youngest of 13 grandchildren, hoped to become a teen model in Houston. Her grandmother tore up an acceptance letter from a modeling agency she received four months after Briana's death. "Briana was too young to die," Elizabeth Goodman said. 6 years after the deaths, the accused killer has yet to go to trial, and the Goodmans have grown impatient with the criminal justice system. 3 close relatives have died while waiting. Joseph Kenneth Colone, 37, remains in jail on a $2 million bond in the killings - Jefferson County's oldest capital case, which is scheduled for trial in January 2017. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Colone, who unsuccessfully sought his release last year because of the trial delays, intends to plead not guilty. "We're ready for closure," said Andre Goodman, 52, Mary's brother, who lives in Liberty County. "This has changed our lives. I don't even drive to Beaumont like I used to because I think about it every time I come here." 'Gaming the system' The Goodmans said they believe Colone is "gaming the system" by attempting to delay the trial, but his is not the only case to linger in the system. Of 230-plus active cases on the 252nd District Court trial docket, more than 1/2 date to before 2015. After the Ninth Court of Appeals turned down his request to be released pending the trial, Colone's focus turned to prosecutors' pursuit of the death penalty. Bob Loper, Colone's Houston-based attorney, unsuccessfully tried to have the state's death penalty law declared unconstitutional, which would eliminate it from consideration at trial. Such suggestions are rarely given much consideration in capital cases, Loper admitted. But defense attorneys often challenge death penalty laws based on fear of innocent people being executed. District Judge Raquel West ruled against Colone's attorneys. They preserved the issue for possible later appeal by an appellate attorney, since it was rejected at the trial level. Loper was part of a defense team that in 2010 convinced a Houston judge to call executions unconstitutional. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stopped the judge's plans to hold a hearing on the matter. The capital murder suspect, John Edward Green, escaped the death sentence by pleading to a last-minute 40-year deal in 2011. "This is not something new and novel, but it has been tried in many other cases," Loper said. In Colone's case, Loper argues the law requirement for a jury to consider whether a capital offender has a likelihood of being a "continuing threat to society" is something not even members of the psychiatric community can do accurately. The delays irritate Joseph Goodman, an aging and ailing man who wants to see his daughter's killer die before he does. Andre Goodman points out other family members have died waiting for justice since 2010 - his and Mary's grandmother, an aunt and uncle. "We're just sick and tired of nothing happening," Joseph Goodman said. DNA calculations Last year, the FBI notified crime labs across the country that data used to calculate the chances of someone's DNA being found at a crime scene was determined in error, though they downplayed the errors' impact. Their methods drastically overestimated reliability of DNA results, from 1 in a billion, down to less than 1 in a 100. DNA is key in the case against Colone, lead prosecutor Pat Knauth said. Knauth did not want to comment on specific evidence for fear of contaminating the local jury pool, he said. Colone's attorneys are still considering a push to have the trial transferred out of Jefferson County for a 2nd time, a costly move that prosecutors do not want to make. Prosecutors were ready to try the case this past April, but Colone's attorneys wanted more time to recalculate any DNA allegedly linking Colone to the crime. M "There's a lot of (DNA at the crime scene), some that's very crucial to the case," Knauth said. The Goodmans call it "trial strategy," despite the discrepancies in DNA calculations becoming a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., KY., MO., NEB., OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF., USA
July 4 TEXAS: More court review ordered for Bastrop County murder case The state's top criminal appeals court is asking the trial court in a lengthy Central Texas death penalty case to further review the legality of DNA testing of evidence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling Wednesday is the latest in a long appeals process for convicted killer Rodney Reed. He's on death row for the rape-slaying 20 years ago of 19-year-old Stacy Stites, whose body was found off the side of a road in Bastrop County. Reed was arrested nearly a year later when his DNA surfaced in another sexual assault case. He long has insisted he and Stites had a consensual sexual relationship. His attorneys want more testing of items. They've argued Stites' police officer fiancee later imprisoned for improper sexual contact is a more likely murder suspect. Top court upholds death sentence in 1975 slaying case The top Texas criminal court has upheld the conviction of a Central Texas man sent to death row 3 years ago for the 1975 rape-slaying of a 20-year-old woman in San Marcos. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday rejected arguments from 62-year-old Willie Jenkins that DNA evidence was faulty and insufficient to prove he killed Sheryl Norris at her apartment. She was a secretary at the Texas Crime Prevention Institute at what's now called Texas State University. Attorneys also challenged jury instructions and contended misconduct by a juror should have resulted in a mistrial. A national DNA database in 2010 tied the long-unsolved case to Jenkins, who was at a California state hospital for violent sexual predators. Trial witnesses tied him to 5 rapes in California and Texas. (source for both: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Abolish the death penalty I have a brother on Death Row. So have you. Execution of a human being is contrary to the will of God, contrary to civilized society, and contrary to any concept of the family of humanity. Execution is premeditated murder. The conspirators are the governor, legislators who allow it to continue and voters who elect them, judges, prosecutors, juries and executioners. The process of condemnation and execution is unjust for well-demonstrated reasons and stupid for well-known practical reasons. I speak for the Episcopal Peace Fellowship of Pensacola. Others will join me. If you love God's creation, or simply believe your conscience forbids you to tolerate this bizarre practice of ritual killing, join us and tens of thousands of others in fighting to abolish the death penalty. William M. Sloan, Pensacola (source: Letter to the Editor, Pensacola News Journal) LOUISIANA: Orleans public defender wins, death penalty groups lose as state redirects money for indigent defense In New Orleans and across Louisiana, public defenders are starting off the new fiscal year on better footing. Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Legislature held steady the total amount of funding the state kicks in for indigent defense, while voting to shift more of that $32 million to the front lines. But the shift has taken a toll on the agencies that represent defendants in capital cases, both at trial and in years of appeals after convictions. 2 of those outfits, the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana and the New Orleans-based Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana, say their budgets have been cut in half, with each losing about $1 million. A bill that Edwards signed June 17 requires the Louisiana Public Defender Board to dole out at least 65 % of its budget to local district defenders, an increase of nearly $5 million from what the state board had been delivering to local defenders in recent years. The biggest beneficiary is the Orleans Parish Public Defenders Office. It will see a nearly $1.5 million increase in state money, bringing its total budget to $7.9 million. That figure assumes funding from the city stays level at $1.5 million, with a modest decline in revenue from fines and fees generated largely from traffic tickets. A long slide in the number of traffic tickets written across Louisiana - the biggest revenue source for most public defender offices in the state - reached a crisis point last year. More than a dozen district defenders curtailed services, cut staff or turned away poor defendants, leaving more than 1,000 arrestees in Louisiana without attorneys. Ultimately, the Legislature spared those offices a steep projected cut in the state's annual supplement to local funding, though advocates note that a largely "user-funded" system remains shaky, with reform elusive. In Orleans Parish, Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton described "a burst of resources that's going to delay and mitigate some bad things." The extra cash will mean an end to a hiring freeze and other stiff cutbacks that Bunton resorted to over the past year to grapple with a severe budget
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., ARIZ.
June 28 TEXAS: Texas' death penalty beyond repair so think about ending it, judge says We welcome Judge Elsa Alcala's frank - and courageous - assessment of the Texas death penalty, not for what people wish the state's capital punishment system to be, but for what it is: Discriminatory, inefficient and immoral. That assessment coming from an experienced judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals - the state's highest court in criminal matters - is not easily dismissed. It's true that many Texans support the death penalty as a tough, fair and painless way to punish those convicted of certain heinous crimes. That category includes crimes in which more than one person was murdered, a law enforcement officer was killed, or circumstances that involve murder and another aggravated felony. An example of the latter would be fatally shooting a store clerk during the course of a robbery, or killing someone during a sexual assault or kidnapping. To be sure, those are horrible crimes that warrant the toughest punishment on the books. The problem with the death penalty is that it is final. Once done, it cannot be undone. As such, it requires a perfect system in which to operate justly and morally. An imperfect system means a killer gets away, while an innocent is imprisoned or executed. It's no wonder that Alcala has growing discomfort with the Texas death penalty system, riddled with imperfections. She wrote about them in a recent opinion regarding the case of Julius Jerome Murphy, sentenced to die for the 1997 shooting death of a man whose car had broken down along Interstate 30 in Texarkana. "I think there are, as I said in that opinion, significant problems with the death penalty," Alcala told the American-Statesman's Chuck Lindell. "There are lots of problems, and I think the public is not aware of the problems." Alcala wrote that Texas courts should study whether the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is arbitrarily imposed by race, disproportionately affecting minorities, and whether excessive delays in imposing the ultimate sentence results in cruel and unusual punishment because inmates are held in solitary confinement for years, if not decades. Those inequities are reflected in state figures that show 71 % of those awaiting execution in Texas are African American or Latino. Alcala came to the bench in 2011, when then-Gov. Rick Perry tapped her to fill a vacancy. Her doubts and concerns regarding the system have been sown by cases that came before her, including: -- Bobby James Moore: Alcala wrote that her court's reliance on a decades-old standard to measure intellectual disability, which is no longer used by medical professionals, "is constitutionally unacceptable." -- Duane Buck: Alcala sharply criticized rulings allowing Buck to be executed despite trial testimony that he was a future danger to society because he is black. Such concerns grabbed the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court, which earlier this month, announced it would examine the constitutionality of the death sentences given to Moore and Buck. Pointing out the flaws in the state's death penalty system takes political guts, given the wide support it enjoys in Texas, topping 70 % on a recent Gallup poll. That kind of courage has been in short supply since judge Tom Price left the state Court of Criminal Appeals in 2014. Before his departure, Price called for an end to the death penalty, saying he was haunted by a growing fear that Texas will execute an innocent inmate, if it hadn't already. He worried aloud whether he had participated in executing an innocent person. As a long-time judge on the court, Price was part of a body with a dubious history in death penalty matters. The court still is plagued by its unfortunate "sleeping lawyer" ruling more than a decade ago refusing to halt an execution of a death row inmate whose attorney had snoozed through major portions of his capital murder trial. Following that embarrassment, there was the "we close at 5" incident in a 2007 case. Presiding Judge Sharon Keller closed the court clerk's office at 5 p.m., preventing attorneys from filing a last-minute appeal for twice-convicted killer Michael Richard, who ultimately was executed without his final appeal being heard in court. That prompted the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to issue a public warning to Keller, but the rebuke was later dismissed on a technicality after Keller appealed. Aside from the court's well-documented missteps, there are other signs of the system's imperfections in the wave of exonerations of Texans, such as Michael Morton, who were wrongfully convicted and sent to prison for many years, while the true criminals went free. Oftentimes, the guilty go on to commit more crimes, which was true in the Morton case in which the person who murdered Morton's wife, went on to kill another woman. It's worth noting that Texas
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., MO., USA
June 27 TEXAS: Bryan Collier Named Director of 150,000-Inmate TX Prison Agency Second-in-command Bryan Collier will be the next director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, taking the reins at an agency that oversees more than 100 prisons and nearly 40,000 employees, the Texas Tribune reports. Collier, the agency's deputy executive director, will replace Brad Livingston, who has led the agency since 2004. Collier with the department as a clerk, correctional officer and parole officer before moving up the ranks. He's been with the agency for more than 30 years. He will take over for Livingston starting Aug. 1. As executive director, Collier will lead nearly 40,000 employees, manage a $3 billion annual budget, direct more than 100 prisons with nearly 150,000 inmates, and oversee the nation's busiest execution chamber. His agency is struggling to recruit and retain employees, maintain aging facilities, and keep contraband out of inmates' hands. Livingston joined the department in 1997 as deputy director of the financial services division. In 2001, he became the chief financial officer. As of February, his salary was $266,500. (source: The Texas Tribune) FLORIDA: Sievers attorneys say death penalty notice wasn't properly filed Attorneys for Mark Sievers filed a motion Monday to strike the state's death penalty notice, arguing the state didn't properly file it. State statute requires the notice to include what the state plans to prove in trial, but the notice last week does not include that information. The state attorney's office filed notice it intends to seek the death penalty against both Sievers and Jimmy Rodgers, who are charged with 1st-degree murder in connection with the death of Sievers' wife, Teresa, 1 year ago Wednesday in her Bonita Springs home. A judge will have to respond to the motion as part of the criminal proceedings. Also filed Monday was a defense motion for attorney fees, requesting the state pay for trial cost since Mark Sievers qualified for a public defender. (source: ABC news) MISSOURI: Edgerton man indicted on 4 counts of murder in relatives' deathsVictims' bodies found outside burning home in February A Platte County grand jury indicted Grayden Denham, 24, on charges of 1st-degree murder in the slayings of his grandparents, his sister and his 3-month-old nephew. Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd announced the charges in a news conference Monday. The bodies of Russell Denham, 82, Shirley Denham, 81, Heather Ager, 32, and infant Mason Schiavoni were found outside their burning Edgerton home on Feb. 20. Investigators said the victims appeared to have been shot and set on fire. A dog found dead in the yard had also been shot. Grayden Denham was arrested in Arizona the day after the fire. Police said he drove there in his grandfather's Nissan Versa, which he had been told not to use because his license was suspended. The charges against Grayden Denham carry a minimum penalty of life in prison without parole. Prosecutors said they have the option of seeking the death penalty but have not yet decided whether to use it. Grayden Denham is also charged with arson, animal abuse, stealing a motor vehicle and armed criminal action. His bail has been set at $4 million. (source: KMBC news) USA: Democratic Platform Committee Drafts Language For Convention On Friday, a panel of Democrats developing the party's platform ahead of next month's Philadelphia convention voted down an amendment that would have opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The TPP has been a heavily debated topic within the Democratic party as some rank-and-file Democrats are opposed to President Obama's support of it. The panel decided to address the issue by maintaining a neutral stance, stating that "there are a diversity of views in the party" and asserting that a trade deal "must protect workers and the environment". The panel also touched on language regarding the death penalty, expansion of Social Security and raising the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. They have approved calling the death penalty "a cruel and unusual form of punishment which has no place" in the state and saying that it should be abolished. (source: politicspa.com) ___ 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----TEXAS, PENN., GA., LA., ARK., OKLA., ARIZ.
June 25 TEXAS: Unexpected career: Stoffregen steps down from public defender's office after 42 years as lawyer Jack Stoffregen wanted to teach at a college level. He went to law school instead to impress his future in-laws. "My fiancee's parents hated me," he said. "They didn't like me at all and they decided if I were to go to law school and be a lawyer then maybe I was worthy of their daughter." The marriage didn't last but the law career did. Stoffregen turned 66 on Thursday and retired Friday after 42 years as a lawyer, with the last 9 as the 1st chief public defender of the Texas Regional Public Defender's Office, which exclusively handles capital murder cases. Ray Keith, the assistant chief public defender, was appointed as Stoffregen's successor. Stoffregen was born in Nebraska in 1950. However, his family moved around a lot because of his father's job as an engineer for a natural gas company. Stoffregen graduated high school in 1968 in Dumas and earned an undergraduate degree in government from Texas Tech. After earning his law degree, he began working for the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office in 1974. He said the television show "The Defenders," which he watched as a boy, inspired him to practice criminal law. After a year as a prosecutor, he entered private practice. "I wanted to make more money. That was a real motivator at the time," he said. He was 33 years old when he first took on a capital murder case, defending Clarence Allen Lackey, who was accused of the abduction, rape and slaying of Toni Diane Kumpf in 1977. Stoffregen was appointed to handle Lackey's appeal and successfully obtain a new trial, which he also tried. Lackey was convicted again and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1997. "To hear the judge pronounce death was devastating," Stoffregen said. "At that point in my life I was surprised I went and did other capital cases." Trying capital cases was making him a better lawyer, he said. He went on to defend more than 20 capital murder defendants in West Texas before he was appointed to lead the public defender's office, In his time as a capital defense lawyer, he's seen improvements in the resources available to defendants. "If the state has an expert, the defense is generally going to get one," he said. In the early part of his career, counties gave indigent defendants a $500 limit to pay for their defense. "I think the courts and judges are cognizant that they need to give us resources to make sure that if the state gets a death sentence that it's as close to 100 % as you can get," he said. The quality of defense attorneys has also improved, he said. Stoffregen said defending people charged with capital murder is a high-stress job with an 85 $ chance a jury will hand down a death sentence if that punishment is an option. "The odds are really stacked in favor of the state in these types of cases," he said. "Every day I have to make decisions that may have a direct impact on whether somebody lives or dies." The bulk of capital murder defense strategy is mitigation, he said. "The act is generally so bad and so horrible that it's easy to paint the picture of the guy as a monster, and our job is to show he or she's not a monster, that they're a human being," he said. Stoffregen said he used to be ambivalent about the death penalty. But his stance has changed since leading the public defender's office. However, he declined to specify how it's changed. "I don't think I've ever had a client that I wasn't able to find something good in, something there that reminded me that he or she is a human and has parents and siblings and something has happened to that person, something's been done to that person that put him in the circumstances he's in today," he said. "A lot of people just do it to themselves. But something has happened to them always and it???s our job to dig and try to find that." Matt Powell, Lubbock County's criminal district attorney, described Stoffregen as an honorable opponent in the courtroom. "Jack is one of those guys that he will zealously advocate for his client and he'll fight you tooth and nail under the guides of the law," he said. "But he'll do it with character and with integrity, doesn't hide the ball, is honest with you. I've always respected Jack and thought he did a great job." The Regional Public Defender's Office began in 2007 as a pilot program in Lubbock aimed at providing defense attorneys to indigent defendants facing the death penalty. With Stoffregen at the helm, the program quickly grew to include more than 160 counties, with 8 offices around Texas. The office has about 46 full-time employees with room in its budget for at least 10 more. Eligible counties must have a population of less than 300,000. "He's just done a tremendous job," said Bill McCay a Lubbock County commissioner who was on the oversight board that hired
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, ARK.
June 24 TEXAS: Texas march against legal lynchings Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement activists participated in the Juneteenth parade and festival on June 18 in Houston's historic Third Ward at Emancipation Park, which was bought and established by freed slaves in 1872. The Abolition Movement makes the connection between slavery and what exists on Texas prison farms today. "We recognize the continuum from lynchings after the Civil War to the legal lynchings that occur now in Huntsville, Texas, where 537 people have been executed by the state of Texas since 1982,' said Joanne Gavin, a founder of the Abolition Movement in the mid-1990s and a veteran of Mississippi's Civil Rights Movement. Joining the Abolition Movement at the parade were veterans of Houston's Black Panther Party, whose leader, Carl Hampton, was murdered by Houston police a few blocks from Emancipation Park. Houston cops were judge, jury and executioners of Hampton, a brilliant revolutionary and charismatic leader until his death in 1970. Also in the contingent was the Committee to Free Juan Balderas, who has been on Texas death row since 2015. (source: Workers World) FLORIDA: Attorney for Orange County teen murder suspect argues trial should be delayed Attorneys for Sanel Saint-Simon want his trial be delayed until the Florida Supreme Court makes a ruling on the death penalty. "I have very serious concerns about rushing this to trial," said Carolyn Schlemmer, defense attorney. His attorneys spent nearly an hour Friday arguing his case needs to take a back seat to the Hurst and Perry cases currently pending with the Florida Supreme Court. Saint-Simon is accused of beating, then dumping his girlfriend's daughter, Alexandria Chery, in a field in 2014 near the Polk-Osceola County lines. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January that Florida's death penalty cases were unconstitutional and didn't give jurors enough of a vote. "We do not have finalized capital jury instructions," Schlemmer said. A case tried right now would be lacking the instruction manual for how a jury should decide between life and death. His trial has already been delayed once over questions about the future of Florida's death penalty. The idea that the Hurst case could have any impact on new death penalty cases is legally questionable. But the Perry case is looking for answers on whether a full 12 members of the jury should be deciding on death instead of 10. And whether cases already under prosecution when the state revised the death penalty in March, should be covered by the new rules. "We all want it done correctly. And we all want it to be done lawfully," said Ryan Vescio, assistant state attorney. Meanwhile, Saint-Simon's attorneys tried to have the judge throw out potentially incriminating statements allegedly made by Saint-Simon when he was first questioned by investigators. The defense argued he thought he was under arrest when he was not. The judge ruled the entire interview will be admissible at trial. (source: WFTV news) ** Evidence points to earlier Markel murder attempt Prosecutors say Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera traveled to Tallahassee in June 2014 during a thwarted attempt to execute Dan Markel. A Leon County judge delayed the decision to set a bond for 33-year-old Garcia Friday as his attorney looked to interview Tallahassee Police investigators. Garcia pleaded not guilty to charges of 1st-degree murder in the July 2014 shooting of Markel, a Florida State law professor and prominent legal scholar. On July 18, 2014, Markel was found slumped over the steering wheel of his car with 2 gunshot wounds to the head. Prosecutors say the June trip was cut short when a Miami rental car company found out Garcia and Rivera were in Tallahassee. The car was rented for local use only. Cappleman said the company pinged the GPS on the car and Rivera and Garcia immediately turned around and headed back to Miami. Garcia was arrested May 25 in Broward County where he was held until transport to Tallahassee a few weeks later. In a Broward County Jail phone call with his girlfriend Katherine Magbanua, Garcia said he wanted to put the ordeal behind him and once he was released, "get the hell out of Dodge," he said. "And just put all this sh** behind us." His South Florida attorney Jim Lewis argued that the state has only circumstantial evidence against Garcia, nothing concrete. However, he indicated that local attorney Zack Ward could possibly join the defense team to work during the sentencing phase. "All they've got is theories," Lewis said. "No facts. No eye witnesses. No physical evidence. No confessions. No statements. This man should not be held here without a bond." Chief Assistant State Attorney Georgia Cappleman is seeking the death penalty. She asked that Garcia be held without bond or at the minimum a $1 million bond. She conceded
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN. FLA., ALA., LA.
June 23 TEXAS: Death Watch: New Rodney Reed FilingDeath row inmate's lawyers seek retrial Attorneys for death row inmate Rodney Reed have filed a supplement to the Feb. 2015 brief seeking a retrial on his death penalty case, arguing that new evidence has come their way that further indicates that Reed is not responsible for the April 1996 murder of Stacey Stites. The brief, filed June 7 to the Court of Criminal Appeals and Reed's trial court in Bastrop, points to a conflicting detail in the timeline of former Giddings Police Officer Jimmy Fennell, Stites' fiance and the man Reed defenders believe is actually responsible for killing Stites. Since Fennell first gave his official statement to police 2 days after Stites' body was found, the understanding was that he spent the night of April 22 at home with his fiancee - beginning at 8pm or 8:30 - and that he slept through her early morning departure for work at H-E-B. (Fennell testified in court to this chronology, as well.) But according to a recent interview with Curtis L. Davis - a Bastrop County Sheriff's deputy who at the time was one of Fennell's best friends - Fennell told Davis that he spent the night of April 22 drinking beer with fellow police officers by his truck after Little League baseball practice. Davis said Fennell told him the next morning that he didn't return home to Stites until 10 or 11 o'clock that night. Reed's lead counsel, Innocence Project attorney Bryce Benjet, explained in the 19-page brief that Davis revealed this conflicting detail during an April interview with CNN. The network is currently producing a special for its show Death Row Stories about Reed's case and the efforts to save his life. (Indeed, the Chronicle was in Living???ston, where death row inmates are housed, when CNN's crew interviewed Reed.) Benjet wrote that he had not been aware of the interview until one of CNN's producers asked Benjet to comment "about certain statements made by Officer Davis." He said that a producer of the show allowed him and an assistant to view "portions of the interview with Officer Davis and to briefly review a transcript of the entire interview." CNN declined to release a copy of the interview or the transcript for use with the filing. Benjet expects the "relevant portions" of the recording to be part of the special when it airs. A representative for CNN told the Chronicle that there is currently no airdate for the episode. Benjet argues that Fennell's conflicting chronologies concerning how he spent the evening before Stites' murder further represents evidence of Fennell's consciousness of guilt, and that the notion of his drinking well into the night on April 22 would put him out of his and Stites' apartment at a time that 3 forensic pathologists have concluded was the actual time that Stites was killed. The state's theory holds that Stites was abducted by Reed and killed on her way to work on April 23, around 3am. Reed's Feb. 2015 petition for a retrial was rooted in the scientific conclusion that Stites actually died before midnight, on April 22, and that her body was moved from one location to another after she had been killed. The 2015 filing also notes that Davis accompanied Fennell through much of what the state accepts to be his discovery process of his red pickup truck after the murder, and notes how Davis signed out of a 12-hour work shift on April 22 after only 1 hour because of what he described as a "broken tooth." Davis then spent the next 3 days away from work on leave for a "personal death." The filing further notes how there is no documentation of any attempt by the police to interview Davis or otherwise establish whether he could have driven Jimmy Fennell home after dispensing of Stites and the truck. The idea that Fennell was providing conflicting statements in the aftermath of Stites' murder aligns with six other instances listed by Benjet in the initial 2015 application for a rehearing. Benjet also implies that Fennell provided false testimony during trial, and that the state's failure to provide this information on trial constitutes a violation of due process under Brady v. Maryland. (Fennell is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence that began in 2008 after he accepted a plea deal on charges that he raped a woman while on duty as a police officer in nearby Georgetown.) "In this case, the State failed to disclose Fennell's inconsistent statement as to his whereabouts on the night of April 22, 1996," Benjet wrote. "Even though the trial prosecutors may not have been aware of what Officer Davis learned from Fennell, Officer Davis was a Bastrop County Sheriff's Officer. And the [BCSO] was the lead agency investigating Stacey's murder. Accordingly, Officer Davis' knowledge of what Fennell told him is imputed to the State." Reed most recently faced an execution date of March 5, 2015, but saw his execution stayed 2 weeks
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
June 22 TEXAS: Attorney appointed for suspect in Commerce double homicide An attorney specializing in death penalty capital murder cases has been appointed for a San Marcos man charged in connection with the deaths of a mother and daughter near Commerce. Meanwhile a benefit account has been established to assist with the funeral arrangements for the victims in the case. Tyrone Jamaal Williams, 30, remains in the custody of the Hunt County Detention Center, being held in lieu of $1 million bond on a charge of capital murder of multiple persons. Williams had filed a writ of habeas corpus from the jail, seeking the appointment of an attorney. During a Tuesday morning hearing in the 354th District Court, Judge Richard A. Beacom appointed an attorney from the West Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases program to represent Williams on the writ. No additional hearings were immediately scheduled. Williams is charged in the June 17 murders of Nichole Elizabeth Gonzales, 27, and her mother Vicki Ann Gonzales, 51. Williams was reportedly the estranged boyfriend of Nichole Gonzales and they were the parents of 2 small children who were also found inside the residence where the murders occurred. The children were unharmed. The Commerce Police Department reported Tuesday that a viewing for the Nichole and Vicki Gonzales is scheduled from 5-7 p.m. and a vigil from 7:30-8 p.m. Friday at Jones- Walker & Son, 1209 Live Oak Street in Commerce. The funeral home is also accepting donations for the family between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays. Hunt County has been a part of the West Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases program since 2012.Each participating county agrees to pay a yearly fee, based on its population and the number of capital murder cases it has filed within the last 10 years. The cost of the program to Hunt County is on a sliding scale, with the costs rising each year to a maximum of $108,000. There are some limitations to the program. In the event 2 people are charged with capital murder and are facing the death penalty in the same case, the office could only defend one of them. The office also doesn't handle the appeals of any convictions, nor does it pay for "2nd chair" defense attorneys, both of which would be still be paid for through the county. The office also does not handle capital murder cases where the death penalty is not being sought. (source: Herald-Banner) ___ 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----TEXAS, MASS., N.C., FLA., ALA., CALIF.
June 20 TEXAS: In State with Most Executions, a Texas Republican Judge Questions Constitutionality of Death Penalty Texas' highest criminal court should consider whether the death penalty is being fairly applied and should still be constitutional, 1 of the 9 judges on the all-Republican court wrote in a dissenting opinion issued Wednesday. Judge Elsa Alcala, who was appointed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2011 by then-Gov. Rick Perry, agreed with the court's decision to order a lower court to consider overturning the conviction of Julius Murphy, who was sentenced to death for the 1997 killing of 26-year-old Jason Erie. However, in a dissenting opinion she challenged the court's decision to reject, without elaboration, Murphy's lawyers' contention that "evolving standards of decency" show the death penalty should be deemed unconstitutional. "In my view, the Texas scheme has some serious deficiencies that have, in the past, caused me great concern about this form of punishment as it exists in Texas today," Alcala wrote. She wrote that the court has been ignoring similar claims from other inmates as a matter of routine without regard for "more current events," and said Murphy's appeal "has presented arguments that are worthy of this court's substantive review." The court historically has shown little sympathy for condemned inmates, although Alcala has been critical of some past rulings. It is the last state judicial stop for condemned prisoners in Texas, which executes more prisoners than any other state - 537 since 1982. In Murphy's case, the appeals court ordered the trial court to resolve Murphy's appeal and deliver its findings on challenges alleging that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence showing that two key witnesses were pressured into testifying against him and that one of the witnesses gave false testimony. Murphy's attorneys argued that the U.S. executes fewer people than it used to, that more states have decided to abolish or to not use the death penalty, and that delays in carrying out death sentences mean prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for excessive lengths of time, which amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. They also questioned whether race has resulted in a disproportionate number of minority inmates on death row. Murphy is black, like 44 % of the 246 Texas death row inmates. As of Jan. 1, 1,227 of the country's 2,943 condemned prisoners were black, or 42 % of them. Hispanics, meanwhile, make up 27 % of Texas' death row inmates and 13 % of the nation's. "Given both state and federal case law and the history of racial discrimination in this country, I have no doubt that race has been an improper consideration in particular death-penalty cases, and it is therefore proper to permit (Murphy) the opportunity to present evidence at a hearing about the specifics in his case," Alcala wrote. Murphy, 37, was convicted of killing Erie, who was attacked in September 1997 after his car broke down near his father's house in Texarkana. Murphy was scheduled to die last November but the appeals court gave him a reprieve. The same court stepped in to halt his scheduled lethal injection in 2006. Alcala was elected to a full 6-year term on the criminal appeals court in 2012. (source: Associated Press) MASSACHUSETTS: We need the death penalty How soon we forget. Another police officer was recently killed. Another horrible and needless tragedy. Another good man gone. Another criminal turned murderer. We need the death penalty as a deterrent. Prison time is too easy. It is time the public learned to respect the police and any directives they make. Incidents of police use of force would thus be avoided. The killing of an officer is the ultimate proof of lack of respect for all the police stand for which is law and order. Parents have a job to do and that is to teach moral standards, common decency and respect for authority. It is not the responsibility of the taxpayers. It is time for us to demand cooperation as required or face anarchy. It is time to stop retribution against the police for doing their jobs. They put their lives on the line to protect ours. It's time to ask if we are worthy of their sacrifices. Priscilla J. Ham Shrewsbury (source: Letter to the Editor, Worcester Telegram) NORTH CAROLINA: 4-year-old murder case slated for trial An Elizabeth City man accused of stabbing his former girlfriend to death at a local motel in 2012 is slated to go on trial - more than 4 years after he was initially charged in the crime. The state's capital murder case against Gerard La???Tea Patterson is scheduled for trial the week of Oct. 31, District Attorney Andrew Womble said in a recent email. Patterson, 28, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Shawntae McPherson. Patterson is accused of stabbing McPherson to death with a knife in a motel room
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., N.C., GA., ALA.
June 18 TEXAS: Roberson Execution StayedCourt of Criminal Appeals sends case back to Anderson County The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay on the execution of Robert Roberson Thursday, sending the case back to the Anderson County court where Roberson was initially tried. The 49-year-old was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis. Roberson, who is from Palestine, Texas, argued to the state's highest criminal court on a last ditch effort before his pending June 21 execution that the evidence used to convict him for his daughter's death was rooted in junk science. The state argued at his trial in 2003 that Nikki died after Roberson shook her - hard enough, prosecutors said, that she slipped into a coma. A jury agreed that Roberson, high on drugs the night that Nikki died, returned her to bed after he shook her, and left her there for hours, until she was unable to be saved. Roberson always contested those claims. Since the questioning after his arrest, he has maintained that his daughter fell out of her bed. It wasn't until 2014, when a Houston case exposed new forensic theories on the phenomenon known as "Shaken Baby Syndrome," that Roberson was able to shift the nature of the effort to save his life from one dependent on his mental state to one centered on the actual facts of his case. A June 8 application for relief filed to the CCA by Office of Capital Writs attorney Gretchen Sween argued that Roberson should be granted a new trial due to the "prior medical understanding" that "a specific set of symptoms" - retinal hemorrhaging, subdural hematoma/hemorrhaging, and brain swelling - "could be viewed together as categorical proof of SBS/AHT," and because that flawed science resulted in a violation of Roberson's civil rights to due process. In an order issued late on Thursday afternoon, the CCA agreed with Roberson's argument, offering little more than that the justices "find that his claims satisfy the requirements" of Article 11.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure - that the state relied on false, misleading, and scientifically invalid testimony. The CCA remanded Roberson's case to the trial court, taking his execution off the docket. The state now has 120 days to file an answer to Roberson's claims to the CCA. Roberson's stay may not be the biggest news to come out of the CCA this week, however. Also on Thursday, in a concurring and dissenting opinion issued in the case of Julius Jerome Murphy, who was convicted in 1998 of killing stranded motorist Jason Erie in Texarkana, Justice Elsa Alcala argued that the remand hearing issued to Murphy should include not just claims that the state withheld evidence that could have spared Murphy, but that the court should consider altogether "whether the death penalty remains a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment under the current Texas scheme." The 17-page opinion challenges the tenets of the death penalty on a wide variety of issues. Alcala questions the validity of allowing states to determine health standards for whether someone is too mentally ill to die, lists the vast number of (sometimes arbitrary) possibilities that could elevate a murder charge to capital murder (thus bringing the death penalty into play), the role race typically plays in determining death sentences, and the flaws present in considering whether a convicted Texan could be considered a future threat to society. She notes Murphy's claims that "the death-penalty scheme is plagued by excessive delays and that this has resulted in cruel and unusual punishment, partly because, throughout this delay, [Murphy] has been held in solitary confinement." The opinion is notable for its contents as much as it is for its source. The CCA's reputation is that of a conservative court, long fundamentally unopposed to the death penalty as a practice. And while Alcala's opinion represents one solitary voice on a panel of 9 justices, it establishes a modicum of concern for whether the death penalty is truly moral. "I do not decide the ultimate merits of applicant's arguments that the death penalty is unconstitutional, though it should be evident from my numerous opinions on this subject that, in my view, the Texas scheme has some serious deficiencies that have, in the past, caused me great concern about this form of punishment as it exists in Texas today," Alcala wrote. "Rather than refuse to afford applicant the opportunity to factually develop his complaints as this Court does today, I would instead permit applicant to make an evidentiary record of his assertions and to have the habeas court make findings of fact and conclusions of law." (source: Austin Chronicle) CONNECTICUT: Waterbury Cop Killer Richard Reynolds Resentenced After Death Penalty Abolishment He will now face a new sentence by order of the Connecticut Supreme Court. The
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., WASH. DC, FLA.
June 17 TEXASstay of impending execution Court Halts Texas Man's Execution in "Shaken Baby" Case The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Thursday halted the upcoming execution of Robert Roberson, who was sentenced to death for killing his two-year-old daughter in 2002. The appeals court sent the case back to trial court in Anderson County after Roberson's legal team argued that his conviction was based on junk science. His execution had been scheduled for June 21. Roberson, condemned for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in Palestine, has denied he murdered her, insisting she stuck her head after falling out of bed. But the Anderson County district attorney's office argued at trial that Roberson acted intentionally, pointing to experts who testified that Nikki's injuries were consistent with signs of shaking, bruising and blunt force trauma. Other witnesses testified that Roberson had a bad temper and would shake and spank Nikki when she wouldn't stop crying. Roberson's attorneys at trial did not deny he killed his daughter but argued he suffers from mental lapses due to a brain injury. His appeals attorneys argued that he didn't have a fair trial because his mental health expert was not not allowed to testify to that brain injury claim. A 2nd legal team last year entered the fray, though, and argued that Roberson's appeals attorneys had conflicts of interest, which could have complicated his push for relief, and requested another attorney join the team to review their work. Both legal teams appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court with separate arguments to get Roberson's case another look. Both teams were unsuccessful, and his execution was scheduled. Roberson is currently represented by only that 2nd legal team, which includes attorneys from the Texas Defender Service and the state's Office of Capital Writs. Backed by affidavits from medical and other scientific experts who reviewed the case, Roberson's team argued in the stay request that Nikki did not have a broken neck, an injury often tied to Shaken Baby Syndrome. Also, prosecutors had said at trial that Nikki was sexually assaulted, a claim later debunked and abandoned but an inflammatory claim that jurors nonetheless heard, his attorneys argue. Experts, his defense counsel and the district attorney's office did not take seriously Roberson's claim that Nikki fell, an attorney with the Office of Capital Writs said in the request. "Instead of taking Robert's explanation about a fall seriously or exploring all possible causes of the injury sustained by a chronically ill child who had been at the doctor???s office with 104.5-degree temperature only 2 days before," attorney Gretchen Sween wrote, "a tragedy was hastily deemed a crime and a father, doing the best he could to care for his daughter despite severe cognitive impairments, was branded a murderer." If Roberson's trial were today, he would not be convicted or on death row, said Lee Kovarsky, Roberson's attorney with the Texas Defender Service. "Robert was convicted under a scientific theory that, if offered as cause of death today, would consistently result in acquittal," he said via text message. "Texas courts will now have ample opportunity to do justice in his case." (source: Texas Tribune) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present19 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-537 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 20-July 14--Perry Williams538 21-August 19Ramiro Gonzales---539 22-August 23Robert Pruett-540 23-August 31Rolando Ruiz--541 24-September 14-Robert Jennings---542 25-October 19---Terry Edwards-543 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) *** Victims' Family Upset Over Death Penalty Reversal for Convict The man whose daughter and mother were murdered over 20 years ago is speaking out against their killer. The murderer's death sentence was tossed out and replaced with life in prison. Oscar Palomo is angry because he believes the justice system failed his legally blind daughter and mother. He said not one day goes by that he doesn't think about his 4-year-old daughter, Amanda Marie and his 68-year-old mother, Esperanza. Both were taken from him in February of 1995. He said he remembers the day clearly because he found them. They were inside a home in Madero. They were stabbed to death and sexually assaulted. The man responsible and convicted for the crime was Jose Noe Martinez, who was 18 at the time. "He knew what he was doing and broke into my mom's house did what he did. He knew what he was doing with the intention to do whatever, but he didn't have to kill them the way he did and abused them the way he did. That's my anger. My
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., DEL., OHIO
June 16 TEXASimpending execution Death Watch: Shaken ScienceAppeal rests on new research into Shaken Baby Syndrome To have his federal habeas attorneys tell it, Robert Roberson is "dim-witted" and "mentally ill." The 49-year-old, sentenced to death in 2003 for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis, was a "drug abusing petty criminal with a long family history of serious mental health issues," attorneys James Volberding and John Wright have said. But did that make him a ruthless killer? No, Volberding and Wright argued in a Sept. 2010 application for habeas relief made to the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas. Their client "probably did contribute" to the death of his daughter: "Just not knowingly or intentionally. Roberson is not the worst of the worst. Not even close." The 2 attorneys suggested a modified conviction of manslaughter, and a sentence of 20 years. Much of the old argument hinged on the manner in which Nikki is believed to have died, and the way Anderson County District Attorney Doug Lowe manipulated the trial process to elevate the jury's belief in the ruthlessness of the crime. According to Roberson, Nikki died during a night when he was left alone with her and was high on drugs. Prosecutors said he shook her, hard, when he was angry with her - hard enough that she slipped into a coma. When that happened, they said, he put her in bed, and left her there for hours. Nikki was only taken to a hospital after being checked on 5 hours later, at which point it was discovered she was not breathing. Roberson has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested, saying that Nikki died after landing on her head during a fall from her bed. Medical professionals who testified at his trial quickly dismissed his claims as unlikely. An examination of Nikki's body by a nurse upon her arrival at the Palestine Regional Medical Center revealed a "superficial tear to Nikki's anal cavity" and a rate of dilation to the anal canal that was considered faster than usual, suggesting what Roberson's attorneys described as "theoretical sexual penetration." Dallas pediatrician Dr. Janet Squires found no evidence of any sexual abuse, however - no deformities to her anal cavity, bruises, or markings on her vagina. Squires testified at trial that she found no semen or traces of sexually transmitted bacteria. She noted that the anal cavity usually dilates in the comatose state due to the nervous system shutting down. The notion that Roberson sexually abused his daughter that night ultimately became irrelevant during trial. Lowe ultimately even attempted to have that charge dismissed. (Capital murder indictments can be secured in cases in which a murder occurs during a felony, is premeditated, or involves a victim who is younger than 6, making Roberson a candidate under 2 circumstances.) In appeals, Volberding and Wright argued that the notion of sexual abuse was only important to Lowe at the beginning of the trial: By securing an indictment of sexual assault from the grand jury, Lowe would have an easier time turning the jury against Roberson, thus making a death sentence - a more appropriate penalty, he considered, for the high-profile death of a small girl in a small town - a more likely outcome. Roberson's trial attorneys John Vanmeter and Steve Evans used a strategy that pointed to Roberson's longstanding mental illness, though they never actually argued that their client was insane, which would have raised questions of cruel and unusual punishment. Since a final judgment was rendered in federal court in Sept. 2014, Roberson's effort has shifted away from the mental illness angle and instead toward the argument that "Shaken Baby Syndrome" (aka "Abusive Head Trauma") is a phenomenon rooted in junk science. Much of that shift has been Roberson's doing. In 2014, after learning of a Houston case involving a newfound understanding of SBS, Roberson wrote a letter to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals asking that he be granted new counsel. That request eventually led to the Texas Defender Service taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it ultimately failed. On June 8, 2 weeks before his pending execution, Gretchen Sween, an attorney with the Office of Capital Writs, filed 2 applications for relief (1 in Roberson's trial court and another with the Court of Criminal Appeals) as well as a motion with the trial court for a stay of execution. In each application, Sween argues that new forensic science could rebuke previous theorems of SBS, and corroborate Roberson's claims that Nikki - who had a temperature of 104.5 degrees only 2 days before her death - did fall from her bed. Among the claims, Sween has argued that Nikki's lack of any serious neck injuries indicates that she was not in fact shaken, and that the science surrounding SBS has evolved enough to change the course of Roberson's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., FLA., LA., UTAH, CALIF.
June 15 TEXAS: Appeal in 1997 Texarkana capital murder to be reviewed The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says a 37-year-old man on Texas death row for a robbery and fatal shooting in Texarkana nearly 19 years ago will get a review of an appeal in his case. Attorneys for convicted killer Julius Murphy argue Bowie County prosecutors at his 1998 trial improperly withheld evidence that 2 key witnesses were pressured into testifying against Murphy and that one of the witnesses gave false testimony. The state's highest criminal court Wednesday sent the appeal to Murphy's trial court to be resolved. It also rejected an argument that evolving standards of decency show the death penalty is now unconstitutional. Murphy was condemned for the slaying of 26-year-old Jason Erie, who was attacked after his car broke down near his father's house in Texarkana. (source: Associated Press) ** Court Changes Texas Death Row Inmate's Sentence to Life A man who fatally stabbed a 68-year-old woman and her 4-year-old granddaughter during a 1995 burglary in Hidalgo County will no longer face execution after he has been determined to be intellectually disabled. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, changed Jose Noey Martinez's sentence Wednesday to life in prison. The court agreed with a lower court's ruling that Martinez, now 40, "is a person with intellectual disability" and "is constitutionally ineligible for a death sentence." Martinez had been on death row almost 20 years. Martinez broke into the home of Esperanza Palomo to steal a TV and stereo, according to court documents. Palomo was babysitting her blind granddaughter, Amanda. Shortly after breaking in, Palomo confronted Martinez with a baseball bat. He stabbed the grandmother, who fell to the ground immediately, and raped her. After killing the woman, Martinez told law enforcement, he heard the granddaughter crying in another room, court documents show. He told officers that he stabbed her to death. A Hidalgo County jury found Martinez guilty of capital murder in 1996 and sentenced him to death. On appeal, Martinez's attorneys had claimed that he is mentally retarded and argued that executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. (source: Texas Tribune) DELAWARE: Delaware court considers constitutionality of death penalty A silent vigil was held outside the Delaware Supreme Court as the court weighs the constitutionality of capital punishment in Delaware. The ongoing debate over Delaware's death penalty has made its way to the state's highest court. For nearly a year, the discourse has drawn protests and emotional pleas at Legislative Hall, but the issue, now sitting squarely before the Delaware Supreme Court, drew a much more pensive tone in a Dover courtroom on Wednesday, as the court heard arguments over whether the way people are sentenced to death in Delaware is constitutional. The quandary before the court arose after the U.S. Supreme Court found in January that Florida's death penalty law was unconstitutional because it gave judges - not juries - the final say to impose a death sentence. Delaware and Alabama are the only other states that allow judges to override a jury's recommendation of life. Delaware judges, however, have not been using that power. Confusion over the rulings implication in Delaware led the state's Supreme Court to agree to hear arguments and weigh in. In front of a packed courtroom Wednesday, a prosecutor argued to the Supreme Court that the state's death penalty process avoids the pitfalls that made Florida's statute infirm, especially since juries make the initial decision about whether a defendant is eligible for the death penalty in Delaware. A public defender countered that the state violates the Sixth Amendment when juries are routinely told that their sentencing decision is merely a recommendation. "The most basic tenant of the [Florida] decision is that fact finding subjecting the defendant to the death penalty must be made by the jury," said Assistant Public Defender Santino Ceccotti "That does not occur in this state." Delaware is 1 of 32 states with capital punishment. The last execution in the state was in 2012, when Shannon Johnson, 28, was killed by lethal injection. All pending capital murder trials and executions for the 14 men on death row are currently on hold while the state considers the constitutionality issue. The process for sentencing someone to death in Delaware requires multiple steps. Once a person is found guilty of 1st-degree murder, the jury must unanimously agree that the evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that a least once of 22 statutory aggravating factors exists. ?Then, each juror has to decide whether the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors. That decision does not need to be
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., ARK., OKLA., S. DAK., ARIZ., USA
June 15 TEXAS: Former death row inmate Kerry Max Cook fires lawyers, threatens to undo exoneration deal 2 days after his legal team secured an agreement that could lead to his exoneration in a high-profile 40-year-old murder case, former death row inmate Kerry Max Cook fired the very lawyers who set him on a path that could finally clear his name. In a series of Facebook missives and incensed email screeds, Cook accused lawyers from the New York-based Innocence Project and the Innocence Project of Texas of betraying him by accepting a deal with Smith County prosecutors that he never agreed to. Cook maintains that the deal lets prosecutors escape accountability for years of repeated misconduct that kept him behind bars and nearly resulted in his death. Now, the 60-year-old former inmate says he plans to represent himself in court and prove to both the judge and Smith County prosecutors that he didn't brutally kill Linda Jo Edwards in 1977. "I am completely devastated by what has been done wirh [sic] my 40 year struggle for truth & justice," Cook wrote in an email to his former lawyers. "This corporate take-over of the truth of my story has left me still publicly convicted and the district attorneys office exonerated." It's the latest strange twist in a case that has been marked by continued oddities over 4 decades. Cook was convicted in 1978 in the gruesome slaying of Edwards, a 22-year-old who was found beaten, stabbed and mutilated in her Tyler apartment bedroom. Through 3 trials that courts said were tainted with prosecutor misconduct, 20 years on death row and even since his release in 1999, Cook has maintained his innocence. DNA tests also have revealed the DNA of another man - Edwards' married lover - on the panties she wore the night of her death. Smith County prosecutors, however, remain resolute that Cook is guilty. Last week, they agreed to drop the murder charges only after a key witness admitted he lied during Cook's trials. Cook's lawyers struck a deal with Matt Bingham, the Smith County district attorney, in which they agreed to drop claims of misconduct by previous prosecutors in exchange for the state dismissing the long-standing murder charges. Bingham, however, said he would continue to oppose Cook's claims of actual innocence, which would allow him to receive compensation for the 2 decades he spent on death row. A hearing on the actual innocence claim is scheduled for June 29. In court last week, Cook told the judge that he had agreed to the deal, which would require final approval from the state's highest criminal court. But in dramatic emails and Facebook posts in the days after the hearing, Cook said that agreement "exonerated" the prosecutors who helped secure his wrongful conviction. He accused his lawyers of bullying him into taking the deal and said he would rather die than accept it. Cook ordered Innocence Project lawyers who have helped exonerate hundreds of inmates in Texas and across the country to withdraw from the case. He wants the agreement he signed with Smith County prosecutors nullified. And he has vowed to represent himself going forward, a move many equate with legal suicide. "This stress may kill me," Cook wrote in an email Saturday to his former lawyers. "But as I have told you repeatedly during the course of your representation if [sic] me, some things are worth dying for and the truth about how I wound up on Texas death row completely innocent in a case that has become known as the worst case in America, is one of them." Even if a court were to rule that prosecutors engaged in misconduct in Cook's case - a move that is rare - it's unclear what consequences, if any, the former state lawyers might face. In unusual, high-profile cases like those of Michael Morton and Anthony Graves, the prosecutors who oversaw their wrongful convictions were punished by the State Bar of Texas. But under state law, complaints like those must be filed within 4 years of an innocent person???s release from prison. Cook was released in 1999. Innocence Project lawyers said they made the agreement with Cook's best interests in mind and an eye toward securing his exoneration. Nonetheless, they agreed to withdraw from the case. "It is our firm belief that ?Kerry is innocent of this murder and that he has finally received justice and a recognition from Smith County that his prosecution was based on false testimony and he never had a fair trial," Innocence Project lawyers said in an emailed statement. "The attorneys who have worked on Kerry's behalf for many years hope that whatever course of action he ultimately pursues will end in his complete exoneration." Bingham declined to comment. George Kendall, a defense lawyer who has represented inmates who spent decades behind bars, including former Texas death row inmate Delma Banks, said it's not unusual for those who've spent years in prison to have
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA.
June 14 TEXAS: Man facing Capital Murder charge for death of EPPD officer pleads 'not guilty' The man accused of intentionally crashing into police officer David Ortiz pleaded 'not guilty' in court Tuesday morning. 45-year-old John Paul Perry is charged with Capital Murder and Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle, the same vehicle he allegedly drove into Officer Ortiz's motorcycle in East El Paso, killing him. ABC-7 learned Tuesday Joe Spencer is Perry's new court-appointed defense attorney. "We just got appointed late last week. I visited with Mr. Perry and I'm very confident after visiting with him, that Mr. Perry did not intentionally mean to cause any harm to anyone," Spencer said. Spencer said the district attorney's office has to make a decision on whether it intends to seek the death penalty. "We're going to wait for that decision. I think the judge gave them a pretty short deadline and hopefully by next week we're going to know what that decision is and we'll be able to proceed with this case. ABC-7 has confirmed with Sheriff's officials that Perry, believed to be a member of the Barrio Azteca gang, is being held at the Downtown jail in "separation," meaning he is being kept away from the general population. Police charged Perry with Capital Murder, claiming he intentionally ran over Officer Ortiz. ? Perry was also charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. That vehicle is the 2006 Kia Optima that Perry allegedly drove into Ortiz's motorcycle at an East Side stop light on March 10. ABC-7 spoke with the owners of the Kia Optima listed on the incident police report, but they said they sold the car more than two years ago and it was apparently never re-registered by the new owner. They could not recall who they sold the vehicle to. (soruce: KVIA news) FLORIDA: Tommy Zeigler trial plagued by 'significant' problems, report says An investigative journalism center on Monday published a critical probe of death-ow inmate William "Tommy" Zeigler's 1976 trial, finding that evidence supporting his innocence went overlooked by authorities who investigated the quadruple murder inside his Winter Garden furniture store. The new report by students at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism comes as a judge considers Zeigler's latest request for DNA testing, an attempt to prove he did not kill his wife, in-laws and a customer 40 years ago on Christmas Eve. It also adds to a growing body of work that questions Zeigler's conviction, including a television movie and a book. In particular, the report examines new ballistic evidence and what would have been the testimony of 2 key witnesses who were never called to the trial. The students also interviewed Zeigler, now 70, 3 times at Union Correctional Institution near Raiford. "The students' findings challenge, in many ways, the basic foundations of the entire prosecution," said Alec Klein, the professor who leads the award-winning, national investigative journalism center. "Given that a person's life is on the line here, facing the death penalty, I wonder how the court could justify not allowing Tommy Zeigler to go forward with the DNA testing." The Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office has stood by Zeigler's conviction over the decades. Most recently, prosecutors opposed a pending request to have blood-stained clothing from the crime scene retested with more modern DNA techniques. At a March hearing, Assistant Kenneth Nunnelley cited 2 previous opinions from the Florida Supreme Court, which found that evidence about whose blood was on Zeigler's shirt wasn't enough to exonerate him. Since Zeigler's 1976 trial, prosecutors have alleged Zeigler planned the murders because he wanted to claim his wife's insurance policies, and he shot himself in the stomach to make him seem like a victim too. Eunice Zeigler, her parents Perry and Virginia Edwards and store customer Charles Mays were killed. Zeigler argued they were attacked in a store robbery instigated by Mays. The Medill report contends it's "practically unheard of" for a person seeking to cover up a crime to choose such a risky - even deadly - way. An analysis of the gunshot wound to Zeigler's lower torso shows he would have used his non-dominant left hand, based on the angle of the bullet, to shoot himself and did not press the muzzle to his body for stability. More often, cover-up attempts include shots to limbs, Klein said. The report also zeroes in on 2 witnesses, Ken and Linda Roach, who said they drove by the store around the time of the masscre and heard 12 to 15 gunshots within four seconds. An expert interviewed in the story said it's "virtually impossible" for 1 person to fire a single person to fire a non-automatic weapon so quickly, lending more credibility to Zeigler's claim that he and his family were attacked by a group of people led by Mays. The Roaches told Medill that authorites
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., ARK., OKLA., S. DAK., UTAH, USA, US MIL.
June 14 TEXAS: lanco County man indicted in baby's deathJohn Lawrence, 24, charged with capital murder, aggravated sexual assault A Blanco County man has been indicted by a grand jury in the death of a 14-month-old baby girl. John Lawrence, 24, is charged with capital murder and aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 6 in the death of Sunny Dakota Slade-Bort. Lawrence and the child's mother, Jamie Petronella, 23, were arrested in May after police were called to their home in Blanco when the baby stopped breathing. Sunny died at University Hospital. Petronella was indicted on charges of injury to a child by omission. She could face 5 to 99 years or life in prison, if convicted. Lawrence could face the death penalty. The Texas Rangers are investigating the case. (source: KSAT news) GEORGIA: Ga. man pleads guilty in killings of woman, homeless man A man accused of killing 3 homeless men and a woman walking to her car pleaded guilty Monday to murder and other charges in 2 of the deaths just outside Atlanta and received 2 consecutive life sentences without a chance of parole. Aeman Presley entered the pleas Monday in DeKalb County Superior Court, telling Judge Gregory A. Adams that he does "accept and take full responsibility for the crimes I have committed." DeKalb County prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for the 35-year-old Presley in the December 2014 shooting of hair stylist Karen Pearce and had also charged him in the September 2014 killing of Calvin Gholston. He still faces charges in the fatal shootings of 2 homeless men in neighboring Fulton County, and prosecutors there are seeking the death penalty. Presley's attorneys Jerilyn Bell and Crystal Bice said he accepts "unmitigated responsibility." They still believe, though, that he has a form of schizophrenia which played a role in the killings. They declined on Monday to discuss the possibility of a plea in Fulton County and said the case there is moving forward. A spokesman for Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard declined comment on Monday. DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James said a guilty plea that ensured Presley could never be released was the best resolution. He also expressed reluctance to pursue the death penalty when a defendant is willing to accept responsibility and a life sentence. "The most important thing for us was a sentence where he would never see the light of day again," James said. "Someone that commits such a random act of violence ... deserves to be in jail for the rest of their life." Police have said Presley shot Gholston, 53, multiple times as he slept outside a shopping center near Atlanta on Sept. 27, 2014. A woman who found Gholston's body told officers he had been living in an alleyway near the shopping center for at least 2 months, according to a police report. He then killed Dorian Jenkins, 42, on Nov. 23, 2014, followed by Tommy Mims, 68, on Nov. 26, 2014, police have said. Both men were homeless and were wrapped in blankets sleeping on the sidewalk in Atlanta when police say Presley shot them to death. Jenkins was shot 5 times and Mims 7 times in what police described as "overkill." Just over a week later, on Dec. 6, 2014, Pearce, 44, was robbed and fatally shot as she walked to her car after a dinner out with friends in downtown Decatur, just outside Atlanta. A statement from Pearce's parents read aloud on Monday said she was studying to become a nurse and wanted to help others. The statement said Pearce's mother frequently has nightmares about her daughter's final moments and described the family as "shocked to the core of our being." "Our hearts suffer from the deepest wound from which it will never recover," the statement read. Presley later read aloud from a pre-written statement, saying he is "not a serial killer" and wants his daughter and 2 sons living in other states "to know what taking responsibility for your actions truly is." "What I did was ungodly, unrighteous and dishonorable and plain wrong," he said, speaking quietly but clearly. "Although I can't change the past for your loved ones, for you or even for myself, I can only apologize to the families, the friends and the loved ones." (source: Associated Press) ARKANSAS: Murder case headed for August trialProsecutors to seek death penalty for parents in child's death Prospective jurors will be questioned in groups of 3 for Mauricio Torres' capital murder trial. Torres, 46, and his wife, Cathy Torres, 44, of Bella Vista are charged with capital murder and 1st-degree battery in the death of their son. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty. Mauricio Torres and Cathy Torres are being held without bond in the Benton County Jail. Cathy Torres is scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. today for a hearing in her case. Maurice Isaiah Torres, 6, was
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, KAN., NEB., CALIF., USA
June 11 TEXAS: We welcome Supreme Court scrutiny in 2 Texas death penalty cases The Supreme Court has agreed once again to scrutinize the way Texas implements the death penalty. Rejecting Texas' arguments that they need not interfere, at least 4 justices in each case decided that circumstances were unusual enough to merit another look. We welcome that scrutiny, and so should Texas. One case in particular reveals Texas??? stubbornness: Bobby James Moore. It's as clear as a red stop sign to Texas officials and everyone else in the country that individuals with intellectual disabilities may not be executed. But Texas insists that its decades-old method for testing a defendant's mental capacity is sufficient, despite widespread improvements in medical evaluations that have been adopted across the U.S. When a judge ruled that a modern test had shown that Moore, who's been awaiting execution since his 1980 conviction for murder, suffers from intellectual disability severe enough to keep him out of the death house, Texas appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. That court ruled the modern test invalid, arguing that only the outdated methods maintained by Texas officials could suffice. Lawyers for Moore have called that absurd; we agree. In seeking the Supreme Court review, they noted other state high courts have ruled that "current, established medical standards in assessing intellectual disability" should be used. Texas' insistence that only its older testing methods are valid is unreasonable. It also marks the state out as a unnecessary holdout against capital punishment limits that have proven wise and human. Texas serves no higher public good by being so stubborn. The other case involves another inmate on Texas' death row, though its challenge is not so pointedly directed at the death penalty. Instead, it asks a broader question: "Whether and to what extent the criminal justice system tolerates racial bias and discrimination." When jurors were determining whether to sentence Duane Buck to death, his lawyers called an expert witness who, astoundingly, told jurors that Buck would be more likely to be dangerous in the future because he is black. That helped persuade the jury to sentence him to death. So far, lower appeals courts have said that isn't enough to win review of his sentence, but we welcome Supreme Court's review of the case. It's a technical point, but the fact that such an obviously racist statement was allowed to be made in the influence of a life-or-death decision is extraordinary. Both cases show the importance of Supreme Court scrutiny of the way Texas imposes the death penalty. The review is so critical because once imposed, an execution can never be undone. We can't allow ourselves to forget how human, and therefore inescapably fallible, the process leading up to a death sentence is. We were reminded of the potential error in death penalty cases once again last week when Smith County prosecutors finally dropped charges against Kerry Max Cook, the man who they have said for 40 years was behind one of East Texas' most notorious killings. He's another flesh-and-blood reminder of how important it is to get the process right; some punishments can't be be undone. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) Blanco County man charged with capital murder in infant's death A man accused of killing a 15-month-old child in Blanco County could now face the death penalty after a grand jury indicted him on capital murder charges this week. John Cody Lawrence, 24, is also facing a charge of super aggravated sexual assault after a Blanco County grand jury indicted him and the infant's mother, 23-year-old Jamie Petronella, on Wednesday, according to the Blanco County district attorney's office. Petronella is facing 2 charges of injury to a child. The couple lived together with Petronella's 3 children at a home in the 500 block of Jones Street. They had only been living in Blanco for a short time, police have said. On May 2, either Petronella or Lawrence called 911 after the youngest child, 15-month-old Sunny Dakota Bort, stopped breathing. Bort had several bruises around her chin and jaw. The 2 other children also showed signs of abuse, including a 3-year-old boy who had a cerebral hemorrhage. Bort died while in treatment at a hospital in San Antonio on May 5. The capital murder charge against Lawrence is new because Bort had not died yet when Lawrence was arrested and charged with injury to a child. Blanco police chief Mike Ritchey has said Lawrence's arrest was "the worst child abuse case I've ever seen," and that he was disturbed by the lack of emotion both Lawrence and Petronella showed at the time of their arrest. Child Protective Services had visited the couple the week prior because the 3-year-old boy had broken his arm. Lawrence said it happened when he was roughhousing with
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., N.C., ARK., USA
June 10 TEXAS: Coryell County district attorney to seek death penalty in child's death A Gatesville man with a disturbing history of arrests for sexually abusing children was indicted June 1 by a Coryell County grand jury on a charge of capital murder in the death of a 2-year old boy in January. Chet Shelton, 17, was arrested and booked into the Coryell County Jail. Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd confirmed his office would seek the death penalty in any upcoming trial. On the date of the incident, Shelton was tasked with baby-sitting Gatesville toddler Makai Brooks Lamar for most of the day while the child's mother worked a double shift at a local restaurant, according to an arrest affidavit. The affidavit also said the child's mother came home during a break from work and the child was fine at that time. After the mother returned to work, Shelton said he found the boy not breathing and took the child to a neighbor's home where a Coryell County sheriff's deputy lived. According to the affidavit, the child died a few hours later at Coryell Memorial Hospital in Gatesville. Police immediately began treating the 34th Street home in Gatesville as a crime scene, beginning in the child's bedroom, where they found bloody bedding and pillows. In the arrest affidavit, police highlight several inconsistencies with Shelton's story regarding the events in the hours before the child's death, one of which was that Lamar always slept clothed and in a diaper. According to the affidavit, "when Shelton took the infant child to the neighbor's house for medical assistance, the infant was wearing no clothing, not even a diaper." Serious injuries were confirmed during an autopsy conducted in Dallas. The preliminary cause of death was labeled as blunt force trauma, as the child has numerous injuries to his head and internal organs. The affidavit also said the child had been sodomized, causing "severe, distinct trauma" to the child. Shelton's criminal history includes 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in May 2007, 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in December 2007, 2 counts of assault causing serious bodily injury in October 2010 and 4 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact in May 2007. According to Boyd, in exchange for his guilty plea in the earlier cases, many of the most serious charges against Shelton were downgraded to injury to a child, which does not carry a sex offender registration requirement. It was not clear in which jurisdiction Shelton's previous convictions were filed. Online jail records show Shelton remains in the Coryell County Jail on several bonds totaling more than $500,000. Boyd said Shelton's case is Coryell County's only death penalty case. It appears to me that a failure of the judicial system allowed Shelton to skirt the sex offender registration requirement, and avoid lengthy prison terms for the most serious of his previous crimes. That failure also allowed Shelton to be free to reoffend at the level of this charge. Shelton gets his day in court. He will have the opportunity to mount a defense to the charges. Shelton also will be faced by his accusers. If found guilty, Shelton deserves the punishment he receives, be it the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. His tiny victim has no life at all. (source: John Werff, Cove Herald) *** Double shooting charge upgraded to capital murder Charges for a suspect in a double shooting were upgraded to capital murder Thursday after prosecutors said his 2nd victim died in the hospital. Darrell P. Mitchell, 28, is accused of gunning down his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend earlier this week at the woman's apartment in northeast Houston. Lakiesha Lewis, 23, died at the scene and 24-year-old Johnel Francis died late Tuesday after being taken to the hospital. In an orange jail uniform, Mitchell made his initial court appearance Thursday in front of state District Judge Ryan Patrick who ruled that the suspect would be held without bail, a common condition in capital cases. He had been charged with murder. Court records show that Mitchell said he knocked on the door at his ex-gilrfriend's home at 6603 Hirsch about 3 a.m. When her boyfriend answered, Mitchell said "his mind went blank and he shot and killed them," according to the documents. Mitchell surrendered to police Tuesday night after investigators released information about the shooting. In court, prosecutor Keri Fuller said a woman who was Lewis' best friend and knows Mitchell as Lewis' ex-boyfriend told police that Mitchell told her she would have to raise his children because he had killed Lewis and her new boyfriend. Police have said Mitchell and Lewis had an on-again-off-again relationship and had recently broken up. Lewis was the mother of his 3 children, ages 5, 3, and 1. The children were not at the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MASS., N.C., FLA., LA.
June 9 TEXAS: Bell County Capital Murder TrialAttorneys question neuroscientist in penalty phase of Bell County trial David Risner's defense attorneys spent Wednesday bringing character witnesses to the stand to tell what a good husband, father, friend, church member and police officer Risner was. Risner was convicted Monday of capital murder of a peace officer for shooting and killing Little River-Academy Police Chief Lee Dixon on June 19, 2014. Now attorneys are presenting evidence to help the 12 jurors decide if Risner receives the death penalty or is sentenced to life in prison without parole. It wasn't until after mid-afternoon that Russell Hunt Jr., Risner's lead attorney, called a harder-hitting hired gun for his case, neuroscientist Jeffrey D. Lewine of Albuquerque, N.M., to the stand on Risner's behalf. Lewine isn't a medical doctor, but he specializes in researching PTSD, traumatic brain injury and epilepsy. He said that proving mild traumatic brain injury is more difficult than severe injury. "Sometimes an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) shows mild traumatic brain injury, but it usually takes more than visual inspection," Lewine said. He said more information can be helpful from looking at both the MRI and a patient's case history, as he did with Risner. Lewine said Risner definitely had ischemic disease and/or a shearing injury but, under cross-examination later by Bell County Assistant District Attorney Shelley Strimple, he admitted that he couldn't be sure that Risner had mild traumatic brain injury. Lewine admitted that ischemic disease is common with the aging process and has nothing to do with traumatic brain injury. The defense attorneys never mentioned any incidents during which Risner could have gotten a traumatic brain injury. Lewine said treatment for someone with both PTSD, which Risner was proven to have, and a mild traumatic brain injury would be different than what Risner has received since 2009. He said PTSD is difficult to fake when someone is examined by trained personnel. Risner does have markers for potential seizure activity and cognitive impairment confirmed by multiple tests, Lewine said. Strimple asked him about the seizure activity Risner demonstrated during several instances evaluated by local trained medical personnel. More than 1 individual alluded to possible faking, and one doctor in May 2010 said Risner did a "flamboyant presentation," Strimple said. Lewine said some of the behaviors weren't true symptoms and said the seizure-like activity could have been faked or been pseudo seizures. Since he didn't have electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of those instances and he wasn't present, Lewine said he didn't know which it was. Strimple asked Lewine if he read in the defendant's workman's compensation records that Risner should not be around weapons. He said he didn't recall reading that specifically, but said it could be very dangerous for Risner to be around them. "Are you aware of David Risner's dangerous behaviors?" Strimple asked. Lewine said he was. "Was he very dangerous when he shot a police officer in the face?" she asked. "Yes, he was very dangerous at that time," Lewine said. Other testimony Many of the witnesses Hunt and Jeff Parker, Risner's 2nd attorney, called to testify hadn't seen Risner in at least several years, including Richard Risner, the defendant's 1st cousin. Richard Risner and several others said David Risner changed when he came back from working as a contractor in Kosovo and Iraq. Richard Risner only saw him 2 or 3 times after he returned, he told Strimple during her cross-examination. Pat Jordan, a Van Zandt County constable since 1997, last had contact with Risner as a deputy sheriff before Risner went to Kosovo. He described him as particular in how he dressed, how he took care of business at work and how nice he was to people. However, Jordan was shown just 2 days ago a very unfavorable resignation letter Risner kept in his Little River-Academy home that he didn't remember seeing before. Risner described Jordan as inefficient and unprofessional. Jordan said that shocked him. Michael Meissner, a former police officer who worked with Risner, said he knew Dixon because he'd replaced Dixon once as the Little River-Academy Police Chief from early 2009 to late 2009. Meissner described Risner as a very articulate, professional officer and said he had nothing negative he could say about him. Risner changed drastically after Iraq, Meissner said. He saw him at a Temple gun shop and said Risner's behavior and language was so bad that he called someone and told them. Meissner said he never had heard Risner curse before that day, and he said Risner's negative attitude really shocked him. Meissner also knew Dixon because Dixon helped him with a lot of advice after Meissner became the police chief in Little River-Academy. He described Dixon as
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ALA., LA.
June 8 TEXAS: Texan Spent 20 Years On Death Row And Got Cleared After 37 Years A former Texas prisoner who was released in 1999, after serving about 20 years on death row for charges of committing rape and murder of a 21-year-old, was finally cleared Monday. Officials said that an East Texas state court judge approved of an agreement between prosecutors and attorneys to exonerate Kerry Cook, 60, so that he could overturn the capital murder conviction that accused him of killing Linda Jo Edwards in 1977. He had maintained his innocence for 40 years. Cook has always been an activist protesting the death penalty and speaking against it across the United States as well as Europe. He has written Chasing Justice, recording his battle. It had been nominated for the Edgar Award, by Mystery Writers of America. Former FBI Director and Federal Judge William S. Sessions noted: "Kerry Max Cook has written a brutal but compelling account of his 22 years on Texas's death row for a murder he did not commit. The book depicts his struggles against all odds to free himself from an inept justice system that would not let go, despite mounting and eventually overwhelming evidence of his innocence. What is perhaps most amazing is the grace with which he now lives his life as a free man, determined to prevent others from suffering the horrors he endured." The new evidence proved his innocence and held another man guilty, said a statement from the Innocence Project of Texas, representing Cook. Though prosecutors have agreed to drop the murder charges, they still continue to oppose his claims of real innocence. On June 27, Cook will appear again in court and clearance from charges would gain him $2 million or more to make up for the traumatic period of imprisonment. Cook's case got national attention and stirred a lot of questions regarding the death penalty prosecutions in Texas. The state has sent most prisoners to their death, since the U.S. Supreme Court brought up the death penalty again in 1976. In 1999, there was a "no contest" plea to murder, permitting Cook to be released from prison. It however, did not call for any admission of guilt. He had been convicted in 1978. However, his case was appealed and retried. But in 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals put down his conviction and death sentence owing to "prosecutorial misconduct." The 21-year-old bartender had no bad record of violence. It became clear that he lived in exactly the same east Texas apartment complex as Edwards. It was only later that DNA tests proved him to be innocent. "It is long past time for the state of Texas to admit that it got the wrong man and that it prosecuted the wrong man repeatedly and sought the death penalty against the wrong man repeatedly," said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents death row inmates. It is "shameful," Kase said, that prosecutors continue to challenge Cook's efforts to prove his innocence. (source: newseveryday.com) NORTH CAROLINA: D.A. to pursue death penalty in burning death The Alamance County District Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty against Cesar "Chilango" Torres-Acevedo in last summer's burning death of Juan Mario Martinez Trujillo, 56, of Hillsborough. "Today we gave notice to the defense that we intend to proceed capitally," said Cory Santos, first assistant district attorney. Torres-Acevedo is accused of setting Trujillo on fire with an accelerant on Hatchery Road near Interstate 40/85 the evening of June 13, 2015. He died Aug. 24 at UNC Medical Center as a result of his injuries. Burlington police arrested Torres-Acevedo in January. Now that the defense has been notified in Monday's Rule 24 hearing, the N.C. Office of Indigent Defense Services will assign Torres-Acevedo a 2nd lawyer to join Graham attorney Todd Smith. Torres-Acevedo is being held without bond, Santos said. The long investigation involved interviews, searches and surveillance and collected a wide range of circumstantial evidence. According to a police affidavit, friends of Trujillo said he had been involved in drug trafficking with a man called "Chilango," slang for a man from Mexico City, and that there was an ongoing dispute between them over $5,000 to $10,000. Police were later able to identify Torres-Acevedo as "Chilango." On Facebook, police found photos of Torres-Acevedo tagged "Bandolero Torres" and a page under that name with a profile including a cover image of "famous Mexican drug cartel leaders" and "likes" for Facebook pages related to at least 2 drug cartels. According to police, cellphone records show consistent contact between Torres-Acevedo and Trujillo from December 2014 to May 2015, and suggest they were both at the K Cafeteria in Burlington, a few hundred yards from the crime scene, the night of the assault. After the assault, but before his death, Trujillo
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MASS., GA., ALA., TENN., NEB., CALIF., USA
June 7 TEXAS: Supreme Court Makes Slip-Up In Death Penalty Case2 hours after it agreed to hear 2 questions raised by a death row inmate, the court changed its mind. It looks like the Supreme Court won't be reviewing one of the pressing issues involving the death penalty today. Evincing that things may be in a bit of disarray since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court on Monday made a misstep when agreeing to hear the case of a prisoner seeking to challenge his death sentence. The case was 1 of 2 death penalty appeals the court added to its docket for its next term, which begins in October. The Texas inmate, Bobby Moore, had actually asked the court to review 2 constitutional issues relating to his capital sentence: Both are significant questions, implicating recent decisions and statements by the Supreme Court or individual justices with respect to the death penalty or its application to specific defendants. As part of their usual Monday business, the justices issued an order at 9:30 a.m. noting that they would agree to hear the 2 questions raised by Moore's petition: That was a big deal, because the second question of Moore's petition - whether sitting on death row for 35 years amounts to cruel and unusual punishment - touches on one of the practices Justice Stephen Breyer has repeatedly singled out as problematic in America's system of capital punishment. That development was short-lived. At around 11:44 a.m., a court spokeswoman alerted the press that the court had made a mistake and that now only the 1st question in Moore's petition was accepted for review. The court accordingly amended the order and republished it on its website: That means Moore - who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1980 and has been awaiting punishment since - will not get an answer to whether the length of his confinement, much of which is in complete isolation, violates the Constitution. The remaining question in his case is still important: The Supreme Court will now decide whether states may rely on outdated medical standards when determining whether a person who is intellectually disabled merits the death penalty. The Supreme Court has already ruled that it's unconstitutional to sentence to death someone who is intellectually disabled, and that states may not use rigid "cutoff" tests when assessing a person's mental disability. States, however, are far from consistent in the assessments they use. For Moore, this is a matter of life and death: Relying on experts, a court had determined that he bore all the hallmarks of someone who was intellectually disabled - including an IQ of 70, deplorable school performance, and "sub-normal intellectual functioning." But Texas has resisted these findings and has insisted that Moore be assessed using older medical standards for intellectual disability. Here's hoping the court's final decision in the case will bring some clarity to that area of the law, if not to those who were a little confused by its actions on Monday. (source: Cristian Farias, Legal Affairs Reporter, The Huffington Post) MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Baker may file bill calling for death penalty for cop killers Following the May 22 fatal shooting of an Auburn police officer, Gov. Charlie Baker says he may file legislation that would impose the death penalty on those convicted of killing police. "I think we should at the start of next session, absolutely, and have that debate," Baker told "Keller at Large" host Jon Keller, who asked Baker in a televised interview on Sunday if he would file a bill. The death penalty was outlawed by the Supreme Judicial Court 3 decades ago, and efforts to reinstate it since then have failed, with opponents pointing to cases where incarcerated individuals were found to have been wrongly convicted of crimes. On Nov. 6, 1997, after death penalty legislation had cleared the state Senate by a comfortable margin, legislation reinstating capital punishment was defeated in the House after Rep. John Slattery, D-Peabody, switched his vote and doomed the measure 80-80. Last month, Auburn police Officer Ronald Tarentino Jr. was shot and killed during a traffic stop. Baker subsequently said he would support the death penalty for those convicted of killing police officers. The suspected gunman, Jorge Zambrano, died in a shootout with police. Media reports about Zambrano's extensive record have prompted the courts to review his criminal justice system history. When asked by Keller if there is a problem with lenient judges, Baker did not offer an opinion, and instead said he's interested in the outcome of the investigation and what elements of the current system may need to be changed. "I think all of this stuff is case-specific. I'm not willing to comment on that generally one way or another. What I will say is there are some troubling elements to this story, and I want to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN.
June 6 TEXAS: After nearly 40 years, murder charges dropped against Kerry Max Cook in East Texas case In a shocking reversal, Smith County prosecutors agreed Monday to throw out murder charges against Kerry Max Cook, a man they've insisted for nearly 40 years was guilty of one of the small county's most notorious killings. Cook and his lawyers declined to speak with reporters after the court hearing. But the former death row inmate, who has been fighting for decades to clear his name, celebrated outside the courthouse, sharing hugs with his wife, Sandy, his legal team and a group of Texas exonerees, who came to support him. Cook was convicted in 1978 in the gruesome slaying of Linda Jo Edwards, a 22-year-old who was found brutally beaten, stabbed and mutilated in her apartment bedroom. From the outset, through 3 trials that courts said were tainted with prosecutor misconduct, 20 years on death row and even since being released in 1999, Cook has maintained his innocence. His quest to prove it gained worldwide attention. But his saga is not over. Now, at age 60, he can move toward a full exoneration. Prosecutors agreed to drop the murder charges, but they will continue to oppose Cook's claims of actual innocence, which would allow him to receive compensation for the 2 decades he spent on death row. "Under no standard was Kerry treated fairly," said Marc McPeak, who represented Cook from 2008 to 2013. "I don't know if there is justice at this point, but hopefully there is peace." Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham, who declined to comment after the hearing, agreed to drop the murder charges after the latest revelation in the case destroyed one of the few remaining pieces of the state's case against Cook. James Mayfield, Edwards' married lover at the time of her death, admitted in an April deposition that he had lied during previous trials when he said that it had been weeks since he had sex with the young woman. He admitted that he and Edwards had sex the day before she was killed - his birthday. Mayfield was at the courthouse Monday. He left the courthouse using a walker and declined to speak with reporters. Mayfield, a former university library dean who worked with Edwards, denied killing her, and prosecutors agreed to give him immunity in exchange for his deposition. But several DNA tests have identified his semen in the panties Edwards wore the night of her death. In addition, Edwards' roommate, Paula Rudolph, initially told police that it was Mayfield, a man with medium-length silver hair, whom she saw in their apartment the night of the murder. She changed her story at trial and implicated Cook, though he had longer, dark hair at the time. While crucial to the prosecution's decision, Mayfield's new testimony was only the most recent piece of the state's case to fall apart. The 1978 guilty verdict was overturned in 1991 after the state's highest court tossed out the testimony of the prosecutors' psychiatrist, who said Cook would be a future danger to society. Prosecutors tried again to convict Cook, but a 1992 trial produced a mistrial after jurors found a stocking tucked inside pants Edwards had been wearing - it was a stocking prosecutors had alleged Cook used to secret away body parts he had carved from his victim. A 3rd trial sent Cook back to death row. But an appeals court threw out that verdict, too, finding prosecutors had engaged in "pervasive" and "egregious" misconduct. Among the offenses, the court said, prosecutors withheld evidence and misrepresented a deal they made with a jailhouse snitch who later admitted he lied when he said Cook confessed to him. And yet prosecutors were still undeterred. In 1999, just days before what would have been his 4th trial, Smith County prosecutors offered him an unusual no-contest plea deal that allowed Cook to be released from prison. Cook didn't admit the crime but remained guilty in the eyes of the law. Later, Cook learned that DNA tests conducted shortly before the trial showed Mayfield's DNA on Edwards' underwear. Since 2012, Cook has been fighting to clear his name entirely. And until Monday, prosecutors appeared determined to fight back. Despite court rulings that eviscerated much of the state's evidence and multiple DNA tests that failed to produce any of Cook's biological material, prosecutors maintained that he was guilty. "This is sort of really the quintessential railroading," McPeak said. Despite Monday's action, prosecutors are not ready to declare Cook innocent. While they've agreed to drop the murder charges, prosecutors will still argue against a claim that Cook has filed seeking a declaration of actual innocence. In the end, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will decide whether to grant that claim and fully dismiss the charges. If it does, he could be eligible for more than $3 million in compensation from the state, plus health
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., CALIF., USA
June 6 TEXAS: Justices will hear major death penalty case The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether executing a condemned prisoner after decades in solitary confinement violates the Constitution. The justices also will consider how the state that leads the nation in executions determines who is mentally competent enough to die. The Texas case of Bobby James Moore dates back 35 years, when he shot and killed a grocery store clerk during a botched robbery. His attorneys now say Moore's mental competency was gauged using a decades-old definition of intellectual disability, rather than current medical standards. They also say executing someone after so long on death row constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Texas leads the nation in executions with 537 since 1976, nearly 5 times the total of any other state. The death penalty has divided the court for decades. That was most evident last June, when the justices ruled 5-4 that states could continue to use a controversial sedative as part of their lethal injection protocols. 4 justices spoke up - 2 in favor, 2 against - and Justice Stephen Breyer said the court should consider the overall constitutionality of the death penalty. Breyer raised 4 issues - the potential for mistakes, racial and other disparities, decades-long delays, and increasing numbers of states and counties abandoning capital punishment. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg signed on to his dissent. "Rather than try to patch up the death penalty's legal wounds 1 at a time, I would ask for full briefing on a more basic question: whether the death penalty violates the Constitution," Breyer wrote. Since then, the court has refused to take on a case testing whether capital punishment remains constitutional. But viewing Breyer's dissent as an invitation, lawyers for death-row inmates continue to send up new cases. The high court has made it more difficult to execute prisoners with such disabilities over the years. A landmark ruling in 2002 ended capital punishment for people with what was then referred to as mental retardation. In 2014, the court barred states from using only a strict IQ standard to determine competency. The Texas case could tighten up standards further. (source: USA Today) *** Jurors to decide fate of capital murder defendant on Monday A Bell County district court jury will hear closing statements from both the state and defense beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, after which they'll retire to decide if a former police officer is guilty of killing another. David Gene Risner, 59, a former police officer himself, is facing the death penalty if convicted of the June 2014 shooting death of Little River-Academy police Chief Lee Dixon. Prosecutors and defense attorneys both rested their cases Friday in Judge John Gauntt's 27th District Court on Friday and Gaunt released the jury with instructions to return at 10 a.m. Monday to hear final arguments, the court's charge to the jury and to begin deliberations on Risner's guilt. Dixon, 54, died June 19, 2014 outside a residence in the 100 block of Allison Drove where he'd been sent to investigate a report of a man with a gun, an affidavit issued in the case says. Jury selection in Risner's trial began April 6 with questionnaires being filled out by 2 large groups of prospective jurors. In Texas, when a death penalty is sought, jury selection must be done individually, rather than in a group because of the sensitivity of the charge to the jury. If the jury finds Risner guilty but declines to assess the death penalty, he'll be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At some point during the encounter the day he died, the affidavit says, Dixon radioed Bell County asking for assistance and a short time later callers were reporting a shooting at the address. The affidavit issued in the case says Risner, himself, made the call to 911 to report he had shot a police officer at his home. Deputies found Dixon dead on the front porch. Risner has remained in the Bell County Jail without bond on the capital murder charge since his arrest and on bonds totaling $16,500 on separate charges of 3 counts of resisting arrest, 1 charge of theft and 1 of providing a false identity to police officers, the jail log says. (source: KWTX news) PENNSYLVANIA: Treiber asks for more time in death-sentence appeal Erie County's lone death row inmate is set to get more time to file a federal appeal. Stephen Treiber wants his petition, which had been due by Thursday, to be filed Aug. 8, according to a motion his lawyer filed in U.S. District Court in Erie last week.. The state Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted the case, agreed to the extension, Treiber's lawyer, Hunter Labovitz, of the Federal Community Defender's Office, in Philadelphia, wrote in the motion. Treiber, 47, formerly of Millcreek Township, was convicted in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., USA
June 3 TEXAS: Life after death-row case: Both sides search for justice as 22-year Cook saga ends Editor's note: This story originally appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Feb. 21, 1999. "You cannot put things back together when you inherit a case with material misconduct," said Smith Chief County Felony Prosecutor David Dobbs, after the 22-year-old saga ended with a plea bargain on Tuesday. After 20 years on death row - once coming within 11 days of execution - Mr. Cook walked free Tuesday. Mr. Cook, who had been out of prison on bond for 14 months, pleaded no-contest and was convicted on a lesser charge of murder in the death of Linda Jo Edwards, a result that left both sides unsatisfied. Mr. Cook and his lawyers question why a fourth jury was nearly asked to digest that so-called turnip - a case already tried three times, hobbled and scarred by investigative and prosecutorial misdeeds that occurred when Mr. Dobbs, the lead prosecutor, was in high school. "It was pride that kept them coming back," said Mr. Cook, who maintained his innocence after the deal. He said he took the deal despite his innocence to end his "nightmare." "This was about them trying to save face, not them going after a guilty man." Prosecutors cite a simple reason for pushing on: They say they believed they had the right guy, and only agreed to a deal because appeals courts ruled that prior prosecutors' conduct ruled out the use of key evidence. "They're are other district attorneys' offices that would have dropped the case," Mr. Dobbs. "But we felt Cook was guilty, Legal experts said that the decision to try, retry, retry and retry again is complex, even when a "turnip" is involved. Prosecutorial persistence does not automatically mean a defendant is being unfairly treated, they said. "The law provides that a prosecutor's duty is not to obtain a conviction, but to see that justice is done," said Robert Dawson, a professor of criminal law at The University of Texas Law School. "But, it doesn't define "justice.' "There are no really concrete legal guidelines, no set number of bites at the apple," he said, "assuming a person is found guilty and that conviction is thrown out." Mr. Cook was convicted and sentenced to death in 1978 and spent 13 years on death row until a state appeals court threw out the conviction, after a series of problems with the case were discovered by The Dallas Morning News and the New Jersey based Centurion Ministries, which investigates questionable death penalty convictions. Among the problems, a state's witness testified in the 1st trial fingerprint in the victim's apartment had been left by Mr. Cook about the time of the crime. Mr. Cook maintained that the print was left during an earlier visit to the apartment, and the expert later conceded that such dating of fingerprints is impossible. The court also found fault because a psychiatrist who interviewed Mr. Cook and later testified at his trial didn't tell him that their conversation could be used against him. A 1992 retrial ended with a hung jury. In 1994, Mr. Cook was again convicted and sentenced to death. An appeals court overturned that verdict in 1996, saying evidence used in that trial was tainted by prosecutorial misconduct in 1978. That included the failure to tell the defense that Robert Hoehn, a key prosecution witness, had given conflicting testimony to the grand jury and at 1978 trial. Because of that, the government was barred from using the testimony of Mr. Hoehn, who died between Mr. Cook's first 2 trials. Factors for retrial Experts described a number of factors that typically influence the decision whether to retry a case, though the sides in Mr. Cook's case disagreed on how relevant they were: * The stakes: "Had this been a burglary, the matter would have been resolved after the first verdict was thrown out," said Professor Dawson. "With a capital murder case, it's harder for both sides to back off." Indeed, to the end neither side budged from their stands on whether Mr. Cook killed Ms. Edwards. The way the brinkmanship ended in a deal was a no-contest plea, which allowed both sides continue maintaining their absolute declarations of Mr. Cook's guilt or innocence. * The state's willingness to accept conviction of an innocent person: "No matter how airtight a case appears, you can never be 100 % sure," Professor Dawson said. "The question is where the prosecution's threshold of risk is. Most will not accept a high risk of wrongful conviction." The reluctance to convict an innocent man was quantified by the 18th century British legal commentator William Blackstone - since echoed by thinkers from Voltaire to Benjamin Franklin:. "It is better that 10 guilty persons escape than 1 innocent suffer," Blackstone wrote, an attitude that defense lawyers complain has been turned upside down by the Cook prosecutors. "They'd rather see 1 innocent
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., OHIO, IND.
June 3 TEXASfemales to face death penalty Concert pianist's wife faces death penalty trial after 'smothering' their 1-year-old and 5 year-old daughter with a pillow in TexasSofya Tsygankova is accused of killing daughters Nika, 5, and Michaela, 1 A Forth Worth mother is facing a death penalty trial after she was indicted on 2 counts of capital murder over the deaths of her 2 daughters. Ukrainian-born Sofya Tsygankova is accused of smothering her 2 daughters Nika, 5, and Michaela Koholodenko, 1, with a pillow at her home in Benbrook, Forth Worth in March 2016. Tsygankova pleaded not guilty to both charges and is currently in Tarrant County jail with a bond set of $2 million. The 32-year-old suspect is the estrange wife of internationally renowned pianist Vadym Kholodenko, who discovered his wife covered in blood and the bodies of his daughters when he arrived a their house on March 17 to take the girls to school. According to the arrest warrant affidavit, Tsygankova 'was going crazy and she had blood on her'. Responding officers who arrived at the scene said: 'Tsygankova was rocking back and forth, and making noises'. 'Officer Wallace was unable to understand what she was saying. Tsyganokova was wearing a mid-length night gown that was covered in blood. 'Officer Wallace observed blood on both of her arms as well. Officer Wallace noticed a cut on the inside of her left wrist. Officer Wallace noticed a puncture wound on Tsygoankova's chest, near the inside of her left breast.' Officer Wallace reported he discovered the body of 1-year-old Michela Kholodenco lying on her back with 'a light colored fluid running out of her mouth'. He described her as 'ashen colored' and cold to the touch. The body of 5-year-old Nika showed signs of rigor mortis. Officers found a pillow 'partially resting' on Michela's head in the master bedroom. According to court documents, 'the pillow had a slight indentation on top consistent with the size of a small head'. The documents claimed there was 'a small spot of biological fluid' on the pillow. A search team recovered large butcher knife with blood on the blade and the handle hidden outside on the patio. A 2nd, cleaver style knife was inside the bath tub, beside 3 bottles of prescription medicine. Officers also found an empty bottle of prescription medicine in the kitchen. In an affidavit, Detective R James met with Tsygankova in the intensive care unit of John Peter Smith Hospital. He claims Tsygankova told him: 'I think I committed suicide.' She admitted injuring herself with a knife and taking a lot of pills. He said: 'She didn't want to live.' James said Tsygankova waived her Miranda Rights and allegedly told the officers she 'didn't see any future for me and kids'. She later asked: 'Did I do anything bad to my kids?' Vadym Kholodenko was born in 1986 in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and is best known as being the winner of the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He is the 1st musician in his family and began performing publicly aged 13 with concerts in the U.S. China, Hungary, and Croatia. In 2005, he began studying in Moscow at the Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory. His big break came in 2013 when he won the Van Cliburn competition and was praised for his 'mesmerizing and exhilarating performances'. It led him to play with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and at the Portland Piano International. He also released a live CD of his performances at the Van Cliburn competition and followed it up with a studio recording. Kholodenko eventually settled in Fort Worth, Texas, with his wife and 2 daughters. (source: dailymail.co.uk) * Hearings set Friday for 4 suspects in capital murder case Pretrial hearings are scheduled Friday for 4 people indicted on charges of capital murder in the shooting death of a 69-year-old San Angelo man. Prosecutors with the Tom Green County 51st District Attorney's Office are seeking the death penalty for 3 of the 4 accused. Eric John Martinez, 26; Jonathan Jesse Marin, 27; Eliza Victoria Losoya, 29; and Fernando Lavaris Jr., 30, are in the Tom Green County Jail in lieu of more than $500,000 bail each. Lavaris has been in jail since Aug. 31, and the other 3 were taken into custody in September. A special sitting of a grand jury was held in November because of the magnitude of the charge. Capital murder is punishable by death or life in prison without parole. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Marin, Losoyo and Lavaris in the event of a conviction, according to court documents. All 4 were indicted in paragraph one of the indictment with burglary of a habitation and robbery in paragraph 2. 4 different attorneys were listed to represent each of the 4 suspects. The pretrial hearings are scheduled in 51st District Judge Barbara Walther's courtroom at
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., GA., LA., OHIO
June 2 TEXAS: Coryell will seek death penalty in child's death A Gatesville man with a history of arrests for sexually abusing children was indicted on a capital murder charge Wednesday in the January death of a 2-year-old boy. Chet Shelton, 27, of Gatesville, was arrested and booked into the Coryell County Jail. Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd confirmed his office will be seeking the death penalty in any upcoming trial. According to an arrest affidavit, Shelton was tasked with babysitting the Gatesville toddler, Makai Brooks Lamar, for most of the day while the boy's mother worked a double shift at a local restaurant. The child's mother came home for a break from work and reported the child was fine at that time, the affidavit said. While the mother was back at work, Shelton said he found the child not breathing and took the child to a neighbor's home where a Coryell County deputy sheriff lived, according to the affidavit. The child died a few hours later at Coryell Memorial Hospital. Police almost immediately began treating the 34th Street home in Gatesville as a crime scene and began investigating the child's bedroom where they found bloody bedding and pillows. In the arrest affidavit, police highlight several inconsistencies with Shelton's story regarding what happened in the hours before Lamar's death, saying the child's mother ensured police Lamar always slept clothed and in a diaper. "When Shelton took the infant child to the neighbor's house for medical assistance, the infant was wearing no clothing, not even a diaper," the affidavit said. Perhaps most troubling are the injuries to Lamar confirmed by an autopsy in Dallas. The preliminary cause of death was labeled as blunt force trauma as the child had numerous injuries to his head and internal organs. The affidavit said the child had also been sodomized, causing "severe, distinct trauma" to the child. Shelton's criminal history includes 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in May 2007, 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in December 2007, 2 counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury in October 2010 and 4 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact in May 2007. However, in exchange for his plea of guilty, many of Shelton's most serious sexual charges against children were eventually downgraded to injury to a child, which does not carry a sex offender registration requirement, according to Boyd. Shelton is currently in the Coryell County Jail where he awaits his trial on at least $500,000 in bonds. According to Boyd, Shelton's case is Coryell County's only death penatly case. (source: Killeen Daily Herald) CONNECTICUT: Killers deserved death sentences I pay tribute to the late Detective Michael Malchik, whose alertness and persistence caught the disgusting creeper that was Michael Ross. Unfortunately, he and the families of Ross' victims waited an eternity for the state of Connecticut to put Ross down like the animal he was. With news that the state's liberal Supreme Court has made the death penalty disappear, vermin such as the cowardly Cheshire killers, who deserve to be nameless, and the pathetic Russell Peeler Jr. will escape the fate they so richly deserve. Detective Malchik understood that people like this had no place in society, unlike our leaders in Hartford who happily coddle perpetrators rather than help the victims. My idea for those on the now-defunct death row is to put them into the general prison population. Jailhouse justice would prevail I am sure, with the inmates themselves knowing that the crimes these individuals took part in deserved a death sentence, which they would mete out the 1st chance they had. Detective Malchik, may you rest in peace knowing you saved lives; as for Ross, I hope you turn on an infernal spit in hell for the rest of time. JOHN LINDELL Moosup (source: Letter to the Editor, Norwich Bulletin) GEORGIA: District attorney draws heat over toy electric chair "Death Row Marv" is a battery-powered toy electric chair that produces an electric buzzing sound with Marv's eyes glowing red under a helmet attached to electrodes. After his "electrocution," Marv asks, "That the best you can do, you pansies?" Because the toy was on display in District Attorney Layla Zon's office, it now figures prominently in a recently filed court motion that seeks to overturn a Newton County death sentence. The motion contends Zon is "pathologically enthralled" with the death penalty and has pursued it with a fervor and zeal unmatched by any other district attorney in the state. Zon is DA of the Alcovy Judicial Circuit, which consists of Walton and Newton counties. On Wednesday, Zon said she seeks the death penalty only in cases that warrant it. As for "Death Row Marv," it was already in her office when she became district attorney in 2010 and she recently removed
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, IND., ARIZ., USA
June 1 TEXAS: Coryell County seeking death penalty in child death case A Gatesville man with a history of arrests for sexually abusing children was indicted on a capital murder charge Wednesday in the January death of a 2-year-old boy. Chet Shelton, 27, of Gatesville, was arrested and booked into the Coryell County jail after his arrest on Jan. 13. Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd confirmed his office will be seeking the death penalty in any upcoming trial. According to an arrest affidavit, Shelton was tasked with babysitting the Gatesville toddler, Makai Brooks Lamar, for most of the day while the boy's mother worked a double shift at a local restaurant. The child's mother came home for a break from work and reported the child was fine at that time, the affidavit said. When the mother was back at work, Shelton said he found the child not breathing and took the child to a neighbor's home where a Coryell County Deputy Sheriff lived, according to the affidavit. The child died a few hours later at Coryell Memorial Hospital. Police almost immediately began treating the 34th Street home in Gatesville as a crime scene and began investigating the child's bedroom where they found bloody bedding and pillows. In the arrest affidavit, police highlight several inconsistencies with Shelton's story regarding what happened in the hours before Lamar's death, saying the child's mother ensured police Lamar always slept clothed and in a diaper. "When Shelton took the infant child to the neighbor's house for medical assistance, the infant was wearing no clothing, not even a diaper," the affidavit said. Perhaps most troubling are the injuries to Lamar confirmed by an autopsy in Dallas. The preliminary cause of death was labeled as blunt force trauma as the child had numerous injuries to his head and internal organs. The affidavit said the child had also been sodomized, causing "severe, distinct trauma" to the child. Shelton's criminal history includes 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in May 2007, 3 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child in December 2007, 2 counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury in October 2010 and 4 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact in May 2007. However, many of Shelton's most serious sexual crimes against children were eventually downgraded to injury to a child, which does not carry a sex offender registration requirement. Shelton is currently in the Coryell County Jail where he awaits his trial on at least $500,000 in bonds. (source: Killeen Daily Herald) OHIO: Seman attorneys challenge death penalty Attorneys today in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court argued three motions dealing with the death penalty in the Robert Seman case. Defense attorneys have challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty in Ohio as well as motions by prosecutors to dismiss jurors against the death penalty during jury selection and whether the indictments asking for the death penalty were worded properly. Judge Maureen Sweeney said she will issue her rulings shortly. Seman, 46, is accused of starting a fire March 31, 2015, killing Corinne Gump, 10 and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt at their Powers Way home. Seman was to go on trial the day of the fire for raping Gump. He faces 10 counts of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications. (source: vindy.com) INDIANA: Juror questionnaire work continues in death penalty case With jury selection set to begin in about 6 months, attorneys involved in a capital murder case involving a Gary police officer killed in the line of duty continue to work on preparing a questionnaire for potential jurors. "The questionnaire will be done very shortly," said lead counsel Rich Wolter Jr., who represents Carl Le'Ellis Blount. "We have had good dialogue with the state." Blount faces the death penalty if convicted in the July 6, 2014, shooting death of Gary police Patrolman Jeffrey Westerfield, 47, a 19-year veteran. Blount, 27, of Gary, has pleaded not guilty. During a brief hearing Wednesday before Lake Superior Court Judge Samuel Cappas, Wolter said discovery is ongoing and the defense team is waiting for additional information on the state's firearms examination. Wolter said a firearms expert has been hired by the defense to conduct a separate examination. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Jan. 9, and Blount's trial is scheduled to start Feb. 6. Westerfield was shot in the head in his police car on 26th Avenue near Van Buren Street as he followed up on a domestic disturbance involving Blount and his girlfriend early on July 6, 2014. Westerfield had communicated car-to-car for a description of Blount, who was on the phone with his half-brother when Blount said he had to hang up after seeing a police officer with his spotlight activated in the area, records state. (source: Gary
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., LA., USA
May 31 TEXAS: Testimony begins Tuesday in Risner trial Testimony begins Tuesday morning in the capital murder trial of a man accused of fatally shooting the Little River-Academy police chief. David Gene Risner, 59, could face the death penalty if convicted in the slaying of Little River-Academy Police Chief Lee Dixon on June 19, 2014. Judge John Gauntt is presiding over the trial in the 27th District Court. Testimony is expected to take two weeks, Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza said Friday. Jury selection took almost a month after starting in early April with a prospective juror pool of 209. The numbers were narrowed down through multipage questionnaires and attorney interviews. The jury was seated last week, Garza said. If Risner is convicted of the capital murder of a peace officer, the Bell County District Attorney's office will ask for the death penalty. Defending Risner will be Russell Hunt Jr., a Georgetown attorney. Dixon was killed when he went to Risner's home in the 100 block of South Allison Drive because of a report of a man with a gun. At first Dixon said he didn't need assistance, but he soon came back on the radio asking for help. Immediately after that the Bell County switchboard lit up with calls reporting a shooting. Dixon was found dead on the front porch of Risner's home. He was shot twice with a shotgun, according to an autopsy report. He died of a shotgun wound to his head. Risner called 911 and said he shot a police officer at his home, according to an arrest affidavit. Bell County Precinct 3 Constable Thomas Prado arrived at the scene and arrested Risner. Dixon had been police chief in Little River-Academy from 2004 to 2005 before going to the Milam County Sheriff's Office as a deputy. He had been back in Little River-Academy as police chief for just a month. Risner was in law enforcement for almost 19 years, with more than 17 of those years spent as a police officer, his personnel records from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement showed. Holds were put on Risner's peace officer and jailer licenses on May 15, 2012, by the commission, even though he didn't have an active or valid license then. Risner had a previous history of trouble with the law, including with the Temple Police Department, Van Zandt County and the Bell County Sheriff's Department. That history included failure to identify and resisting arrest, deadly conduct-discharge of a firearm that was changed to deadly conduct and then pleaded down to disorderly conduct, failure to identify as a fugitive and 2 counts of resisting arrest. (source: Temple Daily Telegram) NORTH CAROLINA: Supreme Court ruling backs racial justice in NC Those who work for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation are idealistic, perhaps, and certainly righteous, but they now have focused on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could have serious implications in capital cases in North Carolina. The ruling came in Washington in Foster v. Chatman, wherein the court ruled 7-1 that prosecutors in a Georgia case violated the U.S. Constitution by intentionally excluding African-Americans from the jury in a capital case. The court ruled also that Georgia courts were wrong in refusing to consider evidence of that discrimination. The exclusions were blatant: Prosecutors struck all potential black jurors, and one's notes showed he marked the names of potential black jurors with a "B" and also ranked the African-Americans in order of preference in case one had to be chosen. Said Ken Rose, senior attorney at the center, "Today, the court sent a message that we must stop making excuses and start enforcing the law against discrimination in jury selection. The privilege and obligation to serve on a jury, regardless of race, is fundamental to our democracy. Yet African-Americans in North Carolina are routinely denied the right to participate in the most important decision our criminal justice system ever makes." The General Assembly, then controlled by a Democratic majority, in 2009 passed the Racial Justice Act to address racial bias in jury selection, among other issues. Death row inmates could present evidence in the form of statistical proof that African-Americans were systematically excluded from juries. If they proved bias, their sentences could be commuted to life without parole. The center, in its response to the high court ruling, cited several examples of North Carolina cases in which prosecutors tried to exclude black juror candidates. And a study showed black juror candidates were removed from consideration by prosecutors at twice the rate of white jurors. In addition, the center reports, some prosecutors attended a training session from the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys that focused in part on "race neutral" excuses if they had to explain excluding black juror candidates. This Georgia case, with the decision written by
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., N.C., ALA.
May 28 TEXASstay of impending execution A court just stayed this Texas man's execution because a witness was hypnotized Charles Flores, a Texas death row inmate who was scheduled to be executed next week June 2, was granted a stay of execution late Friday afternoon. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Flores' execution date and sent his case back to the trial court for a hearing based on his claim that improper hypnosis was used on the main eyewitness in his murder trial. As Fusion reported earlier this month, Flores was convicted for the 1998 murder of Elizabeth "Betty" Black in a Dallas suburb. A jury sentenced him to death the following year even though prosecutors presented no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and the only witness who saw him at the scene, Jill Barganier, was hypnotized by police. As part of Flores' final appeal, which was filed last week, psychology professor Steven Lynn said in an affidavit that recent research shows the hypnosis could have made Barganier create false memories. "Clearly, the techniques that were used to refresh Ms. Bargainer's memory would be eschewed today by anyone at all familiar with the extant research on hypnosis and memory," Lynn wrote. That hypnosis was the crux of the appeals court's ruling. The court approved his application for a writ of habeas corpus by essentially finding reason to believe a reasonable juror may not have convicted him if they had heard evidence like Lynn's testimony. Now, the trial court in Flores' case will hold a hearing specifically on the hypnosis issue and the eyewitness identification. If Flores' lawyers can show by a preponderance of the evidence that a jury would acquit him today after hearing new scientific evidence, it would lead to a brand new trial for Flores, more than 17 years after he was convicted. "We're ecstatic for Charles right now," said Gregory Gardner, 1 of Flores' attorneys. "This hypnosis was always very troubling from the beginning... and we're thrilled that now the Texas courts are going to take a closer look at it." The warden at the Polunksy Unit, the Texas death row prison where Flores is housed, is expected to notify him of the ruling later tonight. While the appeals court focused on the hypnosis issue in its ruling, Flores also brought up other issues in his appeal - including the fact that his white co-defendant received a much shorter sentence than he did and is currently out of prison on parole. 2 of the 9 judges on the appeals court, which is the highest court in Texas that hears criminal cases, dissented from granting a stay. Only 1 of the judges who supported Flores' application, David Newell, wrote an opinion explaining his thinking. "Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions across the country," Newell wrote. "We may ultimately grant relief. We may ultimately deny relief. But either way, given the subject matter, by granting a stay this Court acknowledges that whatever we do, we owe a clear explanation for our decision to the citizens of Texas." (source: fusion.net) *** Issue of Mental Health Assessment a Focus as 3 Fight Death Sentences Throughout Mental Health Month in May, The Texas Tribune is partnering with Mental Health Channel and KLRU to focus on some of Texas' biggest challenges in providing mental health care. See all the stories in this series. Randall Mays is on death row for killing 2 sheriff's deputies. Scott Panetti was sentenced to die for killing his estranged wife's parents. And a jury condemned Robert Roberson for killing his 2-year-old daughter. Beyond being on Texas' death row, the 3 share another common thread: their attorneys are challenging whether the criminal justice process addresses the issue of mental illness fairly and comprehensively when weighing the death penalty for killers. In each case, trial prosecutors and attorneys for the state have argued the men intentionally killed their victims and understand why they were convicted and sentenced to death, a constitutional benchmark before the condemned can be executed. But attorneys for the men argue that although their clients are killers, their documented mental health histories could negate the intentional killing argument and therefore raise the question of whether execution is cruel and unusual punishment. Though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can't execute the intellectually disabled, an exact legal definition of that condition remains open to debate. Any of these three cases could ultimately help clarify that issue for others in similar situations. Mays' and Panetti's attorneys argue their clients aren't competent to be executed. Roberson's attorneys say his right to due process was violated at trial. Criminal justice experts say that determining mental health can be hard for anyone, including judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., VA., GA., FLA., NEB., CALIF., USA
May 26 TEXAS: Stop the execution of Jeff Wood in TX! Please sign and share this petition for Jeff Wood. TX has set his execution for August 24th - despite the fact that he killed no one. Jeff's sister sits on the CEDP's board and is a fierce advocate against the death penalty. https://www.change.org/p/governor-abbott-and-the-texas-board-of-pardons-and-parole-demand-justice-for-jeff-wood-5807b015-014a-4a21-8c6ee34be865c27c Jeff was sentenced under the Law of Parties - which allows the death penalty for those who aid in felony murder. Even if a person did not harm anyone, they can still get the death penalty if they were involved in a crime where someone else killed a person, because they should have "anticipated that a human life would be taken." For more information:http://savejeffwood.com https://www.facebook.com/LawofParties/?fref=ts https://www.facebook.com/AustinCEDP/?fref=ts (source: CEDP) CONNECTICUT: State Supreme Court Ruling On Abolishment Of Death Penalty Expected Thursday The Connecticut Supreme Court is expected to release its ruling Thursday on whether to uphold or overturn its decision last year to abolish the state's death penalty, including for inmates on death row. The justices ruled 4-3 last August that the death penalty was unconstitutional for all - including 11 convicts on Connecticut's death row - following the legislature's abolition 3 years ago of capital punishment in Connecticut. Lawmakers made the law prospective, meaning it applied only to new cases and kept in place the death sentences already imposed on those facing execution before the bill was passed. Attorneys for those on death row challenged the law, saying it violated the condemned inmates' constitutional rights. The ruling last August came in the case of Eduardo Santiago, who had faced the death penalty for the December 2000 killing of Joseph Niwinski in West Hartford. Santiago has been resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. In the August ruling, the justices in the majority wrote that executing an inmate "would violate the state constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment" and that the death penalty "no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency." In October, the high court denied a request by the chief state's attorney to postpone the Santiago decision, a ruling that followed its denial of a request by prosecutors to re-argue Santiago. Prosecutors then filed briefs arguing for the Santiago decision to be overruled in the pending appeal of Russell Peeler, who was sentenced to death for ordering the 1999 killings in Bridgeport of 8-year-old Leroy "B.J." Brown Jr. and his mother, Karen Clarke. The justices heard arguments on those briefs in January. Prosecutors said in deciding the Santiago case, the court "did not confine its analysis" to the actual claim raised -- whether enacting the 2012 law invalidated the death sentences of those sentenced before the law went into effect. The court made its ruling, prosecutors said, "for reasons having little or nothing to do with" enactment of the 2012 law and "erred in its ruling on lines of analysis and authorities the parties had not discussed." Prosecutors also argued that the justices relied on "flawed historical analysis" to justify their "departure from well-established principles of law" and incorrectly determined that state residents prior to the 1818 constitution gave the high court the authority to act independently to invalidate a penalty. Prosecutors said the justices' "new insights" into Connecticut history came from Lawrence B. Goodheart's book "The Solemn Sentence of Death: Capital Punishment in Connecticut," which actually says, according to prosecutors, that the legislature, not the court, "has been the historical source for both limiting capital punishment and providing relief to those sentenced to death." Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers, who joined with Justice Carmen E. Espinosa and Justice Peter T. Zarella in the August dissents, wrote then that "every step" of the majority's opinion was "fundamentally flawed." During the arguments last January, both the majority and minority raised concerns about the idea of a reversal following the retirement of Justice Flemming Norcott Jr., who had joined with justices Richard N. Palmer, Dennis G. Eveleigh and Andrew J. McDonald to ban capital punishment. Norcott was replaced by Justice Richard A. Robinson. "Why shouldn't the court be concerned that every time there's a hotly contested 4-3 decision ... that this isn't just going to become a numbers game, that the parties will then wait until somebody retires or leaves the court and raise the issue again?" Rogers said. "It just seems like a very slippery slope." "At a minimum," Palmer said, "it looks awfully odd to have a case of this magnitude decided differently within months simply because the panel changes. That's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
May 25 TEXASnew execution date Convicted killer in 1996 Kerrville slaying set to die A convicted killer on death row for a January 1996 fatal robbery in the Texas Hill Country is set to die later this summer. Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said Monday the agency has received court documents setting 42-year-old Jeffrey Wood for lethal injection Aug. 24. Wood's 2008 execution was stopped by a federal judge for testing to determine if Wood was mentally competent for capital punishment. Testing showed he was competent and other courts now have upheld those findings. Wood was convicted under the Texas law of parties, which makes the participant in a capital murder equally culpable of the crime. Evidence showed his roommate, Daniel Reneau, fatally shot 31-year-old Kerrville store clerk Kriss Keeran. Both men then robbed the store. Reneau was executed in 2002. (source: click2houston.com) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present19 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-537 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 20-June 2---Charles Flores538 21-June 21--Robert Roberson---539 22-July 14--Perry Williams540 23-August 10Ramiro Gonzales---541 24-August 23Robert Pruett-542 25-August 24Jeffrey Wood--543 26-August 31Rolando Ruiz--544 27-September 14-Robert Jennings---545 28-October 19---Terry Edwards-546 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ___ 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----TEXAS, MASS., S.C., MISS., IND.
May 25 TEXASimpending executions Charles Flores of Texas Receives Execution Date of June 2, 2016 Charles Don Flores is scheduled to executed at 6 pm CDT, on Thursday, June 2, 2016, at Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 46-year-old Charles is convicted of the murder of 64-year-old Elizabeth Black on January 29, 1998, in Farmers Branch, Texas. Charles has spent the last 17 years of his life on Texas' death row. Charles never graduated from high school, dropping out after the 11th grade. Charles had a history of drug abuse and sniffing gasoline. Charles also claimed that he was abused as a child. Charles had previously been convicted for robbery and possession of cocaine. He worked as a laborer prior to his arrest. During the morning hours of January 29, 1998, Charles Flores, Richard Childs, and several others were using methamphetamine and marijuana. Around 3:00 am, Flores and Childs left in Childs' Volkswagen and met up with Jackie Roberts. The trio went to buy more methamphetamine from Terry Plunk, and acquaintance of Jackie. After purchasing the drug, Flores insisted that they had been shortchanged. Jackie told Flores that there was cash hidden at the home of Jackie's husband's parents' home and that she would pay for the missing amount of drugs. Jackie's husband was Gary Black. Child and Flores took Jackie home, and went to Childs' grandmother's house to use the recently purchased drug, before leaving again. On January 29, 1998, the neighbors of the Black family noticed that the garage door had been left partially open, which was unusual. Neighbor Jill Bargainer told police that she had seen 2 men exit a Volkswagen, which was corroborated by other neighbors. The men were also seen rolling under the partially opened garage door. The following day, Jill was able to identify Childs as the driver of the vehicle and was able to describe the passenger, whom she later testified was Flores. Inside the home, police found Gary's mother, Elizabeth Black shot to death, along with the family dog. Additionally, a potato was found in the sink and potato was splattered on the wall, likely an attempt at silencing the gunshot. The day after the murder, Flores told a friend that he had shot the dog, but that Child's shot Elizabeth. 2 days after the murder, Flores and Child disposed of the Volkswagen, by lighting it on fire. They then stole another vehicle. Childs was arrested shortly thereafter, with ammunition matching what was found at the crime scene, along with a weapon. Police also discovered a pair of gloves, which contained starch grains consistent with those from a potato. Flores was arrested on April 18, 1998, after being stopped by a police officer in Kyle, Texas. Flores gave police a false name and failed field sobriety tests. He was arrested, after making several attempts to resist arrest, for driving while intoxicated. Police did not discover his connection to Elizabeth's murder until after he had been released on bond. Flores was again arrested on May 1, 1998, after a high-speed chase through a residential neighborhood, that ended with a head-on collision. Flores again resisted arrested, fleeing and fighting law enforcement officials when they attempted to handcuff him. On July 10, 1998, Flores attempted to escape police custody at a hospital, threatening the officer escorting him, attempting to steal his weapon, and threatening the hospital staff with pepper spray. Flores was convicted and sentenced to death on April 2, 1999. Flores insisted that he is innocent of the crime. He also says his family and friends were threatened with prison time if they testified on his behalf and supported his alibi. Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Elizabeth Black. Please pray for strength for the family of Charles Flores. Please pray that if Charles is innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for any other reason, that evidence will be presented prior to his execution. Please pray that Charles may come to find peace through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, if he has not already. Texas Gives Robert Roberson Execution Date of June 21, 2016 Robert Leslie Roberson III is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CDT, on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 49-year-old Robert is convicted of the murder of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis, on January 31, 2002, in Palestine, Texas. Robert has spent the last 13 years of his life on Texas' death row. Robert dropped out of school after the 10th grade. He had previously been convicted on more than 1 count of burglary. Robert had previously worked as a cook, construction worker, welder, and laborer. Nikki Curtis was living in Palestine, Texas with her father, Robert Roberson, who had won a custody battle. Also living
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., LA., ARK., MO.
May 22 TEXAS: Brownlow sentenced to death Even up to the last moment before convicted murderer Charles E. Brownlow Jr. was sentenced to death on Friday he tried to blame his father for the executions he committed. Brownlow was convicted of capital murder on April 28 for the Oct. 28, 2013, slaying of store clerk Luis Gerardo Leal-Carillo at Ali's Market. The 422nd Judicial District Court jury spent the next 3 weeks hearing testimony about whether Brownlow had an intellectual disability or anti-social personality disorder. The jury on Friday began deliberations at 12:25 p.m. after the prosecution and defense teams gave their closing arguments and returned with its verdicts at about 3 p.m. There were 3 special issues upon which the jury had to consider. The jury determined that based upon the preponderance of evidence Brownlow does not have an intellectual disability (mentally retarded); that beyond a reasonable doubt it believed there was a probability Brownlow would commit criminal acts of violence, thus constituting a continuing threat to society; and there were no mitigating circumstances warranting a sentence of life imprisonment without parole instead of the death penalty. When 422nd Judicial District Court Judge B. Michael Chitty read the jury's findings, he asked Brownlow if there was a legal reason to not pronounce sentence. Brownlow said there was. He said his father shot him in the head when he was 4 years old, which he testified about while taking the stand during the guilt and sentencing phases of the capital murder trial. Chitty said that was not a legal reason and sentenced Brownlow to death. Several family members sobbed when the sentence was handed down, including Leal-Carillo's fiance, Sylvia Sanchez and Cindy Crecy, Jason Wooden's mother. Roshondra Walker, Brownlow's cousin, placed her head on Terence Walker's shoulder, seeking comfort. Terence Walker is Brownlow's brother. Brownlow was 36 when he murdered his mother, 61-year-old Mary Brownlow at her Stallings Street home and set her body on fire; his 55-year-old aunt, Belinda Young Walker, at her home on Tyler Street; Kelleye Lynette Pratt Sluder, 30, and Jason Michael Wooden, at their home on Eulalia Street; and Leal-Carillo. After the sentencing, family members were given an opportunity to give victim impact statements. Cindy Crecy, Wooden's mother, was the 1st to take the stand. "You have evil in your head," Crecy said. "You have hurt a lot of people in your life. I hope to live long enough to see the needle [put] in your arm. "You shot Kelleye 6 times," she said. Crecy told Brownlow she wished the state still had the electric chair so he could feel the fear that Leal-Carillo, her son, Sluder, Mary Brownlow and his aunt Belinda Walker felt before he shot them. "Devil, you did not win," Crecy said. Sylvia Sanchez, next up, hugged Crecy after she left the stand Sanchez, who was Leal-Carillo's fiance and testified during the trial, also spoke. "You did not give [Luis] a chance," Sanchez said. "You are evil. You killed your mother, the woman who gave you life." She said every holiday, including Father's Day, she takes her son to the cemetery to see his father. Sanchez was then hugged by Carillo's brother, Edgar, was the last to take the stand. Twice he asked Brownlow to look at him and told him he did not like the games Brownlow played while testifying in court. "I hope you live up to what you did," Carillo said. (source: Terrell Tribune) GEORGIA: Timothy Foster appeal ruling may come soon With just 8 justices currently sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court, several defendants still await a ruling, including convicted murderer Timothy Foster. In 1986, Timothy Tyrone Foster murdered a retired fourth-grade Johnson Elementary School teacher, Queen White, during a burglary. He was arrested a month after the incident, with the police finding the stolen items in his home. He later confessed to the crime. Court records show that White's jaw was broken, and she had a severe gash on the top of her head. Before she was strangled to death, she had been molested. An all-white jury convicted the 18-year-old black man of murder and burglary, and sentenced him to death. On Nov. 2, 2015, Foster's appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The question was whether or not then-Floyd County District Attorney Steve Lanier improperly excluded potential black jurors from the death penalty trial in 1987. "Mr. Foster's case is still pending in the U.S. Supreme Court," said Foster's attorney, Stephen Bright with the Southern Center for Human Rights. The court usually ends its term in June and could hand down a decision any day now, Bright said. "The court will issue decisions again on Monday and from time to time after that until all the cases have been decided," Bright said. "Unfortunately, the court provides no warning with regard to when it will decide
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., LA., IND.
May 21 TEXASimpending execution Charles Flores, the next person in America scheduled to be executed, has filed his final appeal The next person in America scheduled to be executed has filed his final appeal, arguing that his conviction for murder was based on "flimsy" evidence and was racially motivated. Charles Flores, a Texas inmate who is schedule to receive a lethal injection on June 2, filed a legal brief to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals late Thursday afternoon. He currently has 13 days to live. As Fusion reported earlier this month, Flores was convicted for the 1998 murder of Elizabeth "Betty" Black in a Dallas suburb. He was sentenced to death even though the prosecution presented no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and the only witness who saw him at the scene was improperly hypnotized by police. Meanwhile, Flores' white co-defendant, who was also charged with the murder, pled guilty, received a 35-year prison sentence, and is now out on parole. The brief Flores' lawyers filed Thursday is an application for a writ of habeas corpus, essentially a petition asking the Texas court for a new trial or at least to postpone the execution to allow a hearing on the evidence. "In a case involving drugs, money, greed, and family, Flores was implicated based solely on conduct preceding the murder and conduct that occurred many weeks following the crime," his lawyers write. "No gun - no bullet - no money - no fingerprints - no DNA - no map - nothing, absolutely nothing directly links Flores to this crime." What is likely Flores' strongest argument concerns the hypnosis used in the investigation of the case. Jill Barganier, a neighbor of the victim's, was hypnotized by police officers to help her recover her memory of the morning of the murder. Even after the hypnosis, she couldn't pick Flores out of a police lineup. But 13 months later, when she was on the witness stand, she said she was "100% sure" she had seen Flores. Barganier was the only eyewitness who said she saw Flores at the scene of the crime. Now, Flores' lawyers are arguing that Barganier's testimony should be thrown out under the state's junk science law. The brief includes an affidavit from Steven Lynn, a Binghamton University professor who is an expert in hypnosis and recovered memories. According to Lynn, who reviewed the trial transcript and the video of the hypnosis, new scientific research on hypnosis since the '90s suggests that the hypnosis conducted on Barganier could have led to the creation of false memories. "Serious consideration should be given to the possibility that a miscarriage of justice was perpetrated in the ease of Mr. Flores," Lynn writes. Specifically, he says, the police officer who conducted the hypnosis used a technique known as the "movie theater technique," in which he encouraged her to imagine she was in a movie theater watching a movie of her memories. That strategy, Lynn says, has been discredited, and can cause people to have unwarranted confidence in false memories. "Clearly, the techniques that were used to refresh Ms. Bargainer's memory would be eschewed today by anyone at all familiar with the extant research on hypnosis and memory," Lynn writes. Without the testimony of Barganier - the only witness who identified him at the crime scene - Flores would not be convicted, his lawyers argue. "[Barganier's] flawed testimony is literally the only glue holding together the States tenuous circumstantial case. Without it, there is no way a Texas jury would have found Flores guilty of capital murder," the brief states. (Barganier did not respond to several requests for comment last month.) The brief also spends considerable time discussing Flores' childhood. He says he was given drugs by his brothers at an early age, and was huffing gas to get high when he was only 5. Another psychologist who the defense had evaluate Flores said that this may have led to abnormal brain development. One of Flores' earliest memories, the brief notes, is a violent fight between his parents. Flores also reported that he was sexually assaulted by relatives. But Flores' trial attorneys didn't investigate any of this or present this mitigating evidence to the jury. During the sentencing phase of his trial, Flores' attorneys didn't call a single witness. They didn't try to contact any of his brothers or childhood friends. "Had the jury heard about Flores's upbringing, childhood drug use, and brain impairment, it would have been presented with a vastly different picture than the State's depiction of a violent, remorseless, inhuman monster. Because Flores's attorneys did little to challenge the State's narrative, the jury was left with no real options," the brief states. Finally, the brief argues that the deep discrepancy in sentencing that Flores received as compared to his white co-defendant, Richard Childs, means the death penalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., OHIO, USA
May 20 TEXAS: Nueces County prosecutors seek death penalty in store clerk shooting case Nueces County prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing a store clerk owner last year. James Elizalde, 23, faces a capital murder charge in the shooting death of store clerk Ignacio Rodriguez. Rodriguez, 50, was killed about 3 a.m. Oct. 4 at a convenience store in the 3600 block of Staples Street. Capital murder carries 2 punishment options: life in prison without parole or death by lethal injection. Elizalde was seen in surveillance footage fleeing the store with 2 other men after the shooting, according to an arrest affidavit. The other 2 have not been charged and were listed as witnesses in the affidavit. A grand jury also indicted Elizalde on an evading arrest charge from a 2014 incident, court officials said. Lawyers are slated to start picking a jury on Aug. 15 in 214th District Judge Jose Longoria's court. Elizalde remains in the Nueces County Jail in lieu of more than $1 million bail. (source: Corpus Christi Caller Times) FLORIDA: Dale Recinella makes a moral case to kill the death penalty I've been a supporter of the death penalty. When I thought about it at all. Which is to say, some crimes are so heinous that only one punishment seems sufficient. But to say this is to make a lot of assumptions. It's to assume, first off, that the person being put to death is actually guilty, which isn't always the case. And it's to assume the process by which they are sentenced to death is fair and unbiased. And it's pretty clear this isn't always the case, either. So there's the idea of the death penalty, and then there's the reality. Dale Recinella, a Macclenny attorney who has served for 20 years a volunteer chaplain and for 13 years as a lay chaplain for Florida's death row, says the reality is that in Florida and elsewhere, the death penalty is "a mess in every way, shape and form." "Everyone believes this myth that it's the worst of the worst who are executed," said Recinella, who will speak at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Stuart this Saturday night and Sunday morning. "It isn't; it's the people who couldn't afford lawyers." The process itself, he said, is inconsistent, arbitrary and racially biased - with 85 p% of all executions since 1976 taking place in "the old Confederacy and the slaveholding border states." "If you have 20 people who are charged with crimes that are almost identical, who will get the death penalty?" he asked rhetorically. "The poorest, the person of color and the guy with the worst lawyer." The U.S. Supreme Court agrees capital punishment in Florida is less than fair. The court ruled in January our death penalty is unconstitutional because it gives judges too much say in the process, and doesn't give jurors enough. Now the Florida Supreme Court is deciding whether the state's 390 death row inmates should have their sentences commuted to life in prison. The Legislature tried to come up with a fix, but earlier this month, a Miami judge struck that down. Capital punishment in Florida could be on a death watch. For Recinella, the end can't come too soon. Recinella was once a Wall Street finance lawyer who in the 1980s nearly died after eating a raw oyster and getting infected with the Vibrio vulnificus bacteria. He was literally on his deathbed when he saw the light, when he said Jesus came to him and challenged him to stop living such a self-centered life. "People ask, 'Did you get the music and light?' " Recinella said in a phone interview last week. "No, I got the lecture." When he awoke the following morning, "shocked that I was not dead," he and his wife, Susan, discussed where to go from there. They started volunteering at a Tallahassee food kitchen. That led to a stint working with street people who had AIDS. That, in turn, resulted in a request that he begin working with prisoners who had HIV and AIDS. In 1998, that led to death row. Recinella had once been pro-capital punishment; what he saw - chronicled in 2 books he's written on the subject - changed his mind. But what changed his heart was his faith and his belief in human dignity. "Even people who have committed great wrongs still retain human dignity, and their life is still valuable," he said. Dignity is in short supply on death row. Prisoners are confined in 6-by-9 cages in "these large boxes of steel and concrete sitting in the middle of nowhere between Gainesville and Jacksonville." There's no air conditioning, virtually no air movement at all. "People sometimes call (death row prisoners) 'animals' - but it would be unconscionable to keep a dog in these conditions. "Their crimes are horrible," he said. "But the question is, once we have these people secured in prison, are they animals - or are they human beings?" Recinella speaks all over the country, and says he's not interested in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, NEB., KAN.
May 19 TEXASbook review "The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City" It is not often that I find a book about Brownsville included on a list of books being talked about as the most anticipated titles being released by the major New York publishing houses. So I was surprised and interested when I found, "The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts' by Laura Tillman listed among those books being talked about at Winter Institute and included in an anthology of early releases which I receive as a bookseller. On March 11, 2003, in Brownsville, John Allen Rubio and Angela Camacho brutally murdered their 3 young children. The apartment building where this horrific crime took place was already run-down, and in the years following the murders, a consensus developed in the community that the building should be destroyed. It was a place, some felt, that was haunted and spiritually bereft. In 2008, Tillman commenced her successful journalism career with a stint at The Brownsville Herald. New to the valley, moving here from Connecticut, Tillman started by covering local interest stories and was assigned to cover a debate over what should happen to this building, a debate which continues to this day. What started as a special interest feature became a 6-year inquiry into the toll of this crime on the city of Brownsville as well as the larger significance of such acts, ones so difficult to explain that their perpetrators are often written off as monsters. Tillman over a period of years has researched the case file, interviewed the friends, neighbors and family surrounding the crime, talked with those involved in prosecuting and defending Camacho and Rubio. While ambivalent about the value to her investigation Tillman also contacted John Allen Rubio himself, and corresponded with him for years and ultimately met him on death row where he currently resides. Her correspondence and meetings with Rubio are at once heartbreaking and disturbing, and Tillman's explanation of her own feelings as she engages with him deepens the narrative rather than distracts. How does one reconcile the image of a monster, capable of such inhumane and grotesque actions with the man who claims to have loved his children beyond all else, and who could be any of thousands of young men who have been left behind after suffering from neglect or abuse? As mass shootings or other horrific acts of violence become more frequently reported in our daily lives the questions of how those closest to these events are affected becomes more widespread. Can a building itself be evil? What affect does it have to be continually reminded of some indescribable violence by the mere presence of the building where it occurred? Tillman questions our complicity in cases where mental illness, poverty, drug use, and despair go unaddressed and ultimately lead to some unbearable or indescribable act of horror. How does a community where an awful crime has been committed work toward healing after the cameras have been packed up and the reporters' notepads put away? How much compassion does a mentally ill person who has murdered deserve? "The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts" is a brilliant exploration of some of our age's most important social issues, from poverty to mental illness to the death penalty, and a beautiful, profound meditation on the truly human forces that drive them. It is disturbing, insightful, and mesmerizing in equal measure. "The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts" by Laura Tillman Scribner, 256 pages, ISBN 9781501104251 (source: Valley Morning Star) OHIO: Jury to Consider If Ohioan Should Be Executed for Killing 3 A jury in Cleveland is expected to hear final arguments Thursday and could begin deciding whether to recommend that a man be sentenced to death for killing 3 women and wrapping their bodies in garbage bags. Prosecutors told jurors on Wednesday that 38-year-old Michael Madison deserves execution because of the circumstances surrounding the killings. Defense attorneys argue Madison's life should be spared because of psychological damage caused by child abuse. The jury convicted Madison of aggravated murder earlier this month for killing 38-year-old Angela Deskins, 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley and 18-year-old Shirellda Terry. Their bodies were found near Madison's East Cleveland apartment in 2013. If the jury recommends the death penalty, a judge will decide if Madison should die by lethal injection or spend the rest of his life in prison. (source: Associated Press) NEBRASKA: Former Death Row Inmate Dies in Prison A man who was adopted by a central Nebraska family and was nearly executed for murder has died in prison. Randolph Reeves, 60, died at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. He was serving a life sentence for 2 murders committed in 1980 at a meeting house of the Quaker religious community. Reeves, who was Native American,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ALA., MISS., LA.
May 17 TEXAS: Europeans make journey to Texas death row Death row is where convicted murderers spend years of purgatory before the final walk to the death chamber. Many of them are shunned by their own families. But there's one group prisoners call their salvation: Europeans who send care packages, money and travel thousands of miles on a journey to death row. About an hour north of the big city of Houston lies the small town of Livingston, an unexpected tourist destination for Europeans like Mona Buras. "I go to school now," Buras says. "Studying theology. I want to be a prison minister." The 45-year-old mother of 2 just spent 26 hours traveling from Norway to visit a pen pal. "With Perry, I've been writing with for more than 2 years now," Buras says. "I get a friend. I really do." Her friend is a man who this summer, Texas plans to execute. "Everybody else has just really turned their back on me, mostly," death row prisoner Perry Williams says. He's convicted of robbing and murdering a medical student in Houston nearly 16 years ago. He claims the crime was not intentional. "A lot of stuff is really hazy because I was under the influence of PCP," Williams says. "Who pulled the trigger on that man?" reporter Emily Baucum asks. "It's up in the air because he swung on us," Williams responds. "The gun went off during the process." "I don't approve of it but I think they have 2nd chances," Buras says. "It's not my job to judge." A Norwegian mother and a Texas prisoner - it's an unlikely friendship Williams admits is difficult to comprehend. "I was skeptical because it was like, why do you want to help somebody that's supposed to be killing somebody?" Williams says. The death penalty has been abolished in all but one European country. In Norway, the maximum sentence for murderers is 21 years. No prisoner there has been executed in Buras' lifetime. "That's why I think it's strange for me," she says. "If you're American and you kill and if you're Norwegian you kill, you're still a killer. So how come we are so different in our punishment?" Websites show Europeans how to get in touch with and even visit American prisoners. In Texas, wardens don't track where visitors are from but motels in Livingston are often full of Europeans. In an email, a woman who visits from Switzerland writes. "It wasn't because I was bored with my life or something like that. It was a sincere interest to know why people still get executed." Sometimes the pen-pal friendships turn romantic. We heard from a woman who's engaged to a prisoner. She writes, "They can't call overseas, so I have never been able to receive a phone call from him." Even face to face, Buras and Williams' friendship is through a window. They say it's purely platonic - nothing sexual, but there is love. "Yeah I love her," Williams says. "I love her because like I say, she's proved a lot to me because she's doing something my family won't even do." "Yes, I do love him," Buras says. "It's hard to have this kind of relationship without getting to love them." They exchange letters and poetry. Buras says because her children's university costs are paid for by the Norwegian government, she's able to send Williams money. "I send what I have," Buras says. "If I have $50 I will send him that. If I have $10 I will send him that." Williams says he doesn't ask for money but does spend it on hygiene products. "Do you feel guilty taking money from her?" Baucum asks. "Yes, that's why I never say nothing," Williams responds. If you find Buras' behavior naive, she understands - because she too feels a culture shock. "The Americans would not believe what we do with our prisoners back home," Buras says. At Norwegian prisons, instead of barbed wire there's a system to help reintegrate criminals into society. But for Williams, the countdown is on. "Until the last minute," he says. "Until 6 o'clock on July 14." His execution will be the 1st time the 2 friends get to hug each other. "I just appreciate her giving me a chance to show the world that I'm not a lost cause," Williams says. As he lives his final months with remorse, Buras will be there until the end. "To imagine him in the chamber, getting strapped down to this bed and actually getting killed - it's really, really difficult," she says. Buras will make 1 more journey to death row in July when William is executed. News 4 will be there, too, to document that experience. (source: news4sanantonio.com) NORTH CAROLINA: Judge: Death penalty can be sought in veteran's burn death A judge has agreed that prosecutors can seek the death penalty against a man charged with beating and burning to death an Army veteran he had met at a bar in 2014. The News & Record of Greensboro reports (http://bit.ly/1qoqEUj ) that a judge agreed with aggravating factors cited by prosecutors. Those factors included the cruelty of the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., LA., OHIO
May 12 TEXAS: State, Lawyers Debate Identifying Execution Drug Supplier Revealing Texas' supplier of execution drugs could have a harmful effect on the provider and as a result leave the state empty-handed, a lawyer for the state suggested Wednesday during an appeals court hearing. State Deputy Solicitor General Matthew Frederick told a 3-judge panel on the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals that a "substantial risk" comes with naming the state's supplier. Specifically, he said, people who are against the death penalty might lash out against the supplier. "Pharmacies don't have security details," Frederick said. "Their only protection is anonymity." But 3 lawyers who have filed suit to release the identity of lethal injection drug suppliers say that no "substantial threat of physical harm" exists; therefore, the information legally cannot be withheld, their attorney, Philip Durst, argued. The appeals court had challenged attorneys for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the group of 3 lawyers - who have represented clients on death row - to differentiate between risks and threats when explaining what the harm is in identifying a compounding pharmacy that has provided the state with lethal injection drugs. The court did not offer a timeline for when it would make a ruling, but either party could appeal a future ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. The 3 lawyers sued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in 2014 after the agency refused a request to identify the compounding pharmacy that supplies the state with lethal injection drugs. The attorneys - Maurie Levin, Naomi Terr and Hilary Sheard - had made the request through the state's Public Information Act. A state district court later that year ordered the prison agency to release the pharmacy's identity because it was public information, but the agency appealed. Since then, major pharmaceutical companies have refused to supply capital punishment states with the drugs needed to execute the condemned, forcing Texas to scramble and find alternative providers. In 2015, Texas made it legal to conceal the identity of parties that supply lethal injection drugs to the state. As a result, the attorneys are challenging the Department of Criminal Justice to release the identity of lethal injection drug suppliers from before the law went into effect last September. The 3 lawyers say that identifying lethal injection drug providers makes it easier to hold them accountable. But the state argues that releasing that information could lead to physical harm of its supplier. There may be risk, but there is no sign of an imminent threat, attorneys for both sides acknowledged before the appeals court. Justice Bob Pemberton pushed back Wednesday on the state's "substantial risk" characterization, saying that there is a difference between a risk and a threat, and that individuals such as former Gov. Rick Perry have been vocal about their position on capital punishment, which hasn't led to threats being realized. A pharmacy supplier is a soft target, though, Frederick responded. Also, Frederick referenced the 2013 revelation that the Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy supplied the state with execution drugs led to significant amounts hate mail and messages. As providers have been identified over the years, they have stopped making the drugs, according to multiple media reports. Equating people who oppose the death penalty to anti-abortion activists, Durst said that such activists generally protest peacefully. There's never been anything other than "How could you?" and other responses protected by the First Amendment, he said. The judges also asked how allowing the supplier's identity to remain secret because of safety concerns would not gut the state's Public Information Act. Frederick said that keeping the identity secret falls in line with the physical safety exemption from complying with a public information request. Durst said that labeling someone or something a threat should be based on concrete evidence. Theories from experts alone is not enough, he said. "It can't be that," Durst told the panel. Until a few years ago, major pharmaceutical companies provided execution drugs to death penalty states, Frederick said. As soon as smaller companies are identified, they might leave the market, he said. "They don't want to stick around long enough to see what happens," he said. After the larger companies dropped death penalty states as clients, Texas began seeking alternative providers to make the lethal drugs, but the federal government has weighed in on a couple of occasions. In April, the Food and Drug Administration barred the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from importing sodium thiopental, a drug used in executions. Last year, Texas and Arizona reportedly tried to import execution drugs from India but were unsuccessful. (source: Texas Tribune) FLORIDA: Death
