May 29
TEXAS:
Condemned Texas inmate loses Supreme Court appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review an appeal from condemned Texas
inmate Duane Buck, whose supporters contend his death sentence decided by a
Houston jury 17 years ago unfairly was based on race.
"His death sentence is the product of pervasive racial discrimination,"
attorneys Christina Swarns, Kathryn Kase and Kate Black said in a statement
Wednesday.
Without comment, the high court Tuesday rejected Buck's appeal. The ruling was
an appeal of a similar rejection in November from the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals, the state's highest criminal court.
Buck, 50, was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row for the slaying
of his ex-girlfriend and a man at her Houston apartment in July 1995. During
the punishment phase of Buck's 1997 trial, psychologist Walter Quijano
testified under cross-examination by a Harris County prosecutor that black
people were more likely to commit violence.
Advocates for Buck, who is black, say that unfairly influenced jurors, who in
Texas capital cases must decide when deliberating a death sentence whether an
offender would be a continuing threat. Quijano, called as a defense witness,
had testified earlier that Buck's personality and the nature of his crime,
committed during rage, indicated he would be less of a future danger.
Buck's lawyers also insisted Wednesday that Texas "violated his due process and
equal protection rights by reneging on its promise to ensure that Mr. Buck
received a new, fair sentencing."
Buck's case was among 6 in 2000 that then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn,
now a Republican U.S. senator, said needed to be reopened because of racially
charged statements made during the trial sentencing phase. In the other 5
cases, new punishment hearings were held and each convict again was sentenced
to death.
The attorney general's office has argued Buck's case was factually and legally
different from the five others and that Buck's trial lawyers first elicited the
testimony from the psychologist. They also said the racial reference was a
small part of larger testimony about prison populations.
Buck does not have an execution date. He was in a 6-hour window for a lethal
injection scheduled for September 2011 when the Supreme Court halted the
punishment.
His lawyers now are in a federal court in Houston arguing the performance of
his trial attorneys and lawyers early in his appeals was "wholly inappropriate"
and that he's entitled to a new punishment trial. State lawyers are opposing
the appeal.
Buck was convicted of gunning down ex-girlfriend Debra Gardner, 32, and Kenneth
Butler, 33, a week after Buck and Gardner broke up. Buck's stepsister also was
shot but survived.
(source: Associated Press)
CONNECTICUT:
Sentencing Death After the Death Penalty's Repeal
In 2012, Connecticut repealed the death penalty for crimes committed after the
law was changed. That doesn't mean more people won't end up on death row. A man
convicted of a 2006 triple murder was sentenced to death last week.
On the one hand, the law seems clear. If you committed a crime before the law
was repealed, and that crime qualified for the death penalty, you may still get
sentenced to die. If you commit a crime today, the worst fate you can face is
life in prison.
Mike Lawlor, the governor's undersecretary for criminal justice policy and
planning, said on WNPR's Where We Live that Connecticut isn't the only state to
have passed what's called a prospective repeal of the death penalty. "Of the 6
states that have repealed the death penalty in the last few years," he said,
"all of them did it prospectively. There's nothing unique to Connecticut."
Then there's this issue: Lawlor said Connecticut uses lethal injection, but it
doesn't have any drugs to inject.
"Just to be clear," Lawlor said, "Connecticut doesn't have the drugs that were
traditionally used in lethal injection, because they were manufactured in
Europe, [and] the manufacturer has basically banned their use for this purpose.
The states that have conducted executions have sort of improvised going to
these compounding factories. At the moment, we don't have a drug that can be
used for this purpose. If and when the time comes, we'll have to figure out how
to obtain such a drug."
Not long ago, Oklahoma officials botched the execution of a man by lethal
injection and that protocol is now under review. The idea that any of the
people on Connecticut's death row will be executed seems slim, regardless of
when they committed their crime. Lawlor said that only two people have been put
to death by the state in more than 50 years, and they both volunteered.
(source: WNPR)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Pa. Supreme Court Denies Baumhammers' Appeal
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the prosecution in the
case of convicted mass murderer Richard Baumhammers.
But the long process of death penalty appeals is something that Allegheny
County District Attorney Steve Zappala thinks the legislature should tackle.
"I think the legislature should take a look at this, take a look at this issue
about the death penalty, and if they're not going to execute people then maybe
they should re-evaluate," he said.
Zappala's challenge to the legislature comes as the state Supreme Court ruled
that Baumhammers should not get a new penalty hearing and his convictions for
killing 5 people in a rampage from April of 2000 will stand.
1 of the victims, Sandip Patel, was paralyzed and died 7 years later.
Among the issues raised at a challenge to his death sentence: the testimony of
Dr. Michael Welner, who told the jury at trial that Baumhammers was not
schizophrenic but told media outlets years later that he was schizophrenic. The
prosecution argued the doctor misspoke.
Still the appeals are not finished.
"We haven't executed anybody in Pennsylvania for a long, long time," says
Zappala. "And it's sad in the sense that we're at a stage were at the Supreme
Court, then there will be more appeals. There will be collateral appeals into
the federal system, and families that survive this; I don't know that they're
ever going to find closure."
But Zappala is pursuing the death penalty in the case of Allen Wade, accused in
the deaths of 2 sisters, Sarah and Susan Wolfe in East Liberty.
How does he reconcile that decision?
"Because as a prosecutor, I have an obligation to apply the law as it's
presented to me," he said.
Baumhammers next appeal goes to federal court.
(source: CBS news)
DELAWARE:
Biblical perspective on death penalty
In response to "Should Delaware still have the death penalty?" by John Sweeney,
here's my reply: Genesis 9:06: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall
his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."
Exodus 12:14: "But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take
him away from my altar and put him to death."
Exodus 21:23-25: "But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for
life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for
burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." (Let the punishment fit the crime.)
Punishment would not be excessive if the executioner put a pistol with a bullet
in it and shot the person committing the murder between the eyes.
David C. Rittenhouse
Wilmington
(source: Letter to the Editor, News Journal)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Grand jury to hear case against Rock Hill grandfather accused of double murder
A York County grand jury is expected to consider issuing indictments this week
against the Rock Hill grandfather police say shot and killed his disabled wife
and their 9-year-old granddaughter.
Ronald Fred Gregory, 67, confessed to the March 21 crimes and tried to commit
suicide by shooting himself twice in the chest, according to police and court
documents. He survived and was arrested a week later.
Gregory was in the midst of a custody battle with the maternal grandparents of
Mia Rodgers, 9, when police say he killed her and his wife, Barbara Gregory,
who was confined to a wheelchair.
He also withdrew about $40,000 from banks before and after the crimes,
according to police and court documents. His mental state has been questioned
in court, and he has been interviewed by at least 1 psychiatrist.
The cases against Gregory will be presented to the grand jury on Thursday,
prosecutors said. If indictments are returned, prosecutors can then set the
case for trial.
The case could be a death penalty trial, because there are 2 victims, one of
whom is younger than 10. Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett has not
said whether he will seek the death penalty.
After being stripped of a court-appointed attorney because he has more than
$500,000 in a retirement account and other assets, Gregory has not hired a
lawyer. He has told a judge he intends to represent himself.
There is a possibility of a plea agreement that would avoid a trial and likely
end with Gregory spending the rest of his life in prison, if he were to plead
guilty.
(source: The State)
GEORGIA----new execution date
State sets June 17 execution date for Wellons
The state of Georgia has set a June 17 execution date for Marcus Wellons, who
sits on death row for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Cobb County girl.
The execution date was set little more than a week after the Georgia Supreme
Court upheld the state's lethal-injection secrecy law.
Wellons was sentenced to death in 1993 for the sexual assault and murder of
India Roberts, who lived in a neighboring townhouse apartment. He abducted the
teenager shortly after she had said goodbye to her mother and walked toward her
school bus stop. An autopsy showed the Campbell High School sophomore had died
from strangulation, possibly from a telephone cord used by Wellons.
Wellons' case received national attention when it was disclosed after his trial
that his jurors gave erotic chocolate "gag gifts" to the judge and bailiff.
In September 2012, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called the gifts
"tasteless and inappropriate" but said they played no part in the judge's or
jury's consideration. For this reason, the court denied Wellons' request for a
new trial.
"We ... acknowledge that the ill-advised actions of a few thoughtless jurors
could create the perception that this jury was too busy joking around rather
than deciding Wellons' fate," Judge Charles Wilson wrote. "But these were 2
isolated incidents in the span of a multi-week trial and we cannot say, on the
basis of this record, that the verdicts were tainted."
The 11th Circuit heard the case after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 said the
erotic gifts raised questions that required further examination. A death
penalty case "must be conducted with dignity and respect," the high court said.
The justices found disturbing a penis-shaped chocolate that was given to Cobb
Superior Court Judge Mary Staley and chocolate breasts sent to the court
bailiff after the 1993 trial.
In its subsequent ruling, the 11th Circuit said Staley neglected to properly
handle the situation. She should have admonished or disciplined the jurors who
were involved and should have disclosed what happened to prosecutors and
Wellons' lawyers so they could have made timely objections, the ruling said.
Juror Mary Jo Hooper previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that
during the trial she ordered a box of chocolate-shaped turtles from a friend
who ran a candy shop to give to fellow jurors and court personnel. The friend
included the penis-shaped chocolate as a joke and, after a bailiff said the
judge wanted to see it, Hooper said she discreetly gave it to Staley after the
trial ended.
An unidentified juror sent the breast-shaped chocolates to the bailiff after
the trial, the ruling said.
(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
*********************
Execution set for man in rape, killing of Ga. teen
A Georgia man convicted of raping and murdering a teenage girl is to be
executed next month.
The execution of Marcus Wellons has been scheduled for June 17 at 7 p.m.,
Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said in a statement.
Wellons was convicted in 1993 of raping and strangling his 15-year-old
neighbor, India Roberts, a high school sophomore from the Atlanta suburbs.
Wellons lived with his girlfriend in the summer of 1989, and Roberts was a
friend of the woman's son. Authorities say Wellons dragged Roberts to the son's
upstairs bedroom and strangled her there.
Roberts' naked body was found in a wooded area near the apartment building with
cuts on one side of her face and ear, and bruises on her neck.
(source: Associated Press)
*************************
Georgia's execution secrecy law protects private interests over the public
good; Recent ruling to uphold Owens vs. Hill is revenge, not justice
For centuries, the executioner has worn a mask to enshroud the process in
secrecy. As methods of execution have "advanced" along with technology, from
the guillotine to the intravenous injection of a lethal drug cocktail, the mask
has changed as well. In Georgia, the state has handed the pharmaceutical
companies that make money off the death penalty a mask, codified in law.
On May 19, the Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a controversial Georgia law
passed in 2013 that provides anonymity to those who supply lethal-injection
drugs to the state's corrections department. In doing so, the court ruled in
Owens v. Hill that lawyers for Warren Hill, a mentally disabled death-row
inmate who has an IQ of 70, failed to make a strong enough case for how access
to information about execution drugs would prevent Hill from the grim fate of a
cruel and unusual punishment.
Whether you're for or against the death penalty, you should be adamantly
opposed to this law. You should also be up in arms about the fact that only 2
justices sided against it. The law sidesteps government transparency,
perpetuates hypocrisy, and feeds Georgia's manic, addict-like fixation with
keeping the death penalty alive at all costs.
Without knowing the exact source of execution drugs, Hill and other death-row
inmates could be subject to botched lethal injections that turn their final
moments into torture. In Hill's case, an indefinite stay of execution in place
since last July has been lifted because of the ruling. Georgia Attorney General
Sam Olens has the power once again to schedule Hill's execution despite, as two
justices note in the ruling's minority opinion, the denial of his due process.
Hill likely has a stronger legal case thanks to a separate U.S. Supreme Court
ruling this week that will favorably change the way states determine whether
mentally disabled inmates are fit for execution. But the limitation of Hill's
rights regarding lethal injection secrecy will have major consequences for
Georgia's other death-row prisoners.
The lethal injection secrecy law is being kept on the books simply to protect
the state's private interests. Transparency is important for all government
decisions, but particularly in the case of the death penalty given its current
state of affairs throughout the nation. In April in Oklahoma, which has a
similar secrecy law, death-row inmate Clayton D. Lockett suffered an
excruciating death after his executioners botched his lethal injection. He
struggled on his gurney for 43-minutes before finally succumbing to a heart
attack. Federal public defender Madeline Cohen, who was representing another
Oklahoma inmate also scheduled to die that evening, described Lockett's death
as "torturous." The execution was carried out without any independent
witnesses. More information about and proper vetting of the drugs could have
raised a red flag and helped prevent Lockett's final hour of suffering.
Similarly mishandled and cruel executions could very well become the norm in
Georgia without proper oversight.
For years, Georgia and a number of other states have scrambled to replenish
dwindling supplies of execution drugs. Supply has dwindled as more and more
manufacturers have caved to political pressure and refused to sell drugs for
capital punishment. Now that Lockett's case has again called the humanity of
this execution method into question, politicians are finding other ways to kill
their prisoners. Last week, Tennessee overwhelmingly approved a bill that would
bring back the electric chair if the state is unable to procure
lethal-injection drugs. Lawmakers in Utah and Wyoming are currently mulling
whether or not to resurrect firing squads as a more humane form of execution.
This is what desperation breeds. Rather than re-examining whether the death
penalty still serves a purpose (if it ever did), policymakers are launching
tragically comic efforts to keep it going.
In the Georgia court's majority opinion, presiding Justice P. Harris Hines
wrote that execution drug suppliers needed protection because of the "obvious"
risks involved with the job. Hines is an intelligent jurist, which makes his
opinion for the majority so disappointing. He writes that these companies -
which are being paid with taxpayer dollars - deserve anonymity to prevent
retaliation. In addition, Hines writes, the law will likely make the state's
execution process "more timely and orderly." That might be the case for state
officials who want to keep space available on death row, but it makes it
impossible to ensure that death-row inmates are protected from cruel and
unusual punishment.
The state is picking and choosing who's gifted with the cloak of invisibility
because it suits officials' agendas and allows them to proclaim they're tough
on crime. We can find out who serves meals in government cafeterias and who
paves the roads. Yet we aren't allowed to know who is stopping another person's
heart, however heinous that person's crime might have been? We are told that
life is precious when it comes to a woman's right to choose, but that it's
worth ending in a potentially painful manner with mysterious drugs mixed by
anonymous chemists when it's a criminal?
This law is an absurd, last ditch attempt to keep an archaic punishment alive.
As citizens, we have the right to know what is being carried out in our name.
(source: Editoril Board, Creative Loafing Atlanta)
FLORIDA:
Death penalty sought in Lehigh Acres double murder case
Steven Tompkins, a Lehigh Acres man charged in the double murder of his mother
Shelly and brother Daniel, will face the death penalty.
The killings happened on December 10, 2013. It touched off a nationwide manhunt
for Tompkins.
Prosecutors say Tompkins shot and killed his 55-year-old mother and 22-year-old
brother and then fled to South Carolina where he went on the run with
19-year-old Joycelin Luck. The 2 were captured in Wyoming.
(source: Fox News)
********************
Florida judge orders November hearing on evidence of Brit's innocence
A full evidentiary hearing will be held in November for 75-year-old British
citizen Krishna 'Kris' Maharaj, it was announced today. The hearing could prove
the Brit's innocence after 27 years in a Florida prison.
In a Miami court today, Judge William Thomas set the hearing for the week of
November 10th. The announcement comes after his recent decision to allow a full
hearing on Mr Maharaj's claims of innocence, witness perjury, and a police
cover-up in the 1986 deaths of Derrick and Duane Moo Young in the Dupont Plaza,
in downtown Miami.
Mr Maharaj's legal team - he has been represented pro bono by Clive Stafford
Smith, director of legal charity Reprieve, and Miami lawyer Benedict Kuehne for
the past 2 decades - has developed evidence showing that the crimes were
committed by Colombian drug cartels. Unknown to Mr Maharaj at the time of the
original trial, many of the prosecution's cast of witnesses were involved in
narcotics trafficking.
As yet without any funding to present his defence, Mr Maharaj will also be
seeking state funding to bring a large number of witnesses to the Miami
courtroom.
Clive Stafford Smith, lawyer for Mr Maharaj and director of Reprieve said: "We
stand on the cusp of being able to exonerate Kris Maharaj. When the prosecution
takes a close look at the evidence that we have developed, it will be clear
that Kris should never have been tried for this crime in the first place. This
is such a clear case of injustice that the real question should be how fast the
State of Florida can release Kris."
(source: Reprieve)
******************
Ruling may delay serial killer's execution
Rep. Matt Gaetz, who pushed for a state law aimed at speeding up imposition of
the death penalty, isn't happy with Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
A signed execution warrant seemed imminent for Frank Walls, a serial killer
convicted in Okaloosa County and sent to death row in 1988.
But the high court ruling will likely change that.
"I've been working for more than a year to introduce that guy to his maker,"
Gaetz said.
The court ruled 5-4 that Florida acted unconstitutionally by using a single
"bright line" IQ score of 70 to determine whether a killer could be put to
death.
Walls' IQ has been pegged at 72. Bill Eddins, state attorney for Florida's
First Judicial Circuit, predicted if his death warrant is signed this year it
will be challenged both in the U.S. and Florida Supreme Courts.
"We'll make every effort possible to uphold the death penalty in that case,"
Eddins said.
Walls pleaded no contest to the 1987 murder of Audrey Gygi and was convicted
and sentenced to die in 1988 for the murders of Edward Alger Jr. and Ann
Peterson.
He also admitted to killing 2 other women after reaching a plea agreement in
the Gygi case.
Walls' name appeared last October on a list as one of 123 death row inmates who
had seemingly exhausted all or most of their appeals.
The clerk of Florida's Supreme Court had sent the certification letter to the
governor to comply with the Timely Justice Act of 2013, sponsored by Gaetz,
R-Fort Walton Beach.
Gaetz said the U.S. Supreme Court decision will likely delay the administration
of justice for several death row inmates, including Walls. "It is unlikely Gov.
Scott is going to be able to sign death warrants for death row inmates with
pending appeal hearings based on mental retardation," Gaetz said. "The Supreme
Court has launched countless death row cases into an appeals' oblivion."
Eddins, however, was of the opinion that the Supreme Court was attempting to
make sure justices were using criteria other than an IQ score to determine
which inmates suffer "intellectual disability" and which others could be put to
death.
He said he's confident judges in the First Judicial Circuit met the assessment
standard the Supreme Court required and his office would not need to review any
local death penalty cases.
"We will not be dramatically affected by that ruling," he said.
State Senate President Don Gaetz said the federal court ruling was an
admonishment of the high court justices.
"Florida law provides plenty of ways you can assess intellectual ability," said
Don Gaetz, R-Niceville. "The problem wasn't the law it was the Florida Supreme
Court."
LOCAL DEATH ROW ROSTER
Serial Killer Frank Walls is 1 of 6 death row inmates from this region who
appeared on the Supreme Court list as having exhausted appeals.
Also on the list are Daniel Peterka, Edward Zakrzewski and Jeffrey Hutchinson
of Okaloosa County, Bruce Pace, Gary Lawrence, Jeremiah Rodgers and Michael
Hernandez of Santa Rosa County and Ernest Suggs and Thomas McCoy of Walton
County.
(source: Northwest Florida Daily News)
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