July 28
TEXAS----stay of impending execution
Texas death row inmate has Aug. 1 execution stayed
A Texas death row inmate who was scheduled to die next week had his execution
stayed Friday by the state's highest criminal court, which wants to review a
petition that argues he is not mentally competent to be executed.
Marcus Druery, 32, was condemned for the 2002 shooting and robbery of
20-year-old Skyyler Browne at Druery's family property in rural Brazos County.
His execution was scheduled for Wednesday.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered its stay after a lower court
rejected Druery's petition. An attorney for Druery, Kate Black, said he was
diagnosed with schizophrenia and was deemed incompetent by a defense expert.
She says executing Druery would violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel
and unusual punishment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners can't be executed unless
they're aware of the punishment and know why they're being punished.
"We are hopeful the Court will find that Mr. Druery is entitled to a full and
fair hearing to present the evidence of his severe psychosis and establish his
incompetence to be executed," Black said in an emailed statement.
Brazos County district attorney Bill Turner said prosecutors do not dispute
that Druery has a mental disorder, but they believe he's competent enough to
face execution.
"We anticipated the appellate courts would take a look at it before the
execution proceeded," Turner said in an interview Friday.
Druery was the next death row inmate scheduled to be executed. 2 other inmates
have scheduled executions in August.
Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, has executed 6 prisoners
this year and 483 since 1982.
(source: Associated Press)
**************
Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----244
Number--------scheduled execution date---------name
245-------------August 7--------------------Marvin Wilson
246-------------August 22------------------John Balentine
247-------------September 20--------------Robert Harris
248-------------September 25--------------Cleve Foster
249-------------October 18-----------------Anthony Haynes
250-------------November 8----------------Mario Swain
251-------------November 14---------------Ramon Hernandez
252-------------November 15---------------Preston Hughes
(sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice & Rick Halperin)
CONNECTICUT:
Judge: inmates can't bring up death penalty repeal
A judge has ruled that the state's recent repeal of the death penalty can't be
raised as an issue in a long-running lawsuit by death row inmates challenging
the fairness of capital punishment in Connecticut.
Superior Court Judge Samuel Sferrazza in Rockville said in Thursday's decision
that there's no reason to add the repeal issue at such a late stage in the
lawsuit because inmates can file new appeals raising the issue. The lawsuit is
scheduled to go to trial in September.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state lawmakers repealed the death penalty this year,
but it only applies to future crimes.
The 7-year-old lawsuit claims the state's process for deciding when to seek the
death penalty in murder cases was fraught with racial and geographic biases.
(source: Associated Press)
ALABAMA:
Judge delays sentencing in Henderson murder case
The sentencing of a Columbus, Ga., man convicted of a Lee County deputy’s
capital murder was delayed again as the judge in the case instructed attorneys
to prepare briefs on new evidence and arguments about whether the death penalty
should be applied.
Lee County Circuit Court Judge Jacob A. Walker III listened to more than 3
hours of emotional testimony on Friday before delaying his decision on whether
Gregory Lance Henderson should be sentenced to the jury-recommended life in
prison without the possibility of parole or death.
Henderson was convicted of capital murder in October 2011 for running over Lee
County sheriff’s deputy James W. Anderson during a routine traffic stop in
Smiths Station in 2009.
The delay, the 2nd this year, surprised attorneys in the case who expected
Henderson would be sentenced on Friday.
“Judge Walker wants to be thorough and wants to be fair,” District Attorney
Robbie Treese said. “I can’t say I am not frustrated, but I am OK with fair.”
Henderson’s defense attorney Jeremy Armstrong said his client was disappointed
the proceedings will continue.
“He wanted this to be over with today,” Armstrong said.
Walker did not set a new sentencing date Friday, but he did give the attorneys
a few weeks to prepare arguments on mitigating and aggravating factors in the
case as well arguments on whether recordings of jailhouse conversations made
days before the hearing should be admitted as evidence.
Prosecutors argue Henderson was a career criminal willing to kill Anderson to
escape and has shown little remorse for the crime.
The defense says Henderson should be sentenced to life in prison based on
mitigating factors including his impairment by drugs on the day of the deputy’s
death, limited mental ability, remorse for his actions, and a 9-3 jury
recommendation for life imprisonment. The defense also asked the judge to
consider the linger doubt about whether Anderson’s death was intentional.
The hearing began Friday morning with Henderson repeatedly apologizing to a
court gallery packed with police officers from multiple local agencies and
Anderson’s family.
“I want y’all to know I am sorry and please forgive me,” Henderson said.
Anderson died while trapped beneath Henderson’s car after being run over by
Henderson as he attempted to flee from a traffic stop for a swapped license
plate along Lee Road 240 in Smiths Station on Sept. 24, 2009. Henderson was
arrested by Anderson’s partner when his car became stuck on top of the deputy.
Henderson said he did not see the deputy in front of his car as he turned
around in a residential yard until it was too late.
“I would never intentional hurt or intentionally kill Deputy Anderson; it was
an accident,” said Henderson, adding he wanted to help rescue Anderson from
under the car.
On the day of the traffic stop, Henderson said he had been awake for
approximately a week and was under the influence of drugs.
“Me and the ex had some problems. The more problems I have, I tend to use
drugs,” Henderson said.
The defense also presented a series of psychological reports from Henderson’s
primary school record that described him as an unruly child with attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder who had difficulty following instructions and
performed poorly in school.
Henderson’s mental ability has been a key part of the defense throughout the
court proceedings.
Henderson’s sentencing was delayed in February while his defense sought to
eliminate the death penalty as a potential punishment for their client on the
grounds his limited mental ability would make execution unconstitutional. The
defense cleared the way for the sentencing to proceed when it ceased its
challenge in May after deciding it would be unsuccessful.
Armstrong hoped eliminating the death penalty as an option would prevent a
repeat of the 2011 decision by Walker to overturn a jury recommendation of a
life sentence in the capital murder case of his client Courtney Lockhart, an
Iraq War veteran sentenced to death for the 2008 capital murder of Auburn
University freshman Lauren Burk.
The prosecution began its case on Friday by calling 2 witnesses to testify
about Henderson’s alleged willingness to use violence, though 1 refused to
testify.
Alexandra Barfield, a female acquaintance, said Henderson had advised her
months before Anderson’s death he would shoot the next officer who tried to
pull him over.
Henderson dismissed the claims as Barfield’s attempt to get attention, and
under cross examination, she admitted she was high on meth when she made the
statements to investigators.
The prosecution was unsuccessful in admitting recent recordings of jailhouse
conversations between Henderson and 2 women that Treese said demonstrate
Henderson’s lack of remorse. The defense objected the relevance of the
recordings on the grounds they did not relate to Anderson’s death and the state
had not laid the groundwork for their admission.
During the last testimony of the day, members of Anderson’s family and Lee
County Sheriff Jay Jones described the impact of the deputy’s death in their
lives as they requested the judge sentence Henderson to death.
Speaking for the area’s law enforcement community, Jones lauded Anderson as a
man who chose a career protecting others. Henderson, he said, chose a life on
the other side of the law, and his choices during the traffic stop cost
Anderson his life.
“Along with him on the ground lay the shattered dreams of his family and
friends and all of those he worked with,” Jones said.
Corinna Anderson, the deputy’s widow, and her husband’s sisters described the
heartache the family had endured.
Corinna Anderson cried and the pitch of her voice grew higher as she described
a nurse at the hospital telling her Anderson was gone and the hurt of having to
tell members of the family.
“I never felt so lost in my life,” Corinna Anderson said. “It is the hardest
thing I have ever done in my life.”
Corinna Anderson expressed sympathy for the Henderson family, but said she
hoped Henderson’s children would find a better role model than their father.
The women talked of the things Anderson would miss out on as a father and
grandfather — never walking his daughter down the aisle or holding his beloved
grandson again.
“The main restitution I would like Gregory Henderson still has. He can breathe,
and James can’t,” Anderson’s widow said.
(source: Opelika-Auburn News)
OHIO:
Samuel Williams found guilty of Clarke-Straub murders
The jury has reached a verdict in the Samuel Williams capital murder case.
Williams has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt on all 5 charges,
including 2 counts of aggravated murder, 2 counts of kidnapping, and 1 count of
aggravated burglary.
The decision came around 10:45 Friday morning. The jury deliberated for about 5
or 6 hours Thursday, and then met again Friday morning before releasing their
decision after 7 hours of deliberation.
The main evidence they had to base their decision on was a cigarette butt found
at the scene with Williams' DNA on it.
During the week, the jury heard from a man Williams met in jail, who said
Williams told him about his involvement in the crime.
The jury also heard phone calls Williams made from jail. In some calls he
denied his involvement, but in one call he made to Cameo Pettaway's brother,
Williams said, "That was supposed to be me and you. Your little brother stepped
up."
Overall, the jury decided that was enough to say Williams was responsible
beyond a reasonable doubt.
The mitigation portion of the trial begins Monday. The same jury will decide
whether Williams will be sentenced to death.
On Thursday afternoon Pettaway, who was also accused in the deaths of Johnny
Clarke and Lisa Straub, was acquitted of all his charges after Judge James
Bates decided there was not enough evidence to convict him. Pettaway's case
never went to a jury.
(source: Toledo News Now)
UTAH:
Man's death row conviction upheld by Utah Supreme Court
The Utah Supreme Court on Friday rejected appeals by convicted killer Floyd
Eugene Maestas, who argued he shouldn't be executed for the 2004 stabbing and
stomping death of an elderly woman attacked in her Salt Lake home.
Maestas was convicted by a jury in 2008 in the aggravated murder of Donna Bott,
75, and the aggravated burglary of the home of Virginia Chamberlain, 87.
After a penalty phase of the trial, he was sentenced to die by lethal
injection. His attorneys appealed on a number of grounds, including challenges
about jury selection, the admissibility of DNA evidence and the assertion that
Maestas' own mental deficiencies made him ineligible for the death penalty. His
defense team also raised the arguments that "cumulative" errors throughout the
proceedings rose to a level that created an "unfair and unreliable outcome."
Utah Supreme Court Justices unanimously shot down the bevy of legal challenges
to Maestas' conviction in a point-by-point answer to the claims.
"We reject each of Mr. Maestas' challenges to his convictions for aggravated
robbery and aggravated murder and to his sentence under Utah's death penalty
scheme," the decision states.
In a review of the case, the justices said they found no evidence of a
"substantial error" in Maestas' prosecution and conviction.
"Because Mr. Maestas was not harmed by any substantial errors over the course
of the proceedings, our confidence in the fairness of his guilty verdict and
his sentence of death is not undermined."
The penalty phase of Maestas' trial took an abrupt and bizarre turn when he
refused to let his attorneys put on mitigating evidence about his childhood,
saying he didn't want to drag his family into an embarrassing public spotlight.
In the appeal of the conviction and sentence, however, attorneys argued that
Maestas should never have been able to make that decision on his own and the
courts were legally bound to defer to Maestas' defense team over an issue so
critical.
The high court disagreed, however, and said counsel is just that — counsel —
and Maestas retained the right to control the direction of his own case.
"I do think this case was well reasoned and well decided," said assistant Utah
attorney general Karen Klucznik. "It was a case that addressed pretty much all
of the issues the defendant raised," she added, pointing out there were 40
issues raised on the appeal.
Maestas was 52 when he and 2 other men broke into Bott's Glendale home intent
on stealing property to sell for liquor. Bott was strangled and stabbed and
prosecutors say Maestas stomped on her so hard it tore her aorta.
Another woman was attacked in her house, but survived. The two other men, who
did not participate in the attack, were sentenced to prison on property crimes.
(source: KSL News)
VIRGINIA:
Virginia opts for new drug in lethal injection protocol
In a move that sets Virginia apart from other death penalty states, the
commonwealth will begin using a new drug to execute prisoners by lethal
injection to make up for the unavailability of another drug.
The Virginia Department of Corrections announced Friday that it would begin
using rocuronium bromide due to a nationwide shortage of pancuronium bromide.
The latter had been used across the country as step 2 of a 3-drug protocol
since shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in
1976. Both drugs paralyze muscles.
So far, all of the other death-penalty states have responded to the shortage by
switching to a 1-drug regimen: administering a larger, lethal dose of the
sedative that traditionally had been used as the 1st step in the process.
Virginia’s move came as something as a surprise to death penalty experts.
“Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri — all the other major death penalty states —
have been switching to a single drug,” said Richard Dieter, executive director
of the Death Penalty Information Center. “And I’m not sure what Virginia’s
rationale is for not seizing that opportunity to go with a single drug, which I
think is the wave of the future.”
Virginia officials declined to comment beyond a 1-sentence statement announcing
the change.
Virginia has executed 109 prisoners since the death penalty was reinstated,
making it the 2nd-biggest death penalty state behind Texas, which has put 483
to death.
Since the Supreme Court ruling, lethal injection has become the most common
method of execution across the country, although death row inmates in Virginia
still have the option of choosing the electric chair.
Lethal injection by the 3-drug cocktail was thought to be a more humane method
of execution. But questions have been raised about whether the process really
is painless — specifically because of the 2nd step that Virginia is preserving.
Because the 2nd drug causes paralysis, it is not known whether the prisoner
feels the effects of the 3rd drug, which stops the heart, Dieter said.
“You don’t see motions, you don’t hear groans,” Dieter said. “The 2nd drug has
been identified as more cosmetic. .?.?. It has been criticized as unnecessary
to the process except for appearances’ sake. .?.?. You run the risk with this
Virginia process of still having painful executions and perhaps inhumane in the
court’s eyes.”
The 1-drug protocol is not without its own drawbacks. It takes about 25 minutes
for that process to work, compared with 10 minutes with the 3-drug regimen,
Dieter said. It also represents more of a change in procedure, he said, which
could invite more legal challenges.
(source: Washington Post)
FLORIDA----new death sentence
Former Jabil executive Patrick Evans sentenced to death for the murder of his
wife, her boyfriend
Patrick Evans, a former Jabil executive in St. Petersburg, was sentenced to
death for the murders of his estranged wife and her lover.
The jury recommended death for Evans last November after he was convicted on 2
counts of 1st degree murder for killing his estranged wife, Elizabeth Evans,
and her boyfriend, Gerry Taylor, at their home in 2008.
A 911 tape was key in the state's case.
Prosecutors said Evans could be heard shouting at the couple before pulling the
trigger.
Evans testified in his own defense and denied it was his voice on the
recordings.
Ultimately, the jury voted 9-3 for the death penalty in the murder of Elizabeth
Evans and 8-4 for death in the murder of Gerry Taylor. (source: ABC Action
News)
USA:
Family of ex-US Marine hopeful he'll be home soon
The family of an ex-U.S. Marine who was sentenced to death on charges of
working for the CIA says it's hopeful he'll soon be allowed to return home.
Amir Hekmati's family released a statement to The Associated Press marking
Saturday, his 29th birthday. It includes a prayer that he will be "given the
strength to endure" and wishing him a happy birthday. The family says it hasn't
received much information about his case.
In March, the semiofficial Isna news agency reported Iran's Supreme Court
reported a retrial.
Hekmati was sentenced to death in January, the 1st American to receive a death
penalty since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Hekmati was born in Arizona and grew up in Michigan. His parents are of Iranian
origin.
(source: Associated Press)
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