[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
May 18 UNITED KINGDOM: Tory aide: 'I was hired as an execution consultant to teach US prison staff how to hang people'Tony Homewood, Conservative election agent for Wakefield candidate Antony Calvert, revealed he was an "execution consultant" and had been "instrumental" in the hanging of serial killer Westley Allan Dodd A Tory candidate's senior aide has revealed he was hired by a US prison to teach staff how execute people by hanging. Tony Homewood, who is Conservative election agent for Wakefield candidate Antony Calvert, was employed by the state of Washington as an "executions consultant in the 1990s." Homewood told BBC Three Counties: "In the 90s, when the Americans hanged Westley Allan Dodd in Olympia, they didn't really know how to do it, so they looked around for someone who knew something about hanging. And I was a recognised historian on British judicial executions. "And they engaged me as a consultant." Tony Homewood said he slept "sucking my thumb like a baby" the night Dodd was executed Host Jonathan Vernon-Smith was taken aback, saying: "You were a consultant executioner?" Homewood said: "I was yes. For Scott Blonien, the [assistant] Attorney General at Walla Walla state prison." Vernon-Smith asked: "So they wanted to know how they could effectively hang people and kill them? Homewood replied: "How to do it without strangling them to death, basically. Yeah. "Unfortunately - or, you might say fortunately depending on your viewpoint - the courts in America ruled it to be cruel and unusual punishment, and there were only 3 in the 90s and then there were no more." Dodd was a serial killer and child molester, who has been called "one of the most evil killers in history." He was convicted for tying 2 10 and 11 year old boys to a tree, raping them and then stabbing them to death. He abused and murdered a 3rd child in his home. Dodd chose hanging as his preferred method of execution, adding that he chose the method because it was how his final victim died. He also asked for the execution to be televised, but the request was denied. He called into the radio station to take part in a debate on moors murderer Ian Brady, arguing the serial killer should have been put to death for his crimes. He argued Brady had been able to "torture" the mother of victim Keith Bennett, whose body was never found, by claiming for decades he knew where he was buried, but refusing to reveal the location. "Personally, I think that 10 quid for the executioner," he said, "or 15 guineas by '65, '64, to have hung him at Manchester would have saved the world a lot of trouble as far as I'm concerned." Asked if he thought he could have conducted the execution himself, he said: "Yes, I could do it." The host asked him how he knew he could perform an execution: "Have you performed one? Have you killed someone?" "That's by the way," he replied. "That's not what we're talking about. We're here to talk about the death penalty and that's carrying out the sentence of the court." He boasted he'd been told the 1st execution he consulted on was one of the quickest deaths ever He added: "Let's put it this way, I orchestrated the execution of people in America and I didn't lose any sleep over it. Maybe I'm wrong. Taking someone's life...takes some doing, I'm sure it would have some effect. "I'm very good at rationalising this sort of thing." He said he had been "instrumental" in the death of prisoners, but had not been there when the execution took place. He told authorities how tight to tie the rope and how far to drop the prisoner, among other things. He said: "Well, Westley Dodd hanged three children. So hey ho, I'm not particularly worried about it. I'm very good at detaching myself from these things, you know what I mean?" He added that when he went to bed that night he was "sucking my thumb like a baby. It didn't bother me at all." He boasted he had been told by the assistant Attorney General that the execution had been one of the quickest he'd ever seen. But he denied he was unemotional. "I've got Grandchildren,' he said. "And I love them to death." He said he wouldn't want to do the job every day, and he wouldn't want to hang people "willy nilly." He said he advised executioners on a 2nd prisoner, who they were concerned about hanging because he was overweight. (source: mirror.co.uk) * Ian Brady escaped hanging - and defined attitudes to the death penaltyApart from their sheer horror, the Moors murders stayed in the public imagination because they marked the end of capital punishment Ian Brady retained his dark grip on the British imagination right to the very end. The 1965 police photograph of the Moors murderer stared out from the front pages once more this week to mark his death at 79, just as they have done so often ever since Brady was convicted of 3 murders in May 1966. Few
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., ARIZ., CALIF., USA
May 18 OKLAHOMA: Attorney Jacquelyn L. Ford Examines Death Penalty Issues in OklahomaOklahoma civil rights attorney Jacquelyn L. Ford discusses the state's pervasive capital punishment problems and innocent people being sentenced to death. According to an April 26, 2017, article in The Intercept, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission recently recommended that a moratorium on carrying out capital punishment in the state be continued indefinitely. The Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission report also concluded that innocent people have "undeniably" been sentenced to death in Oklahoma. "The obvious problem is the permanency of the death penalty. What if we got it wrong?" asked attorney Jacquelyn L. Ford, a native Oklahoman and founder of Jacquelyn Ford Law. "Our system is not a perfect one, and the convictions are only as accurate as the evidence and quality of defense presented. However, in a state facing a $900 million deficit, the real issue becomes the foolish use of our limited funds. The costs of the death penalty are shocking, especially when you take into account the money that is not spent on appropriately funding public defenders' offices." In fact, Oklahoma public defenders have finite resources, and cannot operate on the same playing field as government lawyers. "Public defenders are routinely in violation of American Bar Association recommended number of cases per person," added Ford. The result is lack of effective investigation and defense, which results in lack of credible convictions. The Intercept article also reports that the state of Oklahoma killed a man in January 2015 using an untested and improper drug, and that the same drug had been delivered for a 2nd execution scheduled for September 2015. This followed a botched execution in April 2014 in which an inmate struggled on a gurney before dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection. "Oklahoma's problems with the death penalty have been well-documented and pervasive, with innocent men being murdered by their own government," concluded Ford. "After multiple cruel and unusual botched executions and a last-minute stay of execution from the Governor, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt launched a full-scale investigation into the issue and discovered that the Department of Corrections had been using potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride. In case your chemistry is rusty, potassium chloride is an approved chemical for lethal injection, while potassium acetate is not an approved chemical." (source: benzinga.com) ARIZONA: Convicted Killer Faces Death Sentence A 3rd Time In Same Case The Arizona Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for a convicted killer. It is the 3rd death sentence Darrel Pandeli has faced for the same case. The 1st time Pandeli faced the death sentence for killing and mutilating 43-year-old Holly Iler, it was 1997 - 4 years after her murder. In 2002, that case was overturned after a U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a different death penalty case that impacted several death sentences nationwide for procedural violations. A lower court then returned his 2nd death penalty case in 2006 after adding aggravated circumstances to his case, including the 1991 murder of another woman and the "especially heinous and depraved" manner in which he killed Holly Iler. But that death sentence was also thrown out by a Maricopa County Superior Court ruling on the grounds Pandeli's lawyers mishandled his case. As of Monday, the state Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence claiming the lower court was incorrect on its procedural ruling. (source: KJZZ news) CALIFORNIA: Inmate Dennis Bratton may face death penalty following conviction Wednesday in stomping death of his cellmate Defense counsel for Dennis Bratton told jurors he fought for his life and acted in self-defense when he killed his cellmate 4 years ago. The prosecution derided that argument, saying Bratton's "ridiculous" claim of self-defense didn't explain why he continued to stomp on his cellmate's head after the man was unconscious lying on the concrete floor of their cell. He wore prison work boots during the killing. A jury of 10 women and 2 men deliberated for 2 days before finding Bratton guilty Wednesday afternoon of assault by a life prisoner with force causing death. Bratton, 47, showed no reaction as the verdict was read. The assault charge is similar to a murder charge, but specific to Bratton's circumstances since he was already serving a life sentence when the killing occurred. Jurors will return to court May 30 to begin the penalty phase of the trial. They can either recommend death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bratton killed 27-year-old Andrew Keel the morning of May 16, 2013, in the cell they shared at Delano's Kern Valley State Prison. Prosecutor Andi Bridges said Bratton repeatedly stomped on
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., ALA., LA., KY.
May 18 TEXAS: Court lifts reprieve for Nicaraguan man on Texas death row The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday lifted a reprieve it gave a Nicaraguan man a day before he was to be executed 2 years ago for killing a Houston high school teacher during a 1997 robbery. The state's highest criminal appeals court had halted the scheduled August 2015 lethal injection of Bernardo Tercero after his attorneys contended Harris County prosecutors unknowingly presented false testimony from a witness at his trial in 2000 for the death of 38-year-old Robert Berger. Wednesday's ruling affirms the findings of Tercero's trial court that last year held a hearing on the claim and determined the testimony was proper. Berger was a customer in a Houston dry cleaners shop in March 1997 and was with his 3-year-old daughter when records show Tercero came in to rob the store. Berger was fatally shot and the store was robbed of about $400. Prosecutors said Tercero was in the U.S. illegally at the time. Tercero, now 40, argued the shooting was accidental. He testified Berger confronted him and tried to thwart the robbery, and the gun went off as they struggled. He was arrested in Hidalgo County near the Texas-Mexico border more than 2 years after the slaying. A second man sought in the case never has been found. Tercero's case has attracted attention in his home country, where a clemency plea from Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in 2015 was forwarded to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. (source: Associated Press) ** Appeals court hears arguments in Williamson County death penalty case A defense lawyer for a man given the death penalty for a Williamson County killing argued before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday that the evidence used to convict Steven Alan Thomas did not prove he committed the crime. A Williamson County jury convicted Thomas of capital murder in October 2014 and sentenced him to death for the sexual assault and strangulation of 73-year-old Mildred McKinney in 1980. Defense lawyer Ariel Payan said Wednesday that Thomas' fingerprint, which was found on the back of a clock in McKinney???s bedroom, could have been there because Thomas worked for a pesticide company that had been to her house. Payan also said Thomas' sperm was found on a piece of medical tape wrapped around one of McKinney's thumbs but that did not prove he sexually assaulted her. McKinney also had DNA inside of her from 3 other unknown men, he said. The same arguments about how the evidence could not prove Thomas' guilt were made by his lawyers during his trial. Payan also said Wednesday the testimony of a jailhouse snitch during Thomas' trial could not be confirmed and should have been inadmissible. The inmate, Steven Shockey, told a jury that Thomas told him about being high on cocaine, breaking into a house, having to restrain a woman before she got out of bed and taking money and jewelry. Williamson County Assistant District Attorney John Prezas, who was representing the state on the appeal, said the physical evidence alone was enough to convict Thomas without Shockey's testimony. The clock that had Thomas' fingerprint on it was found in the middle of McKinney's bed near some of the cord used to tie her up, Prezas said. He also said Thomas' sperm was found not on medical tape but on a ribbon tied around McKinney's thumb that was used to restrain her hands. Prezas also questioned whether Thomas had been to McKinney's house when he worked for his brother's pesticide company. Thomas' brother testified during the trial that McKinney was one of their clients but he didn't have records that showed Thomas made a service call to her house, Prezas said. By state law, every death penalty case is automatically sent to the Court of Criminal Appeals. "The litigants can request oral argument or not," Payan said after the hearing. "I almost always do, and it is usually granted but not always." It was unclear Wednesday when the judges would make a decision. (source: Austin American-Statesman) PENNSYLVANIA: The slowly-shifting status of capital punishment in PA Anti-establishment lawyer Larry Krasner's win in the Philadelphia District Attorney Democratic primary Tuesday put him on track for a probable victory in November. Krasner has made a name for himself as a longtime defense lawyer in civil rights cases, but he is perhaps best-known for his ardent opposition to the death penalty. His election dredged up a recurring discussion Pennsylvania has been grappling with for decades: what does the future of capital punishment in the commonwealth look like? Pennsylvania is 1 of only 2 states in the northeast that still allows the death penalty. It has the 5th most inmates on death row in the nation, but in the last 40 years, has only executed 3 people. Why the disparity? Marc Bookman, with the Atlantic Center for Capital