[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, IND., TENN., OKLA., NEV.
January 15 TEXASstay of impending execution Texas court stops 1st execution of 2019, citing changes in intellectual disability law and bite-mark scienceBlaine Milam was convicted in the 2008 East Texas death of his girlfriend's 13-month-old baby. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stopped the state’s 1st execution of the year, calling for a lower court to take another look at the case following changes in bite-mark science and laws regarding intellectual disability and the death penalty. Blaine Milam received a stay from the court on Monday, a day before his death was scheduled. Milam, 29, was convicted in the brutal death of his girlfriend’s 13-month-old baby girl in 2008 in East Texas. In a late appeal, Milam's lawyers argued against the state’s reliance on bite-mark testimony, which was a key part of his trial. His lawyers also claimed he was intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. In December 2008, Milam called 911 and police in Rusk County arrived to find the body of Amora Carson, according to court opinions. The medical examiner counted 24 human bite marks on the baby’s body and found evidence of blunt force trauma and sexual assault. At trial, the prosecution linked Milam to several of the bite marks. But his attorneys now say that science has largely been discredited, pointing to the Court of Criminal Appeals’ recent decision to overturn the murder conviction of Steven Chaney. (In December, the court took the rare step of asserting Chaney's innocence, saying his conviction was based on bite-mark science that “has since been undermined or completely invalidated.” Chaney spent more than 25 years behind bars.) Rusk County prosecutors, meanwhile, argued to the court that the questions over bite-mark science were settled at Milam’s trial in 2010. And they said the state had enough other evidence that it wouldn’t have affected the jury's decision at the time. They pointed to testimony that Milam told his sister from jail to find a hidden pipe wrench believed to be used in Carson’s assault — and his apparent confession to a jail nurse. The trial court must also take another look at Milam’s claims of intellectual disability, according to the court order. The issue was raised at Milam’s trial, which prosecutors said put the issue to bed, but there has been considerable change in how the state determines such disability since 2010. In 2017, the U.S Supreme Court tossed out the method the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had previously used to determine who is intellectually disabled and, therefore, constitutionally ineligible to be executed. The Court of Criminal Appeals later said it would change its test, which used outdated medical standards and nonclinical factors created by its judges, including how well the person could lie. “Because of recent changes in the science pertaining to bite mark comparisons and recent changes in the law pertaining to the issue of intellectual disability ... we therefore stay his execution and remand these claims to the trial court for a review of the merits of these claims,” the court said in its order Monday. The court will now consider Milam’s claims under current medical standards. The stay was not only the court's first of 2019 but also its 1st without death penalty critic Elsa Alcala, who left the bench at the end of 2018 and was replaced by Judge Michelle Slaughter. Slaughter, along with Presiding Judge Sharon Keller and Judge Kevin Yeary, dissented against the stay. Despite the court's decision, Texas is still set to host the nation's 1st execution of the year. Robert Jennings is scheduled to die on Jan. 30, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. 5 other executions are scheduled in the state through May. (source: Texas Tribune) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present40 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-558 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 41-Jan. 30Robert Jennings-559 42-Feb. 28Billy Wayne Coble---560 43-Mar. 28Patrick Murphy--561 44-Apr. 11Mark Robertson--562 45-Apr. 24John King---563 46-May 2--Dexter Johnson--564 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) OHIO: Columbus death penalty case delayed again for man accused of killing girlfriend and son The trial for a Columbus man accused of killing his girlfriend and 6-month-old son is delayed yet again. Brandon Conner faced a Columbus Superior Court judge Monday morning after delays that have added up for more than a year. The latest delays come as money is an issue for the defendant in Columbus' only death penalty case. Officials say Conner can no longer pay his private attorney fees,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, NEB.
August 29 TEXAS: Harris County D.A. to seek death penalty against 2nd alleged MS-13 gang member in informant slaying Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez, 20, is charged with capital murder in Fort Bend and Harris counties. His nickname was Terror and his alleged crime was brutal. But now the MS-13 gang member could be headed for death row after District Attorney Kim Ogg formally gave notice that her office has decided to seek a death sentence against a Salvadoran immigrant accused in the retaliatory group killing of a teenage Houston police informant. In an expansive case with seven men charged, Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez is now the 2nd person facing the possibility of the state's harshest punishment for the 2016 murder in a Fort Bend park. "We will not tolerate this behavior," said prosecutor Lisa Collins, who is handling all 7 of the capital murder cases connected to the teen's death. "The criminal element has to take prosecution seriously and I think that's what we do by being consistent and making sure that each case is held to the highest standards." The decision comes amid a changing landscape for capital punishment in the place historically most fond of it. Though earlier this month Harris County sent its 1st man to death row in 4 years, Ogg has overseen taking 4 killers off the row and decided to stop seeking the ultimate punishment in a handful of cases once possibly headed there. "Part of it is an indication that her administration is taking a more progressive view of criminal justice issues," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, "but part of it is a significant national decline and whatever administration was in would be pursuing the death penalty less frequently and settling more cases." The accused killer's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. On the night of June 13, 2016, Herrera-Hernandez and four of his associates allegedly lured 16-year-old Estuar Quinonez to Buffalo Run Park in Missouri City. Some of the men hid in the bushes, lying in wait as the others led the teen down a gravel trail. Estuar and one of his eventual killers were sitting on a bench trying to smoke pot out of a plastic bottle around 11 p.m. when another member of the crew fired the 1st shot, according to court records. One by one, they all shot the teen, continuing to fire until he stopped moving, records show. The next morning, a jogger was the first to spot the boy's body, lying in the trail. Initially, she thought he'd collapsed from the heat - and then she saw the puddle of blood around his head. Police quickly realized the teen might be a gang member, and a few calls later they found his contact at Houston police, a sergeant who showed up and identified Estuar as an informant. The killing, the sergeant said according to court filings, looked like a hit in retaliation for helping police with an MS-13 case. A suspected local gang leader, Omar Torres, had allegedly ordered the murder from inside the county jail - where he was facing another murder charge for the brutal killing of Noe Mendez 4 months earlier. After the hit on the teen, Torres was facing another charge: capital murder. 6 others were targeted with the same charge, including 5 men who are accused of shooting the teen, and one accused of delivering the deadly orders. When police began making arrests, most of charges were brought in Fort Bend County. There, prosecutors had not yet decided whether to seek death sentences when they opted to transfer the proceedings to Harris County in the interest of continuity. By trying the cases in the same county, 1 prosecutor could handle them all. "It was just about efficiency and consolidation," said Fort Bend County prosecutor Matt Banister. After the switch to Harris, a committee of prosecutors here decided to seek a death sentence against Torres. "He was already in jail for murdering a guy; it was an MS-13 gang shooting," Assistant District Attorney Colleen Barnett said in May. "He arranged to have that witness killed and we believe that was just a really bad act that he committed." A few weeks later, the district attorney's office decided to seek the same punishment for Herrera-Hernandez, who was also accused in another killing. It was the additional murders that made those 2 cases stand out; it's less likely prosecutors will seek death sentences for the others accused in Estuar's killing, Collins said. 2 of the others charged aren't eligible for capital punishment because they were under 18 at the time of the crime. Though the committee's decision in Herrera-Hernandez's case marks the district attorney's 2nd move to seek the death penalty in a new case this year, Ogg's record on capital punishment is more mixed. In the 20 months she's been in office, the state has taken 4 killers - Duane Buck, Calvin Hunter, Michael Norris, and Robert Campbell- off
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
June 25 TEXAS: Houston father accused in honor killings begins death penalty trial Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the death penalty trial of a Jordanian immigrant accused in a pair of "honor killings" that shocked Houston. Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan's prosecution is the 1st death penalty trial this year in Harris County, and the 1st one since District Attorney Kim Ogg took office in January 2017, although special prosecutors have been appointed. Ogg recused her office because one of her top lieutenants had been connected to the case before joining the administration. The trial, before state District Judge Jan Krocker, is expected to last 6 to 8 weeks. He was charged with capital murder because his alleged crime involved multiple victims - his daughter's best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian medical student and activist, and his daughter's husband, Coty Beavers, 28. Both slayings, authorities said, were driven by the anger of Irsan, a conservative Muslim, over his daughter Nesreen's decision to marry Beavers, a Christian from Houston. Irsan, a 60-year-old Jordanian-American, has been behind bars since his arrest in April 2015. He was charged with capital murder because his alleged crime involved multiple victims - his daughter's best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian medical student and activist, and his daughter's husband, Coty Beavers, 28. Bagherzadeh, 30, was gunned down in January 2012 while driving toward her parents' Galleria townhome. Her friends and supporters initially thought the death was an assassination ordered by the government of Iran. Prosecutors believe he also fatally shot Beavers 11 months later in the couple's northwest Harris County apartment. Isran was sentenced in 2015 to 4 years in federal custody after being convicted of an unrelated case involving the theft of disability benefits. U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes ordered Irsan to serve almost 4 years for his role in defrauding the Social Security Administration for more than a decade and to pay $290,651 in restitution. In 2015, Irsan, his wife and another daughter were sentenced to federal prison for the Social Security scheme, and prosecutors charged Irsan and his son, Nasim Irsan, 24, with capital murder. Irsan's wife, 40-year-old Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, faces murder charges in the case. She is being prosecuted in a separate case for the killing of activist Bagherzadeh. His daughter and Nasreen's sister, Nadia Irsan, 33, faces a stalking charge connected to the slayings. To secure a death sentence, special prosecutors Anna Emmons, Jonathan Stephenson, and Marie Ann Primm will have to prove the killings, almost a year apart, were part of the same criminal scheme. In Texas, killing 2 people in furtherance of the same criminal enterprise is a capital crime. 2 slayings by the same person with divergent reasons would be 2 murder charges. (source: Houston Chronicle) Routier's defense continues its fightABC program focuses on case Tuesday Attorneys for Darlie Routier, the Altoona native on death row in Texas for the murder of her 2 oldest children, have informed a federal judge in San Antonio that DNA testing is underway, and they have recommended her federal appeal not be dismissed, but remain in abeyance pending the outcome of state court proceedings. The Routier case has received nationwide attention as she fights to have her 1st-degree murder conviction and death penalty overturned. Since her arrest 22 years ago next week, Routier has denied that she stabbed her 2 sons, Damon, 5, and Devon 6, to death in their Rowlett, Tex., home. Routier has insisted an intruder entered the home during the early morning of June 6, 1996, and using a knife from the kitchen, stabbed her and her sons as they were sleeping in a downstairs family room. A 3rd child, Drake, was in an upstairs bedroom with his father, Darin, and was not harmed. Rowlett, Tex., police, according to the defense, almost immediately focused on Routier, who herself suffered a serious neck wound and bruising during the attack. Authorities rejected her intruder story. A Texas jury in 1997 convicted her, and she has remained on death row since then. Routier's present defense team has argued that her trial was infused with inflammatory remarks and less-than-credible forensic evidence that went unchallenged by her trial lawyers. Her appeal at present remains in the state courts, but a federal petition has been filed in the U.S. District Court of West Texas. Routier's fight for a new trial is 1 of 2 cases featured during a 7-week docu-series called "The Last Defense," airing on ABC. The 3rd of 4 parts devoted to the Routier murder case will be shown at 10 p.m. Tuesday. The remaining 3 weeks of the series will focus on an Oklahoma carjacking-homicide in which a man named Julius Jones, also on death row, continues to maintain
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, WASH.
April 16 TEXAS: A rush to death risks executing the innocent Since the Supreme Court’s lifting of the moratorium against the death penalty in 1976, more than 1,400 men and women have been killed at the hands of various states. Of that number, nearly a third were executed by the state of Texas. That’s 549 people — killed by our state. The cost of those executions has been enormous. According to the group Death Penalty Focus, imposing capital punishment costs taxpayers approximately 2.3 million dollars per defendant. If you’re doing the math, one death penalty conviction costs more than three times what it would take to incarcerate a person under the highest level of security for 40 years. Ed Barnes, writing for Fox News U.S. in 2010 put it even more simply when he stated, “Every time a killer is sentenced to die, a school closes.” Now, according to an article recently published by the Houston Chronicle, it appears Texas (in a effort to lessen the costs of capital convictions) wants to “opt in” to new federal legislation that would limit the appeals process in death penalty cases and speed up executions. That decision is wrong. Since 1973, 161 people nationwide, 13 of them right here in our Great State of Texas, have been released from death row, due to their wrongful convictions. If the numbers are accurate, it means Texas has spent nearly $30 million dollars getting it wrong. Just for a moment, however, let’s forget about the exorbitant costs associated with killing a fellow human being. The very idea that a person, innocent of a capital crime, could be caused to sit on death row for any amount of time or, worse, wrongfully killed by our government, is offensive to our fundamental notions of liberty and justice. As celebrated English jurist Sir William Blackstone once said, “It is better that 10 guilty persons escape, than 1 innocent suffer.” Some of our founding fathers agreed. Both Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, our nation’s first Vice President, echoed Blackstone’s sentiments. According to Ben Franklin, “It would be better for 100 guilty persons to escape than one innocent person suffer.” Mr. Adams went even further when he said, “When innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, ‘It is immaterial to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security.’” Our Founding Fathers were right. It is unconscionable for us to live in a society where innocence is condemned, virtue has no security and our society’s greatest punishment is expedited for the sake of political expediency. Granted, at a time when even basic facts are up for debate and every issue is, invariably, reduced to a cacophony of talking heads yelling at one another about right versus wrong, left versus right and conservative versus liberal, there’s no wonder that very few in our criminal justice system, aside from the criminal defense bar, have had the courage to stand up and voice their collective opposition to this attempt to limit a defendant’s ability to appeal a death penalty conviction. The truth, however, is that speaking out against a proposed course of action that is, at best, legally questionable and, at worst, morally wrong should not fall solely on those who are willing to defend citizens accused of committing society’s most heinous crimes. We should all stand together. It shouldn’t matter what one’s feelings about capital punishment are or what position a person holds in our system of jurisprudence. Be they judge, prosecutor or defense attorney, for or against capital punishment, each and every member of the criminal justice system should speak with one voice on at least this issue: The ability of a person to lodge a full and fair defense of a death conviction, irrespective of the costs, must be held sacrosanct. (source: Opinion, Michael Fields is the judge in Harris County Criminal Court No. 14Houston Chronicle) OHIO: Trial today for last of 8 charged in Hamilton’s summer of deadly shootings A trial is scheduled to begin today for a Hamilton man who is the last of 8 defendants charged in two deadly incidents in the summer of 2016. Michael Grevious II, 25, is facing the death penalty if found guilty of aggravated murder for a retaliation shooting that followed a shoot out at the former Doubles Bar in Hamilton’s West Side. He is charged with felonious assault for that incident. The trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection in Butler County Common Pleas Judge Greg Stephen’s courtroom. Michael Grevious II — charged in the 2016 drive-by shooting that killed two men in Hamilton — was in Butler County Common Pleas Court today, Nov. 3. His death penalty trial has been continued. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF Staff Writer According to court records, Grevious was part of of the violence at Doubles, standing on a pool table inside the bar and opening fire, along with others. In
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, IND., ARK., NEB., USA
March 22 TEXASnew execution date Christopher Young has been given an execution date for July 17; it should be considered serious. * Supreme Court gives Texas inmate chance to secure funds that could help him avoid death penalty The Supreme Court on Wednesday said a Texas death-row inmate deserves another chance at securing funds for evidence that might lead to a reconsideration of his sentence. The justices were unanimous in ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit was too restrictive in reading a federal law that allows indigent defendants to secure money for "investigative, expert or other services." The federal Criminal Justice Act allows lawyers to receive such funds when it is "reasonably necessary" to assemble the kind of mitigating evidence that might persuade the jury to forego a sentence of death. But a judge denied the funds to attorneys for Carlos Manuel Ayestas, who was convicted of the killing of 67-year-old Santiaga Paneque during an invasion of her Houston home in 1995. In the 5th Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, the law has been interpreted to mean a defendant must show that there is a "substantial need" for such services. Ayestas's attorneys said that created something of a Catch-22: The defendant would have to demonstrate that there is some relevant evidence he could discover without first having the funding to pursue that evidence. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the appeals court was wrong to impose the "substantial need" standard. Ayestas "contends that this interpretation is more demanding than the standard - "reasonably necessary" - set out in the statute," Alito wrote. "And although the difference between the 2 formulations may not be great, petitioner has a point." Courts deciding whether to grant the funds - Ayestas's attorneys asked for $20,000 - must consider the potential merit of the claims a petitioner wants to pursue, the likelihood that something beneficial might be obtained and whether the petitioner would be able to clear any procedural hurdles to presenting the mitigating evidence. Ayestas wants to show that his previous attorneys provided ineffective counsel, because they did not present a fuller portrait of his life that might spare him from execution. They contend he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was a regular user of cocaine and alcohol at the time of what Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at oral arguments called a "horrific" killing. The case returns to lower courts so that they can judge Ayestas's request under the proper standard. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Ginsburg, thought that step was unnecessary. "On the record before this court, there should be little doubt that Ayestas has satisfied" the standard, Sotomayor wrote. The case is Ayestas v. Davis. The court also ruled for the defendant in a 2nd case decided Wednesday. The justices ruled 7 to 2 that, for someone to be convicted of obstructing the work of the Internal Revenue Service, a person must be aware that he or she is under investigation or should have known that was a reasonable possibility. (source: Washington Post) ** - impending execution Death Watch: The Suitcase KillerState's 4th execution set for March 27 Late on Monday afternoon, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied death row inmate Rosendo Rodriguez III's most recent appeal, and time is running out. Rodriguez was convicted of raping, beating, and killing Summer Baldwin at a Lubbock hotel in 2005, then trashing her body in a suitcase at the city dump. He confessed to the killing - as well as the murder of a 16-year-old girl whose body was also discovered in a suitcase 1 year before. Following the CCA's ruling, Rodriguez's attorney Seth Kretzer filed a flurry of new appeals in state and federal courts, arguing that his client did not receive a fair trial. The argument hinges on an unrelated 2015 lawsuit filed against Sridhar Natarajan, the Lubbock medical examiner who reported to have performed Baldwin's autopsy - which accuses the M.E. of routinely "delegating" decisions to his senior forensic nurse who often decided "which bodies to autopsy" and which required only "visual inspection." As Rodriguez's March 27 death date nears, his lawyer claims the prosecution team used a "discredited forensic scientist to deprive" Rodriguez of a fair trial, which ultimately violated his constitutional right to due process. The appeal goes on to say the state also violated Brady obligations by failing to disclose the aforementioned lawsuit and Natarajan's pricey out-of-court settlement. Rodriguez would be the fourth Texan executed this year; only Thomas Whitaker has been spared to date. (source: Austin Chronicle) * Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present30 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-548
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, UTAH
Nov. 27 TEXAS: Houston: Ground zero for the death penaltyStudy shows Harris County ismost active in capital punishment, driven by district attorney choices If Harris County were its own state, it would have a more active death chamber than the entire country outside of Texas. Of the 1,465 U.S. executions in the modern death penalty era, 125 have come from Harris County, or roughly 8 %. The next-closest executioner is Dallas County, with 55 death sentences carried out since the Supreme Court reinstated the ultimate punishment in 1976. Houston's reputation as ground zero for the death penalty, it seems, is well-earned - even though prosecutors have been less apt to dole out capital sentences in recent years. While the numbers are stark, the reasons behind the Bayou City's apparent zeal for capital punishment are less apparent. It's not driven by public support for the practice. It's not driven by an unusually high crime rate, or by especially heinous murders. So what is driving it? What sets apart jurisdictions that frequently turn to capital punishment? That is one of the questions Frank Baumgartner and his co-authors explore in "Deadly Justice," a numbers-heavy study of capital punishment released this month. The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill political science professor took some time this week to field questions from Chronicle reporter Keri Blakinger about his new book and its implications in the Houston area. Here are excerpts from the interview: Q: Harris County is known as the capital of capital punishment - why is that? Are Houstonians just more supportive of it? A: Well, actually I would say two things. We got data from a Rice University Houston-area poll, and it turns out the public opinion in Houston is less supportive for the death penalty than in the rest of Texas. In general across the country, we don't find any correlation between public opinion and executions, and the reason for that is that if you don't support capital punishment you're not allowed to sit on a jury. The key driver in the system is the choices that district attorneys make, because they start the process, and they get to pick and choose whether to seek death. Looking at all 3,000 counties in the U.S., there are just a few counties that have executed more than, say, 10 people - there's only 20 counties like that - and it's really astounding that there would be so much concentration in a few jurisdictions. There's really no rhyme or reason to it. Q: It's not that Houston has more horrific crimes? A: No, not at all. I think it's something about a local culture that develops around the courthouse. Most counties never go there, but a few counties happen to sucessfully carry through to the end a death sentence - and then when the next really bad murder happens the prosecutors say, "Well this is just as bad as that one where we sought death, so we kind of have to do it again this time." Q: We hear a lot about botched executions; is this happening more than it used to, and why aren't we seeing these botched executions in Texas? Or is it just a matter of time? A: Lethal injection is a medicalized procedure, but - in most states - no doctors are allowed to participate, so I think it does lend itself to botches in a way that other methods like firing squads or hangings did not. But Texas has a lot more practice. So there have been fewer botches in Texas because, I think, the teams in the corrections department are relatively in practice. In carrying out 400 or 500 hundred executions, they've just done it a lot more. Q: People always seem to express frustration over the length of the delays - sometimes it's 20 years. Is Texas an outlier in this, or is this a pretty normal time frame here? A: The average as of 2015 is about 20 years delay from crime to execution, so that's pretty shocking. There are three shockers. One is the extreme delay - that's 20 years in solitary confinement. So it's 20 years of harsh punishment followed by execution. The other shocker is that we only carry out 13 percent of the death sentences. It's just astounding. And the third shocker is that even when the governor signs a death warrant it's not usually carried out. On average, those things are canceled. Q: How are the questions and discussions around the use of the death penalty changing? A: The biggest change was in the 1990s: We started to pay serious attention to the concept of innocence and whether there might be innocent people on death row and whether we should celebrate it when we identify them and they're exonerated, or if we should interpret that number as catastrophic. The innocence argument has really shaken people's faith that you can count on the government to get it right every single time. Q: One of the topics that comes up a lot now - and has been written about a lot - is one of your chapter titles: "Is the death penalty dying?"
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MO., ARIZ., NEV., CALIF., USA
Sept. 14 TEXAS: Hudson murder trial could face lengthy delay William Hudson, 33, has been indicted on 3 counts of capital murder in the massacre of 2 families at a hunting campsite in the East Texas town of Tennessee Colony. Health problems suffered by William Mitchell Hudson's attorney could delay the trial of the accused murderer for weeks. Hudson's lawyer, Stephen Evans, was hospitalized on Tuesday for an undisclosed health matter and remained under medical care on Wednesday. The trial, set for Sept. 25, will take place in Bryan College Station. The final pre-trial hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 21. That hearing is still on the docket, said Judge Mark Calhoon, who will preside over the trial. Hudson is represented by Evans and defense attorney Jeff Herrington. Hudson will be tried for the November 2015 murders of six people: the Johnson and Kamp families, who were spending the weekend in Tennessee Colony at a campsite. Thomas Kamp had purchased the campsite from a relative of William Mitchell Hudson, adjacent to property owned by Hudson and his family. Hudson helped the Kamp/Johnson group with a vehicle stuck in the mud; he was invited to hang out with the family at its campsite. After a night of drinking with Hudson, events reportedly became violent. Cynthia Johnson survived a night of horror, before contacting Anderson County law enforcement the following morning. Law-enforcement officers and first-responders found the bodies of Carl Johnson and his daughter in a travel trailer at the campsite; the other victims were in a pond on Hudson's property. All of the victims were shot to death, except Hannah Johnson, who was killed with blunt force. Hudson was arrested and charged with 3 counts of capital murder for killing 6 people. He was indicted in December 2015 for the capital murders of Carl Johnson, 76; his daughter, Hannah Johnson, 40; his grandson, Kade, 6; Thomas Kamp, 45; and his 2 sons, Nathan Kamp, 23, and Austin Kamp, 21. In a February 2016 arraignment, Hudson plead "not guilty" to all 3 counts of capital murder. On Jan. 23, according to court records, District Attorney Allyson Mitchell filed a State of Notice to Seek the Death Penalty. The next day, Mitchell signed documents stating that the court had officially moved to Bryan in Brazos County for the change of venue. Hudson spent 2 weeks in a hospital in Tyler in July. Speculation that Hudson attempted suicide has not been confirmed by the court, the Anderson County Jail or Sheriff Taylor. (source: palestineherald.com) OHIO: Death sentence upheld in Warren execution-style slaying The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for the man convicted of murdering a Warren man and kidnapping a woman during a robbery. The court affirmed the death sentence for David Martin on Wednesday, just 1 day before Martin will turn 33-years-old. Martin has been on death row since 2014 when he was sentenced by a judge in Trumbull County on convictions of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and tampering with evidence. Investigators say Martin shot 21-year-old Jeremy Cole execution style and wounded Melissa Putnam during an attempted robbery in Warren in 2012. According to investigators, after Martin tied up both victims, Melissa Putnam heard a shot then saw Martin standing over her. Putnam put her hand over her face and said, "Please don't shoot me in the face." Martin said, "I'm sorry, Missy," and shot her, according to court records. The bullet passed through Putnam's right hand and entered her neck, leaving fragments in the right side of her neck near the base of her skull. On the day of the sentencing, Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker described Martin as a cold-blooded killer and a life-long criminal. Among other issues, Martin's attorney questions whether an impartial jury was seated to hear the case due to pretrial publicity regarding the crime and Martin's association with a hostage situation at the Trumbull County Jail four months before his trial. Martin is scheduled for execution on May 26, 2021. (source: WFMJ news) * Attorney for executed Parma murderer says she believes inmate suffered pain during lethal injection An attorney for Gary Otte, a man put to death Wednesday for killing 2 people in Parma in 1992, said she saw signs that her client experienced pain as the execution team injected him with a sedative, the 1st of 3-drug combination. Carol Wright, the supervising attorney for the Columbus Federal Public Defender's Office's capital unit, watched Otte's execution from the viewing area of the state's death house. The execution was carried out Wednesday morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, and Otte was pronounced dead at 10:54 a.m. Wright said Otte's movements and actions as he received midazolam, a sedative,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
July 25 TEXASimpending execution Texas death row inmate facing execution this week loses appeals Texas' highest criminal court and a federal judge have refused to stop this week's scheduled execution of the convicted killer of a woman in San Antonio in 2004. Taichin Preyor is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening in Huntsville for killing Jami Tackett, 24, during a break-in at her apartment. Tackett is described in court documents as a drug dealer and Preyor, 46, as a customer and dealer. Preyor's attorneys contend his trial lawyers didn't properly investigate and tell jurors about his abusive childhood and that an earlier inexperienced appeals attorney relied on a disbarred lawyer for guidance. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio rejected their appeals. Preyor's attorneys said Tuesday they're appealing to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (source: Associated Press) OHIOimpending execution Condemned killer in Ohio arrives at death house ahead of execution A condemned killer in Ohio arrived at the death house a day ahead of his scheduled execution Wednesday with several requests for a delay pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Ronald Phillips arrived at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, about 24 hours before he was set to die in Ohio’s first execution in more than three years, a prisons spokeswoman said. The last execution in Ohio was in January 2014, when a condemned inmate repeatedly gasped and snorted during a 26-minute procedure with a never-before-tried drug combination. Gov. John Kasich put several scheduled executions on hold. The delays have continued, prompted by shortages of acceptable drugs and legal challenges by death row inmates to Ohio’s plans for a new three-drug execution method. A federal court last month upheld the use of the sedative midazolam, which has been problematic in several executions, including Ohio’s in 2014 and others in Arkansas and Arizona. The ruling clears the way for the state to move forward with three executions, but it isn’t a decisive ruling on the constitutionality of the three-drug method. On Monday, 15 pharmacology professors argued in Phillips’ favor that midazolam is incapable of inducing unconsciousness or preventing the unconstitutional infliction of serious pain. Phillips, 43, was convicted for the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in Akron. He also has requested that the execution be halted based on his age at the time of the killing. He was 19, older than the Supreme Court’s cutoff of 18 for purposes of barring executions of juveniles, and argues the cutoff age should be 21. The latest delay request on that issue was filed Tuesday. Attorneys for the state argued against Phillips’ request, saying he made meritless, often conflicting, legal claims. “Phillips argues that youth, like IQ, cannot be reduced to a number. But he also argues that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of adults under age twenty-one,” they wrote in a court document filed Tuesday. “He cannot have it both ways; if age cannot make one eligible for death, it cannot make one ineligible for death.” The state of Ohio also has told U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who handles such appeals for Ohio, that continued delays in Phillips’ case are harming the state by costing time and resources. Phillips has had several previous delays to scheduled executions, most notably in 2013 when he made a last-minute plea to donate his organs. He said he wanted to give a kidney to his mother, who was on dialysis, and possibly his heart to his sister. His request was denied. His mother has since died. As he awaited action from the high court, Phillips was being permitted to see family, friends and spiritual advisers and to meet with his attorneys. For his last meal, to be served Tuesday evening, he requested a large cheese pizza with bell peppers and mushrooms, a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi and strawberry cheesecake, along with grape juice and a piece of unleavened bread. (source: Toledo Blade) ___ 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, OHIO, ARIZ., NEV., USA
July 25 TEXASimpending execution Set for execution, death row inmate alleges legal fraud in hopes of a stayWith 2 days left before TaiChin Preyor's scheduled execution, his lawyers have tried just about everything to stop it. That includes alleging that his previous counsel committed fraud. With 2 days left before TaiChin Preyor's scheduled execution, his lawyers have tried just about everything to stop it. That includes alleging that his previous counsel - a disbarred California attorney and a probate and real estate lawyer who reportedly relied on Wikipedia to research Texas legal procedure - committed fraud against a federal court. So far, they've had no luck. Preyor, 46, is set to be executed Thursday night for the 2004 killing of a 20-year-old San Antonio woman during a home invasion. If he doesn't receive a stay, it will be the state's 5th execution of the year - and end the unusually long 4-month lull in Texas' death chamber. In recent weeks, Preyor's attorneys have filed a flurry of pleas, with the Texas governor and in state and federal court. They have argued Preyor should be spared the death penalty because his original attorney overlooked an abusive childhood and because his appellate attorneys were incompetent. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. "Even if you are someone who believes that there is a role for the death penalty to play with respect to certain crimes, there has to be a baseline there that the person ... was capably and competently represented throughout all of his proceedings," said Cate Stetson, one of Preyor's current attorneys. "And that baseline clearly was not met here." On Monday afternoon, both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and a federal district court rejected Preyor's requests for a stay. Preyor will appeal now to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Texas and Bexar County have requested that the execution proceed, noting that it "has been postponed for over a year in order to accommodate [Preyor] and his attorneys, but at the expense of the victims and the state's interest in finality." In court, Bexar County prosecutors accused Preyor of breaking into Jami Tackett's apartment in the early hours of a February morning. Tackett was in bed with Jason Garza, who testified that Preyor attacked and stabbed him before he ran away to call for help. With Garza gone, Preyor stabbed Tackett multiple times, killing her. He was arrested at the scene covered in her blood. Preyor claimed he acted in self-defense. In a statement to police, he said Tackett, who sold him drugs, had invited him over and ambushed him with Garza. Preyor said he pulled out his knife after the 2 began attacking him and that he didn't intend to hurt Tackett "that bad." A jury was unconvinced. They found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Preyor's current attorneys aren't focusing on his conviction but on his death sentence. They argue the lawyer who represented Preyor during his sentencing, Michael Gross, failed to present evidence about Preyor's abusive childhood, which they argue could have swayed a jury to give him life in prison. "Gross failed to hire a mitigation specialist, failed to investigate known red flags regarding Preyor's childhood, neglected to interview family members regarding Preyor's childhood and social history, and neglected to follow up on not 1, but 2, medical professionals' recommendations that Preyor be screened for mental illness or other executive-function issues affecting his capacity and judgment," Stetson and attorney Hilary Sheard wrote in a filing to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last week. "The cumulative effect of these omissions was disastrous." But Gross said in an affidavit filed to the court that he "adequately" represented Preyor, and talked to many family members, school officials, friends and even Preyor himself, none of whom mentioned abuse. "If they had given me any such information, I would have developed that evidence and presented it as mitigation at trial," Gross said in his affidavit. Sheard and Stetson argue concerns about Gross' representation should have been raised during Preyor's appeals. Preyor blames this on his unusual appellate lawyers. After becoming frustrated with Preyor's court-appointed lawyer during his post-conviction appeal, Preyor's mother turned to Philip Jefferson, a disbarred California attorney who claimed he was retired, according to Preyor's most recent court filing. Preyor claims Jefferson did most of the heavy lifting in the case and had Brandy Estelle, a California attorney who specialized in probate and real estate law, file documents to the court. Estelle relied on Wikipedia to research Texas habeas procedures, Preyor alleged, and Preyor's appeals were denied in federal court. "The federal habeas petition filed in this court ... was so abysmal that it subsequently became an exemplar, circulated
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, KY., ARK., MO.
Jan. 29 TEXAS: Judge tells murder suspect he appointed 'best lawyers I could find' A Texas prison inmate's desire for a new lawyer in his Bowie County capital murder case was the subject of much discussion at a pretrial hearing Friday. "If I wanted him off my case, I could just assault him and he'd be off my case. But I'm not going to do that. That wouldn't help me at all," Billy Joel Tracy said of his lead defense attorney, Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant, Texas, at a hearing before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart at the Bowie County Courthouse in New Boston, Texas. Tracy clenched a cuffed fist as he spoke. Cobb was seated next to him at the defense table. "I know what my odds are in this courtroom. This man here made it clear to me what he wants to do with me," Tracy said, referring to Bowie County District Attorney Jerry Rochelle. At an earlier hearing, Rochelle told the court his office is taking extraordinary measures to work with Tracy's defense team, so that "when the time comes to put a needle in that guy's arm," there won't be any doubt that the state has followed the law. Tracy, 39, is charged with capital murder in the death of Correctional Officer Timothy Davison, who was beaten to death July 15, 2015, while working at the Barry Telford Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Tracy was allegedly caught on multiple video surveillance cameras wielding a metal tray slot bar like a baseball bat to deliver blows during an attack lasting less than a minute, which proved fatal to Davison. The state is seeking the death penalty. Tracy recently filed motions on his own behalf asking for Cobb's removal. Lockhart addressed the concerns outlined in Tracy's motions, including complaints that Cobb wouldn't allow him to take possession of copies of court records at the courthouse following a previous pretrial hearing. "Defense counsel cannot hand you documents," Lockhart said. "They could be subject to criminal prosecution if they give you unredacted information." Information, such as the address of a witness, is removed from copies of court documents provided to criminal defendants by law. Lockhart said he has learned that Tracy currently has redacted copies of all the discovery, or information the state has provided the defense, in his possession. Lockhart pointed out that reading through and redacting the thousands of pages of documents in the case is a lengthy process. "It could take days, if not weeks, to go through all that," Lockhart said. In response to Tracy's complaints about Cobb, Lockhart explained the logic behind his decision to appoint Cobb as lead counsel and Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson as 2nd chair. Lockhart said he was impressed with Cobb's performance as a defense lawyer in a case in Red River County. Cobb's grasp of the law, criminal procedure, his experience as both a defense attorney and a prosecutor, and the opinions of other judges who've seen Cobb in the courtroom led to Cobb's appointment, Lockhart said. "I deliberately didn't want a local attorney for lead counsel," Lockhart added. Lockhart spoke of Harrelson's experience and ability as well, mentioning a capital murder case Harrelson tried, which ended with a verdict of life in prison from a jury that had the death penalty as an option as well. "The state of Texas is trying to take your life. I have appointed you the best lawyers I could find. It would behoove you to pay attention to them," Lockhart said. "I will do this for you though; I'll let you speak at pretrials if you wish to speak again." At Friday's hearing, Lockhart expressed concern that Tracy's abundant pro se motions are filed with the purpose of delaying the trial or to establish grounds for appeal, particularly ineffective assistance of counsel. Tracy assured Lockhart that he wants to get the trial over with and that his complaints about Cobb are based in his desire to have good representation. Lockhart told Tracy that case law in Texas clearly establishes that a defendant does not have the right to "hybrid" representation, or to represent himself or herself at the same time they are being represented by a lawyer. "Hybrid representation has a great potential for chaos," Lockhart said, quoting Texas case law. "I want the record to show that this court is not ruling on any of the motions provided by the defendant unless they are adopted and re-urged by defense counsel." Lockhart told Tracy he is free to file whatever he wants and that the court will read the pro se motions and letters but that he will not rule on them. Lockhart asked Cobb and Harrelson to provide Tracy with copies of the opinions that deny a defendant the right to hybrid representation in Texas. Lockhart asked Cobb if he had any reservations about continuing to represent Tracy. Cobb said he has had similar, not identical, but similar experiences in other cases and doesn't plan to leave the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, NEB., ORE.
Nov. 29 TEXAS: U.S. justices sympathetic to death row inmate on intellectual disability A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared ready to side with a man sentenced to death for a 1980 Houston murder who is challenging how Texas gauges whether a defendant has intellectual disabilities that would preclude execution. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the execution of people who are intellectually disabled violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. At issue in the arguments the eight justices heard on Tuesday was whether Texas is using an obsolete standard to assess whether a defendant is intellectually disabled. Bobby Moore, convicted at age 20 of fatally shooting a 70-year-old grocery clerk during a 1980 Houston robbery, is challenging his sentence in Texas, which carries out more executions than any other U.S. state. Moore's lawyers contend their client is intellectually disabled and should be spared execution. They argued that a lower court that upheld his sentence wrongly used an "outdated" 24-year-old definition used in Texas when it determined he was not intellectually disabled. Moore's appeal focused on how judges should weigh medical evidence of intellectual disability. His lawyers said that a lower court found that Moore's IQ of 70 was "within the range of mild mental retardation." Based on questions asked during the argument, the justices, equally divided between liberals and conservatives, appeared likely to rule for Moore, 57. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sides with the liberals, looked likely to be the key vote. Kennedy and two other current justices were in the majority in the 2002 ruling precluding executing people with an intellectual disability. At one point during the argument, Kennedy said that the state appeals court precedent on which Texas relies was intended to "really limit" the definition of intellectual disability. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller responded that the state court has "never said that the purpose ... is to screen out individuals and deny them relief." "But isn't that the effect?" Kennedy asked. Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal, said the Texas standards appeared to reflect a decision by the state court to reject expert clinical findings because "they don't reflect what Texas citizens think." The Supreme Court's justices have differed among themselves over capital punishment but the court has shown no indication it will take up the broader question of the whether the death penalty itself violates the Constitution. Liberal justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have said the way the death penalty is implemented may be unconstitutional, in part because of differences from state to state. Breyer hinted at those concerns during Tuesday's argument. He said it may not be possible to set an intellectual disability standard that is applied uniformly nationwide, meaning there will be "disparities and uncertainties" and "people who are alike treated differently." The high court on Oct. 5 heard arguments in another Texas death penalty case. In that one, the justices appeared poised to rule in favor of black convicted murderer Duane Buck, who is seeking to avoid execution after his own trial lawyer called an expert witness who testified Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because of his race. Rulings in both cases are due by the end of June. (source: Reuters) On death row for 1980 killing, Texas inmate asks Supreme Court to spare him A Texas death-row inmate who once struggled to spell the word "cat" exposed on Tuesday sharp differences among Supreme Court justices over capital punishment and the judging of intellectual disability. In an hour-long oral argument set against the backdrop of an upcoming confirmation battle, the short-handed court seemed split along conventional conservative and liberal lines. The fate of inmate Bobby James Moore and others like him who are on the borderline of intellectual disability now appears to hang on one swing vote, that of Justice Anthony Kennedy. "This is a vitally important, life or death issue," Moore's attorney, Clifford M. Sloan, told the justices. In 2002, the court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of people with intellectual disabilities. It???s been up to individual states to determine how this standard is met. In Moore's case, Texas applied a standard subsequently spelled out in a 1992 manual by the American Association of Mental Retardation. Critics, including Moore's attorneys, consider this standard outdated, and some justices Tuesday clearly agreed. "Your view ... of state discretion is that a person that every clinician would find is intellectually disabled, the state would not find is intellectually disabled, because a consensus of Texas citizens would not find that person to be
[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, 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, 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, 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, OHIO
April 15 TEXAS: 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 31Rolando Ruiz--543 26-September 14-Robert Jennings---544 27-October 19---Terry Edwards-545 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) OHIO: Opening arguments to begin in trial of Ohio man charged with killing 3 women Opening arguments are slated to begin on Friday in the trial of an Ohio man who may face a death sentence after being charged with killing 3 women and wrapping their bodies in garbage bags. Michael Madison, 38, faces 14 charges that include kidnapping, gross abuse of a corpse, rape and murder in the deaths of Shetisha Sheeley, 28; Angela Deskins, 38; and 18-year-old Shirellda Terry. Jury selection in Cuyahoga County Court in downtown Cleveland has taken nearly 2 weeks, and prosecutors plan to call 50 witnesses in the trial, which is expected to last for an additional 3 weeks. Repeated motions by Madison's lawyer for a mistrial have been denied. East Cleveland Police found the 1st of the 3 women in July 2013 after responding to a complaint about foul odors coming from a garage behind Madison's apartment. The bodies of 2 more women were discovered nearby the next day. Madison was arrested at his mother's Cleveland home after a 2-hour standoff with police. He pleaded not guilty in 2013 and has been held on a $6 million bond since his arrest. Madison was previously arrested in 2001 for kidnapping, attempted rape and gross sexual imposition. He pleaded guilty to attempted rape in 2002 and was sentenced to 4 years in prison, according to court documents. Defense lawyers were granted a motion in February to prevent county prosecutors from comparing Madison with Anthony Sowell, who was convicted of raping and killing 11 women and wrapping their bodies in plastic bags before disposing of them in and around his East Cleveland home. (source: Reuters) ___ 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, OHIO, MO.
April 5 TEXASimpending execution South Texas man set to die said he drank victim's blood Pablo Lucio Vasquez remembered getting drunk and high on an April evening in 1998 before leaving a party with his 15-year-old cousin and his cousin's 12-year-old friend. Vasquez later would tell detectives that as they reached a wooden shed, he started hearing voices telling him to kill the younger boy, David Cardenas. So he hit the 7th-grader in the head from behind with a pipe, cut his throat and lifted the still-conscious victim so blood would drip on the 20-year-old Vasquez's face. "Something just told me to drink," Vasquez said in a videotaped statement to police in Donna, a small town in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. "You drink what?" a detective asked. "His blood," Vasquez replied. Vasquez, now 38, is set for lethal injection Wednesday for what police speculated at the time may have been an attempted satanic cult crime. Evidence of that nature, however, didn't surface at Vasquez's 1999 capital murder trial or in appeals, where courts as recent as last month rejected arguments that Vasquez was mentally ill and should be exempt from the death penalty. His execution would be the 11th this year nationally and the 6th in Texas. Vasquez's lawyer, James Keegan, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the punishment so the justices can consider arguments that several potential jurors were excluded improperly at Vasquez's trial because they either were opposed to the death penalty or not comfortable making such a judgment. A death sentence shouldn't be carried out if it was reached by a jury that rejected members "simply because they voiced general objections to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction," Keegan told the high court, which did not immediately rule on the appeal. 18 years ago this month, Cardenas, who lived with his sister about 5 miles from Donna, was spending the weekend with Vasquez's cousin, 15-year-old Andres Rafael Chapa. Both went to a party on April 18 and were seen rolling marijuana cigarettes; Vasquez also attended. Police received an anonymous tip about the slaying that led them to Chapa and eventually to Vasquez, who was arrested in Conroe, a Houston suburb more than 325 miles north of Donna. Authorities found the body - missing some limbs - 5 days later under scraps of aluminum in a vacant field. A blood trail showed it was dragged to the site, including across a 4-lane main street in Donna. "They decided they were going to try to take his head off with a shovel and didn't realize that it was a lot more difficult to cut someone's head off," Joseph Orendain, the lead trial prosecutor, recalled last week. "It was a mutilated body left behind. ... It was really horrendous." Vasquez, who said he took a gold ring and necklace from Cardenas, told police that Chapa participated in trying to decapitate the boy. "The devil was telling me to take [the head] away from him," Vasquez said, adding that "it couldn't come off." Chapa pleaded guilty to a murder charge for his involvement and is serving a 35-year prison term. 3 other relatives of Chapa and Vasquez received probation and a small fine for helping cover up the slaying. 1 of them was deported to Guatemala. Vasquez declined an interview request from The Associated Press as his execution date neared. His statement to police fueled speculation about satanism, but Orendain said he had no idea whether that connection could be made. "He was really just a sociopath," Orendain said. (source: Dallas Morning News) OHIO: Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell fights death sentence, Ohio Supreme Court to hear appealSowell's attorney's to argue for a new trial The Ohio Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday for a new trial for condemned serial killer Anthony Sowell, who killed 11 women and hid their bodies in and around his home. Sowell, 56, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2011. Sowell's new attorneys are fighting the death sentence for their client. They claimed that his original defense attorneys wasted time challenging the evidence against Sowell, when they should have focused on sparing him the death penalty, based on Sowell's chaotic childhood and background, ABC News reported. Sowell's attorneys also said the judge in the case should not have closed a July 2010 hearing in which lawyers argued over a video of Sowell's police interview. In addition, they argued that the judge shouldn't have put the individual questioning of potential jurors off limits to the public, the Associated Press reported. Sowell's victims were black, homeless, drug- or alcohol-addicted women, who ranged in age from 25 to 52; some of their families filed police reports, others were used to long unexplained absences and didn't bother, the Washington Post reported. According to the authorities, he seemed harmless
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA
Dec. 1 TEXAS: 2 Texas death row inmates say their lawyers are failing them In the hours before Raphael Holiday was put to death by lethal injection earlier this month, he made a final appeal to the Supreme Court. The convicted Texas murderer argued that his 2 court-appointed lawyers had abandoned him by not filing a last-ditch petition for clemency. Now, another man on death row in Texas is accusing the same two lawyers of failing to provide him with effective counsel. In a petition to the Supreme Court, Robert Roberson alleges that they haven't pursued a key legal avenue in his appeal because of a conflict of interest. The lawyers, James Volberding and Seth Kretzner, say they've represented their clients effectively, and that the claims against them have been instigated by outside attorneys. "We're practical street lawyers. We deal with reality, not the world that you wish it was," Volberding told me. "Some other lawyers - we call them dreamy-eyed - want to pursue any conceivable option, even though it's completely unrealistic." But the legal duo is facing the unusual situation of opposing court motions filed by 2 of their their own clients within a few weeks. Their actions have raised eyebrows in the insular world of capital punishment attorneys - and at the Supreme Court. Being a death penalty lawyer means following complicated, technical appeals processes, often with only a vanishing chance of winning. That's especially so in Texas, which has accounted for more than 1/3 of all executions in the country since 1976. In both the Holiday and Roberson cases, the question seems to focus on whether a lawyer must exhaust every possibility of avoiding an execution - or whether it's better to be realistic about which claims are likely and which have virtually no chance of success. Let's start with Holiday. He was sentenced to die in 2002 for burning a house down with his 18-month-old daughter and her 2 half-sisters inside. His mother-in-law testified during trial that he forced her at gunpoint to spread gasoline while the kids watched. Then he lit a match. Volberding and Kretzner represented Holiday in his federal appeal. They filed a long petition alleging mistakes in the trial. But they lost at every level, and in June, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Holiday asked Volberding and Kretzner to file a clemency petition on his behalf. They declined, telling him that success was highly unlikely. Clemency requires approval from a state board as well as the governor. Only 2 death row inmates in the last 20 years have won clemency in Texas. "It was our professional opinion that a clemency petition did not have a realistic chance of success and merely raised false hopes," Volberding told me. "We hate the situation that ultimately happens, where someone is sitting there on the day of the execution waiting for a 1 in a million or 1 in a billion chance that their petition is going to work," Kretzner added. But federal law stipulates that attorneys appointed to represent death row clients shall represent them in "all available post-conviction proceedings." And legal experts say there isn't wiggle room, even if a win seems as likely as a snowstorm in San Antonio. "There should have been a federally appointed lawyer who was looking after [Holiday's] interests instead of letting him to go the execution chamber essentially unrepresented," said Jordan Steiker, the head of the University of Texas Law School's capitol punishment center. What happens when a murder suspect facing the death penalty represents himself in court? After Holiday took on the services of a pro bono attorney who filed a motion to have Volberding and Kretzner removed from the case (the 2 lawyers are being paid by the court), the lawyers soon changed their minds and filed what they admit was a hastily-written clemency petition--Volberding characterized it as "very quickly and effectively" done. The petition was denied. 2 weeks ago, on the day of his scheduled execution, Holiday's former trial attorney made a final appeal to the Supreme Court, which was denied. But in an unusual turn of events, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a statement naming Volberding and Kretzner, more or less rebuking them for having "abandoned" their client. "So long as clemency proceedings were 'available' to Holiday, the interests of justice required the appointment of attorneys who would represent him in that process," she wrote. After reviewing Sotomayor's statement, Volberding said he and Kretzner will be filing clemency petitions in all of their death penalty cases going forward. *** Only a few weeks after Holiday's execution, the Supreme Court will once again consider a motion by one of Volberding and Kretzner's death row clients asking to have his lawyers removed. On Friday, the Court will hear a petition by Robert Roberson, who alleges that they've failed
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
Sept. 2 TEXASstay of impending execution Execution for Houston convicted killer postponed The Harris County District Attorney's Office Wednesday postponed a scheduled Sept. 29 execution for Houston convicted killer Perry Eugene Williams to allow a federal judge time to appoint an appellate lawyer in the case. Williams, 34, was sentenced to die for the September 2000 killing of Matthew Carter, who was abducted from the parking lot of a video rental store. After forcing Carter into his own vehicle, Murphy and 3 accomplices drove around the area. When Carter attempted to escape, Murphy shot him in the head, officials said. According to court documents, Murphy then took items from the victim. Murphy told authorities that the gun accidentally discharged when the victim jostled him. (source: Houston Chronicle) Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present10 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-528 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 11-October 6Juan Garcia---529 12-October 14---Licho Escamilla---530 13-October 28---Christopher Wilkins---531 14-November 3---Julius Murphy-532 15-November 18--Raphael Holiday---533 16-January 20 (2016)-Richard Masterson534 17-January 27---James Freeman-535 18-February 16--Gustavo Garcia536 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) OHIOnew (2017) execution date Ohio Supreme Court sets 2017 execution date for condemned killer of 2 in robbery spree The Ohio Supreme Court has set an execution date for a man condemned to die for fatally shooting 2 people in a 1992 robbery spree. A 3-judge panel sentenced Gary Otte to die for killing Robert Wasikowski in an apartment in Parma in suburban Cleveland on Feb. 12, 1992, and for killing Sharon Kostura in the same apartment complex the next day. The high court on Wednesday set a March 15, 2017, execution date for the 43-year-old Otte, who has lost previous appeals of his death sentence. The decision makes Otte the 24th inmate on death row with an execution date. The prison system is scheduled to resume executions in January but hasn't been able to obtain new supplies of lethal injection drugs. (source: Associated Press) ___ 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, OHIO, TENN., KAN., NEB.
May 15 TEXAS: Dallas Case Has Appeals Court Looking At Mental Capacity The Death Penalty The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that a Dallas County judge has the right to hold a hearing to figure out whether an accused murderer has the mental capacity to face the death penalty. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the intellectually disabled is unconstitutional it was up to the states to pass new laws - Texas never did. Now comes the case of Tyrone Allen, who is accused of capital murder. Allen is accused of shooting and killing his pregnant girlfriend, Breshuana Jackson, and shooting a police officer during a high-speed chase before surrendering after a 4-hour standoff. Allen is also listed in the Texas sex offender list for 2 convictions of indecency with a child by exposure, 1 in 2000 and 1 in 2001. He was sentenced to a year in prison on both occasions. Prosecutors want the now 28-year-old Dallas man put to death. Defense lawyers want a judge to decide, before the trial, whether Allen is intellectually disabled and thus immune from the death penalty. Legal analyst Ed Klein says it's clear the case is a long way from being decided. Surely someone's going to take it up on appeal, to question whether or not what the legislature has passed is constitutional or protects the defendants rights properly. Klein says the legislature has sidestepped the question of mental capacity and the death penalty for more than 10 years. It appears that the Court of Criminal Appeals is saying, 'Look, you're going to have finish the case first and then bring it up and we'll decide whether or not what you did was constitutional perhaps. Or, you have to wait until the legislature passes some statutes to give you guidance.' Lawyers claim Allen's IQ is too low to qualify for the death penalty. Prosecutors say it's a question for the jury to decide, if indeed he is convicted. No hearing date in Allen's case has been set. (source: CBS news) OHIO: Mentally ill murderers would avoid death penalty under new Ohio Senate bill New bipartisan legislation in the Ohio Senate seeks to prohibit the death penalty for murderers diagnosed with a serious mental illness. Under Senate Bill 162, the death penalty could not be imposed on a murderer with an illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder that significantly impaired his or her ability to exercise rational judgment, follow the law, or appreciate the nature of their crime. The rule would apply even in cases where the defendant was found competent to stand trial and didn't meet the standard to be found not guilty by reason of insanity. The bill would further allow murderers already on death row to seek resentencing if they can prove they have a serious mental illness. Those inmates would have 1 year after the bill becomes law to file such a petition. The proposal was one of more than 50 recommendations made last year by an Ohio Supreme Court task force studying reforms to the state's capital punishment system. Republican Sen. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati - who served on the task force - and Democratic Sen. Sandra Williams of Cleveland are sponsoring the bill. (source: cleveland.com) TENNESSEEdeath row inmate dies Longest-serving Tennessee death row inmate dies The man who was the longest-serving inmate on Tennessee's death row died Wednesday of natural causes. Donald Strouth, 56, was pronounced dead Wednesday evening at a Nashville hospital, according to a news release from the Department of Correction. Strouth had been on death row since 1978 for the murder of a second-hand store owner in Kingsport. He knocked out and slashed the throat of Jimmy Keegan in a robbery, leaving his body behind in his store, where his wife later found him. Strouth was 1 of more than 30 inmates challenging the state's single-drug lethal injection protocol in a pending Davidson County Chancery Court case. More inmates died of natural causes on death row between 2004 and 2014 than were executed, and that trend continues. The last execution was in 2009. David Miller, who was sentenced to death in 1982, is now the longest-serving inmate. Miller, who also is involved in the legal challenge to the death penalty, killed a disabled woman with a fire poker in 1981 in Knox County. (source: The Tennessean) KANSAS: Death Penalty Expert Weighs In On Alleged JCC Shooter's Desire To Represent Himself A Johnson County judge agreed Thursday to let accused Jewish Community Center shooter Frazier Glenn Cross Jr. represent himself in court, a decision that could have far-reaching implications as the state pursues its capital case. Cross, a known anti-Semite who has bragged to the media about killing 3 people last spring at 2 Overland Park Jewish sites, has repeatedly told Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan he doesn't trust his lawyers and wants them fired. Before Thursday, Ryan had
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA
April 15 TEXASimpending execution Man receives death penalty for killing San Antonio police officer A man sentenced to death for the killing of a San Antonio police officer will be executed this evening in Huntsville. Manuel Garza Jr., 34, was arrested for fatally shooting Officer John Anthony Rocky Riojas in February 2001 outside a Northwest Side apartment complex. Riojas attempted to question Garza, who supplied the officer with a fake name because he had 5 active arrest warrants at the time. Garza ran away after giving the fake name, and that's when Riojas chased him down. Testimony at Garza's trial showed the officer was shot with his own gun in a struggle as he caught up with Garza, who had tried running away. Garza said he ran because he had outstanding warrants and didn't want to go back to jail. No late appeals for Garza are pending in the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case last year. My San Antonio reports that during the trial, Garza claimed he was acting in self defense against an overly aggressive officer. In one statement he gave to police he had admitted to pulling the trigger but in another statement he said he hadn't intended to kill Riojas, that the gun went off accidentally during the struggle. It took jurors less than an hour to convict Garza and less than 3 to determine he deserved to die for the crime. Garza is the 6th convicted killer to be put to death this year in Texas. The execution is set to take place at 6 p.m. (source: San Antonio Sun-Times) ** Cop killer: 'I made my peace with God' Manuel Garza to be executed Wednesday for slaying of SAPD SWAT officer in 2001 San Antonio police officer John Anthony Rocky Riojas was shot and killed in February 2001 while trying to arrest Manuel Garza, 20, following a foot chase. Riojas had approached Garza and asked for identification and Garza ran. I ran, that's where I messed up, Garza said during an interview from Death Row with KSAT 12 News reporter Paul Venema just 2 weeks before Garza's scheduled execution. Garza told how the 2 struggled as Riojas tried to arrest him. He pulled his weapon and in the struggle, he's trying to get it back and I'm trying to keep it away, and it fired, Garza said. Garza was convicted in October 2002 of capital murder and sentenced to death. He is scheduled to be executed Wednesday night. Garza said he feels no remorse calling the shooting an accident. To have remorse you have to kill somebody, and I don't think I did that, he said. I think you have to have the intent and want to kill somebody to have remorse. SAPD Sgt. Javier Salazar, who worked with Riojas, said that Garza did not kill just somebody. Salazar said he killed a man whom Salazar called a cop's cop. Rocky was just all out when it came to being a cop and fighting crime, Salazar said. He was what I would call a silent professional. Garza said although he still feels that Riojas' death was an accident, he has accepted his fate. I try not to ponder it too much, he said. I made my peace with God many years ago. (source: KSAT news) *** Texas to execute 6th man this year despite low supply of injection drug Texas is set to put to death a second prisoner in less than a week as the state ramps up its execution rate despite struggling to source lethal injection drugs. Manuel Garza is scheduled to die in the Texas state penitentiary on Wednesday evening for the murder of a Swat officer in San Antonio in 2001. Last Thursday, Texas officials used the last of a batch of compounded pentobarbital to execute Kent Sprouse, who also killed a police officer. They have secured more supplies of the sedative - but only enough to carry out the three other executions they have planned for April. Another three are scheduled in May and June. Garza would be the 6th man executed in Texas this year out of a national total of 13. If the country's most active death penalty state cannot find more pentobarbital, it may be forced to change its protocol and use a different drug or combination of drugs. However, other states that have resorted to experimental protocols after similar supply problems have faced lawsuits after a series of botched lethal injections that have placed the legality of the process into question. Garza, now 35, was convicted in 2002 of killing John Riojas. Garza had an extensive prior criminal record and had outstanding warrants. Riojas chased him into an apartment complex, where according to testimony, there was a struggle and Garza grabbed the officer's gun and shot him in the head. As I started running, the cop was telling me to stop. I just wanted to get away. I knew I was gonna go to jail and I didn't want that, Garza said, according to court documents. He was arrested 2 days later. He said in a statement to police: I want to say to the media and to the officer's family
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, N.C., ARK., USA
April 9 TEXASimpending execution Ferris man convicted of killing 2 in 2002 denied 180-day reprieve from execution Kent Sprouse, convicted of slaying a Ferris police officer and another man on Oct. 6, 2002, will be executed on April 9. Kent Sprouse has been denied a 180-day reprieve from being executed less than 2 days before his expected death. Sprouse, convicted of killing a Ferris police officer and another man on Oct. 6, 2002, was denied the reprieve late Tuesday afternoon. He???s expected to be executed near 6 p.m. Thursday in Huntsville, about 55 miles southeast of Dallas, by lethal injection. The process is expected to take 15 to 30 minutes at most. The 180-day Reprieve of Execution and Commutation of Death Sentence to Lesser Penalty request has to be recommended by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to the govoerner, said Raymond Estrada, spokesperson for the board. Pursuant to the Texas Constitution and state law, the board makes recommendations to the Governor, Estrada stated via email. In this case, the board did not recommend the Governor grant a 180-day reprieve or commutation of sentence. Sprouse, who was a Ferris resident, was found guilty of killing a Ferris police officer Harry Steinfeldt, and Pedro Moreno in 2004 and sentenced to death by lethal injection. In 2002, according to court documents, Sprouse entered a convenience store with a shotgun hung over his shoulder, and after returning to his vehicle, fired the gun in the direction of 2 men, documents stated. A nearby customer saw Sprouse working on his vehicle, and Moreno filling his truck with gas. Sprouse tried to speak to Moreno, and when Moreno didn't respond, Sprouse reached into his vehicle, pulled out a gun and killed Moreno, court documents stated. Steinfeldt responded to the shooting, and as he turned toward Sprouse's vehicle, Sprouse shot him twice, according to documents. Steinfeldt returned fire, but died from his injuries. A second officer on scene took Sprouse into custody, reports stated. Sprouse was then transported to a nearby hospital, where a doctor's testing revealed he had consumed amphetamines, methamphetamines and cannabis within 48 hours of the double homicide, reports stated. Sprouse has lost several appeals since his sentencing and has declined to comment as of press time. Sprouse will be the 5th execution for the State of Texas this year, and is expected to be the 523rd since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. He was also expected to receive the last dose of lethal injection drugs during a shortage, where the state had 6 executions scheduled during the next 3 months and only enough of the drug for on execution. As of March 25, according to an article by the Washington Post, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice had obtained another batch of pentobarbital, the drug used in lethal injections there since 2012. The Waxahachie Daily Light will have a reporter in Huntsville for the execution Thursday night, so check back for continuing coverage online at www.waxahachietx.com as well as an in-depth story in Sunday's edition about what it takes to defend the death penalty. (source: waxahachietx.com) Court Rules to Allow Convict to Volunteer for Execution After being convicted of killing a Corpus Christi police officer in 2009, 27-year old Daniel Lopez said he wanted to be executed. He has maintained that position since, and on Monday, an appellate court approved his choice. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has ruled that Lopez can volunteer for execution. The court said he is competent to waive any future appeals and can move forward with his desire to be executed for the death of 47-year old Lt. Stuart Alexander. The process of execution can now continue with no additional appeals, unless Lopez authorizes it. A typical death penalty case takes about 8 years for a sentence to be carried out. During his trial in 2010, Lopez said he never meant to kill Alexander. (source: KIII TV news) OHIO: Prosecutor will pursue death penalty against parents in 2-year-old's death A Hamilton County grand jury indicted a mother and father on aggravated murder charges Wednesday in the starving and beating death of their 2-year-old daughter, officials said. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said his office will pursue the death penalty for Andrea Bradley and Glenn Bates if a jury finds them guilty of aggravated murder, murder and felony child endangerment for the death of their daughter, Glenara. If they get executed, God bless them, I'd like to see it, Deters said. Bradley and Bates were charged with felony child endangering on March 29 shortly after taking their already dead daughter to Children's Hospital. The charges against the parents were upgraded to murder after Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Kode Sammarco completed an autopsy on the toddler.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MO., NEB., UTAH, USA
March 16 TEXASnew execution date Gregory Russeau has been given an execution date for June 18; it should be considered serious. (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present4 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-522 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 5Mar. 18---Randall Mays-523 6Apr. 9Kent Sprouse-524 7Apr. 15---Manual Garza-525 8---Apr. 23---Richard Vasquez--526 9---Apr. 28---Robert Pruett---527 10---May 12Derrick Charles--528 11---June 18---Gregory Russeau529 (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) ** Texas Executed a Dad for Burning His 3 Young Kids to Death. Now a Letter is Casting Doubt He Did It. Convicted in 1991 for the alleged arson murder of his 3 young daughters at his home in Corsicana, TX, he maintained his innocence for 13 years until being executed by the state in 2004. Willingham claimed he woke up from a nap after inhaling smoke, and after looking around the house, he couldn't find his children. He left the burning house in a state of disorientation. Johnny Webb - his cellmate in state prison - had a different story; a spontaneous confession that was a significant factor in the trial: ...he had set the fire to cover up his wife's abuse of 1 of the girls. Autopsies of the girls showed no signs of abuse - but it was the strongest evidence the prosecution had other than the finding of arson by fire investigators. That finding has been discredited by a series of forensic experts. It was a high-profile case that caught national attention due to the fire's tragic outcome. As such, there was pressure to issue a definitive conviction. Recently, formerly undisclosed new evidence in the form of a letter has surfaced, undermining the validity of the prosecution and its key witness, Johnny Webb. In a recent interview with The Marshall Project, Webb stated: I lied on the man because I was being forced by John Jackson to do so, I succumbed to pressure when I shouldn't have. In the end, I was told, 'You're either going to get a life sentence or you're going to testify.' He coerced me to do it. It may or not have been coercion, but regardless, Webb chose to testify: Jackson pointedly asked Webb on the witness stand whether he had been promised a lighter sentence or some other benefit for his cooperation. Webb told the judge and jury that he had not. After the secured death penalty conviction, Webb wrote to the prosecutor from state prison, urging him to come through on his end of the secretive deal to have his own criminal sentence reduced. Soon after receiving the letter: Within days, the prosecutor, John H. Jackson, sought out the Navarro County judge who had handled Willingham's case and came away with a court order that altered the record of Webb's robbery conviction to make him immediately eligible for parole. Webb would later recant his testimony that Willingham confessed to setting his house on fire with the toddlers inside. More controversy accounted in documents published by The Washington Post last year revealed that not only was Webb's prison sentence reduced by TX Criminal Justice officials - but an incriminating web of individuals helped secure Webb a financial incentive: During and after Webb was in state prison, he received thousands of dollars in aid from a wealthy local businessman, Charles S. Pearce Jr. Webb said in interviews that Pearce had helped him at the behest of Jackson; Patrick C. Batchelor, the district attorney; and the county sheriff. Webb received such high level attention because he was impatient to get his sentence reduced, prompting the letters written to Jackson that threatened to go public with his falsified testimony. They urged him against such action, and persuaded him accordingly. But that did not help with Webb's own feelings of guilt. That a man was by all appearances put to death by corruption is a mockery of the justice system. Regardless of where one stands on the issue of capital punishment, it seems hard not to agree with those at the Washington Post, who, in their write-up of the documents stated: Had such favorable treatment been revealed prior to his execution, Willingham might have had grounds to seek a new trial. The State Bar of Texas filed a misconduct complaint, falsifying official records, withholding evidence and obstructing justice last summer as a response to the outpouring of this evidence. (source: IJReview.com) OHIO: Kasich rarely uses clemency to pardon, commute sentences Gov. John Kasich's clemency record Cases received: 2,167 Cases decided: 1,521 Cases undecided: 646
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MO., NEB.
Nov. 24 TEXAS: Will Texas Kill an Insane Man? On Dec. 3, Texas plans to execute an inmate named Scott Panetti, who was convicted in 1995 for murdering his in-laws with a hunting rifle. There is no question that Mr. Panetti committed the murders. There is also no question that he is severely mentally ill, and has been for decades. During his capital murder trial, at which he was inexplicably allowed to represent himself, Mr. Panetti dressed in a cowboy suit and attempted to subpoena, among others, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ. A standby lawyer said his behavior was scary and trance-like, and called the trial a judicial farce. It was not an act. Mr. Panetti, now 56, was first diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 20, and in the years before the murders he was hospitalized several times for delusions and psychotic episodes. In this respect, he is no different from the estimated 350,000 inmates around the country with mental illness - 10 times the number of people in state psychiatric hospitals. But Mr. Panetti is not just another insane prisoner; his name is synonymous with the Supreme Court's modern jurisprudence about mental illness on death row. In Panetti v. Quarterman, decided in 2007, the justices held that it is not enough for a defendant simply to be aware that he is going to be executed and why - the previous standard the court had used in permitting the execution of the mentally ill. Rather, he must have a rational understanding of why the state plans to kill him. Noting Mr. Panetti's well-documented history of mental illness, the court held that capital punishment serves no retributive purpose when the defendant's understanding of crime and punishment is so distorted that it has little or no relation to the understanding of those concepts shared by the community as a whole. For example, Mr. Panetti understood that the state claimed the reason for his death sentence was the murder of his in-laws, but he believed the real reason was spiritual warfare between the demons and the forces of the darkness and God and the angels and the forces of light. But the justices refused to set precise guidelines for determining whether someone is competent enough to be executed, and they did not overturn Mr. Panetti's sentence. Instead, they sent the case back to the lower courts for a fuller reconsideration of his current mental state. By any reasonable standard - not to mention the findings of multiple mental-health experts over the years - Mr. Panetti is mentally incompetent. But Texas, along with several other stubborn states, has a long history of finding the loopholes in Supreme Court rulings restricting the death penalty. The state has continued to argue that Mr. Panetti is exaggerating the extent of his illness, and that he understands enough to be put to death - a position a federal appeals court accepted last year, even though it agreed that he was seriously mentally ill. Mr. Panetti has not had a mental-health evaluation since 2007. In a motion hastily filed this month, his volunteer lawyers requested that his execution be stayed, that a lawyer be appointed for him, and that he receive funding for a new mental-health assessment, saying his functioning has only gotten worse. For instance, he now claims that a prison dentist implanted a transmitter in his tooth. The lawyers would have made this motion weeks earlier, immediately after a Texas judge set Mr. Panetti's execution date. But since no one - not the judge, not the district attorney, not the attorney general - notified them (or even Mr. Panetti himself), they had no idea their client was scheduled to be killed until they read about it in a newspaper. State officials explained that the law did not require them to provide notification. On Nov. 19, a Texas court denied the lawyers' motion. A civilized society should not be in the business of executing anybody. But it certainly cannot pretend to be adhering to any morally acceptable standard of culpability if it kills someone like Scott Panetti. (source: Editorial, New York Times) Show your support for Rodney Monday and Tuesday of this week will be national call-in days in solidarity with Rodney Reed, who is facing death in two month's time in the Texas execution chamber for a crime he didn't commit. Reed's supporters have called for a phone, fax and e-mail jam to the office of the Bastrop County District Attorney. On Tuesday, activists will be on hand at the Bastrop County courthouse for an important hearing. In this edited version of a statement for the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Lily Hughes explains the facts of Reed's case--and the urgent need to stand with him. Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed has been given an execution date of January 14, 2015. The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear an appeal from Reed, although his case has attracted widespread attention
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MO., COLO., N.MEX., ARIZ., USA
Oct. 28 TEXASimpending execution San Antonio Man Set to Be Executed Tuesday A former San Antonio gang member is scheduled for execution Tuesday evening for his part in a 2002 triple slaying. Miguel Angel Paredes, 32, was convicted for the shooting deaths of Adrian Torres, 27; his 23-year-old girlfriend, Nelly Bravo; and Shawn Michael Cain, 23. Their burned bodies were found in nearby Frio County. Paredes would become the 10th person put to death this year in Texas, and the 518th since the state resumed executions in 1982. 2 co-defendants, John Anthony Saenz and Greg Alvarado, were also convicted in the deaths. Bexar County prosecutors claimed the 3 were settling a drug debt with Torres when the murders occurred. Paredes told the San Antonio Express-News he and his fellow Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos associates met up with Torres, a member of a rival gang, the Mexican Mafia, to confront him about threats he had made. Paredes, who was 18 at the time of the murders, was the only 1 of the 3 defendants sentenced to death. Saenz was found guilty of capital murder but sentenced to life in prison. Alvarado pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence. On Monday, Paredes' lawyer, David Dow of Houston, asked the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to stay the execution while it considers an appeal Dow also filed on Monday. In the appeal, Dow argues that another appellate attorney failed to investigate whether Paredes was taking psychiatric medication when he waived his right to challenge his sentence based on ineffective trial counsel. (source: Texas Tribune) * Inside the mind of a San Antonio man on death row: Condemned man finds art as release Miguel Angel Paredes, who is set to be executed Tuesday for a gang-sanctioned triple slaying in San Antonio, said during a death row interview with the Express-News last week that he has turned to artwork over the past 13 years while waiting for his sentence to be carried out. He has created sketches ranging from portraits of lions, puppies and dolphins to more haunting imagery, such as a man strapped to a death chamber gurney - arms outstretched, the IV line in place, with an angel in 1 witness box and the devil in the other. Each drawing is posted at minutesbeforesix.com and can be seen in the gallery above. Paredes, now 32, was convicted in 2001 of the capital murders a year earlier of Nelly Esmerelda Bravo, 23, her boyfriend and Texas Mexican Mafia member Adrian Torres, 27, and Shawn Michael Cain, 32. Paredes leveled a handgun to the head of Bravo as she begged for her life, ignoring her pleas, according to witness testimony at his trial. When the shot to her head wasn't fatal, Paredes fired a shotgun at her chest. Co-defendants Greg Alvarado and John Anthony Saenz - who, like Paredes, were members of the Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos prison gang - are both serving life sentences. Paredes said he is remorseful for the slayings. All that gang life folklore, the romanticism, it's crap, he said. As long as one kid sees beyond all that crap because of my situation, that's fine. READY TO DIE Parades was 18 at the time of the killings and was jailed as a minor for murder. His co-defendants received life sentences. Paredes told the San Antonio Express-News he was ready to die for his crimes. For me, what matters is that people really get to see the reality of the death penalty, that it's affecting people that are invisible, like my son, my loved ones, my family. They're the ones really carrying that burden, he told the paper in an interview published over the weekend. (sources: mysanantonio.com Reuters) San Antonio gang member faces execution A former San Antonio gang member set to die tonight in Huntsville for a triple slaying 14 years ago has lost a federal court appeal. Miguel Paredes was 18 when he was arrested 2 days after a farmer investigating a grass fire on a remote stretch of road near his South Texas home discovered the bodies of 2 men and a woman from San Antonio. The 3 had been shot, bound and wrapped in carpet that was set ablaze and dumped in Frio County. Paredes, now 32, is set for lethal injection Tuesday evening. Prosecutors say the slayings were the result of a drug dispute involving rival gangs. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal to halt the punishment, the 10th this year in Texas. (source: KSAT news) OHIO: Appeals court upholds Ohio killer's death sentence A federal appeals court has upheld the death sentence for the condemned killer of a Toledo woman, rejecting arguments that he is mentally disabled and received poor legal assistance. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected a claim by death row inmate James Frazier that the death penalty amounts to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. The court's ruling Monday involved
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
Oct. 27 TEXASimpending execution Texas Prepares for Miguel Paredes' Execution Scheduled for October 28, 2014 Miguel Angel Paredes is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CST, on Tuesday, October 28, 2014, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 32-year-old Miguel is convicted of murdering 23-year-old Nelly Bravo, 23-year-old Shawn Michael Caine, and 37-year-old Adrian Torres on September 17, 2000, in San Antonio, Texas. Miguel has spent the last 13 years on Texas' death row. Miguel is 1 of 20 children, although 7 of his siblings died before he was born. Miguel was born in Chicago, Illinois to Mexican immigrant parents. Miguel's parents eventually moved the family to San Antonio, Texas, where Miguel eventually fell in with the violent Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos gang. Miguel claimed he joined the gang thinking he had found loyalty and love. By the age of 15, Miguel had a pregnant girlfriend and a criminal record. Early in September of 2000, Adrian Torres, a member of the Mexican Mafia, had given John Anthony Saenz over $800 worth of cocaine. Shortly thereafter, he began calling Saenz's house seeking repayment. On September 17, 2000, Saenz told his wife to leave because Adrian was coming over and he was going to take care of business. Saenz called and asked Greg Alvarado and Miguel Paredes to come over with weapons for back up. Adrian brought Nelly Bravo and Shawn Caine along with him. The 3 were ambushed by Saenz, Alvarado and Paredes. After Adrian, Nelly, and Shawn were killed, they were wrapped in carpet and placed in the back of a pick-up truck. After driving for a while, they pulled over on a dirt road and burned the carpets and the bodies. Saenz and Alvarado each received a life sentence. Paredes was sentenced to death. (source: The Forgiveness Foundation) OHIO: U.S. appeals court upholds death penalty for convicted Toledo murderer A federal appeals court today rejected the argument from convicted murderer James Frazier that he is mentally retarded and exempt from Ohio's death penalty. Frazier, 73, on death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution, was convicted of robbing and killing Mary Stevenson, a disabled woman at Northgate Apartments in Toledo where Frazier was attending a crack cocaine party late on the night March 1, 2004, or early the next morning. Frazier apparently robbed Ms. Stevenson for money when the party ran short of drugs. IQ tests conducted before Frazier's trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court found his score to be slightly above 70, the threshold above which the law presumes someone is not mentally retarded. The court noted that the expert hired by the defense found he was not retarded, prompting his attorneys to drop that line of strategy at trial. Among other things, the latest appeal argues that his defense was ineffective in not continuing to pursue that plan. But the Cincinnati-based U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said that decision was not out of line given the facts the defense had at the time. The court said Frazier failed to meet the higher burden of proving he is actually innocent of the death penalty because of his mental capacity. In Frazier's favor are the facts that he attended special-education classes, that he never progressed beyond the 10th grade, that he earned 2 Cs, 21 Ds, and 1 F in high school, and that he was labeled a slow learner... wrote Judge Karen Nelson Moore. However, being placed in special-education classes does not necessarily render someone mentally retarded. And failing to complete high school does not necessarily result from subaverage intellectual functioning If Frazier needed to prove his limitations only by a preponderance of the evidence, we might be inclined to agree with him, Judge Moore wrote. However, at this stage of the litigation, Frazier's proof must be clear and convincing. The limited and muddled academic records make this impossible. Frazier was convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary. Ms. Stevenson, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was strangled and her throat slit as Frazier made away with 1 of her purses. (source: Toledo Blade) * Death penalty phase begins in sledgehammer killing of New Franklin Township couple A jury will now consider whether to recommend the death penalty for a 20-year-old man accused of bludgeoning a New Franklin Township couple to death with a sledgehammer. The Summit County jury on Wednesday found Shawn Ford, 20, guilty of attacking his ex-girlfriend and later killing her parents, Jeffrey and Margaret Schobert in April 2013. The jury convicted him of 5 counts of aggravated murder, 2 counts of aggravated robbery, and 1 count each of petty theft, grand theft, aggravated burglary and felonious assault. (source: Northeast Ohio Media Group) ___
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MO., COLO., USA
Sept. 2 TEXAS: Doubts soften embrace of Texas capital punishment Perhaps nothing symbolizes this state's swagger over being tough on crime like Old Sparky, an electric chair that was used to execute 361 inmates and is now the centerpiece of a prison museum. It sits just minutes from the Texas penitentiary where it was forever unplugged 50 years ago this summer following the execution of Houston's Joseph Johnson Jr. for murdering a grocer. While the oak chair is now a capital punishment relic photographed daily by visitors, this state's death row is undergoing what looks to be a historic shift. Texas forged an international reputation as it has executed far more inmates than any other state in the nation since 1982, when it resumed capital punishment with lethal injection. But this year, Texas just may lose its distinction as the state carrying out the most executions annually, sitting in a three-way tie with Missouri and Florida. Each state has executed seven people so far this year. In Texas, a slew of changes in capital punishment that have been trotted out over the past decade or so and are taking hold. Those include requiring better legal representation for people facing the death penalty, giving jurors the option of sentencing defendants to life in prison without parole, and increasing the use of DNA and other scientific testing. And significant to the change is the realization by lawmakers and others that the system that condemns someone is not bulletproof. The state executed an average of 29 people annually from 1997 to 2007, with 40 in 2000, according to statistics maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center. But it is now on track to have no more than 11 this year, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the fewest number in 23 years. Texas is not getting weaker on crime, but getting smarter about who is sentenced to death by reducing the chances of condemning an innocent person, said former Texas Gov. Mark White. We are starting to recognize that being tough on crime doesn't mean you have to be tough on innocent people, White told the Houston Chronicle. We have learned a lot: use the cutting edge of science, and not just the fast draw of the Old West. He pointed to more than a dozen Texas death row inmates who were convicted, only to years later be freed on the grounds they were innocent. Being tough on an innocent person, that ain't tough, that is stupid, White said. Being tough on crime does not mean being careless in how you find a perpetrator. Anthony Graves is among the innocent. He was exonerated 4 years ago in the 1992 Burleson County murder of a woman as well as her 4 grandchildren and daughter. He had been convicted of helping Robert Carter in the murders, but from shortly after Carter's arrest to his last declaration from the gurney moments before his execution, Carter said Graves had no role. Students in a University of St. Thomas journalism class worked with The Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center to review the Graves case, and Graves' lawyers later successfully argued that prosecutors elicited false statements from 2 witnesses and withheld 2 statements that could have changed the minds of jurors. The district attorney conceded that Graves did not do the crime and dropped the charges rather than pursue a new trial. Graves said the debate should no longer be about whether it is right or wrong to execute a person, but whether the current justice system gets it right. That is when you have an honest conversation about it, he said of focusing on whether the system works properly. To each his own. You cannot get mad at somebody because they believe someone should be executed for a crime they committed. That is between them and their god. Graves said that he believes more Texans are now realizing that sometimes the wrong person is sent to death row. I did not give up eighteen and a half years of my life to come out here and be called some liberal activist against the death penalty, said Graves, who was improperly convicted due in part to official misconduct, perjury and misleading scientific information. From what I have gone through, I have seen it fail from top to bottom, he said. I see a failed system that wrongfully convicted me, put me on death row and tried to murder me. There is no way in hell that I can tell you that works. Other exonerations have hinged on scientific work, and DNA comparisons have grown more and more heralded each year. Michael Blair, who was wrongfully convicted in 1993 for killing a 7-year-old girl in Collin County was freed in 2008 due in part to DNA testing. In 2013, such testing of all biological evidence became required by Texas law in all death-penalty cases. Besides seeing a drop in the number of people the state executes, the number Texas sends to death row annually also has decreased. This state now trails
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, TENN., OKLA., NEB., COLO., IDAHO
Aug. 25 TEXAS: Texas no longer Death Penalty Central for the United States? Texas has earned the reputation for being Death Penalty Central. It has executed far more inmates than any other state. In fact, even if the Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida or any other state were to execute an inmate every single day for a year, they would still lag behind Texas in terms of the number of persons put to death in the past 30 years or so. But here are a few facts you might not know: Texas courts punish defendants with the death penalty less often than Florida and California. This state does not have the most populated death row in the nation, and this year it is in a 3-way tie with Florida and Missouri for the number of people put to death. We took a deeper look at the possible trend in today's Houston Chronicle. Here is a taste of the piece in which former Texas Gov. Mark White is quoted, as well as former death row inmate Anthony Graves and a retired prison warden Jim Willett, among others: Perhaps nothing symbolizes this state's swagger over being tough on crime like Old Sparky, an electric chair that was used to execute 361 inmates and is now the centerpiece of a prison museum. It sits just minutes from the Texas penitentiary where it was forever unplugged 50 years ago this summer following the execution of Houston's Joseph Johnson Jr. for murdering a grocer. While the oak chair is now a capital punishment relic photographed daily by visitors, this state's death row is undergoing what looks to be a historic shift. White maintains that Texas isn't getting soft on crime, but getting smarter about when it carries out the death penalty. Graves says that he is no liberal death penalty activist, and that his goal is to encourage people to have open, honest conversations about whether the death penalty works - are the right people being executed and is such a penalty deterring crime. He had 2 execution dates come and go before he was finally found to be an innocent man and released from prison. Willett and Ron Rozelle recently wrote a book, Warden, Prison Life and Death from the Inside Out. It is a great read - plenty of insight and amazing first-hand accounts, such as when he presided over the execution of Gary Graham, who resisted to the end. Willett recalls in the book how Graham's paper clothing ripped apart while he was to be taken to the death chamber, so he had him wrapped in a white sheet - a practice that continues to this day. You can click on the book name to order a copy online or you can swing by the Texas Prison Museum, where Willett now works from time to time and ask him to sign a copy. (source: Houston Chronicle) OHIO: Daniel Davis: Man charged in 2012 East Price Hill homicide could face death penalty A man charged in the 2012 death of a 79-year-old East Price Hill man could face the death penalty if convicted and opening statements are slated to begin Monday during his trial in a Hamilton County courtroom. Daniel Davis, 49, is charged with multiple counts of murder and aggravated robbery after John Jack Lauck was found dead on August 19 at his home located on Purcell Avenue. Lauck's death was ruled a homicide after officials said he was repeatedly beaten, stabbed and stomped. The Hamilton County Coroner said Lauck sustained stab wounds to the neck and chest and was also strangled. Lauck had hired Davis to do odd jobs around his East Price Hill home, according to investigators. Officials say Davis went to Lauck's home to rob him of money to support his heroin addiction. Investigators recovered some of Lauck's DNA from blood spatter on Davis' shoes, which led to his arrest. How sad is it when someone kind like Mr. Lauck tries to help someone like Davis and then ends up brutally murdered, said Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters. Davis' own brother is quoted as saying that Davis is a 'piece of human garbage.' I could not agree more. Davis is expected in court at 10 a.m. (source: WCPO news) TENNESSEE2, including female, face death penalty State to seek death penalty in strangulation of 79-year-old man Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark announced Monday the state will seek the execution of a man alleged to have choked his elderly uncle to death and the execution of the man's girlfriend, who is accused of watching the slaying. Clark said the advanced age of victim Sammie J. Adams, who was 79, was an aggravating factor leading to the request for the death penalty against Norman Lee Follis, 50, and Tammy Sue Chapman, 46. A warrant alleges Follis wrapped a ligature around Adams' neck and tightened it, and the murder occurred sometime between Dec. 5, 2011, and Jan. 24, 2012. Adams' decomposing body was found stuffed under a staircase in his apartment. Adams' pacemaker left an electronic trail of clues, and downloaded data from it was used by authorities to help
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ILL., KAN., MO., OKLA., NEB., USA
April 27 TEXAS: Crossroads now lacks death penalty defense attorneys The only Crossroads attorneys who may be appointed to death penalty cases are ending that part of their practices. The absence of Elliott Costas and James Jim Beeler from capital cases means Victoria County must appoint someone from out of town. Officials say that attorneys' mileage and hotel stays could drive up the cost to taxpayers for what already are the most expensive cases. The closest attorney is in Corpus Christi, 97 miles away; the furthest is in Denver City, 511 miles away. Attorneys can be hired to defend a capital case, but unlike those appointed by the court, they are not required to have years of experience, a clean disciplinary record and hours of continuing education under their belts. What Jim and I do isn't extraordinary; what makes it extraordinary is that we volunteer for it, Costas said. Currently, the county pays mileage using a standard set by the Internal Revenue Service, said Nora Kucera, the pretrial services coordinator, who tracks indigent defense and applies for grants. That's 56 cents per mile driven for business. Attorneys also don't have to get their accommodations or meals preapproved. They submit a voucher to the judge that's hearing the case in whichever court, and the judge will determine what payment will be made at that point, Kucera said. Kucera will deliver a report to commissioners May 12 about the Texas Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases. The group, which is headquartered in Lubbock, also has certified attorneys throughout the state. Instead of charging the county by the case, half of the group's yearly fee is based on the county's population. The remaining half looks at how many capital cases were filed in the past 10 years, Kucera said. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated in 2013 that there were 90,028 people living in Victoria County. 30 capital murder cases have been filed in the county since 2003. Of those, the state sought the death penalty only 3 times. 13 cases were dismissed, according to the Victoria County District Clerk's Office. DeWitt and Refugio counties pay the group. We got off the list because we see where systemically, the capital defense establishment is adopting an approach that violates our personal ethical standards, Costas said. There have been instances in which appellate lawyers have asked trial attorneys, none of whom are local, to lie on affidavits and to say untrue, negative things about fellow counsel, he said. He and Beeler are old school, though, he said. They first teamed up in 1999 for a case they say was an affair of the heart. Beeler had just moved from Houston to his hometown of Port Lavaca when he was appointed to represent Lino Ramirez. When George Filley III was district attorney, Ramirez faced charges of murder and aggravated assault. Ramirez was accused of breaking into his estranged wife's home, seeing her with another man, retrieving a large knife from the kitchen and stabbing them, killing the man. Costas came on after former District Attorney Dexter Eaves got the case reindicted for capital murder. The morning they were set to pick a jury, Beeler dropped a sheet of paper filled with names on Costas' table. This is your jury, he said. How do you know that? I don't know if I can get every one of them, Costas replied. Well, that's your problem, Beeler said. Ultimately, the 2 got a jury seated that listened when they presented evidence of the couple's rocky past. A jury found Ramirez, now 59, guilty of manslaughter. He's projected to be released from prison in 2015. Costas and Beeler reminisced Tuesday and Wednesday in DeLeon Plaza alongside Costas' 16-year-old Shih Tzu, Wilkie - named for Victorian author Wilkie Collins, friend and protege of Charles Dickens who authored The Moonstone and The Woman in White. Wilkie was a sounding board in the pair's every planning session and has visited most of the area's courthouses. The 2 say the job's stress level also leaves a lot to be desired. When you're on a death penalty case, that's all you do, and you have to turn private clients away and tell other counties to get you out of the court-appointed rotation. Then, when the case is over, you really have no work for about the next month, Costas said. The Texas Indigent Defense Commission found that each month, private attorneys accepted about eight misdemeanor and 10 felony cases. The stigma that comes with representing people condemned to die may also be why others are hesitant to join their ranks. A lot of times, a young guy is caught up in the dilemma of believing something is the right thing to do but thinking about how they have to pay bills next month or next week to support their family, Beeler said. They think, 'If I do this, the DA won't agree with me, and what am I going to do if I can't get a plea bargain from the DA?' A list
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ALA., LA., ARK., MO., ARIZ., USA
Jan. 27 TEXAS: IACHR Condemns Execution of Edgar Tamayo Arias in the United States January 27, 2014 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns the judicial execution of Edgar Tamayo Arias, which took place on January 22, 2014, in Texas, United States, in violation of his fundamental rights. In January 2012 a petition alleging the violation of the American Declaration and a request for precautionary measures were filed on Mr. Tamayo's behalf. The IACHR granted precautionary measures asking the United States to refrain from carrying out the death penalty until the Commission had the opportunity to issue a decision on the petitioner's claims. On July 17, 2012, the IACHR decided the case was admissible. After analyzing the merits of the case, on January 15, 2014, the Inter-American Commission adopted Report No. 1/14 in which it concluded, among other findings, that the State's failure to respect its obligation under Article 36.1 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to inform Mr. Tamayo of his right to consular notification and assistance deprived him of a criminal process that satisfied the minimum standards of due process and a fair trial required under the American Declaration. Accordingly, the Commission recommended that the United States review Mr. Tamayo's trial and sentence in accordance with the guarantees recognized in the American Declaration. Despite the Commission's conclusions and recommendations, the government of Texas proceeded to execute Mr. Tamayo as scheduled. The Inter-American Commission deplores the failure on the part of the United States and the state of Texas to comply with the recommendations issued by the IACHR in a merits report. The failure of the United States to preserve Mr. Tamayo's life pending a recommendation by the IACHR to review his trial and sentence contravenes its international legal obligations derived from the Charter of the Organization of American States and the American Declaration which are in force since the United States joined the OAS in 1951. This failure to comply with the Commission's recommendations resulted in serious and irreparable harm to Mr. Tamayo's most fundamental right, the right to life. The Inter-American Commission has dealt with the death penalty as a crucial human rights challenge for decades. While a majority of the member States of the Organization of American States has abolished capital punishment, a substantial minority retains it. In this regard, the Commission notes that the United States is currently the only country in the Western hemisphere to carry out executions. The Commission reiterates the recommendation made in its report The Death Penalty in the Inter-American Human Rights System: From Restrictions to Abolition published in 2012, that States impose a moratorium on executions as a step toward the gradual disappearance of this penalty. A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this matter. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in a personal capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence. Contact Info / Informacion de Contacto Comision Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) / Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) 1889 F Street NW, Washington, DC, 20009, United States of America / Estados Unidos de America Tel. (1) 202 370 9000 cidhdenunc...@oas.org (source: CIDH) OHIO: Executed Ohio inmate's lawyer back to work after guards say inmate was asked to fake distress An attorney for a condemned Ohio inmate who snorted and gasped during his execution was temporarily suspended last week while officials investigated whether he had coached the inmate to fake symptoms of suffocation as he died. The Ohio Public Defender's Office says Robert Lowe, an attorney for inmate Dennis McGuire, was back at work Monday after an internal review could not substantiate the allegation. State prison records released Monday say McGuire told guards Lowe wanted him to put on this big show that would prompt the abolition of the death penalty. But three prison accounts indicate McGuire was unwilling to make a show of his death. McGuire's final moments have sparked criticism and calls for a death-penalty moratorium. His family has sued alleging undue cruelty. The Columbus Dispatch first reported the investigation. (source: Associated Press) ALABAMA: AG Announces Death Sentence for Murder in Escambia County Attorney General Luther Strange announced that an Escambia County man today was sentenced to death for the murder of a woman he had dated who was trying
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARK., MO., OKLA.
Jan. 10 TEXAS: Judge denies defense request to delay Navarro capital murder trial District Judge Steve Ellis denied a defense motion Thursday to delay the capital murder trial of Matthew Navarro, one of four men charged in the December 2009 shooting death of Ronald Philen in Brownwood. Ellis ruled that Navarro's trial will begin as scheduled on Jan. 27 in 35th District Court. Navarro's attorney, Evan Pierce-Jones of San Angelo, pleaded for more time to prepare to defend his 23-year-old client. Ellis appointed Jones as Navarro's attorney in January 2012, court records show. I ask that you continue this case for several months so that we can be prepared and get it right, Jones told Ellis before the judge's ruling. Jones said he has 300 hours of work to do in 2 1/2 weeks and it's humanly impossible. First Assistant District Attorney Sam Moss said the state is ready for trial on Jan. 27 and said he's confident that Jones is well prepared. A fair trial can be held if it starts as early as that date, Moss told Ellis. Ellis told Jones that he is an excellent attorney who has worked very diligently on this case. But I don't think, in your case, you'll ever have enough time, Ellis said. If I give you 6 months, you'll ask for 10. Ellis noted that the case had originally been set for trial in May 2013 but the cases of all 4 defendants were delayed after 1 of the attorneys was allowed to withdraw. Ellis also denied a defense request to dismiss that case against Navarro because, Jones argued, not all of the evidence from the crime scene had been collected and preserved. Former Brownwood police detective Robert Mullins testified that police had collected all of the evidence from the crime scene they believed was relevant in proving who committed the murder. Police don't have the time or the resources to collect every item from a crime scene, Mullins testified. Jones indicated he will challenge the state law that mandates life in prison without parole in a capital murder conviction that is a non-death-penalty case. Jones said he wants to elicit testimony from an expert witness on that matter in another pre-trial hearing One of Navarro's co-defendants, Pedro Rocha Jr., was found guilty in November of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison with no parole. 2 other co-defendants, Alex Gil Jr. and Efrain Castillo III, pleaded guilty to murder last year in exchange for 40-year prison sentences. (source: Brownwood Bulletin) OHIO: Convicted murderer appeals to Ohio Supreme Court to overturn his execution sentence A convicted murder cited 19 legal and procedural errors in an appeal to justices on the Ohio Supreme Court to overturn his death sentence. Gregory Osie was convicted in May 2010 on robbery and murder charges in the 2009 slaying of Butler County resident David Williams. He exercised his right to appeal the convictions and death sentence directly to the Supreme Court. The case is one of several before the state's high court heard this week. A ruling is not expected for some time. Opinions often are not released for weeks, or even months after arguments are heard. Williams and a business partner in a contracting company where Osie's girlfriend worked discovered some money was missing from the company, according to the court. During a statement after his arrest, Osie told investigators he had gone to visit Williams to try to convince him not to press charges against the girlfriend. In his statement he said that during an argument he grabbed a knife in Williams' kitchen and stabbed Williams and then took several items from the house to make it appear there had been a robbery, according to the court. A 3-judge panel convicted Osie of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, tampering with evidence, and 3 death-penalty specifications. In the brief for his appeal, Osie's attorneys advanced several claims as grounds to reverse his death sentence. Among them were that Osie's rights were violated because the court did not allow him to make a statement at the hearing where his death sentence was imposed (He had declined to make a statement during the mitigation process in his trial before closing arguments). The statute that allows elevation of a murder charge to a capital offense if the murder was committed to prevent someone from testifying was incorrectly applied, they argue, because no criminal proceedings had begun regarding the missing money. The lawyers also argue that testimony from the business partner about conversations he had with Williams were improperly admitted and should have been barred as hearsay. Northeast Ohio Media Group will periodically look at cases before the Supreme Court. All cases can be viewed through the Supreme Court's online docket. (source: The Plain Dealer) ** Death penalty debate stalls suspected killer's hearing The prosecutor in a triple-murder
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MONT., CALIF.
Nov. 3 TEXAS: Rubio set to appeal verdict; Condemned murderer back in county court Convicted child killer John Allen Rubio is back in Cameron County. Cameron County District Attorney spokeswoman Melissa Zamora said Rubio will appear before a visiting judge in a Cameron County courtroom Tuesday. Rubio filed a motion to recuse Judge Noe Gonzalez of the 370th state District Court in Hidalgo County, who presided over Rubio's capital murder trial and his post-conviction writ of habeas corpus. According to Zamora, Rubio is challenging the constitutionality of the Texas Death Penalty Statute and alleges ineffective assistance of counsel during his trial. The District Attorney's Office is opposed to the motion. Rubio was convicted in 2010 of brutally murdering Julissa Quesada, 3, John E. Rubio, 14 months, and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months. Rubio was the biological father of the youngest child. The 2 others were the children of his common-law wife Angela Camacho. On Oct. 10, 2012, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Rubio's conviction on direct appeal. Now, Rubio is challenging his conviction by way of writ of habeas corpus. The hearing on Tuesday is to determine whether Gonzalez should be recused. A visiting judge will make the ruling. The 3 children were smothered, stabbed and mutilated, according to Brownsville police investigators. Their decapitated bodies were stuffed inside trash bags that were found near a bedroom door. Rubio pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in his July 2010 trial. According to a confession Rubio made to police, he admitted to killing the children because he believed there was an evil presence in them. He even asked one of the officers first to arrive at the crime scene to place him under arrest, according to the officer's statement. Rubio was sent to death row and his case received an automatic appeal and an automatic writ of habeas corpus. Although Rubio was first convicted of the murders in November 2003, his conviction was overturned in September 2007, thus granting him a new trial. The appellate court cited the prosecution's use in Rubio's trial of videotaped testimony from Camacho. (source: Brownsville Herald) * All Souls' Day brings flowers, prayers for inmates buried in Huntsville To the state of Texas, the men and women buried at the Capt. Joe Byrd Cemetery were murderers, rapists, robbers and thieves. But to the religious activists who observed All Souls' Day Saturday by placing carnations on thousands of graves, they are children of God, worthy but flawed human beings. All Souls' Day traditionally is a day of prayer on behalf of souls not quite ready for heaven. Saturday's event, which began with an ecumenical church service, marked the 1st time, prison officials said, that anyone has collectively honored the roughly 3,000 inmates interred at what is known as Peckerwood Hill. A very wise teacher once said, 'Do what you must to another person, but never ever put him out of your heart,' the Rev. Cheryl Smith, pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, told about 30 people gathered for the service. Earlier, she explained, My faith tradition causes me to believe that all people have inherent worth, not because of an external factor, including their behavior, but by nature of being created beings of worth to us and God. The Rev. Caroll Pickett told the group that grave markers bearing an X meant the occupant had been executed. They would be executed, killed by the state of Texas, at midnight and buried at 8:30 a.m. the next morning, said Pickett, who was Walls Unit chaplain for 16 years and is now active in the anti-death penalty movement. He recalled days on which he presided at as many as five inmate burials. Many, he said, had families with whom they were close. On one occasion, he recalled, a friend of an executed inmate returned to the grave annually on the killer's birthday to leave a cake. Saturday's event was sponsored by the Austin-based Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy and its sister organization, Texas Impact. Texas Interfaith's policy director Cindy Eigler said the dead inmates were just written off and forgotten. All Souls' Day seemed like an appropriate time to remember those who died while serving time in prisons. Prayer for victims Organizers of the event said they did not condone the crimes committed by the inmates, and a prayer for victims of crime was included in the day's activities. Joe Byrd Cemetery, encompassing 22 acres at the edge of Sam Houston State University, has been in operation since the mid-19th century. Among those placing flowers on the graves Saturday was Carol Hayes, chairwoman of the restorative ministry program at Huntsville's First United Methodist Church. I was a bit skeptical at first, she said, noting that the $1,600 spent on flowers might have better benefited families of current
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, GA., LA., KAN., MO.
Oct. 28 TEXAS: Man faces Dallas trial over burning death of clerk A Dallas-area man faces trial over the 2012 burning death of a convenience store clerk who police say was set ablaze during a robbery. The capital murder trial of 38-year-old Matthew Johnson of Garland opens Monday in Dallas. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Johnson over the slaying of 76-year-old Nancy Harris, who was attacked at the Garland store where she worked. Security video captured part of the incident. Police saw a burning Harris step from the station and sprayed her with a fire extinguisher. She reported being robbed, doused with a flammable liquid and set afire. Harris, who was able to describe the suspect, died several days after the May 20, 2012, attack. Johnson was arrested as police investigated reported break-in attempts near the gas station. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: The defense lawyer for Louis Mann said the United States used to be eye-for-an-eye nation, but he told jurors today you don't have to choose death. Please don't, he said. Chris Becker, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, meanwhile, said all the mitigation evidence defense lawyers presented to try to save Mann's life came from Mann himself, and he'll say anything, I mean anything, to get out of trouble. Jurors will begin deliberating Mann's fate - whether to give the 33-year-old Warren man the death penalty - a little latter this morning. The jurors convicted Mann a week ago for killing his parents. The murders occurred 2 years ago in their Jefferson Street home. (source: The Vindicator) *** Judgement dayCurtis Clinton murder trial begins today Accused triple murderer Curtis Clinton heads to trial today. If an Erie County jury finds him guilty of murder in the September 2012 deaths of Heather Jackson, 23, and her children, Celina, 3, and Wayne Jr., 20 months, he could face the death penalty. Not since 1990 has a potential death case in Erie County proceeded this close to trial. That year, Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter pursued the death penalty against John Ray Bonds, 56, a Hells Angels member who in 1988 mistook David Hartlaub, 28, for a rival gang member. He shot him 13 times. We actually got to the jury selection stage, Baxter said. In the end, Bonds pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On Aug. 25, 2012, another high-profile death penalty case ended in a plea agreement. Kevin Randleman, 52, pleaded guilty to the March 19, 2011, murder of Sandusky police Officer Andrew Dunn. Randleman shot and killed Dunn after the officer stopped him for riding a bicycle without lights. Prosecutors intended to take the case to trial - pursuant to the wishes of Dunn's father, Matt Dunn, also a Sandusky police officer - but the proceedings in a competency hearing unexpectedly came to a halt when Dunn agreed to pull the possibility of death off the table. Randleman agreed to plead guilty, securing him a spot in prison for the rest of his life. Clinton's trial is slated to start with more than 70 jurors arriving at the Erie County Courthouse this morning. The case is in Judge Tygh Tone's courtroom, and it is being prosecuted by Baxter and Ohio Attorney General special prosecutor Paul Scarsella, a death penalty expert. Clinton, 42, is represented by certified death penalty defense attorney Robert Dixon, of Cleveland, who had also represented Randleman. Unlike the Randleman case, however, prosecutors have made it clear they will not offer a plea agreement to Clinton, despite objections from Jackson's parents and siblings. Clinton is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and multiple death specifications in the 3 killings. In Ohio, aggravating factors must accompany an aggravated murder charge for a defendant to face the death penalty. In this case, the alleged crime fits the bill: Clinton is accused of killing 2 children younger than age 13, also during the commission of several other felonies, the most significant of which is the alleged rape of 3-year-old Celina the day of her death. These circumstances place the case in the death penalty category if he's found guilty. Leading up to the trial, attorneys on both sides have filed dozens of motions - requesting a jury view of the John Street home where Jackson and her children died, as well as a requesting a change of venue because of the vast publicity surrounding the case. Tone denied both those requests this week. The case is set to start this morning with final jury selection. The 12-person jury could be seated by day's end. At the earliest, Tone anticipates opening statements and the 1st witnesses taking the stand Tuesday morning. Clinton's criminal history: -- January 1987: Curtis Clinton, then 17, forces his way into a Sandusky home and squeezes a woman until
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MISS., TENN., MO., OKLA., MONT., ARIZ., USA
Sept. 28 TEXAS: Michael Morton, family of executed man work to clear his name One of the state's most long-lived and controversial death penalty cases has taken yet another twist. After 3-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron Willingham died in a 1991 fire that consumed their Corsicana home, their father, Cameron Todd Willingham, was found guilty of murder by arson. Willingham was executed in 2004, but the case didn't end there. You could not come to the conclusion reasonably, professionally that they were arsons, fire science expert Dr. Craig L. Beyler told KVUE in a 2011 interview, well after a forensic review cast serious doubt on the scientific evidence used to convict him. Despite advances in arson investigation that rendered the evidence questionable, Willingham's conviction would be upheld. My ex-husband murdered my daughters before he was executed, ex-wife Stacy Kuykendall told KVUE in October 2010. He told me he did it. He stood and watched while their tiny bodies burned. On Friday, attorneys with the Innocence Project claimed they can prove a key witness in the case was persuaded to lie under oath, offering a stack of documents including a handwritten retraction submitted by prison inmate Johnny Webb before Willingham's execution. Willingham's supporters say the retraction was hidden away, along with documentation showing Webb's charges were reduced following his testimony. That's a very troubling fact that someone who was relying upon the truthfulness and credibility of this individual to bolster what was a failing scientific case would not ensure that that be part of the process, said criminal defense attorney Gerald H. Goldstein. Earlier this year the 83rd Texas Legislature passed the Michael Morton Act, which among other legal changes requires prosecutors to share evidence with the defense that could lead to a case being overturned. Willingham's supporters suggest that if that law had been in place at the time, it could have stopped his execution. This is a major victory for integrity and fairness in our judicial system, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) said at the bill's signing ceremony in May where he was joined by the bill's namesake, exoneree Michael Morton. Cleared by DNA evidence after spending 25 years in prison, Morton appeared Friday in support of Willingham. How can you not? My heart broke when I met these two people, Morton told KVUE, looking to Willingham's stepmother Eugenia Willingham and cousin Patricia Cox Willingham. When the things that happened to me happened, it should have resonated with everybody, and it's not a whole lot different than the Willingham situation. We just have to put it to bed and then pull it back out and then put it to bed, because I can't exist if I think about this all the time, said Eugenia Willingham. I'm his mother. I don't want people to think that I raised someone worse than a murderer, really. And those were my only grandchildren. So I do this for them. Supporters delivered a request to personally plead their case before the governor in light of the new evidence. This was on his watch but perhaps was not his fault, said Goldstein. We now have evidence that he didn't get to see, evidence that none of us were aware of. It's that time to bring it out into the open and have a fair and honest review. After a brief meeting with a member of Perry's legal staff, Patricia Cox Willingham told media, We're cautiously optimistic. We were given no guarantees about anything. The Yogi Berra thing about predicting the future comes to mind, said Morton, who declined to speculate as to whether Perry would consent to reopen the conversation. I have no idea. It's just in his lap. It's hopefully on his heart. The governor's office told KVUE Friday afternoon it had just received the request, and as is standard with all meeting requests, the office will take a look at what's available on the governor's schedule. (source: KVUE) ** Texas replenishes stocks of pentobarbital, used for lethal injections, after shortfall Texas, the US state that puts to death the most inmates, has resolved a shortfall of a lethal execution drug, according to authorities. Last month, an official said that the state's stock of pentobarbital had nearly run out and would only last through September. Pentobarbital was used in an execution late Thursday and it was not expired, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said. It was unclear whether that dose was part of an old or new supply of the anaesthetic used to euthanise animals. Mr Clark declined to provide any specifics but suggested the problem of replenishing the state's stock of the killer drug had been resolved. We have not changed our execution protocol in which pentobarbital is used and have no immediate plans to do so, Mr Clark said. We will continue to use pentobarbital in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARIZ., NEV., CALIF., ORE.
Sept. 4 TEXAS: Death row inmate gets chance to prove retardation A death row inmate whose lawyer and family claim has been demonstrably mentally retarded since his early teenage years will get a new chance to prove it in federal court, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. A 3-judge panel ruled there was enough evidence presented that lower courts may have relied on the testing and conclusions of a controversial Fort Worth psychologist to give John Matamoros of Houston a fresh start in a claim that, if successful, would spare him the death penalty. In granting a certificate of appealability, the judges said that Matamoros should have the same chance to prove retardation as other inmates who had been evaluated by George Denkowski, who testified frequently for Texas prosecutors after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed capital punishment for the mentally retarded in 2002. Denkowski's unconventional methods drew the ire of defense attorneys who said he was a purveyor of junk science and brought a reprimand from the state licensing board. Appellate scrutiny As part of a settlement with the board, Denkowski stopped testifying in capital cases. As word spread of his questionable approach, the cases in which he was involved have received heightened appellate scrutiny. Matamoros was convicted of the murder of Edward George Goebel during a 1990 burglary of his home. His lawyer, Stanley Schneider, does not contest Matamoros' guilt but argues that he was exactly the sort of defendant that the Supreme Court sought to protect in its Atkins. v. Virginia decision. Schneider said the evidence at trial painted Matamoros as a dysfunctional, intellectually challenged man who failed academically from his earliest days, was endlessly teased for being dumb by classmates as a youth, never made it to high school, showed such poor personal hygiene that for many years he required help bathing and cleaning up after going to the bathroom, and came from a family with many mentally challenged members. Trouble started early Easily manipulated by others and seeking approval through criminal acts such as stealing cars, Matamoros got into trouble with the law as a teenager. He was diagnosed as mildly mentally retarded at 14 by a psychologist hired by juvenile authorities. 3 psychologists looked at him post-Atkins and said he was mentally retarded, Schneider told the Chronicle in 2011. A doctor who tested him when he was 14 said he was mentally retarded. On the other side is Denkowski. Denkowski discounted Matamoros' history and previous evaluations in favor of his own criteria, which included tests for so-called adaptive behavior, which he insisted proved that Matamoros could perform at a higher level than his academic or medical records suggested. Matamoros was sentenced to die by a Harris County jury. The 5th Circuit panel did not rule on the merits of Matamoros' claim of retardation, granting him only the right to make the claim in subsequent appeals. (source: Houston Chronicle) OHIO: Ariel Castro Dead: Cleveland Kidnapper Found Hanging In Prison Cell Convicted kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro was found dead on Tuesday evening, 19 Action News reported. He was 53. On Aug. 1, Castro was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years in prison for kidnapping and raping Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, and holding them captive in his Cleveland home for more than a decade. He pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including murder and kidnapping, in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table, CNN reported. During the sentencing, Castro denied being abusive and insisted that most of the sex was consensual. 'I'm not a violent person, Castro said. I simply kept them there without them being able to leave. The 3 women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004. They escaped on May 6, when one of the women broke part of a door and yelled to neighbors for help. Castro was arrested that same night. According to JoEllen Smith of the Ohio Department of Corrections, Castro was found hanging in his prison cell at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, Ohio, around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday. Although prison medical staff performed lifesaving measures, he was later pronounced dead at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. At the time of his death, Castro was isolated from other inmates for his own protection. Ohio State Police and the Department of Corrections are investigating the death. * The man who held 3 women captive in his home for nearly a decade before one escaped and alerted authorities has been found dead and is believed to have committed suicide, a prison official said. Ariel Castro, 53, was found hanging in his cell around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, located south of Columbus in central Ohio, JoEllen Smith, Department of Rehabilitation and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, KAN. ARIZ.
Sept. 4 TEXAS: Meet Dr. Death: Texas Fights To Kill Man Locked In Death Row Due To Discredited Doctor's Testimony Dr. George Denkowsi evaluated 16 Texas death row inmates before he was formally reprimanded in 2011 and fined $5,500 due to complaints that he used scientifically invalid methods to evaluate these inmates. Yet, despite this doctor's doubtful methods, Texas is still fighting to kill one of the men evaluated by Denkowski. Whether Texas will succeed in this effort will now be decided by one of the most conservative courts of appeals in the country, according to an order issued yesterday by that same court. The Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that death is not a suitable punishment for a mentally retarded criminal (although several states have exploited loopholes in this decision to execute intellectually disabled inmates anyway). In the wake of this decision, Texas hired Denkowsi as its expert witness during a hearing to determine whether or not a death row inmate named John Matamoros was intellectually disabled and therefore constitutionally ineligible for the death penalty. 3 other psychologists evaluated Matamoros and determined that he is intellectually disabled, while Denkowski claimed otherwise. Since then, however, Denkowski's methods have been discredited. As part of the settlement that led to the $5,500 fine, Denkowski also agreed that he would not accept any engagement to perform forensic psychological services in the evaluation of subjects for mental retardation or intellectual disability in criminal proceedings. As the New York Times explained in 2011, Denkowski relied on scientifically unproven methods to deem inmates fit for execution, sometimes relying on offensive stereotypes about the poor. Psychologists typically evaluate whether subjects have developed appropriate life skills as part of their determination of whether that individual is intellectually disabled. Denkowski, by contrast, claimed that those who come from impoverished backgrounds may not have learned basic skills like using a thermometer or maintaining hygiene simply because those skills were not valued in their community. Though Matamoros will now have the opportunity to challenge his death sentence in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, he still faces a steep uphill climb. The Fifth Circuit is a deeply conservative court will a long history of skepticism towards death row inmates raising constitutional claims. Several of the court???s judges once wrote that a man could be executed even though his lawyer slept through much of his trial, and its former chief judge is currently under investigation for allegedly claiming that African Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to violent crime. (source: thinkprogress.org) OHIO: Court: Ohio can seek death penalty in 1993 murder A federal appeals panel has cleared the way for prosecutors to again seek the death penalty against an Ohio man convicted in the 1993 rape and fatal beating of a 19-year-old woman. Maurice Mason had argued that state prosecutors shouldn't be allowed to seek the death penalty against him because they missed a filing deadline after an appeals court threw out his death sentence in 2008. He also argued it would amount to double jeopardy. But on Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati found that although the state did miss a key deadline, doing so is not enough to protect the 49-year-old Mason from the death penalty. Mason was convicted in the 1993 killing of Robin Dennis in rural Marion County. (source: Associated Press) KANSAS: Kansas House passes rewrite of 'Hard 50' law Lawmakers began revamping a long-used state law on Tuesday that automatically imposes a 50-year prison sentence on some convicted murders, an effort sparked by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar law in Virginia. The House voted 122-0 late Tuesday afternoon to approve the fix, sending the measure to the Senate which will take up the measure Wednesday. The bill was amended slightly from a version discussed last week by a special legislative committee charged with reviewing the issue. In Kansas, the only penalties tougher than the Hard 50 are capital punishment and life without parole, the alternative to death in a capital case and a sentence also possible for some habitual, violent sex offenders. The initial version was adopted in 1990, after lawmakers rejected the death penalty but wanted to ensure long prison sentences. Prosecutors used the law regularly with little debate before the high court ruled in June that only a jury, not a judge, should be able to impose such a sentence in a Virginia case. That prompted Kansas' governor to call legislators into a special legislative session to adjust the state's law to try to avoid any similar legal problems. The goal is to get this
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, GA., FLA., MISS., LA.
July 26 TEXAS: Death penalty possibility looms for pair accused in Texas prosecutors' killings A former justice of the peace and his wife accused of killing 2 Texas county prosecutors will be in court Friday, at which time prosecutors could announce their intent to seek the death penalty against one or both of them. Paul Johnson said Thursday he was not so sure if prosecutors will say they will try to get a death sentence for his client, Kim Lene Williams, if she's convicted of capital murder. But he's more certain they will go that route with her husband, Eric Lyle Williams. That's my understanding, Johnson said. I expect them to seek the death penalty against Eric. The Kaufman Herald, a local newspaper, reported this week that county Sheriff David Byrnes recently told a Lions Club gathering that prosecutors will announce Friday that they will ask for the death penalty against both the husband and wife. A preliminary hearing in the Williamses' murder case is set to start at 9 a.m. (10 a.m. ET) Friday in Kaufman, a small city about 35 miles southeast of Dallas. The hearing will be at a courthouse where Eric Williams once worked as justice of the peace. A Kaufman County grand jury indicted the Williamses in April on capital murder charges in the deaths of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, District Attorney Michael McLelland and Cynthia McLelland. Hasse was killed in January on his way to work at a courthouse; McLelland and his wife were fatally shot two months later at their home near Forney. Byrnes previously said the killings stemmed from Eric Williams' past legal problems with the criminal justice system of this county: a 2012 conviction on burglary and theft charges that led to his removal from office. His wife, Kim, has confessed to involvement in the killings and implicated her husband as the trigger man, according to court papers. In Hasse's death, Kim Williams was the getaway driver; in the McLellands' killings, she was a passenger, according to Byrnes. In both cases, Eric Williams fired the fatal shots, according to the sheriff. Eric Williams, who is also charged with making a terroristic threat, also was arrested in April and accused of using his home computer to threaten police investigating the McLellands' killings, according to a sheriff's affidavit. In recent months, Kim Williams has filed for divorce from Eric, Johnson said Thursday. (source: CNN) OHIO: Obese inmate spared from execution by Ohio's governor dies 'expected' death in prison hospital An Ohio inmate whose 450-pound girth became an issue in his death penalty case has died months after being granted clemency. A state prisons spokeswoman says 53-year-old Ronald Post died Thursday morning at a prison hospital where he'd been treated on and off since 2011. Post was sentenced to death for killing Elyria motel clerk Helen Vantz on Dec. 15, 1983. His attorneys sought mercy for Post on grounds that he was so obese that he could not be executed humanely. The governor granted Post clemency in December citing poor legal representation, not his weight. Spokeswoman Ricky Seyfang says the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction classified the death as expected. She said privacy laws prevented her from divulging whether Post's weight was a factor in his death. (source: Associated Press) * No Death Penalty For Accused Cleveland Kidnapper Ariel Castro, the Ohio man accused of kidnapping 3 women and holding them captive in his Cleveland home for about a decade, has accepted a plea deal that could spare him from the death penalty. Castro faced 977 charges including rape, kidnapping, and aggravated murder stemming from the death of an unborn child of 1 of the victims. An amended indictment includes 937 charges, an attorney said. In court Friday, an attorney for Castro asked to enter guilty pleas. The terms of the deal offered by prosecutors calls for no death penalty with a recommended sentence of life without parole plus an additional 1,000 years, attorneys said in court. Answering questions from the judge, Castro said he understands the deal means he will never be released from prison. I knew I was going to get pretty much the book thrown at me, Castro said. The deal also spares the victims in the case from testifying, CBS affiliate WOIO reports. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were found in Castro's Cleveland home in May after Berry kicked in a screen door and yelled to a neighbor for help. Berry, Dejesus and Knight disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004. Each said they had accepted a ride from Castro, who remained friends with Dejesus' family and even attended vigils over the years marking her disappearance. Besides kidnapping and rape, 977-count indictment charged Castro him with seven counts of gross sexual imposition, 6 counts of felonious assault, 3 counts of child
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, N.J., VA., ALA., MISS., NC
April 11 TEXAS: Texas 2012 Executions Up, Capital Punishment Declines Globally According to a new Amnesty International report, the United States can count itself among the top 5 countries in the world that carry out executions. In this region, the USA has a very dubious distinction. The only country in the Americas that carried out an execution last year, explained Brian Evans, interim Director of the Death Penalty Abolition Campaign for Amnesty International USA. The United States carried out a total of 43 executions in 2012, which was the same number carried out in 2011. In terms of known executions, that puts the United States in 5th place, behind China, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and ahead of Yemen, Evans said. 3/4 of all executions in the U.S. occurred in only 4 states: Texas, Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma. In 2011, 13 Texas prisoners were put to death; that number increased last year. Evans said, Texas had 15 executions, which would put them in 8th place if they were a separate country in the world - between Sudan and Afghanistan. The number of death sentences carried out in the Lone Star State are expected to be even higher in 2013, with some 12 executions scheduled over the next 4 months. But even those numbers would be down from the record 40 lethal injections performed in the year 2000. The Amnesty International report sites an overall decline in the use of the death penalty and outright abolition of the punishment in some states. Evans said another contributing factor for fewer death sentences is the expanded use of DNA and juries now receiving the option of handing down sentences of life with the possibility of parole. Amnesty also noted that Americans are becoming more concerned about the discriminatory application of the death penalty and its possible use on someone who has been wrongfully convicted - with nearly three dozen exonerations occurring in Dallas County alone. While all executions carried out in the United States were done by lethal injection, other methods for the 682 executions known to have been carried out worldwide included hanging, beheading and firing squad. (source: CBS News) OHIO: 'I almost gave up on life'Men speak out about wrongful convictions Wrongly convicted men fight for justice: Derrick Jamison and Dale Johnston were wrongly convicted of crimes in the 1980s. Since their release, they've worked to educate the public about the justice system and share their experiences. A single tear rolling down his aged yet youthful face, Derrick Jamison recalled the moments he lost interest in living. It was not the minute he was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. It was the effect it had on his loved ones. My family was there for me from beginning to end, but it took a toll, he said, fighting back tears. I lost many people. I watched my friends get murdered around me. After I lost my mom and dad, I almost gave up on life. You never get over it. Jamison, of Cincinnati, was incorrectly identified by a witness to a Cincinnati bartender's murder in 1985. He spent almost 20 years on death row. Then the charges were dismissed in February 2005 after his conviction was overturned 3 years earlier. He and Dale Johnston, also wrongly convicted of a crime, are part of an Ohioans to Stop Executions and Witness to Innocence tour across the state to talk about their experiences with the criminal justice system. They are 2 of 6 Ohio men who have been exonerated from 1973 to 2012, according to the Death Penalty Information Center and Witness to Innocence. Jamison and Johnston spoke Wednesday before a packed Brown Chapel at Muskingum University, eager to impart their lessons on the young minds, hoping for change. I hope they see the injustice and wonder how many other people have been treated as cruel as we were, said Johnston, of Logan. It destroyed us. Johnston's daughter, Annette Cooper, 18, and her boyfriend, Todd Schultz, 19, were murdered in October 1982 in Hocking County. Johnston, who was the only person police considered a suspect, was sentenced to death in 1984. The Ohio Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1988 because the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense and because one witness had been hypnotized. All charges were eventually dropped, and he was released in 1990. A book chronicling his experience, Guilty by Popular Demand, was written by Bill Osinski in 2012. Johnson still clearly recalls memories from his incarceration - experiences he'll carry for a lifetime. We were living in hell, he said, steadying his voice while gazing across the room, as if looking back into his past. If I treated a dog the way they treated us, I would be arrested. They treated us like we were less than human beings. During his incarceration, he kept up on current events, reading 5 kinds of newspapers a day - and, of course, checking in on his Buckeyes.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, PENN., MD.
March 1 TEXAS: Court Reverses Death Row Inmate's 2003 Conviction A man sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of another man in Fort Worth has had his case overturned by a federal appeals court. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with attorneys for Nelson Gongora that prosecutors in his 2003 murder trial should not have suggested to the jury that Gongora's decision to not testify indicated his guilt. In their decision Wednesday, the 5th Circuit judges wrote that repeated comments by the Tarrant County prosecutor about Gongora's lack of testimony violated his right to a fair trial. The 5th Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right to not testify at trial and in 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this meant a prosecutor could use a decision to not testify as evidence of guilt. The lead prosecutor in Gongora's case, J.D. Granger, did not return a call requesting comment. Gongora remains on death row while the Tarrant County district attorney's office decides whether to try him again. It's premature to determine how we're going to proceed, said Melody McDonald, the office's spokeswoman. Gongora, who was 22 at the time of the murder, was one of six men riding in a van one night in April 2001. According to court documents, the group saw Delfino Sierra walking on the street and decided to rob him. The van's driver pulled over, and Gongora and another man exited and demanded money from Sierra, who started running and was shot in the head. The driver initially told police that someone other than Gongora shot Sierra. But he later identified Gongora as the shooter, saying he had lied before because he was afraid of Gongora, according to court records. After his arrest, Gongora admitted to police that he had exited the van to rob Sierra. He said that he heard shots and saw the man lying on the ground, but that he did not fire the shots. Prosecutors said the men were in a criminal street gang called Purp Li'l Mafia, according to court records, a statement that Gongora's current attorney, Danny Burns, denies. Gongora's co-defendant, Albert Orosco Jr. was convicted of murder in the case and is currently serving a 23-year sentence. Prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty for Orosco. A friend of the men involved testified at Gongora's trial that he saw Orosco shortly after the murder with a .38 caliber handgun in his waistband. A bullet from a .38 caliber gun was found to have killed the victim. Many of the other men in the van on the night of the murder took the stand at Gongora's 2003 trial, but Gongora did not. During closing arguments, the prosecutor said to the jury, Who should we go ahead and talk to? Who should we go ahead and present to you? Should we talk to the shooter? Gongora's lawyer objected, accusing the prosecutor of trying to sway the jury against Gongora even though he had the right to not testify. The judge agreed and told the jury to disregard the comment. Rephrasing his statement, the prosecutor said, I don't want to give the wrong impression in any sort of way. We're asking who do you expect to take the stand? Who do you expect to hear from, right? Gongora's lawyer objected again. The judge agreed again. Then the prosecutor told the jury, I'm not talking about that, do you want to hear from him, because you can't do that. Gongora's lawyer objected once again, but the judge allowed the comment. The Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas' highest criminal court, wrote in 2006 that the prosecutors' comments were inartful and often confusing, but did not violate Gongora's rights. A federal district judge said in 2007 the prosecutor should not have made the comments, but that they did not affect the jury's decision. On Wednesday, however, the 5th Circuit, which reviews appeals from all Texas death penalty cases, wrote that the prosecutor's comments were repeated and direct violations which were both inexplicable and inexcusable. In context, the court said, the comments might be read as the prosecutor's attempt to correct his initial mistake, but over time they served to reinforce the impression of Gongora's guilt. Gongora was denied a right to a fair trial, the court concluded. Judge Priscilla Owen dissented, arguing that the prosecutor's comments had little if any, bearing on Gongora's guilt, because he admitted to trying to rob the victim. Burns, Gongora's attorney, said he hopes a new trial would allow jurors to see that Gongora had no real involvement in the murder, because he was charged as being a conspirator, but the murder happened without a preconceived plan. How can you be a conspirator without a conspiracy? he said. (source: Texas Tribune) *** Grand jury indicts woman for capital murder in toddler death The Jasper County grand jury has charged a Jasper woman with Capital Murder in connection with the September 2012 death of her 18-month-old daughter.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, FLA., ARIZ.
Feb. 8 TEXAS: DA may ask for execution date this summer in Ross case; Judicial appeal avenues nearly exhausted in 2001 double murder A request that a Lubbock County judge set an execution date for Vaughn Ross, on death row since October 2002 for a double murder in January 2001, may come early this summer. It's a request, Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney Matt Powell said Thursday, likely to happen regardless of whether the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Ross' appeal. Powell's comment came 2 days after a 3-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans denied Ross' request for a certificate of appealability - a finding in a habeas corpus proceeding that petitioner made a substantial showing that some constitutional right had been denied in the course of the case. Ross' attorneys in the habeas corpus case have sought to have the verdict set aside on grounds of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. And the application to the Supreme Court is the last judicial appeal Ross has to avoid death by lethal injection for the slayings of Douglas Birdsall, 53, and Viola Ross, 18, on Jan. 30, 2001. Birdsall was Texas Tech's associate dean of libraries. Viola Ross and Vaughn Ross were not related. Viola Ross' sister, Liza Ross McVade, was Vaughn Ross' girlfriend. Birdsall and Viola Ross were Lubbock's 1st homicide victims in 2001, according to media accounts at the time. Because the case remains on appeal, Powell spoke briefly and carefully about the 7-week trial in 2002 that ended with Ross' conviction and jury's decision choice of the death penalty over a life sentence - which at the time would have made him eligible for parole after serving 40 years. There was never any remorse, Powell recalled of Vaughn Ross, who argued he was innocent. Just a cold-blooded guy, is what I recall. Patrick Metze, now a professor at Texas Tech's School of Law and director of the school's criminal defense and capital punishment clinics, was a member of the defense team in the trial. He declined to comment because the case is under appeal. Lead defense attorney Floyd Holder Jr. died in 2010. Powell recalled the case - 5 weeks of jury selection and a weeklong trial before District Judge Cecil Puryear - as a very well-tried case. The defense lawyers did a good job. Jury and punishment After the jury found Vaughn Ross guilty, his attorneys asked for a continuance to determine if he was competent to continue. The reason: he had told family and friends to not assist the defense in putting on a case during the punishment phase, and told his attorneys to not call any witnesses. Puryear denied the motion, saying he had observed Ross and believed he was competent to go on. In the punishment phase, Ross' attorneys called 3 witnesses, 2 friends and Ross' mother. The friends testified that Ross was a church-going man who was not familiar with guns, and a social drinker while a grad student at Texas Tech who didn't use drugs, that a 1997 incident in Missouri was his only previous brush with the law. The prosecution had already presented that case to the jury. Ross pleaded guilty to felony assault and stealing a motor vehicle. The stabbing victim, who had suffered multiple wounds, told police she was Ross' girlfriend. His Missouri probation officer testified at the punishment phase for the prosecution saying Ross had shown no remorse for the stabbing, but had successfully completed probation and court-mandated anger management classes. In arguing for the death penalty, court documents say, prosecutors used the stabbing as a starting point to say Ross' potential to react violently was escalating. Ross' mother, Johnnie Ross, was the last defense witness, and according to an excerpt of the trial transcript, spoke angrily to the jury, saying she thought the jurors had done a horrible job and that they have been unjust to me and my family and my son. She accused them of not considering all the evidence in the case, and that they convicted her son because he was black. The jury voted for special circumstances regarding future dangerousness and whether Ross had caused or anticipated the deaths. It also rejected a question on mitigating circumstances. And Vaughn Ross was sentenced to death. Investigation begins As with most murders, the investigation starts with finding the victims. A bicyclist found the bodies in Birdsall's car the morning of Jan. 31, parked in a ravine near Canyon Lakes No. 6, southwest of 19th Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Both victims had multiple gunshot wounds; Lubbock police reviewed the previous days' reports of shots fired, and wound up in the alley behind Vaughn Ross' 10th Street apartment near Avenue V in the Overton neighborhood. Police found 2 blood pools on the ground, glass shards and a spent shell casing. The shell casing matched others found in Birdsall's car, and the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, FLA., IOWA, CALIF.
Jan. 25 TEXASimpending female execution Former local resident facing death penalty A former local resident is facing the death penalty next week, after being convicted of the brutal 1997 murder and robbery of a Dallas County woman. Kimberly Lagayle McCarthy, 51, is set to die Tuesday. McCarthy was born in Greenville in 1961, but was living in Dallas County at the time of the murder. McCarthy was twice convicted of the July 1997 murder of Dorothy Booth, 70. McCarthy's original 1998 conviction on a charge of capital murder was overturned on appeal. McCarthy was convicted of capital murder again in October 2002. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, McCarthy had worked as an occupational therapist, waitress, home health care worker and laborer and had previously been convicted and sentenced to prison on a charge of forgery, but was released on parole in December 1991. McCarthy was convicted of entering Booth's Lancaster residence on July 21, 1997 with the intent to rob the victim. A struggle took place and Booth was stabbed numerous times, resulting in her death. McCarthy then used Booth's credit cards, as well as Booth's vehicle for transportation. McCarthy is believed to be among the 1st Hunt County natives to face the death penalty. Former South Dakota residents Billy John Galloway and Kevin Scott Varga were executed in 2010 in connection with the 1998 murder in Greenville of Maj. David Lawrence Logie. Adam Kelly Ward was convicted in 2007 of capital murder and is currently facing the death penalty in connection with the 2005 death of Commerce Code Enforcement Officer Michael Pee Wee Walker. Ward does not currently have an execution date scheduled. There are 6 murder cases pending in Hunt County, including 5 capital murder charges. At least 3 of the indicted capital murder cases could carry the death penalty upon the conviction of the defendants charged. (source: The Herald-Banner) OHIO: Former death row inmate Joe D'Ambrosio, finally free, speaks out: Regina Brett Attempted murder. That's what Joe D'Ambrosio wants the prosecutors to be charged with. He says the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office tried to kill him by withholding 10 pieces of evidence at his trial, evidence that could have led to a not-guilty verdict. Instead, D'Ambrosio sat on Ohio's death row for more than 20 years. He is finally free. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the state's appeal against him. The ruling wipes D'Ambrosio's legal slate clean. They can erase the charges but they can't give him back his life. D'Ambrosio was 26 when the police arrested him on Sept. 26, 1988 for the murder of Tony Klann. He's now 50 with nothing to show for his life except a '97 Ford Ranger with no radio, no air-conditioning and crank windows. D'Ambrosio is angry at the prosecutors who withheld information, who called him a liar on the stand. They had the truth in their files, he said. They're all guilty of attempted murder . . . . They tried to do to me what they said I did. Take a life. What would he like to tell the prosecutors who withheld the evidence? I'll see you in court, D'Ambrosio said. I'm going to use their law to get justice for me. D'Ambrosio plans on filing a civil lawsuit. He has always proclaimed his innocence. He maintains that he was in his apartment the night Klann was killed. At the time, Sgt. Joseph D'Ambrosio had been honorably discharged from the Army after four years. He had no criminal record. D'Ambrosio took the stand at his trial in front of a 3-panel judge. He'd grown up watching Perry Mason. He expected his attorney to prove his case. He expected to walk out free. One word changed his life forever: Guilty. I was floating over my body looking down over the defense table and judge, D'Ambrosio said. It was like a dream ??? no, a nightmare. In prison, he clung to his faith. God sent him a Catholic priest, who happened to be a registered nurse and an attorney. He says his belief in God and his innocence kept him sane while he was behind bars Father Neil Kookoothe, pastor at St. Clarence Catholic Church in North Olmsted, was visiting an inmate on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution. The inmate told him to see the guy in the next cell who was probably innocent. D'Ambrosio asked Father Neil to read his court transcript. The priest read it in one night. Father Neil looked D'Ambrosio straight in the eye and said, Tell me you didn't do this. If you ever, ever lie to me, I will drop you like a hot potato. Joe looked him dead in the eye and said, I did not kill Tony Klann and had nothing to do with it. With the help of the priest and endless attorneys, the guilty verdict unraveled. It took over 20 years. What was D'Ambrosio's worst day on death row? Pick a day, any day. The day they came to tell him his mom had died. The day he found out the Ohio Supreme
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA, CALIF.
Jan. 12 TEXAS: Execution on hold after court rules killer incompetent Next month's execution of child-killer Britt Ripkowski was halted by a Houston district court Friday, which found the California man suffers from bipolar disorder and is legally incompetent. Ripkowski, 41, was condemned for the 1997 Christmas Eve murder of 2-year-old Dominique Frome, whose body was stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a shallow grave near Sheldon Reservoir. Ripkowski had admitted the killing and directed authorities to the grave. Ripkowski also had been charged in Utah with the murder of the child's mother. He was scheduled to be put to death on Feb. 20. Harris County Assistant District Attorney Hardaway said the decision to halt the execution was made in 248th state District Court after Ripkowski's attorney sought a competency hearing. The killer's lawyer, Texas Southern University law professor Anthony Haughton, said his client had suffered from the psychotic condition since age 16. A new execution date can be set if Ripkowski's mental condition stabilizes, Hardaway said. (source: Houston Chronicle) *** Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-253 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present492 Perry #scheduled execution date-name-Tx. # 254-January 29Kimberly McCarthy---493 255-February 21---Carl Blue-494 256-February 27---Larry Swearingen-495 257-March 21--Michael Gonzalez496 258-April 9---Rickey Lewis-497 259-April 10---Ribogerto Avila, Jr.---498 260-April 16--Ronnie Threadgill--499 261-April 24--Elroy Chester--500 262-July 31---Douglas Feldman--501 (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) OHIO: Convicted killer could face death penalty for newly discovered homicide A fire that killed 2 people at 262 S. Pine St., Lima, on June 14, 2009, could lead to charges against a man already serving time for murder. Thelma Flint just didn't think things added up. Her sister and her sister's boyfriend were killed in a fire that was labeled an accident in 2009. When it happened, I suspected foul play. I urged the fire investigator to do a thorough investigation because I felt it wasn't an accident, she said. But she was assured the death of her 45-year-old sister, Massie Tina Flint, who died with her boyfriend, Rex Hall, 54, in a house fire on June 14, 2009, at 262 S. Pine St., was an accident. A Lima fire investigator, she couldn't remember his name, told her a problem with a kerosene heater started the fire. The Lima News interviewed Lima Fire Investigator Toby Jenkins following the fire. He said it appeared to be an accident. There appears to be no evidence of anything suspicious with the fire. There was nothing unusual about the fire, Jenkins said. There was a space heater that was kicked on because it was kind of cool. It appears the space heater may have caused nearby contents of the house to ignite. Still, things just didn't seem right, Flint said. It was June, not exactly a cold-weather month. I said that just doesn't add up. I really fought to open up an investigation, and they didn't hear me, she said. More than 3 years passed, bringing other tragedies like multiple deaths in the family and a house fire on the day she buried her father. It's been a crazy few years. I haven't had any time to get over anything. It's just been all back to back to back, she said. On Thursday, she was surprised by an officer at her front door. A Lima Police detective visited to tell Flint her sister's death was no accident, after all. He told her it was a homicide, she said. It was shocking. I had to turn around and sit my kids down for fear it would come out in the news and they would hear it there first. I had to tell them she was murdered, Flint said. Lima Police Detective Steve Stechschulte told her some information surfaced on a man sent to prison for life in another murder case. That man, Hager Church, confessed to detectives who went to interview him, she said. Church, 28, remains in a prison in Toledo where he is serving a life sentence with no chance for parole for the Aug. 16, 2010, beating death of Debra Henderson inside her home at 619 Woodward Ave. He killed Henderson over a few dollars and costume jewelry. Henderson took Church in when he had no place to stay after getting out of prison. Church originally faced the death penalty but the prosecution, with the consent of Henderson's family, agreed to a life sentence with no chance for parole to avoid years of appeals. Church has not been charged in the fire deaths of Tina Flint and Hall. With Church in prison, posing no safety threat to the public,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARIZ.
Dec. 1 TEXAS: DA seeks death penalty for man charged with killing estranged wife The McLennan County District Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty against a Port Arthur man charged in the shooting death of his estranged wife and the kidnapping of her daughter less than 5 months after his release from prison. Carnell Petetan Jr., 36, is charged with capital murder in the Sept. 23 shooting death of Kimberly Farr Petetan. District Attorney Abel Reyna told Judge Ralph Strother at Petetan's formal arraignment Friday morning that his office will seek the death penalty. Reyna declined to specify what factors were considered in making the decision. We feel confident that that evidence will come out at trial, he said. Police found Kimberly Petetan dead inside her apartment at The Landing complex. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The indictment against Petetan alleges he committed murder during the course of a burglary of a habitation and while kidnapping the victim???s 9-year-old daughter. Witnesses told police Kimberly Petetan was seen earlier that day arguing with her husband. Bryan police arrested Petetan after spotting his car later that night. The victim's daughter, who is not Petetan's biological daughter, was with him in the car, police said. A neighbor of Kimberly Petetan's said she moved into The Landing complex in late August. Carnell Petetan stayed there with her and her daughter for the 1st 2 weeks and the couple fought constantly, the neighbor said. He left, but on the day Kimberly Petetan was killed, the neighbor heard fighting again and a bullet came through her wall, she said. Kimberly Petetan attended McLennan Community College and wanted to be a social worker, her friends said. Petetan was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1993 for attempted murder. He was released in April. Reyna's announcement in Petetan's case comes 3 weeks after a Waco jury returned a death sentence against Rickey Donnell Cummings in the shooting deaths of 2 men at the Lakewood Villas apartment complex in March 2011. (source: Waco Tribune) OHIOimpending execution Death row inmate Post claims innocence in murder case Death row inmate Ronald Post who is scheduled for execution Jan. 16 for the 1983 killing of hotel clerk in Elyria is now raising an innocence claim, the Lorain County prosecutor said in a filing with the Ohio Parole Board. Post, who weighs more than 400 pounds, had asked the courts to stop his execution on the grounds his weight could cause him to suffer severe pain during the procedure. Post also has attempted to delay his execution to try to prove that claims he made a full confession to several people have been falsely exaggerated. Post told the parole board on Nov. 20 that another man shot hotel desk clerk Helen Vantz in Elyria, Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will said in a board filing Wednesday obtained by The Associated Press through a records request. Post said he was complicit in the robbery but didn't enter the hotel personally, Will said in the filing. Will called the allegation a brand new claim that isn't backed up by the facts. He said Post took responsibility when he pleaded no contest in 1984. The board should consider Post's written admission, made in open court almost 30 years ago, that he, and he alone, was responsible for the crimes against Helen Vantz, Will wrote. Post's lawyer denied there was anything new about his client's comments to the board. Post, without explaining his role in the crime, apologized for his involvement in Vantz' death during a sentencing hearing, defense attorney Rachel Troutman said Thursday. Post entered a no contest plea and was not tried. A December 1984 report filed ahead of Post's sentencing quoted him as saying he was with 2 men he knew when they talked about robbing the motel but he didn't take them seriously. Post stated that it wasn't until the next day when he read in the papers about the murder, did he realize that they had been serious, the report said. In the parole board interview, Post identified one of those men, Ralph Hall, as the shooter. Will, the prosecutor, said Post told seven people after the shooting that he was responsible, including Hall. He also said 2 independent witnesses at the hotel saw a man fitting Post's description in the lobby around the time of the shooting. Their testimony provides a compelling showing that Post was alone with Helen Vantz shortly before the crime, Will said in his parole board filing. Messages could not be left at an Elyria phone listing for Hall. Post's parole hearing is Tuesday. A federal judge in Cleveland has rejected his obesity claim, while a federal judge in Columbus plans a hearing next month on the claim as part of an unrelated lawsuit challenging Ohio's lethal injection procedures. (source: Morning Journal) ARIZONAimpending execution Lawyers for Ariz.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, PENN., N.H., IOWA, USA
Nov. 13 TEXASimpending execution Killer's lawyer says police lied about teen's dying accusation La Shandra Charles, bleeding profusely from neck wounds in a west Houston field, told police the name of her assailant: Preston. The 15-year-old's dying accusation, along with the assertion that her attacker lived nearby, led police to Preston Hughes III, a New York-born warehouse worker on probation for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Hughes, 46, is to be executed Thursday for the murders of Charles and her 3-year-old cousin, Marcel Taylor, who also was stabbed. Charles' statement to police Sgt. Don Hamilton loomed large in Hughes' trial, with prosecutors telling jurors that without it Hughes would have gone scot-free. Now, though, Hughes' attorney Pat McCann, is arguing in state and federal petitions that police lied on the witness stand. He buttresses the argument with a sworn statement from a deputy Tarrant County medical examiner that Charles, with her left carotid artery and jugular vein severed, would have lost consciousness within a minute of the attack. It is simply not medically feasible that this young woman, particularly given the fact that one's heart rate accelerates during stress, and thus blood loss occurs more rapidly, could have spoken to the officers as they claimed, wrote Dr. Robert White, who was chief medical examiner in Nueces County before joining the Fort Worth forensics department. Search questioned McCann said about 13 minutes would have elapsed before the police sergeant reached Charles. That's obviously this guy's opinion, Asssistant District Attorney Lynn Hardaway said of White's affidavit. Hardaway noted that, in the police report of the crime, a medical technician also reported hearing the teen's accusation. Unfortunately, Hardaway said, he didn't testify. In his petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, McCann also questions the legality of a police search of his client's apartment. Police records, he said, show officers checked items from Hughes' apartment into custody three hours before he supposedly signed a consent-to-search form. The state pardons board is scheduled to consider Hughes' bid to have his death sentence commuted to life in prison on Tuesday. The petitions to the Supreme Court and the pardons board are among the latest in a case that occasionally has brought the killer into conflict with his court-appointed attorney. Earlier this month, McCann, assigned to handle criminal court appeals, suffered a setback when Hughes refused to authorize him to represent him in a civil court attempt to block the state from using its single-drug lethal injection protocol. In a recent interview, Hughes expressed dissatisfaction with McCann and earlier lawyers. Hughes offered police two contradictory confessions, but, in his interview, denied that police typed what I said. I never killed anyone, he said. Hughes also denied he had sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and later shot at her - crimes for which he had been placed on probation. He offered an account of his actions on the night of the murder, including a meeting with friends for drinks. Upon arriving at his southwest Houston apartment, Hughes said he took his dog for a walk, crossing the field in which Charles and Taylor were killed. I didn't hear or see anything, he said, adding that he returned and stayed in his apartment until police knocked at his door. He said he was acquainted with Charles, who was a friend of a man who once shared Hughes' apartment. 'Tragically twisted boy' In his latest filings, McCann also submitted a report from an investigator, who said Hughes and his sister had been sexually abused as children by their uncle. No jury has ever seen this evidence because no one ever looked, McCann advises the pardons board. His jurors never got a full picture of the abused boy who turned into the sad man before them. They came out of that trial thinking that Preston was a monster, not a tragically twisted boy, tortured by memories of sadistic abuse at the hands of an older figure of trust. (source: Houston Chronicle) OHIOexecution Ohio Executes Killer Who Repeatedly Stabbed Woman Ohio on Tuesday executed a condemned killer who claimed he was innocent of stabbing a woman 138 times, slitting her throat and cutting off her hands. I'm good, let's roll, Brett Hartman said in his final words. He then smiled in the direction of his sister and repeatedly gave her, a friend and his attorney a thumbs up with his left hand. He then said something inaudible to warden Donald Morgan, who didn't respond. The effect of the single dose of pentobarbital did not seem as immediate as in other executions at the state prison in Lucasville, in southern Ohio. 4 minutes after Hartman first appeared to be reacting to it as his abdomen began to rise and fall, his abdomen rose
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, FLA., OKLA.
Oct. 16 TEXASimpending execution Texas inmate set to die Thursday loses appeal A federal appeals court has refused to stop this week's execution of a Houston man for gunning down a police sergeant more than 12 years ago. A 3-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 late Monday against an appeal from lawyers for condemned killer Anthony Haynes. Haynes faces lethal injection Thursday evening in Huntsville. Attorneys contend Haynes had poor legal help at his trial. They argue his lawyers didn't show jurors there were mitigating factors that led to the shooting of Houston police Sgt. Kent Kincaid and Haynes shouldn't be put to death. Haynes still can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Prosecutors say Haynes opened fire at Kincaid's car. The officer was shot when he stopped Haynes to ask about the gunfire. * New death sentence Man convicted in Texas pastor's killing gets death A convicted felon was sentenced to death Tuesday for killing a pastor and severely beating the pastor's secretary during a robbery in their North Texas church. A jury in Fort Worth deliberated for a little more than an hour before deciding the sentence for Steven Lawayne Nelson, 25. He was convicted last week of killing the Rev. Clint Dobson at the NorthPointe Baptist Church in nearby Arlington. Jurors had the option of sentencing Nelson to death or life in prison without parole. For a death sentence, jurors had to unanimously agree that Nelson poses a danger to society, that he intended to kill and that there were no mitigating circumstances to diminish his culpability. Nelson remained seated as the sentence was read because he is handcuffed and wearing leg shackles. He showed no reaction when the judge read his sentence. The pastor's widow, Laura Dobson, said her husband was a smart, kind and funny man who will be recalled with fondness by many - unlike Nelson. I refuse to let you get the best of me, she said in a victim impact statement after the sentence. You have wrecked so many lives ... that nobody will want to remember you after this. Nelson was convicted of suffocating Dobson in March 2011. He also beat the church secretary, Judy Elliott, so severely that she suffered a broken jaw and memory problems. He then stole her car and other items. It took the jury little more than an hour to find him guilty. Phillip Rozeman, Laura Dobson's father, said he couldn't believe the reasoning behind the loss of his son-in-law's life. It is hard for me to fathom that you did what you did for a car and a laptop and a phone, Rozeman said in his victim impact statement. In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors called the crime heinous and vicious. Blood from both victims was found on a pair of Nelson's shoes, and studs from his belt were found at the church, according to testimony. Nelson denied killing the minister, blaming 2 friends for the crime. He said he stayed outside and only came into the church to steal a laptop. He said at trial that he saw the 28-year-old Dobson and his secretary already sprawled on the church floor. He admitted stepping around them to get the laptop, but said they were still alive when he was there. Prosecutor Bob Gill said during closing arguments Tuesday that Nelson had committed crimes since he was a young teen and that he has been given many chances to rehabilitate in juvenile facilities. The consequences have not straightened him out, Gill said. Nelson even caused problems while awaiting his murder trial, stashing razor blades in his cell, breaking sprinklers and fatally strangling an inmate with a blanket, according to testimony. Now you know why the state decided to seek the death penalty, Gill told jurors. That's all that can be done here. It could not be more clear. Defense attorneys asked jurors to spare Nelson's life, saying he had a troubled childhood. His mother neglected him, his father abused him and he was prescribed medication for attention deficit disorder. But Nelson never got the help he needed - even after he set his mother's bed on fire when he was 3 - never learned how to get along with others and not hurt people. Referring to Nelson's childhood, defense attorney Bill Ray said the initial decisions that put him on a track for permanent derailment were beyond his control, and if that's not a mitigating factor, I don't know what is. (source for both: Associated Press) OHIOnew death sentence Lake County judge sentences Joseph Thomas to death row for Annie McSween murder A judge agreed with jurors, sentencing a man to death row for the brutal killing of a Mentor-on-the-Lake bartender. The Lake County Common Pleas Court judge sentenced Joseph Thomas to die for the brutal killing of a bartender 2 years ago. Annie McSween, 49, was violently murdered on Nov. 26, 2010. Her body was found behind Mario's Lakeway Lounge on Andrews Road where
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, IND., PENN
Sept. 20 TEXASimpending execution Killer of 5 at Dallas-area car wash to die An ex-con who confessed to killing 5 people at a suburban Dallas car wash a week after he was fired from his job there is looking to the U.S. Supreme Court to spare him from the Texas death chamber. 40-year-old Robert Wayne Harris is to die Thursday evening for 2 of the 5 slayings 12 years ago at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving. He also led police to the remains of a woman killed months before the March 2000 rampage. Harris didn't deny the slayings but his lawyer contends he's mentally impaired, making him ineligible for the death penalty. His attorney also questions the jury makeup at Harris' trial in Dallas, contending prosecutors improperly removed black prospective jurors from serving on the panel. (source: Associated Press) ** Clock Ticks Down On Execution Of Convicted Texas Killer Robert Wayne Harris, 40, an ex-con who confessed to killing 5 people at a suburban Dallas car wash a week after he was fired from his job there, is looking to the U.S. Supreme Court to spare him from the Texas death chamber Thursday evening. Harris is scheduled to die Thursday evening in Huntsville for 2 of the 5 slayings 12 years ago at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving. He also led police to the remains of a woman killed months before the March 2000 rampage. Harris didn't deny the slayings, but his lawyer contends he's mentally impaired, making him ineligible for the death penalty. His attorney also questions the jury makeup at Harris' trial in Dallas and contends that prosecutors improperly removed black prospective jurors from serving on the panel. (source: KWTX News) ** Texas, Ohio set to execute convicted murderers on Thursday Texas and Ohio are scheduled to execute 2 convicted killers by lethal injection on Thursday in what would be the 28th and 29th executions in the United States this year. In Texas, which leads the country in executions, Robert Wayne Harris is set to be executed for killings committed at a car wash in 2000. Donald Palmer is scheduled to be put to death in Ohio for murdering 2 people in 1989. Harris, 40, is seeking to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, arguing his constitutional rights were violated when prosecutors struck all 5 qualified black candidates from his jury pool. That left Harris, who is African-American, with an all-white jury to convict him and impose the death penalty, he said in court documents. Greg Abbott, Texas' attorney general, countered in a court filing that Harris' prosecutors had race-neutral reasons to strike the prospective black jurors. The appeal goes to Justice Antonin Scalia, who handles emergency appeals from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees Texas. He can refer the case to the full court for consideration. Prosecutors in Texas said Harris worked for 10 months at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving, near Dallas, before being fired on March 17, 2000, for exposing himself to a female customer. 3 days later, according to prosecutors, Harris returned to rob the car wash, and in the course of his robbery shot 6 employees, 5 fatally in the back of the head at close range, after forcing them to the floor. Harris was charged in 2 of the deaths - those of Agustin Villasenor and Rhoda Wheeler - and a Dallas jury took less than 15 minutes to return a guilty verdict. Texas has conducted more executions than any other U.S. state since the Supreme Court in 1976 reinstated the death penalty after a 4-year hiatus. In Ohio, Palmer is set to die for the killings of Charles Sponhaltz, 43, and Steven Vargo, 41, in Mount Pleasant. Palmer and another man, Edward Hill, twice drove past the home of George Goolie, a man who had once dated a woman who was Palmer's ex-wife and Hill's sister, according to court documents. Prosecutors said the men had planned to rob Goolie or burglarize the house, which Sponhaltz had been checking on as a favor. Palmer, 47, confessed to investigators that he shot Sponhaltz after Hill's car bumped the rear of a pickup truck Sponhaltz was driving near the house. He also confessed to the fatal shooting of Vargo, a paramedic who had stopped to check on the scene. Palmer was convicted and sentenced to death. Hill was convicted and sentenced to 35 years to life. U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost postponed executions in Ohio earlier in the year, accusing Ohio's corrections department of engaging in a policy of sporadic adherence to the execution protocol that allows, if not endorses, institutional incompetence. Frost lifted the moratorium after finding the state had fixed problems with its death penalty protocols. Ohio executed convicted killer Mark Wiles in April. The Texas case is Harris v. Texas, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-6197. (source: Reuters) ***
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MO., USA, N.MEX., PENN.
Sept. 19 TEXASimpending execution Killer of 5 at Dallas-area car wash set to die The Texas parole board has rejected a clemency request from a convicted killer set to die this week for a robbery and shooting spree that left 5 people dead at a Dallas-area car wash 12 years ago. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down the request from 40-year-old Robert Wayne Harris on Tuesday. He still has appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court to try to keep him from lethal injection Thursday evening in Huntsville. Harris was condemned for the massacre at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving in March 2000 a week after he'd been fired from his job there. He's never denied the crime. He also was charged but never tried for the abduction-slaying of an Irving woman 4 months before the car wash killings. (source: Associated Press) OHIOimpending execution Condemned Ohio Man To Be Prepped For Execution A condemned Ohio man is set to be moved from the state's death row in Chillicothe to the site of his Thursday execution in Lucasville. State officials are expected to move Donald Palmer to death row on Wednesday, the day before he is set to be executed by lethal injection for a crime committed 23 years ago. The 43-year-old was convicted of aggravated murder for fatally shooting two strangers along a Belmont County road on May 8, 1989. Palmer's attorney says he hadn't planned on filing any other appeals and expected the execution to proceed. Palmer also decided not to request mercy from the Ohio Parole Board, which can recommend clemency for a condemned inmate to the governor. Including Palmer, 10 Ohio inmates are scheduled for execution through March 2014. (source: NBC News) Ohio's execution drug supply expires in 1 year Ohio has enough of its now-off-limits execution drug to complete 7 of its 10 scheduled lethal injections, meaning that over the next year it must somehow acquire new batches or again switch to a different drug, according to a review of state pharmacy documents by The Associated Press. The state's supply of pentobarbital expires next September, and the sedative's manufacturer has agreed to prevent its sale to prisons for executions. Ohio and other states stockpiled supplies before that went into effect. The state plans to put a killer of 2 men to death Thursday and has executions scheduled through March 2014. Those include three executions after the drug expires at the end of September 2013. Prisons agency spokeswoman JoEllen Smith told the AP on Tuesday that the department will be working with state pharmacists and the attorney general's office to address the issue. She declined further comment. It's unclear what Ohio would do once the supply runs out. Prisons director Gary Mohr testified in federal court in March that an altered version of pentobarbital or a supply imported from overseas would not necessarily violate the prison's execution policies. Expired batches of the drug would violate the policies, he said. Other states are also facing possible pentobarbital shortages, and Missouri switched to another drug altogether earlier this year. That drug, propofol, is perhaps best known as the drug that killed pop star Michael Jackson in 2009. It has never been used in a U.S. execution. The Missouri Supreme Court has declined to set execution dates for 6 condemned killers, saying doing so is premature until the courts decide if Missouri's new method is constitutional. Arizona's supply is running low, with enough pentobarbital on hand for at least 2 more executions, Kent Cattani, the state???s chief death penalty prosecutor, said Tuesday. In July, Texas prison officials disclosed they have enough pentobarbital to execute as many as 23 people. The same month, Oklahoma announced it had secured 20 new doses of pentobarbital. Pentobarbital is a surgical sedative that is sometimes employed in assisted suicides and is commonly used to destroy dogs and cats. Last year, the only U.S.-licensed maker of pentobarbital sold the product to another firm. Denmark-based Lundbeck Inc. said a distribution system meant to keep the drug out of the hands of prisons would remain in place as Lake Forest, Ill.-based Akorn Inc. acquired the drug. Several states, including Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, had switched to pentobarbital after supplies of a previous execution drug dried up. (source: Associated Press) 480-pound death row inmate can't be executed until he loses weight talk shows According to an article on the Huffington Post website on September 18, 2012, a death row inmate says he is too obese to be executed when scheduled. Ronald Post, 53, who weighs at least 480 pounds, is scheduled to be executed on January 16, 2013 for the 1983 shooting and killing of Helen Vantz, a hotel clerk in northern Ohio. Post has requested that his upcoming
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
Aug. 19 TEXAS: see: http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-of-the-state-of-texas-stop-the-execution-of-cleve-foster (source: change.org) OHIO: see: http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-kasich-of-ohio-commute-the-death-sentence-of-donald-palmer (source: change.org) ___ DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/ ~~~ A free service of WashLaw http://washlaw.edu (785)670.1088 ~~~
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, N.C.
July 8 TEXAS: Should killer with fetal alcohol syndrome be spared? A mother’s failures are etched on Mark Anthony Soliz’s face. It’s the damaged face of a child whose mother drank heavily, sniffed paint and used drugs while pregnant, the face of a youth who was largely abandoned. The face of a killer. Now, with Soliz sitting on Texas death row awaiting an execution date, the long-ago failings of his mother could hold the key to sparing his life. Soliz's appeal of his capital murder conviction in the death of a Godley grandmother has joined a growing list of cases nationwide seeking to exclude the death penalty for defendants with fetal alcohol syndrome, a form of brain damage caused by maternal alcohol abuse. Experts say the death penalty should be off the table in such cases, just as the U.S. Supreme Court has abolished the death penalty for defendants with mental retardation. Prosecutors and victims advocates, however, say it's a guise for going easy on killers who show no such mercy to their victims. FAS should not be used as an excuse for intentionally and knowingly murdering another person, said Andy Kahan, a victims-rights advocate in Houston. Clearly, the defendant has been able to make law-abiding decisions on a daily basis, and they obviously know right from wrong. FAS is yet another hurdle for surviving family members of homicide to overcome to secure justice for the coldblooded murder of their loved ones. The Soliz case is one of at least two in Texas seeking a permanent reprieve from the death penalty through the appeals courts. Texas Death Row inmate Yokamon Laneal Hearn, who has also been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, is set for execution July 18 in the shooting of a Plano stockbroker during a robbery. Hearn's case has drawn the attention of Amnesty International, which is urging a letter-writing campaign for clemency to Gov. Rick Perry. Soliz's case is just beginning its trek through the appeals process after his conviction in March by a Johnson County jury. Defining disabilities Soliz, Hearn and others are pinning their hopes on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the case of Daryl Atkins, who was convicted in Virginia in the 1996 fatal shooting of an airman from Langley Air Force Base. Atkins was 18 at the time, and with an IQ of 59, he was considered mentally retarded. He received the death penalty. But in a groundbreaking decision in the Atkins case in 2002, the Supreme Court held that executing a person who is mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The deficiencies associated with mental retardation, the court concluded, reduce a person's culpability in the crime. Experts say the same rules should apply to people with fetal alcohol syndrome. Those people have the same diminished capacities as those with mental retardation, they say, even though their IQs may test somewhat higher than the 70-75 range typically used to define mental retardation. The damage to the executive functioning of the brain is as severe as someone who is intellectually disabled, said John Niland, director of the Capital Trial Project with the Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit law firm in Houston and Austin that also provides training and consultation for attorneys in death penalty cases. I don't think we've been aware of it long enough to identify all of the cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has already rejected a request to review a fetal alcohol case involving Louisiana death row inmate Brandy Holmes, who was named after her mother's favorite liquor. But death penalty opponents say that does not rule out that other fetal alcohol cases could be considered by the nation's highest court. Johnson County District Attorney Dale Hanna, who participated in the Soliz trial, said that fetal alcohol symptoms can vary widely and that such defendants should not be excluded outright from the death penalty. It's certainly something a jury can consider, Hanna said, but in the Soliz case, it didn't go very far. A trail of trouble Soliz had been out of prison just a few months when he knocked on the front door of Nancy Weatherly's home in Godley, south of Fort Worth, on June 29, 2010. He was on the eighth day of a drug-fueled crime spree that had left one man dead and 2 others wounded in Tarrant County, and he had headed south to Johnson County with an accomplice to find more victims. He ignored Weatherly's pleas for mercy and shot her in the head, then laughed later at her accent, according to evidence presented at trial. Even his gang friends on Fort Worth's north side thought he was sick mentally and they were scared to be around him, an ex-girlfriend testified. Soliz had been in trouble with the law since he was caught stealing at age 8, and by age 10 he was in a psychiatric hospital, reportedly hearing voices telling him to kill people. The arrests and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, VA., CALIF.
June 1 TEXASnew female death sentence Kimberly Cargill given death penalty for murdering her babysitter Shortly after 9:30 pm, Thursday, a Smith County jury has reached a sentence for Kimberly Cargill of Whitehouse convicted of killing her babysitter, Cherry Walker. The jurors had to decide between 2 penalties, life in prison or the death penalty. After 8 hours of deliberation, the jurors decided upon the death penalty. Cherry Walker’s body was found partially burned on June 24, 2010 on the side of Oscar Burkett Road. Smith County investigators said that Ms. Walker died of “homicidal violence”. Richard Wilson, a retired psychologist who worked for the Andrews Center diagnosed Ms. Walker as mentally challenged in 1995. He stated that she had the daily living skills of a 9-year-old and suffered from major motor seizures. Ms. Walker has been described as a kind person who loved children. She was especially fond of Cargill’s 4-year-old son whom she babysat. Ms. Walker babysat Cargill’s’ son many times without pay and used her food stamps to feed him. Walker’s mother asked her many times why she sat for Cargill, each time Walker would smile and answer for Luke. Cargill was not only abusive to Walker; she was also abusive to her children. In March, 2010, Cargill was arrested for injury to a child, but bond out the next day. Shortly after Cargill’s release, Walker was subpoenaed as a witness in Cargill’s child custody case. Cargill did not want Walker testifying, so she killed, burned her and left her on the side of the road. Cargill testified that Walker died from a seizure. She also made the statement that she had found Walker unconscious and tried to revive her. Cargill stated that when she found Walker, she didn’t know what to do, so she left her on the side of the road. Cargill contended that she burned Walker’s body to rid it of any DNA that might have gotten on her from Cargill trying to revive her. Time after time Cargill lied during questioning, showing no remorse. Shortly after the court’s death penalty decision an automatic appeal was filed on behalf of Cargill. If executed, Cargill will be the fourth woman in Texas since 1863. (source: Dallas Examiner) Kimberly Cargill sentenced to death penalty Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham tells KETK that Kimberly Cargill has been sentenced to die for killing 29-year old Cherry Walker. During the punishment phase, Cargill relatives took the stand against her. (source: KETK News) OHIO: Attorneys: Open condemned Ohio inmate's interviewM Attorneys for a condemned Ohio inmate have asked the state Supreme Court to allow a psychologist to view the parole board's interview with the inmate as part of the clemency process. The attorneys say having the psychologist present is needed to determine the mental competency of John Eley, scheduled to die July 26 for killing a Youngstown convenience store owner in 1986. Eley's mental competency has long been questioned, but the prisoner refuses to cooperate with efforts to have him evaluated, the attorneys said in a lawsuit filed ahead of today's parole board interview. Every attorney who has represented Mr. Eley has believed him to be mentally ill, Eley's federal public defenders said in the lawsuit. However, because of his mental illness and borderline intellectual functioning, Mr. Eley refused time and again to cooperate with experts, and has therefore never been fully diagnosed or even evaluated. Eley, 63, was sentenced to death for the Aug. 26, 1986, fatal shooting of Ihsan Aydah, the 28-year-old owner of Sinjil Market in Youngstown. Eley shot Aydah in the head, and then, with an accomplice, stole Aydah's wallet and money from a cash register, according to Ohio Attorney General records. Eley's public defenders make two points: Eley's mental competency has been questioned back to the days of his trial, and he has refused to cooperate over the years with any attempts to have him tested. Eley also has refused all mental health evaluations while on death row in recent years, the lawsuit said. The parole board refused the request by defense attorneys Vicki Werneke and Alan Rossman last week. The board's policy clearly states inmate interviews are observed only by attorneys from both sides and a representative from the governor's office, board chairwoman Cynthia Mausser told the attorneys in a May 25 email. Your request for an exception to this policy is not persuasive, she said. Mausser declined to comment. The state called the filing an abuse of the court system meant to delay Eley's execution. Eley's competency has been raised for years, and numerous courts have ruled against him, Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said in a filing Wednesday. Eley has the full understanding that the death penalty is being imposed upon him for Aydah's murder, Gains said. Columbus Psychologist
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARIZ., WASH.
May 14 TEXASimpending execution Denver Escapee Facing Execution In TexasSteven Staley's Mental Health Questioned A man who escaped from a halfway house in Denver is facing execution in Texas after a 4-state crime spree. Steven Staley, 49, escaped from a Denver halfway house where he was awaiting parole on robbery and auto theft convictions. After a series of robberies and assaults in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, Staley, was arrested after a botched robbery that ended in the death of a restaurant manager in October 1989 in Texas. Staley's Mental Health Questioned Staley is scheduled for execution on Wednesday. Prosecutors contend he's competent to be executed. His lawyer says Staley is severely mentally ill, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and has been observed catatonic or lying on the floor of his jail cell covered in urine. In a written statement, Staley implicated himself in the slaying of the restaurant manager, 35-year-old Bob Read. And since he arrived on death row in 1991, his mental competence became an issue as his punishment neared. State District Court Judge Wayne Salvant has ordered him to be medicated, by force if needed. If he was found not to be competent, the trial judge would just withdraw the (execution) date, said Jim Gibson, an assistant district attorney in Tarrant County, where Staley was tried and convicted. Staley also has been examined by psychologists, who determined the prisoner was competent. Everybody agrees he's competent, Gibson said. ... I think the issue is going to be why he's competent. Staley's lawyer, John Stickels, calls the competency artificial. The state has given him enough psychotropic drugs that the judge found he met the definition to be competent to be executed, said Stickels, who is asking the courts to halt the execution. The whole reason he's been medicated is to make him competent to be executed. Staley's previous attorney called him too nuts to be executed when the courts stopped a scheduled execution in 2005. And Stickles said Staley's severe mental illness has existed for several years and has been exacerbated by the forced drug regimen Stickles argues was illegally ordered by Salvant. If lower courts refuse to stay the execution, Stickles said he'll take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which he said has not addressed the question of involuntary medication for the purposes of execution. When administered, the drugs leave Staley with extreme sedation and zombie-like effects, Stickles said in an appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Salvant, in his order, pointed to a 2003 ruling from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said forcible medication is appropriate if it's likely to make the condemned inmate competent, if the side effects wouldn't be worse than the benefits and if it's in the prisoner's best medical interests. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court said it is unconstitutional to execute someone who is insane. The justices didn't define insanity, but did say a person may be executed if he's aware of the punishment and the reason for it. Then in 2002, the court barred execution of mentally impaired people. Stickles said Staley's IQ of 70 -- considered the threshold for mental impairment -- also could disqualify him from the punishment. Staley, from death row, declined to an interview request from The Associated Press. Crime Spree Staley had escaped from a Denver halfway house where he was awaiting parole on robbery and auto theft convictions. In Fort Worth, on the evening of Oct. 14, 1989, he and accomplice Tracey Duke ended a meal by pulling semiautomatic weapons from the purse of Duke's girlfriend, Brenda Rayburn. They herded customers and employees to the back of the restaurant, then forced Read to open cash registers and the store safe. An assistant manager slipped out and called police. Read, married and a father of three, urged the robbers to take him and leave the hostages alone when the police arrived. Officers watched Read walk out the door of the restaurant, guns poked in his ribs. The robbers hijacked a car and police moved in as Read was being forced into the back seat. Evidence showed Staley shot Read, then Staley and Duke fired on the officers. They then lead authorities on the 20-mile chase, and were caught after the car broke down and they tried to flee on foot. Duke, 45, is serving 3 life sentences in Texas and has a 30-year sentence in Colorado for murder and armed robbery. Rayburn accepted 30 years in a plea bargain. (source: Associated Press) OHIO: Judges consider death penalty for man who admitted to killing girlfriend, 2 children 3 Franklin County Common Pleas judges began deliberating the fate of Caron E. Montgomery this morning after hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and defense about whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison. Judge Guy Reece
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARIZ., S.D.
May 7 TEXAS: Death penalty trial to start for man accused of killing 2 brothers in southeast Dallas robbery RelatedTestimony is set to begin Tuesday in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing 2 brothers in a robbery that netted $2 and a ring. Roderick Napoleon Harris, 27, faces a possible death sentence if convicted. Alfredo Gallardo, 45, and Carlos Gallardo, 36, were shot to death while trying to protect Alfredo’s wife and three of his children, then ages 5, 8 and 13, at a small trailer in southeast Dallas in March 2009. One of the family members sneaked out through a window during the robbery — and before the shootings — and alerted neighbors, who called police. Inside the trailer, police said, Harris kept asking for money after herding the family into a closet and tying their hands with belts. They told Harris that they had none, and he threatened to leave with Alfredo Gallardo’s wife or daughter. The brothers then fought back and were shot multiple times. The rest of the family was not injured. Police heard the gunshots as they arrived. Harris tried to flee, police said. As he saw the officers, he started firing. They fired back, injuring Harris. The officers were not injured. Police have said they had no reason to believe that any family members knew Harris, and that the Gallardos, who were watching TV when Harris forced his way inside, seemed to be randomly targeted. Alfredo Gallardo’s wife, Carmen Gallardo, no longer lives at the trailer where her husband and brother-in-law were killed. Neighbors who knew her said they did not know where she currently lives, and she could not be reached for comment. But after the killings, she remarked on how little the robber got and how much her family lost. “For only $2, he took the lives of my husband and my brother-in-law,” Carmen Gallardo has said. Alfredo Gallardo had five children. He and Carlos Gallardo worked in construction but had been jobless at the time of the slayings. The family was here illegally from Mexico, family members have said. Carmen Gallardo had said she came to the United States to create a better life for her kids and was worried about their future. “I have a son who’s sick,” she said in the prior interview. “He had surgery on his stomach. I’m scared for him. He loved his father very much.” One of Harris’ attorneys, Brad Lollar, declined to comment, as did the Dallas County district attorney’s office. Harris turned down an interview request from the Dallas County Jail, where he is awaiting trial. Dallas police say they believe Harris is linked to another robbery and murder earlier the same month as the Gallardo slayings. Police say Harris and 2 gunmen targeted a north Oak Cliff apartment, where they held an 11-month-old at gunpoint to rob the child’s mother. Police say the robbers then went to another apartment, where Harris shot 3 brothers, killing 1. (source: Dallas Morning News) OHIO: 3 more years for ex-death row inmate from Scotland A Scotsman released from prison 4 years ago after spending 2 decades on Ohio's death row is going back to prison for threatening a judge who prosecuted his original case. A visiting judge sentenced Ken Richey on Monday to the maximum of three years. He pleaded guilty last month to a felony retaliation charge. The target of his threat, Putnam County Judge Randall Basinger, said Richey had made many threats against him and others, The (Toledo) Blade reported. Richey has never taken responsibility for any of his actions, has blamed others for the crimes that he commits, and consistently misrepresents the events of his criminal activity, Basinger said, according to The (Findlay) Courier. Investigators said Richey was at his home in Tupelo, Miss., when he left the threatening message for Basinger, warning that he was coming to get him. Richey said he'd been drinking heavily and was depressed. He apologized on Monday for making the call. Basinger was an assistant prosecutor in the 1980s when Richey was accused of starting a fire that killed a 2-year-old girl in 1986. Richey was sentenced to death and spent 21 years on death row. He denied any involvement in the fire and became well-known in Britain, where there is no death penalty, as he fought for his release. Among his supporters were several members of the British Parliament and Pope John Paul II. Following years of appeals, a federal court determined that his lawyers mishandled the case, and his conviction was overturned. Putnam County prosecutors initially planned to retry him, but Richey was released in 2008 under a deal that required him to plead no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter. He also was ordered to stay away from the northwest Ohio county and anyone involved in the case, including Basinger. Richey, though, carried a lifetime of bitterness over his conviction, his friends said. He returned to Scotland in
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, DEL., ARIZ., MASS., CONN.
Feb. 28 TEXASimpending execution 'Texas 7' leader faces execution this week, says he's sorry for killing Irving cop George Rivas, the head of a band of Texas prison escapees who killed a 29-year-old Irving police officer on Christmas Eve in 2000, is scheduled to die for his crimes on Wednesday. In an interview published Sunday , Rivas tells Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Darren Barbee that he's sorry for shooting Aubrey Hawkins, the 29-year-old policeman who was the father of a 9-year-old boy. Rivas (right) and his fellow escapees were robbing an Irving sporting goods store when Hawkins tried to stop them. Rivas, 41, has previously admitted being the one who fired the shots that killed the officer. He says now that among his many regrets is that he didn't find Christ sooner. He adds: I take no pride in none of my crimes. Someone like me had to lose everything to appreciate anything. (source: Dallas Morning News) OHIO: Killer Faces Possibility Of Death PenaltySentencing Phase Set For Tuesday A man convicted of killing a homeowner with an ax could be sentenced to death. M A Butler County jury found 26-year-old Victor Gantt guilty last week of killing 75-year-old Leroy Jones last May at Jones' Middletown home. Jurors will decide whether to recommend that Gantt die for his crimes or sentence him to life in prison. If jurors recommend death, the judge can still sentence Gantt to life in prison, but judges rarely ignore jury recommendations. (source: WLWT News) DELAWARE: Del. Death Row Inmate Competent to Waive Appeals A Delaware judge has ruled that a death row inmate who wants to waive all appeals and be executed is mentally competent to make that decision. Shannon M. Johnson was sentenced to death in 2008 for the September 2006 murder of a man who he found sitting in a car with Johnson's former girlfriend. Johnson later shot the former girlfriend, but she survived. After the state Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence, Johnson said he did not want to pursue any further appeals. In a ruling Monday in which she cited reports from several mental health experts, Superior Court Judge M. Jane Brady said Johnson's IQ is above 70 and that he is not mentally disabled. She concluded that Johnson understands the legal consequences of waiving his rights to pursue further appeals. (source: Associated Press) ARIZONA: Arizona switching to 1 drug for next execution The Arizona Department of Corrections will use a single dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital instead of a 3-drug cocktail to carry out Wednesday's execution of convicted killer Robert Moormann. And though Death Row defense lawyers have long lobbied for a 1-drug protocol as used in other states, the corrections department did not make the change willingly. According to a notice filed Monday in the Arizona Supreme Court, corrections officials discovered during a rehearsal for the Wednesday execution that the supply of pancuronium bromide, the 2nd drug in the 3-drug process, had passed its expiration date and could not be used. The current corrections protocol, however, says that such decisions are to be provided to the inmate in writing 7 days prior to the scheduled execution date. Ironically, the Corrections Department was sued in December over its inability to adhere to its own protocol, but a federal judge ruled that the lapses did not violate constitutional rights. A new protocol, which gives broad discretion to Corrections Director Charles Ryan, went into effect on Jan. 25 and authorized the department to use either the old 3-drug protocol or a 1-drug protocol. But that protocol has the 7-day-notice clause, meaning that the corrections department is already out of compliance with its new guidelines for executions. For years, Arizona used a 3-drug combination of the fast-acting barbiturate sodium thiopental to anesthetize the condemned person, followed by pancuronium bromide to cause paralysis, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. When thiopental became unavailable in the U.S. in fall 2010, Arizona, like many states, began purchasing it from Europe on the gray market. But in June 2011, days before a scheduled execution, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informed the Arizona Department of Corrections that its thiopental had not been legally imported. The department then switched to a three-drug protocol using pentobarbital instead of thiopental. Defense attorneys have argued that the 3-drug protocol carries risks of suffocation and pain. They reason that if the barbiturate wears off prematurely, the inmate will be conscious but paralyzed and unable to call out or signal any distress. Figures released last week by the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix showed that the last 5 deaths in executions in Ohio using only one drug occurred about a minute faster than the last 5 in Arizona using 3.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA, CALIF.
Feb. 20 TEXAS: 18 years on Death Row: The Consequences of the Death Penalty Every week for 18 years, Anthony Graves was allowed to make one phone call from prison. And each call would be to his mother. What was she making for dinner, he would ask. The food that they served in prison was mush compared to the meals his mother used to make for him. Each week his mother would say the same thing: why would he want to torture himself with memories of her home cooking when he could have none of it? “Steak and potatoes she would say, and I would go ‘ah, Mom,’ why would you tell me that?” Graves said. And then one day, he called his mom, just as he had done every week for 18 years, to ask her what she was making for dinner. And once again, she asked him why in the world he would want to know. “Because I’m coming home,” he told her. “Your son is coming home.” Graves was wrongly convicted of a horrific multiple homicide in 1994. His conviction was overturned in 2006, and he was fully exonerated in 2010. He is the 12th and most recent death row inmate to be cleared in Texas since 1973. Only a small fraction of the hundreds of men that have sat on death row have been exonerated. Texas is infamous for putting the most men to death since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Since then, 478 men have been put to death, with 2 more scheduled for the end of February, and at least 4 more by the end of the year. Donald Newbury, a member of the Texas 7 Gang, infamous for the biggest jailbreak in Texas history and the shooting death of a police officer, was to be executed on Feb. 1. He has been given a stay of execution while the Supreme Court determines if death row inmates are entitled to better legal representation during appeals cases. Southern Methodist University recently hosted 2 panel discussions on the death penalty. One of them featured Graves, another exoneree, Clarence Brandley, and former Death Row Chaplain Rev. Carroll Pickett. Pickett, who is now retired, took care of the death row inmates during the day of their execution, sitting with them and preparing them for their impeding death. “Most inmates just wanted to know what was going to happen to them; what it was going to be like to die,” Pickett said. While Pickett never counseled Graves, he prepared and walked 95 other men to their deaths during his 15 years with the prison system, more than any other death row chaplain. 34 states currently impose the death penalty. “It must not be cruel and unusual because look at how many people want it, 36 states keep imposing it,” said Randy Johnston, a Dallas attorney who specializes in legal ethics. Graves was released from death row a little over a year ago, on Oct. 27, 2010. Since his release, he has worked hard to rebuild his life, adjusting to living outside bars, and establishing a new relationship with his family. In 1992, 6 people, 4 of whom were children, were shot, stabbed and bludgeoned to death before their house was set on fire to cover up the killings. The small community of Somerville, Texas was shocked and outraged. “The mayor (of Somerville) said he didn’t even want to hold a trial, there was no need. He just wanted the criminals to hang,” Graves said. A man wandering in the crowd at the memorial service for the victims was noticed by police. He had bandages over his hands, arms and face to cover burns. The man, Robert Earl Carter, father to one of the young children killed, was immediately arrested and charged with 6 counts of homicide. Police allegedly said that if Carter gave up his accomplices, they would let him go. Carter gave the first name that came to his mind. Within hours, Anthony Graves was arrested. “I heard the police were looking for me. So I went looking for the police,” Graves said. “Don’t ever go looking for the police; it took me 18 years to get home.” Graves, now 45-years-old, was 26 when he was arrested. He was a father of three young children. But in the time Graves was away, they have grown up to have children of their own. After being convicted by a jury of 11 white men and women and 1 black man, Graves was sentenced to death, despite the pleas of his family, including one of his young son’s who was suffering from Spinal Bifida. With 2 execution dates set during his time on death row, Graves came within 2 months of a lethal injection. He saw a number of fellow prisoners executed during his time on death row. Each time his own impending death came closer, Graves said all he wanted was for people to just look at the facts. “When you know you’re innocent, in the back of your mind, you hold out hope,” Graves said. An appeals court overturned his conviction in 2006, following an admission from the original lead prosecutor that Robert Earl Carter had admitted to committing the murders by himself. On Oct. 27, 2010, Graves was released from prison. “For the 1st time, I felt
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA, FLA., KAN.
Jan. 23 TEXASimpending execution Report: With execution looming in Texas, accused Grand Rapids 'bag lady' killer maintains innocence Rodrigo Hernandez, whom police believe raped, killed and dumped the body of bag lady Muriel Stoepker in downtown Grand Rapids in 1991, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Thursday for strangling a San Antonio woman whose body police found stuffed in a baseball field trash can 3 years later. Although he possesses a lengthy criminal record and previously confessed to police 1 of the murders, Hernandez, 38, is maintaining his innocence in a death row interview with the San Antonio Express-News. “It still doesn't feel real. I did not commit this murder; I'll take that to the grave,” Hernandez told Express-News reporter Eva Ruth Moravec. “My grandma raised me to respect women.” It’s not unlike what Hernandez told a judge in 1998 before being sentenced to prison for severely beating a man here with a bottle, a conviction that came several years before authorities were able to tie him to the murders of Stoepker and 38-year-old Susan Verstegen of San Antonio. Evolving DNA evidence helped police link Hernandez to both crimes. I have been living an honest life and staying out of trouble, he wrote in 1998. I consider myself a family man. So I appreciate it if you would give me one more chance to be able to continue my life with my family, better my life and help the community. The family man image is in sharp contrast to the picture painted by police, prosecutors and evidence in the 2 crimes, each a brutal rape-and-murder that shocked people in West Michigan and Texas. Hernandez was arrested by police in Kent County in 2002 for the Verstegen slaying after police in San Antonio reopened the cold case in 2000. They matched his DNA from that crime to a database sample taken by mouth swab upon his 2002 parole for the 1998 assault. Texas authorities traveled nearly 1,400 miles to visit Hernandez in jail in Michigan, eliciting a confession at the time, according to George Saidler, then a San Antonio Police Department cold case detective. Getting the confession for the Verstegen murder took 20 minutes, Saidler told the Express-News. The now-Texas prosecutor said Hernandez knew details “only the killer had known.” “He gave (the confession) up pretty easily to me. He had some tears, but I couldn't say if he was shedding tears for himself or for the victim.” Verstegen had been a single mother working at a Frito-Lay plant. Her body was found on Feb. 19, 1994 in a 55-gallon drum behind a baseball field at Prince of Peace Catholic Church after a massive search effort sparked by a worried co-worker that turned up nothing the day before. Hernandez told the Express-News that he and Verstegen had a consensual sexual relationship going back months, but he’d reportedly been “smoking weed, drinking beer and mixed drinks and did not realize what he was doing” when he found her outside her work and raped her, according to his confession. He said didn’t realize he had strangled her to death until he was done. Shortly thereafter he moved back to Michigan and was promptly arrested for a probation violation here that resulted in a three-year minimum prison sentence. Family of Muriel Stoepker were shocked when they found out just 2 years ago that he’d been linked by a semen sample to the murder of a woman known by many locally as the “bag lady.” Kent County Metro Cold-Case Team re-opened the investigation and matched his DNA in the crime lab in similar fashion to the Texas police, taking advantage of advances in forensics technology to find matches with smaller samples than in years past. The 77-year-old homeless woman was shot several times in the head and her naked body was dumped in a parking ramp doorway on the campus of Grand Rapids Community College early September 1991. Hernandez is accused of Stoepker’s rape and murder, but there is little chance he will return to Michigan for a trial, given that he is scheduled to be executed Thursday for the Verstegen conviction, pending the outcome of a pair of Texas clemency petitions. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals already rejected a 2008 attempt by Hernandez to overturn his capital punishment sentence. A federal judge denied a similar bid in 2010. The state leads the nation in executions. Hernandez is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection. Hernandez has never confessed to the Stoepker murder, which has frustrated family and police, who have tried unsuccessfully to link him with other unsolved crimes as well. I'm disappointed he wouldn't confess, of course, said Muriel Stoepker's half-brother, the Rev. Wallace Stoepker of Portage told The Press in 2010. I have a feeling he has followed this pattern a number of times in his life. Investigators think Hernandez, who lived in Grand Rapids for a large part of the 1990s, killed Stoepker just a month
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, CONN., GA.
Dec. 15 TEXAS: State of Texas Carries Out Fewest Executions Since 1996, According to New Report from TCADP New Death Sentences Remain at Record-Low Level, Imposed by Just Six Counties in the State (Austin, Texas) — Executions dropped to the lowest number since 1996 and death sentences in Texas remained at a historic low level in 2011, according to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s (TCADP) new report, Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2011: The Year in Review. TCADP is an Austin-based statewide, grassroots advocacy organization. In 2011, the State of Texas carried out 13 executions, which is 50% less than in 2007. It accounted for 30% of the national total, once again a smaller percentage than years past but still twice as many as any other state. Texas has executed a total of 477 people since 1982; 238 executions have occurred during the administration of Texas Governor Rick Perry, more than any other governor inU.S. history. For the second year in a row, juries condemned eight new individuals to death in Texas. This remains the lowest number of new death sentences since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas’ revised death penalty statute in 1976. Once again, just six counties in the state of Texas accounted for the new death row inmates: Fort Bend (1); Galveston (1); Harris (3); Harrison (1); Tarrant (1); and Travis (1). This represents 2% of all Texas counties. “Texas – along with the rest of the nation – is steadily moving away from the death penalty,” said Kristin Houlé, Executive Director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. “Use of the death penalty has been relegated to just a few jurisdictions in the state as prosecutors and jurors accept alternatives that protect society and punish those who are truly guilty. Still, longstanding concerns about the arbitrary and biased administration of the death penalty remain.” An analysis of data from 2007 to 2011 reveals that only 23 Texas counties have imposed death sentences over the last 5 years; of these, only 10 counties have done so in the last 2 years. Out of a total 51 death sentences imposed in this time period, Harris County leads with 9; it is followed by Dallas County, with 7 new sentences since 2007, and Tarrant and Travis Counties, with 4 new sentences each. The other 19 counties imposed 1-3 sentences each. Together, these 23 counties represent just 9% of the 254 counties in Texas. Significantly, no new death sentences were imposed in Dallas County for the first time in five years. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Charles Payne, but the jury rejected the charge of capital murder and instead found him guilty of murder in the shooting of police officer Senior Cpl. Norm Smith. This represented the first time since 1996 that prosecutors in Dallas County did not secure a capital murder conviction in a case in which they sought the death penalty. In another Dallas case, prosecutors dropped their pursuit of the death penalty and agreed to a life sentence for Johnathan Bruce Reed after he was found guilty for a third time in the 1978 murder of Wanda Jean Wadle. Overall, Dallas County accounts for 102 death sentences since 1976. Bexar County, which has sentenced the third highest number of people to death in Texas, has not imposed any new death sentences since 2009. Notably, six out of the eight new death sentences were imposed on people of color, including four African Americans and two Hispanics/Latinos. Over the last five years, nearly three-fourths of all death sentences in Texas have been imposed on people of color – 41% African American, 29% Hispanic/Latino, and 2% other. In Harris County, where these patterns are even more pronounced, 12 of the last 13 defendants sentenced to death are African American and the 13th is Hispanic/Latino. Five inmates scheduled for execution in 2011 received stays, while the execution date for another inmate was withdrawn. * On September 15, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily stayed the execution of Duane Buck, pending a conference on his cert petition. During his trial, psychologist Walter Quijano, a witness for the defense, testified on cross-examination that the fact that Buck is African American increased the likelihood of his being dangerous in the future. Such improperly elicited, racially-based testimony by Dr. Quijano led to new sentencing hearings in six other cases where the State of Texas conceded error – but not for Duane Buck. On November 7, 2011, the Court declined to review Buck’s case. * On November 7, 2011, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay to Henry “Hank” Skinner, who was scheduled for execution on November 9. Key pieces of evidence collected at the crime scene have never been subjected to DNA testing, and for the last 10 years officials have refused to release it for analysis. The court stayed the execution to consider
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, FLA.
Nov. 16 TEXAS: Texas set to execute man who killed 7-year-old girl A registered sex offender in Texas convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 7-year-old girl is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday. In 1999, Guadalupe Esparza, now 46, abducted Alyssa Vasquez from her San Antonio home when her babysitter was at a neighbor's place, authorities said. Her strangled body was found in a nearby field. On the night Alyssa died, Esparza had called and visited her home, looking for her mother, according to an account of the case by the Texas attorney general's office. DNA testing showed that the sperm found on Alyssa's body belonged to Esparza. Esparza had a long criminal record, including a 1985 aggravated sexual assault conviction for beating a woman with a loaded gun and forcing her to have sex with him. And in 1984, he was convicted of assault causing bodily injury for hitting a man with a metal pipe and a baseball bat. Alyssa's mother, Diana Berlanga, has said she plans to attend Esparza's execution. The day he gets his death, I'll be smiling, Berlanga said earlier this year, according to the San Antonio Express-News. I cannot forgive. I'll tell God, 'Forgive me for not forgiving him.' Esparza would be the 42nd person executed in the United States this year and the 3rd this week. Executions were carried out in Ohio and Florida on Tuesday. A 4th is scheduled for Friday in Idaho. He would be the 13th person executed this year in Texas, which has executed more than 4 times as many people as any other state since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. There are no more executions scheduled in Texas this year. (source: Reuters) OHIO: Lawmakers urged to abolish death penalty A nationally known author and capital punishment opponent urged lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich Tuesday to abolish the death penalty in the state. Sister Helen Prejean also would like the state to place a moratorium on executions while a Supreme Court-initiated task force completes a thorough study of capital punishment. We're going to urge the governor to do this, just so we can take a good long hard look at how justice is really practiced in Ohio and whether or not we need this or not, she said, adding later, We can be safe without killing. Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and author of the book Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States, spoke at the Ohio Statehouse less than an hour after the execution of Reginald Brooks at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. The Cuyahoga County man received the lethal injection as punishment for the 1982 murder of his three sons. Prejean and students from a Cincinnati-area Catholic school traveled to the prison earlier Tuesday to protest the execution. Later in the day, they met with lawmakers to discuss ending capital punishment in Ohio. Prejean said studies in other states that have abolished executions have shown that death sentences are unevenly and potentially unfairly administered. And she said there's a shift away from the death penalty in other states as people learn more about the potential to sentence those convicted of heinous crimes to life in prison without the possibility of parole. We're beginning to shut the death penalty down, Prejean said. Death sentences are on the wane, and now here in Ohio you are beginning a process of ... how can we be safe as a community without having the state imitate the violence. She added, We're a democracy, and if we're not working to change something, we're complicit with it. (source: The Wooster Daily Record) Woman Calls For End To Death Penalty One of the leading national advocates against the death penalty brought her message to Ohio on Tuesday. Sister Helen Prejean travels the world in her efforts to end capital punishment. On Tuesday, she found herself in Ohio with the same goal, 10TV's Chuck Strickler reported. Prejean visited on the same day that Reginald Brooks, 66, died by lethal injection after he killed his three sons in 1982. All of our names are on that gurney this morning because we're a democracy, and if we're not working to change something, we're complicit with it, said Prejean. The outspoken Catholic nun became internationally known in the 1990's for her book Dead Man Walking, which was later made into a movie. They have to know life without parole in Ohio is real, and the people can be safe without our having to imitate the violence and do the killing, Prejean said. Prejean is working to promote the Executive Justice Bill, which would end the death penalty in Ohio. The Ohio Prosecuting Attorney's Association said that it opposes the legislation and believes the death penalty is an effective deterrent to violent crime. (source: Channel 10 TV
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, FLA.
Nov. 8 TEXAS: Death row inmate gets execution stay, amid requests for DNA testingSkinner: How do you reconcile possibly dying for something that you didn't do? For nearly 2 decades, locked away on Texas death row, Hank Skinner has proclaimed that he is not a killer. I think about it every day. How do you reconcile possibly dying for something that you didn't do? Skinner was scheduled to die Wednesday, but late Monday a Texas court granted a stay so his attorneys can pursue more DNA testing. In 1995, a Tarrant County jury found Skinner guilty of beating his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby to death in their panhandle home and stabbing to death her two grown sons. Skinner claimed he was unconscious on the sofa, intoxicated on a mix of vodka and drugs. But, police found his blood at the gruesome crime scene. Prosecutors have maintained through the years, that Skinner is the killer. They have fought repeated requests by Skinner to perform DNA tests on evidence found at the scene, including a rape kit, bloody knives and material under the victim's fingernails. Most recently, Skinner applied for a fourth time for testing under an expanded DNA testing law that took effect in Texas in September. Some lawmakers believe his situation does qualify him for post-conviction DNA tests, but the Attorney General's office has fought the request. Last week, a judge denied the request, but Skinner's lawyers appealed. Everything should be tested, SMU professor, Rick Halperin said. Halperin, who opposes the death penalty believes opponents of the testing don't want any flaws in the system to be revealed. If the evidence raises doubt, it will put the state in the worst possible light. Texas has some of the strongest post-conviction DNA laws in the country. Under the statutes, 45 innocent men have been exonerated. But there have been concerns the system could also be abused by inmates who request too many tests, that may ultimately be meaningless. Even if there is a test it doesn't always produce a result that will exonerate or clear someone accused of a crime, former prosecutor, Toby Shook said. (source: KDAF TV News) Impending executions in Texas date--# under Gov. Perryname--# in Texas since 1982 Nov. 16--239--Guadalupe Esparza---477 Jan. 26--240--Rodrigo Hernandez---47850 % of all Tx. executions carried out under Gov. Perry, since 2001 Feb. 1---241---Donald Newbury--479---more than 50 % of all Tx. executions now carried out under Gov. Perry's tenure Feb. 29--242---George Rivas-480 Mar. 7---243---Keith Thurmond---481 Mar. 28--244---Jesse Hernandez482 (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) OHIO: Appeals court to look at death sentencePanel overturned penalty in ’84 New Concord murder case In another twist in one of Ohio’s most convoluted murder cases, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether John David Stumpf should get the death penalty again for killing a New Concord woman 27 years ago. It is a mixed blessing for Chris Stout, a Dublin man whose mother, Mary Jane Stout, was shot to death during a robbery at her home about 70 miles east of Columbus on May 13, 1984. His father, Norman, was shot and survived but is permanently disabled. Stumpf, 51, will not go free or get a new trial — at least not now. But it also means painful memories will return to haunt Stout and his family, as they do each time there is a hearing or a decision in a case that began when Ronald Reagan was president. In the latest development, the Cincinnati-based federal appeals court on Oct. 26 accepted Attorney General Mike DeWine’s request that the full court reconsider a 2-1 decision made in August by a 6th Circuit panel. After a four-year wait, the panel overturned Stumpf’s death sentence, concluding that his constitutional rights had been violated by a prosecutor who told the jury he was the triggerman in Stout. Now, all available judges will hear the case sometime next year. “I’m glad we’re getting in front of all the judges,” said Stout, a former state prison corrections officer. “I can’t wait to see all of them in the same room to do their job.” Stout has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the courts’ handling of his mother’s murder case. It has been up and down since September 1984, when Stumpf was convicted and sentenced to death. Twenty years later, a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court overturned Stumpf’s conviction and death sentence. A year after that, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision and sent Stumpf’s case back to the appeals court for action. That set the stage for the August decision and, ultimately, the new hearing by the full court. Stumpf’s attorney must file briefs by Dec. 1 and DeWine’s office
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, CALIF., CONN., USA, PENN.
Nov. 1 TEXASnew execution date Jesse Joe Hernandez has been given an execution date for March 28, 2012; it should be considered serious. (sources: TDCJ Rick Halperin) * Forensic Science Panel Recommends Arson Probe The State Fire Marshal's Office and Innocence Project of Texas will review past arson cases to determine whether faulty science could have led to wrongful convictions after the Texas Forensic Science Commission today approved recommendations to create a review program and improve arson investigations in the state. The momentous and long-awaited move was welcomed by the family of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was convicted of killing his three daughters in a 1991 arson fire. He was executed in 2004, and scientists have since discredited the science that was used to cement his arson conviction. It doesn't bring my son back, but I know they couldn't do that, said Willingham's stepmother, Eugenia Willingham. Maybe Todd's name will go down in history as being a part all of this. The New York-based Innocence Project filed a formal complaint with the Texas Forensic Science Commission in 2006 alleging negligence and misconduct in the course of the arson investigations and testimony at the trials of Willingham and Ernest Ray Willis, who was convicted of arson based on the same type of science and was later exonerated. They wanted the commission to find that the State Fire Marshal's Office had erred in its investigation and then require the agency to review its other arson cases where similar practices were used to determine whether mistakes were made that resulted in wrongful convictions. The matter has been a source of heated controversy at the commission through 3 different chairman, inlcudingWilliamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who strenuously objected to the commission's involvement in the case. He publicly sparred with the Innocence Project, which contended he was delaying the case for political purposes. Bradley argued that the commission did not have jurisdiction to investigate the Willingham case, and he asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to issue a ruling on the panel's authority. The Tribune thanks our Supporting Sponsors Gov. Rick Perry appointed the current chairman, Dr. Nizam Peerwani, who is also the Tarrant County medical examiner, after the state Senate this year declined to confirm Bradley's nomination to continue leading the panel. The new program and recommendations issued today follow Abbott's July ruling that severely restricted the commission's jurisdiction. He determined it could not investigate evidence gathered or tested before the commission's 2005 creation. I think the recommendations are proof that the Forensic Science Commission has worked very hard to do their job, said Jeff Blackburn, founder and chief counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas. They have been legally confined by the Attorney General opinion, and I think they're doing the very best they can within the confines of that opinion. Prior to today's meeting, State Fire Marshal Paul Maldonado and members of the Innocence Project of Texas and the Texas Forensic Science Commission convened to discuss the recommendations and how to implement them. In an email, the Innoncence Project congratulated the commission on the program, saying members have reminded the nation that forensic practices must be based on the most current science and that there is an ethical duty to correct when it is clear that the state and its forensic practitioners have unjustly convicted someone. Now, a new stage of work begins that will require time and cooperation to conduct an exhaustive review of previous arson cases. But Blackburn said with the Fire Marshal's involvement, all the pieces are falling into place. The commission's recommendations include the creation of a questionnaire for inmates convicted of arson to see if their cases are worth reviewing. The panel also recommended a review of death certificates in cases where the murder charge is listed as arson. The recommendations also include new certification criteria for expert witnesses, and additional rules and regulations aimed at preventing the use of outdated science and improving the quality of testimony and analysis. Since his 2004 execution, Willingham's family has continued a fight to prove his innocence. Willingham's cousin, Patricia Ann Willingham-Cox, thanked the commission for its work. Have we gotten justice for Todd in the state of Texas? No, not yet, but we will, Cox said. Has Todd's death effected needed change? Yes. (source: Texas Tribune) * Perry in glare over thorny death penalty Texas governor and Republican White House hopeful Rick Perry has overseen more executions than any other US governor and is proud of it - but his decision on one case will likely spark controversy. Convicted triple murderer Hank Skinner is
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARK., S. DAK., ALA., USA
July 22 TEXASnew execution date Frank Garcia has received a new execution date for October 27; it should be considered serious (sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice Rick Halperin) * Muslim's compassion fails to halt execution Sometimes the best Christians are the ones who pray to Allah. Deep in the heart of the Christian republic of Texas, a Muslim immigrant from Bangladesh named Rais Bhuiyan waged a futile legal battle to spare the life of the man who tried to kill him a decade ago. Within days of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mark Stroman, addicted to hate and violence, strolled into the gas station where Mr. Bhuiyan worked. Mr. Stroman asked the naturalized American citizen where he was from. That's a strange question to ask in a robbery, Mr. Bhuiyan told BBC News this week, recalling the event. As soon as I said 'Excuse me?' I heard an explosion and felt the sensation of a million bees stinging my face. Mr. Bhuiyan lost his right eye when Mr. Stroman sprayed his face with shotgun pellets. For all of his agony, Mr. Bhuiyan was lucky. He had enough composure to play dead so that he wouldn't have to experience death that day. 2 other victims of Mr. Stroman's wrath weren't as fortunate. Waqar Hasan, a Muslim immigrant born in Pakistan, and Vasudev Patel, a Hindu immigrant born in India, were murdered by Mr. Stroman during his rampage. For his part, Mr. Stroman didn't need much of an excuse to go on a killing spree in Dallas. As a white nationalist, retaliating for Sept. 11 terrorism provided as good a cover for murdering Muslims as any. When the skinhead was captured, he put on a show for the television cameras. He wanted folks tuning in for their daily fix of sex and violence at 6 and 11 p.m. to know that he had done what he did for them. It didn't take long for the self-proclaimed Arab-slayer to be convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced to death. As Mr. Stroman's day of reckoning approached, Mr. Bhuiyan, one-eyed with a face full of shotgun pellets that can never be removed, finally went on a pilgrimage to Mecca last year. Mr. Bhuiyan was never a vengeful man, but he had initially accepted the jury's verdict on his attacker as just. After all, Mr. Stroman's fate had been decided by his fellow Christians. Who was he to argue with their judgment? But during the hajj, Mr. Bhuiyan encountered a ray of light from his own faith he had not expected. If I can forgive my offender who tried to take my life, he told BBC News, we can all work together to forgive each other and move forward and take a new narrative on the 10th anniversary of 11 September. When he returned to America, Mr. Bhuiyan asked the state of Texas, renowned for the religiosity of its governors and the frequency with which they executed their prisoners, to turn the other cheek, just as he had. His was the cheek that was full of pellets, he reminded them. Mr. Bhuiyan also contacted Mr. Stroman to begin the process of reconciliation that would hasten his own healing. Though they never met, they exchanged letters and grew to respect each other as human beings made in the image of God. They began to see each other as people worthy of redemption before God. The state was not interested in Mr. Bhuiyan's alien idea of mercy. Such an odd notion of forgiveness sounds a little too much like Sharia law to the average Texas Christian. Even when Mr. Stroman repented of the evil things he had done and renounced his previous life as a white racist, it was not sufficient reason to halt the process accompanying his execution. Mr. Bhuiyan started an online petition to save Mr. Stroman's life. When that didn't work, he filed suit to stop his former assailant's execution on the grounds that his rights as a victim were being violated. He argued that if his attacker was taken from him before the reconciliation process was complete, then that was as much a denial of justice as the original attack. That's not the kind of logic that's respected in Texas or anywhere else in America. A federal judge ordered that the execution by lethal injection go forward. Mr. Stroman was grateful for Mr. Bhuiyan's attempt to save his life, but resigned to his fate. It is due to Rais' message of forgiveness that I am more content now than I have ever been, he told a reporter. God bless America. God bless everyone, he said on the death gurney. Let's do this damn thing. Though his partner in forgiveness is dead, Mr. Bhuiyan continues to take the mission of reconciliation seriously. Maybe one day he'll find a Christian or two in Texas who take it seriously, too. (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Condemned Waco college student loses court appeal A Waco college student sent to death row for fatally shooting and robbing a fellow student 9 years ago outside Bryan has lost an appeal at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, moving him a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, FLA.
July 22 TEXAS/CONNECTICUT: Dallas fugitives agree to return to face possible death penalty 2 young men, accused of killing a Dallas store owner over 2 boxes of onions and her uneaten lunch earlier this month, waived extradition back to Texas Friday where they could face the death penalty for the crime. Lamarcus Mathis, 19, and a 17-year-old youth, whose name is being withheld by the Connecticut Post because of his age, both told Superior Court Judge Earl Richards they will not oppose being returned to Texas during. Both are charged with capital murder in Texas. Police said the 17-year old youth, who is originally from Connecticut, has an outstanding arrest warrant from Meriden but wouldn't disclose the nature of that warrant. The 2 were arrested by members of the U.S. Marshal Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force at an apartment house on Grand Street here after arriving in the city by bus from Dallas. They had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt and a reward had been offered for their arrest. According to Dallas police, on July 3, the duo allegedly killed 64-year-old Jin Kim Ha in the grocery store that she owned with her husband. Police said both men were tied to the murder from the store's surveillance camera. In the video, police said Ha is seen with her husband locking the fence in front of the convenience store at East Illinois Avenue and Overton Road when the 2 suspects drive up to the store. When Jin Ha and her husband see the men, they crouch down next to their Honda minivan. A man who police say is Mathis snatches a box Ha is carrying -- which contained uneaten portions of her lunch and some onions -- while a man police believe to be Williams holds a gun in each hand and shoots at the couple. While one man is running away with the box, the other shoots at Ha one more time. Ha, wounded, can be seen struggling to get back on her feet. She collapses near the back of her car in the arms of her husband. She died at Baylor University Medical Center. (source: Connecticut Post) OHIO: Anthony Sowell Found Guilty, Faces Death Penalty Anthony Sowell was found guilty today by a jury for aggravated murder and a host of other charges stemming from the deaths of 11 women at his Imperial Avenue house. It took 15 hours for the jury to come to a decision. This really is just the beginning, however. As the PD reminds us, Sowell faces the death penalty and the mitigation phase of this circus begins soon. Sowell's lawyers will obviously argue he should not be killed. The same jury that came back with this verdict will decide Sowell's ultimate fate. Judge Ambrose will take their recommendation and decide a sentence, but he cannot condemn Sowell to death unless the jury decides on that punishment. Eventually, it will be over and some measure of closure can be brought to the families of the victims. Once again, RIP: Telacia Fortson, Diane Turner, Janice Webb, Nancy Cobbs, Tonia Carmichael, Tishana Culver, Leshanda Long, Crystal Dozier, Amelda Hunter, Michelle Mason and Kim Yvette Smith. (source: Cleveland Scene Weekly) FLORIDA: For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF): http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa22511.pdf UA 225/11Issue Date: 22 July 2011Country: USA (Florida) FLORIDA EXECUTION SET 33 YEARS AFTER CRIME Manuel Valle, a Cuban national, is due to be executed in Florida on 2 August. He was convicted of the murder of a police officer in 1978. He was 27 years old when first sent to death row. He is now 61. He is being denied access to a meaningful clemency process. On 2 April 1978, Officer Louis Peña of the Coral Gables Police Department in Miami, Florida, was shot dead after stopping Manuel Valle and Felix Ruiz in their car. Officer Gary Spell, who arrived at the scene separately, testified that Manuel Valle had shot Officer Peña and then fired two shots at Officer Spell. Manuel Valle was charged with murder and attempted murder. Felix Ruiz was charged as an accessory and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Manuel Valle was sentenced to death in May 1978. In 1981, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that his lawyer had been prevented from adequately preparing a defense due to the speed with which the case had been brought to trial. At a new trial in 1981, Manuel Valle was again sentenced to death, but this sentence was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1986. In 1988, a new jury voted by eight to four that Manual Valle be sentenced to death. On 30 June 2011, Governor Rick Scott signed a death warrant in Manuel Valle’s case setting his execution date. The warrant stated that executive clemency was not appropriate. The state has said that a clemency process has been held, but the only information on any such process found by Manuel Valle’s current lawyers is a request made in 1992 by the then-Governor Lawton Chiles that a clemency investigation be conducted. Manuel
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA, S.C., FLA.
Dec. 9 TEXAS: Man sought in double slaying arrested A capital murder suspect wanted in the slayings of 2 people last week on the Northeast Side has been arrested. More arrests could be made in the case. Police arrested 24-year-old Juan Gomez just before 1 a.m. in a house on Lennon Avenue. According to police, Gomez shot and killed 2 men who came to the tattoo parlor where he worked in the 3900 block of Interstate 10 East on Thursday night. The victims, Steven Bustamante and Juan Alvarez, were slain at the tattoo shop then dumped in the 6000 block of Clematis Trail. 2 plumbers discovered the bodies. Investigators said the slayings were drug related. One of the victim's vehicles was recovered at an H-E-B in the 6500 block of FM 78. (source: San Antonio Express-News) OHIO: Doctor accused of poisoning wife stops fighting extradition, will return to Ohio to face charges A Gates Mills doctor who fled the country after he was accused of killing his wife with cyanide has given up his fight to avoid extradition and will return to Cleveland to stand trial. Yazeed Essa, 40, is charged with aggravated murder in the slaying of his wife, Rosemarie, on Feb. 24, 2005. He could be returned from Cyprus by the end of the month, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Monday. That's if there are no hitches, Mason said. In this case, there have been hitches at every step. Essa has been a fugitive since shortly after his 38-year-old wife's death. He had been fighting his return since October 2006, when he was arrested after flying from Beirut, Lebanon, to Cyprus. Officials of the Mediterranean island accused him of using fake travel documents. An attorney for Essa's family in Cleveland, Mark Marein, declined to comment Monday. An Associated Press story quoted Essa's attorney in Cyprus as saying prosecutors made a plea agreement with Essa that involved dropping charges against family members accused of theft in exchange for his return to Cleveland. Prosecutors suspect Essa's siblings took money from companies they owned in order to help Essa while he was on the run. Mason and attorneys for Essa's brother and sister said no such agreement exists. The cases against Firas Essa of Hudson and Runa Ighneim of Chester Township are pending in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Mason said he believes Yazeed Essa decided to drop his extradition battle because he was at the end of his rope on appeals. He took it as far as he could go. Initially, Essa fought his return on the grounds that he could face the death penalty if convicted for the slaying. Cyprus won't extradite suspects who face the death penalty. Mason stressed again Monday that he wouldn't bring death-penalty charges. The reason: Essa is not eligible under Ohio law. The death penalty is reserved for those convicted of aggravated murder with certain specifications, such as killing a child, a witness or a police officer. Prosecutors also can seek it against someone who killed someone while committing certain felonies or attempting to escape after a crime. The maximum sentence that Essa faces is life in prison, with the chance of parole after at least 20 years. Essa is a former emergency room doctor at Akron General Hospital. He is accused of poisoning his wife of 5 years by giving her cyanide. Authorities said he substituted the cyanide for calcium, which Essa had urged his wife to take. Dominic DiPuccio, Rosemarie Essa's brother and the guardian of her two children, Armand and Lena, could not be reached for comment. (source: Plain Dealer) USA: 5 Charged in 9/11 Attacks Seek to Plead Guilty The 5 Guantnamo detainees charged with coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks told a military judge on Monday that they wanted to confess in full, a move that seemed to challenge the government to put them to death. The request, which was the result of hours of private meetings among the detainees, appeared intended to undercut the governments plan for a high-profile trial while drawing international attention to what some of the 5 men have said was a desire for martyrdom. But the military judge, Col. Stephen R. Henley of the Army, said a number of legal questions about how the commissions are to deal with capital cases had to be resolved before guilty pleas could be accepted. The case is likely to remain in limbo for weeks or months, presenting the Obama administration with a new issue involving detainees at the naval base at Guantnamo Bay to resolve when it takes office next month. At the start of what had been listed as routine proceedings Monday, Judge Henley said he had received a written statement from the five men dated Nov. 4 saying they planned to stop filing legal motions and to announce our confessions to plea in full. Speaking in what has become a familiar high-pitched tone in the cavernous courtroom here, the most prominent of the 5, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, said, we don't want to waste our time with motions. All of you are
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ARK.
Nov. 4 TEXAS: Reflections on a Gathering of 20 Death Row Exonerees It was 4:00 a.m. last Friday when I set out for Conroe, Texas, home of both the Texas state flag and death row exoneree Clarence Brandley. Three hours later, I met Clarence outside the home of his 93-year-old mother as the sun was rising and an unfettered horse grazed on a neighbors lawn. Due to the current economy, Mr. Brandley's job had been cut and his Houston home was foreclosed upon before his job was restored. He now commutes 1 hours each way to work and lives in the home where he was born and the town where he worked as a school custodian before being wrongfully accused of the rape and murder a high school co-ed in 1981. 9 years later, he was exonerated. He has not received any compensation for his wrongful imprisonment, but is still paying child support for the 9 years he was incarcerated. Clarence would normally have rented a car in Conroe to attend the Witness to Innocence (WTI) training in Austin. WTI is an organization of those exonerated from death row. Each year, a Tools Gathering is held where these men come together as a community, share experiences, teach each other how to survive, welcome the newly exonerated and learn tools to help spread their unique message. But on Thursday the local car rental agency refused to accept a debit card from Clarence. He was scheduled to represent Texas exonerees at the WTI press conference at the state capital on Friday afternoon. Fortunately, as Public Education Associate of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, I was attending the training as support staff for WTI and could make the drive to get him to the training in time. We went to stop at a restaurant on the way back to Austin but were deterred from patronizing the establishment by the Confederate flags decorating the entrance. We settled for cranberry juice from a gas station. It was an inspiring moment when the press conference began. Behind the podium stood 17 men and seated at the speakers table were Ray Krone, WTIs Director of Communications and Training, who was exonerated by DNA in 2002 from a 1992 sentence of death; Clarence Brandley; and Juan Melendez, who served over 17 years on Floridas death row. All together, 20 exonerees were gathered beneath the seal of the State of Texas. Additional speakers included Sam Millsap, former prosecutor of Bexar County, Texas; Texas Representative Elliott Naishtat, who is introducing legislation to give the governor the authority to enact a moratorium on executions; and the founding Executive Director of WTI, Kurt Rosenberg. Mr. Millsap prosecuted Ruben Cantu, who was executed in 1993. Mr. Millsap now accepts responsibility for what he believes to be the execution of an innocent man, and thinks the death penalty is broken and must be ended. When our 3 days together were ending, the exonerated, their loved ones, and staff gathered in a closing circle. We were asked to share 2 words that represented the time in Austin. I could only say Holy Ground, and take off my shoes in recognition of how special the place I shared with them was for me. Being in that room with these men and their loved ones was a humbling experience. Their willingness to work to end the death penalty in spite of the nightmarish memories of death row are gifts that these exonerees give to the abolition movement. They share their experiences in the hope that others will not have to face what they did. It was a blessing to be allowed to spend time with each of them. You can also watch You Tube videos of the WTI event, and read more about the Witness to Innocence press conference, which called for a study of capital punishment in Texas and the imposition of a moratorium on executions in the most active killing state in America. Texas is in the midst of executing 10 individuals in a 30-day period a moratorium cant happen soon enough. (source: Jack Payden-Travers; ACLU: Blog of Rights) OHIO: Prosecutors To Seek Death Penalty In East 87th Street Fire In Cleveland, there is a new development in the East 87th Street arson fire that killed 9 people. NewsChannel5 investigator Ron Regan learned that prosecutors will seek the death penalty against 24-year-old Antun Lewis. Lewis was indicted in federal court last month. The case was sent to the attorney general's office in Washington for a ruling on the death penalty request. Lewis will not go on trial until the death penalty request is resolved. Federal prosecutors said Lewis broke into the East 87th Street home 3 years ago, doused it with gas and set it on fire, killing a woman and 8 children inside. Members of Lewis' family said he's innocent and in a recent letter to the Associated Press, Lewis said he looked out for the children who died in that fire. He also said he would never harm the children he cared so much about. Some of the victims' family members, however, said that's what they would expect him to say. (source: NewsNet 5) ARKANSAS:
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO
Oct. 30 TEXASexecution Homeless man executed for killing helpful woman Proclaiming his innocence, condemned prisoner Gregory Wright was executed Thursday evening for the fatal stabbing and robbery of a Dallas-area woman who tried to help him when he was homeless. There's been a lot of confusion who done this, Wright said from the death chamber gurney. Then, as he has for years, he declared a fellow homeless man, John Adams, was responsible for the murder of Donna Vick. I never sold anything to anyone. My only act or involvement was not telling on him. John Adams was the one that killed Donna Vick. The evidence proves that. ... I was in the bathroom when he attacked. I ran into the bedroom. By the time I came in, when I tried to help her with first aid it was too late. He said an innocent man was being put to death and said he loved his family. I'll be waiting on y'all. I am finished talking. 9 minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow, he was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. CDT. Wright, 42, was 1 of 2 homeless men convicted of killing Donna Duncan Vick, 52, at her home in DeSoto, just south of Dallas, in 1997. The woman was known for helping the needy and had given Wright food, clothing and money after he said she spotted him on a street corner holding a cardboard sign offering to work for food. Wright, an out of work truck driver, maintained he was innocent of the killing and blamed it on a fellow homeless man, John Adams. Adams was tried separately and also was convicted and sentenced to death. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Wright less than an hour before he was scheduled to be taken to the Texas death chamber. Other federal courts had rejected similar appeals and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also refused a clemency request for Wright on a 7-0 vote Wednesday. The truth doesn't matter, Wright told The Associated Press recently from a visiting cage outside death row, saying he was stunned at the outcome of his 1998 trial in Dallas. I couldn't believe what was happening. I'm very upset at a number of different people. I don't blame the legal system. I blame individuals running the legal system. ... I am innocent. Adams, who implicated Wright as the killer, earlier this year recanted his statement against Wright. Then at a court hearing last month, he reversed his recantation. The co-defendant has been a bit erratic, Meg Penrose, one of Wright's lawyers, said Thursday. She said she understood demands for an execution in the case but I thought justice demanded we executed the right person. I guess there's a difference of emphasis, Penrose said. I'd rather wait 30 years and make sure we have the proper individual executed than wait 12 and hedge our bets. I don't like the rush to review that we're at. A person who is innocent is rushed to the gurney and is executed. New DNA tests requested by Wright's lawyers, which put off Wright's execution initially scheduled for last month, on the whole, confirmed Wright's guilt, state attorneys told the appeals courts in their arguments. Penrose contended the tests were ambiguous. At Wright's trial, jurors were told that after the killing, the 2 men packed up items from inside the house, drove off in Vick's car and traded the loot for crack cocaine. A day and a half later, Adams turned himself in to police, implicated Wright, directed officers to Vick's home and helped in the recovery of her car. DNA tests of blood on the steering wheel of the car was shown to belong to Wright. His bloody fingerprint also was found on a pillowcase on her bed. Wright's lawyers disputed the accuracy of the fingerprint evidence. From death row, Wright refused to talk about specifics of the crime, saying only that it stemmed from an argument between Vick and Adams over Adams' smoking. This should have been finished long ago because there's no question about his guilt and there should be no question about the jury's verdict either, said Greg Davis, who prosecuted Wright. He and Adams had been living on the streets together. So what he does, he talks his way into the victim's home and then he gets Adams in there, too. Both them actually stabbed her to death. Wright becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, the 2nd this week and the 419th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982. Wright becomes the 180th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. 6 more men are set to die in November; scheduled to die next is Elkie Taylor, 47, on Nov. 6. Taylor was condemned for strangling a 65-year-old Fort Worth man in 1993 with 2 wire coat hangers and then leading police on a four-hour chase in a stolen 18-wheeler. Authorities said the robbery and murder of Otis Flake at Flake's Fort Worth home was the second killing linked to Taylor over an 11-day period. Wright becomes the 30th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1129th
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, MONT.
Oct. 16 TEXAS---execution Killer in triple slaying executed Thursday A San Antonio street gangster who gunned down 3 people in the holdup of a Korean restaurant more than 6 years ago was executed Thursday evening. Kevin Watts told friends he was thankful for their love and support. For everybody incarcerated, y'all keep your heads up, he said. He told them to stay strong and keep fighting. I'm out of here, man. I'm gone. Keep me in your hearts, he said. As the lethal drugs began flowing, Watts said, Can I say something? I'm dying but. At that point, he began snoring and stopped breathing a moment later. At 6:17 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead. No friends or relatives of any of the victims attended the execution. Watts, 27, confessed to the execution-style shootings where the newlywed wife of one of the victims also was abducted and raped. Earlier this year, returning to the Bexar County court where a jury convicted him of capital murder and decided he should die, Watts angrily confronted the judge scheduling his execution with an obscenity-laced tirade complaining about a racist justice system. The judge twice had to order him removed from the courtroom. Watts' appeals had exhausted his appeals. Without the help of his lawyer, John Economidy, he filed a clemency request with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles that was rejected. Also without his lawyer's knowledge, he filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court contending mental retardation should make him ineligible for execution, but Economidy said there was no evidence to support the claim and the court was returning the motion without even considering it. Watts walked into the Sam Won Gardens restaurant the morning of March 1, 2002, after a night of drinking and drugs and demanded money. He ordered manager Hak Po Kim, 30, and cooks Yan Tzu Banks, 52, and Chae Sun Shook, 59, to kneel on the kitchen floor and face a wall. Then he shot each of them in the head. He forced Kim's wife of 2 months to retrieve the wallet and keys from her dying husband, grabbed about $100 from a cash register, then drove off with her in Kim's SUV. The truck was spotted at a nearby apartment complex parking lot and police arrested Watts about 3 hours after the shootings. He had tried to flee from officers with Kim's wife by ramming the truck into 2 patrol cars. He was caught with a victim by the police as he's trying to escape and he had the murder weapon literally tied around his neck, Bill Pennington, the Bexar County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Watts, said. The abducted woman identified him during the guilt-innocence portion of his trial as the gunman at the family's restaurant. Then at the punishment phase of the trial, she testified how she was forced at gunpoint to perform sex acts. My intent was to put food on the table, get some money, go home and live happily ever after, Watts, in a death row interview last week, said of the robbery. The situation gets out of control and one thing leads to another. When I woke up in the county jail, I said to myself: 'I ain't getting out.' Watts was from San Jose, Calif. He said when he was about 14 his mother tried to get him away from gangs there and moved him to San Antonio to live with an aunt. I came to Texas and I guess you could say I picked up where I left off with the gangs, he said. Watts' record included misdemeanor convictions for evading arrest, criminal mischief, trespassing, marijuana possession and driving while intoxicated. He also had a weapons case against him as a 16-year-old. He dropped out of San Antonio's Theodore Roosevelt High School in the 9th grade. School was boring, he said. The teacher wasn't into it. I'm not into it. I got money on my mind. I want to get high, smoke some weed, make some money, be with the homies. So I became a full-time participant in the street life. At the time of the shootings, he had an infant daughter. The night before the slayings, witnesses said he'd been drinking thug passion, a champagne and cognac drink made famous by slain gangster rap singer Tupac Shakur, snorting cocaine and taking numerous pills. Watts becomes the 11th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 416th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Watts becomes the 177th inmate in the state to be executed since Rick Perry became governor in 2001. 4 more executions are scheduled in Texas before the end of the month, and 6 more are set for November. On Tuesday, Joseph Ries, 29, is the 1st of 2 prisoners set to die next week. He was convicted of breaking into a rural home in Hopkins County in northeast Texas and fatally shooting and taking the car of Robert Ratliff, 64, who was asleep. Watts becomes the 27th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1126th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press Rick Halperin) OHIO: Death row inmate
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, GA., S.C., ARK.
Oct. 14 TEXAS: Scrutiny called for in cases that lead to death penaltyDA candidates Bradford, Lykos disagree on how it should be done The candidates for Harris County district attorney showed differences in their approach to the death penalty Monday, with Democrat C.O. Bradford saying that the county and state have sent far too many people to death row. Bradford, the former Houston police chief, and Republican Pat Lykos, a former judge, support the death penalty but both say the next district attorney should evaluate each capital murder case more carefully than in the past before seeking execution as the punishment. While Lykos said Monday that the decision to seek the death penalty is not a statistical game, Bradford said Texas criminals don't deserve to die at any greater rate than other criminals across America. The contenders in the Nov. 4 election spoke together to the Chronicle editorial board. Harris County has sent more convicted killers to death row than any state except its own, Texas. Bradford, however, said prosecutors should seek the death penalty only as a last resort, partly because legitimate doubts have been raised about the dependability of evidence in some cases, and the mental capacity of the murderers in others. I am simply saying we (currently) seek the death penalty in some cases as a first resort as opposed to a last resort, he remarked. Lykos said she disagreed with Bradford's wording. Every case rises and falls on its own merit, she said. You have to have the vetting and the sifting of it, and the investigation of it. In general, state law allows for the death penalty to be sought when a killing is carried out in conjunction with another felony or in narrow instances, such as when the victim is a police officer. However, the law leaves prosecutors leeway to decide whether to ask a jury for a death sentence. Bradford said he was not implying that he would consider the rate at which the sentence is meted out in Harris County. I will consult with the (prosecutor) assigned the case, the investigators, the victim's survivors and also make a determination, 'Is this person salvageable? Is there any value left to society? What threat do they pose to this community?' Lykos, pointing out that as a judge she signed execution warrants against inmates convicted by juries, said: It's something you have to give the most profound consideration. Lykos said some counties decide whether to pursue the death penalty based on how much such a painstaking prosecution would cost the taxpayers, and that's wrong. The election winner will take over from interim District Attorney Kenneth Magidson, who was selected by Gov. Rick Perry after Chuck Rosenthal resigned as the elected officeholder. (source: Houston Chronicle) OHIOimpending execution Inmate who says he's too fat to die to be executed A double murderer who says he's too fat to be executed humanely has passed a pre-execution exam and is cleared to receive a lethal injection Tuesday. Richard Cooey, 41, was given a visual examination by the state when he arrived at the death house on Monday, and officials found nothing that should cause a problem in delivering the deadly chemicals. The 5-foot-7, 267-pound Cooey had tried to avoid execution by arguing that his obesity would prevent humane lethal injection because viable veins in his arms are hard to find. A more detailed examination was to be conducted Tuesday morning, when he is scheduled to die for killing 2 college students in 1986. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied 1 of 2 pending appeals to stop the execution. It turned down without comment Cooey's claim that his obesity was a bar to humane lethal injection. The argument also had been rejected by a federal appeals court in Cincinnati and the Ohio Supreme Court, with both courts ruling that he missed a deadline for filing appeals. Cooey was still waiting for a ruling on his appeal of the Ohio Supreme Court's dismissal Monday of his complaint that the state's protocol for lethal injection could cause an agonizing and painful death. He wanted the state to use a single drug rather than a 3-drug combination, and asked for a stay of execution pending a hearing on that motion. Cooey is 75 pounds heavier than when he went to death row the result of prison food and 23-hour-a-day confinement, his lawyers said. They also argued that a migraine medicine prescribed by a prison physician could reduce the effect of the anesthetic used as part of the 3-drug lethal injection. They claimed that Ohio has a history of botched executions. The last Ohio inmate to be executed was Christopher Newton who was similar in size to Cooey in May 2007. The execution team had trouble putting IVs in his arm, delaying his execution nearly 2 hours. There were similar problems in the execution of another inmate in 2006. Cooey made an earlier trip to the death house. But a U.S. District Court judge intervened hours before his
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, S.C., ILl., S.DAK.
Oct. 13 TEXAS: DNA exonerations cast doubt on eyewitnesses Newspaper: Faulty eyewitness testimony helped secure wrongful convictions Dallas County leads the nation in DNA exonerations All but 5 faulty convictions occurred under ex-District Attorney Henry Wade We know that eyewitness identification is faulty, current prosecutor says Faulty eyewitness testimony that helped secure wrongful convictions in Dallas County, which leads the nation in DNA exonerations, sent the innocent to prison as police and prosecutors ignored safeguards and built cases with flimsy corroboration, according to a newspaper investigation. Dallas County D.A. Craig Watkins wants to prosecute any prosecutors who hide evidence. 1 of 2 Victims pressured to pick suspects, the use of suggestive lineup procedures and evidence withheld to preserve shaky identifications are former practices discovered by The Dallas Morning News in an eight-month review of previously closed Dallas County case files. The reliance on witness accounts has resulted in innocent men sent to prison and taxpayers spending more than $3 million in compensation and incarceration in Dallas County on wrongfully convicted suspects, according to the report, to be published Sunday. Eyewitness testimony was gold, said Kevin Brooks, who heads the district attorney's felony trial bureau. If the witness said they saw it, they saw it. In all but 1 of the 19 convictions resulting in DNA exonerations, the newspaper reported, police and prosecutors built their case on eyewitness accounts, even though they knew such testimony can be fatally flawed. No one has been charged with lying or disciplined for incompetence or negligence in connection with the exonerations. All but five occurred under the late District Attorney Henry Wade, who served from 1951 to 1986 and ran an office marked by take-no-prisoners trial tactics, conviction rates that topped 90 % and record-length punishments. No one ever thought a 1-eyewitness case was good, said Joe Kendall, a prosecutor under Wade from 1980 to 1982. But if you had a 1-eyewitness case, and it was a rape case, and the victim said that's the one, you couldn't dismiss. Current prosecutor Craig Watkins, the state's first elected black district attorney, said he is trying to instill in his prosecutors the need to be more skeptical and to seek corroboration. We know that eyewitness identification is faulty, Watkins said. (source: Associated Press) OHIOimpending execution 'Too Fat' Inmate Faces Execution Tuesday Time is running out for an Ohio inmate who claims he is too fat to be executed. At 5 feet 7 inches tall, 267-pound Richard Cooey claimed his weight will inhibit doctors from finding a suitable vein for lethal injection. Cooey, who is scheduled for execution Tuesday, was denied clemency last week by Governor Ted Strickland and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 22 years ago, Cooey was convicted of the robbery, rape and murder of 2 Akron students, 20-year-old Dawn McCreery and 21-year-old Wendy Offredo, after he and another man offered to help the women with a broken windshield on the side of I-77 in Akron. While on death row, Cooey and his attorneys have made a number of unsuccessful attempts to spare his life, including claims that his weight and his migraine medicine would both interfere with the lethal injection process. Cooey, 41, will be put to death by lethal injection tomorrow. (source: NBC News) SOUTH CAROLINA: Jury selection to begin in death-penalty case Jury selection is set to begin in the death-penalty trial of a 27-year-old man accused of beating a Spartanburg County couple to death with a hammer last year. Andres Tony Torres faces charges of murder, armed robbery, burglary, attempting to burn and 1st-degree criminal sexual conduct. He is accused of attacking 61-year-old Charles Ray Emery and 59-year-old Mary Ann Emery with a hammer as they slept in their Drayton home in May 2007. Torres is also accused of trying to burn down their house by dousing it with gasoline and turning on the oven before stealing the couple's van, and of raping Mary Ann Emery before killing the couple. The Herald-Journal of Spartanburg reports that jury selection will begin Monday. (source: Associated Press) ILLINOIS: Green for State's Attorney Opposes Death Penalty With just 3 weeks until the election, a little known candidate for Cook County State's Attorney is trying to get his message out. Even within the Cook County State's Attorney's office, there are people who stare at you blankly if you mention Thomas O'Brien. He's one of 1,600 people who work in the office and he's running as the green party candidate to replace Dick Devine. His big issue is the death penalty. Democrat Anita Alvarez and Republican Tony Peraica have both said they would seek it in appropriate cases. O'Brien disagrees. O'BRIEN: Everybody has authority in our weighted system, the legislature, the executive, the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, N.C., N, MEX., USA
Aug. 18 TEXAS: Confessed killer of 5 loses death sentence appeal A Tarrant County man who confessed to killing five relatives has lost a federal court appeal of his conviction for fatally shooting his 2 stepchildren while they slept. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholds the conviction of Terry Lee Hankins and moves him a step closer to execution for the 2001 slayings of Kevin Galley, 12, and Ashley Mason, 11. Their bodies, and the body of their mother, 34-year-old Tammy Hankins, were found in their mobile home in Mansfield, about 20 miles southeast of Fort Worth. After Hankins was arrested in August 2001, he told police where to find the decomposing bodies of his father and half-sister, with whom he had a child and was expecting another. He said he fatally shot Earnie Hankins, 55, and bludgeoned Pearl Sissy Sevenstar, 20, in the fall of 2000. According to court documents, he lied about his sister's whereabouts, saying he had sent her to a home for pregnant mentally-challenged women. However, he had stored her body in a plastic ice chest, then hid it in a car at his father's auto shop. Court documents also said he told people his father had moved out of state when in fact his father's mummified remains were in his trailer surrounded by air fresheners. The gruesome facts adduced in this case will not be recounted here in full, the 5th Circuit opinion, posted late Friday, said. Suffice it to say, the state produced overwhelming evidence at the guilt phase of the trial establishing that (Hankins) killed his wife ... and her two children. ... There was also evidence that (Hankins) engaged in sexual activity with and around the dead bodies. In his appeal, Hankins, 33, who worked as an auto mechanic in Arlington, argued he should be allowed to pursue appeals that his legal help at his trial was deficient for failing to adequately show the jury of his abusive childhood. His appeal also sought what's known as a certificate of appealability to raise questions about jury instructions, trial procedures related to mitigating evidence and the legality of the state's lethal injection process. The New Orleans-based court rejected all the claims. In a diary police found after Hankins' arrest, he wrote that he had become a non-caring monster and rambled about his troubled childhood with a divorced inattentive father and 2 stepmothers who molested him and taught him sex acts. He was tried only on the deaths of his 2 stepchildren, who were shot in the head while they slept. A Tarrant County jury deliberated less than 30 minutes before convicting him then deliberated less than 50 minutes before deciding on the death penalty. At his trial, defense attorneys had argued for a life sentence although they acknowledged afterward the evidence made the death penalty a foregone conclusion. In its ruling, the 5th Circuit said sufficient mitigating evidence detailing Hankins' abusive childhood was presented at his trial and that additional evidence on these issues would not have made a difference. The court also said if his lawyers had called on Hankins to testify it would have opened him up to damaging cross examination about his numerous, revolting violent criminal acts. Hankins was arrested a day after the bodies of his wife and stepchildren were found. He had held off police for 4 hours in a standoff at his girlfriend's apartment in Arlington. After his arrest, he told authorities about his stepsister, who had been killed 10 months earlier. Hankins does not have an execution date. (source: Associated Press) *** Possible Death Penalty for Aryan Brotherhood Member The US Attorney's office is seeking the death penalty for a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Donald Taylor is accused of shooting and killing an elderly rancher in Roosevelt county on 4th of July back in 2005. Taylor is charged with the murder of Jimmy Bo Chunn of Causay. Taylor is one of 19 Aryan Brotherhood members charged last year in 3 separate indictments. He's the only one facing the federal death penalty. (source: KFDA News) New Punishment Trial For Central Texas Man Once On Death Row Rescheduled The new punishment trial of a Mclennan County man once on death row for killing his wife's parents and brother has been delayed. The new sentencing trial for Billy Wayne Coble was scheduled to begin Tuesday. But court officials pushed back the date to next Monday because only 11 jurors have been selected so far. Coble was sentenced to die in 1990 for fatally shooting his wife's parents and her brother. A Waco police sergeant at their homes in Axtell. A Federal Appeals Court last year threw out Coble's death sentence saying it was unconstitutional because the law had changed since his conviction. (source: KCEN TV news) OHIO: Defense: Ohio mother didn't kill baby in microwave A defense attorney in Ohio says it wasn't the mother, but someone else who killed a month-old baby by burning
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, CALIF., OKLA.
May 23 TEXAS: Quintero juror 'outraged' over killer's life sentence A juror who advocated executing Juan Leonardo Quintero for murdering a Houston policeman blasted her fellow jurors who sentenced the Mexican national to life without parole. In an emotional telephone interview today, Cypress secretary Cindy Bradford, 44, called for a change in state law that requires only 10 jurors to agree to a life-without-parole sentence. If it takes a unanimous 12-juror vote for the death sentence, she said, it should be unanimous for life without parole. Jurors deliberated about 10 hours this week before sentencing Quintero to prison for the 2006 murder of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson. Johnson was shot 7 times as he filled out paperwork after stopping Quintero for a traffic violation. Bradford said she and 1 other juror supported a death sentence. She did not name that juror. I'm as outraged as anyone else about this, Bradford said. . . .We're telling everyone that you can enter this country illegally, plead guilty to indecency with a child, get deported, come back anyway, execute a police officer and that's OK. Now we get to take care of him for the rest of his natural life, and I personally have a problem with that. Bradford took exception to the argument of fellow jurors, who, she said, suggested police officers are aware of the risks of their profession. It's like Johnson somehow deserved to get what he got. . . .I beg to differ, Bradford said. They don't sign up to be assassinated. After the jury's decision to spare Quintero's life was announced, juror Letty Burkholder of Houston said she felt the killer's life had potential. He's loved by many of his family and friends, she told the media, and that was number one. Quintero, in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, this week said that he was surprised that his life was spared. Earlier he predicted that he would be sentenced to die. (The life sentence) is not anything to be happy about, he said. Bradford said she favored executing Quintero because he shot the officer in cold blood in the back. There's a flaw in the system, she said. If it took 12 votes to get life without parole, we'd still be sitting there. I'd be sitting there until the judge declared a hung jury. Other jurors who initially favored the death sentence changed their votes as the deliberations dragged on, Bradford said. I got the impression that they were just tired of deliberating and wanted to get it over with and go home, she said. Bradford said neither she nor her family has been touched by violent crime. In my opinion, the death penalty exists for a reason, she said. I don't necessarily feel it should be handed out like aspirin, but I believe there are cases in which it is warranted. This case absolutely was one of them. Bradford expressed sympathy for the Johnson family. I can't even imagine how they must feel at this point after everything they've been through, she said. I wish it had turned out differently. I hope that, despite everything, they can move on. We did everything that a couple of us could do, but when you're out-voted, you're out-voted. (source: Houston Chronicle) OHIO: Sidney Woman Could Face Death Penalty In Recent Murder Meeting in a special session, the Shelby County Grand jury returned an aggravated murder indictment with a death penalty specification Thursday afternoon agaisnt Gloria Ann Jelks, 36, of Sidney. She is accused of beating to death Paul Wilt, 80 of Sidney. According to Sidney police, a caregiver found the body of Wilt in his Independence Court home in Sidney the morning of May 13. Wilt died from blunt force trauma to the head, according to Sidney police spokesperson Capt. Rod Austin. Jelks was also indicted on a charge of aggravated robbery. Police say they found Wilt's home ransacked and an undetermined amount of cash missing. Jelks is held in the Shelby County jail without bond. What was done to Wilt was heinous and should never happen to anyone, said Shelby County prosecuotor Ralp Bauers. (source: WHIO TV News) CALIFORNIA: California Supreme Court denies death row inmate's request for DNA testingThe justices in a 5-2 decision say there is overwhelming evidence that Charles Keith Richardson took part in the slaying of an 11-year-old Tulare girl. A death row inmate will not be allowed a DNA test to determine whether he left biological evidence at a murder scene because the results would have made no difference to the jury that condemned him, the California Supreme Court ruled 5 to 2 Thursday. In a decision written by Justice Carlos R. Moreno, the state high court said that Charles Keith Richardson had failed to show that a DNA test, even one eliminating him as the source of hairs found where an 11-year-old Tulare County girl was murdered, could raise a reasonable probability of overturning his conviction and death sentence. In a companion case, the court also unanimously upheld
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, S.C., USA
Jan. 28 TEXAS: An end to crime Re: How about a death penalty without the executions? by Steve Blow, Thursday Metro. I appreciate the humanitarian instincts expressed by Mr. Blow in his column opposing executions in Texas. But as noble as his instincts are, I think he is guilty of wishful thinking when he advances the idea of a death penalty that securely incarcerates condemned inmates for the rest of their lives. Many people who want to abolish all executions are the same people who find a way to blame a killer's ruthless behavior on various social ills, and they somehow muster as much sympathy for the killer as for the victims and their loved ones. The idea that everyone is capable of rehabilitation and worthy of another crack at normal society is like catnip to them. The death penalty is unquestionably flawed, but there is certainty to it. It ensures that a condemned killer doesn't kill again. Mark Rice, Dallas (source: Letter to the Editor, Sat. Jan. 26) *** 'Radical' on death Re: How about a death penalty without the executions? by Steve Blow, Thursday Metro. As a long-time opponent of the death penalty, I have dealt with my fair share of criticism for my beliefs. Family and friends (even those with a liberal mindset) view me as a radical, un-American, bleeding heart who is soft on crime. Thank you to Steve Blow and Rick Halperin for sharing a different perspective. Contrary to popular belief, those of us who support the abolition of the death penalty do not want the guilty to be free to roam our streets and commit more crimes. And I would venture to guess that the majority of us support the sentence of life without parole for the most heinous offenses. Jennifer Lamb, Dallas [MY NOTERick Halperin does NOT support life without parole as a mandatory option to the death penalty] (source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News, Mon. 28) OHIOwoman faces possible death sentence China Arnold Facing Death Penalty for Allegedly Killing her Baby in Microwave Jury selection began on Monday in the case against China Arnold, the 27-year-old Dayton, Ohio mother who is accused of killing her baby in a microwave. Arnold has denied any involvement in the death of her 1-moth-old daughter, telling investigators that she had no idea how her child suffered high-heat internal injuries. A coroner's official determined the baby must have been placed inside a microwave because there had been no burn marks on the childs skin. According to Arnold, she arrived home after a night of drinking and fell asleep. She said she was awoken by her daughter's crying at 2:30 a.m. and warmed a bottle of milk in the microwave, changed her diaper and fell asleep on the sofa with her baby on her chest. If Arnold is found guilty in the case she could face the death penalty. (source: TransWorldNews) * Report: Ohio DNA testing program for inmates deeply flawed; police routinely discard evidence Ohio's DNA testing program for inmates seeking to prove their innocence is deeply flawed, with police routinely discarding evidence after trials and court-ordered tests never getting done, a newspaper reported Sunday. Judges also ignore requests for DNA testing, leaving inmates in legal limbo, and nearly a third of the denials examined by The Columbus Dispatch failed to cite a specific reason, as required by state law. In other cases, there's no indication that anyone even read the inmate's request for DNA testing, the newspaper reported. Gov. Ted Strickland told The Dispatch he is calling for an overhaul that would speed up the review process, open up testing to more inmates and establish statewide standards for preserving evidence. Across the country, more than 200 inmates have been freed because of DNA tests, including six from Ohio. 4 of those came before the state created a formal DNA testing program in 2003. Since then, 313 Ohio inmates have applied but only 14 tests have been done. In some cases, evidence has been lost or destroyed, the newspaper said. Ohio lawmakers, fearing a flood of frivolous applications from prisoners, tightly restricted eligibility when they created the testing program. Unlike 22 other states, Ohio has no law requiring criminal evidence to be catalogued and saved. It's a mess and frustrating when you can't keep track of evidence, said Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates, whose jurisdiction includes Toledo. We have 88 counties with sheriff departments, police departments and dozens of other entities, and everyone does evidence retention differently. The problems of lost evidence, tardy responses and un-enforced rulings have hampered testing requests made by 4 death row inmates, according to the newspaper. Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said he's troubled by the findings. When we take someone's life or we take their freedom, we want to be certain that we've done everything we can, Moyer said. Judges can lose track of DNA
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, TENN., MO., MD., USA
Jan. 15 TEXAS: Lubbock Public Defender Office Ready for Capital Murder Cases The state's 1st public defender office for capital murder cases is now open in Lubbock. As NewsChannel 11 first told you last summer, the Lubbock based office will encompass over 80 counties, from the tip of the panhandle down to San Angelo. Typically, one death penalty case costs counties and taxpayers anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000. Now, the public defenders office will pick up those costs. We'll be providing the two attorneys that are required by statue, said Jack Stoffregen, Chief of the West Texas Region Public Defender for Capital Murder Cases. The mitigation that's required by statue as well as a fact investigator. The office is funded for the next 4 years by state grant funds. Once that money runs out, all participating counties will pick up a portion of the cost. For Lubbock county, that will be more than a $144,000. The office started taking death penalty cases this month. (source: KCBD News) ** Supreme Court refuses to consider appeal of Lufkin man on death row The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the death row appeal of a Lufkin man convicted twice of killing a woman during a burglary of her home almost 21 years ago. David Lee Lewis, 42, who was sentenced to death in 1986 and again in 1993, was appealing his case on claims that he is mentally retarded. The court's ruling comes more than 13 months after a state appellate court rejected Lewis' appeal, upholding former state district Judge David Wilson's findings and conclusions of the appeal September 2006. The action moves Lewis close to execution, although a date has not been set. Angelina County District Attorney Clyde Herrington said he was relieved by the court's decision. It's always a relief, he said. Lewis, now 42, was convicted of shooting 74-year-old Myrtle Ruby in the face with a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle. Ruby surprised Lewis in the hallway of her home as she returned from a church choir practice and while he was burglarizing the place. Records show Lewis then stole her car, drove to his uncle's home and went on a hunting trip. He was arrested when he returned and confessed. At the time of the slaying, he had been paroled from prison on mandatory supervision after serving about 6 weeks of a 2-year sentence for burglary in Brazoria County, the Associated Press reported. His capital murder conviction and death sentence were reversed in 1993 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because part of his court record was lost. He was retried later that year, was convicted and again sentenced to die. Lewis' attorney had recently appealed the 1993 death row conviction, arguing Lewis was mentally retarded. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the execution of the mentally disabled as cruel and unusual punishment. Herrington said evidence that Lewis passed a GED exam while in prison awaiting his 2nd trial proves Lewis is not mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme court also refused 2 hear 2 other death row appeal cases. Justices refused to review the case of Virgil Martinez, convicted of the October 1996 rampage at his former girlfriend's mobile home near Alvin, south of Houston. The court also refused to hear the case of Jeffery Lee Wood, convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a January 1996 robbery in Kerrville, the Associated Press reported. (source: Lufkin Daily News) OHIO: Commuted death row inmate says past kept him in prison A man whose death sentence has been commuted to life in prison says his lengthy criminal record is mainly why he's still behind bars. John Spirko says he realizes his past turns many people against him. He was moved last week from Ohio's death row, where he'd been awaiting execution for the 1982 killing of a northwest Ohio postmistress. Governor Strickland commuted the sentence because of a lack of physical evidence tying Spirko to the crime as well as a slim doubt about his involvement. Spirko says an investigator who provided key evidence against him lied. The governor declined to offer a pardon or allow Spirko to be released for his time served. (source: Associated Press) TENNESSEE: Killer Faces Death Sentence, Then Life Behind Bars A 2-time killer who raped and murdered an elderly Memphis woman will still have a life sentence hanging in Mississippi after his death sentence has been served in Tennessee. 46 year-old Richard L. Odom has been on Tennessee's death row since 1992 for murdering 77 year-old Mina Johnson, who was killed while Odom was on the run from a murder sentence in Mississippi. 3 Tennessee juries sentenced Odom to death, but the 1st 2 sentences were overturned on appeals. Judge Chris Craft handed down Odom's 3rd death sentence Monday. Craft also ruled that the death sentence and Odom's unfinished life term in Mississippi must run consecutively, meaning 1 must end before the other starts -- and the Tennessee
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
Dec. 31 TEXAS: No Deterrent Effect To the Editor: Your article At 60% of Total, Texas is Bucking Execution Trend (front page, Dec. 26) states, The rate at which Texas sentences people to death is not especially high given its murder rate. One of the prime arguments in favor of the death sentence, in my understanding, is its deterrent effect. The Texas experience clearly refutes that argument. Nicholas DowneyBrooklyn, Dec. 26, 2007 (source: Letter to the Editor, New York Times) OHIO: Death penalty debated locally Just weeks after New Jersey abolished the death penalty, an Ohio judge is being asked to consider if the states method of execution is constitutional. The case is sparking debate among local law enforcement, attorneys and citizens. The matter is also expected to be argued in the coming months in the U.S. Supreme Court. Ruby Hall, 82, of Layman, said she is frustrated by the amount of time, money and energy being spent to defend rapists and murderers. We are getting too far away from justice and it seems like we are doing more to protect the criminal than we are the citizens, Hall said. That has to be turned around. Hall said she is in favor of the death penalty in any form. I think that if you take a life you have to pay a life. But also, these child molesters should be put to death for the things they do, she said. Former Washington County Public Defender Janet McKim said there are crimes that probably warrant death, but she fears wrongful convictions. During her 30 years as an attorney, McKim defended 4 individuals facing the death penalty. The death penalty should be abolished and life in prison should mean life, McKim said. It is clear to me there are people so violent that they shouldn't be among us I've sat next to a few of them - but the problem is that there are so many mistakes made in the criminal justice system that we cannot risk killing even one innocent man. Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge is considering whether Ohio's lethal injection method of execution is unconstitutional. The claim is that the procedure is cruel and unusual punishment. Burge was asked to review the current death penalty procedures by Ruben Rivera and Ronald McCloud, who could receive death sentences if convicted in 2 separate Lorain County murders. A status conference on the lawsuit is scheduled for Jan. 8. The state has executed 26 inmates since it resumed putting prisoners to death in 1999. Difficulties with 2 executions over the last 2 years have critics challenging the lethal injection method. Ohio has conducted 2 executions in the past 2 years in which the execution team struggled to find suitable veins in the inmates arms. One took nearly 90 minutes and the other 2 hours, taking so long the condemned killer was given a bathroom break. Cases like these helped New Jersey lawmakers abolish the death penalty earlier this month. Ohio corrections officials say they stand by their procedures. We believe our execution team members are well-trained and able to carry out the responsibilities they have when it comes to that specific assignment, Andrea Carson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, told the Associated Press on Friday. Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said the death penalty acts as a deterrent. I'm opposed to abolishing the death penalty, Mincks said. In some cases it acts as a deterrent. My main concern would be the murder of police officers and I believe that should warrant the death penalty. For those extreme cases we need the death penalty. Texas was the venue for the nation's most recent execution. Murderer Michael Richard died by lethal injection there on Sept. 25. Since then, executions in Texas and other states have been put on hold pending a Supreme Court decision expected no sooner than June on whether the standard lethal injection procedure can cause pain severe enough to violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Advocates on both sides of the debate say it's likely the high court will offer some pathway for states to resume executions. But the lull coincides with other developments reflecting an unprecedented level of doubt about capital punishment. This isn't the first hiatus for executions. The Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972, but 4 years later cleared the way for executions to resume. There have been 1,099 executions nationwide since then, with a peak of 98 in 1999. The numbers have ebbed in recent years - there have been 42 this year - while more than 3,300 inmates populate death row units across the country. (source: Marietta Times)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, N.J., FLA.
Dec. 9 TEXAS: Please don't let them kill me For my sins, pun intended, I am very rarely in agreement with most Vatican standpoints on certain issues, particularly divorce, women priests and celibacy. But when the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino, said last month that the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly calling for an international moratorium on the application of the death penalty is a relevant step in the defence of life, I could not help applauding. Although it only has symbolic value since it is not an agreement that binds countries, the resolution was still a step in the right direction. According to Cardinal Martino, the resolution, which was supported by 99 countries, with 52 voting against and 33 abstaining, is very important, and it is gratifying that so many Catholic organisations have worked for this and thus they have the right to be pleased. There were of course a lot more lay, non-religious and non-Catholic organisations backing it too. I am very happy, Cardinal Martino added, and you can't blame him. He was the Holy See's representative to the United Nations for more than 16 years and during that time it is known he collaborated in two efforts during the 1990s to achieve this moratorium. We worked very hard and we were discouraged when the votes were tallied and the project had to be withdrawn because the numbers were just not there, he said. This time the numbers were happily there and for this reason I am personally very pleased on 2 counts: 1. The emerging new trend against capital punishment all over the world, from China to the United States; and 2. The resolution brings hope to thousands of people awaiting execution, one of them my namesake, Charles Flores, a Death Row inmate since April 1999 at the Terrell Unit in Livingston, Texas. I was incredulous when a friend, either by cruel jest or a keen sense of observation, forwarded me the Internet link to the Charles Flores website which the Hispanic inmate runs from his Texas cell. As an avid anti-capital punishment supporter, it was eerie, to say the least, to find one's own name associated with such an awful and barbaric system of punishment. Had my mum stuck to her original baptismal branding of Carmel perhaps the individual effect would have been much less. But she didn't and here I was trying to see what my Texan namesake was going through. This is his introduction: My name is Charles Flores. I am a 29-year old Hispanic male. I am 6ft 1in tall, heavily built with black hair and eyes and I'm from Dallas, Texas. I am also an innocent man who has been maliciously charged, prosecuted, found guilty and sentenced to die for a capital murder I did not commit. The only thing I am guilty of is being a poor, Hispanic male. I have been prosecuted by the Dallas County District Attorney, who was willing to go to any lengths to convict me of this crime, regardless of my innocence. The presiding District Court judge did not care about justice, he was only concerned about appearing to be tuff on crime and so he allowed this travesty of justice to go on in his court. I admit that the vast majority of death row inmates, wherever this inhuman law is still active, would plead the same cause, screaming out their innocence and claiming miscarriages of justice, but I must believe Charles Flores. It is both an emotional assessment and another effective way of furthering the anti-capital punishment campaign. Flores insists there is no physical evidence that links him to the crime. No fingerprints, no footprints, no DNA evidence (he gave blood for this purpose), no hair samples, no clothing fibres, nothing at all. There is no eyewitness to the murder and the murder weapon was never found. The rest of this poor man's story is one whole series of judicial fiddling, Gestapo tactics aimed at making witnesses, some of them facing criminal charges themselves, change testimonial versions and blatant threats against his own family, including his wife, mother and father, who were arrested on separate occasions. On the day the crime was committed, a witness who lived next door to the deceased is known to have told homicide investigators she had seen someone at the residence of the deceased before the crime took place. She gave them the following description: white male, 6ft tall, medium build, long dark hair, and dark eyes. But for the long dark hair and an inch here and there, it could easily have been Charles Flores from Malta, but certainly not Charles Flores from Texas. Only 3 days after the crime, the witness was shown a 6-photo line-up that included an image of Flores but she did not select it. She was then hypnotised to refresh her memory and shown the photos once more. Again, she did not pick the Flores photo. Now if such things can happen in what is purported to be the democratic sanctuary of the United States, one shivers to even think what goes on with regard to
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, KAN., ARK., GA.
Nov. 3 TEXAS: Capital murder charges filed against man for July slaying Capital murder charges were filed against a 20-year-old man in connection with the shooting death of a man in a west Houston apartment complex in July, authorities said. Jorge Alberto Ramirez is charged in the slaying of 22-year-old Torin Farrow who suffered a gunshot wound to the head in the 10400 block of Valley Forge Drive on July 19, authorities said. Farrow was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital where he later died. Authorities said Farrow drove into an apartment complex parking lot and was shot by Ramirez, who was a passenger in the vehicle. The vehicle continued through the parking lot until it struck a fence and came to a stop. A follow up investigation led homicide detectives to identify Ramirez as the suspect in this case. He was arrested on Friday without incident and remains in Harris County Jail without bond. Ramirez is scheduled to appear in court Monday. (source : Houston Chronicle) * Woman testifies about being held hostage Sounnakon Chandavong was in her bedroom getting ready to go have lunch with a friend, when a really panicky stranger with blood on his face appeared in her doorway. I screamed and closed the door, Chandavong testified Friday afternoon. I didn't know what to do. Chandavong said she was planning to escape through her window, but the man came back in her room before she got the chance. I was scared, Chandavong told the jury. He came over and put his hand around my neck ... He was holding a gun ... I didn't know what he was going to do. I told him not to hurt me. For the next couple of hours, Chandavong said, the man, later identified as Stephen Lance Heard, held her hostage. At the time, Chandavong had no idea that Heard had mortally wounded Fort Worth police officer Henry Hank Nava inside a nearby trailer just minutes before he burst into her house. Heard, 41, is on trial in state district Judge Elizabeth Berry's court, charged with capital murder in the death of Nava, 39. If convicted of capital murder, he will face the death penalty. Prosecutors Alan Levy, Betty Arvin and Miles Brissette maintain that Heard intentionally killed Nava to avoid going back to prison. Defense attorneys Mark Daniel and Tim Moore say that Heard did not know Nava was a police officer and that he fired wildly in self-defense after he was peppered with gunfire. According to testimony, on the afternoon of Nov. 29, 2005, officers Nava, Ernest Tamayo and Steve Myers were searching for Heard inside a trailer in the 7000 block of Seth Barwise Street when a gunfight broke out and Nava was fatally wounded. After the shooting stopped, Heard broke out a bedroom window and fled to a house in the 7000 block of Marvin Brown Street, where he kicked in a door and held Chandavong hostage. On Friday, Chandavong, 28, told jurors that Heard appeared panicked, scared and paranoid. She said he forced her at gunpoint into her parent's room, where he moved a dresser in front of the window and looked through her father's medication. Afterward, he forced her to the kitchen, where he drank some beer, she said. Chandavong said Heard told her that he had shot somebody, but that he didn't know if it was a police officer he had shot at. At some point, Chandavong said, Heard broke a window so he could talk to the officers who had surrounded her house. He demanded a phone, saying he wanted to talk to a woman. SWAT officer Ronnie McMullen was among those who communicated with Heard that day. He testified that, while officers worked to get the phone, Heard asked several times about the condition of the officer. He said, 'I didn't mean to hurt him. I didn't know he was an officer,' McMullen told the jury. McMullen said that shortly after Heard received a phone, he talked to his girlfriend, Sally Renae Smith, and pushed Chandavong out the door. She was intercepted by SWAT officers who took her to a nearby temple, where her parents were waiting. On cross-examination by Moore, Chandavong acknowledged that Heard never physically hurt her or threatened her. Still, she told the jury, she is scarred by the incident and moved to another state to get away from the bad memory. I was scared for my life, she testified. ...I try to put it behind me, but I still think about it. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) OHIO: State prison ordered to show how it executes Buoyed by the state's highest court, a Lorain County judge has again ordered the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to turn over evidence explaining how it carries out executions. Common Pleas Judge James Burge gave the prison system and its director, Terry Collins, until 10 a.m. Dec. 12 to abide by his order for records, materials and evidence pertaining to Ohio's lethal injection process or face a contempt charge. I wanted to be practical about it, said Burge, a former trial lawyer who once represented James Filiaggi, a convicted killer who
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, UTAH, GA.
Sept. 22 TEXAS: Inmate's legacy rests on single hair strandSingle hair is key to lawsuit that may decide if an innocent man was executed A single strand of hair found on the counter of a rural East Texas liquor store lies at the center of a legal dispute in which death penalty opponents hope to prove that career criminal Claude Jones may have been put to death for a crime he did not commit. Jones, 60, was executed Dec. 7, 2000, for the November 1989 robbery-murder of Point Blank liquor store owner Allen Hilzendager. Jones consistently maintained his innocence in the Hilzendager case. Key to Jones' conviction, the only physical evidence from the crime scene, was a 1-inch fragment of hair that was linked to him through microscopic examination. On the eve of Jones' execution, then-Gov. George Bush denied a request for a stay so that the hair could undergo DNA testing. Bush earlier had endorsed such testing in life-or-death cases. Since Jones' 1989 trial, the incriminating hair has been locked away and until recently largely forgotten in the San Jacinto County district clerk's office in Coldspring, about 65 miles north of Houston. Now, a group of anti-death penalty activists, including The Texas Observer, a liberal Austin-based magazine, and New York-based Innocence Project, has filed suit in state district court seeking release of the hair for mitochondrial DNA testing. Even though 18 years have elapsed since Jones' conviction, plaintiffs in the case say testing of the hair remains vital in determining how well Texas, which has killed more than 400 murderers since executions resumed in 1982, handles the deadliest of its judicial functions. Jones was the 239th Texas killer executed since 1982 and the only one from San Jacinto County. It's pretty clear that DNA testing can either show that he was guilty ... or that he was convicted based on legally insufficient evidence, said Barry Scheck, Innocence Project co-director. There must be a way that the public, the Legislature and the courts, in post-execution situations, can determine whether the system succeeded or failed. Reprieve sought San Jacinto County prosecutors relied on the hair the only physical evidence presented at trial to corroborate testimony from Timothy Jordan, an accomplice who identified Jones as the triggerman. A Texas Department of Public Safety chemist testified that the hair microscopically matched one taken from Jones but didn't match samples from other people who had been in the store. Jordan, whose .357-caliber revolver was used in the crime, was sentenced to prison for aggravated perjury after telling differing stories to grand jurors and trial jurors. He later swore in an affidavit that his trial testimony, in which he said Jones admitted shooting Hilzendager, had been untrue. A 2nd accomplice, Kerry Dixon, driver of the getaway truck, is serving a life sentence for the killing. In December 2000, a day before Jones' execution, his attorney appealed to Bush for a 30-day reprieve so that DNA testing could be conducted on the hair. He thought he would receive a sympathetic hearing. 6 months earlier, Bush had stayed the execution of Ricky McGinn, so that DNA testing could be performed on evidence in his rape/murder case. Bush publicly went on record saying he favored DNA testing when it possibly could establish guilt or innocence in capital cases. But attorney William Knull III of Houston charged in his petition seeking the hair's release that Bush was never told a stay was being sought in Jones' execution so that DNA tests could be conducted on the hair. A confidential memorandum from assistant general counsel Claudia Nadig to Bush on the matter never mentioned DNA testing. Nadig recommended the stay be denied. But her one-time supervisor, former general counsel Margaret Wilson, said the DNA testing could have come up in a conversation Nadig would have had with the governor. Nadig, now a federal government lawyer in Washington, D.C., could not be reached for comment. Not the only evidence? San Jacinto County District Attorney Bill Burnett, who is named as a defendant in the current lawsuit, said death penalty activists do not have legal ground to gain access to the hair. And, citing testimony from witnesses who had seen a man closely resembling Jones enter the store with Hilzendager minutes before the shooting, he challenged assertions that the hair was the only evidence supporting Jordan's testimony. Other testimony, he said, identified a truck seen at the store at the time of the robbery as belonging to Dixon. Furthermore, Burnett, who assisted in Jones' prosecution, said he doubted that the hair, which lacks a root, could successfully be tested using DNA techniques. Mark Stolorow, executive director of Princeton, N.J.-based Orchid Cellmark, the high-tech firm that retested samples from almost 400 cases initially scrutinized by Houston's discredited police crime lab, said even a rootless hair can
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
Aug. 27 TEXASimpending execution Inmate to die Tuesday for Kilgore robbery where 4 slain DaRoyce Mosley overcame the odds of growing up in his poor black enclave to become an honors student at Kilgore High School, won a seat on the student council and was a starter on the basketball team. But what he insists was his desire to win acceptance from others in that same impoverished neighborhood in the East Texas town led him to a cell on death row and an appointment Tuesday in the Texas death chamber. Peer pressure, said Mosley, 32, set for lethal injection for the shooting death of a woman during a robbery at a Kilgore bar, ` of 4 people he was accused of gunning down 10 years ago. Attorneys arguing that Mosley was innocent were in the courts trying to keep him from becoming the 22nd inmate executed this year in Texas. He would also be the 1st of 3 set to die this week on consecutive nights in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. When you grow up in that kind of neighborhood, you don't want to be a punk, Mosley said in a recent interview, referring to the predominantly black area of Kilgore known as Goat Hill and the sissy reputation he was trying to avoid. And just to show I'm not, I go along with the robbery. Mosley contended he was involved only in the robbery, not the killings. He said he wrongly confessed to police that he and an uncle with a criminal record, Ray Don Mosley, burst through the door of Katie's Lounge just before midnight on July 21, 1994, demanded cash from a tackle box that contained the night's receipts, then shot 5 people, 4 of them fatally. After the first shot, I ran, he said from the visiting area outside death row. I turned around and ran out. That shot, he said, came from his uncle. Questioned by police, the 19-year-old told a similar story, then wilted and eventually acknowledged he was the shooter as detectives kept at it, kept at it, kept at it, he said. It was stupid, just silly, Mosley said. It's easy to look back now and realize the mistakes I made. That was mainly my downfall. You had that statement. 4 bar patrons were killed: Patricia Colter, 54; her husband, Duane, 44; Alvin Waller, 54; and Luva Congleton, 68. Bartender Sandra Cash, then 32, was shot in the spine but was able to make a 911 call to summon police. Cash survived but was left paralyzed. Ballistics tests showed the 4 people killed were shot with the same weapon and Cash with a different gun. Ray Don Mosley, now 44, took 3 life terms and testified against his nephew. Evidence showed they split $308 taken from the bar among themselves, a 16-year-old friend of DaRoyce Mosley's who accompanied them that night, and a wheelchair-bound friend who was related to the juvenile. The juvenile who authorities determined left before the gunfire was given a 2-year jail sentence. DaRoyce Mosley got the death penalty for Patricia Colter's death. We'll never know why he did it, Virginia Hutsell, Colter's sister, told the Longview News-Journal. But we'll know he'll never be able to do it again. She and another sister planned to be among the people to watch Mosley die. What's so sad and unusual about this case is that DaRoyce came from a really awful background, recalled Cynthia Orr, one of his trial lawyers. His uncle had spent most of his life in jail. They lived in dirt floor shacks. DeRoyce started working at 8 to take care of his brothers and sisters, yet he managed to do extremely well in high school and got himself into college. But his uncle was a horrible influence in his life. Orr said the trial was held amid threats and rumors about Ku Klux Klan violence. Mosley is black. All the victims were white. It was a very highly charged environment, not a comfortable trial, she said. All the people who died were wonderful and it was a horrible shame. The reaction in the community, it became a thing itself. Gary Bledsoe, who also defended Mosley, said the confession was bogus. The confession he gave was shown to be absolutely untrue, he said. DaRoyce didn't know what happened. His uncle is the one who committed the murders. Clement Dunn, one of the prosecutors in the case, said the right person was convicted. In this case, I think we can all be very confident in the work law enforcement did, and I feel good about being able to say that, said Dunn, who also downplayed any racial tensions. I think there's been too much successful interaction between and among all ethnic groups in this community for us to say that this case, or anything else, has really created a huge division, he said. I just don't think that happened. On Wednesday, John Joe Amador, 32, was set to die for the 1994 shooting death of a San Antonio taxi driver. Then on Thursday, Kenneth Foster, 30, faced lethal injection for his role as the getaway driver when a San Antonio man was gunned down on his driveway in 1996. On the Net: Texas Department of Criminal Justice execution schedule
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, PENN.
Aug. 26 TEXAS: Man charged in 1999 arson deaths heads for trial Jury selection is set to begin Monday morning in the trial of a Waco man charged in the 1999 arson deaths of his ex-wife and her 1-year-old daughter. William Mark Gibson, 30, is charged in Waco's 54th State District Court with capital murder in the November 1999 deaths of his ex-wife, Janie Rios, and her daughter, Abbygail. Janie Rios, 23, had divorced Gibson in July 1999, and their two sons were not home when Rios and her daughter died in the fire. Waco Fire Department officials have said the fire at 912 N. 16th St. was deliberately set to block the only exit from the apartment. Gibson is charged in a 3-paragraph indictment with committing capital murder by killing someone during the commission of arson, killing more than 1 person in a single transaction and killing a child younger than 6. Prosecutors Crawford Long and Susan Shafer have elected not to seek the death penalty if Gibson is convicted of capital murder. Long and Shafer declined comment about the upcoming trial. If convicted of capital murder, Gibson, who is represented by Waco attorney Guy Cox and Georgetown attorney Russ Hunt Jr., faces an automatic life sentence and must serve a minimum of 40 years before becoming eligible for parole. This case is an old case, and there are going to be a lot of witnesses and there are going to be a lot of stories told, Cox said. The jury is going to have to reach a verdict by weeding out all the lies that are going to be told. Cox said some antagonism between the families could boil over during the trial. Waco is a small town and there is going to be a lot of old wounds reopened by this trial, he said. Court documents filed by police in the case indicate Gibson reportedly has told others he started the fire to get his older boys and because the younger girl was getting in between him and Janie. Retired State District Judge George Allen will preside over Gibson's trial, which is expected to last about a week. Judge Matt Johnson recused himself Aug. 16 after Johnson remembered that, as a former prosecutor, he visited the crime scene with Waco Fire Marshal Jerry Hawk days after the fire. (source: Waco Tribune-Herald) *** Murder, Execution, HeartacheSisters learn to 'put the hate and hurt away' 13 years after the death of her older sister at a Kilgore bar, Virginia Hutsell has forgiven the man convicted of taking Patricia Colter's life, but she still plans to witness his execution scheduled for Tuesday. DaRoyce Lamont Mosley, 32, of Kilgore was found guilty of killing Colter, 53, during a robbery of Katie's Lounge in 1994. Duane Colter, 44; Luva Congleton, 68; and Alvin Waller, 54, also were killed during the robbery. Mosley did not go to trial for the other deaths. Bar waitress Sandra Cash, 36 at the time, was shot twice and left paralyzed from the chest down. Mosley and 2 accomplices stole a cash box containing $308, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Mosley and Ray Don Mosley, his uncle, entered the bar before midnight on July 21, 1994, as Cash was closing the business for the evening, according to a release from the Texas Attorney General's office. Ray Don Mosley approached Cash, demanded the money and shot her as she slid the money box toward him. DaRoyce Mosley shot the 4 customers, according to evidence from the crime. Cash survived and was able to call for help. The Mosleys were arrested the following day in connection with the robbery and killings, according to the release. DaRoyce Mosley was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1995. Ray Don Mosley pleaded guilty in 1996 to murdering the 4 customers during the robbery and received three life sentences. Hutsell, her younger sister, Shari O'Brien, and 3 other relatives plan to attend the execution. Hutsell, a New Boston native, said she hoped it would close a tumultuous chapter of her family's life. Two years to the day of Patricia Colter's death, her mother died. She was heartbroken after Colter's death, Hutsell said. It took us a long time to put the hate and the hurt away, O'Brien said. Hutsell and O'Brien continue to live with their sister's death and its effect on their family. The sisters said Colter's oldest daughter is mentally handicapped and unable to understand what happened to her mother. Hutsell said helping her to understand Colter will not be coming back is a struggle the family will face for the rest of her life. If she could understand, she'd be just as devastated as the rest of us, Hutsell said. Gary Bledsoe, DaRoyce Mosley's defense attorney during the capital murder trial, has remained connected with Mosley, volunteering time for Mosley when he can. Bledsoe, who might attend the execution, said he empathized with the family of the victims, but added that Ray Don Mosley should be punished because he is responsible for their deaths. Bledsoe argued during DaRoyce Mosley's trial that
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ALA., N. MEX., MO., USA
Aug. 11 TEXASimpending execution From Behind Glass: Death Row Inmate Kenneth Foster and Daughter, Nydesha If ever there was a reason to spare the life of a man condemned to die, a man who committed no crime other than being present at the time of a murder, it is in the compelling face, voice, and wisdom - a wisdom far beyond her tender 11 years - of Nydesha Foster. If you saw this beautiful face in a crowd, it would be enough to steal your heart. But, to hear her speak, to hear her words of devotion, of growing up behind a glass partition, and the very loss of innocence that robbed a child of what should have been her God-given right, this, would break your heart. The innocence of a child is only for fairytales. In a perfect world, every child would be blessed with youthful innocence, a protective veil of blissful naivete, impenetrable, if only for a short while, before the weight of the world and the often stark realities of adulthood, bears down upon their shoulders, brick by brick. Last Thursday Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviewed the family of Kenneth Foster Jr., 30, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on August 30. Foster has been on death row for ten years and will be executed under the controversial Texas Law of Parties which imposes capital punishment on anyone involved in a crime where a murder is committed. Foster never touched the murder weapon nor did he have any prior knowledge of the crime. These facts are not disputed. It was the testimony, however, of a young daughter's love and devotion for her father, that left me both repulsed and awestruck; repulsed that a civilized society can commit legal murder, and awestruck by the grace, wisdom and strength of 11-year-old Nydesha. Perhaps too, I saw the look and determination of a young girl who had been exposed to hardships and loss that most people hope never to experience in their lifetimes, let alone during childhood. Through no fault of her own, Nydesha was forced to age far faster than her years, carrying the burden of a father doomed to die, a father she has not touched since the age of one. And in that face, I thought I recognized something of my own, of my past, of a daughter visiting a parent behind that cold glass wall, unable to touch, to feel the loving embrace of a father. While my experiences were nothing like the nightmare that Nydesha has endured with such dignity and strength of character, I met my own father through a similar fate and glass barricade. Mine, at San Quentin, where every weekend for the first three years of my life (and the length of his sentence), my mother took me for that prison visit, where I am told, I rejoiced in seeing my out-of-reach father, reciting for him, new poems and nursery rhymes that brought a few moments of joy into his otherwise small, contained life. So to hear the words of Nydesha Foster, and to see this young victim, a victim of nothing short of a crime against humanity that the state of Texas will commit in a few short weeks, was testimony enough that the death penalty snuffs out more than a single life, it takes with it, piece by piece, the lives of family and friends. An eye for an eye, apparently, is not enough. The following are excerpts from the transcript of the Democracy Now! interview with Nydesha Foster. Nydesha Foster: I was about one years old when the incident took place. And ever since he has been put into death row sentence, I have been -- he's been watching me grow up from behind glass, and I've seen him watch me get older from behind glass. And it's a hard thing for me to do, but I get used to it, but it's not a happy thing for me to do. Amy Goodman: Have you ever touched your dad? Nydesha Foster: When I was one years old, before the incident happened. I have not touched my dad since probably 1996. Juan Gonzalez: And when you speak with him, what are some of the things he tells you, in terms of continuing to have hope that he will be able to be saved? Nydesha Foster: Yes. He encourages me. That's what keeps me strong about his case, because, you know, if I didn't have him to encourage me, I would probably not be able to do anything, because I'd be so sad and stressed out. But it's the manner of things that he does and, you know, how he listens to me, even when people don't look or listen to us. It's, you know, everybody -- he calls me his little princess, and, I mean, I feel like I am his princess because of the things he does for me. And even though he is a father behind glass, he does a lot of stuff for me. You know, he still is a father. And people need to recognize that. When somebody is a big part of your heart, like my father is - I mean, my father is more than half of my heart. I mean, I love him so much. And if the state of Texas kills him just for driving a car, it's like you're killing my heart. It's like you're killing half of me. It's like if you execute him, you might as well execute me, because of the types of things and
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA, N.C.
June 1 TEXAS: 5th suspect charged in Houston game room shooting A 5th person has been charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of a 54-year-old man during a robbery at a southwest Houston game room May 13, police said. Luis Eduardo Rodriguez, 35, was with 3 other men and a woman who allegedly robbed the Kung Fu Club game room in the 12300 block of Bellaire, police said today. Jian Guo Wang of the 9200 block of Clarewood, died during the incident. Wang was working at the game room around midnight May 13 when a group of people entered the business and attempted to rob its customers, police said. Wang confronted them and was shot, police said. The suspects fled with an undisclosed amount of money. Christian Calderon, 17; Fernando Santacruz Gomez, 24; Eric Gomez, 20; and a female juvenile have all been charged with capital murder in the case, police said. (source: Houston Chronicle) ** Another Texas tragedyMother's hanging of children and herself is a sad warning that signs of depression must be heeded. Earlier this week, a North Texas mother, Gilberta Estrada, apparently hanged three of her four daughters in the family's mobile home and then hanged herself. The youngest child, 8 months old, survived. Estrada had told neighbors she was depressed. It's a devastating story: A mother who by all accounts loved and cared for her babies took their lives and her own. What deepens the sadness is that similar incidents have happened with frightening regularity in Texas over the last few years, beginning with the internationally publicized case of Andrea Yates. In June 2001, Yates drowned her 5 children in the family bathtub in their Clear Lake home. The Yates tragedy raised awareness of postpartum depression, an illness that manifests itself after the birth of a baby. In extreme cases it can result in postpartum psychosis, a combination of depression and mania with psychotic features such as hallucinations and paranoia, often accompanied by suicidal or homicidal thoughts. It occurs in about one in 1,000 new mothers. This was the uncontested diagnosis in Yates' case. She was originally convicted of capital murder but a 2nd trial found her not guilty by reason of insanity. Her youngest child, Mary, was 6 months old. Postpartum depression is more prevalent than any obstetric-related condition for which women are routinely screened and affects 10 % to 20 % of all new mothers. But it is rarely screened for. This must change. Increased public awareness and resources to recognize and treat this form of depression are necessary, not only for the health of the mother, but for the mental, emotional and physical well-being of her children. Unfortunately, the same horrific incidents that have raised awareness of postpartum depression have also frightened many women suffering from it. Unwilling to be identified with such extremes, they may isolate themselves even further. Up to 70 % of women have a touch of the baby blues after giving birth, a mild postpartum moodiness, beginning a few days after giving birth and subsiding within a few weeks. Postpartum depression, however, usually manifests itself within the first six weeks and can last a year or longer. Texas, not usually a champion of social services, has been a leader in this area a result, in large measure, of the Andrea Yates publicity. A law was passed in 2003 that obliges health-care providers to inform all new mothers about PPD. Houston's Mental Health Association distributes brochures on the subject to Houston's WIC (Women, Infants and Children's) clinics. Nationally, a bill pending in the House of Representatives would provide education and screening on PPD has garnered 119 co-sponsors. A companion bill in the Senate is in committee and looking for co-sponsors. But more must be done. Women in this situation are often isolated, with poor marital support, living in poverty, with multiple children, and often ashamed to reveal negative thoughts and impulses, especially when relatives and friends are rejoicing. Families and friends must watch for these symptoms and intervene if the mother is not seeking help. Physicians must screen their patients and make referrals to available resources when indicated. Citizens can pressure legislators to support funding and resources. Everyone has a stake in protecting all new mothers from mental illness, and thereby protecting their children. (source: Editorial, Houston Chronicle) OHIOstay of impending execution Federal judge delays execution of inmate who joined injection lawsuit In Columbus, a federal judge has delayed the July execution of an inmate allowed to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection. US District Court Judge Gregory Frost granted Clarence Carter's request to delay his July 10th execution while the lawsuit works it way through the courts. Frost's decision did not take into account a ruling by a federal appeals court
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, LA., ARIZ., FLA.
May 24 TEXAS: Prosecutor: Decision to spare woman's life undercuts ultimate penalty A prosecutor said the overturning of a Beaumont woman's death sentence for killing her baby will change the way cases are prosecuted - and even dilute the Texas death penalty. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Wednesday ruled the evidence presented in Kenisha Berry's capital murder trial did not support the notion that she presented a future danger because she would be living in prison. The court reformed Berry's sentence to life in prison. Berry, 34, was convicted of capital murder in February 2004 in the death of her newborn in November 1998. Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Ed Shettle was dismayed by the decision, which he said changed the definition of future dangerousness. They have changed the definition of what society is and reached the conclusion they want to reach, he said. In fact, Shettle said, the opinion undermined future possibilities of assessing the death penalty. Considering that life without parole now is an option in Texas capital murder cases, You can't have the death penalty under those standards. The decision hinges on the word would, according to an appeals court judge who authored a dissenting opinion. The wording of the law doesn't ask whether defendants could commit more crimes - but whether they would, the opinion said. The decision was a close one, with 5 of 9 appeals court judges voting to throw out Berry's death sentence. Berry, already in jail awaiting trial for abandoning another newborn, was charged with capital murder in July 2003. Her arrest came after newborn Parris Berry was found June 6, 2003, beside the road in a remote part of Jefferson County, her eyes swollen shut from ant bites. When the baby was traced to Kenisha Berry, investigators noted similarities to a newborn who was found dead 5 years before. That baby - named Malachi by his mother and dubbed Baby Hope after his lifeless body was found by scavengers looking for aluminum cans - had been gagged and bound with duct tape and placed in a trash bin. In testimony, Berry claimed Malachi, to whom she gave birth secretly after hiding the pregnancy from her family, died of natural causes. A jury did not agree and assessed the maximum penalty in her case. According to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals opinion published Wednesday, prosecutor Wendell C. Radford Jr. misrepresented to the jury the issue of Berry's future dangerousness. I submit to you the way you answer this question is if she was out and she's among her children or she has another child, do you think she's a future danger to that child ... Some people are just evil, he told the jury in closing arguments in the trial's punishment phase. According to the opinion, a rational jury would not have found that Berry presented a future danger within the context of a 40-year incarceration - the very least a person convicted of capital murder can serve. The state's evidence, which consisted of appellant's murder of Malachi, her subsequent abandonment of Paris (sic), her lack of remorse for these crimes, and the unlikely possibility that she might become pregnant in prison, does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a probability that she would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society, the opinion stated. A dissenting opinion filed by Judge J. Hervey disagreed that it was improper for the prosecutor to ask the jury to make the decision without assuming her incarceration during her childbearing years. Hervey noted the future dangerousness issue asks whether there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society, not whether the defendant would have the opportunity. The future dangerousness issue asks the jury to decide 'whether there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violent that would constitute a continuing threat to society.' Hervey's dissenting opinion said evidence of Berry's cold-blooded crimes against her unwanted babies, along with her lack of remorse and failure to take responsibility, satisfied every measure of future dangerousness that this Court has applied. A rational jury could have found that appellant is the same unremorseful, cold-blooded killer that she was in 1998 when she murdered Malachi and she was in 2003 when she tried to murder Paris, Hervey wrote. That the appellant might be controlled in prison in no way detracts from this or a rational finding that there is a probability that she would be dangerous to her unwanted children. Doug Barlow, the Beaumont lawyer who filed the appeal, said he had fully anticipated the court's ruling. This was a case involving horrific facts, but unique facts not ever likely to occur again, Barlow said. ... The only danger to the state was to newborn children, and that cannot happen again ... She will spend 40
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, CALIF., VA., PENN.
April 5 TEXAS: URGENT ACTION APPEAL 05 April 2007 UA 80/07Death penalty / Legal concern USA (Texas) James Lee Clark (m), white, aged 38 James Clark is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 11 April 2007. He was sentenced to death in May 1994 for the rape and murder of 17-year-old Shari Catherine Crews in June 1993. James Clark's clemency petition seeks commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds that he has mental retardation. In 2002, in Atkins v Virginia, the US Supreme Court outlawed the execution of people with retardation. The Court did not define retardation, although it pointed to the definition used by the American Association of Mental Retardation (AAMR). Under such a definition, mental retardation is a disability, manifested before the age of 18, characterized by significantly sub- average intellectual functioning (generally indicated by an IQ of less than 70) accompanied by limitations in two or more adaptive skill areas such as communication, self-care, work, and functioning in the community. The Supreme Court noted that ''not all people who claim to be mentally retarded will be so impaired as to fall within the range of mentally retarded offenders about whom there is a national consensus.'' The Court left it up to individual states to develop ''appropriate ways'' to comply with the ruling. This opened the door to further inconsistency in the application of the death penalty in the USA. In an assessment in April 2003, clinical psychologist Dr George Denkowski, hired by the state, concluded that James Clark had retardation he assessed Clark's IQ at 65 and concluded that he had adaptive skill deficits in three areas (health and safety, social, and work). This was the fifth post-Atkins case that Dr Denkowski had worked on in one other case he found that the defendant had mental retardation, in the other three he concluded that they did not have this level of impairment. Dr Denkowski found that Robert Smith had mental retardation, and an IQ of 63. The Harris County prosecutor accepted this, citing Denkowski's expertise, and Smith's death sentence was commuted. In 2006 and 2007 Dr Denowski found that death row inmates Darrell Carr, Demetrius Simms, and Exzavier Stevenson had mental retardation. In each case, the Harris County prosecutor accepted Dr Denkowski's finding and the death sentences were commuted. In two other Harris County cases, those of Coy Wesbrook in 2006 and Brian Davis in 2004, Dr Denkowski concluded that the inmate did not have retardation. They remain on death row. In James Clark's case, the Denton County prosecution did not accept Dr Denkowski's finding of retardation. Instead it hired another psychologist, Dr Thomas Allen. He concluded that Clark was faking retardation to avoid execution. The defense had an assessment done by Dr Denis Keyes, an expert whose studies were among those cited in the Atkins ruling. Dr Keyes concluded that James Clark has retardation (and an IQ of 68). He noted that Dr Denkowski's findings in Clark's case were ''credible and correct''. In contrast to this, Dr Keyes noted that Dr Allen ''did no standardized testing (which is required for diagnosis and for ruling out a diagnosis).'' Neither Dr Keyes nor Dr Denkowski found that James Clark had faked his mental retardation during their assessments, something that these experts specifically tested for. An evidentiary hearing was held in the trial court in 2003, during which James Clark was shackled, handcuffed and forced to wear an electro-shock stun belt. When his lawyer asked for the stun belt to be removed, the judge refused. The judge deferred to Dr Allen's conclusions, rejecting those of Drs Keyes and Denkowski. She held that an IQ score of 74 that Clark achieved in 1983 in youth custody was ''the most reliable indicator'' of his IQ because he then had no reason to fake retardation, whereas a finding now would determine whether he was executed or not. The judge ruled that the 1983 score did not meet the AAMR's first criterion (IQ 70 or under) of mental retardation, even though with the generally accepted margin of error, a score of 74 falls within the range of 69-79. In addition, Dr James Flynn, an expert on assessing IQ scores to take account of changes over time, has concluded that ''the best estimate'' of James Clark's 1983 score in terms of up-to-date norms would be about 68.57 (that is, very similar to Dr Keyes' finding), and ''it is almost certain that [Clark's IQ] is not 70 or above''. In another post-Atkins case in 2006, the importance of the so- called ''Flynn effect'' and the margin of error was recognized by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA), when it remanded a case of an inmate with an IQ assessed at 81 to the trial court level for further evidentiary development on the retardation question. In March 2004 in James Clark's case, the TCCA upheld the trial judge's findings. Without holding any further evidentiary hearings, the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, ALA., VA., ORE., S.C., USA
March 20 TEXASnew execution date Knight's execution date set In Amarillo, on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 at approximately 8:30 am, 47th District Judge Hal Miner set a date for the execution of Patrick Bryan Knight. He is scheduled for lethal injection after 6 p.m. on June 26, 2007 in Huntsville, TX. Patrick Knight was convicted in the double homicide of Walter and Mary Werner that occurred August 28, 1991 in their home on the Claude Highway east of Pullman road. Knight was a next door neighbor to the Werner's at the time of the incident. Knight, along with accomplice Robert Timothy Bradfield, were taken into custody immediately after officers arrived at the Werner's residence and found it in disarray. After interviewing the suspects, detectives were lead to a location on Masterson Road 2.8 miles north of the Claude highway and discovered the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Werner. It was determined that they had been shot on the road and their bodies were then dragged to a culvert beside the roadway. Both Knight and Bradfield were convicted of the murders and Bradfield received a Life Sentence. He is eligible for parole in September of 2009. Knight was 23 years old at the time of the incident and Bradfield was 19. (source: KXII News, March 13) OHIOimpending execution Biros execution halted againBiros got a chance for personal contact with his family Monday evening. Killer Kenneth Biros ate pizza and visited with family on the eve of what could be his last full day alive. Biros, 48, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. today for murder with sexual counts in a grisly crime in Trumbull County in February 1991. A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Cincinnati refused the state's request to lift a lower court's order against the execution, saying Biros should be able to continue appealing a lawsuit with other inmates arguing that Ohio's method of lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. However, Ohio prison workers still prepared for the execution because the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a ruling to allow the lethal injection. Biros arrived at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, the site of the death chamber, at 9:45 a.m. Monday. He was transported from the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown and spent most of the day sleeping or listening to music in the death house, said Andrea Dean, spokeswoman for the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. His mental state and physical health were checked on arrival. He's been sleeping most of the day, she said about 4:30 p.m. Monday. He hasn't watched any television at all. He has a personal CD player that he's been listening to, but I don't know what kind of music. At 4 p.m. he ate his special meal, she said. Visitors His mother, 2 sisters, brother and a family friend arrived at the facility about 4:45 p.m. Monday They were to visit with Biros in an open room, where holding hands, hugging, taking pictures and talking are allowed. They'll be able to stay together until 8 o'clock tonight [Monday], Dean said Monday afternoon. Afterward, Biros was to return to his holding cell for the night. He was allowed to watch television or make collect phone calls to any friends or family who would accept the charges. At 6 a.m., he was to be awakened and offered breakfast (standard menu for all inmates, which includes corn flakes, waffles and syrup, milk and fruit juice) and a chance to shower. From 6:30 until about 8 a.m., he could visit with family members through his cell door (no physical contact allowed), Dean said. His attorney and a spiritual adviser could be on hand until about 9 a.m. today, after which preparation for the execution process was to begin. Preparations The execution process involves the reading of the death warrant by the warden, the insertion of shunts into the inmate's arms and a 17-step walk from his holding cell to the execution chamber. The ultimate process takes six to eight minutes and involves the intravenous injection of 3 drugs: 1 to put the inmate to sleep, 1 to stop breathing and 1 to stop heart activity. Inmates are given ample time to make a final statement. We don't stop him, Dean said. The longest one we've had is 9 minutes. We never stop an inmate from saying what they want to say. She added, [Biros] doesn't have one yet, but that doesn't mean he won't have one tomorrow. A county coroner, in the chambers for the process, would provide the exact time of death. The body later would be turned over to family members. The death warrant expires at midnight tonight. If the stay remains in place, Biros would be transported back to the Youngstown prison to await further legal action. If the execution takes place, it would be the 25th in the state since 1999, Dean said. Meanwhile, Engstrom's sister, Debi Heiss, who traveled to Lucasville on Monday with her mother and brother, said she is keeping her hopes up that the work of Attorney
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, ARIZ., CALIF., ORE.
March 18 TEXAS: Inmate fighting to 'bitter end,' refuses food Life on death row, says Roy Lee Pippin condemned for killing 2 men in a Harris County narcotics murder is a living hell. And unless courts spare his life, Pippin says, he plans to go to his March 29 execution on an empty stomach. He's trying to draw attention to what he considers horrendous conditions at Texas' massive, ultra-maximum-security death row. A one-time air conditioner repairman, Pippin has spent almost 12 years on death row, roughly half of them at the forbidding, electric- and barbed-wire encircled Allan B. Polunsky Unit just west of Livingston. Pippin, 51, the latest in a series of inmates who have stopped eating to protest prison conditions, started his hunger strike on Feb. 19 and had lost more than 20 pounds. Pippin, who consumes only water, undergoes daily medical evaluation. If his condition seriously deteriorates, doctors could order that he be fed intravenously. I'm going to carry on this hunger strike to the bitter end, Pippin said. Pippin's protest came weeks after a January Amnesty International letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice alleged that death row conditions violate international human rights agreements. Specifically, the London-based group took issue with policies that keep killers isolated in small cells for as long as 23 hours a day and with bans on television viewing, work programs, group recreation and religious services. Such inherently inhumane treatment, Amnesty's Susan Lee complained to TDCJ director Brad Livingston, can cause severe physical and mental harm. Given the enormity of its death row 377 men are held at Polunsky and 10 women at Gatesville Texas long has been a lightning rod for such complaints. Texas has executed 387 inmates since the death penalty was restored in 1976, more than the other 49 states combined. Though hunger strikes erupted at Polunsky in October and January and the prison has been blasted by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, TDCJ has remained unmoved. Public safety considered TDCJ officials canceled an interview with death row warden Billy Hirsch, scheduled for this report. All of our decisions regarding death row are based on public safety and security, said prison spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. ... Our job is to incarcerate these individuals. We provide them with medical care. We give them 3 square meals a day. Prison is not a country club, said Cathy Hill, whose husband, Harris County sheriff's Deputy Barrett Hill, was murdered as he chased a suspect in December 2000. For people who think it is inhumane, I'd say what was inhumane was what was done to the victim and the victim's family. One thing people must remember: These are criminals, said Les Baquer, whose daughter, Farah Fratta, was killed in a 1994 murder-for-hire scheme plotted by her ex-policeman husband. I personally have sat in their cells. Obviously they are locked up for 23 hours, but they put themselves there. I didn't. As far as I'm concerned, they need to be punished. Baquer's daughter was murdered by Howard Guidry, 1 of 7 condemned killers who tried to break out of the Ellis Unit's death row on Thanksgiving night 9 years ago. Guidry and five others surrendered when guards opened fire. The 7th inmate, Martin Gurule, escaped. His body later was recovered from a nearby creek. The episode marked a sea change in Texas prison policy. By early 2000, Ellis' aging death row was closed, its population relocated to what is now called the Polunsky Unit. In their new home, inmates were confined to 60-square-foot cells 20 square feet smaller than the enclosure recommended by the American Correctional Association and subjected to a reduction in privileges. No longer were they allowed to engage in group recreation sessions or attend group religious services. Officials eliminated work programs, contending that Gurule and others used their time in Ellis' garment factory to plan their escape. At Polunksy, inmates no longer could watch television, although a Dallas state representative has introduced a bill this session that would restore that privilege. Pippin, condemned for murdering two men he thought had stolen $1.6 million from his Colombian drug bosses, yearns for the Ellis days. We could go without handcuffs, he said. We could work in the garment factory or go down the hall to talk to friends. Now, Pippin's primary chance to talk to other inmates comes during solitary recreation sessions in a day room near the other cells. Theoretically, he could yell to but not see inmates in neighboring cells. But at death row, which is noisy 24 hours a day, Pippin can't hear. Too much rock 'n' roll, he said of his damaged hearing. He complains, too, of the fluorescent lighting in his cell, which he claims has damaged his vision, and of the child-sized portions of food. (A typical day's menu consists of three pancakes
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, LA.
Feb. 13 TEXAS: 17 suspected of gang membership indicted on murder charges 17 Houston-area men accused of being members of a prison-based gang have been indicted on charges of murder, robbery and drug trafficking, federal authorities said Monday. The men, 9 of whom are in prison, were indicted on charges related to 3 killings, 2 attempted killings, conspiracy to commit murder, 5 aggravated robberies, trafficking in cocaine and marijuana and racketeering from August 1999 through February 2006 as members of the Texas Syndicate. FBI agents as well as police officers from several Houston agencies, including the Houston Police Department, Monday arrested the 8 defendants who are not in prison Monday: Francisco Nuncio Jr., 34, aka Frank or Butcher of Houston; Robbie Lee Danas, 35, aka Sleepy of Rosenberg; George Duran, 39, aka Porkchop of Baytown; Jesus Galvan Jr., 40, aka Jesse or Peanut of Houston; Roberto Garza, 33, aka Flaco of Needville; Johnny Perez Jr., 35, aka Payaso or Ki Ki of Houston; Michael Thaman, 28, aka Mikeo of Pasadena; and Jerry Villarreal Jr., 36, aka Craps of Houston. The 9 men in prisons, who will be transferred to Houston jails, are Michael Almaraz, aka Little Mike, 27; Frank Cano, aka Slim, 28; Rene Gonzales Jr., aka Slick or Amor Slick, 33; Juan Matamoros, aka Pudd, 32; Mike Mendoza, aka Barney, 28; Albert Ortiz, aka Borrado, 53; Evaristo Torres, aka Red Dog; Willie Valdez, aka Canoso, 43; and Roberto Ybarra, aka Little Rob, 27. (source: Associated Press) * Mom charged after toddler drowned in tub A 29-year-old Charlotte woman was charged with capital murder Monday after she told authorities she drowned her 3-year-old daughter in the bathtub, said David Soward, chief deputy of the Atascosa County Sheriff's Department. Laura Ann Garza remained in the Atascosa County Jail late Monday in lieu of $1 million bond. Soward said the toddler, Mina Renee Garza, was unresponsive when emergency medical technicians arrived at the family's doublewide mobile home on McKinnon Street. The girl was later pronounced dead at South Texas Regional Medical Center in Jourdanton. Mina's grandfather called 911 at about 9:25 a.m. Monday after finding the girl in the bathtub, Soward said. The grandfather was the only other person inside the home, according to authorities. Soward said Garza confessed to deputies at the scene and later provided a written statement to investigators, detailing what had occurred. She has shown some remorse, he said. She broke down crying during the interview multiple times. The chief deputy said Garza, a former San Antonio resident, provided a motive for the drowning, but he declined to release it. We're investigating it, said Mary Walker, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. A search of the agency's database didn't show that the family had been investigated before, she said. Gloria Day, executive director of the Atascosa Family Crisis Center, said Monday's incident should raise awareness of the need for more resources in rural areas to help troubled families. Everyone is overwhelmed, Day said of authorities, adding there are not enough trained professionals to provide the help needed in smaller communities. A lot of (families) fall through the cracks. Last year, Gilda Casarez, a 31-year-old Lytle woman, was charged with capital murder after she reportedly admitted to investigators that in 2004 she fed her daughter, Ariella Perez, also 3, a bottle of baby formula spiked with methamphetamine. Garza moved to her father's mobile home in Charlotte last year after separating from her husband, Armando Garza. The couple filed for divorce on June 28 in Bexar County. The case is pending. Mina was their only child. On Monday night, Armando Garza's house near Woodlawn Lake had a handwritten sign posted on the front door, asking for the public to respect family members' grief and that they had no comment. Soward said the father had retained custody of the child and that Mina was visiting the mother at the time of her death. The mother, a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio, had no prior criminal history, according to Soward. (source : San Antonio Express-News) OHIO: Court plans review of death sentenceKiller awaits hearing in '85 shootings A hearing will be held to determine whether a Toledo man will remain on death row for the shooting deaths of 2 people in 1985. Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Richard Knepper scheduled a hearing for Feb. 20 in the death-penalty case of Frederick Dickerson, 51, complying with orders of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Dickerson recently was transferred from a state prison in Youngstown to the county jail. He appeared in court yesterday. Toledo attorney Jeff Helmick, who handled Dickerson's appeal, was appointed to the case by Judge Knepper. Mr. Helmick said a motion would be filed in the coming days to have the death
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, PENN., N.C.
Nov. 18 TEXAS: Death penalty sought in CPS staffer's death The suspect in the slaying of a Victoria-area Child Protective Services supervisor could get the death penalty if convicted, a prosecutor has decided. Jeffrey Frank Grimsinger, 24, was indicted in August for the kidnapping, robbery and murder in the death of Sally Ann Blackwell, 53. He has pleaded not guilty. Victoria County District Attorney M.P. Dexter Eaves' decision this week to seek death means Grimsinger could face execution or life in prison if a jury convicts him of capital murder. Blackwell, whose strangled body was found March 15 in a field about five miles southeast of Victoria, had intermittently dated Grimsinger's father, Mike, for many years. She headed CPS' regional office in Victoria. Eaves, who is leaving office, said he chose to seek capital punishment after spending a few days alone to consider it. What I always do is I usually take about three days to go to somewhere to be by myself, Eaves said. I'm a religious man. I have to stand before God and answer to this. His successor, Steve Tyler, will prosecute Grimsinger. It's a decision I couldn't very well punt on, Eaves said. It (the murder case) was on my watch. Eaves declined to talk about specifics of the case. He said the investigation has failed to pin down why Blackwell was killed, although he added that motive is not something we have to prove. A trial date is expected to be set at a hearing scheduled for Feb. 21. The investigation into Blackwell's slaying seemed stalled as months passed with no arrest. On the day her body was discovered, bloodhounds trailed a scent to the home of a former sheriff's deputy who once dated her. The former deputy never was charged and has declined to comment in the case. When Jeffrey Grimsinger was arrested in August, news that he was considered a suspect came as a shock. The way it came back, it was truly a surprise to everyone, Eaves said of DNA tests that pointed to Grimsinger. He was not even on the radar screen. Even Grimsinger's father was caught off-guard. I don't know what to say anymore, Mike Grimsinger said Wednesday. (source: Houston Chronicle) *** Texas appeals court does not ensure justice Monday, November 20, 2006 Justice is not always easy to come by in Texas, particularly for death-row inmates who have to depend on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for a review of their cases. This state's highest appeals court for criminal cases consistently ignores justice, even when the evidence of injustice is clear. True to its recent history, the court last week rejected two appeals from condemned inmates whose trials were travesties of justice. The most ardent death penalty advocate understands that a capital murder proceeding must guarantee a fair trial. One of the strongest arguments against capital punishment in Texas is that the judicial system is so broken that innocent defendants can be condemned and executed. Last week's rulings by the Court of Criminal Appeals provided more evidence for those who hold that view. In separate rulings, the court upheld the convictions of Jose Ernesto Medellin and Daniel Acker, 2 convicted murderers who had clearly inadequate defense attorneys at their trials. Neither Acker nor Medellin is a model citizen, and the crimes they were convicted of are horrible. Acker was found guilty of killing his girlfriend in Hopkins County, and Medellin was convicted and condemned for the rape and murder of two teenage girls in Houston. Nevertheless, even the most despicable defendant should be afforded competent counsel at trial. In fact, the more heinous the crime, the more the state should ensure the defendant has a good lawyer and a fair trial. That was not the case for Acker and Medellin. Last month, American-Statesman reporter Chuck Lindell detailed the horrendous appeal filed by Acker's court-appointed attorney, Greenville lawyer Toby Wilkinson. The appeal was largely taken from a ranting letter Acker had written. Also, Wilkinson's writ was filled with errors. That didn't matter to the appeals court judges, who rejected the appeal without mention of the awful condition of Wilkinson's writ. Medellin's case went all the way to the International Court of Justice in the Hague and provoked a memorandum from President Bush. News reports focused on the Texas appeals court's admonishing the president for overstepping his authority under the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine, but the heart of the issue is still ineffective counsel. Medellin is a Mexican national, one of 51 Mexicans on death row in the United States that the international court said deserved reconsideration and review because they had not contacted their consuls. Bush last year directed state courts to abide by the ruling of the United Nations' court. The Texas judges didn't like that, and in denying Medellin's appeal, wrote that the president had overstepped his authority. Perhaps,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, N.J., USA, ARK.
Sept. 30 TEXAS: Judge rejects inmate's appeal In one of his last decisions before retiring Friday, state District Judge David Wilson denied the mental retardation claim of a convicted capital murderer. Wilson denied a legal writ filed by the legal team representing David L. Lewis, 42, according to an answer filed Friday in the Angelina County District Clerk's Office. The case is expected to move to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by defense request. In order for the higher court to overturn his decision, it would have to find he made what is known as an abuse of discretion, Wilson said. Abuse of discretion means a trial judge has made such a bad decision during a trial or on a ruling that a person did not get a fair trial, according to a legal dictionary listing. Lewis was sentenced to die for the Nov. 30, 1986, murder of Myrtle Ruby, 74. Lewis shot her to death with a .22-caliber rifle as she confronted him in her Lufkin home during a robbery, Angelina County District Attorney Clyde Herrington said at a hearing on the case in June. Lewis was a 39-year-old former carpenter with an eighth-grade education when he surprised Ruby, returning home from church choir practice, according to a Northern Illinois University Web site study on the death penalty. Before the murder he served two years in prison for burglary in Brazoria County. Lee's attorneys in June argued he was retarded, making the enforcement of a death sentence against him illegal based on the 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision abolishing the execution of the mentally disabled as cruel and unusual punishment. At the June hearing, attorneys for Lee presented testimony on childhood abuse and school records. He had an alcoholic mother and an unstable childhood, contributing to his development problems, the defense said. Herrington pointed out once Lewis was out of that home environment, he improved, proving he was disadvantaged, and not retarded. Evidence of a GED earned in prison also proved Lewis' IQ was higher, Herrington said. Attending the June hearing was Lee's girlfriend Michaela Zenker, a German journalist who met him through Amnesty International in 2000. She travels to the United States periodically to visit him. Their visits are always through prison glass. Her dream would be to take him home to live with her, she said in June. The court of appeals in 2004 overturned the Lufkin capital murder case against Willie Mack Modden on the basis of mental retardation. Modden, who died in prison in April, was twice sentenced to die in 1984 for stabbing 27-year-old gas station attendant Deborah Ann Fontenot Davenport. (source: Lufkin Daily News) ** PROSECUTORS, DEFENSE REST THEIR CASES IN WILLIAMS TRIAL Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the capital murder trial of Clifton Lamar Williams rested their cases Friday. Monday morning, they will give closing arguments before the Smith County jury deliberates on whether Williams is guilty of beating, strangling and stabbing to death 93-year-old Cecelia Schneider on July 9, 2005, before setting her body on fire, and stealing her purse and car. Williams, 23, faces life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of capital murder. On Friday, the state concluded its ninth day of evidence, presenting more than 300 items of evidence and the testimony of dozens of witnesses. The defense rested its case without presenting any evidence. Tyler police Sgt. Connie Castle testified Friday that a fire can make the discovery of evidence, such as hair and blood, impossible. She said there was no evidence in Ms. Schneider's house, 311 E. Callahan St., connecting Williams to the case. She said she collected blood evidence from the victim's car, which was found wrecked in Greenbriar Road. She said she did not know how long the car sat on the road or if anyone tampered with it before police discovered it. DNA analysis matched the blood stains in the car to Williams and his fingerprint was recovered outside of the car, other witnesses have said. Sgt. Castle said police were unable to match a palm print located on the car to the suspect or others involved in the case and they did not have the victim's print to compare it with. Sgt. Castle said there were blood stains on the driver's and passenger's sides of the car. There was more blood that appeared to have been dripping from someone on the driver's side and more blood appearing to have been smeared on the passenger's side, she said. Several of the blood stains were located by the gear shift and ignition. Smith County Sheriff's Detective Noel Martin said he used Luminol on areas outside of the house, such as around the back door, in May 2006 to see if any blood evidence was left undiscovered but none was found. He said he also checked the inside of the home but it had been completely remodeled and no blood was discovered. He said he did a blood spatter pattern analysis of the victim's nightgown and pieces of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO
August 24 TEXASimpending execution Fuller headed to death chamber for East Texas murder Condemned prisoner Justin Fuller was headed to the Texas death chamber this evening for the abduction, robbery and fatal shooting of a Tyler man 9 years ago. About 4 hours before he was scheduled to die, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal to review his case and halt the punishment. Only two of the nine justices - Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens - voted for a reprieve. In the appeal, Fuller's lawyers contended his trial attorneys were ineffective and failed to tell him about a proposed plea bargain that would have spared him from a death sentence. Fuller acknowledged being in the vicinity when 21-year-old Donald Whittington III was killed at Lake Tyler in the early morning hours of April 21, 1997, but he said he didn't fire the fatal shots with a .22-caliber pistol and didn't show off the body later to friends. Whittington's remains weren't discovered by police until 4 days after he went missing. Authorities said by then numerous people had gone to see the body, which became the subject of conversation at Tyler's Chapel Hill High School. A student at the school, which Whittington, Fuller and 2 other people convicted in the slaying had attended, overheard some of the talk and called police. The case inspired passage of a state law making it a crime to know about a dead body and remain silent about it. Fuller said in a recent interview with The Associated Press he couldn't express regrets about the killing. If I have regrets, it means I done it, he said. 3 others convicted in the case are serving long prison terms. Samhermundre Wideman, of Tyler, and Elaine Hays, of Red Springs, have life sentences. Wideman was 21 when arrested and Hays 25. Brent Bates Chandler, 19 at the time of the killing, accepted 25 years and testified against Fuller. Fuller and Wideman lived in the same apartment complex as Whittington. Prosecutors said the robbery plot was hatched by Hays, Wideman's girlfriend, who believed Whittington had received $15,000 from a trust fund when he turned 21. Hays' lawyers at her trial blamed the scheme on the 3 men. Fuller said they went to Whittington's place to retrieve rings Hays gave him in exchange for some cash. Once there, Whittington was sprayed with a tear gas, blindfolded, had his hands and feet tied and was threatened with death if he didn't surrender his ATM card and password. Chandler took clothing and items from Whittington's apartment and the other assailants threw Whittington in the back seat of his own car, drove to a bank and withdrew about $300, then went to the lake area where Whittington was killed. Fuller told police he was urinating in the lake at the time of the shooting. His companions disputed his story. They said I was the triggerman, said Fuller, who blamed Wideman for the shooting. Whittington's ATM card was found in Fuller's wallet. According to court records, Fuller took friends to see body the day after the shooting and detailed his involvement. From death row, Fuller denied that. Fuller, whose 28th birthday is next week, would be the 19th inmate executed this year in Texas, matching the total executions in the state for all of 2005. At least 7 condemned prisoners have death dates through the end of the year. If all are carried out, however, the total would be well short of the record 40 inmates put to death in 2000 in Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment state. Scheduled to die next is Derrick Frazier, 29, set for execution Aug. 31 for the slaying 9 years ago of a woman and her son at their home on a ranch in Refugio County in South Texas. Jermaine Herron, a companion of Frazier's also convicted in the double murder, was executed in May. (source: Houston Chronicle) OHIO: Cult leader gets date with executionerCalled slayings of followers 'pruning the vineyard' A religious cult leader convicted of killing a family of 5 in 1989 will be executed in October, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Jeffrey Lundgren, 56, was convicted of shooting to death a man, his wife and his 3 daughters who had moved from Missouri in 1987 to follow Lundgren's teachings. He referred to the killings as pruning the vineyard. Lundgren formed a religious cult after he was dismissed in 1987 as a lay minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He had attracted a following, and several people moved with him to a rented farm house about 30 miles east of Cleveland, where they called him Dad and contributed money for group expenses. The victims were Dennis Avery, 49; his wife, Cheryl, 46; and daughters Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Karen, 7. On April 17, 1989, the Avery family was invited to dinner, then led to a barn. There they were bound and placed into the pit, where Lundgren shot each one. The pit was filled with dirt. Kirtland police found Dennis Avery's body January 3, 1990, leading to Lundgren's
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
Aug. 2 TEXAS: HENRY RAY CLARK, 1936-2006Art turned around a troubled life Henry Ray Clark, a convicted felon, turned his life around by making art. After he was imprisoned at Huntsville in 1977 for assault with a deadly weapon, Clark signed up for an art class. He drew with green, black and red ball point pens on any scrap of paper he could find - envelopes to prison menus. He described his gladiators and cosmic visions with razor-sharp outlines, covering every millimeter of the surface with the color inks. If anybody knows anything about my art, they know about my planets, he explained once. I know they are out there because I've been there. Every night when I go to bed, I travel in my spaceship going to all the places I put on these papers. Clark went to prison more than once, but after his final release he made Houston his home. On July 13, Clark, 69, was shot in the arm and abdomen by 2 home invaders. He was admitted to Ben Taub Hospital, where he remained in a coma and on life support until his death Saturday. Clark was born in Bartlett, near Temple, in 1936, dropped out of school in the 7th grade and soon became known as the Magnificent Pretty Boy. He adopted the moniker, he said, when a girl told me I was pretty and started giving me money and then I started gambling pretty good. For 41 years before I came to prison, I lived wrong every day of my life, he told the Houston Chronicle in 1991. And then I turn around and shoot a fool who deserved it. The fool had tried to run off with Clark's gambling take, he said. But I had done so much wrong in the past, I figured it was just my turn (for prison). Artist William Steen, a former Houston resident, found Clark's work in 1989 in the Huntsville prison art show and became his agent. Clark's work has been exhibited by Hirschl Adler Galleries in New York, at Houston's Project Row Houses and in the traveling exhibit of folk art Passionate Visions of the American South organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art. Critics gave him a place alongside other self-taught artists like Frank Jones, who had also been an inmate in Huntsville. I can't draw nothing but things that come out of my mind, Clark said. He believed that there are many galaxies that our world has never come in contact with yet, he said. But one day when we do, I'm going to be up there looking down at everybody saying, 'Here I am, the Magnificent Pretty Boy.' Houston artist Jack Massing has been helping Clark promote his work over the past 4 years, and is in the process of co-curating an exhibit with Clint Willour for the Galveston Arts Center. It will open Nov. 25. I was going to show just the 7 or 10 drawings Henry was working on, Massing said. I think it will be a memorial now that will also have his poetry and mementos of his life. Clark is survived by 5 nieces and nephews. Funeral arrangements are pending at Ruffin Mortuary, which will accept donations for the burial and family, 6911 Winton; 713-747-8120. (source: Houston Chronicle) County mental health care center hailed as model While most Texas counties have struggled with the way they handle mentally ill people caught up in the criminal justice system, Bexar County's Center for Health Care Services has emerged as the gold standard for community mental health care around the state and the country. A presentation to county commissioners Tuesday included a 20-minute film highlighting the center's programs, which have kept thousands of mentally ill defendants out of jail and reduced costly hospitalizations. Bexar County Story, produced in part by drug maker AstraZeneca, which has donated about $3 million to the center over the past three years, has been shown around the country to mental health organizations seeking to implement similar programs. The center was reduced to almost rubble until the Commissioners Court rescued us and brought in University Health System to work with us, said Dr. Roberto Jimenez, chairman of the center's board. Now we are the top community mental health center in Texas - by all measures. In 2001, County Judge Nelson Wolff convened a health care summit that asked law enforcement, the justice system and health care providers to work together to get the mentally ill out of jail and into treatment. The result was the Jail Diversion Program, and later, Cognitive Adaptive Training, which sends social workers to the homes of those who have been released from jail or the hospital to teach them ways to stay on their medications and in society. Typical police calls that bring officers in contact with the mentally ill include disturbing the peace, loitering and other nonviolent minor offenses. In the past, such offenders languished in jail for 2 to 3 times longer than average inmates. In just its first year, 2003, the program saved taxpayers between $3.8 million and $5 million, according to a policy report from the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Studies at the
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, CALIF., VA.
May 24 TEXAS: Yogurt shop murder conviction overturned The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction of a man once sentenced to death in Austin's notorious Yogurt Shop murders. The state's top criminal appeals court remanded the case against Robert Springsteen IV back to a Travis County state district court. Springsteen was convicted in the deadly 1991 robbery of an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! store in Austin. Four teenage girls were found bound, gagged and fatally shot in the head in its aftermath. The restaurant was set on fire to hide evidence and the girls' bodies were severely burned. ** Yogurt shop murders Read the complete court ruling: http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/opinions/HTMLOpinionInfo.asp?OpinionID=14031 For more on the 1991 Yogurt shop murders, visit news8austin.com's Yogurt shop trial information information page: http://www.news8austin.com/content/special%5Fcoverage/yogurt%5Fshop%5Fmurders/ ** Springsteen was sent to death row for the slayings in 2001. But his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled killers younger than 18 when their crimes occurred could not be executed. His conviction and that of a co-defendant Michael Scott were based on confessions each gave that implicated the other. The statements of each were introduced at the other's trial. The court upheld that argument. Scott was sentenced to life in 2002. Defense attorneys argued the fact they weren't allowed to cross-examine their accusers was unconstitutional. Eliza Hope Thomas, 17, Amy Ayers, 13, Jennifer Harbison, 17, and her Sarah Harbison, 15, were killed in the robbery. The Travis County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the court's finding. The Austin Police Department is confident in the guilt of Robert Springsteen ... APD will continue to work with the Travis County District Attorney's Office on the Yogurt Shop murder case to ensure that Robert Springsteen continues to be held accountable for these horrific murders, the police department said in a written statement. (source : Associated Press) *** Bart Whitaker Murder Case Set For Trial; 2 Other Defendants Negotiating Thomas Bart Whitaker will go on trial Jan. 16, 2007, for allegedly hatching a plot that resulted in the murder of his mother, Patricia, and younger brother, Kevin. The trial has been set for 9 a.m. that day before 400th District Judge Clifford J. Vacek. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty in the case. Whitaker's father, Kent Whitaker, who survived the Dec. 10, 2003, shooting rampage that took the lives of his wife and younger son, has told prosecutors he doesnt want the death penalty applied to his only remaining son. Sugar Land police have said Whitaker, 25, conspired with Steven Champagne and Chris Brashear, both 23, in a plot to kill his 19-year-old brother, 51-year-old mother and 56-year-old father. All 3 men were arrested in September and are in custody in the Fort Bend County Jail. Fort Bend County Assistant District Attorney Fred Felcman said negotiations are continuing with attorneys for Brashear and Champagne, both of whom are charged with murder. No trial date has been set for the 2, and no decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty in their cases. Police believe the motive was money; Whitaker would have stood to inherit assets - including the family Sugar Land house on Herron Way where the shooting occurred - of more than $1 million. According to court documents and police statements, investigators believe Bart Whitaker returned home with his family after a dinner on the night of the murders. Allegedly, Brashear was inside hiding with a gun, waiting for the family to enter. He fired on them, police believe, killing Patricia and Kevin, wounding Kent and wounding Bart in the shoulder as the two appeared to struggle before Brashear ran out, got into a car driven by Champagne, and left. Police say the struggle between Bart Whitaker and Brashear was staged. Bart Whitaker was the last of the 3 suspects to be arrested; FBI agents located him in Mexico, where he had been in hiding. After his arrest, police said Whitaker had plotted at least twice before to murder his family, with acquaintances other than Brashear and Champagne. Those acquaintances, whom police have declined to identify, have hired attorneys but have not been arrested. (source: FortBendNow) OHIO: Deadly Convictions To Air On ONN ONN and The Columbus Dispatch are teaming up to bring Ohioans an exclusive news special on the case of Ohio death row inmate John Spirko. ONN will air the 1-hour special, entitled, Deadly Convictions, Thursday, May 25 at 8pm. The Columbus Dispatch will provide a print component on the front page of its Sunday, May 28 edition. Deadly Convictions examines the legal case surrounding Spirko and explores the incidents that led to his conviction and death sentence in August, 1984 for the murder of
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, S.C.
May 2 TEXAS: Man executed on disproven evidence, experts say 4 of the nation's top arson experts have concluded that the state of Texas executed a man in 2004 based on scientifically invalid evidence, and they called for an official re-investigation of the case. In a report scheduled for release Tuesday morning, the experts, assembled by the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization responsible for scores of exonerations, concluded that the conviction and 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson-murders of his three daughters was based on interpretations by fire investigators that have been scientifically disproved. (source: Chicago Tribune) * Killers defense prepares for court battle over old transcriptAttorneys say file could have changed Banks verdict Delma Banks Jr.'s lawyers and prosecutors for the state will be in court June 1 in the continued battle over Banks 25-year-old capital murder conviction. U.S. District Judge David Folsom will hear objections to a recommendation made last month by U.S. Magistrate Caroline Craven that let stand Banks capital murder conviction for the April 1980 death of Wayne Whitehead, 16, of Texarkana. Banks' father did not have a comment or know if his son will be at the hearing. Banks is appealing after some success in the U.S. Supreme Court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The hearing will center around a 25-year-old interview transcript, which remains a controversial aspect of Banks appeal in the federal courts. Banks legal defense argues too little weight was given to the transcript, which they believe is evidence of prosecutors' coaching a key witness against Banks during the guilt/innocence part of the trial. The defense thinks jurors would have handed down a different verdict if they had known about the transcript. Bowie County investigators and former Assistant Bowie County District Attorney Rodney McDaniel interviewed Charles Cook inside the Dallas County Jail prior to the trial in September 1980. Then-District Attorney Louis Raffaelli and Assistant District Attorney James Elliott tried the case. The issue at hand is whether the fairness of Banks 1980 trial was compromised when his lawyer was not privy to the transcript of key trial witness Charles Cook. Elliott was the 3rd consecutive assistant prosecutor has been assigned the case. Raffaelli, by law, should have turned over the transcript to Banks' lawyer at the time of the trial. He did not. Instead, Elliott turned over evidence to Banks' appellate lawyers in 1996, when the case was 1st in the federal system. While Craven sided with the state per se by not overturning the conviction, Assistant Texas Attorney General Kathryn Hayes was not completely happy with the ruling. As someone who works on the state's side of criminal cases once they land in the federal system, Hayes said the issue of the transcript was litigated during the 1999 hearing. At that hearing, in Texarkana, Banks and his lawyers tried to prove that his conviction and sentence were unjust. Banks remains on Texas' death row. (source: Texarkana Gazette) OHIO botched execution State executes man after unprecedented delay Ohio executed a man Tuesday following a delay of more than an hour because of unprecedented difficulty administering the lethal injection. Joseph Lewis Clark, 57, died by injection at 11:26 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for killing a gas station clerk during a spree of robberies in 1984 in which he also killed a convenience store worker. The execution was set to begin at 10 a.m. It was the longest delay since the state resumed executions in 1999, state prisons spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. The execution was slowed as the execution team worked to find a vein in his right arm. Clark said, These don't work and They're not working as the team tried to start the injection. After 25 minutes of trying to find a vein, a curtain separating the death house from witnesses was pulled shut. Clark could be heard moaning and groaning from behind the curtain. When the curtain reopened at 11:17 a.m., Clark had 2 shunts in his left arm. This has never happened, Dean said of the delay. Clark, sentenced to die in November 1984 for killing David Manning, had been on death row longer than all but 11 of the 193 men on death row. In his final statement, Clark apologized to the victim's family. I would like to say to family and friends that I didn't get to talk to, ... that was wondering how I felt, I would like them to know that I asked God to forgive me, that I asked the Lord to save me from my sins. Gov. Bob Taft rejected Clark's appeal for clemency last week, saying he found no justifiable basis for mercy. Clark confessed to police that he killed Manning, saying that he was trying to get money for drugs. Clark shot and killed convenience store clerk Donald Harris the day before killing Manning, working the night shift at a
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, N.C., KY., USA (fwd)
March 8 TEXAS: Rail killer running out of optionsAs execution date nears, his ex-lawyer misses appeal deadline Serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz's chances of eluding a May 10 execution appear remote after his former attorney failed to file an appeal on time, causing the Mexican government to step in and request the case be reopened. I missed the deadline without justification, said Leslie Ribnik, Maturino Resendiz's former court-appointed attorney. Ribnik did not file on time an appeal of a federal judge's ruling denying a writ of habeas corpus. Ribnik filed an affidavit last fall stating that he botched the case, but he argued that his failure should not affect his former client's appeal. The decision on whether to let the appeal proceed rests with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Such deadline errors are not without precedent, and they can be insurmountable, said David Dow, a University of Houston law professor and founder of the Texas Innocence Network. Whenever a death row inmate's case is in the posture Resendiz's is in, it's very difficult to have the merits of any issues addressed by either a state or federal court, Dow said. I think the prospects are not great. Assistant District Attorney Roe Wilson was more blunt. He's through with the courts, Wilson said. Other 'urgent matters' Maturino Resendiz was convicted of capital murder six years ago for the Dec. 17, 1998, bludgeoning of Dr. Claudia Benton in her West University Place home. Fingerprints, DNA and stolen items recovered from Maturino Resendiz's home in Mexico tied him to the slaying. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The killer, who has been linked through confessions and other evidence to the deaths of 12 other people across the country, was captured in the summer of 1999 after a nationwide manhunt. Last Sept. 7, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal denied the writ. But Ribnik made no move because he was working on several other urgent matters at the time, he stated in his affidavit. Ribnik did nothing until a Mexican Consulate official in Houston contacted him Nov. 1 about Rosenthal's ruling. The Mexican government takes a keen interest in death-row cases involving its nationals and because its legal system does not practice capital punishment. Maturino Resendiz and 15 other Mexicans sit on death row in Livingston, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Web site. On Nov. 10, Ribnik visited Maturino Resendiz at the Polunsky Unit to tell him of the judge's ruling, issued two months before. Ribnik filed an appeal five days later requesting the case be reopened. I do not wish my actions in this case to affect in any way Mr. Maturino Resendiz's ability to appeal the denial of habeas corpus relief, Ribnik stated in the court document. Appalled by misstep The Mexican government hired Houston attorney Jack Zimmermann and Rob Owen of Austin to take up the appeal. Quite frankly, my government is appalled that Mr. Ribnik failed to notify his client of the court's decision, and failed to file the single document necessary to preserve his rights to appeal, wrote Carlos Gonzalez Magallon, Mexico's consul general in Houston, in a letter submitted to Judge Rosenthal. Magallon, through a spokesman, declined to comment for this article. Zimmermann said he has not filed a subsequent writ and continues to review the case. He declined to address Ribnik's work. In his appeal, Ribnik raised only one claim, about how jurors in capital cases determine a death sentence is more appropriate than life. Ribnik argued that the prosecution should bear the burden to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that mitigating circumstances presented by the defense do not merit leniency. Rosenthal, in her opinion, said the argument was an illogical extension of federal law. Ribnik said he did not pursue the issue of Maturino Resendiz's mental illness because it was raised during the trial. 'Half angel, half man' Maturino Resendiz confessed to killing Benton and eight others in a crime spree across the country while traveling aboard freight trains. In 2000, he also gave investigators in Florida information that led to the recovery of 2 bodies. He has been linked to at least two other homicides as well. During his trial, Maturino Resendiz's defense presented evidence that he is a paranoid schizophrenic who suffered delusions he was half angel, half man, forced to kill his victims through God's will. He suffered head injuries, and had a history of drug abuse and mental illness in his family. Prosecutors presented testimony that he still was able to discern right from wrong. If Zimmermann discovers there are remaining legal issues he may not have the chance to appeal them. The law precludes mention of those issues not raised in initial appeals. Zimmermann said that after his review of the case he may agree with Ribnik's decision to appeal only one issue. If Maturino Resendiz is denied further appellate review
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, N.C., USA
Feb. 27 TEXASnew death sentence Barbee sentenced to die Stephen Barbee was sentenced to death this afternoon for killing Lisa Underwood and her 7-year-old son, Jayden. A jury of 7 women and 5 men took more than 3 hours to reach their decision on Barbee, 38. The jury could have sentenced him to life in prison. During closing arguments this morning, prosecutor Kevin Rousseau brought a dramatic end to the capital murder case against Barbee with a gripping description of the murder of a pregnant Underwood and her son. He talked about Barbee's trip to Underwood's north Fort Worth home in the early hours of Feb. 19, 2005, and the fight that left bloodstains all over her living room. When he finished describing how Barbee smothered Underwood by pressing her face into her carpet, he reminded jurors about her 7-year-old son's last moments on earth. Jayden couldn't run, Rousseau said. You think of (Barbee) approaching that little boy and slappng him upside the head hard enough to leave a bruise and then holding him down until hes dead, and I dare you to say there is a reason to save his life. In a victim impact statement, Underwood's mother, Sheila Underwood, addressed Barbee: I want you to know Im 53 years old and I don't have anything left. ... I want you to suffer like I suffer. You put me in hell. Last week, Barbee, 38, was convicted of smothering the two and dumping their bodies in a wooded area in rural Denton County. At about 10:20 a.m. today, a jury began deciding whether he would die for the crime. Police investigators said Barbee thought that Underwood was carrying his child and claimed that she had threatened to break up his marriage. The unborn baby girl was not Barbees child, lab tests later confirmed. Underwoods friends have said that she believed he was the father and wanted only for Barbee, who co-owned two businesses, to have the child covered on his health insurance. During closing arguments Monday, prosecutors Dixie Bersano and Rousseau cast Barbee as a selfish man who was willing to do anything to get what he wanted. They said the disregard he showed for the lives of Lisa Underwood and Jayden prove that he will be a future danger to society, a requirement for the death penalty. Defense attorneys Tim Moore and Bill Ray, however, pleaded with jurors not to use emotion to answer the question of whether Barbee should die. Moore cautioned them against asking why, if Barbee took these two lives, he shouldn't die, too. It's not a proper question, and I'll tell you why it's not a proper question, Moore said. That is because its a question the answer of which is based on pure revenge, and you have to be careful, folks, not to let revenge creep into your deliberations. Theres no place for revenge in our law. Moore said Barbee was a law-abiding, productive citizen who changed into an atrocious human being for 3 hours on Feb. 19, 2005. He is unlikely to be violent in the future, Moore said. Rousseau, however, said jurors had plenty of reason to consider Barbee dangerous. Testimony from Barbees 1st wife, Theresa, was an example, he said. She testified last week that Stephen Barbee assaulted her 4 times during their marriage. Once, a candle he knocked off a wall hit her in the head and gave her a concussion, she said. The pattern was there. The warning was there, Rousseau said. Unfortunately, Lisa Underwood did not have the benefit of that warning. She never had a chance. She never had a chance. Son on trial in parents' slaying Prosecutors opened their capital murder case against Andrew Wamsley of Mansfield by portraying him as the kind of teen-age son who, rather than going to college and getting a job, thought it would be better to inherit his parents' $1.65 million estate. Wamsley, 21, is accused of organizing a group of friends to kill his parents, Rick and Suzanna Wamsley. They were found shot and stabbed Dec. 11, 2003, in their Mansfield home. This case is about the ultimate betrayal of trust in the sanctity of one's home, Assistant District Attorney Page Simpson said. Defense attorney Larry Moore said the evidence points to another woman who is cooperating with prosecutors as the killer and that she is lying to lessen her sentence. The jury is expected to hear testimony from Mansfield police this afternoon in state District Judge Everett Youngs court. Wamsley is the 2nd person to face the death penalty in connection with the deaths of Rick and Suzanna Wamsley. In May, Chelsea Lea Richardson of Fort Worth, also 21, became the 1st woman in Tarrant County to receive the death penalty after she was convicted for her role in the killings. At her trial, prosecutors depicted Richardson as a manipulative personality who organized a group of her friends to kill the Wamsleys so her boyfriend would inherit his parents estate. On Monday, prosecutor Simpson told jurors that the friends met several times at a south Arlington restaurant to plan the slayings
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, IND., WYO., WASH.
Jan. 25 TEXAS: UNCERTAIN JUSTICEEfforts to determine whether a state has executed an innocent man reflect the country's growing unease with capital punishment The facts in Roger Keith Coleman's case were in many ways similar to those of dozens of men exonerated in recent years after having been convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to long prison terms or death row. The crucial difference in Coleman's case is that he had been executed. Before leaving office, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner ordered DNA testing that death penalty opponents hoped would prove Coleman was innocent of the 1981 rape and murder of Wanda McCoy, the crime for which the coal miner died in the electric chair in 1992. The test results showed that bodily fluids left at the crime scene perfectly matched Coleman's DNA. According to the best science available, Coleman almost certainly was guilty of McCoy's brutal murder. Coleman's attorney worked without pay for years to fulfill a promise that he would seek to clear his name. A negative DNA match, he believed, would have provided the nation's first incontrovertible scientific proof that a state had sent the wrong man to his death. In Coleman's case, Virginia got the right man. Death penalty opponents had counted on the test to give them a powerful argument to add to the mounting case against capital punishment as exacted in the United States. The DNA confirmation of Coleman's guilt, however, does not diminish the concern that innocent defendants have been wrongly convicted. In Texas this week, a dogged attorney's persistence paid off when, after three years of searching for biological material to test, a DNA test showed that Arthur Mumphrey of Montgomery County was not guilty of a 1986 sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. Having served 18 years in prison, Mumphrey is expected to be pardoned. Polls show most Americans support the death penalty, but their support is waning. That decline, from 80 % in 1994 to around 64 % now, is attributed to the frequency with which legal aid organizations have used DNA testing to prove miscarriages of justice. The Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted, lists on its Web site 172 DNA exonerations since 1989, including two Texans pardoned for actual innocence last month by Gov. Rick Perry: Entre Nax Karage, who served seven years of a life sentence for murder, and Keith E. Turner, who served four years of a 20-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault. State lawmakers also are beginning to doubt the infallibility of capital justice. New Jersey legislators passed a moratorium on that state's criminal executions pending a review of the costs and fairness of application. Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey signed the bill Jan. 12 before leaving office. The state of Illinois maintains a moratorium on executions. Maryland had a moratorium but lifted it. The Associated Press reports that 12 of the 38 states that permit capital punishment have appointed death penalty study commissions. Texas is not considering a moratorium on executions, but it should. This state's death row holds 410 prisoners; 19 were executed last year. That represented nearly 1/3 of all U.S. executions in 2005. Yet the guilt of a number of Texas capital offenders, including one juvenile offender already put to death, is in dispute. Death row inmate Anthony Graves was convicted of murder primarily on the testimony of a man who recanted many times over before Graves was executed in 2000 for his role in the crime. Ruben Cantu, executed in 1993, was 17 at the time of the murder for which he received the death penalty. Like Graves', Cantu's conviction was based almost purely on the now-recanted testimony of one man. Harris County sends more people to death row than any other Texas jurisdiction. It remains to be seen how many of those convictions might have been tainted by the shoddy work of Houston Police Department crime lab investigators. One might question how meaningful a moratorium on executions will be in New Jersey, where only 10 prisoners reside on death row and the last execution took place in 1963. There's no question, however, that taking a capital punishment time-out in Texas to examine disputed cases could avoid the ultimate miscarriage of justice. (source: Editorial, Houston Chronicle, Jan. 23) OHIO: Emotions flow at Benner clemency hearing--Relatives of 2 victims speak against convicted killer, who is scheduled to be executed Rodney Bowser fought to compose himself as he talked Tuesday about his baby sister Trina, 1of 2 young women Glenn L. Benner II murdered nearly 20 years ago. His voice broke. He took deep breaths. He paused in mid-sentence. I have an image of my sister that has been permanently burned into my brain, said Bowser, who, along with his parents, found Trina's partially clothed body in the trunk of her burning car in January 1986. Bowser stopped again, staring at the typewritten sheet
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, IOWA, MO.
Jan. 25 TEXASimminent execution Texas Prepares For Years First Execution A 33-year-old death row inmate from Alabama is scheduled to become the 1st Texas inmate to be executed this year. Marion Dudley is scheduled to receive a lethal injection just after 6 p.m. Wednesday in the states death chamber in Huntsville. Dudley acknowledges he dealt drugs, but he continues to insist he was not at a Houston home almost 14 years ago when 4 people were shot to death. Authorities say the slayings were a drug-dealer rip-off. A Harris County jury convicted Dudley of barging into a southwest Houston home in June 1992, tying up the people there and shooting them in the head. Killed were 19-year-old Jessica Quinones, who was 7 months pregnant; 32-year-old Jose Tovar, 21-year-old Audrey Brown and 17-year-old Frank Farias, 17. Jose Tovar's wife Rachel Tovar, who was 33 at the time, and Nicholas Cortez, who was then 22, survived the shooting. Dudleys execution is the 1st of 2 over the next week. (source: KWTX News) OHIO: Death sentence, conviction upheld for inmate who killed cellmate The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction and death sentence of an inmate who strangled his cellmate and beat his head on the floor and then laughed and yelled while paramedics tried to revive him. Christopher Newton, 36, killed Jason Brewer, 27, as they shared a cell at the Mansfield Correctional Institution in 2001. Newton has demonstrated that he is a menace to the life, health and safety of others even when he is protective custody in a maximum-security prison, the court said in a 7-0 ruling written by Justice Paul Pfeiffer. Brewer was serving a three- to 10-year sentence for attempted burglary while Newton was in prison for 8- to 15-year sentence for having a weapon illegally, attempted burglary and attempted escape. Brewer died a few hours after the attack at Ohio State University Medical Center. Newton told authorities he made a rope and later cut a strip from his prison jumpsuit to strangle Brewer when the rope broke. He also stomped on Newton's head, throat and chest. Newton admitted to the killing, and said he had never met or heard of Brewer until they had been put together in the cell. Newton claimed that he is severely mentally ill and ought not to be executed, but the court rejected that argument and said Newton has falsified psychiatric symptoms so as to appear to have a serious mental disorder to receive special treatment and medication. (source: Associated Press) IOWA: Republican senators file death penalty bill On day one of this legislative session, Republican senators filed a bill to reinstate a limited death penalty for those who prey on Iowa's children. Under the legislation, the death penalty would apply only to those who kidnap, sexually assault and murder a child under the age of 18. The legislation is needed because of a glaring weakness in current law. Currently, no additional punishment exists for sex offenders who go on to murder their victims. That means there is nothing to stop someone who kidnaps and rapes a child from murdering them as well. This is especially true when you consider that the child, in most instances, would be the only witness who could identify the sexual predator. The death penalty in these cases would close that loophole. During the 2005 session, Republican senators proposed a similar death penalty measure in the wake of the kidnapping and murder of Jetseta Gage, a 10-year old girl from Cedar Rapids. A registered sex offender was charged with the crime. Although lawmakers ultimately approved a bill to toughen Iowa's sex offender laws, Senate Democrats blocked debate on the death penalty provision. While Senate Democrats do not support the death penalty, a majority of Iowans do. An April 2005 poll conducted by the Des Moines Register reported 67 % of Iowans support reinstatement of capital punishment for certain crimes. When 2/3 of Iowans support the death penalty, it is wrong for Senate Democrats to block debate on this bill. Senate Democrats should stop holding the death penalty hostage and allow lawmakers to have a serious discussion on the issue during the 2006 session. (source: Times-Republican) MISSOURI: Mother, others plead for life of death row inmate It's one thing shared by two Kansas City mothers, Linda Taylor and Janel Harrison - the pain reflected in their eyes when they speak of their children. For Harrison, it is the pain of losing her daughter in one of Kansas Citys most infamous crimes. For Taylor, it is the pain of knowing her son participated in that crime and may soon be executed by the state of Missouri. On Wednesday, Taylor was joined by several dozen supporters and death penalty opponents to make a public plea to Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt and other officials to stop the execution of Michael A. Taylor, which could come as early as Feb. 1. For now, a federal judge has stayed the planned execution,
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----TEXAS, OHIO, VA., CALIF.
Dec. 17 TEXASnew execution date Tommie Hughes has been given a March 15 execution date; it should be considered extremely serious. Texas has now set 11 execution dates between January 19 and April 25 of next year. (sources: TDCJ and Rick Halperin) ** Technicality deals retarded death row inmate setback Judges uphold 1-year statute of limitations for filing key appeal A technicality could spell death for convicted killer Marvin Lee Wilson, a death row inmate who says his mental retardation should, under federal law, keep him from being executed. While trying to untangle Texas courtroom bureaucracy, Mr. Wilson missed a key deadline for filing an appeal based on mental retardation. But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said this week that Congress created the 1-year statute of limitations to keep inmates from abusing the system and that it must be enforced, however harsh the result may be. Mr. Wilson, who murdered a man in Beaumont 13 years ago, doesn't have an execution date yet, and his lawyers are still looking into what legal avenues he has left. His attorneys say the appellate ruling means that he could be executed even though his IQ of 61 makes him retarded, and the Supreme Court ruled 3 years ago that it's unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded convicts. It's particularly troubling, they said, because Texas law was what hindered Mr. Wilson from appealing his sentence based on that decision. It's disturbing on a number of levels, said Jim Marcus, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, who has been advising Mr. Wilson and his attorney, James DeLee of Port Arthur. Mr. DeLee could not be reached for comment Friday. In his appeal to the 5th circuit, Mr. Wilson said he missed the deadline because he was forced to choose between the appeals he already had going in federal court and the chance that he could be spared death based on mental retardation. In his appeal, he also asked the court to throw out the statute of limitations altogether, saying that it allows states to carry out illegal executions. The opinion handed down Tuesday did not address that. The court said that Mr. Wilson appears to have shown that he's mentally retarded but that he didn't prove that missing the deadline was the state's fault. But Mr. Wilson's attorneys contend that state law hurt his chances of appealing based on the Supreme Court ban. Mr. Wilson, convicted in 1994 of kidnapping and murdering Jerry Williams in retaliation for being a police informant, already had appeals working their way through federal courts when the decision came down. Texas' 2-forum rule prohibited defendants from litigating the same case in federal and state courts at the same time. The appeal based on mental retardation had to start in state court. That meant that Mr. Wilson would have had to abandon his other federal appeals for good - a risk he put off until the last day of the statute of limitations, hoping the conflict would be resolved. But the court dismissed the new appeal, saying it was filed improperly, and the deadline passed. Mr. Wilson's attorneys say an exception should have been made because the 2-forum rule caused the delay. The court opinion acknowledged that the 2-forum rule complicated matters, but the judges maintained that Mr. Wilson should have started the process earlier - presumably at the cost of the other appeals. (source: Dallas Morning News) ** Date Missed, Court Rebuffs Low-I.Q. Man Facing Death Though the Supreme Court has prohibited the execution of the mentally retarded, a Texas death row inmate who may be retarded cannot raise the issue in federal court because his lawyer missed a filing deadline, a federal appeals court ruled this week. The inmate, Marvin Lee Wilson, has made a prima facie showing of mental retardation, a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrote in an unsigned decision on Tuesday, meaning the court presumed Mr. Wilson to be retarded for purposes of its ruling. But the panel said it was powerless to consider the case because Mr. Wilson's lawyer filed papers concerning his retardation in a federal trial court without first obtaining required permission from the appeals court, which he did not seek until a deadline had expired. However harsh the result may be, the panel said, its hands are tied by deadlines established in a 1996 federal law, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. The same law now forbids Mr. Wilson, convicted of killing a police informant, to appeal the Fifth Circuit's ruling to the Supreme Court. The Fifth Circuit court, which hears appeals from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, has been frequently criticized by the Supreme Court for its decisions in capital cases. Still, said James W. Marcus, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, the Wilson decision surprised him. Executing someone who is categorically exempt from
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, COLO., DEL., GA.
Nov. 7 TEXAS: Questions remain after 25 years Somewhere, there is a family missing a daughter, a young, attractive girl in her mid-teens. She has been gone now 25 years this week, and Walker County law enforcement officials are still trying to fit together pieces of a horrific puzzle they started working on after her body was discovered on Interstate 45 near Huntsville. Ted Pearce and Dale Myers were young sheriff's deputies in 1980. They were first to respond after long-haul truck driver James Rhoades of Friendswood reported what looked like the nude body of a young girl a half mile south of the FM 1696 exit on Nov. 1 of that year. I remember it was around Halloween, said Pearce, now an investigator with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office. I remember a drive-by citizen thought they saw something, and it was, in fact, a young girl. And our first thought then, as it is now, is to find out who she was. The victim was first thought to be around 14 years old, but new forensic information available in recent years has established her age between 14 and 16. She had been beaten and sexually assaulted before being murdered by strangulation. There was a human bite mark on her back. A thin, gold chain with a pendant was the only jewelry she was wearing, and a pair of high-heeled sandals were located with the body. She was found with part of her pantyhose and panties forced into her vagina. For a long time, we kept some of the details private, because there were some things only the killer would know, Pearce said. We had a reconstruction expert take pictures of her, and we distributed them in a 5-state area. The murder shocked people in Huntsville, and slowly, citizens reported having seen the girl. We were a small department then, said Myers, who years later would be sheriff. There were only 6 or 7 of us at the time, and we worked it the best we could. There was never a lot to go on. We got tips once in a while, but you never knew if they really saw this girl or just wanted to help, and thought they did. Bobby Roach, who managed the South End Gulf Station which no longer exists, positively identified the girl who had been in the station Halloween night about 6:30, asking for directions to the Texas Department of Corrections Ellis Unit. She was wearing blue jeans, a yellow pullover sweater and carrying sandals. Roach reported that to the best of his recollection, she had been dropped off by a white man driving an early 1970s model blue Chevrolet with a lighter colored top. She looked as if she had been traveling. She left the station and walked north on Sam Houston Avenue. Later that evening, a waitress at the Hitchin' Post Truck Stop on the opposite end of town, said the same girl came into the restaurant and again asked for directions to Ellis, saying she had a friend there. A map was drawn for her, and she departed. We took pictures of her to the Ellis Unit, Myers said. We had a sketch done and showed them to every inmate on the unit, and no one came forward to identify her. On Jan. 16, 1981, the unidentified girl was buried in the Adickes Addition at Oakwood Cemetery. Former Huntsville Funeral Home director Jack King remembers the tragedy well. Huntsville Funeral Home buried her, and Morris Memorials provided her tombstone, King said. The Oakwood Cemetery Association reserved her plot. She was a very beautiful young lady, and she had been cared for. She was clean and had been well fed, and her teeth were in good shape. We knew right away she wasn't a transient. I promise you, somebody knows this gal. She just didn't fall out of the sky. The case would eventually be an open file on a desk somewhere, as leads withered and regular duties of local law enforcement required attention. We continued working the case with no real leads until Williamson County had custody of Henry Lee Lucas, I guess around 1984 or '85, Pearce said. Lucas was a serial killer known for murders along several South Texas corridors in the early 1980s. One case in particular connected Lucas to the Walker County murder. He had been arrested for killing Orange Socks,' and I knew, Pearce said. We had the bite mark on her left shoulder, and when I went to interview him, he told me he had dental reconstruction done. I was devastated. We had photos of him before, and his teeth looked like they would have matched the bite mark, but we just couldn't make that match. I still believe Henry Lee Lucas killed this girl. Lucas admitted to killing other women after confessing to two murders for which he was facing trial in 1983. According to Crime Magazine, after the trial, Lucas began confessing to other murders all over the country. He originally offered a list of 77 women from 19 different states. He wrote detailed descriptions of the women and drew sketches next to some of their names. As he confessed to more and more murders, the details became increasingly more bizarre. Some included dismemberment, necrophilia,
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, USA, N.Y.
Oct. 20 TEXAS: The Flame Still Burns, Part II In Part 1, Cameron Willingham was charged with and convicted of murdering his 3 children, after a fire he was accused of starting ravaged their home. I am an innocent man, convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do, declared Cameron Willingham right before he was executed in Texas for setting fire to his Corsicana, Texas home, which took the lives of his 3 daughters. Willingham spent 13 years on death row at Huntsville State Prison, one of the toughest in Texas. Testimony alleging that he confessed guilt to a jailhouse snitch, along with Willingham's former neighbors' claims that he didn't try hard enough to save his children, all but sealed his fate. The smoking gun for prosecutors was the testimony by arson investigators that the fire in Willingham's home was deliberately set, having 3 points of origin. As a matter of procedure, Willingham's appellate attorneys filed one appeal after the next. By January 2004, with all avenues of relief exhausted, a date of Feb. 17 was set for Willingham's execution. With only weeks to go before Willingham was scheduled to die, one of his cousins, Pat Cox, happened to see a television program that featured Gerald Hurst, an industry-renowned arson expert. Cox, who believed strongly in Willingham's innocence, thought perhaps Hurst could help prove her right. She contacted Willingham's appellate attorney, Walter Reaves, who had run out of ways to help his death-bound client and figured anything was worth a shot. Upon hearing some of the key elements that sent Willingham to death row-including the report written by one of the original arson investigators, Manuel Vasquez, outlining his theory that the Willingham fire was deliberately set-Hurst became intrigued. He agreed to review the entire case, free of charge. Hurst poured over trial testimony as well as an hour-long videotape of the wreckage. Immediately, it was evident to Hurst that many of the conclusions of the original arson investigators did not measure up to the NFPA 921, the standard National Fire Protection Association document used by fire investigators as a guideline. NFPA 921 had been published 6 weeks after the fire at the Willingham home. Key testimony by arson experts at Willingham's trial may have left no doubt with the jury that convicted him, but the jurors had no way of knowing that the theories of arson presented by experts were probably wrong. At the time of the Corsicana fire, we were still testifying to things that aren't accurate today, said Edward Cheever, one of the state deputy fire marshals who had worked on the initial investigation of the Willingham inferno. What investigators considered to be true and accurate conclusions at the time have become outdated theories. 13 years later, investigator Hurst was able to dispute the 20 indicators of arson cited by the original investigators. Experts had indicated such things as weblike patterns, called crazed glass, as signs of arson. They believed that this was a sure sign that an accelerant was used. In recent years, experts have determined that the weblike patterns that appeared post-fire actually occurred when the water used to extinguish the fire hit the hot glass. 4 days before Willingham was scheduled to die by lethal injection, his attorney sought relief one last time from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and Gov. Rick Perry, based on a report by Hurst, who had concluded that the Willingham fire was not arson. According to Hurst, most of the conclusions reached by the fire marshal would be considered invalid in light of current knowledge. This time, Willingham's attorney, Reaves, believed his client actually had a chance for things to go his way. At the very least, Reaves believed Willingham would be granted a hearing, during which time he could present the new facts that had come to light. After all, Hurst, a renowned expert, had been instrumental in helping exonerate others in similar circumstances as Willingham. Local prosecutors balked at the notion of holding a hearing based on the report of investigator Hurst. They argued that even if Hurst was correct and the Willingham fire was accidental, it didn't fall under the category of newly discovered evidence, and could have been presented years earlier. The appeals court and Gov. Perry agreed with prosecutors and turned aside the Hurst report. The truth wasn't relevant. Cameron Willingham's life was inconsequential. Due process had taken place. Ironically, 6 months after Cameron Willingham was executed, Hurst was instrumental in the exoneration and release of another man on death row in Texas, Ernest Willis, whose circumstances were almost identical to that of Willingham. Willis spent 17 years on death row before Hurst was able to show scientifically that Willis was convicted based on a now outdated understanding of the physics of fire analysis. Subsequently, 3
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, GA., CONN.
Oct. 6 TEXAS: Court upholds death sentence in slayings of East End women The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday upheld the death sentence of Walter Alexander Sorto for his role in the 2002 kidnapping, rape and murder of two women in Houston's East End. A Harris County jury in 2003 convicted Sorto in the slayings of Roxana Aracelie Capulin, 24, and Maria Moreno Rangel, 38. The women were abducted from outside the El Mirador restaurant on Canal after closing the business for the night. Sorto was 1 of 3 suspects in a long series of robberies, assaults, rapes and killings that terrorized the East End from late 2001 to spring 2002. Sorto, a native of El Salvador, confessed to taking part in the attacks. But while acknowledging that he raped one of the waitresses, he insisted that another man, Edgardo Cubas, shot the women despite Sorto's pleas that their lives be spared. Cubas also was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Sorto later argued that his videotaped statements to police should have been suppressed because the Salvadoran Consulate wasn't notified, as required by the Vienna Convention. The 1963 international treaty states that people accused of serious crimes while traveling or living abroad have the right to contact their consulates. The appeals court rejected that claim. (source: Houston Chronicle) Texas court right to overturn death sentence By anyone's measure, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has never been soft on the death penalty. Its eagerness to send prisoners to the execution gurney drew a 60 Minutes crew down here not long ago, and that's not the only curious party. So, when a majority of the court says - as it did yesterday - Texas shouldn't execute Johnny Paul Penry, you know, really know, the mentally impaired offender shouldn't go to death row. The U.S. Supreme Court previously reached this same conclusion about Mr. Penry. Twice, in fact. In 1989, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction for raping and killing an East Texas woman. He subsequently was retried, reconvicted and resentenced to death. In 2001, the Supreme Court again intervened. It concluded the jury in Mr. Penry's 2nd trial had not sufficiently considered his mental retardation. And it ordered the case back to trial. A Conroe jury took it up and ruled in 2002 that the uneducated laborer was guilty, not mentally retarded - and the state should put him to death. Enter the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. 5 of its 9 judges concluded the Conroe jury may not have received proper instructions on weighing his claims of mental retardation. The defense had shown how Mr. Penry's IQ regularly rated below 70, which is the standard for retardation. Experts also said he was childlike in his abilities. The Court of Criminal Appeals did what was right - and, in its case, courageous. The judges acted against type and sent the Penry decision back to the Conroe court to reconsider his punishment. The man is indeed a killer. He raped and stabbed Pamela Moseley Carpenter, who described him to police as she lay dying. It's just that he's a mentally retarded killer, and, for that reason, Texas shouldn't put this man to death. The Court of Criminal Appeals was right to stand up for that truth. (source: Editorial, Dallas Morning News) *** Brazoswood grad could face death penalty A Fort Bend County jury has indicted a Brazoswood High School graduate on a capital murder charge in connection with the slayings of a Sugar Land mother and son. If convicted, Chris Alan Brashear, 23, could face capital punishment for his role in the Dec. 10, 2003, killings, said Fred Felcman, Fort Bend County first assistant district attorney. Brashear was indicted this week. A capital murder conviction carries a minimum sentence of life in prison, he said. The Lake Jackson native is one of three young men accused of murdering Patricia Whitaker, 51, and her son Kevin, 19. A Fort Bend grand jury also has indicted Brashears former roommate and the Whitakers 25-year-old son, Bart, and the mens neighbor, Steven Champagne, 23, on capital murder charges. The 3 men worked at a Conroe country club. Court documents allege Brashear was the masked gunman who killed the mother and son as the family returned from dinner to their Sugar Land home. Brashear fired at the father, Kent Whitaker, 56, who survived, and staged a struggle with Bart Whitaker, according to court documents. Bart Whitaker remained at large until FBI officials and Mexican officials found him in Monterrey, Mexico, Sugar Land police said. The former Baylor University student was arrested Sept. 22 in Laredo. Police said Bart Whitaker stood to inherit more than $1 million in assets in the event of his familys death. Investigators believe the older son was involved in at least 2 other conspiracies to murder his family. Felcman didnt know when the case would go to trial. Brashear is the stepson of Mark
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO
Oct. 1 TEXAS: State will try to seat fair jury Jury selection began Friday in the capital murder trial of a 33-year-old Fort Worth man accused of abducting and killing a retired TCU professor, then dumping her body in Oklahoma. Edward Lee Busby Jr. could be sentenced to death if convicted of capital murder in the death of 77-year-old Laura Lee Crane, a renowned educator of special-needs students. On Thursday, defense attorneys Jack Strickland and Steve Gordon requested a change of venue, saying media attention about the case prohibits Busby from getting a fair trial in Tarrant County. Prosecutors Greg Miller and Joe Shannon disagreed, pointing out that the defense must prove that the pretrial publicity has been pervasive, prejudicial and inflammatory. State District Judge Wayne Salvant withheld a ruling on the issue, waiting to see how the jury selection process unfolds. He also wants to view other evidence, including tapes of the media's televised interviews with Busby. I think that, as the jury selection progresses, there will be more evidence made to the court that supports the necessity of a change of venue, Strickland said. I think we'll find more people who are familiar with the facts of this case to a degree that it would impact upon their jury service. Shannon acknowledged that many potential jurors will have heard about the case, but said he is confident they will be able to seat an unbiased panel in Tarrant County. We'll be able to select a jury of 12 with two alternates who have not formed an opinion and, consequently, there is no need for a change of venue, Shannon said. On Friday, only 216 of the 1,000 jurors who were summoned arrived at the courthouse for jury selection. At least one was excused for having alcohol on her breath. The panel filled out questionnaires and received instructions from Salvant, including to refrain from watching television broadcasts or reading about the case. We want 12 fair and impartial people who will not be prejudiced or biased in this particular case, Salvant told them. ... You have to keep an open mind. Attorneys will begin individual questioning potential jurors next week, a process that is expected to take about a month. Testimony is expected to begin during the first part of November. Busby and his former girlfriend, Kathleen Latimer, 41, are accused of kidnapping Crane on Jan. 30, 2004, as she sat in her car outside the Tom Thumb grocery store at 3050 S. Hulen St. A short time later, police have said, the pair wrapped Crane's face with duct tape and put her in the trunk of her 1999 Nissan Sentra. The Medical Examiner's Office ruled that Crane died of asphyxiation. Busby and Latimer were arrested Feb. 1 while driving Crane's car in Oklahoma City. 2 days later, Busby led investigators to Crane's body, wrapped in a sheet at the bottom of an Interstate 35 embankment about 50 miles north of the Texas border. The suspects did not fight extradition, and shortly after they arrived in Tarrant County Jail, each held what amounted to jailhouse news conferences. In her interview, Latimer blamed the slaying solely on Busby. The next day, Busby met with the media after reading about Latimer's interview. He admitted to the crimes but said almost everything he did was at the instruction of Latimer. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will also seek the death penalty against Latimer. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) OHIO: WTVG surrenders tape in murder case A search warrant order was served yesterday at the offices of WTVG-TV, Channel 13, to obtain a videotape interview of Jamie Madrigal, who is being retried in the 1996 shooting death of Misty Fisher. Representatives of the Lucas County Prosecutor's office went to the station at 4247 Dorr St. after segments of a reporter's interview with Madrigal were broadcast on Thursday's 6 and 11 p.m. news programs. The entire two-hour interview was made available on the station's Web site. Tom Ross, an investigator for the prosecutor's office, said Brian Trauring, WTVG news director, surrendered the videotape after talking to company attorneys. The interview was conducted in April, 2003, when Madrigal was on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution. Madrigal, 30, was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of Miss Fisher during a robbery of a South Toledo KFC. A federal appeals court overturned the conviction and sentence. The court ruled that the Lucas County Common Pleas Court jurors in the 1996 trial should not have heard the confession of the co-defendant implicating Madrigal. Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Gary Cook has set a trial for February. Prosecutors issued a subpoena for the videotape in August, but the station failed to comply with a request to surrender the tape before Aug. 31. Mr. Ross said the search warrant was obtained after the tape was broadcast. There are incriminating statements by Madrigal in the interview. We feel
[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, OKLA., IND.
Sept. 6 TEXAS: Texas Toughest in a Tough America Have a seat. We often hear these words, but sometimes there could be none more horrible. I was looking at the electric chair at the Prison Museum in Huntsville, Texas. Its nickname was Old Sparky, on which 361 people sat and never stood up again. Old Sparky retired in 1964 when the U.S. Supreme Court placed a moratorium on the death penalty as a cruel and unusual punishment, according to the federal constitution, but it was restored as a novelty in the Prison Museum, built in 1989. After the U.S. Supreme Court changed its mind and lifted the moratorium in 1976, Texas replaced the electric chair with lethal injection, arguing that electrocution was too cruel. The electric chair, though, had itself been introduced for humanitarian reasons in 1923, when inmates on death row were still hanged in public. Public execution, supposed to deter people perpetrating crimes, turned into a circus, which enticed onlookers, who were so excited that they took kids to the scene. The state government accordingly moved the venue to the Huntsville prison, where it introduced the chair. The museum says the person who fabricated the electric chair was also an inmate who once faced the death penalty for murder, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Finally, he was released, owing to his contribution of a new way of executing his fellow prisoners. One question occurred to me: Was he a cruel betrayer or a humanist, helping his fellow prisoners be killed more comfortably? The museum kindly explained how to execute by lethal injection. First, the condemned person is bound to a gurney, and two needles (one is a back-up) are then inserted into usable veins in the inmate's arms. The first is a harmless saline solution that is started immediately. Then, at the warden's signal, a curtain is raised exposing the inmate to witnesses and possibly relatives and friends in an adjoining room. The inmate is given a chance to say last words. According to James Laxer, author of a book titled Discovering America: travels in the land of guns, god, and corporate gurus, when one inmate requested a final cigarette, he was told that this was out of the question, that this was a smoke-free facility. This country, whose economy was founded on the successful cultivation of the cash crop, tobacco, must have looked extremely hypocritical to this smoker inmate. The inmate is then injected with sodium thiopental -- an anesthetic, which puts the inmate to sleep. Next flows pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscular system and stops the inmate's breathing. Finally, an injection of potassium chloride stops the heart. Death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious. It takes seven minutes and costs $86. Not only was Texas the 1st state to execute an inmate by lethal injection but also it has executed 348 death row inmates by this method an eye-popping number compared to the total number of 981 executed inmates in the nation since 1976. One single state has accounted for 35 % of all executions. Texans are really tough. 13 out of 22 teenagers executed nationwide since 1985 were killed in Texas. The execution of minors, however, was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. This is why Huntsville, the state's venue of execution, is called the world capital of capital punishment. I was curious as to how its residents felt about living in such a World Capital. Roy Birkhead, whom I met in the Prison Museum, was a retired school principal who described himself as a conservative and strongly supported the death penalty. He said, Execution should be done somewhere. I asked further, Even so, people are being killed where you live. How do you feel about it? I believe people should be held responsible for what they do. Do you agree on executing even teenagers? 17-year olds as well as 50-year olds can pull the trigger. He added that the unemployment rate of Huntsville is exceptionally low, as low as 2 %, thanks to the prison economy. Indeed, 1/4 of the 35,000 residents work for the prison system. Thus it was not that strange to hear strong support for capital punishment from whoever I met in Huntsville. Leaflets recruiting correctional officer candidates piled up on the museum counter. If you are eligible to work in the United States, at least 18 years old with a High School Diploma or GED and no record of conviction of a felony, you can apply, the leaflet says. According to the salary table, full-time correctional officers are paid $1,716 a month the first year, up to $2,589 a month in their 9th year. The museum said that to regulate lawless Wild West behavior, tough laws and strict execution were necessary, and that, according to polls, an absolute majority in Texas supports capital punishment. This is understandable, although I still wonder why this most self-professedly Christian country not only keeps
