[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, KY., TENN., UTAH, CALIF., WASH.
January 9 TEXAS: Supreme Court rejects appeal from former Missouri City cop on death row The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from a former Missouri City police officer convicted of hiring a hitman to kill his wife, 1 of 2 Houston-area death row losses in the high court this week. Though he has consistently maintained his innocence, Robert Fratta was sentenced to death in 1996 after a Harris County jury found him guilty of masterminding a murder-for-hire plot designed to do away with his wife Farah. "I'm completely innocent of my wife Farah's death," Fratta wrote in an appeal he filed himself, alleging he was framed by his slain wife's father. "The evidence was also legally insufficient. Yet here I set on Texas Death Row awaiting execution unless this Court intervenes." Robert and Farah Fratta were embroiled in a heated divorce and custody battle when the 34-year-old mother was shot in the head while stepping out of her car at their home. The ex-officer and erstwhile firefighter was at church at the time, but investigators flagged him as a suspect in part because he'd reportedly asked around for a hitman before the crime. In the end, prosecutors said, he hired Joseph Prystash, who in turn hired a 3rd man to carry out the killing. All three men are now on death row. Written from a prison typewriter, the appeal the court declined to review on Monday raised a slew of questions including everything from claims about allegedly ineffective lawyers to insufficiency of the evidence used to convict him and problems with jury instructions during his trial. But at the heart of the claim are questions about whether Fratta was allowed to file his own appeals in tandem with attorneys' filings - something lower courts did not let him do, repeatedly ignoring some of the claims he filed himself. "The rule of law is taking another hit," said attorney James Rytting, who represents the condemned former officer. "Robert Fratta's trial was deeply flawed, (he) proved that himself and was penalized for figuring out serious problems with his trial on his own and for trying to bring them to the courts' attention." In addition to turning down Fratta's case, the court declined to review the conviction of Shelton Jones, who was convicted of the 1991 killing Houston police officer Bruno D. Soboleski. Neither Jones nor Fratta has an execution date set. (source: Houston Chronicle) VIRGINIA: Judge denies request for jury questionnaire in MS-13 case Attorneys won’t use questionnaires to vet jurors who might decide a trial for an alleged gang member and murder defendant who could face the death penalty, a judge determined Tuesday. Kevin Josue Soto Bonilla, 21, will be the 2nd co-defendant to face trial in the murder case of Lynchburg teen Raymond Wood. The 1st, 21-year-old Victor Arnoldo Rodas, was found guilty of first-degree murder and other charges in an October trial. The jury recommended he spend 55 years in prison. Bedford County Circuit Court Judge James Updike is scheduled to review Rodas’ sentencing on Feb. 15, and Soto Bonilla is set for a 10-day jury trial to start Feb. 26, according to Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance. In recent months, Soto Bonilla’s attorneys have filed a number of motions to ensure he receives a fair trial. Since he is charged with capital murder, Virginia law requires the court to appoint him 2 certified attorneys. One of the lawyers, Anthony Anderson, said the capital nature of the case and the fact that Nance has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty warrants enhanced discretion in jury selection. A sample juror questionnaire filed by the attorneys asks 42 questions. Some of them include, “Do you believe that members of some racial or ethnic groups are more violent than others?” and, “Are you aware of holding any negative feelings or opinions towards people who illegally immigrated to the United States?” Others ask about knowledge of the case from news coverage, opinion on the death penalty and the MS-13 gang. Nance pointed out in court that the 10-day allowance for trial should provide enough time to talk with jurors, and many answers on the questionnaire might prompt further questions and discussions in court anyway. Updike referenced his experience as a prosecutor to say he hasn’t found jury questionnaires actually save time in the selection process and denied the motion. Soto Bonilla’s attorneys also sought to try the case in a jurisdiction other than Bedford County, citing potential pre-formed and “vehemently held” views on the case and topics like border security. Nance said publicity of the killing and Rodas’ trial alone isn’t enough to move the trial, and there were only quick references to Soto Bonilla during the trial. Updike took that motion under advisement, meaning he will rule on it at a later date. A number matters in the case will be argued on
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., OHIO
March 23 TEXASimpending execution Federal judge in Lubbock rejects Rodriguez death penalty appeal A federal judge in Lubbock on Thursday denied a motion to stop the March 27 execution of Rosendo Rodriguez, who was convicted of the 2005 killing of 29-year-old Summer Baldwin who was stuffed in a suitcase found in a city landfill. Rodriguez also confessed to killing a 16-year-old Lubbock girl who'd been missing for more than a year. U.S. Senior District Court Judge Sam Cummings said he found no extraordinary circumstances necessary to grant Rodriguez's request. The ruling came 3 days after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed Rodriguez's appeal, which contained similar claims. Attorneys contended a medical examiner improperly testified at Rodriguez's trial, that a recent settlement of a lawsuit involving the examiner wasn't disclosed to them, that prosecutors engaged in misconduct and that Rodriguez is innocent. Rodriguez's attorneys have filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. (source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal) * San Antonio man 1 of 2 more Texas killers given execution dates 2 more Texas killers, including a San Antonio man behind the 2004 slaying of a convenience store owner, now have dates with death. Christopher Young, who was on probation when he committed the string of crimes in Bexar County that landed him on death row, is now set to die on July 17, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel. In addition to abducting, raping and robbing a woman, Young was convicted in the killing of 53-year-old store owner Hasmukh "Hash" Patel. Last year, Young's case sparked pushback from religious leaders who said he deserved a new trial in light of alleged religious discrimination during jury selection. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down his latest appeal in January and Texas prisons received notification of an impending death date earlier this month, Desel said. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Tuesday, TDCJ also received notice that Clifton Williams, an East Texas man convicted of robbing a 93-year-old woman before strangling her and setting her body on fire, was given a June 21 execution date. News of the upcoming executions comes just a day after a Harris County judge signed off on an execution warrant for Danny Bible, a serial rapist and murderer whose string of rapes, robberies and slayings crossed multiple states. On appeal, his attorney argued the 66-year-old is no longer a future danger as he is in a wheelchair as the result of a 2003 car crash. 3 Texas killers have already been executed this year, and now 6 more executions are on the calendar. (source: Houston Chronicle) ** Houston Ice Pick Killer And Serial Rapist Gets June Execution DateDanny Bible, the infamous 'Ice Pick Killer,' will be put to death on June 27, 2018. Danny Bible, a serial murderer and rapist, has been in jail for over 40 years. Now, a judge has set a date for the convicted criminal's execution. On March 19, a Harris County judge signed a death warrant for Bible. The wheelchair-bound murderer will be put to death on June 27, according to Chron.com. Josh Reiss, the head of the Post-Conviction Writs Division at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, described the infamous murderer. "He was the 'Ice Pick Killer.' He was a serial killer. A serial rapist and we're going to pursue justice for these victims," said Reiss, according to ABC 13. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg offered her take on the situation. "Some criminals' actions are so heinous, they earn the label 'worst of the worst,'" Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement Monday, according to Chron.com. "The jury who listened to the facts and saw the evidence of the crimes Danny Bible committed clearly reached that conclusion by sentencing him to death." Bible's attorney, Margaret Schmucker, was unsurprised by this most recent development. "It was not an unexpected event today," Schumucker said, according to Chron.com. "I do think it's unfortunate that the state of Texas is going to execute someone who is so little future danger that he can't even get out of a wheelchair." Bible's known crimes began in 1979, when the body of Inez Deaton was found near the Houston bayou. Deaton had been stabbed with an ice pick 11 times. Deaton's murder remained unsolved for 20 years. Between the murder and his eventual incarceration, Bible was involved with a handful of violent incidents, including several beatings of a girlfriend in Montana. He eventually returned to Texas, where he murdered his sister-in-law Tracy Powers, her infant son Justin, and a roommate of Powers' named Pam Hudgens. Bible was caught in 1984 and pled guilty to the killing of Hudgens, for which he was sentenced to 25
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, ARK., NEV., USA
Oct. 25 TEXASimpending execution/Mexican national Texas set to execute Mexican national amid international dispute Texas next month is poised to execute a Mexican national accused of rape and murder in a case that could further inflame border tensions over apparent violations of the Vienna Convention and international law. The Mexican government is now funding legal efforts by Ruben Cardenas Ramirez to halt his execution after authorities neglected to notify Mexico about the arrest and failed to hold a review required by the United Nations' international court in The Hague. "It is as if the United States were thumbing its nose at the government of Mexico and the United Nations," said Sandra Babcock, a Cornell Law School professor specializing in international issues surrounding capital punishment. "And when I say the U.S., I should be clear that we're talking about Texas." To make matters worse, the condemned man's lawyer is alleging that he didn't actually commit the crime that earned him a death sentence in the first place. But according to Hidalgo County prosecutor Ted Hake, the U.N. ruling is "not enforceable" and there's no mechanism to hold the required review under Texas law. "There's no point," he said. "This guy is guilty as sin." The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has weighed in with a recommendation that the U.S. vacate the death sentence, and the Mexican government has pleaded for an opportunity to be heard, according to court filings by defense counsel Maurie Levin. The Mexican consulate this week declined to comment. The former security guard was arrested for the 1997 slaying of his 15-year-old cousin, Mayra Laguna, whose body was found in a canal after she was abducted by a man who slipped in through the bedroom window. The case has been plagued by claims of unreliable forensic evidence, conflicting statements and witnesses, concerns about ineffective lawyers, and allegations of a coerced confession. Yet it was the concerns about treaty violations and international repercussions that pushed the U.S. Department of State to meet in February with Hidalgo County prosecutors. For now, the Nov. 8 execution date still stands. "It makes us a clear human rights abuser," said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center. Human rights concerns Authorities in Hidalgo County first collared Cardenas hours after the abduction, but did not immediately notify him of his right to talk to his country's consulate, according to court documents - an apparent oversight that violates Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. A 2004 U.N. World Court ruling known as the Avena case - an issue Babcock argued for Mexico - mandates that foreign nationals who weren't told of their consular rights are allowed a review to examine whether that oversight influenced the outcome of the criminal case. And for Cardenas, there's some chance that it could have. Hidalgo County never told Mexico about the arrest, Levin said. Instead, they found out on their own after 5 months, long after Cardenas had given multiple, conflicting confessions that Levin argues were coerced. Repeatedly, Cardenas asked for a lawyer, but authorities ignored his pleas until 11 days after his arrest, instead pushing on in their interrogations without telling him about his consular notification rights, Levin wrote in court filings. Although the treaty violation could have international repercussions, a 2008 Supreme Court decision deemed it unenforceable, unless Congress takes legislative action - and they haven't. In the meantime, some states have complied, but others have not. "There are Mexican nationals whose rights under the Vienna convention have been violated and they have been executed," Levin said. Conflicting evidence Yet the Cardenas case stands out. "This is the 1st case where there has been a really substantial miscarriage of justice in that Cardenas really could be innocent," Babcock said. "Although there is a confession, that confession is inconsistent with the physical evidence, the statements are inconsistent with each other, and he himself is of low intelligence. And then on top of that you have a lack of physical evidence." Now, Cardenas has few remaining shots at avoiding the death chamber. There's a motion pending in Hidalgo County court for DNA testing of scrapings taken from beneath Mayra's fingernails. The prosecution has already opposed the request, which came coupled with a motion to call off the execution. "To permit Mr. Cardenas's execution to proceed without permitting this testing would fly in the face of the most fundamental concept of justice," Levin wrote in a scathing filing. At the same time, there's a long-shot plea for a reprieve and sentence commutation in front of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and a request for a 30-day reprieve pending before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, CALIF., WASH., USA
Jan. 4 TEXAS: Paxton sues FDA for delaying import of death penalty drug Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday his office has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for delaying the state's importation of a drug used in capital punishment. The lawsuit argues the FDA's claimed legal grounds for refusing the drugs' entry into the United States are invalid, citing an FDA exemption for law enforcement purposes. Thiopental sodium, also known as Sodium thiopental, is part of the 3-drug cocktail used in lethal injections. In its December newsletter, the Council of State Governments said, while Texas has 317 inmates on death row, it only has enough of a key lethal injection drug to execute 2 of them, stemming from a nationwide shortage of the drug. The Attorney General's Office is asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to declare the FDA's delay unlawful and compel the agency to make a final decision on the admissibility of the drug, which was detained by the FDA 17 months ago. "There are only 2 reasons why the FDA would take 17 months to make a final decision on Texas' importation of thiopental sodium: gross incompetence or willful obstruction," said Attorney General Paxton. "The FDA has an obligation to fulfill its responsibilities faithfully and in a timely manner. My office will not allow the FDA to sit on its hands and thereby impair Texas' responsibility to carry out its law enforcement duties." In April 2016, KXAN reported that the FDA blocked an appeal to bring in Sodium thiopental. (source: KXAN news) Supreme Court examines death penalty for the disabled Bobby James Moore got the death penalty for a murder he committed in 1980 at a Houston supermarket. But 36 years later, he apparently has a new argument: He is intellectually disabled and cannot be executed under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court heard his case at the end of November. Moore was 21 when he and some friends decided to rob Birdsall Super Market. His job was to stand guard with a shotgun. Things did not go as planned. Almost immediately after two clerks in the courtesy booth learned they were being robbed, one of them screamed. Moore pointed his shotgun at the second clerk, a 72-year-old man named James McCarble, and shot him in the head. McCarble died instantly. Police caught up with Moore 10 days later at his grandmother's house in Louisiana, where he confessed to the crime. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled executing the mentally disabled violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. But the court left it up to the states to determine mental ability within certain parameters. During oral arguments in November, lawyer Clifford Sloan cast Texas as an oddball state that uses something other than current clinical standards to diagnose intellectual disability -- a 1992 definition along with other factors thought up by judges, not scientists. The Texas appeals court said Moore had abilities that showed he was not so intellectually disabled as to be exempt from capital punishment. Both sides agreed Moore had a terrible childhood. He dropped out of school in 9th grade. His father beat him. He was kicked out of the house at 14. He had 4 felony convictions by age 17. "At the age of 13, Mr. Moore did not understand the days of the week, the months of the year, the seasons, how to tell time, the principle that subtraction is the opposite of addition, standard units of measurement. And there are numerous other deficits like that that are undisputed," Sloan said. Justice Stephen Breyer had his doubts about whether the Supreme Court could establish a consistent standard for judging mental ability. Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller argued the state's criteria for intellectual disability is consistent with Supreme Court precedent as well as clinical standards. He also noted the legal finding of intellectual disability is different from a medical diagnosis. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a concern of her own about letting states set their own standards: "Isn't making it discretionary a huge problem in this area, because if you let one trial court judge apply it and another one doesn't have to apply them, then you're opening the door to inconsistent results depending upon who is sitting on the trial court bench, something that we try to prevent from happening in capital cases." The current justices are divided on the much more basic question of whether the death penalty is constitutional at all, for anyone. Breyer is a frequent critic of capital punishment, as is Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In 2014, the court struck down Florida's law that said if an inmate's IQ is over 70, evidence of other intellectual disability need not be considered. (source: Baptist Press) ** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21,
