[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., MISS., OKLA., USA
Feb. 15 TEXASimpending execution Texas Inmate Set to Die Tuesday for Dallas-Area Store Holdup A suburban Dallas convenience store clerk was on the phone with his girlfriend when 2 people, 1 of them carrying a sawed-off shotgun, walked in. Gregory Martin told her he believed he was about to be robbed and to call police. Plano officers found 15-year-old Christopher Vargas standing over Martin's lifeless body and 18-year-old Gustavo Garcia hiding in a beer cooler with the shotgun near him. Authorities later determined the weapon had been used a month earlier in a robbery at a Plano liquor store where the cashier, Craig Turski, was fatally shot. Garcia, now 43, is set for lethal injection Tuesday night in Turski's 1990 slaying. He'd be the third prisoner executed this year in Texas, which puts more inmates to death than any other state. A federal judge said Friday he won't stop the execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused a clemency petition. No additional appeals are expected, Seth Kretzer, one of Garcia's lawyers, said Monday. In the federal court appeal, Garcia's attorneys had argued that lawyers at his trial and in earlier appeals failed to uncover details of an abusive and alcohol- and drug-influenced youth - disclosures that could have convinced jurors to spare him from a death sentence. They also said they needed additional time to investigate those claims. "Garcia's guilt is clear," responded Fredericka Sargent, an assistant Texas attorney general. The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to review an appeal that raised questions about deficient legal help, and last week turned down a request for a rehearing. Court documents show Garcia, who has spent more than half of his life on death row, shot Turski in the abdomen on Dec. 9, 1990, then reloaded and shot the 43-year-old cashier in the back of the head. A month later, Martin, 18, was shot in the head after he was taken to a back room. In a statement to police following his arrest for Martin's killing, Garcia said he'd ordered Turski to his knees when a customer entered the store. "I then panicked," he said. "I shot the clerk with the shotgun." On Thanksgiving in 1998, Garcia and 5 other inmates were scaling a pair of 10-foot-high prison fences when corrections officers opened fire on them and they surrendered. A 7th convict, Martin Gurule, was shot but managed to flee, making him the 1st inmate to escape Texas death row since a Bonnie and Clyde gang member broke out in 1934. Gurule's body was found about a week later in a creek a few miles from the prison, and an autopsy showed he drowned. "At least I can say I tried," Garcia said of the escape attempt in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. "Facing execution is scarier." He declined an interview request as his execution date neared. Vargas, Garcia's partner in both fatal robberies, was tried and as an adult, convicted and is serving life in prison. His age made him ineligible for the death penalty. At least 9 other Texas inmates have execution dates set for the coming months, including 3 in March. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIAimpending execution Parole board set to meet Tuesday on condemned Houston County killer Travis Hittson The state Board of Pardons and Paroles is scheduled to hear clemency requests on behalf of condemned Houston County killer Travis Clinton Hittson on Tuesday. The board has invited Hittson's representatives to meet with the board at 9 a.m. to lay out a case for clemency. Hittson is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson. A Houston County Superior Court judge issued the execution order for Hittson for the 1992 murder of Conway Utterbeck. In February 1993, Hittson was convicted of murder, theft by taking, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. The jury recommended a death sentence, which was imposed in March 1993. In Georgia, the parole board has the sole constitutional authority to commute, or reduce, a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole or to life without the possibility of parole. (source: macon.com) MISSISSIPPI: Attorney General presents death penalty options With the recent expiration of Mississippi's lethal injection drugs, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood released a legislative agenda that could effectively nullify the logistical and ethical issues particular to the cocktails. In place of lethal injection drugs, which can be difficult to acquire and properly administer, Hood proposed 3 alternative execution methods for administering the death penalty in a press release on Jan. 27. If Hood's agenda is realized, Mississippi's 48 death row inmates could each face either the electric chair, a firing squad or nitrogen hypoxia. Mississippi previously used the electric chai
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., MISS., LA., COLO., UTAH, USA
Aug. 10 TEXAS: Accused killer faces death penalty in executions of 6 children, 2 adults at Houston homeDavid Ray Conley, 49, is accused of tying up his ex-wife, her husband and their 6 children before shooting each once in the head. Texas authorities have arrested and charged a man in the execution-style murders of 6 children and 2 adults inside a Houston home -- where it's believed the killer crawled through a window to get to the victims. According to investigators, David Ray Conley, III, entered the home Saturday night through the unlocked window -- despite the fact that the owner had a restraining order against him and had changed all the door locks recently. Once inside, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said, Conley tied up all 8 victims and shot each once in the head -- including several small children. The victims all died at the scene. "We do not -- cannot fully comprehend the motivation of an individual that would take the lives of so many innocent people. Especially the lives of the youngest," Harris County Chief Deputy Tim Cannon said. "The killer's motives appear to be related to a dispute with Valerie, who was a former domestic partner." Investigators believe Conley, 49, was previously married to the home's owner, Valerie Jackson, and helped her support the children during the marriage. The victims were identified as parents Dewayne Jackson, 50, his wife Jackson, 40, and children Nathaniel, 13, Dewayne, Jr., 10, Honesty, 11, Caleb, 9, Trinity, 7, and Jonah, 6. Nathaniel was believed to be Conley's son from his relationship with Jackson. "We are all hurting. It's a difficult day for us at the sheriff's office. Once again, a tragedy has struck," Cannon said. The documents, which charge Conley with numerous counts of capital murder, revealed that the surnames of the 4 identified victims as either Jackson or Conley. "He restrained, shot and killed 8 people," Celeste Byrom, an assistant district attorney said during a brief court hearing Sunday. Authorities responded to the Jackson home at around 9 p.m. Saturday for a welfare check. When no one answered the door, deputies became aware that Conley was inside. Recognizing his outstanding warrant for aggravated assault, backup units arrived on the scene and surrounded the house, The Washington Post reported. Deputies then spotted what appeared to be a body lying inside and entered the home. Upon entry, they say Conley started shooting at them and they retreated. After a terse standoff, Conley was taken into custody. The sheriff's office told the Post that the relationship between Conley and Jackson was unclear, although Facebook posts indicate that the 2 were previously married. Officials say Conley has a domestic violence record that goes at least back to 2000, and was arrested just last month for assaulting Jackson during a domestic dispute. He has other crimes on his rap sheet that go back to 1988, USA Today reported. In 2013, before she received a protective court order against Conley, she posted that Conley was "the best father in the whole world, my baby, my best friend, my forever." A subsequent post read, "You have always put me and our kids ahead of your self and always take care of home," the Chronicle reported. (source: United Press International) ** 35 years served without conviction, Texas man gets new trial For more than 35 years, a Texas man has been in a prison even though an appeals court threw out his conviction on a 1976 murder charge that initially had him on death row. On Monday, 59-year-old Jerry Hartfield will return to court for a retrial, facing a life sentence if convicted of killing a woman who sold tickets at a Bay City bus station. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have haggled over who's to blame for decades of inaction and whether Hartfield's right to a speedy trial have been violated. But the trial judge has refused to dismiss Hartfield's indictment and prosecutors recently took the death penalty off the table, citing a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring execution of mentally impaired people. At a hearing Friday, a psychologist testified Hartfield's IQ is 67, below the threshold of 70 considered mental impairment. "Regardless of how the time is parsed out, the delay between the initial conviction in 1977 and the trial ... is extraordinary," defense attorney Jay Wooten said in court documents. Potential trial jurors are to arrive Monday for questioning. Matagorda County District Attorney Steven Reis has said while prosecutors "may be partially responsible" for not retrying Hartfield earlier, the state hasn't acted in bad faith. Hartfield also bears some responsibility for not filing for nearly a quarter-century, Reis said. "I don't hold no grudge," Hartfield told The Associated Press in 2012 from a Texas prison. "All I want to do is just get things right and get back on with my life aga
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., MISS.
April 9 TEXASexecution Texas executes man for 1990 fatal shooting, rape A Texas convict with a lengthy criminal history was executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a man and raping the slain man's fiancee during a home break-in more than 22 years ago. Rickey Lynn Lewis already had been in and out of prison 5 times in less than 7 years when he was arrested 3 days after the killing of 45-year-old George Newman and attack on Newman's fiancee in 1990 at their home in a rural area of Smith County, about 90 miles east of Dallas. Lewis, 50, acknowledged the rape, but not the killing. "If I hadn't raped you, you wouldn't have lived," he told Newman's fiancee, Connie Hilton, in the moments before the single lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. "I didn't kill Mr. Newman and I didn't rob your house. "I was just there. ... I'm sorry for what you've gone through. It wasn't me that harmed and stole all of your stuff," he said to Hilton, who stood behind a glass window a few feet away. The Associated Press normally does not name rape victims, but Hilton, 63, agreed to be identified. Lewis said the 2 people responsible for Newman's killing are still alive. He didn't identify them. He told Hilton he watched her flee the house to get help. "When I saw you in the truck driving away, I could have killed you, but I didn't," he said. "I'm not a killer." Lewis thanked his friends who watched through a nearby window "for the love you gave me." "I thank the Lord for the man I am today. I have done all I can to better myself, to learn to read and write," he said, appearing to choke back tears. "Take me to my king." As the drug began taking effect, he said he could feel it "burning my arm." "I feel it in my throat. I'm getting dizzy," Lewis said before he started to snore and, seconds later, lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead 14 minutes after the lethal dose began. The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to review Lewis' case and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted against a clemency request. No last-day appeals were filed by his attorneys to try to halt the execution, the 2nd this year in Texas. Earlier appeals focused on whether Lewis, a 9th-grade dropout who worked as a laborer, was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty under Supreme Court rulings. The claims included a suggestion from Lewis' attorneys that the court reconsider a denial it made in his case in 2005. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused that recommendation on Monday. Hilton declined to speak with reporters after the execution. In a first-person account she wrote of the attack, she said she got out of bed the night of Sept. 17, 1990, after her barking dog woke her and saw a man in the hallway with a shotgun. She screamed, and Newman responded and was shot in the face. A dog in the home was also killed. Hilton tried hiding in a bathroom, was struck at least twice in the head and then assaulted for over an hour by Lewis while the other 2 people Lewis claims were there stole items from the house. She testified she was ordered to "quit whimpering," felt a gun barrel on her and was told someone would find her in the morning. According to court documents, she was left in the kitchen with her hands and feet bound. As Lewis and his partners fled in her truck, she managed to free herself, crawled to Newman to find him dead and then climbed out a window to seek help. Lewis was arrested 3 days later after he was seen with some of the items stolen from the house. DNA evidence linked him to the attack. "There's still a lot of fear in the back of my mind because the other 2 men never were caught," Hilton told the AP last week. "You never know if there's going to be retaliation. "He's never told anyone and as far as I'm aware of, nobody knows. On the other hand, if he were to tell who was with him, that would confirm his guilt, and he's not going to do that." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1996 upheld Lewis' conviction but reversed his death sentence, finding jurors had faulty instructions when considering his sentence. At a new punishment trial the following year, Lewis again was sentenced to die. Lewis' mother, who has since died, testified a 10-year-old Lewis shot his father to protect her. Testimony indicated Lewis' father had abused him as a child. Records showed Lewis first went to prison in 1983 for burglary, was paroled and returned to prison as a parole violator. He continued to be a repeat offender and parole violator. His arrest on capital murder charges for Newman's slaying came 6 months after his most recent release. Evidence showed 2 months before the Newman shooting he stole a truck and led police on a chase. Then 4 days before the attack, Lewis used a sawed-off shotgun during a store robbery in Tyler. At least 11 other Texas inmates have executions scheduled through July, inc
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., MISS., KY., TENN.
May 5 TEXASnew execution date set//foreign national August execution set for Mexican-born Texas inmate A Mexican-born Texas prisoner whose death sentence set off an international dispute and a U.S. Supreme Court rebuke of the White House received an execution date Monday. State District Judge Caprice Cosper set the Aug. 5 lethal injection for 33-year-old Jose Medellin for his participation in the gang rape and strangulation deaths of 2 teenage girls 15 years ago in Houston when they stumbled upon a gang initiation rite. The Supreme Court in March refused to hear Medellin's appeal, saying President Bush overstepped his authority by ordering Texas to reopen his case and the cases of 50 other Mexican nationals condemned for murders in the U.S. Texas refused to comply. Medellin, handcuffed and wearing a bright lime green jail jumpsuit, stood impassively between his lawyers as Cosper read the order. Lawyers for Medellin and the Mexican government urged her to delay setting the execution date. "This is a case whose effects go far beyond this courtroom," Medellin's attorney, Sandra Babcock, said. During Bush's 6-year tenure as Texas governor, 152 inmates went to the state's death chamber, the nation's busiest. But the president took the side of Medellin and 50 other Mexican nationals on death rows around the U.S. after an international court ruled in 2004 their convictions violated the 1963 Vienna Convention, which provides that people arrested abroad should have access to their home country's consular officials. The International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, said the Mexican prisoners should have new court hearings to determine whether the violation affected their cases, The White House agreed, but the Supreme Court said Texas could ignore the international court. "This country is committed to the rule of law," Donald Donovan, another Medellin attorney, said. "We have a legal obligation. We should comply with it." Defense lawyers, warning that Americans abroad could be in legal jeopardy if Medellin was executed, wanted the legal adviser to the Mexican foreign minister to speak. Cosper refused. "I did not intend to hold a hearing," she said. "I did intend to set an execution date." Roe Wilson, assistant Harris County district attorney, said state and federal courts had reviewed Medellin's case and that Medellin had been given "the right of every American citizen." "The defense is trying to create a climate of sensationalism," Wilson said. Medellin is among 14 native Mexicans on death row in Texas. Mexico has no death penalty and sued the United States in the world court in 2003. Mexico and other opponents of capital punishment have sought to use the world court to fight for foreigners facing execution in the U.S. Monday's order makes Medellin at least the sixth inmate in Texas scheduled to die in the coming months. Capital punishment around the nation was on a de facto hold for about seven months until the Supreme Court last month ruled in a Kentucky case that lethal injection was not unconstitutionally cruel. Lawyers for a condemned inmate in Georgia were in court trying to keep him Tuesday from becoming the 1st to be executed since the Supreme Court ruling. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected a clemency request Monday. Medellin was convicted in the June 1993 torture, rape and strangling of Elizabeth Pena, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14. The Houston girls, whose bodies were found 4 days after they failed to return from a friend's house, had been attacked as they took a shortcut along some railroad tracks and stumbled on a group drinking beer after initiating a new gang member. Evidence showed the girls were gang raped for more than an hour, then were kicked and beaten before being strangled by a belt or shoelaces. A tip from the brother of one of the gang members led police to the arrests in the killings that shocked even crime-hardened Houston. "This guy got to live 15 more years," Adolph Pena, Elizabeth's father, said outside the courtroom. "It is a long time coming. " "I'm looking forward to watching (him) die," said Randy Ertman, Jennifer's father. One gang member, Derrick Sean O'Brien, was executed in July 2006. O'Brien identified Medellin as the person pulling one end of the belt around Ertman's neck as he yanked on the other. He and Medellin were both 18 at the time. Peter Cantu, described by authorities as ringleader of the gang, remains on death row without an execution date. 2 other gang members, Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal, had their death sentences commuted to life in prison when the Supreme Court in 2005 barred executions for those who were 17 at the time of their crimes. Medellin's brother, Vernancio, was 14 at the time and received a 40-year prison term. (source: Associated Press) GEORGIAimpending execution Ga. board denied killer's clemency bid A Georgia board has denied condemned killer William Earl Lynd's c
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news------TEXAS, GA., MISS., ALA., USA
July 30 TEXAS: Budget no excuse for crime lab THANKS to the Chronicle for the well-presented argument on the crime lab's funding problems [see the July 28 editorial "City Hall dj vu / In a repeat of last summer, Houston officials have once again put the brakes on the crime lab probe"]. How can the Harris County district attorney justify spending more than $1 million to re-prosecute Andrea Yates (in the name of justice), while the city chooses not to ensure the necessary funding for proper investigations of crime scene evidence? The district attorney's office, the Houston Police Department and the city administration all need to get together and re-examine their budgetary guidelines, if that's the excuse they give for this. We have become a punitive society that wants to convict, but without ensuring that the true criminals are isolated from society. MICHELE K. GOLDBERG attorney, Bellaire (source: Houston Chronicle, outlook, July 29) *** County bid to charge for crime lab tests hits oppositionArea mayors and police chiefs say they would be paying twice Harris County is poised to start charging local police forces for drunken driving analyses, DNA tests and other crime lab work, saving the Medical Examiner's Office $300,000-$400,000 annually. But the proposed new policy has brought out an alliance of mayors and police chiefs from local cities who say the county is engaged in "double taxation" and possibly illegal "disparate treatment of taxpayers." "Why is it that the Harris County Commissioners Court decided to authorize the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office to charge local political subdivisions for services that our residents have already paid for in their county taxes?" Hunters Creek Village Mayor Stephen Reichek wrote the county. With little fanfare, the Commissioners Court decided in April to impose fees on 58 city, school district and college law enforcement agencies. On Tuesday, the Commissioners Court considered setting amounts for specific fees. A urinalysis test for a drunken driving case would cost $300, for example; a gunshot residue analysis would be priced at $195. Large police departments that rely most on the medical examiner's office would be hardest-hit. If fees had been imposed last year, the Baytown Police Department would have paid the most of any local agency, $94,430, said Mary Daniels, operations director at the Medical Examiner's Office. The Houston Police Department, which relied on outside crime labs for a time after its own facility came under fire for shoddy work, would have paid $84,070. Nicholas Lykos, an assistant county attorney heading the general counsel division, advised the Commissioners Court that the county is required under state law to operate a medical examiner's office. But that office is mandated only to determine the manner and causes of deaths. The county added a crime lab at the medical examiner's office because officials believed the county could save money by doing forensic work in-house rather than farming it out to private labs, Lykos wrote the Commissioners Court. The work that the county wanted - and wants - performed is forensic requests from the District Attorney's Office, the Sheriff's Department and constables - all county entities. The county is not required to run a crime lab or to provide free forensic analyses for other law enforcement agencies in the county, Lykos said. In fact, under state law, the county is prohibited from giving away property and services at no charge. County-operated labs in Dallas, Bexar and Tarrant counties charge non-county law enforcement agencies for services, said Dick Raycraft, the county's director of the budget office and management services. Objections from mayors in the Memorial Villages and elsewhere, however, appear to have gotten county commissioners' attention. The Jersey Village mayor and the West University Place police chief spoke against the plan at Tuesday's meeting. After hearing from them, the Commissioners Court delayed a vote on setting the fees and asked Raycraft to analyze the issue again. Commissioner Steve Radack, who voted for the fees in April, said he has reconsidered. "It could hurt law enforcement in small departments. They may think they don't have enough money to spend on tests and not pursue certain investigations," he said. Byron Jones, president of the Southeast Law Enforcement Administrators Association, which represents more than 20 small police departments, said fee opponents didn't lobby against them in April because the county did not give clear notice that it was considering imposing the costs. On the Commissioners Court's April 4 agenda, he said, the issue was described opaquely: "Request for approval of a revised fee schedule for postmortem examinations and crime lab services." Hedwig Village Mayor Sue Speck said residents of the enclave city in west Houston should not pay twice for crime lab services - once when they p
