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Thread: Ledell Lee - Arkansas Execution - April 20, 2017

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Addict TrudieG's Avatar
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    Of course they want to be spared cowards who can take a life but can't stomach the state taking theirs. The cards are not stacked in their favor fortunately.

  2. #12
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Arkansas inmates ask judge to halt 4 double executions

    The eight inmates facing lethal injection in Arkansas next month asked a federal judge on Monday to block the state's unprecedented plan to conduct four nights of double executions over a 10-day period.

    Attorneys for the inmates sought a preliminary injunction to halt the executions, which are scheduled to begin April 17, arguing that the use of the controversial sedative midazolam and the rushed schedule violates their clients' constitutional rights.

    Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson last month scheduled the executions to occur before the state's supply of midazolam expires at the end of April.

    "The rushed schedule appreciably increases the risk of harm to plaintiffs, falls far outside the bounds of modern penological practice, and disrespects the plaintiffs' fundamental dignity — defects that all run against the Eighth Amendment's protections," the inmates argued in a court filing.

    Arkansas hasn't executed an inmate since 2005 because of court challenges and difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs. The state hasn't carried out a double execution since 1999.

    While Texas has executed eight people in a month — twice in 1997 — no state in the modern era has executed that many prisoners in 10 days.

    The lawsuit is the latest of several efforts by the inmates to halt the executions. A separate challenge against Arkansas' lethal injection law — which keeps the source of the state's lethal injection drugs secret — is pending in Pulaski County Circuit Court. The inmates have also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to not weigh in on a state court ruling upholding the law's constitutionality.

    Five of the inmates have also asked the state Parole Board to recommend Hutchinson spare their lives.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/charlot...141040433.html
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Parole board recommends denying clemency to 2 Ark. death row inmates

    GRADY (KATV) — The Arkansas Parole Board recommended Monday that Gov. Asa Hutchinson deny clemency to two death row inmates.

    Clemency hearings were held Friday for Stacey Johnson and Ledell Lee, two inmates scheduled to be executed in April.

    Johnson, 47, was convicted of capital murder in the death of Carol Heath, who was killed in 1993 while her two young children were home.

    The parole board reasoned Johnson should not be given clemency because it believes the sentence is not excessive due to the nature and seriousness of the offense. It also said Johnson's claims of injustice were not valid. Two board members voted in favor of executive clemency.

    Lee, 51, was sentenced to death for the beating and strangling death of Debra Reese, 26, who was struck with a tire iron 36 times at her home.

    The board also voted Lee should not be granted clemency on the grounds of the seriousness and nature of the crime, and the fact that he had multiple victims. The board also said Lee's claims of injustice were not valid.

    Both Johnson and Lee maintain they did not commit the murders. The two men are scheduled to be executed April 20.

    The Arkansas Parole Board held a clemency hearing Monday for Marcel Williams, another death row inmate scheduled to be executed in April.

    http://katv.com/news/local/clemency

    Here's a link to a shot of the votes. I don't know how to post the photos from twitter. https://twitter.com/MattMershonKATV/...43387767181312
    Last edited by Mike; 03-27-2017 at 03:39 PM.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  4. #14
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Arkansas judge rejects bid to halt multiple executions

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the state’s lethal injection law, the latest setback for efforts to block the state’s unprecedented plan to conduct four double executions over a 10-day period next month.

    Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Wendell Griffen granted the state’s motion to dismiss the amended complaint filed by eight inmates facing lethal injection next month. Griffen said he has no jurisdiction over the case after the state Supreme Court reversed his previous decision striking down the law and the state’s three-drug protocol.

    “That dismissal effectively ended this court’s jurisdiction over all claims and contentions in the lawsuit that led to the dismissal,” Griffen wrote in his decision.

    An attorney for the inmates said he planned to appeal Griffen’s ruling quickly to the state Supreme Court.

    “We will again ask the court to reconsider its findings and point out the flaws in its earlier findings,” Jeff Rosenzweig said.

    Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson last month scheduled the executions to begin before the state’s supply of midazolam, a controversial sedative used in its three-drug protocol, expires. Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005.

    The inmates filed a federal lawsuit Monday aimed at halting the executions. They’ve also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to not review a state court ruling upholding the lethal injection law, which keeps the source of Arkansas’ execution drugs secret.

    The ruling comes a day after the state Parole Board recommended Hutchinson reject a clemency request by Stacey Eugene Johnson and Ledell Lee, two of the convicted murderers scheduled for execution. The panel held another hearing Monday for convicted murderer Marcel Williams, and hearings are set for Friday for two other death row inmates.

    Arkansas hasn’t executed an inmate in more than a decade because of court challenges and difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs. The state hasn’t carried out a double execution since 1999, and while Texas has executed eight people in a month — twice in 1997 — no state in the modern era has executed that many prisoners in 10 days.

    The executions are scheduled on April 17, April 20, April 24 and April 27.

    In his ruling, Griffen wrote that he was troubled by the state Supreme Court decision and by the inmates’ argument that the lethal injection protocol could subject them to painful executions.

    "It is more than troubling that Arkansas judges must now deny persons sentenced to death by lethal injection a fair and impartial evidentiary hearing concerning their allegations that the state of Arkansas intends to subject them to an execution process which they allege will involve demonstrable risk of severe pain,” he wrote.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.was...168_story.html
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #15
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Arkansas Supreme Court refuses stays of two executions

    The Arkansas Supreme Court issued a batch of orders today related to appeals from Death Row inmates. They included cursory denials of stays of execution for Ledell Lee and Stacey Johnson, both scheduled to die April 20. The men have exhausted standard appeals, but are continuing post-conviction relief proceedings.

    Lee, convicted of the fatal beating of Debra Reese of Little Rock, has alleged incompetence of counsel in an earlier proceeding. Johnson, convicted of the fatal beating of Carol Heath of DeQueen, insists he's innocent and is seeking DNA testing.

    Though a variety of actions are pending at the state level, major contests are pending in federal court over the execution process and a shortening of the clemency process to allow for eight executions in 10 days before a supply of an anesthetic used in the killing expires. Six inmates have clemency applications pending and the state Parole Board has recommended clemency in one case. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has decided none of these yet.

    https://www.google.com/amp/www.arkti...a%3DAMP%2BHTML
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  6. #16
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Federal appeals court grants AG's motion to lift stays of execution

    LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals granted late Monday afternoon the Arkansas Attorney General's motion to vacate the stays of execution imposed last week by a district judge.

    The 8th Circuit Court cited the prisoners' long delay in pursuing their federal claims, saying "the prisoners voluntarily elected to forego their federal claim in April 2015, and chose instead to challenge the method of execution exclusively in state court under the Arkansas Constitution."

    The court says that created a presumption against granting a stay of the executions.

    The court said Judge Baker's conclusion about the midazolam (the sedative used in lethal injections) was not adequately supported by the court's factual findings.

    The court disagreed that the execution method was sure or very likely to cause needless suffering.

    Monday's 8th Circuit ruling does not affect the Arkansas Supreme Court's stay issued for death row inmates Don Davis and Bruce Ward, who were scheduled to die Monday, April 17. This order paves the way for only the remaining 5 executions to proceed.

    http://katv.com/news/local/8th-circu...s-of-execution

    The Eighth Circuit's decision can be read here.

  7. #17
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    ACLU files for stay of Ledell Lee's execution

    LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The ACLU, which now represents Arkansas death row inmate Ledell Lee, has filed a stay for his execution.

    Lee, 51, was sentenced to death for the beating and strangling death of Debra Reese, 26, who was struck with a tire iron 36 times at her home.

    Lee is scheduled to be executed Thursday.

    The ACLU claims Lee is innocent based on information that blood and hair evidence recovered were never tested for DNA because testing available at the time was not sophisticated enough for fragmented samples.

    The second claim made by the ACLU is Lee's intellectual disability from fetal alcohol syndrome, which the organization said was never noticed nor brought to the court or jury's attention.

    http://katv.com/news/local/aclu-file...lees-execution
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  8. #18
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Judge denies ACLU's motion for new DNA testing in Ledell Lee case

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - A Pulaski County Circuit Court judge has denied a motion set forth by the ACLU, which asked for new DNA testing for Ledell Lee's case.

    The ACLU cited two reasons for the motion to stay Lee's execution. The first reason was that advances in DNA testing allowed for new testing in his case. The second reason given by the ACLU was that he has an intellectual disability due to fetal alcohol syndrome and his "horrible legal counsel" did not present that in his original trial.

    They argued that new testing would prove that the hair found at the scene did not belong to Lee and that blood on his shoe was not from the victim, Debra Reese. Lee was convicted for the 1993 murder of Reese.

    In his ruling, Judge Herbert Wright said that improvements to DNA testing "has been available for some years prior" and questioned the delay in the filing by the ACLU.

    "If the court were to accept the defendant's argument about both the hair and the blood on the tennis shoe, there would still be sufficient proof presented by the state at trial for the jury to reach a guilty verdict," Wright claimed in his ruling.

    Wright said if a new trial was granted, the eyewitness testimony of three people would still place Lee inside or near Reese's home at the time of the murder.

    "This is a story of the judicial process gone totally wrong," said Cassandra Stubbs, with the ACLU. "The kinds of attorney failures here: an affair with the presiding judge by the prosecutor, gross intoxication by defense counsel, and wild incompetence undermine our profession as a whole.

    Mr. Lee has never had the opportunity to have his case truly investigated, despite serious questions about guilt, and his intellectual disability."

    Stubbs was appointed to represent Lee within the past week, but has been represented by Lee Short since August. The ACLU has not responded to the court's denial of their motion at this time.

    https://www.google.com/amp/www.thv11...case/432297851
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  9. #19
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Arkansas inmates set to die Thursday say they're innocent

    Lawyers for Arkansas inmates condemned to die Thursday in a planned double execution insist they are innocent and one of them says advanced DNA techniques could show he didn't kill a woman in 1993.

    Their strategy to win stays of execution is in marked contrast to the first two inmates who faced the death chamber in Arkansas and were spared Monday by arguing they should not be put to death because of mental health issues.

    Arkansas officials are vowing to press ahead with the Thursday executions despite the setback to plans to resume capital punishment after a 12-year hiatus.

    Gov. Asa Hutchinson originally set out an aggressive schedule of eight lethal injections in 11 days that would have marked the most inmates put to death by a state in such a short period since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The state set the compressed schedule because its supply of one of the lethal injection drugs expires at the end of April.

    One of the inmates set to die Thursday, Stacey Johnson, says advanced DNA techniques could show that he didn't kill Carol Heath, a 25-year-old mother of two, in 1993 at her DeQueen apartment. The other inmate scheduled for Thursday, Ledell Lee, argued unsuccessfully Tuesday in a Little Rock courtroom that he be given a chance to test blood and hair evidence that could prove he didn't beat 26-year-old Debra Reese to death during a 1993 robbery in Jacksonville. An appeal is possible.

    Lawyers are known to make multiple arguments to save their clients' lives in the final hours before execution. The state and its lawyers say the inmates are seeking any legal approach they can find in their efforts to avoid death.

    "It is understandable that the inmates are taking every step possible to avoid the sentence of the jury; however, it is the court's responsibility to administer justice and bring conclusion to litigation," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Tuesday in an emailed statement. "It is that process that we are seeing played out day by day, and we expect it to continue.

    "My job as governor is to work with the attorney general to make sure that justice is accomplished and the law of Arkansas is carried out, and that's what we're working every day to accomplish," he said.

    Don Davis and Bruce Ward were supposed to be the first two executed. They won stays from the Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday after lawyers argued their mental health issues were similar enough to those raised in an Alabama case going before the U.S. Supreme Court next week.

    The execution of a third inmate, Jason McGehee, had been set for April 27, but a federal judge put it on hold earlier this month, saying McGehee was entitled to a 30-day comment period after the Arkansas Parole Board told the governor that the inmate's clemency request had merit.

    That leaves five men set for execution in an eight-day period starting Thursday. It's the quickest timetable in Arkansas since 1926, though state officials say waiting more than two decades to put some of the killers to death could hardly be characterized as swift.

    "The families have waited far too long to see justice, and I will continue to make that a priority," Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said late Monday.

    Lawyers for the inmates set to be executed Thursday are relying primarily on claims the men are innocent. Johnson's attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, wants a court to order new DNA testing on hair found in the victim's apartment and on clothing that prosecutors found at a rest stop and linked to Johnson.

    "That's something we had sought from the state and federal courts and had been denied, and we're making another run at it and showing that there are new techniques that came into effect literally this year that can provide results that can bear on the case," Rosenzweig said.

    Rosenzweig also represents two other inmates scheduled to die this month - Jack Jones and Kenneth Williams. He said neither man would raise innocence claims. They instead will rely again on whether the sedative midazolam could present a risk of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

    In addition to Lee's innocence claim, his lawyers want to know whether their client has an intellectual disability that wasn't properly investigated during his trials.

    "Mr. Lee has never had the opportunity to have his case truly investigated, despite serious questions about guilt, and his intellectual disability," Lee's attorney, Cassandra Stubbs, said.

    Separate from the inmates' legal challenges, a handful of drug companies are saying they don't want their products used in the executions. Two pharmaceutical companies filed a court brief last week asking a federal judge to block Arkansas from using their drugs, but the judge did not rule on that issue.

    The medical supplier McKesson Corp. refiled its lawsuit Tuesday before a judge in Pulaski County. McKesson seeks an order that would force prison officials to return the company's supply of vecuronium bromide, one of three drugs used in the state's lethal injection protocol.

    http://www.wlox.com/story/35183678/a...heyre-innocent
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #20
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Inmate set to be executed Thursday seeks stay from Arkansas' high court

    An inmate set to die Thursday night is asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to block his execution so he can pursue more DNA tests in hopes of proving his innocence.

    A judge in Pulaski County on Tuesday rejected the request for DNA testing from inmate Ledell Lee. Attorneys for the inmate filed a request Wednesday for a stay with the state's highest court.

    Arkansas plans to execute Lee and another inmate, Stacey Johnson, on Thursday night. There are no current stays blocking those executions, but both inmates have pending court challenges.

    Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson originally scheduled eight executions to occur before the end of April, when one hard-to-acquire lethal injection drug expires. But courts have blocked three of those executions from going forward.

    https://www.google.com/amp/amp.arkan...-stay-arkansa/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

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