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Thread: Ricky R. Chase - Mississippi Death Row

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    Ricky R. Chase - Mississippi Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    Was convicted in February 1990 of capital murder for the robbery and murder of Elmer Hart outside Hazelhurst in Copiah County.

    MDOC# 74170

    Name: RICKY CHASE

    Race BLACK

    Sex MALE

    Date of Birth 2/8/1969

    Height 5' 10''

    Weight 205

    Complexion DARK

    Build MEDIUM

    Eye Color BROWN

    Hair Color UNKNOWN

    Entry Date 3/1/1990

    Location MSP

    Unit UNIT 29

    Location
    Change 8/30/2012 2:50:50 PM
    Date

    Number of 2
    Sentences

    Total Length DEATH

    Offense 1
    HOMICIDE/MURDER
    Sentence Length 1 DEATH
    County of Conviction 1 COPIAH

    Offense 2
    KIDNAP-
    Sentence Length 2 15 YEARS
    County of Conviction 2 COPIAH

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    In 2004, Chase's case was remanded to the trial court on an Atkins claim.

    http://courts.ms.gov/Images/Opinions/CO17366.pdf

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Miss. inmate challenges death sentence

    Mississippi death row inmate Ricky Chase continues to argue he is mentally incapacitated and shouldn't be put to death for a 1990 killing.

    A Copiah County judge ruled against him in 2010, but the case is headed back to the state Supreme Court.

    Chase's appeal is one of two death penalty cases scheduled for oral arguments during the court's November-December term.

    Arguments in Chase's appeal are set for Dec. 10 in Jackson.

    Chase was convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for the killing of an elderly Copiah County vegetable salesman as his gagged wife watched helplessly.

    Authorities said the body of Elmer Hart was found on his bedroom floor beside his wife.

    Chase also has argued his lawyer failed to raise mental-handicap issues at his trial.

    http://www2.whlt.com/news/2012/nov/0...ce-ar-4888826/
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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Miss. high court is asked to toss death sentence

    An attorney for death-row inmate Ricky Chase told the Mississippi Supreme Court on Monday that Chase is mentally disabled and his death penalty should be tossed out.

    An assistant attorney general countered that there's no proof to back up the claim.

    "The evidence is there to support the fact that he is not mentally retarded," said Assistant Attorney General Marvin L. White Jr.

    Chase was convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for the Aug. 14, 1989, killing of 70-year-old vegetable salesman Elmer Hart in Copiah County. Authorities said Hart apparently arrived at home as his wife was being robbed by Chase and another man. Hart's wife had been doused with an ammonia-like substance and tied up and gagged. She watched helplessly as her husband was shot, authorities said.

    Hart's body was found on his bedroom floor beside his wife.

    The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Chase's sentence in 1994.

    Chase has argued that a pretrial mental examination showed he was mentally incapacitated. Chase said he was examined by two doctors. But court records show one doctor did not find him mentally disabled.

    Chase's attorney, Jim Craig, told justices Monday that one of the doctors who examined Chase gave "a seat-of-the-pants judgment about the intellectual functioning of the defendant," which Craig argued was wrong.

    Craig said people had testified that Chase, as an adult, lacked the mental capacity to perform simple tasks like choosing his own clothes or making macaroni and cheese.

    In 2010, a Copiah County judge ruled against Chase in his request to throw out the death sentence.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...#ixzz2EkBareWa
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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Miss. court asks judge to resubmit Chase findings

    The Mississippi Supreme Court has asked a Copiah County judge to clarify his ruling that death row inmate Ricky Case is mentally competent.

    The justices say it appears the trial judge adopted findings submitted by prosecutors. The justices say they want the judge to put the findings into his own words.

    Chase was convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for the Aug. 14, 1989, killing of 70-year-old vegetable salesman Elmer Hart in Copiah County.

    Authorities said Hart apparently arrived at home as his wife was being robbed by Chase and another man.

    Prosecutors say Hart's wife had been doused with an ammonia-like substance and tied up and gagged. They say she watched helplessly as her husband was shot.

    http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2013/01...-resubmit.html
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    Senior Member CnCP Addict Stro07's Avatar
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    Miss. inmate seeks dismissal of death sentence

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi inmate is citing a decision in a Florida case to support arguments that he is mentally disabled and his death sentence should be overturned.

    Ricky Chase was convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for the Aug. 14, 1989, killing of 70-year-old vegetable salesman Elmer Hart in Copiah County.

    Authorities said Hart apparently arrived at home as his wife was being robbed by Chase and another man.

    Prosecutors said Hart's wife had been doused with an ammonia-like substance and tied up and gagged. They said she watched helplessly as her husband was shot. Hart's body was found on a bedroom floor beside his wife.

    In the years since his conviction, Chase's attorneys have argued a pretrial mental examination showed he was mentally incapacitated. Attorney Jim Craig said Chase was examined by two doctors. But court records show one doctor did not find him mentally disabled.

    State prosecutors have argued there's no proof to back up Chase's claim

    In 2013, a Copiah County judge found Chase mentally competent. Chase argues to the Mississippi Supreme Court that the decision was in error. The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case on Dec. 8.

    Chase, now 45, is arguing in his new appeal that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Florida case precludes his execution.

    In May in a Florida case, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited states in borderline cases from relying only on intelligence test scores to determine whether a death row inmate is eligible to be executed.

    In a 5-4 decision, the court said that Florida and a handful of other states must look beyond IQ scores when inmates test in the range of 70 to 75. IQ tests have a margin of error, and those inmates whose scores fall within the margin must be allowed to present other evidence of mental disability, the court said.

    A score of 70 is widely accepted as a marker of mental disability, but medical professionals say people who score as high as 75 can be considered intellectually disabled because of the test's margin of error.

    Prosecutors said court records showed Chase had an IQ of 71 but Chase's attorney said under the Florida ruling other factors also must be considered and there has been testimony that Chase struggled with simple tasks such as choosing his own clothes or making macaroni and cheese.

    Prosecutors said the Copiah County judge properly found that though Chase had a borderline IQ of 71 there were no significant deficits in adaptive behavior to support a finding of mental retardation. Adaptive behavior refers to the management of routine tasks.

    http://newsok.com/miss.-inmate-seeks...le/feed/765711

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    Suit says Mississippi lethal injections are unconstitutional

    By Jeff Amy
    The Associated Press

    JACKSON, Miss. — Two Mississippi prisoners condemned to death are challenging the legality of the state's lethal injection procedures.

    A lawyer for Richard Jordan and Ricky Chase writes in a suit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Jackson that Mississippi prisoners face risks of excruciating pain and torture during an execution that violates the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

    A prison spokeswoman declined to comment.

    Mississippi plans to execute prisoners by mixing pentobarbital from ingredients it purchased from a compounding pharmacy in Grenada. Lawyer Jim Craig said Mississippi doesn't seem to have ever used the drug in an execution before and questioned whether the state can mix a safe and effective anesthetic for prisoners.

    Even if it can, Craig warns that the drug may act more slowly than drugs used previously, meaning that prisoners could be conscious as a paralyzing agent is injected, causing them to know they're unable to breathe. They might remain conscious as potassium chloride is injected to stop their hearts.

    "The defendants' untried and untested drugs create a substantial risk that plaintiffs will suffer unnecessary and excruciating pain, either by injection of the compounded pentobarbital causing a painful reaction itself, or by the compounded pentobarbital failing to work, resulting in a torturous death by life suffocation and cardiac arrest," the suit states.

    The prisoners also allege using pentobarbital is illegal under state law, because it doesn't meet the legal mandate for an ultra-fast-acting barbiturate. Mississippi formerly used a different drug, but the supplier cut off use in executions.

    Craig has fought the state Corrections Department in court seeking information about Mississippi's suppliers of execution drugs. The new lawsuit argues that the secrecy is a separate constitutional violation, because it retards prisoners' ability to mount Eighth Amendment challenges.

    "Under the due process clauses of the United States and Mississippi constitutions, plaintiffs are entitled to notice of the defendants' intended method of execution," the suit states.

    Craig argues that under evolving standards of decency, U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate should bar Mississippi from using the paralytic agent and potassium chloride, though they are required by state law. He said executing people using only barbiturates, as Texas now does, could meet these standards.

    Jordan was convicted of capital murder committed in the course of kidnapping Edwina Marta in Harrison County in 1976. At 68, Jordan is the oldest inmate on Mississippi's death row, having won three successful appeals only to be resentenced to death. He's also the longest serving, having spent 38 years in death row. What would likely be Jordan's final appeal is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Hood's office could ask the state Supreme Court to set an execution date within weeks if Jordan's appeal is refused. That's important, because Mississippi's current supply of pentobarbital is supposed to expire May 20.

    Chase was convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for the 1989 killing of an elderly vegetable salesman in Copiah County.

    http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/arti...re-6211391.php

  8. #8
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Chase v. Mississippi

    Opinion Date: April 23, 2015

    Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

    Ricky Chase filed a motion for post-conviction relief (PCR), arguing that he was intellectually disabled under "Atkins v. Virginia," (536 U.S. 304 (2002)), and exempt from execution. The circuit court denied relief, finding that Chase had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he is intellectually disabled. Chase appealed, arguing that the circuit court made legal errors and that its fact-findings were clearly erroneous. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed.
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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Federal court says death row inmate can make new appeal

    A federal appeals court ruled last week that a Mississippi inmate can try to overturn his death sentence by arguing that he is mentally disabled.

    A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Ricky Chase can file the petition with a federal district court, without saying how the court should rule.

    Chase was convicted and sentenced to death in the Aug. 14, 1989, killing of 70-year-old vegetable salesman Elmer Hart in Copiah County.

    The appeals judges said Chase can go ahead because his claims rely on a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling made after his initial federal appeal.

    The state had opposed Chase's efforts, arguing issues over his mental ability had already been litigated during the first appeal in 2003. At that time, Chase's lawyers had argued the original conviction should be overturned because the attorney who represented him at trial failed to raise his mental disability as a reason he should get a lighter sentence.

    The three-judge panel disagreed, saying the 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia was unavailable when Chase first began his federal appeal.

    "Atkins had not been decided when Chase's first federal habeas corpus petition was filed and decided in the district court," the panel wrote. It added that the mental disability issue "that Chase presented in his first federal habeas petition was not an Atkins claim."

    The inmate already unsuccessfully sought relief from the death penalty based on Atkins before a state trial court judge and the state Supreme Court. Chase has argued that a pretrial mental examination showed that he was mentally incapacitated.

    Chase said he was examined by two doctors. But court regards show one doctor did not find Chase was mentally handicapped.

    Mississippi's death penalty is effectively suspended right now because of a separate legal action where Chase and two other death row inmates have sued.

    A judge agreed in August with their claims that Mississippi plans to use drugs that don't meet state law requiring an "ultra short-acting barbiturate" that will render a person unconscious almost immediately.

    The state is appealing the ruling, saying the U.S. Supreme Court approved the use of the drug midazolam as a sedative in Oklahoma.

    Authorities said Hart's body was found on his bedroom floor beside his wife, who watched helplessly while gagged.

    Hart apparently had come home as his wife was being robbed by Chase and another man at the couple's rural home, according to the court records.

    His wife had been doused with an ammonia-like substance and tied up, court records showed.

    http://www.capitalgazette.com/sns-bc...103-story.html

    Chase's habeas case can be followed here.

  10. #10
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Appeals Court Opens Way for Mississippi to Resume Executions

    Mississippi could be able to resume executions early next month after an appeals court denied to rehear a case challenging a drug the state plans to use in lethal injections.

    The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday denied the motion by Ricky Chase, Richard Jordan and Thomas Loden Jr. to have the entire court reconsider a February ruling by a three-judge appeals panel. Jordan and Loden have exhausted their appeals, meaning Attorney General Jim Hood could ask the state Supreme Court to set execution dates.

    The lawsuit is one of a series of continuing legal skirmishes nationwide over lethal injection drugs.

    Hood's office didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Jim Craig, a lawyer for Chase and Jordan, said it would be Hood's "usual practice" to immediately seek an execution date. However, he noted that the court hadn't acted on a request for an execution date for Jordan for nearly a month when the federal suit was filed.

    The judgment will be published July 5, dissolving a freeze on executions by U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate. The three-judge panel overruled Wingate in February, saying questions about whether Mississippi is using drugs that don't meet state legal requirements belong in state court.

    "Plaintiffs face a challenge here," Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote in a revised opinion released Monday. "Mississippi's sovereign immunity prevents a federal court from issuing an injunction against state officials solely to require them to adhere to state law."

    Mississippi law requires a three-drug process, with an "ultra-short-acting barbiturate" followed by a paralyzing agent and a drug that stops an inmate's heart. But Mississippi and other states have increasing struggled to obtain such drugs since 2010, as manufacturers refuse to sell them for executions.

    Now, Mississippi says it intends to use another sedative, midazolam, which doesn't render someone unconscious as quickly. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 upheld as constitutional Oklahoma's use of midazolam.

    Craig said he'll seek a fresh block on executions.

    "I suspect we'll be going back to Judge Wingate to ask him to consider our injunction on the other parts of the lawsuit," he said.

    Midazolam leaves an inmate at risk of severe pain during execution, Craig argues, violating the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's bar on cruel and unusual punishment.

    Craig continues to question why Mississippi doesn't adopt a one-drug method of execution, as Texas, Missouri and Georgia have done. Inmates represented by Craig are pursuing legal actions against Texas, Missouri and Georgia trying to find out where those states get pentobarbital.

    Since the court overruled only a preliminary injunction, Wingate could also still decide the case in favor of the prisoners. A trial is set for October.

    Mississippi lawmakers earlier this year passed a law saying names of prison employees at an execution and in-state providers of lethal drugs must remain secret. The bill also makes secret the names of execution witnesses who are members of a victim's or condemned inmate's family. Lawmakers dropped a proposal to allow executions by firing squad.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/a...tions-40173308
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