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Thread: Zane Michael Floyd - Nevada Death Row

  1. #11
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Final appeal distributed for conference October 30, 2020.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-8921.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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  2. #12
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court DENIED Floyd's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
    Case Numbers: (14-99012)
    Decision Date: February 3, 2020

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/...20zor_08m1.pdf

  3. #13
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    I wonder if Nevada will set a date for him
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  4. #14
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    They couldn't even execute Dozier he won't ever get a date.
    "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

  5. #15
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    DA to proceed with death penalty against gunman in 1999 store killings

    By David Ferrera
    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    Clark County prosecutors plan to seek a warrant of execution for death row inmate Zane Floyd as Nevada legislators weigh the future of capital punishment in the state.

    District Attorney Steve Wolfson said deputies from his appellate division could ask a judge to sign the paperwork in the coming weeks.

    Floyd, now 45, was convicted of killing four people and wounding another inside a Las Vegas Albertsons nearly 22 years ago. His killings, which occurred less than two months after the Columbine High School massacre, were eerily similar to those carried out at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday, when 10 people were killed by a lone gunman.

    “We believe that Mr. Floyd should be executed,” Wolfson said.

    Floyd’s federal appeals exhausted on Nov. 2 after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a review of a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld his conviction and sentence.

    Under Nevada law, the Department of Corrections must carry out Floyd’s lethal injection no less than 60 days and no more than 90 days after a judge signs a death warrant.

    But a bill introduced in the state Assembly this week would eliminate the death penalty and commute the sentences of 70 men to life without parole. That would make Nevada the 24th state to abolish the death penalty. Should prosecutors obtain the judge’s signature around April 1, Floyd’s execution could take place as lawmakers wrap up their 2021 session, barring any further legal hurdles.

    Prison officials did not respond to emails or phone messages for this story.

    ‘A landmark case'

    Wolfson called the his pursuit of an imminent execution during the legislative session “coincidental,” saying his office took steps before two abolishment bills dropped in Carson City.

    “I think the timing is good,” Wolfson said. “Our legislative leaders should recognize that there are some people who commit such heinous acts, whether it be the particular type of murder or the number of people killed, that this community has long felt should receive the death penalty.”

    He added: “We would be moving forward with the Zane Floyd efforts at obtaining the order and warrant of execution notwithstanding the legislature… I’m not purposefully moving forward with Floyd because of the Legislature. But because they’re occurring at the same time, I want our lawmakers to have their eyes wide open, because this is a landmark case. They need to be aware that there are these kinds of people out there where the jury has spoken loudly and clearly.”

    Before dawn on June 3, 1999, a 23-year-old Floyd walked into an Albertsons on west Sahara Avenue, dressed in military fatigues, and armed with a 12-gauge shotgun hidden under a robe and shot everyone he encountered.

    Four employees — Lucy Tarantino, 60, Thomas Darnell, 40, Chuck Leos, 40, and Dennis “Troy” Sargent, 31 — died that morning.

    Zachar Emenegger, 21, was shot twice, and survived after playing dead in the produce section.

    Jurors convicted Floyd about a year later, also finding him guilty of repeatedly raping a woman in a guest house at his parent’s home before the massacre.

    Executions ‘politicized'

    Floyd’s execution would be the first carried out in Nevada since 2006, though several men were sent to death row years before him.
    A January poll cited by the Death Penalty Information Center found that Nevadans favored replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole by a margin of 49 percent to 46 percent.

    Public Defender Scott Coffee, a board member on the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, expected Floyd’s death warrant to have little impact on how lawmakers decide, adding that an execution could be further delayed by litigation at the state level.

    “These things are always politicized to some extent,” Coffee said. “The death penalty is the harbinger of social injustice at the highest level. In some ways, it’s the height of politics, and that’s problematic.”

    Meanwhile, he urged the state’s legislators to “do the right thing, which is to get rid of the death penalty.”

    Last year, Wolfson’s office filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in just two cases. So far this year, the office has announced plans to seek capital punishment in at least three cases.

    More than 62 defendants in Clark County are awaiting trial in cases where prosecutors want the ultimate punishment.

    “The fact that the District Attorney’s office would like to point to outlier type cases to support the death penalty doesn’t mean we need the death penalty,” Coffee said. “I don’t believe the death penalty is any sort of deterrent in that sort of situation.”

    Lethal injection challenges

    In Floyd’s case, courts have denied his argument that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, or that trial prosecutors calling his crime “the worst massacre in the history of Las Vegas” swayed the jury’s verdict.

    He’s also tried and failed to challenge Nevada’s lethal injection protocol, which recently faced drawn-out legal scrutiny after another death row inmate, Scott Dozier, asked to be executed.
    Two of the drugs proposed for that killing have since expired, while the state’s supply of a third drug, fentanyl, is expected to expire in June.

    Under Nevada law, the prison director must “select the drug or combination of drugs to be used for the execution after consulting with the Chief Medical Officer.”

    Dozier hung himself in an Ely State Prison cell in 2019 as his case lingered in the court system.

    All but one of the 12 inmates executed in Nevada since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977 had voluntarily given up their appeals.

    Former federal public defender Franny Forsman, who represented Floyd for a portion of his decades-long appeals, pointed out that he would be among those to have his sentence commuted under one of the bills in the Legislature.

    “Moving forward on it now just seems like this is the wrong time,” she said. “Let people think about this. Let the legislators think about this. (Prosecutors) are trying to put this case front and center with the legislature. Doing that with someone’s life is inappropriate.”

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...lings-2315637/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #16
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    Execution warrant sought for Nevada death row inmate Zane Floyd

    By David Ferrara
    The Las Vegas Review-Journal

    Clark County prosecutors formally requested an execution warrant on Wednesday for Zane Floyd, convicted of fatally shooting four people inside a Las Vegas Albertsons nearly 22 years ago.

    The move came a day after the Nevada Assembly voted to abolish capital punishment and commute the sentences of those on death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    While the legislation faces another vote in the Senate, opponents have cited a need for the harshest penalty in heinous murder cases, like the killings for which a jury sentenced Floyd to die.

    Speaking on Tuesday on the floor of the Capitol, Assemblywoman Annie Black, R-Mesquite, relayed the gruesome details of June 3, 1999.

    “There is no doubt about Mr. Floyd’s guilt,” Black said before a 26-16 vote in favor of repeal. “He was given a fair trial and sentenced to death by a jury. Considering the circumstances, it was the right and proper sentence.”

    District Attorney Steve Wolfson called the timing “purely coincidental” and said his office started working toward Floyd’s execution in the months before lawmakers gathered for this legislative session.

    “Zane Floyd is an example of the type of murderer that the death penalty was designed for,” he said Wednesday. “It is my responsibility to move forward as the jury and citizens of this community have asked me to do to seek the warrant of execution.”

    In the motion filed Wednesday in Clark County District Court, Chief Deputy District Attorney Alex Chen asked that the execution be carried out “no less than 15 days but no more than 30 days” after a judge signs the warrant.

    “The defendant has exhausted his legal remedies thereby leaving no valid legal reasons against the issuance of an order to carry out the jury’s sentence of a judgment of death,” the prosecutor wrote.

    Brad Levenson, a federal public defender who represents Floyd, said that the move from prosecutors would prompt defense attorneys to seek a stay of execution and other litigation in state and federal court later Wednesday.

    Defense attorney Scott Coffee, who sits on the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty, spoke to lawmakers in opposition to capital punishment last month.

    “The timing is interesting, and you hope it’s not political,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t think this is any evidence the death penalty system is working. We are 20 years into this case with more litigation to come.”

    Floyd’s crimes troubled even those in law enforcement who were dedicated to maintaining impartiality.

    Surveillance footage of Floyd marching methodically through the grocery store aisles before dawn, shotgun in hand, hunting for victims, continues to haunt retired crime scene analyst Rick Workman.

    “When I read about the case, with Zane Floyd meeting his end potentially, it really kind of choked me up,” he said. “It’s one of those things that you just never get over.”

    Four employees — Lucy Tarantino, 60, Thomas Darnell, 40, Chuck Leos, 40, and Dennis “Troy” Sargent, 31 — died that morning.

    Zachar Emenegger, then 21, was shot twice and survived after playing dead in the produce section.

    In a recent interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Workman recalled arriving at the store at 6:05 the morning of the killings. He and his colleagues walked directly to the manager’s office to watch the video.

    Their job was to observe the crime scene; photograph, document and diagram what they found; and collect any potential evidence for trial.

    Workman spent 11 hours inside the Albertsons on West Sahara Avenue.

    “I can remember to this day, vividly, how the store looked, what we did, and just the utter devastation to these victims,” said Workman, who spent six years with the Metropolitan Police Department and another 20 with Henderson police. “It’s one of the few cases that really tugs at you, your heart, your soul, just tears you down when you think about it.”

    Workman prefers to use words like “the killer” or “the suspect” or other unprintable nouns when discussing Floyd.

    “I hate to give him a name,” Workman said. “I hate saying his name, because he treated those victims not as people. And how could he be considered a human being with what he did?”

    Darnell was shot first, as he pushed a shopping cart back into the store. Customers and employees scrambled, running for the exits, hiding among displays, climbing up ladders.

    “Every time he encountered someone, he shot them,” Workman said.

    arantino was about 20 feet from a back door, wearing headphones. She didn’t hear the shotgun blasts before Floyd found her.

    A witness reported hearing her scream.

    As police arrived that morning, Floyd walked calmly out of the store, kneeled in the parking lot and pointed the muzzle at his head.

    Workman later checked the weapon.

    “He had no intention of killing himself, because he knew it was on safe,” he said.

    ‘It just tears you up’

    Workman has not previously spoken publicly about how the slayings affected him.

    “Externally, it never really shook me up,” he said. “People probably couldn’t see it. I may not have shed a tear, necessarily, but inside it just kicks your ass. It just tears you up.”

    He still thinks about the families of the victims and how they suffered, and may continue to suffer. Workman said he has concerns about the death penalty, particularly in cases where guilt may be in question.

    Floyd, whose federal appeals exhausted in November after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his case, would be the first executed in Nevada in 15 years.

    His attack was captured on video. He was arrested moments after the murders. Like the assemblywoman, Workman has no doubt about Floyd’s guilt.

    “He should pay the price for what he did. Whatever that price may be, he ought to pay the damn price,” Workman said. “I have an opinion. I just kind of hate stating it. You can probably guess what my opinion is. He’s been living for 22 years. The families have been living with the thought of their loved ones for 22 years, and they will for the rest of their lives. I hope that the victims’ families can have any way to feel better throughout their lives if it’s possible.”

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...floyd-2329438/

  7. #17
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    Nevada killer seeks firing squad over lethal injection if he's executed

    By the Associated Press

    A convicted killer fighting a possible June execution date that would make him the first person put to death in Nevada in 15 years is calling for the state to consider the firing squad as an option, a rare method in the United States.

    Attorneys for Zane Michael Floyd say he doesn't want to die and are challenging the state plan to use a proposed three-drug lethal injection, which led to court challenges that twice delayed the execution of another convicted killer who later took his own life in prison.

    "This is not a delaying tactic," Brad Levenson, a federal public defender representing Floyd, said Monday.

    But a challenge of the state execution protocol requires the defense to provide an alternative method, and Levenson said gunshots to the brain stem would be "the most humane way."

    "Execution by firing squad ... causes a faster and less painful death than lethal injection," the attorneys said in a court filing Friday.

    Nevada once allowed firing squads, but state law now requires the use of lethal injection in sentences of capital punishment.

    Floyd's lawyers' moves come as the Nevada Legislature considers banning the death penalty, reports CBS Las Vegas affiliate KLAS-TV. A bill doing that passed the Assembly last week and was sent to the state Senate.

    Three states - Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah - and the U.S. military allow capital punishment by gunfire. The last time that method was used in the United States was in Utah in 2010.

    Floyd's attorneys are asking a federal judge in Las Vegas to stop Floyd from being put to death until prison officials "devise a new procedure or procedures to carry out a lawful execution."

    Levenson said he and attorney David Anthony are fighting multiple issues in state and federal courts, with the possibility that Floyd's death could be set for the week of June 7. Prosecutors will seek an execution warrant at a state court hearing next month.

    This move comes as the Nevada Legislature considers banning the death penalty in the state. Assembly Bill 395 passed the Assembly on Tuesday, and is on its way to the Nevada Senate.

    The 45-year-old was convicted in 2000 of killing four people with a shotgun in a Las Vegas supermarket in 1999 and badly wounding a fifth.

    Floyd appeared to exhaust his federal appeals last November, and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear his case. Floyd wants a chance to seek clemency at a June 22 meeting of the Nevada State Pardons Board, Levenson said.

    Floyd's attorneys argue that the three-drug injection combination the state wants to use - the sedative diazepam, the powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl and a paralytic, cisatracurium - would amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of his constitutional rights.

    Anthony made similar arguments on behalf of Scott Raymond Dozier before Nevada's last scheduled execution was called off in 2017 and 2018. Dozier killed himself in prison in January 2019.

    A judge blocked the first date after deciding that use of the paralytic might cause painful suffocation while Dozier was aware but unable to move.

    Pharmaceutical companies that made the three drugs stopped the second date with arguments against using their products in an execution, an issue several states are facing.

    Floyd would be the first person executed in Nevada since 2006, when Daryl Mack asked to be put to death for his conviction in a 1988 rape and murder in Reno.

    Nevada has 72 men awaiting execution, a state Department of Corrections spokeswoman said.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/zane-fl...-firing-squad/

  8. #18
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    US judge says he might block Nevada setting execution date

    By Ken Ritter, Associated Press

    A federal judge said Thursday he might issue an order to block a bid by prosecutors to have a state judge set a date as early as next month for Nevada’s first execution in 15 years.

    U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware II told officials he'll need time to determine if the as-yet-undisclosed drugs and lethal injection process that prison officials want to use to put convicted mass murderer Zane Michael Floyd to death would be constitutionally humane.

    The judge made no immediate decision and scheduled another court session Monday after hearing from a chief deputy Nevada attorney general, the state’s prisons chief, newly hired lawyers for Nevada’s top doctor and federal public defenders representing Floyd.

    “This is a man who is going to be executed by the state,” Boulware said. “What could possibly be the state’s interest that would override that interest with respect to not disclosing the nature of the drugs under consideration?”

    “Mr. Floyd has a constitutional right to know,” the judge added.

    Prosecutors and prison officials are invoking the specter of a “media sideshow” and “cancel culture” in a bid to convince Boulware to let them keep secret the process for developing their plan to execute Floyd by lethal injection, the only capital punishment method that Nevada allows.

    Randall Gilmer, a state attorney representing the Nevada Department of Corrections and prisons chief Charles Daniels, told the judge that until the state discloses the method and drugs to be used there is nothing for the judge to stop.

    To date, Gilmer said, issues are in a “predecisional” stage and not subject for review by courts, defense attorneys or the public.

    Nevada law lets prison officials withhold information about the execution protocol until several days before a scheduled execution. At that time, Gilmer said, Floyd can challenge the process.

    David Anthony, an attorney representing Floyd, accused the state of stalling to cripple the defense team's ability to challenge the process, and to prevent drug manufacturers from learning their products would be used in an execution.

    Anthony represented another convicted killer, Scott Dozier, who volunteered to have his death sentence carried out in 2017, but whose execution was called off twice, including after pharmaceutical companies sued to stop the use of their products. Dozier killed himself in prison in January 2019.

    “We’re four weeks out from a potential execution and we don’t know even the most basic information,” Anthony said Thursday of Floyd's case.

    Boulware said he was aware that Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson is asking a state judge in Las Vegas to issue Floyd’s execution warrant next Friday for a date to be set by prison officials during the week beginning June 7.

    “This all can’t get done by June 7, that’s for sure,” the judge said of the decisions before him.

    Wolfson’s bid would put an execution date just after the Legislature adjourns June 1 from a session during which a bill sought to make Nevada the 24th U.S. state to abolish the death penalty. The sentences of 63 men now on death row would be commuted to life in prison without parole.

    Floyd, 45, was sentenced in 2000 to die for killing four people with a shotgun and badly wounding a fifth in a Las Vegas supermarket in 1999. He also was convicted of repeatedly raping a woman at his parents’ home hours before the shooting.

    The last person put to death in Nevada was Daryl Mack in 2006 at Nevada State Prison in Carson City. Mack had been convicted in a 1988 rape and murder in Reno. He asked for his sentence to be carried out.

    A new lethal injection chamber was built in 2016 at Ely State Prison at a cost of about $860,000. It has never been used.

    https://lasvegassun.com/news/2021/ma...etting-execut/

  9. #19
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    If the district court grants a stay, the government should immediately move to stay it on appeal. There's a massive ripeness problem here.

  10. #20
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    It should also be noted that the Judge wanting to be favorable to the thug is an Obama appointee. Neither the Clinton judges nor the Obama are favorable to capital punishment but if I had to place a bet, the Obama judges are more sympathetic to capital punishment. However, this one is not.

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