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Thread: Nathaniel Robert Code, Jr. - Louisiana Death Row

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    Nathaniel Robert Code, Jr. - Louisiana Death Row




    Summary of Offense:

    From 1984 to 1987, Code went on a killing spree across Shreveport. Prosecutors say they proved at trial that Code killed eight people. He was convicted in four of those deaths and sentenced to die. Code was convicted in 1991. The victims ranged in age from eight to 74 years old and included both sexes; however, all were black. And, the offender took money from one crime scene, but not the other two.

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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Code's petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis were DENIED. This was a denial of his state habeas petition.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/10-8264.htm

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    On October 8, 2011, Code filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/lou...v01804/120506/

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    2 death penalty case appeals rejected

    Appeals of two death penalty cases have been rejected, the Louisiana Supreme Court announced Friday.

    An attorney for one of the convicted murderers had argued that a lack of information about the state’s lethal injection formula poses risk of paralyzing, mute and agonizing executions for death row inmates. The same attorney argued for a second inmate that state officials did not follow proper administrative procedures when they adopted lethal injection for executions in Louisiana years ago.

    Supreme Court justices did not issue a written opinion in either case.

    Gary P. Clements, attorney for condemned killer Christopher Sepulvado, already had filed a motion with U.S. District Judge James J. Brady in Baton Rouge to merge Sepulvado’s complaint over the risk of excruciating pain from lethal injections with that of death row inmate Jessie Hoffman.

    Clements said late Friday that Brady had not yet ruled on the request by Sepulvado to join Hoffman’s suit. Sepulvado is scheduled for execution on Feb. 13.

    Sepulvado, 68, of DeSoto Parish, was convicted in 1993 for the 1992 murder of his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer. The trial jury decided that Sepulvado had beaten the boy unconscious with the handle of a screwdriver, then immersed him in scalding bath water.

    In rejecting an earlier appeal of Sepulvado’s conviction, members of the Louisiana Supreme Court noted the child had third-degree burns over 58 percent of his body and his “scalp had separated from his skull due to hemorrhaging and bruising.”

    Clements, director of the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana, also represents Nathaniel Code, 56, of Shreveport. Code’s appeal was based on an alleged failure by state officials to follow required administrative procedures when they originally approved lethal injection for executions.

    Asked whether Code will ask to join Hoffman’s civil suit in Brady’s federal court, Clements said: “I really haven’t made a decision on that yet. We will see what happens.”

    Code does not yet have a scheduled execution date, Clements said.

    Code was convicted in 1990 for the 1985 bathtub drowning of 34-year-old Vivian Chaney; the stabbing and slashing death of Chaney’s 17-year-old daughter, Carlitha; and the shooting deaths of Chaney’s brother, Jerry Culbert, and her boyfriend, Billy Joe Harris.

    The prosecution’s opening statement in Code’s trial is on the website of state District Judge Scott J. Crichton, of Shreveport, who was the lead prosecutor in that case.

    Crichton can be heard telling jurors in his statement that Code also was implicated in the 1984 slashing and stabbing death of another Shreveport woman, as well as three other Caddo Parish residents in 1987.

    Hoffman, like Code, does not have an execution date set yet. The 34-year-old former New Orleans resident is represented by Houston attorney Michael D. Rubenstein and New Orleans attorney Cecelia Trenticosta Kappel, of The Promise of Justice Initiative.

    Rubenstein and Kappel told Brady last month that Louisiana prison officials refuse to divulge whether they have a sufficient supply of sodium thiopental to ensure that death row inmates injected with pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride will not suffer a protracted death that is silent, savage and extremely painful.

    Hoffman was convicted in St. Tammany Parish in 1998 for the kidnap, robbery, rape and murder of 28-year-old advertising executive Mary “Molly” Elliot two years earlier.

    Clements agreed Friday with Rubenstein and Kappel’s argument as to the possibility that death row inmates may be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment if state officials do not answer questions about the supply of sodium thiopental and the chemical formula that will be used in the death chamber for future executions.

    “Nobody can get their hands on it anymore,” Clements said of sodium thiopental. “And we don’t know what they (state prison officials) are doing about that, because they won’t tell us.”

    http://theadvocate.com/home/5012730-...y-case-appeals
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    Victims' family reacts to inmates' victory in death row lawsuit

    "A slap in the face." That's how Albert Culbert feels about the federal court ruling last week that sided with 3 convicted killers who sued over conditions on Louisiana's death row.

    Three inmates, Elzie Ball, Nathaniel Code and James Magee claimed in their civil rights lawsuit that they are being forced to live in extreme and dangerous heat, conditions so hot that they say it violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

    On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson agreed, and ordered the state corrections department and the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola to give him a plan to cool the cells so the heat index never goes above 88 degrees.

    The inmates, who were plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed with the help of the non-profit "Promise of Justice" initiative, have high blood pressure and other health ailments that their lawyers said could be worsened by heat.

    Prison officials argued the conditions are safe. Pam Laborde, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, says the agency expects to appeal the judge's ruling.

    Albert Culbert's brother, sister and niece were killed by Code, who terrorized Shreveport's Cedar Grove more than 2 decades ago. He was convicted of brutally murdering 4 people, but prosecutors proved he killed 8, including 2 children.

    http://www.ksla.com/story/24291066/v...th-row-lawsuit
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    Victims’ family objects to death row inmate’s push for cooler temps

    Nathaniel Code Jr. lost his right to air conditioning when he terrorized and slaughtered four people in their Shreveport home more than 30 years ago, family members of his victims say.

    “Nathaniel Code … he lost all those privileges that you and I have,” said Albert Culbert Jr. “He lost that air conditioning privilege. He lost that. The Culberts, we didn’t put him on death row. He did that when he decided to take my sister’s life, and my brother, my niece, Billy Joe Harris, Deborah Ford, Mr. William, the other two little boys. He did that. And now he’s got nerve enough …”

    Culbert trailed off as his sister, Barbara Culbert, spoke.

    “How can he say that he’s living under cruel and unusual punishment? What he did to our family? Now that was cruel. That was unusual punishment.”

    Albert and Barbara Culbert came to The Town Talk on Wednesday with other family members — sister Kela Culbert-Barraka, niece Tomika Chaney and sister Shirley Culbert-Jackson — after reading an update about a lawsuit filed by Code and two other inmates in June 2013.

    The inmates sued Louisiana over death row conditions, claiming the heat and humidity at the Louisiana State Penitentiary violated the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment. They also claimed conditions violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

    All three said they have medical conditions exacerbated by the heat.

    There are fans on death row, secured to walls outside the cells. Inmates also have access to water from sinks in their cells, as well as ice from a chest stationed on each housing tier. To get that ice, inmates have to get it from guards or other inmates during the time they’re held in their cells. During the one hour per day they are allowed out, they have access to the ice chest.

    The case may be heading to the U.S. Supreme Court after a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday denied the inmate’s attorneys’ request to rehear the case. The panel earlier had ruled that the case should go back to a district judge so he could find a solution — other than air conditioning — to the heat issue.

    The fact that Code’s sentence hasn’t been carried out is frustrating for the Culbert family. Their father died before seeing justice carried out, said Shirley. Their mother suffered a stroke and the siblings have a host of health issues, including hypertension.

    The fact that Code wants a comfortable existence is salt in their wounds, they say.

    They want the public to know, said Albert repeatedly. And he wants those defending Cole’s right to better conditions to go back and view evidence and grisly photos he saw as he sat through the trial.

    “I think they should stop focusing on the air conditioning and focus on his …”

    “Death,” interjected Barbara over Shirley’s remark.

    “It’s been over 30 years. You keep putting it off and off and off,” said Shirley. “The family’s constantly suffering, and then they’re constantly calling us and we’ve got to relive this moment over and over again. But then you’ve got to put it aside for him because he’s hot. That shouldn’t be the issue.”

    The tale of what happened to their family members at the hands of a man called a serial killer by prosecutors is gruesome.

    Code broke into the home as six people inside were sleeping, grabbing 15-year-old Carlitha Culbert before dragging her into the bedroom where her mother, Vivian Culbert Chaney, slept with her boyfriend, Harris.

    Harris was shot by Code four times — twice in the head and twice in the chest. Code later would slash Harris’ throat.

    He then shot Jerry Culbert, Chaney’s blind younger brother. Chaney had moved to Shreveport from Alexandria in 1983 so she could care for her brother, one of 10 children in the Culbert family.

    After that, Code took the bound mother and her daughter into a living room, almost decapitating the teen in front of her mother. He drowned Chaney in a bathtub while she still wore her nightgown soaked in her daughter’s blood. But he also left behind a bloody palm print on the tub that would link him to the killings once Shreveport police honed in on him as the suspect in the murder of his own grandfather and two young boys.

    Two of Chaney’s young daughters, including Tomika Chaney, were left untouched by Code. They were found later that day, when Shirley arrived back from California as a surprise for the family. The then-18-year-old instead discovered the horror of what had happened as she tried to speak to her brother Jerry, whose body remained in his bed.

    In all, police suspected Code was responsible for 12 murders. He was connected to eight — single mother Deborah Ford in 1984, the Culbert case in 1985 and the case of his grandfather, William T. Code, and the boys in 1987. He was convicted in October 1990 of four counts of first-degree murder in the Culbert case and was sentenced to death.

    Now, Code is obese and suffering from hypertension and hepatitis as he sits in his tier H cell for 23 hours a day. Before Code and the other two inmates filed their lawsuit, they filed complaints with Angola officials about the heat. Their requests for relief were denied, as were internal appeals.

    Then, the lawsuit was filed. The family believed the case was over until Albert happened to see an update on it in a Town Talk article on Tuesday as he was visiting his elderly mother. So they decided to come forward and speak out, as they’ve done several times since losing their family members.

    “We just want the people to know these things, how we feel, as a family,” said Albert.

    http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/n...emps/31806767/

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