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Executions

There were no executions in the past week.

New Execution Dates

Gary Welch - Oklahoma - 01/05/12



On Thursday the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals set an execution date of 01/05/12 for 49-year-old Gary Roland Welch. Attorney General Scott Pruitt requested a date last month after the U.S. Supreme Court denied the inmate's final appeal.

Eric Robert - South Dakota - Mid may 2012

Eric Robert the man sentenced to death for the killing of a senior corrections officer at the South Dakota State Penitentiary is set to be executed in mid-May barring, officials announced Thursday.

Robert is slated to be executed between between the hours of 12:01 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. during the week of Sunday, May 13, through Saturday, May 19, at a time and date to be selected by the warden of the state penitentiary, Attorney General Marty Jackley said.

Stays Of Execution

Hank Skinner - Stayed

On Monday the Texas Court Of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution for Hank Skinner so it can be decided if there should be more DNA tests on evidence taken from the crime scene.

Duane Buck - Stayed



The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from a Texas death row inmate who won a last-minute reprieve from the high court in September.

The justices on Monday turned away the appeal of Duane Buck, who wanted them to consider whether race played an improper role in his sentencing.

Anthony Juniper - Virginia Death Row

On Wednesday a federal judge issued a 90 day stay so Juniper can pursue his federal appeals.

Scheduled Executions

Reginald Brooks- 11/15/11



Gov. John Kasich on Thursday rejected clemency for a condemned man who shot his three sons to death as they slept in 1982, just days after his wife filed for divorce. Brooks also lost an appeal Wednesday when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati refused to let him re-argue older federal claims.

Brooks is appealing that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has other state appeals pending.

Oba Chandler - 11/15/11



The Florida Supreme Court denied the appeal of death row inmate Oba Chandler on Monday, leaving the 65-year-old triple murderer with few options left to avoid his Nov. 15 execution date.

On Thursday Chandler filed an application (11A471) for a stay of execution of sentence of death with the United States Supreme Court.

Paul Rhoades - 11/18/11

On Monday the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole said it would not consider a clemency request from condemned inmate Paul Ezra Rhoades.

On Thursday, attorneys for a condemned triple murderer asked a federal court magistrate judge to stay the execution of Paul Ezra Rhoades, scheduled for November 18 in Boise.

A decision on whether to stay the execution is expected tomorrow.


New Death Sentences

Patrick A. Evans - Florida

One day after finding him guilty of first degree murder on two counts, the jury in the Patrick Evans murder trial was given another difficult decision: should Evans get the death penalty?

At about noon Thursday, the jury reached its decision: a recommendation of death by lethal injection for both counts.

The judge has final say on whether or not to accept the jury's recommendation.

A sentencing date has not been scheduled.


Current Death Row Inmates

Edward Schad - Arizona Death Row

On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals AFFIRMED the district court’s DENIAL of habeas relief on all claims related to Schad’s conviction and sentence. Absent further order of the court, no further petitions for rehearing or rehearing en banc will be considered.

Rodney Alcala - California Death Row

Alcala is fighting extradition to New York to face new charges in two 1970s murders. Rodney Alcala says he needs to stay on California's Death Row to work on his appeal _ especially because he represented himself in a sometimes surreal southern California trial last year.


Paul Hildwin - Florida Death Row

On Thursday the Florida Supreme Court granted Hildwin's writ petition seeking an order from the Court directing the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to upload the DNA profile from semen and saliva found on items at the crime scene into the National DNA Index System (NDIS) so that it may be compared in CODIS (the Combined DNA Index System) with forensic profiles obtained from other crime scenes and the profiles of known offenders.

Robert Ray Fry - New Mexico Death Row

The state Supreme Court upheld the convictions of a Farmington man for killing two people in the northwestern New Mexico community in 1996.

Robert Fry is on death row for another murder.

The court on Thursday upheld Fry's convictions and two life sentences for the November 1996 killings of Matthew Trecker and Joseph Fleming. The Farmington men were stabbed and their throats were slashed in the now-defunct Eclectic, a counterculture store in the city.

The justices said there was sufficient evidence to support Fry's convictions and they found no problems with his trial.

David Chmiel - Pennsylvania Death Row

The state Supreme Court upheld a Lackawanna County judge's decision denying a convicted triple murderer's request for a fourth trial, the it was announced on Wednesday.

David Chmiel remains on death row for robbing and stabbing to death three siblings, 69-year-old Angelina Lunario and her brothers, 70-year-old James and 65-year-old Victor, in 1983 because he knew they stowed away cash inside their Throop home, according to court documents.

United States Supreme Court DENIALS

Thomas Kemp - Arizona
Michael Ledford
Duane Buck


Reversed/New Trials/Commuted/Released

Archie Dixon - Ohio Death Row

The Supreme Court says a lower court was wrong when it threw out the death penalty and conviction of a man accused of beating his roommate and burying him alive.

The court on Monday issued an unsigned opinion that reverses the dismissal of Archie Dixon's death sentence.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had said Dixon's confession was coerced by police.

Ronell Wilson - Federal Death Row

The attorney representing convicted cop killer Ronell Wilson told a judge Wednesday he needed additional time to determine whether he intends to argue that his client is mentally retarded, and therefore protected by law from the death penalty.

Lawyer David M. Stern of Manhattan told District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis that he is 95 percent sure he will use that defense, but will not formally decide on a course of action until he conducts further interviews with teachers and supervisors from Wilson's past.

The request takes a March 5 jury selection date previously set by Garaufis off the table.

Garaufis set a Jan. 12 status conference for an update on Stern's investigation, and vowed the trial would take place in 2012, not 2013.

Justin Wolfe - Virginia

A judge in U.S. District Court in Norfolk declined to issue a decision on whether or not to release Wolfe from prison Thursday. The judge said he will issue a ruling soon.


State By State Death Penalty News

Arizona

On Thursday the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix, filed court documents asking that the Arizona Supreme Court not issue a death warrant to permit the execution of Robert Charles Towery, who murdered a Paradise Valley man while robbing his house in 1991.

The Public Defender's motion claims that the Arizona Department of Corrections has consistently failed to adhere to its federal-court-approved protocol for executions by lethal injection. Alleged lapses include failing to check the backgrounds of the medical team conducting the execution and injecting the drugs through IV lines inserted into the groin instead of an arm. Furthermore, the motion reiterates recent discoveries that the department did not legally obtain the drugs for the execution, but instead had them shipped from England in such a way as to minimize scrutiny by U.S. customs officials and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The allegations are similar to those in a motion filed this week in another federal case involving death-row inmates. That motion includes extensive depositions that the Public Defender's Office conducted with Corrections staff and the doctor who carried out the executions.