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Thread: Death Penalty Week In Review April 22 Through April 29, 2012

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    Death Penalty Week In Review April 22 Through April 29, 2012

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    Executions

    Thomas Kemp - April 25, 2012



    Summary of Offense: On July 11, 1992, Kemp and Jeffrey Logan kidnapped Hector Juarez, 25. Kemp used the Juarez's ATM card to withdraw $200. Kemp and Logan then drove Juarez to Silverbell mine northwest of Tucson, and either Kemp or Logan shot the him one or more times in the head. Several days before this offense, Kemp had purchased a .380 semi-automatic handgun and told Logan that he needed money to pay bills, and was going to look for someone with money.

    Victim(s): Hector Juarez

    Time of Death: 10:08 a.m.

    Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

    Final Statement: "I regret nothing"

    Last Meal: Cheeseburger, french fries, boysenberry pie, strawberry ice cream, and root beer.







    Summary of Offense: On September 2, 2002, in Cherokee County, Texas, Adams and co-defendant Richard Cobb (also sentenced to death in 2004) robbed a convenience store, and then forced two store clerks, Nikki Ansley Dement and Candace Driver, and a customer, Kenneth Vandever, into their car. After kidnapping the victims and sexually assaulting Dement, Cobb and Adams shot each of them. Vandever died of his injuries, while Dement and Driver survived.

    Adams was sentenced to death in August 2004.


    Victim(s): Kenneth Vandever

    Time of Death: 6:25 p.m.

    Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

    Final Statement: Adams expressed love to his family and apologized to witnesses, including one of the women who survived the attack and relatives of the man who was killed.

    He said he was a stupid kid in a man's body at the time of the crime.

    "I'm very sorry. Everything that happened that night was wrong," Adams said. "If I could take it back, I would. Not a day goes by I wish I could take it back. ... I messed up and can't take that back."

    He asked those gathered to not let any hate they had for him "eat you up."

    "Find a way to get past ... I really hate things turned out the way they did. For everybody involved, I don't think any good came out of it."


    Death Row Inmate Deaths

    Robert Farmer - Nevada



    A 56-year-old Nevada death row inmate connected to two random killings in 1982 has died in a Las Vegas hospital after suffering from an unidentified medical condition.

    Officials from the Nevada Department of Corrections say Robert Farmer died of natural causes Tuesday night.

    Farmer was handed a death sentence after he was convicted of two counts of murder, kidnapping, robbery and possession of a stolen vehicle. He's blamed in the deaths of Thomas Kane, whose car he stole, and taxi driver Greg Gelunas.

    Farmer had been transferred from Ely State Prison to High Desert State Prison last week for medical reasons. He was later taken to Valley Hospital in Las Vegas.

    Prison officials say he suffered from a serious medical condition and had signed a "do not resuscitate" order.


    Scheduled Executions

    Michael Selsor - Oklahoma Execution - May 01, 2012



    The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an Oklahoma death row inmate's request for a stay of execution.

    The nation's highest court handed down the decision Friday in the case of 57-year-old Michael Selsor. The inmate is to be executed Tuesday for the shooting death of 55-year-old Tulsa convenience store clerk Clayton Chandler during a robbery 37 years ago.

    An order says the request for a stay presented by defense attorneys to Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor was rejected by the high court.

    The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 4-1 on April 16 against recommending commuting Selsor's death sentence to life in prison without parole.

    Anthony Bartee - Texas Execution - May 02, 2012



    Bartee had a hearing on Thursday regarding the DNA. The Judge entered a FOFCL and DENIED Bartee's request to move the execution date.



    Stays Of Execution


    Michael Ryan - Nebraska - STAYED

    The Nebraska Attorney General's Office asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to reject an appeal by death-row inmate Michael Ryan, who was sentenced to die in connection with one of the state's most heinous murders.

    "Michael Ryan was found guilty and sentenced to death for brutally torturing and murdering another man more than 25 years ago," said Attorney General Jon Bruning. "There is no doubt Ryan is guilty. These meritless appeals only serve to delay justice."

    Ryan's lawyer, Jerry Soucie of the Nebraska Commission of Public Advocacy, has appealed a March decision by Richardson County District Judge Daniel Bryan Jr., who rejected his appeal. The Supreme Court then issued a stay of Ryan's scheduled March 6 execution.


    New Death Sentence


    Carl Dausch - Florida



    A Sumter County judge on Thursday approved the death penalty recommendation given by a jury in December for Carl Dausch, 53, in the death of Adrian Renard Mobley.

    The 8-4 vote by the jury in December was one more than required to give Dausch death over life in prison. Hallman also gave Dausch 10 years on an aggravated battery conviction Thursday, in which the 12-member jury in December had downgraded from the sexual battery charge the defendant was tried on.




    Current Death Row Inmates


    Artez Hammonds - Alabama

    On Thursday a federal judge has denied the appeal of a death row inmate convicted of murder in the 1990 death of Dothan resident Marilyn Mitchell.

    U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus from Artez Hammonds, convicted in 1997 of the brutal rape and murder of Mitchell. Hammonds exhausted various appeals in the state court system before attorneys filed the petition in federal court on his behalf. It took almost seven years for the appeal to work its way through the court system.

    Mitchell was found dead in her Dothan townhouse on May 15, 1990, not long after graduating from the University of Alabama School of Nursing. The case remained unsolved until 1996 when the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences conducted DNA testing on samples recovered at the crime scene. The DNA testing resulted in a match to Hammonds, who was already serving a 20-year sentence at Holman Prison for attempted murder in an unrelated case. Hammonds was charged with capital murder and convicted by a Houston County jury in 1997. He was sentenced to death.

    Hammonds can appeal Fuller’s ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. If the 11th Circuit denies the appeal, he can continue the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Timothy Howard - Arkansas

    The Arkansas Supreme Court said a death-row inmate's case can head back to a lower court for an evidentiary hearing.

    In an opinion released Thursday, the high court gave a lower court permission to look into certain aspects of Timothy Howard's case, including a claim about DNA.

    Howard's lawyers said the state failed to disclose a DNA report with an analyst's handwritten notes that show potential errors during DNA testing.

    The state Supreme Court also said a lower court can look into Howard's claim that a report about Howard's abusive childhood was withheld from him.

    Howard was sentenced to death after he was convicted in the 1997 murders of Brian Day and Shannon Day in Little River County.

    David Livingston - California

    On Thursday the California Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the death sentence for a Compton gang member convicted of killing two security guards at the New Wilmington Arms apartment complex in 1999.

    Livingston was convicted of the murders of Remigio Malinao, 49, and Roderico Paz, 62, and of three counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. Two of the attempted murder counts involved other security guards wounded in the January 1999 assault and one stemmed from a separate incident the prior year, in which a rival gang member was shot.

    Todd Wessinger - Louisiana

    A stay of execution was granted for a Baton Rouge man convicted of double murder.

    The judge granted the temporary order Wednesday for Todd Wessinger.

    A jury convicted Wessinger in 1997 for the murders of his co-workers, Stephanie Guzzardo and David Breakwell, at the now-closed Calendar's restaurant.

    Wessinger's execution was scheduled to happen on May 9.

    Earlier in the month, Wessinger asked a federal judge to reconsider his request for a new trial.

    There has been no word on when the judge will rule on a permanent stay of execution.

    Steven Thacker - Oklahoma

    A federal appeals upheld the death sentence of a man convicted of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of a Bixby woman during a multi-state crime spree.

    The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday in the case of Steven Ray Thacker, who was sentenced to death for the December 1999 death of 25-year-old Laci Dawn Hill.

    Officials say Hill was abducted from her home and raped before she was fatally stabbed. Her body was found in rural Mayes County.

    Thacker was also convicted and sentenced to death in Tennessee for the Jan. 2, 2000, killing of a tow truck driver. He was sentenced to life in prison for the fatal stabbing of a Missouri man on Jan. 1, 2000.

    Federal public defenders representing Thacker declined comment.


    Henry Lee Jones - Tennessee

    A condemned serial killer from Tennessee has been sent to Brevard County to face murder charges.

    Henry Lee Jones has already been given two death sentences for the murders of an elderly couple near Memphis, Tennessee.

    However, he is in Brevard County to stand trial for the murder of 19-year-old Carlos Perez in a Super 8 motel room.

    In 2003, police said Jones brought Perez from South Florida to a Super 8 on US-1 in Melbourne, tied him up, raped him, and then strangled him and slit his throat.

    Perez was found hog tied, which was the same way his other victims were discovered.

    "Because we had a victim brutally murdered here, we wanted to have that victim and his family have their day in court here and give justice to them," said Assistant State Attorney Michael Hunt.

    Prosecutors said even though he's already been sentenced to death twice, the state is going forward, despite the expense of a death penalty case.

    "Money is not the question; it is justice for Carlos Perez and his family," said Hunt.

    In court on Friday, he asked for the belongings he left in Tennessee.

    "I was shipped from Tennessee to Florida without anything. My glasses, my bible, my legal work, anything," said Jones.

    Jones will stay in Brevard County until the trial, and then he will go back to Tennessee and await execution.

    Travis Mullis - Texas

    The state’s highest appeals court Wednesday affirmed a judge’s ruling that allows Travis James Mullis to waive his appeal of his death sentence for stomping his 3-month-old son to death.

    Mullis, 25, first told The Daily News in an exclusive jailhouse interview in September that he would not appeal his conviction, putting his execution on a fast track.

    “I’ve accepted the consequence the jury gave me,” Mullis said. “I don’t feel it’s necessary to go through it again.”

    Mullis didn’t want to drag his relatives or anyone else through another trial, he said.

    “I have a religious and moral belief of an eye for an eye,” Mullis said. “I think the punishment is justified for the crime.”

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals announced its decision Wednesday. Justices agreed with Judge John Ellisor, of Galveston’s 122nd District Court, after reviewing the court transcripts and finding no error. A death sentence results in an automatic appeal.

    A jury in March 2011 convicted Mullis and sentenced him to die for the Jan. 29, 2008, death of his son Alijah.

    Mullis’ execution date hasn’t been listed with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The date is set by the district court where the offender was convicted. Once a date is set, the court will send the Texas Department of Criminal Justice the paperwork, Jason Clark, a spokesman for the department, said earlier this month.

    Mullis remains on death row at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston.

    Ray Jasper - Texas

    A San Antonio rap musician sentenced to death for fatally stabbing an engineer at a recording studio more than 13 years ago lost a federal court appeal.

    Ray Jasper argued a potential juror at his trial in January 2000 improperly was excluded because, like Jasper, he was black and race-based jury selection is unconstitutional.

    Jasper's lawyers also raised several other claims to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, including contentions he had poor legal help at his trial and that the Texas death penalty statute is unconstitutional.

    The New Orleans-based court Thursday rejected all the arguments, moving the 32-year-old Jasper closer to execution for the November 1998 slaying of 33-year-old David Alejandro.

    The victim was killed while recording music for Jasper and equipment from his studio was stolen.



    Reversed/ New Trials/Resentnced/Released/Commuted


    Timothy McKinney - Tennessee

    On Wednesday a judge set Aug. 13 for the start of the third capital murder trial of a Memphis man charged in the fatal shooting of a police officer in 1997.

    Timothy McKinney, 37, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for the killing of officer Don Williams, but an appeals court overturned both two years ago because they found his defense lawyers to be deficient.

    In a retrial earlier this month, a mistrial was declared after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

    Courthouse sources said one or two jurors voted not guilty of capital murder.

    Robert Jennings - Texas

    A man on death row for killing a vice officer during the attempted robbery of an adult bookstore should be resentenced, a federal judge ruled on Friday.

    Judge Hughes ordered that Jennings be released from custody if Texas does not provide a new sentence or sentencing hearing within 120 days. The judge stayed the order until the completion or expiration of all postjudgment motions and appeals.



    Supreme Court DENIALS


    Scotty Morrow - Georgia
    John Lotter - Nebraska
    Warren Henness - Ohio
    Willie Clayton - Pennsylvania
    William Dickerson - South Carolina
    Anthony Haynes - Texas



    State By State Death Penalty News


    Arkansas

    On Thursday Gov. Mike Beebe appointed a Little Rock lawyer as a special associate justice to the Arkansas Supreme Court to hear a lawsuit challenging the state’s execution procedures.

    Byron Freeland will replace Justice Donald L. Corbin, who has disqualified himself from the case.

    The state Department of Correction asked the high court last year to quickly review the lawsuit, filed by condemned killer Jack Harold Jones Jr. and nine other other death-row inmates. Six of the 10, including Jones, have had their executions stayed as the result of the pending litigation. The state has not executed anyone since 2009.

    The lawsuit challenged a 2009 state law that changed the state’s execution procedures.

    The case is 11-1128, Ray Hobbs, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction et al. v. Jack Harold Jones et al.

    California

    Gov. Jerry Brown ordered prison officials to consider a single-drug method of executing condemned inmates as the state appeals a court order that has blocked California from carrying out the death penalty.

    Mention of the directive came in a notice of appeal filed Thursday by Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris seeking to counter a February ruling that halted a revised three-drug lethal injection method. The filing came just three days after certification of a November ballot measure that would offer voters the chance to repeal California's death penalty.

    The legal filing said the state would reevaluate its position in favor of the three-drug method if "the drugs needed to implement the protocol have, in fact, become unavailable." The U.S. maker of one of the drugs has stopped manufacturing it.

    "In the meantime, under the governor's direction, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will also begin the process of considering alternative regulatory protocols, including a one-drug protocol, for carrying out the death penalty," the filing said.

    Connecticut

    Gov. Dannel P. Malloy quietly signed a new law Wednesday that ends the state's death penalty for future crimes, making Connecticut the 17th state to abolish capital punishment.

    The Democrat signed the bill behind closed doors, without fanfare. An aide said Malloy was surrounded by lawmakers, clergy and family members of murder victims.

    While he called it "an historic moment," Malloy said in a written statement that it was a moment "for sober reflection, not celebration."

    The bill, which became effective immediately, was signed on the same day that a new Quinnipiac University Poll showed that 62 percent of registered voters in Connecticut still favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder. The same survey found 47 percent of voters disapprove of Malloy's handling of the issue, while 33 percent approve.

    Kentucky

    Kentucky must either switch to a single drug to perform executions within 90 days or prepare to go to trial on the claims of death row inmates challenging the state's three-drug method of carrying out capital punishment, a judge ruled Wednesday.

    In a long-awaited order, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd wrote that the state's three-drug method may no longer be necessary now that other states have successfully used a single drug to execute condemned inmates and shown that "well-established alternatives" exist for Kentucky.

    The ruling comes about 20 months after Shepherd halted all executions in Kentucky. He imposed the ban after inmates challenged the three-drug method. Their lawsuit asked whether the state's rules for carrying out a lethal injection prohibited the use of a single drug and if there were adequate safeguards against executing a mentally ill inmate.

    If Kentucky sticks with a three-drug method, Shepherd wrote, the challenge by the inmates will be allowed to go to trial. If Kentucky adopts a new regulation allowing for a one-drug execution, similar to what is done in Arizona, Ohio and other states, any claims of cruel and unusual punishment by the inmates "will be rendered moot."

    Virginia

    Virginia’s execution team is engaging in the unlicensed practice of medicine, pharmacy and anesthesiology, claims an unusual challenge to lethal injection filed Tuesday.

    The complaint, filed in Richmond Circuit Court, names the director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, the unnamed execution team leader (the identity of team members are confidential) and other prison officials as defendants.

    The defendants are not authorized under state law to request, dispense, distribute, give and/or obtain or intravenously administer as a general anesthetic controlled prescription substances to condemned inmates, alleges the complaint.

    No executions are pending in Virginia, and spokesmen for both the Department of Corrections and the Attorney General’s Office said they could not comment.

    Virginia has conducted 79 lethal injections since it became an option to the electric chair in 1995. The state’s lethal injection procedures have withstood a number of legal challenges over the years.

    This challenge is unusual, said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center and Stephen A. Northup, the executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

    “I’m not aware of anyone approaching it like this,” said Northup. “I think it’s a very creative approach.”

    Meghan Shapiro, an Alexandria lawyer, and a colleague filed the complaint. She said they do not represent a death row inmate and are entitled under state law to file a challenge against any person engaged in the unauthorized practice of any profession.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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    Good job Heidi!

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