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Executions


Eric Robert - South Dakota Execution - October 15, 2012





Summary of Offense: On April 12, 2011 Eric Robert and Rodney Berget attacked and killed 63-year-old Ronald Johnson in a work area inside the Sioux Falls prison and then used his uniform in an unsuccessful escape attempt. Robert pleaded guilty in September 2011, and was sentenced to death on October 27, 2011.

Victim(s): Ronald Johnson

Time of Death: 10:24 p.m.

Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

Last Meal: Moose track ice cream

Final Statement: 'In the name of justice and liberty and mercy, I authorize and forgive Warden Douglas Weber to execute me for the crimes. It is done.'




Scheduled Executions



John Ferguson - Florida Execution - October 23, 2012




The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a judge’s decision finding Miami mass murderer John Errol Ferguson sane to be executed.

Justices said there was “competent, substantial evidence” to support Bradford Circuit Judge David Glant’s ruling that Ferguson understands why he is to be executed — for eight Miami-Dade murders in the late 1970s.

Ferguson, 64, had originally been scheduled to die by lethal injection on Thursday at the Florida State Prison in Bradford.

Gov. Rick Scott rescheduled the execution of a mass killer for Oct. 23 after he lost the appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

Scott acted shortly after the justices Wednesday upheld a lower court decision that John Errol Ferguson is competent to be executed.

Ferguson appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and seeking a stay of execution there.

On Thursday afternoon the US Supreme Court declined to stay the execution (and denied the petition for certiorari) of John Ferguson.

Lawyers for Ferguson on Friday filed an emergency motion in Miami federal court to stay Tuesday's execution.

A federal court on Saturday put the execution on hold and scheduled arguments for Friday on whether he is, as he contends, insane.



Donald Moeller - South Dakota Execution - Week of October 28, 2012



A woman who says she's a friend of South Dakota death row inmate Donald Moeller is trying to stop his execution.

A lawyer for Donna Nichols filed a motion in federal court to stay the lethal injection of 60-year-old Moeller, who is scheduled to die the week of Oct. 28.

Moeller has admitted in court to the 1990 kidnapping, rape and murder of 9-year-old Becky O'Connell.

Moeller had recently given up appeals and asked a federal judge to let him die. In Friday's court filing, lawyer Robert Van Norman says Moeller's wish is colored by his psychological state.

Attorney General Marty Jackley says his office will oppose the stay. He says Nichols lacks standing.

Moeller's attorney has filed a motion saying the inmate wants the execution to proceed.

Moeller is ordered to appear at a hearing on the motion Monday.


Garry Thomas Allen - Oklahoma Execution - November 06, 2012



A federal appeals court refused to halt the execution of an Oklahoma death row inmate who claims he is insane.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down the ruling Thursday in the case of 56-year-old Garry Thomas Allen.

Allen is scheduled for lethal injection Nov. 6. Allen was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the November 1986 shooting death of his fiancee, 42-year-old Lawanna Gail Titsworth, outside a children's day care center in Oklahoma City.

Last month, a federal judge rejected Allen's request for a hearing on his claim that he is mentally incompetent and ineligible for the death penalty. Allen's defense attorney, Randy Bauman of the Federal Public Defender's Office, declined to comment on the appellate court's decision.





Stays Of Execution


Anthony Haynes - Texas Death Row




The U.S. Supreme Court stopped the execution Thursday of a 33-year-old Texas prisoner for gunning down an off-duty Houston police sergeant 14 years ago.

Anthony Haynes had been set to die for the shooting death of Sgt. Kent Kincaid, 40, while the officer was with his wife driving in their own vehicle not far from home. Their SUV had been struck by an object from a pickup truck, cracking its windshield. When Kincaid got out to talk to the people in the truck and told them he was a police officer, he was shot in the head.

The high court ruling came about three hours before Haynes could have been taken to the death chamber.

Haynes confessed to the May 1998 slaying, was tried for capital murder the following year and sentenced to death.

His lethal injection would have been the 11th this year in Texas, the nation's most-active death penalty state.




Current Death Row Inmates



Winston Clay Barrett - Georgia Death Row



The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence against a man who killed his best friend, rejecting arguments the sentence should have been overturned because it was out of line with penalties imposed in similar cases.

Winston Clay Barrett was convicted of killing Danny “Stumpy” Youngblood on Aug. 4, 2002, during a drunken brawl that began inside the Barretts’ residence in Hiawassee. Barrett became enraged after Youngblood, awaking after a night of heavy drinking, urinated on Barrett’s television and then almost defecated on the Barretts’ bed while Barrett’s wife was laying there.

When Barrett’s wife screamed out and pushed Youngblood off the bed, Youngblood balled up his fist and yelled an obscenity at her. Barrett burst out of the bathroom and pistol-whipped, stomped and kicked Youngbood before fatally shooting him at point-blank range.

On appeal, Barrett’s lawyer, Jack Martin, cited 17 other murders committed from 1995 through 2004 that had facts similar to Barrett’s case. None of those cases received a death sentence.

Georgia’s death-penalty statute requires the Georgia Supreme Court to make sure every capital sentence is in line with punishment in similar cases and to throw out those that are disproportionately severe. But the court has not thrown out a death sentence on proportionality grounds in more than 30 years.

In Monday’s opinion, Justice Harris Hines noted that Barrett had cited 17 similar cases that did not receive death, but Hines noted the court views a particular crime against the backdrop of all similar cases in Georgia. The ruling cited nine cases the court found to have similar facts and circumstances to Barretts’ in which the defendants received the death penalty.

“Considering the murder and the defendant, we find that Barrett’s death sentence is not disproportionate within the meaning of Georgia law,” Hines wrote.








New Death Sentences


Joe Thomas - Ohio Death Row



Convicted killer Joseph Thomas will be put to death for 2010 Thanksgiving weekend murder of Mentor-on-the-Lake bartender Ann McSween.

Lake County Common Pleas Judge Richard Collins Jr. on Monday agreed with the recommendation of a jury and sentenced Thomas, 27, to death for the killing.

Thomas never looked at the judge as he read the death sentence, but instead stared off to the side, rocking in his chair.

The least Thomas would have received would have been life in prison with a possibility of parole after 20 years.

A jury had found Thomas guilty of aggravated murder, kidnapping, rape, aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence. He has been held on $1 million bond since his arrest in June, 2011.

Lake County Prosecutor Charles Coulson pushed for the death penalty.

"This is a horrendous, awful crime," he said recently. "Thomas tortured, raped and beat this poor woman. It was one of the most gruesome crime scenes I've ever seen."

The strongest piece of evidence to link Thomas to the crime was the discovery of McSween's burned, bloody clothes in a burn-barrel in the backyard of the house where Thomas lived at the time.

The jury rejected the closing arguments of Thomas' attorney, Charles Grieshammer, who said police arrested the wrong man. He said it was just as plausible that a "scrapper thief" was stealing wire from outside the bar when he was startled by McSween. Grieshammer said the thief could have murdered and raped the woman in a fit of rage.


Steven Nelson - Texas Death Row



A convicted felon was sentenced to death Tuesday for killing a pastor and severely beating the pastor's secretary in their North Texas church.

A jury in Fort Worth deliberated for little more than an hour before deciding the sentence for Steven Lawayne Nelson. The 25-year-old Nelson was convicted of killing the Rev. Clint Dobson at the NorthPointe Baptist Church in nearby Arlington.

Jurors had the option of sentencing Nelson to death or life in prison without parole.

Nelson was convicted last week of suffocating Dobson in March 2011. He also beat the church secretary, Judy Elliott, so severely that she suffered a broken jaw and memory problems. He then he stole her car and other items. It took the jury little more than an hour to convict him.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Page Simpson called Nelson a "predator" who forced Dobson and Elliott to tie each other up. Blood from both victims was found on a pair of Nelson's shoes, and studs from his belt were found at the church, according to testimony.

Nelson denied killing the minister, blaming two friends for the crime. He said he stayed outside and only came into the church to steal a laptop.

He said under cross-examination at trial that he saw the 28-year-old Dobson and his secretary already sprawled on the church floor. He admitted stepping around them to get the laptop, but said they were still alive when he was there.

Prosecutors presented evidence during sentencing that Nelson's criminal career began when he was a teenager and that he had assaulted jailers while in custody. Several jail guards said Nelson broke a jail phone after an upsetting conversation and that it took three guards to restrain him.

Nelson has been charged with assaulting another jailer in October 2011. He is also a suspect in the death of another inmate.

Prosecutors said Thomas lured McSween outside the bar by cutting power to the building. Once McSween was outside, prosecutors said Thomas beat, choked, slashed and raped the popular bartender, before stabbing her five times.





Reversed/New Trials/Resentenced/Released/Commuted


Eric Simmons - Florida Death Row

On Thursday the Florida Supreme Court reversed Simmons' death sentence stating, counsel failed to fully investigate and present mitigating evidence regarding Simmons’ childhood and mental health


Raymond Sanders - Arkansas



A convicted murderer left death row after a re-trial in Hot Spring County.

The jury handed down two capital murder convictions Monday for Raymond Sanders. They sentenced him to life without parole instead of the death penalty.

Sanders was originally sentenced to death in 1992 in Grant County for the 1989 murders of Nancy and Charles Brannon of Malvern.

Charles Brannon's body was found November 21, 1989. Nancy Brannon's body was found two days later a short distance from where police found the Brannons' pickup truck on Grigsby Ford Road in Malvern.

Sanders appealed his conviction to the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1992 but they upheld his sentence.

Sanders' attorney appealed the case again this year through a "Rule 37 petition." He claimed the location of the first trial was changed from Malvern to Sheridan without Sanders' consent, leading to an unfair trial. He also alleged Sanders' attorneys in the first trial were ineffective.




Capital Case Guilty Verdicts


Robert Hobart - Florida
James Davis Morrison - Texas




US Supreme Court Denials
Michael King - Florida Death Row
Jason Demetrius Stephens - Florida Death Row
Kevin James Lisle - Nevada Death Row




State By State Capital Punishment News


Montana

A trial by judge has been scheduled for next summer to try and rectify Montana's death penalty protocol.

Lawsuits brought forth on behalf of two death row inmates, Ronald Allen Smith and William Gollehon, charge that the protocol used doesn't comply with Montana's statute.

Judge Jeffrey Sherlock agrees, saying that the protocol has three flaws, and until those are resolved, all executions in the state will remain on hold.

When the trial by judge rolls around next July, the judge can either agree with the proposed protocol changes, which would open the gates back up to the death penalty.

Or he can disagree with the changes, and the MT Department of Justice will have to go back to the state legislature to amend the statute.

Montana's death penalty has been under a stay since 2009.


Utah


A Utah lawmaker wants to make it possible for inmates to do a final good act if they happen to die while serving time.

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, is again proposing a bill that would allow inmates to voluntarily agree to posthumously donate their organs. In the 2012 session, his bill passed the House but time ran out before it could be considered by the Utah Senate. The criminal justice interim committee approved the inmate medical donation act on Wednesday.

The Utah Department of Corrections last year decided to allow inmates to voluntarily fill out organ donor cards - something a Utah lawmaker wants to require by statute - as part of their paperwork upon arrival at the prison. It also allows medically needy inmates to receive transplants. In 2011, 2 inmates received bone marrow transplants as part of cancer treatment, for example, as a cost of $500,000 per inmate.

"In some respects, it's a way for someone who is trying to pay their dues to society to get one last shot on their way out," he said in an interview.

Over the past 4 years, an average of 15 inmates have died each year while incarcerated, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. The department began including organ-donor consent forms in the paperwork given to inmates during orientation at the end of 2011 after speaking with Eliason about his proposal.

"They liked the idea so much they implemented it anyway even though it did not become law," Eliason said.

Mike Haddon, Corrections deputy director, told the interim committee that inmates are being given donor forms as they go through medical and dental screenings upon arrival at the prison. He said that in the past, organ donation "was a consideration" for some inmates as they passed away.

But Eliason still wants it enshrined in statute so the policy isn't subject to the whims of changing administrations. He said he also plans to include jails in this year's draft legislation.

Laws governing organ donation by either living or deceased prison inmates - a population that numbers about 2 million - vary from state to state. Federal law prohibits compensating donors for organs, and that bars prisoners, like others, from benefiting in any way.

Nationwide, there are 116,000 people on the waiting list for organs; about 80 % are waiting for a kidney, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing. There have been about 16,586 transplants so far this year, most using organs from deceased donors. In Utah, 705 people are on waiting lists for organs, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

A single healthy donor can provide up to 24 different organs and tissues - from kidneys to skin to corneas - that can help others, Eliason said.

"It is just akin to what we're doing with people's driver's licenses," he said.

Eliason said he took up the idea after hearing about a death-row inmate, whom he declined to identify, who wanted to be an organ donor but wasn't allowed to do so.

An Oregon death-row inmate launched a national debate in 2011 about the issue after he wrote an opinion column published by The New York Times about his wish to be an organ donor, something prohibited in all state prisons. Christian M. Longo, who was sentenced to death in 2003 for killing his wife and 3 children, also wrote a footnoted scholarly article and set up a website dedicated to organ donation by the "willful executed prisoner."

"My only wish was that I would be able to effect some good with my death that would be of benefit to someone besides me," Longo wrote in his paper. His fight became moot in November when Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber placed a moratorium on executions.

It's a moot issue for death-row inmates in most states that allow the death penalty since the methods of execution preclude being an organ donor - something that could change as more of those states adopt a 1-drug lethal injection.

In Utah, Corrections' policy bars death-row inmates from being organ donors, according to spokesman Steve Gehrke, but Eliason would like to change that. Utah currently uses a 3-drug protocol to carry out executions by lethal injection; it allows execution by firing squad for inmates sentenced to death prior to 2004 - the method chosen by 3 of the 8 men now on death row.

According to an Associated Press story, at his request some of Gary Gilmore's organs - including his kidneys, liver and eyes - were harvested for possible transplant or study after his execution by firing squad on Jan. 17, 1977. It quoted a brief statement about the donations issued by the University of Utah medical center.

Ethicists, death-penalty opponents and both organ network organizations have objected to efforts to allow inmates, particularly those on death row, to become organ donors. Their arguments range from concerns about health risks given communicable diseases prevalent among prison populations, to inequities in the application of death sentences, and the potential for juries to impose more death sentences to increase the supply of organs.

Approximately 40 of the state's 6,909 inmates are known to be HIV positive, Gehrke said. Information on other communicable diseases was not available.

But Eliason said any organs taken from deceased inmates would be put through the same screening process as all donor organs. Donations are barred from any one who is HIV positive, has active cancer or has a systemic infection, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Gehrke said organ donation would generally apply to offenders who are already at a hospital receiving care and where death is foreseeable.

"In those cases, the hospital follows its normal processes and works in conjunction with the offender's family members regarding whether the organs should be donated," he said. "The form can help in case the family had not had those discussions with the offender - or in cases where there are no surviving family members present."