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Executions







Carl Henry Blue - Texas Execution - February 21, 2013


Summary of Offense: Carl Blue was convicted of the August 19, 1994 murder of Carmen Richards-Sanders. Blue, who once dated Richards-Sanders, went to her apartment with a cup of gasoline. When she opened the door he doused her in gasoline and ignited her clothing with a lighter. He then threw the remaining gasoline on a second person in the apartment, Larence Williams, when he attempted to come to the aid of Richards-Sanders. Blue also ignited Williams' clothing. Richards-Sanders died of her injuries. Williams survived. Blue turned himself into police, saying the incident was a prank and the victim's death was an accident.

Blue was sentenced to death in Brazos County in June 1995.

Victim(s): Carmen Richards-Sanders

Time of Death: 6:56 p.m.

Manner of Execution: Lethal Injection

Last Meal: Chicken patties and barbecued beef

Final Statement: "Hey mom and pop, I love y'all. All of you people in there. You know you have to come together, you too Terrella, y'all work on that. We all have to stand before God at the end of the day. Don't ever think you're perfect, none of us are perfect. God is the only one that is perfect, Jesus is perfect. I did wrong, now I am paying the ultimate price, even though it's a crooked way. I don't hate y'all. Don't judge, I'm not judgine. God has to judge those people. I forgive. Remember Romans 12:19 is for real, hell is for real. If y'all don't have your life right, get it right.We all have to die to get to heaven. Get your life right with Christ; it's coming to an end.I'm talking to each and every soul in this building, in this room. I don't hate nobody, you're doing what you think is your job. God's law is above this law.

Hang on, cowboy up, I'm fixin to ride.Jesus is my ride. Tell my babies' daddy will look down on them. Put a C in his name for Carl. Tell my boy's and tell Tracy to keep on keeping on. LOve one another. Go to church, change your life for Christ. Live your life for Christ. All right Warden, Terrella, I feel it babe, love."




Andrew Allen Cook - Georgia Execution - February 21, 2013


Summary of Offense: Convicted and sentenced to death in the ambush shooting of Grant Hendrickson, 22, and Michele Cartagena, 19. Cook used a 9mm pistol and an AR-15 assault-style rifle while the couple was sitting in a Honda Civic at Dame's Ferry in the early morning of January 3, 1995, a Henry County trial jury found. Eighteen shell casings were found at the scene.

Victim(s): Grant Hendrickson, Michele Cartagena

Time of Death: 11:22 p.m.

Manner of Execution: Lethal Injection

Last Meal: Steak, baked potato, potato wedges, fried shrimp, lemon meringue pie and soda.

Final Statement: "I'm sorry," Cook said as he was strapped to a gurney. "I'm not going to ask you to forgive me. I can't even do it myself."
He also thanked his family for "their support, for being with me and I'm sorry I took so much from you all."




Scheduled Executions





Paul Agustus Howell - Florida Execution - February 26, 2013


A judge rejected a new appeal by a drug trafficker facing execution on Tuesday for killing a state trooper in north Florida with a pipe bomb 21 years ago.

Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey on Friday denied motions to vacate Paul Augustus Howell's murder conviction and death sentence in Jefferson County just east of Tallahassee.

Howell's lawyers also have an appeal pending in federal court in Tallahassee. The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a prior appeal.

The 47-year-old native of Jamaica was convicted of killing Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford.

The trooper stopped a car for speeding on Interstate 10. He died instantly when the bomb went off as he tried to open a gift-wrapped microwave oven he found in the car.





Steven Ray Thacker - Oklahoma Execution - March 12, 2013



An Oklahoma death row inmate scheduled to be executed on March 12 waived his right to ask the state Pardon and Parole Board for clemency.

Steven Ray Thacker pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in the December 1999 stabbing death of 25-year-old Laci Dawn Hill of Bixby. Thacker received the death penalty after a sentencing hearing.

Thacker can ask the board to commute his death sentence to life in prison. But Pardon and Parole Board attorney Tracy George told The Associated Press by email Wednesday that the 42-year-old Thacker waived his clemency hearing.

Thacker was also sentenced to death in Tennessee for the January 2000 killing of a tow truck driver and to life in prison in the January 2000 death of a Missouri man.




New Death Sentences


Emilio Manuel Avalos - California

John Lyndon - California




Current Death Row Inmates





Nathan Dunlap - Colorado Death Row

Convicted killer Nathan Dunlap lost his last, best chance to avoid execution Tuesday when the United States Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal.

Dunlap was sentenced to die for killing four people in 1993 in an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. He is Colorado's longest-serving death-row inmate, and could become the first inmate executed in the state since 1995.

A list of unsigned orders issued Tuesday morning by the nation's highest court shows that Dunlap's appeal to the court challenging his death sentence — known as a petition for certiorari — was denied. That ends the last appeal Dunlap is guaranteed under the law and clears the way for an execution date to be set.

Dunlap may file further appeals, but they are not certain to delay execution.

Dunlap was 19 when he killed four employees of a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant where he used to work. Three of the victims were teenagers: 19-year-old Sylvia Crowell and 17-year-olds Ben Grant and Colleen O'Connor. Another, 50-year-old Margaret Kohlberg, was the restaurant's manager. Dunlap also gravely wounded another employee, who was able to escape and find help.





Oscar Ray Bolin - Florida Death Row

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction and death sentence previously imposed on Oscar Ray Bolin for the 1986 murder of Stephanie Collins in Hillsborough County.

Bolin, 51, has been convicted and sentenced to death multiple times for the deaths of three women in Hillsborough and Pasco in 1986. He won new trials, but jurors found him guilty each time.

He appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, asking the court to throw out his conviction and sentence in Collins' death because of several items presented during his trial, including a suicide note he wrote and videotaped testimony from his late ex-wife.



Douglas Blaine Matthews - Florida Death Row

On Thursday the Florida Supreme Court upheld the convictions and death sentence for Douglas Blaine Matthews, who stabbed two people to death in Daytona Beach.

Matthews, 31, was convicted in 2010 of first-degree murder for killing Kirk Zoeller, 50, and manslaughter in the slaying of Donna Trujillo, 51. Matthews stabbed Zoeller 24 times and Trujillo eight times on Feb. 20, 2008, in the woman's apartment on South Halifax Avenue. The Supreme Court issued its decision Thursday, according to a news release from the 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office.

A jury recommended death by a 10-2 vote and Circuit Judge R. Michael Hutcheson sentenced Matthew to die by lethal injection for Zoeller's murder.



William Thomas Zeigler, Jr. - Florida Death Row

On Thursday the Florida Supreme Court denied Zeigler's petition for post conviction DNA testing.



Lawrence Landrum - Ohio Death Row

On Wednesday the Ohio Supreme Court denied motions to set an execution date for Lawrence Landrum, convicted for slashing the throat of an 84-year-old Chillicothe man in 1985.

Ross County Prosecutor Matthew S. Schmidt twice last year filed motions asking the court to set an execution date. He argued that justice is long overdue in the case and that two family members of the murder victim, Harold White Sr., have cancer and hoped to live long enough to see his killer put to death.

But the Ohio Public Defender, which represents Landrum, countered by pointing out that he has appeals pending regarding the claim that he was not adequately represented by previous attorneys.

The Supreme Court did not cite its reasoning in 6-1 decision; Justice Terrence O’Donnell was the dissenter.

Landrum had an execution date in 1996, but that was set aside. Numerous appeals have followed. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider the case.

Landrum was convicted for killing White by cutting his throat during a burglary on Sept. 19, 1985. The coroner’s office testified at the trial that they had trouble obtaining a blood sample because White’s body was nearly drained of all blood from the murder.



Arthur Brown Jr. - Texas Death Row

An Alabama man on death row in Texas for the slayings of 4 people in Houston more than two decades ago lost an appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Without comment Tuesday, the high court refused the case of 42-year-old Arthur Brown, of Tuscaloosa, Ala. 1 of Brown's companions in the June 1992 shootings, Marion Dudley, was executed in 2006. A third partner is serving life.

Authorities say Brown was part of a ring shuttling drugs from Texas to Alabama and the shootings were intended to eliminate a Houston couple as middlemen in the deals.

The four people killed included 32-year-old Jose Tovar; his wife's 17-year-old son, Frank Farias; Farias' 19-year-old girlfriend, Jessica Quinones, who was seven months pregnant; and 21-year-old neighbor Audrey Brown. Two others shot survived.



Edgardo Rafael Cubas - Texas Death Row

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused without comment to review the case of 34-year-old Edgardo Rafael Cubas, a Honduran on death row for the rape-slaying of a 15-year-old girl in Houston.

He was sentenced to die for the 2002 fatal shooting of high school sophomore Esmeralda Alvarado. Cubas and a second man, Walter Sorto, were charged and given death sentences related to a series of slayings that terrorized Houston’s East End.

Prosecutors said Alvarado was abducted by Cubas and Sorto, who took turns raping her in their car. Cubas later told police he shot the girl in the head. Sorto, from El Salvador, received a death sentence for the slayings of two waitresses four months later.



Robert Garza - Texas Death Row

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a South Texas street gang member sent to death row for the fatal shooting of four women 10 years ago in the border town of Donna.

The high court without comment Tuesday refused to review the case of 30-year-old Robert Garza.

Evidence showed he fired at least 50 times into a car, killing the women who authorities described as illegal immigrants from Mexico working at a rundown cantina in Donna in Hidalgo County.

Garza was identified as belonging to the Tri-City Bombers and was carrying out a gang-ordered hit on women who testified against a gang member.

Evidence also showed the hit was botched and the victims weren't involved in the other case.

He does not yet have an execution date.

Stays Of Execution



Warren Lee Hill - Georgia Execution - STAYED

The state of Georgia is asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate a federal appeals court order temporarily halting the execution of a death row inmate.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday issued a stay less than an hour before Warren Lee Hill was set to die by lethal injection. The court's order said further review is needed of recent affidavits by doctors who changed their minds about Hill's mental capacity.

Lawyers for Georgia on Wednesday said Hill's federal petition for habeas relief is procedurally barred and said the new statements from the doctors aren't credible.

Hill was sentenced to death in the 1990 killing of a fellow inmate. His lawyers have long argued he is mentally disabled and therefore shouldn't be executed.

On Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court refused to lift the stay




Reversed/New Trials/Resentenced/Released/Commuted




Randall T. Deviney - Florida

A Florida man convicted of killing a woman will get a new trial.

On Thursday the Florida Supreme Court threw out the murder conviction. Delores Futrell was a local grandmother. In 2008, she was stabbed to death in her own home. Before a suspect was arrested, Futrell's daughter Jacki Blades pleaded for justice.

Two years after Futrell's death, Randall Deviney was convicted and sentenced to death. Now, he has a second chance at freedom. The state supreme court overturned his conviction , saying police coerced his confession.

Futrell's daughter is at a loss for words. "He clearly confessed to the crime,"

Deviney's attorney said he'll be transferred to the Duval County jail sometime in the next couple of weeks. Then, he will be brought back here to court for a new arraignment, with a possible trial in the next two months. Futrell's daughter says she'll be there for it.

The state attorney's office says it is reviewing the opinion and will take the appropriate action.

JSO issued a statement one day after the ruling. Sheriff John Rutherford wrote:

"I am reviewing the Court's decision and how the interrogation was conducted. From what I've been told, I know the suspect was given his Miranda warning and never asked for an attorney. But I want to study both the case and the decision closely, and confer with Ms. Corey because from what I know at this time, I don't believe the State Supreme Court got this one right and an appeal may be appropriate. If we are in agreement they did not, we may need to ask another court for their opinion."



Carlos Ordway - Kentucky

A Lexington man on death row will get a new trial on charges he killed two people in a dispute over drugs after the Kentucky Supreme Court on Thursday concluded there were multiple errors in his case.

The high court's ruling doesn't spare 31-year-old Carlos Lamont Ordway from another possible death sentence, though. Justice Daniel Venters concluded that there's no reason to rule Ordway ineligible for a death sentence should he be convicted a second time for the 2007 shooting deaths of 21-year-old Patrick Lewis and 25-year-old Rodrieques Turner, both of Louisville.

Venters wrote for the court that a juror was improperly seated in the case and that a detective was improperly allowed to testify about Ordway's behavior and how it didn't appear consistent with a self-defense claim.

Ordway acknowledged to police that he shot Turner and Lewis, but said the men threatened to kill him for drugs and he shot them in self-defense in a moving vehicle and caused a crash.

Ordway, who is being held at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, is also charged with bank robbery in Louisville. That case is pending.

Supreme Court Denials


* Brandon Leon Basham - Federal Death Row
Christopher Dewayne Revis - Alabama Death Row
Richard Tulley - California Death Row
* Nathan Dunlap - Colorado Death Row
Justin Ryan McMillian - Florida Death Row
Daniel Jon Peterka - Florida Death Row
Charles McNelton - Nevada Death Row
Stephen Lynn Hugeley - Tennessee Death Row
* Stephen Michael West - Tennessee Death Row
* Arthur Brown Jr. - Texas Death Row
Steven Anthony Butler - Texas Death Row
* Edgardo Rafael Cubas -Texas Death Row
* Robert Garza - Texas Death Row




State By State Capital Punishment News


Arkansas

Arkansas enacted a new lethal injection law last week, ending months in legal limbo after the state's top court threw out the old law last year.

However, with more legal challenges expected, the state is likely months away from killing a condemned prisoner for the first time since 2005.

The attorney general's office expects some of the state's 37 death row inmates to challenge the new law.

"We don't know when the inmates will choose to file their lawsuit, but we are prepared for them to file it and we will be ready when they do," Chief Deputy Attorney General Brad Phelps said.

Two days after Gov. Mike Beebe signed the new execution legislation into law, no new execution dates had been set on Friday, meaning the state doesn't have any pending executions. For that to change, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel would have to notify Beebe that inmates' court challenges have run their course and ask him to schedule executions.

Phelps, the chief deputy attorney general, would not say which of the eight inmates who have exhausted their appeals would be the first to have an execution date.

"I'm not prepared to commit who will be first or who will be last," Phelps said. "There are eight who are eligible to have their sentences carried out and we intend to work very diligently to make sure those are carried out."

The Arkansas Supreme Court in June deemed a 2009 lethal injection law unconstitutional, saying the Legislature had given the Department of Correction "unfettered discretion" to figure out the protocol and procedures for executions, including the chemicals to be used.

What Beebe signed Wednesday spells out in greater detail the procedures that must be followed. However, some lawmakers expressed concerns that the law fails to address issues that led the court to overturn the previous one.

The new law says the state must use a lethal dose of a barbiturate, but leaves it up to the Department of Correction to determine which drug. So far, that agency hasn't rushed into selecting a drug.

"It's not like we're chomping at the bit for another execution. They're difficult," Department of Correction spokeswoman Dina Tyler said. "But if it's going to be the law of the land we have to have a way to carry it out."

It seems like it will be months or longer before that happens, but no one knows for sure.

"It could be that we have an execution sometime within the next three months and it could be that we don't have an execution within the next three years. We don't know," Tyler said.

For now, Jeff Rosenzweig, who represents death row inmates, said he and other attorneys who handle death row cases are reviewing the new law.

"I would anticipate that any challenges would be done fairly quickly," Rosenzweig said.



Georgia


Georgia's supply of the single drug it uses to perform executions is set to expire next month, and state officials haven't said whether they've found a way to get more of the powerful sedative that is in relatively short supply.

The state has 17 vials of pentobarbital, which is enough for six lethal injections, corrections officials said. Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan did not respond to questions about what the state might be doing to obtain more pentobarbital, but she said the state doesn't intend to change its execution method.

Georgia changed its execution protocol from a three-drug combination to a single-drug method using pentobarbital in July. It had been using pentobarbital to sedate inmates before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze them and then potassium chloride to stop their hearts.

Georgia began using pentobarbital as part of its three-drug combination in 2011 after another drug, sodium thiopental, became unavailable when its European supplier bowed to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped making it. But now pentobarbital appears to be in relatively short supply as well.


Maryland

The General Assembly took an important step toward repealing Maryland's death penalty Thursday night when a key committee, for the first time in decades, approved a bill to end capital punishment.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings committee voted 6-5 to send Gov. Martin O'Malley's death penalty bill to the Senate floor, with Sen. Robert A. Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat, dropping his long-held opposition to repeal of capital punishment and providing the decisive vote.

The bill repealing the death penalty is expected to go before the full Senate this week. Advocates say they have the votes there and in the House of Delegates to pass it, and they welcomed Thursday's action by a committee that has been seen as an obstacle to their position.


Montana

A proposal to ban the death penalty in Montana has once again been rejected by a state House committee.

The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee on Friday rejected the proposal to replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. The same proposal died in the same committee two years ago.

Supporters of House Bill 370 hoped they had a better chance after garnering some Republican support. Backers are likely to still seek full debate on the House floor.

Death penalty foes say it is an inhumane punishment that leads to lengthy and costly appeals, while putting the state at risk of killing an innocent man.

Supporters of the punishment say it serves as a deterrent and provides justice for heinous crimes.


* Inmate has exhausted all appeals