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Thread: Death Penalty Week In Review February 25 Through March 3, 2013

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    Death Penalty Week In Review February 25 Through March 3, 2013

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    Executions

    There were no executions in the past week.




    Scheduled Executions



    Edward Harold Schad - Arizona Execution - March 06, 2013

    A federal appeals court has blocked the scheduled execution of an Arizona death-row inmate for a killing that occurred nearly 35 years ago.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday granted a request by lawyers for Edward Harold Schad for a stay of the execution that was scheduled for next Wednesday.

    Schad's lawyers said the execution should be postponed to give a federal judge time to consider whether Schad was denied effective legal representation after his conviction.

    The Arizona Attorney General's Office opposed the request, saying there was no requirement to block the execution because of what's happened in court so far.

    Schad was sentenced to be executed for killing 74-year-old Lorimer "Leroy" Grove, of Bisbee, in August 1978. Grove's body was found in Yavapai County.

    Arizona prosecutors will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a lower court’s order blocking the scheduled execution of death-row inmate Edward Schad for a killing that occurred nearly 35 years ago.




    Frederick Treesh - Ohio Execution - March 6, 2013

    Former MANCI inmate scheduled for execution next week

    Barring a late reprieve from the governor, a death-row inmate formerly housed at Mansfield Correctional Institution will be executed March 6.

    Fred Treesh, 48, was interviewed for a number of News Journal stories while he was at MANCI. His addiction to crack cocaine, combined with the effects on his mind, propelled him through a five-state crime spree that ended Aug. 27, 1994, in Eastlake, Ohio, when he shot and killed a security guard at an adult video store.

    Treesh declined to be interviewed by a parole board on Jan. 31. The board voted 11-0 earlier this month to recommend against clemency.

    In a May 1998 News Journal story, Treesh talked about a documentary of his life, “Death-Row Convictions.” It was billed as the story about how to destroy a life ... or possibly how to save one.

    “I am living proof of what drugs can do to you,” Treesh told the News Journal. “Everything that comes out of death row is negative. I want a little positive to come out of here.

    “If it saves one kid, then maybe my dying is not in vain. This is the only positive thing I can do to try and help right a wrong.”

    Treesh said he was a “monster” while high on crack.

    The parole board rejected the contention he is two different people on and off drugs.

    “His community service does little to mitigate the destruction he has brought to so many innocent people’s lives,” parole board members wrote.

    The parole board said Treesh’s behavior toward prison staff over the years is “indicative of a self-indulgent, petulant and immature individual who lacks respect for authority, who is uninterested in conforming to ordinary rules of decorum and who lacks sensitivity to the dignity and sensibilities of others.”

    The News Journal interviewed Treesh in January 2001 after the Ohio Supreme Court upheld his conviction. He said he was not surprised. Treesh also was featured in a News Journal story later that year about DNA testing becoming available to death-row inmates.

    In August 2003, Treesh talked about the increasing pace of executions in Ohio. He last was featured in the News Journal in October 2005, when he and two other death row inmates cut themselves after the announcement they would be transferred from MANCI to a supermaximum security facility in Youngstown.


    Ohio Gov. John Kasich rejected a clemency plea Thursday by 48-year-old Frederick Treesh, whose execution is scheduled Wednesday.




    John Manuel Quintanilla, Jr. - Texas Execution - July 16, 2013

    Quintanilla's execution date was pushed back to July 16, 2013.




    New Execution Date

    Larry Eugene Mann - Florida Execution - April 10, 2013

    Gov. Rick Scott has ordered the execution of a man on death row for the 1980 murder of a 10-year-old Palm Harbor girl.

    Larry Eugene Mann was convicted in 1981 of abducting Elisa Nelson as she rode her bike to school. Mann took her to an orange grove, where he bludgeoned her to death with a steel pipe.

    Mann was sentenced to death for the crime, but years of appeals led courts to resentence him twice, allowing him to linger on death row.

    Scott signed a death warrant Friday evening, setting Mann's execution for 6 p.m. April 10.




    New Death Sentences

    Joel Escalante Orozco - Arizona Death Row

    A man convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a Phoenix woman in 2001 has been given the death sentence.

    Maricopa County prosecutors say jurors deliberated four days before voting unanimously Thursday to give 38-year-old Joel Escalante Orozco the death penalty.

    He was convicted in January of first-degree murder, burglary and sexual assault.

    Authorities say Orozco fled to Mexico after the killing of Maria Garza-Rivera in her apartment and was arrested six years later in Idaho.

    Garza-Rivera was discovered dead in her bathtub with water running from both the showerhead and faucet on March 10, 2001.

    Authorities say Orozco lived at the same apartment complex and was employed to perform general labor and maintenance.

    They say at the time of the murder, Orozco had been remodeling the unit occupied by Garza-Rivera.


    Ricky Smyrnes - Pennsylvania Death Row

    Convicted killer Ricky Smyrnes has become the 196th person on Pennsylvania's death row.

    Smyrnes said nothing Friday as Westmoreland County Judge Rita Hathaway formally sentenced him to death by lethal injection for the torture murder of Jennifer Daugherty in February 2010.

    A defense attorney who argued that Smyrnes should be spared because he was mentally ill and of low intelligence said he was fully aware of his fate.

    A jury issued the verdict Thursday night.

    “When I spoke to him last night I said I was sorry, Ricky, and that I did everything I could. I looked into his eyes, and his eyes were clear and focused. He looked at me and said, ‘I know you did,' ” defense attorney Terrance Faye said Friday.

    Defense attorney Mike DeRiso said Smyrnes has accepted responsibility for his actions. “He's remorseful and he's lucid. He has an idea of what's going on,” DeRiso said.

    Smyrnes, 26, formerly of North Huntingdon, was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and other offenses for killing Jennifer Daugherty, a 30-year-old mentally challenged woman from Mt. Pleasant.

    District Attorney John Peck said Smyrnes was the ringleader of a group of six Greensburg roommates who held Daugherty captive for more than two days before she was fatally stabbed.

    The group tortured her and one of the roommates raped her, according to testimony. Her body was dumped into a garbage can and left in the parking lot of Greensburg Salem Middle School, where it was found on Feb. 11, 2010. The six suspects were arrested that night.

    Jurors heard nearly four weeks of testimony before convicting Smyrnes and ultimately sentencing him to death in the penalty phase of the trial.

    Reading from a formal proclamation, Hathaway said Smyrnes will be taken to the state prison in Rockview, Centre County, where officials should cause “to pass through your body a lethal injection of intensity sufficient to cause death.”

    “May God in his infinite goodness have mercy on your soul,” Hathaway said.

    Smyrnes showed little emotion throughout his trial.

    His accomplice, Melvin Knight, 23, a former Swissvale resident who fatally stabbed Daugherty in the heart, was sentenced to death in August after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Angela Marinucci, 20, of Greensburg was sentenced to life imprisonment for Daugherty's murder. Marinucci was ineligible for the death penalty because she was 17 years old at the time of her arrest.

    Since Pennsylvania reinstated the death penalty in the late 1970s, only three people have been executed at Rockview. The last execution was in 1999.

    In addition to the death sentence, Hathaway ordered Smyrnes to serve a concurrent sentence of 10 to 20 years for conspiracy.

    During his trial, the defense contended that Smyrnes is intellectually deficient and suffers from various forms of mental illness, including multiple personality disorder. Peck characterized Smyrnes as shrewd and cunning.

    Daugherty's parents said the three jury verdicts have been appropriate.

    “The jury did get the verdict right. They took someone off the street who will never rape, murder and destroy another family again,” said Bobby Murphy, Daugherty's stepfather.




    Current Death Row Inmates

    David Anthony Runyon - Federal Death Row

    The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals AFFIRMED Runyon's conviction and sentence of death.


    Ronell Wilson - Federal Death Row

    A federal judge in Brooklyn on Thursday denied a request to issue a gag order barring parties in a high-profile death penalty case from speaking to the press.

    U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis's ruling came in the case of Ronell Wilson, who is facing execution for the murder of two undercover police officers.

    Lawyers for Wilson requested the gag order in a letter filed under seal Monday, according to the decision. They also asked Garaufis to direct the government to investigate anonymous sources quoted in a "recent news article" about the case, and to appoint a consultant to help asses whether the venue should be changed given the pretrial publicity.

    Garaufis denied the requests on Thursday.

    The case, which has received considerable press attention, made headlines again this month when a female officer at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn was arrested and charged with having sex with an inmate, who was identified as Wilson by a source familiar with the case. According to the complaint in that case, the officer is pregnant with a baby she believes was fathered by Wilson.

    Garaufis said in Thursday's ruling the he was "prepared to conduct an exhaustive jury selection process to empanel a fair and impartial jury" for the death penalty proceeding, scheduled to begin in May.

    He added in a footnote that the court would consider other measures to insulate jurors from publicity, "including, but not limited to, a change of venue."

    Wilson was sentenced to death by a jury in 2007 for killing two New York Police Department officers in Staten Island. Wilson's was a federal death sentence, the first in the state since 1954.

    The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the sentence in 2010, and the case was remanded for resentencing.

    The U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn once again sought the death penalty. Last year, Garaufis denied Wilson's claim that he was mentally retarded and that executing him would run afoul of the Eighth Amendment.

    On Feb. 14 one of Wilson's lawyers, David Stern, asked Garaufis if he would take steps to stop the parties from speaking to the press. He cited an unidentified recent news article that quoted anonymous law-enforcement officials who provided non-public details about Wilson. Stern said he was concerned such leaks would bias potential jurors.

    The U.S. Attorney's office did not publicly respond to the request.

    Stern and a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn declined to comment.

    The case is U.S. v. Wilson, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, No. 04-1016.

    For the U.S.: James McGovern, Celia Cohen and Shreve Ariail.

    For Wilson: Colleen Brady, David Stern, Richard Jasper and Michael Burt.


    Ricky D. Adkins - Alabama Death Row

    Court: 11th Circuit Court of Appeals

    Petitioner, an Alabama prisoner on death row, appealed from the district court's denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus, brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254. The record compelled a finding that the state used its peremptory strikes in a discriminatory manner and violated petitioner's right to Equal Protection as clearly established by Batson v. Kentucky. Because the court determined that petitioner was entitled to habeas relief based on his Batson claim, the court did not decide his other claims. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded.




    Nathan Dunlap - Colorado Death Row

    With its decision not to hear Nathan Dunlap’s appeal last week, the United States Supreme Court pushed the convicted killer one step closer to execution.

    But that doesn’t mean Dunlap’s appeals are over, or even close to it. Colorado’s last execution — that of Gary Lee Davis in 1997 — took place just a few months after the High Court rejected Davis’ appeal, but don’t expect Dunlap’s case to move forward so quickly.

    Davis’ case always moved more quickly through the courts than Dunlap’s did. Davis confessed to his crimes, was convicted and sentenced to die just a year after he raped and murdered his neighbor near Byers. Dunlap’s case dragged from early on and it wasn’t until three years after he killed four at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese that he was convicted and later sentenced to die.

    While Dunlap has appealed his conviction at every step, Davis was ambivalent about his appeals, alternately wanting his lawyers to drop them and wanting them to fight his case.

    That, combined with the current state of the death penalty in Colorado and around the country add up to a murky picture for Dunlap’s future — though it’s fair to say Dunlap won’t be killed within five months.

    Dunlap’s lawyer said last week he planned to continue his effort to spare his client’s life, but he didn’t want to discuss specific plans.

    Experts say that even after the Supreme Court’s rejection, Dunlap has plenty of options that can at the very least stretch his execution beyond this year.

    “There are avenues open to someone even if they have been denied by the United States Supreme Court,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

    Chief among those options are appeals focusing on the method of execution, Dieter said.

    Colorado law mandates that executions be carried out via lethal injection and according to the state Department of Corrections, executioners use a lethal cocktail of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

    That particular mix of drugs could raise issues, Dieter said. Sodium thiopental is not available anymore, so states have to find a different mix of drugs for their executions.

    Also, the fact that Colorado doesn’t have much experience in delivering lethal injections will likely be an issue.

    According to DOC statistics, Davis is the only person put to death in Colorado using lethal injection. The other 77 killed in Colorado since 1890 were executed via hanging or the gas chamber.

    That’s an issue, Dieter said, because the execution process is fairly complex, with prison staff needing to mix the chemicals at the right dosages, strap the inmate down and insert the IV appropriately.

    “Those are things that the prisons just don’t do on a regular basis, and typically doctors aren’t too likely to participate,” he said.

    All of those issues will likely wind up before a judge before any execution, Dieter said, and they could delay the process.

    “Courts will look at that, they don’t want anything too inhumane,” he said.

    With the irrevocable nature of an execution, Dieter said courts are generally willing to hear new information and consider an appeal.

    “Courts are reluctant to grant an additional appeal, but because the death penalty is so irrevocable and also shown to be fallible as of late, courts are willing to reopen these cases,” he said.

    The fact that there is legislation aimed at abolishing the death penalty working its way through the state Capitol could also be a factor in Dunlap’s case.

    “The political side can enter into death penalty cases as well,” he said.

    Locally, legal experts say they don’t see the High Court ruling as some sort of final stop for Dunlap’s case.

    “The attorneys are going to do everything they can to get it delayed, to get it stayed,” said Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor currently working in private practice. “We’ve seen so few death penalty cases in Colorado that get to execution, so I’m not sure it would be fair to say that people expect it to end this year.”




    Grover Reed - Florida Death Row

    The Florida Supreme Court DENIED Grover's motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851.




    Michael Tanzi - Florida Death Row

    A man on death row for kidnapping,raping and murdering a Miami womanbefore dumping her body in Cudjoe Key more than a decade ago will not get a new trial, a federal appellate court
    has ruled.

    U.S. District Court Judge William P. Dimitrouleas declared Wednesday that Michael Tanzi was properly represented by attorneys in his trial in Key West 10 years ago, according to a 28-pageruling Chief Assistant State Attorney Manny Madruga received Thursday.

    Tanzi was convicted of first-degree murder for the April 2000 kidnapping, beating, robbing, raping and murdering of Janet Acosta, a Miami Herald employee.

    It’s expected to be the first in a string of federal appeals available to Tanzi, who now will probably appeal the district court’s ruling to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta,
    Ga.

    If that court denies his argument, Tanzi’s last shot at avoiding death would be up to the U.S Supreme Court.

    Tanzi has already exhausted his appellate options at the state level, Madruga said Thursday.

    In January 2010, Tanzi tried to convince Monroe County circuit Judge Garcia that his death sentence should be thrown out because he was poorly represented at his trial, molested as a
    child, crushed by the death of his father, and has psychological issues.

    It is not uncommon for death row inmates to make such arguments in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, Madruga said on Thursday.

    “Defense counsel did not demonstrate that trial counsel acted outside the broad range of acceptable professional behavior,” Garcia wrote in his ruling. Tanzi’s attorneys called doctors, social workers, neighbors and others to testify on his behalf, including some medical experts who suggested that because Tanzi has an extra Y chromosome, he has a propensity for heightened testosterone levels and more violent behavior.




    Scott Cheever - Kansas Death Row

    The Supreme Court has agreed to consider reinstating the conviction and death sentence of a man who said he was high on meth when he killed a Kansas sheriff.

    The justices on Monday said they will review a state Supreme Court ruling that granted a new trial to Scott Cheever, who admitted to shooting Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels.

    The Kansas court said Cheever's rights were violated during his trial because a psychiatrist was allowed to testify about Cheever's psychological records without his consent.

    Samuels' death prompted changes in the Kansas criminal code to make it more difficult to purchase the ingredients used in making meth.

    The case will be argued in the fall.




    Cleveland R. Jackson - Ohio Death Row

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a Lima man facing execution for the 2002 murders of two girls in an execution-style shooting of eight people, exhausting Cleveland Jackson's final appeal.

    The Allen County Prosecutor's Office will now ask the state to set an execution date for Jackson.

    Jackson was convicted in the deaths of Leneshia Williams, 17, and Jala Grant, 3. He and his half brother, Jeronique Cunningham, went to a Eureka Street apartment to rob a man of drugs and money. Eight people were inside the apartment at the time.

    The two men lined the eight up inside the kitchen and shot all eight, including six of the victims in the head, as the victims begged for their lives. Two died. Cunningham also is on death row and is appealing his case.

    Jackson's lone chance to avoid the death penalty now is seeking clemency through Gov. John Kasich's office.

    Jackson’s death sentence is for the murder of Williams. Another court set aside the death sentence on Jala Grant’s murder, saying Jackson’s attorneys were not allowed to question potential jurors on how they felt about a person who kills a 3-year-old and what penalty that person should receive.


    Lee Edward Moore, Jr. - Ohio Death Row

    A federal appeals court has upheld a condemned Ohio killer's conviction and death sentence in the 1994 Cincinnati slaying of a suburban Chicago businessman.

    Lee Moore was convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping in the killing of Melvin Olinger, who was forced into the trunk of his car, robbed and fatally shot.

    A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 Tuesday to uphold Moore's conviction and sentence.

    The panel reversed part of a lower court's ruling that had granted Moore's request for a new trial based on claims of ineffective counsel and improper jury instructions at sentencing. The appellate court affirmed the district court's denial of Moore's petition on all other claims including prosecutorial misconduct.

    Moore's attorney didn't immediately return a call for comment Tuesday.


    Bortella Philisten aka Borgela Philistin - Pennsylvania Death Row
    Michael Travaglia - Pennsylvania Death Row


    Governor Tom Corbett has signed execution warrants for two men convicted of killing police officers in separate shooting incidents in the counties of Philadelphia and Westmoreland.

    Borgela Philistin was convicted of first-degree murder for the June 16, 1993 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Hayes. Philistin was also convicted of aggravated assault for shooting Officer John Marynowitz during the same incident, causing injuries that left the second Philadelphia policeman permanently paralyzed.

    Michael J. Travaglia was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy for killing Apollo Police Officer Leonard Clifford Miller on Jan. 3, 1980 in Westmoreland County.

    Both men are incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene. Philistin’s execution has been scheduled for April 23, 2013. Travaglia’s execution has been scheduled for April 25, 2013.

    Philistin, now 39, was sentenced to death in February 1995 in Philadelphia County Court.

    Around 10 p.m. on June 16, 1993 in the City of Philadelphia, the two police officers made a routine traffic stop of a vehicle. Philistin was a passenger in the car.

    Officer Marynowitz approached the driver’s side of the vehicle and Officer Hayes walked to the passenger side of the car.

    Officer Hayes asked Philistin to lift his hands and get out of the car. Philistin initially refused, but then pushed open the car door, knocking Officer Hayes off balance. Philistin got out of the vehicle and started fighting with Officer Hayes. Officer Marynowitz radioed for backup and then tried to help Officer Hayes. A witness to the scuffle called 911.

    Philistin wrenched the firearm from Officer Marynowitz, fired several shots and fled.

    Other police officers pursued the suspect, caught Philistin and returned him to the scene where he was identified by the witness.

    Hayes, shot in the head and the abdomen, died the next morning. Marynowitz, shot in the head and the back, survived but was paralyzed as a result.

    Travaglia, now 54, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy and sentenced to death in 1981 in Westmoreland County Court for Officer Miller’s death.

    Following a federal appeal, Travaglia was given a new sentencing hearing in 2005 and was again sentenced to death. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the sentence.

    Corbett issued an earlier execution warrant for Travaglia in July 2012, but a federal court issued a stay pending completion of the appeal process. In January 2013, the federal court dismissed the appeal, lifting the stay.

    On Jan. 3, 1980, Officer Miller stopped a sports car containing Travaglia, his co-defendant and another passenger, after it repeatedly sped past him. As Officer Miller walked toward the car, he was shot twice.

    Law enforcement officers, responding to Officer Miller’s call for assistance, later found the policeman’s body lying on the highway. His service weapon was drawn and all six rounds had been fired.

    Officer Miller’s death was the last in a series of crimes committed by Travaglia and his co-defendant. According to court documents, in the days preceding Officer Miller’s death, Travaglia and his co-defendant:

    Forced Peter Levato to drive them out of Pittsburgh on Dec. 27, 1979, binding his feet and hands, hitting him over the head and pushing him over a bridge. When the men discovered Levato was still alive, Travaglia shot him once in the chest and twice in the head. Travaglia later pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and conspiracy for Levato’s death.

    Robbed and repeatedly shot Marlene Sue Newcomer, who had offered the men a ride in her vehicle on Jan. 1, 1980. Travaglia later pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and conspiracy for Newcomer’s death.

    Forced William Nicholls to drive them out of Pittsburgh on Jan. 2, 1980, then shot, beat and gagged the man before pushing him into a lake where he drowned. Travaglia pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy for that incident.

    In September 2011, Corbett also signed an execution warrant for Travaglia’s co-defendant, John C. Lesko.

    Lesko’s execution was stayed by a federal court judge pending appeal. The appeal is still pending. Now 54, Lesko is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford.

    The execution warrants for Philistin and Travaglia, signed Wednesday, were Governor Corbett’s 25th and 26th warrants since taking office.

    Executions in Pennsylvania are carried out by lethal injection. For more information, visit the Department of Corrections online at www.cor.state.pa.us and select “Death Penalty’’ from the left-side navigation bar.


    inmatePicture-4.jpg

    Stephen Christopher Stanko - South Carolina Death Row

    Stephen Stanko, who prompted a nationwide manhunt after a pair of Horry County killings in 2005, has lost the appeal of the second of his two death sentences.

    The state Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence and conviction of Stanko in the death of Henry Turner.

    Stanko’s attorneys argued a juror should have been disqualified from his second trial because she told the judge she knew the defendant already had one death sentence. They also said the trial should have been moved because of publicity.

    The Supreme Court justices unanimously disagreed with Stanko’s attorneys, upholding an earlier death penalty ruling by circuit court Judge Steven John.

    Authorities say Stanko killed his girlfriend, Laura Ling, in her Murrells Inlet home and assaulted her teenage daughter. He then drove 25 miles to Turner’s home and killed him with a shotgun.

    Stanko has already lost the appeal of his death sentence for killing Ling.

    Authorities say Stanko drove to the home of Turner because he knew him through Ling’s work at an Horry County library. They say Stanko killed Turner and then fled in Turner’s pickup truck.

    In a manhunt that attracted national attention, Stanko eluded police for several days. Yet he made no attempt to hide, flirting with women in a downtown Columbia restaurant and claiming he was a millionaire visiting from New York.

    When he was apprehended at a shopping center in Augusta, Ga., Stanko was clad in a suit and tie, still driving Turner’s truck.

    He had tried to blend in with thousands of tourists in town for the Masters golf tournament, and authorities said Stanko had already persuaded another woman to let him move in with her.

    Stanko was first tried for Ling’s death, with his attorneys arguing that his life should be spared because he has a brain defect and couldn’t tell right from wrong. In 2006, a jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to die.

    Stanko appealed that verdict.

    Attorneys had argued that he didn’t get a fair trial because the judge wouldn’t let lawyers ask potential jurors what they thought of an insanity defense. But state Supreme Court justices wrote that the jury selection process had been fair.

    In 2009, jurors deliberated for just an hour before handing Stanko a second death sentence for killing Turner.

    Before the deaths, Stanko received attention for a book he wrote about prison life. While serving more than eight years for kidnapping, he co-wrote “Living in Prison: A History of the Correctional System,” with the help of professors at East Tennessee State University.

    Stanko was released in July 2004, less than a year before Ling and Turner were killed. Authorities said Stanko met Ling, a librarian, while finishing his book.

    The Associated Press typically does not identify victims of sexual assault, but in 2007 Ling’s daughter, Christina, asked to be identified. She told the AP then she hoped her story would help other assault victims.




    Rodney Berget - South Dakota

    South Dakota death-row inmate Rodney Berget wants a new sentencing hearing so the relationship with his new-found son and grandchildren can be presented to a jury as evidence against execution.

    In court documents filed late last week, Berget’s attorneys say that on February 9, 2012, just three days after Berget was sentenced to death, two individuals came forward on behalf of Berget’s son. Documents say Berget’s 31-year-old son only found out who his real father is in ‘adulthood.’ Berget’s attorneys write that the death-row inmate has now established a ‘meaningful relationship’ with his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

    Berget is facing execution after killing Correctional Officer Ron ‘RJ’ Johnson during a failed prison escape in April 2011. The South Dakota Supreme Court recently asked that Berget be resentenced after finding the circuit court did not properly use statements Berget made during a psychiatric evaluation before the sentencing.

    Berget now wants a completely new hearing in front of a jury instead of just in front of a judge.

    South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley responded to the request Tuesday, saying Berget has already waived his rights to be sentenced in front of a jury.

    “If family and fatherhood was such a meaningful consideration to Berget, it should have deterred him from robbing RJ Johnson’s son and daughter of their father,” Jackley wrote in the response. “Where Berget sees redemptive mitigation evidence in this newfound-son scenario, the state sees only further aggravating evidence of selfishness and failure to accept his responsibilities in life.”


    Charles Russell Rhines South Dakota Death Row

    A Circuit Court in Pennington County rejected a constitutional challenge from death row inmate Charles Rhines on South Dakota's method of execution protocol, according to a news release from the attorney general's office.

    Rhines is on death row for the 1992 murder of Donnivan Schaeffer in Rapid City.

    Rhines filed a habeas corpus action claiming that South Dakota’s protocol violated constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. Rhines alleged that he faced a substantial risk of pain because the protocol did not assure that the lethal drug would be sufficiently potent or properly administered.

    Judge Trimble of the Seventh Circuit Court found that South Dakota’s protocol, which is modeled on one approved by the United States Supreme Court, does not pose a risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering.

    “Lethal injection is the most humane manner of implementing the death penalty,” the Court wrote in its opinion. The Court concluded that “South Dakota’s lethal injection protocol is substantially similar to, and in many respects more protective than” the protocol approved by the United States Supreme Court and, therefore, is “constitutional on its face.”

    South Dakota currently uses a single dose of pentobarbital to carry out executions. This protocol was used in the October 2012 executions of Donald Moeller and Eric Robert that were witnessed by the media.

    “The Court’s decision affirms that the state has taken precaution in drafting and implementing its lethal injection protocol to assure that it meets constitutional requirements,” Attorney General Marty Yackley said in a news release. “Today’s decision is an important step forward in carrying out the jury and court’s decision and holding Charles Rhines accountable for his horrific actions from over 20 years ago.”

    Rhines can appeal Judge Trimble’s decision to the South Dakota Supreme Court and then to the federal courts.


    Nelson Gongora - Texas Death Row

    A man sentenced to death for the 2001 murder of another man in Fort Worth has had his case overturned by a federal appeals court.

    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with attorneys for Nelson Gongora that prosecutors in his 2003 murder trial should not have suggested to the jury that Gongora's decision to not testify indicated his guilt.

    In their decision Wednesday, the 5th Circuit judges wrote that repeated comments by the Tarrant County prosecutor about Gongora's lack of testimony violated his right to a fair trial. The 5th Amendment guarantees criminal defendants the right to not testify at trial and in 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this meant a prosecutor could use a decision to not testify as evidence of guilt. The lead prosecutor in Gongora's case, J.D. Granger, did not return a call requesting comment.

    Gongora remains on death row while the Tarrant County district attorney's office decides whether to try him again. "It's premature to determine how we're going to proceed," said Melody McDonald, the office's spokeswoman.

    Gongora, who was 22 at the time of the murder, was one of six men riding in a van one night in April 2001. According to court documents, the group saw Delfino Sierra walking on the street and decided to rob him. The van’s driver pulled over, and Gongora and another man exited and demanded money from Sierra, who started running and was shot in the head.

    The driver initially told police that someone other than Gongora shot Sierra. But he later identified Gongora as the shooter, saying he had lied before because he was afraid of Gongora, according to court records.

    After his arrest, Gongora admitted to police that he had exited the van to rob Sierra. He said that he heard shots and saw the man lying on the ground, but that he did not fire the shots.

    Prosecutors said the men were in a criminal street gang called Purp Li’l Mafia, according to court records, a statement that Gongora’s current attorney, Danny Burns, denies.

    Gongora's co-defendant, Albert Orosco Jr. was convicted of murder in the case and is currently serving a 23-year sentence. Prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty for Orosco. A friend of the men involved testified at Gongora's trial that he saw Orosco shortly after the murder with a .38 caliber handgun in his waistband. A bullet from a .38 caliber gun was found to have killed the victim.

    Many of the other men in the van on the night of the murder took the stand at Gongora’s 2003 trial, but Gongora did not. During closing arguments, the prosecutor said to the jury, “Who should we go ahead and talk to? Who should we go ahead and present to you? Should we talk to the shooter?”

    Gongora’s lawyer objected, accusing the prosecutor of trying to sway the jury against Gongora even though he had the right to not testify.

    The judge agreed and told the jury to disregard the comment. Rephrasing his statement, the prosecutor said, “I don’t want to give the wrong impression in any sort of way. We’re asking who do you expect to take the stand? Who do you expect to hear from, right?”

    Gongora’s lawyer objected again. The judge agreed again. Then the prosecutor told the jury, “I’m not talking about that, do you want to hear from him, because you can’t do that.”

    Gongora’s lawyer objected once again, but the judge allowed the comment.

    The Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court, wrote in 2006 that the prosecutors’ comments were “inartful and often confusing,” but did not violate Gongora’s rights. A federal district judge said in 2007 the prosecutor should not have made the comments, but that they did not affect the jury’s decision.

    On Wednesday, however, the 5th Circuit, which reviews appeals from all Texas death penalty cases, wrote that the prosecutor’s comments were “repeated and direct violations” which were “both inexplicable and inexcusable.” In context, the court said, the comments might be read as the prosecutor’s attempt to correct his initial mistake, but over time they served to “reinforce the impression of Gongora’s guilt.”

    “Gongora was denied a right to a fair trial,” the court concluded.

    Judge Priscilla Owen dissented, arguing that the prosecutor’s comments had “little if any, bearing on Gongora’s guilt,” because he admitted to trying to rob the victim.

    Burns, Gongora's attorney, said he hopes a new trial would allow jurors to see that Gongora had no real involvement in the murder, because he was charged as being a conspirator, but the murder happened without a preconceived plan. “How can you be a conspirator without a conspiracy?” he said.




    Carlos Trevino - Texas Death Row

    Today the US Supreme Court heard arguments in Trevino v. Thaler on a defense lawyer not putting forward mitigating factors in defense of his client analyzed under last term's decision in Martinez v. Ryan [JURIST report]. In particular, the court considered if a plaintiff can bring up ineffective counsel at the appellate level, although the plaintiff might not have brought it up before due to the alleged ineffective counsel. The attorney for Carlos Trevino argued that the time limits imposed on the new attorney in a habeas claim in Texas make the claims impracticable:

    But the bottom line in our situation in Texas is that we have a scheme. We have a set of laws and rules that channel these type of claims. ... [T]he Rules of Appellate Procedure 21.8 talk about the limitations of—the number of days that you have to expand the record in a motion for new trial. 75 days, the district court loses jurisdiction, they cannot hear anything else on this case. The record in this case wasn't even available for 7 months after the date of the trial.
    So even with a new attorney that's appointed—first of all, that new attorney is a stranger to the case. He doesn't know anything about the case. He's not in a position to talk to the client. The client is not the best person to understand the Rules of Appellate Procedure. So he's got to wait on that trial record, first of all, to see what's there.

    The attorney for Texas argued there was no deficiency in the state's procedure. "So the way that the procedure in Texas would work, as it does in Kansas, is that the newly appointed direct appeal lawyer, who has no conflict and is therefore free to accuse trial counsel of being ineffective, would file a motion to stay the appeal, abate it and remand it to the trial court. The showing in both States is roughly the same; it's a facially plausible claim of ineffectiveness."




    Jury Recommended Death Sentences


    Jason Balcom - Califonia

    A convicted rapist sat impassively in court Thursday as an Orange County jury announced that he faces the death penalty for the sexual assault and stabbing death of a pregnant, 22-year-old Costa Mesa woman housewife during a brutal six-week crime spree in the summer of 1988.

    The jury deliberated for eight hours before deciding that Jason Michael Balcom, 43, should receive the maximum punishment for the special circumstances murder of Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was beaten, sexually assaulted, bound and stabbed in the chest.

    Several members of Gibbons' family, including her mother, two brothers, a sister and her husband, sat silently holding hands in the courthouse gallery as the verdict was announced. They said later that they were relieved that the case was finally over and that they could go on with their lives.

    Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy argued that the aggravating factors of the slaying, plus the violent attacks on three other women and the lingering devastation to those who cared about Gibbons warranted a death sentence.

    It was the second penalty phase for Balcom, who was 18 when he launched his one-man crime spree a few days after he was released from a juvenile detention facility in Orange County. The first jury voted to convict Balcom of special circumstances murder in March 2012, but deadlocked on the penalty question.

    Defense attorney Dolores Yost argued that said Balcom was the product of an excruciating upbringing by an abusive single mother who was manipulative, self-absorbed and mentally ill. She claimed that Balcom suffered sexual and emotional abuse as a child and was in crisis when he was released from the Los Pinos juvenile facility a few months after his 18th birthday.

    Balcom, who is already serving a 50-year prison term for a September 1988 rape in Battle Creek, Michigan, now faces sentencing by Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno on June 14. No Orange County judge has ever over-ruled a jury's death penalty recommendation.

    Malinda Godfrey Gibbons was 22 and pregnant in the summer of 1988 when she and her husband Kent moved from Utah into a Costa Mesa apartment when he landed a job in Orange County. Just a few days later – on July 18, 1988 – Kent Gibbons returned home from work and found the semi-nude body of his wife. She had been bound and gagged with his ties, stabbed in the chest and sexually assaulted.

    The case was unsolved for more than 15 years.

    In 2004, the Michigan state crime lab contributed to a national DNA database of convicted felons, allowing Costa Mesa police detectives to compare genetic materials recovered from Gibbons' body to past and present Michigan inmates. Jason Balcom was a match.

    This was the first death penalty verdict in Orange County in more than a year.

    Balcom will likely join 59 convicted killers from Orange County on death row.

    There are more than 700 murderers statewide who are under a sentence of death, but there has not been an execution in the state for more than seven years, in part because of a moratorium on executions while a judge decides whether lethal injection is crfuel and unusual punishment.





    Stays Of Execution



    Paul Augustus Howell - Florida Execution - STAYED

    A federal appellate court has stopped the execution for now of a drug trafficker convicted of killing a Florida state trooper with a pipe bomb.

    The 11th U.S. District Court of Appeal in Atlanta granted the stay to Paul Augustus Howell on Monday. He is scheduled to be executed Tuesday.

    Howell's lawyers are appealing a federal judge's rejection of a last-ditch appeal. Chief U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers, though, certified an appeal to the 11th Circuit.

    The South Florida drug ring member was convicted of murdering Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford in 1992. Fulford stopped a car for speeding in north Florida. He was killed when he opened a gift-wrapped microwave oven with the bomb inside after finding it in the vehicle.

    Authorities say Howell intended the bomb kill two Marianna women because they knew too much about a drug-related killing.




    Reversed/New Trials/Resentenced/Released/Commuted

    Andre Burton - California Death Row

    On January 28, 2013, the Federal District Court GRANTED Burton's Writ of Habeas Corpus and VACATED his conviction.




    Jeffrey Keller Davis - Mississippi

    Jeffrey Keller Davis, the man who has spent 20 years on death row for his role in the 1991 slaying of a Greene County woman, was re-sentenced today to life without the possibility of parole.

    In May 1992, Davis was found guilty in the July 11, 1991, shooting and stabbing death of his friend Linda Hillman.

    Davis, now 52 years old, was convicted of capital murder while engaged in robbery, and he was given a death sentence.

    After an appeal, however, his death penalty sentence was overturned in 2012, and he went before the court again on Monday for re-sentencing.

    A jury was selected, but Davis agreed to plea to life without parole after consulting with his attorneys and his family, according to District Attorney Tony Lawrence's office.

    "The sentence of life without parole provided the victim's family with a sense of justice today," Lawrence said.

    "They are satisfied with the sentence of life without parole," he said, though "20 years has not erased the pain they experience every day because of the loss of their loved one."

    Lawrence said the 1991 crime "was a senseless and unnecessary taking of a life that has had a tragic affect on all the families involved."

    Court records show that on July 12, 1991, Davis called now deceased Greene County Sheriff Tommy Miller at home and confessed to killing Hillman 30 hours earlier.

    Davis told Miller that he had gone to Hillman's trailer before 6 a.m. on July 11 to get money to buy drugs.

    When she refused him, Davis shot and stabbed her to death and then went to Pascagoula to buy drugs.

    Records show Davis had a history of cocaine, alcohol, Valium, Xanax and marijuana abuse.

    After conviction, Davis filed multiple appeals as he spent more than 2 decades in prison.

    The state Supreme Court agreed in 2012 to vacate his death sentence and ordered a second sentencing trial after agreeing that he was denied effective counsel at the sentencing phase of his original trial.

    The Supreme Court found that his attorney failed to conduct an independent investigation, did not present readily-available evidence of Davis being abused as a child by his father and did not call witnesses to testify about Davis' good behavior while incarcerated.




    Leon Jermain Winston - Virginia

    The Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney has dropped a bid to have the death penalty re-instated for a man convicted of killing a pregnant woman and her husband in 2002.

    At a news conference Thursday morning, Lynchburg Commonwealth’s attorney Michael Doucette said they will no longer pursue the death penalty for Leon Winston.

    Winston was originally sentenced to death for killing Anthony and Rhonda Robinson as their young daughters watched, but a court overturned the death sentence. Winston will serve three life terms in prison, plus an additional 73 years.

    Winston’s death penalty sentence was overturned when the Supreme Court upheld a lower court's ruling Monday. The lower court found that Winston's legal representation was ineffective because attorneys did not raise the possibility that Winston may be mental retarded.

    Doucette said he decided to stop pursuing the death penalty for Winston after talking to the guardian of the Robinsons’ children. The guardian said that the process would be too traumatizing for the family. The daughters were 4- and 8-years-old at the time of the murders.

    "The fact that Winston will never leave the penitentiary alive was most important to the family," Doucette said.

    Doucette said that Winston's original death sentence was the first in Lynchburg since the 1960s.




    Supreme Court Denials

    Tyrone L. Noling - Ohio Death Row




    State By State Capital Punishment News

    Oregon

    Oregon’s complicated relationship with capital punishment takes center stage this week as a House committee takes up Gov. John Kitzhaber’s plea for a public vote on repealing the death penalty.

    On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee will hear public testimony on a measure that would ask voters in 2014 whether to insert 10 words in the state constitution: “A sentence of death shall not be imposed or executed.”

    The proposal doesn’t seem likely to go very far, especially after voters in California rejected a similar measure last year.

    House Speaker Tina Kotek said she wants to see more evidence the measure could pass in Oregon, although she stopped short of ruling out a 2014 vote.

    “I think it was unfortunate that California wasn’t successful, and I think that impacted our ability to be successful in the near term,” Kotek said.

    Rep. Mitch Greenlick, the Portland Democrat sponsoring the measure, said he believes it would pass, and he’d like to see the measure go forward. Kitzhaber told reporters last month that he’d like to see a vote in 2014 even if polling showed the measure was unlikely to pass.

    One Republican, Rep. Bob Jenson of Pendleton, has signed on. He said death penalty cases are expensive to try and to appeal, and forensic evidence has proven the innocence of some death row inmates around the country.

    “Once you throw the switch, it’s impossible to reverse those mistakes,” said Jenson said.

    In 2011, Kitzhaber issued a temporary reprieve for Gary Haugen, a death row inmate who waived his right to legal appeals and was scheduled to be executed. The governor called for a statewide vote on whether to continue the practice, saying he was morally opposed to capital punishment and was convinced Oregon’s death penalty system was broken.

    Haugen is now challenging Kitzhaber’s reprieve, arguing that the clemency is invalid because he didn’t agree to it. A Marion County Circuit Court judge sided with Haugen, and the state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case next month.

    Josh Marquis, the district attorney in Clatsop County and a vocal supporter of the death penalty in the most heinous cases, said the legal requirements to impose the death penalty in Oregon are extremely robust to ensure no innocent or improperly represented inmates are executed. The state spares no expense on defending death penalty cases, he said.

    “It is rarely sought by prosecutors in Oregon, and it is even more rarely imposed. And I think that’s the way it should be,” Marquis said.

    Oregon has 37 people on death row.

    The state has a complex history with capital punishment. Voters have outlawed it twice and legalized it twice, and the state Supreme Court struck it down once. Voters most-recently legalized the death penalty in 1984, with 56 percent in favor of capital punishment.

    Since then, the state has executed two people, both during Kitzhaber’s first stint as governor between 1995 and 2003. Both inmates, like Haugen, had volunteered for execution, waiving their appeals, and Kitzhaber said that he’d long regretted his decision not to block them.

    “I do not believe that those executions made us safer, and certainly they did not make us nobler as a society,” Kitzhaber said in announcing his reprieve for Haugen. “And I simply cannot participate once again in something I believe to be morally wrong.”


    Maryland

    Gov. Martin O’ Malley’s efforts to repeal the death penalty were buoyed Friday when senators in favor of repeal rebuffed an amendment that would allow execution in certain cases.

    In a 27-19 vote, senators rejected a clause to permit the death sentence in cases where a person has been found guilty of heinous crime.

    State Sen. Richard Colburn, who introduced the measure, recounted the gruesome details of the 2009 kidnapping of 11-year-old Sarah Foxwell, who was sexually assaulted and killed on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

    “Think about what happened to this poor, innocent girl,” the Eastern Shore Republican said.

    Baltimore City Democrat Sen. Lisa Gladden, who supports the repeal, countered by saying, “What I want for these types of offenders, I want them to sit every day and think about what happened. Then when they get tired of thinking about what happened, I want them to think about it again.”

    The Senate broke for recess after a three-hour floor session, but is scheduled to take up more amendments Monday. A final vote on the bill could come as early as Tuesday.

    The necessity of repeal, given Maryland’s restrictive authority to execute prisoners, monopolized the debate.

    Senators who want to keep the death penalty argued that existing laws that limit capital cases to those with biological or DNA evidence, a videotaped confession or a videotape linking the defendant to a homicide provide the necessary statute to punish criminals who commit the “worst of the worst crimes” and allow prosecutors to use the death penalty as a bargaining chip.

    But State Sen. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat, used Maryland resident Kirk Bloodsworth, who sat in the gallery during the debate, as the archetype for why the death penalty should not exist.

    Bloodsworth, a Maryland man, spent two years on death row for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl outside Baltimore, and was later exonerated because of DNA evidence.

    “With the death penalty, there’s no going back. Death is forever,” Raskin said.

    Senators approved an amendment that would give the governor the power to change the sentence of the five men currently on death row from a sentence of death to life without the possibility of parole, a provision many argued is already allowed under the state’s constitution.

    An amendment to eliminate a $500,000 crime fund created to aid the families of murder victims was also approved, although O’Malley has indicated that he will create the fund through other means.

    Maryland’s last execution was during the administration of Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich in 2005.

    The state’s death penalty has been on hold since a 2006 court ruling said the state’s lethal injection protocols weren’t properly approved by a legislative committee. Executions can’t resume until the protocols are approved.

    Thirty-three states still have the death penalty. If approved, Maryland would be the sixth state to repeal it in recent years.


    North Carolina

    More than 1,000 convicted killers have been sent to North Carolina's death row since 1910, when the state began executions. About 150 death row inmates currently sit behind the heavily guarded walls of Central Prison in Raleigh, at 1300 Western Blvd.

    North Carolina is a death penalty state, yet legal battles have put executions on hold for more than six years. Some believe a more conservative legislature and governor will push to see death sentences carried out again.

    WRAL News was given a chance to look behind the walls of Unit III at Central Prison and see a day in the life on death row.

    North Carolina’s death row inmates live in 11x7-foot cells and have access to a community room with stainless steel tables for playing chess, writing, watching a small TV or listening to music on their see-through audio players. Outside each death row pod, prison guards sit behind dark-tinted glass, monitoring the inmates.

    Two days a week, a few death row inmates at a time – all dressed in red jumpsuits – get to spend one hour in an exercise yard, where they can play basketball, walk or jog. Some work in the canteen or as a janitor, but no one can make more than a few cents a day.

    They can also receive one visit a week with a maximum of two visitors. In the visiting booths, visitors can see and talk with inmates, but physical contact is not possible. While they share many of the same privileges regular inmates have, death row inmates have no contact with the general prison population.

    “They have access to the dining room. They have access to books. They have access to writing. They walk to the dining hall – the same things, except they’re segregated. It’s their own little community,” said Central Prison warden Kenneth Lassiter, who has worked for the state Department of Public Safety for 24 years.

    Lassiter works closely with the death row inmates and said he believes in fair treatment. “They’re human. Our constitution tells us we must and will treat them as human,” he said. "The minute that we let them rot, they're going to become more violent."

    Chaplain Randall Speer also works with the condemned and shares the warden's sentiment. "We need to always remember, they're people, they're human beings, they're human beings first," he said.

    One death row inmate, whom WRAL News was not allowed to name or show his face for legal reasons, said he is treated well. “Me personally, I would say above and beyond what we probably deserve,” he said.

    Victim's daughter witnesses execution: 'I was glad that he died'

    Polls consistently show a majority of North Carolinians want the death penalty to be carried out. Teresa Murray is one of them. She watched as one of her father’s killers, Ernest Basden, was executed in December 2002.

    “I was glad that he died,” Murray said. “When I walked out of there, I felt a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. I really did.”

    Her father, Billy White, was killed in a murder-for-hire plot 21 years ago. Three people were convicted, including White's wife, but only Basden was sentenced to death. Murray said she plans to come to Raleigh to testify in parole hearings against the other two.

    "I do not think they deserve to walk as a free person on this earth again," she said.

    Guilt is something never far from the minds of some who live on death row.

    “Every time I close my eyes, I see those victims. I said at my trial, 'Sorry is not enough,'" the death row inmate said. “The hardest part here, if you have a conscience, is to forgive yourself.”

    High on drugs and looking for money to buy more, he was convicted of killing two people during a robbery 18 years ago. Twenty-two executions later, he knows his time will be up one day.

    “I wash my face and look in the mirror every day. This could be the day I’m called down there and served with the countdown,” he said.

    Death row inmates are given a 45-day countdown until execution. When the date is a week away, they are moved to a death watch area – a small room with four cells and one stainless steel table. On the day of the execution, the inmate is allowed to visit with family members, attorneys and a chaplain. All of Central Prison feels the weight on execution days.

    Speer, the chaplain, said inmates ask themselves: “Am I going to be next?”

    NC inmates die by lethal injection

    In 1998, North Carolina made lethal injection its only method of execution.

    At midnight, in preparation for the execution, the inmate is secured with lined ankle and wrist restraints to a gurney. Cardiac monitor leads and a stethoscope are attached. Two saline intravenous lines are started, one in each arm, and the inmate is covered with a sheet, according to the state Department of Public Safety's website.

    The inmate is given the opportunity to speak and pray with a chaplain. The warden then gives the condemned an opportunity to record a final statement that will be made public. At 2 a.m., correctional officers roll the inmate on the gurney into the old gas chamber, and the execution begins as up to 16 witnesses watch.

    The lethal injection process involves the simultaneous slow pushing into two intravenous lines of chemicals contained in two separate sets of syringes, according to the Department of Public Safety. The syringes are prepared in advance, and each contains only one drug.

    The first syringes contain no less than 3000 milligrams of sodium pentothal, an ultra-short acting barbiturate that quickly puts the inmate to sleep. The second syringes contain saline to flush the IV line clean.

    The third syringes contain no less than 40 milligrams of pancuronium bromide (Pavulon), which is a chemical paralytic agent. The fourth syringes contain no less than 160 millequivalents of potassium chloride, which at this high dosage interrupts nerve impulses to the heart, causing it to stop beating. The fifth syringes contain saline to flush the IV lines clean.

    After a flat line displays on the EKG monitor for five minutes, the warden pronounces the inmate dead, and a physician certifies that death has occurred. The witnesses are escorted to the elevators, and the body is released to the medical examiner.

    Samuel Flippin was the last person to be executed at Central Prison – in August 2006. The first execution was in March 1984. North Carolina has executed a total of 43 inmates – 42 men and one woman. Four women are also on death row at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh.
    Last edited by Jan; 03-03-2013 at 03:05 PM.

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