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Thread: Death Penalty Week In Review March 4 Through March 10, 2013

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    Death Penalty Week In Review March 4 Through March 10, 2013

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    Executions



    Frederick Treesh - Ohio Execution - March 6, 2013

    Summary of Offense: On August 27, 1994, Treesh murdered 58-year-old Henry Dupree, and attempted to murder 42-year-old Louis Lauver at an adult bookstore in Cleveland. Mr. Dupree was the security guard, and Mr. Lauver was a sales clerk in the bookstore. Treesh and an accomplice, Benjamin Brooks, robbed the bookstore in order to buy crack cocaine. During the robbery, Treesh fatally shot Mr. Dupree twice in the chest at close-range and shot Mr. Lauver in the jaw and forearm, leaving him seriously wounded.

    Victim: Henry Dupree

    Time of Death: 10:37 a.m.

    Manner of Execution: Lethal Injection

    Last Meal: Steak with mushrooms, eggs and hash browns, cottage cheese and onion rings, deep-fried mushrooms, a hot fudge sundae and sodas.

    Final Statement: Treesh, in a last statement, apologized for the death of Dupree, but said he wouldn’t say he was sorry to family members of a video store clerk killed in Michigan who were witnessing the execution.

    “I’ve never been tried, I’ve never been charged,” he said.

    After a few more comments he said, “If you want me murdered, just say it.”




    New Death Sentences

    Kevin Charles Isom - Indiana Death Row

    Judge sets execution date for convicted killer Isom

    Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr., set a Feb. 5, 2014, execution date for a Gary man who murdered his wife and stepchildren.

    Stefaniak imposed the sentence issued by the jury last month for Kevin Charles Isom.

    During a five-week trial, Isom, 47, was convicted Feb. 5 of the 2007 murders of his wife of 12 years, Cassandra Isom, 40, and stepchildren Michael Moore, 16, and Ci’Andria Cole, 13. All three were shot multiple times, including with a shotgun.

    Evidence presented by deputy prosecutors David Urbanski and Michelle Jatkiewicz showed that Cassandra Isom suffered a devastating shotgun blast to the head.

    “This was the execution of a family,” Urbanski said.

    Cassandra Isom’s brother, Eddrin Barnes, spoke for the family in a victim impact statement that described each of the victims and touched on the family’s wait of more than five years for justice.




    Current Death Row Inmates



    Frank Jarvis Atwood - Arizona Death Row

    High court case delays an Atwood resentence

    A decision on whether a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision created a possibility for longtime death-row inmate Frank Jarvis Atwood to get a new sentencing hearing has been delayed by yet another Supreme Court case.

    Atwood was convicted of kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson. He was sentenced to die in May 1987.

    On Thursday, his attorneys tried to persuade U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour to reconsider a 2005 decision that prevented them from arguing that Atwood's original attorney was ineffective during his sentencing hearing.

    Attorney Paula Harms argued that the Supreme Court's decision in Martinez v. Ryan significantly changed the law about ineffective-assistance claims and the decision applies in this case.

    If the judge finds that the case applies and that Atwood's claim has merit, Atwood could get a new sentencing hearing at which his attorneys plan to present previously unheard evidence about Atwood's mental illness and sexual abuse during adolescence.

    Assistant Arizona Attorney General Lacey Gard argued the 2012 decision does not apply, and the judge who sentenced Atwood knew most of the mitigating evidence when he sentenced him to death.

    Coughenour declined to rule on the Martinez question until the Supreme Court decides another case, Trevino v. Thaler, which deals with procedures surrounding ineffective-assistance claims.

    The oral arguments for the case already have been held.




    Marvin Pete Walker, Jr. - California Death Row

    Citing "horrendous crimes," a federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated the murder conviction and death sentence of condemned Santa Clara County killer Marvin Pete Walker Jr., one of the longest serving inmates on California's death row.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge's previous ruling setting aside Walker's 1980 murder conviction and death sentence, rejecting the argument that the jury's verdict was tainted by the fact he had been improperly shackled in front of jurors throughout the trial. The appeals court concluded it was not "reasonably probable" the shackling influenced the jury's decision.

    Walker's shackling was "trivial in comparison to the magnitude of his crimes," said 9th Circuit Judge Barry Silverman, writing for the court.

    Judge Ronald Gould partially dissented from the decision, saying he would have left the murder conviction intact but overturned the death sentence because of the potential prejudice during the penalty phase of the trial.

    U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong in 2011 overturned Walker's death sentence, saying that forcing him to "wear visible and painful restraints ... undermined the dignity of the judicial process."

    Attorney General Kamala Harris' office appealed that ruling.

    Walker is on death row for the 1979 murder of Joseph Vasquez, a 15-year-old Mt. Pleasant High School student, and for wounding two others during a $150 liquor store holdup in San Jose.

    During the trial, Walker also was convicted of assaulting, robbing and critically wounding 20-year-old Rosa Olveda during a separate holdup at a San Jose medical center.

    At the time of the crimes, Walker was 19 years old. In his appeals, Walker has maintained that his brother-in-law and convicted accomplice, Rupert Lee Harper, was the shooter in the liquor store murder. Harper, who has given conflicting accounts, is serving a 15-year-to-life term for second-degree murder.

    But the shackling issue was the focus of the 9th Circuit's ruling on Thursday.


    Donald Fell - Federal Death Row

    A man on federal death row for his role in the 2000 abduction and killing of a Vermont woman is asking to have his conviction overturned in part because his lawyers say a juror improperly collected information about the case.

    Donald Fell’s attorneys are expected to ask a federal judge in Burlington on Tuesday to overturn his 2005 conviction.

    Fell was convicted of the car-jacking death of 53-year-old Terry King. She was abducted as she arrived for work at a Rutland supermarket and later killed in New York.

    In his appeal, Fell claims one of the jurors who sentenced him to death made an unsanctioned trip to Rutland where he examined the locations where the crimes took place and then told other jurors about what he'd seen.




    Ward Anthony Brockman - Georgia Death Row

    Georgia Supreme Court upholds death penalty for man convicted in death of Columbus gas station owner

    The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously upheld the death sentence of Ward Anthony Brockman, convicted in the 1990 slaying of a Columbus gas station manager.

    In March 1994 a Superior Court jury convicted Brockman of felony murder and attempt to commit armed robbery in connection with the June 27, 1990 shooting death of Billy Lynn, 22 at the time of his death.

    “We find that the evidence, construed most favorably to the jury’s verdicts, was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find Brockman guilty of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt,” Justice Harold Melton wrote in the 67-page opinion. “Reviewing similar cases, considering both the crime and the defendant, we find that Brockman’s death sentence is not disproportionate under Georgia law.”

    Brockman filed a motion for a new trial which was denied in February 2012. Brockman then appealed to the state Supreme Court, leading to Monday's decision.

    In a 244-page brief, Brockman's attorneys argued that the trial court and state prosecutors committed more than 30 errors, according to a news release from the high court. Among them, they argued Brockman should not have been sentenced to death as the state failed to prove the existence of at least one aggravating circumstance because Brockman was only convicted of criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, not armed robbery.

    “The crux of Brockman’s argument is that the death penalty is not appropriate punishment in his case because he did not complete the armed robbery,” the opinion says. “However, it is not uncommon for an armed robber’s priorities to shift from completing the robbery to escaping from the scene once he has murdered the victim. The jury was authorized to conclude from the evidence presented at trial that Brockman acted accordingly.”

    At the time of the crime, Lynn was the afternoon manager of the Premium Oil gas station on Forrest Road, according to facts presented to the Supreme Court. The owner of the service station was in his office preparing sales reports when he heard a gunshot, followed by squealing tires. He went outside and found Lynn on his back by the gas pumps with a single fatal gunshot wound to the abdomen. Lynn had $70 in his front pocket. Witnesses told police they had seen a black Camaro Iroc in the vicinity with four men in it. One witness subsequently identified Brockman, 18 at the time, as the driver.

    A description of the vehicle was broadcast over the police radio, and soon after, an officer spotted the car. A high-speed chase ensued, crossing into Alabama where Brockman and the three other men abandoned the car in Phenix City. The four eventually returned to Brockman’s apartment where Brockman hid in the attic. He told his girlfriend to tell police no one was there and the others to keep quiet, while he buried himself in the attic insulation. Police found one of the men, Quentin Lewis, hiding in a downstairs closet.




    Roger Lee Gillett - Mississippi Death Row

    Gillett continues efforts to win new trial

    A death row inmate is asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to allow him to file a post-conviction petition seeking a new trial for his role in the 2004 slaying of a Hattiesburg couple.

    The appeal by Roger Lee Gillett is among dozens the Supreme Court will consider during its March-April term. A decision is expected later this year. The Supreme Court has not scheduled the case for oral arguments.

    The Supreme Court upheld Gillett's capital murder conviction and death sentence in 2010.

    In a post-conviction petition, an inmate argues he has found new evidence - or a possible constitutional issue - that could persuade a court to order a new trial.

    Gillett was one of two people charged in the 2004 deaths of Linda Heintzelman and Heintzelman's boyfriend, Vernon Hullett. Their bodies were found inside a freezer at an abandoned farm in Russell County, Kan., by law officers who were searching for drugs.

    Gillett was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007. The other defendant, Lisa Jo Chamberlin, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006.

    Prosecutors said Gillett and Chamberlin fled Mississippi to cover their tracks and hide the crime.

    The investigation began when authorities learned in March 2004 that Chamberlin and Gillett had a stolen vehicle and were making methamphetamine at the Kansas farm.

    Officers arrested the couple on March 29, 2004, at the Kansas home and a search found illegal drugs. A second search uncovered a freezer in which a dismembered body was found. The body was determined to be Vernon Hullett, Gillett's cousin. When they pulled the body out, Linda Heintzelman's frozen body was found underneath.

    Prosecutors said Gillett and Chamberlin were living with the victims in Hattiesburg at the time of the slayings.

    Chamberlin, in a taped confession played at her trial, said the victims were killed because they wouldn't open a safe in Hu llett's home, according to court records.

    In Mississippi, capital murder is defined as murder committed along with another crime; in this case, robbery.




    Donald Andrew Bess - Texas Death Row

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the death sentence of a 64-year-old man convicted of the 1984 rape-slaying of a Southern Methodist University student at her off-campus condo.

    The state's highest criminal court, ruling Wednesday in the case of Donald Bess, rejected 52 claims of error at his 2010 trial, including challenges to jury selection and instructions, expert testimony and sufficiency of the evidence.

    Bess already was serving life in prison for a 1985 Harris County rape when DNA testing in 2008 matched him to the long-unsolved murder of Angela Samota. Samota's sorority sisters from SMU had asked police to re-examine her death.

    The DNA technology wasn't available at the time of her slaying.

    Bess does not have an execution date and still can appeal to federal courts.


    Edward Lee Busby, Jr. - Texas Death Row

    In today's TCCA orders the court dismissed Busby's subsequent post conviction writ application as an abuse of writ without considering the merits of the claim.


    Travis Dwight Green - Texas Death Row

    Green was denied a post conviction application for writ of habeas corpus by the TCCA in their 03/06/13 orders.




    Larry Swearingen - Texas Death Row

    The attorney for Larry Ray Swearingen was in Conroe Friday requesting access to almost all of the evidence in the convicted killer's death penalty case.

    While Montgomery County prosecutors deemed the motion "a fishing expedition," Judge Kelly Case ruled Swearingen could review documents sealed from a 2012 evidentiary hearing.

    Swearingen, 41, was scheduled to die by lethal injection Feb. 27 for the December 1998 abduction, rape and strangulation of 19-year-old college student Melissa Trotter. But Case issued an indefinite stay of the execution after a hearing Jan. 30.

    Case said back then he would withhold setting a date until all the DNA testing had been completed.

    Swearingen was not present in the 9th state District Court Friday. His attorney, James Rytting, started the hearing by asking for all versions of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office offense report of the murder.

    Such a review might reveal evidence or individuals overlooked during the investigation.

    "We've gotten parts (of the case file)," Rytting said. "It's disjointed."

    Rytting also requested all the MCSO electronic, video and email communications pertaining to the investigation, but Montgomery County Assistant District Attorneys Warren Diepraam and Bill Delmore strongly objected to that request.

    "It would be like starting over," Diepraam said.

    Diepraam said Swearingen's camp has received at least 2 versions of the MCSO offense report.

    Delmore said there are "boxes and boxes and boxes" of evidence that are not connected to the case "in any way."

    "I believe we've turned over everything in existence to the defense," Diepraam said.

    "How are you certain?" Case said. "How do you know all (evidence) was turned over?

    "I'm not saying anything about you. Sometimes they just don't turn over everything."

    Rytting sought to know the harm of the state producing another version of the evidence.

    "The state is not harmed in any way," he said.

    "We are pleased with the ruling," Diepraam said. "(They) were wanting everything under the sun."

    Rytting got a victory for his client when Case approved a motion to have the DA's Office monitor the regular testing of material found underneath Melissa Trotter's fingernails in the national DNA database.

    Several times during the proceedings, Case wondered aloud why the documents from the hearing conducted Feb. 27 to March 9, 2012, had been sealed by his predecessor, Fred Edwards. Case inherited Edwards' cases Jan. 1, when he was sworn in as the 9th District Court judge.

    Early during the motion, Case admonished Diepraam for referring to Swearingen as the "most guilty" man in Montgomery County following the hearing Jan. 30.

    Case termed the prosecutor's remark as "reprehensible" and threatened to impose a gag order if such comments continued.




    Jury Recommended Death Sentences

    Steven Cepec - Ohio

    Jury recommends dealth penalty for Cepec

    The jury in the Frank Munz murder case recommended the death penalty Thursday for his killer, 43-year-old Steven Cepec.

    Cepec was found guilty Feb. 22 of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.

    Authorities said Cepec beat to death Munz, 73, with the claw-end of a hammer and strangled the Chatham Township historian with a lamp cord during a home invasion on June 3, 2010 — six days after the Ohio Parole Board released him from prison.

    Common Pleas Judge James L. Kimbler said he will consider the jury’s recommendation in the coming weeks. If Kimbler sentences Cepec to death, he would become the only Medina County resident on Ohio’s death row.

    Kimbler also could sentence Cepec to life in prison without parole or with parole eligibility at 25 or 30 years.

    Kimbler said Thursday that he expects to rule no later than April 25.




    Stays Of Execution



    Edward Harold Schad - Arizona Execution - STAYED

    U.S. Supreme Court refuses to clear way for Arizona execution

    PHOENIX — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to clear the way for an Arizona death row inmate to be executed for killing a man more than 30 years ago during a robbery, denying the state's request to lift a lower-court's order that blocked the execution.

    The late Tuesday decision by the nation's highest court postpones Wednesday's scheduled execution of 70-year-old Edward Schad, who was convicted of murdering 74-year-old Lorimer "Leroy" Grove of Bisbee in 1978.

    The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had blocked Schad's execution while a judge considers his claim that he was denied effective legal representation after his conviction. The state had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let the execution go ahead as planned.

    Schad's execution would be Arizona's 34th since 1992. Most recently, Richard Dale Stokley, convicted of murdering two 13-year-old girls in Cochise County in 1991, was put to death by lethal injection Dec. 5.

    Grove was last seen leaving Bisbee in a Cadillac that was pulling a trailer on his way to visit his sister in Washington state. Eight days later, his body was found south of Prescott in underbrush off the shoulder of U.S. 89. A sash-like cord that had been used to strangle Grove was still knotted around his neck when the body was discovered.

    Authorities say Schad drove Grove's car across the country for a month, used Grove's credit cards and forged a check from the victim's bank account. His lawyers say Schad has more than paid for his murder conviction in Grove's death and that no purpose would be served by his execution.




    Supreme Court Denials

    *Christopher Lee Price - Alabama Death Row

    Ronson Kyle Bush - Oklahoma Death Row

    Matthew Eric Souza - California Death Row


    * Inmate has exhausted all appeals




    State By State Capital Punishment News

    Colorado

    Bill to repeal Colorado’s death penalty will be introduced next week

    Beware the Ides of March.

    As if state lawmakers don’t already have their hands full with enough hot-button issues, legislation to repeal Colorado’s death penalty is set to be introduced next Friday, March 15.

    Multiple sources have confirmed that the legislation will be introduced in the House and will get its initial House committee hearing the following Tuesday, March 19.

    The bill will be sponsored by Reps. Claire Levy of Boulder and Jovan Melton of Aurora; on the Senate side the sponsors are Sens. Morgan Carroll of Aurora and Lucia Guzman of Denver.

    Introducing the bill just past the mid-way point of the legislative session underlines the political complications surrounding the bill.

    Democrats, who control both legislative chambers and the governor’s office, likely have the votes to pass the bill. The question is whether they want to add another controversial accomplishment to their 2013 resumes in a year when they’re already likely to pass several gun control proposals.

    They also risk a fight with one of their own, state Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, who is a staunch supporter of the death penalty.

    She fought for the death penalty for Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray, who both convicted of killing her son back in 2005.

    An additional political complication is the looming execution of Nathan Dunlap, who murdered four people in a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant 19 years ago and, along with Fields’ killers, is one of three people on Colorado’s death row.

    He’s scheduled to get the needle later this year.

    So the bill’s introduction and potential passage means a choice for Gov. John Hickenlooper: either sign a bill repealing the death penalty or sign an execution order for Dunlap.

    “The real focus here will be on Gov. Hickenlooper,” said political analyst Eric Sondermann. “Does he sign a repeal bill if it reaches his desk? My guess would be ‘yes’. Absent such a bill, does he commute Nathan Dunlap’s sentence when that last-ditch appeal reaches his office? That is a tougher, closer call.”

    Passing a package of tough gun control measures and repealing the death penalty in one session is a risk for Democrats, hoping to hold legislative majorities beyond 2014, and for Hickenlooper, a political moderate thought to be a safe bet for reelection at this point but starting to face more pressure from his own party’s base and its advancement of an ambitious legislative agenda and the resulting backlash from conservatives and moderates who think it goes too far.

    In Sondermann’s view, repealing the death penalty isn’t as risky as it might have been a few years ago.

    “Public opinion is moving on the death penalty as it is on a number of other hot-button issues, and that opposition to this ultimate sanction is no longer the political killer that it might have been five or ten years ago,” he said.


    Florida

    With more than 400 people on Florida's Death Row, a House subcommittee Tuesday approved a proposed constitutional amendment that is part of a plan to try to reduce delays in carrying out the death penalty.

    The proposed constitutional amendment would shift power from the courts system to lawmakers to set rules about what are known as "post-conviction" appeals in death-penalty cases. The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee also approved an accompanying bill that spelled out several steps for trying to speed up the process.

    Subcommittee Chairman Matt Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican who is sponsoring the measures, said he hopes the plan will spur changes that will prevent the need for going to the ballot in 2014 with the proposed constitutional amendment. He said, in part, he is trying to end "gamesmanship" that has contributed to lengthy appeals.

    "If there is no other way, this Legislature has to act and has to step forward,'' Gaetz said.

    But some lawmakers, the Florida Bar and a central Florida judge raised concerns about trying to take authority away from the courts. Rep. Mike Clelland, D-Lake Mary, said he couldn't support what he described as an "encroachment."

    "What I want to do is avoid a constitutional battle across the street … and I fear that that's where it's going to end up, and I just can't support that in good conscience,'' Clelland said, referring to the Florida Supreme Court, which is across the street from the Capitol.

    The subcommittee voted 8-5 to approve the proposed constitutional amendment (PCB CRJS 13-04) and 9-4 to approve the accompanying bill (PCB CRJS 13-05).

    The state constitution gives the Supreme Court the power to set rules for how the legal system works, limiting the ability of the Legislature to force changes. In 2000, the Legislature approved a law to try to shorten death-penalty appeals, but the Supreme Court found that the law was an unconstitutional encroachment on its powers.

    As of Sunday, the state had 404 Death Row inmates, more than any other state except California, according to a House staff analysis. Inmates spend an average of 13 years on Florida's Death Row, and 10 have been there for more than 35 years.

    Gaetz said the bill accompanying the proposed constitutional amendment includes a series of changes that would try to shorten timeframes in death-penalty appeals. Many of those changes are procedural --- such as shortening the amount of time in which motions can be filed and hearings held --- but others would take steps to rein in such issues as allegations that post-conviction attorneys have conflicts of interest. Those allegations can delay cases.

    But Belvin Perry, the chief judge in the 9th Judicial Circuit in Orange and Osceola counties, said the delays in carrying out the death penalty are broader than procedural issues. He said 94 Death Row inmates have exhausted their appeals but have not faced execution, an issue that he attributed, at least in part, to a need for more resources in the governor's office, the attorney general's office, the court system and in the offices of attorneys who handle inmates' appeals.

    Perry, who said he sentenced three of the 94 Death Row inmates who have exhausted their appeals, also warned that changes in the death-penalty appeal process could lead to disputes in federal courts.

    "Before we tinker with this too much, we need to think carefully because once you get the feds involved, you never know what will happen,'' Perry said.

    But Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, questioned whether the process would change if the Legislature does not get involved.

    "Without action by the Legislature, we are not going to see the necessary changes made,'' Harrell said.


    Kansas

    Bill introduced to abolish death penalty in Kansas

    A bill was introduced Thursday that would abolish the death penalty in Kansas.

    State Rep. Steven Becker, R-Buhler, said the bill would replace capital punishment with a sentence of life without parole.

    The measure would also establish a fund for anticipated savings from eliminating the death penalty, and use those savings to assist families of homicide victims.

    The last time the Kansas Legislature debated repeal of the death penalty was in 2010 when the Senate voted 20-20 to abolish capital punishment. That was one vote less than the 21-vote majority needed to advance the measure.

    Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994, but no executions have been carried out since then.

    Supporters of abolishing the death penalty say it requires extra funding to litigate death penalty cases, which robs dollars from other budget needs.

    Becker's bill was introduced before the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.


    Kentucky

    Ky. asks judge to lift ban on executions



    Kentucky prosecutors on Thursday asked a judge to lift a ban on executions, saying they have addressed the court's concerns about how the state will carry out lethal injections.

    The Kentucky Attorney General's Office said the new one- and two-drug execution protocols are sound and they want Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd to clear the way for the state's first execution since 2008.

    A hearing is set for March 18.

    Earlier this year, Kentucky switched from using three drugs to carry out a lethal injection to a method that uses 3 grams of sodium thiopental or 5 grams of pentobarbital _ similar to the method used by Ohio. If those drugs are not available within seven days of an execution date, the state may use a two-drug method involving continued injections of 60 milligrams of a combination of Midazolam and hydromorphone.

    Shepherd halted lethal injections in 2010 as the state prepared to execute Gregory L. Wilson, 56, for the 1987 rape, kidnapping and murder of 36-year-old Debbie Pooley in Kenton County.

    Shepherd expressed concerns about whether an inmate's mental state could be properly determined before an execution and later ordered the state to switch to a single-drug or two-drug method. The change brings Kentucky in line with at least seven states using the single-drug execution protocol. Kentucky previously used sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

    Attorneys for death row inmates have argued that the three-drug method caused an unnecessary risk of pain and asked a judge to order a switch to a single-drug execution process. Since Kentucky made the switch, the chemicals used in single-drug executions have been in dwindling supply.

    Prosecutors Heather Fryman and Julie Scott Jernigan told Shepherd defense attorneys are hoping to extend the litigation and force Kentucky into an execution process that can't be carried out because the drugs are in short supply. The attorneys dismissed defense arguments as a "Catch 22."

    States such as South Dakota have turned to compounding pharmacies to obtain drugs, the prosecutors said.

    "Other states have found supplies," Jernigan and Fryman wrote. "Thus, unless and until the department has attempted to obtain substances, and fails, any discussion of which protocol might be used, and what substances might be used, is purely academic and speculative."

    Public defender David Barron, who represents multiple death row inmates, said he will oppose lifting the order.

    Obtaining drugs for executions has become a tricky business in recent years. Companies that make sodium thiopental, a fast-acting anesthetic, have halted production of the drug in the United States, in part because of its use in executions. The maker of pentobarbital also opposes its use in executions.

    Kentucky has executed three inmates since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, with the last execution being carried out in 2008. At least two and as many as seven inmates are at or near the end of their appeals.


    Maryland

    Gov. O’Malley’s bill to repeal the death penalty is making headway, gaining approval from a Maryland House Committee.

    The House Judiciary Committee approved the measure in a 14-8 vote on Friday.

    The bill now moves to the full House floor, where it also expected to pass.

    State Senators have already approved the measure.

    Lawmakers backing the bill rejected several amendments that would have maintained the death penalty for acts of terrorism, contracted killers, criminals who commit murder on school grounds, criminals who murder police officers in the line of duty, kidnappers that kill and serial killers.

    The state has five men on death row.

    If passed, Maryland would become the 18th state to ban the death penalty.


    Nevada

    Lawmaker seeks to clamp down on death row appeals in Nevada

    Nevada’s last execution was in April 2006 and there are now 82 inmates in death row.

    Some of their convictions date back to the 1980s as their cases are mired in the courts.

    Sen. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, has introduced a bill to limit the petitions, which often are based on technicalities, including whether the attorney was competent in representing the accused at trial.

    Death sentences are automatically appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court. If unsuccessful, the convict can file a writ of habeas corpus, challenging a conviction on other grounds.

    Senate Bill 214 says a prisoner may not file a second or successive petition unless he gets approval of the court. The state Attorney General’s Office or the District Attorney’s Office would have the opportunity to file an answer to reject the request of the prisoner.

    In asking for permission to bring second and successive writ, the prisoner must demonstrate “by clear and convincing evidence” that he or she is innocent of the crime or that he or she is ineligible for the death penalty.

    Gustavson’s bill also eliminates the requirements that the courts are required to appoint a lawyer on the first petition for a writ of habeas corpus. It would be up to the court’s discretion whether to select a lawyer for the inmate on the petitions for a such a writ.

    This would save money in the judicial system, Gustavson said.

    The bill also says the courts will not be required to stay the executions on the subsequent petitions for a writ of habeas corpus.


    Texas

    Before Texas executed Marvin Wilson last year for the 1992 murder of Jerry Robert Williams in Beaumont, his case generated headlines, reminding the nation of a rather unique corner of death penalty law here.

    The standards used to determine whether a Texan convicted of murder is mentally fit to be executed are based in part on the fictional character Lennie from John Steinbeck's classic novel Of Mice and Men, a fact that enraged the author's son.

    "I find the whole premise to be insulting, outrageous, ridiculous and profoundly tragic," Thomas Steinbeck said, calling for a halt to Wilson's execution. "I am certain that if my father, John Steinbeck, were here, he would be deeply angry and ashamed to see his work used in this way."

    State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said Wilson's execution and other cases left him feeling embarrassed for his home state. "It's junk science. Its not a credible way of making a decision," he said.

    So Ellis filed Senate Bill 750, which would establish new -- and, he argues, more scientific -- standards to determine when a convicted Texan is too intellectually disabled to face the death penalty. The bill revives a decade-old fight with prosecutors, who argue that the current standards are adequate and that Ellis' proposal would make it too easy for defendants to make a case that they are mentally retarded and exempt from the death penalty.

    "Sen. Ellis' proposal creates two or three additional bites at the apple for a defendant to show he is mentally retarded, and it skews the process," said Shannon Edmonds, spokesman for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.

    In 2001, Texas lawmakers approved a bill by then-state Rep. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, now a state senator, that would have implemented new requirements for courts to have independent experts evaluate defendants to determine whether they were mentally retarded. Gov.Rick Perry vetoed the bill. In a proclamation with his veto, he argued that existing safeguards were effective in preventing the execution of the mentally disabled.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that states could not execute the mentally disabled because it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But it allowed states to develop their own criteria for mental disabilities.

    Texas lawmakers, though, were unable to agree on criteria. Prosecutors wanted a standard in which jurors would decide during the penalty phase of a capital murder trial whether a defendant was too intellectually disabled to face execution, allowing them to consider the person's past crimes in the decision-making. Defense lawyers supported creating a process that allowed a judge to evaluate the defendant's mental fitness.

    "A legislative fix is always preferable to a judicial fix when the parties can come together and agree on a solution," Edmonds said. "The problem is that prosecutors and anti-death penalty advocates have never been able to agree on how to address this legislatively."

    In 2004, when Jose Garcia Briseo's case came before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the nine judges were without legislative guidance and developed their own standards. Lawyers for Briseo, who is still on death row, argued that he was mentally retarded and should not face execution for the 1991 murder of a Dimmit County sheriff's deputy. The court rejected those arguments and in the process developed the so-called Briseo factors that are used now to determine whether Texas defendants are eligible for the death penalty.

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals invoked, in part, an evaluation of Lennie from Steinbeck's book, writing that "most Texas citizens would agree that Steinbeck's Lennie should, by virtue of his lack of reasoning ability and adaptive skills, be exempt from execution. But does a consensus of Texas citizens agree that all persons who might legitimately qualify for assistance under the social services definition of mental retardation be exempt from an otherwise constitutional penalty?"

    The court's three-part definition requires the convicted inmate to have below average intellectual function, to lack adaptive behavior skills and to have had those problems prior to age 18.

    Lawyers for at least 90 Texas death row inmates have brought so-called Atkins claims before the courts, arguing that their clients' limited cognitive functioning exempted them from execution. Of those, 14 have been deemed mentally retarded and their sentences commuted to life in prison.

    Prosecutors stopped asking legislators to approve standards after the court adopted the Briseo standards, Edmonds said, because they wearied of the fight with defense lawyers and because they were mostly satisfied with court's solution.

    "I think Texas can continue under the current standard and remain in compliance with Supreme Court case law," Edmonds said.

    But defense lawyers say that Texas still puts mentally retarded defendants to death, flouting the Supreme Court's prohibition. They argue that Ellis' bill is a critical step to ensure that the courts rely on scientific evaluations of mental capacity and that the state doesn't violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    "Reliance on the Briseo factors is frankly something that has made the state the butt of much scientific criticism," said Kathryn Kase, director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents death row inmates.

    Ellis' bill would use the definition developed by the American Association on Intellectual Developmental Disabilities to determine whether a defendant is eligible for the death penalty. A key part of the standard set out in the proposal is that the defendant must have an IQ of 75 or below to be exempt from execution. Delaware, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Washington use similar standards, but require an IQ of 70 or below for exemption.

    "The most appropriate thing for state statute is to be parallel to existing definitions that are existing professionally within the field," said Ed Polloway, dean of graduate studies at Virginia's Lynchburg College and a member of the AAIDD's death penalty task force. The task force is developing a guide for states to use to evaluate defendants for intellectual disabilities.

    "Our attempt is to stay as close to the science as possible," Polloway said.

    The AAIDD's definition of intellectual disability, he said, is used to determine state and federal aid for programs like Medicaid and special education placement in schools. The existing Texas death penalty standard, Polloway said, would allow for the execution of individuals who are considered intellectually disabled for the purposes of government programs.

    Ellis said basing decisions about who is fit for execution on established scientific research would save Texas money it would otherwise spend fighting inmates' appeals.

    "It will protect the rule of law and the integrity of our judicial system," he said.

    This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune


    Virginia

    Virginia's death row population down to 8

    Virginia's death row population has dwindled to eight from a peak of 57 in 1995, and it's not just because of the state's efficiency in carrying out capital punishment.

    A couple of death sentences have been erased recently -- one because of the inmate's mental health issues, another because a star witness changed his story and prosecutors withheld key evidence. Another inmate's innocence claim based on recanted testimony was revived last year by an appellate court and is in a judge's hands.

    But another major reason for the declining death row population is that fewer death sentences are being handed down. David Bruck of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse at Washington and Lee University School of Law says death row has received only two new inmates in nearly five years.


    Washington

    An effort to abolish the death penalty has never gained traction in Washington state, but supporters of the endeavor are not giving up.

    This year's bill to overturn capital punishment, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Reuven Carlyle of Seattle, will receive a public hearing on Wednesday. It's co-sponsored by 20 other lawmakers, including one Republican, Rep. Maureen Walsh of Walla Walla.

    The death penalty is currently used by the federal government and 33 states, including Washington. Seventeen states have abolished it, with Connecticut being the most recent last year.

    Since 1904, 78 men have been put to death in Washington. Eight men are on death row at the state penitentiary.

    Bills to abolish the death penalty have been introduced in past years in Washington state but have not garnered much support.

  2. #2
    mandie5644
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    Are these not updated anymore??? on any other forums.. Looking for new people on death row.

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Click the link below for a list of the 2014 death sentences.

    http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...eath-Sentences
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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