[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----CALIF., IND., MO.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 3



CALIFORNIA:

Jury: Death for '60 Freeway Slayer'----Jurors recommend death penalty for
serial slayings of prostitutes


Jurors recommended the death penalty for the man dubbed the "60 Freeway
Slayer," who was convicted of killing 6 prostitutes and dumping their
bodies along the highway running east from Los Angeles.

The jury deliberated on Ivan Hill's punishment for 4 days before reaching
a decision late Tuesday.

During testimony last month, a parade of friends and relatives had urged
jurors to spare Hill's life. They described him as a good man despite
being raised in an abusive home, and Hill's 2 sisters testified they saw
their father shoot their mother on Christmas Day 1968.

Prosecutors said Hill had a violent past and deserved the death penalty.

Hill was convicted November 17 of 6 counts of 1st-degree murder for the
1993 and 1994 killings of Roxanne Bates, 31, of Montclair; Helen Ruth
Hill, 36, of Pomona; Donna L. Goldsmith, 35, of Montclair; Cheryl Sayers,
34, of Ontario; Betty Sue Harris, 37, of Pomona; and Debra Denise Brown,
33, of Los Angeles.

(source: Associated Press)






INDIANA:

Inmate seeks to halt execution


An Indiana prisoner facing execution by lethal injection later this month
has filed a federal lawsuit on the grounds he would suffer unnecessarily
during the procedure.

Attorneys for Norman Timberlake, 59, filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S.
District Court in Indianapolis. It seeks a preliminary injunction and
temporary restraining order stopping Timberlake's scheduled execution.

Timberlake is scheduled to die Jan. 19 at the Indiana State Prison in
Michigan City for the 1993 murder of Master Trooper Michael Greene in
Indianapolis.

The suit says the 3-drug cocktail commonly used by Indiana isn't
calibrated by the inmate's size or medical history, so Timberlake could
suffer unnecessarily. Indiana Department of Correction officials "are
acting with deliberate indifference to the plaintiff's serious medical
needs," the lawsuit argues.

It refers to the decision last month by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to suspend
executions after one death-row inmate took more than 30 minutes to die
using a similar mixture of drugs.

The Indiana attorney general's office has not yet responded to the
lawsuit, which was the second filed last week by Timberlake. On Wednesday,
the other suit asked the federal court to delay the execution on the
grounds Timberlake is insane.

(source: Indianapolis Star)






MISSOURI:

Death case appeal centers on method


Missouri has failed to correct the "arbitrary, dangerous manner" that it
has used to execute its prisoners, according to attorneys for death row
inmate Michael Taylor.

They asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to uphold the decision of a
U.S. district judge in Kansas City who found that Missouri's death penalty
process creates a risk of unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

The arguments on behalf of Taylor were mailed Tuesday afternoon to the 8th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

Taylor, 39, came within hours of being executed in February before the
appeals court ordered a halt.

Taylor and a co-defendant, Roderick Nunley, were sentenced to death for
the 1989 rape and killing of Ann Harrison. The 15-year-old was abducted
outside her Kansas City home while waiting for a school bus.

Taylor's attorneys raised the same argument being made in courts around
the country that the sequence of drugs used by most states, including
Missouri, could subject an inmate to excruciating pain if not properly
administered.

After several hearings, a U.S. district judge in June found Missouri's
execution process flawed and ordered several changes, including having a
doctor trained in administering anesthesia oversee any future executions.

State officials appealed the ruling to the 8th Circuit. Oral arguments are
scheduled for Jan. 10.

In their brief filed last month, Missouri officials said they were unable
to find a doctor willing to accept that role, but state attorneys argued
that safeguards in the written execution protocol, along with the use of a
nurse, pharmacist or emergency medical technician to mix the chemicals,
were a sufficient safeguard.

In their brief Tuesday, Taylor's lawyers argued that Missouri has proposed
only cosmetic remedies to careless execution practices.

They cited problems with a Florida execution and a judge's order halting
executions in California as part of the "increasing recognition" that
lethal injection can be torturous.

(source: Kansas City Star)