[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----S. DAK., OHIO, N.Y.

[Rick Halperin]

July 6



SOUTH DAKOTA----impending execution//volunteer

South Dakota Awaits First Execution In 60 Years


South Dakota's 1st execution in 60 years and what would be its 16th on
record is scheduled for sometime next week, nearly a year after the
governor delayed it due to legal concerns over the lethal injection
mixture.

25 year-old Elijah Page of Athens, Texas, has ended all appeals and asked
to die for the March 2000 murder of 19-year-old Chester Allan Poage (POHG)
of Spearfish.

He was scheduled to be executed last August, but Governor Rounds stopped
it just hours before because of a conflict between the 2-drug method
written in state law and a 3-drug combination that prison officials
planned to use. This past winter, lawmakers changed the law to let prison
officials use whatever lethal injection method they choose.

Mike Butler, Page's Sioux Falls attorney, says the governor and the state
Supreme Court chief justice have assured him that if Page wants to call
off the execution even moments before, his verbal request will be honored.

Butler says state and federal courts will be available to handle any
issues that arise.

He says he plans to watch the execution but won't restart the appeals
process unless Page directs him to.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Man Who Gunned Down 2 Witnesses Escapes Death Penalty


A man who was convicted of robbing a bank and killing 2 people escaped the
death penalty Thursday.

Although federal prosecutors sought the death penalty in the case against
56-year-old Thomas Henderson, the jury could not reach an agreement in
handing down such a punishment.

Instead, the jury sentenced Henderson to 2 life sentences for gunning down
2 federal witnesses, 10TV's Kevin Landers reported.

Henderson was accused of shooting and killing Robert Bass, of
Pickerington, in 1996, and Ecolia Washington, of Columbus, in 1988.

Both victims provided police with information about Henderson following a
1981 bank robbery in Georgia. Henderson was later convicted of the crime
and served 15 years in prison.

The jury found Henderson guilty on 2 counts of killing a federal witness,
and 2 counts of using a firearm in a crime of violence, according to a
release from the Department of Justice.

(source: WBNS TV News)






NEW YORK----federal death penalty trial

Guyana-born men face death penalty in the US


2 Guyana-born men were this week convicted in a United States Federal
District Court in Brooklyn for killing four persons as part of a life
insurance scam. They now face the death penalty.

The 2 men are Ronald Mallay, 61, and Richard James, 46. Prosecutors told
the court Tuesday that Malley, an ex-postal worker, and James, an
erstwhile insurance agent, orchestrated the poisoning and shooting deaths
of 4 people since the early 1990s. 2 of their victims lived in Queens,
while the others lived in Guyana.

The jury found them guilty of killing Basdeo Somaipersaud in January 1998,
in Smokey Oval Park in Queens, by giving him an overdose of alcohol and
drugs. They also found them guilty of the murder of Hardeo Sewnanan, 35,
in Guyana in 1999, who died from an ingestion of alcohol and ammonia.

(source: Jamaica Gleaner)