[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, NEB., ARK., MONT.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 25


TEXAS:

Death penalty on the table in murder case


2 defendants could face the death penalty when they go to trial next year in 
the December, 2006 killing of Seguin resident Vicente "Vincent" Garcia.

Guadalupe County District Attorney Heather McMinn said potential for capital 
punishment remains in play for Ronnie Lynn James Jr. and Charles B. Harris, who 
are charged with killing Garcia. The victim, 29, went missing Dec. 23, 2006. 
His body was found in Cibolo Creek off Scull Crossing near New Berlin on Jan. 
7, 2007.

2 other defendants, Beatrice Veronica Giles, 40, and her father, Maurice 
Singletary, 60, face first-degree felony allegations of criminal conspiracy to 
commit capital murder.

McMinn said all four defendants would likely face trial in 2012. All remain in 
custody or in prison in other cases. Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Darrell 
Hunter set bail on each at $1.5 million. James, 32, and defense attorney 
William Maynard III appeared in 2nd 25th Judicial District Judge W.C. 
Kirkendall's courtroom Wednesday for a pre-trial status hearing on capital 
murder and conspiracy to commit capital murder allegations.

Harris, who faces the same charges, will next be in court on Sept. 6.

If convicted on the capital murder charges, there are only 2 possible outcomes: 
life in prison without parole or death by lethal injection. Conviction for a 
1st degree felony carries a sentence of between 5 and 99 years in state prison.

McMinn said her office is reviewing its options as the cases progress.

"We haven't filed an election to seek the death penalty," McMinn said. "It's 
still on the table and it's something we'll be considering as we move closer to 
trial."

Garcia, last seen by his family on Dec. 22, 2006, was reported missing by his 
family, who told Seguin police there was no way he wouldn't spend Christmas 
with his children unless something bad had happened to him.

Police launched an intensive investigation that included a search for Garcia's 
body along the Guadalupe River.

Ultimately, it would be found in another part of the county in a different body 
of water - the Cibolo Creek, which serves as the border between Guadalupe and 
Wilson and Bexar counties.

The body was found weighted in the water on the Wilson County side of the 
creek, but Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwicke took on the investigation 
because he believed the killing had likely taken place within his own 
jurisdiction in retribution for Garcia's cooperation with authorities in local 
drug investigations.

A years-long effort by Guadalupe County Sheriff's Investigator Sgt. Craig Jones 
appeared to bear that theory out.

"The victim was to testify in a case against Beatrice Giles, and we believe 
that was the case," Zwicke said at a December news conference. "These 4 people, 
her boyfriend at the time, Charles Harris, her cousin, Ronnie James and her 
father, Maurice Singletary, all participated either in the homicide itself or 
taking care of things and trying to hide evidence after it happened."

All the alleged players were well known to law enforcement, as was the victim.

"They've been around the block with law enforcement before, and these were some 
hard-core people who needed to be off the streets of Guadalupe County," Zwicke 
said, thanking McMinn's office for its support of the investigation.

Jones reported in court documents that Garcia's family believed from the start 
that the disappearance was due to Garcia's aid to law enforcement.

"I learned that Garcia previously served as a confidential informant in certain 
criminal cases in/around the Seguin area," Jones wrote. "His service as a 
confidential informant led to the successful indictment and prosecution of over 
15 narcotics offenders."

One of them was Giles, and she wasn't happy about it, according to the 
documents.

"Giles told others she would pay to have Garcia killed; she knew Garcia was the 
snitch on her criminal cases; and she was looking for someone to kill Garcia," 
Jones wrote.

Garcia was at a home in the Meadowlake subdivision the night of Dec. 22, 2006, 
and James, Jones reported, stayed for a few hours, " ... coming and going to 
buy cocaine for Garcia and others at the house."

Sometime before dawn the morning of Dec. 23, 2006, witnesses saw Garcia leave 
the gathering with James in a borrowed pickup truck, Jones wrote. After a 
number of interviews, the investigator reported, James acknowledged his role in 
Garcia's death, telling authorities he drove Garcia to a supposed drug buy. At 
a roadside meeting at a location investigators have not disclosed, Jones 
reported Harris shot and killed Garcia.

After the shooting, James told Jones he drove the pickup to Singletary's 
property, where they tried to clean up evidence, including the blood of the 
victim.

Tests by the Department of Public Safety crime lab confirmed the victim's blood 
was found in the vehicle, Zwicke said.

It has been impounded ever since.

(source: Seguin Gazette-Enterprise)

*********************

Tx. executions under Gov. Perry------------total Tx. executions

Sept. 13--237--Steven Woods-----------------------------474

Sept. 15--238--Duane Buck--------------------------------475

Sept. 20--239--Cleve Foster-------------------------------476

Sept. 21--240--Lawrence Brewer-------------------------477

Oct. 27---241--Frank Garcia------------------------------478----50%

Nov. 9----242--Hank Skinner------------------------------479----50 + %

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






FLORIDA----impending execution

Manuel Valle execution set for Sept. 6


Florida officials are scheduled to put Manuel Valle to death on Sept. 6 at 6 
p.m. after the Florida Supreme Court yesterday approved the state’s new lethal 
injection drug cocktail.

Valle has spent more than 3 decades on death row and has avoided execution 
through a series of appeals, reversals and other legal wranglings that 
eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned his death penalty. 
In all, courts have re-sentenced Valle to death three times.

Valle, who was born in Cuba, was sentenced to death for the 1978 murder of a 
Coral Gables police officer, Louis Pena. Valle, now 61, shot Pena after the 
police officer pulled him over on a routine traffic stop.

The state’s highest court put the execution, originally ordered by Gov. Rick 
Scott for Aug. 2, back on track on Tuesday with an order approving the state’s 
new lethal injection drug protocol.

The court in July halted the execution and ordered a hearing on the Department 
of Corrections’ new drug – pentobarbital – substituted for a drug no longer 
manufactured and used as the 1st of the 3-drug lethal injection “cocktail.”

On Tuesday, the court approved the new protocol, saying it did not pose a 
substantial risk of harm to the inmate. Valle’s lawyers argued that 
pentobarbital, also known as Nebutal, may not render him unconscious, thus 
subjecting him to undue pain induced by the following drugs used in the 
procedure.

But the Supreme Court agreed with three other federal courts who also found no 
credible evidence that administering the drug in the method proscribed – 10 
times the dosage required for sedation – would not render Valle unconscious. 
Pentobarbital is also used in animal euthanasia and assisted suicide, but its 
manufacturer has asked prison officials as well as Scott not to use it to kill 
prisoners.

Lawyers for Valle are still pursuing a challenge against lethal injection in 
federal court and other appeals, including with the U.S. Supreme Court.

(source: postonpolitics.com)

***************************

Doubt even with cop killer


Florida's Catholic bishops have asked Gov. Scott not to sign a 2nd death 
warrant for Manuel Valle. They are right, but not for the reason they cite.

Valle's case shows why the death-penalty debate can be so maddening. He has 
been on Florida's Death Row for 31 years, after killing a Coral Gables police 
officer and trying to kill another. The facts never have been in dispute, yet 
Valle has tried every imaginable appeal, even to claiming that as a Cuban 
national his diplomatic rights were violated. The appeal that got Valle a stay 
of his scheduled Aug. 2 execution until Sept. 1 was the claim that because 
Florida 6 weeks ago changed a drug used in lethal injection, the state's method 
of capital punishment had become cruel and unusual.

On Tuesday, the Florida Supreme Court disagreed. The bishops, among them Gerald 
Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach, then wrote the governor, asking him to 
spare Valle's life. "Killing someone because they killed diminishes respect for 
life and promotes a culture of violence and vengeance," the letter said. "We 
affirm the right and duty of the State to assure public safety and punish the 
guilty by incarceration, which allows the inmate an opportunity for reflection 
on their offenses and sorrow for the pain they have caused others."

We appreciate the bishops' moral argument. A better legal point is one the 
American Bar Association cited in its 2006 indictment of Florida's death 
penalty system: The hybrid method of sentencing is a serious flaw. Juries 
recommend, but judges decide. Juries must be unanimous for conviction, but can 
recommend death with a simple majority. On Valle - a prior felon who killed a 
police officer - the jury split 8-4.

If fallibility won't prompt Florida to give up the death penalty, requiring 
unanimity to convict and to execute should be the legal and moral standard.

(source: Randy Schultz, for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board)

*********************************

Convicted murderers indicted in fellow inmate's death


2 state prison inmates serving life sentences for murder could face the death 
penalty if convicted in the slaying of another inmate. On Wednesday morning, a 
Bradford County grand jury indicted William “Crawfish” Wells and Wayne C. 
“Tazz” Doty on first-degree murder charges in connection with the May 17 death 
of Xavier Rodriguez. Wells is already serving six life sentences, and Doty is 
serving one.

The victim was serving a 10-year prison term.

All 3 men were inmates on K-Wing at Florida State Prison, a men’s prison 
operated by the Florida Department of Corrections.

Xavier Rodriguez was found stabbed to death, investigators said. Although 
Rodriguez was serving a 10-year prison sentence, he had been transferred to FSP 
— one of the state’s most secure prisons — for disciplinary reasons, according 
to prison records.

Rodriguez was sentenced to 10 years in prison in August 2006 after being 
convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon. Prison records show Rodriguez spent 
time in 5 state prisons before being transferred to FSP in February 2010.

The records also showed that his many disciplinary issues while in prison 
included fighting, extortion, possession of gang paraphernalia and disobeying 
orders.

Wells, 35, a former shrimper and fisherman, made national headlines in 2003 
when he told reporters he wanted to be put to death after being accused of 
killing his wife, her father and brother and two other people at his home in 
Mayport.

Wells claimed he accidentally shot his wife, then killed the four other adults 
over several days as they came to his home in the little fishing village.

Wells was found guilty of all 5 murders and sentenced to 5 life terms in 
prison.

In 2008, while being held in a South Florida prison, Wells was convicted and 
sentenced to a sixth life sentence for an attempted murder while behind bars.

Doty, 38, was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for a murder conviction in 
Hillsborough County.

Immediately after the indictments were handed down, State Attorney Bill Cervone 
said he was considering seeking the death penalty in the case.

Cervone’s decision might be made by the time the men are arraigned, possibly in 
early to mid-September.

(source: Gainesville Sun)






OHIO:

Ohio Supreme Court sets 2 execution dates for 2013


The Ohio Supreme Court has set 2 execution dates for 2013, the furthest into 
the future the court has ever scheduled death penalty procedures.

The announcement Thursday brings to 10 the number of executions scheduled from 
September through May 2013.

But uncertainty hangs over those dates because of a shortage of the drug Ohio 
uses to put inmates to death and because of questions about how well the state 
follows its execution procedures.

The court set a March 6, 2013 date for Frederick Treesh, sentenced to die for 
killing a security guard at an adult bookstore in Cleveland in 1994.

The court also set a May 1, 2013 date for Steven Smith, sentenced to death for 
raping and killing his girlfriend's 6-month-old daughter in 1998.

(source: Associated Press)






NEBRASKA:

Panel Rejects Death Row Inmate's Appeal----John Lotter Convicted In 1993 
Slayings


A federal appeals panel has rejected Nebraska death-row inmate John Lotter's 
attempt to appeal his conviction in the triple murder that inspired the 1999 
film "Boys Don't Cry."

In a judgment released Tuesday, 2 members of a 3-judge panel of the 8th U.S. 
Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal. The third, U.S. Judge Kermit Bye, 
disagreed, saying he would have allowed the appeal based on 5 claims by Lotter.

Lotter was convicted in the 1993 slayings of Teena Brandon and 2 others in a 
farmhouse near Humboldt. Lotter has maintained he is innocent. He claims that, 
among other things, the state used a threat of torture to coerce accomplice 
Thomas Nissen into lying about the killings.

Earlier this year, a federal judge denied Lotter's appeal.

(source: KETV News)






ARKANSAS:

'West Memphis 3' case shows we see what we expect to see


Last week, the "West Memphis 3" were released from prison, having spent half 
their lives 18 years behind bars for crimes they almost certainly didn't 
commit. So what made prosecutors and investigators sure they had the right 
guys, and why were those beliefs, once established, so hard to reverse?

The crimes for which the 3 Memphis men were convicted were brutal. Three 
8-year-old Cub Scouts were found dead, hogtied and apparently mutilated.

The police decided early on that it was likely the boys had been victims of a 
satanic cult killing, which led them to consider self-described Wiccan teen 
Damien Echols, a young man with asymmetric black hair, a pale face and oddball 
taste in clothes and music. They hauled in an acquaintance of his, a minor 
named Jessie Misskelley, who had an IQ of 72, and interviewed him for hours 
without his parents or an attorney present. Finally, he confessed, implicating 
Echols and another friend, Jason Baldwin.

The confession confirmed what police expected to hear — that Echols was 
involved — which may be why they accepted it at face value. But Misskelley's 
account contradicted the evidence in multiple ways. The time he initially gave 
for the murders was noon, an hour for which the other teens had an ironclad 
alibi (they were in school); he said that the other suspects raped the boys, 
but there was no medical evidence consistent with rape; he said the boys were 
tied up with a brown rope, when they were actually found tied with their own 
shoestrings.

An overarching problem, which this case illustrates perfectly, is that humans 
tend to see what they expect to see. Much psychological research shows that 
people are subject to an array of "cognitive biases" that affect their 
evaluation of evidence, and prosecutors and sworn officers are by no means 
immune to the phenomenon.

Investigators and prosecutors, even when they are trying their best to do their 
jobs, may seek out or take special notice of evidence that confirms their prior 
beliefs rather than evidence that challenges it. And they are likely to 
interpret ambiguous evidence in ways that accord with their preconceptions.

Misskelley promptly recanted his confession. But prosecutors nonetheless 
pressed the case, and he and the others were ultimately convicted.

The prosecutor's case was based largely on character assassination, innuendo 
and the not-very-credible testimony of the likes of a jailhouse snitch and a 
witness with a mail-order doctorate.

Not a shred of physical evidence linked any of the young men to the crime scene 
(and post-conviction DNA testing has also failed to find any biological 
evidence that they were there). Echols received the death penalty, the others 
life sentences.

That's how things might have ended if two documentary filmmakers hadn't 
ventured to Arkansas to make a film about the case. Initially they thought they 
would be examining a sensational satanic cult killing. But the more research 
they did, the more they began to doubt that it was a cult killing and that the 
men who were convicted were the perpetrators. Their film suggested the 
defendants had been railroaded, and it led to widespread publicity and 
higher-powered legal representation.

But nothing happened quickly. The film, "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at 
Robin Hood Hills," came out 15 years ago. Even now, to win freedom, the 3 men 
agreed to Alford pleas, whereby they proclaimed their innocence but formally 
pleaded guilty nonetheless.

The case demonstrates the need for criminal justice and evidentiary reforms 
that would make wrongful convictions less common on the front end.

Although releasing some fraction of those wrongfully convicted afterward is all 
to the good, it would be even better if there were fewer of them in the first 
place.

So what produces wrongful convictions? At least 3 of the often-seen causes were 
present here: dubious forensic science evidence, false confessions, and 
evidence from unreliable jailhouse informants who often have a strong incentive 
to tell law enforcers what they want to hear.

Cognitive bias helps explain why prosecutors can focus on a suspect (or 3) and 
fail to see the warning signs that they are headed down the wrong path. 
Cognitive bias is not the same thing as racial bias or personal animus. It's 
the habit of our brains to let the first fact we encounter guide our evaluation 
of the 2nd and the 3rd. One false start can lead to a miscarriage of justice 
more quickly than any of us would like to believe.

In this case, once the cops saw Echols as something of a freak, an odd duck who 
read about witchcraft, liked Metallica and didn't exactly fit in, the jump from 
weirdo to likely satanic cult killer was easier than it should have been. Facts 
that didn't really prove anything were lumped together with suspicions and 
dubious theories.

We can't eliminate cognitive biases altogether; they're part of how we think. 
But we can design procedures to reduce their effects on investigators, 
prosecutors and even jurors. For example, in every major case, an investigator 
or prosecutor with no prior involvement could be asked to review the evidence 
and assess its strengths and weaknesses.

Even better would be if this reviewer weren't expected to provide a "neutral" 
review but instead were assigned the role of devil's advocate. In this case, 
the filmmakers played an equivalent role, but most defendants aren't so lucky.

If this high-profile release helps spur thoughtful attention to the problems of 
combating cognitive bias in police departments and prosecutors' offices, then 
some good could still come out of a terrible wrong. Not only do bad convictions 
put innocent people behind bars; they also leave actual criminals — in this 
case a child murderer — on the streets.

(source: Opinion, Jennifer L. Mnookin is a professor at UCLA Law School----Los 
Angeles Times)





MONTANA:

ACLU, Montana spar over death penalty issue


The Montana ACLU plans to file an amended complaint to a lawsuit against the 
state's latest death penalty policy.

The ACLU says the new protocol doesn't require sufficient training or ensure 
that prisoners won't suffer.

But the state is standing by its lethal injections procedure.

Currently there are 2 inmates on death row at the Montana State Prison in Deer 
Lodge, William Gollehon and Ronald Allen Smith.

The ACLU's original lawsuit was filed in 2008 on behalf of Smith, who has been 
on death row for the past 26 years. He pleaded guilty to the killing of 2 men 
near Marias Pass in 1982.

The suit is challenging Montana's execution process, claiming that it violates 
the U.S. Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Anytime a 
death warrant is issued, the state Department of Corrections says it reviews 
the process to make any updates or changes; the last review was in 2006.

According to the Legal Services Bureau Chief Colleen Ambrose, the latest 
revision, conducted by retired Warden Mike Mahoney, mainly clarifies the 
wording of the procedure.

Ambrose said, "We've always had somebody who was at minimum EMT-certified. And 
so we just added that into the protocol to make sure that that's what we're 
already doing."

However, the protocol recently allowed the substitution of another drug, 
pentobarbital, to be used as the fast-acting barbiturate. That's because the 
drug that has been used in the past is no longer being manufactured.

Ambrose explained, "And in that process they just indicate that you can either 
use sodium thiopental if it's available or another fast acting barbiturate. And 
the one that we chose was pentobarbital."

Attorney Ronald Waterman is working with the ACLU, and he said, "The drugs that 
the state has now adopted are drugs that have been designed for a different 
purpose and many of those manufacturers are objecting to those drugs being 
used."

The Montana Attorney General's office is ready to defend the state's newest 
protocol, and plans to uphold Montana law, which allows for execution.

MT Assistant Attorney General Mark Fowler said, "The lethal injection execution 
process is the most humane form of execution in the United States."

The ACLU plans to file an amended complaint on the DOC's protocol within the 
next 75 days, and then it's back to court for the state which is standing firm 
on the lethal injection process.

If the death penalty is carried out, Smith will become the 4th prisoner to 
become executed in Montana since the death penalty was reinstated in the 
1970's.

(source: KXLH News)