[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., GA., OKLA., ORE., ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 8



FLORIDA----impending execution

Death Row Inmate's Case Before Court


The lawyer for a man set to be executed next week said newly discovered 
evidence should spare his client from the death penalty.

Robert Waterhouse's lawyer argued his case before the Florida Supreme Court on 
Tuesday. The 65-year-old was sent to death row for the rape and murder of a St. 
Petersburg woman in 1980.

Lawyer Robert Norgard disagreed with a lower court judge who found a new 
witness not to be credible. That person came forward recently to claim he saw 
Waterhouse leaving a bar with 2 men and not with the victim on the night she 
was killed.

Gov. Rick Scott already has signed a death warrant and Waterhouse is scheduled 
to be put to death Feb. 15.

(source: Lakeland Ledlger)






GEORGIA:

Judge denies aging appeal in 1994 death penalty case


A local judge declined this week to grant a new trial to a Columbus man 
condemned to death in 1994, turning down an initial appeal that had been 
pending for nearly 18 years.

The case of Ward Anthony Brockman is 1 of 3 local death penalty cases that have 
been stalled at the earliest appellate stage more than a decade after 
conviction. Brockman’s appeal now will be sent to the Georgia Supreme Court for 
an automatic review, a step often completed within the first few years of a 
capital conviction.

A 47-page order signed Monday by Superior Court Judge Gil McBride attributed 
the sluggish pace of Brockman’s appeal to the death of a court reporter, a 
change in appellate counsel and a dormancy of some eight years in which “no 
hearings were held until its subsequent resurrection in 2009.”

The inordinate delay was among dozens of issues Brockman’s defense raised in an 
amended motion for a new trial. The defense claimed Brockman’s right to due 
process and a meaningful appeal was violated due to the state’s failure to have 
the transcript completed in a timely fashion.

But McBride’s order, which was prepared by Assistant District Attorney David R. 
Helmick, rejected that assertion and many others.

“Defendant’s argument that he should be granted a new trial because his appeal 
was delayed is disingenuous as a very large part of the delay was caused by 
defendant’s own inaction,” the order says.

Brockman’s defense attorney, Richard C. Hagler, said he wasn’t “tremendously 
surprised” by McBride’s order, adding he expected the case to end up before the 
state Supreme Court.

Brockman, 40, admitted to fatally shooting gas station attendant Billy Lynn in 
June 1990 during a botched armed robbery. A co-defendant who pleaded guilty to 
voluntary manslaughter said Brockman killed the man “to keep him from bragging 
to his friends that he stood up to armed robbers.”

Brockman, meanwhile, claimed the gun discharged accidentally after Lynn failed 
to hand over his cash. McBride held, however, that jurors were free to 
“disbelieve” Brockman’s testimony, adding the evidence at trial was enough to 
support the felony murder and attempted armed robbery convictions.

The motion for new trial also argued that Brockman’s death sentence was invalid 
because he wasn’t convicted of the underlying capital felony of armed robbery. 
Testimony at trial showed Brockman fled the scene of the shooting without 
getting any money.

But McBride sided with prosecutors, who said the law only requires a defendant 
to be “engaged in the commission” of a capital felony for it to qualify as an 
aggravating circumstance in a death penalty case.

(source: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)






OKLAHOMA----impending execution

Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to discuss death row clemency hearing


The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has scheduled a special meeting to discuss 
a possible clemency hearing for death row inmate Garry Thomas Allen.

The board is to meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the state Department of Corrections 
Administrative Office in Oklahoma City.

Allen was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the Nov. 
21, 1986, fatal shooting of 42-year-old Lawanna Gail Titsworth, the mother of 
his children. But Allen's 2005 execution was stayed when prison officials 
reported he had developed mental problems on death row.

A jury in 2008 rejected Allen's argument that he shouldn't be put to death and 
decided he was sane enough to be executed.

He is currently scheduled to die by injection on Feb. 16.

(source: Associated Press)






OREGON:

Attorneys For Death Row Inmate Michael Washington Challenge Conviction In The 
Oregon Supreme Court ---- JDL Attorneys LLP, attorneys for Oregon death row 
inmate Michael Spencer Washington Jr., filed their opening brief in the Oregon 
Supreme Court, raising over 20 claimed errors committed in the trial.


JDL Attorneys LLP, attorneys for Oregon death row inmate Michael Spencer 
Washington, Jr., have filed a 250-page opening brief challenging the conviction 
in the Oregon Supreme Court, in case S058490. The brief is available at the 
firm's website.

According to the brief, Washington was convicted of the murder of Muhammad 
Jabbie in 2010. The principle evidence came from Shirleen Stafford, who 
confessed to the murder, but fingered Washington after prosecutors cut her a 
deal. Stafford is now free, and Washington is on Oregon's death row.

For past coverage of the case, see:

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2010/03/clackamas_trial_opens_in_case.html

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2010/05/gresham_man_gets_death_penalty.html

"In my opinion, after reviewing this case and comparing it to the other capital 
crimes in Oregon's history, this case may well have been based on the thinnest 
evidence in Oregon's history of capital punishment," says Bronson James, 
Washington's lead attorney. "Mr. Washington has always maintained his innocence 
in this crime. The only person we know for certain who is responsible for Mr. 
Jabbie's death is Shirleen Stafford, and she's walking free, thanks to her deal 
with the state."

The brief raises over twenty claimed errors committed by the trial court in the 
case, inlcuding improper contact between the court an the jury, secret court 
security measures, and prosecutorial miscondct.

No date for argument in the case is currently set.

(source: Associated Press)






ARIZONA:

3 death-row inmates sue state over executions


3 inmates on Arizona's death row have sued the governor, the state corrections 
director and those who conduct executions, arguing that a new execution 
protocol violates their constitutional rights.

In a filing obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, the inmates' attorneys 
argue that the new protocol - made public last month - gives too much 
discretion to Arizona Department of Corrections director Charles Ryan.

The protocol says that Ryan can decide with which and how many drugs to execute 
inmates. He has also loosened requirements for those who inject the lethal 
drugs.

Before, everyone on Arizona's execution team needed to have at least 1 year of 
current experience with starting intravenous lines. Now, the protocol says that 
those on the execution team need only have past experience starting IV lines 
and that Ryan can decide whether someone on the medical team is "appropriately 
trained."

"The Department of Corrections undid the constitutional protections that were 
built into the previous protocol and now gives total discretion to the 
director," said Dale Baich, the attorney who represents one of the inmates in 
the lawsuit.

Matt Benson, a spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer, said the governor "is confident 
that the procedures followed by the Arizona Department of Corrections are in 
accordance with state and federal law."

Corrections spokesman Bill Lamoreaux didn't respond to requests for comment 
Monday. He said last week that the department hasn't lowered standards in its 
new execution protocol and changed it merely to simplify it.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Arizona on Monday, seeks to have 2 
upcoming executions delayed as the litigation plays out. The lawsuit argues 
that giving Ryan discretion to execute 1 inmate one way and another inmate in a 
different way violates prisoners' rights.

"Clear standards must exist, and deviations from those standards result in 
equal protection violations," the lawsuit says.

Baich also argues that the last time Ryan chose an execution team, one of its 
members had an arrest record that didn't come to light until after he had 
helped conduct the state's past 5 executions by inserting IV lines.

Court records show the team member, a Yuma-based corrections officer, had been 
arrested for drunken driving and public intoxication, didn't have a medical 
license, and last inserted IV lines on a regular basis in the mid-1990s when he 
was in the military.

It's unclear whether the officer is still on the execution team.

The inmates suing include Robert Henry Moormann, who is set to be executed on 
Feb. 29 for killing and dismembering his adoptive mother in Florence while on a 
"compassionate" furlough from prison. Robert Charles Towery, who was convicted 
of killing a man while robbing his home in 1991, is set for execution March 8 
and is named in the suit.

The 3rd inmate suing is Pete Rogovich, who was sentenced to death for a 1992 
crime spree in which he fatally shot 4 people and robbed 2 businesses. His 
execution hasn't been scheduled.

(source: Arizona Daily Star)