[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., DEL., OHIO, IND., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 2


PENNSYLVANIA:

Pitt-Bradford students to hold symposium on death penalty----The movie "At the 
Death House Door," which will be shown Friday night as part of the criminal 
justice symposium on the death penalty


Criminal justice students at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will hold 
a symposium on capital punishment beginning at 7 p.m. Dec. 5 in the Barbara and 
Lester Rice Auditorium in Fisher Hall.

Students in the Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice course will present 
arguments for and against the use of the death penalty as well as ethical 
standpoints for each side. Dr. Patricia Brougham, assistant professor of 
criminal justice, teaches the Ethical Issues class.

Following the student presentations, Dr. Michael Klausner, associate professor 
of sociology will make a brief presentation about his research on the topic.

The discussion is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

The audience will be encouraged to ask questions and openly discuss the topic. 
The discussion will be followed by a presentation of the film, "At the Death 
House Door."

The movie follows the career of Carroll Picket, death house chaplain for 15 
years in the "Walls" prison unit in Huntsville, Texas, where he presided over 
95 executions, including the 1st lethal injection.

(source: Bradford Today)

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Casey: Prison guard pepper spray program expanding


A pilot program to equip prison workers with pepper spray will expand to 6 new 
medium-security facilities, including Federal Correctional Institution, 
Allenwood, in central Pennsylvania, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey announced Monday.

The move also will give pepper spray access to recreational, food service, and 
other employees who regularly interact with inmates.

While the project has broad national significance, it also resonates closer to 
home, in the wake of a Nanticoke correctional officer's brutal 2013 death at 
the Canaan Federal Correction Complex near Waymart.

Donald and Jean Williams, parents of slain officer Eric Williams, will be in 
Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to discuss their experiences with Casey and other 
officials, the senator said.

"Obviously, I can't even begin to imagine what they have been through, having 
lost a son to that kind of violence, in that setting." Casey, D-Scranton, said. 
"He was a law enforcement officer, murdered on the job. I can't imagine 
anything worse."

Jessie Con-Ui was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2013, charging him 
with killing Eric Williams, 34 of Nanticoke, in a premeditated attack at the 
Canaan Federal Correction Complex near Waymart. According to the indictment, 
Con-Ui stabbed Williams with a sharpened weapon and struck him repeatedly.

The U.S. Attorney's office in October filed a notice of intent to seek the 
death penalty against Con-Ui.

Donald Williams, in an October interview said his family is seeking legislation 
to make the death penalty mandatory for killing a federal officer and is 
lobbying for better safety for correctional officers. He and his wife also have 
supported Casey's proposals.

Pilot program

Run by the Bureau of Prisons, the program closely mirrors legislation Casey 
introduced in the wake of Williams' death, according to a statement from the 
senator's office. Casey successfully urged BOP to launch a pepper spray pilot 
program for high security prisons that eventually expanded nationwide. That 
included Canaan and the high-security facility at the Allenwood complex.

"This announcement is a step in the right direction that will increase the 
safety of prison workers," Casey said. "It's critical that Congress pass 
legislation that would make this pilot program permanent and ensure prison 
officers across the country have the tools they need to stay safe on the job."

In a telephone interview Monday afternoon, Casey said that Williams' death, 
coupled with his own visit to a federal prison, encouraged him to work on the 
legislation. Casey described prison employees working in situations where they 
were outnumbered, unarmed and surrounded by an atmosphere of hostility.

The Government Accountability Office released a report in 2011 which found that 
some state correctional facilities which allow guards to carry pepper spray saw 
reduced assault rates as a result of the policy.

Until 2012's Casey-backed pilot program for high security prisons was 
initiated, BOP had barred all correctional officers from carrying pepper spray.

Casey said he has been encouraged by bipartisan support for the program, adding 
that the GAO report has helped bolster support for the cause.

(source: Times Leader)






DELAWARE:

Death penalty sought in 2012 soccer tournament murders


"Let the punishment fit the crimes." That's what Deputy Attorney General Ipek 
Medford told a group of jurors on Monday as they decide whether or not 
38-year-old Otis Phillips will receive the death penalty.

The jury found Otis Phillips and 23-year-old Jeffrey Phillips, who are not 
related, guilty on Nov. 21 of 1st degree murder for the death of Herman Curry 
and manslaughter for the death of 16-year-old Alexander Kamara.

Prosecutors argued that the men were out for revenge when they shot and killed 
Curry at Eden Park on July 8, 2012. Curry, who was a soccer coach and had 
organized the event, was targeted because he had witnessed a murder allegedly 
committed by Otis Phillips in 2008.

Kamara, a soccer player, was killed in the crossfire.

During opening statements of the penalty hearing phase, the prosecution argued 
that Otis Phillips is a violent, cold-blooded killer who had no mercy for 
anyone when he opened fire in Eden Park in 2012.

Medford also said the death penalty is the "only punishment that will fit the 
crime."

The defense argued that Otis Phillips came from a poverty stricken village, has 
a low IQ and is "a guy who never had a chance."

According to his attorneys, Phillips, a native of Guyana in South America, was 
abandoned by his parents, and left to fend for himself in a violent, 
underdeveloped village.

When his family finally brought him to the United States, he struggled in 
school because he was so far behind and had trouble adjusting.

The defense is asking for a sentence of life in prison and will call character 
witnesses including a neuro-psychologist who will provide details of Phillip's 
psychological profile.

After the penalty hearings, the jury will make their recommendation to Judge 
Calvin Scott. If their decision is not unanimous, Phillips will automatically 
receive life in prison. If their decision is unanimous for the death penalty, 
Judge Scott could choose to take their recommendation or hand down a sentence 
of life in prison.

Jeffrey Phillips will have a separate penalty hearing.

(source: newsworks.org)






OHIO:

Senate weighs bill to shield execution drugmaker


The Ohio Senate is getting its 1st look at a bill that would shield the names 
of companies providing lethal injection drugs to the state for at least 2 
decades.

The measure requires a drugmaker to specifically ask for anonymity, rather than 
receive it automatically, under an agreement that would allow release of the 
company's name 20 years after it last provides drugs to the state.

The bill getting its 1st hearing Tuesday before the Senate Criminal Justice 
Committee also gives judges the ability to view information about a vendor 
after consultation with Ohio's prisons department.

Proponents say the state prisons agency can't obtain the drugs to carry out the 
death penalty while companies' names are public.

Opponents say the public has the right to know the drugs' source.

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

Inmate challenges convictions, death sentences for inmate slayings in 1993 Ohio 
prison riot


An inmate convicted and sentenced to be executed for the slayings of fellow 
inmates during a 1993 prison riot in southern Ohio is challenging his 
convictions and death sentences before a federal appeals court.

The 6th U.S. Circuit court of Appeals will hear arguments Tuesday in 
45-year-old Keith LaMar's appeal. LaMar was convicted of aggravated murder in 
1995 in the deaths of 5 inmates during the riot at the Southern Ohio 
Correctional Institution in Lucasville. A jury recommended the death penalty in 
4 of the slayings.

Among LaMar's appeal arguments is his claim that he was denied a fair trial 
when prosecutors were allowed to withhold evidence from the defense. He says 
prosecutors failed to provide the defense with transcripts and summaries of 
interviews with inmates who witnessed the slayings.

(source for both: Associated Press)

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

Hearing delayed in sentencing phase of Shawn Ford's murder case


A Summit County court hearing to determine whether convicted killer Shawn Eric 
Ford Jr. is ineligible for the death penalty has been postponed.

The hearing, over a defense request to present expert psychological testimony 
that Ford is intellectually and developmentally disabled, had been set for 
Wednesday before Common Pleas Judge Tom Parker.

Scheduling conflicts, however, necessitate a delay in the proceedings, court 
officials said Monday. A new date for the hearing has not been set.

Ford, 20, could become one of the youngest men on Ohio's death row. He was 
convicted Oct. 31 in the April 2013 bludgeoning deaths of prominent area 
attorney Jeffrey Schobert, 56, and his wife, Margaret Schobert, 59, in their 
New Franklin home.

Jurors recommended life in prison for the slaying of Jeffrey Schobert, then 
voted unanimously to recommend death in the slaying of his wife. Margaret 
Schobert was killed after her husband, following her return home from visiting 
their daughter in the hospital.

Following the verdicts, issues arose over alleged juror misconduct in 
deliberations, along with defense claims that Ford is intellectually disabled 
and, thus, barred from facing the death penalty under U.S. law.

Ford was 18 at the time of the murders. Courtroom testimony showed he scored 62 
on an IQ test at age 8, and 80 in another test last year while awaiting trial.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year blocked the execution of a Florida man 
whose IQ was 80.

Ford, who is being held in the county jail, had been dating the couple's 
daughter at the time of the murders. Trial testimony showed that he had a 
vendetta against the Schoberts for blocking him from visiting her at the 
hospital.

(source: ohio.com)






INDIANA:

Should Indiana still cling to the death penalty?


The more people removed from the pool, the more problematic it is.

Will it be worth pursuing the death penalty in Indiana ever again? It's a fair 
question, asked in exasperation by Johnson County Prosecutor Brad Cooper, who 
complains that his county just wasted "millions of dollars and tens of 
thousands of hours to win the death-penalty conviction of rapist-murderer 
Michael Dean Overstreet.

St. Joseph County Judge Jane Woodward Miller, following the guidelines of a 
1986 Supreme Court decision that people with severe mental illnesses cannot be 
executed if they cannot understand why the state is putting them to death, has 
ruled that he is not competent enough to be put to death. That means he will 
remain on death row, but he cannot be executed unless his mental condition 
improves.

Overstreet is a paranoid schizophrenic who believes, a forensic psychiatrist 
has testified, that he???s either already dead or in a coma and that the 
execution would allow him to wake up in his body and return to his family.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that children and the mentally retarded 
cannot be executed, on the grounds that they will not understand what is 
happening to them. So perhaps add the severely mentally ill to that list. 
Indiana University law professor Jody Madeira says the judge's ruling sets a 
high threshold that could be more difficult for attorneys to prove, especially 
in cases of death row inmates who suffer from shorter-term or less severe 
illnesses than Overstreet's paranoid schizophrenia.

Indiana already executes very few people. Just plain old 1st degree murder 
isn't enough - capital punishment is reserved for the worst of the worst. And 
very few of them get more than life with paroled - death penalty cases and the 
ensuing years of the appeal process simply cost more than many counties can 
afford.

It has been 5 years since anyone was executed in Indiana. The more people we 
remove from the death penalty pool, the greater the chance the years between 
executions will grow even more. Our capital punishment system will be without 
rhyme or reason, and that will be both arbitrary and capricious, clearly and 
directly forbidden by the Constitution.

Capital punishment can serve legitimate functions in a civilized society, if it 
is thoughtfully and carefully pursued. That is not being done in Indiana.

(source: Editorial, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel)






NEBRASKA:

Parents of murdered woman call for end to Nebraska's death penalty


After Vicki and Sylvester Schieber's daughter, Shannon, was raped and killed in 
1998 in Pennsylvania, they became outspoken advocates for justice reform and an 
end to the death penalty and will host 4 public events in Nebraska beginning 
Sunday.

The Schiebers lead the successful 2013 campaign to end the death penalty in 
their home state of Maryland and helped pass improved services for Maryland 
homicide victims' families. Vicki Schieber is a member of the national Catholic 
Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty, and her husband, who has a Ph.D., 
in economics, talks about why he feels the death penalty is a fiscal failure.

Their Nebraska tour starts in Lexington.

* Sunday, 11:30 a.m., First Presbyterian Church of Lexington

* Sunday, 7 p.m., St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church, 14330 Eagle Run Drive, 
Omaha

* Monday, 6:30 p.m., meet-and-greet dinner open to people who have lost loved 
ones to violence, Omaha Teachers Administrative Building, 5th floor, 3215 
Cuming St., Omaha

* Tuesday, 7 p.m., University of Nebraska at Kearney Newman Center

More, nadp.net.

(source: Lincoln Journal Star)