[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., ALA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 10



TEXAS:

State Seeking Death Penalty Against 1 of 3 Suspect in Mustafa Murder


The 3 people accused in the April 14 shooting death of Benjamin Mustafa 
appeared in court Friday to determine whether the State will be pursuing the 
death penalty against them.

Victoria Cavazos, Arturo Navarro and Daniel Garcia, all 26 years of age, were 
arrested and charged with capital murder. They are accused of shooting and 
killing Mustafa at his convenience store, the Tim's Market in the 1600 block of 
Ayers, during an attempted armed robbery.

At the Nueces County Courthouse Friday, District Attorney Mark Skurka told the 
judge that the State would only be pursuing the death penalty for Garcia. For 
the other 2 suspects, the State is waiving the death penalty.

(source: KIII news)






SOUTH CAROLINA:

Request to Remove Death Penalty Option Denied


A judge denied a motion to take the death penalty off the table as a 
possibility for a Lexington County father accused of killing his 5 children.

Lawyers for 32-year-old Timothy Ray Jones Jr. appeared in court Friday on his 
behalf.

Jones is accused of killing the children at their home in Lexington County, 
then dumping their bodies in a rural area of Alabama. He was arrested at a 
traffic checkpoint in Mississippi.

The judge held a hearing because Jones attorney accused the Lexington County 
Sheriff's Department of violating a recent gag order put on the case. The item 
in question was a May 2012 incident report that was given to the Associated 
Press.

Jones' attorney asked the judge to fine the sheriff's department and take the 
death penalty away as an option for prosecutors.

The judge denied the request saying that he doesn't believe that the sheriff's 
office deliberately released the documents to violate the gag order. The judge 
did say that he will make amendments to the gag order to make it more specific, 
and hopes that they will be able to still get a jury of Lexington County 
residents when the trial starts.

(source: WLTX news)

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

Judge denies Tim Jones Jr., first defense motions


Timothy Jones Jr, the Lexington father accused of killing his 5 children waived 
his right to appear in court Friday morning.

In a courtroom Friday defense attorneys saying they want the death penalty 
taken off the table for Jones.

The defense is claiming the Lexington County Sheriff's Department violated a 
gag order when they released the incident report from May 29, 2012.

According to that report he threatened to snap his wife's neck and shoot his 
neighbors.

But Judge Thomas Russo denied that request because Russo doesn't think the LSCD 
willfully violated the gag order.

That gag order was issued by Circuit Judge Thomas Russo last month after Jones' 
attorney argued; he couldn't get a fair trial due to the flood of publicity 
generated by the case.

The order applies to comments made outside of usual legal proceedings 
pertaining to the case.

The order says some records and court hearings remain public, but no comments 
made outside those venues are allowed by law enforcement, lawyers, court 
officials, medical examiners, possible jurors or anyone "potentially involved" 
in the trial.

The release of 911 calls, coroner reports, investigators notes, witness 
statements, and documents about Jones medical and mental conditions is also 
barred.

Investigators say the children, ranging in age from 1 to 8, were last seen with 
their father in Lexington County.

Lexington County authorities say the father, who is the children's primary 
legal custodian, was detained on Saturday, September 6 in Raleigh, Mississippi,

Police said when Jones was pulled over; officers saw children's clothes but no 
children. Investigators also found blood and cleaning fluids in the car.

Deputies say Jones later led them to the bodies of his 5 children in an Alabama 
field.

(source: WACH news)






ALABAMA:

Death row inmate sues to stop new execution protocol


An Alabama death row inmate wants a federal court to declare the state's new 
execution protocol cruel and unusual punishment.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Southern District for Alabama Wednesday, 
Christopher Lee Price, sentenced to death for the brutal 1991 murder of Bill 
Lynn, a Tuscaloosa minister, argues that the 3-drug protocol adopted by the 
Alabama Department of Corrections last month would cause excruciating pain and 
violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office had no comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

The state long used sodium thiopental as its anesthetic in execution 
procedures, but switched to pentobarbital in 2011 after manufacturer Hospira 
stopped making sodium thiopental in the United States. The state acknowledged 
it was out of the drug earlier this year.

On September 10, the Alabama Department of Corrections adopted a new execution 
protocol, revealing it in filings with the Alabama Supreme Court later that 
week. Under the procedure, the condemned would first be administered 500 
milligrams of midazolam hydrochloride, a sedative; 600 milligrams of rocuronium 
bromide, a paralyzing drug and 240 milligram equivalents of potassium chloride, 
to stop the heart.

Price's attorneys argue that the midazolam will not sedate Price during his 
execution, and that the use of rocuronium bromide will paralyze him while he 
experiences the pain of from potassium chloride, effectively masking the 
reaction to the heart-stopping drug.

"Unlike sodium thiopental, midazolam hydrochloride will not induce general 
anesthesia sufficient to prevent an individual from perceiving and feeling pain 
from noxious stimuli such as rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride, even at 
high doses," the lawsuit says. "In other words, unlike sodium thiopental, it is 
substantially likely that midazolam hydrochloride will not render Mr. Price 
unconscious and insensate to the pain and suffering associated with rocuronium 
bromide (paralysis including forced suffocation) and potassium chloride (venous 
burning and stoppage of the heart)."

The state argued in filings before the Alabama Supreme Court last month that 
the protocol, based on one adopted by Florida last year, had been upheld by 
both the Florida Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Aaron 
Katz, Price's attorney and a partner in the Boston law firm of Ropes and Gray, 
said in an interview Thursday that botched executions in Ohio and Arizona, 
where midazolam was present, provided evidence against the procedure.

"We have a nationally recognized anesthesiologist who is going to be testifying 
for us, and will make it very clear that executing someone with midazolam and 
potassium chloride will expose an individual to excruciating and prolonged 
pain," he said. "The state is using a paralytic agent to mask all that."

In the botched Arizona execution, Joseph Wood, a convicted murderer, was heard 
to gasp at least 640 times before being pronounced dead. The lawsuit notes that 
Arizona has launched an investigation of its death penalty procedures and has 
delayed scheduling new executions until the review is complete.

Price, 42, was convicted in 1993 of the murder of Lynn. According to court 
records, Price attacked Lynn with a sword and dagger, leaving him with 38 
wounds and leaving him to die slowly. Katz said Price had changed while in 
prison.

"I know he spends every day regretting it," he said. "But he's not the same 
person he was."

Questions were raised at trial about the effectiveness of Price's counsel, who 
did not present mitigating evidence at his sentencing, particularly evidence of 
physical and sexual abuse of Price by his mother and other men. State and 
federal courts, however, declined to reconsider Price's sentence.

The lawsuit is before U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose.

Thomas Arthur, another death row inmate, has a pending federal lawsuit 
challenging the state's previous death penalty protocol. His attorney filed a 
motion with the Alabama Supreme Court last week challenging the state's attempt 
to set an execution date for Arthur, noting the pending federal litigation. 
Katz said he was aware of the Arthur case, but that the 2 were unrelated.

(soruce: Montgomery Advertiser)






OHIO:

Death row inmate Larry Gapen request for new trial continues


Testimony will continue next year for Larry Gapen, the man on death row for 
killing 3 people in 2000. Galen wants a new trial based on several claims that 
include allegations of juror misconduct.

Hearings will continue for a new trial on Jan. 9.

Gapen was convicted in 2001 of using an ax to fatally beat his former wife, 
Martha Madewell, her companion Nathan Marshall and her 13-year old daughter 
Jesica Young in September 2000. The slayings occurred in their Pleasant Hill 
Drive home.The jury recommended death for Gapen in Young's killing and life 
without parole in the other slayings.

According to the court filing asking for a new trial, Gapen's defense team 
claims:

A juror emailed the trial judge prior to sentencing that was never disclosed to 
defense counsel.Another juror revealed during an interview with Gapen's lawyers 
in December 2011 that "an extremely violent crime had taken place on his 
property prior to his service as a juror, and the crime was similar in many 
respects to the charges Gapen faced at trial." Gapen's original post-conviction 
lawyer interviewed that juror, but the juror "apparently failed to divulge the 
information at that time" or during the selection of the jury in the 
guilt/innocence phase of trial.

That 2nd juror claimed the jury, during its deliberations, was in possession of 
evidence that had not been admitted at trial and that it influenced the 
verdict. 1 of the jurors "was biased against anything other than a death 
sentence before the penalty phase" of trial.

The Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office continues to oppose the hearing, 
arguing in its filings that there was no indication Gapen did anything to 
discover the information his counsel said they obtained from the jurors in 
question before December 2011.

(source: WHIO news)