[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 27



TEXAS----impending execution

Texas Prepares for Miguel Paredes' Execution Scheduled for October 28, 2014

Miguel Angel Paredes is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CST, on Tuesday, 
October 28, 2014, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in 
Huntsville, Texas. 32-year-old Miguel is convicted of murdering 23-year-old 
Nelly Bravo, 23-year-old Shawn Michael Caine, and 37-year-old Adrian Torres on 
September 17, 2000, in San Antonio, Texas. Miguel has spent the last 13 years 
on Texas' death row.

Miguel is 1 of 20 children, although 7 of his siblings died before he was born. 
Miguel was born in Chicago, Illinois to Mexican immigrant parents. Miguel's 
parents eventually moved the family to San Antonio, Texas, where Miguel 
eventually fell in with the violent Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos gang. Miguel 
claimed he joined the gang thinking he had found loyalty and love. By the age 
of 15, Miguel had a pregnant girlfriend and a criminal record.

Early in September of 2000, Adrian Torres, a member of the Mexican Mafia, had 
given John Anthony Saenz over $800 worth of cocaine. Shortly thereafter, he 
began calling Saenz's house seeking repayment. On September 17, 2000, Saenz 
told his wife to leave because Adrian was coming over and he was "going to take 
care of business." Saenz called and asked Greg Alvarado and Miguel Paredes to 
come over with weapons for back up.

Adrian brought Nelly Bravo and Shawn Caine along with him. The 3 were ambushed 
by Saenz, Alvarado and Paredes. After Adrian, Nelly, and Shawn were killed, 
they were wrapped in carpet and placed in the back of a pick-up truck. After 
driving for a while, they pulled over on a dirt road and burned the carpets and 
the bodies.

Saenz and Alvarado each received a life sentence. Paredes was sentenced to 
death.

(source: The Forgiveness Foundation)






OHIO:

U.S. appeals court upholds death penalty for convicted Toledo murderer


A federal appeals court today rejected the argument from convicted murderer 
James Frazier that he is mentally retarded and exempt from Ohio's death 
penalty.

Frazier, 73, on death row at Chillicothe Correctional Institution, was 
convicted of robbing and killing Mary Stevenson, a disabled woman at Northgate 
Apartments in Toledo where Frazier was attending a crack cocaine party late on 
the night March 1, 2004, or early the next morning. Frazier apparently robbed 
Ms. Stevenson for money when the party ran short of drugs.

IQ tests conducted before Frazier's trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court 
found his score to be slightly above 70, the threshold above which the law 
presumes someone is not mentally retarded. The court noted that the expert 
hired by the defense found he was not retarded, prompting his attorneys to drop 
that line of strategy at trial.

Among other things, the latest appeal argues that his defense was ineffective 
in not continuing to pursue that plan. But the Cincinnati-based U.S. 6th 
Circuit Court of Appeals said that decision was not out of line given the facts 
the defense had at the time.

The court said Frazier failed to meet the higher burden of proving he is 
actually innocent of the death penalty because of his mental capacity.

"In Frazier's favor are the facts that he attended special-education classes, 
that he never progressed beyond the 10th grade, that he earned 2 Cs, 21 Ds, and 
1 F in high school, and that he was labeled a "slow learner..." wrote Judge 
Karen Nelson Moore. "However, being placed in special-education classes does 
not necessarily render someone mentally retarded. And failing to complete high 
school does not necessarily result from subaverage intellectual functioning....

"If Frazier needed to prove his limitations only by a preponderance of the 
evidence, we might be inclined to agree with him," Judge Moore wrote. "However, 
at this stage of the litigation, Frazier's proof must be clear and convincing. 
The limited and muddled academic records make this impossible."

Frazier was convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, and aggravated 
burglary. Ms. Stevenson, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was strangled and 
her throat slit as Frazier made away with 1 of her purses.

(source: Toledo Blade)

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

Death penalty phase begins in sledgehammer killing of New Franklin Township 
couple


A jury will now consider whether to recommend the death penalty for a 
20-year-old man accused of bludgeoning a New Franklin Township couple to death 
with a sledgehammer.

The Summit County jury on Wednesday found Shawn Ford, 20, guilty of attacking 
his ex-girlfriend and later killing her parents, Jeffrey and Margaret Schobert 
in April 2013.

The jury convicted him of 5 counts of aggravated murder, 2 counts of aggravated 
robbery, and 1 count each of petty theft, grand theft, aggravated burglary and 
felonious assault.

(source: Northeast Ohio Media Group)