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

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 2



PENNSYLVANIA:

Could Pennsylvania botch an execution?


Northampton mass murderer Michael Ballard has a death wish. Are Pennsylvania 
prison executioners ready to grant it?.

In the wake of three highly publicized botched executions this year in other 
parts of the country, as well as a shortage of the drugs used to kill those on 
death row, it's a question worth asking.

State prison officials say they're ready to give Ballard, or any other 
condemned prisoner, his final sentence. But a lack of transparency, especially 
about the drugs used in lethal injections, has raised concerns.

"Pennsylvania could be facing some of the same questions that these other 
states are now faced with," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the 
Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit group that 
maintains statistics on capital punishment.

"No state wants to have to defend a 2-hour, botched spectacle."

The scenes Dieter speaks of occurred in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona, and 
garnered national press attention.

--Jan. 16: Condemned murderer Dennis McGuire gasped for air for more than 25 
minutes after he was injected with an untried mixture of drugs. Witnesses said 
McGuire, 55, on death row for the 1989 murder of a pregnant 22-year-old, was in 
obvious pain during the procedure.

--April 29: Oklahoma inmate Clayton D. Lockett died of a heart attack 45 
minutes after his execution began. Problems arose when a phlebotomist could not 
find a usable vein and tried injecting the drugs into Lockett's "groin area," 
news reports say. 20 minutes after the execution began, Ohio officials halted 
the procedure and issued a 2-week stay.

Lockett, 38, who was sentenced to death for raping and murdering a 19-year-old 
woman in 1999, died of cardiac arrest while still in the execution chamber.

--July 23: Joseph R. Wood, 55, of Arizona was executed for the 1989 slaying of 
his ex-girlfriend and her father. A newspaper reporter observing the execution 
said Wood gasped 640 times after he was injected. The execution took 1 hour and 
40 minutes.

In the weeks leading up to his execution, Wood's lawyers were fighting to force 
the state to reveal the source of the drugs used in the procedure. He was the 
1st person to be executed in Arizona under a new 2-drug protocol, announced in 
March in response to a shortage of execution drugs.

That same shortage is what has prompted Pennsylvania's Department of 
Corrections this year to start buying its execution drugs from a compounding 
pharmacy, a private lab that mixes made-to-order medications for clients. 
Compounding pharmacies are regulated by state law, but are free of FDA quality 
assurance rules.

Critics say compounding pharmacies are not reliable. They point to 
headline-grabbing instances in recent years in which medications made in 
compounding pharmacies were tainted or mixed improperly. More than 50 people 
died and close to 700 were sickened with fungal meningitis in 2012 after 
receiving contaminated steroid injections made by a Massachusetts compounding 
pharmacy.

The event prompted a lawsuit, which was settled last year for $100 million.

Which compounding pharmacy will Pennsylvania order its execution drugs from? 
Citing privacy and safety concerns, officials won't say. State law does not 
require the Department of Corrections to reveal the source of those chemicals.

"The people of Pennsylvania have every right to be concerned in that regard," 
said Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center. "Ideally, you would want 
these experimental drugs tested by an independent pharmacist. That would 
require complete disclosure."

In Pennsylvania, death penalties are delivered in 3 syringes, administered in 
sequence. This process is mandated by legislation, said Susan Bensinger, 
Pennsylvania Department of Correction's deputy press secretary.

First, there's an anesthetic barbiturate, designed to quickly render the 
condemned unconscious.

Next comes a paralytic, a medication that paralyzes human muscles, including 
those that pump oxygen through the body.

Finally, a death row inmate is given a potassium solution, to stop the heart.

Drugs commonly used in the first step are sodium pentobarbital and sodium 
thiopental. The latter has been hard to find in recent years because U.S. 
makers stopped producing it, and death penalty-averse European firms have 
refuse to sell it to American prisons.

In Pennsylvania, the list of drugs used in execution is public record.

"Our current protocol is sodium pentobarbital or sodium thiopental, pancuronium 
bromide and potassium chloride," Bensinger said.

When asked if the department has the drugs needed to carry out an execution on 
hand, Bensinger said: "The DOC is preparing to carry out the order of the 
governor."

Bensinger declined to elaborate. She acknowledged that the drugs have an 
expiration date, reiterating that the DOC is "preparing."

Pennsylvania hasn't executed anyone since 1999, when Gary Heidnik was put to 
death for raping and murdering the 6 prostitutes he kept chained in his 
Philadelphia "House of Horrors" basement. Experts point to the numerous appeals 
allowed on capital cases in this state.

Still, Gov. Tom Corbett continues to order executions. On Aug. 18, he signed a 
warrant for Joseph Michael Parrish, a Monroe County man sentenced to death in 
May for the 2009 shooting death of his girlfriend and their 19-month-old son.

The most likely candidate for the next execution in Pennsylvania is Hubert L. 
Michael Jr., a York County man condemned for the 1993 kidnap and murder of 
16-year-old Trista Eng.

Michael pleaded guilty to abducting Eng as she walked to her part-time job at a 
Hardee's restaurant, then driving her to a remote area and shooting her twice. 
He had been scheduled to be executed on Sept 22. A federal judge on Aug. 18 
stayed the procedure so that an appellate court can rule on Michael's request 
to have a larger judicial panel consider his appeal.

Experts say that kind of appeal is likely to be decided quickly, so the 
execution might be rescheduled within months.

Michael, like Ballard, said he did not want to appeal. But in 2004, shortly 
before his 1st scheduled execution date, he filed a federal appeal, effectively 
stopping the process for nearly a decade.

In 2012, he made it all the way to the execution chamber, and even ordered his 
last meal of French toast, coffee and orange juice, before a U.S. District 
Court judge issued a stay.

That stay was lifted in June, and Gov. Tom Corbett in July issued an execution 
warrant.

Michael, and dozens of other death row inmates, have pointed to a pending class 
action lawsuit which states that Pennsylvania's method of lethal injection 
violates prisoners' constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.

The suit, filed by Bucks County killer Frank Chester in 2007, was created on 
behalf of all the state's death row inmates, as well as anyone who might end up 
on death row while it's pending. Chester, of Tullytown, was sentenced to death 
along with Levittown resident Michael Laird for the 1987 torture-slaying of 
Levittown artist Anthony Milano.

Chester's lawyers argue in the suit that the state's current execution methods 
carry an unnecessary risk that prisoners will suffer pain, and therefore 
violate prisoners' constitutional right. They take issue both with the drugs 
used in executions, and the way they're administered.

There's no black-hooded executioner on staff at the Pennsylvania Department of 
Corrections. According to department literature, the department employs a 
lethal injection "team," consisting of "a sufficient number of individuals 
qualified to administer the lethal injection," so that there will be at least 2 
people on hand at every execution.

Ballard, who was sent to death row in 2011 for murdering his girlfriend and 
three others in a stabbing frenzy, said in an exclusive interview with the 
Morning Call in July that he's not afraid to die, and has told attorneys to 
stop filing appeals on his behalf.

Northampton District Attorney John Morganelli is trying to help Ballard get his 
death wish by asking a judge to bar federal defenders from the case. A judge 
last week ordered Ballard to undergo more psychological tests before a decision 
is made.

(source: Morning Call)






OHIO:

Death penalty upheld for Cleveland man in Cuyahoga/Lorain/Sandusky spree


The Ohio Supreme Court today affirmed the convictions and death sentence 
imposed on Jeremiah Jackson, the Cleveland man who murdered Tracy Pickryl in 
2009 during the course of 6 robberies and other crimes in Cleveland, Sandusky, 
and Lorain.

The court's opinion, written by Justice Terrence O'Donnell, upholds the 
decision of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.

On June 2, 2009, Jackson went to the house of a friend, Stanley Bentley, to 
retrieve a bag with a gun inside that he thought he had left there. The men 
argued, and Jackson shot Bentley in the abdomen and fled.

Then on June 15, Jackson and an accomplice robbed the Super Wash Laundry in 
Cleveland. Later that night, Jackson participated in the robbery of a Cleveland 
bar. And during the early morning hours of June 17, Jackson and others robbed 
another Cleveland bar, a Sandusky hotel, and a Lorain drugstore.

Jackson arrived early the next morning at the Soap Opera Laundry in Cleveland 
where Pickryl and Christy Diaz were working. Jackson pulled a gun and demanded 
money. He grabbed Pickryl's necklace, then her bracelet. Pickryl pulled back, 
and when she turned toward Jackson, he shot her. He then shot at Diaz and left.

Police located and arrested Jackson on June 20. The charges against him 
included aggravated murder for Pickryl's death with multiple death-penalty 
specifications, aggravated robberies, the attempted murders of Bentley and 
Diaz, felonious assault, and kidnapping. He pled not guilty.

Jackson waived his right to a trial by jury. A 3-judge panel found him guilty 
of nearly all of the charges and sentenced him to death.

In today's opinion, the court considered whether the grand jury in Cuyahoga 
County had the power to indict Jackson for the robbery of the hotel in Erie 
County or the robbery of the drugstore in Lorain County.

Justice O'Donnell explained that Ohio law allows a grand jury to indict a 
person for offenses that take place outside the county in which the offender is 
being indicted as long as the offenses are part of the same course of criminal 
conduct that happened in the county of the indictment. The evidence showed that 
the 6 robberies committed between June 15 and 18 were part of a course of 
criminal conduct in 3 neighboring counties, so the grand jury was permitted to 
indict Jackson for the Erie County and Lorain County crimes along with the 
Cuyahoga County offenses, he wrote.

However, Justice O'Donnell determined that the indictment itself did not 
properly specify which counts in the 42-count indictment occurred in Erie and 
Lorain counties. While the preamble to Count 1 mentions Erie and Lorain 
counties, he noted, the counts specifically related to the crimes in those 
counties do not state where the offenses took place.

Nonetheless, Jackson had not objected to the indictment during his trial, and 
because the state presented a detailed "bill of particulars" that included the 
location of the offenses, Justice O'Donnell explained that the error had not 
affected the outcome of the trial.

The court rejected claims that the presiding judge exhibited judicial bias 
against Jackson and interfered with defense counsel by conducting a hearing to 
evaluate whether the defense was justified in not raising a claim that Jackson 
was mentally retarded and therefore could not be executed pursuant to the U.S. 
Supreme Court's decision in Atkins v. Virginia (2002).

"Based upon Jackson's IQ scores..., the trial court was justified in inquiring 
into whether an evaluation of Jackson's mental abilities was appropriate," 
Justice O'Donnell wrote. "The trial court's decision to conduct an evidentiary 
hearing on the Atkins issue did not prejudice Jackson and could have been 
favorable to his defense. No evidence was presented showing that Jackson was 
mentally retarded. Thus, even assuming that the trial court overstepped its 
bounds in conducting this abbreviated hearing, no prejudice occurred."

The court also addressed parts of the prosecutor's closing argument during the 
penalty phase of the trial. The prosecutor argued that Jackson had tried to 
murder Diaz to eliminate her as a witness to Pickryl's murder. But although the 
prosecutor could comment on Jackson's motive for trying to kill Diaz, the 
prosecutor did more than that in this case, Justice O'Donnell wrote. By 
speculating that Jackson would have been charged with a witness-murder 
specification if he had killed Diaz, the prosecutor shifted the focus from 
conduct that had been charged and proven at Jackson's trial to factors that 
Jackson was never charged with, Justice O'Donnell concluded.

"The prosecutor's argument in this case was ... improper," he wrote. 
"Nevertheless, the 3-judge panel was not misled by the prosecutor's argument 
and understood that they were not also considering the witness-murder 
specification in imposing sentence. Moreover, there is no showing that the 
panel considered anything other than the relevant, material, and competent 
evidence in arriving at its decision."

Justice O'Donnell pointed out that in the 3-judge panel's review of the 
mitigating circumstances, it considered evidence that Jackson had been 
physically and sexually abused but chose to give these factors no weight in its 
sentencing. However, Justice O'Donnell concluded that the panel had misstated 
in its sentencing opinion that the only evidence of abuse was Jackson's own 
claims, because Jackson's parents admitted they beat and whipped him as a 
child. The justice explained that the error would be cured by the Supreme 
Court's independent review of Jackson's sentence.

The court rejected Jackson's other claims of error by the trial court.

Independently reviewing Jackson's death sentence for appropriateness and 
proportionality as required by statute, the court gave considerable weight to 
his "cognitive impairments and his borderline range of intellectual 
functioning" and some weight to his history of drug and alcohol dependence and 
other evidence. However, in upholding Jackson's death sentence, Justice 
O'Donnell wrote, "Jackson's murder of Pickryl during an aggravated robbery and 
his course of conduct in murdering Pickryl and attempting to murder Diaz are 
egregious aggravating circumstances. Jackson's mitigating evidence has little 
significance in comparison."

Justice O'Donnell's opinion was joined by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor and 
Justices Paul E. Pfeifer and Sharon L. Kennedy. Justices Judith Ann Lanzinger 
and Judith L. French concurred in judgment only. Justice William M. O'Neill 
dissented.

In his dissent, Justice O'Neill reiterated his view that the death penalty is 
constitutionally prohibited because it is cruel and unusual punishment. He 
noted that he does not expect the court to adopt this view in the near future, 
but he thinks the court soon will be forced "to recognize that Ohio's death 
penalty reaches too far, to too many crimes and to too many criminals."

In this case, the trial court held a hearing to establish why Jackson's lawyers 
chose not to pursue an Atkins hearing to determine whether he was 
intellectually disabled. Had Jackson been found to have a significant 
intellectual disability, he could not have received the death penalty because 
the U.S. Supreme Court prohibits the execution of mentally retarded 
individuals.

"In short, the trial court chose to sit second chair for the defense," Justice 
O'Neill wrote. "Admittedly, trial courts have great latitude in managing the 
cases over which they preside. But this hearing had one justification only: to 
protect a yet-to-be-imposed death sentence from reversal in a subsequent 
appeal. There is simply no other reason to even contemplate such a hearing, and 
that should give pause to any reviewing court that is concerned about the 
potential prejudgment of a case and the sanctity of the attorney-client 
relationship."

"[W]hile prejudice to Jackson may not be obvious from the record, the trial 
court's action calls its impartiality into question," he added.

Justice O'Neill also noted the mitigating factors in this case, such as 
Jackson's low intelligence, difficult background, and serious substance 
dependence, are significant. He contended that the court refuses to "truly 
engage in an independent reweighing of death sentences" and that this case, 
while terrible, should not be a death-penalty case.

(source: WKYC news)






MISSISSIPPI:

Manning death penalty case back before Mississippi Supreme Court


A Mississippi death row inmate is back before the state's high court to 
challenge the evidence and his lawyer's performance during his trial in the 
slayings of 2 elderly women.

Willie Jerome Manning is appealing an Oktibbeha County judge's denial of his 
post-conviction challenges related to evidence in his trial and his lawyer's 
performance. The Mississippi Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case 
on Oct. 27 in Jackson.

In 1996, Manning was convicted and sentenced to death in the slayings of 
Emmoline Jimmerson, 90, and her daughter, Alberta Jordan, 60, during a robbery 
attempt at their Starkville apartment in 1993. The women were beaten and their 
throats were slashed.

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Manning's conviction and two death 
sentences in 2000. But four years later, the high court granted Manning 
approval to pursue three post-conviction claims: that prosecutors withheld 
evidence; that they presented false evidence; and that Manning was denied 
effective counsel at trial and on appeal.

Circuit Judge Lee Howard ruled against Manning on all three issues in 2013. But 
Manning's attorneys appealed, claiming Howard's ruling denied Manning "an 
opportunity to develop a number of claims challenging the reliability of his 
conviction."

During the initial trial, one of Manning's friends, Kevin Lucious, testified 
that he spoke to Manning at the Brooksville Gardens apartments on the evening 
of the slayings and then saw Manning force his way into the women's apartment. 
Other witnesses also testified they saw Manning at the apartments. Manning 
denied he had been there.

Manning argued Lucious later recanted. Lucious said he was coerced by 
prosecutors into implicating Manning, according to court documents.

Howard, the Oktibbeha County judge, said he found no reliable proof that 
Lucious was threatened by law enforcement officials. Howard said law 
enforcement officials testified Lucious was never threatened or pressured for 
testimony in the case.

Howard said he could not find that Manning's lawyer was ineffective for failing 
to attack Lucious testimony.

Special Assistant Attorney General Melanie Thomas said in court documents that 
Lucious gave several statements to authorities about the slayings. She said it 
was only 6 years after the trial that Lucious argued he was coerced by 
prosecutors and the story changed each time Lucious was asked to describe how 
he was coerced.

"The only time his story ever made sense ... was when Lucious testified at 
Manning's trial," Thomas said.

Emily Maw, an attorney for the New Orleans-based Innocence Project, argued in a 
friend of the court brief that it was clear Lucious lied while testifying at 
Manning's trial. She said the very least the Supreme Court should do is reverse 
Manning's conviction so the case may be reinvestigated.

In May 2013, Manning had been set for lethal injection in a separate case -- 
the December 1992 slayings of Mississippi State University students Jon 
Steckler and Tiffany Miller. The state Supreme Court blocked the execution 
hours before it was scheduled. Justices didn't explain their action, but 
Manning had argued that DNA tests would prove him innocent. That case was sent 
back to Oktibbeha County.

(source: Associated Press)






INDIANA:

Coed killer seeks to block execution, judge will hear testimony this week


When Connie Sutton exited a Johnson County courtroom in 2000 she called someone 
on the phone to say a judge had passed sentence on her daughter's killer.

"Hello. Hey," she said into her cell phone. "Death penalty. We got it. She 
probably won't overturn it. We'll probably be okay."

That was 14 years ago, 3 years after Kelly Eckart's body was found in a wooded 
area of Brown County, 3 days after she disappeared after leaving work at the 
Franklin Walmart.

At trial, Michael Dean Overstreet's own brother testified against him and the 
Franklin man was sentenced to death.

Michael Overstreet

He still lives on Indiana's death row in Michigan City and his attorneys argue 
Overstreet's mental condition has deteriorated to the point where he 
understands he is going to die but he doesn't know what it means. In the 
interest of justice, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled a condemned man must 
comprehend capital punishment before the sentence can be carried out.

A judge in South Bend will hear 4 days of testimony this week about whether 
Overstreet deserves protection under the Supreme Court ruling.

"They're gonna talk about whether he's competent enough to be put to death," 
said Sutton. "He knows what he did. He just won't admit it. He's just a better 
liar than others. I honestly believe he does know what he did no matter how 
many times he says he doesn't."

Sutton sat down with Fox 59 News the day before the hearing begins.

"Does he understand what put to death is really going to do?" Sutton asked. 
"What it really means as far as, 'You're gonna die, you're gonna be no more. 
Not on this earth anywhere.'? He's gotta understand that. I still believe he 
does."

Overstreet's attorneys will present psychiatrists who will testify that the 
teenager's killer is a paranoid schizophrenic, delusional and hearing voices no 
one else can hear, seeing things no one else can see.

Sutton doesn't buy it.

"I still believe it was a punishment he was given by a group of his peers. That 
jury gave it to him. Not only a judge but a jury gave it to him.

"He still deserves to die. I still see that. That hasn't changed."

On Sutton's mantle above her fireplace is a picture of Kelly and her cat, the 
last taken before the accounting major disappeared on September 26, 1997.

"A lot of things in me have changed in the past years," said Sutton who finds 
herself still committed to the death penalty. "The reasoning is still the same. 
He took my daughter from me. He took her life and didn't think 2 things about 
it. Didn't think 2 seconds over it. He did it. He just tried to cover it up.

"He needs to die. He needs to make it be done. 17 years is entirely too long to 
make it like this. This is ridiculous when another state can do it in 4? What's 
wrong with this picture?"

Sutton is resigned that no matter what St. Joseph County Superior Jane Woodward 
Miller decides in December, either the Attorney General or Overstreet's 
attorneys are likely to appeal and her wait for justice will continue.

"I still walk down the street and people will ask me if I'm Kelly's mom," she 
said. "And I can stand up tall and say, 'Yes,' because I am so proud of what 
she did in 18 years.

"If they do remember Kelly, they do remember the story and hopefully it will 
keep somebody safe.

"Kelly was an awesome kid. She didn't deserve any of this. She didn't ask for 
any of this. There's a lot of people out there you can't trust but there's a 
lot of people out there you can trust."

There's a tree on the Franklin College campus dedicated to Kelly Eckart who was 
kidnapped and killed 3 weeks into her freshman year.

Connie said her daughter was a smalltown girl from Boggstown who fretted about 
making friends at college. Taking her mother's advice, she invited a couple 
classmates to lunch before going to work that day. Lunch with the girls was 
several hours before Overstreet walked into Kelly's store, spotted his prey and 
hatched a plan to follow the coed off after work, bumping her car in the dark 
at a country road intersection and committing murder.

"I'm not the same person. You're not the same person after you lose a child," 
said Sutton who lost a husband and a daughter but gained a handful of 
grandchildren ever since that day. "Now I don't think about it all the time. I 
don't think about what he did to Kelly and how he did it.

"I can't walk away from the death penalty yet."

(source: Fox 59 News)