[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., N.C., FLA., OHIO, MO.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 12




PENNSYLVANIA:

News outlets seek info on Pennsylvania's execution drugs


4 news organizations asked a federal judge in Harrisburg on Thursday to unseal 
information about where the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections plans to get 
drugs for use in executing inmates.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia City Paper, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and 
the Guardian U.S. filed an emergency motion to intervene in a long-running 
federal lawsuit that challenges the state's execution procedures.

The newspapers said the Corrections Department has contracted with compounding 
pharmacies to obtain the drugs, but the court has prevented disclosure of the 
names of those pharmacies.

The papers wrote they wanted the information "in order to investigate the 
quality of the provenance of these drugs and to make the information available 
to the public as part of the ongoing public debate about the use of lethal 
injection."

The execution of Hubert Lester Michael Jr. has been scheduled for Sept. 22, but 
it is on hold while the full 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether 
to reconsider a 3-judge ruling against Michael earlier this year.

Michael was convicted of the 1993 murder of 16-year-old Trista Eng in York 
County.

Pennsylvania has only executed three people since the death penalty was 
reinstated in the 1970s, most recently Gary Heindik in 1999. All 3 had given up 
on their appeals.

(source: WTAE news)



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

3 Reasons We Need to End the Pennsylvania Death Penalty----It's expensive. We 
never use it. Why keep it?


First of all, much praise to the Inquirer and City Paper. They're among the 
publications joining the ACLU to sue the state to get information on the 
supplier of Pennsylvania's lethal injection drugs. Journalism is all about 
getting information to the public, and sometimes a little extra pressure is 
needed: It's good to see that both papers can still find ways to bring that 
pressure.

It would be better for everybody, though, if the suit weren't needed.

It would be better for everybody if Pennsylvania didn't have a death penalty at 
all.

Let's skip the moral objections for now, because everybody has a moral stance 
on the issue - either for or against - and at this point, passionate moral 
arguments probably aren't going to move the needle. So let's talk about good 
governance. Because the death penalty - in Pennsylvania - and elsewhere, is 
lousy governance:

- It's applied so rarely, it can't even begin to have a deterrent effect. 
Assuming we're trying to achieve something besides brute, dumb vengeance with 
the death penalty, the plain fact is that - in Pennsylvania at least - it 
occurs too rarely to make other would-be murderers stop and reconsider their 
actions.

AP broke down the numbers this week: "Pennsylvania has 181 men and 3 women on 
death row. It has executed three people since the death penalty was reinstated 
in the 1970s; all 3 had relinquished their appeals. The state's last execution 
was in 1999." You're more likely to die of natural causes on death row than to 
be executed.

We're ending the term of a Republican governor who was previously the state's 
attorney general. We haven't had an execution under him yet, though the door's 
not closed on that prospect. If he can't carry out the death penalty more 
often, it's likely that, after 40 years, the system we have isn't going to get 
much more efficient. So what's the point?

- It's expensive. Back in 2011, The Morning Call provided the perspective: 
"Every year, the state Department of Corrections spends an estimated $10,000 
more for each inmate on the country's 4th largest death row compared to other 
prisoners. That's despite a de facto halt on capital punishment in Pennsylvania 
for all but prisoners who voluntarily go to their executions. The last person 
put to death against his will was in 1962, half a century ago."

So even though the death penalty isn't used, death row is still taking a bite 
out of the taxpayer wallets. Again: What's the point?

- It's unfair. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, "The 
Philadelphia Inquirer recently conducted a review of death penalty appeals in 
Pennsylvania spanning 3 decades and found a pattern of ineffective assistance 
by defense attorneys. More than 125 capital murder trials in the Pennsylvania, 
including 69 in Philadelphia, have been reversed or sent back by state and 
federal courts after finding that mistakes by the defense attorney deprived the 
defendant of a fair trial. These do not include cases in which courts found 
that lawyers made obvious mistakes but ruled that the mistakes did not affect 
the outcome of the case." What else needs to be said?

If we're going to have a death penalty, let's make it transparent and 
consistent: Let's disclose the names of the drugs being used. But better than 
that, let's end the penalty altogether. We just don't do it very well.

(soure: Joel Mathis, phillymag.com)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty doesn't work


Our flawed death penalty system was in the national media spotlight again 
recently.

Through DNA evidence, Henry McCollum (convicted in 1984 for the rape and murder 
of 11-year old Sabrina Buie) has been released from his North Carolina prison 
after 30 years for a crime he did not commit.

Henry (age 19 at the time of the crime) is intellectually disabled. His family 
was poor and uneducated and had little means to help. After 5 hours of intense 
interrogation, Henry signed a confession at 2 a.m. and asked, "Can I go home 
now?"

The injustice to McCollum is just one of the horrid outcomes in this case. The 
family of Sabrina Buie has also been victimized over the 3 decades as they too 
have been denied justice. 30 years of appeals, countless hearings and trials to 
attend, waiting for an execution that never came and now sorrowful 
disappointment as they waited for the empty promise that the death penalty 
offers.

The exoneration of Henry McCollum is not all that rare. His is the 145th. This 
exoneration is more evidence that the death penalty is a public policy that 
simply does not work.

Ron Steiner

Salem

(source: Letter to the Editor, Statesman Journal)






FLORIDA:

Florida Supreme Court upholds Joseph Smith's death sentence


The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of Joseph Smith 
for the 2004 kidnapping and killing of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia of Sarasota.

This was Smith's 2nd appeal - known as "post-conviction relief" - of his 
sentence and the court unanimously rejected a series of issues raised by Smith, 
including his lawyer's argument that he should have been allowed to interview 
jurors to determine if any misconduct occurred during the trial.

"We note that Smith has failed to present a single factual allegation that 
juror misconduct occurred during his capital trial," the court said. "Instead, 
he asserts that criminal defense counsel should have unlimited authority to 
conduct interviews to probe jurors for possible misconduct.

"We decline to change the rules of procedure to permit criminal defense counsel 
to conduct fishing expeditions any time a conviction is obtained."

Brucia disappeared on Feb. 1, 2004, but a grainy security-camera video showed 
her walking away from a Sarasota car wash with Smith. The body of the 
sixth-grader was found several days later in woods behind a small church. A 
jury convicted Smith, who is now 48, of the kidnapping, rape and murder of 
Brucia in 2005.

The Florida Supreme Court previously upheld Smith's death sentence on his 1st 
appeal in 2009. In his 2nd appeal, Smith raised 10 issues challenging his death 
sentence, including the claim that Florida's execution procedures - which 
include lethal injection or electrocution - violated the Eighth Amendment 
prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

Florida's highest court rejected all of Smith's new claims.

Several of Smith's challenges were related to how the trial court weighed 
aggravating and mitigating circumstances in determining whether he deserved the 
death penalty.

Among the aggravating factors were that Smith was on probation, the murder was 
committed in conjunction with a kidnapping and sexual assault, the murder was 
"especially heinous, atrocious or cruel," and his victim was under the age of 
12. The court found several mitigating factors, including Smith's history of 
mental illness and drug use.

In their decision Thursday, the justices noted Smith had raised a similar 
challenge in his 1st appeal and it was found to be "without merit" since the 
"trial court found as an aggravating circumstance that the murder was committed 
during the course of a sexual battery and a kidnapping, and a unanimous jury 
verdict was returned in connection with both charges."

Another challenge rejected by the court was Smith's claim that Florida's death 
penalty is unconstitutional because members of the execution team are 
anonymous.

After arguing Smith's case before the court in February, Robert Strain, Smith's 
lawyer, said if his client's appeal is rejected by the state court, the case 
would move to the federal courts where a broader range of issues could be 
raised.

Among them is Smith's claim that his Sixth Amendment right to confront a 
witness was violated in his 2005 trial.

An FBI team supervisor testified in the trial about extracting DNA samples from 
a shirt worn by Brucia and matching it with Smith's. However, the lab 
technicians who did the work did not testify, which Smith claims denied him his 
right to confront the witnesses.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected that claim in the 2009 appeal. But Strain 
said a more recent series of federal court decisions have raised new issues 
about witness confrontation and lab procedures.

(source: Herald Tribune)


OHIO:

Career criminal Martin guilty of aggravated murder, could face death


For a man guilty of so much brutality, David Martin stood perfectly still 
Thursday afternoon as Judge Andrew Logan read guilty after guilty verdict.

He is guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, kidnapping, 
aggravated robbery and all of the aggravating circumstances - killing or 
attempting to kill 2 or more people, killing accompanied by kidnapping, and 
killing accompanied by aggravated robbery.

But Martin, called an "armed career criminal" by federal prosecutors when he 
was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison last year for a gun crime, knew 
Thursday that the more-important decision of the jury will come next week.

That's when the jury of 7 women and 5 men will decide whether he should be put 
to death for killing Jeremy Cole, 21, and attempting to kill Melissa Putnam, 
30, last Sept. 27 at Putnam's home on Oak Street Southwest.

Thursday's string of guilty verdicts - he was guilty on all counts and all 
specifications - wasn't a surprise. One of his attorneys told jurors during 
closing arguments earlier Thursday that Martin was guilty.

The jury in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court deliberated for 4 hours - 
seemingly a long time under the circumstances.

The same jury will reconvene Wednesday morning in the courtroom of Judge Logan 
to hear mitigating evidence presented by Martin's defense team and expert 
witnesses hired to discuss Martin's childhood and other matters.

The jury's role will be to decide whether the aggravating circumstances 
outweigh mitigating factors that the experts will present. If they do, the jury 
is instructed to choose death. It also could choose life in prison with no 
parole, or lesser life sentences.

One of Martin's attorneys, Matt Pentz, told jurors during closing arguments 
Thursday that Martin killed Cole and attempted to kill Putnam.

And Martin did tell officers when they arrested him, "I can accept the needle," 
referring to the death penalty, Pentz said.

But he reminded jurors, "That's not [Martin's] decision to make. That's your 
decision. Please keep your mind open about punishment in this case."

Martin, 29, of Cleveland, whose trial wrapped up after less than three full 
days of testimony, killed Cole by shooting him between the eyes from between 3 
and 8 inches away, according to testimony from Trumbull County Coroner Dr. 
Humphrey Germaniuk.

In another room, Martin also shot Putnam in the back of the head, but she 
partially blocked the shot with the reflexive movement of her hand and 
survived.

Chris Becker, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, reminded jurors that Martin 
told Putnam out loud in court several weeks after the shootings that he 
regretted failing to kill her.

"He said, 'Bitch, I should have shot you in the face,'" Becker said.

In fact, since Becker knew that jurors had little choice but to convict Martin 
on all charges, he spent part of his closing argument focused on the central 
issues in the next phase of the trial - whether Martin deserves to live and the 
fact that Martin stated himself that he "can accept the needle."

Becker and Gabe Wildman, another assistant prosecutor, said Martin showed no 
remorse for what he did to Cole and Putnam, going to Cleveland to party the 
night of Cole's death.

"Jeremy Cole was flat-out executed between the eyes," Becker said.

"He talks about these murders in the way I would talk about ordering a cup of 
coffee. It's just another day in the life of David Martin," Wildman said.

(source; Youngstown Vindicator)

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

Man to face death penalty in wife's killing


A man accused of killing his wife last month will face the death penalty, 
according to his indictment filed Thursday.

Patrick D. Coller, 43, of Delphos, was indicted Thursday on aggravated murder 
with a felony murder specification and a gun specification, and kidnapping with 
a gun specification. The maximum sentence is the death penalty.

Coller is accused of killing his 42-year-old wife, Gerri L. Coller on Aug. 14. 
She was found dead in a cornfield off Jones Road. Investigators said they 
believed he used a shotgun to kill her.

The charges accuse Coller of acting with prior calculation and design, and he 
was the principal offender in the aggravated murder, both an element of the 
death penalty law.

Patrick Coller went to the Delphos Police Department following the shooting and 
told officers he shot his wife earlier in the day, investigators said. Police 
went with Coller to the field where he said he killed his wife. They found her 
dead with an apparent gunshot wound.

The Allen County Sheriff's Office joined Delphos police at the scene and took 
Coller to the Allen County Jail, where they questioned him.

(source: limaohio.com)






MISSOURI:

Mo. trial next for man convicted of 6 Ill. deaths


A man already serving life sentences for each of 6 summertime 2008 killings in 
Illinois next will face trial in Missouri on charges he killed an Arkansas 
couple during the spree.

But it may be some time before Nicholas Sheley appears in front of a jury in 
Jefferson County near St. Louis or knows whether he'll be confronted with 
something he didn't have to worry about in Illinois - the death penalty, 
allowed in Missouri.

Jefferson County prosecutor Steven Jerrell said Wednesday that Illinois courts 
where Sheley has been convicted still haven't released evidence he needs to try 
him on charges linked to the killings of Jill and Tom Estes of Sherwood, 
Arkansas.

Jerrell said his office hasn't decided whether to pursue the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Sheley Could Face Death Penalty in Missouri


Convicted murderer Nicholas Sheley could face the death penalty when he faces 
trial in Missouri for the murders of an Arkansas couple.

Sheley is already serving 6 life sentences for a 2008 killing spree in 
Illinois.

Officials in Jefferson County, Missouri say Illinois hasn't released the 
evidence they need to try Sheley on the charges linked to the killings of Jill 
and Tom Estes. They haven't decided whether to pursue the death penalty in the 
case.

No word on how soon Sheley could face a jury.

(source: KWQC news)