[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 5



TEXAS:

Capital murder charge dropped in 2012 death of Hearne city councilman


A contaminated crime scene and lack of evidence prompted Robertson County's top 
prosecutor to drop capital murder charges Tuesday against a man accused of 
killing former Hearne City Councilman Charles Workman almost 3 years ago.

Kevin Aundrell Godfrey, 21, pleaded guilty to arson in the torching of the dead 
councilman's Jaguar. Godfrey, who never before had been convicted of a felony, 
was sentenced to 15 years behind bars and waived any appeal.

District Attorney Coty Siegert said he made the decision to drop the case after 
looking at all the evidence and talking to Workman's family.

He said the crime scene was contaminated after 25 to 30 people walked through 
it before police were called, the murder weapon was never found and there 
wasn't direct DNA evidence tying Godfrey to the crime. Someone even went 
through his pockets to find his phone before officers arrived at the scene in 
September 2012.

"There also was a high chance that the state could not carry its burden of 
proving at trial murder beyond a reasonable doubt," Siegert said of the case in 
which, if convicted, Godfrey would have faced life in prison or the death 
penalty. "While there was strong evidence of his involvement, being in 
possession of a stolen vehicle does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that 
Kevin Godfrey committed murder."

Godfrey was indicted after authorities said there was enough evidence linking 
him to Workman's death. Workman, 63, was shot in the face and torso 6 times and 
his home was burglarized, according to a copy of the indictment.

The night before Workman's body was discovered, firefighters responded to a car 
fire north of Texas 6 at Old San Antonio Road, where Godfrey was spotted asking 
firefighters for a ride, according to Godfrey's arrest report.

The vehicle was later determined to be Workman's white 2000 Jaguar containing 
some of his belongings, including clothing, compact discs and paperwork, 
according to the court document.

Godfrey was found in College Station after investigators linked him to the 
burning vehicle through witnesses and security footage from the Get-N-Go 
convenience store at Texas 6 and Harvey Mitchell Parkway.

He also was charged at the time with arson, which is a 2nd-degree felony 
carrying a punishment of up to 20 years in prison. That's the crime he pleaded 
guilty to Tuesday rather than face the capital case.

David Barron, who represented Godfrey along with Phil Banks and Amy Banks, said 
not only does he believe his client wasn't involved in the shooting, but 
Workman's family also doesn't think Godfrey was responsible.

"There were several other suspects, but once police linked Mr. Godfrey to the 
stolen car, the case was closed to them," Barron said.

Phil Banks said Godfrey likely will be eligible for parole consideration within 
a few years since he's already served three years behind bars, which counts 
toward his 15-year sentence.

Siegert said Godfrey's DNA was found on a cigarette at Workman's house, but 
that wouldn't have been out of the ordinary since he was friends with Godfrey's 
nephew, and the pair sometimes stayed with Workman. The nephew found Workman 
dead after entering the house through an open window because the doors were 
locked, according to authorities. The prosecutor said that's likely the same 
way the killer gained access to the house.

"If any new evidence is brought forth, we can pursue that," said Siegert, who 
was elected to office several months after the slaying.

"The facts of this case demonstrate why it is so important to contact law 
enforcement immediately to allow them to preserve all evidence without 
contamination," he said, adding that since taking office he's been taking steps 
with law enforcement to work better as a team. "It is my goal that we all do 
our sworn duties to the best of our abilities not just to convict but to see 
that justice is done."

(source: The Eagle)






NORTH CAROLINA:

North Carolina kickstarts its machinery of death


When he finally died, Dennis McGuire had gasped, choked, writhed against his 
restraints and clenched his fists for more than 20 minutes.

"I saw a man murdered," says Father Lawrence Hummer, a pastor who witnessed 
McGuire's death by lethal injection last January in Ohio. "It was just 
ghastly."

McGuire's gruesomely lengthy execution - it was supposed to take about 5 
minutes - was performed with the untested combination of the sedative midazolam 
and the painkiller hydromorphone.

The victim's family members say McGuire, convicted of raping and murdering a 
pregnant woman in 1989, got what was coming to him. Regardless, his death was 1 
of at least 3 lengthy, torturous executions in the U.S. last year, the result 
of states' desperate experimentation to find reliable lethal injection drugs 
from a shrinking supply of willing drug providers.

There are 148 prisoners on death row in Central Prison in Raleigh, and it's 
unclear which inmate will be the guinea pig when executions restart in this 
state. Although pentobarbital has been North Carolina's execution drug of 
choice, a bill headed to the governor's desk will make secret the drug's 
source.

House Bill 774 - the "Restoring Proper Justice Act," passed last week by the 
House and Senate, but as of press time not yet signed by Gov. Pat McCrory - 
prevents the public from knowing the identity of the providers of the execution 
drugs. And the state execution practices will have minimal oversight - and none 
by the federal government - according to the bill's primary sponsor, Leo 
Daughtry, R-Johnston.

"It's the kind of thing you'd expect in some authoritarian regime in the 1980s 
in the Southern hemisphere," says Stephen Dear, the outgoing executive director 
of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty.

How and where North Carolina will obtain its drugs is a mystery. The N.C. 
Department of Public Safety has failed to respond to multiple requests from the 
INDY for information about its sources of pentobarbital.

The last execution in North Carolina occurred in 2006 - the state's 408th since 
1910 - when convicted murderer Samuel Flippin was killed by lethal injection. 
DPS spokeswoman Pam Walker says the state has no queue or schedule for future 
executions.

Daughtry says his goal is to speedily resume executions in North Carolina and 
protect drug providers from hostile public demonstrations. "It's the law, but 
we don't have capital punishment in this state right now," he says. "It's been 
frustrating."

It's unclear whether Daughtry's legislation will restart executions. Many 
experts say the bill will only provoke legal challenges that could slow 
executions further.

"I heard Democrats say they would vote for this, if only because it's so 
illegal and unconstitutional, it will be litigated forever," says state Rep. 
Verla Insko, D-Orange, a death penalty opponent. She voted against the bill 
last week.

A drug company's complaints shouldn't trump the public's access to information, 
she says. "Demonstrations are part of the American way. It's a sacred right in 
our democracy to protest what we don't like."

GOP lawmakers have amended the state's execution protocols before, exempting 
the execution protocol from review by the Council of State, a group of 10 
elected officials who oversee state agencies. Critics of Daughtry's bill say 
the latest revision is even worse.

"In my 18 years of working on the death penalty, I have never seen legislation 
anywhere in the U.S. as reckless as this," says Dear. "Nothing exemplifies why 
government should not be allowed to kill more than this bill."

David Weiss, attorney for the Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation, 
says the secrecy does not inspire public confidence. "One of the key mechanisms 
for holding government actors accountable is through elections or transparency. 
There is no requirement here that they let anybody know what they do, or that 
they consult with anyone with any expertise in developing the protocol."

Some critics have questioned whether the legislation would allow state 
officials to hide the names of the execution drugs from public disclosure, but 
Daughtry insists the name and cost of the drug will remain public, but not the 
source.

The shortage of homegrown execution drugs is because international drug 
manufacturers, under public pressure, have quit selling the U.S. drugs such as 
pentobarbital for use in lethal injections.

"The drug companies are so afraid of being boycotted," Daughtry says. "They'd 
rather not have their names known. It's important that drug companies have some 
understanding."

As a result, when the Danish producer of pentobarbital - hailed as one of the 
most "humane" drugs available for lethal injection - halted distribution of the 
drug for executions in 2011, states turned to compounding pharmacies, smaller, 
state-regulated outfits exempt from federal Food and Drug Administration rules. 
Lawyers and administrators, rather than doctors, were deployed to find the best 
lethal cocktail. (HB 774 also removes a requirement that doctors oversee 
executions. Now, any medical professional will suffice.)

In 2011, the DEA raided prisons in South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama 
and Georgia for importing execution drugs from poorly regulated drug providers 
around the world.

Considering the botched executions of several inmates, Weiss says it's vital 
that the public knows if the state buys its drugs from a poorly regulated 
company or from a manufacturer with regulatory violations.

"It doesn't seem like now is the time to roll back the transparency of the 
process. If anything, we should be shining more light on it," he says.

"The state simply does not want to admit that they're killing somebody and they 
don't want to indicate how they're killing somebody," adds Hummer, the Ohio 
pastor who has worked with death row prisoners in his state since 2012. "They 
want to protect everybody involved with it. Let's stop killing people and then 
we don't have to protect anybody."

(source: indyweek.com)

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

Contractor Accused of Murdering Pregnant Food Network Star and Her Husband 
Could Face the Death Penalty


Robert Jason Owens, the man charged with murdering Food Network star Cristie 
Schoen Codd, her husband, J.T. Codd, and their unborn child, could face the 
death penalty if convicted.

On Monday, the Buncombe County District Attorney filed a notice of intent to 
seek the death penalty for Owens in the 3 murders, CBS News reports. He is 
charged with 2 counts of felony 1st-degree murder, felony murder of an unborn 
child, breaking and entering and larceny.

Cristie and J.T. were first reported missing from their Leicester, North 
Carolina, home on March 14 after concerned family members couldn't get in touch 
with them. Their dismembered remains were discovered inside a wood stove on 
Owens' property just days later.

Owens was a down-on-his-luck contractor whom the couple had hired to work on 
their home. He lived just a mile down the road and had become friendly with the 
pair, even attending their wedding.

However, friends of the couple say they couldn't help but notice that there was 
something "weird" about the handyman when they met him.

"There was a gut feeling when I looked at this guy, and I avoided him," Michael 
Mendez told PEOPLE in March. "This was one person I definitely did not want to 
meet."

And Mendez wasn't surprised when Owens was first named a suspect in his 
friends' murders. "The moment I saw him," he said, "I just got the chills."

Owens is also suspected in the disappearance of 18-year-old Zebb Quinn, who 
vanished in January 2000.

(source: People.com)






USA:

New Resources: Capital Punishment and the State of Criminal Justice 2015


The American Bar Association has released a new publication, The State of 
Criminal Justice 2015, examining major issues, trends, and significant changes 
in America's criminal justice system. The chapter devoted to capital punishment 
was written by Ronald Tabak, an attorney at Skadden Arps and board member of 
the Death Penalty Information Center. Tabak presents evidence of the declining 
use of the death penalty in death sentences and executions, particularly noting 
the growing geographic isolation of the death penalty. He includes recent 
developments, such as the moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania and ongoing 
controversy and secrecy surrounding methods of execution. He also highlights 
numerous studies and cases regarding innocence and racial bias. He concludes, 
"[I]t is vital that the legal profession and the public be better informed 
about what is really going on in the capital punishment system. ... Ultimately, 
our society must decide whether to continue with a system that cannot survive 
any serious cost/benefit analysis."

(source: DPIC)