[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 6



TEXAS----impending executions

Death Watch: 2 Set to Die----Both death row inmates claim murder was not 
intentional


Although Clifton Williams narrowly avoided execution July 16, 2 Texans are 
scheduled for the gurney next week. Both inmates maintain that they didn't mean 
for the individuals they killed to die, though their opinions about their 
pending fates differ.

Corpus Christi native Daniel Lee Lopez is scheduled to die first; he's 
currently slated to be strapped in at 6pm on Wednesday, Aug. 12. Lopez was 
driving 60 miles an hour through a neighborhood in March 2009 trying to evade 
cops and avoid arrest for outstanding warrants when he hit and killed 20-year 
veteran police officer Stuart Alexander as he was laying Stop Sticks near the 
highway. Lopez was eventually apprehended after being shot in the arm, neck, 
and chest. Then 21, he was indicted for 10 offenses, including the capital 
murder of Alexander. He initially pleaded not guilty, but later changed his 
stance. He was assigned to a psychologist, who reported that Lopez held an 
"increasingly firm" opinion that he'd rather a death sentence than live the 
rest of his life in prison. The state offered life in prison in exchange for a 
guilty plea, but Lopez pleaded not guilty and went to trial.

Central to the case was debate on whether or not Lopez intentionally ran over 
Lt. Alexander. At times, he told attorneys that he didn't mean to do it, that 
his sight was affected by shots of pepper spray deployed by other officers. 
Yet, just prior to closing arguments, attorneys informed the judge that Lopez 
insisted on testifying that he did in fact mean to swerve and hit Alexander. 
The court rejected Lopez's request, but the jury still found him guilty on all 
counts, including capital murder. Lopez waived his right to a state petition 
for habeas corpus in April 2012 and filed his federal papers that May. The 
brief, largely blank application asserted 1 solitary ground for relief: that 
the death penalty in Texas violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel 
and unusual punishment. He underwent a series of competency exams and hearings 
in 2013, and soon after received his right to waive appeal from the 5th Circuit 
Court of Appeals.

His attorneys - James Rytting, David Dow, and Jeffrey Newberry - maintain that 
he should never have been found guilty of capital murder, as his testimony 
concerning his actions continuously flipped from intentional to unintentional. 
They thus contest that the district court erred in accepting Lopez's waiver, as 
Lopez does not understand that the conduct to which he admits - an 
unintentional murder - does not fall within the definition of capital murder. 
Lopez, however, remains convinced he's made the right call. In April, he told 
the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that he accepts his punishment. "It wasn't on 
purpose," he said. "I killed a police officer because I tried escaping. And it 
was never intentional but I feel responsible."

The 2nd individual, Tracy Beatty, goes to the gurney one day after Lopez. 
Beatty, 54, was arrested for the Nov. 25, 2003, murder of his mother, 
62-year-old Carolyn Click. Beatty strangled, smothered, and/or suffocated Click 
during an argument at her home, and left her in the tub for 2 days before 
burying her in the ground beside her house and making off with her car and 
possessions. When questioned, he told authorities that a man named Junior 
Reynolds had actually killed his mother; that he then killed Reynolds and 
dumped him "in water" before returning to his mother's house to ice her in the 
tub and eventually bury her by the house. But the investigation turned to 
Beatty. During his arrest, as he was being delivered from Henderson County to 
the Smith County Jail, he told authorities: "I really didn't mean to kill her. 
I came in drunk. She started bitching at me, and I just started choking her. I 
didn't even know she was dead until the next morning when I found her still 
laying on the living room floor." He was indicted for capital murder the 
following May and found guilty on Aug. 9, 2004. Deemed a future threat because 
of 2 prior felony convictions - injury to a child in 1986 and a robbery in 1988 
- he was sentenced to death on Aug. 10.

Attorney Jeff Haas argued in petitions for habeas corpus and appeals to the 5th 
Circuit that his client received ineffective assistance from counsel in two 
different forms: Trial counsel failed to discover and present mitigating 
evidence, and failed to properly present enough facts to prove Click's "killing 
was a murder rather than capital murder." Haas pointed to one instance in 
particular, unmentioned during trial, in which Click and an acquaintance had an 
argument that a witness indicated looked as though they would "rip each other's 
heads off." He attempted to use that testimony as evidence that Beatty had no 
intention to kill his mother when he showed up at her house; that a heated 
conversation escalated to that point. Efforts for relief, however, were denied, 
and in July 2014, the 5th Circuit denied his application for a certificate of 
appealability. The Supreme Court rejected his case in May.

Lopez is set to be the 10th Texan executed this year, with Beatty in line to be 
No. 11. Should both executions go through, the state will end the week having 
executed 529 people since reinstating the death penalty in 1976.

(source: Austin Chronicle)






FLORIDA:

Oviedo mom asks for death penalty for killing daughter


A Seminole County woman charged with killing her teenage daughter asked a judge 
to sentence her to death Wednesday afternoon.

But despite Sujatha Guduru's unusual request, and that she was charged with 
premeditated 1st-degree murder for the January 2014 shooting, the judge told 
Guduru the death penalty was not an option in this case.

Investigators said Guduru fatally shot her 17-year-old daughter, Chetana, 
because she believed the teen would not be able to survive after Guduru killed 
herself.

Guduru did shoot herself, but survived. Defense attorney Brian Bieber has 
claimed Guduru was insane, "based on her documented history of her 
hospitalizations, and her not being in the frame of mind at the time of the 
incident, where she could appreciate right from wrong."

But Guduru's case is moving toward trial, because 2 state mental health experts 
have ruled she was not legally insane at the time of the shooting.

The state added it was not seeking the death penalty against Guduru.

"Ethically, legally under the law, it's not an appropriate sentence in this 
case," an assistant state attorney said Wednesday.

Bieber said Guduru, 45, has become so distraught, she wants the court to impose 
the worst possible penalty.

"The pain that she's suffering through is insurmountable at this point," Bieber 
said. "She is unfortunately at a place of desperation."

Judge Kenneth Lester responded to Guduru's request by making it clear the death 
penalty would not be considered:

Judge Kenneth Lester: The death penalty is not even open for discussion in this 
particular case.

Defense attorney Brian Bieber: We appreciate that clarification.

Lester: And I wanted to make sure she is aware of that. Are you aware of that, 
ma'am?

Sujatha Guduru: Yes.

Lester: And that's not a means for you to take it into your own hands.

Guduru's attorney said despite his client's death penalty request, she has not 
attempted suicide while in jail, and was not on suicide watch.

Attorneys on both sides have begun working toward a possible resolution in this 
case to avoid this going to trial. Guduru's next hearing is in October.

(soruce: mynews13.com)






ALABAMA:

Bigamist and 1 of his wives charged with murder of 2 children, pregnant wife in 
house fire


A bigamist and 1 of his wives have been charged with capital murder in 
connection with 4 people whose bodies, including 2 children and his pregnant 
wife, were found in a burning house Tuesday evening.

The charges were announced this afternoon against Christopher Matthew 
Henderson, 40 and Rhonda Carlson, 42. They are being held with no bond.

The fire was on St. Clair Lane in New Market. Investigators said a home 
surveillance video shows Henderson and Carlson at the scene of the fire around 
the time it started.

The victims in the case are:

--Kristen Chambers Henderson, 35, was Christopher Henderson's wife. She was 9 
months pregnant with his child, according to court records and family friends

--Jean Smallwood, 67, was Kristen Henderson's mother

--Clayton Chambers, 8, was Kristen Henderson's son and a student at Riverton 
Elementary School. He was not Christopher Henderson's child.

--Eli Sokolowski, 1, was Kristen Henderson's nephew, according to family 
friends.

The victims have been sent in for autopsies to determine cause of death.

Christopher Henderson had filed for divorce from Kristen Henderson on July 14.

Kristen Henderson had obtained a protection-from-abuse order last week from the 
Madison County Circuit Court against him. During that hearing it was discovered 
that Christopher Henderson was also married to Carlson, investigators said.

The 2 suspects were married in Madison County in February 2013, said Chief 
Deputy Dave Jernigan. He said Christopher Henderson married Kristen Chambers 
Henderson in September 2014 in Fayetteville, Tennessee.

"He never dissolved the 1st marriage, so he was actually married to 2 women at 
the time. And this was causing some issues in the household which I think 
precipitated what happened," Jernigan said.

The court order by Judge Ruth Ann Hall found that the order was necessary to 
prevent abuse and that Christopher Henderson represented a credible threat to 
Kristen Henderson.

"The theory being that something happened in relation to the court hearing 
which precipitated Mr. Henderson and Rhonda Jean Carlson to go back to the 
residence," Jernigan said.

The fire began at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday on St. Clair Lane in New Market northeast 
of Huntsville.

Investigators said witness interviews at the fire scene pointed them to the 
suspects. Henderson and Carlson were detained by Huntsville police until 
deputies took them in for questioning Tuesday evening.

The Alabama State Fire Marshal's Office is currently investigating the fire's 
origin.

Investigators anticipate more charges in this case.

A capital murder charge in Alabama carries 1 of 2 possible sentences upon 
conviction: Life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

(source: al.com)






LOUISIANA:

Spared death penalty by Supreme Court in 2008, man continues appeals in child 
rape case


He was spared the death penalty by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark 2008 
decision. Now a man convicted in the 1998 rape of his stepdaughter is asking a 
federal appeals court in New Orleans to uphold a ruling that could lead to his 
freedom - or at least a new trial.

The appeals court hears arguments Thursday on whether gender discrimination in 
the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, grand jury process warranted the tossing of 
Patrick Kennedy's 2003 child rape conviction.

Kennedy's lawyers have maintained his innocence.

He had been sentenced to death because the victim was a child. But, his case 
led to a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that death sentences for child rape were 
unconstitutional.

(source: Associated Press)






KANSAS:

Judge denies venue change in Jewish site shootings


A judge has denied a request to move the trial of a 74-year-old Missouri man 
charged in the deaths of 3 people at Jewish sites in suburban Kansas City.

Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., of Aurora, Missouri, is charged with capital murder 
in the shooting deaths of 3 people last year at 2 Jewish sites in Overland 
Park, Kansas.

The Kansas City Star reports a Johnson County District Court judge on Wednesday 
denied Miller's motion for the change of venue. The judge says without any 
evidence or testimony to back the request, he had no legal basis to consider 
the request.

Miller is representing himself at the trial, which is set to begin Aug. 17.

Miller, an anti-Semite, has admitted carrying out the shootings. None of his 
victims was Jewish.

(source: Associated Press)