[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KY., TENN., OKLA., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

July 2



KENTUCKY:

Ricky Kelly death penalty hearing postponed


A court hearing to determine whether high-profile murder suspect Ricky Kelly 
will face the death penalty has been postponed.

Defense lawyers have renewed their efforts to get a high-profile murder suspect 
out of custody on bond.

The defense attorney for an accused killer wants the judge in his client's 
murder case to take the death penalty off the table.

Attorneys were expected to present arguments on Kelly's motion to exclude the 
death penalty if he's convicted.

Kelly is charged in the 2005 shooting of Lajuante Jackson.

According to police, the murder was carried out to protect a drug trafficking 
operation.

Kelly was charged with eight murders in 2010, but the state charges were 
dismissed a year later so that he could be charged in federal court.

Federal prosecutors later dropped that case and he was re-indicted in state 
court.

He's set to be in court July 29.

(source: WLKY news)






TENNESSEE:

Tennessee execution trial comes week after Supreme Court ruling


The U.S. Supreme Court decision this week upholding the lethal injection 
protocol in Oklahoma could indirectly affect Tennessee, where execution 
procedure will be questioned during a trial next week.

Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman on Tuesday is scheduled to begin a 
trial that will determine whether Tennessee's lethal injection protocol, as it 
is written now, is constitutional. More than 30 condemned inmates filed a 
lawsuit against state Department of Correction leaders in 2013.

In a Monday ruling known as "Glossip," the nation's highest court considered 
Oklahoma's procedure, which involves the use of 3 drugs. It focused on the drug 
midazolam, which opponents to capital punishment blame for high-profile botched 
executions.

Tennessee's protocol uses 1 drug, pentobarbital.

Because of those differences, there probably won't be direct impact of the 
Supreme Court's decision in the Davidson County case, said Robert Goodrich, a 
Nashville business attorney with Burr & Forman who also is the board chairman 
for Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a group that seeks to 
abolish the death penalty.

Attorneys: TDOC does not have lethal injection drugs

There is one direct connection between the cases: An expert who testified in 
the Oklahoma court case, and whose testimony was examined by the Supreme Court, 
is expected to testify in the Davidson County case.

"Any judge reading Glossip and noticing about the same expert testifying would 
be interested in how his testimony was received," Goodrich said.

Two Supreme Court justices weighed in on the expert, University of Miami 
anesthesiologist David Lubarsky. They both valued and questioned portions of 
Lubarsky's testimony about midazolam.

The court's majority ruled (5-4) the Oklahoma inmates failed to prove that the 
drugs cannot mask excessive pain and to identify a better alternative, given a 
drug shortage that has forced some states to experiment with less-trusted 
alternatives.

Mark Fulks, a Johnson City, Tenn., lawyer with Baker Donelson, said the Glossip 
ruling could change how attorneys proceed in the Davidson County case. Fulks 
handled death penalty cases during previous work as an assistant attorney 
general.

Specifically at issue in the Supreme Court ruling: the role of alternative 
methods of execution.

"To prevail, the plaintiffs (inmates) will have to prove that the lethal 
injection protocol creates a demonstrated risk of severe pain and that the risk 
is substantial when compared to the known and available alternatives," he said.

If they do not prove both those things, Fulks said, it could provide a basis 
for the state to ask the Tennessee Supreme Court to schedule executions.

Tennessee has 67 inmates on death row. Executions have been on hold while both 
execution methods - lethal injection and the backup, electrocution - are facing 
court challenges.

(source: The Tennessean)






OKLAHOMA:

Death row doesn't deserve cruel, unusual punishment


A flurry of rulings came down from the U.S. Supreme Court recently.

One of particular significance was Glossip v. Gross, an Oklahoma lethal 
injection case about using midazolam in executions.

The justices decided 5-4 to uphold using the controversial drug, which was 
implicated previously in a number of botched executions.

Gov. Mary Fallin, in a released statement, said "the Constitution is clearly 
not intended to prohibit the death penalty by lethal injection or the use of 
the sedative midazolam."

Oklahoma, 1 of 5 states that uses the drug, had suspended all executions as it 
awaited the Supreme Court's decision.

Hours after the Supreme Court's ruling, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt 
requested execution dates for 3 death row inmates.

"States will be allowed to conduct additional human experimentation when they 
carry out executions by lethal injection," attorney Dale Baich said in a 
statement.

When circumstances call for an execution, these rare occurrences need to be 
done appropriately.

We still need to be humane when executing inmates on death row.

(source: Enid News & Eagle)






CALIFORNIA:

Death penalty's future in California after Supreme Court OK's execution drug


Over the next 120 days, California Governor Jerry Brown and prison officials 
will be working to come up with a 1-drug lethal injection method for the nearly 
750 inmates on California's death row, the largest in the nation.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday that states could continue to use midazolam 
as an execution drug after the state of Oklahoma challenged the practice 
following a botched execution. The majority said that executions don't need to 
be painless and said that inmates challenging state execution methods should 
find alternatives that pose less risk of pain. The 120 day timeframe is part of 
a recent settlement with families of murder victims.

Despite the new deadline, there will be the need for lots of public comment on 
this issue, and that could take a year or more. Questions about what drugs to 
use in the execution cocktail and cost of housing and executing death row 
inmates are just some of those that are bound to come up as the process moves 
forward. There's also a case before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on 
whether the delays in executions that sometimes span decades have left 
California's death penalty system unconstitutional.

What does the future of the death penalty in California look like? How should 
the state formulate its execution protocol? Does the death penalty have a place 
in California or should it be abolished completely? What is to be done with the 
hundreds of inmates waiting on death row?

Guests:

Sam Stanton, reporter for the Sacramento Bee. He wrote an article last month 
before Monday's Supreme Court decision entitled "Is capital punishment dead in 
California?" He tweets @stantonsam.

Michael Ramos, San Bernardino County District Attorney

Donald Heller, attorney at Donald H. Heller, A Law Corp., and former Assistant 
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California. He is a former supporter 
of the death penalty turned opponent. He headed up a in 2012 to abolish CA's 
death penalty but also wrote the 1978 ballot measure that reinstated capital 
punishment in CA before changing positions.

(source: scpr.org)