[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

June 29



PENNSYLVANIA:

Librarian chronicles history of Fayette County executions



Barbara Pasqua, assistant law library librarian at the Fayette County Law 
Library inside the Fayette County Courthouse, has compiled a book detailing the 
unique history of the Fayette County Courthouse, ranging from the juror dorm 
rooms inside the building to the newspaper articles and illustrations of the 13 
executions by hanging in the 1800s.

A haunting photograph that captures a condemned killer's final moments on the 
gallows 129 years ago inspired a law librarian to dig up the stories behind 13 
executions that were carried out in Fayette County.

Displayed discreetly on a back wall of the library in the courthouse, the 
framed photo shows a hangman's noose dangling in front of Michael Metz as he 
stands, flanked by 4 lawmen, atop a gallows erected in the prison yard.

Condemned to die in 1886 for the robbery and murder of his cousin, Metz glared 
at the unseen photographer in the moments before a hangman pulled a black cap 
over his face and slipped a knotted noose around his neck.

"The sheriff asked Mike if he had anything to say, whereupon he replied: 'Me 
kill no man since me be in this country; me kill no man since me be in this 
country,' " according to a newspaper article attached to the photo.

"The sheriff put his foot on the trigger, both trap doors fell down with a loud 
thud, resounding throughout the corridor, and Mike's legs dangled between the 
trap-doors and the floor," states the article. "The physicians went quickly 
over to his body, and soon pronounced the victim dead."

Metz's story is one assistant law librarian Barbara Horwat Pasqua has often 
recounted to visitors to the 2nd-floor library in Uniontown.

"People would ask me about it, and they wanted to know when was the last 
hanging," said Pasqua, whose own curiosity was sparked by the visitors' 
questions.

Pasqua went to the Pennsylvania Room at the Uniontown Public Library, where she 
not only found the answer, but also a list of all 13 men who were tried, 
convicted of murder and sentenced to die by hanging in the county.

"There was so much written about Fayette County, but nothing on the hangings," 
Pasqua said, crediting Uniontown librarian Maria Sholtis with helping her 
research the executions. "I decided their stories needed to be told."

The result is a 69-page "historical accounting" of the hangings and other 
little-known courthouse facts, with the executions of the so-called "Fayette 
13" comprising nearly half of the book. Using microfilm, Pasqua said, she 
transcribed newspaper articles of the hangings.

The accounts begin with that of John McFall, who was the 1st to be hanged in 
1795 in the fatal beating of a Smithfield hotel keeper. They end with that of 
Frank Wells, who after he was convicted of shooting a man during a 
McClellandtown robbery became the 13th - and last - man to be executed in the 
county in 1914.

Pasqua said most of the death penalty murders were committed over money or 
infidelity. Much like today, appeals followed the men's convictions. But 
sentences were carried out swiftly, she said.

"Their attorneys would fight to see if they could get them life imprisonment, 
but that didn't happen, and within a year, they were put to death," Pasqua 
said.

The 13 accounts provide a historic look at how state-sanctioned executions 
evolved over time.

McFall, the 1st to die, was hanged from a sycamore tree at what is now the 
Fayette County Fairgrounds. The remainder of the executions took place at the 
jail, either openly in the yard or, in later years, privately in a corridor 
inside the prison, according to the news accounts.

For some of the earlier executions, Pasqua said, hundreds of ticket-bearing 
spectators spilled into the prison to witness the condemned men's final 
moments. In one instance, teenage "boy murderer" Frank Morris' corpse was 
placed on display after his 1896 hanging for shooting a Bullskin farmer during 
a robbery. "After the execution, the remains were viewed by from 3 to 4 
thousand people in the hall of the courthouse," notes a transcribed news 
account in the book. "A wonderful crowd of people surrounded the jail and 
courthouse all afternoon."

By the time Wells became the last condemned man to die by hanging in the county 
in 1914, executions were moved to a corridor inside the jail.

"Not only was the execution made private as possible, but the throng of morbid 
curious were kept from viewing the gruesome corpse with the bulging eyes and 
bruised throat," notes one of the news accounts. "Immediately after Wells was 
declared dead, his body was placed in a basket and rushed to the waiting 
funeral wagon of Undertaker Johnston at the entrance to the jail."

Among the commonalities, Pasqua said, was that the gallows were always painted 
white and nooses fashioned of stretched hemp.

"All the prisoners got a brand new suit," Pasqua said. "They could order any 
meal they wanted the night before, and they had visitors and church people come 
in."

Pasqua said her research debunked an oft-recited courthouse tale of hangings in 
the courthouse's clock tower.

"There were no hangings in the clock tower," Pasqua said. The hangings stopped 
when Pennsylvania adopted the electric chair for executions, Pasqua said.

Pasqua said many of the stories behind the hangings are compelling.

"Some of the people were foreigners who came up from other states to work in 
the coal mines and got in trouble," Pasquale said. "Some were planned; some 
were unplanned. It's like you came to know the people."

Pasqua donated copies of the book to the law library and the Uniontown Library, 
where visitors are welcome to read them, but they are not available to be 
checked out.

(source: triblive.com)








FLORIDA:

Hearing scheduled this week for suspect in St. Lucie County deputy's 2013 death



The man accused of shooting and killing a St. Lucie County sheriff's deputy in 
2013 is expected to be in court Monday.

Eriese Tisdale is charged with first-degree murder of a law enforcement 
officer.

Tisdale is accused of shooting St. Lucie County sheriff's deputy Sgt. Gary 
Morales in 2013.

On Monday, a 2-day hearing will begin as lawyers iron out the details before 
the trial that is scheduled to start Sept. 15.

Tisdale's lawyers have filed motions to suppress statements their client made 
after his arrest.

The defense argues Tisdale spoke to a prosecutor without that prosecutor 
identifying himself.

They have also filed a motion to ban uniformed law enforcement from the 
courtroom claiming it would have an impact on the jury if they were in the 
gallery.

The defense and prosecution are planning to present an agreement on the terms 
of where law enforcement will be able to sit and what they will be able to wear 
during the trial.

If convicted, Tisdale could receive the death penalty.

(source: WPTV news)








CALIFORNIA:

Trial Date Set After Double Murder Victim's Father Begs for Justice----An 
October trial date has been set in the dismemberment murder of a man inside a 
Los Alamitos theater.



A trial date in October has been set for a man faced with the death penalty for 
the Los Alamitos dismemberment murder of another man and the killing of a 
friend in Costa Mesa.

The oft-delayed death penalty trial of Daniel Patrick Wozniak received another 
trial date of Oct. 2 after the father of 1 of the victims implored the judge 
presiding over the case to schedule one.

Steve Herr, the father of victim, Samuel Eliezer Herr, told Orange County 
Superior Court Judge John Conley that he wanted another trial date set.

"We've been waiting 5 years," Herr said. "That's all we really wanted."

The case has been plagued with delays, particularly since Wozniak's attorneys 
have alleged outrageous government misconduct in the use of a jailhouse snitch 
and the involvement of Orange County sheriff's deputies in helping to arrange 
an interview of the defendant on MSNBC's "Lockup."

Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy has said he advised Assistant 
Public Defender Scott Sanders of Wozniak's interview on the program and that 
his office had nothing to do with it, but only found out about it through Herr, 
who saw an ad for the show.

MSNBC's lawyers are fighting Sanders' request for correspondence and other 
information regarding the network's interview of Wozniak.

Sanders is pushing for an evidentiary hearing on the use of a jailhouse 
informant who befriended Wozniak and passed on potentially incriminating 
statements to jailers. Murphy has pointed out that he has no plans to use the 
informant as a witness and that he was not yet an official snitch for the 
sheriff when he buddied up with Wozniak.

Also, Murphy argues, Costa Mesa police are the lead law enforcement agency in 
the case against Wozniak and that the sheriff's only role is as a jailer.

Sanders won an evidentiary hearing for one of his other clients -- convicted 
mass killer Scott Dekraai -- that led to findings of misconduct that led 
another judge to remove the District Attorney's Office as prosecutor.

Murphy also pushed Conley today to issue a finding that the prosecutor was not 
personally involved in any alleged misconduct, something he argues Sanders has 
alleged in court papers. Sanders has emphasized that he is alleging "government 
misconduct," not "prosecutorial misconduct."

Conley said he wasn't prepared to do that today because he was "like someone 
coming in in the middle of the movie." Both sides are set to argue the issue 
July 31.

The state supreme court this month rejected a petition from Wozniak to boot 
Conley from the case. Another judge recused himself when he said he became so 
frustrated with Sanders that he did not think he was capable of being fair to 
the defendant.

Prosecutors had the judge presiding over the Dekraai case removed when he was 
assigned to it following the other judge's recusal.

Wozniak is accused of shooting Samuel Herr after luring him to the Los Alamitos 
Joint Forces military base in May 2010. Prosecutors allege he then used the 
victim's cell phone to trick his friend, Juri Kibuishi, into going to Herr's 
Costa Mesa apartment, where the defendant gunned her down and then made it look 
like Herr killed her during a sexual assault. Wozniak then allegedly returned 
to the base to dismember Herr.

(source: patch.com)








USA:

Remember the victims -- There are more sensitive ways to handle Tsarnaev's 
presence



There is a likelihood that in coming weeks or months the Special Confinement 
Unit at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute will house condemned 
Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. It will be at that facility on our 
city's southwest side, along with as many as 55 other inmates, that the 
21-year-old native of Kyrgyzstan will live with his death sentence.

A federal judge last week formally sentenced Tsarnaev to die by lethal 
injection for the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombings that killed 3 people 
and injured 260 others, some of them severely.

During his sentencing, Tsarnaev expressed both regret and remorse for his 
actions. He apologized to the victims.

For as long as it's been known that Tsarnaev would be tried on federal charges 
and the death penalty would be sought by prosecutors, the people of Terre Haute 
have known that he could someday be housed in their community. This is not a 
new situation for our city. It merely reflects Terre Haute's peculiar place in 
the federal judicial system. Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted for his role in 
bombing the federal building in Oklahoma City and killing 168 people, was 
housed on death row in the local prison until he became the 1st person executed 
at the new federal death chamber in June of 2001.

When Tsarnaev's execution will occur is far from certain. The death sentence 
carries with it a number of automatic appeals which could take years to 
resolve. And with so many condemned inmates populating death row now, it would 
take years to make a dent in those numbers. And that is only if executions ever 
resume at the federal level.

While 3 federal prisoners have been executed at the Terre Haute facility, there 
have been no executions there in 12 years. What's more, none are scheduled. 
There is an effective moratorium on executions in the federal system because 
the U.S. lethal injection policy is under review and revision. There are major 
problems with drug protocols used in lethal injections, and it's clear finding 
alternatives will be difficult.

As Tsarnaev lives out the rest of his life, however long that may be, it is now 
time to let his name drift out of the nation's consciousness and instead use 
our energy to again remember those he killed when those bombs exploded near the 
finishing line of the world's most famous foot race. They are Martin Richard, 
an 8-year-old boy from Dorcester, Mass.; Krystle Campbell, 29, of Arlington, 
Mass; and Lingzi Lu, a Boston University graduate student from China. We must 
also remember MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was shot to death as he sat 
in his police car by Tsarnaev and his bother, Tamerlan, who later died as 
law-enforcement officers pursued the brothers.

The most appropriate way for Terre Haute to acknowledge Tsarnaev's presence 
here is to always, always, honor the memories of his victims.

(source: Editorial, Tribune Star)

***********

Lethal injection decision comes on capital punishment anniversary

Monday's Supreme Court decision about lethal injections comes on the same day, 
back in 1972, that the Court briefly limited the death penalty.

On June 29, 1972, the Court decided in a complicated ruling in Furman v. 
Georgia, that the death penalty application in 3 cases was unconstitutional. 
The Court clarified that ruling in 1976, putting the death penalty back on the 
books under different circumstances.

The debate over whether the death penalty is cruel and unusual dates back to 
the Founding Fathers. The Constitution's Eighth Amendment states that, 
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel 
and unusual punishments inflicted."

In 1789, during the debate over the Bill of Rights in the First Congress, 1 
argument was over the extent of the death penalty. Samuel Livermore of New 
Hampshire proposed that "it is sometimes necessary to hang a man, villains 
often deserve whipping, and perhaps having their ears cut off."

"But are we in the future to be prevented from inflicting these punishments 
because they are cruel? If a more lenient mode of correcting vice and deterring 
others from the commission of it would be invented, it would be very prudent in 
the Legislature to adopt it; but until we have some security that this will be 
done, we ought not to be restrained from making necessary laws by any 
declaration of this kind," Livermore said.

The First Congress adopted a more moderate view when it proposed the Eighth 
Amendment for ratification in the Bill of Rights. It was also concerned about 
the use of harsh punishments in an arbitrary and disproportionate way.

The Supreme Court initially considered these factors as they would have applied 
in the Founders' time. In 1878, the Court ruled in Wilkerson v. Utah that death 
by firing squad was permissible, but it agreed that old English practices of 
execution where prisoners were "emboweled alive, beheaded, and quartered," 
publicly dissected and burned alive were unconstitutional.

Then in 1910, the Court broadened its criteria in Weems v. United States, which 
wasn't a capital punishment case but still dealt with cruel and unusual 
punishment. The Justices referenced an earlier death-sentence case, In re 
Kemmler from 1890, which held that the 1st use of the electric chair was 
constitutional under the 14th Amendment. Later, the Court ruled that it was 
permissible to execute a person with the electric chair, for a 2nd time, after 
a 1st attempt failed.

However, in 1972 the Court changed direction in Furman v. Georgia, when, in a 
very complicated ruling, a split 5-4 Court decided the death penalty 
application was unconstitutional in 3 cases.

Furman, an armed burglar, had tripped while fleeing a scene, causing his gun to 
discharge and kill a victim. The Court also considered 2 similar cases in the 
Furman decision. The Court filed a 1-paragraph per curiam ruling and each of 
the nine Justices wrote their own separate opinions.

"The Court holds that the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in 
these cases constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth 
and Fourteenth Amendments. The judgment in each case is therefore reversed 
insofar as it leaves undisturbed the death sentence imposed, and the cases are 
remanded for further proceedings," the brief opinion read.

Only 2 of the Justices believed the death penalty was unconstitutional under 
all circumstances. But the effect of the Furman decision was to place a 4-year 
moratorium on all executions until more guidance came from a court challenge.

In 1976, in a series of decisions called the Gregg cases, the Court confirmed 
that capital punishment was legal in the United States, but under limited 
circumstances. It rejected automatic sentencing to death, and said death 
sentences can't be characterized by "arbitrariness and capriciousness." The 
ruling led to the use by states of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in 
determining capital sentencing.

In later years, the Court has excluded certain classes of people from capital 
punishment, including the mentally handicapped and juveniles. It also 
eliminated rape and felony murder as capital crimes.

(source: constitutioncenter.org)

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

Supreme Court to rule in lethal injection case Monday



The fate of a drug commonly used to carry out lethal injections could go down 
as one of the most bitter battles between the liberal and conservative justices 
on the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Monday, justices will decide whether the use of the sedative midazolam in 
lethal-injection executions is constitutional after the drug was implicated in 
several botched executions.

The argument is that the drug doesn't reliably induce a coma-like sleep that 
would prevent death row inmates from experiencing the pain of the paralytic and 
heart-stopping drugs that follow sedation.

When the Supreme Court heard arguments in March, Justice Samuel Alito Jr. 
accused those trying to prevent the use of midazolam in an execution in 
Oklahoma of waging a "guerrilla war against the death penalty."

Justice Antonin Scalia, who released colorful dissents last week against 
same-sex marriage and ObamaCare subsidies, accused those trying to prevent the 
use of midazolam as being part of an "abolitionist movement."

Justices Elana Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor said that without proper sedation, the 
use of the drug that is used to stop a person's heart, would be like being 
burned at the stake, only the person sentenced to death is "burned alive from 
the inside."

(source: Fox News)