[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MO., CALIF., WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 13



TEXAS:

Appeals court refuses to stop execution set for next week


A federal appeals court has refused to stop next week's scheduled execution of 
an East Texas man condemned for setting a fire that killed his young daughter 
and her 2 half-sisters at their home 15 years ago.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday rejected a petition from an 
attorney for 36-year-old Raphael Holiday.

Austin-based lawyer Gretchen Sween is arguing Holiday's court-appointed 
attorneys have abandoned him and his lethal injection scheduled for Wednesday 
should be stopped so new attorneys can be named for him and pursue appeals.

Sween said Friday she'll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Holiday's court-appointed attorneys say his legal issues have been exhausted.

Holiday is facing execution for the three fire deaths at the rural Madison 
County home of his estranged former common-law wife.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI:

Missouri hearing in double killing postponed until next year


A Missouri change-of-venue hearing on murder charges linked to a double slaying 
has been postponed for the suspect already serving life sentences for 6 
killings in Illinois.

36-year-old Nicholas Sheley was to have had a hearing Friday in Jefferson 
County, where he argues he can't get a fair trial on charges related to the 
deaths of an Arkansas couple during an alleged 2-state killing spree seven 
years ago. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

But the hearing was pushed back Thursday until Jan. 8.

Sheley was extradited to Missouri in February from Illinois. 4 of the people he 
was convicted of killing were bludgeoned with a hammer and ranged in age from 2 
years to 29. The other 2 victims were 65 and 93.

(source: Associated press)






CALIFORNIA:

Proposed death penalty fix may fall short


Both friends and foes of the death penalty agree the state???s current system 
is broken and that voters should do something about it in 2016.

Of course, the 2 sides part ways from there.

Opponents want it replaced by a life sentence without the possibility of 
parole, a plan the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office has estimated 
would save the state more than $100 million annually.

Proponents want to preserve and fix it with a plan that the LAO has said could 
save the state "tens of millions" in prison costs annually. That savings would 
reverse the current phenomenon of death-row inmates costing the state more than 
those serving life sentences, backers say.

State voters have cast ballots in favor of the death penalty three times, most 
recently in 2012 when 52 % rejected a ban on executions similar to the one 
being prepared for next year's election.

If both sides are succeed in qualifying their measures for the ballot next 
November, the outcome could be in the hands of the voters in the middle - those 
more concerned about the practical and financial aspects of the law than 
whether the death penalty is right or wrong.

That's where the plan to resume executions may fall short.

Waiting and waiting

The state hasn't executed anybody since 2006, when the courts determined the 
3-drug lethal injection used could cause "cruel and unusual suffering."

Not that the death penalty was working well before then.

The bureaucracy of the appeals process, the lack of available defense attorneys 
and a backlog of cases at the Supreme Court has resulted the state's death row 
population growing to 747. Since 1978, 87 have died of natural causes or 
suicide on death row - 6 times as many as have been executed during that 
period.

Death penalty advocates cheered 2 incremental steps this month: the Department 
of Corrections will proceed with the review process toward replacing the 3-drug 
cocktail with a single drug and an appeals court made a narrow technical ruling 
that favors the death penalty. But neither move makes it any clearer if and 
when executions will resume.

District attorneys throughout the state, including Orange County???s Tony 
Rackauckas and San Bernardino County's Mike Ramos, had already begun pushing 
for a ballot measure to get executions back on track. The measure, which is 
awaiting state approval so that signature petitions can be circulated, calls 
for several key changes:

-- Streamlining the process for approving a single-drug injection that would 
address the 2006 court order.

-- Expanding the pool of defense attorneys available to represent death row 
inmates in their appeals process. It now takes 3 to 5 years for an attorney to 
be assigned because there are so few.

-- Streamlining the appeals process, which takes years to reach the state 
Supreme Court once attorneys are assigned.

-- Eliminate the single-cell housing of death-row inmates. This, along with 
expediting the appeals process, would account for the projected savings.

A remaining obstacle

There are currently 18 inmates who've exhausted all appeals and are cleared for 
death once a suitable form of execution is approved.

Ramos estimates there are another 140 who are awaiting their final appeal 
before the state Supreme Court.

The proposed overhaul would get the inmates to this final-appeal stage more 
quickly, but would do nothing about the growing backlog of cases awaiting the 7 
justices on the state's high court.

"That's something the California Supreme Court is going to have to deal with," 
Ramos told me during an Orange County visit this month to raise money for the 
initiative drive.

A 2014 version of the measure proposed a constitutional amendment that would 
have routed cases to appeals courts rather than the Supreme Court for the final 
hearing. But proponents failed to gather enough signatures to qualify it. 
Removing that provision allows the measure to be proposed as a statute rather 
than a constitutional amendment, meaning it has a lower signature requirement - 
366,000 rather than 585,000.

"I'll watch this closely," Ramos said, referring to the proposal if it becomes 
law. "And if it doesn't fix everything, we may have to go back to voters with a 
constitutional amendment."

(source: Orance County Register)






WASHINGTON:

Prosecutors want vote on death penalty


State prosecutors say they'll ask lawmakers to send a death penalty referendum 
to voters next year.

The Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys issued a statement Thursday 
saying prosecutors "overwhelmingly believe that the people of the state should 
vote on the question of whether the state should retain the death penalty as an 
option in cases of aggravated murder."

Jim Nagle, Walla Walla County Prosecuting Attorney and an association board 
member, agrees.

"The public needs to advise the Legislature, the courts and the governor what 
needs to be done with these cases," he wrote today in an email to the 
Union-Bulletin.

Washington voters approved an initiative in 1975, re-establishing the death 
penalty here. But it's been on hold since last year, when Gov. Jay Inslee 
issued a moratorium for as long as he's in office.

A previous death penalty law was ruled unconstitutional in 1972 by the U.S. 
Supreme Court.

In Thursday's statement, the prosecutors' association said, "Most of the people 
in the state of Washington today did not participate in the election 40 years 
ago that established our state as 1 of 31 U.S. states with the death penalty.

"The citizens of Nebraska will vote on the repeal or retention of the death 
penalty in that state next year. Washington State voters should have a similar 
choice."

The association's statement Thursday points out that since the current law was 
enacted, prosecutors have sought the death penalty in 90 of 268 most heinous 
murders in which it was a possible sentence. Jurors returned unanimous verdicts 
of death in 32 of those 90.

"The 32 death sentences that have been imposed under the current statute have 
resulted in the execution of 5 men, 3 of whom were 'volunteers' who instructed 
their attorneys to not pursue appeals of their convictions," the statement 
says.

Currently, 9 men are on death row in the state.

Executions are carried out at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. 
The last execution was in 2010.

Under a previous death penalty law, the last execution of a Walla Walla County 
defendant was in 1939.

Death penalty cases in the state are still being tried and continue to work 
through the system. Inslee's moratorium means that if a death-penalty case 
comes to his desk, he will issue a reprieve, which means the inmate would stay 
in prison rather than face execution.

The next legislative session begins in January.

(source: Associated Press)