[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., FLA., MISS., LA., OKLA., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 17



GEORGIA----impending execution

Lawyer: Doubts Remain About Georgia Death Row Inmate's Guilt


A lawyer for a Georgia death row inmate says his client shouldn't be executed 
this week because doubts remain about his guilt.

Marcus Ray Johnson is set for execution Thursday. He was convicted in April 
1998 in the March 1994 rape and murder of Angela Sizemore.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles plans to hold a clemency hearing for 
Johnson on Wednesday.

Brian Kammer, an attorney for Johnson, has asked the board to commute Johnson's 
sentence or to at least delay his execution for 90 days to allow for additional 
DNA testing that he says could prove his client didn't kill Sizemore.

Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards, who was a prosecutor in the 
case, said the defense theories have been discredited and there is no doubt 
about Johnson's guilt.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Condemned Georgia man asks for six-pack with last meal; prison says no


Marcus Ray Johnson, scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday evening, 
asked for a 6-pack of beer with his last meal, but prison officials turned him 
down.

Georgia Department of Corrections officials disclosed Johnson's request on 
Tuesday. With beer out of the question, Johnson said he just wants the same 
dinner that everyone else on Death Row will be served that night: baked fish 
and cheese grits, officials said.

Also on Tuesday, Johnson's lawyer pressed his claims that Georgia was about to 
execute an innocent man, while the state's attorney argued it's time for 
justice for the woman Johnson killed 21 years ago.

Deputy Attorney General Beth Burton wrote Tuesday in response to a filing by 
Johnson's lawyer that the condemned man "has been repeatedly given avenues and 
opportunities to attempt to present evidence to support his (innocence) claim. 
He has repeatedly failed.

"The miscarriage of justice in this case would be if the victim's 26-year-old 
daughter, who was 5 at the time of her mother's murder, is not allowed closure 
in this case," Burton wrote.

Johnson, 50, is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. Thursday for the 1994 murder 
of Angela Sizemore, a woman he met in an Albany bar. The State Board of Pardons 
and Paroles will consider his plea for mercy on Wednesday. Johnson stands to be 
the 4th person Georgia has put to death this year.

He admitted to police that he and the 35-year-old woman had sex in a field near 
the Albany bar where they met just after midnight March 24, 1994. But Johnson 
said he left her alive and crying, having punched her in the nose because she 
insisted on cuddling.

Sizemore's body was found several hours later inside her SUV, which had been 
moved across town from where she had parked it before going into the bar, 
Fundamentals. She was stabbed 41 times.

Johnson's lawyer repeated in court filings on Tuesday what he has argued for 
several years that Johnson is innocent and was convicted on sketchy evidence. 
Attorney Brian Kammer said all prosecutors had was Johnson's admission that he 
had engaged in consensual sex with Sizemore; the physical evidence of those 
relations; and witnesses who said they saw him near her abandoned SUV.

Kammer said investigators did not find Sizemore's blood on the knife police 
said was used to stab her or on the tree branch used to brutalize her. He also 
said the witnesses were inconsistent about the man they saw early that morning. 
There were no fingerprints or DNA found in her SUV, which police suspected he 
drove to the the apartment complex where it was discovered.

The descriptions were of a man "with or without facial hair, wearing sneakers, 
or boots, a black top; or maybe a jacket, boots and a flat wedding band style 
ring; or a ring with a diamond on it or a ring with a green stone on it," 
Kammer wrote in a filing on Tuesday.

"These appalling facts, along with helpful expert testimony, are now available 
and show that Mr. Johnson's conviction and death sentence rest on a foundation 
made of sand," Kammer wrote.

Burton said an appellate court had already heard all that and found his 
"evidence of actual innocence was not credible."

She wrote that Johnson continues to say he's innocent even though "the facts of 
his guilt were and remain overwhelming."

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)






FLORIDA----new death sentence

Bessman Okafor is sentenced to death.


An Orange County judge today sentenced Bessman Okafor to death for 
masterminding a 2012 witness execution.

Okafor, 30, joins 392 Florida inmates awaiting execution on death row. He is 
the 1st person in Orange County to receive that fate since 2008, according to 
the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office.

Okafor was convicted of 1st-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Alex 
Zaldivar. A jury then recommended capital punishment. In Florida, judges make 
the final decision.

Okafor was already serving a life sentence for robbing the same Ocoee home 
months before the killing. Prosecutors argued Okafor broke in again to stop the 
residents from testifying against him in that case. Okafor was charged with 
shooting siblings Brienna and Remington Campos in the head and killing 
Zaldivar.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSISSIPPI:

Public info about execution drugs argued in Mississippi


The Mississippi Supreme Court is considering whether the state prison system 
must disclose the name of the pharmacy where it buys execution drugs.

Attorneys made arguments Tuesday about whether the information must be released 
under the state Public Records Act.

A chancery court judge ruled for disclosure in March, but the information 
remained secret while the state appealed.

Special assistant attorney general Paul Barnes told justices that releasing the 
pharmacy's name could expose the business to protests and pressure. He says 
that happened in Texas.

Jim Craig is an attorney for the New Orleans-based Roderick and Solange 
MacArthur Justice Center, which opposes the death penalty and requested 
information about Mississippi's execution drug supplier. Craig says the public 
should know how and where tax dollars are spent.

(source: Associated Press)






LOUISIANA:

Prisoners sentenced to die by Caddo juries lingering on death row


Of the estimated 83 people on Louisiana's death row about 20 % were put there 
by Caddo juries - more than any other parish in the state.

Yet it's been nearly three decades since a Caddo Parish death row inmate was 
executed.

Wayne Robert Felde, 38 at the time of his death in 1988, is the only person 
convicted for a crime committed in Caddo to be put to death since Louisiana 
reinstated the death penalty in 1973.

Others, such as convicted serial killer Nathaniel Code, who arrived on death 
row Jan. 25, 1991, and Percy Davis, who arrived April 6, 1992, for the murders 
of a convenience store owner and night clerk on 2 separate nights, are still 
there.

Despite earning a black eye for for being one of the top parishes/counties in 
the nation for sending people to death row, Caddo has seen little success in 
fulfilling the sentences. That's chiefly due to a number of factors such as 
lengthy appeals and sentences being overturned or reduced after court 
challenges.

And, experts say that's good, given that some of the parish's death row 
convictions have been reversed for lack of evidence, errors and constitutional 
issues.

Shreveport criminal defense attorney Peter Flowers said Caddo should thank God 
more executions of those sentenced to die here haven't been carried out.

"That's in spite of the our best efforts, not because of them," he said.

Perceptions

The last execution by lethal injection in Louisiana took place in 2010. Earlier 
this year, the state put off executions until at July 2016 while its lethal 
injection procedure is under review.

Nationally, death penalty sentences in the United States were at a 40-year low 
in 2014, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington D.C. 
(where are they based?) Louisiana is following the national trend but Caddo 
Parish remains an anomaly.

"Caddo Parish over the last five years is the per capita leader of death 
sentences in the United States of America," said Robert Smith, a senior fellow 
at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute at Harvard Law School & a visiting 
scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. Smith has studied death penalty 
sentencing by county in the United States.

Of the 3 people sentenced to die last year in Louisiana, 2 were from Caddo - 
Rodricus Crawford and Marcus Reed. The perception is the current Caddo district 
attorney's office aggressively and blindly pursues death penalty convictions - 
even in cases that don't warrant it.

"They're sentencing people to death who can't be executed," Smith said.

Questions also have risen about whether death row inmate Rodricus Crawford's 
1-year-old son, Roderius, was actually murdered. Experts have called the 
medical evidence used to convict Crawford as misleading and unreliable.

Crawford's case has been appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

There's also Glenn Ford who was convicted with very little evidence and had an 
inadequate defense.

After decades on death row, new evidence would result in Ford's death penalty 
sentence being vacated.

"If you're the governor, first of all, you might not be executing anybody in 
the state of Louisiana because the state has really moved away from it. But if 
you're going to execute someone, you're going down the list, are you going to 
pick the intellectually disabled person? The person who's almost a juvenile who 
can barely process...? The person who's severely mentally ill, the person with 
fetal alcohol syndrome or the possibly innocent person? Which one of those 
people?" Smith said.

Local attorneys say the death penalty should be reserved for the worst cases. 
"You shouldn't take a case that's not 100 % clear cut," said Alan Golden, 
Caddo's former district public defender.

Perceptions

Some attribute the perception of Caddo as a death penalty central to interviews 
acting DA Dale Cox gave to local and national news organizations. Cox told the 
Times "we need to kill more people" and reiterated his views on the death 
penalty to the New York Times, The New Yorker and other news outlets.

He didn't respond to interview requests.

Smith points to Cox as one of the central personalities in the DA office to 
explain why Caddo is an anomaly when compared to the rest of the state and 
country for the imposition of death penalty sentences.

Flowers said thoughtful lawyers and people in Caddo don't like being thought of 
as death penalty pusher.

"We do what we can to present the right perception to people about lawyers and 
the justice system. And we work hard and those of us who this for a living have 
dedicated our lives and our fortune to this particular industry and we don't 
like being bandied about by the New York media," Flowers said.

For long-time former Caddo District Attorney Paul Carmouche, the perception of 
the current DA office as eager pursuers of capital punishment is unfair.

"It bothers me now that the office I ran for 30 years is all of sudden 
considered unfair and basically bloodthirsty. I just hate to see the office 
being portrayed that way," said Carmouche, who was DA when Felde was executed.

Carmouche said he always told his ADAs to "play hard but play fair" and didn't 
have policies that encouraged racial bias in jury selection. Convictions don't 
always equal justice, he said.

Flowers said he believes the national assessment about systemic issues in 
Caddo's criminal justice system is correct.

"We're clearly far and away at the forefront of death penalty litigation," 
Flowers said. "...You know, that's the fact. We're at the forefront of death 
penalty litigation in Caddo Parish and Louisiana is at the forefront of death 
penalty litigation in this country. That doesn't necessarily mean we're the 
absolute top but we're up there with them."

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said 
he doesn't believe issues with Caddo's criminal justice system solely limited 
to Cox.

"Dale Cox's comments in isolation would be looked at as one prosecutor who 
could be out of control but when you look at what is going on in Caddo Parish 
you see a systemic problem and not just a problem limited to one individual," 
he said.

Smith and Dunham said there appears to be evidence of ineffective defense 
counsel in some cases, alleged prosecutorial misconduct and racial bias in jury 
selection.

"Some studies have shown that you have the highest rate of death penalty 
reversals and of being overturned in jurisdictions that most aggressively seek 
to impose the death penalty because they cut corners because is a lack of 
commitment to quality representation," Dunham said. "Because of these things 
the risk of error is much greater and the appearance of of error is much 
clearer."

Those counties/parishes produce the highest rates of death penalty sentences 
and have the highest rate of sentences overturned, he said.

And if anything, issues with the death penalty in Caddo expose systemic issues 
involving race, he said. For example, Reprieve Australia's study of racial bias 
by Caddo prosecutors in the jury selection process found prospective qualified 
black voters were more likely to be struck from jury panels than their 
counterparts.

"It maybe fortuitous the execution body count in Caddo Parish is not as high as 
Oklahoma County but that doesn't mean that the problem is less pervasive or 
less serious. It just means that the parish prosecutors have been less 
successful in having the people they've targeted for the death penalty 
executed," he said.

Who sends the most?

Caddo, East Baton Rouge and Jefferson parishes accounted for more than 1/2 of 
the people there. Caddo condemned the most - 17 - people to die with East Baton 
Rouge and Jefferson Parish trailing with 15 and 10 inmates on death row at 
Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

The LDOC list included Eric Mickelson whom a new Caddo Parish jury, convene to 
retry him for the murder of the 86-year-old Charles Martin, would be sentenced 
to life in prison. Pam Laborde, LDOC spokeswoman, said Mickelson remains 
assigned to death row as the necessary paperwork to move him had yet to be 
received.

The list doesn't include those whose death penalty sentences were overturned, 
such as Corey Williams. Williams convicted of the 1998 death of a fast food 
worker in Shreveport, is developmentally challenged. His sentence was reduced 
due a finding of mental retardation, the Death Penalty Information Center says. 
Williams IQ scores ranged from 65 to 68.

The state electrocuted 3 people Bossier Parish juries condemned to die in the 
1980s. Earnest Knighton Jr, Alvin Moore and Edward R. Bryne Jr. According to 
LDOC, Bossier Parish had 3 people on death row as of Oct. 8.

(source: Shreveport Times)

OKLAHOMA:

Attorney says Mark Costello's son 'very remorseful' in politician's death


A defense attorney for a man accused of fatally stabbing his father, Oklahoma's 
former labor commissioner, said Tuesday that the 27-year-old is "very 
remorseful" and being examined by a private psychiatrist.

Chief Public Defender Bob Ravitz said following a court hearing in the case 
that Christian Costello, who is being held in the Oklahoma County Jail without 
bond and did not appear in court Tuesday, is doing "the best he can do, 
considering."

Prosecutors say Costello attacked his father, Mark Costello, with a knife and 
repeatedly stabbed him on Aug. 23 at an Oklahoma City restaurant.

Christian Costello has pleaded not guilty to a 1st-degree murder charge.

"It's a real tragic event," Ravitz said of the man. "He's very remorseful."

Costello's family has said in a statement that he suffers from a mental illness 
and court records show Costello previously spent 90 days in a mental health 
facility and taken mood stabilizers. Ravitz declined to reveal whether Costello 
is taking any medications but said a private psychiatrist is examining him.

"We're studying all of Christian's records," he said. "It's taken a while to 
get them."

Special Judge Lisa Hammond scheduled a Feb. 5 preliminary hearing in the case. 
On that day, prosecutors will present evidence that will help Hammond determine 
whether a crime was committed and whether there is probable cause Christian 
Costello committed it. First-degree murder is punishable by life in prison with 
or without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

Prosecutors filed the charge about a week after Mark Costello was attacked at a 
Braum's restaurant and ice cream shop in Oklahoma City, where authorities say 
Christian Costello allegedly pulled a knife and repeatedly stabbed his father. 
Witnesses said the attack continued after Mark Costello ran into the parking 
lot where his wife, Cathy Costello, tried to intervene.

Police say they interviewed at least 17 witnesses, all of whom said they saw 
Costello stabbing his father with a small knife. At least 1 witness knocked 
Christian Costello off-balance with a vehicle, and others held him down until 
officers arrived, police have said.

The state Medical Examiner's Office has ruled that Mark Costello died from stab 
wounds to the neck and classified his death as a homicide.

Last week, Gov. Mary Fallin appointed Melissa McLawhorn Houston, chief of staff 
of the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office, to serve the rest of Mark Costello's 
unexpired term, which extends until January 2019. Costello's widow had sought 
the position. Houston is expected to begin her new role by Dec. 1. She has said 
she has no plans to run for the office in 2018.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Man pleads not guilty to murdering his 3 young sons


A man accused of fatally stabbing his 3 young sons inside an SUV in South Los 
Angeles in September pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 3 counts of murder.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sergio C. Tapia II ordered Luiz Fuentes, 33, 
to remain jailed without bail while awaiting his next court appearance Jan. 26.

Fuentes is charged in the Sept. 9 killings of his sons Alexander, 8, Juan, 9, 
and Luis, 10.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has yet to decide whether to 
seek the death penalty against Fuentes, who faces a special circumstance 
allegation of multiple murders.

A passerby saw Fuentes sitting in the front seat of an SUV parked in the 300 
block of East 32nd Street around 7 a.m. on Sept. 9. The man approached the 
vehicle and saw the children's bodies inside and Fuentes covered in blood from 
stab wounds.

Police believe Fuentes stabbed himself. He was hospitalized, then booked on 
suspicion of murder 2 days later.

At a vigil in memory of the victims, a pastor said Fuentes had been having 
financial problems and was living in the SUV with his children, whose mother 
died in 2008. He was reportedly battling depression.

The Los Angeles Times reported in September that the county Department of 
Children and Family Services was investigating whether social workers 
adequately probed some allegations that the boys were at risk and whether staff 
responded appropriately to what they learned.

A hotline call to DCFS in September 2010 reporting abuse of the children led 
social workers to determine that the allegation was true, the newspaper 
reported, citing anonymous officials with the department.

Lawyers for the DCFS petitioned the juvenile court to open a case, officials 
told The Times, and the boys remained in the father's home until the case was 
closed about a year later.

2 more hotline calls alleging physical abuse were made in April 2014, sources 
told The Times. Social workers who investigated the allegations finally marked 
the claims "inconclusive" last year.

(source: mynewsla.com)






USA:

Americans see a lot of discrimination against people who are Muslim, black or 
gay


Americans say there is a significant amount of discrimination and a growing 
feeling of racial tension in the United States, with sharp divides in how 
different groups view these issues, according to a new poll.

These findings come as the country is still visibly grappling with issues of 
race and equality, from the protests against how police use force to unrest on 
college campuses, the presidential campaign trail and recent fights over 
anti-discrimination statutes and religious freedom laws.

The 2 groups perceived to be facing the most discrimination are Muslims and gay 
and lesbian people, with 7 in 10 Americans saying those groups are 
discriminated against "a lot", the Public Religion Research Institute found in 
a poll released Tuesday.

Majorities also say that black people (63 %) and Hispanic people (56 %) face a 
lot of discrimination, while a majority of Americans (53 %) say there is not a 
lot of discrimination against women.

Similarly, most Americans do not believe that evangelical Christians, Jews or 
atheists face a lot of discrimination, with about 3 in 10 Americans saying that 
they do.

Interestingly, while a quarter of Americans say that white Americans face a lot 
of discrimination, the poll found that more than 4 in 10 Americans say that 
discrimination against white people is as big an issue as discrimination 
against black people or other minorities. (1/2 of white Americans feel it is as 
big of an issue, while 29 % of Hispanic Americans and 25 % of black Americans 
agree.) All told, more than 1/3 of Americans say racial tensions are a major 
problem in their community, a number that has doubled in recent years, the poll 
found.

The recent protests against how police use force - spurred by the high-profile 
deaths of black men and boys in New York City, Baltimore, Cleveland and 
Ferguson, Mo. - have pushed the issue into the national consciousness 
repeatedly since last year, but the public remains divided on the topic.

More than 1/2 of Americans (53 %) say these deaths are isolated, rather than 
part of a broader pattern, pointing again to the yawning gap between different 
groups and how they perceive deaths at the hands of police officers. While 65 % 
of white Americans say the deaths are isolated episodes, 15 % of black 
Americans agree. 4 out of 5 black Americans say these point to a broader trend 
in police treatment, more than double the number of white Americans who feel 
that way.

Overall, a majority of Americans (62 %) say they have a great deal or some 
confidence in the criminal justice system. But, again, there are sizable gaps 
in the perceived fairness of the system.

A majority of Americans - 57 % - do not think that police officers treat white 
people the same way they treat black people or other minorities. White people 
are almost evenly split in how they view this, while big majorities of black 
(84 %) and Hispanic (73 %) Americans say the treatment is not the same.

[The deep divides in Maryland as the Freddie Gray trial looms]

When it comes to the death penalty, a majority of Americans (53 %) say that a 
black person is more likely than a white person to be sentenced to death for 
the same crime. This majority is largely fueled by black Americans and Hispanic 
Americans, majorities of whom feel this way, while less than 1/2 of white 
people agree with this sentiment.

(source: Washington Post)

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

Vermont man facing death penalty seeks to overturn law


Attorneys for a Vermont man facing the federal death penalty are asking a U.S. 
District Court judge to declare the federal death penalty law unconstitutional.

In documents filed in federal court Monday, the attorneys for Donald Fell 
argued the federal death penalty is unreliable, arbitrary and there are 
"unconscionably long" delays in death penalty cases.

The 35-year-old Fell was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005 for the 2000 
killing of Terry King, who was abducted in Rutland and later killed. Last year 
a judge ordered a new trial for Fell because of juror misconduct during the 
original trial.

In 2002, the judge then hearing the case declared the federal death penalty 
unconstitutional, but 2 years later an appeals court overruled that order 
allowing the original trial to go forward.

(source: Associated Press)