[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., TENN., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 19



TEXAS:

Texas 'Out of Step' With Other US States on Ending Death Penalty


Texas is not following the practice of other US states to eliminate using 
capital punishment, advocacy group Equal Justice USA Executive Director Shari 
Silberstein told Sputnik.

"The 6 states, including Texas, that have participated in executions this year 
are out of step with the growing number of states that have completely 
abandoned the death penalty," Silberstein said.

On Wednesday, Texas put to death its 13th convicted killer this year. The 
killer, 36-year-old Raphael Holiday, was convicted for intentionally set fire 
and killed his 18-year-old daughter and 2 step sisters.

"Even Texas' 13 executions this year, almost 1/2 of the national total, are 
down significantly from 2000, when the state executed 40 people," Silberstein 
noted. "The death penalty is in deep decline throughout the United States, with 
executions at all-time lows."

More than 800 people have been executed in the United States in the past 15 
years, according to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center. The state 
of Texas has executed 329 people since 2000.

(source: sputniknews.com)






GEORGIA----execution

Georgia executes Marcus Ray Johnson for 1994 murder


Marcus Ray Johnson has been put to death, the 1st of 7 expected to come over 
the next weeks and months as issues of the state's lethal injection drug has 
been resolved and death penalty cases complete the usual round of appeals.

The appointed time of his death was 7 p.m., but actual execution almost never 
comes until hours later, after all the courts have reviewed last-minute appeals 
and decided.

He was pronounced dead at 10:11 p.m.

Johnson visited with 3 paralegals, an attorney, 2 investigators, 1 friend and 5 
family members until around 3 p.m., and then was moved to a holding cell just a 
few steps from the death chamber. He declined to make a recorded final 
statement.

Johnson, 50, had asked for a 6-pack of beer for his last meal but that request 
was turned down because, the Department of Corrections said, alcohol is 
"contraband" inside a prison. Instead, Johnson settled for the same meal served 
to the rest of the inmates at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison 
about 50 miles south of Atlanta. But he did not eat his dinner.

Outside the prison, death penalty opponents gathered at the edge of the prison 
property and about a mile from the building that houses the execution chamber. 
They prayed as they waited on final word.

Wednesday night the state Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Johnson's request 
for clemency and court after court on Thursday also rejected his appeals, in 
which he claimed he was innocent of murdering Angela Sizemore.

Johnson and Sizemore met at an Albany bar called Fundamentals shortly after 
midnight on March 24, 1994. They drank, danced and kissed before leaving for a 
nearby empty lot where they had sex. Johnson told police he remembered little 
because he had drank so much tequila, but he did recall punching Sizemore 
because she wanted to cuddle.

He insisted, however, that she was alive when he left her sitting in the field, 
crying. Her body was found around 8 a.m. inside her SUV, which was parked 
behind an apartment complex on the other side of town from the bar. She had 
been stabbed 41 times.

Johnson's lawyers said there was little physical evidence connecting the 2 - a 
drop of her blood on his jacket (which Johnson said got on him when he punched 
Sizemore) and the remnants of their sexual relations. His lawyer said there 
would have been copious amounts of blood on his clothes if he had stabbed her, 
and his fingerprints and other DNA would have been inside her SUV if he had 
driven it across town. He also challenged the eyewitnesses who said they saw 
him in the neighborhood where Sizemore's Suburban was found.

The Parole Board, as is its practice, did not give a reason for denying 
Johnson's clemency request, writing in the order only that the 5 members had 
"thoroughly and painstakingly reviewed and considered all of the facts and 
circumstances of the offender and his offense, the clemency application, 
argument, testimony and opinion in support of and against clemency."

The courts turned down his appeals on the basis that his arguments had been 
heard before and were not new.

Johnson becomes the 4th condemned inmate put to death in Georgia this year and 
the 59th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Johnson becomes the 27th and final condemned inmate to be put to death this 
year in the USA, and the 1,421st overall since the nation resumed executions on 
January 17, 1977. The 27 executions continues a downward trend in the USA since 
2010, and represents the fewest amount of executions in the USA since 1991, 
when the nation carried out 14 executions.

The next scheduled execution in the US is set for January 20, 2016, in Texas.

(sources: Atlanta Journal Consitution & Rick Halperin)

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

Marcus Ray Johnson executed----U.S. Supreme Court denies stay Thursday night


After the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by convicted killer Marcus Ray 
Johnson, he was executed at 10:11 p.m. Thursday, the Georgia Department of 
Corrections said.

Johnson declined a final prayer and refused to record a final statement.

With his plea for clemency denied by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole 
late Wednesday and his appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court rejected Thursday 
afternoon, convicted Johnson's attorney, Brian Kammer, had asked the nation's 
high court for a stay of execution.

Johnson, 50, was sentenced to death in Dougherty Superior Court for the 1994 
murder of Angela Sizemore, whom he was seen with in an Albany bar hours before 
her death.

In addition to denying Johnson's motion for a stay of execution, the Georgia 
Supreme Court denied his request to appeal a ruling made Wednesday by the Butts 
County Superior Court. The Superior Court both denied his motion for a stay and 
dismissed his claims, including his claim that new evidence shows the 
eyewitness testimony was unreliable and the State failed to disprove that 
someone else could have committed the crime. That led to the appeal to the U.S. 
Supreme Court Thursday night that went past the scheduled 7 p.m. execution 
time.

In a preface to the clemency application, Kammer placed in quotes: "It would be 
an atrocious violation of our Constitution and the Principles upon which it is 
based to execute an innocent person."

Johnson was scheduled to die by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and 
Classification Prison in Jackson, which was the 4th death penalty carried out 
this year in Georgia.

Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Angela Sizemore, 
who he had met at a west Albany bar named Fundamentals, in the early hours of 
March 24, 1994. The bar owner and its security officer, who both knew Johnson, 
testified they had seen Johnson and Sizemore kissing and behaving amorously.

Evidence at trial indicated that Johnson and Sizemore left Fundamentals 
together and authorities say they were seen walking toward 16th Avenue. Around 
8 a.m. on March 24, 1994, a man walking his dog found Sizemore's white Suburban 
parked behind an apartment complex in East Albany, her body lying across the 
front passenger seat. Later reports showed she'd been cut and stabbed 41 times 
with a small, dull knife.

Kammer has maintained Johnson's innocence, stating that no incriminating DNA or 
fingerprints were found in Sizemore's SUV, that there was only a "drop" of 
Sizemore's blood found on Johnson's leather jacket, and none was found on the 
alleged murder weapon. Johnson has admitted having consensual sex with 
Sizemore, then punching her in the nose and drawing blood because she later 
insisted on "snuggling."

Johnson told police that the last time he saw the victim she was sitting in a 
field and crying.

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

Officials with the Georgia Department of Corrections said Johnson requested a 
6-pack of beer as his last meal, but the request was denied because the alcohol 
was a contraband item. Johnson was to get the same one the other 78 death row 
inmates were to have.

The department said there have been 57 men and 1 woman executed in Georgia 
since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1973. 35 prior to 
Johnson were put to death by lethal injection.

(source: Albany Herald)

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

Georgia ranks high with number of death row inmates


As of Wedensday there have been over 1,400 executions in 31 death penalty 
states in this country.

Georgia is one of those death penalty states.

According to deathpenaltyinfo.org Georgia has had 58 executions since 1976 and 
as of April 1st of 2015, Georgia is the 9th highest state with death row 
inmates.

Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards said that number is high 
because of the appeal process.

"There is a long process that is automatically put into place at the conclusion 
of a trial anyway. There would be first a series of appeals through the state 
appeals system and then generally what follows is an appeal process that is 
carried out in the federal which goes all the way up to the U.S. Supreme 
Court," said Greg Edwards, District Attorney, Dougherty Judicial Circuit. "Just 
in general terms it will take at least a minimum of about 5 years for just the 
state processes to be generally completed by the time a person is convicted," 
he added.

Edwards said a death penalty sentence can only be handed down by a jury. In 
Georgia a life sentence without the possibility of parole is an option. He also 
said as of recently Georgia changed the law where now a judge can decide life 
with or without the possibility of parole in homicide cases.

(source: WFXL news)






FLORIDA:

Jury finds Tampa man guilty of Lakeland woman's killing----Benjamin Smiley was 
found guilty of 1st-degree murder Wednesday.


A 23-year-old Tampa man was found guilty Wednesday of fatally shooting a 
Lakeland woman in her home in 2013.

Benjamin Smiley faces the death penalty for killing Carmen Riley, 46.

The death penalty phase of the trial before Circuit Judge Jalal Harb is 
expected to begin in 2016. A separate panel of jurors will be chosen to 
determine whether to recommend death for Smiley.

In addition, Smiley faces a 2nd death penalty trial in 2016.

Smiley is accused of killing Clifford Drake about a month after Riley was shot 
and killed.

A jury of 4 men and 8 women deliberated for 5 hours before finding Smiley 
guilty of 1st-degree murder and robbery with a firearm.

Riley's brother said his only sister was well-liked in the community.

? "She was the big mama of the neighborhood," Dwain Babb said after the ruling.

Babb said Smiley deserves to die.

"He killed somebody so he deserves that," Babb said.

In closing arguments Tuesday, Kristie Ducharme, assistant state attorney, said 
Riley, who sold liquor and food out of her home, was targeted because of the 
money from the business.

"He went to her house, and knocked on the door with a .38-caliber in hand," 
Ducharme said.

Smiley was on a mission to steal, Ducharme said. When he found $2,000 and 
marijuana after the shooting, he ran out the back door.

No one learned of the connection to Smiley until earlier this year when 
officials say a break in the case came when a concerned citizen called police 
after finding clothing that did not belong to him in the bed of his truck, 
which was parked at his home near the crime scene.

A dark-colored, hooded jacket with a pair of latex gloves in the pocket was 
seized by police.

Detectives were able to link DNA from the clothing to DNA found on a backpack 
left behind at the scene of the Drake homicide, but at that point, they did not 
have a suspect.

Smiley was later charged after investigators were alerted to a DNA match 
following his arrest in Hillsborough County for armed robbery, for which he's 
currently serving a 6-year sentence. A witness questioned about the Drake 
killing told police about Smiley's involvement in the death of Riley.

David Carmichael, Smiley's lawyer, said the witnesses in the case were 
unreliable, dishonest and only talked to investigators so they could avoid 
charges.

Carmichael pointed to a text message exchange one of the witnesses had with 
another witness about possibly making up a story to avoid jail time.

"I felt like they made me make up this story so I wouldn't go to jail when I 
really don't know nothing about it," the text exchange read from one of the 
witnesses.

Carmichael said there wasn't any scientific evidence to link Smiley to Riley's 
death.

"The only evidence is that testimony," Carmichael said. "He's a liar, convicted 
felon and the state gave him immunity," Carmichael said of the state's witness.

There was no reaction from Smiley when the verdict was read.

(source: The Ledger)

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

Polk man faces death penalty for killing daughter, girl's mother


A central Florida man has been convicted of killing his 3-year-old daughter and 
her mother.

The Lakeland Ledger reports that a Polk County jury found 37-year-old Lester 
Ross guilty today of 1st-degree murder and aggravated manslaughter. He faces 
life in prison or the death penalty.

Authorities discovered the bodies of Ross' daughter, MaSarah Ross, and the 
girl's mother, Ronkeya Holmes, buried in a Winter Haven grove in December 2010. 
Ross was arrested about 2 years later, following an intense investigation.

Ross' ex-wife, Sharon Evans, testified that she drove Ross to bury the bodies 
in 2009 because she feared her husband would kill her if she talked to police.

(source: Associated Press)






TENNESSEE:

Slain Covington purse-snatch victim's credit card found in Tenn.


Covington police are investigating whether suspects in a fatal purse-snatching 
at a Wal-Mart earlier this week have a connection to a Chattanooga poultry 
processing plant, where the victim's credit card was found.

Police believea man seen on surveillance video struggling with Marsha Johnson 
before running over the woman Monday night outside the Wal-Mart at 103000 
Industrial Blvd. fled to Tennessee with a female who was also in the vehicle.

Johnson, who police said fell to the ground as the man grabbed her purse and 
then was run over multiple times by the same man, died later at Newton Medical 
Center.

Covington detectives were in Chattanooga on Thursday distributing sketches of 
the couple suspected in the killing.

Capt. Craig Treadwell said the victim's VISA card had been found in a walkway 
of the Koch plant, leaving detectives to speculate that either the couple 
worked at the plant or had a friend or relative who did.

"No one has been named a suspect," Treadwell said at a news conference Thursday 
in Covington. "That is why we are in Tennessee distributing the flyers. We feel 
somebody there will know them or know somebody who knows them."

Are these the same suspects who were involved ina purse snatching that led to a 
woman's death in Covington and a purse snatching a week ago outside a Family 
Dollar store in St. George, S.C.?

There was no indication that the Johnson's bank card had been used, police 
said.

After the attack on the Covington woman, the suspects drove off in a silver or 
gray, mid- to late-1990s Honda Accord, police said. The car has damage on the 
driver's side door and may have a dealer drive-out tag, police said.

The bank card is one of the department???s strongest leads at this time despite 
running down numerous tips about the couple, who are also suspected in a 
violent purse-snatching in St. George, S.C., Treadwell said.

A week ago, a 75-year-old woman was walking into a Family Dollar store in St. 
George when she was approached by a woman who pointed a handgun at her head and 
grabbed her purse, police said.

"As the victim fought to keep her purse, the victim felt a gun against her head 
heard the click where the suspect had pulled the trigger, but the gun did not 
fire," St. George police said in a statement. The victim fell to the ground, 
breaking the purse strap, and the suspect ran to a car with a man inside. The 2 
then drove off with the victim's purse.

The couple appeared to match the description of the couple involved in the 
Covington incident, and the getaway vehicle was similar to the one seen in 
surveillance video in Covington: a gray Honda Accord with paper tags.

Treadwell said the descriptions of the couple and car and the fact that both 
crimes were in close proximity to I-20 made detectives believe the same 2 
people were responsible for both crimes and are possibly on a crime spree.

In the Covington case, Treadwell said surveillance video made him think that 
the driver did not see Johnson before he initially struck her with his vehicle.

"But there is no way possible that he could not have known she was under the 
vehicle," Treadwell said. "That is what the death penalty is for - these 
totally innocent victims. They are shopping at the Wal-Mart and the next thing 
they are dead."

Police also have announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the 
arrest and conviction of Johnson's killer.

(source: Atlanta Journal Constitution)






CALIFORNIA:

'Western Bandit' suspect charged with 53 counts, including 2 murders


A man authorities believe to be the "Western Bandit" was charged Nov. 2 in 
connection with a series of armed robberies and shootings beginning in 2011, 
according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Patrick Watkins, a 51-year-old black man, is charged with murder in the deaths 
of Nathan Vickers, 32, on Jan. 17, 2011, and Larise Smith, 56, on Dec. 8, 2014. 
The special circumstance of multiple murders makes Watkins eligible for the 
death penalty, if convicted (though prosecutors will decide later whether to 
seek the death penalty).

Watkins also faces 51 other counts, including 26 counts of attempted murder, 13 
counts of assault with a firearm, 5 counts of shooting at an occupied motor 
vehicle, 4 counts of 2nd-degree robbery, and felon in possession of a firearm. 
The incidents occurred between November 2011 and November 2014.

Watkins is accused of riding his bicycle up to people sitting in their cars, 
then either demanding cash or opening fire on the occupants. The prosecutor 
also suspects that he approached people on foot and either robbed or shot them.

Watkins is scheduled to return to court Dec. 1.

(source: Los Angeles Times)

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

California Death Penalty Repeal Supporters Cleared To Gather Signatures


Supporters of a measure to repeal California's death penalty can begin 
gathering signatures, the state attorney general's office announced on 
Thursday.

The Justice That Works Act of 2016 aims to repeal the death penalty and would 
apply retroactively to people already sentenced to death.

The measure cites the high cost of maintaining the death penalty system versus 
only 13 executions by the state since 1978, and none in nearly 11 years, as 
well as the fact violent murderers are typically sentenced already without the 
chance of parole.

The measure comes from Mike Farrell, who played Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt on the 
long-running TV series M*A*S*H.

A report from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office finds the measure 
could save the state money by removing consideration for the death penalty from 
trials - a move that can dramatically lengthen trials. However, in the absence 
of a death penalty, the report says some cases resolved by plea agreements 
would instead go to trial, offsetting those cost savings.

The report also points to savings by removing the need for death penalty 
appeals. When it comes to prisons, the report says the state would save on not 
having separate death row sections.

In all, it estimates the measure could save the state "around $150 million 
within a few years," give or take tens of millions of dollars depending on its 
implementation.

(source: CBS news)