[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 6



TEXAS----impending execution

Texas inmate set for execution for $8 robbery, slaying


No late appeals have been filed on behalf of a Texas inmate who says he 
shouldn't die for fatally shooting a Mexican man who was robbed of $8.

Juan Martin Garcia's execution is scheduled for Tuesday. He was convicted of 
capital murder for the September 1998 killing and robbery of Hugh Solano in 
Houston, where Solano had moved with his family weeks earlier.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Garcia's case in March. The Texas 
Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a 5-2 vote, refused a clemency request from 
Garcia last week.

Garcia acknowledges shooting Solano outside Solano's apartment complex, but 
insists it's not a capital case and that jurors penalized him unfairly because 
he didn't take the witness stand in his own defense at trial.

"If it's God's will, it's his will," Garcia, 35, told The Associated Press last 
month in a prison interview near Livingston.

His lethal injection to be held in Huntsville would be the 11th this year in 
Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. Three 
more executions are scheduled in upcoming weeks.

"At least I'm going home and I won't have to suffer this pain anymore, because 
I know that as the Bible says there is an afterlife with no problems and no 
sorrow," said Garcia, who spoke to the AP on a phone inside a caged-in 
visitors' area outside the state's death row. "And that's all I look forward 
to."

Evidence at his 2000 trial and testimony from a companion identified him as the 
ringleader of four men involved in the shooting and robbery. The slaying and a 
string of other violent crimes tied to Garcia, who was 18 at the time of the 
killing, convinced a jury he should be put to death.

Garcia, his two cousins and another man had already carried out a carjacking 
when they spotted Solano during the early morning hours of Sept. 17, 1998, 
getting into his van to go to work, according to the evidence. Solano's 
relatives said the 36-year-old, who did Christian missionary work in 
Guadalajara, Mexico, had moved with his wife to Houston weeks earlier so their 
children could be educated in the U.S.

Eleazar Mendoza, who pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to 
55 years in prison, testified that Garcia approached Solano and pointed a gun. 
Mendoza said Garcia gave Solano orders in Spanish to surrender any money he had 
and then shot him when he refused.

Garcia, from prison, said it was Mendoza who came up with the idea to rob 
Solano and that Solano escalated the confrontation by resisting.

"He punches me," Garcia said. "First thing that came through my mind is that 
the dude is going to try to kill me. He grabbed the gun with both of his hands 
and it discharged."

Solano was shot 4 times in the head and neck.

Garcia was arrested more than a week later when he dropped a gun while getting 
out of a car that police had pulled over for a broken headlight. He was 
released but arrested again when the gun was matched to Solano's slaying.

Evidence and testimony tied him to at least 8 aggravated robberies and 2 
attempted capital murders in the weeks before and after Solano's death.

Another defendant, Raymond McBen, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was 
sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was paroled a year ago.

The fourth man charged, Gabriel Morales, went to trial and was sentenced to 
life on a capital murder conviction.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Faculty members from Capital Punishment Center review capital punishment cases 
in the Supreme Court


Even though the death penalty is less used within the U.S. judicial system now 
in comparison to previous decades, it still commands a large portion of the 
Supreme Court???s time and resources, according to UT law professor Jordan 
Steiker.

Faculty members belonging to the Capital Punishment Center at UT reviewed 
Supreme Court capital punishment cases that occurred during the past year at a 
case review Monday.

While the death penalty aims to act as a deterrent and a method of retribution, 
a large number of Americans have begun to turn their back on it, Steiker, 
director of the Capital Punishment Center, said.

Ashley Alcantara, Plan II and government junior and communications director for 
University Democrats, said capital punishment should be outlawed.

"Capital punishment is not a good deterrent," Alcantara said. "There is always 
a risk of killing an innocent person."

Madison Yandell, government junior and president of College Republicans, said 
capital punishment should be reserved for cases that involve heinous crimes.

"People value life, so if they know the punishment is going to be life, it 
deters crime," Yandell said. "Capital punishment serves the family of victims 
because it is a small way of achieving justice for them."

The faculty panel discussed Glossip v. Gross, a 2015 Supreme Court case that 
maintained lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment. Supreme 
Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote a dissent 
representing the shifting opinions of Americans against the prevailing death 
penalty.

"There are 4 categories of arguments in the dissent," Steiker said. "Capital 
punishment is unreliable because people are wrongly killed, it's often used 
arbitrarily, the length of death row is cruel and the growing distance between 
sentencing and execution diminishes the aspect of retribution."

There are still Supreme Court capital punishment cases waiting to be heard. For 
future cases, the judicial system can be improved by having stricter 
regulations on when capital punishment is used, Alcantara said.

"For instance, the judicial system needs to make sure that the mentally ill are 
not on death row," Alcantara said. "We must err on the side of caution."

The criminal justice system has already improved by requiring DNA testing for 
the use of the death penalty, but the legal system can be made even better 
through student involvement, Yandell said.

"I think that students should be more involved in every aspect of the legal 
system," Yandell said. "Whether it be directly or indirectly, the Supreme Court 
interprets laws that affect you every day."

(source: The (Univ. Texas) Daily Texan)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Defendant in Easton hotel slaying asks judge to bar death penalty


A Riegelsville man charged with murdering a man inside an Easton hotel room is 
asking a judge to throw out the death penalty as a possible punishment, saying 
authorities can't justify their decision to seek it.

If Jeffrey S. Knoble Jr. is found guilty of shooting 32-year-old Andrew "Beep" 
White in the back of the head in March, Northampton County prosecutors plan to 
argue that he deserves to be executed.

But in a legal filing Monday, defense lawyers Robert Eyer and Matthew Goodrich 
told Judge Emil Giordano that the case lacks an aggravating circumstance as 
required by Pennsylvania's death penalty law.

First Deputy District Attorney Terence Houck says capital-murder charges are 
justified for 2 reasons: that Knoble allegedly robbed White of his cellphone 
and jacket, and that Knoble carried a gun without a license while a convicted 
felon.

The defense filing says that authorities have failed to back those claims. With 
the robbery, the defense said, "there is a complete lack of evidence to 
establish when any alleged theft occurred."

Knoble, 25, is accused of killing White, of Easton, early March 11 at the 
Quality Inn on South Third Street, then recording a video of the dead man's 
body. Authorities have called White a "good Samaritan," saying he tried to help 
Knoble that night, renting a room for him because he had no place to stay.

The death-penalty request was part of a package of pretrial motions by the 
defense that Giordano will have to rule on. Knoble's public defenders are also 
seeking to have his statements to police barred from trial and the evidence 
seized by investigators thrown out for alleged constitutional violations. They 
also want a jury selected from residents of another county, due to pretrial 
publicity.

On Monday, Houck said it would be premature for Giordano to bar the death 
penalty, which could only be imposed if the jury found Knoble guilty of 
1st-degree murder. It should also be up to the panel to decide whether Knoble 
robbed White or illegally possessed a gun, Houck said.

"These aggravating circumstances, like all of our cases, were filed with a lot 
of thought and in good faith," Houck said.

Knoble is scheduled to go to trial next year, when Eyer and Goodrich have said 
they may offer a mental-health defense, including the possibility that their 
client was insane or operating under diminished capacity.

Knoble was arrested the day of the shooting, after his mother called police 
after her son showed her a cellphone video of a man's corpse, according to 
testimony. At the time, police had no reports of a homicide in the Easton area, 
and Knoble was initially charged only with terroristic threats, based on his 
mother's claim that he had repeatedly threatened to shoot and kill police 
officers.

Last month, Giordano ruled that prosecutors can try the homicide and threats 
cases together, finding they "occurred almost simultaneously, were investigated 
simultaneously and share common facts."

(source: Morning Call)






NORTH CAROLINA:

A look back at legislation repealed


This is my last regular column for the Chapel Hill News. I have greatly 
appreciated the opportunity to share my ideas and enjoyed reader responses, but 
it is time to actually retire - a reward one earns by just adding years.

The column grew out of my newsletters from my 17 years in the North Carolina 
Senate, so it is appropriate to end with a review of the work with which I was 
involved that was repealed by the Republicans when they took over our 
legislature.

Many studies have shown that there is racial bias in jury selection for 
1st-degree murder. The Racial Justice Act provided an opportunity for people on 
death row to have their sentences reviewed and replaced by life without parole. 
Repealed.

Botched executions from lethal injection drugs led to European drug companies 
refusing to sell to states with the death penalty. So the Republicans passed a 
law that blocks information about the drugs' source. When doctors (instigated 
by local death penalty opponents) refused to carry out executions because it 
violated their Hippocratic Oath, the legislature removed their presence as a 
requirement. Any "reliable person" can administer the legal drugs. (source: 
Ellie Kinnaird, News and Observer)






GEORGIA:

Number of Georgia inmates eligible for execution almost doubles


The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday nearly doubled the number of Georgia inmates 
who are now eligible to be put to death by lethal injection.

The high court rejected appeals from 3 condemned murderers, including the 
oldest member of Georgia's death row - 72-year-old Brandon Astor Jones, who was 
convicted of killing the manager of a Cobb County convenience store in 1979. 
This means state prosecutors can seek execution warrants at any time for 7 men 
whose appeals have now been denied.

The Supreme Court, on the 1st day of its October term, rejected three petitions 
that had been pending this summer. The decisions also were issued just days 
after the highly controversial execution of Kelly Gissendaner, who was the 
first woman put to death in Georgia in decades and whose case attracted 
international attention.

"Because of all the litigation and questions about lethal injection, there's 
been a backlog of cases here in Georgia," said Atlanta lawyer Jack Martin, who 
has defended numerous death-penalty cases. "Now it looks like the floodgates 
are open. We're going to have to see if we're comfortable with executing 
someone just about every other week or so."

Gissendaner became the 3rd person executed by Georgia this year, but there had 
been an eight-month lull since 2 inmates - Andrew Brannan and Warren Hill - 
were put to death by lethal injection in January. In the meantime, more and 
more appeals from condemned killers have been exhausted.

Over the past 15 years, Georgia has executed 35 people, with 4 executions being 
the most in any single year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center 
in Washington.

The inmates whose appeals were denied Monday:

--Brandon Astor Jones, 72, who was sentenced to death for the 1979 robbery and 
murder of Roger Dennis Tackett, a 30-year-old high school teacher working a 2nd 
job at a Tenneco convenience store. 10 years after Jones' trial, a federal 
judge ordered Jones to be resentenced after it was revealed his trial judge had 
granted a juror's request for a Bible during deliberations. In 1997, another 
jury sentenced Jones to death a second time. (Jones' co-defendant, Van 
Roosevelt Solomon, was executed in 1986.)

--Kenneth Fults, 46, who sits on death row for the 1996 killing of Cathy Bounds 
in Spalding County. Fults, who is African-American, ended a weeklong crime 
spree by breaking into his next-door neighbors' home. He overpowered Bounds and 
shot her 5 times in the back of her head. Fults' latest appeal said he did not 
receive a fair trial because one of his jurors was a racist. It included an 
affidavit from that juror who said he knew he would vote for death "because 
that's what that (racial slur) deserved."

--Daniel Anthony Lucas, 36, who was sentenced to die for his role in the 1998 
murders of 3 members of the Moss family during a botched burglary and robbery 
in Jones County. Lucas' co-defendant, Brandon Rhode, was executed for the 
murders in 2010.

Jones, Fults and Lucas join 4 other inmates who were already eligible for 
execution: Brian Keith Terrell, Marcus Ray Johnson, Travis Hittson and Joshua 
Daniel Bishop.

Terrell, who was sentenced to death for killing a 70-year-old Newton County man 
in 1992, could be the next inmate scheduled for execution.

Terrell's execution previously had been set for March 10. But when 
Gissendaner's execution, previously set for March 2, was postponed because a 
prison system pharmacist said the drugs prepared to execute her looked 
"cloudy," Terrell's execution was postponed too.

(source: myajc.com)






FLORIDA:

Jacksonville man gets off death row after judge finds original lawyers were 
ineffective


A Jacksonville man who has been on death Rrow for 17 years just had his 
sentence thrown out by the same judge who originally sentenced him to die.

Circuit Judge Henry Davis ruled that the lawyers who originally defended 
Raymond Morrison Jr. at trial in 1998 did an ineffective job representing him. 
Morrison, 46, was convicted of slashing the throat of 81-year-old Albert 
Dwelle, and a jury unanimously recommended death with Davis concurring.

But in his ruling throwing out the conviction, Davis said the errors committed 
by defense attorneys Refik Eler and Christopher Anderson led him to believe 
Morrison never had a chance at a fair trial. Eler handled the guilt phase and 
Anderson handled the penalty phase.

Eler was in private practice at the time he defended Morrison and is now the 
chief deputy public defender working for 4th Circuit Public Defender Matt 
Shirk. Anderson is still in private practice.

Attorney Martin McClain, who now represents Morrison, said his previous lawyers 
never investigated his case before defending him at trial.

"It was like he had no attorney," McClain said.

The office of State Attorney Angela Corey said they would appeal Davis' ruling 
to the Florida Supreme Court and ask justices to reinstate Morrison's death 
sentence. Morrison will technically remain on death row while that appeal 
occurs.

If the appeal is unsuccessful, Corey's office will have to decide whether to 
try Morrison again and seek the death penalty. Spokeswoman Jackelyn Barnard 
said it was too early to say what would happen if the appeal is unsuccessful.

In his ruling Davis seemed especially concerned that Eler and Anderson didn't 
address Morrison's mental health and also said the lawyers didn't actively 
investigate the case and prepare for Morrison's defense during the trial and 
penalty phase.

There were several people willing to testify that they saw Morrison somewhere 
else around the time Dwelle was killed, but Eler didn't call any of them to 
testify.

Davis said that was a mistake.

"The court delivered to the jury the standard alibi instruction," Davis said. 
"Nonetheless the entire record shows Mr. Eler did not adequately investigate or 
prepare an alibi defense."

Examinations of Morrison after he went to death row showed that he had abnormal 
brain metabolism, consistent with someone who'd suffered a serious head injury. 
One doctor who testified at a post-conviction hearing said Morrison had 
"organic brain damage and intellectual disability" likely due to his abuse of 
alcohol and drugs and his being born prematurely.

Morrison confessed to killing Dwelle after police questioned him for hours, 
with one officer telling him he had to get right with God by confessing to 
Dwelle's murder.

"Given the findings of these mental-health experts, it is likely defendant had 
a significantly impaired mental state at the time of the interrogation," Davis 
said in his ruling. "Because defendant's statement was a key piece of evidence 
against defendant, it was unreasonable for counsel not to investigate 
defendant's mental state at the time of his statement."

Morrison was sentenced to death for the Jan. 8, 1997, throat slashing of Dwelle 
in a Ramona Boulevard apartment. Dwelle, who was disabled, was found a day 
later by a Meals on Wheels worker who delivered his lunch.

In his statement to police, Morrison said he went to Dwelle's apartment to ask 
for a cigar and a light but wound up taking money from Dwelle's shirt pocket. 
That led to a confrontation in which, Morrison said, Dwelle stabbed himself 
with a knife.

Police found the murder weapon based on where Morrison said he hid it.

Morrison had also smoked crack cocaine hours before his arrest, and Davis also 
said that should have been used by Morrison's lawyer to explain the multiple 
stories, some contradicting each other, that Morrison told to police during his 
interrogation.

Had he or the jury known about Morrison's serious mental-health issues it would 
have been a major factor to evaluate when determining whether Morrison told the 
truth in his confession, Davis said.

A number of people also said Morrison had a habit of taking responsibility for 
crimes that had been committed by other people, including once confessing to 
shooting a man when he had nothing to do with it. Eler never investigated that 
or brought it up at trial, and that fact would have allowed jurors to consider 
whether Morrison was telling the truth when he confessed this time, Davis said.

McClain said the case was originally handled by the office of former 4th 
Circuit Public Defender Lou Frost. But Frost's office had to recuse itself 
because of a conflict of interest, and Eler ended up being appointed as a 
private lawyer paid for by taxpayers.

Eler seemed to believe that the Public Defender's Office had done all the 
investigation necessary on the case, but that wasn't true and a lot of 
investigation work never got done, McClain said.

McClain acknowledged it is unusual for the original trial judge to throw out 
the conviction and death sentence.

"First time I can ever remember that happening," McClain said. "But that shows 
you how serious the issues were in this case."

Morrison is the 3rd Jacksonville person to have his death row sentence thrown 
out by a trial court in the last few years. Raymond Curtis Bright and Jacob 
Dougan both had their death row convictions thrown out by a trial court, 
although it was not the original trial judge who threw out their convictions.

In all 3 cases, it was poor defense work by the original defense lawyers that 
led to the convictions being thrown out. Corey and the office of Florida 
Attorney General Pam Bondi are appealing the Bright and Dougan cases to the 
Florida Supreme Court and asking justices to reinstate their convictions.

McClain said everyone should be concerned with seeing so many convictions 
overturned because of bad lawyering.

"It's a major concern," McClain said, pointing out that most death-penalty 
lawyers end up getting defended at taxpayer expense, and that money goes up 
when new trials become necessary.

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

What Ever Happened to Charles Kenny Foster?


The average convicted killer will sit on death row in the United States for 
more than 16 years. One Bay County man passed that mark long ago. Sunday marked 
40 years since a judge sentenced the murderer to die, and it's still known as 
one of the most brutal murders in Bay County history.

In 1975, 65-year-old Julian Lanier was visiting family in the area when he met 
then 28-year-old Charles Kenneth Foster at a bar.

After a night of drinks, the pair picked up 2 women to continue the party in a 
wooded area east of Callaway. That's when Foster snapped. He robbed Lanier, 
attacked him, cut his throat and severed his spinal cord after seeing he was 
still breathing.

Fewer than 3 months later Foster was sentenced to death. But decades later, 
Foster lives, while the victim's family is left to wonder why?

"He was taken by a monster, and that monster is allowed to live?" Julia Austin, 
the victim's daughter, said in a 2004 interview with NewsChannel 7.

The case came on the heels of re-instating the death penalty in the United 
States in the 1970's.

"There's just so many moving parts in the death penalty," Attorney Walter Smith 
said.

That's one reason Smith, who's worked with death row appeal cases, says Foster 
is still living.

When a person is sentenced to die, their case enters an automatic appeals 
process in the Florida Supreme Court.

"It's an example of an early case when the rules were not well established, and 
that's why it keeps coming back for review, because as the rules change, new 
issues evolve," Smith said.

Foster's been sentenced to death in 3 separate trials, most recently the 90's 
in an 8-to-4 vote.

Florida's 1 of 3 states that doesn't require a unanimous vote to impose the 
death penalty. Smith says as federal rules evolve, it could delay Foster's case 
even further.

"Until there's some resolution in the U.S. Supreme Court about what rules 
apply, and I think one of the rules that will apply is you have to have a 
unanimous vote," Smith said.

In the meantime, each trip to the appeals court brings a new issue to light.

"Issues regarding the competency of his council," Smith said. "Obviously when 
this was all tried, nobody knew what the rules were, so lawyers didn't know 
what they were doing. So now we're reviewing the case in hindsight."

And the legal fees are adding up. According to a report from the year 2000 by 
the Palm Beach Post, Florida tax payers pay $51 million annually to execute 
inmates. Based on numbers from the Department of Corrections, the state 
executes an average of two to three people each year. The DOC also says there's 
a yearly cost of about $18,000 to house a prisoner for life.

"But it just makes no legal or rational sense," Smith said.

But many families of the victims just want to see justice for their loved ones.

"I don't know what is wrong with the state of Florida to allow him to live," 
Austin said in a 2002 interview with NewsChannel 7. "I lived in Florida. I paid 
taxes so this creep could live."

That's where Smith and Lanier's daughter can agree.

"It's always been broken," Smith said. "You know, it was always broken and 
there's no way of fixing it."

There are a total of 10 people from Bay County on death row today.

(source: WJHG news)






ALABAMA:

Means applies for youthful offender status in capital murder case


A Columbiana man indicted on a capital murder charge for allegedly killing 
18-year-old Haleigh Green of Shelby has applied for youthful offender status 
and has filed motions for change of venue and appointing additional counsel.

An application for youthful offender status for 19-year-old Demarcus Means was 
filed in Shelby County Circuit Court on Sept. 25. If arraigned as a youthful 
offender, Means would waive his right to a trial by jury, and a judge would 
decide his guilt or innocence in the case, according to court documents.

Suspects found guilty in youthful offender cases fare a less-severe range of 
punishments.

A motion for change of venue filed Sept. 24 cited "extensive publicity" and 
media coverage of the crime as grounds for the change.

"At each of the early stages of this case against the defendant, the 
newspapers, broadcast media, online websites and other forms of communication 
in Shelby County, Jefferson County and surrounding counties have given the case 
such extensive publicity and in a manner so prejudicial to the defendant, that 
it is impossible to conduct a fair trial by an impartial and unbiased jury in 
this county," the motion read. "The United States Constitution guarantees 
criminal defendants a fair trial by a panel of impartial and indifferent 
jurors. The United States Supreme Court has held that when prejudicial pretrial 
publicity or an inflamed community atmosphere precluded seating an impartial 
jury due process requires the trial court to grant a defendant's motion for a 
change of venue."

On Oct. 1, a motion to appoint additional counsel for Means, "to appoint one 
additional attorney, specifically Michael Shores," was filed in circuit court.

"The State of Alabama has charged the defendant with capital murder and may 
seek the death penalty," the motion read. "The defendant's family has retained 
counsel but the defendant does not have the resources to retain additional 
counsel to represent him.

"Appointment of co-counsel is necessary to represent the defendant adequately," 
the motion continued. "In a capital case, counsel is obligated to consider all 
potential claims, thoroughly investigate the basis of each claim, evaluate each 
claim in light of the unique characteristics of death penalty law - comprised 
of hundred(s) of state and federal death penalty decisions - and present each 
claim as forcefully as possible."

Means' attorney is Victor Revill.

Means, who is being held on no bond, is set to appear in court for his 
arraignment on Monday, Nov. 9 at 8:30 a.m.

According to his indictment, Means "did on or about July 5, 2015, intentionally 
cause the death of another person ... Haleigh Green, by or through the use of a 
deadly weapon ... shooting her with a gun, which was fired or otherwise used 
within or from a vehicle."

In August, a murder charge against Means was upgraded to capital murder, which 
carries the possibility of the death penalty upon conviction.

(source: shelbycounty reporter)

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

Suspect charged with 2013 capital murder on trial


Jury selection got underway Monday morning in Bibb County for a man accused of 
capital murder.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys spent the day picking a jury. There are 200 
potential jury members but that number eventually will be struck down to 12.

Nicholas Dunlap could face the death penalty if convicted for allegedly killing 
Jason Hutchinson. According to the District Attorney, the crime took place 
September 22, 2013 on Copperas Creek Crossing in East Bibb County.

District Attorney Michael Jackson says there was a dispute between the 2 men. 
That dispute turned into a case of road rage. Jackson says Dunlap then forced 
Hutchinson's car off the road then pulled a gun and allegedly shot and killed 
the victim.

Jackson wants justice for the victims family.

"The family has gone through a lot losing a family member and also the other 
victim here. These families have had to go through so much dealing with this. 
Nothing can bring him back but we are going to do everything we can to bring 
closure to the family," Jackson said.

A female passenger was riding with Hutchinson but was not injured, meaning 
Dunlap will also face attempted murder charges. Opening arguments in the trial 
are expected to begin Tuesday morning.

(source: WIAT news)