[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KY., ARK., MO., OKLA., NEB., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 18



KENTUCKY:

Video: Double murder suspect claims computer virus made him do it


In a 2-hour statement to Brown County investigators, Michael Wilcox admitted to 
killing 2 people and blames a virus sent over the Internet for taking control 
of him.

Wearing a green, suicide prevention suit, Wilcox admitted to killing his 
girlfriend, Courtney Fowler, and friend Zach Gilkinson.

The statements were taken April 2015 after Wilcox's arrest for the killings.

He has since pleaded guilty to murdering Fowler as part of a plea agreement.

WKRC obtained the videotaped interviews through a public records request to 
Brown County Prosecuting Attorney Jessica Little.

"I felt like I was under control," Wilcox said on the tape." Not under control 
of myself but that someone else had control of me. Because I love that girl and 
that was my best friend."

Wilcox described how he shot Fowler in the head and back because "noises" in 
his head told him to. He says a computer virus infected him.

"I feel like they sent it over the internet and I felt it go into mea virus.I 
swear to you. This ain't me."

Wilcox said after killing Fowler he drove around for several hours listening to 
rap music.

He then drove to Elsmere, Kentucky where he shot Gilkinson in the basement of 
his home.

"It was boom, boom, boom. I swear to you if I thought about it I would've done 
myself in, too. Just because I did the 2 people I love."

Wilcox has been indicted for Gilkinson's murder. An extradition order has been 
signed and Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders said he expected 
Wilcox to be transferred in the next few weeks.

Sanders saw Wilcox's statement and said it was calculated.

"I think anybody who watches those videos, which are now public record in Brown 
County, can recognize that Mr. Wilcox's explanation for these murders is just 
off the charts, incomprehensible and really quite silly. I think the 
evaluations of his mental health show that Mr. Wilcox is faking. He is 
malingering, which is the technical term for it. He's trying to convince folks 
that he's crazy."

Wilcox was sentenced to 18 years in prison for Fowler's murder. His guilty plea 
makes the Kentucky case death penalty eligible. Sanders said he had not decided 
whether to pursue the death penalty.

(source: WKRC news)






ARKANSAS:

State finds path to resuming executions a bumpy road


Arkansas' efforts to resume executions after a decade were complicated by 
unexpected developments in the past week, including judge's orders that the 
governor said he found confusing and inappropriate.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen on Monday ordered the state to 
provide "un-redacted package inserts, shipping labels, laboratory test results, 
and product warnings" related to the drugs it plans to use to execute 8 
condemned inmates.

The judge issued the order in a lawsuit by the 8 inmates, and 1 other, 
challenging the state's lethal-injection law, including a provision in the law 
that requires the sources of execution drugs to be kept secret.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson recently set executions dates for the 8, but Griffen issued 
a temporary restraining order Oct. 9 halting the executions while the suit is 
pending. In his order Tuesday, Griffen's said the state must provide materials 
related to the drugs to the court and the plaintiffs, or show why it should 
not.

That came as a surprise to state officials.

"I'm a little bit confused whenever the substantive issue (in the court case) 
is whether the state under the law can restrict the release and have 
confidentiality of the supplier of the drugs that are involved," Hutchinson 
said last week. "That's what the law is, and the issue before the court is 
whether that approach is constitutional and provides due process."

Hutchinson said it is "very confusing to me that we were told to release 
information that is confidential under the law before the opportunity to the 
litigate the case."

Jeff Rosenzweig, the inmates' attorney, said the law requiring sources of 
executions drugs to be kept secret is not the only thing the case is about. He 
said the suit also concerns a settlement agreement between the state and the 
inmates that resolved a 2013 lawsuit challenging the lethal-injection law that 
was on the books then.

"There is a settlement from the 2013 lawsuit that specifically promised the 
disclosure of this information," Rosenzweig said. "The question - and this is 
to be decided by Judge Griffen, and ultimately by the Supreme Court - is, does 
that law impair the contract? The Arkansas Constitution says that no law shall 
be passed that impairs the obligation of a contract."

Griffen also issued an order Wednesday denying a motion by Attorney General 
Leslie Rutledge to dissolve the temporary restraining order that put the 
executions on hold. Griffen went farther than just denying the motion: He said 
its arguments were "categorically false" and said the motion therefore appeared 
to violate one of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure, which he said could be 
punishable with sanctions.

Hutchinson said when asked about the order, "I thought the judge's comments and 
approach (were) inappropriate." He declined to elaborate on how they were 
inappropriate.

Rutledge declined to comment for this report, except to say through a spokesman 
that she will continue to defend the state's lethal-injection law.

Rutledge has asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to overturn Griffen's denial of 
her motion.

Also last week, the daughter of a woman killed in De Queen in 1993 spoke out 
against executing 1 of the 8 condemned inmates.

Ashley Heath, daughter of Carol Heath, appeared before the Arkansas Parole 
Board Thursday and asked it to recommend that the governor commute the sentence 
of Stacey Eugene Johnson, 45, to life without parole. Johnson has been 
sentenced to die in Carol Heath's slaying.

The board is expected to make a recommendation Tuesday.

"I feel that there is no justice in the death penalty," said Heath, who 
previously argued against clemency for Johnson.

Rosenzweig said it was the 1st time he had heard Heath say she favored sparing 
Johnson's life.

"Obviously we're gratified that she feels that way, and hopefully the governor 
will consider that," he said.

Hutchinson was asked last week how much consideration he would give to Ashley 
Heath's comments.

"You always want to listen to the victims. But ... there was a divided 
expression by the family members to the Parole Board," he said, referring to 
statements that Ashley Heath's brother and aunt made to the board opposing 
clemency.

"We'll take it a step at a time," he said.

(source: arkansasnews.com)






MISSOURI:

"Dead Man Walking" author to speak in Springfield


Most people know of Sister Helen Prejean as the face of actress Susan Sarandon 
in the movie "Dead Man Walking," named for Prejean's book "Dead Man Walking: An 
Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty."

On Oct. 29, area residents will have an opportunity to see and hear the real 
Sister Helen when she speaks at 2 locations in Springfield. The Catholic nun 
has dedicated her life to educating the public about the death penalty and 
counseling inmates on death row and the families of murder victims.

Prejean is coming to Missouri because the state has had 6 executions this year 
and has 1 scheduled for Nov. 3, said Staci Pratt, state coordinator for 
Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Pratt called the death penalty "broken," "arbitrary" and "unjust," pointing out 
that there have been nearly 150 exonerations nationally (4 in Missouri) since 
capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976.

"She's an amazing person to share her journey and her opposition to the death 
penalty," said Pratt.

In Springfield, the public is invited to hear Prejean speak at St. Elizabeth 
Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2200 W. Republic Road at 7 p.m. There is no charge 
for the event, but a free will offering will be requested.

Prejean will speak in the morning on the Evangel University campus to about 150 
Evangel students and the senior class at Springfield Catholic High School.

Martin Mittelstadt, a professor at Evangel, helped to arrange the visit there. 
"At Evangel University, we encourage our students to wrestle with difficult 
questions," he said. "Sister Helen Prejean affords our EU community an 
opportunity to engage yet another current moral issue, specifically the death 
penalty. ... Sister Helen will inspire students to enter the current debate on 
the death penalty and participate in courageous conversations."

Pratt said it is significant to have Prejean "come to the table and have 
conversations in a variety of faith communities with folks of different 
religious backgrounds."

After the public talk at Elizabeth Ann Seton, there will be a question and 
answer session, followed by a reception where copies of Prejean's books, "Dead 
Man Walking" and "The Death of Innocents," will be available for sale. Prejean 
will also be on hand to sign books. Proceeds from the books help fund her 
Ministry Against the Death Penalty.

"We are hoping to bring her message to the people who live in Springfield and 
the surrounding area about the death penalty in Missouri," said Donna Walmsley, 
the local head of MADP. "We are hoping people will be open to Sister Helen's 
message ... public policy that needs to be changed."

(source: Springfield News-Leader)






OKLAHOMA:

Oklahoma suspends death penalty over botched execution


The state of Oklahoma has suspended the execution of prisoners on death row at 
least until 2016, when an investigation into the use of the wrong drug in a 
lethal injection last January is expected to be completed.

The Oklahoma attorney general, the Republican Scott Pruitt, has agreed not to 
seek any execution until 150 days after the investigation is concluded, its 
results are made public and his office is informed that the state is able to 
comply with its own protocol.

With this commitment in hand, Pruitt and the attorneys of the three convicts, 
whom the southern state intended to execute over the next few weeks, came to an 
agreement by which both sides are suspending a court case on the legality of 
the lethal injections facing the convicts.

The attorney general and the lawyers agreed that the case should not proceed 
until it is discovered why Oklahoma twice obtained the wrong drug, though the 
final decision is up to a judge.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin halted the execution of Richard Glossip last Sept. 30 
after authorities found that the drug to be injected was potassium acetate 
rather than potassium chloride, the one specified in the protocol.

It was then that the execution last January of convict Charles Warner with 
potassium acetate was made public.

Oklahoma has been trying for a year and a half to execute Glossip, Benjamin 
Cole and John Grant, but the succession of errors committed by its Corrections 
Department and the consequent legal battles have led to the current situation.

It all began in April 2014, when the executioner administered the wrong drug to 
Clayton Lockett, who agonized 43 minutes before dying.

That case took Oklahoma to the United States Supreme Court, which decided in 
June against the plaintiff prisoners.

Now, with the mistaken drugs revealed last Sept. 30, a long period without 
executions is expected in this state, which only trails Texas as the state with 
the most applications of capital punishment.

(source: Fox News)






NEBRASKA:

Secretary of State confirms the death penalty remains the law


According to the Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson's office, the 
Secretary of State confirmed that the death penalty remains the law of Nebraska 
until the matter is submitted for a vote of the people in 2016, and our 
Nebraska Governor thinks that's a good thing.

We caught up with Governor Pete Ricketts to discuss the death penalty issue.

He says the death penalty is important for public safety and those in law 
enforcement who deal with dangerous people every day.

He says we need to protect those that protect us, and the death penalty will do 
that.

"Certainly we're going to look for ways to be able to carry out these sentences 
and that's one of the things my administration is going to be focused on," says 
Ricketts. "Nobody wants to put somebody to death, but we do have dangerous 
criminals in the society and the matter is we need to help protect law 
enforcement."

Ricketts says while he's been traveling the state, he's found that Nebraskans 
by and large are for the death penalty, and he thinks the voters will retain 
the law.

More than 65,000 signatures were collected and verified last month in Nebraska 
to prevent the death penalty repeal law passed by the legislature from going 
into effect.

(source: KOTA news)






USA:

On Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties, Hillary Clinton Is Not a Progressive


If George Bush claimed he were a progressive, we would rightly laugh. Yet no 
one -- no one -- challenged Clinton's unequivocal claim to progressivism at the 
CNN Democratic debate earlier this week. Below is a list of six reasons why 
Clinton -- far from being a progressive -- could be little different from a 
slightly liberal George Bush, especially on foreign policy and the protection 
of constitutional rights.

(1) Clinton voted to authorize the so-called "Patriot" Act in 2001, and then to 
re-authorize that unconstitutional act in 2006, throwing our Fourth Amendment 
rights under the bus.

(2) Clinton is as hawkish as John McCain. As Former Congressman Joe Scarborough 
has pointed out, Hillary Clinton is "the neocon's neocon ... she will be more 
of a sabre-rattler and more of a neocon than the Republican nominee ... There's 
hardly been a military engagement that Hillary hasn't been for in the past 20 
years." As Clinton's vote for the disastrous Iraq War suggests, it is far from 
clear that Clinton would refrain from the unnecessary use of force if elected 
president.

(3) Clinton supported criminalizing flag desecration, a disagreeable practice 
that nonetheless deserves First Amendment protection, when she proposed the 
Flag Protection Act of 2005.

(4) When discussing Edward Snowden at the Democratic Debate, Clinton skimmed 
over the U.S. government's violations of federal law and instead condemned 
Snowden, suggesting he "face the music." In addition, she repeated the 
controverted claim that Snowden could have successfully acted as a 
whistleblower; as John Cassidy points out, this argument is clearly wrong: The 
Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 doesn't cover intelligence employees, and 
the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act is "little more than a 
trap."

(5) Unlike Bernie Sanders, Clinton apparently supports the death penalty. In a 
2000 run for Senate, Clinton was quoted as saying the "death penalty" has her 
"unenthusiastic support." She has been mostly quiet on the issue since then, 
but all indications point to her continued support of a practice that murders 
the wrongfully convicted, disproportionately targets poor and black Americans, 
and heavily tarnishes our country's moral fabric.

(6) Clinton's personal opinion on gay marriage did not "evolve" until March 
2013, when the political winds were clearly blowing in the direction of 
marriage equality.

Hillary Clinton is a conservative Barack Obama or, perhaps, a liberal George 
Bush. But she is not a progressive. On civil liberties and foreign policy, she 
is a right-wing Democrat. And progressives should keep that in mind when 
casting their votes during the Democratic Primary.

(source: Michael Shammas, Huffington Post)

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

Feds charge 'Shrimp Boy' with murder: Chinatown investigation defendant facing 
potential sentence of death


A multi-year racketeering investigation of a San Francisco Chinatown group that 
led to the conviction of a California state senator escalated Friday when 
federal prosecutors charged a key defendant with murder.

Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow pleaded not guilty to murder in aid of racketeering, 
which carries a potential sentence of death, and conspiracy to commit murder in 
aid of racketeering during a brief court appearance.

Chow is accused of arranging the 2006 shooting death of Allen Leung, who 
preceded Chow as leader of the Chinese fraternal group Ghee Kung Tong.

The FBI alleges Ghee Kung Tong was a racketeering enterprise, and that 
undercover agents laundered $2.6 million in cash from illegal bookmaking 
through the organization. The investigation of the Ghee Kung Tong also led to 
the arrest of former state senator Leland Yee, who pleaded guilty to 
racketeering in July.

Chow is also accused of soliciting the murder of Jim Tat Kong, a suspected 
organized crime figure.

Prosecutors have said 2 of Chow's former co-defendants, Kongphet Chanthavong 
and Andy Li, will implicate Chow in the murder plots.

Chanthavong will testify that Chow was angry with Leung because he wouldn't 
loan Chow money from the Tong and wanted to replace him so he could control the 
organization, prosecutors say in court documents.

Chow ordered the hit outside an Oakland bar, though Chanthavong said he did not 
immediately know the target was Leung, prosecutors say.

Chow accused Kong of trying to intimidate people in another group, according to 
prosecutors. Kong was found shot to death in 2013.

Chow's attorney, Curtis Briggs, has said his client had nothing to do with the 
slayings and has called the allegations ridiculous.

Chow previously pleaded not guilty to racketeering and money laundering and is 
scheduled to go on trial next month. On Thursday, a judge said he would exclude 
a capital murder charge from Chow's upcoming trial, meaning it would have to be 
tried separately.

Prosecutors wanted to delay Chow's trial to allow the U.S. Justice Department 
to determine whether to seek the death penalty against him in Leung's killing, 
but the judge denied that request.

In a filing Friday, prosecutors asked the judge to delay excluding the capital 
murder charge until Chow's scheduled Nov. 2 trial. If the Department of Justice 
decides not to seek the death penalty against Chow, the charge should be 
included in the trial, prosecutors said.

(source: The Daily Journal)

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

Doctor killer Victor Harry Feguer is hanged under federal death penalty in 1963 
- after eating his tiny last meal, an olive


Victor Harry Feguer was a low-life nothing from the Midwest, and no one would 
give him a single thought today if it weren't for 2 things - an olive and a 
mass murder that occurred more than three decades after his death.

Feguer holds the dubious distinction of being the last person executed under 
the federal death penalty until it was reinstated on June 11, 2001, for 
Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Compared to the American terrorist, who killed 168 and injured more than 600, 
Feguer was small-time. He murdered 1 man and the case attracted little press 
interest.

He was born in St. Johns, Mich., in 1935 and had an ordinary life until 1941, 
when his mother died. His father became an alcoholic and the child bounced from 
one relative to the next. By 12, he was a wayward minor in a boys' home with a 
history of petty thefts.

At 16, he stole a car and went to prison. Upon his parole, he took a 2nd car 
and went back to jail. Released in April 1960, Feguer found it impossible to 
hold a job so he rattled around the Midwest, finally stepping off a bus in 
Dubuque, Iowa, on July 7, 1960. He found a room for rent and settled in.

4 days later, the phone rang at the home of Dr. Edward Bartels, 34, a 
well-respected doctor in the community. Bartels, a Dubuque native, had been a 
sports star in high school, served in the Navy from 1944 to 1946, attended the 
University of Iowa medical school and interned in California. He returned home 
to become a general practitioner. In July 1960, he and his wife were awaiting 
the arrival of their fourth child.

The caller said that his wife, "Mrs. Stevens," had just had surgery and was in 
pain. It was an era when doctors thought nothing of going off on an errand of 
mercy. Bartels left a note for his wife, telling her that he was heading to a 
house call at 1134 Locust St., to meet "Ed Stevens."

Then he took off in his gray 1959 Rambler.

3 hours later, the phone rang again at the doctor's house and a deep voice told 
Mrs. Bartels that the patient was sicker than anyone had thought, and that Dr. 
Bartels' services would be needed overnight.

The doctor never returned.

2 days later, detectives searching for the missing man gathered clues that 
brought them to a room recently rented by a drifter. There, they found 1 of 
Feguer's unemployment forms.

A day later, a man calling himself Dr. Bartels tried to trade in a 1959 Rambler 
in Gary, Ind., but when he failed to produce the title, the salesman refused. 
The man later took up with another crook, Jack Hoard Hale, and embarked on a 
tour of the region, passing bad checks and trying to unload a stolen car.

The law caught up with Feguer in Birmingham, Ala., on July 20, when a used-car 
salesman reported a stranger trying to sell a Rambler.

A few hours after Feguer's arrest, searchers found the doctor's decomposed body 
in the woods about 10 miles east of Dubuque, just across the state line into 
Illinois. He had been shot in the back of the head.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover told reporters that federal kidnap charges would 
apply in the case because Feguer had stepped over the line into Illinois. That 
meant possibility of the death penalty.

Feguer offered investigators details of how he had chosen the doctor (at 
random, the second name under "physicians" in the phone book) and what he was 
after (drugs).

Feguer's attorneys brought in a parade of psychiatrists to prove that he was 
not responsible for his actions, but the strategy failed. After he was found 
guilty and sentenced to death, his lawyers appealed to the governor of Iowa, an 
opponent of capital punishment who brought the matter to the President of the 
United States himself.

About 30 minutes before the hanging, for which a gallows had to be constructed 
in the Iowa State Penitentiary auto shop, Feguer said, "Well, John F. Kennedy, 
if you're going to make any sudden moves you had better be quick about it."

No word came from the White House.

"I sure hope I'm the last one to go in Iowa. ... It would be too much to expect 
that I will be the last one anywhere. But I sure hope I???m the last one in 
Iowa," he told a priest shortly before he began his walk to the gallows on 
March 15, 1963.

For his final meal, Feguer asked for a single olive with a pit, and said that 
he hoped that an olive tree, a symbol of peace, would sprout from his grave.

Feguer showed no emotion, except for a marked acceleration of the rate at which 
he was chewing gum, as the hangman covered his head with a black hood. 10 
minutes later he was dead. No one claimed the body, and he was buried in an 
unmarked grave.

2 years later, Feguer's dying wish came true when Iowa abolished its death 
penalty. Then, in 1972, federal executions were put on hold until a bombing in 
Oklahoma brought Feguer's name back into the public eye.

And what about the olive?

For his final meal, Feguer asked for a single olive with a pit, and said that 
he hoped that an olive tree, a symbol of peace, would sprout from his grave. 
This request has given him his sole measure of immortality, mentioned anytime 
anyone puts together a list of the weirdest last suppers on death row.

(source: New York Daily News)