[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., LA., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 6



ALABAMA----new execution date

May execution date set for convicted Mobile cop killer


Alabama has set the execution date for Vernon Madison, a death row inmate 
convicted in the 1985 death of a police officer in Mobile County.

The Alabama Supreme Court issued the order setting May 12 as the date for 
execution. Madison was 1 of 3 death row inmates for which the Alabama Attorney 
General's Office had requested the court in February to set execution dates.

The inmates are being held on death row at Holman Correctional Facility at 
Atmore where the executions take place.

An attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative representing Madison had not 
responded to a request for comment prior to publication of this story.

Madison, who has been on death row since Nov. 12, 1985, was convicted in 
September 1985 and sentenced to death in Mobile County in the April 18, 1985 
slaying of police Officer Julius Schulte, who was responding to a domestic 
disturbance call. Madison was on parole at the time.

Madison had 3 trials, the last one in 1994. State appellate courts twice had 
sent the case back to Mobile County, once for a violation based on race-based 
jury selection and once based on improper testimony for an expert witness for 
the prosecution. He is one of Alabama's longest-serving death row inmates.

Madison's attorney in February filed a motion seeking to stop his execution, 
saying Madison suffers "from significant cognitive decline, acute mental health 
disorders, and severe medical problems that render him incompetent to be 
executed." A Mobile County judge has set an April 14 competency hearing for 
Madison.

Madison was set to be transferred to the Mobile County Metro Jail on Thursday 
for an examination on his competency to be executed, court records show. It was 
not clear if that happened.

The 2 other inmates that have pending execution motions by the Attorney 
General's Office are Robert Bryant Melson, convicted in Etowah County, and 
Ronald Bert Smith, convicted in Madison County, according to the Attorney 
General's Office. All 3 inmates are currently on the death row at Holman 
Correctional Facility in Atmore.

The requests by the Attorney General's Office came about a month after the 
state executed by lethal injection death row inmate Christopher Eugene Brooks - 
the state's 1st execution in more than 2 years.

"I hope this brings closure to everybody," Brooks said before his execution.

Brooks was among a group of inmates who had challenged Alabama's new lethal 
injection drug cocktail, which the state says it had to turn to after 
pharmaceutical companies refused to have their drugs used in executions. 
Brooks' attorneys and other inmates have claimed the 1st drug in the cocktail - 
midazolam - does not put the condemned inmate in deep enough sleep to prevent 
pain when the other 2 drugs are administered.

The Alabama Department of Corrections reported no problems with the execution.

A judge had ruled that Brooks was too late in filing his challenge to the drug 
protocol. A hearing is set next month for the remaining inmates on that issue.

The 3 inmates for which the Attorney General's Office is seeking execution 
dates are not a part of that midazolam litigation.

(source: al.com)






LOUISIANA:

The Louisiana Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a man convicted in 
the rape and murder of a 4-year-old girl


The state Supreme Court announced Monday that it upheld a 14th Judicial 
District Court ruling that determined that Jason M. Reeves does not suffer from 
an intellectual disability. The condition would have prevented his execution.

The Lake Charles American Press (http://bit.ly/1eOXZNb) reports that Reeves was 
convicted in 2004 after being accused of abducting, raping and killing 
4-year-old Mary Jean Thigpen in 2001. Then-District Attorney Rick Bryant said 
DNA from the semen taken from Thigpen's body matched Reeves' DNA.

Reeves was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2010. A judge signed a 
death warrant in 2012.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

No decision on death penalty in Charleston church shootings


The decision on whether the federal government will seek the death penalty 
against a white man charged in the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners 
at a Charleston church is now before U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a 
prosecutor told a federal judge on Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson told U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel 
that a recommendation from a Justice Department panel reviewing the case is now 
on Lynch's desk. But he said he did not know when a decision would be made.

"It's obviously a very important decision and one being taken very 
deliberately," Richardson said.

Gergel has been pressing the government for several months about whether 
prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Roof, who faces numerous 
counts, including hate crimes, in the June 2015 slayings during a Bible study 
at Emanuel AME Church.

"My patience is running out," he told Richardson, although he agreed to a 
government request to delay the trial. Gergel said the defendant as a right to 
a speedy trial and there is also a public interest in resolving the case.

"There has got to be a balance at some point between patience and paralysis," 
the judge said. "We are getting to a point where I need to set a trial date."

Defense attorney David Bruck again told the judge that, if the government does 
not seek the death penalty, his client will enter a guilty plea requiring only 
a plea hearing and a sentencing hearing in federal court.

Roof faces 9 counts of murder in state court and the prosecutor in that trial, 
which begins in July, is seeking the death penalty.

Later, attorneys for both the prosecution and defense told Gergel they are 
prepared to go to trial during next term of court in the case of Roof's friend 
Joey Meek. Prosecutors allege Meek did not tell investigators everything he 
knew about Roof's plans in the church shootings.

The defense suggested a late June trial although Gergel did not set a specific 
date.

(source: Associated Press)