[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TENN., IOWA, KAN., ARIZ., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 8



TENNESSEE:

Re-Examining The Death Penalty In America And Tennessee; Death Row Survivor 
Coming To Cleveland


Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, a national network of 
conservatives and libertarians questioning the alignment of capital punishment 
with their principles, will be part of a panel discussion on capital punishment 
at Cleveland State Community College on Thursday, April 14 at 6 p.m. in the 
George R. Johnson Auditorium on the Cleveland State campus, 3535 Adkisson Dr.

Ray Krone, the 100th death row exoneree in America, will share his story of 
being sentenced to die for a murder he did not commit.

Mr. Krone's talk will be followed by a panel discussion about the financial and 
human rights issues raised by the continued use of the death penalty in 
Tennessee and a shrinking number of other states, officials said.

In addition to Mr. Krone, other panelists will include Justin Phillips, 
associate director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and 
Marc Hyden, national advocacy coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the 
Death Penalty, who is also a native of Cleveland.

"As a child, I remember being asked if I supported the death penalty while I 
was on the Prospect Elementary School playground in Cleveland, of all places. I 
responded, 'of course I support the death penalty' because I came from a 
conservative Republican family. At the time, it just seemed like a foregone 
conclusion," Mr. Hyden said. "But that mindset is rapidly changing as 
conservatives like myself are applying our principles to the issue of capital 
punishment. We don't trust the government to do many things properly, so why 
would we trust it to get the death penalty right?"

"At last count, 156 individuals nationwide - including 3 in Tennessee - have 
been freed from death row due to wrongful convictions. The death penalty often 
costs states millions of dollars more per year than the alternative of life 
without parole," officials said.

The event will include a screening of To Honor Life, a short film about the 
death penalty in America.

(source: chattanoogan.com)






IOWA:

'Dead Man Walking' author to speak Friday at the University of Iowa


Death penalty activist and author Helen Prejean, whose work was captured in the 
Oscar-winning film "Dead Man Walking," will bring her decades-long critique of 
the death penalty to Iowa City on Friday as part of the University of Iowa's 
social justice-themed semester.

The death penalty "just epitomizes the deepest wounds in our society that are 
present in so many other systems," Prejean, 76, said in a phone interview 
Thursday. The issue stands right at the intersection of poverty and race and 
highlights the wrongheadedness of "using violence to solve social problems,"

Even in states, like Iowa, in which the death penalty has been off the books 
for a half-century, the Roman Catholic nun said people still respond with 
outrage and disgust at people who have been convicted of "committing 
unspeakable acts."

"It doesn't mean that people don't have to do this kind of spiritual 
integration in their own souls to figure out where they are personally," she 
said.

In every lecture she gives, Prejean said she offers her story of being with 
prisoners in their final moments. She said she wants to take her audience on a 
journey to demonstrate how capital punishment corrupts everyone connected with 
it - from the victim's family, to the lawyers, to the jurors, to the guards who 
strap the prisoner down for the last time.

A member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, Prejean spent her early years as a 
nun teaching religion to junior high school students. Recognizing that 
defending the poor is an essential part of the Christian Gospel, she moved into 
the St. Thomas Housing Project in New Orleans and began working at Hope House 
from 1981 to 1984.

During that time, Prejean began to correspond with Elmo Patrick Sonnier, a 
death row inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. She eventually 
became his spiritual adviser and was a witness to his execution.

The book she wrote about the experience - "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness 
Account of the Death Penalty in the United States" - was adapted into a 1995 
movie of the same name starring Susan Sarandon as Prejean and Sean Penn as the 
death row inmate.

The only difference she makes when speaking for an Iowa audience, Prejean said, 
comes when she offers a list of actions for people to take.

"We can move right into calls for criminal justice reform," she said. "We can 
start right away talking about how we need to move away from throwing young 
people away and warehousing them instead of restorative justice."

Prejean's visit in Iowa City is sponsored by the 2016 Iowa Human Rights 
Research Conference at UI. It is one of dozens of events connected with UI's 
"Just Living" theme semester.

"Since Sister Helen's work involves social justice on a broad level, and given 
her own compelling personal story of how she came to social justice work, we 
thought she'd be a great addition," said Brian Farrell, associate director for 
the Center for Human Rights at the UI College of Law.

If you go

--What: Sister Helen Prejean will lecture on the topic, "Dead Man Walking: The 
Journey Continues."

--When: 6:30 p.m. Friday.

--Where: Room W10 of the Pappajohn Business Building on the UI campus.

(source: Iowa City Press-Citizen)






KANSAS:

Jury recommends death penalty for Kyle Flack


A Franklin County jury today unanimously recommended the death penalty for Kyle 
Flack in the killings of Kaylie Bailey and Lana Bailey, Kansas Attorney General 
Derek Schmidt said.

The murders took place in rural Franklin County, however, the body of 
18-month-old Lana Bailey was discovered in Osage County.

District Judge Eric Godderz will consider the jury's recommendation when 
sentencing Flack. Sentencing is set for May 18 at 9 a.m.

The jury last week found Flack, 30, Ottawa, guilty of capital murder in the 
2013 Bailey killings. He was also convicted of 1st-degree murder premeditated 
in the death of Steven White, 2nd-degree murder intentional in the death of 
Andrew Stout, and 1 count of criminal possession of a firearm. The crimes 
occurred in April and May 2013.

Deputy Attorney General Victor Braden and Franklin County Attorney Stephen 
Hunting are prosecuting the case. The case was investigated by the Franklin 
County Sheriff's Office and the Capital Area Major Case Squad.

(source: osage County Herald)






ARIZONA:

Arizona Asks Federal Judge to Lift Execution Ban


Attorneys representing the state of Arizona called on a federal judge to 
dismiss a lawsuit challenging the way the state carries out the death penalty.

If U.S. District Judge Neil Wake rules in its favor, the Arizona Department of 
Corrections would be free to resume lethal injections, which were put on hold 
after an experiment with a new drug cocktail went awry in 2014, leaving 
convicted murderer Joseph Wood gasping on the executioner's gurney for more 
than 2 hours.

7 death-row inmates and the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona filed the 
lawsuit hoping to define the parameters of execution and make the process more 
transparent by forcing the state to, among other things, release information 
about which lethal-injection drugs it intends to use and how they were 
obtained.

Arizona, along with the rest of the nation, has been flailing to find a 
reliable drug cocktail since U.S. manufacturers stopped producing the 
anesthetic sodium thiopental and the European Union, in 2010, banned its export 
for use in lethal injection.

The Department of Corrections has twice been caught illegally importing sodium 
thiopental. Meanwhile, on Wood, officials tried using a 2-drug mix, including 
the sedative midazolam, which previously had been used in 2 other high-profile 
botched executions.

Despite the controversy surrounding Wood's death, when the department published 
its lethal-injection protocol under court order in October, it did not drop 
midazolam. Instead, it added a 3rd drug that would paralyze prisoners before 
the final heart-stopping chemical was injected.

Attorney Mark Haddad, representing the inmates, argued that Arizona's chemical 
experimentation amounts to a violation of prisoners' Eighth Amendment right to 
be protected from "cruel and unusual" punishment.

In particular, he objected to the state's use of the paralytic, which he argued 
wasn't necessary to kill a prisoner but would cause "a distinct kind of 
suffering, which is the feeling of imminent suffocation."

He expressed concern that the paralytic would mask any pain caused by 
insufficient sedation under midazolam.

"When the state introduces a chemical that ensures there will be no public 
awareness or ability to observe the prisoners' experience of pain, that puts a 
complete curtain over the reality of the proceedings," he said. "It's as if the 
state carried out the execution in a back room."

Attorney David D. Weinzweig, representing the Department of Corrections, 
pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court last year determined that it was 
constitutionally permissible to use midazolam along with a paralytic.

Arguing that Arizona adheres to national standards in execution, he accused 
death-penalty opponents of manipulating the courts in an attempt to block 
executions.

The state is strapped for time because, attorneys told the court earlier this 
year, its supply of midazolam is scheduled to expire at the end of May.

"I would ask the court to remember that victims and state governments have 
rights and interests, too, including an important interest in the timely 
enforcement of a sentence and the state's ability to enforce its own laws," 
Weinzweig said.

Wake, with a nod to the state's predicament, committed to "get an order out as 
fast as I can.

"Capital punishment is legal, and there has to be a way to do it," he said.

(source: phoenixnewtimes.com)

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

Arizona death penalty executions remain on hold as judge hears arguments


A judge heard arguments Thursday on an effort by Arizona to dismiss a lawsuit 
over how it carries out the death penalty in a decision that could let the 
state resume executions.

Executions in Arizona are on hold until the lawsuit is resolved, but a 
dismissal would clear the way to continue using the death penalty.

But even then, the state would face what's believed to be a fast-approaching 
expiration date on its supply of a key lethal-injection drug.

That would leave a short timeframe for carrying out executions.

State lawyers said in January that Arizona's supply of the sedative midazolam 
will expire on May 31 and that it didn't have a means to get more.

No update has been provided on whether it has since found a new supply.

(source: KTAR news)

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

Judge Mulls Whether to Let Arizona's Executions Resume


A federal judge heard arguments Thursday on an effort by Arizona to dismiss a 
lawsuit over how it carries out the death penalty in a decision that could let 
the state resume executions.

Executions in Arizona are on hold until the lawsuit is resolved, but if the 
case is dismissed, it would clear the way for the state to continue using the 
death penalty.

But even then, the state would face what's believed to be a fast-approaching 
expiration date on its supply of a key lethal-injection drug, leaving Arizona 
with a short timeframe for carrying out executions.

Lawyers for the state told U.S. District Judge Neil Wake earlier this year that 
Arizona's supply of the sedative midazolam will expire on May 31 and that it 
didn't have a means to get more. The Arizona Department of Corrections and 
Attorney General's Office had no immediate comment Thursday on whether the 
state has since found a new supply.

The lawsuit by 7 death-row inmates and the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona 
seeks more transparency in the state's execution process, such as information 
about the suppliers of lethal-injection drugs, their expiration dates and the 
state's efforts to find such drugs. It protests the use of a paralytic drug 
that's part of the state's 3-drug lethal-injection protocol, claiming it masks 
whether midazolam given to a condemned inmate is effective.

Lawyers pushing the lawsuit say there's no valid reason for the government to 
use the paralytic. The lawsuit says the state has violated the First Amendment 
rights of access to government proceedings and violates the prisoners' right to 
be free from chemical experimentation.

Attorneys for the state are seeking the dismissal of the lawsuit, saying the 
U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the use of midazolam and a paralytic in lethal 
injections.

They say death penalty critics are manipulating the judicial system and 
pharmaceutical market in their opposition to executions. They also say Arizona 
embraces national standards in executions to avoid mishaps.

Executions in Arizona were put on hold after the July 2014 death of convicted 
killer Joseph Rudolph Wood, who was given 15 doses of midazolam and a 
painkiller and who took nearly 2 hours to die. His attorney says the execution 
was botched.

Wake had an up-close perspective of the Wood execution. The judge received an 
emergency phone call during the execution from lawyers who asked him to halt it 
and order medical staff to revive the inmate. The judge did not intervene 
because Wood died during his conversation with lawyers.

Since then, the Department of Corrections has issued new protocols that include 
4 different drug combinations that can be used in executions.

Similar lawsuits are playing out in other parts of the country that seek more 
transparency about where states get their execution drugs.

States are struggling to obtain execution drugs because European pharmaceutical 
companies began blocking the use of their products for lethal injections. Death 
penalty states refuse to disclose the sources of their drugs, though the 
sources are widely believed to be compounding pharmacies - organizations that 
make drugs tailored to the needs of a specific client. Those pharmacies do not 
face the same approval process or testing standards of larger pharmaceutical 
companies.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Relatives Praise Charges Against Social Workers in Boy Death


Relatives of an 8-year-old boy whose death led to child abuse charges against 
four Los Angeles County social workers are expressing little sympathy for those 
who had been assigned to protect him.

"You brought this upon yourself," said Emily Carranza, cousin of the boy 
Gabriel Fernandez, whose image was on her T-shirt at a news conference 
Thursday. "Your conviction will be our greatest victory."

Carranza and other family and friends of the boy had hoped for such charges, 
along with the murder charges already filed against the boy's mother and her 
boyfriend.

The 4 social workers, who prosecutors said were so negligent they contributed 
to his abuse, were also charged with falsifying records.

The Department of Children and Family Services said Thursday all 4, including 2 
supervisors, were fired last year after an internal investigation into the 2013 
death.

"In our rigorous reconstruction of the events surrounding Gabriel's death, we 
found that 4 of our social workers had failed to perform their jobs. I directed 
that all of them be discharged," the department's director, Philip Browning, 
said in a statement.

1 of the 4 successfully appealed his termination to the county's Civil Service 
Commission and has been reinstated, prompting Children's Services to appeal 
that ruling in court.

Prosecuting welfare workers for physical abuse caused by another is rare but 
not unprecedented. In New York in 2011, a child welfare worker and his 
supervisor were charged with negligent homicide in the death of a 4-year-old 
girl. They eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment charges.

District Attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison said this is the first such case to 
be prosecuted in Los Angeles County, and prosecutors believe it may be the 1st 
in the state.

An arrest warrant filed March 28 identifies the 4 Los Angeles social workers as 
Stefanie Rodriguez, 30, Patricia Clement, 65, Kevin Bom, 36, and Gregory 
Merritt, 60. Merritt, who was 1 of the supervisors, successfully challenged his 
termination and is now working for the county in another capacity.

Bail for each was set at $100,000 in a court appearance Thursday.

Their lawyers argued they should be released without bail, saying all had 
longtime ties to the area, arrived in court as ordered and had done much good 
for their communities.

"My client's name will be cleared," Rodriguez's attorney, Lance Filer, said 
outside court.

Clement, who was seen sobbing before the arraignment, is a former nun who 
worked most of her career as a public servant, according to her lawyer, Darcy 
Calkins. She also said she expects Clement will be exonerated.

Clement has a graduate degree in marriage and family counseling and served as a 
chaplain at juvenile hall, Calkins said.

Bom is a licensed therapist and elder in his church, and Merritt teaches 
college courses, according to their lawyers.

If convicted of child abuse and falsifying records, they could face as much as 
10 years in prison.

Gabriel died May 24, 2013, of injuries that included a fractured skull, broken 
ribs and burns across his body. Gabriel's mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her 
boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, have pleaded not guilty to murder and are in jail 
awaiting trial. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.

The Department of Children and Family Services opened a case file on him on 
Oct. 31, 2012, more than 6 months before he died. In bringing charges, District 
Attorney Jackie Lacey said it was the social workers' responsibility to protect 
him.

Instead, prosecutors say, Rodriguez and Clement falsified reports that should 
have documented signs that Gabriel was suffering from escalating physical abuse 
and that his family had stopped participating in efforts to keep the family 
together. They say Bom and Merritt, as supervisors, knew or should have known 
those reports were false.

"By minimizing the significance of the physical, mental and emotional injuries 
that Gabriel suffered, these social workers allowed a vulnerable boy to remain 
at home and continue to be abused," Lacey said.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Bell Gardens man charged with shooting brothers in East L.A. park


A Bell Gardens man was charged Wednesday with murder in the fatal shooting of 2 
brothers at a park in East Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County 
district attorney's office.

Pedro Vasquez, 23, faces 2 counts of murder in the deaths of Antonio Aguilar, 
33, and Juan Aguilar, 28. A special circumstances allegation of multiple 
murders makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Antonio and Juan Valenti Aguilar were in Ruben F. Salazar Park near Whittier 
Boulevard and Ditman Avenue in East L.A. on Nov. 22, 2015, when they were 
approached by 3 people, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Eddie Hernandez. 
Prosecutors said 1 of 3 was Vasquez.

It was about 11 a.m. The people were casually talking when, prosecutors said, 
Vasquez pulled out a gun and fired at the Aguilar brothers.

Antonio Aguilar was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:31 a.m., according to 
coroner's records. Juan Aguilar was taken to a nearby hospital where he was 
pronounced dead at 12:02 p.m.

Soon after the incident, Sheriff's Department deputies spoke to witnesses who 
saw 3 people get away in 2 cars. Hernandez said police suspected that the 
killing was gang-related. But prosecutors did not pursue a gang allegation 
against Vasquez.

Sheriff's deputies also believe the brothers were targeted, but prosecutors 
have not revealed a motive, a district attorney's spokesman said.

Vasquez is scheduled be arraigned April 27.

(source: Los Angeles Times)






USA:

DNA Software Claims to Prevent Wrongful Convictions, but Lacks 3rd-Party 
Validation


The Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School reports 337 post-conviction 
exonerations in the U.S. since 1989. But damage done to the wrongly convicted 
cannot be undone. Time served by all 337 people exonerated totals almost 4,606 
years, a per person average of 14 years in prison. The Innocence Project 
reports that the real perpetrators were identified in 166 of the DNA 
exoneration cases. But while innocent people were behind bars, those 166 went 
on to commit 146 additional crimes.

More than 1/2 of these wrongful convictions were due to improper forensic 
science at trial. Cybergenetics, developer of computer automated systems and 
technology research data analysis, claims its TrueAllele Casework system 
prevents wrongful convictions by accurately matching the DNA of the perpetrator 
to the DNA evidence. TrueAllele's computerized DNA interpretation system excels 
in situations where human forensics fail - when evidence contains a mix of 
three or more DNA samples. However, Cybergenetics' refusal to share the source 
code behind the software proves problematic in courts. This source code, or 
programming code, is the key to software function. If Cybergenetics releases 
the code, its competitors could replicate it. But without the programming code, 
defense attorneys are unable to challenge the accuracy of TrueAllele. Likewise, 
prosecutors can't authenticate it.

For $60,000, crime labs can buy TrueAllele software. According to 
Cybergenetics' TrueAllele Process Overview Video, an analyst first assays the 
DNA evidence following a typical procedure such as PCR, a DNA amplification 
process. This DNA evidence can range from bodily fluids to skin cells. After 
the evidence is scanned, the computer fitted with the TrueAllele software finds 
the length and quantity of every data peak. Through complex, undisclosed codes 
and algorithms, the computer separates DNA mixtures into genotypes, solves 
kinship and paternity, and calculates match statistics.

Quantitatively, TrueAllele seems to be more reliable in probability modeling 
than typical methods used by forensics labs. However, the support for this 
claim consists only of peer-reviews and mock tests done by Cybergenetics. Its 
TrueAllele Mixture Validation in 2010 seems to satisfy state courts. This 
groundbreaking technology helped convict criminals in over 500 cases in the 
past five years, with the majority of those convictions occurring last year.

Currently, states lack regulations of the use of evidence provided by 
TrueAllele. In Pennsylvania, this is demonstrated by the Michael Robinson 
murder case. Counsel for Robinson, accused of killing 2 men in 2013, was denied 
access to the TrueAllele source code last month. Prosecutors used TrueAllele to 
link Robinson to DNA evidence found on a bandana near the crime scene. 
TrueAllele found that the DNA was 5.6 billion times more likely to belong to 
Robinson than to another suspect. If Robinson is convicted, he faces the death 
penalty. Relying on the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause, Robinson's 
defense attorneys claim that access to the programming code is necessary in 
order to cross-examine Mark Perlin, founder of Cybergenetics and TrueAllele's 
creator. Defense attorneys have asked the Pennsylvania Superior Court to 
reverse the trial judge's decision. They state, "without production and defense 
review of the computer instructions, not only will the petitioner be denied his 
constitutional right to a fair trial - he risks being wrongly executed."

In her ruling, Judge Jill Rangos stated, "An order requiring Cybergenetics to 
produce the source code would be unreasonable, as release would have the 
potential to cause great harm to Cybergenetics." Cybergenetics would lose a lot 
of money to competitors if it made the source code public.

But without the code, there is no way of verifying that TrueAllele is as 
accurate as Cybergenetics claims. Perhaps Cybergenetics should be required to 
release the source code after the court orders a nondisclosure order protecting 
the software. Despite benefits for cases involving mixed DNA evidence, 
TrueAllele could promote wrongful convictions - even though it's meant to 
prevent them. This highlights the need for regulations in the state court 
systems regarding TrueAllele.

(source: Huffington Post)

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

Massachusetts triple murderer too old, sick for death sentence: 
lawyer----Federal prosecutors are now seeking a second sentencing trial, at 
which they would ask a new jury to sentence Sampson to death.


Lawyers for a triple murderer asked a U.S. District Court judge in 
Massachusetts to block a 2nd attempt to sentence the 56-year-old man to death, 
saying it would be needlessly cruel because he is unlikely to survive the 
appeal process.

Gary Lee Sampson was sentenced to death in 2003 for murdering 2 men who picked 
him up while he was hitchhiking in Massachusetts and later killing a 3rd after 
he fled to New Hampshire. That sentence was overturned in 2011 after it emerged 
that a juror had lied about prior dealings with law enforcement.

Federal prosecutors are now seeking a 2nd sentencing trial, at which they would 
ask a new jury to sentence Sampson to death.

"It is virtually certain that Mr. Sampson will not live long to be executed," 
defense attorneys wrote in a court filing submitted late Wednesday. "He is very 
far from healthy."

The version of the filing released to the public did not detail Sampson's 
health problems.

Sampson's attorneys said the typical projected U.S. lifespan for a healthy man 
of Sampson's age is 80, and that prisoners tend to die younger. That made their 
client unlikely to live through the 10- to 20-year appeal process, they said.

Massachusetts state law does not allow for capital punishment, but Sampson 
could face execution because he was convicted in a federal court.

A federal jury in Massachusetts last year sentenced Boston Marathon bomber 
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to die by injection. He is appealing that sentence.

(source: metro.us)