[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., FLA., OHIO, CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 18




VIRGINIA:

Lawmakers return to take up death penalty, ethics law


Virginia lawmakers are set to return to the Capitol this week to debate how the 
state should put inmates to death, how it should structure a new economic 
development initiative, and whether the Old Dominion should tweak its new 
ethics laws.

Wednesday is the so-called veto session, where legislators return to Richmond 
for a day to consider Gov. Terry McAuliffe's vetoes and amendments to 
legislation passed earlier this year.

Among the most watched moves by the Democratic governor is his proposal to 
shield the identities of companies that supply lethal-injection drugs for 
executions. Virginia has struggled to obtain the drugs necessary for lethal 
injections and the GOP-controlled General Assembly passed legislation earlier 
this year that would force inmates to die in the electric chair if there are no 
available drugs.

McAuliffe said drug manufacturers won't provide Virginia the drugs necessary 
without the secrecy provision and has vowed to veto the legislation if 
lawmakers insist on the contentious electric-chair provision. The governor said 
lawmakers need to agree to his proposed changes if they keep the death penalty.

"If they pass up that opportunity, they will bring the death penalty to an end 
here in Virginia," he said last week.

The governor's amendment would give Virginia's Department of Corrections the 
authority to compound its own execution drugs using products from pharmacies 
whose identities would remain confidential. Virginia is one of at least eight 
states that allow electrocutions, but currently gives inmates the choice of 
lethal injection or the electric chair.

Republican leaders have not yet signaled how they'll respond to any of 
McAuliffe's proposed amendments. If they reject amendments, McAuliffe can veto 
the legislation.

McAuliffe also vetoed 32 pieces of legislation this year, mostly related to 
social issues like abortion, gun control and gay rights. Republicans will need 
a 2/3 vote in both chambers to override a veto, and are unlikely to get enough 
votes in the near evenly split state Senate.

(source: fredericksburg.com)

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

Religious coalition urges rejection of execution bill


A coalition of several hundred religious leaders is urging Virginia lawmakers 
to reject a proposal to conceal the identities of pharmacies supplying drugs to 
be used in executions.

Several representatives of the interfaith coalition are scheduled to discuss 
their objections at a news conference Monday at the General Assembly Building 
in Richmond.

Lethal injection drugs have been hard to obtain in Virginia and other states. 
That situation prompted Del. Jackson Miller to propose allowing Virginia to use 
the electric chair if drugs aren't available.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe stripped the electric chair provision and replaced it with 
one allowing the state to obtain the drugs from pharmacies whose identities 
would be kept confidential to protect them from critics. The religious 
coalition says the secrecy amendment would improperly shield pharmacies from 
accountability.

(source: Associated Press)

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

For Va.: Life in prison, or a more humane death?


The April 14 editorial "Secrecy vs. barbarism?" called the use of the electric 
chair as a means to carry out the death penalty "inhumane" and a "barbaric 
practice." But on the question of whether Virginia should have the death 
penalty, the editorial board seemed fine with lethal injection as long as the 
state can obtain the necessary drugs. That's a shame. There's nothing more 
inhumane or barbaric than the state taking away a human life, and lethal 
injection doesn't make it less so.

I used to be in favor of the death penalty under limited circumstances, but, 
after visiting Red Onion, one of Virginia's supermax prisons, and seeing daily 
life in segregation and solitary confinement, I now know that a far more 
appropriate and humane sentence is life in prison without parole.

Virginia should take advantage of the shortage of lethal drugs and put an end 
to the death penalty once and for all.

Patrick A. Hope, Arlington

The writer, a Democrat, represents Arlington County in the Virginia House of 
Delegates.

(source: Letter to the Editor, Washington Post)






FLORIDA:

Jonchuck in court today to discuss competency to stand trial ---- John Jonchuck 
is accused of throwing his daughter from a bridge into Tampa Bay and killing 
her.


The man charged with 1st-degree murder for dropping his daughter off a Tampa 
Bay bridge will be in a Pinellas County court today for a hearing to determine 
his competency to stand trial.

John Jonchuck, 26, is currently in the Pinellas County Jail, according to jail 
records.

He threw his 5-year-old daughter Phoebe off the lead-up to the Sunshine Skyway 
just after midnight on Jan. 8, 2015, police say. The girl drowned in Tampa Bay 
before rescue crews could get to her, according to the autopsy report.

In February, Jonchuck was ruled incompetent to stand trial for the 3rd time.

If Jonchuck is ultimately deemed competent and found guilty, prosecutors said 
they plan to seek the death penalty.

(source: tbo.com)






OHIO:

Ohio House lawmakers pass bill to stiffen murder penalties


The Ohio Senate is expected to begin consideration of a bill to stiffen 
mandatory sentences for convicted murderers after the House approved its 
version of the legislation last week.

"Justin's Law" would increase the number of years those convicted of murder and 
aggravated murder must spend in prison before becoming eligible for parole. The 
bill increases mandatory sentences of 20, 25 and 30 years to 25, 30, 35, 45 or 
55 years. It also increases potential penalties for premeditated murder and for 
convicted murderers under age 18. Minors would still be ineligible for the 
death penalty.

The parents of Justin Back have urged lawmakers to stiffen the penalties for 
killers after their teenage son was strangled and stabbed to death by 2 men 
during a home invasion in January 2014. The family lived near Waynesville in 
Warren County, northeast of Cincinnati.

Austin Myers, 21, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of aggravated 
murder and other charges. Co-Defendant Timothy Mosley, 21, received life 
without parole after pleading guilty to aggravated murder and other charges and 
agreeing to testify against Myers. Justin's Law would not have affected their 
sentences.

House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger said he hoped the bill will be ready for Gov. 
John Kasich to sign this summer.

"It's right that we are looking at things like Justin's Law to make sure we are 
holding more people more accountable for what they've actually done," 
Rosenberger, a Republican, told The Cincinnati Enquirer.

The Ohio public defender's office said the bill is arbitrary and unnecessary 
because the U.S. Sentencing Commission defines a life sentence as around 39 
years based on life expectancy in prison.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Kevin Cooper timeline of events


January 1983: Kevin Cooper, using the alias David Anthony Trautman, is arrested 
on burglary in Los Angeles

April 29, 1983: Cooper is sent to the California Institution for Men in Chino 
after being convicted of burglary.

June 2, 1983: Cooper escapes from CIM and hides in a vacant Chino Hills' rental 
house co-owned by Larry Lease and Roger and Vicki Lang and located 150 yards 
from the home of Douglas and Peggy Ryen. Cooper hides in the Lease house until 
the evening of June 4, 1983.

June 4-5, 1983: Chiropractors and Arabian horse trainers/breeders Douglas and 
Peggy Ryen, both 41, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and visiting neighbor 
boy Christopher Hughes, 11, are murdered by hatchet, knife and either ice pick 
or screwdriver. Joshua, the Ryens' 8-year-old son, has his throat slashed but 
survives.

June 5, 1983: William Hughes, father of Christopher, discovers the bodies of 
his son, the 3 slain Ryens and severely wounded Joshua Ryen shortly before noon 
at the Ryens' ranch home at 2943 English Road, Chino Hills.

June 5, 1983: Citizen Ellis Bell discovers hatchet with blood on it down the 
road from the crime scene.

June 5-10, 1983: Hotel Enza manager in Tijuana reports Kevin Cooper checked in 
about 4 p.m. on June 5, pays in quarters and checks out June 8.

June 6, 1983: San Bernardino County Sheriff Floyd Tidwell identifies recently 
escaped California Institution for Men inmates David A. Trautman, 25, and 
Alboro James Kanori, 31, and Boys Republic runaway Michael Fasthorse Martinez 
as possible, but not good, suspects in the Ryens/Hughes murders and attempted 
murder of Joshua Ryen. Tidwell announces David Trautman's real name is Kevin 
Cooper.

June 9, 1983: Tidwell identifies Kevin Cooper as the single suspect and San 
Bernardino County prosecutors charge Cooper with 4 counts of murder, 1 count of 
attempted murder and escape from CIM. Chino Municipal Court Judge Holley Graham 
issues a warrant for Cooper's arrest and an international manhunt begins for 
Cooper in California and Baja California, Mexico.

July 30, 1983: A woman on a boat, anchored near the sailboat of Owen and 
Angelica Handy for whom Cooper was working as a deckhand, off Santa Cruz Island 
near the Santa Barbara coast calls the Coast Guard and Santa Barbara County 
Sheriff's Department to accuse "Angel Jackson," the alias Kevin Cooper was 
using, of raping her. "Angel Jackson" is arrested by Santa Barbara deputies, 
who later identify him as Kevin Cooper.

Aug. 1, 1983: Kevin Cooper is arraigned before San Bernardo County's West 
Valley Judge David C. Merriam. He pleads not guilty.

Nov. 9, 1983: The preliminary hearing for Cooper begins with San Bernardino 
County District Attorney Dennis Kottmeier and Deputy District Attorney John 
Kochis for the prosecution and David Negus, a deputy public defender, as 
defense counsel.

Jan. 8, 1984: Kevin Cooper pleads not guilty.

March 13, 1984: Judge Richard Garner grants Negus' motion for a change of venue 
due to excessive and adverse publicity in San Bernardino County. Kochis opposes 
change of venue.

April 18, 1984: The California Judicial Council gives Garner options of 
choosing San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento or Alameda counties for the trial.

April 23, 1984: Garner picks San Diego County for the venue change. Negus 
objects. Kottmeier and Kochis support the selection.

May 4, 1984: The California Supreme Court and the Fourth District Court of 
Appeals in San Bernardino uphold Garner's choice of San Diego for the trial.

Sept. 12, 1984: Jury selection begins.

Oct. 23, 1984: The trial begins.

Feb. 7, 1985: The jury begins deliberation

Feb. 19, 1985: The jury convicts Cooper of murdering Christopher Hughes, 11; 
Douglas and Peggy Ryen, 41, and Jessica Ryen, 10, and the attempted murder of 
Joshua Ryen, 10.

March 1, 1985: The jury recommends the death penalty.

May 15, 1985: Judge Garner accepts the jury's recommendation and sentences 
Cooper to die in the San Quentin Prison gas chamber.

May 16, 1991: The California Supreme Court affirms Cooper's conviction, based 
on evidence presented at trial, and denies Cooper's direct appeal.

1991: Cooper files a federal habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court 
for the Southern District of California.

July 1994: Citing an extreme change of circumstances requiring him to raise his 
children as a single parent, Cooper's appointed attorney Charles D. Maurer asks 
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff to relieve him of the Cooper case. Huff 
repeatedly denies Maurer's relief request and, although doing no legal work on 
the case, Maurer remains Cooper's counsel of record for 11 more months.

Aug. 8, 1994: Jeannie Sternberg, a staff attorney for the nonprofit California 
Appellate Project which offers legal resources to attorneys for death-row 
inmates, compiles a skeletal habeas corpus petition, which results in a 
temporary stay of Cooper's 1st execution date of Nov. 26, 1994.

June 2, 1995: Judge Huff names attorneys William McGuigan and Robert Amidon to 
replace Maurer as Cooper's federal habeas corpus counsels.

1996: The California Supreme Court denies Cooper's state habeas corpus 
petition.

Aug. 25, 1997: Huff denies Cooper's federal habeas corpus petition.

April 30, 1998: Cooper files another federal habeas corpus claim.

June 15, 1998: Huff denies another Cooper habeas corpus petition.

Nov. 4, 1999: Cooper's counsel files another petition before the Ninth Circuit 
Court of Appeals.

May 10, 2001: A 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denies 
another Cooper habeas corpus petition, but approves post-conviction DNA testing 
to be done by the district court. Judge Huff allows partial testing without 
defense team involvement and denies all defense motions to witness and 
participate in testing.

Feb. 14, 2003: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denies habeas corpus petition.

Oct. 3, 2003: State announces the partial DNA test results confirm Cooper's 
guilt.

2003: David T. Alexander of Oakland and Norman C. Hile of the Sacramento office 
of Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe become Cooper's pro bono attorneys.

Dec. 17, 2003: A San Diego County Superior Court judge sets Feb. 10, 2004, for 
Cooper's execution.

Jan. 9, 2004: Cooper attorney David Alexander files clemency petition with 
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Jan. 30, 2004: Schwarzenegger flatly denies clemency, saying "this case does 
not present factual questions that warrant investigation or a hearing."

Feb. 9, 2004: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issues a stay of Cooper???s 
Feb. 10, 2004 execution and directs the district court to perform tests to 
determine if the Cooper blood on a tan T-shirt contained a preservative, which 
would indicate if blood was planted or not.

2004 and 2005: District Judge Huff denies all relief for Cooper, including 
defense discovery, necessary forensics testing, evidentiary hearings.

2006: A moratorium on death penalty executions in California is established as 
a result of legal challenges to its execution procedures in both state and 
federal courts. Multiple murderer Clarence Ray Allen is the last man executed 
in California before the moratorium.

Dec. 4, 2007: A 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denies 
Cooper's appeal,

May 11, 2009: A full panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals narrowly 
denies Cooper's appeal and Judge Pamela Ann Rymer writes the concurring 
opinion. Cooper needed 14 to win and 11 of the federal judges strongly dissent 
and cite serious issues with the conduct of law enforcement and the prosecution 
team involved in Cooper's conviction.

August 2010: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary 
notifies lawyers for Kevin Cooper and 4 other death row inmates who have 
exhausted appeals to re-apply for clemency if they wish.

December 2010: Cooper's attorneys submit a second clemency petition to Gov. 
Schwarzenegger, citing evidence of his innocence and prosecutorial misconduct 
discovered since January 2004.

Jan. 2, 2011: Schwarzenegger, in a letter to Cooper's counsels, writes: "In 
this case, the clemency application raises many evidentiary concerns which 
deserve a thorough and careful review of voluminous records. Such an 
extraordinary request needs more than 2 weeks of attention."

Sept. 12, 2015: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an international 
agency of the Organization of American States, unanimously finds that Cooper's 
human rights were violated during his prosecution, sentencing and appeals.

November 2015: A 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturns 
a 2014 ruling that the California death penalty system was unconstitutional, 
allowing executions in the state to resume.

Feb. 17, 2016: Cooper attorneys Norman Hile and David Alexander submit a 
clemency petition to California Gov. Jerry Brown, asking him to stay Cooper's 
execution and to initiate an independent investigation into the case.

March 14, 2016: The American Bar Association sends letter to Gov. Jerry Brown 
supporting clemency for Kevin Cooper and asking for an independent 
investigation by the governor's office.

(source: Daily Bulletin)






USA:

New book on DP Executing Grace


Exploring the intersection of Christianity and the death penalty. On sale June 
7.

see: http://executinggrace.com/

About the Book

In this reasoned exploration of justice, retribution, and redemption, Shane 
Claiborne offers a powerful and persuasive appeal for the abolition of the 
death penalty. Shane tells stories of horrific pain and heroic grace. He 
interviews victims of violent crimes, survivors of death row, lawyers, experts, 
and even an executioner.

In this thought-provoking work, Claiborne explores the contrast between 
punitive justice and restorative justice, questioning our notions of fairness, 
revenge, and absolution. At times, Shane also dives into the Bible and into 
history.

Shane takes another look at the Bible because the death penalty has succeeded 
in America not in spite of Christians, but because of Christians. He looks at 
history because it is impossible to separate the contemporary practice of the 
death penalty from the historic terror of lynching. He shows why the death 
penalty today is in critical condition, and why we can live without it.

At the heart of the book are stories that show the true cost of the death 
penalty. These stories raise the question: should we kill those who kill to 
show that it's wrong to kill?

Is there a better way? In Executing Grace, he reminds us of the divine power of 
forgiveness, and evokes the fundamental truth of the Gospel that no one, even a 
criminal, is beyond redemption.

(source: executinggrace.com)