[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, S. DAK., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 25



OHIO:

Judge to sentence Brunswick murderer today


A Brunswick man convicted of killing his mother learns today whether he will 
receive the death penalty or life in prison.

James Tench, 30, is scheduled to be sentenced by Medina Common Pleas Judge 
Joyce V. Kimbler at 1 p.m. for the 2013 death of his mother Mary Tench, who was 
55.

The jury recommended the death penalty for Tench earlier this month after 
finding him guilty of 3 counts of aggravated murder, 2 counts of murder, and 1 
count each of aggravated robbery, kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

Kimbler will have the same sentencing choices as the jury:

death penalty;

life without parole;

life with parole in 30 years;

life with parole in 25 years.

Tench first was questioned in the case on Nov. 13, 2013, the same day his 
mother's body was discovered in the back of her SUV in Brunswick.

County Prosecutor Dean Holman alleged during closing comments in the case that 
Tench struggled with his mother on the front porch of their shared Brunswick 
home after she came home from work on Nov. 12. He took her to an unknown 
location and ran her over with her own car before leaving the car and her body 
at Carquest Lane not far from their Camden Lane home, he said.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution argued Tench killed his mother to stop 
her from telling police he was stealing from her bank accounts. The prosecution 
presented several bank statements, testimony from Tench's former girlfriend and 
a list of check numbers found in his mother's room to suggest his mother knew 
Tench was making withdrawals from her accounts.

Tench took the witness stand during his trial and acknowledged he was forging 
his mother's checks, but said it was to cover for his ex-girlfriend's 
overspending on his debit card. He said his money troubles were the motive for 
a robbery in October 2013 in Strongsville for which he received a 5-year prison 
sentence.

Defense attorneys Kerry O'Brien and Rhonda Kotnik argued that while Tench was 
not perfect, he did not kill his mother. During the trial, they suggested law 
enforcement began treating Tench as the main suspect too quickly after the 
discovery of his mother's body.

During a hearing after the jury reached its guilty verdicts, friends described 
Tench as acting like a brother to them. The hearing, called "mitigation," 
allowed evidence to be presented before sentencing.

Tench, who called his mother an "angel," asked the jury for a chance to live 
out his natural life.

If Tench's sentence is for the maximum penalty, he will become the 1st Medina 
County resident placed on death row since 2013 when Steven Cepec received the 
death penalty for beating Frank Munz to death with a hammer at Munz's Chatham 
Township home.

Judge James L. Kimbler - who is Joyce V. Kimbler's husband and predecessor on 
the common pleas bench - passed down the Cepec sentence.

Prior to Cepec, it had been 60 years since the Medina County courts assigned a 
death sentence.

Cepec and 137 other men on death row are awaiting execution at Chillicothe 
Correctional Institution. Executions in Ohio have been in hold since 2014 
because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. The next execution is 
scheduled for January.

(source: Medina Gazette)






SOUTH DAKOTA:

The Death Penalty: A Face Of Mercy


During Sunday's Benedictine Lecture at Mount Marty's Marian Auditorium in 
Yankton, Deacon Denny Davis, director of South Dakotans for an Alternative to 
the Death Penalty, displays an enlarged facsimile of a death certificate for a 
prisoner executed in North Carolina. The Vermillion deacon noted that the 
attending physician in the execution marked "homicide" as the cause of the 
prisoner's death.

Changing public opinions on the death penalty and more thorough study of its 
effects on budgets and people are key arguments for its repeal in South Dakota 
- and they may be more plausible than first thought.

This was the focal point of Deacon Denny Davis, director of South Dakotans for 
an Alternative to the Death Penalty (SDADP), who presented of "The Human Face 
of the Death Penalty: Justice Is the Face of Mercy" at Mount Marty College's 
spring Benedictine Lecture Sunday night at Marian Auditorium. The event was 
hosted by the Benedictine Institute for Leadership, Ethics and Social Justice.

Davis, who has advocated for a number of social justice causes around the world 
over the years, told the audience that he initially wasn't enthusiastic about 
the prospect of taking on South Dakota's death penalty.

"I actually did not want to do this work," he said. "When I was asked to do it 
by the former director, I told him immediately, 'No. Work on the death penalty 
in South Dakota? Who in their right mind would do that?' (But) I got a phone 
call after that from Gabriella Crowley. ... she's kind of convincing."

Davis has filled the director's role since 2012.

Despite being an opponent of the death penalty, Davis said he doesn't demonize 
those who believe it to be just.

"It's very, very understandable that many people are for the death penalty for 
a varying amount of reasons," he said. "There are a number of circumstances why 
the death penalty has returned and why we continue to use it."

Davis' noted the number of executions carried out since the death penalty???s 
reinstatement. The figure includes the states that retained the penalty, the 
federal government and the U.S. military, and it's currently at 1,422 
executions since 1976. Currently, 2,984 inmates are on death row across the 
country, including 3 in South Dakota.

Davis said 3 of his group's focuses have been on the deterrence factor, cost 
and innocence.

"88 % of experts in the field rejected the notion that the death penalty acts 
as a deterrent," he said, citing a 2009 study on the subject. "I always say if 
the death penalty in South Dakota was a deterrent - I think there were 6 women 
killed in 2014 in Sioux Falls from domestic violence - where's the deterrent? 
Just 2 days ago in Sioux Falls, we had another murder. It isn't like someone 
who's going to kill someone stops to think, 'Gee, does South Dakota have the 
death penalty?' These are crimes of passion."

Davis also spoke on costs, saying the average cost of a death sentence far 
exceeds a life sentence, costing cash-strapped counties dearly. He cited a 
SDADP study finished in 2015.

"Death cases were almost $400,000, life sentences were (around) $40,000 - 10 
times," he said. "The counties have to pay for this. It isn't like it comes out 
of the state coffers. ... Counties are in Pierre every year begging for money, 
and they're spending this kind of money on death cases."

Davis also spoke on how more than 100 people on death rows across the country 
have been exonerated due to new evidence and reexamination of old testimonies 
and evidence.

"I've always asked the question, 'How many have actually been executed that are 
innocent?'" he said. "I think that's a valid question."

Davis presented testimonies on the collateral damage that executions have on 
the families of victims, guards, wardens and other legal officials before 
delving into Biblical teachings that speak against the act.

He argued that those who use Scripture to support the death penalty are 
inadvertently using a ploy Middle Eastern terrorists use to justify their 
actions.

"It's not that they're bad people and I'm not putting any judgment on anybody," 
he said of death penalty proponents. "But I???m just saying that the Scripture 
we use is being used to kill people. That's fundamentalism. It's the same thing 
that's happening in the Middle East. They're taking a few phrases out of the 
Koran and starting to kill people, and the vast majority of the Islamic people 
say, 'This is not the Koran.' Same thing with Christian Scriptures."

Davis said ultimately the tide is turning against the death penalty.

"19 states have banned the death penalty - Nebraska was the last one," he said.

He added that repeal in South Dakota is plausible due to the state's fiscally 
conservative attitudes and the changing attitudes towards the death penalty, 
which the SDADP plans to poll South Dakotans on in the near future.

Davis said there's been some apprehension about putting the death penalty up 
for a vote of the people.

"Our fear of taking it to the voters has been that if we lose, then the 
legislators won't hear it anymore," he said. "So I've been very cautious about 
taking it to the voters, especially if the consensus is they want the death 
penalty."

(source: Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan)






USA:

Gary Lee Sampson lawyers cite 'imminent risk' of death


Lawyers trying to save Gary Lee Sampson from lethal injection for a second time 
are boldly predicting "there is no scenario" in which the ?allegedly terminally 
ill triple murderer will ever be executed.

Just how to close to ?dying Sampson, 56, might be could be addressed at a 
status conference on the case this afternoon before U.S. District Court Judge 
Leo T. Sorokin.

Jury selection for Sampson's re-sentencing trial remains slated to begin Sept. 
14.

The convicted killer is "in imminent risk of sudden cardiac death" due to a 
heart condition, high blood pressure, hepatitis C and liver disease, according 
to a new court filing by his attorneys, who want Sorokin to drop the trial and 
order Sampson to live out his days ?behind bars.

"It is not possible for a death sentence to be carried out in this case," the 
defense team asserts in its motion to settle Sampson's fate. Mr. Sampson is 
dying and the federal death penalty has been stalled for years.

"There is no scenario in which Mr. Sampson could actually be executed. Thus, 
the proceedings and the sentence will be purely symbolic."

Federal prosecutors are adamantly against the idea, noting in an opposing 
document that the terminally ill are not a protected class exempt from the 
federal death penalty - and particularly not "offenders such as himself who 
have committed especially heinous crimes and contributed to their purported 
health problems by failing to make healthy lifestyle choices over the course of 
their lifetime."

Sampson's 2003 conviction still stands but his death sentence for the murders 
of 3 men in July 2001 was overturned 5 years ago because of juror misconduct.

(source: Boston Herald)