[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., ARIZ., NEV., CALIF., ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 27


OKLAHOMA:

Thackers' jail letters construed 2 ways ---- Defendant wrote 2 'were together'


Jailhouse correspondence between an Arkansas man on trial for murder and his 
brother contained admissions that bolster the state of Oklahoma's theory that 
the brothers acted together in a 2010 killing.

"They know we were together that night," Elvis Aaron Thacker wrote in a Nov. 
15, 2010, letter to his brother Johnathen about what police discovered about 
the Sept. 13, 2010, murder of Briana Ault at a secluded pond just across the 
Arkansas state line in Pocola, Okla.

The 2 were in jail in Fort Smith after their arrest on a warrant for separate 
rape and kidnapping charges, along with the attempted capital murder of a Fort 
Smith police detective helping to serve that warrant. They also were charged in 
Oklahoma with 1st-degree murder and forcible sodomy in Ault's death.

Oklahoma is seeking the death penalty against Elvis Thacker. Johnathen Thacker 
pleaded guilty in April 2014 to 1st-degree murder and testified that he 
believes he will be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Elvis Thacker's defense team has spent the past week trying to convince a 
LeFlore County, Okla., District Court jury of 6 women and 6 men that their 
client is innocent and that Johnathen Thacker acted alone in Ault's murder.

The defense called witnesses who testified that Johnathen Thacker was warped by 
his horrific upbringing and that he killed Ault and blamed his brother.

First Assistant District Attorney Margaret Nicholson contended in her 
cross-examination of psychologist Jolie Brams, a defense witness, that the 
context of the letters was not how innocent Elvis Thacker was, but how the 
brothers would coordinate their stories about the murder.

Johnathen Thacker testified earlier in the trial that it was his brother's idea 
to rob Ault, and that he had no idea that Elvis Thacker was going to kill Ault. 
He testified that he tried to prevent the murder.

Johnathen Thacker wrote to his brother asking him to confess to killing Ault 
and exonerate him. He blamed his brother for putting him in jail on the murder 
charge.

"'Do the right thing,'" attorneys read from Johnathen Thacker's letter. 
'"Confess and let me go free.'"

Nicholson also confronted Brams with a statement that Elvis Thacker made to 
nurses and police officers in the hospital where he was recovering from two 
gunshot wounds he suffered when he and his brother were arrested by Fort Smith 
police on Sept. 15, 2010.

"'I murdered her, yeah, but I'm no rapist,'" Nicholson read from the nurses' 
records on Elvis Thacker.

Witnesses have said that Johnathen Thacker was the more violent of the brothers 
and lied to put the blame on his brother.

Defense lawyers cited the letter that Johnathen Thacker wrote to his brother, 
calling it evidence that Johnathen Thacker wanted Elvis Thacker to take 
responsibility for Johnathen Thacker's actions and get him out of trouble, as 
they said he had been called on to do all his life.

Brams testified that by confessing to the murder that he now says Johnathen 
Thacker committed, Elvis Thacker was doing the only thing he could to gain his 
brother's acceptance and his mother's approval.

She said that because Elvis Thacker got so little love from his mother, he was 
desperate to maintain his connection with his brother.

She testified Monday that Elvis Thacker's mother, Marsha Gregory, threatened to 
never let him see his daughter again unless he protected his brother and took 
the blame for Ault's death.

Brams had testified that Johnathen Thacker was his mother's favorite, and Elvis 
Thacker was the family scapegoat.

In a separate case, the brothers were charged in Sebastian County Circuit Court 
with attempted capital murder. Elvis Thacker was accused of stabbing Fort Smith 
police Detective James Melson when police attempted to serve the warrant on the 
brothers for kidnapping and raping a woman 11 days before Ault's death.

In August 2011, the brothers pleaded guilty to attempted capital murder and 
kidnapping. Elvis Thacker, now 28, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. 
Johnathen Thacker, now 27, was sentenced to 25 years.

(source: arkansasonline.com)






ARIZONA:

Arizona Faces Drug-Expiration Deadline for Executions


Arizona's supply of a crucial lethal injection drug is set to expire as a 
federal judge decides the fate of a lawsuit that has stopped all executions in 
the state.

State officials currently can't seek death warrants until a lawsuit against the 
way it carries out executions is resolved, meaning the state's supply of the 
sedative midazolam will expire without being used. The state's known supply of 
midazolam expires on May 31. But law requires Arizona to wait 35 days after 
obtaining a death warrant before carrying out an execution, meaning it would 
have had to get the warrant by Tuesday.

A federal judge is deciding on a request by the state to dismiss the lawsuit.

It's unclear whether the state has obtained more midazolam. The state 
Department of Corrections didn't respond to several calls and emails seeking 
comment.

The lawsuit was originally filed by a group of death row inmates who said their 
First Amendment rights were violated by the state's refusal to divulge any 
information about its supply of lethal drugs and how it gets them. The suit 
also challenges the use of midazolam, a sedative used in the nearly two-hour 
death of convicted murderer Joseph Rudolph Wood in July 2014. Wood, convicted 
of killing his ex-girlfriend and her father, was administered with 15 doses of 
midazolam and hydromorphone, a pain killer, before dying.

A federal judge in Phoenix is deliberating whether to grant a state motion to 
dismiss the case. U.S. District Judge Neil Wake heard oral arguments on April 7 
and hasn't yet issued a ruling.

Attorneys for the state argue that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the use of 
midazolam in in lethal injections and the state abides by national standards to 
avoid mishaps. Attorneys told Wake earlier this year that its supply of 
midazolam will expire on May 31 and that it wasn't able to get more.

The sedative is part of the state's execution protocol, which includes the 
drugs vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Arizona has also tried to 
obtain sodium thiopental, an anesthetic that has been used in past executions 
in combination with drugs that paralyze the muscles and stop the heart. The 
anesthetic currently has no legal uses in the U.S. Last summer, the FDA seized 
a shipment of the drug that Arizona paid $27,000 for. Arizona and other death 
penalty states have struggled to obtain lethal injection drugs after European 
companies refused to continue supplying them several years ago.

Wood's attorney, Dale Baich, has said his client's execution was botched and 
that the state shouldn't use midazolam in its executions. Baich declined to 
comment on the expiration of the known supply.

(source: Associated Press)






NEVADA:

New lawyer seeking to undo woman's plea in girl slaying case


A former Las Vegas blackjack dealer is seeking to undo her guilty plea to 
kidnapping and killing her ex-boyfriend's 10-year-old daughter in a jealous 
rage just before Christmas 2012.

Brenda Stokes Wilson and her new lawyer are due before a judge Wednesday to 
argue that her court-appointed public defenders gave Wilson bad advice before 
she pleaded guilty in January to abducting and killing Jade Morris - and 
slashing co-worker Joyce Rhone with a razor at the Bellagio casino.

Sentencing was postponed after the judge named attorney Christopher Oram to 
replace Wilson's previous lawyers.

The 53-year-old Wilson remains in custody.

She would face life in prison without parole for her guilty pleas to murder, 
kidnapping, attempted murder, burglary and mayhem.

She could face the death penalty if she goes to trial.

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

Trial reset to 2017 in Las Vegas hammer deaths case of 2012


A death penalty trial has been reset to 2017 for a 26-year-old man accused of 
sexually assaulting and killing a Las Vegas mother and daughter, and nearly 
killing a husband and father in a bloody hammer attack 4 years ago.

Bryan Devonte Clay Jr.'s trial had been set for next week. But court records 
show that Clark County District Court Judge Jessie Walsh reset the date next 
February after discussions with both sides about the time it'll take.

Clay faces murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and sexual assault with a 
weapon charges.

He's accused of attacking and killing Ignacia "Yadira" Martinez and 10-year-old 
Karla Martinez in April 2012, and leaving Arturo Martinez with a severe head 
injury.

2 boys, 9 and 4, were spared.

Clay told police he didn't remember anything.

(source for both: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Convicted killer Daniel Wozniak's attorney wants any notes kept by jail 
deputies


The defense attorney for convicted killer Daniel Wozniak has subpoenaed the 
Orange County Sheriff's Department, seeking any secret records that jail 
deputies might have kept on the case.

A jury has recommended the death penalty for Wozniak, who is scheduled to be 
sentenced May 20 for killing 2 acquaintances to finance his wedding.

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders has continued to challenge the death 
penalty verdict. In a motion filed April 15, Sanders questioned whether 
deputies may have kept notes about Wozniak that were not disclosed to the 
defense in previous requests.

Sanders filed the request after information surfaced in a different murder case 
that a former deputy in the jail's special-handling unit had kept 4 years' 
worth of notes.

Elizabeth Pejeau, deputy county counsel, called Sanders' latest motion a 
"fishing expedition."

In a response to the subpoena, the County Council's Office, which represents 
the Sheriff's Department, said the department has begun a "comprehensive 
search" for any notes or other documents written by deputies.

Sanders and Pejeau are expected to argue their positions on Friday before 
Superior Court Judge John Conley.

An Orange County jury convicted Wozniak, a 31-year-old Costa Mesa theater 
actor, on double murder charges in December and the next month recommended the 
death penalty. Sanders contends that jailers improperly used a jailhouse 
informant in the case, but Conley found no evidence of misconduct in Wozniak's 
case.

The request for deputy records is the latest turn in Orange County's snitch 
controversy.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals in February granted a retrial for Henry 
Rodriguez, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the 1998 shooting 
death of a pregnant Fullerton woman.

Goethals in his ruling said prosecutors failed to turn over records that showed 
a key witness in Rodriguez's 2006 trial was a seasoned jailhouse snitch who 
previously gathered evidence for law enforcement agencies in several cases. The 
District Attorney's Office is appealing the ruling.

The day before he was set to testify in a hearing for Rodriguez this year, 
Robert Szewczyk, a former deputy in the special-handling unit, turned over 
about 4 years' worth of notes he had kept in the course of his duties at the 
jail.

While Goethals determined that the notes were not relevant in the Rodriguez 
case, the judge said he was surprised to see "documents like this suddenly wash 
ashore."

"A cynic might say how many other such records are there floating around out 
there," Goethals said in the hearing.

(source: Orange County Register)

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

Defense case wraps up in Oakland death penalty trial of Darnell Williams


The defense attorneys for death penalty murder suspect Darnell Williams 
presented 1 day of evidence this week -- bringing in 1 new witness to testify, 
Williams' older sister.

Chastity Williams, 27, took the stand at the Oakland courthouse Monday to 
testify on behalf of her younger brother, 25, who is accused of killing 
8-year-old Alaysha Carradine on July 17, 2013 in East Oakland and weeks later, 
Anthony "Tone" Medearis Jr., 22, in Berkeley.

The defense argued in its opening statements that there was no DNA evidence at 
the shooting scene where Alaysha was killed that linked Darnell Williams to the 
case, and the murder weapon has not been found. Attorney Deborah Levy earlier 
in the trial has argued that there was no evidence that the death of Medearis 
occurred in the course of a robbery. But the defense made no reference to those 
arguments this week.

Defense attorney Darryl Billups questioned his client's sister for about 10 
minutes, asking her about the events surrounding Sept. 8, 2013, the day 
Medearis was killed.

She testified that she gave her brother a ride to the dice game and let her 
then 7-year-old son stay to play with other kids there. The little boy was hit 
with a piece of metal fragment on his cheek from the gunfire that ensued later 
that day.

Prosecutor John Brouhard then questioned Chastity Williams, for several hours, 
detailing the sequence of events the day of the Berkeley shooting. With her 
hand resting under her chin or on her cheek most of the time she was on the 
witness stand, Williams testified that her son told her he saw his uncle 
holding a gun and arguing with "Tone," who was screaming "stop" and "don't 
shoot me."

"He told me he got shot in the face," she said. "It was so hard to believe 
because he was so calm. He was so normal."

She then admitted that she told her son not to mention anything that happened 
on the day of the shooting to police because she wanted to find out what 
happened. In December 2013, she pleaded no contest to a felony charge of trying 
to dissuade a witness.

During testimony this week, the defense team recalled several other witnesses, 
including Darnell Williams' ex-girlfriend, Britney Rogers, and lead Oakland 
Police investigator Sgt. Robert Rosin.

Rogers previously testified that she was scared of Williams after he confessed 
to her the shooting the night of Alaysha's killing. On Monday, Levy questioned 
her about text messages she sent to Williams in the months after the 
confession, checking in on him and asking him where he was. Rogers reiterated 
that it was part of a rouse to do what she had to do to keep him happy because 
she was scared.

Brouhard showed Rogers one of the new photos that was recently discovered on 
Williams' cellphone. The partial photo shows Rogers under the covers of her 
bed, a gun on the bed and Williams' camouflage-printed bullet proof vest that 
he used the night of Alaysha's murder, Rogers said.

The defense rested its case after Rosin's testimony. Levy asked, "Would you 
agree that Oakland is a rough, dangerous city to live in?" Rosin's response 
after some pause was, "Some parts are more dangerous than others."

Both the prosecution and defense will present their closing arguments Monday 
before the jury goes into deliberations.

(source: eastbaytimes.com)






OREGON:

Key witness in Nelson murder trial recounts plot to kidnap and kill Eugene man

The key witness in a capital murder trial underway in Lane County Circuit Court 
testified Tuesday about how she, the defendant and a convicted killer carried 
out a plot to kidnap and kill a 22-year-old Eugene man in order to use the 
victim's car as a getaway vehicle in a bank robbery.

2 years after testifying against another defendant in the case, Mercedes 
Crabtree took the witness stand and told the jury in A.J. Nelson's trial about 
Celestino Gutierrez Jr.'s murder in August 2012.

Crabtree, who was 18 when she participated in the robbery and murder plot, 
testified that she and Nelson had been friends for years before both decided to 
help David Ray Taylor of Eugene rob a bank in Mapleton.

Nelson and Taylor brought a car to Eugene for the heist, but their original 
plan to use it as a getaway vehicle failed when it broke down near Fern Ridge 
Lake. Crabtree testified that she learned later that day from Nelson that 
Taylor wanted them to stage a fight outside a bar on Highway 99, and that she 
was to then persuade a stranger to give her a ride back to his house.

Assistant Lane County District Attorney David Schwartz asked Crabtree why she 
didn't go to police when she heard that Taylor's new plan involved a murder.

Crabtree responded that "David is a scary person" who knew where she and her 
family members lived.

Crabtree in 2013 pleaded guilty to murder in a deal with prosecutors that 
required her to testify against Taylor and Nelson. She is now serving a life 
sentence in prison but may apply for parole after serving 30 years.

Her testimony against Taylor during his 2014 trial helped prosecutors convince 
a jury of his guilt. That same jury also voted unanimously in favor of a death 
sentence for Taylor, who is now on Oregon's death row.

Nelson also faces a potential death penalty if he is convicted of aggravated 
murder.

Crabtree testified previously that after she lured the 22-year-old Gutierrez to 
Taylor's home, Nelson pushed a crossbow bolt through 1 of the victim's ears and 
strangled him before Taylor wrapped a chain around Gutierrez's neck. After 
Gutierrez was dead, Taylor and Nelson dismembered his body, Crabtree said.

Crabtree, in her testimony during Taylor's trial, characterized Nelson as a 
willing participant, but said that the Army veteran went into "a seizure" while 
the body was being dismembered. When he came out of the seizure a short time 
later, he seemed disbelieving of what he saw in the bathroom.

Hours later, the 3 suspects used Gutierrez's 2010 Toyota Matrix as 1 of 2 
getaway vehicles in the robbery of a Siuslaw Bank branch in Mapleton, Crabtree 
said.

She testified that she had partipated in 2 earlier bank robberies with Taylor, 
including a June 2012 heist at a bank in Creswell.

Crabtree said Tuesday that she was aware before Gutierrez's slaying that Taylor 
had previously been in prison for murder. He had served 27 years behind bars 
after murdering a female gas station attendant in Eugene in 1977. The state 
parole board in 2004 voted in favor of his release.

The attendant's body was found in a forested area southwest of Eugene, not far 
from where Gutierrez's remains were recovered.

(source: The Register Guard)






USA:

What The Next Execution Tells Us About Childhood Trauma And The Death Penalty


Less than 2 weeks after executing Kenneth Fults, Georgia is getting ready to 
lethally inject its 5th death row inmate this year.

Daniel Anthony Lucas is scheduled to die Wednesday night for the fatal 
shootings of 2 children. He doesn't dispute that he committed the crime. But 
his story demonstrates how early childhood trauma plays out on death rows 
across the country today. A substantial number of executions involve people who 
grew up around substance abuse or grew up in environments where violence and 
neglect was the norm.

Lucas was 19 years old when he killed 3 people during a 1998 house burglary. He 
first targeted an 11-year-old son who saw Lucas from outside the house and 
tried to stop him with a baseball bat. Lucas shot him several times. When the 
teenage sister walked into the house later on, Lucas and co-conspirator Brandon 
Joseph Rhode tied her to a chair and Lucas shot her point blank. Rhodes killed 
the father when he arrived at the house.

Lucas was arrested days later, waived his Miranda rights, and confessed. After 
that, Lucas and his defense team tried and failed to link the substance abuse 
to his traumatic upbringing.

In court, Lucas' attorneys hinged their defense on drugs - Xanax and Darvocet - 
and alcohol in his system at the time of the murders. According to a 
psychiatrist who testified on Lucas' behalf, the killings likely occurred 
because his judgment was impaired at the time. He explained that Lucas' 
"recollection or reasoning, his impulsivity, everything was eroded, almost 
destroyed."

Attorneys tried to make the case that Lucas' substance abuse problem was the 
result of lasting childhood trauma. Family members testified that he was raised 
in a turbulent environment, and watched his parents use crack cocaine, smoke 
marijuana, and "[drink] excessively" when he was a small boy. The family lived 
in "abject poverty." Often, he had to protect his sister when their parents 
were fighting. And there was sexual abuse in the household, although it is 
unclear who the victims were.

The jury was unconvinced, and state and federal appeals courts rejected the 
notion that Lucas was too intoxicated to know what he was doing.

But Lucas' story is shared by many people sentenced to capital punishment 
throughout the country. They weren't born hardened, brutal criminals, but made 
life choices colored by profound trauma.

A growing body of research shows that childhood violence, neglect, or other 
kinds of disruptive experiences have lasting impacts on the brain and future 
behavior. In 2014, a reporter from the Texas Observer distributed a survey to 
292 death row inmates in Texas, and more than 1/2 of the 41 respondents said 
they experienced "violent or abusive" growing up. 9 others reported a negative 
formative experience, such as parental neglect or living in poverty. In short, 
trauma impacts brain development.

"It's...clear that not all criminality is the product of childhood abuse," 
Frank Ochberg, a psychiatrist and trauma expert, told the publication. "But 
these early adverse situations reduce the resilience of human biology and they 
change us in very fundamental ways. Our brains are altered. And that's what 
this research is bearing out."

Through their upbringing, children learn how treat the people around them, 
Ochberg explained. If they are abused as kids, many normalize violence and 
resort to violence in the future.

A death penalty case in Pennsylvania recently triggered discussion about the 
complicated relationship between childhood trauma and violent crime. Terrance 
Williams' entire life has been impacted from the constant abuse he experienced 
in his childhood and teenage years. In addition to regular beatings at home, 
Williams grew up with sexual assault as the norm. He was raped at age 6 and 
sexually abused and exploited by a teacher in middle school. In high school, he 
was similarly exploited by at least 2 older men. Years later, Williams killed 2 
of his abusers and wound up on death row because of it, even though 26 child 
abuse and sexual assault experts supported his story.

"Terry was left alone to develop the means to deal with the horrors of his 
daily life," child advocates wrote on his behalf. "Terry developed the ability 
to mask his reality and outwardly portrayed the role of a successful high 
school student who was respected and for whom there were high hopes. On the 
inside, Terry suffered in silence. His crimes are an undeniable reflection of 
this internal suffering and are directly connected to his history of abuse and 
trauma."

Although their stories differ, Lucas and Williams were set down a criminal path 
instead of receiving early intervention and resources to help them cope with 
their trauma. Many of the people languishing on death row are in the same 
position.

The National Institute of Justice study concluded that kids subjected to 
physical violence, sexual violence, or neglect were more likely to commit 
delinquent offenses and go on to commit violent crimes as adults. An American 
Psychological Association study also found that "severe and multiple forms of 
abuse were endemic in this sample" of 43 death row inmates. 41 reported being 
physically abused as a child and 80 % of the group were witnesses of violence. 
All of them said they were neglected and nearly all of them came from families 
with substance abuse problems.

(source: thinkprogress.org)

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

Spree killer Gary Lee Sampson on track for fall sentencing


The new federal judge overseeing the 2nd sentencing of convicted spree killer 
Gary Lee Sampson said this week he believes the case is still on track to go 
before a jury this fall after several years of delay.

Judge Leo Sorokin, who took over the proceedings earlier this year after Judge 
Mark Wolf stepped aside to focus on other work, issued a new scheduling order 
this week that he said would clear the way for jury selection to begin in the 
middle of September. Sampson, a former drifter from Abington who pleaded guilty 
to the murders of 2 men on the South Shore and a 3rd in New Hampshire, has 
already spent more than 14 years in prison since the killings and could face 
the death penalty.

Sampson, 56, was initially sentenced to death by a federal jury in 2003 after 
pleading guilty to the Massachusetts murders, but Wolf, who oversaw the 
original sentencing, threw out the sentence 7 years later after discovering 
that 1 of the jurors had lied about her background. A 2nd sentencing phase was 
later scheduled for February 2015, but was pushed back several times.

Sampson's lawyers have asked both Wolf and Sorokin to take the death penalty 
off the table this time around, arguing that Sampson is in such poor health 
that he won't live long enough to be put to death. Wolf himself has predicted 
that if Sampson is sentenced to death again it would be "many more years" 
before he could be executed.

The last execution in Massachusetts was held in 1947. The death penalty is now 
prohibited under state law but can still be imposed for federal crimes, as in 
the case of convicted marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

(source: wickedlocal.com)