[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 3



TEXAS----impending execution

Texas Inmate Gustavo Garcia Receives Execution Date of February 16, 2016


Gustavo Julian Garcia is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CST, on Tuesday, 
February 16, 2016, inside the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary 
in Huntsville, Texas. 43-year-old Gustavo is convicted of the murder of 
43-year-old Craig Turski in Plano, Texas on December 9, 1990. Gustavo has spent 
the last 24 years on Texas' death row.

On December 9, 1990, Gustavo Garcia and Christopher Vargas entered a warehouse 
in Plano, Texas. Garcia was armed with a sawed-off shotgun and had additional 
shells in his pockets. Garcia ordered the clerk, Craig Turski, to hand over the 
money from the cash register, while Vargas took beer and placed it into their 
waiting vehicle.

Garcia then shot Craig in the abdomen at close range. Craig fled from the 
store. Garcia pursued him while reloading his shotgun. After reloading, Garcia 
shot Craig in the back of the head.

A female customer who had entered the store and promptly left when she saw 
Garcia forcing Craig to hand over the money, returned to the store with her 
husband. Upon finding the store deserted, they called the police. Craig was 
transported to a local hospital, where he eventually died from his gunshot 
wounds.

On January 5, 1991, Garcia and Vargas robbed another gas station. They took the 
clerk, Gregory Martin into the back room and shot him at point blank range with 
the same gun that was used to shoot Craig weeks earlier. Gregory died at the 
scene. Upon seeing Garcia and Vargas enter the store, Gregory told his 
girlfriend, whom he was talking to on the phone, that he thought he was going 
to be robbed. She alerted the police, who arrived quickly at the scene.

Police found Vargas standing over Gregory's body. Vargas alleged that he had 
just entered the store and found Gregory lying on the floor. Garcia was found 
hiding in a freezer area, close to where the shotgun was later discovered. 
Garcia confessed to both crimes.

Gustavo Garcia was sentenced to death, while Christopher Vargas was sentenced 
to life in prison. On Thanksgiving 1998, while on death row, Gustavo attempted, 
along with 6 other death row inmates, to escape from prison. Only 1 inmate made 
it past the prison fences. Gustavo and the others were recaptured. The escaped 
inmate was the 1st to successfully escape since a Bonnie and Clyde gang member 
escaped in 1934. The inmate was discovered to have drowned shortly after his 
escape.

The Supreme Court of the United States has refused to review the case of 
Gustavo. In refusing to review the case, they also rejected a request to stay 
his execution.

Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Craig and Gregory. Please 
pray for peace for the family of Gustavo. Please pray that if Gustavo is 
innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for 
any other reason, evidence will be presented prior to his execution. Please 
pray that Gregory will come to find peace through a personal relationship with 
Jesus Christ, if he has not already.

(source: theforgivenessfoundation.org)

**********

Bryan Man Originally Given Death Penalty Is Resentenced To Life In Prison


28 year old Christian Olsen, who was convicted of the beating death of a 
neighbor, 68 year old Etta Jean Westbrook, was officially resentenced Tuesday 
in Brazos County district court.

In April 2012, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the death sentence 
handed down by a jury in 2009.

Initially, the Brazos County district attorney's office sought to reimpose 
death. But DA Jarvis Parsons cited 2 reasons for changing his mind.

One was the suicide of Olsen's girlfriend, who was in prison serving time for 
soliciting him to murder her mother. Parson says she gave a confession to 
authorities while in prison.

Parsons says they also discovered DNA evidence that would have been used to 
argue for the death penalty was mishandled and would have been challenged in 
court.

Parsons says at Tuesday's hearing, Olsen agreed to waive all future attempts to 
be released from prison and oppose anyone else who would attempt to do the 
same.

Parsons says Olsen will not be charged in the death of his girlfriend's mother, 
Geraldine Lloyd, because of the punishment Olsen received for killing 
Westbrook.

Lloyd was killed in her home several months before Westbrook was murdered.

(source: WTAW news)






NORTH CAROLINA:

State seeking death penalty in double Onslow County homicide


A judge has ruled the state can seek the death penalty in the case of a 
Jacksonville man charged with murder in the deaths of his girlfriend and 
5-month-old son.

Local media outlets report the judge ruled during a hearing Monday in the case 
of 26-year-old Sebastian Mendez.

Mendez is charged with murder in the slayings of death of his girlfriend, 
29-year-old Shaung Liu, and his 5-month-old son, Archer Liu back in July.

Authorities say that the woman was found dead in her car 3 blocks from her home 
in Jacksonville. The infant was found dead in a suitcase in the attic. 
Authorities say the victims were strangled.

During the hearing, Mendez again pleaded not guilty to the charges.

(source: WRAL news)

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

Bar dismisses grievance against lawyer who worked on Racial Justice Act cases


An N.C. State Bar disciplinary panel has vacated a five-month-old ruling 
against Cassandra Stubbs, a lawyer who worked on successful Racial Justice Act 
cases.

The panel issued a new order Monday that dismissed the grievance filed against 
the Durham defense attorney and entered a judgment in Stubbs' favor. The 
admonishment she received has been wiped off her record from a disciplinary 
case that raised many questions in the legal community about why the bar even 
filed a public complaint.

"Cassy Stubbs represents the best of lawyers," Alan Schneider and Bradley 
Bannon, the Raleigh attorneys who represented her, said in a joint statement 
Tuesday. "She could have used her talent and law license in any way, but she 
dedicated her professional life to serving the poorest and most disenfranchised 
people in our community. Her work in the Racial Justice Act litigation saved 
four lives and exposed widespread racial bias in the imposition of the death 
penalty in North Carolina. She should have received a medal for that work, not 
a Bar grievance. From day one, we have adamantly denied ethical wrongdoing and 
fought to clear her name, and we thank the disciplinary panel for ultimately 
doing the right thing."

Stubbs, described by her peers as "an absolute beacon of integrity," tearfully 
fought accusations of professional misconduct levied against her in an 
anonymous complaint. As a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union 
Capital Punishment Project, she was among a team of attorneys who used the 
short-lived Racial Justice Act to convert the sentences of four North Carolina 
death-row inmates in 2012 to life without possibility for parole.

The Racial Justice Act, repealed by state lawmakers in 2013, allowed death row 
inmates to challenge their sentences by using statistical evidence to show 
racial bias played a role in their cases. The bar allegations against Stubbs 
focused on inconsistencies between court records and sworn statements that the 
defense team introduced from men who had been part of a 1994 jury pool but not 
selected for the panel in the case of Marcus Reymond Robinson, the 1st 
death-row inmate to have his sentence converted.

The judge who heard the Racial Justice Act cases ruled in 2012 that the 
inconsistencies were immaterial and unintentional and did not weigh into his 
rulings.

Similar allegations were lodged against Gretchen Engel, director of the 
Durham-based Center for Death Penalty Litigation. A different disciplinary 
panel considered Engel's case last year after the initial Stubbs' decision and 
came to a different conclusion. Engel was cleared of any wrongdoing and her 
case was dismissed.

Since then, the bar reconsidered the Stubbs case and the N.C. Supreme Court 
vacated the four Racial Justice Act rulings.

(source: newsobserver.com)






GEORGIA----execution

Georgia Executes Its Oldest Death Row Inmate


Georgia executed its oldest death row inmate Tuesday, after courts rejected a 
challenge to a state law that keeps secret the names of providers of lethal 
injection drugs.

Brandon Astor Jones, 72, was convicted in 1979 for the killing of a convenience 
store clerk during an armed robbery. A judge ordered a new sentencing hearing 
in 1989 and he was later resentenced to death in 1997.

Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan confirmed that 
Jones was executed at 12:46 a.m. Wednesday. His execution had been scheduled 
for 7 p.m. but his lawyers filed filed a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme 
Court.

The high court refused to halt the execution in an order made hours after that 
time had passed.

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 6-5 not to hear 
before a full court Jones' challenge of the state law that keeps secret the 
company that manufactures drugs used in lethal injections.

The majority cited a decision Monday by a 3-judge panel that denied a motion to 
stay the execution. It ruled Jones' lawyers were unable to show the challenge 
was likely to succeed, and noted the drugs from undisclosed sources have been 
used 7 times "without incident."

But 5 judges dissented, and 4 of those said Georgia's law keeping secret the 
name of the company that compounds pentobarbital. They said the secrecy law 
could violate Jones' right of access to the courts.

"Today Brandon Jones will be executed, possibly in violation of the 
Constitution. He may also be cruelly and unusually punished in the process," 
the 4 judges said in their dissent. "But if he is, we won't know until it's too 
late - if ever." States have been scrambling to find alternatives or 
alternative sources of the drug after its manufacturers refused to sell it for 
executions.

Georgia along with other states relies on small compounding pharmacies to 
produce the drugs, and the state instituted a secrecy law in order to keep 
supply lines open. A court upheld the law in May.

The shortage of drugs has forced some states to delay executions. Ohio in 
October scrapped all executions until 2017 because it has been unable to obtain 
necessary drugs.

Jones was sentenced to death for the 1979 murder of Roger Tackett, a 
convenience store manager killed during a robbery.

A court threw out his 1st conviction in 1989 because jurors had a Bible in the 
room during deliberations, and he was retried and resentenced to death in 1997, 
NBC station WALB reported.

Another Georgia inmate - Travis Clinton Hittson, sentenced to death for killing 
a Navy sailor in 1993 - is scheduled to be executed Feb. 17, the state 
Department of Corrections said.

Jones becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death in Georgia this year 
and the 61st overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. Only 
Texas (533), Oklahoma (112), Virginia (111), Florida (92), and Missouri (86) 
have executed more inmates than Georgia since the US Supreme Court re-legalized 
the death penalty on July 2, 1976.

Jones becomes the 5th condemned inmate to put to death in the USA this year and 
the 1427th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: NBC news & Rick Halperin)






FLORIDA:

Death penalty bill clears House committee


A House panel signed off on a bill that would revamp Florida's process for 
sentencing killers to death, a move prompted by a recent U.S. Supreme Court 
ruling that the state's method is unconstitutional.

The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee approved the legislation (CRJS7) after 
more than an hour of debate earlier today.

The bill would require jurors to unanimously find at least 1 aggravating factor 
- including whether the crime was premeditated or heinous - before recommending 
a sentence of death in capital cases.

But it would not go as far as some death penalty experts have recommended and 
require unanimity among jurors when they actually make a recommendation of 
death. Instead, it would increase the number of jurors required to recommend 
death from a simple majority of 7 out of 12 to a super-majority of 9.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida's sentencing scheme for 
death penalty trials in a case involving Pensacola killer Timothy Lee Hurst. 
Justices in an 8-1 ruling found that Florida's process violated Hurst's Sixth 
Amendment right to trial by an impartial jury because it allowed the judge 
alone to find the existence of aggravating circumstances.

The bill surfaced out the House committee last week in a move designed to bring 
state statutes in line with the high court ruling. The Senate Committee on 
Criminal Justice is expected to propose its own bill soon.

(source: Tallahassee Democrat)

**********

House Panel Approves Death Penalty Fix

A House panel on Tuesday approved proposed changes to the state's death-penalty 
law in an effort to address a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down 
Florida's capital-sentencing structure as unconstitutional.

The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee's 11-2 vote on the measure (PCB CRJS 
16-07) came less than 2 hours after the Florida Supreme Court issued an 
indefinite stay of execution for Cary Michael Lambrix, who had been scheduled 
to die on Feb. 11. The court heard oral arguments in the case Tuesday morning.

Lawmakers in both chambers are hurriedly preparing legislation in response to 
the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, issued on the opening day of the 2016 session, 
in a case known as Hurst v. Florida. The Jan. 12 ruling overturned the state's 
capital felony sentencing system, which gives judges - and not juries - the 
power to impose the death penalty.

The high court's decision came in the appeal of convicted murderer Timothy Lee 
Hurst, who was sentenced to death for the 1998 killing of fast-food worker 
Cynthia Harrison in Pensacola. Harrison, an assistant manager at a Popeye's 
Fried Chicken restaurant on Nine Mile Road where Hurst worked, was bound, 
gagged and stabbed more than 60 times. Her body was found in a freezer.

The 8-1 decision focused on what are known as "aggravating" circumstances that 
must be determined before defendants can be sentenced to death. A 2002 U.S. 
Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, requires that 
determination of such aggravating circumstances be made by juries, not judges.

Under Florida law, juries make recommendations regarding the death penalty, 
based on a review of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, but judges 
ultimately decide whether defendants should be put to death or sentenced to 
life in prison.

The House would allow death sentences to be imposed only if juries - after 
weighing aggravating and mitigating factors - unanimously decide that at least 
1 aggravating factor exists. The proposal would also require at least 9 jurors 
to vote for the death penalty. The legislation is based on the recommendations 
of state attorneys.

Of the 31 states with the death penalty, Florida is one of only three that do 
not require unanimous jury decisions about imposing death sentences. Florida 
law only requires a simple majority of the jury to recommend death. The only 
other 2 states that do not require unanimous decisions - Alabama and Delaware - 
require at least 9 jurors to vote in favor of capital punishment.

Whether death-penalty jury verdicts should be unanimous has been a major source 
of debate during discussions about the Hurst ruling, which did not specifically 
address the issue. Nearly all experts - with the exception of prosecutors - 
recommend that the state adopt a unanimous jury requirement to avoid the risk 
that Florida's sentencing system could be struck down again in the future.

"The question arises, do you look simply at the narrow issue that Hurst 
addressed or do you look at the whole body of cases that the United States 
Supreme Court has talked about?" 10th Judicial Circuit Public Defender Rex 
Dimmig told the panel Tuesday.

But prosecutor Brad King argued that the measure goes "well beyond the 
dictates" of the Supreme Court's order. And King, the state attorney for the 
5th Judicial Circuit, said it is impossible to predict how the court will rule 
in years to come.

"To think we can sit here today and presume to understand what the U.S. Supreme 
Court can do ... in the future is honestly a pipe dream," he said.

Requiring unanimous decisions on death-penalty sentences would allow a single 
juror "to hold hostage the entire process," King argued, pointing out that some 
of Florida's most-notorious crimes failed to result in unanimous jury 
recommendations for the death penalty.

But University of Miami Law Professor Scott Sundby, who trains Florida judges 
in the death penalty, said research shows that 92 % of juries that voted 9-3 in 
favor of the death penalty returned the same result if required to reach a 
unanimous decision.

"In other words, in 92 % of the cases, when they deliberated to unanimity, they 
still came out as death," Sundby said.

Not requiring a unanimous decision would put Florida in danger of having its 
law struck down again, he predicted.

"I promise you this would invite a lot of constitutional litigation, and the 
odds of it being reversed by the (U.S.) Supreme Court are quite high," Sundby 
told the committee.

The House panel rejected an attempt by Rep. Randolph Bracy, D-Orlando, to amend 
the bill to require unanimity on death sentences.

"There is great racial and gender and geographical discrimination in how the 
death penalty is applied," Bracy, who is black, said. For example, "no white 
person has ever been sentenced to death for killing a black person" in Florida, 
Bracy said. In contrast, murders involving white women are 6.5 times more 
likely to result in the death penalty.

"1 way to reduce the bias is require unanimous juries," said Bracy, 1 of 2 
Democrats on the subcommittee who opposed the bill.

But Chairman Carlos Trujillo, a former prosecutor, said Bracy's concerns rested 
more with the application of the death penalty than with the sentencing phase.

And, he said, the proposal is far from a done deal.

"By no way, I think, is this a 100 % finished product," Trujillo, R-Miami, 
said. "I'm sure all of these recommendations will come to play at some point."

Senate President Andy Gardiner told reporters Tuesday that "there a lot of 
members in our chamber that would prefer a unanimous decision."

But the Senate may cede to the House's 9-3 position to finalize a bill before 
the session ends next month.

"What's important is that we get an agreement done, and we pass something this 
session to address what's been brought forward by the U.S. Supreme Court. And I 
think we're on track to do that," Gardiner, R-Orlando, said.

(source: northescambia.com)






ALABAMA:

Lawyers for man accused in 'ritual' child killing say death penalty 
unconstitutional


Lawyers for a Gadsden man accused of killing his toddler daughter in 2013 with 
either a sword or knife told a judge today that Alabama's death penalty statute 
is unconstitutional.

Stephon Lindsay, 38, accused of killing his daughter, 20-month-old Maliyah 
Tashay Lindsay, was in court today before District Judge Billy Ogletree in 
Gadsden.

His lawyers, Morgan Cunningham and Jacob Millican, have filed several motions 
contesting the death penalty, as well as the judge's prerogative to override 
the jury's recommendation in the trial's penalty phase.

Gadsden police discovered the body of Maliyah Lindsay in a wooded area at the 
dead end of Plainview Street in Gadsden on March 12, 2013 after Stephon Lindsay 
was arrested in connection with the child's disappearance.

Relatives later said Lindsay may have killed the child as a result of some kind 
of ritual. An autopsy ruled the child died of blunt force trauma and that a 
knife or sword was used in her death. Lindsay is set for trial Feb. 22.

In a hearing today, Cunningham focused on one argument - that Alabama's death 
penalty statute is unconstitutional because it closely mirrors Florida's. On 
Jan. 16, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of Florida's death penalty 
statute because it did not give jurors a large enough role in determining 
whether defendants should be executed.

Etowah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marcus Reid said the court did not 
strike down all death penalty statues, but merely Florida's. He also said 
Alabama's statute had been held up by the court, and that the court had turned 
away an request for a stay from Alabama inmate Christopher Brooks, who was 
executed less than a week after the Supreme Court's Florida decision.

"It's not as though the Alabama statute is unknown to the United States Supreme 
Court," Reid said.

Ogletree said he would rule later this week on the motion. Ogletree also stated 
that both Lindsay's defense team and prosecutors are waiting on the results of 
a 2nd medical exam as to Lindsay's mental state at the time of the crime.

(aouexw: al.com)


OHIO:

Executions in Ohio: Race and gender statistics


The panelists in a discussion on the death penalty at the University of Akron 
Tuesday discussed a new report that found racial, gender and geographic 
disparities in how Ohio's death penalty is administered.

The report, released last week, was done by Frank Baumgartner, a political 
science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The report looked at executions in Ohio from 1976 to 2014 when 53 people were 
executed, all men. The findings included:

-- 65 % of the executions were for crimes involving white victims, despite the 
fact that 43 % of homicide victims are white.

-- 27 % of homicide victims are women, but 52 % of executions were for 
homicides involving female victims.

-- 4 out of Ohio's 88 counties - Summit, Lucas, Cuyahoga and Hamilton - or 
just 5 % of the counties, produced more than 1/2 of the state's executions. 
(These also are among the state's most populous counties.) -- Only 3 counties - 
Summit, Cuyahoga and Hamilton - have had more than 5 executions each. (Summit 
had 6 executions during this period.)

-- More than 3/4 of Ohio's counties - or 69 - have never had an execution.

The report only examined people who were executed, and didn't look into those 
who are currently on Ohio's death row.

(source: ohio.com)