[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., N.C., FLA., MISS., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 18


TEXAS:

Scalia's Final Order Was To Let This Texas Man Die


After 15 years of court battles, Gustavo Garcia became the 6th person put to 
death in 2016, for the murder of a liquor store clerk. And he's the subject of 
former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia???s final legal action.

Just 3 days before his own death, Scalia denied Garcia's plea for a stay of 
execution.

Garcia's final words on Tuesday night were: "To my family, to my mom, I love 
you. God bless you. Stay strong. I'm done."

He was 18 years old when he fatally shot 2 store clerks in Plano, Texas: Craig 
Turski and Gregory Martin. Turski was shot in the abdomen during a liquor store 
robbery in December 1990. When he tried to run, Garcia shot him in the back of 
the head.

The teenager was caught during a 2nd robbery attempt 1 month later. In January 
1991, Garcia and accomplice Christopher Vargas entered the gas station where 
Gregory Martin worked. Martin was on the phone at the time and asked his 
girlfriend to call the police, fearing he was about to be robbed. Garcia moved 
Martin to a separate room and shot him point blank in the head. When police 
arrived at the scene, they found Garcia hiding near the firearm, which they 
linked to Turski's murder.

Garcia was informed of his Miranda rights while he was in police custody, but 
he ultimately confessed to both murders verbally and in writing. He went to 
trial for killing Turski and was sentenced to capital punishment at the end of 
1991.

In a surprising twist 3 years later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals 
overturned the conviction because the written confession was missing language 
required by Texas to make the statement valid. The document that Garcia signed 
and initialed didn't explicitly mention that he was "[knowingly], 
[intelligently], and [voluntarily]" waiving the right to remain silent during 
the interrogation process. Garcia was subsequently given a 2nd hearing and 
re-sentenced to death.

Then in 2001, Garcia got another break. John Cornyn, Texas' former attorney 
general, ordered new sentencing hearings for Garcia and 5 other convicted 
murderers who were racially profiled in court. In all 6 cases, a psychologist 
argued that the defendants posed a threat to society because they were 
Hispanic. Cornyn believed that racial bias should not have played a role in the 
sentencing, and Garcia was given another chance at a lesser punishment. But he 
was sentenced to die again.

Thereafter, Garcia fought the execution on the grounds that he received 
deficient counsel. He claimed his lawyer never objected to introducing the 
confessions in court, and that he was unable to read the confession because he 
is "legally blind."

Scalia denied Garcia's final appeal for a stay of execution last Wednesday.

The late justice's order was consistent with his unrelenting stance on capital 
punishment. Scalia was always a staunch supporter of executions, even in cases 
where there was strong evidence to suggest a person's innocence or reason to 
believe that a commonly used lethal injection cocktail causes the sensation of 
being burned alive.

He was the 3rd person Texas has put to death in 2016. The state has executed 
more people than any other state in the country, and has already carried out 
1/2 of the executions this year.

(source: thinkprogress.org)






CONNECTICUT:

Convicted Cheshire Killer Komisarjevsky Heading to Court Seeking New Trial----A 
judge will hold a hearing on Joshua Komisarjevsky's attempt at a new trial 
focusing on undisclosed police calls in the 2007 triple murder.


Convicted Cheshire killer Joshua Komisarjevsky will be back in a New Haven 
courtroom next week as he attempts to get a new trial for the 2007 home 
invasion murders of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and daughters Hayley and Michaela, 
according to the Hartford Courant.

Komisarjevsky is claiming that the fact the some previously undisclosed 
Cheshire police dispatch tapes from the morning of the murders warrants a new 
trial.

The Courant reports that a hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 23 and Superior 
Court Judge Jon Blue will listen to arguments on whether the recordings of 
phone calls between officers as the murders unfolded could have aided 
Komisarjevsky's defense.

Komisarjevsky and Stephen Hayes were both convicted, in separate trials, with 
felony murder and sentenced to death for the 2007 killings of Hawke-Petit and 
Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17.

State lawmakers got rid of the death penalty in 2012, but made it so that 
inmates already on death row would be executed. The provision was added after 
the trials of Hayes and Komisarjevsky.

However, the Connecticut State Supreme Court ruled last August that the death 
penalty violates the state's constitution and barred all executions.

Hayes asked a judge in November to vacate his death sentence and to impose a 
sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

(source: patch.com)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Frein Attorneys Want Evidence, Death Penalty Thrown Out


Attorneys for accused cop killer Eric Frein are trying to get evidence against 
him thrown out and trying to get the death penalty off the table.

Defense lawyers filed motions this week in Pike County.

Frein's attorneys argue that state police violated his constitutional rights 
the night they interrogated him for 4 hours after he was captured.

They are also asking for the death penalty to be tossed out while prosecutors 
still very much intend to push for a death sentence.

Troopers rushed Eric Frein into the state police barracks in Blooming Grove in 
late October 2014. Frein was captured after a 48-day manhunt, accused of an 
attack on the very same barracks that left one trooper dead and another badly 
hurt.

Now in court papers, Frein's attorneys argue that troopers violated his 
constitutional rights by interrogating Frein for hours, even after he said he 
didn't want to talk about the crime.

"The question of whether or not any confessions obtained, statements obtained, 
were obtained within the guidelines of the Constitution," said Frein's attorney 
Michael Weinstein.

Weinstein wants a judge to throw out the statements Frein made confessing to 
the sniper attack at the barracks. During that time, the defense says troopers 
called Frein, "Buddy," then skillfully and unlawfully extorted a confession.

The defense also says Frein was denied his right to an attorney, after troopers 
refused to let a family-hired attorney see Frein the night of his capture.

"It will have to be determined exactly who Mr. Swetz represented at the time," 
said Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin.

Tonkin plans to file a response to the defense motions as both sides prepare 
for trial. Those motions include 1 in which the defense asks a judge to rule 
out the death penalty.

"The governor's moratorium supports our position. There's a concern about the 
constitutionality of the death penalty," said Weinstein.

"I am not aware of where the governor can indicate in a case that's pending 
trial that the death penalty is not an available option since it remains the 
law of Pennsylvania," said Tonkin.

Before Frein can go to trial, these new arguments from the defense have to be 
resolved in Pike County Court.

There is no word when a judge might make a ruling, but before that can happen, 
prosecutors will have a chance to respond.

(source: WNEP news)

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

A lawyer for the man charged in a deadly ambush outside a Pennsylvania State 
Police barracks wants statements he made during interrogation suppressed


Attorney William Ruzzo is also challenging a prosecutor's decision to seek the 
death penalty against Eric Frein.

Frein was captured near an abandoned airplane hangar after a 48-day manhunt 
following the September 2014 shooting that left Cpl. Bryon Dickson dead and 
Trooper Alex Douglass wounded. He has pleaded not guilty.

In a motion filed in Pike County Court on Tuesday, Ruzzo says Frein's rights 
were violated during questioning because, among other things, he wasn't told a 
lawyer hired by his parents was waiting to see him.

Ruzzo also filed a motion saying the death penalty is unconstitutional.

(source: Associated Press)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Jury to decide if Travion Smith will be sent to death row


The Wake County jury that convicted a man of beating and stabbing a Raleigh 
mother to death began hearing evidence Wednesday morning in the death penalty 
phase of Travion Smith's trial.

That phase began at 9:30 a.m.

Smith was accused, along with 2 other suspects, of the murder of 30-year-old 
Melissa Huggins-Jones, who was found by her 8-year old daughter beaten and 
stabbed to death inside their North Hills apartment in May 2013. He was 
convicted Tuesday after less than an hour of deliberations.

The defense says it expects to wrap up its witnesses Thursday before the jury 
begins deliberating whether to send Smith to death row. Most of the witnesses 
have talked about how Smith and his siblings were severely neglected as 
children.

The 1st and only witness called by the prosecution was Huggins-Jones' now 
10-year-old daughter. However, because Hannah Jones is a minor, the judge ruled 
the courtroom camera would be turned off during her testimony.

Hannah Jones sat in the witness chair and calmly told jurors about the night of 
May 13, 2013, at the apartment where she had just moved with her mother in 
North Hills.

She told jurors she remembered hearing a scream in the middle of the night, but 
went back to sleep. She said she and her older brother miss their mother. 
Family and friends in the courtroom cried, but she maintained her composure.

The defense's 1st witness was Smith's mother, Antoinette Smith. She talked 
about how Smith's father abused her when she was pregnant.

"Do you think he punched you in the stomach for any particular reason?" Smith's 
attorney asked Antoinette Smith.

"Cause he didn't want the baby from me, that's what I'm thinking," Antoinette 
Smith replied. "He didn't want that baby, but I had him anyway. You know, 
'cause that's my baby boy."

In her closing argument Tuesday, defense attorney Phoebe Dee told jurors there 
are some facts in the case that are not in dispute. She said Smith was with 
Ronald Anthony Jr. and Sarah Redden in the neighborhood breaking into cars on 
the night of the murder.

She called Huggins-Jones' murder "brutal" and "senseless". She was "beaten to 
death over some stuff," said Dee.

But she said Smith did not kill her and he and Redden "were just there."

She described Smith as being someone who was heavily under the influence of 
Anthony, who she said has an outsized personality.

She also admitted that Smith was not completely truthful with police during a 
7-hour interrogation.

"Did he tell the whole truth to the police? No," said Dee.

In his closing, prosecutor Jason Waller told jurors Smith and Anthony climbed 
up to a second-floor balcony and got in to Huggins-Jones' apartment through a 
sliding door. Redden allegedly acted as lookout.

Waller attacked the defense idea that Smith was under Anthony's influence.

"Where is the evidence that Ronald Anthony made Travion Smith do anything," he 
asked.

Waller also pointed out that Smith told others details about the case that only 
someone in the room would know. He said Smith was the 1st to hit Huggins-Jones 
to keep her from screaming.

Smith did not testify in his murder trial and the defense did not put on 
evidence - instead asking Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway to dismiss the 
charges. The request was denied.

Smith's decision not to take the witness stand in his defense came after the 
prosecution rested Friday morning following a state medical examiner's 
testimony about the wounds Melissa Huggins-Jones endured before her death.

Medical Examiner Lauren Scott told the courtroom that it would have taken 
several minutes to an hour for Huggins-Jones to die, and that she would have 
been aware she was dying.

Last September, Anthony pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder and was sentenced 
to life in prison without parole. The plea deal spared him the death penalty.

Charges against Redden, who agreed to testify against Smith, remain.

(source: ABC news)

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

Death penalty remains in play in Charlotte-area gang murder case


Federal prosecutors in the gangland murders of Doug and Debbie London appear to 
have homed in on 3 main targets: those suspected of planning the killings and 
the man accused of carrying them out.

12 accused Charlotte-area members of United Blood Nation are charged in 
connection with the October 2014 shootings in York County, S.C. 7 have signed 
plea agreements. Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office in Charlotte 
announced this month that they will not seek the death penalty against 2 other 
gang members.

That leaves 3 of the original defendants for whom prosecutors have not revealed 
their plans. They are:

-- Jamell "Murda Mell" Cureton, described in court documents as ordering the 
hit on the Londons from the Mecklenburg County jail and then planning the 
killings through phone calls and letters.

-- Randall Avery "Foe" Hankins, who prosecutors say ironed out key details 
during phone calls with Cureton.

-- Malcolm "Bloody Silent" Hartley, who is accused of shooting Debbie London 
in the head when she answered the front door at her Lake Wylie home. He also 
wounded Doug London when he came to his wife's defense, then went back to 
finish him off as he wept over his wife's body, documents say.

Citing the ongoing nature of the case, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's 
office declined to comment Wednesday when asked if prosecutors had recommended 
death penalties for the three.

But in a motion filed this week, Hartley's defense attorney, Rob Heroy of 
Charlotte, asked a federal judge to release more evidence involving his client 
so Heroy can prepare for an appearance before a Justice Department committee on 
Feb. 29 in Washington, D.C.

Under federal procedures in potential capital cases, both the prosecutors and 
defense appear before so-called "death penalty" committees. Members, in turn, 
recommend whether the death penalty should be sought. U.S. Attorney General 
Loretta Lynch will make the final decision.

Attorneys familiar with the process say a defense attorney's appearance before 
the Justice Department committee is a clear indication that a local prosecutor, 
in this case U.S. Attorney Jill Rose or her staff, is seeking the death 
penalty.

U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn will hear Heroy's arguments Monday. The 
attorney said Wednesday that he filed the motion "so that we will know 
everything there is to know, 1, to go to trial and, 2, to deal with the 
possible capital case."

As part of his motion, Heroy seeks 12 categories of evidence, including 
"information ... regarding whether the victims of the murder were engaged in 
criminal activity at or near the time" of their deaths. Asked if he had any 
knowledge that the Londons were breaking the law in some way, Heroy declined to 
comment.

He also declined to say whether attorneys for other defendants in the case will 
appear before the Justice Department committee.

Neither Rick Winiker, Cureton's attorney in Charlotte, nor Jim Weidner, the 
Charlotte member of Hankins' defense team, responded to requests for interviews 
on Wednesday.

The Londons were gunned down in their lakeside home to keep Doug London from 
testifying against Cureton and 2 other gang members who tried to rob the 
couple's Pineville mattress store in May 2014, documents say.

Prosecutors charged 6 of the original defendants with crimes that carried a 
death sentence. 3 - David "Flames" Fudge, Rahkeem "Big Keem" McDonald and 
Briana "Breezy B" Johnson, who drove Hartley to the Londons' home, pleaded 
guilty last year and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

This month, prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty against 
Ahkeem "Little Keem" McDonald, the gang's original choice to carry out the 
killings. McDonald and Cureton are accused of the 2013 execution-style slaying 
of Kwamne Clyburn, a homeless teenager found in Pressley Road Park off South 
Tryon Street.

The 5 defendants whose cases are still pending - Cureton, Hartley, Hankins, 
McDonald and Nana Adoma - are scheduled to appear before Cogburn on March 21.

(source: charlotteobserver.com)






FLORIDA----female may face death penalty

Janiya Thomas's mother to be in court in Bradenton on charges she killed 
daughter, put her body in freezer


Janiya Thomas' mother will appear in court at 8:30 a.m. Thursday to face 
charges she abused and killed the girl before putting her body in a freezer.

Janiya Thomas' body was found Oct. 18 inside a padlocked chest freezer her 
mother, Keishanna Thomas, had delivered to a relative's home days earlier under 
the guise she was being evicted.

Janiya was first reported missing Oct. 16 after Thomas refused to tell a judge 
anything about her whereabouts or well-being and was held in contempt of court. 
The news didn't go public until the next day.

Thomas, 32, is charged with 1st-degree murder, abuse of a dead body and 
aggravated child abuse.

If convicted. she will face the death penalty or life in prison. Assistant 
State Attorney Art Brown has not yet filed whether he intends to seek the death 
penalty.

Thomas is scheduled to appear before Circuit Judge Susan Malucci for a case 
management hearing. A trial date has not been set.

Investigators with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office Child Protective 
Investigative Division noticed Janiya, 11, missing Sept. 23 when they went to 
the family's Bradenton home to investigate an allegation Thomas abused her 
12-year-old son. Only 3 of Thomas' 5 children had been present at the time, but 
she eventually took her 2-year-old son to investigators.

Thomas refused to give them specifics about Janiya, claiming she was out of 
state with her father's relatives.

Records reveal how little was done to locate Janiya by CPID investigators in 
the weeks that followed until she was officially reported missing. An internal 
affairs investigation of how the case was handled is still underway.

Janiya's eldest sister told investigators she saw her mother tie Janiya's hands 
and feet one day and dunk her head in water. Afterward, a bathroom in which 
Janiya was often locked, was cleaned and open.

Janiya was never seen again.

Janiya's brother told investigators he last saw his sister in January or 
February last year. The FedEx box in which Janiya was found in the freezer had 
a label dated Jan. 7.

Janiya was found after a relative became suspicious when she saw media reports 
Janiya had been reported missing, broke the lock, found her body inside and 
called the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

(source: bradenton.com)

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

Higher bar set for death penalty


Florida lawmakers have reached agreement on revamping the state's death-penalty 
process after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional last month.

House Judiciary Chairman Charles McBurney, R-Jacksonville, successfully 
advanced an amendment on the House floor Wednesday that will require at least a 
10-2 jury vote to recommend the death penalty. It would replace the simple 
majority vote in the prior law.

McBurney said the 10-2 recommendation in the house bill (HB 7101) is a 
compromise with the Senate, which had endorsed a unanimous jury recommendation 
in its bill (SB 7068).

"We've got to come to something that will work," McBurney said, shortly before 
the House adopted the measure in a voice vote. "This will work."

The House vote should clear the way for resolving the uncertainty surrounding 
Florida's death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 12 that 
Florida's law was unconstitutional because it limited the jury's role in 
recommending the death penalty. The House is scheduled for a final vote on the 
bill today.

Under the House bill and the Senate measure, juries will have to unanimously 
agree on at least one aggravating factor before recommending a death penalty 
for a defendant in at least a 10-2 vote.

If the juries cannot unanimously agree on an aggravating factor, the jurors 
must recommend a life sentence without parole.

Judges will be required to follow the jury's recommendation for life, 
eliminating the previous ability to override the jury and impose a death 
sentence. Judges will be able to reduce a death sentence to life if they 
believe it is warranted.

Also under McBurney's compromise amendment, prosecutors will have to notify the 
defendants what aggravating factors they intend to prove in the death cases.

Florida is only 1 of 3 states with the death penalty that does not require a 
unanimous jury recommendation. If the House bill is ultimately adopted, Florida 
would join Alabama with the 10-2 requirement. Delaware, which is also revising 
its death penalty law, is the other state without a unanimous jury 
recommendation.

Rep. Joe Geller, D-Aventura, said he would likely vote against the bill but 
supported McBurney's amendment.

"I think this amendment moves us in the right direction toward justice," he 
said.

Rep. Jose Rodriguez, D-Miami, said the adoption of a 10-2 jury recommendation 
and the unanimous vote on aggravating factors will keep the state from being an 
"outlier" and could make the Florida's death penalty more legally sound.

"It's forward-looking," Rodriguez said, although he added it "doesn't fix" all 
the potential flaws in the law.

Rep. John Wood, R-Winter Haven, strongly objected to increasing the required 
jury vote on the death penalty recommendation, citing the emotional testimony 
he heard in the Judiciary Committee when the family members of murder victims 
testified.

"There is evil in this world and I'm proud to be a Floridian who stands with 
those victims," Wood said.

1 of the issues the legislation leaves unresolved is the "retroactive" impact 
of the Supreme Court decision on Florida's 389 death row inmates. Legal experts 
have told lawmakers that inmates who had not completed their initial appeals 
may see their death penalties converted to life without parole sentences.

Rep. Ross Spano, R-Dover, one of the sponsors of the House bill, said the 
retroactive impact of the ruling is something the courts will have to resolve.

The Florida Supreme Court halted the scheduled Feb. 11 execution of Cary 
Michael Lambrix, who was convicted of killing 2 people in Glades County, while 
the court sorts through the legal arguments surrounding last month's U.S. 
Supreme Court decision.

(source: Herald-Tribune)

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

High court's death penalty ruling delays local murder trial


A January U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down Florida's death penalty 
sentencing scheme has influenced the status of a murder trial in Citrus County.

Crystal Michelle Brinson, 38, heard Wednesday her case would be continued 90 
days until the Florida Legislature decides how to proceed with the death 
penalty.

Brinson, of Brooksville, faces a June 2013 charge of 1st-degree murder for the 
2012 death of 18-year-old DeAnna Lee Stires, also of Brooksville.

Stires was reported missing on Jan. 1, 2013. Her body was found Jan. 8 in Levy 
County.

In July 2013, prosecutor Pete Magrino filed a notice of intent to seek the 
death penalty if Brinson was found guilty, according to court records.

On Wednesday, Judge Richard "Ric" Howard asked Brinson's attorney, Terence 
Lenamon, and Magrino, if they considered the high-court's justices' Jan. 12 
ruling in Hurst v. Florida having bearing on Brinson's possible sentencing in a 
capital felony trial.

In an 8-1 decision, justices deemed Florida's sentencing procedure allowing 
judges and not jurors the right to impose the death penalty on convicted 
criminals as unconstitutional, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution's Sixth 
Amendment.

"I want to stay ahead of the curb," Howard told Lenamon and Magrino.

"Technically, there's no death penalty right now," Lenamon replied.

Howard agreed, adding Brinson's case should wait until Florida lawmakers 
restructure the state statute for death-penalty sentencing.

After concurrence from Lenamon and Magrino, Howard issued a 90-day continuance 
on Brinson's case, setting it for another status hearing on May 4.

"Hopefully, the Legislature will come to a decision," Magrino said.

In the same week justices ruled in Hurst, Florida legislatures introduced bills 
in both chambers to bring the state's statute up to constitutional muster.

Deliberations continue however on whether the 12 jurors must be unanimous or 
reach a minimum vote count to impose the death penalty, based on sufficient 
aggravating circumstances.

Brinson's boyfriend and co-defendant, Byron Lee Boutin, now 44, was convicted 
in August 2013 of 2nd-degree murder for Stires' death. He's serving a life 
sentence.

(source: Citrus County Chronicle)






MISSISSIPPI:

Senate passes Execution Secrecy Bill


In the future a Mississippi death row inmate's execution and all those involved 
in the process could be kept from the public.

Senate Bill 2237, introduced by Republican Senator Joey Fillingane, passed 
Tuesday.

Entitled the "Execution Secrecy Bill", the measure would protect the identities 
of the execution team, suppliers of the lethal injection drugs and others 
involved in the execution process.

State Attorney General Jim Hood helped draft the legislation.

He said in reaction to anti-death penalty advocates who have threatened and 
harassed the companies providing the lethal injections and even the 
executioner.

"As long as it's the law in Mississippi I've got a duty to carry it out and if 
there's a method by which I can carry it out without people getting abused; the 
executioner, the pharmacy that provides the drugs, I think we owe them that 
protection. It's a state law," said Hood.

Opponents of the Execution Secrecy legislation say the public would not be made 
aware of the execution process which could possibly be inhumane and not divulge 
where the drugs were from, how they are administered or their reactions.

We were unable to reach Senator Fillingane and Prisoner Rights Advocates for 
comment on the execution secrecy bill.

Similar bills have been passed in recent years in Arkansas and Georgia.

(source: WDAM news)






LOUISIANA----stay of impending execution

Louisiana's high court issues stay in scheduled March execution of River 
Parishes serial killer

The Louisiana Supreme Court issued a stay Wednesday in the scheduled March 14 
execution of River Parishes serial killer Daniel Blank, who was convicted in 5 
brutal slayings of well-to-do, older residents in the mid-1990s.

A state district judge in Ascension Parish had signed an execution order in 
mid-January after rejecting Blank's post-conviction appeal arguments last year 
and upheld in his 1999 1st-degree murder conviction for the fatal beating of 
72-year-old Lillian Philippe, of Gonzales.

But Blank's defense attorneys had said that despite the judge's ruling, her 
execution order was premature and a waste of taxpayer money for several 
reasons: the layers of appeal still available to Blank at the state and federal 
level, the lack of drugs available to conduct the execution and a separate stay 
that a federal judge in Baton Rouge had previously issued for all executions in 
Louisiana at least until July.

Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety and 
Corrections, said the court notified her agency of the stay by telephone 
Wednesday. Valerie Willard, spokeswoman for the state's highest court, said the 
decision to grant the stay was unanimous.

Blank's defense attorneys had asked the high court to order Judge Jessie 
LeBlanc of the 23rd Judicial District to withdraw her Jan. 14 execution 
warrant, 1 of his attorneys said Wednesday, but, at the urging of the state 
Attorney General's Office, the Supreme Court instead agreed to stay the 
execution itself.

Chuck Long, the 23rd Judicial District attorney who prosecuted Blank, charged 
Blank's attorneys are simply delaying the process in hopes that the composition 
of the U.S. Supreme Court changes and the death penalty is found 
unconstitutional. Conservative stalwart and staunch death penalty supporter 
Justice Antonin Scalia died Saturday.

"That's what their game is," Long said.

He also charged Blank's innocence is no longer an issue after the Supreme Court 
previously upheld his conviction in the Philippe murder. The writs his 
attorneys are now seeking are discretionary, Long claimed.

But Gary Clements, a Blank defense attorney with the Capital Post-Conviction 
Project of Louisiana, said Blank has a legal right to post-conviction appeal 
through the state Supreme Court.

He said he filed Blank's writ with that court Feb. 1 seeking to overturn 
LeBlanc's ruling denying Blanks's post-conviction appeal last year and is 
waiting on Long's response. Clements said he can't base his cases on dreams of 
changing political winds at the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It's an interesting point of view, but I don't think it holds a lot of water," 
he said.

Earlier this week, the state Department Public Safety and Corrections confirmed 
what Clements had said about the availability of drugs for the execution: the 
"Department does not currently have in its possession the drug(s) necessary to 
carry out the March 14, 2016, scheduled execution of Daniel Blank."

But the department added the statement that it would continue to follow 
protocols that lay out the procedures done in the weeks leading up to a 
scheduled execution "until legal actions dictate otherwise."

In its statement Monday, corrections officials distributed forms for media 
members to fill out if they wished to witness Blank's execution.

Blank, 53, who is from St. James Parish but lived in Sorrento at the time of 
the slayings in the mid-1990s, was convicted in 4 other slayings beside 
Philippe's. Blank has 4 life sentence in those convictions after pleas and 
various appeals and only faces the death penalty in the Philippe case. He was 
never tried in a 6th slaying, which authorities say was the 1st he committed, 
that of Victor Rossi, 41, of St. Amant, on Oct. 27, 1996.

Blank offered a 12-hour confession to authorities admitting to the murders and 
other armed robberies. Clements has argued Blank was highly susceptible to 
suggestion, though, especially after the hours of interrogation that preceded 
his confession.

LeBlanc rejected that and the rest of Blank's appeals claims, which mostly 
focused on ineffective counsel at trial.

Even with Blank's execution less than a month away and the Department of Public 
Safety and Corrections instituting procedures in advance of the execution, 
Clements expressed confidence on Tuesday that DOC officials would not conduct 
the execution due to its prematurity and the lack of drugs to actually perform 
it.

"They can do all that, but it's semantics because they don't have any way to do 
anything," Clements said Tuesday.

(source: The Advocate)