[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ALA., NEB., ARIZ., CALIF., WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

July 16



TEXAS----revised impending execution schedule


Barney Fuller has been given an execution date for October 5; it should be 
considered serious.


Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----19

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----537

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

20---------August 23----------------Robert Pruett---------538

21---------August 24----------------Jeffrey Wood----------539

22---------August 31----------------Rolando Ruiz----------540

23---------September 14-------------Robert Jennings-------541

24---------October 5----------------Barney Fuller---------542

25---------October 19---------------Terry Edwards---------543

26---------November 2---------------Ramiro Gonzales-------544

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

TEXAS STATE PRISONS are not air-conditioned.


Prisoners and guards suffer in cells and halls above 110 degrees.

20 buys a small fan that can save a life. TX-CURE, Citizens United for 
Rehabilitation of Errants provides free fans to poor and needy inmates who have 
no family or friends for financial support.

Donate online at http://www.texascure.org [www.texascure.org]

http://www.gofundme.com/TEXAS-PRISONERS-NEED-FANS [www.gofundme.com]

or mail to:

Tx-CURE Fans

P. O. Box 381

Dallas, TX 75238

Michael W. Jewell, President

mikewaynejewell at hotmail.com

Tx-CURE is a 501(c3)

(source: TX-CURE)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Raleigh man charged with death of 2-year-old faces judge


A 22-year-old Raleigh man had his 1st court appearance Friday after being 
charged with the death a 2-year-old boy.

Police were dispatched to a "code blue" call at a home in the 5200 block of 
Somerset Mill Lane on May 19.

2 days later, Raleigh police said the death of Chase Jordan Eaddy was a 
homicide.

William Lee Bell was charged with murder in Eaddy's death.

Bell lived at the location where the crime occurred and surrendered to 
authorities Thursday at the Wake County Detention Center.

On Friday, Bell faced a Wake County judge.

The judge told Bell, "You are charged with 1 count of 1st-degree murder. The 
maximum penalty for that would be the death penalty or life imprisonment."

Several family members, including Bell's parents were in court. When the court 
hearing was finished, they quickly walked out.

Bell is being held on no bond and is expected to be back in court Aug. 4.

(source: WNCN news)






FLORIDA:

Death row inmate seeks execution


A case TV20 has been following on a man requesting to die by the electric 
chair, took another turn today. TV20's Rebecca Woolard reports from the 
Bradford County Courthouse with the latest.

It's the case of a death row inmate who is arguing not that he shouldn't be 
executed, but that it should be done sooner, and by an electric chair.

Wayne Doty is a 2-time convicted murderer. He admits to those killings and says 
he deserves the punishment he was given.

There's only 1 problem. In January, Hurst v. Florida found the way the state 
issues the death penalty to be unconstitutional. In light of that case, Doty is 
now withdrawing his motion to dismiss his counsel and waive his appeals. He 
hopes in doing so he can have a "new" penalty phase trial and his sentence can 
be determined in a constitutional manner. But Doty still wants the option of 
dismissing his attorney later.

There was a lot of uncertainty in the courtroom today as the attorneys and 
judge weren't sure if Doty could have his attorney just argue 
constitutionality. But the judge did allow Doty's attorney to be reinstated 
today. There will be another hearing next month to hear DOC objections.

(source: WCJB news)






ALABAMA:

Life of exonerated death row inmate celebrated----James 'Bo' Cochran laid to 
rest Friday


A Tarrant man exonerated after 2 decades on death row has been laid to rest.

Funeral services for James "Bo" Cochran were held at Christ's Ministries Church 
Friday.

Cochran was originally convicted of the murder of a grocery store manager in 
the late 1970s and sentenced to die.

Then in February 1997, a Jefferson County jury acquitted Cochran at the end of 
his 4th trial.

After 2 decades on death row, Bo Cochran was a free man.

Dr. Mel Glenn worked on Cochran's defense team for that 1997 retrial.

"Despite what happened to him, he took it with a grain of salt and didn't have 
any bitterness, didn't have any malice," Glenn remembered.

He said since then, Cochran has flown all over the nation and world speaking 
out against the death penalty.

Glenn believes Cochran has impacted countless lives since he was freed nearly 2 
decades ago.

"He touched elderly people's lives. He touched elderly people's lives and he 
pointed people to the Lord. So this day is a day that I will always treasure," 
Glenn concluded.

Cochran died Tuesday. He was 73 years old.

(source: WVTM news)



NEBRASKA:

Murder victim family members kick off 10-day, 20-city statewide tour


Religious leaders representing the three largest church denominations in 
Nebraska were planning a news conference in Omaha today announcing their 
support for ending Nebraska???s death penalty. They will be joined by murder 
victim family members who are beginning a 10-day, 15-city statewide tour 
addressing alternatives to the death penalty. Religious leaders from Roman 
Catholic, Evangelical, and United Methodist churches had planned to attend.

Also attending the news conference were speakers from Journey of Hope from 
Violence to Healing, an organization led by murder victim family members, death 
row exonerees, and the family members of death row inmates. Ten speakers will 
caravan across Nebraska July 15-24, addressing alternatives to the death 
penalty. The tour is scheduled to be in Kearney at 7 p.m. July 23 at Faith 
United Methodist Church, located as 1623 Central Ave., with speaker Bill 
Babbit.

Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty was founded in 1981 after Gov. 
Charles Thone had vetoed a bill passed by Nebraska's Legislature that would 
have repealed the death penalty. Since its founding, Nebraskans for 
Alternatives to the Death Penalty has been a politically active organization 
that has supported death penalty abolition efforts in the Nebraska Legislature.

For more information call 402-477-7787 or visit www.nadp.net/Journey.

(source: Kearney Hub)






ARIZONA:

Court upholds conviction, death sentence in 1989 Pima County double murder


A divided federal appeals court Friday upheld the conviction and death sentence 
of a Pima County man in a 1989 drug deal turned double murder.

The full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Eric Mann's claims of 
ineffective counsel during his trial and sentencing were not sufficient to 
reopen his case.

Judge Richard R. Clifton wrote that there may have been questions about lower 
courts' decisions in the case, but the law allowed the appeals court to get 
involved "only if no fairminded jurist could conclude" that the lower court had 
not acted fairly.

That was not the case here, he wrote.

But in 1 of 2 partial dissents, Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas said that Mann's 
lawyer had been ineffective at his sentencing and should have presented 
evidence of that a 1985 car accident may have caused brain damage in Mann.

"Any reasonable attorney would further investigate whether a car accident that 
left 2 out of 3 passengers dead resulted in any permanent physical or 
psychological damage to Mann, the sole survivor," Thomas wrote.

Mann's attorneys said the dissent "was absolutely correct, and that, as Judge 
Thomas concluded: Eric Mann's death sentence was imposed in violation of his 
Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel."

The attorney, Arizona Federal Public Defender Cary Sandman, said in an email 
that they plan to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Arizona Attorney General's office declined to comment on the ruling.

The case began when Mann offered to sell Richard Alberts a kilogram of cocaine 
for $20,000. The sale was a ruse, the court said, with Mann intending to give 
Alberts a shoebox full of newspaper and then shoot him after taking the money.

Alberts showed up at Mann's home on Thanksgiving Day 1989 with another man, 
Ramon Bazurto. After first hesitating because of Bazurto's presence, Mann went 
ahead with the deal - and shot both men.

Alberts died "almost instantly," but Bazurto lingered and Mann stood over him 
as he died. Mann got a friend, Carlos Alejandro, to help get rid of the bodies.

The case went unsolved for 4 years until Mann broke up with his girlfriend, 
Karen Miller, who had been at the home during the killings.

Miller turned him in to police, and she and Alejandro were granted full 
immunity in the case in exchange for testifying against Mann. He was convicted 
in 1994 of both murders and sentenced to death in 1995.

In his latest appeal, Mann claimed his attorney was ineffective both at trial 
and at sentencing. The court rejected the claim for his trial, but split on 
whether his attorney served him at sentencing.

A key element of that disagreement was over whether his attorney should have 
more aggressively pursued evidence that the 1985 car accident could have 
affected Mann, which could have been used as a mitigating factor against the 
death penalty.

While Thomas said it should have been considered, Clifton noted that Mann's 
criminal behavior changed little from before the accident to after, a fact 
noted by the trial judge.

"Even if the accident had an effect on Mann's personality, it hardly changed an 
altar boy into a callous criminal," Clifton wrote for the majority.

(source: Cronkite News)






CALIFORNIA:

California's bishops back measure to repeal death penalty


California's Catholic bishops announced their support July 14 for Proposition 
62, a voter initiative on the November ballot that would repeal the death 
penalty.

The bishops timed their statement to coincide with the launch of the "Yes on 
62" campaign that took place at a Los Angeles news conference. Speakers there 
included former death penalty advocates, victims' families, law enforcement 
officials, faith leaders and wrongfully convicted former death-row prisoners.

"During this Jubilee Year of Mercy, we, the Catholic bishops of California, 
support Proposition 62 which would end the use of the death penalty in 
California," the bishops said in their statement.

Proposition 62 - called "The Justice That Works Initiative" by its authors - 
would replace the death penalty with a sentence of life without the possibility 
of parole and would require convicted murderers to work and pay restitution to 
their victims' families.

The bishops also announced their opposition to Proposition 66, also on the 
November ballot, which would expedite executions in California.

"All life is sacred - innocent or flawed - just as Jesus Christ taught us and 
demonstrated repeatedly throughout his ministry. ... Each of us holds an 
inherent worth derived from being created in God's own image. Each of us has a 
duty to love this divine image imprinted on every person," the statement said.

If approved by voters, California would become the 20th state to ban the death 
penalty. The initiative faces a divided electorate. In 2012, California voters 
defeated Proposition 34, a ballot measure to repeal the death penalty, 52-48 %.

With 747 people on death row, California has the largest population of 
death-row inmates in the nation. It would save $150 million a year by halting 
the practice, according to the "Yes on 62" website. However, no one has been 
executed in California since 2006 because of court battles over the use of 
lethal injection and the decades-long wait from sentencing to execution.

The existing law was approved by voters in 1978.

The bishops said their opposition to the death penalty also is rooted in "our 
unshakeable resolve to accompany and support all victims of crime" for whom the 
suffering over the loss of a loved one by a criminal act rarely ends with the 
execution of the convicted.

"Their enduring anguish is not addressed by the state-sanctioned perpetuation 
of the culture of death," they said.

"As we pray with them and mourn with them, we must also stress that the current 
use of the death penalty does not promote healing. It only brings more violence 
to a world that has too much violence already," the bishops said.

Beth Webb, the sister of a woman gunned down by her ex-husband in a Seal Beach 
hair salon with 8 others in 2011, said as much. She was 1 of 9 speakers at the 
news conference.

"I'm here to say that neither me nor my mom will find closure in the death of 
another human being," she said. "That makes us like him. For us to want his 
blood, to say that we will only be satisfied by his death brings us to his 
level."

Speakers at the "Yes on 62" campaign launch included former death penalty 
proponents Ron Briggs, who led the campaign to bring the death penalty to 
California in 1978, former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp, and 
former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti.

Rabbi Jonathon Klein, executive director of CLUE, a Los Angeles nonprofit that 
organizes the faith community around issues of economic justice, spoke about 
the death penalty and all religious traditions.

"This is a compassion-driven measure that also makes sure that justice is 
served," he said. "We know that all of our religious traditions are pointed in 
the same direction. And that is to move away from the death penalty, to move 
away from a justice system that has killing and violence at its core."

The California bishops quoted Pope Francis who said during his Angelus address 
Feb. 21 in Rome: "In fact, modern societies have the ability to effectively 
control crime without definitively taking away a criminal's chance to redeem 
himself," the pope said.

"The commandment 'thou shall not kill' has absolute value and pertains to the 
innocent as well as the guilty," he said.

(source: cruxnow.com)






WASHINGTON:

Victim's family reacts to delay on death-penalty decision in double-homicide 
case


Although it's been months since 2 women were killed outside the Yakima 
Moneytree, there's still no decision on whether the suspect will face 
aggravated charges which would include the death penalty as consideration.

Yakima County Prosecutor Joe Brusic delayed making a decision Friday morning on 
whether the death penalty will be considered in the case.

26 year old Manuel Verduzco was arrested after Karina Morales-Rodriguez and 
Marta Martinez were found dead on their way to work at the Moneytree in March.

"I'd like for this to be over and grab my children and try to make a life 
without Karina, but it's really hard. We all miss her," said Gabriel Pinon, one 
victim's husband. "We have full faith that the prosecutor's office is doing to 
do his best to make sure that this individual pays for his crime."

Brusic said he wanted to give more time for the defense to come up with 
evidence.

(source: KIMA TV news)