[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., FLA., OHIO, TENN., ARK., NEB., S. DAK.

[Rick Halperin]

April 8



TEXAS----stay of impending execution

Texas court halts execution after parents seek mercy for their son's killer


Texas' top criminal court on Friday halted the scheduled execution of Paul 
Storey after the parents of the man he killed said they did not want him to 
die.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sent Storey's case back to a lower court 
for review and halted his execution, which had been scheduled for Wednesday.

Paul Storey was convicted of the 2006 murder of Jonas Cherry during a robbery 
at a Hurst putt-putt golf park. His accomplice, Dewayne Porter, pleaded guilty 
and received a life sentence.

Storey was offered the same plea deal as Porter, but he chose to go to trial 
and was sentenced to death. His lawyers, in an appeal filed Friday, contend 
that Tarrant County prosecutors told jurors that the Cherry family wanted 
Storey to be executed, despite knowing they opposed the death penalty.

In a video released this week, Judith and Glenn Cherry pleaded with prosecutors 
and Gov. Greg Abbott to stop Storey's execution.

"It pains us to think that due to our son's death, another person will be 
purposefully put to death," Judith Cherry said in the video. "Also motivating 
us is that we do not want Paul Storey's family, especially his mother and 
grandmother, if she is still alive, to witness the purposeful execution of 
their son. They are innocent of his deeds."

The Cherrys asked state officials to commute Storey's sentence to life without 
parole.

At least 1 juror who served during Storey's trial told defense lawyers that he 
would have refused to vote for the death penalty had he known the Cherrys did 
not want it.

"I would have held out for a life without the possibility parole for as long as 
it took," juror Sven Berger wrote in an affidavit.

Because prosecutors gave the jury false information, Storey's lawyers contend 
in their latest appeal that he should be granted a new trial to determine his 
sentence.

The Court of Criminal Appeals asked a lower court to review Storey's claims and 
make recommendations about whether he should receive a new trial to determine 
his sentence.

(source: Dallas Morning News)

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

Texas court halts execution of man amid claims of false evidence----The Texas 
Court of Criminal Appeals halted the execution of Paul Storey Friday afternoon, 
which was set for next Wednesday.


The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted the execution of Paul Storey, 
which was set for Wednesday.

In a 3-page order Friday afternoon, the court sent the case back to the Tarrant 
County trial court to review claims regarding the prosecution presenting false 
evidence at Storey's trial.

In 2008, Storey, 32, was sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of Jonas Cherry 
during a robbery of a miniature golf course where Cherry worked in Hurst, near 
Fort Worth. At the trial, the prosecution said that Cherry's parents wanted the 
death penalty.

"It should go without saying that all of Jonas [Cherry's] family and everyone 
who loved him believe the death penalty was appropriate,' the prosecution said 
during the penalty phase of the trial, according to Storey's appeal.

Storey and Cherry's parents, Glenn and Judith, say that's not true. The Cherrys 
wrote to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles in February, 
asking for a life sentence for Storey. The Cherrys said they never wanted the 
death penalty and made that clear to the prosecution, according to Storey's 
appeal.

"As a result of Jonas' death, we do not want to see another family having to 
suffer through losing a child and family member ... due to our ethical and 
spiritual values we are opposed to the death penalty," the Cherrys said in 
their statement.

Sven Berger, a juror in Storey's trial who recently asked Texas legislators to 
change jury instructions in capital cases, also wrote an affidavit for Storey's 
recent appeal. In his affidavit, Berger said had he known the Cherrys didn't 
want death, he would have "held out for a [sentence of] life without the 
possibility of parole for as long as it took."

Now, the trial court has been ordered to determine whether the fact that the 
Cherrys opposed the death penalty could have been discovered by appellate 
attorneys earlier. Generally in death penalty cases, if evidence could have 
been raised at an earlier appeal and wasn't, it is not allowed to be used in 
future appeals. This evidence was brought forth to the courts less than 2 weeks 
before his execution.

The appeal claims the evidence of the Cherrys' disapproval of the sentence was 
learned only in the past 90 days. But the Court of Criminal Appeals said it's 
not yet clear whether his previous state appellate attorney could have learned 
about the Cherrys' beliefs.

"The trial court is ordered to make findings of fact and conclusions of law 
regarding whether the factual basis of these claims was ascertainable through 
the exercise of reasonable diligence on or before the date the initial 
application was filed," the order states. "If the court determines that the 
factual basis of the claims was not ascertainable through the exercise of 
reasonable diligence on or before the date the initial application was filed, 
then it will proceed to review the merits of the claims."

Storey's appeal said the evidence of false claims warrants him a new punishment 
hearing, where he either could be sentenced to death again or receive a life 
sentence without the possibility of parole.

(source: Texas Tribune)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----24

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----542

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

25---------May 16-------------------Tilon Carter----------543

26---------May 24-------------------Juan Castillo----------544

27---------June 28------------------Steven Long-----------545

28---------July 19-----------------Kosoul Chanthakoummane---546

29---------July 27-----------------Taichin Preyor---------547

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






VIRGINIA:

Clemency petition filed on behalf of man set to be executed this month in 
Virginia


Lawyers for condemned murder-for-hire killer Ivan Teleguz are asking Gov. Terry 
McAuliffe to stop his execution, set for April 25, in a clemency petition 
delivered Friday.

The petition contends the jurors who convicted and sentenced Teleguz to death 
relied on testimony since proved false and recanted. "Significant information 
has emerged since Teleguz's trial suggesting he is innocent," his lawyers said 
in a statement Friday.

"In this case - where new evidence jurors never had a chance to consider shows 
that Mr. Teleguz's conviction and death sentence are based on false testimony - 
Governor McAuliffe should protect the integrity of the ultimate sanction and 
grant clemency to ensure that Virginia does not execute an innocent man," said 
Elizabeth Peiffer, Teleguz lawyer said.

Asked for comment Friday, Marsha L. Garst the commonwealth's attorney for 
Rockingham County, wrote in an email that, "All the issues have been very 
thoroughly tried and decided in local, state and federal courts. I feel at this 
stage that since the case is being handled by the Attorney General's Office 
that they should address any questions."

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office referred inquiries to the 
governor's office which did not immediately respond to a request for comment 
Friday. Governors generally have not commented on pending clemency requests.

Teleguz, 38, was sentenced to death for the 2001 capital murder of Stephanie 
Yvonne Sipe, the mother of their 23-month-old son. Sipe was stabbed to death in 
her Harrisonburg apartment. Trial evidence showed that Teleguz was angry that 
he had been ordered to pay child support.

He hired 2 men to kill Sipe for $2,000 and drove them from Pennsylvania, where 
Teleguz had moved. Sipe suffered defensive wounds and 3 other knife wounds - 1 
wound went from the left side of her neck to the right side. The body was 
discovered by a neighbor who also found her son, unharmed, in a bathtub full of 
water.

The unanimous 3-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of 
Appeals rejected a stay request and a related matter last month.

However, Teleguz's lawyers argue that the new evidence pointing to his 
innocence has never been fully examined by the courts. They said 2 prosecution 
witnesses admitted, "that they testified falsely in exchange for leniency in 
their own cases, and have no reason to think Teleguz was involved in the 
murder-for-hire."

1 of the witnesses has been deported and the other told he would lose his 
release date set for next year if they went back on his testimony.

Teleguz also says that jurors relied on false testimony that he was involved in 
an additional murder in Pennsylvania. Investigation since trial by both law 
enforcement and the defense has confirmed that the murder never happened.

His lawyers contend the only evidence remaining against Teleguz is the 
testimony of Michael Hetrick, the actual killer who was spared the death 
penalty. His lawyers said the clemency petition details why his testimony is 
not credible or reliable.

Among other things, his lawyers said the petition is supported by an expert on 
clemency and former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., who oversaw two 
executions as governor there from 2003 to 2007.

A Change.org petition in support of clemency has been signed by more than 
113,000 people and Teleguz has also submitted written requests for clemency 
from thousands of supporters.

(source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)






FLORIDA----female to face death penalty

State seeks death penalty for Arcadia woman accused of killing 3 children


The State Attorney's office announced this week they will seek the death 
penalty for an Arcadia woman who allegedly set her boyfriends house on fire 
killing his 3 grandchildren.

49 year old Marian Williams was charged back in March with 3 counts of homicide 
and arson. According to police, 2 adults and 3 children were inside the house 
at the time of the fire. The 3 children, ages 4, 8 and 10, were found dead in 
the home. The 2 adults were able to get out of the burning building.

Williams is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.

(source: mysuncoast.com)

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

Judge upholds death sentence in 1981 murder case


Ian Lightbourne, 57, will remain on death row after 5th Circuit Judge Robert 
Hodges denied his motion Thursday to vacate his death sentence.

Lightbourne, who has been challenging his death sentence for 3 decades, does 
not meet the requirements for a resentencing under Florida's new death penalty 
regulation, Hodges wrote in his decision.

Defense Attorneys Jessica Houston and Suzanna Keffer, of Capital Collateral 
Regional Counsel, argued at a March 30 hearing that since there was no jury 
vote count, it could not be determined whether the jury's decision to sentence 
Lightbourne to death was a unanimous one, which is now required.

Hodges doesn't agree. On all claims brought before him by the defense, Hodges 
ruled Lightbourne is not entitled to relief and a resentencing. Lightbourne has 
30 days to appeal Hodges' ruling to the Florida Supreme Court.

His track record, though, with appeals is not a favorable one. In his order, 
Hodges summarized the history of Lightbourne's case and all his appeals. He 
appealed his original conviction to the Florida Supreme Court, which affirmed 
it. He then appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it was denied 
in 1984.

Including that appeal, Lightbourne has challenged the decision in his case 8 
times, all of which have been denied at one stage of the appeal process or 
another, according to Hodges' order.

Houston did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lightbourne was convicted in April 1981 of 1st-degree murder in the death of 
Nancy O'Farrell, 41, a member of the family that pioneered Ocala's thoroughbred 
horse breeding industry. He was a former employee of the family's Ocala Stud 
farm.

Lightbourne, then 21, surprised O'Farrell when she came out of the shower. He 
raped her and then shot her in the head with a .25-caliber pistol and left her 
to bleed to death. His trial lasted 5 days. He was sentenced to death in May 
1981.

He and his defense attorneys were hoping to get him a new sentencing based on 
the new unanimous jury decision precedent put in place by Hurst v. State in 
2016 and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott in March of this year.

The regulation is retroactive for defendants who were sentenced to death after 
June 24, 2002, a date determined by another U.S. Supreme Court case.

Lightbourne's defense attorneys argued that since he had a hearing about his 
case before the Florida Supreme Court in October 2002, the new regulation 
should apply to him as well. The state argued, and Hodges agreed, that 
Lightbourne's case was final in 1984, falling outside of the retroactivity 
period.

Lightbourne is 1 of 8 Marion County murderers on death row. In January, the 
Florida Supreme Court overturned Renaldo McGirth's death sentence, ordering he 
undergo a resentencing. McGirth was sentenced to death with an 11-1 jury vote 
in 2008 for the murder of The Villages resident Diana Miller.

(source: ocala.com)

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

e Attorney Aramis Ayala removed from another case----Governor issues executive 
order after court's decision


Gov. Rick Scott has removed Orange-Osceola County State Attorney Aramis Ayala 
from another death penalty case.

The Orlando Sentinel reports the governor signed an executive order Thursday 
after the Florida Supreme Court overturned the non-unanimous death sentence of 
Dane Abdool.

Abdool was convicted in 2008 of murdering his girlfriend, Amelia Sookedo, then 
setting her remains on fire.

The decision means Abdool will have to be re-sentenced. It comes after the 
Florida Supreme Court ruled juries in death cases must be unanimous.

Ayala has not commented on the latest removal.

Scott recently removed Ayala from dozens of other death penalty cases after she 
said she would not seek the death penalty on any cases brought to her office.

The office of State Attorney Brad King, which covers another district in 
Central Florida, will prosecute the cases.

(source: clickorlando.com)

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

Florida Prosecutor's Moral Case for Renouncing the Death Penalty


In recent months, a Florida state attorney carefully reviewed the death penalty 
with a particular focus on the goals of criminal justice: promoting public 
safety, serving the needs of murder victims' families, and using public dollars 
in a wise and effective manner.

On all these measures, Aramis Ayala judged that the death penalty proves 
ineffective and morally indefensible, and for those reasons, she announced that 
she would not seek death sentences in the future.

Sadly, on April 3, Florida Gov. Rick Scott took 21 more 1st-degree murder cases 
away from the Orange-Osceola state attorney.

For some Florida officials, it seems, the death penalty can do no wrong. They 
back death penalty statutes even if warned they will get struck down, which 
Scott and the Florida Legislature did when supporting last year's ill-fated 
death penalty fix. And they continue to back Florida's death penalty no matter 
how many innocent people end up on death row, how much it costs and what it 
puts murder victims' families through.

Ayala described Florida's death penalty "as the cause of considerable legal 
chaos, uncertainty and turmoil." It is difficult to argue with that assessment. 
Florida's death penalty has been struck down as unconstitutional 3 times in its 
history, and twice last year alone.

The purpose of law enforcement is to protect the public and save lives. But, as 
Ayala pointed out in her statement, the "death penalty has no public safety 
benefit. There is no evidence that death sentences actually protect the 
public."

Indeed, a comprehensive analysis of deterrence studies by the National Academy 
of Sciences found no evidence that the death penalty impacts murder rates in 
either direction. Ayala emphasized that her office pursues evidence-based 
practices, not policies such as the death penalty whose deterrent effect rests 
on faith alone.

Despite the oft-repeated claim that the death penalty delivers justice to 
murder victims' families, Ayala recognized that that's not true in reality.

"I've learned that the death penalty traps many victims' families in a 
decades-long cycle of uncertainty," said Ayala. "I cannot, in good faith, look 
a victim's family in the face and promise that a death sentence handed down in 
our court will ever result in execution."

We have an obligation to victims' families to ensure that criminal justice 
policies are honest and help them rather than hinder them in healing. Florida's 
death penalty utterly fails in these goals, given the frequent delays and 
reversals in capital cases, which keep families stuck in the legal process.

Finally, Ayala noted the high cost of death sentences, which run hundreds of 
thousands and sometimes millions of dollars more than incarcerating someone for 
life. Some say that a policy's cost is not a moral issue, but I beg to differ. 
Where you spend your money shows where your priorities lie. Budgets are always 
moral documents. When there are so many pressing community needs, it is 
irresponsible to spend resources on ineffective policies like the death 
penalty.

"By not pursuing death sentences in a handful of cases," Ayala rightly argued, 
"we can spend time pursuing justice in many more cases."

Ayala makes a powerful argument that the death penalty embodies mistaken 
priorities for the Orlando community she represents. In its push to carry out 
the ultimate punishment, Florida has harmed victims??? families and wasted 
valuable resources that could have enhanced public safety.

These arguments strike a personal note with me, a former pastor and now a 
Florida-based author and networker among clergy nationwide. A few months ago, 
some friends and I spent a weekend with Christian activist Shane Claiborne, 
author of Executing Grace, a book on the death penalty. Since 1976, Claiborne 
explained, about 1-in-9 death row inmates has been exonerated. Shane asked us 
to imagine what would happen if a medicine killed 1 out of 9 patients.

"It would be outlawed immediately!" we replied.

We then visited with Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice 
Initiative in Alabama. Stevenson helped us understand the history of the death 
penalty in the U.S. and then introduced us to one of his employees, Anthony Ray 
Hinton. Anthony told us his personal story of spending nearly 30 years on 
Alabama's death row. In 2015, he was exonerated and freed.

When I heard of State Attorney Ayala's decision to stop seeking death against 
people in Florida, I couldn't help but think of Anthony's heart-wrenching story 
and Shane's sobering statistic.

That's why I believe Ayala is right. She is leading Florida out of a legal and 
moral mess and into a better future.

If Scott and others who oppose her will consider with open minds and hearts the 
compelling legal and moral reasons for her decision, they will come around ... 
or they will remain stuck on the wrong side of history, wisdom, and morality.

(source: sojo.net)

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

Death sentence vacated for Brevard County man accused of killing 5-year-old 
girl, parents


The Florida Supreme Court threw out the death sentence for a Brevard County man 
who was convicted of killing a family of 3.

It's one of the latest death sentences vacated since the U.S. Supreme Court 
ruled that a jury's death recommendation must be unanimous.

The state has made no decision on whether it will seek the death penalty again 
in the case, but the office said it would thoroughly review the available 
evidence, seek input from family members and law enforcement officials and then 
determine how to move forward.

More than 7 years after the murder of 5-year-old Ivory Hamilton in which Justin 
Heyne was sent to death row, Florida's Supreme Court has vacated his sentence.

But the court upheld the conviction for the girl's murder, along with the 
convictions for the murders of her parents, Benjamin Hamilton and Sarah 
Buckoski.

Heyne is serving life sentences in their deaths.

"The family really doesn't want to go through another trial again. We will, if 
we need to, (but) we really don't want to" said Sarah Buckoski???s father, Dave 
Buckoski.

On March 30, 2006, Sarah Buckoski returned to her Titusville home with Ivory, 
to find the girl's father and Heyne in an argument over a debt.

Heyne had been staying with the couple.

Heyne felt disrespected, and when he heard Hamilton cock a 9mm gun, he 
retrieved his own weapon.

When Hamilton saw his daughter, he dropped his weapon and told his daughter to 
leave.

Heyne first shot Hamilton, then Buckoski and then their little girl.

"And truthfully, we really don't care what happens to Justin.

Whatever's going to happen is going to happen. We've turned it over to God," 
said Dave Buckoski. "God's going to take care of it."

The State Attorney's Office said it will continue to receive cases in which the 
convictions are affirmed, but the death sentences are vacated.

The cases will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

(source: WFTV news)

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

Grand jury issues 1st degree murder indictment against Brad Davidson in death 
of Alisa Kinsaul


A Bay County Grand Jury has issued an indictment charging John Bradley Davidson 
with 1st-degree felony murder and burglary of a dwelling in the stabbing death 
of Alisa Kinsaul.

Kinsaul, 46, was found in her Cove-area home on January 17th. Police responded 
after receiving a call from one of Kinsaul's neighbors, saying Kinsaul had run 
to her house and asked her to call police in the moments before her death.

Davidson, 47, was quickly deemed a suspect and was found the next morning by 
Bay County Sheriff's Deputies in the area of Deer Point Lake.

Davidson and Kinsaul had been linked romantically, but the relationship had 
ended.

During a court appearance last month, Davidson sat silently in a wheelchair 
while in front of a judge for his arraignment. Following the January incident, 
Davidson was hospitalized for a number of days with unspecified injuries.

The 1st-degree murder indictment opens the door for prosecutors to seek the 
death penalty in the case. The state attorney's office told WJHG/WECP on 
Thursday that a formal decision hasn't been made on whether to pursue the death 
penalty.

(source: WJHG news)






OHIO:

Ohio Must End Death Penalty, Torture


The last time the state of Ohio ended a life with capital punishment, Dennis 
McGuire choked, gasped for air and writhed in agony for 26 minutes before 
finally dying. Unable to procure reliable lethal execution drugs - the Danish 
company that produces them now refuses to sell to the U.S. government - Ohio 
decided to experiment with an untested drug cocktail that had never been used 
in an execution. Doctors told state officials that McGuire might suffocate to 
death; they decided to run the risk and suffocated him anyway.

As the old adage goes, "2 wrongs don't make a right." McGuire's crime - raping 
and murdering a pregnant woman - was horrific, but so was the state of Ohio's. 
Torturing someone to death violates fundamental moral standards at its most 
basic level. What the state government did to McGuire was an obvious case of 
"cruel and unusual punishment" prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. 
Outrageously, Ohio is now preparing to engage in this criminal undertaking 
again. What's even more sickening is that the state will claim to do it in our 
name, on our behalf, as the people of Ohio. This evil practice stains us all.

Since the state still cannot procure reliable execution drugs, it is trying to 
experiment again for several executions scheduled in May. Fortunately, a 
federal court rejected the state's plans yesterday, upholding a January 26 
ruling that the state's proposed drug cocktail "creates a substantial risk of 
serious harm." However, the state looks set to appeal. Shame on Governor 
Kasich, who drapes himself in Christian moralism when politically convenient 
and casts it aside when it's not.

Even if Ohio could kill incarcerated people without torture, applying the death 
penalty would still be a travesty. In Ohio's history of executions, nine people 
have been found innocent while sitting on death row, begging the question: How 
many innocent people has our government killed?

Aside from extreme - and extremely rare - cases of self defense, killing is 
obviously wrong. If our society believes in that principle, instead of just 
paying it lip service, then the death penalty is an absurdity. Killing someone 
because they killed someone else makes no sense. It's the "they-started-it" 
argument that kindergarten teachers reject every day in the schoolyard. The 
death penalty is revenge dressed in the guise of justice, and people of moral 
conscious should reject it. Not only is the death penalty a moral atrocity, 
it's an act of financial idiocy as well. Since the state brought back the death 
penalty in 1981, less than 20 % of those sentenced to death have been executed, 
according to Attorney General Mike DeWine's 2016 volume of "Capital Crimes 
Annual Report," published last Friday. More prisoners have been exonerated or 
have had their sentences reduced than have been executed in that time. This 
exorbitant legal wrangling costs the state far more than housing prisoners 
indefinitely.

The death penalty is a revolt against moral law and basic logic. Ohio's 
practice of torturing prisoners to death verges on the kind of depravity that 
would, in a just world, end with state officials in the docket at the 
International Criminal Court in the Hague. In Ohio and across the country, let 
the death penalty get the death penalty.

(source: Editorial Board, Oberlin Review)

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

Yellow Springs murder suspect could face the death penalty


1 of the 2 brothers accused of murdering 2 people in Yellow Springs was 
arraigned on Friday.

Bret Merrick was arraigned on 8 counts, pleading not guilty to all 8 charges. A 
judge set his pretrial date for April 11th. Merrick was denied bond.

At Friday's arraignment, Bret Merrick notified the judge of his intention to 
change counsel before his next hearing.

The judge confirmed this would be a capital case, meaning Merrick could face 
the death penalty.

Bret's brother Dustin Merrick was set to be arraigned at 10:30 a.m. on Friday 
in Greene County Common Pleas Court.

A Greene County Grand Jury indicted the brothers in connection to a double 
homicide in Yellow Springs.

They're accused of killing William "Skip" Brown and Sherri Mendenhall on 
January 15th.

Dustin Merrick was indicted for 2 counts of murder, 2 counts of aggravated 
murder, 2 counts of aggravated burglary, felonious assault, tampering with 
evidence and obstructing justice.

Bret Merrick was indicted for 2 counts of murder, 2 counts of aggravated 
murder, 2 counts of aggravated burglary, felonious assault and tampering with 
evidence.

Both men could face the death penalty, if convicted.

(source: WDTN news)






TENNESSEE:

Court denies AG's request to rehear decision in Tennessee death row case


The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit this week declined to rehear its 
decision in favor of death row inmate Andrew Thomas in the fatal 1997 shooting 
of armored truck guard James Day in Memphis.

The court decided in February that the state violated Thomas' due process 
rights when the prosecution failed to disclose to him that a witness had 
received $750 from the federal government before the trial.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, Solicitor General Andree Blumstein 
and Associate Solicitor General Jennifer Smith petitioned for a rehearing of 
the decision, while Thomas' attorney, Robert Hutton, argued neither a rehearing 
by the panel of judges who issued the decision or review by the full court is 
warranted.

A rehearing before the panel was denied Tuesday. The petition will then be 
circulated to the full en banc court, and the judges have 14 days to request a 
vote.

"A petition for rehearing en banc is an extraordinary procedure intended to 
bring to the attention of the entire court a precedent-setting error of 
exceptional public importance or an opinion that directly conflicts with 
Supreme Court or Sixth Circuit precedent," according to the 6th Circuit's 
procedures.

If no one requests a vote, the petition is denied at the end of the 2 weeks. If 
a vote is requested, it would take the majority of the judges in active service 
who have not recused themselves to grant a rehearing before the full court.

The victim was a Loomis-Fargo armored car courier who was shot at lunchtime on 
April 21, 1997, at a Walgreens in the 4500 block of Summer. Day survived the 
shooting but died 2 years later on Oct. 2, 1999.

Thomas was tried and convicted in both the federal and state systems.

The Safe Streets Task Force, a multiagency group of federal and state law 
enforcement, investigated and assisted in the federal trial of Thomas, and a 
member of the task force, Deputy U.S. Marshal Scott Sanders, requested the $750 
payment that was made to Thomas' former girlfriend, Angela Jackson, according 
to court records.

After Thomas' federal trial, Thomas was tried for the murder of Day in state 
court, and the task force investigated and assisted with that trial also. 
Jackson also testified in the state death penalty trial, but neither Thomas nor 
defense lawyers were informed of the $750 payment.

Jackson testified she wasn't paid, and Shelby County District Attorney General 
Amy Weirich has said she didn't know about the payment.

(source: Commercial Appeal)


ARKANSAS----impending executions

With lethal injection drugs expiring, Arkansas plans unprecedented 7 executions 
in 11 days

Arkansas is preparing to execute 7 death row inmates in 11 days this month 
before the state's deadly drugs expire, an unprecedented number of lethal 
injections in such a narrow window.

The hurried schedule has prompted unease from the state's Republican governor, 
lawsuits from the condemned inmates, and criticism from an array of former 
corrections officials nationwide.

Though the death penalty has been dormant in Arkansas - these would be the 
first executions there in 12 years - the lethal injections have put the state 
at the center of the debate about capital punishment as it becomes less common 
in the United States. Fewer states are putting condemned inmates to death, 
public support for executions is declining and authorities are struggling to 
find the drugs used in lethal injections amid a shortage spurred in part by 
drugmakers' objections to the death penalty.

Advocates for capital punishment argue that the delays in Arkansas amount to 
justice denied for the families of the victims. Civil liberties advocates worry 
that the rush in Arkansas could lead to "torture and injustice," in particular 
because corrections officials are being tasked with executing 2 men a day.

Arkansas officials blame the packed April execution schedule on the drug 
shortage, which has sent states scrambling for replacement chemicals and, in 
some cases, has caused them to contemplate other methods of execution. After 
the lengthy lull in executions - owing to legal challenges and the drug 
shortage - Arkansas state authorities say the lethal injections scheduled 
between April 17 and April 27 are overdue.

But Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R), who set the dates, admitted to feeling uneasy 
about being caught between needing to schedule them and the looming expiration 
of the state's stock of midazolam, a controversial sedative that will be 1 of 3 
drugs used in the lethal injections.

"It's not my choice," Hutchinson said at a news conference. "I would love to 
have those extended over a period of multiple months and years, but that's not 
the circumstances that I find myself in."

The state's midazolam supply is set to expire at the end of April, officials 
say. And with no clear answer about whether the state will be able to obtain a 
new set of drugs, Hutchinson said he had little choice but to set the dates.

"It is uncertain as to whether another drug can be obtained, and the families 
of the victims do not need to live with continued uncertainty after decades of 
review," he said in a statement.

Drug manufacturers are required by law to put an expiration date on drugs in 
the United States, and after that date they cannot guarantee the drug's 
effectiveness or safety. A state corrections department spokesman declined to 
answer questions about the state's decision to act before the expiration date.

Arkansas acquired its midazolam in 2015, according to documents the state 
provided to The Washington Post. The drug prompted controversy after it was 
used in a bungled execution in Oklahoma and in lethal injections that were 
prolonged and included inmates gasping for breath in Ohio, Arizona and, most 
recently, in Alabama in December. According to the Arkansas documents, the 
state got its midazolam just days after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use 
of the drug in Oklahoma's lethal injections.

Citing the state's secrecy law, the Corrections Department declined to say when 
all the drugs expire, where they were obtained, how much they cost and how much 
the state has in stock. The documents also show that Arkansas obtained 
vecuronium bromide, a paralytic, in 2016, and potassium chloride, which stops 
the heart, in March, the week after Hutchinson set the execution dates.

Hutchinson originally scheduled 8 executions in an 11-day span, but a judge on 
Thursday blocked 1 of them because the state's parole board said it would 
recommend commuting that inmate's sentence to life in prison without parole, a 
process that will extend beyond the drug expiration date.

The 7 inmates still facing execution all were convicted of capital murder. All 
are men; 4 are black and 3 are white. They all received their sentences by the 
year 2000, and some of them have been on death row for a quarter-century or 
longer. In a recent report, the Fair Punishment Project at Harvard Law School 
said it found concerns with the Arkansas cases, saying that some of the inmates 
appear to suffer from intellectual impairment and outlining qualms about the 
legal representation the men have had.

Executions are a rarity in Arkansas, trailing more active death-penalty states 
including Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated 
capital punishment in 1976, there have been 1,448 executions nationwide, 
according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Arkansas has executed 27 
inmates in the past 4 decades. Texas has carried out more executions - 34 - 
since the beginning of 2014.

Arkansas also is not among the country's leaders in death-row populations. For 
every death row inmate in Arkansas, there are 20 in California. If the 7 
executions in Arkansas are carried out, the state would eliminate 1/5 of its 
entire death row population.

While executions in the United States have been rapidly declining - falling to 
20 last year, the fewest in a quarter-century - states still hoping to carry 
out executions have tried to obtain drugs in the wake of a years-long shortage. 
European officials and companies, objecting to their chemicals being used to 
kill people, have spurred states to begin adapting new and untested 
combinations of drugs.

Lethal injection remains the country's primary method of execution, but due to 
the shortage, states have also been looking to other methods. Utah, Tennessee 
and Oklahoma added or broadened their abilities to use a firing squad, electric 
chair or nitrogen gas, respectively. Others have sought to shroud their drug 
suppliers in secrecy to protect them from political or public pressure; 
Virginia passed such a law last year.

Most executions are carried out with little public notice, but the scheduling 
in Arkansas has drawn remarkable national scrutiny and criticism for the 
executions being scheduled back-to-back on 4 days in an 11-day span.

"We've never seen anything close to that," said Robert Dunham, executive 
director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit 
group.

Dunham said his group has tracked just 10 back-to-back executions on a single 
day, and none since 2000, though he noted that in the 1990s, Arkansas twice 
executed 3 inmates in 1 day. Texas once executed 6 prisoners in a 10-day span 
on 2 different occasions, but the Arkansas schedule would surpass that, Dunham 
said.

"We know that the state is aware of how to do this in a more orderly and less 
unseemly way," Dunham said. "They've simply chosen to carry them out in 11 days 
because they won't be able to use their execution drug a week later."

Arkansas officials have defended their execution scheduling as needed to help 
families find justice and closure.

"The victims' families have waited far too long to see justice for their loved 
ones," a spokesman for Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R) said in a 
statement Thursday after one of the executions was called off. Rutledge would 
"respond to any and all challenges that might occur between now and the 
executions as the prisoners continue to use all available means to delay their 
lawful sentences."

For some relatives of the victims, though, they have been down this road 
before.

"I won't really believe it's going to happen until it happens," said Genie 
Boren, whose husband Cecil Boren was shot and killed by Kenneth Williams and 
has been waiting more than a decade for his death sentence to be carried out.

Williams, whose execution is scheduled for April 27 and is the last one this 
month in Arkansas, was serving a life sentence when he escaped prison by hiding 
in a garbage truck. He then traveled to the Boren house near Grady, about 70 
miles from Little Rock, according to court summaries of his case.

When Williams got there, Genie Boren was at church, but he found Cecil Boren 
working on his car, the court records state. Williams then shot and killed 
Cecil Boren, dragged his body to a bayou and took the car. Williams was 
captured after a car chase that killed another driver. In 2000, he was 
sentenced to death for killing Boren.

"We'd like for it to happen before all of us die ourselves," said Genie Boren, 
73. "You know, you wait that many years, you're just waiting and waiting and 
waiting. I'm not sitting around thinking it's going to happen for sure, but 
this is closer than we've ever gotten."

Boren said she still lives in the same house where her husband was killed, not 
far from where Williams is being held. While she had originally planned not to 
attend the execution because she did not want to see someone die, Boren said 
she changed her mind.

"I don't know if I will get anything from that," Boren said. "But you know, I 
live 2 miles from the prison. ... I always look over that way, because I know 
he's there," she said. "And once he's gone, I'll know he's gone."

Attorneys for the inmates have filed challenges questioning the scheduled pace 
and the particular drugs used. But the rush of work is "overwhelming," said 
Julie Vandiver, an assistant federal public defender in Little Rock, who is 
representing some of the inmates.

"This is not the way that it should go," Vandiver said. "The end stage of 
litigation is very important, and when an execution warrant is signed, there 
are all kinds of processes that start up."

She pointed to clemency petitions, which can only be contemplated after an 
execution date is set. She dismissed the state's argument that it has a 
deadline approaching, calling the deadline "manufactured" and noting that the 
state has gotten drugs before and can get them again.

Vandiver said the schedule "creates an impossible situation for all the people 
involved," including the corrections officials who "are going to have to 
execute these people."

Corrections officials have raised similar concerns. In a letter to Hutchinson 
last month, 2 dozen such officials pleaded with him to change the pace, warning 
that "performing so many executions in so little time will impose extraordinary 
and unnecessary stress and trauma" on the corrections officials.

"Even under less demanding circumstances, carrying out an execution can take a 
severe toll on corrections officers' wellbeing," they wrote.

Jerry Givens, who signed the letter and spent 17 years as Virginia's chief 
executioner, said corrections officers are already under enough pressure before 
taking on the added weight of multiple executions.

"How can you expect them to do something of this magnitude? It's rough," 
Givens, who executed 62 people and now opposes the death penalty, said Friday. 
"I know the effect it can have on you when you participate in executions ... It 
takes a while to really come out of that."

Wendy Kelley, director of corrections in Arkansas, declined an interview 
request. A spokesman, Solomon Graves, said Thursday that the corrections 
department rolled out training for the executions and that it would make 
counseling available to any staff members who participate in an execution.

Givens and the other corrections officials also worry that the pace "will 
increase the chance" of a mistake. They pointed to the last state that intended 
to carry out 2 executions in 1 night: Oklahoma, which bungled the execution of 
Clayton Lockett, a convicted murderer, in 2014.

Lockett grimaced, writhed and appeared to be in pain during the process, 
witnesses said, dying a short time after the execution was called off. In a 
state review, authorities wrote that the execution team placed the IV 
incorrectly and that officials involved described a feeling of extra stress and 
urgency because a second execution was scheduled for the same night.

The 2nd execution was postponed, and when it was carried out in January 2015, 
Oklahoma officials used the wrong drug. The state has not carried out an 
execution since, though it came close later that year.

Executions are regularly halted in the United States. In some cases, it is 
because a court intervenes, but executions also have been called off recently 
for other reasons. Oklahoma abruptly called off another execution in 2015 when 
state officials realized they had again obtained the wrong drug. The same year, 
Georgia twice called off the execution of the state's only female death row 
inmate, 1st because of a winter storm and then because the drugs looked 
"cloudy." Officials later said they determined the drugs were just too cold, 
and they executed her months later.

(source: Washington Post)

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

Death Penalty Sentences Rushed in Arkansas


33 men are currently imprisoned on Arkansas' death row and the state planned to 
execute 8 of them by the end of April because Arkansas' supply of Midazolam 
will expire at the end of Apr. 2017. Midazolam is 1 of 3 drugs used in the 
state's lethal injection cocktail and Arkansas currently has enough to execute 
8 people.

Pharmaceutical companies are no longer manufacturing drugs used for lethal 
injections, including Midazolam, due to pressure from those who oppose the 
death penalty.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson stated, "In order to fulfill my duty as 
Governor, which is to carry out the lawful sentence imposed by a jury, it is 
necessary to schedule the executions prior to the expiration of that drug." He 
elaborated that it is "important to bring closure to the victim's families who 
have lived with the court appeals and uncertainty for a very long time... [I]t 
is uncertain as to whether another drug can be obtained [after Apr. 30], and 
the families of the victims do not need to live with continued uncertainty 
after decades of review."

The 8 inmates, all sentenced to death between 1990 and 2000, were scheduled for 
execution within 10 days - Apr. 17-27 - with 2 men being executed per day: 
Bruce Ward and Don Davis on Apr. 17; Stacey Johnson and Ledell Lee on Apr. 20; 
Marcel Williams and Jack Jones on Apr. 24; Jason McGehee and Kenneth Williams 
on Apr. 27.

However, the execution of McGehee has been blocked by a federal judge because 
the state's schedule does not allow enough time for the clemency petition to go 
through the system. The judge stated that he may also rule to stop the 
execution of Jack Jones if his clemency petition is approved by the Parole 
Board on Friday, Apr. 7. Attorneys have gone to federal court to stop all of 
the executions, saying the "frantic pace" of the executions increases the 
likelihood of error.

An inmate has not been executed in Arkansas since Nov. 29, 2005 as a result of 
legal challenges to the state's lethal injection procedures. Further problems 
have plagued the planned April 10-day schedule. A report from the Fair 
Punishment Project states that "at least 5 of the 8 cases involve a person who 
appears to suffer from a serious mental illness or intellectual impairment." 
The state also is having trouble finding enough witnesses for the executions. 
According to state law, at least 6 and no more than 12 people who are 
21-years-old or older, do not have felony convictions, are not related to the 
inmate or victim(s), and are Arkansas residents must be present for each 
execution.

If Arkansas goes through with the current execution schedule of 7 men, the 
state will have executed more people in 10 days than any state executed in all 
of 2016, except Georgia, which executed 9 men, and Texas, which executed 7 men. 
Alabama executed 2 men, and Florida and Missouri 1 man each, for a total of 20 
men executed in 2016. This year, 6 men have been executed in the United States 
as of Apr. 2017.

Arkansas is 1 of 32 states that currently have the death penalty, while 18 
states ban the practice.

(source: procon.org)

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

With the Death Penalty Debate, It's Back to Arkansas Again


When the governor of Arkansas announced his highly controversial plan to 
enforce capital punishment in the state, the timing of the decision appeared 
suspect. There was an unseemliness to the pronouncement, a sense of something 
ulterior. Was there political gain in the offing? The execution plan seemed 
unduly controversial, and everyone was asking the same question: Why now? The 
courts have spoken, the governor said, and the rights of the victims need to be 
considered.

That governor was Bill Clinton, and in January 1992 he had flown back to 
Arkansas in the middle of a presidential campaign to attend to any last second 
details that might arise in the execution of Ricky Ray Rector. At the time, 
Clinton was under pressure to differentiate himself from other presidential 
hopefuls. He sought to make crime one of his hot button issues, declaring from 
the campaign trail that Democrats should "no longer feel guilty about 
protecting the innocent." It's notable that this was just 4 years after 
Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis was asked in a presidential debate whether 
he would support the death penalty if his wife was raped and murdered and he 
answered no, prompting outrage from the public. The Rector execution provided a 
counter-narrative for Clinton - no soft bleeding heart Democrat he.

But Rector was hardly a poster boy for the law and order crowd, either. After 
shooting and killing 2 men, including a police officer, he had aimed the gun at 
his left temple and pulled the trigger, turning himself into a barely 
functioning human being. Years later, Clinton defended his decision to allow 
the execution to go forward by pointing out that Rector's brain hadn't been 
injured at the time he committed the crimes; but no one could claim Rector had 
the remotest sense of what was about to happen to him in the run-up to the 
execution. "I'm gonna vote for him, I'm gonna vote for Clinton," he mumbled 
shortly after the governor had denied him clemency. When they took him to be 
executed, he put his dessert aside for later as he always did, not 
understanding that he wasn't coming back to his cell to finish his meal. But 
the execution of Ricky Ray Rector was hardly the first use of capital 
punishment as a cudgel for political gain, and there is no doubt it wasn't the 
last.

Now comes Governor Asa Hutchinson and his own highly controversial plan to 
execute 8 inmates, 2 at a time, over a 10 day period - the days themselves are 
not important, as long as all of the executions are completed by the last day 
of April. You might wonder if the 30th of April is the last day to meet some 
bizarre quota demanded by the grim reaper; and in a way it is, for it is the 
date Arkansas's stock of the drug midazolam expires. Thus we have an urgency, 
born of an expiration date, to execute 8 men in a state that hasn't executed 1 
in almost 12 years.

Thus we have an urgency, born of an expiration date, to execute 8 men in a 
state that hasn't executed one in almost 12 years.

Is midazolam a wonder drug that merits such urgency? Hardly. Indeed, the drug 
has been involved in virtually every botched state killing over the past 
several years, including the last attempted double execution in the United 
States. In April 2014, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin decided to carry out death 
sentences against Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner on the same night, but a 
doctor and a paramedic were unable to properly set intravenous lines in 
Lockett's veins. 10 minutes after he received midazolam he was declared 
unconscious, but soon after that he awoke, and writhed in agony for the next 20 
minutes before ultimately dying of a heart attack while still in the execution 
chamber. The gruesome failure to execute Lockett "peacefully" forced Fallin to 
cancel the 2nd execution via a phone call from the Oklahoma Thunder basketball 
game. Botched executions have been documented in Alabama and Ohio due to 
midazolam, and 1 in Arizona in 2014 caused the Arizona Department of 
Corrections to declare that it would never use midazolam in an execution again. 
If there is a rush to use that drug, it surely isn't due to its efficacy.

Lethal injection has not proven the panacea for death penalty proponents.

Lethal injection has not proven the panacea for death penalty proponents. The 
states could change their methods of execution, of course - the firing squad is 
a failsafe method of killing. But state legislatures have shown very little 
willingness to travel this path, which would be less peaceful and less quiet, 
and would reveal the violent underbelly of what the late Justice Harry Blackmun 
referred to as the "machinery of death." Blackmun began his Supreme Court 
tenure in favor of capital punishment, but across 2 1/2 decades he came to 
understand the faults inherent in the policy, and when he decided that the 
death penalty was beyond repair, in the case of Callins v. Collins, he began 
his famous dissent describing lethal injection without euphemism:

On February 23, 1994, at approximately 1:00 a.m., Bruce Edwin Callins will be 
executed by the State of Texas. Intravenous tubes attached to his arms will 
carry the instrument of death, a toxic fluid designed specifically for the 
purpose of killing human beings.

Even Blackmun's very personal decision to recognize the failure of our death 
penalty experiment was met with animosity, however, and by a fellow justice, no 
less. Antonin Scalia condemned Blackmun's conclusion, claiming that lethal 
injection would look "pretty desirable" next to an actual street murder. Then, 
as was his wont, Justice Scalia went 1 step further. Accusing Blackmun of 
selecting a less heinous murder for his proclamation than the Court often saw 
in capital cases, Scalia suggested instead the horrendous rape-murder of an 
11-year-old girl allegedly at the hands of a pair of half brothers, Henry 
McCollum and Leon Brown, in the case of McCollum v. North Carolina. McCollum 
and Brown, then teenagers, were sentenced to death. "How enviable a quiet death 
by lethal injection compared with that!" Scalia exclaimed.

There was only 1 problem with his example, and it didn't surface for another 20 
years - no one actually died from lethal injection in the McCollum case, nor is 
anyone likely to. The half brothers, who were both intellectually disabled, 
were coerced into confessing to a brutal crime they did not commit, and without 
legal representation present. For years, their lawyers had been requesting DNA 
tests, which eventually exonerated McCollum and Brown, and identified the 
actual killer, Roscoe Artis, as well. Artis was first sentenced to death row 
for a different murder case, but then resentenced to life in prison, where he 
remains incarcerated. He has never been arrested for the rape-murder for which 
McCollum and Brown paid such a heavy price.

There's a final irony in the Arkansas story. A state law mandates that a 
minimum of 6 people observe every execution, and the Department of Correction 
has struggled to meet that requirement, seeking help from the Little Rock 
Rotary Club to drum up some volunteers. Imagine the trouble the department 
would have recruiting viewers to witness a firing squad.

But let's assume the Rotary Club comes through. What the witnesses will see 
isn't going to be pretty, nor is it going to be necessary. At a time when death 
sentences and executions are at an all-time low, Asa Hutchinson is racing 
against the clock to achieve an unprecedented and ghastly series of executions. 
It's impossible not to imagine his effort as a last gasp to prop up a failed 
policy, though. Time is running out on midazolam, and on executions in the 
United States.

(source: Commentary; Marc Bookman is the Director of the Atlantic Center for 
Capital Representation. He has written about criminal justice issues for The 
Atlantic, Mother Jones and VICE----tcf.org)






NEBRASKA:

Lethal drug bill protects suppliers, avoids transparency


Capital punishment is a costly and controversial process that has been 
compounded lately by a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, an anesthetic 
included in a 3-drug cocktail Nebraska uses for lethal injections.

A bill introduced this session in the Nebraska Legislature would protect the 
identities of lethal drug suppliers. After the state's vote in November to 
reinstate the death penalty, the Department of Corrections revised its lethal 
injection protocol. Originally, the revised protocol authorized the lethal drug 
supplier to remain confidential, but that was removed after a public hearing in 
which opponents criticized the secrecy of the process.

LB 661, introduced by Heartwell Sen. John Kuehn, seeks to reinstate that 
confidentiality provision by amending the state's public records law. This 
legislation would make the identity of anyone who manufactures, supplies, 
compounds or prescribes substances, medical supplies or equipment used to 
perform lethal injections confidential.

Residents of Nebraska have a right to know the source of the drugs that will be 
used for executions. If the Department of Correctional Services is acting on 
behalf of the people, they have a right to know how it is being done. Only 15 
of the 31 states that use capital punishment have similar shield laws.

Nebraskans have good reason to oppose this bill. In 2015, the Department of 
Correctional Services spent $54,000 on lethal injection drugs from a broker in 
India with no pharmaceutical experience and questionable connections to 
manufacturers. The federal government blocked the shipment because it lacked 
import approval from the Federal Drug Administration, so the drugs were never 
delivered.

Also, lethal injection has not yet been used in an execution in Nebraska. The 
state has executed just 3 people since 1994. The last was 20 years ago, and an 
electric chair was used.

Supporters of LB 661 say the identities of lethal drug makers should be 
shielded because death penalty opponents may pressure those drug suppliers. FBI 
records show that states' claims that lethal drug supplies have been subject to 
threats from activitsts are largely unsubstantiated and exaggerated.

An economist and professor at Creighton University estimates that Nebraska's 
maintenance of the death penalty costs the state, in 2015 dollars, 
approximately $14.6 million per year. Each additional death penalty arraignment 
costs the state nearly $1.5 million.

If Nebraska is going to continue to allow the death penalty and incur those 
costs, taxpayers have a right to know where that money is going. The state has 
10 people on death row. If they are going to die, every effort should be taken 
to maintain transparency.

The desperate search for lethal drug manufacturers and suppliers doesn't 
warrant secrecy in the process.

(source: Editorial, Post-Tribune & Enterprise)






SOUTH DAKOTA:

Death penalty to be sought against 2 slaying suspects


Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against 2 defendants in the 
alleged murder for hire of a Rapid City woman 2 years ago, should those 
suspects be convicted.

27-year-old Jonathon Klinetobe and 36-year-old Richard Hirth are charged with 
multiple felonies including 1st-degree murder in the May 2015 stabbing death of 
22-year-old Jessica Rehfeld. Her body was found in a remote grave near 
Rockerville last summer.

Rehfeld was the ex-girlfriend of Klinetobe. He and Hirth both have pleaded not 
guilty.

2 other people have pleaded guilty in the case to being accessories, and 
25-year-old David Schneider pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder in January.

(source: Associated Press)