[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., CALIF, USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 12



ARKANSAS----impending executions

7 executions in 11 days wouldn't allow due process, ABA president tells 
Arkansas governor


ABA President Linda Klein has asked the governor of Arkansas to delay an 
unprecedentedly accelerated series of executions scheduled for this month.

The state has not executed a single person in 12 years, but it plans to execute 
seven men over an 11-day period beginning April 17, the Washington Post 
reports. An eighth man, Jason McGehee, was also scheduled to die in these 11 
days, but a judge has delayed that execution, the Post reported in an earlier 
story.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said that he ordered the executions to be 
scheduled in such a short time span because the state???s stock of lethal 
injection drugs is set to expire. "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 to the 
Post.

"We are troubled that this current execution schedule ... prioritizes 
expediency above due process," Klein said in her letter (PDF) to the governor. 
"Because neither Arkansas decision-makers nor defense counsel currently have 
adequate time to ensure that these executions are carried out with due process 
of law, we simply ask that you modify the current execution schedule to allow 
for adequate time between executions."

Klein says in her letter that the short notice for the condemned men has 
overwhelmed their legal defense teams. The work that is done in the run-up to 
an execution "can easily consume all of the available time and resources of an 
attorney representing just one client with an approaching execution date; here, 
several of the men facing execution are represented by the same attorneys," 
Klein wrote. "It simply is not possible for an attorney to do all that is 
minimally required for multiple clients scheduled for execution only days 
apart. Under such extraordinary constraints, any time and resources spent on 
behalf of one client facing death will necessarily be at the expense of 
another. This conflict of interest is simply untenable in matters of life and 
death."

The ABA holds no position about the death penalty in general, Klein says, but 
"sufficient procedural safeguards to decrease the risks of injustice" should be 
present. She urged the governor to delay the executions so that these 
safeguards could be adhered to.

"Regardless of whether these men are put to death this month or on a more 
measured schedule, the state will need either to locate new drugs or to develop 
an alternative execution protocol for the remaining men on Arkansas' death 
row," Klein concluded. "Given that these policy decisions will need to be made 
soon, expediency need not, and should not, be placed above the Constitution's 
due process protections."

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker of the Eastern District of Arkansas began 
hearing arguments Monday to determine whether the state should be allowed to 
proceed, in the 1st of 4 scheduled days for arguments, the Associated Press and 
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette report. The next stop for either side to appeal her 
ruling would be the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and then 
the U.S. Supreme Court.

The previous record for the number of executions in an 11-day period was set by 
Texas, which executed 6 men in at 10-day span in both 1997 and 2000, the Post 
reports.

(source: abajournal.com)

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

Arkansas has never used midazolam, the sedative at center of execution 
debate----Midazolam is the sedative at center of execution debate


At the heart of the federal court challenge to Arkansas's death penalty 
protocol is a drug called "midazolam."

It's the latest battleground in the 50-year debate over capital punishment in 
the United States. With Arkansas planning to execute seven inmates before its 
supply of the sedative runs out at the end of April, the issue is moving the 
state to the international stage.

"It's a central nervous system depressant," said Dr. Mike Martin, a medical 
doctor and professor at University of Central Arkansas. "[Midazolam] is in the 
same drug class as valium, and it's used primarily as a sedative in minor 
surgeries like having your tooth extracted."

This drug designed for causing relaxation is the reason for a great tension. 
Midazolam will be the 1st drug injected into the veins of condemned prisoners 
in the Arkansas 3-drug "cocktail." 2 drugs after that stop the prisoners 
breathing and then the heart.

"The cocktail is meant to do it as rapidly as possible," Martin said.

At least that's the plan.

But midazolam has never been used in Arkansas in executions, and no state has 
ever successfully executed 2 inmates in 1 day using the sedative.

It's replacing a different class of drugs at the start of the process. 
Anesthetics like sodium pentothal were first used, but they are now virtually 
impossible for states to get for capital punishment.

So far, a handful of states have tried Midazolam, but in at least 4 cases, the 
sedative proved less effective at rendering the inmate unconscious, which left 
the prisoner feeling the pain of the other 2 drugs. The inmates slowly 
suffocated and eventually died of heart attacks

"If the goal is to be as humane as possible, I think the sodium pentothal may 
be a little more effective," said Martin.

That effectiveness and how much pain is endured are important legal questions, 
and the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual 
punishment.

The most dramatic of the 4 botched midazolam cases came in Oklahoma.

Clayton Lockett took 2 hours to die, groaning and struggling as the midazolam 
failed.

The case led to a later U.S. Supreme Court case and in 2015, the justices ruled 
in a 5-4 decision that the pain caused in midazolam lethal injections was 
constitutional.

Since 2013, there have been 17 midazolam executions, almost all in Florida, 
which first began using midazolam with the 1st one among those considered 
"botched" by anti-death penalty advocates. 3 states put executions on hold 
after problems and are keeping the midazolam debate alive.

Different experts are delivering opinions before state and federal judges, and 
so far, the science has failed to clearly decide the matter.

"I think pentothol may have a more anesthetic effect, but midazolam certainly 
has an anesthetic effect as well," Martin said.

Arkansas has had at least 2 other modern-day lethal injection executions get 
"botched." Both involved difficulty finding veins to attach the IV for the 
drugs, not the drugs themselves.

(source: KTHV news)

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

Organization Reaches Out to Inmates on Death Row


In less than a week, the executions of 8 Arkansas death row inmates will begin. 
On Tuesday, a silent vigil was held for the men sentenced to die. In attendance 
was the president of an organization dedicated to reaching out to inmates.

Maya Porter,Vigil Organizer - "These coming executions have just been weighing 
heavily on my mind and my heart. I thought I need to do something and I it 
occurred to me that a vigil, just to stand as a witness to the anguish. There's 
so much anguish for so many people around executions."

The Prison Story Project is a non-profit organization that started in 2012 to 
reach out to inmates who were - for the most part - small time offenders. "We 
go into the prison and we do creative writing story telling art. we enable 
prisoners to tell their stories. we take those stories unedited and put them in 
a script," Matt Henriksen said.

The organization then hires actors, who share the prisoners words with a live 
audience. In most instances, for the entire prison population. When Prison 
Story Project learned of the executions this month, the President of the Board 
of Directors, Matt Henriksen, said it decided to do something it's never done 
before: reach out to inmates on death row.

"It changed when we started working on death row because our mission is to 
bridge the gap between the incarcerated and the communities they return to. We 
didn't have that when we went to death row but what we did have was this ethic 
that we believe no voice should be silenced. Which put us into an interesting 
situation when we went to death row because these men had silenced voices 
forever and we had a lot of pause and hesitation around doing that but we 
followed that principle that no voice should be silenced."

Kenneth Williams, Stacey Johnson, and Northwest Arkansas native Don Davis, are 
scheduled to be executed before the end of the month. All 3 men participated in 
the Prison Story Project.

Henriksen said getting to know them on a personal level opened his eyes even 
more.

"A lot of them talking about going a decade before they described this sort of 
break where they had to confront the reality of who they are and what they had 
done and a lot of them had found very spiritual lives. We're all human, we can 
pretend that somebody who is a drug dealer, or somebody who committed some sort 
of felony robbery or murder isn't a human being but the fact is they are. They 
are human beings and we want to confront that head reality as it is."

Henriksen said the goal of Prison Story Project is not to tell people whether 
or not the death penalty is wrong, but to simply tell the inmates' stories.

"The thing that really convinced me that we were in the right place doing this 
is that they wanted to give back to the world some of the goodness in spite of 
the horrible things they had done."

The organization is making plans to see the inmates before the scheduled 
executions. Don Davis, the Northwest Arkansas native, is one of the first 2 men 
who will die my lethal injection on Monday.

(source: nwqhomepage.com)

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

Doctor Voices Concerns About Arkansas' Execution Plans


A doctor who specializes in anesthesiology and critical care testified in 
federal court Monday that he has concerns about Arkansas' plan to execute 7 
inmates this month using a 3-drug cocktail including the sedative midazolam.

"I'm concerned about the qualifications of the individuals that are to perform 
these sorts of things, I'm concerned about the combination of the medications 
and how they'll be prepared and how they'll be injected, I'm concerned about 
the way that they'll be handled and mixed, and I have serious concerns that if 
this is done as it's described that an inmate may not die, or death will be 
part of a very painful experience for the inmate," Dr. Joel Zivot said via live 
link from Atlanta.

Zivot, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, was the first person to 
testify in a hearing that is expected to last through Thursday in U.S. District 
Court in Little Rock. Judge Kristine Baker is considering a motion for a 
preliminary injunction in a lawsuit by the inmates alleging that the state's 
execution protocols and accelerated execution schedule will violate their 
constitutional rights.

The state's execution protocols call for each inmate to be injected first with 
midazolam, then with the paralytic vecuronium bromide, and finally with 
potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Midazolam has been used in executions in Oklahoma and Alabama during which 
inmates appeared to struggle on the gurney. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 
use of the drug in executions in a 5-4 decision in 2015, but several states 
have stopped using the drug because of the controversy surrounding it.

Zivot testified Monday that being injected with potassium chloride would be 
"extremely painful" and that midazolam would not block the pain.

"It's not simply that it's painful. It's painful because it's destroying the 
vein as it passes along its length," he said. "Midazolam will not prevent the 
destruction of the vein by potassium, nor will it block the pain."

Zivot said an inmate may not be able to move if injected with a paralytic 
before the potassium chloride, but he said that would not mean the inmate was 
not experiencing everything that was happening.

Cross-examination of Zivot by the state is scheduled for Thursday.

Among the other witnesses testifying Monday were Jennie Lancaster, a former 
North Carolina prison warden who talked about the stress that an execution 
places on prison staff, and Carol Wright, an Ohio-based federal public 
defender, who talked about the heavy workload involved in defending a client in 
a death-penalty case.

The suit alleges that Arkansas' execution protocols are inadequate and will 
subject the inmates to cruel and unusual punishment. It also alleges that the 
accelerated execution schedule will create a high risk of accidents and deny 
the inmates adequate access to counsel.

State Solicitor General Lee Rudofsky told Baker the inmates have not offered a 
reasonable, readily available alternative to the state's planned execution 
method that is certain not to inflict cruel and unusual punishment.

He also said the inmates' lawyers should be able to handle their workloads and 
said the prison staff can handle carrying out 7 executions in a short space of 
time.

"Such stress is part of the job," he said.

Rudofsky noted that the inmates have been challenging the state's method of 
execution since 2006.

"At some point, even death is at issue, enough really is enough," he said.

Arkansas has not executed an inmate since 2005 because of legal challenges and 
difficulty obtaining execution drugs. It is rushing to carry out executions 
this month before its supply of 1 execution drug expires April 30.

The hearing is scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

(source: Booneville Democrat)

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

Clemency denied for Jones


The Arkansas Parole Board unanimously decided Monday to deny recommending that 
Gov. Asa Hutchinson grant executive clemency to Jack Harold Jones Jr.

Jones, 52, on death row at Varner Supermax prison in Grady for the 1995 rape 
and murder of Mary Phillips in Bald Knob, awaits an April 24 execution date. 
The hearing on his application for clemency submitted by his attorney Jeff 
Rosenzweig of Little Rock was not attended by Jones on Friday. Instead, a 
letter was read on his behalf denying that he ever wanted clemency.

Phillips, 34, died of strangulation and blunt-force trauma June 6, 1995, at the 
hands of Jones. Her daughter Lacey, who was 11 at the time, also was thought to 
be dead later that night when Arkansas State Police found her while 
investigating the crime scene.

Lacey Phillips, now 32, said after learning Monday that Jones' clemency request 
had been denied that she is ready for April 24.

"It makes me feel excited to put that chapter of my life behind me," Phillips 
said. "And I'm sure it's going to give some of my family and mom's family and 
friends some closure that they've needed for a long, long time.

"I think we're there. Now we just get to wait until the 24th. It's been a long 
month."

Bill Lindsey, who retired from the state police in 2008, was one of the 
investigators at the crime scene. which was the accounting office in Bald Knob 
where Mary Phillips worked. He recalled that night after hearing Monday that 
clemency had not been recommended, saying that he remembers Lacey Phillips at 
that crime scene because as he took photos, the camera's flash woke her up.

"I do remember the picture," he said. "It was really a shock. We knew [Mary] 
was dead and we thought Lacey was too. I was doing the photographs." When the 
flash went off on my camera, well, she looked up at me with that one eye.

"She was very young. I hope she's doing OK" and Mr. Phillips, too."

Phillips said she takes life day by day and although Jones' execution dates 
have come and gone, it brings her "a bit of relief" to know that the day is 
approaching and nothing has happened yet to stay it this time.

"Well, I think it should have happened a long time ago myself," Lindsey said. 
"I don't think they should have waited this long to do the execution. It should 
have been taken care of a long time ago."

The parole board cited "sentence not considered excessive" and the "nature and 
seriousness of offense" as the reasons for not recommending the request.

"He had a pistol, latex gloves and wire," Chris Raff, then-prosecuting attorney 
for the 17th Judicial District, said in 2011 about the crime. "He used wire 
from a coffee pot to strangle Mary Phillips. This was a brutal and horrible 
case. I was out there at the scene while Mary was still there, and from seeing 
what he did to her and her daughter, I decided to seek the death penalty."

Lacey Phillips testified during the trial that Jones took her into a bathroom, 
tied her to a chair, then left. He later returned to choke her until she passed 
out and hit her at least eight times in the head with the barrel of a BB gun.

According to court records, in Jones' first appearance in court after his 
arrest, he told White County Circuit Judge Robert Edwards, "I don't want a 
lawyer. I did it."

Jones continued to implicate himself during the hearing, according to the 
transcript.

"There ain't no help for me," Jones said. "They just need to kill me. That's 
it. Just get it over with."

Jones is among 8 death-row inmates Arkansas planned to execute -- 2 per day for 
4 days -- over a 10-day period beginning April 17 before 1 of the drugs used 
for lethal injections expires at the end of the month.

1 of the inmates, Jason McGehee, has been granted a stay based on the parole 
board recommendation of clemency to the governor.

At his clemency hearing Friday, Jones said in his letter for the parole board, 
"I shall not ask to be forgiven."

Saying that he never has nor ever will want clemency, Jones said, "There's no 
way in hell I would spend another 20 years in this hellhole."

Arkansas Parole Board

What: Denied executive clemency for Jack Harold Jones Jr.

When: Monday following Friday hearing and victim impact portion of process

Why: Punishment not excessive; nature and seriousness of crime

(source: The Daily Caller)






CALIFORNIA:

Alleged Serial Killer Faces Death Penalty In Random SFV Shooting 
Spree----Prosecutors will seek death for a man accused of killing 5 people in a 
random killing spree across the San Fernando Valley.


The prosecution announced Tuesday that the death penalty will be sought for an 
ex-con from Sylmar who's charged with killing 5 people in the San Fernando 
Valley in 2014 -- 4 of them within less than a week.

Alexander Hernandez, 36, pleaded not guilty to the murders of Sergio Sanchez on 
March 14, 2014; Gilardo Morales on Aug. 21, 2014; and Gloria Tovar, Michael 
Planells and Mariana Franco on Aug. 24, 2014, along with the 11 attempted 
murders -- the bulk of which occurred between Aug. 20-24, 2014.

The murder counts include the special circumstance allegations of multiple 
murders and shooting from an occupied vehicle.

Hernandez is also facing 11 counts of attempted murder, 8 counts of shooting at 
an occupied vehicle, 3 counts of cruelty to an animal, 2 counts of possession 
of a firearm by a felon and 1 count each of discharge of a firearm with gross 
negligence and possession of ammunition by a felon.

The criminal complaint alleges that Hernandez has four prior convictions dating 
back to 2004, including possession for sale of methamphetamine, possession of a 
controlled substance with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Most of the victims were driving -- including home from prom or work, to church 
and en route to a fishing trip with their kids on Father's Day -- when they 
noticed a vehicle following them or pulling up alongside.

In most of the cases, the vehicle was Hernandez's tan Chevrolet Suburban, 
Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee said last year at a hearing in which 
the defendant was ordered to stand trial.

The SUV was identifiable by a hood that didn't close properly, stickers of "a 
white skull" and "666" on the back of the vehicle, its custom 6- spoked rims 
and other unique details, according to the prosecutor.

Housing for a side view mirror found at the Morales crime scene was matched to 
the Suburban, according to the prosecution.

But more gruesome links were also found by crime scene investigators, including 
"blood and bits of tissue" from Tovar's skull -- large enough to be "visible to 
the naked eye" -- found in the Suburban, Hanisee told the judge.

Tovar, 59, was shot to death while in her car in Pacoima, waiting to pick up a 
friend to go to church, according to the prosecutor.

Franco, 22, was driving with her parents when a gunman pulled up alongside in 
an SUV and said in Spanish, "I am going to kill you," before shooting Franco in 
the head. Her mother and father were also struck by bullets, but survived.

Planells, 29, was shot that same day while standing in a parking lot in Sylmar.

Video surveillance footage showed someone in a tan SUV "shoot Mr. Planells and 
casually drive out of the parking lot," Hanisee said.

The animal cruelty charges involve 3 dogs -- 2 of which were killed -- at the 
Pacoima home of a good Samaritan who testified that he had helped Hernandez 
jump-start his SUV about 10 days earlier.

Hernandez was arrested on Aug. 24, 2014, after barricading himself inside a 
Sylmar residence in the area of Polk Street and Kismet Avenue for about an 
hour.

Other unsolved shootings were later tied to the defendant, including a May 14, 
2014, drive-by attack that left a Chatsworth teenager paralyzed, according to 
the prosecutor.

The teen had just dropped his girlfriend at home following their high school 
prom and was waiting for a traffic light to change when a vehicle pulled 
alongside and a man shot him. 1 of the bullets struck his spine, causing 
paralysis, according to Hanisee.

At the start of the hearing last year in which Hernandez was ordered to stand 
trial, a defense attorney told the judge that the case involved "significant 
and complex mental state questions."

Hernandez is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom for a pretrial 
hearing June 27.

(soruce: patch.com)






USA:

Federal death penalty retrial to stay in Rutland


A federal judge says the upcoming death penalty retrial of the man charged with 
killing a Vermont supermarket worker in 2000 will be held in Rutland.

In his Monday order, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford rejected a 
request by the defense team of Donald Fell to move the trial from Rutland 
because of extensive pre-trial publicity.

In a separate order, Crawford ruled the jury would be chosen from 3,000 people 
from across the state.

Fell's 2nd trial for the kidnapping and killing of 53-year-old Terry King, who 
was abducted when she arrived for work and later killed, is scheduled to start 
Aug. 21.

The trial was postponed from February.

Fell was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005, but the verdict and sentence 
were overturned due to juror misconduct.

(source: Associated Press)