[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., FLA., OHIO, ARK., OKLA., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 23



TEXAS:

Death Sentence on Line for Would-Be Rapper in Triple Killing----A former 
University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff student who once aspired to become a famous 
rapper now faces a possible death penalty in a Dallas triple slaying.


A former University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff student who once aspired to become a 
famous rapper now has his life on the line after his capital murder conviction 
in the shooting deaths of three people at a Dallas drug house.

The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/2pSU8ee) reports the penalty phase opens 
Monday in the trial of 24-year-old Justin Pharez Smith, in which prosecutors 
will present evidence in their bid for a death sentence.

Prosecutors say a need for money compelled Smith to kill a man and 2 women in 
the August 2014 holdup. A woman and a man survived the attack and identified 
Smith as the killer.

Prosecutor Kobby Warren said Smith came to Dallas intending to get "on the dope 
game." The problem was "he was a terrible drug dealer."

(source: Associated Press)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Prosecution faces tough challenge in Frein death sentence phase


If Pike County prosecutors succeed in putting convicted cop killer Eric Matthew 
Frein on death row, they will buck the national trend of death sentences 
dramatically dropping over the past few decades.

Death sentences reached a peak between 1992 and 1994, when 315 defendants were 
sentenced to die, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The rate 
continued to drop over the years.

In 2016, just 30 defendants were sentenced to death, according to the Death 
Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that provides information 
and analysis on death penalty issues.

Legal experts say the decline is the result of several factors, including a 
reduction in the murder rate, increasing scrutiny by prosecutors in evaluating 
which cases to seek death, and the reluctance of jurors to impose death in all 
but the most heinous cases.

Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin went to great lengths to try to 
convince the Chester County jury deciding Frein's fate that he deserves to die 
by lethal injection for the Sept. 12, 2014, sniper attack at the Blooming Grove 
state police barracks that killed Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II,38, of Dunmore.

Frein, 33, of Canadensis, was convicted of 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree murder 
of a law enforcement officer and 10 other charges on Wednesday, stemming from 
the ambush that also severely injured Trooper Alex Douglass, 34, of Olyphant.

During the penalty phase that began Thursday, Tonkin presented several 
witnesses, including Dickson's widow and mother, who talked of the devastating 
impact his death had on them. The defense began presenting its case Friday 
afternoon. The hearing resumes Monday.

The case comes at a time when public support for capital punishment is at an 
all-time low.

A 2016 survey by Pew Research Center shows 49 % of Americans support the death 
penalty. That is down from a peak of 80 % who supported it the mid-1990s.

"There has been a very effective effort by anti-death penalty folks to convince 
people the death penalty is unfair to minorities and is not being imposed 
fairly," said Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, a vocal 
death penalty supporter. "Some of that public campaigning has an impact on 
jurors."

The decline in support has been fueled, in part, by the number of death row 
inmates who have been exonerated, said Robert Dunhan, executive director of the 
Death Penalty Information Center. Since 1972, 158 people sentenced to death 
have been exonerated, according to the center.

"Americans are reaching the point that they feel they can't trust the 
government," Dunhan said. "The public does not want a system that has a high 
risk of sentencing innocent people to death."

Joshua Marquis, a board member of the National District Attorney's Association, 
said he believes the decline in death sentences is tied more to the reduction 
in the nation's murder rate. In 2015, the murder rate was 4.9 murders per 
100,000 people, according to the Department of Justice. Throughout the 1980s 
and '90s, the per capita murder rate ranged from a low of 5.7 in 1999 to 10.2 
in 1980.

Morganelli and Marquis agree jurors today closely scrutinize cases and are only 
willing to impose death in the most egregious cases. That is how it should be, 
they said, and has led prosecutors to be more selective in the type of cases 
for which they seek death.

Marquis, a district attorney in Clatsop County, Oregon, said he prosecuted 
about 12 cases where he could have sought death, but has only done so in 2.

"As a prosecutor you have to ask, should you really be seeking death except 
only in the worst of the worst cases?" he said. "I have to look at the 
likelihood of success because it's extremely expensive for both sides."

There is no dispute Frein's crime was heinous. His attorneys face a monumental 
task in countering that fact to save his life, said attorney Ernest Preate of 
Scranton, a former Lackawanna County district attorney who secured death 
sentences against 5 defendants from the late '70s to mid-'80s.

"It's a strong case," Preate said. "You killed a cop and you did it in an 
ambush. He (Dickson) was defenseless."

Frein's attorneys, William Ruzzo and Michael Weinstein, indicated they will 
focus their argument in the penalty phase on seeking mercy for Frein. In his 
opening statement for the penalty phase on Thursday, Ruzzo reminded jurors that 
Frein's convictions for 1st-degree murder and 1st-degree murder of a law 
enforcement officer carry mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole.

"You sentenced Eric Frein to death by imprisonment," Ruzzo told the jury. "Now, 
what we are talking about is if Eric Frein dies a natural death in prison, or 
if he dies on a gurney."

The case ultimately comes down to the jurors. The panel has been deemed "death 
qualified," meaning they assured the court their personal view on the death 
penalty will not impact their ability to follow the law and impose death if the 
evidence supports it.

Saying you can sentence someone to death and actually doing it are 2 different 
things, Preate said.

"You are going to come into the courtroom, stand up and look at the defendant 
and say, 'I'm going to put you to death,'" Preate said. "When the time comes, 
can you really do it?"

(source: Standard Speaker)






FLORIDA:

Gov. Scott should respect death penalty denial


Earlier this month, Orange-Osceola County State Attorney Aramis Ayala announced 
that she would not seek death sentences during her term in office.

This announcement was not made in a vacuum, and conservatives should applaud 
her willingness to name a broken government program.

Florida's death penalty statute was ruled unconstitutional 2 times in the last 
3 years, and hundreds of cases are coming back for new sentencing trials.

Immediately after the announcement, Gov. Rick Scott removed her from the highly 
publicized Markeith Loyd case, in which he is accused of killing his 
ex-girlfriend as well as a police officer.

Gov. Scott claims Ayala "has made it clear that she will not fight for 
justice," which couldn???t be further from the truth. While Scott appears to be 
overreaching and defending an irrevocably broken death penalty system, she is 
the one honestly addressing the problems and she has the authority to figure 
out what best serves her community.

Gov. Scott???s interposition into the 9th Judicial Circuit is little more than 
state government intrusion into local business.

The people of Orange and Osceola counties duly elected Ayala to use her 
discretion. However, as soon as she exercised it in a way that wasn't in 
lockstep with the governor, he sought to circumvent the powers of her office 
and the will of the people who elected her.

Conservatives appreciate limited government and deferring major decisions to 
the local level. Gov. Scott is quite clearly overstepping his bounds in 
violating these principles. Despite Scott's attempted power grab, there are a 
host of other reasons why conservatives should stand and support Ayala.

Since 1979, Florida has executed 92 inmates but wrongly convicted and released 
26 from death row - more than any other state. Wrongful convictions largely 
stem from official misconduct, mistaken eyewitness testimony or reliance on 
unscientific or forged forensics.

Study after study has proved death cases are exponentially more expensive than 
life without parole. Data suggests that the price tag can easily be 10 times 
more expensive than similar non-capital cases.

Historically, and to afford these rising costs, several counties have raised 
taxes, cut government jobs and misallocated resources that could have been 
spent aiding murder victims' families. Ayala understands this and wishes to be 
a good steward of taxpayer money, which is where fiscal conservatives can find 
common ground with her - especially given that the death penalty doesn???t 
benefit society.

There is no proof that the death penalty lowers murder rates. In fact, 
homicides have dropped in many places where the death penalty has been banned. 
The truth is people who commit heinous crimes do so without considering the 
possible punishments.

The death penalty doesn't deter these individuals. All it does is take valuable 
resources away from the taxpayers and harm murder victims' loved ones.

Because of the drawn out, uncertain and tiring nature of capital trials, 
families of victims are often plagued with constant grief on a level few can 
ever understand.

The trials wear on the families, but it turns out that these trials and the 
subsequent appeals take exponentially longer, keeping the family waiting in 
painful uncertainty for decades as the process continues without end.

Due to the increased publicity and mandated legal proceedings, these 
individuals endure constant reminders of the worst moments of their lives.

It is understandable that Ayala has decided to not seek the death penalty. Gov. 
Scott should respect the will of the people who voted for her. Her decision 
makes sense for her community.

(source: Kelli Huck is a junior accounting and finance student at Flagler 
College. She is the Florida state chair for Young Americans for Liberty, as 
well the Florida outreach specialist for Conservatives Concerned about the 
Death Penalty, a Project of EJUSA----St. Augustine Record)

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

Is end of death penalty within sight?


The death penalty has been a disaster in Florida. The state has botched 
executions and leads the nation in death-row exonerations since the death 
penalty was reinstituted.

Such problems should give liberal death-penalty opponents common cause with 
conservatives who have a healthy skepticism about government. Yet Florida's 
Republican-run Legislature keeps tinkering with the death penalty rather than 
ditching it entirely.

But Adam Tebrugge has another argument that might win them over: The death 
penalty is a major example of wasteful government spending. The money that 
Florida spends on capital punishment could be reinvested in community policing, 
mental-health services and other programs that improve public safety.

Tebrugge, a Bradenton attorney with extensive death-penalty experience, 
recently spoke in Gainesville. I must admit doubt about the title of his 
speech, "The end of the death penalty in Florida is within sight."

But Tebrugge, who also stopped by The Sun to talk, has a series of recent 
events supporting his case. U.S. executions hit record lows in 2016, in part 
due to legal challenges and drug shortages. Arkansas had planned 8 executions 
in 11 days before one of its execution drugs expired, but the courts have 
blocked several of them.

Here in Florida, executions were on hold as lawmakers struggled to craft a 
death penalty that passed constitutional muster. They reluctantly required 
unanimous jury verdicts for death sentences, but failed to address other 
problems such as racial disparities in death sentences.

Central Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala has given death-penalty opponents 
new hope that the end to executions is near. Her refusal to seek death 
sentences has sparked a high-profile battle with the governor, bringing renewed 
attention to the death penalty's problems.

In Tebrugge's view, cost is another compelling reason to end capital 
punishment. Florida's death penalty is estimated to cost taxpayers about $50 
million a year more than sentencing murderers to life in prison without parole 
- a price tag that is based on a decades-old study and has almost certainly 
risen higher since that time.

(source: Op-Ed, Nathan Crabbe----The Gainesville Sun)

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

New state attorney tells exonerees his office is about justice


Debra Milke knew the date she was going to die. "It was January of 1998," Milke 
said.

She was on Arizona's death row for nearly half of her life for a crime she did 
not commit. Milke was falsely accused and convicted of killing her own son. New 
state attorney tells exonerees his office is about justice

But an appeals court overturned her conviction in 2013.

"I was just bawling and bawling. Someone finally believed me. A judge, in fact, 
three judges," Milke said.

Milke is far from alone. A group of exonorees are meeting in Tampa to share 
their stories of injustice.

"What happened to me can happen to anyone. You don't have to be a criminal to 
get in the system," said Milke.

Hillsborough County's new state attorney, Andrew Warren shared with the group 
his vision of what justice looks like.

"You have to train people, re-educate them, and change the culture so that 
people understand their job is not to obtain convictions. Their job is to seek 
justice," Warren said.

Joaquin Martinez, who was wrongfully convicted and exonerated, agreed with the 
state attorney's vision.

"It's an honor for me to see you here today, " Martinez told Warren.

"We need more guys like you," another man told Warren.

The sentiments from these former death row inmates are much different than 
those in an envelope sent to the state attorney in Orange County. Aramis Ayala 
received a noose and a hate-filled letter after she said her office will not 
seek the death penalty on any case. The comments were made in regard to state 
lawmakers' struggles to iron out the death penalty sentencing, because the 
Supreme Court found the states procedures were unconstitutional.

After Ayala's declaration and the following firestorm, Governor Rick Scott 
removed her from all capitol cases and re-assigned them to a special 
prosecutor.

Back in Tampa, Warren was asked about Ayala's situation.

"The state attorney in Orlando is accountable to the voters in her jurisdiction 
for those decisions," he explained.

Warren says his office will seek the death penalty for the worst of the worst. 
But as an innocent person who sat on death row for decades, Debra Milke wants 
it gone.

"There are 158 of us that have been exonerated from death row, so clearly 
something's wrong," said Milke.

(source: Fox News)





OHIO:

Prison chaplain pleads for life of death row inmate


Every few weeks Chris Gebhart gets in his car and takes a drive into scenic 
southeast Ohio to visit men awaiting death.

Gebhart, retired president of finance, controller, and member of the board of 
directors for 26 years at Gold Medal Products, describes himself as a "squeaky 
clean guy" who answered a call to serve as a spiritual advisor to men confined 
in state penal institutions.

After several years serving at the Lebanon and Warren Correctional 
Institutions, the Liberty Township man was asked to take his ministry to death 
row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution.

"It was a calling from God, period," he said. "I was never involved in a 
prison. I did stuff with the homeless and stuff like, that, but prison ministry 
was in my heart."

After 2 years of study in the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program at the Athenaeum of 
Ohio and a chaplaincy course offered by the Hamilton County Jail, the 2 Warren 
County state penal institutions welcomed him. He taught Catholic religion and 
the Bible at both, while also helping illiterate inmates learn to read and 
write.

During those years Gebhart met Wanda Jackson, religious administrator for the 
State of Ohio, who works with wardens, deputy wardens, and chaplains.

"She interviewed me. We clicked. I told her I would really, really like to 
visit men on death row," Gebhart said.

When the state moved death row from Youngstown to Chillicothe, Jackson called. 
Gebhart's dream was realized. Today, 138 men call death row home. Gebhart is 
closest to about 10 of them.

One is Ron Phillips and Gebhart is fighting for the convicted murder's life. 
Phillips is on death row for the 1993 rape and death of his girlfriend's 
3-year-old daughter in Akron. He is scheduled to die on May 10, after 24 years 
on Death Row, unless a challenge arguing that Ohio's chemical cocktail 
constitutes cruel and unusual punishment prevails. "He was 19 then. He's 43 
now. He has dedicated his life on death row to serving other people," Gebhart 
said. "He has gotten to the point where other inmates on death row see 
something special in him and they come to him with problems."

But at Phillips's clemency hearing, Chief Assistant Summit County Prosecutor 
Brad Gessner argued for the 3-year-old victim and "her tragically short life. 
The crime committed against her," he said, "has to be acknowledged." Quoting 
Akron Children's Hospital records, Gessner said Sheila, "was literally dying 
from inside out" from her injuries, and that "this is the worst of the worst 
form of the offense and whoever commits it is also the worst type of offender."

Donna Hudson, Sheila's aunt, told the hearing panel that "Sheila never had the 
opportunity to go to school, to get married, to have children." She asked that 
the execution go forward as "justice... for Sheila and the Evans family."

But Gebhart is convinced that Phillips should live. "Ron is a totally changed 
person," he said. "He has worked hard to improve himself and has become a very 
religious and moral individual. Ron's greatest desire is to study and become a 
prison minister, and minister to his fellow inmates behind prison walls."

"Ron Phillips should not be executed," he said. "Ron is genuinely sorry for 
everything that he has done and has prayed for God's forgiveness and for 
forgiveness from [his victim] and her family. I have heard Ron pray aloud, many 
times, for forgiveness from his young victim and her family. He has told me 
that there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't think about what he did."

"The Catholic Church teaches that God created all of us in His image and 
likeness - and all life, from conception to natural death - is sacred. I am 
asking everyone to take a few minutes and send Governor John Kasich a letter 
opposing the death penalty and to plead for Ron's life," Gebhart said.

Address letters to Gov. John Kasich, Riffe Center, 30th Floor, 77 South High 
Street, Columbus, OH 43215-6117. The phone number is (614)-466- 3555

What Catholic Church leaders have to say about the Death Penalty:

"Indeed, nowadays the death penalty is unacceptable, however grave the crime of 
the convicted person. It is an offence to the inviolability of life and to the 
dignity of the human person; it likewise contradicts God's plan for individuals 
and society, and his merciful justice. Nor is it consonant with any just 
purpose of punishment. It does not render justice to victims, but instead 
fosters vengeance. The commandment "Thou shalt not kill" has absolute value and 
applies both to the innocent and to the guilty." (From the video message of His 
Holiness Pope Francis to the 6th World Congress Against the Death Penalty 
[OSLO, 21-23 JUNE 2016]

"Just punishment is a vehicle for the correction and conversion of the sinner. 
It serves to defend society and its members, and provides for the restoration 
of the public order made chaotic by the perpetrated crime. However, just 
punishment can occur - and does occur - without resorting to the death penalty. 
If it is not absolutely necessary to use the death penalty to defend and 
protect people's safety from the aggressor, the state is obligated to use 
"non-lethal means" (Catechism of Catholic Church, #2267). Other states and 
other countries have found effective ways to protect society by justly 
punishing offenders through non-lethal means. Ohio should do the same." (From 
the Catholic Bishops of Ohio regarding the Death Penalty, December 2015)

Scripture Connection: ???When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the 
angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations* 
will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a 
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his 
right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was 
thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you 
clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.' Then the 
righteous* will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed 
you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome 
you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit 
you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you 
did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25: 31-40

(source: The Catholic Telegraph)






ARKANSAS----impending executions

No stay for Jones


Since 1 of the 8 originally scheduled executions now has been carried out by 
the state and legal challenges by the attorney for Jack Harold Jones Jr. have 
failed, the victims' family is fairly confident he will be executed Monday for 
the 1995 rape and murder of Mary Phillips in Bald Knob.

"Yes, I am hopeful the execution will finally take place and my family will be 
there and are ready for the end of this, Lacey Phillips said Saturday. Lacey 
Phillips, who was 11 at the time, was choked unconscious and nearly beaten to 
death by Jones.

Jones is set to be put to death by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Monday at the 
Cummins prison unit in Grady after U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker ruled 
Friday that she would not block the 2 executions set for that day, rejecting 
the men's claim that their poor health could make the lethal injections 
especially painful. (The other inmate scheduled to die is Marcel Williams.)

Jones takes a variety of medications - including methadone for pain - related 
to his diabetes, which caused an in infection causing one of his legs to be 
amputated, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney disease and obesity 
and his attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, argues that his death could 
be "prolonged and painful."

Rosenzweig had said at Jones' clemency hearing before the Arkansas Parole Board 
on April 7 that he worried all the medications Jones had to take might 
interfere with the lethal injection cocktail.

On Thursday, Arkansas carried out its 1st execution since 2005, putting Ledell 
Lee to death. The state had scheduled eight executions over an 11-day period 
before the end of April, when its supply of midazolam, one of its lethal 
injection drugs, expires. The first 3 executions were canceled because of court 
decisions, while a stay also in place for another scheduled for this week.

Jones, 52, has been on death row since he was given the death penalty 1996 
after raping and strangling to death 34-year-old Mary Phillips in a Bald Knob 
accounting office where she was employed as a bookkeeper. Lacey Phillips had 
been tied to a chair in the bathroom of the office and was thought to be dead 
when investigators arrived on scene. Jones also has been convicted of raping 
and murdering a woman in Florida

. Jones has never denied the crime. He admitted swiftly killing Mary and 
attempting to kill Lacey, who he thought was dead after beating her with a BB 
gun several times that June afternoon.

In his 1st court appearance before White County Judge Robert Edwards after the 
crime, he refused an attorney, claiming that he "did it" and was ready to die.

His letter read by his attorney at the April 7 clemency hearing echoed his 
desire to be executed. He also apologized, but said he was not asking for 
forgiveness, and denied ever wanting clemency to begin with.

Arkansas death row

What: U.S. District judge will not block executions of 2 inmates set to die 
Monday, including Jack Harold Jones Jr., 52, convicted in 1996 of rape and 
murder of Mary Phillips in Bald Knob, attempted murder of her daughter

When: Friday

Why: Rejected claim that poor health could make lethal injections especially 
painful

(source: The Daily Citizen)

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

Death row inmate's sister pleading to witness execution


Jack Jones Jr. is one of the death row inmates scheduled to be executed on 
Monday. While Jones has filed lawsuits in solidarity with the 7 other death row 
inmates, he told the clemency board that he wants to be executed.

His sister says she would like to be a witness at his execution, but the 
Arkansas Department of Corrections is saying no.

Lynn Scott says she doesn't believe in the death penalty, but she's stopped 
fighting for her brother's life out of respect for his wishes.

All she wants is to be there when he's executed.

Jack Jones is in his 20th year on death row for raping and killing Mary 
Phillips and trying to kill her daughter Lacy.

Lacy recently spoke at his latest clemency hearing saying she doesn't want to 
live another day knowing he's alive: "I've heard eye for an eye, tooth for a 
tooth. And I think it's time."

Lynn understands. When she got the call about her brother's crimes, the anger 
and guilt she felt began taking a toll on her health: "I was pregnant at the 
time and it put a huge strain on me, to the fact that the doctors were afraid 
that I might go into labor early. It was mind boggling what he had done."

She's doesn't want to interfere with the executions or be in the same room with 
the victim's family: "I would love to see that family, and tell me how 
remorseful and sorry I am, but it's not about that... I am not trying to take 
anything away from them at all."

She just wants to be there for her brother: "I find it hard to believe that 
anyone who has a family member that committed such a horrible crime, to know on 
the day that they're losing their life... Would you still walk away from them?"

Lynn says, if she is not there, she'll get her 1st notification of death from 
the media. "I just can't fathom finding out the results of my brother's death 
by a tweet."

The Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesman Solomon Graves says it???s 
their policy not to allow any witnesses from the death row inmate's family:

Arkansas code annotated 16 - 90 - 502 largely establishes the individuals who 
are permitted to witness an execution. By law the execution itself is a private 
event. Departmental policy regarding execution witnesses is consistent with the 
previously mentioned statute, to include its consideration of the security risk 
posed by any potential witness. As a result, the policy does not permit the 
family of the inmate to view the execution. Witness slots are reserved for the 
citizen witnesses set out by law, the victim witnesses set out by law, media 
witnesses, The attorney and spiritual advisor for the inmate, and the ADC staff 
designated by the director as being necessary to carry out the sentence. It 
should also be noted, that the viewing room is limited in its capacity and a 
video feed is, by law, only permitted for the surviving innocent victim or 
victim family. Beginning 5 days in advance of the schedule execution, the 
inmate is given opportunity to visit daily with members of his/her family who 
are on the inmate's approved visitor list. Family is not permitted to visit the 
day of the execution.

Lynn says as of now she plans on being outside the Cummins Unit on Monday.

(source: KATV news)

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

Judge Declines to Block Executions of 2 Arkansas Inmates


A federal district judge in Arkansas declined 2 inmates' plea on Friday night 
to block the use of a controversial lethal injection drug, which is set to 
expire at the end of the month.

Jack Jones and Marcel Williams are scheduled to be put to death on Monday night 
and they asked the courts to stop the Arkansas Department of Correction from 
using midazolam because they believe it would cause them unnecessary harm due 
to their obesity and other health reasons.

District Court Judge Kristine Baker wrote that the 2 inmates' argument "falls 
short of demonstrating a significant possibility ... that the Arkansas protocol 
is 'sure or very likely' to cause severe pain and needless suffering."

Jones and Williams are the next 2 death row inmates scheduled to be put to 
death in a unprecedented schedule set by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. The 
state originally planned to put eight men to death at the very end of the month 
because the midazolam was expiring.

Midazolam is the 1st drug in a 3-drug lethal injection cocktail that is meant 
to render the inmate unconscious. It is followed by a paralytic to stop 
movement and breathing and then potassium chloride, which stops the heart. 
Midazolam has not worked in some instances, and inmates have woken up during 
the procedure in pain while the other 2 drugs work through their systems.

Jones and Williams suffer from diabetes, sleep apnea and hypertension, which 
they argued could lead to "botched" executions.

According to Dr. Joel Zivot, an Emory University Hospital physician, Jones and 
Williams gained an incredible amount of weight in prison, leading to their 
diabetes. Jones has even had an amputation because of his poor circulation 
related to the condition.

Because of their poor circulation, these lethal injection drugs would not work 
properly and they would die a painful death, the 2 men's lawyers claimed.

Jones also takes the pain reliever methadone and gabapentin, an anticonvulsant, 
regularly. Zivot said the regular use of those 2 drugs would decrease Jones' 
sensitivity to midazolam.

But Baker, the district judge, was not convinced.

She wrote that Jones and Williams failed to prove that this method of execution 
would be unnecessarily cruel and painful and that they did not provide a viable 
execution substitute. The 2 death row inmates had the burden of fulfilling a 
two-prong test established by U.S. Supreme Court decisions Baze v. Rees and 
Glossip v. Gross.

"Plaintiffs have the burden of proving that 'the State's lethal injection 
protocol creates a demonstrated risk of severe pain' and 'the risk is 
substantial when compared to the known and available alternatives,'" she said 
in the decision.

In a separate case filed jointly by the eight inmates, their lawyers argued 
that the firing squad would be more humane than the midazolam lethal injection 
protocol.

The Arkansas Department of Correction released a few records on Saturday about 
Thursday's execution of death row inmate Ledell Lee - the state's 1st use of 
capital punishment in nearly 12 years.

The log, made for internal affairs, details Lee's final day and when he did 
basic actions like taking a shower or eating his last meal.

Lee took the sacrament of Communion as his official last meal, though the 
report notes that he ate a "regular tray" of prison food as well.

The report states that he ate all that food and the communion wafer between 
2:44 p.m. and 2:48 p.m. CT on Thursday.

Lee dressed in "clean whites" at 6:18 p.m. in a cell close to the gurney he 
would die on, but he did not arrive to the death chamber until more than 5 
hours later because his case was delayed by an appeals court and the U.S. 
Supreme Court.

The Arkansas Department of Correction coroner pronounced Lee dead at 11:56 p.m. 
His body was taken from the room less than 15 minutes later.

The Department of Correction also provided a list of the witnesses who watched 
the execution happen, which is required by Arkansas law. Lee's death was 
watched by 12 citizen witnesses, 6 victim witnesses and 3 media witnesses.

(source: NBC news)

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

Arkansas events show legal risk of ambitious execution schedule


Arkansas' push to put 8 men to death in less than 2 weeks has so far resulted 
in just 1 lethal injection, and legal experts say that shows the risks of 
pursuing the nation's most ambitious execution schedule since the death penalty 
was restored in 1976.

Ledell Lee was executed minutes before his death warrant was set to expire late 
Thursday. It was the 1st time since 2005 that Arkansas had put an inmate to 
death.

3 other planned executions were canceled this week because of court decisions. 
Another inmate scheduled for execution next week has received a stay. And 3 
remaining lethal injections face similar hurdles.

"If I were in the state's shoes, I would be prepared for almost double the 
level of scrutiny," said Brian Gallini, a law professor at the University of 
Arkansas in Fayetteville.

At the heart of Arkansas' plans is the sedative midazolam, 1 of 3 drugs used in 
lethal injections. The state is racing to carry out the executions before its 
supply of midazolam expires at the end of the month.

State officials said Friday that they were prepared to move forward with the 
remaining executions, starting with a double execution on Monday and a single 
execution on Thursday.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson's office acknowledged that the original plan confronted 
tall obstacles.

"He knew there was a chance that not all of them would go through," said J.R. 
Davis, a spokesman for Hutchinson. "It's not surprising that some of the 
executions have been stayed, but obviously last night we felt the right 
decision was handed down."

Lawyers for Marcel Williams and Jack Jones, the 2 inmates set for execution 
Monday, have filed several legal challenges in hopes of the stopping the 
executions. A federal judge on Friday rejected claims that the inmates' poor 
health could make their lethal injections especially painful. Williams has also 
filed a challenge that claims his lawyers at trial were ineffectual.

Jeff Rosenzweig, an attorney for Jones, said the inmates' conditions raise the 
likelihood of complications that were not apparent in Lee's execution. Williams 
is obese and diabetic. Jones has diabetes, high blood pressure and has had a 
leg amputated in prison.

Authorities received the go-ahead to execute Lee after the U.S. Supreme Court 
rejected his last appeals. At least one high court justice expressed 
reservations about the state's push to execute the inmates before its drug 
expired.

"In my view, that factor, when considered as a determining factor separating 
those who live from those who die, is close to random," Justice Stephen Breyer 
wrote Thursday in a dissent.

The legal fight over the executions also included an effort to prevent the 
state from using another lethal injection drug that its maker said it was 
misled into selling the prison system, not knowing it would be used for capital 
punishment.

Vecuronium bromide halts an inmate's breathing. The state Supreme Court lifted 
a judge's order preventing its use hours before Lee's execution.

Critics are calling the executions, which the state has struggled to find 
volunteers to witness, an "assembly line of death."

Inmates' attorneys also failed in efforts to block the executions based on 
concerns about midazolam, which has been used in flawed executions in other 
states.

There were no apparent signs of complications or suffering during Lee's 
execution, which lasted 12 minutes. But critics of midazolam say that does 
little to allay their concerns that the drug may not render inmates fully 
unconscious before they receive drugs to stop their hearts and lungs.

"I don't know what the state is thinking, but just because this one appears to 
have gone off without a hitch doesn't meant that there are not problems," said 
Dale Baich, an assistant federal public defender who witnessed Joseph Rudolph 
Wood's slow death in a lethal injection that involved midazolam in 2014 in 
Arizona.

Attorneys for the inmates have complained the schedule is stretching their 
resources thin as they work against the clock. It's also posing a challenge for 
the state's attorneys, who have been fighting on multiple fronts. The attorney 
general's office says 20 to 30 of its attorneys have been handling cases 
related to the inmates' executions.

"We are working to ensure that those sentences are carried out and that justice 
is served," Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said.

Gallini said trying to salvage the rest of the execution schedule could invite 
even more intense legal battles "because what started out as kind of a press 
release and a decision has ballooned" into trending hashtags and international 
news coverage.

That extra attention, he said, "has brought some major litigation players to 
the table."

(source: Chicago Tribune)






OKLAHOMA:

Commission to release findings, recommendations on Oklahoma's death penalty 
practices----Government ??? Executions for the state have been on hold since 
October 2015


More than 2 years after the state of Oklahoma last carried out an execution, a 
commission spearheaded by former Gov. Brad Henry is set to announce its 
findings and recommendations in a nearly 300-page report about the state's use 
of the death penalty.

Executions in Oklahoma have been on hold since Oct. 1, 2015, the day after 
Richard Glossip received his 3rd stay of execution because the Oklahoma 
Department of Corrections did not have the right drugs as specified in the 
DOC's lethal injection protocol.

A multicounty grand jury issued a highly critical report nearly a year ago 
related to multiple agencies' handling of Glossip's case and the January 2015 
execution of Charles Warner, and it doesn't appear as though anyone involved is 
any closer to being able to resume the use of capital punishment.

"We're working on it. We are not in a position right now to get specifics on 
what they're doing," DOC Director of Communications Mark Myers said Friday 
afternoon.

When asked about the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission's work, Myers 
said it was his understanding that the inquiry would look into more issues than 
the work of the grand jury last May.

The Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, of which Henry is co-chairman, 
will announce its findings to the public Tuesday afternoon at the state 
Capitol. The commission said it had 10 full-day meetings, held numerous 
conference calls, commissioned independent studies and conducted interviews 
with people from all sides of the issue, including with family members of 
people who were wrongfully convicted.

The 11-member group said it studied the process from initial arrest and 
interrogation through the executions themselves, and said it includes opponents 
and supporters of the death penalty "because their commitment to justice and 
fairness trumps their political and ideological differences."

"In response to the stay and the grand jury report, the Oklahoma Department of 
Corrections is revising its execution protocol. While this is an important step 
forward, many steps in Oklahoma's capital punishment process had been subjected 
to little examination," the commission wrote on its website. "Commissioners 
came together to conduct an independent review of all phases of the death 
penalty in Oklahoma and, in issuing its report, aims to provide Oklahomans with 
the information and resources necessary to make informed judgments about the 
state's death penalty system."

Then-Attorney General Scott Pruitt asked for an indefinite stay in early 
October 2015 after learning Warner was put to death with potassium acetate 
instead of potassium chloride in a violation of protocol. The DOC also received 
potassium acetate for Glossip's scheduled execution, which prompted officials 
to notify Gov. Mary Fallin's office about the mistake.

A federal lawsuit by Oklahoma inmates relating to constitutionality concerns 
about the choice of lethal injection drugs - in which Glossip is the lead 
plaintiff - remains administratively closed as the DOC continues to review and 
overhaul its execution-related policies.

Until the DOC releases its finalized lethal injection protocol, the Oklahoma 
Attorney General is unable to inform the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, 
which granted Pruitt's request for the stay, that the more than 10 inmates who 
have exhausted their appeals can receive an execution date. The attorney 
general is supposed to set an execution schedule at least 5 months after the 
release of the protocol, records show.

An Oct. 16, 2015, administrative order in the federal case states Glossip and 
the other inmates can move to reopen it after four requirements are met: when 
all investigations known by the Attorney General into the DOC's execution 
procedures are complete; when the results of those investigations are public; 
when they have received notice the DOC amended its protocol; and when the DOC 
gives word it can comply.

The grand jury's report stated Fallin's then-general counsel, Steve Mullins, 
initially recommended the DOC proceed with the execution despite the mix-up and 
told an assistant attorney general to "Google it" when she asked whether 
potassium acetate and potassium chloride were interchangeable.

Mullins resigned in February 2016, which followed the October 2015 retirement 
of Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Anita Trammell and the resignation of DOC 
Director Robert Patton about 2 months later. Trammell was present for Warner's 
execution, Glossip's scheduled execution and the 2014 execution of Clayton 
Lockett that went awry.

Arkansas conducted its 1st lethal injection in 12 years on Thursday, which 
resulted in the death of Ledell Lee 4 minutes before his death warrant expired. 
The state wanted to put 8 people to death in 10 days, citing its worry that its 
supply of midazolam - which became controversial due to Lockett's execution, 
among others - would expire.

The Associated Press reported Lee's execution lasted 12 minutes and was carried 
out without any apparent glitches.

(source: Tulsa World)






CALIFORNIA:

California Moves - Slowly - Toward Resuming Executions----California has long 
been what one expert calls a "symbolic death penalty state," but it might be 
easing back toward allowing executions, prodded by voters and lawsuits.


California has long been what one expert calls a "symbolic death penalty 
state," 1 of 12 that has capital punishment on the books but has not executed 
anyone in more than a decade.

Prodded by voters and lawsuits, the nation's most populous state may now be 
easing back toward allowing executions, though observers are split on how 
quickly they will resume, if at all.

Corrections officials expect to meet a Wednesday deadline to submit revised 
lethal injection rules to state regulators, trying again with technical changes 
after the first attempt was rejected in December.

The California Supreme Court, meanwhile, is expected to rule by August on 
challenges to a ballot initiative narrowly approved by voters in November that 
would speed up executions by reducing the time allowed for appeals.

Still, it is a far cry from the situation in Arkansas, which carried out its 
1st execution since 2005 last week after trying to put 8 inmates to death this 
month in an unprecedented series of double executions. Courts have blocked 3 of 
them. Legal rulings have put at least 1 other in doubt.

California could come close to resuming executions in the next year, said law 
professor Robert Weisberg, co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, 
though others say too many variables and challenges remain to make a 
prediction.

California has by far the nation's largest death row with nearly 750 inmates, 
about double that of No. 2 Florida.

The state's proposed lethal injection regulations are patterned after a 
single-drug process that already passed muster with the U.S. Supreme Court, 
Weisberg said.

Corrections officials submitted the regulations only after they were forced to 
act by a judge's ruling on behalf of crime victims angered at the state's 
3-year delay. But the regulations replacing California's old 3-drug method are 
likely to be approved at some point, Weisberg said.

Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law and an expert on 
lethal injections, was among those who said recent revisions to the state's 
proposed regulations still don't cure underlying problems that can lead to 
botched executions.

For instance, the proposed rules now give executioners 10 minutes to administer 
each round of lethal drugs. The 1st batch is supposed to kill, but if that 
initial dose doesn't work, executioners would administer four more similar 
doses, each with a 10-minute countdown clock to make sure the process doesn't 
drag on for hours as critics said was a possibility under the original rules.

If the inmate is still alive after five massive doses, "the San Quentin Warden 
shall stop the execution and summon medical assistance for the inmate."

The regulations still call for letting the warden at San Quentin State Prison 
pick from among 4 powerful barbiturates - amobarbital, pentobarbital, 
secobarbital or thiopental - depending on which one is available as 
manufacturers try to limit the use of their drugs for executions. Inmates could 
also choose to die in the gas chamber.

The Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic, which opposes executions, says 
amobarbital and secobarbital have never been used in executions. The clinic 
said problems remain over how the drugs would be obtained and administered.

Officials in several other states with long-delayed executions have said their 
efforts to carry out the death penalty have been thwarted by a lack of lethal 
drugs.

Arkansas was rushing to try to execute as many inmates as possible before its 
supply of the controversial sedative midazolam expires at month's end. 
Midazolam would not be used under California's regulations.

Denno said California's regulations would still conceal the identities, 
training and experience of the execution team, crucial information since the 
deadly drugs must be properly measured, mixed and administered to ensure a 
painless death.

"It's a complicated process, and everything has to be going right, and it's so 
easy in a prison context for everything not to go right," she said. She equated 
it to letting amateurs provide anesthesia for surgery.

Denno and other experts said the new rules eventually will have to pass the 
scrutiny of U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, who halted executions in 
the state in early 2006 and ordered prison officials to improve their lethal 
injection process.

California voters have eased penalties for many crimes in recent years but have 
repeatedly rejected efforts to end the death penalty. They did so again in 
November, when 51 % approved Proposition 66, designed to speed up death penalty 
cases. 53 % of voters defeated a competing measure that would have abolished 
the death penalty.

The state Supreme Court quickly blocked Proposition 66 while it considers 
challenges.

Appellate lawyer Kirk Jenkins, who studies the court, expects the justices will 
reject the proposition's 5-year deadline for deciding death row appeals because 
it violates the separation of powers. Death penalty appeals average at least a 
decade from the time a condemned inmate is assigned a post-trial lawyer to a 
final decision by the state's high court, he said, and the justices already 
have a backlog of about 300 capital cases.

"There is no possible way that the court could meet the deadlines in Prop. 66" 
without putting aside virtually all other decisions, Jenkins said.

The initiative also makes it easier for corrections officials to adopt new 
lethal injection procedures. But even a complete rejection of Proposition 66 
would not derail the executions of inmates whose appeals are exhausted, 
Weisberg said. Those executions could proceed once the state has an approved 
lethal injection process.

Experts said the delays may give opponents time to mount another campaign next 
year asking voters again if they want to abolish the death penalty.

"In California, it's become a symbolic death penalty state," Denno said. 
"Whether that is going to change or not is unpredictable."

(source: US News & World Report)






USA:

Jury Selection Slated in Inmate's Trial in Guard's Death


Jury selection is scheduled Monday in the death penalty trial of an inmate 
charged in a guard's death in a federal prison in Pennsylvania four years ago.

Jessie Con-ui, 40, is charged in the February 2013 stabbing death of 
corrections officer Eric Williams at the Canaan federal prison in Waymart.

A federal judge on Thursday denied a prosecution motion to bar defense 
attorneys from calling witnesses to speak about how his possible execution 
would affect them, the (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader (http://bit.ly/2pSx1QR ) 
reported.

But U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo said they won't be allowed to weigh 
in on the death penalty but only to show "that the defendant has 'the capacity 
to be of emotional value to others.'"

Williams, 34, was working in a housing unit at the prison when he was attacked. 
Prosecutors allege Con-ui was angry after the guard ordered a search of his 
cell the previous day.

Authorities have said Williams was stabbed more than 200 times and was hit in 
the face, head and upper body. At one point, Con-ui cut his hand and stopped 
the attack to walk over to a shower and clean the wound before wrapping it in 
his shirt before continuing the attack, prosecutors allege.

Defense attorneys haven't disputed that their client killed the victim but are 
opposing the death penalty and say the stabbing was retaliation for 
mistreatment by guards, not the calculated slaying prosecutors contend.

Con-ui has since been at a super-maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, 
where he's serving 25 years to life for a 2002 gang initiation murder in 
Arizona.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Charleston Shooter Dylann Roof Moved to Death Row in Terre Haute Federal Prison


Convicted church shooter Dylann Roof has been transferred to death row at Terre 
Haute Federal Prison in Indiana - the facility that houses male inmates 
awaiting execution under the federal government.

Roof, the 1st person to be convicted of a federal hate crime and sentenced to 
the death penalty, was removed from custody in Al Cannon Detention Center in 
North Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday and transferred to Terre Haute, 
prison records show.

In January, a jury sentenced the self-proclaimed white supremacist to death for 
killing nine black worshipers in June 2015 at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston 
during a Bible study. The 23-year-old told FBI agents that he was trying to 
start a race war.

He also pleaded guilty to 9 counts of state murder charges on April 10.

Roof is now among the long list of well-known criminals who have spent time in 
the Indiana facility. Others include murderer and drug trafficker Raul Garza 
and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

As of Feb. 9, there were 62 federal inmates on death row, according to the 
Death Penalty Information Center. 3 inmates have been on death row since 1993 - 
drug gang members Richard Tipton, James Roane Jr. and Corey Johnson, who were 
convicted of killing 9 people to protect their crack trade.

Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who a jury in 2015 recommended be put to 
death, remains in a federal lockup in Colorado, where officials sat they can 
better handle his "unique" security arrangements.

After the federal death penalty was suspended by a 1972 U.S. Supreme Court 
decision, it was brought back 16 years later and 3 people have since been 
executed under it.

Like his fellow death row inmates, it isn't likely Roof will be executed 
anytime soon.

Legal battles are underway in a number of states, including Arkansas and Ohio, 
over the constitutionality of controversial lethal injection methods. 
Prosecutors and defense lawyers are arguing over whether 1 of the 3 drugs used 
in the process, called midazolam, constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" 
because it fails to render inmates unconscious before 2 other drugs are 
injected

(source: Associated Press)

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

Does the death penalty bring closure to a victim's family?


The last time anyone saw Julie Heath alive was Oct. 3, 1993, when the 
18-year-old set out to visit her boyfriend in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

A week later, a hunter discovered Heath's body, less than 8 miles from where 
her broken-down car was found. She wore a black shirt, socks and underwear, but 
they were inside-out. Her black jeans were partially unzipped. Her throat was 
slashed.

Police later arrested Eric Randall Nance for Heath's murder. Investigators said 
he picked her up near her vehicle, before DNA evidence proved he raped and 
killed her. In 1994, he was handed the death penalty. At the time, 80 % of 
American nationwide favored of the death penalty, according to a Gallup poll. 
But the only reason Belinda Crites needs to support the death penalty is "what 
Eric Nance did to my cousin."

"She wasn't just my cousin, she was my best friend," Crites told the NewsHour. 
"He tore my whole family apart."

Nance's execution in 2005 marked the last time Arkansas put a prisoner to 
death. This week, Arkansas executed Ledell Lee, the 1st of 8 men the state had 
originally planned to put death in the 11 days after Easter Sunday. No state 
has executed so many people so quickly since 1976 when the Supreme Court 
reinstate capital punishment, said Robert Dunham with the Death Penalty 
Information Center.

The conflict in Arkansas is the latest to politicize the death penalty - but 
for families of the victims and the prisoners, it also resurfaces the 
complicated issues of closure and the long-reaching effect of these executions 
on their communities.

Arkansas justified its unusually swift schedule by saying the state's supply of 
lethal injection drugs were about to expire, and pharmaceutical companies have 
refused to replenish stocks. A series of judicial rulings blocked the scheduled 
executions of the first four men: Jason McGehee, Bruce Ward, Don Davis and 
Stacey Johnson. The 3 men who remain are, at the moment, still scheduled to die 
before the month is out.

The idea of closure is powerful. It's something Arkansas invoked in an April 15 
motion that tried to fight a temporary restraining order that McKesson Medical 
Surgical, Inc., has used to block the use of its drug vecuronium bromide in 
state executions. (The drug is typically used as general anesthesia to relax 
muscles before surgery).

"The friends and family of those killed or injured by Jason McGehee, Stacey 
Johnson, Marcel Williams, Kenneth Williams, Bruce Ward, Ledell Lee, Jack Jones, 
Don Davis, and Terrick Nooner have waited decades to receive some closure for 
their pain," it read.

But even when executions take place, a surviving family's pain doesn't 
disappear with the perpetrator's pulse.

***

It's been more than 2 decades since Heath's death. But Belinda Crites, a 
41-year-old caregiver who still lives in her hometown of Malvern, Arkansas, 
finds laughter in her sweet memories of her cousin. A high school cheerleader, 
Heath wanted to be a police officer one day. She worked 2 jobs - at Taco Bell 
and a blue jean factory - and before she died, she earned enough money to buy a 
beat-up 1957 black Mustang. With each paycheck, Julie bought a new part, and 
she and her father, William Heath, restored the car together.

"She ran her fingers through Crites' hair, long like her dead cousin's; she 
held her tight ... as if she were "just trying to get a piece of Julie back."

Whenever Crites visited her cousin's house, they'd pile into bed together and 
watch episodes of their favorite television sitcom, "Family Matters." For 
Christmas, Crites, Heath and both of their mothers dressed in matching outfits 
- nice jeans, ties or whatever was the latest fad - and baked cookies. The 2 
mothers were inseparable, working and raising their families together. Crites 
and her cousin "always said we'd be just like them," Crites said.

But after Heath's murder, Crites said her family fell apart. Her mother, aunt 
and grandmother were all diagnosed with depression and needed medication. When 
Nancy Heath - her aunt and Julie's mother - hugged Crites, she ran her fingers 
through Crites' hair, long like her dead cousin's; she held her tight, Crites 
said, as if she were "just trying to get a piece of Julie back."

The family watched as Nancy Heath wasted away. They cried and hugged each other 
on March 31, 1994, when a jury sentenced Nance to death. But after the family 
left the courtroom and got into their cars to drive home, Heath became 
incoherent. Her husband rushed her to the hospital, where doctors observed her 
overnight, Crites said.

Nancy Heath's psychologist later begged her to at least eat bananas and 
watermelon, but she refused food. If she left Crites' house to go to the store, 
her family knew to follow her - often, she drove instead in the direction of 
the cemetery where Julie was buried. Crites' mother once found Nancy Heath 
there overdosed on pills. Crites said her aunt attempted suicide at least 4 
times before she killed herself on Christmas morning in 1994, 15 months after 
her daughter's murder.

"Some people wanted to judge [Nancy for her] suicide," Crites said. "But my 
aunt - she couldn???t cope. She couldn't go on. She wanted to go on so bad. She 
tried so hard."

***

In 2015, the FBI reported nearly 15,700 homicides nationwide. And a 2007 study 
suggested that for every homicide victim, 6 to 10 family members are 
"indirectly victimized." That figure excludes the many friends, colleagues, 
neighbors or other people who also suffer when a person they know is murdered. 
When they grieve, survivors must not only figure out how life goes on without 
their loved one in it, but also process the violence behind that person's 
death.

"They'll tell you over and over and over again that there's no such thing as 
closure."

Death penalty advocates and politicians, including Arkansas Attorney General 
Leslie Rutledge, argue that when the state executes a person who has committed 
a terrible crime, the act brings closure to victim's family. But it's not that 
simple.

If you ask murder victims' families, "closure is the F-word," said Marilyn 
Armour, who directs the Institute for Restorative Justice and Restorative 
Dialogue at the University of Texas at Austin. She's researched homicide 
survivors for 2 decades. "They'll tell you over and over and over again that 
there's no such thing as closure."

In 2012, Armour and University of Minnesota researcher Mark Umbreit interviewed 
20 families of crime victims in Texas - a state which regularly uses the death 
penalty - and 20 more families in Minnesota, which instead offers life without 
parole. They were curious about how families in both states coped with the 
sentences.

The 2012 study concluded families in Minnesota were able to move on sooner; 
because their loved ones' killers were sentenced to life without parole, rather 
than the death penalty, they weren't retraumatized in the multiple appeals that 
often precede an execution. Armour cautions their sample was small. But over 
the last 2 decades, murder victims' families have received better treatment and 
far more rights, Armour said. Rather than listen to the families homicide 
victims leave behind, society often uses these people and their pain to score 
political points in the death penalty debate, Armour said.

"Murder victims families are cast aside," Armour said. "Nobody is giving 
survivors voice value."

What Armour sees unfolding in Arkansas is political, she told the NewsHour. She 
doesn't think it should be.

Arkansas State Representative Rebecca Petty, on the other hand, has made her 
mission to bring the issue to politics. In 1999, Petty's 12-year-old daughter, 
Andria Brewer, was kidnapped from her younger sister's birthday party by her 
uncle, Karl Roberts. He raped and strangled her, covering her body with leaves 
on an old logging road near Mena, Arkansas.

Before that happened, Petty said her family had never experienced crime, so she 
never gave the death penalty much thought. "When it happens to your own child 
you gave birth to, you taught to walk and talk and [lived with] 12 years, 
that's the point - it makes up your mind for you."

In June 2000, Roberts waived his right to appeal the case in court. He 
confessed and was convicted for murdering his niece; he was sentenced to die on 
Jan. 6, 2004. Petty said she and her family prayed and decided to go watch 
Roberts' execution. But shortly before he was supposed to be lethally injected, 
Roberts said he changed his mind and wanted to appeal after all. Petty left the 
prison that bitterly cold night in disbelief. Roberts still sits on death row, 
but his execution remains unscheduled.

Since then, Petty entered politics and has advocated for victims' rights. She 
secured funding to expand the witness area attached to the execution chamber on 
Arkansas' death row. When she considered what would result from Arkansas' 
original plan to execute 8 men in 11 days, Petty said it won't offer closure, 
but could "will close chapters" for these families.

"In your life, you have chapters," Petty said. "This is going to be a chapter 
for these families they can close. It's not going to be an easy chapter. For 
some of them it could be one of the last chapters of their life."

But Judith Elane, a lifelong death penalty abolitionist and former attorney who 
lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, doesn't see it that way. The 72-year-old said 
because the death penalty is not applied to all homicides, it leaves surviving 
family members with the impression that the justice system values some victims 
more than others.

Her principles were put to the test after her brother, Gene Schlatter was shot 
and killed in November 1968 in a Denver bar with 4 witnesses. He was 36. Elane 
drove from western Canada, where she lived at the time, to his funeral, where 
she mourned with his 3 children and widow. 4 decades later, in 2009, detectives 
traced evidence to a woman they believed was guilty of the crime. But witnesses 
disappeared, changed their story or suffered dementia and couldn't testify in 
court. Despite other evidence, the woman walked away, and no one was prosecuted 
for the murder.

To manage her grief, Elane joined support groups and now leads Murder Victims 
Families for Reconciliation in Arkansas. She scoffed at politicians who offer 
closure through capital punishment. "The governor likes to say he does this 
because victims' families deserve closure," she said. "Every time I hear that, 
I think, 'you're not doing it for me. It didn't help me.'"

6 out of 10 Arkansans favor use of the death penalty, according to a recent 
poll of 550 Arkansas voters from Talk Business & Politics and Hendrix College, 
bolstering Gov. Asa Hutchinson's call for expedited execution. But nationwide, 
support for the death penalty is at its lowest point in 4 decades, with 1/2 of 
U.S. adults saying states should not execute their worst criminals, according 
to Pew Research Center.

When states use capital punishment, the decision has consequences not only for 
the murder victims' families, jurors and the person sentenced to die, but also 
for the prison personnel responsible for carrying out death sentences and the 
families of people who sit on death row.

Unlike politicians, correctional officers who work on death row are also "going 
to go home and live with the psychological consequences for the rest of their 
lives and so will their families," said Patrick Crane, who worked on Arkansas' 
death row from 2007 to 2008. Turnover is high, he said. And the state's series 
of executions has taken advantage of prison staff who live in rural farm 
communities with few jobs, where households "still have an old way of thinking 
and doing and being."

"Metaphysically, I think it's going to be a cloud over the state, especially 
over the area in which it happens," Crane said. "Clouds last a long time down 
there."

In Arkansas' expedited schedule to execute people on death row, the voices of 
victims families and the victims themselves are lost in sensationalism, Elane 
said. If politicians and policymakers care about homicide victims and their 
families, she said those voices need to be heard. The money saved by issuing 
life without parole sentences - which tends to have fewer appeals - could 
improve law enforcement and investigations, she said.

For now, she campaigns on behalf of murder victims families, bringing attention 
to their needs immediately following the death of a loved one.

"Regardless of how we feel about the death penalty, we all experienced the same 
suffering and the same dilemmas," Elane said.

***

For 12 years, Nance sat on "The Row" in the Varner Supermax penitentiary near 
Pine Bluff, Arkansas, while his attorneys tried to appeal his execution. For 
years, they argued he had the mental capacity of a 3rd grader, and that the 
state would be cruel to kill him because he did not fully understand rape and 
murder were wrong. His case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 
There, the justices decided not to spare Nance's life.

Members of the Nance family who testified on his behalf did not return 
NewsHour's request for comment.

For his final meal before his Nov. 28, 2005, execution, Nance asked for two 
bacon cheeseburgers, French fries, 2 pints of chocolate chip cookie dough ice 
cream and 2 cans of Coca-Cola. More than a decade later, Crites still resents 
that Nance had a chance to choose that meal.

"My cousin died with tater tots and a Coke on her stomach," she said.

Crites and her family drove a van to the prison and were escorted to the 
warden's office, where they watched the execution chamber on a tiny 
closed-circuit television set. On the screen, Crites saw Nance strapped flat on 
his back to a gurney with a white sheet pulled up to his neck. He said nothing.

Prison staff injected Nance with a lethal cocktail. He closed his eyes, 
remained silent, and then died, Crites said.

But the memory of what he did to her cousin - and how life then changed - still 
haunts Crites. She knows Nance's execution didn't change how things had turned 
out.

"When he was gone, it gave us a relief," she said. "Did it make things better? 
I don't know. We think of him everyday."

Crites, the mother of 3 sons and 1 daughter, said she only recently allowed her 
16-year-old daughter to spend the night at a friend's house and never permitted 
her daughter to sit on the porch of their home without someone sitting with 
her. "You have to teach your family how evil people are," she said.

(source: PBS NewsHour)