[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., N.C., GA., FLA, . ALA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

July 11


PENNSYLVANIA:

Westmoreland judge issues stay of execution for Smyrnes


A Westmoreland County judge on Monday delayed the potential execution of a 
North Huntingdon man convicted in the 2010 torture slaying of a mentally 
challenged woman in Greensburg.

Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway issued the stay to allow Ricky Smyrnes' 
new defense attorney, Thomas Farrell of Pittsburgh, to file a new 
post-conviction appeal.

Amy Worden, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, said a 
death warrant for 30-year-old Smyrnes, which was expected to be signed in 
September, will be put on hold.

Farrell said he sought the stay to ensure the defense has enough time to file a 
detailed appeal before the warrant is signed.

"It's going to take some time. I'm reviewing the transcript now," Farrell said.

>From his cell on death row at the State Correctional Institute in Greene 
County, Smyrnes in April submitted a form to Westmoreland County Clerk of 
Courts Bryan Kline in which he said he wanted to appeal his case. Smyrnes 
contended his trial attorneys did not use the proper documents to support his 
claim that his intelligence was too low for him to receive the death penalty 
after his 1st-degree murder conviction.

A month later, the judge appointed Farrell to represent Smyrnes and prepare a 
more detailed appeal.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in February affirmed Smyrnes' conviction and 
death sentence.

Prosecutors said Smyrnes was the ringleader of a group of 6 roommates that held 
30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty of Mt. Pleasant captive for nearly 3 days in a 
Pennsylvania Avenue apartment in 2010. The group systematically tortured 
Daugherty, then stabbed her to death, prosecutors said.

Her body was wrapped in Christmas lights and garland, stuffed into a trash 
container and discarded in a snow-covered parking lot off Main Street.

Farrell said he is reviewing Smyrnes' 2-week trial to determine if his previous 
lawyers provided an ineffective defense during the guilt and sentencing phases.

In May, Hathaway ruled that Farrell had 90 days to file an appeal on Smyrnes' 
behalf. Farrell said he likely will ask for more time.

Assistant District Attorney Leo Ciaramitaro declined to respond to Smyrnes' 
latest challenge of his death sentence.

"We will obviously argue the matter at the appropriate time," he said.

(source: triblive.com)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Hearing scheduled to discuss death penalty for Lexington murder suspect


A Rule 24 hearing is scheduled Thursday morning for Patrick McCoy.

The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether the State will be seeking 
the death penalty in the case.

McCoy is accused of killing Billy Bare, 39, and injuring Tyler Gransbury, in a 
shooting back in May.

Davidson County Sheriff's deputies say it happened at a home located at 1596 
Burkhart Road in the central Davidson County community. Upon the deputies' 
arrival, they found Bare dead at the scene.

Gransbury was taken to the hospital for treatment. Since the shooting, 
Gransbury moved out-of-state due to showing signs of PTSD, living in Lexington.

WXII 12 News spoke to family of Bare Monday. Some believe the death penalty 
should be enforced in this case.

"He needs it. He should have never killed my uncle like he did," said Trevor 
Bare, Billy's nephew. "It was stupid. They need to do something with him. They 
don't need to let him out."

McCoy's family issued a statement ahead of the Rule 24 hearing: "We don't want 
hate to spread. It's unfortunate what happened and we are truly sorry for the 
life lost and the young man that was injured. We can't do anything to change 
what has happened. We are praying for peace and comfort."

McCoy's hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. in Davidson County.

(source: WXII news)






GEORGIA:

Athens lawyer to assist in prosecution of suspects in prison guard killings


The Ocumulgee Circuit District Attorney is preparing an indictment to send to a 
grand jury soon against the 2 men charged with killing 2 state prison guards in 
Putnam County and a lawyer from Athens is playing an integral part in the 
prosecution.

Allison Mauldin, who lives in Athens and is the Chief Assistant District 
Attorney for the circuit, is helping prepare the case, District Attorney 
Stephen Bradley said Friday.

"We're preparing to send the case to a grand jury. We're collecting all the 
reports, the history and all the information we can get our hands on," Bradley 
said.

The grand jury meets in September.

The suspects, Ricky Dubose, 24, and Donnie Rowe, 43, are accused in the 
shooting deaths of 2 State Department of Correctional guards who were 
transporting a bus load of inmates from 1 prison to another on June 13. Dubose, 
who was from Madison County, was serving a 20-year sentence for an armed 
robbery in Elbert County.

Mauldin has worked in the 8-county Ocumulgee Circuit since 2008.

"She and I will prosecute the case," Bradley said. "It was a horrifying event, 
a major case and you want the best lawyer on the case. Alli is one of the most 
tremendous lawyers I've ever had the pleasure to work with."

Mauldin is the wife of Western Circuit District Attorney Ken Mauldin.

Bradley has announced he will seek the death penalty against the pair who were 
captured 3 days after their escape. Authorities said the men committed a series 
of crimes after their escape from stealing vehicles to holding an elderly 
couple hostage in their own home to shooting at deputies during a high-speed 
chase.

(source: Athens Banner-Herald)






FLORIDA----impending execution

Lawyer cries foul as execution date looms----Man who killed 2 in Jacksonville 
in 1987 set for execution next month


A lawyer for a death row inmate scheduled to be executed next month is accusing 
Attorney General Pam Bondi of hoodwinking him into agreeing to a delay in a 
U.S. Supreme Court review.

The postponement, signed off on by Mark James Asay's lawyer Marty McClain last 
month, could now make it more difficult for the condemned killer to get his 
case reviewed by the high court.

Gov. Rick Scott last week rescheduled Asay's execution for Aug. 24, more than a 
year after originally signing a death warrant for the death row inmate.

But in a letter Friday, McClain asked Scott to put a temporary hold on the 
execution of Asay, arguing that Bondi had misrepresented the status of the case 
when she gave the governor a go-ahead for scheduling the execution.

After McClain filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, known as a "writ of 
certiorari," this spring, Bondi sought a 30-day extension in the case.

McClain said he interpreted Bondi's request for a postponement, to which he 
agreed, to mean that the state would not seek a new execution date for Asay 
until after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the appeal this fall.

Without the 30-day extension, the justices could have taken up Asay's appeal 
before their summer hiatus, which started on June 28 and lasts until October, 
McClain argued.

Instead, the court gave Bondi until July 5 to file her response to Asay's 
request.

2 days before the deadline, Bondi certified to Scott that Asay was eligible for 
execution. After Scott signed Asay's death warrant on July 3, setting the 
execution date for Aug. 24, Bondi quickly filed an objection to Asay's appeal 
in the U.S. court.

Since a death warrant has been issued in Asay's case, it would take 5 Supreme 
Court justices to order a review, instead of the 4 that would have been 
necessary to grant a petition in the absence of a pending execution date, 
McClain wrote to Scott.

"I think that you should have been fully advised of the pending litigation in 
the U.S. Supreme Court and the Attorney General's Office request for an 
extension of time," McClain, who has represented more than 200 death row 
inmates, wrote to Scott on Friday. "That would have allowed you to be more 
fully informed when deciding to reset Mr. Asay's execution."

McClain also questioned whether Bondi's office "acted appropriately" in Asay's 
case.

"The office's action gained an advantage for the state at Mr. Asay's expense," 
McClain wrote. "What occurred here suggests an ulterior motive and perhaps the 
bad faith of those in the Attorney General's Office responsible for this."

Bondi's office said Monday it had not seen the letter.

Asay was 1 of 2 death row inmates whose executions were put on hold by the 
Florida Supreme Court in early 2016 after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case 
known as Hurst v. Florida, struck down as unconstitutional the state's death 
penalty sentencing system.

The federal court ruling, premised on a 2002 decision in a case known as Ring 
v. Arizona, found that Florida's system of allowing judges, instead of juries, 
to find the facts necessary to impose the death penalty was an unconstitutional 
violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury.

The January 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision set off a string of court rulings 
that have effectively put Florida's death penalty in limbo for 18 months.

Asay was convicted in 1988 of the murders of Robert Lee Booker and Robert 
McDowell in downtown Jacksonville. Asay allegedly shot Booker, who was black, 
after calling him a racial epithet. He then killed McDowell, who was dressed as 
a woman, after agreeing to pay him for oral sex. According to court documents, 
Asay later told a friend that McDowell had previously cheated him out of money 
in a drug deal.

Bondi's request for an extension from the federal court followed by her 
office's certification of Asay as being what is known as "death-eligible" 
appeared to be a bait-and-switch, McClain told The News Service of Florida.

"That's what it feels like," McClain said in a telephone interview Monday.

(source: news4jax.com)






ALABAMA:

Report: Alabama 1 of 6 states to execute inmates so far this year


Alabama is among 6 states so far this year that have executed death row 
inmates, according to a review released Monday by the Death Penalty Information 
Center.

Arkansas and Texas have each executed 4 inmates, followed by Alabama, with 2, 
and Georgia, Missouri and Virginia with 1 each, according to the mid-year 
review by the Washington-D.C.-based anti-death-penalty group.

Alabama executed inmate Tommy Arthur on May 25 and inmate Robert Melson on June 
8. Arthur was executed for his conviction for the 1982 murder for hire of Troy 
Wicker and Melson for the 1994 shooting deaths of 3 employees at a Gadsden 
fast-foot restaurant.

No other executions have been announced for Alabama this year.

Despite the 13 executions (of 43 scheduled but delayed or cancelled) 
nationwide, new executions and death sentences in the United States are on pace 
to remain near historic lows, the center reports. At the same time last year 14 
of 39 scheduled executions had been carried out, according to the center.

Alabama was 1 of 5 states that executed inmates in 2016. Alabama executed 2 - 
Christopher Brooks and Ronald Bert Smith, according to a report from the center 
last year. 31 states have the death penalty.

"The numbers show that the long-term historic decline in the use of the death 
penalty across the United States appears to be continuing," Robert Dunham, the 
center's executive director, said in a statement.

1 state - Ohio - could determine whether the long-term trend in decreasing 
executions continues.

Last month a federal appeals court reversed a lower court's order that had 
declared unconstitutional Ohio's execution method using a three-drug 
combination. The three-drug method includes midazolam, a sedative involved in 
problematic executions in Alabama (Ronald Bert Smith execution on Dec. 8), 
Arizona, Arkansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. Ohio has scheduled 30 executions between 
July 26 and 2021, with 5 set for the 2nd half of 2017, according to Dunham.

Death sentences

The center also projects that new death sentences will remain near historically 
low levels partly due to Alabama and 1 other state.

Florida and Alabama have accounted about 1/5 of new death sentences nationwide 
in recent years, according to the center.

But Florida's abandonment of non-unanimous jury recommendations of death and 
Alabama's repeal of judges being able to impose death despite jury 
recommendations for life, is expected to substantially reduce the number of new 
death sentences returned in those states, according to the center.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey in April signed into law the override bill that says 
juries, not judges, have the final say on whether to impose the death penalty 
in capital murder cases.

Ivey signed the bill, which had earlier been passed by the Alabama Legislature.

The nation's highest court disagreed with a federal appeals court, and reversed 
its decision in the case of James McWilliams.

Mental disability case

1 Alabama prisoner also has been among 3 death row inmates who got favorable 
decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court so far this year, the report noted.

In McWilliams v. Dunn, the Court found on June 19 that James McWilliams' 
constitutional rights were violated when Alabama failed to provide him 
assistance of an independent mental-health expert, according to the center.

(source: al.com)






OHIO:

Prosecutor considers pursuing death penalty in shooting of Cleveland teen 
running from robbery


Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley's office is considering whether to 
seek the death penalty in the case of a man accused of fatally shooting a 
15-year-old during a robbery earlier this year.

Noah Allen, 20, and Devon Shade, 17, are each charged in Cuyahoga County Common 
Pleas Court with aggravated murder and several other charges in the March 4 
death of Jaevelle Swift.

Allen pleaded not guilty at his Monday arraignment and was ordered held on $1 
million bond. Shade is set for a Thursday arraignment.

Shade cannot face the death penalty because he was a minor at the time of the 
shooting.

But prosecutors noted in an indictment filed late last week that the state 
reserves the right to seek the death penalty against Allen in the future.

Jaevelle and his 16-year-old friend sat in the backseat of a Jeep with Allen 
and Shade in the front seat about 7:30 p.m. March 4 on East 86th Street near 
Woodland Avenue in the city's Fairfax neighborhood, according to police and 
court records.

Allen turned around, pointed a gun at the teens and demanded money, according 
to police reports.

The 16-year-old boy gave Allen money before he and Jaevelle got out and ran, 
prosecutors say. Allen fired shots out of the window and one bullet hit 
Jaevelle in the back, police said.

Paramedics took Jaevelle to University Hospitals where was pronounced dead. The 
16-year-old was not injured in the shooting.

Investigators identified Allen and Shade within days of the shooting. Allen has 
been in custody since he turned himself in to Cleveland police March 7. Shade 
was charged in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court the same day, and a judge set his 
bond at $500,000.

(source: cleveland.com)

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

Dale Johnston: Wrongful convictions make death penalty too risky


Gov. John Kasich has announced 27 execution dates through 2021. Until the 
governor can show that innocent people will not be executed, he should 
reconsider his decision to restart executions in Ohio.

Ohio has executed 53 people in modern history. In the same time, nine people 
have been exonerated from death row with evidence of their innocence. One 
study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, found 
that 1 in every 25 men currently on death row may be innocent.

Are any of the 27 who are scheduled to be executed innocent? I don't know. You 
don't know. The governor doesn't know. That's the problem.

I have 1st-hand experience with this issue. In 1984, I was wrongfully convicted 
and sentenced to death for the murders of my stepdaughter and her boyfriend in 
Logan. Rumors soon flew around town. After undergoing hypnosis, a single 
eyewitness identified me as the killer. The only other primary witness provided 
boot-print evidence that was later discredited.

The authorities knew about four other eyewitnesses with a completely different 
story about the crime, but they never shared that information with the defense, 
as they were constitutionally required to do. I spent 7 miserable years in 
prison, until my conviction was reversed on appeal. I was released in 1990, but 
my family was under a cloud of presumed guilt for almost two decades. In 2008, 
another man confessed that he and a friend committed the murders.

Unfortunately, my experience is not unique. Wrongful convictions are a serious 
problem in our state. 59 people have been exonerated after being convicted of a 
crime in Ohio, with over 1/2 of them wrongfully convicted of murder.

In 2014, the Ohio Supreme Court Joint Task Force on the Administration of 
Ohio's Death Penalty published a report that included more than 50 
recommendations to make the state's death penalty system more fair and 
accurate. The report included reforms to increase accuracy in sentencing, 
reduce racial disparities and provide better lawyers for people who cannot 
afford them.

3 years have gone by and nothing has changed. The legislature has not 
implemented a single substantial reform. So expect more Dale Johnstons down the 
road. But don't expect that we will catch every mistake before it's too late. 
In the rush to carry out 27 back-to-back executions, someone innocent could 
well be on the gurney.

Executions have been on hold for 3 1/2 years in our state. Has anyone missed 
them? Ohio has more-important priorities to focus on. Our elected leaders 
should be fixing the opioid crisis, improving mental-health care, helping 
small-business owners, and getting people better-paying jobs.

We are better off without the death penalty. One estimate said that the death 
penalty costs Ohio taxpayers at least $16.8 million each year. We should spend 
that money saving and improving people's lives, rather than taking their lives.

For what it costs to prosecute, appeal, and carry out 1 death sentence, we 
could buy thousands of Narcan kits, which are used to counteract the deadly 
effects of an opioid overdose. This is no small thing: in 2015 alone, Ohio 
first responders administered almost 20,000 doses of the life-saving drug.

In the 3-plus years since Ohio last had an execution, which was botched, 
lawmakers have done very little to address victims' families' needs or make 
changes to prevent wrongful convictions. Instead, the State has spent tens of 
thousands of dollars trying to get execution drugs. We are better than this.

Life without parole keeps the public safe and allows time to discover and 
correct wrongful convictions like mine. The alternative is unthinkable: the 
state-sponsored killing of an innocent human being. Rather than rushing to 
executions, the governor should be rushing to implement the reforms in the Ohio 
Supreme Court Joint Task Force.

I hope Gov. Kasich hears this message. That is why several exonerees from 
Ohio's death row - Joe D'Ambrosio, Derrick Jamison, Kwame Ajamu, Wiley 
Bridgeman, and me - have started a petition at http://otse.org/kasich_letter/. 
We are living proof that wrongful convictions and death sentences happen and we 
hope you will join us in signing this letter to the governor. Let's leave the 
power of life and death in God's hands, where it belongs.

(source: Dale Johnston lives near Columbus; Opinion, Columbus Dispatch)