[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, NEB., USA

[Rick Halperin]

July 23




OHIO:

Ohio needs a more humane way to kill



Between the ages of 3 and 4 years, a child starts to quickly develop 
vocabulary. They know their name and can introduce themselves. They can speak 
short sentences. The infamous "why" question starts to become a staple of both 
curiosity and defiance.

Sheila Marie Evans of Akron was undoubtedly at the "why" stage in January 1993. 
She was at a developmental age when she may have been capable of wondering why 
her life was so full of pain and neglect. Why did she have to be beaten, raped 
and ultimately killed by her mother's boyfriend?

On her final Friday evening, Ronald Phillips, the boyfriend, was babysitting. 
It wasn't the 1st time. He took the 3-year-old girl from her bed and proceeded 
to beat her because he was angry.

He flung the child by her hair against a wall and continued to hit her. Then he 
raped her. Sodomy. When he finished, he put the child back in bed as if nothing 
had happened.

When Fae Evans returned home, her daughter was dying. The child's organs were 
badly damaged and she was bleeding internally. Severe vomiting and diarrhea 
were the visible precursors of a horrible death. Still, it was not enough to 
move Evans to seek prompt medical attention or call police.

The Summit County coroner counted 125 bruises on Sheila Marie's corpse when he 
examined her the following week. It turns out she had been abused for much of 
her life.

Fae Evans was an excruciatingly unfit mother. She was sentenced to 13 to 30 
years for involuntarily manslaughter and child endangering. She died in prison 
of leukemia in 2008. Now the executioner is coming for Ronald Phillips. He is 
scheduled to die Wednesday by lethal injection.

Only the most vociferous death penalty opponents are arguing that Phillips 
deserves to live. The last time Ohio attempted an execution in 2014, it took 
convicted killer Dennis McGuire 25 minutes to die. The multi-drug cocktail 
administered failed to sedate him before eventually killing him by suffocation. 
It was more than an execution. It was also torture.

Even some death penalty supporters were disturbed by the state's presiding over 
the extended torture of McGuire.

In an open letter to Gov. John Kasich published in Friday's Plain Dealer, 
Republican Jim Petro and Democrat Lee Fisher, who both formerly served as Ohio 
attorney general, made a compelling case that Ohio should continue a moratorium 
on capital punishment until systemic problems are addressed.

"9 people have been exonerated from Ohio's death row in recent decade. Three 
have been freed since the state last executed," they wrote.

Their concerns about competent lawyers for indigent defendants, as well as a 
call for consistent and accurate sentencing must be addressed. Innocent people 
have been narrowly spared death by the belated discovery of exculpatory 
evidence. Mistakes are inexcusable. Death is permanent.

Kasich has already cleared part of his calendar for Phillips' scheduled 
execution. He's skipping the opening of the Ohio State Fair, and instead will 
be connected by teleconference to Ohio's death chamber in Lucasville. He will 
bear witness that justice is finally served for Sheila Marie, who would have 
turned 27 this year.

I no longer support the death penalty, but will shed no tear when Phillips 
takes his final worthless breath. However, I do believe that Ohio must become 
better at officially sanctioned killing. We can't morally afford to be as cruel 
and inhumane as a child rapist and murderer.

(source: Commentary; Phillip Morris----cleveland.com)








NEBRASKA:

Nebraska high court rejects Norfolk bank killer's appeal



The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday rejected a death-row inmate's call for his 
murder convictions in one of the deadliest bank shootings in U.S. history to be 
overturned because he said the lawyer defending him was incompetent.

The state's high court agreed with a lower court that refused Erick Vela's 
request to void the convictions.

Vela and 2 other men were sentenced to death for killing 5 people at a U.S. 
Bank branch in Norfolk on Sept. 26, 2002. A 4th man who served as a lookout was 
sentenced to 5 consecutive life sentences.

Vela pleaded guilty in June 2003 to 5 counts of 1st-degree murder in the 
killings of bank customer Evonne Tuttle and bank employees Lisa Bryant, Lola 
Elwood, Jo Mausbach and Sam Sun. Vela was sentenced to death in 2007 for the 
botched heist at the bank about 90 miles northwest of Omaha.

The high court found no merit to Vela's claims, including one in which he 
faulted his attorney for not advising him to plead guilty earlier in the case. 
Vela asserted he would not have been subject to the death penalty had he 
pleaded guilty earlier, because Nebraska enacted a revised death penalty law in 
late 2002 to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said juries - not 
judges - should determine whether a defendant is eligible for the death 
penalty.

Previous Nebraska Supreme Court rulings in the bank killings case undermined 
that argument, Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman wrote.

Those rulings rejected arguments that Nebraska effectively had no valid death 
penalty before the law was amended in 2002.

Vela's attorney did not return a message left Friday seeking comment. The 
Nebraska Attorney General's Office declined to comment.

(source: mcclatchydc.com)








ARIZONA:

Death Row Diaries: Stabbed couple assist each other in 1990 murder



Arizona's most notorious death row inmates past and present have incredible 
stories, including this one where a husband and wife, both critically stabbed, 
walk into their home arm in arm.

ERNEST VALENCIA GONZALES

Date of Birth: February 8, 1964

Sentenced: April 27, 1992

The Crime before the Murder:

His crimes for the night were just beginning

On February 20, 1990, just before 7 p.m. a man returned his home from work and 
saw his porch light was on. As he went inside, he saw his stereo equipment was 
taken apart and moved. He then suddenly confronted a man who looked at him and 
ran out of the house. That man would later be identified as Ernest Valencia 
Gonzales and his crimes for the night were just beginning.

Another neighbor, living in the area of 35th and Northern avenues, was taking 
out the trash with her dog when she saw Gonzales with what appeared to be a 
tire iron in his hands. She looked at the man, grabbed her dog and retreated 
into their home. She noticed the man walking toward the home of her neighbor 
Darrel Wagner.

A Husband Defends his Wife, a Wife Defends her Husband:

About 10 minutes later the Wagner family returned home from dinner. As they 
came upon the courtyard to their townhouse, they saw the front door was opened. 
As Darrel went into investigate his wife and 7-year-old son waited by the gate.

As Darrel opened the door the rest of the way, he and his wife saw Gonzales on 
the stairway holding their video cassette recorder tucked under his arm.

The mother immediately told their son to go to a neighbor's for help. She then 
saw Gonzales push Darrel to the ground and begin stabbing Darrel in the chest.

She jumped on his back, grabbing his arms

Deborah begged Gonzales to stop, but when he refused, she jumped on his back, 
grabbing his arms to prevent him from stabbing her husband anymore.

Gonzales swung wildly, stabbing Deborah twice, hitting her kidney, spleen, and 
diaphragm. However, he also injured himself. He stole her purse then fled the 
area.

The 2 of them went inside and called 911, together

Darrel was stabbed 7 times but still managed to help his wife to her feet as 
the 2 of them went inside and called 911, together.

Unfortunately, Darrel succumbed to his wounds while Deborah survived after 
several days in intensive care.

The Arrest and Trial:

Meanwhile, Gonzales went his girlfriend's home to get his wounds cleaned. 
Witnesses her house would later testify that Gonzales told them about a bag he 
had with him that contained a woman's driver's license and a photo of a child 
with red hair. The same color hair as Deborah's son.

Gonzales was arrested during a traffic stop a few days later. Police found out 
he had been released from prison just three months before the attacks after 
doing 5 years for theft and burglary. He also had nine juvenile arrests to go 
with nine adult arrests.

Interviews with others that know Gonzales suggested he was stealing, on a near 
daily basis, to support a drug habit and was smoking crack cocaine 2 days 
before the murder.

After a hung jury in the 1st trial, Gonzales was found guilty in the 2nd trial 
and sentenced to death on April 27, 1992.

In addition to the death penalty, Gonzales was sentenced to 3 consecutive life 
terms.

On November 16, 1999, a Stay of Execution was issued by the Arizona Supreme 
Court in his scheduled execution.

He remains on death row in the Eyman Prison in Florence.

(source: ABC News)