[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., MO., UTAH, IDAHO

Wed Sep 13 06:21:39 CDT 2017

Sept. 13

INDIANA:

Poorly executed----Inmate challenges state's lethal cocktail change

In its 201-year history, Indiana has used 3 methods of execution. Hanging was 
the primary method until 1913, followed by electrocution. In 1995, the 
Department of Correction began using lethal injec-tion - a protocol soon to be 
reviewed by the Indiana Supreme Court.

Vacating a ruling by the Indiana Court of Appeals, the state's highest court 
rightly will take up the question of whether the department has overstepped its 
authority in changing its procedures for carrying out the death penalty. The 
Supreme Court will independently review facts in a case challenging the 
Department of Correction's 2014 decision to use a new 3-drug combination in 
lethal injections.

A lawsuit filed by a death row inmate argues the DOC can't change its execution 
protocol without public notice or comment. The appeals court agreed in a 
unanimous ruling and effectively halted executions in the state. They are 
likely on hold while the Supreme Court reviews the case.

12 men are currently on death row in Indiana, and 1 woman is being held in Ohio 
under Indiana's death penalty law. No executions are scheduled due to prior 
court rulings or pending appeals. Joseph Corcoran, sentenced to death in 1999 
for killing 4 people in a house on Bayer Avenue, is the only Allen County 
inmate. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he has exhausted his appeals.

The appeals court decision challenging the Department of Correction was a 
victory for Roy Ward and other death row prisoners who argue they should not be 
executed with experimental drugs. The department unilaterally decided 2 years 
ago to use a 3-drug combination of the barbiturate methohexital, followed by 
pancuronium bromide, a paralytic, followed by potassium chloride to stop the 
prisoner's heart. The combination allegedly has not been used in any other 
execution in the United States.

The department claimed authority to change its lethal injection procedure as an 
internal policy, but the appeals court agreed with the plaintiff that the 
decision was an administrative rule with the effect of law, which must be 
adopted under the guidelines of the Indiana Administrative Rules and Procedure 
Act.

"(T)he public has a right to know what unelected bureaucrats at state agencies 
are doing," said attorney David Frank, who represented Ward before the appeals 
court. The decision doesn't mean Indiana cannot carry out executions, but it 
brings what the state is doing "out of the shadows" and holds state officials 
accountable, he said.

It is not known whether the state has a sufficient supply of each drug to carry 
out an execution. The Indiana General Assembly, in the biennial budget bill, 
authorized Gov. Eric Holcomb and the department to grant anonymity to 
drugmakers that agree to supply the drugs. A nationwide shortage exists because 
pharmaceutical companies, under pressure from death-penalty opponents, are 
refusing to sell their drugs for execution purposes.

A federal appeals court cleared the way earlier this year for the state of Ohio 
to use a 3-drug mixture in lethal injections, although death-penalty opponents 
have said they will ask the Supreme Court to review that decision.

The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun famously criticized the 
process of administering the death penalty as tinkering with "the machinery of 
death." The decision before Indiana's highest court might well amount to 
tinkering but - as the law of the land here and in 30 other states - it 
deserves solemn and serious consideration.

(source: Editorial, Journal-Gazette)

MISSOURI:

5 retired judges will lead an inquiry into the death penalty case of Marcellus 
Williams.

Gov. Eric Greitens appointed the board of inquiry Tuesday to consider whether 
Williams should be executed for the 1998 death of former St. Louis 
Post-Dispatch reported Lisha Gayle. Greitens issued a stay of execution in 
August just hours before Williams was to be executed.

The board members are Booker Shaw, who served on the Missouri Court of Appeals 
and as a trial judge in St. Louis; Michael David, a former circuit court judge 
in St. Louis; Peggy McGraw Fenner, a former circuit court judge in Jackson 
County; Carol Jackson, who served on the U.S. District Court, Eastern District; 
and Paul Spinden, who was on the Missouri Court of Appeals.

(source: Associated Press)

UTAH:

It's time for Utah to re-examine the death penalty

Debate and discourse in the public sphere is how we make better policy. We at 
Utah Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty have heard from people 
across the state that it's time for a more robust public debate about the death 
penalty. Long gone are the days where the death penalty was a partisan issue. 
Now, Utahns of every political background are expressing concerns about a death 
penalty system that takes a great deal of time, energy and resources and gives 
us little more than worry in return.

A close examination shows that the death penalty runs counter to many core 
conservative ideals. We're thrilled to be able to unite conservatives who 
oppose or question the death penalty. By raising the profile of this 
life-and-death issue, we can help our state move toward better policy.

Over the last couple of years, we've had the opportunity to attend numerous 
Republican Party conventions, Lincoln Day Dinners and other political and 
community events. The supportive reception isn't surprising. This is an issue 
that many conservatives have thought long and hard about and ultimately 
concluded that it runs counter to their beliefs of limited government, 
protecting innocent life and being fiscally responsible.

A poll we took earlier this year quantified what we've been experiencing in 
these discussions: 64 % of Utahns, including 58 % of Republicans, supported 
replacing the death penalty with life in prison. When the arguments are laid 
out, it's not hard to see why.

As conservatives, we constantly rail against an ever-growing government. The 
death penalty is about as big as the government gets. Can the government be 
trusted to justly end a person's life? Nationally, since the late 1970s, almost 
160 individuals have been exonerated from death row due to evidence of their 
innocence. In that same time there have been around 1,500 executions. An error 
rate of 10 % is 10 % too high when an innocent person's life hangs in the 
balance.

Thanks to television shows like "CSI," people are under the impression that the 
system is error-proof because of the rise in DNA evidence and testing. The 
reality is that DNA evidence is only available in 5-10 % of these kinds of 
cases. As conservatives, our belief in the sanctity of innocent life should 
extend to death row. Justice can't ever be served when even 1 innocent person 
is wrongfully executed.

The death penalty is consistently more expensive than life in prison because of 
the additional preparations for a capital case, the separate sentencing phase 
and post-conviction appeals. According to Utah's own Legislative Fiscal 
Analyst's Office, it costs in excess of $1.6 million more to carry out a death 
sentence than if the same person were sentenced to life and ultimately died in 
prison.

Limited taxpayer resources could, and should, be spent in our criminal justice 
system in much better ways. These resources could be spent on mental health 
programs, rehabilitation of nonviolent offenders, rape kit testing or many 
other criminal justice programs that would keep us much safer than the death 
penalty does. Instead, we spend it on a punishment with no greater deterrent 
effect than life imprisonment, which often takes 30 years or more to reach a 
resolution.

While capital cases slowly snake through the judicial process, there's more 
than a fiscal cost - there's a human cost. Families of crime victims are 
brought along for the decadeslong process. Instead of being able to move 
forward with their lives, these families must wait through decades of 
high-profile appeals, all while being forgotten as their loved one's murderer 
becomes a household name. This is cruelty.

Utah Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty will continue having these 
conversations with the public. Utah came very close to repealing the death 
penalty during the 2016 legislative session, and we???re hoping that fight is 
won during the 2018 session next year.

(source: Op-Ed; Darcy Van Orden is executive director of the Utah Justice 
Coalition, an organization dedicated to educating the community on commonsense 
reforms to the criminal justice system. Utah Conservatives Concerned About the 
Death Penalty is a project of UJC----Deseret News)

IDAHO:

Judge denies request to send death penalty case back to lower court

A district judge on Friday denied a request to send a potential death penalty 
case back to a lower court for a man accused of breaking into his estranged 
wife's house and shooting a man to death.

Phillip Cabrera, 38, of Meridian, is facing a charge of 1st-degree murder in 
the shooting death of Andrew Shepard of Caldwell on April 28.

Cabrera's defense attorney, Scott Fouser, requested the case be sent back to 
magistrate court for another preliminary hearing because he said Cabrera was 
denied the benefit of 2 qualified lawyers during his original preliminary 
hearing in June.

Fouser said defendants facing the death penalty require 2 qualified defenders 
at hearings, and Cabrera had only 1 during his preliminary hearing in June.

Judge Thomas Ryan, who previously said in a hearing that "clearly delay is 
prejudice," decided Friday to deny the request.

"There has been no showing of any error, let alone serious error committed by 
defense counsel at the preliminary hearing," Ryan wrote. "This Court 
specifically finds that Mr. Cabrera was afforded effective assistance of 
counsel at the preliminary hearing."

Cabrera's pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Sept. 21. A jury trial is 
scheduled to begin Oct. 10.

Police said Cabrera admitted to kicking down the front door of his wife's home 
in Nampa, then kicking down the home's master bathroom door before shooting 
Shepard in the abdomen and head. He is also accused of firing several shots at 
responding police officers.

Prosecutors say Cabrera killed Shepard in front of young children who were 
hiding in the master bedroom with Shepard and Cabrera's wife.

(source: idahopress.com)

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

A shrinking pool

Jurors who failed to pass muster on the 1st day of the Jonathan Renfro murder 
trial walked from the Kootenai County Courthouse 1 at a time Monday as they 
were released from jury duty.

About 80 of the more than 900 jurors who responded to a jury duty questionnaire 
appeared in the morning at Coeur d'Alene's First District Court to begin the 
weaning process that will result in 16 jurors, including four alternates.

More than 40 people were released from their jury duty before 10 a.m. after 
being deemed by presiding First District Court Judge Lansing Haynes as 
unsatisfactory candidates based on their answers to questions by attorneys. 
That left approximately 40 potential jurors to be further scrutinized by 
Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh and lead defense counsel Keith Roark, 
who whittled the number of candidates down to about 20 by lunchtime.

The remaining candidates were questioned individually.

The same process will continue each day this week. Once 44 candidates are 
chosen, attorneys will continue to winnow until they agree on 16 jurors, Jury 
Commissioner Pete Barnes said.

Seating a fair and impartial jury could last 2 weeks, but attorneys and the 
court have intimated a jury could be chosen sooner than that, Barnes said.

"I think that's the hope," he said.

Renfro, who is charged with 1st-degree murder for allegedly killing Coeur 
d'Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore, is expected to go to trial as soon as the 
selection process is completed. The trial could last through September.

Jurors who make the final cut will participate in 2 phases of the upcoming 
trial.

In the guilt phase, jurors must determine if Renfro, 29, is responsible for the 
May 5, 2015, shooting death of Moore. Renfro is accused of shooting the officer 
with a Glock pistol he had in his pocket when Moore confronted him after dark 
in a Coeur d'Alene neighborhood where residents had reported burglaries and 
vandalism.

If he's convicted, Renfro could face the death penalty. But it is not up to the 
judge. Jurors must also determine during the trial's penalty phase whether 
factors warrant a death sentence. By Monday, the penalty phase had already 
resulted in the release of potential jurors including candidates who said they 
morally opposed the death penalty, and those who thought the death penalty 
should always be imposed.

One of the candidates at Monday's jury selection was released after telling the 
court of his 3rd-party acquaintance with the Moore family, and that his friends 
have K27 stickers on their cars. The stickers are a tribute to Moore.

Another candidate said because the shooting had occurred near his neighborhood, 
he has closely followed media accounts.

A candidate who said many of his friends were police officers told the court he 
felt an allegiance to law enforcement.

Haynes reiterated a juror's opinion was less important than whether he or she 
could base their decision solely on the facts presented in court.

"In a case like this, unless you haven't been paying attention at all, everyone 
comes into court with some opinion about the matter," Haynes said. "The issue 
is whether you can follow the court's instruction ... and set aside that 
opinion."

Renfro, who appeared in court wearing slacks, a white shirt, tie and 
black-framed glasses, quietly watched the proceedings surrounded by his team of 
attorneys.

Once the trial begins, the court has opted to adjourn at noon each Wednesday, 
taking Wednesday afternoons off, Haynes said.

(source: cdapress.com)