[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., TENN., IOWA, UTAH, ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 19



TEXAS----new execution date

Fort Worth man convicted in birthday party slaying gets execution date



A Fort Worth man convicted of killing a rival gang member's mother and a 
5-year-old girl at a children's birthday party 10 years ago has been given an 
execution date.

Erick Davila is scheduled to meet his fate in the Huntsville death chamber on 
April 25 at 6 p.m., according to court papers. A judge signed off on the death 
date on Wednesday.

"Like that Winston Churchill movie, we shall never surrender and we intend to 
aggressively fight for Mr. Davila," said Houston defense attorney Seth Kretzer.

The Supreme Court gave a death row prisoner a 2nd chance because one of the 
juror's made racist remarks.

Davila, 30, is on death row for a shooting that killed Annette Stevenson and 
her granddaughter Queshawn, according to court filings. In April 2008, Davila 
drove by the Village Creek Townhouses in Fort Worth and opened fire on a rival 
gang member along with 15 children who were eating ice cream and cake on the 
front porch at the "Hannah Montana"-themed party.

Court records describe a "chaotic scene" with "blood splattered everywhere." 2 
other children were wounded in the shooting, but survived.

Since his 2009 conviction, Davila has fought the case in appeals courts, taking 
his claims of bad lawyering all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court last year. 
Kretzer, who is co-counsel with Houston-based attorney Jonathan Landers, argued 
the case.

In a 5-4 ruling, the justices rejected Kretzer's claims that earlier appellate 
counsel erred in failing to point out possible missteps made earlier by trial 
attorneys regarding bad jury instructions.

In addition to signing off on a death date, a Tarrant County judge on Wednesday 
also slapped down a defense motion to disqualify the local prosecutor's office, 
as current District Attorney Sharen Wilson was the judge during Davila's 2009 
trial and Assistant District Attorney David Richards previously served as 
Davila's attorney earlier in the appeals process.

"We were surprised and concerned by the trial judge's denial on our motion to 
recuse," Kretzer said Thursday. "I'm not making up some new legal theory here 
that there's a conflict."

Davila's death date is the 6th on the calendar in Texas this year.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

'Tourniquet Killer' executed in Texas for 1992 strangling



Texas carried out the nation's 1st execution of 2018 Thursday evening, giving 
lethal injection to a man who became known as Houston's "Tourniquet Killer" 
because of his signature murder technique on 4 female victims.

Anthony Allen Shore was put to death for 1 of those slayings, the 1992 killing 
of a 21-year-old woman whose body was dumped in the drive-thru of a Houston 
Dairy Queen.

In his final statement, Shore, 55, was apologetic and his voice cracked with 
emotion.

"No amount of words or apology could ever undo what I've done," Shore said 
while strapped to the death chamber gurney. "I wish I could undo the past, but 
it is what it is."

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began, Shore said the drug burned. 
"Oooh-ee! I can feel that," he said before slipping into unconsciousness.

He was pronounced dead 13 minutes later at 6:28 p.m. CST.

"Anthony Allen Shore's reign of terror is officially over," Andy Kahan, the 
city of Houston crime victims' advocate, said, speaking for the families of 
Shore's victims. "There's a reason we have the death penalty in the state of 
Texas and Anthony Shore is on the top of the list. This has been a long, 
arduous journey that has taken over 20 years for victims' families."

Shore's lawyers argued in appeals he suffered brain damage early in life that 
went undiscovered by his trial attorneys and affected Shore's decision to 
disregard their advice when he told his trial judge he wanted the death 
penalty. A federal appeals court last year turned down his appeal, the U.S. 
Supreme Court refused to review his case and the 6-member Texas Board of 
Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected a clemency petition.

Shore's attorneys said his appeals were exhausted. They filed no last-minute 
attempts to try to halt his execution.

In 1998, Shore received 8 years' probation and became a registered sex offender 
for sexually assaulting 2 relatives. 5 years later, Shore was arrested for the 
1992 slaying of Maria del Carmen Estrada after a tiny particle recovered from 
under her fingernail was matched to his DNA.

"I didn't set out to kill her," he told police in a taped interview played at 
his 2004 trial. "That was not my intent. But it got out of hand."

Estrada was walking to work around 6:30 a.m. on April 16, 1992, when he she 
accepted a ride from him. The former tow truck driver, phone company repairman 
and part-time musician blamed his actions on "voices in my head that I was 
going to have her, regardless, to possess her in some way."

He also confessed to killing 3 others, a 9-year-old and 2 teenagers. All 4 of 
his victims were Hispanic and at least 3 had been raped. Jurors also heard from 
3 women who testified he raped them.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who as an assistant prosecutor worked 
the then-unsolved Estrada case, said crime scene photos showed Estrada was 
tortured and had suffered as a stick was used to tighten a cord around her 
neck.

"I know this case, I know his work and the death penalty is appropriate," she 
said. "A jury in this case gave Shore death. ... I think he's reached the end 
of the road and now it's up to government to complete the job."

Besides Estrada, Shore confessed to the slayings of Laurie Tremblay, 15, found 
beside a trash bin outside a Houston restaurant in 1986; Diana Rebollar, 9, 
abducted while walking to a neighborhood grocery store in 1994; and Dana 
Sanchez, 16, who disappeared in 1995 while hitchhiking to her boyfriend's home 
in Houston.

Sanchez's body was found after a caller to a Houston TV station provided 
directions on where to find it. Police believe Shore was the caller.

Shore's execution originally was set for last October but was delayed for an 
investigation after another Texas death row inmate concocted a scheme to get 
Shore to take responsibility for his crimes.

In 2017, 23 convicted killers were put to death in the U.S., 7 of them in 
Texas, more than another state. 3 more inmates are scheduled to die in Texas in 
the coming weeks.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----28

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----546

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

29---------Jan. 30-----------------William Rayford--------547

30----------Feb. 1-----------------John Battaglia---------548

31----------Feb. 22----------------Thomas Whitaker--------549

32----------Mar. 27----------------Rosendo Rodriguez III--550

33----------Apr. 25----------------Erick Davila--------------551

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Democratic candidate for governor Lupe Valdez calls for increased minimum wage, 
is open to a tax increase----Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lupe Valdez sat 
down Thursday with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith for her most in-depth interview 
since entering the race in early December.



Valdez is considered one of the frontrunners to win the nomination to challenge 
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in November. On Thursday, she spelled out some 
policy positions and avoided criticizing one of her main competitors for the 
nomination, Houston businessman Andrew White.

Here are some highlights:

Raise the minimum wage

As governor, Valdez promised to try to raise the minimum wage in Texas, which 
is currently $7.25 an hour. She said the state should "start out with a livable 
wage." Pressed for a specific figure, Valdez suggested "somewhere between $12 
and $15" per hour.

Open to a tax increase

Valdez said she was open to pursuing a tax increase to generate more state 
revenue - "if necessary." However, she made clear she would not support a state 
income tax in Texas.

Speaking with reporters afterward, Valdez said she could not yet foresee a 
scenario that would require her to seek a tax hike. Still, she defended the 
possibility.

"I don't enjoy paying big taxes," she said, "but I also know that some things 
are necessary for the future of Texas."

"Happy medium" on immigration

Valdez said there is a "happy medium" in the discussion about whether 
undocumented immigrants should be deported, expressing sympathy for those who 
come to the country seeking a better quality of life.

"People who murder, steal, rape, abuse - that's not giving you a better quality 
of life," Valdez said. "So those - I have no problem sending them somewhere 
else."

Clearing up her refusal to answer a similar question Sunday on the campaign 
trail, Valdez said she does support providing driver's licenses to undocumented 
immigrants. "But with limited access," she added, explaining that such licenses 
shouldn't be used for non-driving activities, such as voting.

Avoiding negative campaigning

White, a Houston entrepreneur and the son of late Gov. Mark White, is one of 
Valdez's higher-profile primary rivals. She argued that her tenure as sheriff 
gives her more relevant experience than he has, but declined to criticize him 
on an issue that has put him at odds with some Democrats - his contention that 
he is "personally pro-life" but respects a woman's right to choose.

"I don't have to beat up a person to beat them," Valdez said, while emphasizing 
she believes no one should be told what to do with their body.

Against the death penalty

Like White, Valdez said she supports ending the death penalty in Texas, 
expressing concern about cases of wrongful execution.

"We cannot be in a situation where we risk killing an innocent person," Valdez 
said.

Raising campaign funds

Asked about her paltry fundraising so far - she raised just $46,000 in the 
first few weeks of her campaign - Valdez insisted that she did not prioritize 
it because she still had to serve as sheriff through Dec. 31.

"You need to continue to take care of the department, and I did that until the 
very last day," she said. Since then, she added, she's been raising about $300 
to $500 a day. Her campaign later clarified that the rate is much higher.

Border security funding

Valdez said she would not zero out the $800 million that Texas spends every 2 
years on border security, as White has suggested he would do. Instead, she 
said, she would redirect some of the money to local law enforcement agencies to 
help them do their jobs.

Guns

Valdez said she is against open carry and campus carry but supports concealed 
carry, citing her long experience as a member of the law enforcement community. 
She added that she supports increased background checks on gun purchases as 
well as a ban on high-capacity magazines.

(source: Terxas Tribune)








FLORIDA:

He stabbed and killed a pregnant teen. 23 years later, he's charged in her 
son's death.



Ronnie Keith Williams attacked 18-year-old Lisa Dyke so savagely, 1 of the 18 
stabs wounds that ended her life penetrated the pregnant woman's stomach and 
cut her baby's leg while he was inside her womb.

That gash would be visible on the prematurely born baby's leg for the nearly 24 
years he lived without his mother.

In December 2016, Julius Dyke, 23, who lived with severe brain damage because 
of the attack on his mother, and who had to breathe and eat through tubes and 
couldn't talk, finally died of his injuries. His death was ruled a homicide.

Williams, who smirked when he was convicted and given the death penalty in 2004 
for killing Lisa Dyke, now faces 1st-degree murder charges in a Broward 
courtroom. This time for the death of her son, Julius.

"As long as they don't let him out I'm fine," Margaret Dyke, Lisa's mother, 
told CBS4. She told the Miami Herald's news partner she agreed with the Broward 
State Attorney's office to charge Williams with her grandson's death.

"Every day to watch your grandson shake with seizures, all because of someone 
evil. Someone who has yet to say, 'I'm sorry.'"

Margaret Dyke, who gave up a career as a singer, who lost her home, and who 
spent the rest of Julius' life tending to him, will be there for Williams' 
latest trial.

"I have to make sure justice is done for my babies," she told CBS4.

Lisa Dyke had been babysitting at a friend's home in Wilton Manors on Jan. 26, 
1993, when she answered a knock on the door. "A stranger, a monstrous little 
man with an 8-inch knife, attacked her in an inexplicable bloody frenzy," a 
former Herald columnist wrote in 2007, 14 years after the murder.

On that day in 1993, Williams, who had previously been convicted of raping a 
9-year-old girl in 1982 and of the stabbing murder of a 21-year-old Oakland 
Park woman in 1984, went looking for his ex-girlfriend. He had been released 
from prison due to overcrowding just 8 months earlier.

He found Dyke at the home. After stabbing her 18 times, and wounding her unborn 
child, he bit her on the back, breasts and buttocks. She lived long enough - 19 
days - to deliver her son and identify Williams from her deathbed.

He was convicted in 1993 of Dyke's murder, but in 2004 the Florida Supreme 
Court ordered a new trial because of a juror's error. That led to his 2004 
conviction and death sentence.

(source: bradenton.com)








ALABAMA:

Execution drug may have been named in court filings from Alabama AG's Office



The Alabama Attorney General's office may have confirmed in a federal court 
document which company makes the sedative the state uses for lethal injections, 
and it's a pharmaceutical firm that refuses to directly sell drugs for 
executions.

How the Alabama Department of Corrections got the sedative midazolam made by 
Akorn Pharmaceuticals, despite the company's ban, is not entirely clear -- the 
state won't comment.

Doyle Lee Hamm is a Alabama Death Row inmate at Holman Prison. He is scheduled 
to die Feb. 22 by lethal injection. His lawyer since 1990 and professor of law 
and political science at Columbia, Bernard Harcourt, has argued that Hamm has 
lymphatic cancer and intravenous injection of the lethal drugs will cause 
significant pain and suffering. He states Hamm's only accessible vein is not 
large enough for the procedure.

Because of a federal court decision requiring an inmate to suggest an 
alternative method of execution, Harcourt states Hamm should be killed via oral 
injection-- which midazolam cannot be used for.

In Hamm's federal case, filed in the Northern District of Alabama, the AG's 
office submitted a motion to dismiss. In that motion, they state Hamm "fails to 
cite any data, article, study, literature, journal, or medical record 
suggesting that the drugs he lists could be used orally in the manner he 
suggests, much less that they would effectively cause his death in a painless 
manner."

The AG's office stated Hamm was treated for lymphatic cancer in 2014, but is 
currently in remission and not being treated for the illness.

The AG's filing includes drug information for the Akorn brand of midazolam. The 
motion states, "For example, while the FDA-approved package insert for the drug 
midazolam provides that it is constituted in 'dosage form for intravenous or 
intramuscular injection'... Hamm fails to allege any facts or produce any 
scientific evidence suggesting that midazolam, or any other drug listed in his 
complaint, would have the same pharmacological effect if it were given orally 
as opposed to intravenously as the drug is intended."

Akorn Pharmaceuticals is an Illinois-based drug manufacturer. In 2015, the 
company announced a policy that "endorses the use of its products to promote 
human health and wellness and condemns the use of its products, particularly 
midazolam and hydromorphone hydrochloride, in execution protocols."

The statement said the company would no longer accept orders from prison 
systems, and prisons that needed drugs for a "legitimate medical need" could 
purchase those items from wholesalers. The company said it was working to 
ensure that those wholesalers, and other distributors, agree to not resell 
midazolam and hydromorphone to prison systems and secondary wholesalers.

In the same announcement, Akorn said it had sent letters to all attorneys 
general and departments of corrections that may have purchased its products for 
executions, and asked the systems to return the drugs.

The executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, Robert Dunham, 
said if a seller violated Akorn's policy, tracking numbers on the drugs' label 
would show which provider sold the drug to the DOC. If there is a legal issue 
with the prison system obtaining the drug, someone could have violated Akorn's 
contract rights.

"Is the government behaving legally, properly, ethically in carrying out the 
death penalty?" he said. "[The state] needs to make sure we're not violating 
the law to enforce the law."

In a response to the AG's motion filed Tuesday, Harcourt argues Hamm's medical 
condition has worsened over the past year. He states there is not an adequate 
vein that the 3-drug solution, in which the 1st drug is the sedative midazolam, 
can be administered.

"As an original matter, Doyle Hamm had a lengthy medical history that included 
epilepsy, brain damage, a seizure disorder, significant medications for 
seizures, extensive intravenous drug use, and cognitive disabilities ... Doyle 
Hamm's medical condition deteriorated significantly prior to or around February 
2014, when he was diagnosed with cranial and ocular lymphatic cancer, 
specifically with large cell lymphoma that was aggressive and fast growing," 
Harcourt said.

"However, beginning in early 2017, the nurses at Donaldson Correctional 
Facility have only been able to draw blood with difficulty from one small 
tortuous vein on his right hand," Harcourt's filing states.

Alabama has never released the makers of the drugs it uses in carrying out the 
death penalty. There has never been information publicly released on the exact 
protocol for executions, either.

Harcourt told AL.com, "The secrecy that [AG] Steve Marshall demands is a clear 
sign that what's going on is disgraceful. You don't hide when you are doing 
justice. You only conceal something infamous. Other states make their protocols 
public, there is no legitimate reason to conceal them."

"The most flagrant abuse is that Marshall has refused to disclose to me, 
Doyle's attorney, even under a confidentiality agreement, the protocol for 
venous access that they intend to use on Doyle. He won't even tell me how they 
plan to access his veins, even though they recognize its difficult. That's 
unacceptable," he said.

The AG's office declined to comment for this story, yet did not confirm nor 
deny whether Akorn is the brand of midazolam the state plans to use in its 
upcoming executions. The Alabama DOC did not respond to AL.com's request for 
comment by the time of publication.

Hamm has been in prison since 1987, after being convicted in the murder of 
Patrick Cunningham. Cunningham was an employee of Anderson's Motel in Cullman, 
and was killed during a robbery.

Another death row inmate, Vernon Madison, is scheduled to be executed Jan. 25.

(source: al.com)








TENNESSEE----new execution dates, 1 serious

Executions set to resume in Tennessee: 3 death row inmates scheduled to die



3 Tennessee death row inmates are set to die in 2018, what would be the 1st 
executions in the state since 2009.

The Tennessee Supreme Court and Tennessee Department of Correction confirmed 
the executions, scheduled to start in May. Neysa Taylor, a spokeswoman for the 
department, said Thursday the state "has the drugs necessary to carry out 
execution by lethal injection."

2 of the inmates have additional avenues for appeal, while the 3rd - a Knox 
County man who has spent more than 3 decades on death row - has fewer remaining 
paths to avert execution this year.

James Hawkins, a 41-year-old Shelby County man convicted in 2011 of killing the 
mother of his 3 children, is scheduled to die May 9, according to the 
department.

Billy Ray Irick, a 59-year-old Knox County man convicted of the 1985 rape and 
murder of a 7-year-old girl is set to be executed August 9, according to an 
order issued Thursday by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Sedrick Clayton, a 34-year-old Shelby County man convicted of a triple murder 
in 2014, is scheduled to die Nov. 28, according to the department.

"Both Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Clayton had their convictions confirmed by the 
Tennessee Supreme Court in 2017. They have 1 year to file a petition for post 
conviction relief. They may also have federal appeal options," said Barbara 
Peck, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Supreme Court.

"Mr. Irick has completed all his state and federal appeals."

The order for Irick sets the stage for what could be the 1st execution in 
Tennessee in nearly a decade. Attorneys representing Irick asked the Supreme 
Court Thursday not to set a new execution date for their client.

In that time, advocates and inmates tried unsuccessfully to win a legal battle 
arguing against the use of lethal injection and the death penalty.

In March 2017, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled against dozens of death row 
inmates who'd filed suit against the practice.

"The intended result of an execution is to render the inmate dead," wrote Chief 
Justice Jeffrey Bivins in an opinion upholding the state's procedure to execute 
the condemned via one shot of pentobarbital, according to Tennessean archives.

In March 2017, department General Counsel Debbie Inglis indicated the 
department did not have the drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection but 
she "anticipates we could carry out" such an injection if requested.

Other states have had difficulty obtaining drugs used in lethal injections.

Death by electric chair is also legal in Tennessee. It was last used in 2007.

Irick, who's been on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in 
Nashville since 1986, was last set to die in 2014. He's 1 of 60 people on death 
row in Tennessee.

Clayton is the most recent person in Tennessee sentenced to death row.

The last person executed in Tennessee was Cecil Johnson, executed in 2009 after 
he was convicted of murdering 3 people in Nashville in 1980.

Johnson's death occurred before Gov. Bill Haslam took office. If there are no 
further delays, Irick will be the 1st person executed during the former 
Knoxville mayor's gubernatorial tenure.

"The governor will defer to the Tennessee Supreme Court as the court sets 
execution dates, not the executive branch. The governor will follow the law and 
the court's orders on this matter," said Haslam spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals in 
an email Wednesday.

(source: The Tennessean)



IOWA:

No place for death penalty



Just when I thought we could not sink any lower in morals in Iowa and in the 
U.S. in general, I read an article that certain Republican legislators in Iowa 
want to bring back the death penalty. There is a reason that a Republican 
governor in Illinois passed a moratorium many years back to lift the death 
penalty in Illinois.

Research had shown that many poor inmates on death row had been executed and 
others waited facing the same because of having an ineffective defense during 
their trials. DNA also exonerated many others. I would rather have a penal 
system where we do not gamble with innocent lives. It is more important to let 
100 guilty people live in prison than execute even one innocent person. We are 
not God.

Erinn Crane

Davenport

(source: Letter to the Editor, Quad-City Times)








UTAH:

Death Penalty Sought in Jealousy Fueled Trailer Park Murder----Prosecutors say 
they will seek the death penalty against a 28-year-old Utah man charged with 
killing a man who in bed with his ex-girlfriend in a Cedar City trailer park.



Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a 28-year-old Utah man 
charged with killing a man who was in bed with his ex-girlfriend in a Cedar 
City trailer park.

The Spectrum newspaper in St. George reports that Mark Mair's attorney, Douglas 
Terry, called it "sobering" to hear prosecutors want the death penalty. Terry 
says the facts in the case don't warrant that punishment.

Iron County Attorney Scott Garrett says the decision to pursue the death 
penalty allows prosecutors to keep all options open.

Mair is accused of killing 34-year-old Justin Hannah on July 24, 2016 in an 
alleged fit of jealousy. Hannah was in bed with Mair's ex-girlfriend. Hannah 
was shot 3 times.

Mair and an alleged accomplice were arrested in Grand Junction, Colorado the 
next day.

(source: Associated Press)








ARIZONA:

State Supreme Court Throws Out Fourth Verdict----For the 4th time in nearly two 
years, the court tossed a verdict from Maricopa County because of judicial 
error.



Another death penalty verdict out of Maricopa County has been tossed by the 
state's Supreme Court. It was the 4th time in 18 months that the justices on 
the state's highest court overturned a Superior Court judge had failed to let 
jurors know that there was no way the defendant would ever walk out jail.

The justices threw out the death penalty for Bryan Hulsey who had been 
convicted of murdering Glendale police officer Anthony during a routine traffic 
stop in 2007.

The court found that by not telling jurors that Hulsey was ineligible for 
parole - the state abolished parole in 1993 - was error and not harmless."

Because of that, the justices have ordered the Superior Court judge to hold a 
new sentencing trial.

In each of the death penalty cases where the verdict was thrown out, 
prosecutors were allowed to leave jurors with the impression that the defendant 
could theoretically pose a danger down the road.

2 of the cases were prosecuted by the same Deputy Maricopa County Attorney.

In other case, the appeals went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United 
States, which overturned the death penalty verdict.

A new trial date for the penalty phase has not yet been set.

(source: patch.com)