[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., LA., OHIO, TENN.

[Rick Halperin]

July 27



TEXAS----death row inmate seeks to drop appeals

Death row inmate who stomped baby's head in Galveston asks to be 
executed----Travis Mullis was sentenced to death row in 2011


A Brazoria County man on death row for stomping his 3-month-old baby to death 
by the Galveston seawall filed a motion this week asking to waive his appeals 
and fire his attorneys, hoping to fast-track his path to the death chamber.

Travis Mullis, the 31-year-old Alvin transplant sent to death row in 2011, 
previously sought to forfeit his appeals and in recent months repeatedly raised 
the possibility of doing so again.

"I support my death sentence and want it carried out ASAP," he told the 
Chronicle in a letter earlier this year. "I was sentenced to death not 
indefinite detention."

So-called "volunteers" - inmates seeking to cut off appeals and offer 
themselves up to die - account for only about 10 % of executions, according to 
the nongovernmental Death Penalty Information Center. But earlier this week, 
another Texas prisoner fought to waive appeals, and in recent months the 
high-profile case of Scott Dozier has garnered national media attention as 
Nevada struggles to find the drugs to help the condemned man carry out his 
death wish.

The crime that landed Mullis on death row was an impulsive outburst that capped 
a string of what he called "stupid decisions" and an unequivocally wretched 
life.

His mother died when he was still a baby and, growing up, he was sexually 
abused from ages 3 to 6, according to court records. He spent years in and out 
of institutions and when he turned 18, his adoptive mother kicked him out of 
the house. He moved to Texas, settling outside Houston with a woman he'd met 
online.

By 2008, he and his girlfriend found themselves broke and without a place to 
stay, so they started crashing in a trailer with a couple who agreed to take 
them in.

But early one morning that January, Mullis took the couple's 8-year-old 
daughter to a schoolyard and tried to pull her pants down. The girl started 
crying and Mullis brought her home but decided that he was "screwed" because 
he'd "stepped over the line," he told the Chronicle.

Worried that the girl would tell her parents and he'd would be evicted, on Jan. 
29 Mullis drove to Galveston to ponder his predicament with his 3-month-old 
sleeping in the backseat.

But the child started crying, and Mullis wanted him to be quiet.

So, first, he molested the boy, then stomped his skull until it gave way.

"I make stupid decisions, what can I say," he told the Chronicle. "I did it on 
impulse and killed him right after."

He fled to Pennsylvania but turned himself in to Philadelphia police four days 
later, offering up a detailed confession. During trial, his attorneys outlined 
his rough life, describing their client as an "emotional mental health 
quadriplegic" who was "unable to feel emotions."

After he was sent to death row, Mullis waived his direct appeal as well as the 
later state post-conviction appeal, according to court records. But in federal 
court, he revived his claims again - until recently. He told the Chronicle he 
didn't like what his lawyers were saying about him and disagreed with their 
claims regarding his mental health.

"I'm 100 % guilty of my crime nobody contests that," he said. "The fight is 
over my sentence. I'm accepting of my death sentence. My lawyers are against 
the death penalty for anyone."

His legal team did not respond to a request for comment.

In some ways, said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center, 
Mullis fits the profile of those most apt to waive their appeals and volunteer 
for execution.

"Almost all the volunteers are white males, they almost all have had horrific 
upbringings, frequently involving serious sexual abuse," he said. "And for most 
of them it is more painful for them to see the mitigating evidence presented 
than it is to terminate the proceedings and be killed."

Texas has had more volunteers than any other state, Dunham said, which isn't 
surprising given the sheer volume of executions in the state.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the most recent volunteer 
was Barney Fuller, a Houston County man who shot up his neighbors' home with an 
AR-15 then went inside and shot them both in the head. He was executed in 2016.

More commonly, prisoners volunteer at some point in the process and change 
their minds later. Roughly 146 of more than 1,470 executed prisoners 
volunteered to die, according to DPIC data. 31 of those were in the Lone Star 
State.

But over the past year, it's not a death case in Texas but one in Nevada - 
which hasn't executed anyone in more than a decade - that's garnered attention.

Dozier has repeatedly, in several interviews, voiced his desire for death. The 
47-year-old was sentenced to die for the 2002 murder and dismemberment of 
Jeremiah Miller.

But his case has generated national press because of the complications 
surrounding the state's efforts to kill him. Nevada has struggled to maintain 
supplies of its death drugs, and earlier this year sparked controversy by 
proposing an untested lethal injection protocol using the powerful opioid 
fentanyl.

Dozier was set to die earlier this month, but a court called off the date at 
the last minute after one of the drugmakers filed a lawsuit objecting to its 
products' use in the procedure.

Mullis likely won't face those hurdles, though, as Texas has always managed to 
procure the drugs it needs for the Huntsville death chamber. Moving forward, 
Dunham said, he could have a competency hearing to determine that he's legally 
able to waive appeals. Records show he's been found competent in the past.

The condemned killer's latest handwritten filing asks the court to toss 
previous expert testimony and hold a hearing on competency, but Mullis ends by 
assuring the court he's serious about his intent to die.

"This motion to waive is final and will not be withdrawn under any 
circumstances," he wrote. "No additional review or consultations with counsel 
will change this decision to exercise the right to waive appeals."

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

Harris County Jury Delivers Guilty Verdict for Jordanian Man in 'Honor 
Killings' Trial----Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan can be sentenced to death or life in 
prison without parole


On Thursday, July 26, 2018, a Harris County jury delivered a guilty verdict for 
Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan. The verdict ended a death penalty trial where the 
Jordanian immigrant was accused of enlisting his wife and son to commit a pair 
of "honor killings."

A Harris County jury delivered Thursday a guilty verdict for Ali Mahwood-Awad 
Irsan and ended a death penalty trial in which the Jordanian immigrant was 
accused of enlisting his wife and son to commit a pair of so called "honor 
killings," the Houston Chronicle reported.

Irsan, 60, was accused of organizing the homicides, which were committed in 
2012, as part of broader plot to kill 5 people, including his daughter, after 
she ran away from home. Subsequently, she converted to Christianity and married 
a Christian man.

After 5 weeks of testimony, the jurors found Irsan guilty of killing his 
son-in-law and also taking part in the early killing of a young Iranian medical 
student who was 1 of his daughter's best friends.

The next step in the trial will be the punishment phase. Irsan can be sentenced 
to life in prison without parole or to the death penalty.

(source: houstonpublicmedia.org)






FLORIDA----female faces death penalty

Death penalty sought for mom of slain newborn twins


Prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty against a Brevard County mother, 
accused of killing her 2 infants.

Investigators say Rachel Thomas, 30, of West Melbourne, killed her babies 
shortly after giving birth to them in April. They say Thomas lied about 
delivering the children at first, saying she only gave birth to 1. One baby was 
found outside in the trash.

Thomas now faces upgraded charges including: 2 counts of felony murder and 2 
counts of aggravated child abuse in the deaths of the newborns, as well as 1 
count of premeditated murder in the death of the newborn daughter.

Autopsy results revealed the manner of death of the twins was homicide, 
investigators said. Detectives learned that Baby Jane and Baby John suffered 
severe blunt force trauma to their heads, not consistent with Thomas' story of 
giving birth in a toilet,"said West Melbourne Police Capt. Richard Cordeau, in 
the days following her arrest. "In addition, the umbilical cord was wrapped 
around Baby Jane's throat and a foreign object was lodged in her throat to 
block her airway. After discarding her in the trash can, Thomas threw 
additional trash on top of Baby Jane in an attempt to conceal her. Both babies 
are believed to have been carried a full 39 week term."

Thomas' other children, 2 boys ages 1 and 8, have been placed by the Florida 
Department of Children and Families with other family members.

(source: WOFL news)






LOUISIANA:

Bad justice is good reason to hang up the Louisiana death penalty


Down in the Bayou State, there's a clamor for more executions. Louisiana 
Attorney General Jeff Landry makes no bones about his feelings. More 
executions- including nitrogen gas, hangings, firing squads, electrocution and 
lethal injection. But a federal judge has put all executions in Louisiana on 
hold for another year.

There is a reason the death penalty is rarely enforced anymore, particularly in 
the federal judicial system. Too many innocent victims are being convicted, 
based on cover-ups and the withholding of exculpatory evidence by some federal 
and state prosecutors. A recent study published in the National Academy of 
Sciences concludes that some 4.1% of inmates on death row are innocent. More 
than 4 %! If that were the rate of airplanes crashing, would you fly? My alma 
mater, the University of North Carolina, completed a death penalty study in 
2016, and found that in Louisiana, 127 of 155 death penalty cases over the past 
40 years ended in reversal, some 10 points above the national average. Since 
2000, there have been only 2 executions while seven people in Louisiana, about 
to be put to death, were found to be innocent. The main reason? Prosecutorial 
misconduct.

For years, the Bayou State has held the title of having the highest 
incarceration rate in the world. It now has taken on the dubious title of 
having case after case of death row inmates being convicted based on the 
withholding of evidence that would prove their innocence.

New Orleans has become the cesspool for the innocent being convicted of capital 
crimes and sentenced to death. One of the most egregious is the case of New 
Orleanian John Thompson, who was convicted back in 1982 of 1st-degree murder 
and given the death sentence. He came within days of being executed after 
spending 14 years on death row and 18 years total in prison. 5 different 
prosecutors were involved in the case and all knew that a blood test, and other 
key evidence that showed Thompson was innocent, had been withheld by the 
prosecution.

On his deathbed and dying of cancer, one of the prosecutors confessed to a 
colleague that he had hidden the exculpatory blood sample. The colleague waited 
5 more years before admitting that he too knew of the hidden evidence. 
Thompson, after 18 years, received a new trial, and his lawyers were finally 
able to produce ten difference pieces of evidence that had been kept from 
Thompson???s defense attorneys, that overwhelming showed he was innocent. The 
new jury took less than 35 minutes to find him not guilty.

Hiding evidence that can find the accused innocent is nothing new for 
prosecutors in New Orleans, both in state and federal court as well as with the 
FBI. The Innocence Project of New Orleans reviewed a number of convictions over 
the past 25 years in the city and concluded that prosecutors have a "legacy" of 
suppressing evidence. The Project said 36 men convicted in Orleans Parish 
alleged prosecutorial misconduct. 19 have since had their sentences overturned 
or reduced as a result. In 19 of 25 capital cases, the prosecutors withheld 
favorable evidence.

Then there is the chilling case of Dan Bright, convicted and put on death row 
for a murder he did not commit. Evidence came out years after his conviction 
that the FBI, thanks to a credible informant, had been in possession of the 
name of the actual killer all along. Luckily for Bright, because of the 
unconstitutional withholding of key evidence by the prosecution and the FBI, 
his conviction was thrown out, and he now is a free man.

The foreman of White's jury, who recommended that he be put to death, was 
Kathleen Norman, who was a guest on my radio show on several occasions before 
her untimely death several years ago. She was so incensed over White's wrongful 
conviction and the hiding of evidence that would have cleared him by the FBI, 
that she became head of the Louisiana Innocence project, helping others like 
White mount a credible defense.

Questionable conduct by rogue prosecutors who withhold information that could 
prove the innocence of an accused is far too prevalent. Whether one is for or 
against the death penalty, there is ample evidence that convictions of a 
capital crime can be a crapshoot based on the whims of some prosecutors who too 
often withhold evidence that shows the accused is innocent. Bobby Lee Swagger 
says in the movie Shooter, "This is the world we live in, and justice is not 
always fulfilled!"

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

(source: Jim Brown's syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers 
throughout the nation and on websites worldwide----bayoubuzz.com)






OHIO:

Ray Tibbetts never had a fair shot in life: Letter to the Editor


I've been following the case of Ray Tibbetts and I was so pleased to read 
Governor Kasich granted Tibbetts clemency and commuted his sentence to life in 
prison. We all deserve a fair shot in life. Ray Tibbetts never had that. Not 
throughout his childhood, and not during his trial. All of the things that help 
most people in their everyday lives, like a stable family life, safety, and 
social services, were never in the cards for Tibbetts.

Combine that lack of support with abuse and neglect, and it's not difficult to 
understand where Tibbetts ended up in life. Unfortunately his jury didn't have 
all that information when they voted on his death sentence, and it would have 
been wrong to continue with his execution once the truth came out.

If we're going to have the death penalty as a possible punishment, then we need 
to make sure the system works. Governor Kasich was smart enough to recognize 
this fact. He made the right call here, a tough call, but the right one.

Betsy Kubbins,

Chagrin Falls

(source: Letter to the Editor, cleveland.com)






TENNESSEE:

Tennessee can use controversial lethal injection drugs to execute death row 
inmates, judge rules


Tennessee can use controversial drugs to execute inmates on death row despite 
concerns from defense attorneys and experts that doing so is "akin to burning 
someone alive," a Nashville judge ruled Thursday.

The ruling is a blow to 33 death row inmates who had challenged the state's 
lethal injection protocol, saying it led to cruel and unusual punishment 
forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. Among them is Billy Ray Irick, who is 
scheduled to be executed Aug. 9.

But the ruling won't be the final word.

The inmates' attorneys quickly announced they would appeal.

Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle issued the 51-page ruling on the 
case Thursday evening, forcefully denying the inmates' claims and saying they 
failed to meet two critical bars necessary to overturn an execution method.

Attorneys for the death row inmates needed to prove:

There is a different means to carry out the execution that is readily available 
and substantially less painful; and

The drugs the state plans to use would cause the inmate to be tortured to 
death.

Lyle ruled the attorneys proved neither during a 2-week trial, which closed 
Tuesday.

"Although dreadful and grim, it is the law that while surgeries should be 
pain-free, there is no constitutional requirement for that with executions," 
Lyle wrote, echoing an argument made by attorneys for the state.

Kelley Henry, a federal public defender who led the inmates' case, said in a 
statement that Lyle's ruling included an "important finding" that would support 
their case on appeal.

Leigh Ann Apple Jones, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee attorney general, said, 
"we are pleased with the court's carefully reasoned decision."

Challenge stemmed from change to lethal injection drugs

Lethal injection is the primary means of carrying out the death penalty in 
Tennessee, although the electric chair is also legal. The state had used 
pentobarbital, a barbiturate, but manufacturers have largely stopped selling 
the drug to anyone using it for executions.

In 2017, the general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Correction said 
the state did not have the drugs needed to carry out an execution but could get 
them if they needed. In January, the state adopted a new lethal injection 
protocol that called for a 3-drug cocktail.

The inmates, who filed the suit against the state in February, did not argue 
against the death penalty itself. Instead, they focused on the use of 
midazolam, the 1st drug in the state's new protocol, that is meant to put an 
inmate to sleep before 2 other drugs stop the heart and lungs.

Experts who testified on the inmates' behalf said midazolam is often 
ineffective, leaving people awake and aware of the acidic poison that kills 
them. The experts pulled examples from executions across the country, in which 
witnesses saw inmates thrashing, moaning and crying as the drugs coursed 
through their veins.

"That is akin to burning someone alive. That is not hyperbole. That is not an 
exaggeration," said Henry. "That's avoidable."

Lyle acknowledged that the inmates' case included testimony from 
"well-qualified and imminent experts," and she conceded "the inmate being 
executed may be able to feel pain from the administration of the second and 
third drugs."

In her statement, Henry said this portion of Lyle's finding could offer an 
opening for the inmates. Henry cited a U.S. Supreme Court case in which Chief 
Justice John Roberts "held that if an inmate was able to feel the effects of 
these two drugs, then the method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment to 
the United States Constitution."

But, Lyle wrote, the inmates' attorneys did not prove that the three-drug 
protocol would lead to prolonged periods of "needless suffering," one of the 
key factors that could lead to unconstitutional torture. She pointed to the 
relatively brief executions cited by the inmates' attorneys, which ended after 
an average of 13.55 minutes.

Midazolam part of ongoing effort to make executions more humane, state argued

Deputy Attorney General Scott Sutherland, who represented the state and the 
Department of Correction, tied midazolam to ongoing work to make executions 
more humane.

He pointed to rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and other judicial panels 
that upheld executions using midazolam. And he said that the inmates had failed 
to prove pentobarbital was readily available to be used instead of the 3-drug 
protocol.

Lyle agreed.

"It is not enough, the United States Supreme Court has held, for the inmate to 
claim that the State's method of execution is cruel and unusual," Lyle wrote. 
"The inmate must also make a claim in the lawsuit he files and must prove at 
trial in his case that there is a known and available method to execute him 
that, in comparison to the State's execution method, significantly reduces a 
substantial risk of pain."

Inmates to appeal judge's ruling, ask for stay of Aug. 9 execution As both 
sides gear up to face the Tennessee Court of Appeals, attorneys for Irick plan 
to ask the Tennessee Supreme Court for an emergency stay of execution. The 
request would ask the court to delay carrying out Irick's death sentence until 
after the appeal is heard.

Gov. Bill Haslam said earlier Thursday his office is reviewing Irick's mental 
health as it weighs his petition for clemency. Advocates argue Irick was in a 
psychotic state when he committed the rape and murder for which he was 
convicted and should therefore not be executed.

Haslam said he and his staff are watching for Lyle's decision and how the 
appellate court handles the case.

It's still unclear when the governor will make a clemency decision on Irick's 
case.

(source: The Tennessean)

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

Gov. Bill Haslam grants clemency to 4; no word on Cyntoia Brown or death row 
offender


Gov. Bill Haslam granted clemency to four Tennessee inmates Thursday, the start 
of what is expected to be a series of such actions he takes before leaving 
office.

"These individuals have distinguished themselves in both their rehabilitation 
and their individual contributions to the community," Haslam said in a news 
release.

"After thoughtfully considering the circumstances of each of their cases, I 
believe exercising the executive clemency power will help further these 
individuals' positive influence on their communities and the lives of their 
fellow Tennesseans."

Of the four people who received clemency, three were already out of prison. The 
governor's pardon does not remove their convictions from their records, but 
does potentially open doors to an expungement down the road in addition to 
employment and other benefits.

Michelle Lea Martin had her 25-year sentence commuted to supervised parole, 
effective Dec. 20. Martin pleaded guilty in 2004 to 2nd-degree murder in 
Bledsoe County related to the death of her father in 2001, according to a news 
release.

Her father sexually abused Martin when she was a child, and abused her mother, 
according to the news release. Martin shot and killed her father after a 
confrontation about his abuse of her mother, according to the news release.

Martin, her mother and her boyfriend then reportedly took her father's body and 
concealed it in a barrel of cement, according to Tennessean archives.

The Board of Parole did not grant a hearing in Martin's case, according to a 
Haslam spokeswoman.

The t3 men who received pardons are:

Ralph Randall Reagan, who was pardoned for his 1980 and 1982 burglary 
convictions in Cumberland County and his 1984 conviction for escape in Knox 
County.

Robert James Sheard Jr., who was pardoned for his 1984 conviction of 
misdemeanor assault and battery in Shelby County.

Steven Lee Kennedy, who received a pardon for his 1979 conviction of aiding and 
abetting fraudulent use of a credit card in Sullivan County.

The 6-member Board of Parole unanimously recommended pardons for each of these 
3 men.

Recently, Haslam told the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee that he planned to 
start granting clemency.

"We haven't done any (pardons) so far. We will definitely do some in the next 6 
months. I don't think you'll see a flood but I don't think it'll be 2 or 3 
either," said Haslam, during a wide-ranging interview for the new 
organization's policy and politics podcast.

"I think we'll take a moderate approach to it."

Haslam has yet to weigh in on 2 very controversial cases: Cyntoia Brown and 
Billy Ray Irick.

To some degree, Brown's cases mirrors Martin. Brown is serving a life sentence 
for a 2004 murder committed when she was 16. Advocates for Brown say she was a 
victim of sex trafficking and killed Johnny Allen because she thought her life 
was in danger.

Irick, a 59-year-old Knoxville man convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of a 
7-year-old girl, is on death row and scheduled to die Aug. 9. It would be the 
state's 1st execution since 2009, the year before Haslam was elected.

In December 2017, Haslam exonerated Lawrence McKinney, who spent 31 years in 
prison after DNA evidence led a court to overturn his conviction.

The exoneration, which came roughly 8 years after McKinney was released from 
prison, allowed McKinney to formally apply for compensation with the Tennessee 
Board of Claims.

(source: The Tennessean)