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

[Rick Halperin]

June 1


TEXAS:

3rd East Texas inmate gets 2018 execution date



An East Texas man has been given an execution date for 2018.

After the United States Supreme Court denied his appeal, an East Texas judge 
signed off on an execution date for Daniel Acker, 46, of Sulphur Springs. Acker 
is scheduled to die by lethal injection on September 27.

In 2001, Acker was sentenced to death for March 2000 murder of 32-year-old 
Marquetta George.

In February 2000, Acker and George moved into a rented trailer home, shortly 
after they met. On the evening of Saturday, March 11, 2000, the pair went to a 
rode before heading to the nightclub, "bustin' Loose," according to documents 
presented in court.

The couple got into an argument at the club and witnessess, who testified at 
Acker's trial, said he threatened to kill George that night. Documents state 
Acker was kicked out of the club, but returned several times looking for 
George.

"Around 9:15 a.m. on March 12, Acker went to the home of George's mother, Lila 
Seawright, still searching for George," court documents state. "Seawright 
testified at trial that Acker told her that if he found out George had spent 
the night with another man, he was going to kill them. Seawright replied that 
no one was worth going to the penitentiary for murder. Seawright testified that 
Acker shrugged and replied, 'Pen life ain't nothing. Ain't nothing to it.'"

Later that morning, after Acker returned to the trailer he shared with George, 
a bouncer, identified as Robert "calico" McKee, at "bustin' Loose," brought 
George to the trailer. McKee told Acker he had taken George to her father's 
house to spend the night. Acker testified in court he did not believe McKee was 
telling the truth because he drove by George's father's house the previous 
night when he was looking for her.

According to Acker, George admitted she spent the night with Calico. Acker then 
asked George where Calico lived and she said she would show him, but instead, 
she ran out of the trailer.

Neighbors testified George darted from the trailer, screaming for them to call 
law enforcement. Acker followed her, grabbed her, threw her over his shoulder, 
forced her into his truck and sped away.

Sedill Ferrell, who owned a dairy farm in Hopkins County, found George's body 
and contacted the sheriff's office. Acker turned himself in to a law 
enforcement officer and was arrested. George's body was found less than 3 miles 
from the trailer where she lived with Acker.

Acker was convicted of kidnapping, then murdering George. An autopsy revealed 
she died from strangulation and blunt force trauma.

Acker is the 3rd East Texas inmate to be dealt an execution date for 2018.

TROY CLARK

On May 7, Troy James Clark, 50, of Smith County, received his execution date in 
the 7th District Court.

The State of Texas will put Clark to death by lethal injection on September 26, 
the day before Acker.

On May 1, 1998, Clark was condemned for the torture and drowning murder of his 
former roommate, Christina Muse, 20, of Tyler.

According to evidence presented in court, Clark and a co-defendant, identified 
as Tory Gene Bush, hit Muse with stun gun, beat, bound and kept her in a closet 
before drowning her in a bathtub.

Prosecutors said Clark and Bush then stuffed Muse's body into a barrel with 
cement mix and lime before dumping in a ravine.

Her body was discovered 5 months later by Tyler police.

According to the Associated Press, the motive behind the crime was Clark and 
Bush feared Muse would snitch on them for using and selling methamphetamine.

Bush pleaded guilty to the charge of murder intentionally causing death on 
August 7, 2000, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In October 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States refused Clark's appeal 
claiming he had insufficient legal counsel during his 2000 trial in Smith 
County.

Clark's prior convictions include:

June 24, 1987 - Possession of a controlled substance - Cocaine (Released August 
27, 1987 on parole)

January 8, 1993 - Possession of a controlled substance X2 (Released February 
23, 1996)

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Clifton Williams will be 
put to death on June 21, 2018, for the murder of Cecilia Schneider, of Tyler.

On July 9, 2005, Williams, then 21, entered Schneider's home before stabbing, 
beating and strangling her to death. He then burned her body. Williams stole 
Schneider's purse and car and left the scene.

Officials arrested Williams a week later.

In 2006, he was found guilty in the court of former judge Cynthia Kent and 
sentenced to death.

He was originally set to be executed on Thursday, July 16, 2015. However, he 
received an 11th hour stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal 
Appeals until questions about some "incorrect testimony" at his 2006 trial 
could be resolved.

In a brief order, the court agreed to return the case to the 114th District 
Court in Tyler to review an appeal from Williams' attorneys. His counsel wanted 
to examine whether incorrect FBI statistics regarding DNA probabilities in 
population estimates cited by witnesses could have affected the outcome of 
Williams' trial, according to KXAS.

In September 2017, the Court issued a ruling stating they reviewed the record 
with respect to applicant's claim, agreed with the trial court's recommendation 
and adopted the trial court's findings and conclusions.

"Based upon the trial court's findings and conclusions and our own review, we 
deny relief," the ruling stated.

(source: KETK news)

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

Illegal immigrant facing death penalty in 2014 murder of Border Patrol agent



A man from Mexico who has previously been arrested and deported multiple times 
for entering the U.S. illegally is now facing the death penalty after being 
found guilty in the 2014 murder of a Border Patrol agent in Texas.

Gustavo Tijerina-Sandoval, of La Villa, showed no emotion in court Wednesday as 
he was told by a judge that a jury found him guilty in the killing of Javier 
Vega Jr. and attempted murder of the agent's father, Javier Vega Sr.

The younger Vega was gunned down in front of his family on August 3, 2014, 
after Tijerina-Sandoval and his accomplice, Ismael Hernandez-Vallejo, attempted 
to rob him to pay off a $3,500 debt to a man that was threatening 
Tijerina-Sandoval, according to court testimony and police statements.

Vega Jr., his wife and 2 kids had been fishing in Santa Monica with his father, 
and was struck in the chest with gunfire after pulling out his weapon in 
response. His father suffered a hip injury but Vega Jr. died in the attack. An 
immigration checkpoint in Sarita, where Vega Jr. worked, was later renamed in 
tribute to him.

"Even when not in uniform, Agent Vega exemplified the selflessness and devotion 
to public safety that makes an extraordinary agent, and this will help honor 
his service and sacrifice," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), had said about the 
fallen agent in 2017.

Ismael Hernandez-Vallejo has yet to go to trial for the same charges. 
Tijerina-Sandoval could receive the death penalty in the sentencing phase for 
his trial, which is set to begin Thursday afternoon.

The agent's family embraced each other, friends and members of law enforcement 
working on the case after the guilty verdict was announced Wednesday, the 
Brownsville Herald reported.

Tijerina-Sandoval's defense attorneys, following the announcement, reportedly 
said they would need to talk to him first to figure out how to proceed in the 
case.

Fox News previously reported in 2014, following Tijerina-Sandoval's arrest, 
that he had been found guilty numerous times of crossing into the U.S. 
illegally through its southern border with Mexico. Hernandez-Vallejo was 
deported twice for doing the same, sources said.

In Hernandez-Vallejo's 1st court appearance, he had expressed surprise at the 
charges that were facing him.

"I don't understand why I'm being accused of so many things," he said.

Hernandez-Vallejo has entered a not guilty plea in his case.

(source: Fox News)








FLORIDA:

State to seek death penalty against man accused of killing his child, child's 
mother



The state announced it will seek the death penalty against a man accused of 
killing the mother of his children, his daughter, and nearly killing his 
8-year-old son.

Murder defendant Ronnie O'Neal, meanwhile, continues to push for a speedy 
trial, but his attorney told the judge Thursday she and her client are not 
necessarily on the same page.

Recently, O'Neal blamed the media for making him look bad.

"Making me out to be a menace to society [and] making false allegations and 
accusations before there is a thorough investigation. This is an attack on my 
good name," said O'Neal.

Recently O'Neal demanded his son not be allowed to talk to law enforcement 
about the murders but there's a good chance the boy's testimony will be key 
evidence against his father.

The 8-year-old is still recovering from his injuries.

The little boy's aunt, Daisatta Barron said, "justice is going to be served. If 
the death penalty is how it's going to be served then that's what's going to 
happen."

(source: Fox News)

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

Accused killer seeks to represent himself, but won't let judge swear him in to 
hear request



Dayonte Resiles, the accused killer who escaped from a Broward courtroom 2 
years ago, wants a judge to let him fire his lawyer and represent himself in 
court. But he refuses to allow the judge to swear him in to hold a hearing on 
the request.

Resiles considers himself a "sovereign citizen" who is not subject to the laws 
of the United States or Florida, and he didn't appear to accept the authority 
of Broward Circuit Judge Barbara McCarthy when she tried to have Resiles, 23, 
state his name for the record, on Thursday. Resiles did not comply. He only 
spoke up when McCarthy addressed court-appointed defense lawyer H. Dohn 
Williams.

"Nobody cannot represent me," he said. "I represent myself."

Unable to swear Resiles in to get him to answer legal questions under oath, 
McCarthy postponed his hearing for another month.

His continued efforts to act as his own lawyer won't be able to go forward 
until he allows himself to be sworn in, Williams said later.

Resiles is charged with 1st-degree murder in the Sept. 2014 slaying of Jill 
Halliburton Su, whose body was found by her son in her bathtub in Davie.

Facing the death penalty, Resiles staged a shocking escape from a Broward 
courtroom in July 2016, making his way out of the courthouse and into a waiting 
car. He eluded capture for nearly a week before police caught up with him at a 
West Palm Beach motel.

8 people were charged with helping Resiles before, during and after the escape 
- 3 have entered guilty pleas. The rest are awaiting trial. 7 more people were 
later charged with helping Resiles concoct an alibi for the murder.

In all, Resiles is facing more than 70 criminal charges, from murder and 
robbery to conspiracy, witness tampering and bribery of a public official - he 
allegedly recruited a detention deputy to deliver messages to other accomplices 
to piece his alibi together.

He faces the death penalty if convicted of the murder.

Records in the Resiles case file indicate that his search for an alibi 
backfired, providing investigators with a detailed timeline of his whereabouts 
that neatly fits with their belief that he was in Davie at the time of the 
Halliburton Su murder.

The "sovereign citizen" assertion is most commonly associated with income tax 
protesters, said Williams, Resiles' lawyer. "Most tax protesters understand 
they need an attorney to represent them in presenting this defense. Mr. Resiles 
wants to represent himself."

The last defendant in Broward to represent himself in a death penalty case 
didn't fare well - Peter Avsenew fired his defense lawyers after he was 
convicted of a Wilton Manors double murder, then represented himself during the 
penalty phase of his trial in January. The jury came back with a unanimous 
recommendation that he be executed.

Resiles will have to contend with the prosecution's apparent intent to use 
evidence in the escape and conspiracy cases to bolster the murder case, a 
prospect that's complicated enough with a lawyer navigating through the legal 
intricacies, Williams said.

(source: Sun Sentinel)








ALABAMA:

Order for Alabama to unveil lethal injection process may not reveal one 
execution secret



An order issued yesterday by a federal judge is a step in the right direction 
for bringing public oversight to Alabama's capital punishment method, the 
director of a national death penalty group said.

But, will the records released under Wednesday's order answer the question of 
who makes the drugs used in the state's lethal injections? Most likely not.

According to Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, protocol releases typically include which drugs the state 
will use, but not where the state gets the drugs or the manufacturers.

Several states who have released their protocols in the past include 
information regarding how many people are involved in the lethal injection 
process and what happens in the days leading up to the execution.

An order issued Wednesday by U.S. Chief District Judge Karon O Bowdre said 
state officials must release information about the Department of Corrections' 
lethal injection procedure. She wrote the public has a "common law right of 
access" to the sealed records relating how the state executes death row 
inmates. The judge said any identification or names of low-level prison 
employees involved in executions, the court's independent medical examiner, and 
other confidential security measures can be kept secret.

"In this case, [the state] will keep the lethal injection protocol secret from 
the public unless the court unseals it. And the court's vague summary of 
portions of the lethal injection protocol and its gaps cannot truly substitute 
for the document itself. The court concludes that this factor weighs in favor 
of unsealing the documents," Bowdre wrote in an opinion, also filed yesterday.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office has not said whether it will appeal 
Bowdre's ruling. "The Attorney General's Office is currently reviewing the 
order to determine our next steps," Attorney General Communications Director 
Mike Lewis told AL.com.

The unsealing of the documents came after AL.com's parent company, Alabama 
Media Group, along with the Associated Press and the Montgomery Advertiser 
filed a request asking the records be unsealed under the common-law rights of 
access.

The judge wrote, "Public discussion is not the same as public scandal. The 
public needs to know how the State administers its laws; without such 
knowledge, the public cannot form an educated opinion on this very important 
topic. And the fact that the [media who asked for the unsealing] may take a 
position about the death penalty does not make their intent to publish factual 
matter about how Alabama conducts its executions 'scandalous.'"

"The fact that the death penalty may be a hotly contested issue does not lessen 
the public's presumptive right of access to court documents--to the contrary, 
it increases that presumptive right of access," she wrote. The order was filed 
in the case of Doyle Lee Hamm, a death row inmate who was scheduled to be 
executed on February 22. After several hours of attempting to insert a catheter 
for the lethal drugs in Hamm's veins, the execution was called off.

Hamm's lawyer Bernard Harcourt said after the execution attempt that ADOC staff 
tried to use Hamm's peripheral veins on his lower extremities, as a previous 
court order directed them to, but they couldn't find a vein on either leg or 
either ankle. After those attempts failed, medical personnel moved on to try a 
central venous line in Hamm's right groin--where, days earlier, an independent 
doctor who evaluated Hamm said there were abnormal lymph nodes.

During the procedure, Harcourt said Hamm experienced severe pain and bleeding.

Harcourt argued in the weeks preceding the execution that Hamm's veins would be 
inaccessible to the staff preparing him for execution because of his lymphatic 
cancer and previous drug use.

Harcourt declined to comment for this story.

Hamm's lawyer calls execution attempt 'botched'

Doyle Lee Hamm, 61, was set to be executed last week for the 1987 murder of 
Patrick Cunningham. The execution didn't happen though, because medical 
personnel couldn't find a vein to inset the catheter needed for the lethal 
drugs.

(source: al.com)

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

Unveiling Alabama's policies and procedures for executions



Alabama executes its death-row inmates, but Alabamians know few of the details 
-- the drugs used, the procedures, the policies. That may change.

On Wednesday, U.S. Judge Karon O. Bowdre ruled that Alabamians have a "common 
law right of access to the sealed records relating to Alabama's lethal 
injection protocol." Given its track record, Alabama is likely to fight this 
effort to force government openness. I'll be shocked if that doesn't happen.

The judge's ruling comes after several state news organizations asked the court 
to unseal the documents from death-row inmate Doyle Lee Hamm's case. His 
execution earlier this year didn't happen because prison officials couldn't 
connect an IV line after repeated attempts.

These details come from an Associated Press report:

"Alabama for years has released scant details about its execution process or 
where it obtains the drugs used, according to Robert Dunham, executive director 
of the Death Penalty Information Center. Every state carrying out executions 
has kept some parts of the process secret, but they're increasingly being 
challenged by prisoners and media and public interest groups seeking access to 
records and judicial proceedings.

"'Alabama is the most secretive state in the country when it comes to 
executions. It conceals its entire execution protocol and when there have been 
clearly botched executions -- such as Doyle Hamm and Ronald Smith -- prison 
officials have denied that there were any problems and deflected all other 
questions by claiming that the execution was carried out according to the 
protocol,' Dunham wrote in an email. Smith, another Alabama inmate, heaved and 
coughed for the first 13 minutes of a lethal injection as he was being put to 
death in 2016."

Much of Alabama's secrecy over its execution policies is based on the steep 
politics that surround state-sponsored killings in the United States. Drug 
manufacturers increasingly do not want their products used for executions, 
which has forced states like Alabama to seek substitutes that critics say are 
not suitable for prison use. And politically, the death penalty is a staple of 
Republican, conservative states that overwhelmingly support executions for the 
worst crimes. Protecting the death penalty is as much a political issue as a 
moral or judicial one.

(source: Editorial, Anniston Star)








OHIO:

Prosecutors push for execution in local death penalty case



Warren County prosecutors today urged the Ohio Supreme Court not to reconsider 
the death penalty ordered and scheduled for Austin Myers, 23, of Clayton.

Myers is one of the youngest people on the state's death row.

"A motion for reconsideration 'shall not constitute a re-argument of the 
case,'" the prosecutors' motion said. "Myers' motion does just that."

Earlier this month, the court affirmed the death penalty for Myers for the 
stabbing death of childhood friend Northmont High School grad Justin Back at 
his home outside Waynesville in January 2014.

At the time, Myers was the youngest on Ohio's death row.

He is still apparently the 2nd youngest 3 1/2 years after being sentenced for 
the murder of Back, 18, of Wayne Twp.

Myers was sentenced to death on Oct. 16, 2014, for Back's murder during a 
robbery.

Another Clayton man, Timothy Mosley, actually stabbed Back to death, but he was 
sentenced to life in prison without parole in exchange for his testimony.

In response to the high-court ruling, lawyers for Myers motioned for the court 
to overturn the conviction and call a new trial "or in the alternative that his 
sentence be modified to life without parole."

On Thursday, County Prosecutor David Fornshell and Assistant County Prosecutor 
Kirsten Brandt contested the arguments for the Supreme Court to take another 
look at the case.

The court also scheduled Myers' execution for July 20, 2022.

His lawyers could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

(source: Dayton Daily News)

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

Ohio Parole Board to rule on mercy for condemned killer



The Ohio Parole Board is set to rule on a request for mercy by a condemned 
killer facing execution in July.

Attorneys for death row inmate Robert Van Hook are asking that their client be 
spared, citing a history of severe childhood emotional and physical abuse and 
untreated mental illness. The board will make its recommendation on Friday.

Van Hook is scheduled to die on July 18 for strangling and stabbing David Self 
in Cincinnati in 1985.

Prosecutors say courts have fairly considered Van Hook's childhood and mental 
health claims previously and there are no grounds for sparing him.

The parole board heard arguments last week for and against Van Hook's clemency 
request. Republican Gov. John Kasich has the final say.

(source: Daily Journal)








TENNESSEE:

Murder Suspect Targeted In Jailhouse Attack



Erick Eugene Jones Jr. did not want to remain in segregation in the Greene 
County Detention Center, so he signed paperwork authorizing his release into 
the jail's general inmate population.

About 12:40 p.m. Wednesday, Jones was assaulted and punched by two other 
inmates in B Pod, jail Administrator Roger Willett said.

Jones is charged in connection with the December 2014 deaths of 2 small 
children in Greeneville and faces a possible death penalty sentence if 
convicted.

"We had some inmates who tried to go after him and he was punched," Willett 
said.

Jones was not injured, he said.

Corrections officers broke up the assault and reviewed videotape to identify 
the 2 inmates involved, Willett said.

They were served with assault warrants on Wednesday. The names of the 2 men 
charged were not immediately available.

Jones had been in the Carter County jail before being transferred back to 
Greene County. He was moved to a jail in a neighboring county after Wednesday's 
assault for his own safety, Willett said.

Inmates have their own code of justice and generally are not accepting of 
defendants charged with crimes involving children, law enforcement officials 
said.

That is apparently the motive behind the assault of Jones, whose Greene County 
Criminal Court trial is scheduled in September.

The state will seek the death penalty for Jones, 25, who is charged with 3 
counts of 1st-degree murder and 4 counts of aggravated child abuse reflecting 
different theories in connection with the 2014 deaths of 13-month-old Kynsleigh 
Easterly and 2-month-old Trinity Brooke Tweed in a house on North Hardin Street 
in Greeneville.

Jones was caring for the girls and another daughter of Kendra Lashae Tweed 
while she worked in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2014. Jones was charged 
several days later in connection with the deaths.

Tweed, 25, was later charged with 1st-degree murder and aggravated child abuse 
in connection with the case. Her case is pending. She remains in the Greene 
County Detention Center.

Jones was in segregation at the Greene County Detention Center and apparently 
felt he had been there long enough so that other inmates would not cause 
problems, leading to the request to be placed back in the general population, 
Willett said.

Willet said correction officers quickly intervened and later used surveillance 
videotape to determine the identities of the 2 men who assaulted Jones.

"We're not going to let anybody get assaulted in the jail, no matter what they 
are charged with," Willett said.

Jones has had his own problems while behind bars. In December 2015, he was 
charged with aggravated assault in connection to an alleged attack on another 
jail inmate on Nov. 24, 2015, that resulted in a broken jaw.

Court records show no resolution to that case.

(source: Citizen Tribune)



ILLINOIS:

Letter to the Editor: Death penalty should be reinstated



There were 2 interesting articles in the newspaper on Wednesday, May 23, 2018. 
One was very well written by a Mr. Brad Smith of Teutopolis. (Letter to the 
Editor, "More common sense about guns.") My thanks to you, Mr. Smith. The other 
was a huge amount of hogwash about the death penalty. (Guest editorial, Sauk 
Valley Media, "Don't reinstate the death penalty.")

There are many tried and effective ways to administer the death penalty. It 
does not have anything to do with lethal injection. I can only assume the 
electric chair is still in place, and the very effective gas chamber used to to 
administer justice to Bill Cook in 1952 for the murder of the Mosser family of 
Atwood, Illinois, and the gallows available in every state in the U.S., used a 
few years back for Westley Allan Dodd at Walla Walla, Washington.

We are now foolishly supporting a person for his lifetime for the murder of a 
local girl named Willow whose tortured little body was found near Watson, 
Illinois. When will America wake up???

The King James Bible Book of Numbers, Chapter 35 verse 31, states the necessity 
of the death penalty. And we are to take no satisfaction in the killing of the 
guilty party.

Only when the penalty fits the crime will the killing drop to an almost non 
existent level. The laws have been recorded for around 5,000 years, so when a 
person commits a crime they pass the sentence upon themselves.

Shame on the American public for allowing legislators to do away with what 
work, and allowing judges' hands to be tied to the point they cannot pass 
reasonable sentences on the offender.

Shame on the godless tyrants for blaming guns and law abiding gun owners for 
the actions of a deranged few.

I am an ex-soldier of a bygone era, 1969-60-61. The oath I took in 1959 is just 
as real today as it was then: To protect the citizens of America from all 
adversity, both foreign and domestic, even at the cost of my own life.

Lloyd Dean

Effingham

(source: Letter to the Editor, Effingham Daily News)