[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., FLA., OHIO, TENN., NEB., ARIZ., NEV., USA

[Rick Halperin]

September 14



NEW HAMPSHIRE:

NH death penalty stands as override falls short



Lawmakers in New Hampshire on Thursday failed to override Republican Gov. Chris 
Sununu's veto of a bill that would have abolished the death penalty but managed 
to do so with one offering support to the beleaguered biomass industry.

The state Senate Thursday voted 14-10 to overturn the governor's veto on the 
death penalty, 2 votes shy of the 16 needed to override a gubernatorial veto. 
In the case of bills supporting the biomass industry and net metering, the 
Senate overrode the vetoes. Environmentalists claimed victory in the override 
of a veto of a bill that provides help to the state's biomass industry but fell 
short on net metering in the House.

New Hampshire's death penalty applies in only 7 scenarios: the killing of an 
on-duty law enforcement officer or judge, murder for hire, murder during a 
rape, certain drug offenses or home invasion and murder by someone already 
serving a life sentence without parole. The state hasn't executed anyone since 
1939, and the repeal bill would not have applied retroactively to Michael 
Addison, who killed Manchester Officer Michael Briggs and is the state's only 
death row inmate.

Death penalty opponents argued that courts might have interpreted it 
differently, however. Others argued that imposing the death penalty doesn't 
give victims the closure that repeal advocates assume it would.

But Sununu, with widespread support from police, vetoed the bill and argued 
that he had an obligation to support law enforcement and deliver justice for 
victims.

2 Democrats from Manchester, Sens. Kevin Cavanaugh and Lou D'Allesandro, voted 
with 8 Republicans to uphold the governor's veto. The other 8 Democrats in the 
chamber joined 6 Republicans in supporting a veto override.

"It's a very narrow death penalty. It has been used in this state 1 time, in 
1939. One time," argued D'Allesandro, in support of upholding Sununu's veto.

But Republican State Sen. Bob Guida, in urging an override of the veto, claimed 
that "the death penalty is not a deterrent."

"An eye for an eye is not what this country is about," he said.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Amnesty International USA Will Continue Its Fight for New Hampshire to Abolish 
the Death Penalty



Reacting to news that the New Hampshire state legislature has failed to 
override the Governor's veto, which would have ended the death penalty in New 
Hampshire once and for all, Kristina Roth, Senior Program Officer at Amnesty 
International USA stated:

"The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is a cruel, 
inhuman and degrading punishment. By vetoing this bill, which had broad 
bipartisan support, the Governor defends a practice that serves no legitimate 
public interest, neither deterring crime nor improving public safety.

"Amnesty International and New Hampshire citizens who believe in the 
illegitimacy of the death penalty will continue their fight to abolish it in 
their home state."

(source: amnestyusa.org)








FLORIDA:

Mastermind behind Billings murder case loses appeal but could still avoid 
execution



Leonard Gonzalez Jr., the mastermind behind the 2009 murders of Beulah 
philanthropists Byrd and Melanie Billings, had an appeal denied by the Florida 
Supreme Court on Thursday.

The finding means that Gonzalez is out of chances to appeal his convictions in 
the 2 murders. However, the case is not quite closed as jurors still have to 
determine whether Gonzalez's current death sentence will stand.

In July 2009, Gonzalez led a group of men who forced their way into the 
Billings' home in black "ninja garb" and gunned the couple down during an 
attempted robbery. The couple had 17 children - 13 of them adopted and many of 
them with special needs - and 9 of kids were home at the time of the murders.

Gonzalez was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to death in a 10-2 jury vote. In 
April 2014, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously upheld his death sentence, 
finding that despite Gonzalez's claim of errors in his trial, evidence 
supported the conviction.

Still, Gonzalez and many other Florida inmates got an unexpected second chance 
from the Supreme Court of the U.S. in 2016. That year, Supreme Court justices 
struck down Florida's capital sentencing process as unconstitutional. The 
ruling - based on the Pensacola case Hurst v. Florida - found that juries must 
be unanimous when issuing a death sentence.

In the wake of the SCOTUS ruling, Gonzalez was one of the many Florida death 
row inmates who petitioned the courts for "Hurst relief," a repeat penalty 
phase where a new group of jurors would decide the question of life or death.

Gonzalez's Hurst appeal was unique in that he also re-raised two of his 
previously rejected claims: that his counsel provided ineffective assistance by 
failing to seek a new venue for his trial in the midst of "inflammatory media 
coverage," and that Sheriff David Morgan "interfered" with the case through his 
then-customary practice of greeting prospective jurors outside the courthouse.

Appellate judges found both of Gonzalez's claims legally insufficient, and the 
Florida Supreme Court's opinion Thursday upheld that finding.

State Attorney Bill Eddins said that Gonzalez still has a window to fight this 
decision before it becomes final, but that "once it becomes final, we will be 
ready for trial court to schedule a re-trial on the penalty portion of the case 
to determine what penalty - life or death - is appropriate."

The penalty phase will consist of prosecutors presenting the majority of that 
was originally shown to jurors in the 2010 trial. Jurors will not be tasked 
with deciding Gonzalez's guilt or innocence, only whether he should be 
sentenced to life or death based on the aggravating and mitigating factors of 
the crime.

Eddins said the new penalty phase will grant Gonzalez a renewed set of appeals 
related strictly to that specific hearing. But even then, the best possible 
outcome available to Gonzalez would be life imprisonment.

(source: Pensacola News Journal)

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

Judge Reads First 14th Circuit Death Sentencing Since Law Changes



In June, Daniel Craven Jr., went to trial for stabbing his Graceville 
Correctional Facility cell mate, John Anderson, to death.

2 1/2 months later, he received his official sentence, after the 12 person jury 
in that trial recommended to enforce the death penalty.

"As to the charge of 1st degree murder on John H. Anderson, in the indictment, 
the court adjudicates you, Daniel Jacob Craven Jr., guilty of that offense and 
now sentences you to death in a manner prescribed by law," said Christopher 
Patterson, 14th Judicial Circuit Judge.

Craven was already serving a life sentence for a 2011 murder out of south 
Florida.

He will be housed by the Florida Department of Corrections, until the day of 
his execution.

"It is further ordered that on such scheduled date, you, Daniel Jacob Craven 
Jr., shall be put to death," Patterson said.

That date is not yet known.

"You are hereby notified that this sentence is subject to automatic review by 
the Florida Supreme Court," Patterson said. "May god have mercy on your soul."

Craven was seen smiling as the verdict was read.

Prosecutors said Craven is the 1st in the 14th judicial circuit to receive the 
death penalty since the supreme court's amendment changes to the capital 
sentencing law in 2017.

(source: MyPanhandle.com)








OHIO:

Former Sandusky County detective sentenced to prison



A former Sandusky County Sheriff's Office detective who admitted he tampered 
with evidence during the Heather Bogle death investigation was sentenced to 
prison Thursday afternoon.

Sean O'Connell, 54, of Fremont, had been charged with 3 counts of tampering 
with evidence, 3rd-degree felonies; 1 count of unauthorized use of Ohio Law 
Enforcement Gateway, a 5th-degree felony; 1 count of falsification, a 
1st-degree misdemeanor; and 1 count each of coercion, dereliction of duty and 
obstructing official business, all 2nd-degree misdemeanors.

He had pleaded guilty to 1 count of tampering with evidence, a 3rd-degree 
felony, in July. The rest of the charges were being dismissed.

Visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove sentenced O'Connell to 2 years in prison, with 
credit for 5 days served, during a hearing in Sandusky County Common Pleas 
Court Thursday. O'Connell not only dishonored himself, but all of the thousands 
of police officers across the country, Cosgrove said.

O'Connell apologized to Bogle's family and 3 people who had been accused of 
being involved in the crime.

"I have been remorseful," he said.

O'Connell had been the lead investigator for the death of Heather Bogle, 28, of 
Fremont and formerly of Tiffin, whose body was found in the trunk of her 
vehicle at Somerton Apartments in Clyde in April 2015. She last was seen 
leaving work at Whirlpool, and her mother reported her missing.

In June 2017, Daniel R. Myers, 49, of Fremont, was indicted by a Sandusky 
County grand jury in connection to Bogle's death.

Keyona Bor, who had been identified as a "person of interest," spoke before 
O'Connell's sentencing and said O'Connell had destroyed her life, her 
children's lives and the lives of Bogle's family. She said she and her children 
had received death threats, and she had to keep her children out of school.

"I have to see myself labeled as a murder suspect. My kids have to see that," 
she said.

Jennifer Bogle, Bogle's sister, said O'Connell was a "disgrace" to law 
enforcement everywhere. He thought he was above the law, she said.

Christopher Fiegl, O'Connell's attorney, said O'Connell is a husband, father, 
grandfather and decorated veteran who has led an "outstanding" life. O'Connell 
took responsibility, he said.

Fiegl told Cosgrove there were alternatives to incarceration.

"His life will never be the same. ... People make mistakes," he said.

Myers was charged with 2 counts of aggravated murder, unclassified felonies; 
aggravated robbery and kidnapping, both 1st-degree felonies; and tampering with 
evidence, a 3rd-degree felony.

The grand jury had specified Myers had a firearm while allegedly committing the 
crimes. It also specified he had a sexual motivation while allegedly committing 
aggravated robbery and found him to be a sexually violent predator, according 
to his indictment.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The aggravated murder charge carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty.

(source: The Advertiser-Tribune)








TENNESSEE----impending execution

Haslam weighs clemency for inmate about to be executed----Edmund Zagorski, 63, 
was convicted in 1984 of shooting two men in Roberston County, slitting their 
throats and stealing their money.



As Gov. Bill Haslam considers a request for mercy from a man facing an Oct. 11 
execution, state attorneys are blasting legal maneuvers by condemned offenders 
looking to delay or prevent their own deaths.

Edmund Zagorski, 63, was convicted in 1984 of shooting 2 men in Roberston 
County, slitting their throats and stealing their money.

Haslam recently said he's reviewing a clemency petition from Zagorski, the 
second such request from a death row inmate considered by the governor this 
year.

"We have the case before us now," Haslam said. "We're reviewing that just like 
we did with Billy Ray Irick."

Irick, of Knoxville, was put to death Aug. 9, after Haslam and a bevy of courts 
declined to stop his death by lethal injection. Before he died, Irick - 
convicted of the rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer in 1985 - joined 32 
other inmates in a lawsuit alleging the state's use of toxic chemicals to kill 
the condemned amounts to unconstitutional torture.

A Davidson County court found death row offenders may feel pain during the 
execution process, but that pain doesn't necessarily rise to the level of 
violating the Constitution. While the Tennessee and U.S. supreme courts 
declined to stop Irick's execution, the remaining death row inmates are 
appealing the Davidson County court's decision.

Attorneys for the inmates last week filed a lengthy motion. They asked the 
Court of Appeals to consider testimony from a doctor who said Irick was 
tortured to death, based on a review of statements from witnesses at his 
execution. They said the evidence bolstered an argument from the trial: that 
the three drugs used in a lethal injection inflict pain similar to drowning and 
being set on fire.

Lawyers for the Tennessee attorney general said none of that information should 
be considered by the appellate court.

The death row offenders are not allowed to simply retry the same case before 
the appeals court, the state said in a response brief filed Wednesday. And the 
court should not consider information not presented at the original trial from 
a "medical opinion offered by an un-cross-examined expert, which opinion is 
based entirely on hearsay and media accounts," the filing states.

"By filing the motion after having improperly included non-record material in 
the brief, they seem to be operating not under the rules, but under the old 
saw: don???t ask permission in advance, just ask forgiveness afterward," the 
state argued in the filing.

Dwight Aarons, a law professor at the University of Tennessee who studies death 
penalty cases, said the new information from Irick's execution presents "an 
interesting procedural conundrum because typically you have to have this stuff 
done at the trial level first."

Tennessee rules allow new information at the appellate level under limited 
circumstances. One requirement is that the information can be easily proven.

The inmates say the information from Irick's execution can be readily proven, 
while the state argues that the information - that Irick was tortured - is 
unreliable and debatable.

After reviewing the documents, Aarons said the state seemed to have the 
stronger argument.

'Rocket docket' speeding up appellate process

The appellate schedule is substantially condensed; state Supreme Court Justice 
Sharon Lee has called it a "rocket docket" that jeopardizes the inmates' 
chances for a fair trial.

Noting they are on the same schedule, attorneys for the state say they should 
not be forced to respond to every issue included in the 360-page filing by the 
death row offenders.

The Tennessee Supreme Court is set to consider the legal fight over lethal 
injections during oral arguments on Oct. 3.

(source: WBIR news)




NEBRASKA:

Friday is judgment day for Anthony Garcia, the doctor turned killer



Anthony Garcia's day of reckoning has come.

Friday, the former Creighton pathology resident-turned-serial killer will find 
out his fate in the revenge-fueled slayings of 11-year-old Thomas Hunter and 
57-year-old Shirlee Sherman in March 2008 and of Dr. Roger Brumback and his 
wife, Mary, in May 2013.

Judges Gary Randall and Russell Bowie of Omaha and Ricky Schreiner of southeast 
Nebraska will decide whether Garcia receives the death penalty or life in 
prison. Garcia was convicted in October 2016 of killing the 4 as a result of 
his festering grudge over his 2001 firing from Creighton.

"It's been a long road," Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Thursday. "We 
need to bring this to a close for everyone involved."

Put in numbers, it has been:

-- 3,838 days - 10 years, 6 months - since Garcia stumbled his way through 
Omaha's historic Dundee neighborhood on a sunny afternoon, made his way into 
the home of his former boss, Dr. William Hunter, and knifed to death Hunter's 
youngest son, Thomas, 11, and 57-year-old Shirlee Sherman, a mother and grandma 
who cleaned the Hunters' house.

-- 1,952 days - 5 years, 4 months - since Garcia reared his head again on a 
sun-splashed Sunday near 114th and Pacific Streets. After an alarm scared him 
away from the home of another former boss, Dr. Chhanda Bewtra, Garcia stopped 
and ate some chicken wings before finding his way to the home of Dr. Roger 
Brumback and his wife, Mary. The Brumbacks - packing and painting their house 
after Roger had retired from his Creighton University post - were ambushed. 
Garcia shot Roger in the Brumbacks' foyer, then brawled with Mary before 
finally killing her.

-- 1,887 days - 5 years and 2 months - since Garcia was arrested on his way to 
Louisiana State University, with only a gun, a crowbar, a sledgehammer and an 
LSU lab coat in his car. Authorities say he was on his way to kill another 
professor there.

-- 668 days - almost 2 years - since a jury convicted him of the 4 killings.

In the time since, the man who used to ask that everyone call him "Dr. Tony" 
hasn't responded to anyone, no matter what they have called him. Not to Judge 
Randall, who has often referred to him as "Doctor," though Garcia only barely 
held a medical license. Not to his own attorneys. Not even to his parents.

Instead, Garcia has been forcibly removed from his cell on the day of each 
hearing and hauled to court. He has slumped in his wheelchair, his eyes closed 
and his torso curled like his overgrown toenails. He either sleeps or feigns 
it.

It's a far cry from the once thin and smiling and braggadocious defendant. 
Taking on the persona of his brash former attorneys, he once told a 
World-Herald editor: "When I go free, I plan to tell my story to '60 Minutes' 
for millions. My attorneys and I were talking, 'We're going to kick their ass.' 
You can print that."

Then came the blitz of evidence. The stripper who testified that he made a 
bizarre comment about being a bad boy, about killing a young boy and an old 
lady. The neighbors who described a Honda CRV that resembled the one Garcia 
drove. The surveillance video that showed Garcia buying a case of beer on his 
way into Omaha on Mother's Day 2013. DNA on a door handle that generally traced 
back to Garcia. Parts of a gun - broken as Mary Brumback fought for her life - 
that led back to Garcia.

The trademark poking and prodding and cutting along the necks of his victims - 
befitting a former pathology resident. The pile of rejection letters after 
Brumback and William Hunter informed others that Creighton had fired Garcia, 
back in 2001.

As the evidence mounted, Garcia seemed to shrink in court. He went from 
scoffing and scribbling notes in protest during pretrial hearings to sleeping 
during the sentencing phase of the case.

Sherman's brother, Brad Waite, said he expects more of the same Friday.

"He'll just sit there and pretend he's asleep," Waite said. "He's never showed 
any emotion yet. I don't know why it would change (Friday)."

Waite said he has a "million things" going through his mind. His big sister was 
a hardworking, salt-of-the-earth grandmother with 6 grandkids, a garden and "a 
lot of years left to live."

Friday "is going to be a tough day," Waite said. "It's just been a long road. I 
really can't take my mind off of it."

(source: omaha.com)








ARIZONA:

Arizona court affirms sentence in murder case



The Arizona Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction and sentence of a man who 
got the death penalty for fatally beating his live-in girlfriend's daughter.

The high court issued a 29-page ruling Thursday after considering more than a 
dozen issues in Dauntorian Lydel Sanders' case and said substantial evidence 
supported the conviction.

A jury found the then 28-year-old Sanders guilty of 1st-degree murder and two 
counts of child abuse. He was sentenced in 2014.

Chandler police say 3-year-old Schala Vera wasn't breathing when she was found 
lying between a toilet and a bathroom sink where she crawled to hide in August 
2009.

Police say the girl was covered with bruises and belt marks on her arms, legs, 
torso and head.

An autopsy showed Schala died of massive blunt force trauma.

(source: KGUN news)

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

Aussie Madness: Death-Penalty Case in Phoenix Creates a Stir Down Under----The 
death-penalty case in Phoenix against Australia native Lisa Cunningham has 
created a media sensation Down Under.



Headlines scream across Australian tabloids and broadsheets about the lurid 
tale of the woman from Adelaide who is accused, along with her husband, an 
ex-Phoenix cop, of murdering his 7-year-old daughter, Sanaa.

"I Really, Truly Believe Lisa is Innocent," trumpets her hometown paper, The 
Advertiser.

"Australian Mother's Text Messages Key to Murder Trial," says another.

But it was the headline in one of the leading national papers, The Australian, 
that explains why the plight of Lisa and Germayne Cunningham has caught 
wildfire down under in the past week:

"Australian Mother Lisa Cunningham Facing Death Row in US for Murder".

The paper assigned one of its top reporters on the case, a woman who's won the 
country's most prestigious prizes for investigative reporting twice.

Here in Phoenix, despite shocking allegations that the couple tied up, locked 
up, and locked out the severely ill child, the case has barely registered in 
the press. After a brief flurry of coverage when the Arizona Department of 
Child Safety first unveiled its accusations and a bizarre court hearing in 
January, all but these pages fell silent.

But in Australia, it isn't just the murder charge that has gripped the nation.

No Australian has been executed in the United States since the California Gold 
Rush, and no Australian woman has ever received the death penalty in the U.S., 
several newspapers have reported.

In 1851, a street-justice outfit called the Committee of Vigilance hanged 
Australian James Stuart at the end of the Market Street Wharf, according to a 
write-up by the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.

Moreover, the last time Australia executed a convict was in 1968. The federal 
government abolished the death penalty in 1973. Lisa Cunningham's home state of 
South Australia banned executions in 1976.

That's a far cry from Arizona. Currently, 117 people sit on Arizona's death 
row, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections.

The last execution here was of double-murderer Joseph Wood in 2014, who took 2 
hours to die. Since then, executions have been suspended because of concerns 
about the cocktail of drugs used in lethal injections.

The different attitudes about capital punishment lie at the heart of 
Australians??? appetite for news about Lisa Cunningham.

"If convicted, Mrs. Cunningham would be the 1st Australian woman executed 
anywhere in America," said Andrew Hough, a senior journalist with The 
Advertiser, the leading tabloid in Adelaide, pointing out that Cunningham is 
innocent until proven guilty.

"That is significant, because the Australian government is vehemently opposed 
to the death penalty," Hough added, noting the public, across the political 
spectrum, agrees.

Consequently, the Cunningham case is morphing into a diplomatic and political 
issue in Australia. The government has a program to provide as much as 
$500,000, or about $360,000 in U.S. currency, for Australian nationals facing 
the death penalty abroad.

Australian media report the government have provided that legal aid to a woman 
accused of trafficking cocaine in Colombia, another woman convicted of 
smuggling marijuana in Indonesia, a convicted terrorist who trained with the 
Taliban and met Osama bin Laden, and 2 people convicted of heroin smuggling in 
Indonesia in a case made famous as the Bali 9.

Hough says high-ranking federal officials told him that the Australian 
government has not decided whether to help Cunningham. He reported the family 
has yet to apply for legal aid.

Both 39-year-old Germayne Cunningham and 43-year-old Lisa Cunningham pleaded 
not guilty in the case. They insist that everything they did was to protect 
Sanaa from herself, from the demons in her head.

The Maricopa County Superior Court has set a tentative trial date for July 
2020. As that date nears, or as the possibility of a capital conviction looms, 
the Australian public may apply political pressure.

Also, the case could "run the risk of creating a diplomatic problem," Hough 
said.

Journalists at The Australian declined to comment for this story.

But there are other reasons beyond politics that the Cunningham case has 
gripped Australia.

As in many countries around the world, U.S. crime shows are popular there.

"A lot of people here are fascinated by the American justice system," Hough 
said.

And this case has been unusual from start to finish.

"It's caught the imagination of the Australian public for a number of reasons," 
Hough said. "Any crime involving children and their parents will gain 
significant attention."

The high-profile nature of the crime, the fact that the father is a cop, some 
of the harrowing details of Sanaa's final months, and the prevalence of family 
photos all drum up interest, he added.

"It's unusual, but not unheard of, for a woman to be charged with murder. It's 
even rarer for a mother," Hough noted. "Also there are lot of family dynamics 
and family politics at play."

Some of Lisa Cunningham's family have come forward. Her 21-year-old daughter, 
Cierra Anderson, who lives in metro Phoenix, is not speaking locally, but has 
granted exclusive interviews to The Australian.

"She would become catatonic, or else she'd throw things, try to hurt us. She'd 
scream, and my parents would sit up and cry all night with her," Anderson told 
the newspaper. "She tried to kill our dog once with a river rock."

Other family members have been speaking to The Advertiser.

"This time the Americans got it wrong," Cunningham's uncle, 70-year-old Rob 
Topsfield, told the paper. "I'm really angry with the American judicial system 
at the moment."

He's not alone. Cunningham's cousin, Donna Roesler, said she'd disgusted and 
"worried sick angry" by the case.

"I believe the justice system over there is corrupt", she recently told Phoenix 
New Times in a telephone interview. "I don't think she can get a fair trial."

(source Phoenix New Times)








NEVADA:

Nevada's execution drug supply won't expire until 2019



The Nevada prison system's supply of execution cocktail drugs will not expire 
until at least February, the head pharmacist for the Department of Corrections 
testified Wednesday.

Lawyers for the state are pushing to set prisoner Scott Dozier's execution in 
November. Linda Fox, the pharmacy director, told District Judge Elizabeth 
Gonzalez that 1 of the 3 drugs used in the lethal injection cocktail expires 
three months later.

"Is it your understanding that the state still possesses sufficient drugs to 
carry out the execution?" asked attorney James Pisanelli, who represents drug 
company Alvogen. "In other words, Nov. 30 is no deadline at all, is it?"

Fox responded, "If you're asking me if a sufficient drug would remain, yes."

Prison Director James Dzurenda testified a day earlier that he received letters 
from drugmakers, including Alvogen, saying that they didn't want their 
medications used in executions. The state acquired Alvogen's sedative midazolam 
through a 3rd party to use in Dozier's execution, Dzurenda said.

The 3-day hearing in a lawsuit over the use of the state's capital punishment 
cocktail is expected to wrap up Thursday. Makers of the drugs in the cocktail, 
which also include a painkiller and a paralytic, have argued that their 
companies would suffer irreparable harm if their drugs were used to kill 
someone.

Alvogen executive Richard Harker testified Wednesday that the company could 
lose customers opposed to the death penalty, and investors could back out.

In September 2016, the state received no response after delivering 247 requests 
for bids because its stockpile of at least one drug used in executions had 
expired.

Dozier's execution was halted in July, for the 2nd time in 9 months, after 
Alvogen sued the prison system. Dozier would be the 1st prisoner executed in 
Nevada since 2006. The inmate, who waived his legal appeals in late 2016, was 
sentenced to die in 2007 after 1st-degree murder and robbery convictions in the 
slaying of Jeremiah Miller. Dozier had a murder conviction in Arizona before he 
was brought to Nevada to face charges in Miller's death.

(source: Las Vegas Review-Journal)








USA (re: INDIANA):

No decision yet on possible death penalty for Gary gang leader, prosecutor says



An assistant U.S. attorney said at a federal court hearing Wednesday his office 
was still waiting for a decision from superiors on whether to seek the death 
penalty against alleged Gary gang leader Teddia Caldwell.

Meanwhile, the case against Caldwell and 8 other defendants will proceed, with 
a trial possible by May.

Caldwell, 43, of Gary, is indicted on allegations he operated a violent 
drug-trafficking conspiracy in Gary. Caldwell is the estranged husband of Gary 
City Councilwoman Linda Caldwell-Barnes.

The other defendants are Victor Young, 44; Devonte "Lil Bro" Hodge, 26; 
Devontae Martin, 24; Taquan "Boonie" Clarke, 24; Cornell "Knuckles" Allen, 39; 
Terry Brown, 32; Paronica Bonds, 34; and Demetrius "Detroit" Brinkley, 31.

4 of the defendants - Caldwell, Hodge, Martin and Clarke - are eligible for the 
death penalty because of their alleged roles in 2 Gary murders.

Caldwell and Hodge are accused of fatally shooting Akeem Oliver, 29, on Oct. 8, 
2016, in an alley south of 20th Avenue and Virginia Street in Gary. Caldwell, 
Martin and Clarke are accused of fatally shooting Kevin Hood, 43, on July 28, 
2017, outside his car wash business near 15th Avenue and Massachusetts Street.

U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II cannot unilaterally seek the death penalty. 
He must make a formal request to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., 
for a so-called capital review.

A committee of senior department attorneys then review the case, and U.S. 
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has final approval for any death penalty 
charges.

7 men in chains and jail jumpsuits crowded into a jury box Wednesday in U.S. 
District Court. An eighth defendant, Hodge, is in state custody facing 
attempted murder charges in Lake Criminal Court. Bonds, who was allowed to be 
released under court supervision, sat at a defense table.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. Nozick told Judge Andrew P. Rodovich Wednesday 
his office was still waiting to hear from Washington, D.C., regarding the 
penalty phase of the murder cases.

He said the government had tendered all discovery in the cases to defense 
attorney John Maksimovich, who is representing Caldwell.

Maksimovich said he had reviewed the evidence and would serve as lead counsel 
for defendants for the purpose of filing pretrial motions. Rodovich set a 
deadline of Nov. 30 for pretrial motions. The government is ordered to respond 
to motions by Feb. 15.

Rodovich said that timeline suggested a trial by mid-May. Nozick said he 
expected it would be a 5- to 6-week trial.

(source: nwitimes.com)

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

Medical laws and ethics: What to do when conflicts occur



There are times when practicing physicians may encounter a situation where what 
a law requires conflicts with what the AMA Code of Medical Ethics says about 
how physicians must conduct themselves.

The Code's preamble warns physicians that the "relationship between ethics and 
law is complex." But the preamble adds that even though "ethical values and 
legal principles are usually closely related," the "ethical responsibilities 
usually exceed legal duties."

"Conduct that is legally permissible may be ethically unacceptable," the Code 
says. "Conversely, the fact that a physician who has been charged with 
allegedly illegal conduct has been acquitted or exonerated in criminal or civil 
proceedings does not necessarily mean that the physician acted ethically."

The Code's preamble tells physicians that "in some cases, the law mandates 
conduct that is ethically unacceptable.

"When physicians believe a law violates ethical values or is unjust, they 
should work to change in law," the Code says. "In exceptional circumstances of 
unjust laws, ethical responsibilities should supersede legal duties."

The Code's preface further says that the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial 
Affairs:

Recognizes that circumstances at times impinge on physicians' ability or 
opportunity to follow the guidance of the Code strictly as written. Recognizing 
when such circumstances exist and determining how best to adhere to the goals 
and spirit, if not the absolute letter, of guidance requires physicians to use 
skills of ethical discernment and reflection. Physicians are expected to have 
compelling reasons to deviate from guidance when, in their best judgment, they 
determine it is ethically appropriate or even necessary to do so.

The Council also recognizes that guidance is not always equally applicable to 
every individual physician, depending on the nature of the physician's 
practice. Nonetheless, physicians are expected to be aware of guidance that may 
not be routinely relevant to their practice, to be sensitive to occasions when 
such guidance might be pertinent, and to respond in keeping with guidance when 
such situations occur. In this respect too, then, the Code relies on the 
reasonable exercise of judgement.

Where law and ethics have collided

One prominent example of this dilemma is that some state laws require that a 
physician be present for executions, yet the Code clearly states that 
"physicians must not participate in capital punishment." In 2006, a federal 
court ordered that an anesthesiologist had to personally supervise an execution 
in California, or the state had to change its standard protocol for lethal 
injections.

The AMA and other associations opposed the ruling. 2 anesthesiologists agreed 
to supervise, but withdrew before the execution because an appellate court 
further said a physician would need to personally administer additional 
medication if the prisoner remained conscious or was in pain.

Recently, the AMA filed an amicus brief in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court 
that involves the State of Missouri saying a prisoner must offer expert 
testimony comparing the risk of severe pain of execution protocols if he wanted 
to be put to death by something other than standard lethal injection. An 
anesthesiologist wouldn't give an opinion, saying it would violate medical 
ethics.

The AMA's brief doesn't support either party; it offers justices background and 
confirms that "testimony used to determine which method of execution would 
reduce physical suffering would constitute physician participation in capital 
punishment and would be unethical."

(source: ama-assn.org)