[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA., ALA., MISS., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

April 10



TEXAS:

Texas lawmakers consider the death penalty for abortion



State legislators stayed up well into the morning hearing emotional testimony 
about a proposed abortion ban.

House Bill 896 would criminalize abortion and classify it as a homicide. Women 
who have abortions could be sentenced to the death penalty.

How essentially one is okay with subjecting a woman to the death penalty for 
the exact… to do to her the exact same thing that one is alleging that she is 
doing to a child,” said State Rep. Victoria Neave, a Democrat from Dallas.

“I think it’s important to remember that if a drunk driver kills a pregnant 
woman, they get charged twice. If you murder a pregnant woman, you get charged 
twice. So I’m not specifically criminalizing women. What I’m doing is 
equalizing the law,” said State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, a Republican from 
Arlington.

The hearing in the House Judiciary Committee wrapped up at 3 a.m. Tuesday.

The bill now goes before the full Texas House for debate.

Under laws introduced in 2013, abortions after 20 weeks are prohibited in 
Texas. All women seeking an abortion are required to have 2 appointments – 1 
for an ultrasound and 1 for the procedure.

It’s not the first time proposed laws in Texas have made international 
headlines.

In 2017, one bill stated that men in Texas would only be allowed to masturbate 
under supervision, inside approved health care facilities.

The ‘Man’s Right to Know Act’ proposed men be charged US$100 for each 
“emission” that occurred “outside a woman’s vagina”.

The action would be considered “an act against an unborn child, and failing to 
preserve the sanctity of life”.

The legislator, Jessica Farrar, introduced the bill knowing it would never get 
passed, but wanted to satirise how women have been affected by some forms of 
legislation, especially those related to abortion.

(source: Yahoo News)








NORTH CAROLINA:

Democrats in North Carolina want to repeal the death penalty



According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, since 1910 when 
the state assumed responsibility for executing criminals, the number of people 
sent to death row total more than 1000. Male death row inmates are sent to 
Central Prison. Women death row inmates go to the North Carolina Correctional 
Institution for Women.

There are 141 offenders currently sentenced to death in North Carolina, but 
there hasn’t been an execution since 2006. But if certain Democrats have their 
way with legislation they filed this week, the Death Penalty in the Tar Heel 
state will be repealed.

The legislation, HB 587 – Repeal Death Penalty is championed by Representatives 
Graig R. Meyer (D-Caswell), MaryAnn Black (D-Durham), and Zack Hawkins 
(D-Durham).

The proposal begins with many of the same old tired arguments for ending 
capital punishment in resolution form with various “Whereas.” Every one of them 
is specious.

Let me try to speak to each one with brief comments.

Whereas, 9 people in North Carolina were sentenced to death row have been found 
innocent of the crime for which they were sentenced.

How is this reason for ending the death penalty? Death row inmates receive 
super due process of law that can account for an average of 12 years of 
appeals. It’s obvious the current legal process which allows more than ample 
time to cover every possibility of innocence is working. There exists no solid 
evidence of even one innocent nation-wide being executed for more than a 
century. And with modern forensic science today, some would rightly argue the 
chances of executing an innocent have become exceedingly slim to none.

Whereas, the death penalty continues to be disproportionally imposed on members 
of minority groups, persons of low income, and persons with mental and 
intellectual abilities.

I think John McAdams, a professor of political science at Marquette University, 
effectively speaks to this. He contends:

“Nobody would even think of trying to apply this principle in a consistent way. 
If we find that black neighborhoods get less police protection than white 
neighborhoods, would we withdraw cops from black and white neighborhoods? If 
banks are discriminating against black homebuyers in mortgage lending, would we 
demand they stop all mortgage lending? If we find the IRS discriminating 
against middle-class and poor taxpayers, would we want to abolish the 
IRS?...[w]hat we have, in the way of statistical evidence, fails to support the 
politically correct fantasy of massive discrimination. Is the death penalty 
administered with perfect fairness? No. Is it administered as fairly as other 
criminal sanctions? Yes.”

Whereas, studies have shown that the death penalty does not deter crime.

Well, it’s obvious that it deters the executed criminal.

Furthermore, I would suggest it’s not the law that deters; it’s the enforcement 
of it. If North Carolina’s death penalty or the death penalty in other states 
doesn’t deter, it’s because it isn’t being enforced as it should.

Without the death penalty, we are risking the sacrifice of more innocent lives. 
With it, we are risking saving more innocent lives. Which is the better risk?

Isn’t the answer clear?

Whereas, North Carolina spends almost 11 million dollars ($11,000,000) annually 
on costs related to the death penalty, even though the last person executed in 
North Carolina was in 2006.

I contacted my friend, Dudley Sharp, one of the nation’s premier death penalty 
advocates in the country about this argument. Sharp told me that it’s clever 
for the sponsors of the bill not to compare the $11 million to a life sentence. 
He says that there is no reason to accept the $11 million as accurate. He says 
the estimate was first mentioned in 2004 by Philip Cook, at Duke University. 
It’s supposed to be the state government expenditures for processing murder 
cases, but it is purely hypothetical. Sharp said: “It doesn’t make any 
difference what the death penalty costs if you don’t look at the total “life 
without parole” (LWOP) costs.

“For example, the $11 million is about $0.09 a month per North Carolina 
citizen, likely the smallest component in North Carolina taxes. Are North 
Carolinians complaining about spending 9 cents per month?” says Sharp.

In other words, if LWOP costs essentially the same, what does it matter if the 
death penalty costs $11 million? That’s not a sufficient reason for the state 
not to require justice consistent with the crime. The crime of murder should 
require the forfeiting of the murder’s life.

As William H. Baker in his book, Capital Punishment, says, “Capital punishment 
as a form of retribution is a dictate of the moral nature, which demands that 
there should be a just portion between the offense and the penalty.” For the 
criminal to receive a life sentence, when his victim is dead, does not level 
the scales of justice.

Whereas Justice William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall of the United States 
Supreme Court found that the death penalty was inherently unconstitutional as a 
violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Sharp reminded me that there were 114 justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. “2 of 
them,” he said, “Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, found that the 
death penalty was inherently unconstitutional. To say their opinion is in the 
minority is a woeful understatement.”

Whereas elected prosecutors make decisions about whom to seek the death penalty 
against, so this is tied into a political bias.

It is juries that assess whether an individual is worthy of death. A prosecutor 
only applies the law as it meets the law. So it could also be said that if the 
prosecutor decides not to seek the death penalty, when the level of the crime 
meets the law’s requirement of capital punishment, then the prosecutor by his 
own bias, political or otherwise, becomes the sole arbitrator, overruling the 
public’s will as stated in the law. So, you see, this cuts both ways.

HB 587 would repeal the death penalty in North Carolina for the sorriest of 
reasons.

Capital punishment is moral, a responsibility that God gave solely to the state 
in Genesis 9:6, saying, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood 
be shed, for God made man in his own image.” This command of God, which is to 
be a model law for every nation in every era, God has never repealed. It 
forbids personal vengeance, but serves to rightly secure justice for victims, 
restoring a disturbed equilibrium in the universe, while also protecting the 
lives of the innocent.

If this bill is considered and taken up for a vote by the North Carolina 
General Assembly, I sincerely pray lawmakers will sentence it to death.

(source: Rev. Mark H. Creech is executive director of the Raleigh-based 
Christian Action League of North Carolina Inc.----Christian Post)








FLORIDA----new death sentence

Jury recommends death penalty for Michael Bargo----He will be sentenced at a 
later date for the Marion County murder of Seath Jackson.



A jury on Tuesday unanimously recommended Michael Shane Bargo be put to death 
for the murder of Seath Jackson.

At 5:05 p.m., nearly 5 hours after they began their deliberation, the 7 women 
and 5 men let bailiffs know they had reached a decision.

After instructing those inside the courtroom — family members of both Bargo and 
Seath — to be respectful of the jury’s decision, Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti 
called for the jurors at 5:15 p.m. 3 minutes later, the recommendation was read 
aloud. Bargo’s head was bowed.

At 5:24 p.m., when the clerk finished reading, Bargo, wearing a dress shirt and 
pants, wanted the judge to skip what’s called a Spencer hearing, which is when 
lawyers for the defense and prosecution argue their positions on sentencing. 
Bargo said there was no point in continuing this, and he wanted his statement 
to be placed on the record.

(source: ocala.com)

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

Pensacola woman Tina Brown to remain on death row for brutal 2010 murder



A Pensacola woman on death row for the fatal assault, kidnapping and burning of 
her neighbor had her most recent appeal denied last week.

Tina Lasonya Brown, 48, was one of three people who in 2010 ambushed 
19-year-old Audreanna Zimmerman, attacked her repeatedly with a stun gun, 
gagged her, stuffed her in the trunk of a car, drove her into the woods, beat 
her with a crowbar, doused her with gasoline, set her on fire and left her to 
die.

In 2017, Brown filed a motion for post-conviction relief that raised numerous 
arguments for vacating her conviction and sentence. Among them were claims that 
her attorneys were ineffective, that multiple jurors should have been dismissed 
from the trial because of their biases and that "new evidence" implicated one 
of her co-defendants was more culpable in the murder than jurors were led to 
believe.

In a 110-page order filed Friday, Circuit Judge Gary L. Bergosh reviewed all of 
Brown's arguments and found them insufficient. In most instances, the 
accusations failed to provide supporting evidence or demonstrate how they had 
impacted the outcome of the trial.

Brown was the only one of the three co-defendants who received the death 
penalty in the case. Brown's daughter Britnee Miller, who was 16 when she 
participated in the vicious attack, was sentenced to life in prison for her 
role in the murder.

Heather Lee, a friend and neighbor of Brown and Miller, was the 3rd accomplice 
in the killing, and she was sentenced to 25 years in prison after making a plea 
agreement with the state.

Much of Brown's appeal was dedicated to a claim that Lee had actually been the 
party most responsible for Zimmerman's killing.

The appeal claimed Lee wanted revenge against Zimmerman because she had an 
affair with Lee's husband. It said all the weapons used in the attack — the 
stun gun, crowbar and gas can — came from Lee's house, and that Lee later 
admitted to associates she had been the one to set Zimmerman on fire.

Brown's appeal said multiple witnesses could have testified to these facts, but 
Bergosh noted that none of that testimony would have affected the case against 
Brown. He said there was evidence Brown had been the one to use the stun gun 
against Zimmerman, to kidnap her and to beat her with the crowbar.

"The evidence is simply too strong against (Brown) that she played a 
substantial role in the victim's murder," the judge wrote. "... Regardless of 
whether (Brown) actually poured the gasoline and lit the victim on fire, the 
evidence at trial shows (Brown) was not being dominated or under extreme duress 
when she launched the fatal attack against the victim."

Brown was sentenced to death because of the brutality of Zimmerman's murder, 
and she is currently 1 of only 3 Florida women on death row.

Last week, Miller also had an appeal of her life sentence denied.

(source: Pensacola News Journal)








ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama set to execute man convicted of killing Fayette County 
preacher----Christopher Lee Price is scheduled to be executed on April 11. 
Price was convicted of stabbing a Fayette County preacher to death in 1991.

Alabama plans to execute prisoner Christopher Lee Price on Thursday in its 2nd 
execution of 2019.

Price is seeking a last-minute stay after years fighting Alabama's lethal 
injection protocol in state courts. In an appeal filed this week, Price's 
attorneys argued the state's execution method could cause the prisoner severe 
pain, violating the Eighth Amendment.

The appeal also argues the state in 2018 established an "arbitrary" 30-day 
election period in which inmates could choose to die by a different method.

Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation into law last year allowing condemned inmates 
to choose death by nitrogen gas. But the method of execution, which proponents 
in Alabama argued was a more humane way to kill human beings, is effectively a 
hypothetical method at this time. Alabama is now one of three states to legally 
allow death by nitrogen, but zero executions in the country have used the 
method and it's unclear how it could be implemented. Methods ranging from a gas 
chamber to a gas mask have been floated.

Last year, state officials said any Alabama prisoner sentenced to death before 
June 1, 2018, would have a 30-day period to choose nitrogen hypoxia over lethal 
injection.

Price's motion alleges the state has made "secret" agreements with other death 
row inmates on executions methods. In court filings, Alabama prosecutors deny 
the allegation and say Price, along with every other death row inmate at Holman 
prison, were given forms to choose nitrogen hypoxia in June 2018.

Price's attorney has not yet returned request for comment.

Price was convicted of the brutal slaying of Bill Lynn, a Fayette County 
preacher, during the course of a 1991 home robbery. Price was 19 at the time of 
the murder.

Lynn and his wife, Bessie, were at their Bazemore home three days before 
Christmas when the house's power went out. When Bill Lynn went outside to check 
the powerbox, he was attacked, according to court documents. Bessie Lynn later 
testified that two assailants then beat her before stealing jewelry and money 
from their home.

Bill Lynn, who prosecutors say was cut or stabbed 38 times with a sword and 
dagger, died at a hospital approximately 45 minutes after the attack.

A Fayette County jury in 1993 sentenced Price to death by a vote of 10-2. Price 
later tried to contest his sentence, alleging his original trial attorney was 
unprepared and failed to offer evidence that the then-teenager was 
psychologically traumatized following years of physical and sexual abuse at the 
hands of his mother's boyfriends. But the Supreme Court declined to review his 
case in 2013, according to an Atlantic report.

Price's execution is the 2nd set by the state this year. Alabama in February 
executed Domineque Ray after an 11th-hour U.S. Supreme Court ruling vacated a 
stay of execution pending a religious rights claim. The court ruled by a narrow 
majority Ray had waited too late to bring the issue to light.

Ray, a Muslim, had argued Alabama's practice of including a Christian prison 
chaplain in the execution chamber was in violation of the First Amendment. Ray 
sought to have his imam present in the death chamber at the time of his death, 
but the state said it would only allow trained prison employees in the chamber.

The court's 5-4 decision to allow Alabama to execute Ray proved controversial 
across the country, provoking stinging criticism from both capital punishment 
opponents and conservative evangelicals, who viewed Ray's claim as a religious 
liberty issue.

(source: Montgomery Advertiser)








MISSISSIPPI:

Supreme Court Hears Case of Man Tried Six Times for Same Crime----The justices 
are considering if the prosecutor was racially biased in keeping 
African-Americans off the jury.



1 crime, 6 trials, 3 tossed convictions, two hung juries, a lot of 
prosecutorial misconduct, and a man on death row. Those are the dizzying 
statistics surrounding the case of Curtis Flowers, who is currently awaiting 
execution for a crime he says he did not commit.

Flowers has been tried 6 times for the 1996 slaying of 4 individuals in Winona, 
Mississippi. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in his case last month, 
tasked with deciding if District Attorney Doug Evans discriminated against 
potential African-American jurors during Flowers' 2010 trial. Evans used his 
peremptory challenges—which strike would-be jurors without explanation—to 
exclude 5 out of 6 African-Americans from the final panel.

Racial diversity on juries can be pivotal in ensuring a fair trial, 
particularly in a community like Winona, where there are more black than white 
people. Naturally, a jury of Flowers' peers should reflect the surrounding 
area, providing an assortment of different life experiences to arrive at a fair 
verdict (plus, research shows diverse juries are better equipped to reach 
accurate conclusions).

Flowers' case is a prime example of that: The two trials resulting in hung 
juries had the greatest number of black jurors.

Evans has prosecuted each trial—spanning from 1997 to 2010—and has used 41 out 
of 42 peremptory challenges to block African-Americans from serving on the 
various juries. That move likely conflicts with Batson v. Kentucky, a 1986 
Supreme Court precedent that prohibits barring a juror based on race alone. And 
it was Evans' long and troubled track record that seemed most likely to sway 
the justices in Flowers' favor.

"We can't take the history out of the case," Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh 
said.

Justice Elena Kagan outlined inconsistencies in Evans' questioning toward 
whites versus his inquiries toward blacks, calling the disparity "staggering." 
During jury selection in 2010, Evans asked 12 questions to the 11 white jurors 
who were ultimately impaneled, and asked 145 questions to the five prospective 
black jurors who were kept off the jury.

Kagan also highlighted a potential black juror named Carolyn Wright who was 
blocked from serving, even though she expressed support for the death penalty. 
Prosecutors are known for striking jurors who may not be able to come to an 
unbiased conclusion: In a capital murder trial—where the state seeks the death 
penalty—a would-be juror would be disqualified, then, if he or she had a moral 
opposition to the ultimate punishment. Wright did not, nor did she have ties to 
the Flowers family.

"Except for her race, you would think that this is a juror that a prosecutor 
would love when she walks in the door. Isn't she?" Kagan asked.

Evans has committed a slew of prosecutorial infractions, including the use of 
faulty testimony from Odell Harmon, a jailhouse snitch who falsely implicated 
Flowers after the state offered him a deal. He has since recanted. That drew 
mainstream outrage after the release of the second season of "In the Dark," a 
podcast profiling Flowers's jaw-dropping journey through the legal system.

But it isn't the Supreme Court's responsibility to render a verdict on Flowers' 
guilt, nor are Evans' other sketchy tactics under their current purview. 
Regardless, they seem poised to give Flowers yet another chance at justice—one 
that might ensure he secures a fair trial the 7th time around.

(source: reason.com)








OHIO:

New lawyer named in Lebanon inmate death penalty case



A new lawyer has been appointed to help defend a prison inmate facing the death 
penalty for strangling his cellmate in their cell at the Lebanon Correctional 
Institution.

Last week, Judge Donald Oda II appointed Ryan DeBra as co-counsel for Jack 
Welninski, 33.

Welninski is accused of murdering cellmate Kevin Nill “because it worked for” 
Casey Pigge, an inmate transferred after murdering an inmate at the prison, 
according to Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell. Nill, 40, was a Piqua 
man serving a short prison sentence for domestic violence.

DeBra replaces Tamara Sack as co-counsel to John Kaspar.

“The Defendant has communicated to Lead Counsel that he does not trust me and 
does not want me to represent him,” Sack said in a motion filed on March 29 in 
Warren County Common Pleas Court.

Sack was appointed on Oct. 19 and has participated in hearings and filings 
since then.

“It is therefore not possible for me to remain on as Co-Counsel, as I cannot 
carry out my responsibilities in this Capital case due to the irreconcilable 
bias and mistrust the Defendant has for me,” Sack added in her motion to 
withdraw from the case.

Sack could not be reached for comment.

It was unclear how much this would delay Welninski’s trial. He is now held, 
along with Pigge, at the Ohio State Penitentiary, the state’s prison for the 
most dangerous inmates.

Welninski was serving a 69-year prison sentence after being convicted in Wood 
County for the 2015 attempted murder of an Oregon, Ohio, police officer.

Nill was serving an 18-month sentence for attempted domestic violence.

On Oct. 15, Welninski was indicted for aggravated murder, along with 2 capital 
specifications, and a repeat violent offender specification by a Warren County 
grand jury.

Welninski is accused of murdering Nill on April 23 at the prison west of 
Lebanon in Turtlecreek Twp.

Nill was found in his cell, a rope around his neck, and pronounced dead at 
Atrium Medical Center, according to Doyle Burke, chief investigator for the 
Warren County Coroner’s Office.

“The 2 had been cellmates for less than an hour before Nill was discovered 
deceased in the cell,” according to the release.

Pigge is one of Ohio’s most notorious prisoners.

In January 2017, he pleaded guilty to murdering cellmate Luther Wade of 
Springfield at Lebanon Correctional on Feb. 23, 2016.

He has since pleaded to strangling another inmate, David Johnson, on Feb. 1, 
2017, as they rode on a prison bus.

Pigge was moved to the state’s super max facility in Youngstown after he and 
another inmate were suspected in a brutal attack on Corrections Officer Matthew 
Mathias.

(source: Dayton Daily News)

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

Man whose death sentence overturned gets 26 years to life



An Ohio man whose 1994 death sentence for the rape and slaying of a woman was 
overturned has been resentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

The Marion Star reports that a federal appeals court overturned Maurice Mason's 
death sentence in 2008 and ordered the new sentencing that occurred Monday in 
Marion County. The appeals court ruled Mason had ineffective legal help during 
the penalty phase of his trial in 19-year-old Robin Dennis' slaying. Her body 
was found in an abandoned building in 1993.

(source: Associated Press)