[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.H., PENN., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA.

[Rick Halperin]

April 24



TEXAS----impending execution

Texas execution set for John William King in racist dragging death of James 
Byrd Jr.----King and 2 other white men were convicted in the brutal East Texas 
murder of Byrd, who was black. King has claimed he's innocent and hopes the 
U.S. Supreme Court will stop his death.



It’s been more than 2 decades since an infamous hate crime in East Texas, where 
3 white men were convicted of chaining a black man to the back of a pickup 
truck, dragging him for miles and then dumping the remains of his body in front 
of a church.

On Wednesday evening, John William King, 44, is set to become the 3nd man 
executed in the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr. Lawrence Brewer was put to death 
in 2011 for the crime, and Shawn Berry is serving a life sentence.

King had previously been involved in a white supremacist prison gang, and he is 
notoriously covered in racist tattoos, including Ku Klux Klan symbols, a 
swastika and a visual depiction of a lynching, according to court documents. 
But King maintains that he’s innocent in Byrd’s murder — claiming that Berry 
dropped him and Brewer off at their shared apartment before Byrd was beaten and 
dragged to death.

In a last-minute appeal, King’s attorney argued that a recent U.S. Supreme 
Court ruling entitles his client to a new trial because his original lawyers 
didn’t assert his claim of innocence to the jury despite King’s insistence. The 
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals narrowly rejected this appeal in a 5-4 ruling 
Monday, and a petition is now in front of the nation’s high court.

Byrd’s sister, who watched Brewer’s execution and plans to attend King’s on 
Wednesday, said she didn’t understand why King’s case has been tied up with 
numerous appeals. He was sentenced to death in February 1999.

“He wants to find a way not to die, but he didn’t give James that chance,” said 
Louvon Harris. “He’s still getting off easy because your body’s not going to be 
flying behind a pickup truck being pulled apart.”

Byrd’s brutal murder drew a spotlight on the small town of Jasper and violent 
racism in the modern world. Evidence at trial showed police found most of the 
49-year-old’s body on June 7, 1998, with three miles of blood, drag marks, and 
other body parts — including his head — on the road behind it. At the beginning 
of the gruesome trail, police found evidence of a fight, Byrd’s hat and 
cigarette butts later tied to King, Berry and Brewer, according to court 
documents. The three men were arrested shortly afterward.

Though King didn’t give an official statement to police or testify at his 
trial, he wrote a letter to The Dallas Morning News while awaiting trial 
proclaiming his innocence, saying Berry knew Byrd from jail and stopped the 
truck to pick him up after seeing Byrd walking down the road. King told The 
News that Berry then dropped him and Brewer off before leaving with Byrd alone.

But in a jail note written to Brewer, he said he didn’t think his clothes 
police took from their apartment had blood on them, but his sandals may have 
had a “dark brown substance” on them.

“Seriously, though, Bro, regardless of the outcome of this, we have made 
history and shall die proudly remembered if need be…. Much Aryan love, respect, 
and honor, my brother in arms,” King wrote, according to a court filing.

Still, King maintained before and through his trial that he wanted to argue for 
his innocence and unsuccessfully complained to the court when he said his 
attorneys refused, his current lawyer, Richard Ellis, said in his latest 
appeals. King is claiming that because his attorneys instead conceded his guilt 
in the murder, a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling should allow him to get a new 
trial.

In Robert McCoy’s case out of Louisiana, the high court held last year that a 
defendant has the right to choose the objective of his defense — so trial 
lawyers can’t concede guilt if the defendant wants to assert innocence. King 
said his lawyers didn’t assert his innocence, instead largely focusing on 
whether the murder could be considered death penalty eligible.

The Jasper County District Attorney’s Office knocked the appeal, saying in a 
brief that King pleaded not guilty and his lawyers, unlike McCoy’s, didn’t 
concede guilt but were “substantially limited” based on the given physical 
evidence, his letter to The News and his jail note to Brewer.

“Counsel could not create evidence where none was available, and counsel’s 
failure to manufacture exculpatory evidence where none existed is not 
equivalent to a ‘concession’ of guilt,” wrote Sue Korioth for the prosecutor’s 
office.

The Court of Criminal Appeals tossed King’s appeal Monday without reviewing its 
claims based on its late timing, but two judges wrote short concurring opinions 
and four signed on to a dissent. Judge Kevin Yeary agreed with the court’s 
rejection, arguing there was no indication that McCoy’s ruling would apply 
retroactively to King’s case. And Judge David Newell said in his opinion that 
King’s case is different from McCoy’s, and noted that King had already made a 
similar argument against his lawyers that was recently rejected by the Supreme 
Court.

Judge Michael Keasler, however, joined by Judges Barbara Hervey, Bert 
Richardson and Scott Walker, said he would have stopped the execution, noting 
that his court has recently been admonished by the high court for 
unsuccessfully implementing another one of its rulings in the death penalty 
case of Bobby Moore.

“In light of this Court’s recent earnest, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempts 
to implement new Supreme Court precedent in death-penalty cases, and especially 
in light of the horrible stain this Court’s reputation would suffer if King’s 
claims of innocence are one day vindicated... I think we ought to take our time 
and decide this issue unhurriedly,” Keasler wrote.

King’s lawyer, Ellis, also raised the McCoy case in an appeal shortly before 
another Texas execution this year, but the courts decided against Billie Coble 
and he was executed in February. Ellis said Monday that the questions raised 
from the narrow Texas ruling in King's case could indicate the Supreme Court 
will step in to clarify its earlier decision.

If the Supreme Court does not stop King’s execution, Harris said his death will 
bring her some closure, but she will still have to be involved in Berry’s case 
as he becomes eligible for parole in 2038. And though some hate crime laws were 
passed in Byrd’s name after his murder, she still dedicates herself to fight 
against racism in the country in her brother’s name.

“As long as there’s still hate in America, we still have a job to do,” said 
Harris, who serves as the president of The Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing.

(source: Texas Tribune)

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

Texas will execute man tied to one of the most gruesome modern hate crimes



Sometime after 6 p.m. Wednesday, Clara Byrd Taylor will step into a viewing 
room next to the death chamber at the Huntsville Unit prison in East Texas and 
watch a man die.

She won’t relish witnessing John William King, 44, succumb to a cocktail of 
injected lethal fluids but said it’s a necessary step in the long saga of her 
brother’s murder. King and 2 other accomplices were convicted in the murder of 
Taylor’s brother, James Byrd, Jr., 2 decades ago in Jasper, Texas.

“It’s a very, very sad time,” Taylor, 71, said. “You don’t feel any 
satisfaction in observing this but it is absolutely necessary to send a 
message: Hate crimes – especially this type of savagery – will not be tolerated 
in our society.”

King is scheduled to die on Wednesday for the 1998 death of Byrd. In the early 
morning hours of June 7, 1998, King and two other men beat Byrd, 49, chained 
him to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him for three miles down a 
logging road in Jasper County, tearing his body apart. Prosecutors said the men 
did it because Byrd was black.

The gruesome death sparked worldwide outrage and is still considered one of the 
grisliest racial killings in American history.

One of the other men involved, Lawrence Russell Brewer, was executed in 2011, 
and the third participant, Shawn Allen Berry, was sentenced to life in prison.

King, believed to be the incident's ringleader, had a final round of appeals 
denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in October.

The murder shook Jasper, Texas, a city of 7,600 people about 140 miles 
northeast of Houston, and garnered national and international attention. Black 
Panther militants and Klu Klux Klansmen descended onto the town, revving for 
conflict.

But the Byrd family urged peace and asked that justice be allowed to run its 
course, Taylor said.

“We didn’t want James’ death to lead to more violence. That was our goal,” she 
said. “Just let the judicial system do what needs to be done.”

Cooperation between the city's religious and law enforcement leaders also 
helped keep the peace, said Mia Moody-Ramirez, a Baylor University professor 
and researcher who, along with Cassy Burleson, has studied the impact of Byrd's 
murder on Jasper.

Though King's execution could bring some closure, the murder will live on in 
the city's DNA, Moody-Ramirez said.

"They might say, 'Ok, this person has been executed, we could move on,'" she 
said. "But people won’t ever forget."

A year after the murder, the family created the Byrd Foundation for Racial 
Healing, which raises money for diversity training, scholarships and other 
endeavors. It raised money for playground equipment at James Byrd Jr, Memorial 
Park, located less than a mile from where her brother was picked up that 
morning in 1998, Taylor said.

On most days there, you could see children of all races and ethnicities playing 
together, pint-sized proof of the foundation’s goals, she said.

“We need to work on getting to know one another better, so our prejudices don’t 
lead to racial hatred that leads to violence,” Taylor said. Taylor said she 
planned to gather with family members Tuesday night, read some passages out of 
the Bible and brace for any last-minute reprieves for King. Though rare, 
last-minute stays of execution do occur, said Jeremy Desel, a spokesman with 
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Last month, the Supreme Court halted the execution of inmate Patrick Murphy on 
his claim that he was denied a Buddhist spiritual advisor with him in the death 
chamber. The stay arrived the day of his execution – two hours after he was 
scheduled to be escorted to the death chamber, Desel said.

Barring any last-minute reprieves, Taylor said she’ll enter the death chamber's 
viewing room with her sister, Louvon Byrd Harris, and daughter, Tiffany Taylor 
Holmes, and watch King take his final breath.

She’ll do it for her mother, Stella Byrd, who always doubted justice would 
prevail for her son and died waiting in 2010. And she’ll do it for future 
generations, so that no one forgets what happened to her brother, she said.

“It’s a very emotional time for all of us, having to go back and relive it 
all,” Taylor said. “But it’s a necessary pain. It’s necessary for us to follow 
through.”

(source: USA Today)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----42

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----560

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

43---------Apr. 24----------------John King---------------561

44---------May 2------------------Dexter Johnson----------562

45---------Aug. 21----------------Larry Swearingen--------563

46---------Sept. 4----------------Billy Crutsinger--------564

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)








NEW HAMPSHIRE:

New Hampshire Attempts To Abolish Death Penalty



New Hampshire is one of the 30 states with the death penalty, and lawmakers 
there are trying to change that. Both the House and Senate have voted to repeal 
the death penalty, leaving the legislation in the hands of Gov. Chris Sununu. 
Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu spoke with Northeastern University Law 
Professor and WGBH Legal Analyst Daniel Medwed about New Hampshire’s latest 
attempt to abolish capital punishment. The transcript below has been edited for 
clarity.

Joe Mathieu: This is not actually the 1st time lawmakers in New Hampshire tried 
to repeal the death penalty in recent years. But each attempt has failed, I 
guess, until this time. What's different now?

Daniel Medwed: Well, I think it is different, even though, as you noted, there 
have been at least three recent failures to abolish the death penalty. Back in 
2000, a bill passed both the House and Senate, but Governor Jeanne Shaheen, a 
Democrat, vetoed it. Then in 2014, Maggie Hassan — her successor — was ready to 
essentially sign it into law, but it didn't pass the state Senate. Last year, 
Governor Sununu vetoed a similar bill. He's anticipated to veto this one, but 
it's essentially bulletproof, because there are sufficient Democratic votes to 
override a potential veto. So I envision it going through.

Mathieu: It'd be a major development in terms of affecting criminal justice 
overall in New Hampshire, with the exception of one case, Daniel.

Medwed: Well, that's right. New Hampshire hasn't executed anyone since 1939. 
But there is one person on death row: Michael Addison. He's been there since 
[his] 2008 conviction for killing a Manchester, New Hampshire police officer. 
And this legislation would not be retroactive, meaning it wouldn't apply to 
Addison. That said, it could give the courts some potential arguments for 
commuting his sentence through a case law. New Hampshire doesn't even have an 
execution chamber, it doesn't have protocols [and] it doesn't have the drugs 
for lethal injection. The legislature would have to allocate money for all of 
this. So even though he would still be on death row and subject to the death 
penalty, there's a good chance, I would think, that he won't be executed.

Mathieu: Understood. Let's put this into a larger national context because this 
gets more interesting as you look around the country. Among the states that 
have abolished the death penalty in recent years, is New Hampshire's path 
through the legislature the typical way of getting this done?

Medwed: I'd say it's not necessarily the typical way. It's a popular way to 
abolish the death penalty. but there are many different avenues. For instance, 
take California. It's had a tortured history with trying to abolish the death 
penalty: failed attempts in the legislature, failed referenda [and] 
propositions in California. So what happened? Gov. Gavin Newsom unilaterally 
used his executive power to issue a moratorium. So right now in California, no 
one's going to be executed [and there will be] no new death sentences, as long 
as Newsom is in the governor's mansion. Then some states, like Washington, have 
had their state supreme courts abolish the death penalty, finding that as a 
matter of state law, it doesn't pass muster, even if the U.S. Supreme Court 
says that as a matter of federal law capital punishment is okay. So there are 
lots of different avenues.

Mathieu: What are the chief factors behind what is a growing trend here to 
repeal state death penalty laws?

Medwed: It's a really interesting issue. I think it's multifaceted. I think you 
have to look at the fact that there's a growing sense of unfairness in the 
criminal justice system, a concern about cruelty of the process and also 
concerns about accuracy. So in terms of unfairness, we've already talked a lot 
about progressive criminal justice reform in recent years, and a growing 
understanding of the inequities in the system — how people of color [and] 
people of limited financial resources are often penalized. They are harmed by 
the process. So I think that larger concern about criminal justice has affected 
the death penalty debate.

In addition, we've heard about a number of botched executions in recent years. 
Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma a few years ago — observers talked about how he 
suffered tremendous pain [and] was in true agony as a result of the execution 
process. A lot of people have heard about this and been really concerned about 
the method of execution and whether it's cruel. And then finally, we've had 30 
years of documented DNA exonerations, where DNA testing has proven that the 
system isn't fail safe — that innocent people are convicted [and] they're later 
freed through DNA. But with the death penalty, the ultimate punishment, you 
can't rely on DNA to necessarily correct an injustice. As one of my friends 
once said in research, there's no appeal from the grave. So all of these things 
have come together to garner support for abolition.

(source: WGBH news)








PENNSYLVANIA:

York County judge throws out death sentence against double-murderer due to jury 
error



A York County judge has thrown out the death sentence against a man who fatally 
shot 2 people in 2016, more than 6 months after the prosecution and the defense 
agreed that the punishment could not stand because of an error on the verdict 
slip.

Paul Henry III, 42, of East Manchester Township, remains convicted of 2 counts 
of 1st-degree murder. He's set to serve a minimum of life in prison without the 
possibility of parole.

In an order dated on April 8, Common Pleas Judge Michael E. Bortner also ruled 
that double-jeopardy does not apply and prosecutors can continue to seek the 
death penalty. He's stayed resentencing while additional legal issues are 
sorted out.

“We have been in communication with defense counsel as to how to proceed,” said 
Kyle King, a spokesman for the York County District Attorney’s Office. 
“However, no decisions have been made at this point in time.”

Farley Holt, Henry’s attorney, could not immediately be reached.

On Sept. 13, 2016, Henry burst into a home in Fawn Township with his wife, 
Veronique, and shot and killed Foday Cheeks, 31, of Fawn Township, and Danielle 
Taylor, 26, of Spring Grove.

In his closing argument, District Attorney Dave Sunday said Henry had a “pure, 
visceral hatred” of Cheeks, whom he once described as a “pimp/drug dealer.” 
Taylor, prosecutors said, was “collateral damage.”

The prosecution and defense agreed that 2 "'mitigating circumstances" existed: 
Henry did not have any write-ups in York County Prison or a significant prior 
criminal record. But the jury did not write them on the verdict slip. That 
invalided the death sentence.

Veronique Henry killed herself in York County Prison. She was 32.

(source: York Daily Record)








NORTH CAROLINA----new death sentence

David Godwin sentenced to death in murder trial



David Godwin, convicted in the murder of Wendy Tamagne, was sentenced to death 
on Tuesday in the Carteret County Superior Court.

District Attorney Scott Thomas announced the death penalty sentence of Godwin, 
28, of Newport, following a 4-week trial.

On April 12, a jury found Godwin guilty of 1st-degree murder by premeditation 
and deliberation, by lying in wait, and by way of felony murder during the 
commission of an armed robbery, common law robbery, and felony dismembering of 
human remains in the July 4, 2016 death of Tamagne, 38, of Morehead City.

On Tuesday, the same jury issued a recommendation that Godwin be sentenced to 
death, which presiding Resident Superior Court Judge Joshua W. Willey, Jr. then 
imposed.M

District Attorney Thomas also extended his condolences again to the Tamagne 
family and added his thoughts: “We committed to the family of Wendy that we 
would seek justice in her murder. In this case, we decided to seek the death 
penalty due to the aggravating factors present. Every murder is cruel by its 
very nature, but the death, in this case, was especially heinous, atrocious, 
and cruel. Our prayers continue to be with Wendy’s family and friends as they 
move forward after this 1st-degree murder conviction and sentence.”

The trial began on March 25, 2019, with a week-long jury selection process to 
seat the 12 jurors and three alternate jurors who heard the evidence in the 
case.

On April 1, the State called 21 witnesses over the course of more than four 
days to present evidence in the case which showed that on the evening of July 
5, 2016, Tamagne’s mother went to her daughter’s apartment off Bridges Street 
in Morehead City after sending numerous text messages to which her daughter 
never responded.

After knocking on the door of the apartment and not receiving a response, she 
called the police to report her missing.

When Morehead City Police Officers Kenny Mannon and Lori Pittman responded, 
they were let into the apartment by a maintenance worker where they found a 
bloody knife on the coffee table in the living room and Tamagne’s cat dead 
inside of a trash can in the kitchen downstairs and sheets covered in blood 
inside the upstairs master bedroom.

Morehead City Police Detectives Lyle Evans and Nat Festerman responded and 
Detective Evans located Tamagne’s body, which had been cut into pieces and 
concealed inside of trash bags inside an extra bedroom that was being used for 
storage.

An investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation revealed 
that Godwin was the last person known to have been with Tamagne when the 2 of 
them left a bar together on July 3, 2016, after 11:00 p.m. and went back to 
Tamagne’s apartment.

Phone records showed the last activity from Tamagne’s phone occurred at 3:47 
a.m. before the phone was disabled sometime prior to 8:38 a.m. on July 4, 2016.

SBI Agents Ransom Jones and Dean Saunders testified that a hacksaw found in the 
apartment was traced back to Lowe’s Home Improvement in Morehead City, where 
Godwin was seen making the purchase on surveillance video at 10:55 a.m.

Further investigation revealed that Godwin drove Tamagne’s pickup truck back to 
her apartment after purchasing the hacksaw and left again to purchase the trash 
bags used to conceal the body from CVS Pharmacy in Morehead City at 
approximately 12:17 p.m.

Godwin left Tamagne’s apartment for the final time in the early afternoon of 
July 4, making brief stops at his home in Newport and at a grocery store before 
driving Tamagne’s truck to Clayton before setting off on foot to a bus station 
in Raleigh where he used a false name to purchase one-way ticket to Warrenton, 
Oregon.

Investigators found Tamagne’s truck in the parking lot of a gas station in 
Clayton with its door unlocked, a window rolled down, and the keys on top of 
the driver’s seat.

The receipt for the hacksaw purchased from Lowe’s was located in the cupholder.

On July 9, 2016, Godwin turned himself in to the Warrenton Police Department in 
Oregon.

SBI ASAC Patrick Raynor, SA Jones, and Detective Festerman traveled to Oregon 
to return Godwin to North Carolina.

An autopsy of Tamagne’s body revealed the cause of death to be asphyxiation, a 
stab wound near the left ear, and a cutting wound across the trachea.

There were no defensive wounds on her body.

The jury deliberated for approximately 80 minutes and returned its guilty 
verdicts.

The sentencing phase of the trial began on April 16.

The State alleged that the aggravating factors necessary for a finding of the 
death penalty were that:

The murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of 
an armed robbery

The murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of 
dismemberment of human remains

The murder was committed for pecuniary gain

The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.

The defense presented evidence in mitigation of the sentence, all of which the 
jury considered.

(source: WNCT news)








GEORGIA:

Death penalty defendant Tiffany Moss during jury selection in Gwinnett County 
Superior Court. Opening statements in the trial will begin Wednesday---- 
Defendant acting as her own attorney has said little thus far during court 
proceedings



The death penalty trial of Tiffany Moss begins in earnest Wednesday morning 
with opening statements by the prosecution and the defense.

A looming question is what exactly will Moss say, if anything, to the jury of 6 
men and 6 women. That’s because Moss, who is accused of starving her 
10-year-old stepdaughter Emani to death in 2013, is representing herself as her 
own attorney.

No jury in Georgia has handed down a death sentence in more than 5 years. That 
drought could end over the next 2 weeks as Moss, 35, faces off against 2 highly 
experienced and accomplished prosecutors — Gwinnett County District Attorney 
Danny Porter and Lisa Jones, one of his chief assistants.

At a recent pretrial hearing, Porter said he would allow Moss to plead guilty 
to Emani’s murder if she’d accept a sentence of life in prison without the 
possibility of parole. That offer would stand only until a jury was selected, 
he said.

With 12 jurors and four alternates seated on Tuesday afternoon, that offer is 
off the table, at least for now.

During the early stages of jury selection, Moss was polite and pleasant, often 
flashing a smile when responding to questions from Superior Court Judge George 
Hutchinson or the few times she asked questions to prospective jurors. But as 
the selection process dragged on into its fifth and sixth days, Moss’ smile all 
but disappeared. She also declined to ask anything to prospective jurors.

“No questions, your honor,” Moss said time and time again.

On Tuesday, Moss sat alone again at the defense table facing the gallery as 
sets of potential jurors were brought into the courtroom.

To get the 12-person jury, a pool of 42 potential jurors was required. That’s 
because both the prosecution and the defense get to use 15 “strikes” — or 
chances to eliminate the jurors they don’t want to hear the case.

During this process, a clerk passed a list with the jurors’ names back and 
forth between Porter and Moss. As they alternately jotted down their strikes on 
the paper, the clerk crossed through the names of those who’d been eliminated.

When it was over, 12 names remained. They include a 24-year-old triage nurse, a 
third-grade teacher, a salesman with three daughters, and a woman who manages 
research and development contracts. None looked happy when told they had been 
picked for the trial.

Even though she kept quiet, Moss exercised all 15 of her allotted strikes, 
Porter said after court adjourned. “She didn’t waste them."

Moss was initially appointed two lawyers, Brad Gardner and Emily Gilbert, from 
the State Office of the Capital Defender. After she refused their 
representation and said she wished to go it alone, Hutchinson appointed Gardner 
and Gilbert to be Moss’ “standby counsel.” They sit in the gallery behind Moss 
ready to help when needed.

During the seven days of jury selection, Moss asked for their help on a few 
occasions. And Tuesday, after jurors were sent home and court adjourned, 
Gardner and Gilbert accompanied Moss into a holding cell outside the courtroom.

If the jurors find Moss guilty of murder, they will have to decide whether to 
sentence her to life in prison with the possibility of parole, life in prison 
without parole, or death by lethal injection. The trial is expected to end 
sometime next week.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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

Court documents: Stepmom acting as own lawyer has brain damage----Tiffany Moss 
is accused of starving her stepdaughter and putting her body in a dumpster 
outside their Gwinnett County home in 2013.



As the final jury is seated today in Moss' death penalty trial, new questions 
arise about her mental fitness.

Moss has chosen to represent herself in her own death penalty trial. If 
convicted she faces 3 penalties:

Death penalty

Life in prison without parole

Life in prison with the possibility of parole

11Alive News has obtained a motion which says Moss had “neuropsychological 
testing data that showed the defendant to have damage to the premotor and 
prefrontal regions of the brain.”

Moss faces 6 counts of murder and concealing the death of her stepdaughter in 
Gwinnett County, plus 2 counts of felony murder and 1st-degree cruelty to 
children.

We reached out to the Director of the Brain Research Laboratory at Emory 
University, Dr. Don Stein. He’s a national expert in brain injury and repair 
and has written more than 400 papers on the subject. Dr. Stein has not examined 
Moss, but explained what damage to the premotor and prefrontal regions of the 
brain can mean.

“What you’re talking about with prefrontal and premotor cortex (is) those areas 
of the brain, and especially in the left hemisphere, are very much thought to 
be intimately involved in executive function, decision making, and impulse 
control,” explain Dr. Stein.

Stein explained damage of this type can be caused by many things: athletic 
injuries, trauma to the head, damage during childbirth, meningitis, strokes or 
aging. However, there does have to be some sort of precipitating event that 
cause brain damage of this sort.

“Frontal lobe syndrome, and that is kind of what we’re talking about here, can 
lead to the loss of executive function and impulse control.”

The actual results of the neuropsychological testing done on Moss are sealed, 
but it does call into question what many prospective jurors have been wondering 
during the trial: Is Moss fit to represent herself?

“The District Attorney doesn’t want to go through the time and expense of a 
capital punishment trial and have it all reversed on appeal,” explained Meg 
Strickler, criminal defense attorney who is unrelated to the Moss case.

“It’s the D.A.’s way of saying let’s be extra safe and secure to not have a 
reversal error because we think this is a big issue.”

Moss has had psychological and mental testing and the court found she was fit 
to act as her own attorney. That is a right all defendants have. However, this 
neuropsychological testing could throw those tests into doubt.

Moss has barely spoken during her trial, which so far has been limited to jury 
selection. She conferred with her court-appointed standby attorneys only once, 
before she challenged to remove a juror for cause. The Judge agreed with her on 
that challenge and that juror was removed. Otherwise, her responses have 
primarily been “No questions, your honor.”

Judge George Hutchinson is presiding over the trial and has tried numerous 
times to get Moss to agree to have court-appointed attorneys represent her. She 
has refused those efforts.

“They all feel that if this is going to proceed without counsel every single T 
is crossed and every single I is dotted,“ said Strickler.

Eman Moss, Tiffany’s husband, signed a plea deal in 2015. He is serving a life 
sentence without parole but does not face the death penalty. He will likely 
testify against his wife.

(source: 11AliveNews)








FLORIDA----new execution date

Gov. DeSantis Signs Death Warrant For Serial Killer



Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed his 1st death warrant, with an execution 
scheduled May 23 for Tampa-area serial killer Robert Joseph Long, according to 
documents posted on the Florida Supreme Court website.

Long was sentenced to death in the May 1984 murder of Michelle Simms after 
picking her up on Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa.

In 1985, Long also pleaded guilty to 7 additional 1st-degree murder charges and 
numerous charges for sexual batteries and kidnappings, according to a letter 
sent last month from Attorney General Ashley Moody to DeSantis about Long’s 
eligibility for execution.

Long, now 65, is serving multiple life sentences, along with the death 
sentence, at Union Correctional Institution.

The state Department of Corrections website indicates all eight murders 
occurred in 1984 in Hillsborough County, though he also has convictions on 
other charges from Pinellas and Pasco counties.

(source: CBS News)

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

Broward Prosecutors Seeking Death Penalty Against Rapper YNW Melly



The Broward State Attorney’s Office has filed a notice that they plan to seek 
the death penalty against rapper YNW Melly in the deaths of his 2 friends.

Rapper Jamell Demons, who goes by YNW Melly, and Cortlen Henry are accused of 
killing Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. on October 26th, 2018. The 
2 critically injured men were dropped off at Memorial Hospital Miramar where 
they were pronounced dead.

Miramar police say Demons shot both men and that he and Henry staged the crime 
scene to make it look like a drive-by shooting.

The 2 victims were also aspiring rappers and apparently friends of Demons. He 
even took to social media the day after police say he shot them to mourn their 
deaths.

Both Demons and Henry are charged with 1st-degree murder.

Demons’ attorney Bradford Cohen says his client is not guilty.

Henry’s lawyer says he hasn’t heard whether prosecutors will seek the death 
penalty against his client.

(source: CBS News)

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

USA----countdown to nation's 1500th execution

With the execution of Billie Wayne Coble in Texas on February 28, the USA has 
now executed 1,493 condemned individuals since the death penalty was 
relegalized on July 2, 1976 in the US Supreme Court Gregg v Georgia decision. 
Gary Gilmore was the 1st person executed, in Utah, on January 17, 1977. Below 
is a list of scheduled executions as the nation approaches a terrible milestone 
of 1500 executions in the modern era.

NOTE: The list is likely to change over the coming months as new execution 
dates are added and possible stays of execution occur.

1494-------Apr. 24------------John King------------------Texas

1495-------May 2--------------Scotty Morrow--------------Georgia

1496-------May 2--------------Dexter Johnson------------Texas

1497-------May 16-------------Donnie Johnson-----------Tennessee

1498-------May 16-------------Michael Samra------------Alabama

1499-------May 23-------------Robert Long--------------Florida

1500-------Aug. 15------------Stephen West-------------Tennessee

1501-------Aug. 21------------Larry Swearingen---------Texas

1502-------Sept. 4------------Billy Crutsinger---------Texas

1503------Sept. 12------------Warren Henness-----------Ohio

(source: Rick Halperin)



ALABAMA:

Alabama sets execution date for man who helped killed 4 people



Alabama has scheduled a lethal injection for a man convicted in the 1997 deaths 
of four people, including 2 young girls.

The Alabama Supreme Court set a May 16 execution date for Michael Brandon 
Samra, 41.

As a teenager, Samra was convicted of helping his friend Mark Duke kill his 
father Randy Duke, his father's girlfriend Debra Hunt and her 6 and 7-year-old 
daughters.

Prosecutors said the Shelby County slayings happened after Duke became angry 
when his father wouldn't let him use his truck. They said the teens executed a 
plan to kill Duke's father and then killed the others to cover up his death.

Authorities say Mark Duke killed his father, Hunt and 1 of the girls, and that 
Samra slit the throat of the other child at Duke's direction while the girl 
pleaded for her life.

"The murders which were committed with a gun and kitchen knife were as brutal 
as they come," lawyers for the state wrote in the motion to set an execution 
date.

Duke was 16 at the time of the slayings. Samra was 19. Both were sentenced to 
the death penalty. However, Duke's death sentence was converted to life without 
parole after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled prisoners couldn't be put to death 
for crimes that happened while they were younger than 18.

Samra's attorney wrote in a court filing that Duke was the driving force behind 
the slayings and prosecutors have acknowledged Duke was the "mastermind" while 
Samra was the "minion."

Defense lawyer Steven Spears also wrote the case also involves the peculating 
legal issue of whether people should be executed for crimes committed when they 
were younger than 21.

In a separate death penalty case, a judge has scheduled a June trial on another 
inmate's challenge to Alabama's lethal injection process. A federal judge 
earlier this month stayed the execution of Christopher Lee Price. A divided 
U.S. Supreme Court vacated the stay, but the decision came after the death 
warrant expired.

Price has requested to be put to death by breathing pure nitrogen gas. Alabama 
authorized nitrogen hypoxia in 2018 as an alternative for carrying out death 
sentences, but has yet to use the method.

(source: The Montgomery Advertiser)