[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----IND., TENN., WYO., ID., NEV.

[Rick Halperin]

May 18



INDIANA:

Death penalty still option in slayings----Justices let stand Gull's denial of 
request to drop it



The Indiana Supreme Court won't weigh in on whether an Allen County judge erred 
when she denied a request from lawyers for a man facing the death penalty to 
exclude execution as punishment for the killings of 4 people.

Defense attorneys Michelle Kraus and Robert Gevers asked Allen Superior Court 
Judge Fran Gull to approve a petition to ask the high court to consider the 
question after she denied motions to declare the state's capital punishment law 
unconstitutional and throw out the death penalty because of his age – 20 – at 
the time of the slayings.

Approval would have postponed Dansby's trial until justices decided, but Gull 
issued a 2-sentence order Tuesday denying the request.

Dansby is charged with four counts of murder in the Sept. 11, 2016, killings of 
Traeven Harris, 18, Consuela Arrington, 37, Dajahiona Arrington, 18, and the 
near-term fetus she was carrying. The unborn child was later determined to be 
Dansby's.

Trinity Hairston was shot and stabbed but survived, and Dansby is charged with 
attempted murder in that attack.

Prosecutors filed paperwork to seek the death penalty in 2017.

A monthlong trial is scheduled Oct. 1.

A nearly 100-page document filed by Kraus and Gevers last year argues Indiana's 
death penalty statute violates several portions of the U.S. and state 
constitutions and should be thrown out. A separate motion argued executing 
someone who was under 21 when crimes were committed violates constitutional 
prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment.

The argument is based on a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found it is 
unconstitutional to execute defendants who were younger than 18 at the time 
their crimes were committed.

Dansby's lawyers say the age should be raised to 21.

Neither Kraus nor Gevers returned messages Friday from The Journal Gazette.

(source: The Journal Gazette)








TENNESSEE----death row inmate dies

Death row inmate dies 1 day after fellow inmate's execution



A Tennessee death row inmate died in prison on Friday, less than 3 months 
before his scheduled execution and less than a day after a fellow inmate was 
executed .

Charles Wright, 64, was pronounced dead of natural causes at 11:57 a.m. at the 
Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to the Tennessee 
Department of Correction.

Wright was convicted in the 1984 shooting death of 2 men in a Nashville park 
during a drug deal. He was sentenced to death for killing Douglas Alexander and 
to life in prison for killing Gerald Mitchell.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Kelley Henry had unsuccessfully sought 
compassionate release for Wright, saying the inmate was dying of cancer.

"He desperately wanted to one day touch the grass and eat his sister's 
cooking," Henry wrote in an emailed statement on Friday afternoon.

Henry said Wright had a "large and loving family" that is heartbroken over his 
loss. She also said Wright had many friends on death row who took care of him 
after he became ill.

They included Don Johnson, who was pronounced dead Thursday night. Henry was 
one of the witnesses to Johnson's execution. She said afterward that she 
believed gasping noises Johnson made during the execution indicated that the 
68-year-old was suffering.

Autopsies are planned for both men.

Courts have rejected challenges to Tennessee's midazolam-based lethal injection 
protocols, but Henry said claims about the pain the drugs cause are unrefuted. 
2 Tennessee inmates last year chose to die in the electric chair instead of by 
lethal injection, saying they believed it offered a quicker and less painful 
death.

Tennessee is scheduled to execute 2 more inmates later this year.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Nashville attorney: Thursday's execution gives “more evidence” of lethal 
injection problems



Thursday's execution of Donnie Johnson raises more questions about how the 
state carries out lethal injections, according to Nashville attorney David 
Raybin, who helped craft Tennessee's death penalty law.

Johnson was executed for killing his wife, Connie, in 1984. With Johnson's 
execution, Tennessee has now carried out 4 executions within a year, while the 
death penalty has been put on hold in other states.

Raybin reviewed media witness statements at a press conference held following 
Johnson's execution.

"This is more evidence to show that the lethal injection does produce some 
prolonged consciousness," Raybin said. "The question of whether it's painful or 
not is a different issue, but certainly the person was not unconscious."

Raybin says he knows many Tennesseans feel that death row inmates should in 
fact suffer as the death penalty is being carried out -- they are convicted 
killers, after all. But Raybin says revenge is not the point of the death 
penalty, even if Johnson may have led his wife to a horrific death.

"That does not translate into torturing the individual," Raybin said, "We do 
not want to become like the killer himself."

To be clear, Raybin did not say that Johnson or other death row inmates have 
been tortured during their lethal injection executions, but there has long been 
debate over the lethal injection chemicals Tennessee uses. Inmates and their 
attorneys have argued that the 1st drug -- Midazolam -- does not entirely knock 
out inmates, allowing them to experience the pain from the 2nd and 3rd drugs, 
which have been described as "being buried alive," or "burning alive from the 
inside."

In legal filings, the state of Tennessee has shunned those descriptions, 
calling it hyperbole.

At the center of Raybin's review were media witness statements which said 
Johnson was "snoring," "gasping," and "squeaking" at different times during the 
execution, including at times after the sedative Midazolam was administered and 
Riverbend warden Tony Mays performed a consciousness check on Johnson. TDOC's 
lethal injection protocol says the other two drugs can only be given if the 
inmate is found "unresponsive."

"We heard a high pitched 'ahh' kind of noise, and he stopped snoring," said 
media witness Travis Loller of the Associated Press.

"There was a couple of squeaks at 7:27," said media witness Chas Sisk of 
Nashville Public Radio.

"We heard a sharper gasp that was the kind of 'ahh' noise," said Katherine 
Burgess of the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Janice Broach, a media witness with WMC-TV, said she had witnessed 2 other 
lethal injection executions decades earlier, when TDOC didn't use Midazolam.

"This one was very, very different," Broach said. "The first 2 that I covered, 
there was not much discernible sound or motion from the inmates. In this 
instance, there was gasping...and possibly snoring, but it went on for quite a 
while." Broach seemed to be referring to sounds from Johnson before the 
consciousness check was given.

Raybin proposes a controversial solution to determine whether inmates are 
feeling unconstitutional pain during lethal injection executions in Tennessee: 
recording the lethal injections -- something that's not allowed.

"Given the controversy of this, I think the law should be changed and allow the 
government to record these things in a secure manner so that would refute any 
allegation -- or support any allegation -- that the death is not instantaneous 
as advertised," Raybin said. "Having these anecdotal stories is very difficult 
for a court to analyze."

Raybin says the reports from the media witnesses from Johnson's execution may 
be used in future lawsuits against the state.

"The fact that you have press people substantiating this changes the dynamic," 
Raybin said.

Johnson's attorney, Kelley Henry, spoke about the drugs at the press conference 
on Thursday.

"I think the Midazolam worked exactly as the Midazolam is supposed to work -- 
which is that it doesn't work: it doesn't prevent Mr. Johnson from feeling 
pain."

Three federal lawsuits have been filed in Tennessee challenging the state's use 
of the chemicals, but courts have struck down those challenges in the past, 
claiming the inmates haven't been able to offer up an alternative chemical the 
state could use. Attorneys for the inmates argue that is a difficult -- if not 
impossible -- task, because state secrecy laws prohibit releasing information 
about drug suppliers -- including other less-controversial drugs the state may 
have tried to acquire.

Henry is also calling on the TDOC to revamp its lethal injection protocol. She 
says the warden and associate warden stood in front of the witness window in a 
way that made it impossible to see Johnson's head or feet.

"The way they're doing it needs to change if we're to know exactly what's 
happening during these executions," Henry said.

During the press conference Thursday, Henry emphasized Johnson's religious 
transformation behind bars.

Victims advocates, and others supporting Johnson's execution also look to the 
bible and point out a particular verse: an eye for an eye.

Henry called that a "cynical view" that turns its back on what she said was the 
true message of Christianity: redemption.

"That is a powerful message, and that is the message that I hope continues to 
be heard in this case," Henry said minutes after Johnson was executed. "Don was 
at peace."

(source: WTVF news)








WYOMING:

Groups Start Public Campaign To Build Support For Abolishing The Death Penalty



A much more concerted effort is underway to abolish the death penalty in 
Wyoming. The League of Women Voters, religious groups, the Wyoming ACLU and 
Wyoming's chapter of the NAACP have organized a campaign after an effort to 
abolish capital punishment failed in the State Senate this year after passing 
the House. Sabrina King of Wyoming's ACLU is leading the nine month campaign to 
gain support for the effort.

(source: WJCT news)






IDAHO:

PROSECUTORS: TEEN ACCUSED OF STABBING TO DEATH ELDERLY POCATELLO WOMAN LIKELY 
TO BE CHARGED AS ADULT



A 17-year-old alleged accomplice to a grisly Pocatello murder in March who 
contested his extradition from California will likely be charged as an adult, 
according to Bannock County prosecutors.

The prosecutors said they plan to get court approval to charge the 17-year-old 
boy as an adult in the near future, at which point his name will be released.

The 17-year-old, who's currently being held at a local juvenile detention 
facility, has been charged in Bannock County with first-degree murder for his 
alleged role in killing 87-year-old Arlyne Koehler in her Pocatello home on the 
1000 block of McKinley Avenue on either March 18 or 19.

Pocatello police announced Koehler's murder during a press conference on March 
20. Members of Koehler's family discovered her body during the evening of March 
19.

Police say the 17-year-old and Dustin Garrett Alfaro, 18, of Marysville, 
California, stabbed Koehler to death. Alfaro was arraigned at the Bannock 
County Courthouse last month for 1st-degree murder for his role in allegedly 
killing the elderly woman.

The 17-year-old, who's also from Marysville, was transported from California to 
Idaho earlier this week and appeared in front of Judge Todd Garbett on Thursday 
for his arraignment hearing at the Bannock County Courthouse.

JaNiece Price, Bannock County's assistant chief deputy prosecutor, told the 
Journal on Thursday that Garbett set the 17-year-old’s bond at $1 million 
before remanding him back to the local juvenile detention facility where he's 
currently being held.

During Alfaro's arraignment on April 8 at the Bannock County Courthouse, Judge 
David Hooste set his bond at $1 million before sending him back to the Bannock 
County Jail where he is currently incarcerated. Alfaro was extradited from 
California to Idaho on April 5.

The Bannock County Prosecutor’s Office filed a warrant with the governor’s 
office in California to force the 17-year-old’s extradition to Idaho. That 
warrant was served earlier this week, and the boy was immediately extradited to 
Idaho.

The cases involving Alfaro and the 17-year-old have been sealed from the public 
via judicial order, something Price said was done early on to protect the 
integrity of the investigation. Authorities haven’t yet commented on what they 
believe the teens’ motives were for allegedly traveling from California to 
Idaho and killing Koehler, who lived alone.

Alfaro and the 17-year-old were arrested in Yuba County, California, on March 
20 by Yuba County Sheriff’s Office deputies after warrants were issued for 
their arrest in connection with Koehler's death.

Pocatello police have not yet commented on what caused them to believe Alfaro 
and the 17-year-old had allegedly murdered Koehler.

If convicted of 1st-degree murder for allegedly killing Koehler, Alfaro could 
face the death penalty. Prosecutors have not yet said whether they will seek 
the death penalty against him.

In a 2005 decision in the case of Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court 
ruled that the execution of people under the age of 18 at the time of their 
crimes violates the federal constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual 
punishment. Therefore, the 17-year-old cannot face the death penalty if 
convicted of murdering Koehler. But he will face a maximum sentence of life in 
prison if convicted.

Dave Martinez and Scott Andrew, the attorneys with the Bannock County Public 
Defender’s Office who are representing Alfaro, explained at his arraignment 
hearing last month that because Alfaro could face the death penalty, the 
Bannock County Public Defender’s Office does not have the resources to 
represent the 17-year-old if he is tried as an adult.

Andrew said that if the 17-year-old is tried as an adult and needs a public 
defender, an attorney from outside of the Bannock County Public Defender’s 
Office would be assigned to represent him.

A hearing that will determine if there is enough evidence to take the 
17-year-old’s case to trial has been set for May 29 at the Bannock County 
Courthouse. Hearings that will determine if there is enough evidence to take 
Alfaro’s case to trial have been set for June 13 and 14 at the Bannock County 
Courthouse.

(source: idahostatejournal.com)








NEVADA:

Jury sentences convicted killer a 2nd time to death



A Washoe County District Court jury has sentenced Tracy Petrocelli to death, 37 
years after doing so the 1st time.

The man who killed Reno car salesman James Wilson and 2 other people in 1982 
had been on death row since 1985, except for the last year, when he was moved 
to Carson City because of health issues, and then the Washoe County jail during 
the new re-sentencing trial.

It's not clear when he will be moved back to death row in Ely.

Petrocelli, convicted in 1982 of killing Reno car salesman James Wilson, was 
granted a new sentencing trial by a federal appeals court that ruled his rights 
had been violated during the original trial's penalty phase.

He had also been convicted of a murder in California and another in Washington 
state. May 15, during the new sentencing trial, a now-frail 67-year-old 
Petrocelli softly spoke to the court and expressed regret for his actions and 
the pain he caused. His defense says he's a different man now; prosecutors say 
he's the same man he was when he killed 3 people.

2 of Wilson's sons, Harry and Eddie, then spoke to the court about how their 
families had been denied Wilson's companionship over the years.

A psychologist spoke to the court about how Petrocelli was diagnosed with 
antisocial disorder soon after starting his prison term. He had been on death 
row since 1985, but was transferred to Carson City in the last year for medical 
care after having a heart attack behind bars. Since at least March 2019, he has 
voluntarily not been taking his cardiac medication. He also has at least 1 
suicide attempt on his record since he went to prison, where he has little 
disciplinary action against him.

(source: KOLO TV news)