[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MD., DEL., GA., MISS.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 9


TEXAS----new execution date

Execution delayed until January


The killer of Vicki Garner, who was murdered in Tyler in 1996, has delayed his 
date with the execution chamber in Huntsville for at least another month as a 
result of a paperwork snag.

Family members were bitterly disappointed when they learned the Texas 
Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) cancelled Robert Charles Ladd's execution 
- which was to have been held this Thursday, Dec. 11 - because of a paperwork 
delay.

"It was a crushing blow," Teresa Wooten, the sexual assault director at the 
SAFE-T women's shelter, said. "We had all worked so hard to set this date by 
the end of the year."

Judge Christi Kennedy of the 114th District Court in Tyler held a hearing and 
ruled the execution should move forward on Nov. 7. The request by Ladd's 
attorney for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied in October.

But Wooten said Judge Kennedy did not sign her court order until Nov. 13, 
thereby running afoul of a state law the specifies an execution cannot fall 
less than 31 days after the court order.

It seems to have simply been an error, Wooten said.

"When they realized their mistake, I will say they did their best to try to get 
around it," she said.

But the TDCJ followed the law and rejected the date. The order has now been 
filed, and the execution date reset for Jan. 29.

Vicki Ann Garner, a member of the Mount Pleasant High School class of 1977, was 
brutally murdered on Sept. 25, 1996 in Tyler.

Garner was found dead in her home. She had been raped and strangled to death. 
In addition, her house was robbed and then set on fire.

A police investigation quickly connected Ladd to Garner's murder. Ladd's DNA 
was found on Garner, his hand print was found in Garner's kitchen, and Ladd had 
sold a TV set that had been taken from Garner's residence in exchange for crack 
cocaine.

Soon after, Ladd was indicted for capital murder, because the murder occurred 
during the commission of burglary, robbery, sexual assault, and arson.

On Aug. 23, 1997, a Texas state jury convicted Ladd of capital murder, and, on 
August 27, 1997, the jury imposed the death penalty.

"It took them 20 minutes to reach a verdict," Wooten said. "They said it was 
the fastest verdict in a death penalty case they had ever seen."

Vicki's mother died in 2011 and her father in 2013. In addition to Wooten, she 
is survived by an older sister, Kathy Pirtle, who lives in Upshur County.

Wooten said that she went to work for SAFE-T as a result over the years of 
being driven by the need to find justice for Vicki.

(source: Daily Tribune)

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

Jose E. Reyes Trial Begins: Horrific 'Satanic Ritual' Details Revealed In 
Grisly Court Statements


The trial of Jose E. Reyes, the Houston 18-year-old accused of the horrifying 
"Satanic ritual" murder of 15-year-old Corriann Cervantes in February, opened 
in a Texas state court Monday with prosecutors spelling out in graphic detail 
the sickening acts committed against the girl - gruesome crimes that even Reyes 
own defense lawyer acknowledged had actually taken place.

But Reyes lawyer, Bob Loper, appeared to adopt the strategy of trying to pin 
the worst of the crimes on Reyes' younger accomplice, Victor Alas.

"This was a horrible murder of a young girl and we're not going to shy away 
from that," Loper admitted to the jury in his opening statement. "You've got to 
ferret out for yourselves exactly what happened and who is responsible for 
which parts."

Reyes and Alas, prosecutors say, wanted to sell their souls to the devil, which 
they believed meant they must carry out heinous crimes.

According to prosecutor John Jordan, Cervantes accompanied the 2 boys to a 
vacant apartment in Houston's Clear Lake district after an evening of partying 
with booze and pot. At the apartment, they engaged in consensual sex - but the 
party quickly took a dark and violent turn.

"Whether or not the devil was involved, what happened in that apartment was 
sadistic and inhumane," Jordan told the jury, going on to spare nothing in his 
description of the brutal torture-slaying.

After or during the initial, consensual sex act, Reyes and his friend 
mercilessly beat Cervantes with the porcelain lid of a toilet tank, leaving 
pieces of porcelain embedded in her face when her body was found 4 days later, 
on February 8.

The 2 teens violently raped the battered girl, stabbed her numerous times with 
a screwdriver in her face and body - then used a plastic window blind to gouge 
out her eyes. The whole time, Cervantes was still alive.

Cervantes told Alas to strangle the girl with a belt in order to seal his deal 
with Satan, according to the prosecutor.

Police say that Reyes confessed in detail to the grisly murder shortly after 
his arrest. He told police that after the 2 boys had sex with Cervantes, they 
attacked her. Corriann tried to run, screaming, "Why are you doing this to me?"

She continued to plead for her life as they tortured her and dug her eyes out.

"He said he had no regrets," Jordan told the jury.

The Jose E. Reyes trial in expected to last the remainder of the week. Alas 
will be tried separately, also as an adult, although he was only 16 at the time 
of the murder. If convicted, both boys could face the death penalty.

(source: inquisitr.com)

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

Robert Ladd has been given an execution date for January 29; it should be 
considered serious.

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

Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----279

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present----518

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

280------------Jan. 15------------------Richard Vasquez-------519

281------------Jan. 21-------------------Arnold Prieto--------520

282------------Jan. 28-------------------Garcia White---------521

283------------Jan. 29-------------------Robert Ladd----------522

284------------Feb. 4--------------------Donald Newbury-------523

285------------Feb. 10-------------------Les Bower, Jr.-------524

286------------Mar. 5--------------------Rodney Reed----------525

287------------Mar. 11-------------------Manuel Vasquez-------526

288------------Mar. 18-------------------Randall Mays---------527

289------------Apr. 9--------------------Kent Sprouse---------528

290------------Apr. 15-------------------Manual Garza---------529

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Murder Witnesses Testify In Penalty Phase of Eric Williams Trial


Witnesses to a shooting that rocked Kaufman County gave dramatic testimony 
Monday during the punishment phase of the Eric Williams capital murder trial.

Williams faces the death penalty.

Even though a jury convicted Williams last Thursday of murdering Kaufman County 
DA Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia in March, 2013, prosecutors told jurors 
Williams also shot and killed McLelland's top assistant DA 2 months earlier - 
for the very same reason: Hasse and McLelland prosecuted Williams for stealing 
county computer equipment in 2012, and a jury convicted him.

As a result, Williams lost his job as a Justice of the Peace and his law 
license. Williams hasn't stood trial yet for Hasse's murder. But on Monday, 
several witnesses told jurors what they saw on that morning of January 31, 2013 
one block away from the Kaufman County courthouse where Hasse was reporting for 
work.

Lenda Bush told jurors that from her car, she saw someone wearing a long dark 
coat and a hooded mask gun down Hasse. "There was a shoving match. The shooter 
put the gun to Mark's neck and shot down and I counted 3 shots, but I counted 
more shots than that."

Bush says she saw the victim fall to the ground, and the shooter walking into a 
waiting getaway car, a Mercury Sable. She says she followed the shooter???s 
vehicle in her car for 2 or 2 1/2 blocks and realized it didn't have front or 
rear license plates. Bush says she then went to help the victim and realized it 
was Hasse.

Martin Cerda also testified he saw Hasse being shot.

Through an interpreter, he said just before the shooting, he heard Hasse plead 
for his life, telling the shooter, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Cerda said the shooter then fired at Hasse. "He points the gun to the chest and 
fired. He falls down. He got close to him and fired again. He emptied the gun 
on him, pulled out another gun, started firing again."

In all, prosecutors say Hasse had 5 gun shot wounds, including a fatal one to 
the head.

Patricia Luna, another woman who was across the street at the time and heard 
the gun shots, fought back tears as she told jurors about that morning. "I'm 
sorry, but, it's hard."

Luna sobbed as she recalled the moment she first saw Hasse. "I saw Mark dead. 
There was another girl who tried to do CPR, but he was dead already. There was 
a lot of blood, I've never seen so much blood in my life."

Luna, Cerda, and Bush said they couldn't identify the shooter because he was 
wearing a hooded mask. Prosecutors though told jurors Eric Williams was the 
shooter.

They showed the jury Williams' mask and guns he used during the murder that a 
DPS dive team discovered at the bottom of murky Lake Tawakoni.

The 1st Kaufman police officer who responded to the scene, Sgt. Jason Statsny, 
says he was in the area, when he heard eight gunshots.

He described them as methodical and demonstrated for jurors how they sounded by 
banging on the witness stand.

The officer says as soon as he arrived on scene, he relieved Bush who was 
giving Hasse chest compressions. "I would tell him to hang in there, it was 
going to be ok. And then he would breathe again. I think he took a total of 6 
or 7 breaths while I was doing CPR."

Sgt. Statsny says Hasse would later take his final breath before paramedics 
arrived.

On Monday, prosecutors say they may wrap up their part of the punishment phase 
Tuesday. Williams' estranged wife Kim, who's also charged in the murders, may 
testify against him. Then, Williams??? defense attorneys will present their 
opening statement and witnesses in an effort to convince the jury to sentence 
Williams to life in prison and spare him from the death penalty.

Judge Mike Snipes cautioned jurors this case go continue through next week.

(source: CBS news)






MARYLAND:

MD Death Row Inmate Seeks to Overturn Law


Attorneys for a man on Maryland's death row will argue before an appeals court 
that his sentence is illegal because the state no longer has a death penalty.

The Salisbury Daily Times reports that lawyers for Jody Lee Miles, who has been 
on death row since 1998, will argue before the Court of Special Appeals on 
Monday that the state lacks the authority to execute Miles and will ask for a 
new sentence that includes the possibility of parole.

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a bill repealing the death penalty in 2013. 
O'Malley has not commuted the sentences of the 4 men who remain on death row, 
but in recent weeks has reached out to family members of their victims to 
discuss the possibility.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Gansler tells appeals court Jody Lee Miles should not be executed


Both Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and lawyers for death-row 
inmate Jody Lee Miles argued to an appeals court Monday that Miles should no 
longer be subject to capital punishment.

Miles is seeking to have his sentence changed in the wake of the General 
Assembly's repeal of the death penalty last year. The legislature's action did 
not directly affect the sentences of the 4 remaining men on Maryland's death 
row, but Gansler (D) argued that the state is "no longer legally or factually 
able to carry out" executions.

Gansler, who leaves office next month, said the state would like to convert 
Miles's sentence to life without the possibility of parole, which he said is 
"in effect a death sentence." Miles is seeking a new sentence of life with the 
possibility of parole.

"He's the best of the best of inmates," one of his lawyers, Brian Saccenti, 
told a 3-judge panel of the Court of Special Appeals in Annapolis.

Miles was convicted in the 1997 robbery and murder of a musical-theater 
director in Wicomico County.

Maryland has not had regulations in place since late 2006 on how to execute 
prisoners through lethal injections. A court found the protocols had not been 
properly adopted, and the administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) - a death 
penalty opponent - never implemented new rules.

With the death penalty no longer on the books, the state cannot develop new 
regulations on carrying out executions, even under a new governor, Gansler 
said. Keeping Miles on death row, Gansler argued, therefore violates his 
due-process rights.

Gansler announced the state's position at a news conference last month. 
Technically, the stance applies only to Miles, but Gansler said it opens the 
door to similar legal motions by the state's other death-row inmates.

It is also possible O'Malley could commute the sentences of all or some of the 
4 death-row inmates before Jan. 21, when he leaves office and Larry Hogan (R) 
is sworn in.

O'Malley has started reaching out to relatives of the victims of the 4 inmates, 
stirring speculation that he might commute their sentences in the twilight of 
his tenure.

(source: Washington Post)






DELAWARE:

Police officers support repeal of death penalty----Delaware Repeal Project 
rallies support to end capital punishment


John Breckinridge, a retired police officer from Manchester, N.H., hasn't 
always been against the death penalty.

In the months and years after he witnessed his partner slain in the line of 
duty, Breckinridge was as staunch a supporter of the death penalty as there 
could be.

"I was pretty hardcore on board," he said. "I wanted this guy dead."

Breckinridge was in Delaware as part of Death Penalty Awareness Days put on by 
the Delaware Repeal Project, a group attempting to repeal the death penalty in 
Delaware.

Breckinridge, along with Chief James Abbott of the West Orange Police 
Department in New Jersey and former investigator with the New York State Police 
Terrence Dwyer, spoke at a number of town hall meetings in Kent and New Castle 
counties Nov. 18-20.

Abraham J. Bonowitz, project consultant, said the former police officers were 
brought to Delaware to show the public police officers do support the repeal of 
the death penalty.

Senate Bill 19, repealing capital punishment in Delaware, made it through the 
Senate in March 2013 by an 11 to 10 vote, but it was tabled in the House 
Judiciary Committee and never saw the House floor for discussion.

Bonowitz said a new bill will have to be introduced; he hoped the recent 
meetings would rally support before the beginning of a new legislative session.

During a visit to the Cape Gazette offices Nov. 20, Breckinridge described his 
partner's death and how it affected his life.

He and partner Michael Briggs were on patrol when a call came through about a 
domestic dispute. Breckinridge said the dispute involved 2 guys who had 
recently risen to the top of the Manchester police department's list of bad 
guys, so they knew there was a potential for trouble.

Fortunately, nothing happened. The men handled the situation, and went on their 
way - 15 minutes from finishing their shift at 3 a.m.

Breckinridge said he wanted to go back to the department, finish the paperwork 
associated with the dispute, and go home. Briggs wanted to check something else 
out, so Breckinridge went with him because that's what good partners do.

The officers came across the 2 men from the domestic dispute. As they 
approached, one pulled a gun out of the front pocket of a sweatshirt and shot 
Briggs in the head.

Breckinridge doesn't remember much of the immediate aftermath. He knows he 
fired off 4 shots, but they all missed. He knows he wishes he hadn't missed.

"I beat myself up a lot about that," he said.

Breckinridge said Briggs was the type of guy who could have dated his sister 
and he would have been OK with it.

The killer was found in Boston, convicted for the murder in 2008 and put on 
death row in New Hampshire. The man is the only person on New Hampshire's death 
row.

Breckinridge said there's video out there of him being asked how he felt after 
the conviction. It has him saying he thought it was the right thing to do.

"I was just so damn angry," he said.

Breckinridge said he began to change his opinion of the death penalty when it 
nearly ruined his marriage. It was close enough, he said, that when the couple 
went to a counselor it was to figure out what to do with the kids, not to try 
and work things out.

He said he was drinking heavily. He was the guy who would stay on a friend's 
couch until he was kicked out.

His first step in making amends with his family was retiring from his job in 
2010. He had been on the force for 22 years. He said retiring helped because 
the anger began to die down when he was not around the other officers everyday.

Being a police officer is like being a member of a fraternity, said 
Breckinridge. "There's a lot of pressure to think alike."

Then he started going back to church, which made him begin to question the 
morality of wanting another human dead.

Breckinridge also began reading research and discovered it's more expensive to 
use the death penalty than to put someone in prison for life. He said estimates 
show that annually it costs about $30,000 to house an inmate. He said the state 
of New Hampshire has spent nearly $5 million on just this case because of all 
the appeals associated with a capital punishment case. Additionally, the state 
doesn't have a place to actually carry out an execution. He said it would cost 
about $1 million to build that facility.

Finally, Breckinridge spoke with people who had been wrongly convicted of a 
crime, put on death row and then exonerated because advances in science proved 
they were innocent. One of the guys he spoke with, Kirk Bloodsworth, was in 
Delaware in February with the Delaware Repeal Project pushing for SB19 to be 
voted on. Bloodsworth spent nine years in jail, two of them on death row, 
before a DNA test proved his innocence.

Nearly a decade after his partner's slaying, Breckinridge said, there are still 
side affects from the incident. He's got a "weird twitch" that didn't exist 
beforehand. He'll dream about the shooting and wake up in a bad mood, which, he 
said, his wife calls "waking up bad." Without warning, the shooting will pop 
into his head.

"There's no real trigger," he said. "It just replays in my head."

Breckinridge said the message he wanted get across during his visit was more 
about trying to get people to think for themselves. Most people don't think 
about the death penalty until they're faced with a situation that forces them 
to, he said.

(source: CapeGazette.com)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Ga. to execute man who killed sheriff's deputy


A Georgia death row inmate who killed a sheriff's deputy is set to be executed.

Robert Wayne Holsey's execution is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at a state prison in 
Jackson. A jury in February 1997 convicted Holsey of killing Baldwin County 
sheriff's deputy Will Robinson.

Holsey robbed a Milledgeville convenience store early on Dec. 17, 1995. The 
clerk called police right after he left and described the robber and his car.

Robinson pulled Holsey over minutes later. Authorities say Holsey fired at 
Robinson as the deputy approached the vehicle.

Lawyers for Holsey have argued that he is intellectually disabled and therefore 
shouldn't be executed. They say his trial lawyer failed to tell the jury about 
that disability and other evidence that could have spared him the death 
penalty.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSISSIPPI:

Court won't toss appeal of '94 rape conviction


The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied a prosecutor's motion to throw out a 
death row inmate's appeal of his 1994 rape conviction.

Charles Ray Crawford, 48, is on death row for the 1992 slaying of Kristy Ray in 
the Chalybeate community in Tippah County.

Crawford says he received ineffective counsel to defend himself against the 
rape charges, which were used by prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Few 
details of the rape conviction are discussed in earlier briefs in the 
death-penalty case.

The attorney general's office argued in requesting the dismissal that Crawford 
got a fair trial and that, if there was any error, it was Crawford's for 
waiting 20 years to appeal.

The Supreme Court denied the motion Thursday without comment.

Crawford argues that the 1994 rape conviction should be tossed out because he 
received poor legal representation. The appeal could mean the difference 
between life and death for Crawford.

Crawford was arrested in 1992 and charged with rape and aggravated assault. 
While free on bond, he was arrested on murder charges. He was convicted of rape 
in 1993 and sentenced to 66 years in prison. He was then found guilty of murder 
in 1994 and sentenced to death. Prosecutors had argued for the death penalty, 
saying it was justified because Crawford's past as a rapist constituted an 
aggravated factor.

Crawford's lawyer has argued there were numerous errors in Crawford's rape 
trial including poor performance by the defense, prosecutorial misconduct, and 
questionable rulings and jury instructions from the trial judge.

(source: Associated Press)