[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, S.C., FLA., OHIO, TENN.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 16



TEXAS:

Defense rests in ex-official's capital murder trial



Defense attorneys have rested their case in the punishment phase of the trial 
of a former North Texas public official convicted of capital murder in a 
revenge plot against prosecutors.

Attorneys for Eric Williams wrapped up their effort to save the former Kaufman 
County justice of the peace from death row at the end of Monday's proceedings.

Prosecutors may call rebuttal witnesses Tuesday morning in state district court 
in Rockwall, followed by closing arguments to the Rockwall County jury.

Prosecutors want the death penalty for Williams for the fatal shooting of 
Cynthia McLelland. The bodies of her and her husband, Kaufman County District 
Attorney Mike McLelland, were found last year at their home near Dallas. 
Williams also is accused of killing Mike McLelland and an assistant prosecutor 
2 months earlier.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Is death penalty necessary?



Eric Williams' defense attorney made a highly sensible yet slightly flawed plea 
in defense of Williams. He urged the jury to remember the biblical teachings of 
Jesus to "love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek." He urged them to not 
commit Williams to death even though he had caused such mayhem.

It is my firm belief that everyone deserves a 2nd chance, but one must also 
consider the other teachings of the Bible such as "thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 
20:13) and "whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (Genesis 
9:6). Williams has done irreversible wrong, but should he be punished with the 
death penalty? I, however, still must agree with his attorney, Maxwell Peck. 
For what gain is there from more bloodshed? 3 people have already been killed. 
Would killing a 4th solve the problem?

Nathan Young, Watauga

(source: Letter to the Editor, Dallas Morning News)








SOUTH CAROLINA:

Family of woman abducted, slain frustrated by murder trial delays



Chanda Roscoe walked out of the courtroom in Camden Monday, no longer able to 
hold back tears. 3 years after the horrific murder of her sister, Hope Roscoe, 
she's had to once again sit in court across from the man accused of killing 
her.

"He's a monster. No remorse. Cold-hearted," Roscoe said.

Nickolas Miller, 23, faces the death penalty in the rape and beating death of 
Melton. On Monday in Camden, the judge set a trial date of Feb. 9, 2016.

Melton's family was clearly upset following the hearing, wanting to know why 
justice is so long delayed.

"We keep showing up for all these little hearings, and it's just rescheduling, 
rescheduling, move the date, no closure," Roscoe said.

Roscoe wore a large button pinned to her sweater in memory of Hope.

"She smiled all the time. I don't think there was anybody who didn't like my 
sister," she said.

That smile was last seen on the 30-year-old's face on surveillance video the 
day after Christmas 2011.

She had stopped at a Jefferson convenience store, where Miller also stopped.

The surveillance video shows him partly opening the door for her as she walks 
into the store.

Deputies said he tried to speak with her at the gas pumps, then followed her in 
his car as she left for her grandmother's house. Melton called her grandmother 
and told her someone was following her. She thought it was the man from the gas 
station and said he seemed drunk. That was the last anyone heard from her.

Deputies believe Miller cut Melton off with his car, ran her off the road, then 
abducted and raped her. They said he drove her to a wooded area in Kershaw 
County, then beat her to death with a baseball bat.

Deputies said that hours later, he led them to her body. Her car was discovered 
in a ditch, still running.

It's possible Melton wasn't the first target for Miller, deputies said. They 
believe he may have targeted another woman earlier in the day but changed his 
mind because she headed north, into a busier area. So he went back to the small 
convenience store in Jefferson, they said.

In 2012, prosecutors filed paperwork to seek the death penalty against Miller.

His appearance in court in Camden was for another hearing about scheduling the 
trial. Seeing him is gut-wrenching for Melton's family. Frankie Melton is the 
victim's brother-in-law.

"Every Christmas, this time of year is hard to calculate, and just really 
devastating. There's a strong need for this to end," Melton said.

The court has placed a gag order on lawyers involved in the case, so they 
cannot discuss any details about the investigation or explain reasons for the 
delays.

Deputies believe the abduction and rape happened in Chesterfield County and the 
murder happened in Kershaw County. The case was jointly investigated by 2 
sheriff's departments, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and 2 
solicitor's offices. It's possible that the large number of people involved 
could partly explain why it will take more than 4 years to come to court.

Until that day, the family of a brutally murdered newlywed will have to keep 
their anguish inside.

"It's hard, and we have to be quiet and not speak out on her behalf," Roscoe 
said Monday.

Miller had no criminal record before his arrest in this case on suspicion of 
murder, criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping. Neither he nor his family spoke 
in court.

(source: WSOC TV news)








FLORIDA:

Accused mass-murder Mesac Damas files change of plea motion



A North Naples man accused of slaughtering his family in 2009 has filed a 
motion to change his plea, according to court records.

Attorneys for Mesac Damas filed a motion for a change of plea hearing late last 
week. The 1-page document states only that Damas wishes to change his plea from 
"not guilty" in open court.

Damas, 38, is charged with killing his wife Guerline Damas, 32, and 5 children 
- Michzach, 9; Marven, 6; Maven, 5; Megan, 3; and Morgan Damas, 11 months. All 
were found with their throats cut inside the family's town house Sept. 19, 
2009.

If convicted he faces the death penalty.

The motion comes more than 2 months after Judge Ramiro Manalich found Damas 
competent for trial for the 3rd time. He's in custody at the Naples Jail 
Center. No date has been set for the hearing. It's unclear from records what 
Damas will change his plea to. The motion doesn't indicate whether Damas has 
reached a plea agreement, what charges he could plead to or any possible 
punishments. It also doesn't state whether he will plead to the judge without 
an agreement. This would place his punishment in the hands of a judge and would 
still open him to the death penalty.

"A defendant has the right to enter a plea to the charges at any time. To read 
any more into it might be a mistake," said Samantha Syoen, communications 
director for the state attorney's office.

Syoen said she couldn't comment more on the filing. Damas' attorney, public 
defender Kathleen Fitzgeorge, did not return a request for comment.

The motion is the latest development for Damas. He has undergone 6 mental 
health evaluations since 2009, including the latest question of his mental 
state, which began last December when Damas assaulted another inmate.

In March, Damas was found not competent for trial and ordered into a mental 
health facility in Melbourne. In October, Manalich found Damas competent for 
trial after reviewing reports from court-appointed doctors.

The reports are sealed, but, in his ruling, Manalich wrote: "The reports 
indicate Defendant (sic) can be aggressive, manipulative and deceitful and 
would engage in cooperative when necessary to get something he wanted."

(source: News-Press)








OHIO:

Prosecutors to seek death penalty in fatal shooting of Akron police officer 
Justin Winebrenner



Summit County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a 35-year-old 
Akron man in connection with last month's shooting death of off-duty Akron 
police officer Justin Winebrenner.

The agency released an 18-count indictment Monday afternoon against Kenan Dason 
Ivery of Grand Avenue.

Ivery is charged with aggravated murder and 3 accompanying specifications - 2 
involving firearms offenses, the other a death-penalty specification.

"I am very satisfied with that," the slain officer's father, Rob Winebrenner, 
said in a Beacon Journal telephone interview after being informed of the 
indictment.

Now that the case is going forward in Common Pleas Court with the harshest 
penalty a possibility, Winebrenner said his hope is to "just let the justice 
system do its job."

Ivery is accused of shooting Justin Winebrenner, 32, and 4 others inside Papa 
Don's Pub on East Market Street early Nov. 16.

Winebrenner was unarmed and off-duty. At some point, police said, Ivery became 
unruly and was asked to leave the pub. He did, but he returned later with a 
gun, according to witnesses.

As Winebrenner attempted to defuse the tense situation, shots were fired. The 
officer was struck twice in the torso and died about 30 minutes later at 
Summa's Akron City Hospital.

He funeral, Nov. 22 at Rhodes Arena on the University of Akron campus, drew 
about 2,000, including hundreds of police officers from across the state.

Ivery also is charged in the indictment with 2 counts of felony murder, 5 
counts of attempted murder, 6 counts of felonious assault and other felonies. 
The 11-page indictment contains numerous gun specifications.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Common Pleas Court. According to 
court records, Kerry M. O'Brien is his attorney.

(source: ohio.com)

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

Death penalty sought for Ivery in death of Justin Winebrenner



The Summit County Prosecutor's Office will seek the death penalty against Kenan 
Ivery in the shooting death of off-duty Akron Police Officer Justin 
Winebrenner.

Winebrenner died Nov. 16 from gunshot injuries he sustained at Papa Don's bar 
when he attempted to defuse a situation with Ivery, who was armed. 5 others 
were either shot or shot at that evening.

Ivery, 35, of Grand Avenue in Akron, was indicted by the Summit County Grand 
Jury today on the following charges:

Aggravated murder, a special felony which carries 2 gun specifications and one 
death specification; 2 counts of murder, a special felony with each count 
carrying 2 gun specifications; 5 counts of attempted murder, a felony of 1st 
degree with 4 counts including 1 gun specification and one count including 2 
gun specifications; 6 counts of felonious assault, felonies of the 1st and 2nd 
degree with 4 counts including 1 gun specification and 2 counts including 2 gun 
specifications; having weapons under disability, a felony of the 3rd degree; 
carrying a concealed weapon, a felony of the 4th degree; illegal possession of 
a firearm in a liquor permit premise, a felony of the 3rd degree and tampering 
with evidence, a felony of the 3rd degree.

If convicted of aggravated murder with the death specification, Ivery can be 
sentenced to death.

Kenan Ivery will be arraigned in the Court of Common Pleas, Wednesday, Dec. 17.

(source: The Barberton Herald)

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

Family of executed Ohio inmate sues expert witness



The state's former expert witness on lethal injection should have known that a 
condemned inmate would suffer because of a never used 2-drug combo, the family 
of the inmate says in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit, expanded from an earlier filing, alleges that Dr. Mark Dershwitz 
knew inmate Dennis McGuire would suffer during the January execution but helped 
create the state's new lethal injection policy anyway. The new complaint filed 
in federal court earlier this month says Dershwitz also provided medical and 
scientific advice to the state prisons agency.

Even though he knew the risks of the two-drug method, "Dershwitz continued to 
bill for services and earn compensation from the State of Ohio to provide 
advice, expertise, assistance, counsel, and expert witness services to assist 
in the creation of Ohio's Execution Protocol," the lawsuit said.

Dershwitz, a University of Massachusetts anesthesiologist and pharmacologist, 
announced in June he would no longer act as an expert witness for states 
defending their lethal injection methods.

Dershwitz said Ohio had jeopardized his standing with the American Board of 
Anesthesiology in a news release it issued about the Jan. 16 execution of 
McGuire because it implied he consulted on the execution method, which is 
prohibited by the national board.

Dershwitz said in an email he was aware of the filing but couldn't immediately 
comment.

The family also added drug distributor McKesson Corp. to the lawsuit, saying 
the company distributed the midazolam and hydropmorphone used to put McGuire to 
death. The family previously sued Hospira Inc., which makes the drugs.

Lake Forest, Illinois-based Hospira and San Francisco-based McKesson "knew or 
should have known that when used in executions, Hydromorphone and Midazolam 
would cause unnecessary and extreme pain and suffering during the execution 
process," the lawsuit said.

Both companies declined comment, as did the Ohio prisons agency.

The federal civil rights lawsuit originally filed in January by McGuire's adult 
children alleges McGuire "suffered needless pain and suffering" during his 
execution. McGuire snorted and gasped several times during the 26 minutes - the 
longest of any Ohio execution - it took him to die.

McGuire was executed for the 1989 rape and stabbing death of Joy Stewart, 22, a 
recently married pregnant woman in western Ohio.

On April 28, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction concluded there 
was no evidence that McGuire "experienced any pain, distress or anxiety."

Ohio has not been able to obtain supplies of its 1st choice, compounded 
pentobarbital, a drug used successfully by Missouri and Texas in several recent 
executions.

House lawmakers are considering a bill this week that would shield the names of 
companies providing lethal drugs to Ohio, a move aimed at obtaining compounded 
pentobarbital.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Senate votes to shield names from public



The Ohio Senate moved amended legislation Thursday to shield from public view 
the names of compounding pharmacies that provide lethal injection drugs to the 
state.

HB 663 passed on a vote of 20-10 and heads back to the Ohio House for 
consideration of changes made by senators.

Sen. John Eklund (R-Chardon), who serves as chairman that considered the 
legislation, said the bill is aimed a protecting "the confidentiality and the 
identities of these individuals [involved in the administration of the death 
penalty], many of whom are employed by the state of Ohio, doing a job -- a very 
difficult job -- to feed their families. The idea is to protect their identity. 
That's what we're trying to do."

Under execution protocols adopted last year, state prison officials could 
purchase lethal injection mixtures from compounding pharmacies -- a change that 
was made after the overseas manufacturers of such drugs refused to sell them 
for use in executions.

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has had difficulties finding 
pharmacies willing to provide the lethal injection drugs because they don't 
want to be identified publicly.

"Compounding pharmacies who are in a position to compound the substances that 
can be used to administer the death sentence in a humane and painless fashion 
have become... subjected to not just criticism but downright attacks and 
boycotts and picketing at their homes," Eklund said. "They and their families 
have become subjected to the kinds of things that none of us would want to be 
subjected to...."

HB 663 seeks to address the issue by blocking the public disclosure of pharmacy 
names and others involved in the execution process.

Covered records would be kept confidential and not subject to the state's open 
records laws, with limited access by judges reviewing death penalty cases.

Individuals involved would be covered by the confidentiality law automatically; 
businesses would have to request anonymity, via an application to state prison 
officials, and their names would be released after 20 years.

Senators made a number of changes to the bill, including adding language to 
require the state ethics commission to review contracts for lethal injection 
drugs to ensure compounding pharmacies have all applicable licenses and meet 
ethics and other law requirements.

The Senate version also calls for the creation of a committee to study ways to 
ensure families of murder victims have access to social services and other 
assistance and potentially to consider other means of administering the death 
penalty.

"We are making progress in this bill toward untethering ourselves from this 
European drug cartel, and to me that's a good thing," said Sen. Bill Seitz, 
R-Cincinnati, said of the latter, "because there are plenty of alternate means 
(of administering death penalties) that have been approved by the United States 
Supreme Court as being not cruel and inhuman punishment within the meaning of 
the applicable Eighth Amendment provision of the U.S. Constitution. And it 
seems to me we want to deliberate over having other tools in the toolbox, so to 
say."

Eklund sought to distance debate on the legislation Thursday from larger 
discussions about the use of the death penalty in the state. Capital punishment 
is allowed under state law, and HB 663 seeks to ensure lethal injections can 
continue to be administered, he said.

"I recognize that there are people who, for very good reasons, are opposed to 
the death penalty," Seitz added. "But that is not what this bill is about. ... 
If you are concerned, as I am, about how the death penalty is currently 
administered in Ohio, you should vote for the bill."

The final vote on the bill included Republicans in opposition.

"I have no sympathy for those who commit violent crimes, especially when those 
crimes involve the taking of a life," said Sen. Peggy Lehner (R-Kettering). 
"However, my personal belief is the taking of a life must be reserved for only 
those times when we have no other available means to protect society from a 
grave threat. Because other ways of punishing convicted criminals are available 
to us, I cannot and will not participate in carrying out Ohio's death penalty."

The Ohio Newspaper Association was among the groups that remain opposed to the 
bill.

"We remain concerned about excessive secrecy in this legislation and have yet 
to see any documentation beyond vague claims that new exemptions to our open 
records law are needed to protect the identities of drug suppliers," Executive 
Director Dennis Hetzel said in a released statement.

(source: The Crescent-News)








TENNESSEE:

Tennessee high court considers identifying executioners



Death penalty in Tennessee

A group of inmates is fighting the death penalty protocol used in Tennessee, 
claiming it is unconstitutional and violates protections from cruel and unusual 
punishment. Execution protocol has changed several times in the past decade.

The Tennessee Supreme Court will consider Thursday whether to identify the 
names of the execution team and pharmacists working with the deadly drugs in a 
challenge to a 2013 state law that keeps almost all details of the procedure a 
secret.

A group of 11 condemned inmates and their lawyers say that law does not apply 
to court cases, which other rules guide.

"The state has a compelling interest in protecting the identities of the 
members of the execution team because the confidentiality of this information 
is vital to the proper performance of defendants' duties and to the enforcement 
of the law," according to the Tennessee attorney general's filing in the case.

The state says the names are not relevant to the execution protocol, which is 
what the inmates claim is unconstitutional.

Lawyers for the inmates challenging Tennessee's execution protocol, changed in 
2013 because supply of the existing death-penalty drugs was tightening, said 
the state cannot ensure that its death penalty is constitutional if inmates 
don't have access to where the state obtains its lethal injection drugs, the 
makeup of the chemical cocktail used to execute inmates and the names of the 
people on the execution team.

The state Supreme Court should uphold an appeals court opinion that the secrecy 
law withholds information from public disclosure but not from use in discovery 
- or evidence - proceedings in trial, the inmates' lawyers said. They contend 
that limited release would prevent any retaliation that the state argues could 
occur if the names were made public.

1 woman and 69 men are on Tennessee's death row.

"Generally speaking, a trend we see is states attempting to enhance the secrecy 
surrounding their execution procedures," saidMegan McCracken, a lawyer at the 
University of California Berkeley School of Law's Death Penalty Clinic. "That 
is a real problem for condemned prisoners but also for the public because 
without disclosure of the information there's no way to analyze the procedures 
and ensure they comport with the Constitution."

Tennessee's lethal injection protocol now calls for the use of pentobarbital, a 
barbiturate and veterinary anesthetic. At least 19 other states use or plan to 
use pentobarbital, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a private 
group that opposes the death penalty.

Some states attempting to keep their old chemical cocktail have struggled to 
find drug suppliers, tested new drug cocktails and at times turned to 
unconventional methods of procuring the deadly doses since the only federally 
approved manufacturer took steps to keep its drug out of execution chambers.

4 bungled executions in other states this year left inmates gasping on gurneys 
in front of witnesses, at times for hours, fueling further scrutiny of the 
death penalty. Pentobarbital was used in a combination of drugs in an Oklahoma 
execution where the inmate reportedly said he felt his body burning before he 
died.

Earlier this year, supreme courts in Georgia and Oklahoma upheld secrecy 
statutes similar to Tennessee's law while ruling the death penalty was 
constitutional.

(source: USA Today)