[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ALA., OHIO, ILL., OKLA., WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 14



ALABAMA:

Why the death penalty could be difficult to pursue against accused killer 
William Minton of Foley


Capital murder charges might be difficult to pursue in the murder case against 
55-year-old accused killer William A. Minton, but Baldwin County District 
Attorney Hallie Dixon says an investigation is continuing to see if they can be 
brought forward.

Dixon, during a news conference Wednesday at the Baldwin County Commission's 
chambers in Bay Minette, said that until evidence surfaces, the charges against 
Minton will carry with them possible life imprisonment. Capital murder is 
punishable by death.

"This is the beginning of the investigation," Dixon said.

Capital murder criteria in Alabama

In Alabama, there are 18 ways an intentional murder can be punishable by death 
or life imprisonment without parole.

The law applies against some offenders, while offering leniency to others. For 
instance, it's easier to secure a capital indictment for fatally shooting 
someone who is sitting in a car than it is for a mass murder or -- as in the 
case of 55-year-old William Hinton of Foley last week -- hacking off body parts 
of an elderly victim and scattering them through a rural area.

Alabama law has other aggravating circumstances that can elevate a crime to a 
capital offense. Among them: Murder during a robbery or burglary, 
murder-for-hire, murder of someone younger than 14, murder following a 
kidnapping.

The death penalty may be triggered by the type of person killed. Murder of any 
police officer, sheriff, deputy, state trooper, federal law enforcement officer 
or any state or federal peace officer of any kind can be capital murder. A 
murder of a state or federal public official may become capital.

The 87-year-old victim, Kenneth Hood, was a retired corrections officer. 
Capital murder charges in this case, under Alabama law, would only apply had 
Hood been working at the time in his official duty.

Where the murder took place may make it capital. Shooting into a home and 
killing someone can be capital. Shooting the same person outside of the home is 
not a capital case. A defendant who murders a person who is inside a vehicle 
may be tried for capital murder, but the same crime committed outside the 
vehicle is not.

What might apply in Minton case?

It could be difficult for prosecutors to pursue a capital murder case against 
Minton, but some hope exists.

Art Powell, a defense attorney who most recently represented John DeBlase in a 
capital murder trial in Mobile, said there are 3 of the 18 aggravating factors 
that might allow prosecutors bring capital murder charges against Minton.

They include:

--Murder by the defendant during a burglary in the 1st or 2nd degree or an 
attempt thereof committed by the defendant. Had Minton been asked to leave the 
rural Foley home he shared with Hood, his stepfather, and returned to break 
into the house and then committed the murder, he could be eligible for a 
capital murder charge. There is no evidence that Minton attempted to burglarize 
the house before killing Hood.

--Murder by the defendant during a robbery in the 1st degree or an attempt 
thereof committed by the defendant. If Minton was attempting to rob Hood of 
money before killing him, the case could be eligible for a capital murder 
charge. According to one neighbor, Hood had stated difficulties in dealing with 
his wife's family with regards to money. There is no evidence that Minton 
attempted to rob Hood before the murder.

--Murder by the defendant during a kidnapping in the 1st degree or an attempt 
thereof committed by the defendant. There is no evidence that a kidnapping 
occurred before the murder took place.

"Absent those 3, I don't see how you can bring a capital charge," Powell said.

Charges filed, bond to be set

Minton is scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. appearance Friday in Fairhope before Judge 
Scott Taylor via teleconference from the Baldwin County Jail in Bay Minette. 
Bond will be set at that time.

Because there is no capital murder charge, Minton will receive some sort of 
bond. Normally, capital murder suspects in Alabama are held without bail until 
trial.

Authorities say that Taylor is likely to set a bond that will be high enough to 
ensure that Minton is not released from the Baldwin County Jail before awaiting 
future court appearances.

Minton faces charges of murder and abuse of corpse - both punishable by life in 
prison.

(source: al.com)






OHIO:

Austin Myers: Supreme Court issues a stay in execution for teen killer


The Ohio Supreme Court issued a stay in the execution of teen killer Austin 
Myers as part of an appeal on Thursday.

Myers, 19, was found guilty in the 2013 killing of 18-year-old Justin Back. He 
was sentenced to the death penalty in October, making him the youngest person 
on Ohio's death row.

His accomplice, 19-year-old Timothy Mosley, testified against Myers to avoid 
the death penalty. He pleaded guilty to the murder and on Wednesday, was 
sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The 2 strangled Back then stabbed him more than 20 times following a burglary 
attempt. They dumped his body in the woods in Preble County.

Back was 1 week away from entering the military when he was murdered.

(source: WCPO news)






ILLINOIS:

The Guilty Project


For years the "Innocence Project" at Northwestern University's Medill School of 
Journalism was "the most celebrated university program in America," as the 
Chicago Reader put it. It's also one of the most emulated, spawning imitators 
at law and journalism schools from Maine to Maui. And who could be surprised? 
Under the tutelage of a left-wing professor who was invariably valorized in 
news reports as "charismatic" and "inspirational," Medill's students reopened 
the cases of selected death-row inmates, declared them innocent, and then 
agitated for their release. Occasionally they succeeded, freeing in the process 
several men whose convictions rested on shaky evidence.

The public image was of a plucky platoon of college-age Encyclopedia Browns and 
Nancy Drews setting out to right wrongs. But the real value of the Innocence 
Project - and the reason it was the object of such tender attentions from 
Hollywood and the mainstream media - has been ideological. Its mission was to 
confirm the assumptions dearly held in the upper ranks of American journalism 
and higher education: the basic unfairness of our criminal justice system, the 
barbarism of the death penalty, and the public's bovine complacency in the face 
of murderous institutional racism.

This narrative - if you'll forgive the expression - was greatly complicated 
late last month when prosecutors in Chicago concluded that the Innocence 
Project had railroaded a man into prison for a double murder he didn't commit. 
Needless to say, that's not how the project is supposed to work.

The case involved the project's signal triumph. In 1999, Medill's student 
investigators won the release of a convicted murderer, Anthony Porter, after 
another man, Alstory Simon, confessed to the 1982 crime. Porter had once been 
only days away from his appointment with the executioner, and upon his release 
he became the poster child for the anti-death-penalty movement. Porter's close 
call led Illinois's then-governor, George Ryan, to commute the capital sentence 
of every inmate on the state's death row.

Simon's confession - the only evidence presented against him - was made to 
investigators from the Innocence Project. He retracted it after his conviction, 
claiming that the charismatic professor, 2 of the project's junior G-men, and a 
pair of private investigators had combined to bully the confession out of him. 
Their tactics, prosecutors found, included showing Simon videotaped testimony 
from an alleged eyewitness, who was in fact an actor hired by the 
investigators. Simon was led to believe he would benefit from a movie deal and 
be released within a few years. He was also shown testimony from his wife, 
obtained by the project, placing him at the scene of the crime; she later 
recanted. And when it came time for Simon to hire legal counsel, the 
investigators brought in a lawyer associated with the project's effort to 
spring Porter from death row. The lawyer advised him to confess.

"The bottom line," the prosecutor concluded last month, "is that the 
investigation ... as well as the subsequent legal representation of Mr. Simon 
were so flawed that it's clear the constitutional rights of Mr. Simon were not 
scrupulously protected as our law requires." A judge agreed, and Simon walked 
out of prison a few hours later.

The 1982 murder remains unsolved. But the tactics of the Innocence Project in 
their rush to reassign guilt for a capital crime - to take upon themselves the 
roles of judge, prosecutor, and jury, by virtue of their own righteous 
indignation - is a case study in the dangers of ideological zeal, and of 
journalistic gullibility.

(source: Weekly Standard)


OKLAHOMA:

Inside the Death Chamber


Executions are on hold in Oklahoma until next year, but the Department of 
Corrections says its new death chamber is ready.

Up until this time last month, the state was scheduled to carry out its 1st 
death sentence since a botched execution in April. That execution was slated 
for tonight, November 13.

The DOC even invited members of the media to tour the renovated facility, 
including Good Morning Texoma anchor Monte Brown.

The "H" unit, or death row, is a place where few people will ever visit. But 
after it took the State of Oklahoma 43 minutes to execute condemned murderer 
Clayton Lockett in April, it's one of the most controversial places in the 
country. It's even raising questions in the White House Press Room.

Since that time, the state has spent over $100,000 in renovations and medical 
equipment.

"The changes were mandated and requested in the public safety investigation 
following the Lockett execution. They are also things Director Patton saw 
during that execution that he felt we could change,??? explained Terri Watkins 
of the Department of Corrections.

Over $70,000 went into construction and DOC agent Scott Crow oversaw it all.

"This area is what we refer to as the operations room," explained Crow as he 
gave a tour of the newly redone execution chamber.

This is where the DOC's execution team will work from when administering lethal 
drugs and monitoring the inmate. They'll be using $34,000 worth of new 
state-of-the-art medical equipment.

"You see we have an ECG machine. This machine has the capability of monitoring 
blood pressure. Monitoring oxygen levels in the blood and also monitoring heart 
activity," said Crow.

They also have a new ultrasound machine. The DPS report called for it, and 
other things they won't talk about.

"To make sure we have the supplies and equipment needed when an event is 
scheduled," said Crow as he offered insight into the new additions.

The staff will now be able to monitor the inmate like never before. New cameras 
are positioned over the head and the bed. They do not record, but the team will 
see first-hand what's happening on the other side of the wall. The wall, which 
up until now, did not even have a window into the death chamber. Previously, 
they could not see the inmate at all.

"We also installed a two-way intercom system. One of the intercoms is on this 
side of the wall, the other is in the execution area. So, we have the ability 
to communicate through those means as well," said Crow.

Before the intercom system was installed, they used paper and pencil.

"We basically created a multi-layered level of communication between the two, 
which absolutely negates the need for any type of pencil," said Crow.

Only 1 member of the team will actually be with the inmate in the death chamber 
once the process begins.

The DOC will also have a new bed for the next offender.

"The bed that was here previous was a 1950's version bed that was fragile at 
best. (It) was experiencing some mechanical problems. We can actually raise and 
lower the bed to accommodate, to ensure everyone can see," said Crow.

Along with the bed comes new restraints.

"With this bed, we actually have a multi-layered restraint system," said Crow.

Head, feet and across the body restraints are present. It's an important 
feature, because Clayton Lockett was able to raise his upper body during his 
execution. The chamber also a new microphone system.

"That mic is on whenever the offender is read the warrant, as well as when they 
make their last statement and then again when the physician pronounces that the 
offender is conscious or unconscious," explained Crow.

Family members, and those close to the offender's victims, will be able to hear 
and watch the proceedings through a new one-way glass, so they can view 
privately.

The inmate's family and other witnesses will be seated in front of them.

"We've placed permanent chairs that are affixed to the floor and the landing to 
improve on security so chairs can't be picked up," said Crow.

There are 19 seats now, there were 25 chairs before the change.

"The area that the seats have been taken from is primarily to expand that 
operation center, which is absolutely necessary and was mandated by the 
Department of Public Safety report," explained Watkins.

Some of those seats used to be reserved for media witnesses.

"Taking it from 12 down to 5 did not see like an unusual move. Historically, we 
have seen, I guess for the past decade, 3 reporters attending executions prior 
to the Lockett execution," said Watkins.

With interest in the state's next death penalty reaching far and wide, Watkins 
says Oklahoma media outlets will be given preference to witness the sentence 
being carried out.

"I have absolute faith in the media's ability to accurately report what's going 
on," said Watkins.

The Department of Corrections is facing several lawsuits over Lockett's 
execution, some of them from media, and that's why officials will not talk 
about protocol. In other words, who's going to do what during the process and 
how it's going to work.

Convicted killer Charles Warner was set to be put to death on November 13, but 
about a month ago Attorney General Scott Pruitt asked that his and 2 others' 
sentences be postponed until January and February.

He cited a lack of lethal injection drugs and medical staff.

(source: KSWO news)






WASHINGTON:

Asotin Co. Prosecutor considers death penalty for suspect accused of murder


Asotin County Prosecutor Ben Nichols is moving forward with murder and rape 
charges against the man accused of killing a Lewiston woman late last week.

Thursday afternoon Nichols filed 1st degree murder and 1st degree rape charges 
against 53-year-old Bisir Muhammad.

He's accused or raping and killing 69-year-old Ina Clare Richardson, and 
cumping her body near Beachview Park in Clarkston. Her body was found Friday 
morning.

Because of the seriousness of the crime, Nichols is considering whether to 
pursue this as a death penalty case.

Asotin County Prosecutor, Ben Nichols, says if convicted, Bisir Muhammad will 
face up to life in prison without the possibility of parole or, the death 
penalty.

"There's only one way in the state of Washington to get the death penalty," 
said Nichols. "That is pre-meditated first degree murder and an aggravator."

An example of an aggravator is a murder during a robbery, or a rape and a 
murder.

Since the suspect is accused of both rape and murder, this could fit the 
criteria for a death penalty case.

The death penalty isn't sought very often in the state of Washington, In fact, 
there are only 9 people on Washington's death row, compared to 745, in 
California.

Nichols said he's been working in the prosecutors office since 1993 and he 
hasn't seen a death penalty case go through in the last 21 years.

And death penalty cases are expensive. If Nichols pursues the death penalty 
against Bisir Muhamma, it could cost Asotin County $20-million. That includes 
everything from the initial charges to burial.

"It is very expensive," said Nichols. "It takes anywhere from 15 to 20 years to 
get someone executed. Even after the jury comes back and says, 'we find him 
guilty and we're voting for death.'"

Nichols said it's a long process and there's a lot involved.

Bisir Bilal Muhammad is scheduled to appear in court for his arraignment at 10 
Monday morning.

Community members would like to hold a vigil for Ina Clare Richardson at 6:30 
Sunday night. It'll be in the park across from Arby's. Organizers are asking 
everyone to bring their own candle.

(source: KLEW TV news)