[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., DEL., GA., ALA., OHIO, ILL.

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 19



PENNSYLVANIA----new death sentence

Hicks given death penalty for murdering woman, dumping her body parts along 
Poconos highways


A jury has ruled to give the death sentence to a Monroe County man convicted of 
murdering and dismembering a Scranton woman in 2008.

Charles Ray Hicks, 40, of Coolbaugh Township, was found guilty of killing 
36-year-old Deanna Null, then cutting up her body and dumping it, wrapped in 
garbage bags, along interstate highways in Monroe and Lackawanna counties. 
Jurors deliberated for hours on the sentence Tuesday.

All death penalties are automatically reviewed by the Supreme Court of 
Pennsylvania, which can cancel the sentence.

On the 2nd and final day of sentencing, the jury heard from several witnesses 
for the defense who said Hicks has been a role model for other prisoners during 
his years in the Monroe County Correctional Facility.

Derek Oliver, a former prison guard who now visits the jail as a Jehovah's 
Witness, explained that he conducts Bible study with Hicks and said a lot of 
inmates look to him for "wisdom."

Teleconferencing in from Ft. Myers, Florida, Jerel Johnson told the jury that 
he shared a cell with Hicks starting in 2009. That happened while Johnson was 
facing his own murder charge, for which he has since been acquitted. Johnson 
was in a "very dark place" during his time in the maximum security wing, he 
said, but Hicks' kindness helped get him through it.

The defense also called neuropsychologist Carol Armstrong, Ph.D., who evaluated 
Hicks this summer. Armstrong told the jury that Hicks had a psychological 
impairment, struggling with attention, concentration and memory.

In his only cross-examination of the day, Monroe County First Assistant 
District Attorney Michael Mancuso questioned the neuropsychologist on the 
tests, which revealed that Hicks had scored very high on the reading and verbal 
portions.

On Monday, Hicks' mother and sisters pleaded for mercy, while his former 
fiancee said the man became a different person when he used drugs, and once 
threatened to kill her. Hicks has told investigators he and Null engaged in a 
drug-fueled sexual relationship.

(source: The Morning Call )

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

The cost of capital punishment in Pennsylvania


More than 180 inmates are on Pennsylvania's death row, but no one has been 
executed in the commonwealth since 1999.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, more death row inmates in 
Pennsylvania have been exonerated than have been executed.

"The penalty that they sent down, 3 death sentences, I often wondered how they 
were going to kill me 3 times," said Harold Wilson, who was sentenced to die in 
1989 for the murders of 3 people in Philadelphia.

Wilson won a new trial years later after a training video surfaced in which 
prosecutor Jack McMahon instructs district attorneys on how to pick juries and 
the role of race. He points to "blacks from the low-income areas that are less 
likely to convict."

With new DNA evidence, it was discovered the blood at the scene didn't come 
from Wilson. A new jury found him not guilty 9 years ago this month.

"Being incarcerated on Pennsylvania's death row, it's cruel, unusual," said 
Wilson.

Cases like Wilson's have caused some state lawmakers to question the use of 
capital punishment in Pennsylvania.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 3 inmates have died by lethal 
injection. Pennsylvania has the 4th largest death row in the country, according 
to the Death Penalty Information Center. 28 inmates on Pennsylvania's death row 
were sentenced to die in the 1980s.

It costs the state about $35,000 a year to house an inmate sentenced to life in 
prison, compared to about $45,000 per year for an inmate on death row, 
according to the Pa. Department of Corrections.

Pa. Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille has written about the issue for 
the last few years. He's grown frustrated with federally funded public 
defenders who he believes are clogging the judicial system with appeals meant 
to prevent the death penalty from ever being carried out in Pennsylvania.

(source: Fox News)






DELAWARE:

Push for death penalty repeal in First State enlists law enforcement support


Supporters of death penalty repeal in Delaware are ready to try again in the 
General Assembly when it reconvenes in January.

The advocacy group Repeal Delaware is renewing its efforts to sway legislators 
this week. It's holding a series of town halls featuring current and former 
members of law enforcement from around the region who favor repeal - many after 
initially supporting capital punishment.

Repeal Delaware campaign director Erik Raser-Schramm says his group recognizes 
opposition to repeal from law enforcement in the First State is a major hurdle 
to ending the death penalty here.

"What we're trying to do with the series of town hall meetings is to open the 
lines of communication and dialogue with both members of the House and Senate 
and also law enforcement here in Delaware and to talk about and address that 
law enforcement is opposed to the repeal."

Law enforcement officials joining with Repeal Delaware argue the death penalty 
is too costly, that studies show it does not make police officers safer, and 
that it can slow the healing process for victims.

"I fully get the argument, comprehend and understand, don't dispute the value 
of the death penalty solely as a means of retribution," said West Orange, NJ 
police chief James Abbott. "But as a matter of pubic policy, from an objective 
standpoint, it's horrible. It doesn't work. It tears families apart. It costs a 
colossal amount of money and is a waste of time and effort."

Last legislative session, a death penalty repeal bill cleared the state Senate, 
but stalled in the House Judiciary committee. It must start over in the new 
session that convenes January 13th.

Raser-Schramm believes there's an opportunity to get the bill through this 
time.

"We feel confident with the votes we had in the Senate and we have those same 
votes," said Raser-Schramm. "Over in the House, the bill never came out of the 
Judiciary committee and with the retirement of Rep. Rebecca Walker there will 
be the appointment of new Judiciary chair. So, the make-up of that committee is 
something we're watching closely while networking with the new members of the 
House."

Repeal Delaware's town hall Tuesday night is at St. Elizabeth Anne Seton 
Catholic Church in Bear from 7-9pm. Similar events are scheduled Wednesday 
night at 7 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Middletown and Thursday night at 
7 in Dover at Wesley United Methodist Church.

(source: WDDE news)






GEORGIA:

Death penalty considered in death of 15-month-old


Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter says he may consider the death 
penalty in the case of a 15-month-old girl, Alcenti Mcintosh, who starved to 
death last week.

The baby's father brought the child to Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs 
where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Police searched the Extended Stay 
America on Jimmy Carter Boulevard and found the child's mother, 21-year-old 
Iasia Sweeting near death, weighing just 59 pounds.

"I think it's something that's going to have to be considered as we go forward 
but we don't have all of the evidence yet. I think it's going to be important 
to talk to the survivor [Iasaia] who is just recovering in the hospital," said 
Porter.

The child's father, 44-year-old Calvin Mcintosh and his daughter, 23-year-old 
Najilaa Mcintosh are accused in the murder of Alcenti, along with a string of 
other charges.

Porter plans on meeting with medical examiners to decide if capital punishment 
is appropriate, as in the case of a 10-year-old Lawrenceville girl who was 
allegedly starved by her parents.

"In any case, just like we did in the Emani Moss case, we looked to see if the 
killing involves either torture of the victim or prolonged suffering by the 
victim," said Porter.

Porter has 90 days to indict.

(source: WSB news)






ALABAMA:

Alabama a glaring example of problems with the death penalty


In the spring of 1997, four young men in a car near Montgomery, Ala., cut off a 
2nd vehicle with 2 men inside, intending to rob them. During a brief gun fight, 
the driver of the 2nd car was killed. Prosecutors charged all 4 men in the 1st 
car with capital murder, but only one received a death sentence. How Shonelle 
Jackson was singled out raises - yet again - troubling questions about the 
fairness of the death penalty, and especially about Alabama's peculiarly 
arbitrary judicial override system..

Alabama is 1 of 3 states that allow judges to 2nd-guess a jury's recommendation 
of life in prison and change it to a death sentence. Delaware and Florida also 
allow overrides, but they happen only rarely. In Alabama, 36 of the nearly 200 
people on death row were sent there by judges overriding juries, according to a 
recent examination of the practice by the New Yorker. (In California, the jury 
decides, but a judge can reduce a death sentence to life without parole.)

In the Jackson case, a 12-member jury voted unanimously in 1998 for a life 
sentence rather than execution, in part because of evidence that the fatal 
bullet came from another defendant's gun. But invoking "judicial discretion," 
Judge William Gordon changed the sentence to death based on aggravating 
factors. One of the factors cited by the judge - who also acknowledged that 
Jackson might not have been the killer - was that he had declined to accept a 
plea bargain, thereby failing to take responsibility for his actions. So much 
for innocent until proven guilty. The other 3 men, friends before the shootout, 
received lighter sentences because they testified against Jackson, who knew 
them only in passing. 1 was sentenced to life; the other 2 come up for parole 
in 2015 and 2017.

Despite misgivings expressed in dissents, the Supreme Court has affirmed 
Alabama's use of judicial discretion in other cases. But that the practice is 
legal doesn't make it right. According to the state's Equal Justice Initiative, 
Alabama judges, who are elected rather than appointed, use the override 
inconsistently. Some use it more often against black defendants, some judges 
use it more than others, some counties use it more than others. Judges also 
invoke it more often in the lead-up to elections, apparently to show that they 
are tough on crime.

This page has been steady in its opposition to the death penalty. But if states 
are going to embrace such barbarism, they must respect the individual rights 
guaranteed under the Constitution, including its 8th Amendment protection 
against arbitrary punishment. It's one thing for an elected judge to be "tough 
on crime." It's something entirely different when the judge overrules a jury's 
call for leniency and imposes a death sentence.

(source: Editorial, Los Angeles Times)






OHIO:

Brothers in Barberton triple murder seek plea deal to avoid death penalty


2 brothers accused in the New Year's Eve triple murder of a family in Barberton 
are negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty.

Michael and Eric Hendon both appeared in court on Monday in Akron. The pair is 
accused of shooting and killing John Kohler and his 2 children, Ashley and 
David, in their Barberton home.

Ronda Blankenship, who survived the shooting, was also in the courtroom.

Defense lawyers and the Summit County Prosecutor's Office tried to hammer out a 
deal, but after three hours of negotiations, no agreement was reached.

The plea deal could include life in prison with no chance of parole for the 
shooter, and maybe a life sentence with a possibility of parole for the other.

The prosecution received a confession from one of the brothers earlier in the 
case.

The Hendons are due back in court next week for an update on a possible plea 
agreement.

(source: WOIO news)

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

GOP blocks effort to ease secrecy in execution bill


Proposals to peel back some of the secrecy provided in a bill dealing with 
lethal-injection executions were rejected yesterday by majority Republicans on 
an Ohio House committee.

A vote on House Bill 663 - which would shield the identity of manufacturers and 
sellers of drugs used for lethal injections - could come as soon as today at a 
meeting of the Ohio House Policy and Legislative Oversight Committee.

A parade of witnesses representing the Ohio Newspaper Association, Ohio Council 
of Churches, the Ohio Public Defender and others urged committee members to 
strip out some secrecy provisions. The bill, introduced just last week, would 
protect the identity of manufacturers and sellers of lethal-injection drugs, 
and provide permanent anonymity for physicians and members of the execution 
team who participate in the process.

But Republicans refused to budge. By an 8-5 vote, the committee tabled an 
amendment by state Rep. Mike Curtin, D-Marble Cliff, to roll back the blanket 
anonymity. He proposed allowing names of individuals and companies to be 
redacted or withheld at their request, but for no longer 10 years.

"At some point, history should be able to render judgment about these actions," 
Curtin said. "Even our most sensitive national-security documents become public 
eventually. We need to allow the sun to shine on these executions some time in 
the future."

Rep. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, co-sponsor of the bill along with Rep. Jim Buchy, 
R-Greenville, opposed Curtin's amendment, arguing that the proposed law is 
necessary to make sure the execution process "is done in a professional 
manner."

Huffman pointed out that anonymity in executions goes back to "the old days 
when the executioner wore a hood."

Among the witnesses was Jim Tobin of the Catholic Conference of Ohio, who 
observed that there has been "a move for death penalty proceedings over time to 
become increasing void of public scrutiny." He said the issue comes down to a 
"conscience decision."

Thomas Madden, an assistant attorney general questioned by the panel, said the 
bill would not prevent disclosure of the name and quantity of drugs used in 
executions, only the names of those involved.

State officials argue that the proposed law is needed because Ohio, like other 
states, has trouble obtaining drugs from big companies, most of them in Europe, 
which refuse to provide them for use in executions. The state is likely to turn 
to small compounding pharmacies, which mix drugs to customers' specifications. 
Unlike drug manufacturers, however, the pharmacies are not regulated by the 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

(source: Columbus Dispatch)

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

Death-penalty reform bill may violate constitution, lawmakers told


Constitutional issues have been raised about death-penalty reform legislation 
under consideration in the Ohio House.

House Bill 663 would grant anonymity to compounding pharmacies that prepare 
Ohio's lethal-injection drugs, even from courts. Physicians who testify about 
the state's execution method also couldn't have their state medical license 
revoked, and the bill would void contracts or agreements prohibiting the sale 
of lethal-injection drugs to the state.

Critics of the bill told the House Policy and Legislative Oversight Committee 
on Tuesday that keeping compounding pharmacies secret would infringe upon 
free-speech and judicial rights. They noted that lawsuits have been filed 
against similar measures in 6 other states.

The provision voiding agreements to ban drug sales may also violate the U.S. 
and Ohio constitutions' prohibition on impairing contracts, according to an 
analysis by the non-partisan Legislative Service Commission.

"This bill likely will prompt endless litigation - a precise situation you are 
trying to avoid," said Dennis Hetzel, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper 
Association, during committee testimony.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican co-sponsoring the 
bill, said the legislation's backers are drawing up an amendment to address the 
contract clause concerns.

However, Huffman said the Legislative Service Commission frequently cautions 
lawmakers that parts of some bills may - or may not - have constitutional 
issues.

"Sometimes you don't know whether it's constitutional until a court says so, 
and then of course sometimes the courts reverse themselves," he said.

HB 663, which is expected to be voted out of committee on Wednesday, is an 
attempt to overcome problems that Ohio - like a number of other states - has 
had obtaining lethal-injection drugs.

Attorney General Mike DeWine and other proponents of the reforms say they are 
needed if Ohio is to resume executions next year, once a court-ordered 
moratorium ends.

Ohio ran out of its preferred lethal-injection drug, pentobarbital, last year 
because European pharmaceutical companies refused to continue selling it to use 
in executions.

The state has instead turned to a 2-drug cocktail of midazolam, a sedative, and 
hydromorphone, a morphine derivative. But executions in Ohio and Arizona using 
the cocktail haven't gone as planned, and Ohio's use of the drugs is being 
challenged in federal court.

The state could seek to obtain pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies, 
small-scale drug manufacturers that create individual doses of lethal-injection 
drugs on demand. But Rep. Jim Buchy, a Darke County Republican who's 
co-sponsoring HB 663 with Huffman, said compounding pharmacies are reluctant to 
make lethal-injection drugs unless they can remain anonymous, for fear of 
public reprisal.

Another proposed change in the bill would prevent the Ohio State Medical Board 
from revoking or suspending the license of any physician who provides expert 
testimony on the state's death penalty.

Such immunity is needed, supporters say, because the state is worried that 
doctors will refuse to testify in defense of Ohio's lethal-injection protocol 
for fear that they'll run afoul of medical ethics.

Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman said it's not clear whether the 
state medical board has the power to revoke a license in that way. Many 
doctors, he said, have used that excuse as a way to get out of helping the 
state execute people.

Berman said he believes HB 663 is "probably" constitutional, but he questioned 
whether it would be better for Ohio to instead look at other methods of 
execution besides lethal injection.

"If the only way we can preserve this method of execution is by making it more 
secret," he said, "that, to me, is something of a sign that we shouldn't be 
trying to preserve this method of execution."

(source: cleveland.com)

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

Ohio Wants to Cloak the Death Penalty in Secrecy


It would be an understatement to say Ohio has had many problems administering 
capital punishment.

Over the last decade, the state granted clemency to 10 people and botched 4 
executions, including the tortuous death of Dennis McGuire, who was killed with 
experimental drugs. With mismanaged executions and growing controversy around 
lethal injections in Arizona, Oklahoma, and elsewhere, a federal judge in Ohio 
rightfully paused executions until the state could adopt new protocols.

Given all of these difficulties, you'd think leading state legislators would 
move forcefully to reform or abolish the death penalty in the state. Not so. 
Their solution is extreme: Close the curtain and keep the public out.

With almost no public discussion, proposed legislation that shrouds the capital 
punishment process in secrecy is being pushed through the legislature. The bill 
does 2 very alarming things. It would shield manufacturers and medical 
professionals who assist in executions from being the subject of public records 
inquiries, and it provides immunity to those individuals from ethical or 
professional reprimands.

This level of secrecy will be detrimental to Ohio's very democracy.

The government represents the people and should be accountable to us. We have 
laws that require government officials to provide public records and have open 
meetings in order to prevent corruption, abuse, and incompetence. Taking a 
person's life is the ultimate punishment that the public can levy, which means 
we have to take even greater pains to ensure the government does it humanely 
and legally.

Instead, Ohio's leaders want to introduce more secrecy and less accountability 
into an already cruel and flawed system.

Allowing anonymity for drug manufacturers is particularly problematic, 
especially if compounding pharmacies are involved. These types of pharmacies 
make small batches of drugs, with each one being unique. Ohio would like to use 
compounding pharmacies, which are totally unregulated by the Food and Drug 
Administration for safety and efficacy, to supply the lethal dose during its 
executions. If this bill goes through, pharmacies will be off the hook and left 
unaccountable if their concoctions result in botched executions.

Unfortunately, secrecy is the typical reaction of the government in any number 
of circumstances - when problems crop up, the government opts to hide the truth 
from the people.

Ohio has had its share of problems with lethal injections. Secrecy will only 
guarantee that those problems will continue, and possibly spread. Ohio is 
consistently a bellwether state for contentious legislation, such as abortion 
and voting laws, which can set trends nationwide.

Whether you are a supporter or opponent of the death penalty, we all must agree 
that the government should play by the rules and must be accountable to the 
people. We don't need more botched or wrongful executions and a hastily passed 
secrecy bill is a recipe for disaster.

It's either kill this bill or let Ohio kill in secret, with other states to 
follow.

(source: ACLU)



ILLINOIS:

Wrongfully convicted man freed after 15 years in prison: 'I was praying every 
day, asking God to shine down upon me'


Alstory Simon, 64, was released from prison on October 30 after spending 15 
years behind bars.

Simon was wrongfully convicted of a double murder that occurred in 1982 after 
the Medill Innocence Project allegedly targeted him as a suspect.

The advocacy group was working to free Anthony Porter, a man on death row for 
the murders of teenagers Jerry Hillard and Marilyn Green in Illinois. During 
the Medill Innocence Project's investigation, they came to believe that Simon 
was responsible for the deaths.

The group, led by former Northwestern University Journalism Professor David 
Protess, was established in 1999, and confronted Simon about the murders that 
same year.

"The Innocence Project had bum-rushed my house and accused me of murder," he 
told Fox News.

Simon was a crack abuser at the time, and the Medill Innocence Project 
allegedly used threats, intimidation, and other coercive tactics to convince 
him that there were witnesses who saw him commit the crime. According to Simon, 
the group also told him that they were developing a book about the murders, and 
that Simon would profit from its royalties.

He claimed 2 men impersonating Chicago police officers visited his home, and 
urged him to confess to avoid the death penalty. He relented, and gave a 
videotaped confession to the crimes.

"They did everything that's forbidden by the law enforcement community," Simon 
lamented. "These people went to great lengths to do what they did to me, and I 
never did anything to anyone."

Simon's conviction led to the release of Porter, and contributed to Illinois 
lawmakers abolishing the death penalty in 2011. He faced 37 years in prison, 
and served nearly two decades in the Jacksonville Correction Center.

"It was very hard to get along with knowing that fact: that I was locked up in 
prison for something I knew I didn't do," he explained. "It can make you kind 
of mean, but as time went by I overcame it.

"I was praying every day, asking God to shine down upon me."

Last month, the State's Attorney for Cook Country, Anita Alvarez, determined 
that Simon's original confession was false and vacated the charges.

"At the end of the day and in the best interests of justice, we could reach no 
other conclusion but that the investigation of this case has been so deeply 
corroded and corrupted that we can no longer maintain the legitimacy of this 
conviction," Alvarez said.

Simon described how it felt to walk out of prison 3 weeks ago as a free man.

"It was like something that stepped completely out of me," he recounted. "It's 
like when you have a big weight on your back and all of a sudden my body just 
got light.

"I started jumping for joy."

The Medill Innocence Project, now called the Medill Justice Project, has not 
commented on Simon's case.

(source: Christian Today)