[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, MASS., PENN., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 23


TEXAS:

Clemency sought for schizophrenic man set for execution


As Texas prepares to execute its 11th inmate - in a year with the fewest 
executions in nearly 2 decades - legal and mental health groups across the 
state and the nation are scrambling to spare Scott Panetti from the death 
chamber.

Panetti, a schizophrenic who is scheduled for lethal injection Dec. 3, was 
convicted of fatally shooting his in-laws in front of his estranged wife and 
children more than 2 decades ago in their Fredericksburg home.

A new clemency petition has been filed to try to block the execution of 
Panetti, who acted as his own attorney and appeared in court wearing a purple 
cowboy suit and a 10-gallon hat. Some worry he is so mentally ill that he won't 
understand why he is being put to death.

"The case of Scott Louis Panetti is a judicial disaster that has attracted 
national and international outrage - and for good reason," according to the 
latest clemency petition. "Evidence of his incompetency runs like a fissure 
through every proceeding in his case - from arraignment to execution.

"The execution of Scott Panetti would cross a moral line."

The move comes as Texas, which has long led the nation in executions, is on 
track to put the fewest inmates to death since 1996 and some believe the death 
penalty may be fading away.

The state has 273 inmates on death row, including 19 convicted in Tarrant 
County, state records show.

9 executions are scheduled for the first 4 months of 2015.

"Texas has a deep commitment to the death penalty," said Cal Jillson, a 
political science professor at Southern Methodist University. "In this state's 
political culture, crime is to be treated very seriously, and the threat of the 
death penalty is 1 device that can be held over the head of criminals.

"The decrease in executions shows there is a very serious alternative to the 
death penalty."

In 2005, legislators changed the law to give juries an alternative to the death 
penalty: life in prison without parole.

Since then, jurors have overwhelmingly chosen that option, giving 687 people 
life without parole, compared with 84 death sentences, according to the Texas 
Department of Criminal Justice.

Of the 10 people executed this year, 1 was from Tarrant County - Lisa Coleman, 
an Arlington woman convicted of starving and torturing her girlfriend's 
9-year-old son to death a decade ago.

Last execution of the year

A Gillespie County judge recently scheduled Panetti's execution for Dec. 3.

But Panetti's case has been in and out of the courts for years because of the 
56-year-old's history of mental illness.

Through the years, justices have tried to determine whether Panetti, who has 
been diagnosed as schizophrenic, can understand that he has been sentenced to 
die and why.

"Mr. Panetti has not had a competency hearing in nearly 7 years," according to 
1 letter calling for clemency. "He has a fixed delusion that his execution is 
being orchestrated by Satan, working through the State of Texas, to put an end 
to his preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

During his trial in 1995, when he was convicted of killing his in-laws, Joe and 
Amanda Alvarado, Panetti tried to call President John F. Kennedy and Jesus 
Christ as witnesses.

When Panetti refused to take his antipsychotic drugs, the judge allowed him to 
represent himself. Notes taken by Panetti's standby counsel described his 
behavior as "trance-like," "bizarre" and "scary."

A group of officials including former Gov. Mark White has also written a 
clemency letter.

"We are deeply troubled that a capital sentence was the result of a trial where 
a man with schizophrenia represented himself, dressed in a costume," the letter 
stated. "We come together from across the partisan and ideological divide and 
are united in our belief that, irrespective of whether we support or oppose the 
death penalty, this is not an appropriate case for execution."

Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, has sent a letter as well.

Life without parole

Barring last-minute court action, Panetti's execution will be the 11th in Texas 
this year.

That's the fewest since 1996, when there were 3, state data show. But it's 
still more than any other state this year: Florida and Missouri have had eight 
each, Oklahoma three, and Georgia, Ohio and Arizona one each, according to the 
Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

"Texas is the capital of capital punishment," said Richard Dieter, the center's 
executive director. "Clearly, people see it as the most likely place to have an 
execution."

But 2014 is a far cry from some of Texas' busiest years for executions, when 
some said the state was home to the "conveyor belt of death." There were 40 in 
2000, 35 in 1999 and 37 in 1997.

"Things are changing in Texas," Dieter said, adding that it's not just 
demographics but also new laws and new elected officials. "Texas is not the 
dominant state in the death penalty that it has been."

On average, an inmate spends 11 years on death row before being executed, state 
data show. A decline in executions was expected as the number of people 
sentenced to life without parole rose, Dieter said.

Before that option was added in 2005, Texas juries had 2 choices - the death 
penalty and life in prison with the possibility of parole, meaning that some 
inmates convicted at a young age could be released back into the community 
after serving 40 years.

When Gov. Rick Perry signed the life-without-parole measure into law, he said, 
"I believe this bill will improve our criminal justice system because it gives 
jurors a new option to protect the public with the certainty a convicted killer 
will never roam our streets again."

The 1st year the option was available, only 17 people were sentenced to life 
without parole. That rose through the years, peaking at 109 in 2012. Through 
August this year, 69 people had been sentenced to life without parole, state 
records show.

Since the law changed, the number of people sentenced to death has hit double 
digits only 3 times - 10 in 2006, 15 in 2007 and 11 in 2009. This year, 4 
people have been sent to death row, according to state records.

"With less death sentences coming in, it was bound to be true that the number 
of executions would go down as well," Dieter said. "The whole system is 
receding."

Exonerated inmates

At the same time, efforts have grown to exonerate innocent death row inmates.

Since 1973, Texas has had the 3rd-most inmates exonerated - 12 - behind 
Florida, with 25, and Illinois, with 20, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center.

1 Texas case - the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham - has long 
energized death penalty opponents in their calls for an end to capital 
punishment in Texas.

Years after Willingham's death, a Texas Forensic Science Commission determined 
that his conviction was based on bad science, and arson experts have said the 
1991 fire, which killed his 3 young daughters, was likely an accident.

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

How executions are carried out


For years, Texas inmates were given 3 drugs during executions - sodium 
thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride - to make them 
unconscious, stop their movement and stop their heart, according to the Texas 
Department of Criminal Justice.

But those drugs became costlier and harder to obtain, so the department took 
out sodium thiopental in 2011 and substituted pentobarbital, a powerful 
sedative that has been found to put inmates to death quickly and without 
complications.

Within a year, Texas officials eliminated the 3-drug combination and instead 
went with one lethal dose of pentobarbital.

Some states have had problems during executions. In Oklahoma, the execution of 
Clayton Lockett was botched, and he ultimately died of a heart attack nearly 45 
minutes after the execution began. Lockett had been convicted of shooting a 
woman and watching as 2 others buried her alive.

Officials in Kentucky just dropped their proposed use of a 2-drug combination 
after inmates executed in Ohio and Arizona had prolonged deaths. In Arizona 
this summer, it took 2 hours and multiple doses of drugs for inmate Joseph Wood 
to die.

(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)






MASSACHUSETTS:

Menino, the mayor who welcomed Sacco and Vanzetti ---- It took a special 
Bostonian to put a sculpture of anarchists in the Boston Public Library


Since his death last month, longtime Mayor Thomas M. Menino has been 
memorialized for any number of qualities: his genuine comfort among 
constituents; his firm control of City Hall; his enthusiasm for the 
problem-solving side of the job. He's also seen as a bridge-builder, one who 
helped to smooth over some of Boston's old divisions.

But there is one illuminating episode that has gone all but unmentioned in the 
various tributes to Menino. In 1997, the city's 1st Italian-American mayor 
officially accepted on behalf of the city a sculpture of Sacco and Vanzetti, 
the Italian immigrant anarchists executed 70 years earlier after a trial that 
many have long held was a travesty of American justice.

The sculpture is still on public display now, though barely. As intriguing as 
it is obscure, it has a complicated pedigree: created by the same man who 
designed Mount Rushmore, it was repeatedly offered to the city for public 
installation - and just as often rejected by politicians scared of engaging the 
raw politics of the Sacco-Vanzetti story.

Menino's decision to finally accept the sculpture was barely covered in the 
media. But it went a long way toward resolving one of the most divisive stories 
in Boston's long and fractured history. In one small act, Menino gave 
Bostonians and all Americans - or at least those who know where to find it - a 
bracing lesson about the deeper meanings of patriotism.

A century ago, Americans feared anarchists much as they fear terrorists today. 
Anarchism, with socialism and communism, had become popular among recent 
immigrants frustrated by the lack of opportunity they found on American shores, 
and some of them resorted to violence to gin up publicity for the cause. 
Followers of the anarchist Luigi Galleani targeted dozens of elected officials 
across the country, including US Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, whose 
home was bombed in April 1919. Urged on by xenophobic groups like the American 
Legion, the federal government waged a widespread campaign to suppress radical 
organizations.

The notorious case and its verdict are still debated today.

By April 15, 1920, when robbers killed 2 workers outside a factory in 
Braintree, escaping with $30,000, the storm clouds had gathered and were ready 
to break. Acting on flimsy evidence, the police arrested Nicola Sacco, a 
Stoughton shoemaker, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a Plymouth fishmonger, both 
immigrant followers of Galleani.

Their trial was a mockery of justice: The prosecution suppressed exculpatory 
evidence and misled the jury, and the judge, Webster Thayer, was overheard 
boasting about his treatment of "those anarchist bastards." In 1925, another 
prisoner confessed to the murders, claiming Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent. 
But Thayer denied the defense's request for a new trial.

The perception that Massachusetts was about to execute 2 innocent men, 
essentially for their political beliefs, convinced many that the American 
system of justice was blatantly skewed against the powerless. Support for Sacco 
and Vanzetti spread far beyond radical circles: During the trial, Supreme Court 
Justice Louis Brandeis hosted Sacco's wife at his home; Harvard Law professor 
and future justice Felix Frankfurter assisted the defense team; and Gardner 
Jackson, a wealthy former Globe editor, coordinated publicity for the campaign. 
Nonetheless, most of the city's establishment was convinced of the pair's guilt 
or uninterested in their fate, and despite a chorus of outrage around the 
world, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed shortly after midnight on Aug. 23, 
1927.

Among those moved by the case was the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. The son of 
Danish immigrants, he is now best known for sculpting presidential faces onto 
Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, a project he was just beginning in the summer 
of 1927. It is not clear why he became interested in the case of Sacco and 
Vanzetti. According to one account, Borglum became furious when Calvin Coolidge 
refused to grant a stay of execution requested while the president was 
attending the Mount Rushmore dedication ceremony in early August. Other 
versions indicate that the nationalistic Borglum - a former member of the Ku 
Klux Klan - only became involved after the execution, when Gardner Jackson 
wrote to the artist asking him to create a sculpture of Sacco and Vanzetti.

Either way, Borglum embraced the mission. Working without pay, he created a 
plaster mold and sent it to Boston in time for the 1st anniversary of the 
execution. 7 feet long and 3 1/2 feet high, it showed the men in profile next 
to a quote from Vanzetti's final prison letter. The sculpture - technically, a 
bas-relief - was supposed to adorn a building dedicated to their legacy. Those 
plans fell through, but not before Borglum had a New York foundry create a 
bronze version specifically designed to withstand attack by bullet or by ax.

The sculpture was offered to the city, and rejected, numerous times. In 1937, 
on the 10th anniversary of the execution, veterans of the Sacco-Vanzetti 
Defense Committee, which had led the campaign to exonerate the men, offered it 
for installation on the Common; Governor Charles Hurley called it "a patently 
absurd gesture," while Mayor Frederick Mansfield said the proposal "has no 
possible chance of acceptance."

Borglum died in 1941. On the 20th anniversary of the executions, a group of 
esteemed citizens including Eleanor Roosevelt and Albert Einstein published a 
demand that the state publicly display the Borglum sculpture. Governor Robert 
Bradford replied there was "no useful purpose in stirring up the bitter 
passions and prejudices of 20 years ago." In 1957, officials again declined the 
memorial.

The original bronze sculpture disappeared, but in 1960, an "anonymous junkman" 
showed up at the home of former Defense Committee treasurer Aldino Felicani and 
sold him the plaster mold for $50. Felicani donated the piece to the Community 
Church of Boston, off Copley Square, which had been active in the 
Sacco-Vanzetti campaign.

Over time, American officialdom began to acknowledge that there had been a 
miscarriage of justice. In 1977, on the 50th anniversary of the execution, 
Governor Michael Dukakis proclaimed that "the trial and execution of Sacco and 
Vanzetti should serve to remind all civilized people of the constant need to 
guard against our susceptibility to prejudice, our intolerance of unorthodox 
ideas, and our failure to defend the rights of persons who are looked upon as 
strangers in our midst."

Finally, in 1997, to mark the 70th anniversary, Thomas Menino, the 1st 
Italian-American mayor of Boston, and Paul Cellucci, acting governor at the 
time, formally accepted the plaster mold of Borglum's sculpture from the 
Community Church. 3 metal copies were made - an aluminum relief now hangs in 
the church, another aluminum one is at the Gardner Jackson Library at Brandeis 
University, and a bronze can be found at the Gutzon Borglum Historical Center 
near Mount Rushmore. The plaster was installed in the Special Collections lobby 
of the Boston Public Library.

Yet despite these gestures, the Boston area has done its best to forget the 
whole affair. The site of the execution in Charlestown is now occupied by 
Bunker Hill Community College. In Braintree, a plaque on a corner next to a 
parking lot commemorates the original victims of the robbery, whom, it says, 
"history has forgotten." The old Norfolk County Jail in Dedham, where Sacco was 
imprisoned for nearly 7 years and Vanzetti for part of that time, was converted 
a decade ago into - what else? - luxury condominiums

. Accepting the plaster at the library in 1997, Menino announced that a new 
bronze casting would be installed somewhere outside in public by the year 2000. 
Since then, a group called the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society has 
periodically tried to raise money to finish the job. Suggestions for a location 
have included tiny DeFilippo Park in the North End and the Rose Fitzgerald 
Kennedy Greenway. The original idea of the Boston Common apparently remains too 
politically hot to touch.

Millions of Americans every year flock to Mount Rushmore, one of the great 
symbols of the United States and a ready-to-hand signifier for that easy, 
riskless patriotism which considers obedience to government as the beginning 
and the end of civic virtue.

But there was another side to the patriotism of Mount Rushmore's creator, one 
arguably more in keeping with the legacy of Boston revolutionaries and 
abolitionists. In agreeing to create a memorial to Sacco and Vanzetti, Gutzon 
Borglum wrote to Gardner Jackson: "If 2 innocent men have been electrocuted 
under order of the American courts, much as I love my country and always 
shall...I will do anything I can to make the martyrdom of these men a burning, 
living protest against the injustice practiced in the name of modern 
jurisprudence!"

Thomas Menino was no radical. His acceptance of the Borglum sculpture in 1997 
was a statesmanlike act, in the interest of the public good. "The city's 
acceptance of this piece of artwork is not intended to reopen the debate about 
guilt or innocence," Menino said at the ceremony. "It is intended to remind us 
of the dangers of miscarried justice, and the right we all have to a fair 
trial."

Today, this "burning, living protest" can be found on the third floor of the 
Boston Public Library, down a series of corridors and through several rooms, 
behind a door that, 1 out-of-town visitor was recently saddened and surprised 
to find, is locked on weekends.

(source: Boston Globe)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Community sets up trust fund to benefit abuse victim Ryan McMillan


The Chester County Crime Victims Center and the District Attorney's Office on 
Thursday announced details about a trust fund that was recently set up to 
benefit the older brother of 3-year-old murder victim Scotty McMillan.

Officials said it was the only officially established trust to benefit Ryan 
McMillan, a 6-year-old who also suffered abuse inside a West Caln mobile home 
where his younger brother was tortured and beaten to death, allegedly at the 
hands of the boys' mother and her boyfriend.

"The news of Scotty's death rocked our community to the core. In addition to 
being a board member of the CVC of CC, I am also a mom to 2 young, beautiful 
boys. It is heartbreaking to know that Scotty suffered such horrific pain," 
said crime victim center board member Laura Sweeney. "It is heartbreaking to 
know that Ryan will have to grow up without his brother by his side. It is our 
hope that through the creation of this trust, Scotty's memory will live on and 
help Ryan on his journey to healing. Through this trust, Ryan will know he is 
not alone; he has a community surrounding him."

Scotty McMillan was pronounced dead at Brandywine Hospital on Nov. 4 after he 
was finally brought to the hospital after enduring 3 days of beatings and 
torture, the details of which shocked both law enforcement and the local 
community. Jillian Tait, the boys' mother, and Gary Lee Fellenbaum, her 
boyfriend, were arrested on charges of 1st degree murder and related charges 
following McMillan's death. Both are currently held without bail at Chester 
County Prison.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against the couple.

According to law enforcement officials, Ryan McMillan was also a victim of the 
abuse that allegedly took place in the weeks prior to Scotty McMillan's death. 
Tait had moved herself and her sons into Fellenbaum's trailer in mid-October, 
police said. The beatings began almost immediately, according to court 
documents.

"This child has been exposed to some things that no child should ever see or 
hear," said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan. "He has lost his little 
brother. He was betrayed by the people who were supposed to care for him. The 
good people of this community cannot do anything to help Scotty except shed a 
tear and say a prayer, but we all can join together to help Ryan McMillan 
rebuild his life."

The brutality of the murder instantly gained national headlines, and 
immediately local law enforcement and media outlets began to hear from people 
and businesses around the country that wanted to reach out and help. Ryan 
McMillan received treatment for his injuries and is now living with family 
members.

Hogan praised the outreach from many in the local community, noting that the 
James J. Terry Funeral Home arranged and covered all costs for Scotty 
McMillan's funeral. Attorneys Jim McErlane, Skip Persick and Stacey Willits 
McConnell from West Chester law firm Lamb McErlane PC volunteered to establish 
the trust, and the DNB First volunteered to work with the attorneys to handle 
the details of the trust account. All of these companies have donated time and 
efforts to help these children, Hogan said.

Attorney Skip Persick and DNB First will act as trustees, making sure that all 
donations are used for the direct benefit of Ryan McMillan. Any questions can 
be directed to Persick at (610) 430-8000. Donations should be sent to:

Chester County Angel Trust

DNB First Wealth Management

410 Exton Square Parkway

Exton, PA 19341

(source: mainlinemedianews.com)

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

Golden Era Rapper Cool C Set To Be Executed On January 8----Philly-based rapper 
faces death penalty for 1996 murder of female police officer


In the late 80s, Christopher Roney aka Cool C had a hit record called "The 
Glamourous Life", a recording contract with Atlantic Records, and a crew named 
C.E.B.(Countin' Endless Bank), but that was then.

Today, Roney sits on death row as he awaits the death penalty by lethal 
injection in Pennsylvania's Correctional Institute At Greene awaiting his 
execution, whic his scheduled for January 8, 2015.

Cool C, 44, was convicted of the 1st degree murder of Officer Lauretha Vaird, 
when the 43 year old, 9 year veteran responded to a bank robbery call in 1996 
when Roney, his mentor Steady B aka Warren McClone ,and Philly rapper Mark 
Canty attempted to rob a PNC almost 19 years ago. Canty and McClone both 
received life in prison for their roles in the crime.

(source: The Source)






OHIO:

Ohio's death penalty system in need of scrutiny, justice: Kevin Werner, Ohioans 
to Stop Executions


Kevin Werner is executive director of Ohioans to Stop Executions.

Guest columnist Kevin Werner is executive director of Ohioans to Stop 
Executions, a non-profit organization in Columbus. He and his family live in 
Columbus. He writes in opposition to Ohio's death penalty system.

The clear reality at this moment is that Ohio's death penalty system is 
fundamentally broken. This is essentially settled fact that has found 
widespread, growing and bipartisan agreement.

Because of serious legal challenges about the state's death penalty procedures, 
Ohio cannot currently conduct executions. For many of us, this is welcome news. 
However, we can all agree that Ohio's laws should reflect both the preferences 
of Ohioans and the settled law of America, and that's not currently the case.

Fortunately, there is a clear road map Ohio must take to ensure its capital 
system is fair and accurate. This guide comes in the form of 56 recommendations 
made by Ohio's own death penalty experts, mostly judges and prosecutors, who 
served on a task force commissioned by the Supreme Court in 2011.

Some state leaders pledged to pass some of those reform measures, and for that 
they should be commended.

Unfortunately, some legislative leaders also indicated that they would 
introduce the "secret executions" bill, which is among the most extreme in the 
country and which will put Ohio's most important practices in the dark and away 
from public scrutiny.

The slate of reforms is critically necessary. They include obvious 
recommendations like increasing funding for crime labs and death row defense 
counsel, and more far-reaching measures like narrowing the felony murder law 
and the prohibiting the execution of those suffering from serious mental 
illnesses.

In all, these reform recommendations, produced by a serious, studious 
bipartisan group of experts, will achieve what every one of conscience wants, 
if we are to have the death penalty: an assurance that it's application is 
fair, accurate and only used where appropriate.

This goal is the complete opposite of what will be produced by the "secret 
executions" bill, being pushed by the Ohio's prosecutors and apparently to be 
quietly slid through the lame duck session between Election Day and the New 
Year, a time when few are looking and the legislature appear less accountable.

Simply put, the "secret executions" bill will ensure that Ohioans have no idea 
how our state is conducting executions on our behalf. It provides anonymity and 
immunity for pharmacies and physicians who the state finds to participate in 
executions.

This would be completely against the ethical codes of both doctors and 
pharmacists, and it would be a recipe for abuse, since we won't know who is 
participating in executions, or what methods are being used.

This is not how we should allow our government to act in our name.

In the next General Assembly session, state legislative leaders should take up 
the common sense reforms recommended by the Supreme Court Task Force. But they 
should immediately put aside the "secret executions" bill that will inevitably 
make Ohio's death penalty system more flawed than it is already.

If Ohio is going to have the death penalty, it ought to be fair and accurate 
??? and transparent. People on both sides know that right now the death penalty 
is neither of those things.

(source: cleveland.com)

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

Sacrificing transparency a bad option in lethal-injection bill


After Ohio botched its last execution Jan. 17, leaving convicted killer Dennis 
McGuire gasping and choking for about 20 minutes before succumbing, we would 
hope our area lawmakers would join the fight for more transparency involving 
the process of how to carry out death sentences.

Instead, state Reps. Matt Huffman and Jim Buchy's solution to ensure executions 
cannot be labeled as "cruel and unusual punishment" is to put the wants of 
pharmaceutical companies above the public's right for information. The 2 are 
the sponsors of House Bill 663, a piece of misguided legislation that could be 
rushed into law by year's end.

The bill stems from the difficulties in getting the right drugs for lethal 
injections.

State officials have claimed Ohio's inability to obtain the preferred 
lethal-injection drug, pentobarbital, was a factor in the problems with 
McGuire's execution. The drug was unavailable from European pharmaceutical 
companies, which refused to continue selling it for executions after being 
tirelessly harassed by anti-death-penalty protesters.

The alternative, the state has found, is to obtain different drug compounds 
from small-scale drug manufacturers. However, these so-called compounding 
pharmacies also are reluctant to make lethal-injection drugs unless they can 
remain anonymous, again for fear of public reprisal.

The problem with the Huffman-Buchy bill is that as written, its provisions 
curtail meaningful scrutiny of how the death penalty is implemented. Any 
records that could lead to the identification of pharmacists, drug companies or 
physicians involved with the executions would be confidential. In short, there 
would be no accountability should something go wrong.

As many people who testified during the House hearings pointed out in detail, 
the bill also remains problematic on multiple levels and may have significant 
Constitutional problems that go beyond the concerns we have about shielding the 
execution process in greater secrecy.

The bill deserves more thoughtful consideration outside a fast-moving, 
lame-duck legislative session. It was proposed just weeks ago and pushed 
through the House on Friday. It's now in the hands of another local legislator, 
Senate President Keith Faber, who will decide if the Senate will debate the 
measure before adjourning for the year in early December. If the Senate fails 
to take up the bill, it would then die and have to be reintroduced next year.

The power of the state to carry out the death penalty must be exercised in the 
open. Transparency is necessary to ensure public oversight of a punishment that 
is unique in its finality.

As Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman told the Associated Press, 
"If the only way we can preserve this method of execution is by making it more 
secret, that, to me, is something of a sign that we shouldn't be trying to 
preserve this method of execution."

(source: Editorial, The Lima News)