[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, IND., TENN., OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 13



OHIO:

Death penalty sought in 2-year-old's killing


Hamilton County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a man charged in 
the brutal slaying of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son.

Amond J. Rainey is accused of beating Josiya Eves so severely, an autopsy 
concluded the toddler had 3 separate skull fractures, brain swelling, retinal 
hemorrhages, a lacerated liver and multiple bruises.

The child's death was ruled a homicide as the result of multiple head trauma 
with associated brain injury and a lacerated liver.

"Another babysitting-boyfriend murders an innocent child," Prosecutor Joe 
Deters said Friday as he announced the capital murder case.

"It is impossible to understand how anyone could treat another person like 
this, much less an innocent baby. These cases are the most heartbreaking (ones) 
we see and everyone should be outraged by this type of behavior."

Rainey, 29, of Colerain Township, was arrested Sept. 4, days after Cincinnati 
police issued a warrant for his arrest. He is held on a $1 million bond at the 
county jail.

Rainey was babysitting the toddler while the child's mother was at work Aug. 25 
in Cumminsville.

He called 911 at 12:20 p.m. and asked about the medical significance of one 
pupil being bigger than the other.

Before a dispatcher could give him medical advice, he hung up.

About 12:49 p.m., he took the toddler to the emergency room at Cincinnati 
Children's Hospital Medical Center. He told the hospital the child was having 
difficulty breathing.

Doctors examined Josiya and admitted him to the hospital's intensive care unit, 
but he died 2 days later.

(source: Cincinnati.com)






INDIANA:

Heinous crimes of serial killers in Indiana


The term "serial killings" means a series of 3 or more killings, not less than 
1 of which was committed within the United States, having common 
characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes 
were committed by the same person or persons. That's according to a 1998 
federal law passed by Congress.

While not intended to be the clear definition of "serial killer," it is a means 
by which the FBI can assist local law enforcement agencies with their 
investigations since serial killers at times commit murders in multiple states 
- even countries.

While mass murder is defined by4 or more murders occurring in the same 
incident, a serial murder requires a "cooling-off" period between murders. 
Murders can occur days, weeks even years apart.

We have had our share of serial killers in Indiana

Herbert Baumeister

In 1996, the remains of 11 people were found on the 18-acre Fox Hollow Farm 
near Westfield owned by Herbert Baumeister.

Indiana investigators believe Baumeister was responsible for possibly as many 
as 16 deaths of teenage boys and men whose bodies were left in shallow streams 
across Central Indiana and western Ohio between 1980 and 1990.

Baumeister, 49, who owned thrift stores in Indianapolis, drove to Canada where 
he shot and killed himself about a week after the sheriff's department began 
investigating the discovery of bones on the property on 156th Street on June 
24, 1996.

Leslie "Mad Dog" Irvin

Irvin was arrested in connection with 6 murders which were committed in 4 
separate incidents. His spree began Dec. 2, 1954, and ended March 28, 1955. The 
crimes took place in Vanderburgh and Posey counties in Indiana and Henderson 
County, Ky. The victims were:

-- Dec. 2, 1954: Mary Holland, 33. Shot in head at close range at work. She 
was 3 months pregnant. Motive: Robbery.

-- Dec. 23, 1954: Wesley Kerr, 29. Shot in head at close range at work. 
Motive: Robbery.

-- March 21, 1955: Wilhelmina Sailer, 47, Mt. Vernon, Ind. Housewife, killed 
at home. Shot in head. Motive: Burglary.

March 28, 1955: Goebel Duncan, 51. Henderson, Ky. Motive: Burglary. Also killed 
were Raymond Duncan, 29; Goebel's son; and Elizabeth Duncan, 20, Raymond's 
wife. Goebel's wife, Mamie, survived being shot, but was permanently blinded. 
Elizabeth's 2-year-old daughter was spared.

Irvin was sentenced to death, but escaped the Gibson County Jail and fled to 
San Francisco where he was captured. The Supreme Court heard arguments that 
Irvin was not given a fair trial due to pretrial publicity. Irvin was retried 
and convicted on June 13, 1962. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died 
at Indiana State Prison, Michigan City, on Nov. 9, 1983, of lung cancer.

Orville Lynn Majors

It likely will never be known whether he killed 6 patients or more than 100. 
Prosecutors pursued charges on 7 deaths, working from a list of about 150 
deaths deemed suspicious.

On Dec. 29, 1997, Orville Lynn Majors was taken into custody and charged with 
the murder of 7 people: Mary A. Alderson, 69; Dorthea L. Hixon, 80; Luetta A. 
Hopkins, 89; Margaret Hornick, 79; Derek Maxwell, 64; Freddie D. Wilson, 56; 
and Cecil Ivan Smith, 74.

Majors, a former nurse, was found guilty of killing 6 elderly patients at the 
former Vermillion County Hospital by injecting them with heart stopping drugs. 
Majors was convicted in October 1999 and sentenced to 360 years in prison.

Belle Gunness

Norwegian immigrant Belle Gunness used her feminine wiles to lure lonely men to 
her Laporte, Ind., home on the promise of marriage. Those men would soon be 
parted with not only their money, but their lives.

In the early 1900s, Gunness placed personal ads in Midwestern newspapers with 
"view of joining fortunes." One by one, the men were poisoned, cut up and 
buried on her farm. Over a span of about 5 years, she killed at least 25 
people, though some say the real number was at least 40.

After a mysterious fire at her home, local authorities concluded Gunness and 
her children had died in the blaze, but some contend she faked her death and 
fled to California where she may have found more victims.

William Clyde Gibson III

On Aug. 15, 2014, Gibson was condemned to die for the murder of Stephanie Kirk, 
whose body was buried in his New Albany, Ind., backyard.

It was the 2nd death penalty for Gibson, who also was condemned in the murder 
of family friend Christine Whitis.

Kirk's body was found in April 2012, just days after police found Whitis' 
mutilated body in his garage. Both Kirk, 35, and Whitis, 75, were sexually 
assaulted after they were killed, police said.

Gibson also has been sentenced to 65 years in prison after pleading guilty to 
the 2002 murder of Florida beautician Karen Hodella, whose remains were found 
in Clarksville along the Ohio River.

Larry Eyler

On Oct. 18, 1983, mushroom hunters happened upon an empty barn lot just north 
of Lake Village in Newton County, about 120 miles northwest of Indianapolis 
what they found, however, was a decomposed body.

That day and into the next, investigators found the bodies of 4 young men 
buried in shallow graves. 3 were side by side; the 4th was about 40 feet away.

2 were quickly identified: John Bartlett and Michael Bauer. The names of the 
other 2 remain mysteries.

All 4 eventually were connected to serial killer Larry Eyler, known in the 
Indianapolis gay community as a good-looking charmer, but with a temper. His 
general pattern was to pick up men who were hitchhiking or sometimes in gay 
bars, give them alcohol and slip them a strong sedative to cause them to go 
unconscious. He would then take them to a secluded spot and kill viciously, 
sometimes mutilating or dismembering his victims.

Eyler, dubbed "The Highway Killer," was linked to the deaths of 23 young men in 
the late 1970s and early 1980s, mostly in Illinois and Indiana. He was 
convicted in 1986 in Illinois for one of those murders and sentenced to death; 
he also received a 60-year sentence for an Indiana murder. Eyler died in 1994 
in prison of complications related to AIDS. However, after his death and with 
Eyler's prior permission, his attorney handed over a list of 17 men Eyler 
claimed he had killed and the names of 4 others allegedly killed by an unnamed 
accomplice.

Alton Coleman

Alton Coleman and Debra Brown launched a horrific 2-month crime spree in 1984 
that included up to 8 murders, more than a dozen rapes, 3 kidnappings and 14 
armed robberies. Coleman, who was sentenced to death for murder in Illinois, 
Indiana and Ohio, never was tried for several of his suspected crimes. Over 2 
months of the rampage, Coleman and Brown averaged a felony every other day. 
Here's a partial chronology of events that took place in 1984:

-- May 29: Venita Wheat, 9, of Kenosha, Wis., disappears. Her body is found 
June 19.

-- June 5: Coleman and Brown begin their spree when they rent an apartment in 
Gary; Coleman had been wanted by police since May 31 on murder charges in 
Wisconsin.

-- June 18: Tamika Turks, 7, of Gary, is raped and stomped to death. Her body 
is found June 19.

-- June 19: Donna Williams, 21, of Gary, is reported missing. Her car is found 
a week later in Detroit. Her body is found in Detroit on July 11.

-- June 21: A Detroit woman is kidnapped by Coleman and Brown. While driving 
her captors to Toledo, Ohio, she escapes by ramming her car into oncoming 
traffic.

-- July 7: Virginia Temple, 30, of Toledo, and her 10-year-old daughter are 
slain. Coleman and Brown are suspected in the slayings, but the 2 are not 
prosecuted. -- July 11: Tonnie Storey, 15, of Cincinnati is strangled. The 
crime is linked to Coleman but goes untried.

-- July 13: Marlene Walters, 44, also of Cincinnati, is found dead in her 
basement. Her husband is beaten and left for dead. Their car is later found 
abandoned in Lexington, Ky.

-- July 19: The fugitives drive back through Dayton, Ohio, in a stolen car and 
on to Indianapolis. Eugene Scott, 77, of Indianapolis is found shot to death. 
Coleman and Brown are again linked to the slaying but are not prosecuted.

-- July 20: Coleman and Brown are captured after returning to Evanston, where 
the duo had rented an apartment before moving to Gary.

-- Alton Coleman, 46, died by lethal injection in April 2002 in the Southern 
Ohio Correctional Facility for the beating death Marlene Walters.

David Maust

David Maust, 51, died Jan. 20, 2006, at a hospital after being found hanged 
from a braided bedsheet inside a Lake County Jail cell. He was serving 3 
consecutive life sentences for the 2003 murders of three Hammond teens Michael 
Dennis, 13, James Raganyi, 16, and Nicholas James, 19, all of Hammond. Their 
bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags and entombed in freshly poured 
concrete in the basement where he lived.

He also served time for the 1981 murder of a 15-year-old Illinois boy, and for 
involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 13-year-old boy while serving in the 
U.S. Army.

Christopher Peterson

Christopher Peterson (aka, Obadyah Ben-Yisrayl) is classified as a "spree 
killer" with spurts of homicidal rage.

His crimes:

-- Oct. 30, 1990, Insurance agent Lawrence Mill was shot to death in his car 
in front of the American Legion Post 66 in Griffith. 2 1/2 hours later, Rhonda 
L. Hammersley, who worked at a gas station in Cedar Lake, was shot in the 
parking lot. (Acquitted.)

-- On Dec. 13, 1990, Harchand Dhaliwal, an attendant at a Hudson Oil station 
in Portage was robbed and shot in the head.

-- Dec. 15, 1990, Marie Meitzler, a desk clerk at a Howard Johnson motel in 
Portage was robbed and shot in the head. Six minutes later, Ora L. Wildermuth 
was shot in front of an automated teller machine. One hour later, Robert S. 
Kotso was shot in a highway toll booth. He survived.

-- Dec. 18, 1998, brothers George and Eli Balovski were found dead following a 
robbery in their Gary tailor shot.

All were killed with a shotgun.

Peterson was also convicted in the 1991 attempted murder and armed robbery of 
Ronald Nitsch in Lake County. He was given the death sentenced in 1992.

I-70 killer

Robin Fuldauer, 26. April 8, 1992. Fuldauer was the manager of the Payless Shoe 
Source in the 7300 block of Pendleton Pike. She was working alone between 1:30 
and 2 p.m. when someone entered the store and shot her. The store, which no 
longer exists, was easily accessible from I-70.

Over the next 4 weeks, 5 more people in 3 states were slain in stores and 
communities along the highway.

Michael McCown, 40. April 27, 1992, Terre Haute. McCown was found shot to death 
in his mother's ceramics store, Sylvia's Ceramics, not far from I-70. He was 
the only man killed in the series, but police think the shooter might have 
mistaken McCown for a woman because of his ponytail and because the name of the 
store made it seem likely a woman might be inside.

After that series of slayings, there was a pause. In 1993, a 2nd series of 
shootings began that bore a marked similarity to the I-70 series. These, 
however, were committed in Texas, but with easy access to Interstates 35 and 
45.

The cases remain unsolved.

(source: Journal & Courier)






TENNESSEE:

Tennessee seeks media witnesses for Billy Irick execution


After 6 years of a mostly dormant death penalty, Tennessee gets ready to 
execute one of its most notorious killers in less than a month.

This week, in preparation for the Oct. 7 scheduled execution of Billy Ray 
Irick, the Tennessee Department of Correction began taking applications for 
media witnesses to his death. Under department rules, seven media witnesses and 
2 alternates will be selected at random by the department Sept. 23.

Irick, who raped and murdered a 7-year-old Knoxville girl in 1985, is one of 11 
inmates currently scheduled to die through 2016, part of a renewed push last 
year to kick-start the state's lagging death penalty. He has been on death row 
since 1986. The last death row inmate executed in Tennessee was Cecil Johnson 
in December 2009.

Whether the execution will happen Oct. 7 is unclear.

Irick is among several inmates suing the state over the secrecy surrounding its 
lethal injection procedures. The case is awaiting an appeals court decision 
after the state challenged an order that would identify under seal those who 
would participate in executions.

That appeal, along with the scarcity of lethal injection drugs, could end up 
leading to a postponement of Irick's execution.

Gov. Bill Haslam has signed a bill allowing the electric chair to be used if 
the state can't find a supplier.

Correction officials declined to provide specifics about what other 
preparations they are making in anticipation of Irick's execution, including 
whether they have obtained drugs. The key drug used in Tennessee execution, 
pentobarbital, has been pulled from the market, leading some states to rely on 
compounding pharmacies to mix their own versions of the drug.

"We are confident that we will have the necessary chemicals when needed," said 
Neysa Taylor, spokeswoman for the Department of Correction.

Tennessee has refused to answer questions about how they plan to obtain the 
drug.

(source: WBIR news)






OKLAHOMA:

Convicted killer writes of uncertainty he faces in pending execution


Since July, Richard Glossip has been listening to renovations going on inside 
the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. The noise is a constant reminder that his days 
are numbered.

Glossip, 51, is scheduled to be the 2nd inmate executed under new procedures 
for lethal injections in Oklahoma in a newly renovated chamber. Convicted in a 
murder-for-hire plot, he lives on death row, in a small cell that he says is 
situated beneath the execution chamber.

The state's execution policies are so new that they are still being drafted and 
prison officials haven't even been trained yet. Glossip, himself, writes that 
he can only speculate what his last days will be like under the new rules and 
how he'll die come Nov. 20.

"They have moved the execution table ... so that they could put a window in the 
door where the person administering the drugs so that if an inmate starts 
flopping they can give them a little more muscle (relaxant) to stop it," he 
wrote in a July 24 letter to a reporter. "They think it makes it better, but 
that is not true, even though your muscles are relaxed, you will still be 
suffocating and will still feel it."

Death row has been on a media lockdown, with in-person interviews prohibited, 
since the execution of Clayton Lockett April 29. Corrections officials explain 
that the blackout was necessary pending the investigation, ordered by Gov. Mary 
Fallin, into why it took Lockett about 40 minutes to die by lethal injection.

The months-long investigation by the Department of Public Safety ultimately 
found that an IV tube, meant to deliver deadly drugs, had become dislodged from 
the 38-year-old's groin area.

In the meantime, Glossip has communicated by letters, attempting to get his 
story told and convince others of his innocence.

Glossip's execution is 1 of 3 being scheduled by the state, starting in 
November. He's been on death row since 1998, when he was 1st convicted in a 
plot that killed motel owner Barry Van Treese the year before. The convicted 
hitman, Justin Sneed, is serving a sentence of life without parole.

In his letters, Glossip claims his innocence. And, while there are many 
uncertainties about his future, he writes that he's sure the state will make 
him suffer in his last moments, referring to Lockett's execution.

(source: Edmond Sun)

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

After injection, Oklahoma lawmaker proposes use of nitrogen gas to execute 
inmates


Oklahoma would become the 1st state to execute condemned inmates using nitrogen 
gas under a proposal that will be presented next week to a legislative 
committee.

Rep. Mike Christian, a former highway patrolman and a staunch supporter of the 
death penalty, said he will unveil details of the plan Tuesday during an 
interim study of the House Judiciary Committee. Christian, R-Oklahoma City, 
said he intends to draft a bill for next year's Legislature, which begins in 
February.

"We've had so many problems with lethal injection," Christian said. "I think 
this is just a more humane method, and I think it will be well received."

Christian requested the study after Oklahoma's lethal injection in April of 
Clayton Lockett, who writhed on the gurney, clenched his teeth and moaned 
before being pronounced dead about 43 minutes after his execution began. An 
investigation by the state Department of Public Safety released earlier this 
month blamed the problems on the poor placement of an intravenous line, and 
state prison officials are developing new lethal injection protocols.

Christian initially proposed the use of a firing squad but said nitrogen 
asphyxiation would be simpler and could be easily done by putting a hood or a 
mask over an inmate's face. He said his bill would give inmates already on 
Oklahoma's death row the option of lethal injection or gas asphyxiation.

Using nitrogen or another inert gas to gradually deplete an inmate's supply of 
oxygen would be a practical and efficient method of execution that could easily 
be administered by a layman, said Michael Copeland, a criminal justice 
professor at East Central University who, along with 2 colleagues, helped 
research the method for Christian. Unlike someone holding their breath, which 
causes a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood, Copeland said asphyxiation 
from breathing nitrogen would be painless.

"It's not like suffocating. People won't be gasping and fighting for air," 
Copeland said. "They'll be breathing normally, and then they'll be dead."

Rep. Aaron Stiles, an attorney and the chairman of the House Judiciary 
Committee, said he sees merit in Christian's proposal, especially given the 
problems states have had in recent years obtaining lethal drugs for executions 
amid opposition from European manufacturers.

"We wouldn't have to worry about the drugs' availability. It's something the 
state could produce, and it may be more efficient not only for the state but 
for the condemned," said Stiles, R-Norman. "If we can solve multiple problems 
with one method of execution, it's something we should take a look at."

Opponents of the death penalty argued the state could avoid all of the problems 
associated with executions by abolishing the practice altogether.

"It's tinkering with the machinery of death, and to me it doesn't make any 
difference how they do it," said James Rowan, a defense attorney who has tried 
more than 40 death penalty cases and is a board member for the Oklahoma 
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "It's not going to make it any more 
palatable to me, even if they did it in the most humane way possible."

(source: Associated Press)