[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----KAN., S. DAK., UTAH, WASH., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 4



KANSAS:

F. Glenn Miller Jr., accused of Jewish center killings, will keep defense team 
'for now'



Despite saying he doesn't trust his court-appointed lawyers, F. Glenn Miller 
Jr. on Friday said he would keep them "for now" as preparations got under way 
for his trial beginning Aug. 17.

The judge overseeing the case against the 74-year-old Miller questioned him 
about prior court outbursts in which he demanded to fire his lawyers and 
represent himself.

Miller, who is charged with capital murder and faces a possible death sentence 
for the April 2014 killings of 3 people outside Jewish facilities in Overland 
Park, told District Judge Kelly Ryan on Friday that he didn't think he could 
get a fair trial unless he represented himself.

"They (his 3 attorneys) get paid by my enemy," Miller said. "I don't trust 
anybody who works for the government."

Prosecutors had argued that if Miller wanted to represent himself and his 
request was denied, it could lead to an appeals court throwing out a 
conviction.

But when Ryan pressed Miller about his decision, Miller said he needed more 
time to think and would retain his current defense team.

After that issue was resolved, the judge and attorneys began making 
preparations for the trial, which is expected to last 6 to 8 weeks.

It will be Johnson County's 1st death penalty trial in more than a decade. 
Questionnaires will be mailed to 1,000 potential jurors.

Several dates were set aside to take up pretrial motions that will include a 
defense request for a change of venue and possible motions to suppress 
evidence. The 1st of those dates was set for May 14.

Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., is accused of killing William 
Corporon, Reat Underwood and Terri LaManno.

Corporon and his grandson, Underwood, were shot to death outside the Jewish 
Community Center. LaManno was killed a few minutes later outside the Village 
Shalom care center.

Miller was arrested that day and is being held in the Johnson County jail.

(source: Kansas City Star)








SOUTH DAKOTA----impending execution

Rodney Berget faces lethal injection, while group protests death penalty



It's been nearly 4 years since correctional officer Ronald "RJ" Johnson was 
killed in the line of duty at the state penitentiary here in Sioux Falls.

KSFY News spoke with Johnson's widow outside the academy which bears his name.

Her husband was killed at the state penitentiary by 2 inmates in a failed 
escape attempt.

The state executed Eric Robert in 2012.

Rodney Berget is scheduled to die by lethal injection in May.

A group which believes the death penalty is wrong was at the prison Friday to 
protest.

South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty director Denny Davis led 
the group in prayer. "We come together today brothers and sisters as one 
people, to pray and to celebrate, love compassion, and service," Davis said.

The group South Dakotans for Alternatives for the Death Penalty chose Good 
Friday as a day to pray for everyone who suffers. It hopes to get rid of the 
death penalty in South Dakota.

"We believe that killing someone who has killed, says a great deal about us, as 
a society. We believe the death penalty is not about what they do, it's about 
what we do," Davis said.

They gathered at the state penitentiary to speak out against the death penalty, 
but the group also prays for those who've suffered in life. and Lynette Johnson 
suffered the loss of the love of her life.

Ronald Johnosn's widow Lynette Johnson said "they believe the death penalty is 
wrong and it's not. I've asked them when they've appealed the death penalty to 
please, try and fix the problem here first."

Where nearly 4 years ago, Lynette's husband Ronald "RJ" Johnson was killed by 2 
inmates in the line of duty during a failed prison escape. 1 still sits on 
death row.

"He's allowed visitation with his family, he gets mail, he has connection with 
the outside world, he's taken that away from Ron and I and our family," Johnson 
said.

"We come to out to pray for everyone, not only the people who are on death row, 
but also the victim's families. We pray for people of domestic violence. We 
pray for the immigrants. We pray for all people who suffer," Davis said.

It may be difficult for some to understand what Lynette has endured.

"I don't want anybody to actually know what I'm going through because they only 
way they'd know that is if it this happened to them," Johnson said.

"We respect Lynette, we pray for her because i know she is still grieving," 
Davis added.

"She didn't deserve what she got in her life, her husband did not deserve that 
but it's a reality," Davis said.

It's a reality Lynette has had to live with every day for the past 4 years.

"some people say it's an old story, old news. it's not, its my life, i wake up, 
and think another day, maybe something's going to happen, we'll get to the 
truth, someone will tell the truth maybe the D.O.C. will admit," Johnson said.

Lynette Johnson continues her fight in working on an appeal in her case against 
the department of corrections whom she holds responsible for her husband's 
death.

"I want the truth. I want to hold everybody responsible, held accountable for 
Ron's murder, and that is not done yet," Johnson said.

(source: KSFY news)

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

Vigil: Executions won't stop more murders



Anti-death penalty advocates huddled near the entrance of South Dakota's state 
prison, praying for capital punishment's end.

A few dozen people stood in heavy wind Friday to pray for murder victims and 
the inmates waiting on death row in the Jameson Annex who took their lives.

Denny Davis, director of South Dakotans for alternatives to the death penalty, 
said on Good Friday no one deserved to be judged, so they prayed for everyone 
involved.

"We have no inclination to say anybody's bad today or good, we're going to pray 
for everyone," Davis said.

The latest defeat for anti-death penalty advocates came Thursday when Berget's 
recent request to delay his May execution was denied. Berget and another 
prisoner, Eric Robert, killed Ronald Johnson, a senior correctional officer, 
during an escape attempt in 2011 from the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

"I think it's really sad that we really believe that doing the same thing that 
Rodney did somehow will stop people from killing," Davis said.

Bill Wood, who attended the vigil, said there is too much anger and desire for 
revenge in South Dakota. He hopes that one day the death penalty will be 
removed.

After the vigil, advocates signed a "Declaration of Life," which declares that 
if the signer should be murdered, they chose not to have the perpetrator 
executed by the state.

(source: Argus Leader)








UTAH:

On Utah allowing death by firing squads...again



The State of Utah did away with the firing squad option in 2004. Lawmakers back 
then said giving the inmates the option to choose death by firing squad gave 
them too much media attention. Even so, inmates sentenced before 2004 could opt 
to be shot and the last shooting was in 2010. Yeah, he died. 5 officers blasted 
the guy with .30-cal Winchester rifles.

So why did legislatures introduce a bill to revive death by firing squad? Well, 
that's not an easy answer, but here's the way I understand it (and the way I 
prefer it).

Authorities can now authorize death by firing squad instead of death by lethal 
injection in any number of cases. The former is far more economical.

The company who makes the ultra potent lethal concoction for "death by lethal 
injection" has taken serious heat in recent years from the anti-death penalty 
folks and now the cost of the drug is really high. Foreseeing a time when 
getting the drug may be too costly or even too controversial, the topic of 
firearm executions was brought back up in the pro-gun Utah legislature. And, 
kudos to the Utah governor who saw the wisdom in signing the bill.

Look, if someone's going to get killed, does it really matter if it's by lethal 
injection or by a firing squad? Really, does it matter?

Well, I suppose that depends on if you support capital punishment or not. 
Personally, I'm a huge proponent of capital punishment, when the punishment 
fits the crime.

While there's no amount of justice that can be done to bring back victims of 
the most horrific and heinous crimes that actually make it to a capital 
sentencing case, the evil murderers who find themselves this far down the trail 
of appeals need to leave society. I'm not talking an eye for an eye-type 
philosophy. I'm talking about good, old fashioned common sense. They are a 
danger to others - let them leave this earth.

I believe that those who think death by a firing squad or death by lethal 
injection is not humane should go ask the victim about the terror and pain they 
felt while they were being murdered. Since they can't do that ... because 
they're dead, maybe they should ask the family members of those mutilated, 
raped, tortured and dismembered by these evil persons on death row. Their 
crimes are the only violations I see in this equation.

Anti-death penalty folks like to say that killing a person is a violation of 
the Eighth Amendment, which is the cruel and unusual punishment amendment. It's 
not. What's cruel or unusual about shooting someone? It happens in war. It's 
horrible. It's violent, but the guilty party on death row shouldn't have 
committed the crime. Certainly, if he's on death row, he did something both 
cruel and unusual!

Unfortunately, some media folks like to play on the supposed "pains" of 
murderous inmates who struggled because the guy injecting the inmate with a 
lethal drug didn't hit the vein the 1st time. Boo-hoo. Any 12-year-old kid 
could handle not getting stuck by a needle right the 1st time. Why don't the 
news media who oppose capital punishment tell the real story on why such 
murderers ended up there in the first place, and why their appeals were all 
denied.

Anyone who's anti-violence towards murderers who've been sentenced under a fair 
judicial system - so fair, in fact, that the criminal justice system bends over 
backwards to give hardened criminals big time breaks - are doing a huge 
disservice to society and to the family of the victims.

I'm glad Utah adopted this new legislation allowing inmates on death row to be 
shot by a firing squad in case the state has a hard time getting the lethal 
dose of chemicals to put down truly evil men. Besides, in the end using a 
firing squad is the way to go. It's humane, it's quick and it's morally and 
legally justified.

(source: Opinion, Jeffrey Denning----guns.com)








WASHINGTON:

Court upholds death penalty for rapist Clark Elmore----The 9th Circuit Court of 
Appeals upheld the death penalty for Clark Elmore, who confessed to raping and 
murdering his 14-year-old stepdaughter 20 years ago



The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the death sentence for Clark 
Richard Elmore, convicted of raping and murdering his 14-year-old stepdaughter 
in Bellingham in 1995.

The unanimous ruling by the 3-member panel rejected several avenues of appeal 
sought by Elmore, and affirmed a lower-court decision upholding his death 
sentence. Elmore, 63, is the 2nd-longest serving inmate on Washington's death 
row.

>From a practical point of view, the opinion does not move Elmore closer to 
execution since Gov. Jay Inslee declared a moratorium on the death penalty 
while he's in office. However, that moratorium involves the state's 
implementation of the penalty, not its legality, and Inslee has said the 
penalty remains in place.

Nor does the state's moratorium impact the federal appeals process, and the 
ruling handed down Wednesday upheld the dismissal of Elmore's claims of 
ineffective assistance of counsel and due-process.

Elmore claimed his trial was prejudicial because the jury was allowed to see 
him shackled; he said his attorney made mistakes by having him plead guilty and 
by not pursuing a brain-injury defense. The federal judges said the state's 
Supreme Court was correct in rejecting those claims as well.

A request for comment from Elmore's appeals attorney, Robert Gombiner, was not 
immediately responded to. It was not clear whether Elmore will seek a rehearing 
or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuit's opinion.

A telephone call to the state Attorney General's Office was not immediately 
returned.

Elmore, of Bellingham, was convicted July 6, 1995, of 1 count of aggravated 1st 
degree murder and 1 count of rape in the 2nd degree for the rape and murder of 
Christy Ohnstad, 14.

Ohnstad, a Fairhaven Middle School student, was the daughter of Elmore's 
live-in girlfriend at the time of her death on April 17, 1995.

In a graphic taped confession, Elmore said the girl had threatened to tell on 
him for molesting her when she was younger. Elmore picked her up at school that 
day, took her to a secluded area, and then raped and strangled her.

He then played the grieving stepfather. Within days of her disappearance, 
Elmore helped organize a search party for her and publicly criticized the 
police for not doing enough to find her. A Whatcom County Sheriff's search 
party eventually found Ohnstad's body near the south end of Lake Samish.

Elmore fled to Oregon, but turned himself in to Bellingham police within 2 days 
and confessed to raping and killing Ohnstad.

(source: Seattle Times)








USA:

Catholics unite on death penalty



As the editor of The National Catholic Reporter, a national biweekly, Dennis 
Coday reads his competitor, The National Catholic Register. But he does not 
have to agree with it.

The Reporter is seen as somewhat liberal in theology and politics. The 
Register, a competing biweekly with a confusingly similar name, is popular with 
more theologically traditional Roman Catholics, who often fall to the right 
politically.

But last year, seeing the amount of attention The Register was giving to 
arguments opposing the death penalty, Coday came up with an idea: Maybe the 2 
newspapers could collaborate on an editorial calling on Catholics to oppose the 
death penalty.

"What struck me the most was Oklahoma Archbishop Paul Coakley came out strongly 
against it," Coday said. "And his comments were covered by The National 
Catholic Register."

Indeed, The Register had covered Catholic death-penalty opposition in May, 
after the botched execution of an Oklahoma inmate, Clayton Lockett, and again 
in July, after the protracted execution in Arizona of Joseph Wood III, who took 
nearly 2 hours to die.

Eventually, Coday got 3 other publications, including The Register, to join 
him. On March 5, "Catholic Publications Call for an End to Capital Punishment" 
ran on the websites of The Reporter; The Register; Our Sunday Visitor, which is 
considered conservative; and the Jesuit magazine America, which is considered 
liberal. The editorial was written principally by Coday, with the involvement 
of the 4 editorial boards.

The editorial was an unusual show of unity among publications that speak for 
often antagonistic niches of Catholic public thought. Editors at the 
publications agreed, in interviews this week, that such a joint effort would be 
unlikely on other topics, like same-sex marriage or abortion.

With the death penalty, the time seemed right. According to last year's major 
Pew survey, support for the death penalty is slipping nationally. At the same 
time, different branches of Roman Catholicism are uniting behind a message that 
has been consistently delivered by Pope Francis and his predecessors Benedict 
XVI and John Paul II.

"We, the editors of 4 Catholic journals," the editorial begins, "urge the 
readers of our diverse publications and the whole U.S. Catholic community and 
all people of faith to stand with us and say, 'Capital punishment must end.'"

"The Catholic Church in this country has fought against the death penalty for 
decades," it says. "Pope St. John Paul II amended the universal Catechism of 
the Catholic Church to include a de facto prohibition against capital 
punishment. Last year, Pope Francis called on all Catholics 'to fight ... for 
the abolition of the death penalty.' The practice is abhorrent and 
unnecessary."

The Register's editor, Jeanette De Melo, said that when Coday first broached 
the idea last fall, they could not quite make it work.

"The Register's take on the death penalty," De Melo said, "is to talk about it 
in broader context of the life issues," like abortion and euthanasia. "We 
wanted to contextualize it last fall in that broad context."

De Melo said she and Coday could not agree on an editorial that brought in so 
many contentious issues. But when, in January, the Supreme Court agreed to take 
up the case of Glossip v. Gross, which challenges Oklahoma's use of lethal 
injection, she thought that maybe it was time for an editorial solely on 
capital punishment.

"Since the Supreme Court took up this case," De Melo said, "it seemed maybe we 
could look at it in a narrower context. I felt it was important to stand on 
something we can stand together on, these diverse publications with diverse 
audiences. We do agree this should end."

Some readers questioned De Melo's decision to join with more liberal 
publications. On March 16, she wrote her own editorial, placing her death 
penalty opposition in the context of issues that are important to 
conservatives.

"Euthanasia, abortion, war and capital punishment differ in moral weight, but 
they all threaten human dignity, and we must work to end them," De Melo wrote.

A matter of morality

The church now teaches that the death penalty could be justified only for 
self-defense in the narrow sense of preventing a killer from committing a 
future killing. So in the modern state, the argument goes, with effective 
prisons and life sentences to keep killers off the street, there is no morally 
valid reason to use it. According to the Catholic theorist Robert George, who 
teaches at Princeton, capital punishment is not as bad as abortion or 
euthanasia, but it nonetheless needs to end.

"Although I do not regard capital punishment to be on a moral par with the 
deliberate killing of innocent persons - including killing unborn babies by 
abortion and killing elderly or handicapped persons in euthanasia - I believe 
that the abolition of killing as a punishment will promote a culture of life," 
George wrote in a Feb. 19 letter to the governor and legislature of Kansas.

Coming from George, who is admired by the Catholic right, the letter was 
another indication that on this particular issue, a unified position may be 
emerging.

Not everyone agrees. The Rev. John McCloskey, a conservative priest, wrote this 
month that "the Catholic Church's Magisterium does not and never has advocated 
unqualified abolition of the death penalty." He invoked Augustine and Thomas 
Aquinas in support of the death penalty, as well as Pope Pius XII.

Then there are the 59 % of white Catholics who, according to the Pew survey, 
favor capital punishment - 4 points higher than the average for all American 
adults.

Greg Erlandson, the publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, said Catholics needed to 
keep talking to one another, lest they become as dysfunctional as the secular 
world.

"The ideological polarization that has paralyzed American political life has 
seeped into the church, unfortunately," Erlandson said. "So something like 
this" - the joint editorial - "is an important signpost for the church."

(source: Bend Bulletin)

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

American Pharmacists Association Is Against Execution Drugs



The American Pharmacists Association is against execution drugs. With this 
move, the association is trying to discourage its members from making the 
substances used during executions.

American Pharmacists Association (AphA) CEO Thomas Menighan made the following 
statement:

"Pharmacists are health care providers and pharmacist participation in 
executions conflicts with the profession's role on the patient health care 
team. This new policy aligns APhA with the execution policies of other major 
health care associations including the American Medical Association, the 
American Nurses Association and the American Board of Anesthesiology."

The association doesn't have the legal power to prohibit its more than 62,000 
members from selling the drugs but its guidelines are very important in setting 
pharmacists' ethical standards.

Michelle Spinnler spokeswoman for the AphA explained that this move was made as 
a way to increase public attention in regards to lethal drugs. This event is 
also linked to the Supreme Court's decision to temporarily suspend the 
execution of 3 convicts on death row in Oklahoma which came after Clayton 
Lockett's failed execution.

About 1 year ago, Lockett who was given the death penalty, was administered a 
defective lethal injection. As a result, he laid in excruciating pain on the 
gurney for about 43 minutes before dying of a heart attack.

The companies that make the products used in executions decided almost 
unanimously to stop selling those products to prisons that used them for death 
penalty related purposes. This led to states turning to compounded 
preparations.

But this goes against pharmacists' profession. As Spinnler also stated, 
pharmacists should not be involved in the preparation of substances used for 
executions as that means they are involved in those types of punishment. And 
that goes against ethical standards.

Ohio officials announced the use of either pentobarbital or sodium thiopental 
in future executions but is currently lacking both substances and hasn't given 
any information regarding how these substances would be obtained.

Due to the lack of lethal compounds, all executions scheduled for 2015 were 
postponed until 2016 so that the state had time to acquire the drugs.

Other states said they would resort to other methods of execution if 
lethal-injection drugs wouldn't become available. The use of the electric chair 
was implemented in Tennessee while Utah approved the firing squad.

(source: Monitor Daily)

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

Christian leaders seek finish to death penalty in U.S.



Numerous Christian leaders seek finish to death penalty in U.S. Numerous 
Christians use Holy Week to reflect on the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday, 
and now more than 400 Catholic and evangelical leaders are working with Jesus' 
state-sanctioned execution to get in touch with for an end to the death 
penalty.

Among signers of the statement are 2 former presidents of the U.S. Conference 
of Catholic Bishops (Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston and William 
Skylstad of Spokane, Wash.) Miguel Diaz, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See 
and Jim Wallis, founder of the progressive Christian group Sojourners.

The letter urges governors, judges and prosecutors to finish the death penalty, 
which the letter calls a "practice that diminishes our humanity and contributes 
to a culture of violence and retribution devoid of restoration."

(source: Connecticut Bulletin Standard)

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

Man facing death penalty retrial for 2000 death of woman abducted from Rutland



The sister of a Vermont woman abducted and killed after arriving for work at a 
Rutland supermarket almost 15 years ago says she and her relatives still want 
to see the man convicted in the killing put to death even though it means they 
will have to endure a 2nd trial.

Barbara Tuttle said this week she and other relatives of Terry King let their 
feelings be known after federal prosecutors said they would consider a deal 
that would let Donald Fell - who had been the only person on federal death row 
for a crime that began in Vermont - plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of 
life without parole.

"We preferred really for him to get the death sentence. That's what he got in 
the beginning and that's what he deserves to have," Tuttle said. "My sister 
doesn't get to breathe and eat and sleep or see her grandchildren or do any of 
that.

Investigators say Fell executed King, a 53-year-old grandmother, in Dover, New 
York, while she prayed for her life several hours after she was abducted from 
the parking lot of a Rutland supermarket in November 2000.

Fell, now 34, and co-defendant Robert Lee, who died in prison in 2001, were 
charged with carjacking and killing King. Prosecutors say Fell and Lee were 
trying to escape Vermont after fatally stabbing Fell's mother and a friend of 
hers in her Rutland apartment. No state charges have been filed in those cases.

For years Fell had been held at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, the 
location of the federal death row. Now the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator 
says he's being held at a prison in New York City.

Vermont does not have a state death penalty, but federal prosecutors brought 
charges under a U.S. law that allows the death penalty for carjacking with 
death resulting.

U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III ordered a new trial last summer 
after it was revealed a juror in the 2005 trial had investigated the case on 
his own during the trial by visiting some of the locations where the crime took 
place.

In December Vermont's former United States Attorney Tristram Coffin told the 
Burlington Free Press a plea deal had been proposed that would have allowed 
Fell to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole, 
avoiding the need for a 2nd trial. In February Coffin's successor, acting U.S. 
Attorney Eugenia Cowles said the plea deal was no longer an option.

Cowles and Fell's new defense attorney, John Philipsborn, both declined comment 
on the case, so exactly what caused such a deal to fall through has not been 
released.

"You can only guess at what the reasons are," said Robert Dunham, the executive 
director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, who is familiar 
with the Fell case.

But Tuttle said she and her family, who over the years have been in court in 
Burlington for every hearing on the case and were regularly updated about the 
proposal, let it be known they still wanted Fell executed. She believes the 
feelings of the family were taken into account.

No matter what happens, the anguish brought about by King's killing will never 
go away.

"We miss her every day," Tuttle said. "She's the first thing I think about in 
the morning and the last thing I think about when I go to bed."

(source: Associated Press)