[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., ALA., OKLA., UTAH, CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 6



NORTH CAROLINA:

Death penalty hearing set for Craig Hicks, accused in Chapel Hill shooting of 3 
Muslims



Prosecutors will go before a Durham County Superior Court judge on Monday to 
begin laying out their case for pursuing the death penalty against Craig 
Stephen Hicks.

Hicks, 43, turned himself in to Chatham County law enforcement officers on Feb. 
10, less than an hour after Chapel Hill police found Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; 
Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, dead inside a 
condominium on the eastern edge of town.

Investigators contend Hicks, a neighbor of Deah Barakat and his wife, Yusor, 
shot and killed the couple and her sister amid a long-simmering parking 
dispute.

As news spread quickly and globally on social media about the violent deaths of 
the 3 college-aged Muslims, questions grew about whether the motive for the 
killings was religious bias.

The New York Times reported in February that photos taken the day after the 
shootings showed that none of the cars that Barakat, his wife or her sister 
used was parked in Hicks' assigned space.

Federal investigators are conducting an inquiry into whether case evidence 
supports federal hate-crime charges, which are very specific and difficult to 
prove. In such cases, where religious bias is alleged, the religion of the 
victims must be the predominant motivating factor for the crimes for a 
successful prosecution, legal scholars say.

On Monday, Durham County District Attorney Roger Echols will be asked to 
provide some details of the case so Judge Orlando Hudson can decide whether 
capital punishment could be an option if first-degree murder convictions are 
won.

Though Durham prosecutors often push for the death penalty as an option, few 
Durham juries have been asked in recent years to consider capital punishment.

Prosecutors often use the possibility of death to negotiate pleas that avoid 
the cost, time and emotional strain of a trial.

None of the 149 North Carolina inmates currently on death row was convicted in 
Durham.

Accused, victims were neighbors

The homicides happened at Finley Forest, a complex in a sliver of Durham County 
that falls within Chapel Hill city limits.

Hicks, an unemployed community college student, lived in a 2nd-story unit at 
270 Summerwalk Circle. His wife of 7 years owned the condominium when they 
married.

Inside, he had a stash of guns that police seized during their investigation, 
according to search warrants.

In 2013, Barakat's father bought 272 Summerwalk Circle, a ground-level unit on 
the north side of the building where Hicks lived, so his son, a dental student 
at the UNC-Chapel Hill, could live and study there while in school.

After a wedding in Raleigh on Dec. 27, Barakat and his new bride made the 
condominium their home. Razan, the younger sister of Yusor, had driven from 
Raleigh to Chapel Hill the afternoon of the shootings for a dinner date with 
the 2.

Notes on parking

Family of the couple said they had taken steps early in the year to appease 
their angry neighbor, who often patrolled the parking lot with a gun in a 
holster on his hip.

Search warrants from the case show that Hicks kept pictures and detailed notes 
on parking activity in the condominium complex.

It's unclear what else investigators have discovered in the computers and 
phones seized in the hours and days after the killings. Since his arrest, Hicks 
has been in Central Prison in Raleigh, where jailers can keep him isolated from 
others and in what they describe as "safe-keeping."

Family, friends and strangers inspired by the community-mindedness of the 
victims have worked since their deaths to honor their legacies with numerous 
charitable efforts.

(source: newsobserver.com)








ALABAMA:

Attorney for freed former death row inmate says Alabama needs conviction 
integrity units



Prosecutors are not using the word "exoneration" to describe former Alabama 
death row inmate Anthony Ray Hinton's release Friday. But others, including his 
attorney, are calling it just that.

Hinton on Friday became the 152nd former death row inmate listed on the Death 
Penalty Information Center's website that catalogs wrongful convictions. He is 
the 6th former Alabama death row inmate listed on the website that has 
documented exonerations back to 1973.

Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative who 
represented Hinton, said the one thing he hopes comes out of Hinton's 
exoneration is for Alabama prosecutors to join the growing trend of states 
starting conviction integrity units, which review or investigate claims of 
innocence.

The Maryland-based Center for Prosecutor Integrity stated in a paper in 
December that there are 16 conviction integrity units located in 12 states and 
the District of Columbia established since 2007. Processes for determining what 
cases will be reviewed differ among the units.

Alabama is not among the states on that list. Alabama has a high rate of 
incarceration, not every county has a public defender system and people on 
death row don't even have a right to appellate counsel, Stevenson said.

"This is absolutely a state that needs conviction integrity units," he said.

The units already in place around the nation have different screening 
procedures and criteria for when they will accept a case for review, according 
to the Center's paper. The units typically only look at cases brought by an 
inmate or an advocacy - or innocent project - group, according to the paper.

Some are staffed exclusively with prosecutors as part of their assigned duties, 
while others include a combination of district attorneys and outside members 
such as defense attorneys, according to the paper.

The conviction integrity unit in Dallas, Texas, formed in 2007 is recognized as 
the 1st one established in the paper. Through 2013 that unit had reviewed 400 
cases and had 33 inmates exonerate, according to the paper. A unit in Brooklyn, 
N.Y., had the 2nd most exonerated with an estimated 10-plus, according to the 
paper.

(source: al.com)

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

Exoneration From Death Row Does Not Guarantee Justice----Anthony Ray Hinton was 
exonerated after spending 30 years on death row.



In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was convicted of murdering 2 men in Alabama and 
sentenced to death. For the next 3 decades, confined to a 5 by 8 foot death row 
cell, he maintained his innocence. Finally, the state of Alabama agreed: On 
Friday, Hinton's conviction was overturned and the 58-year-old was set free.

"The sun does shine," Hinton said upon learning of his release. But he did not 
mince words in describing the injustice brought against him.

"They just didn't take me from my family and friends," he said. "They had every 
intention of executing me for something I didn???t do."

"They had every intention of executing me for something I didn't do."

The evidence used to convict Hinton, who was found guilty of killing 2 
restaurant workers in separate incidents in 1985, was flimsy in the extreme. No 
eyewitness placed Hinson at the scene of the crime, and police found no 
evidence of his fingerprints. Instead, prosecutors linked a set of bullets 
recovered at the crime scene to a gun found at Hinton's mother's house - even 
though they never proved that the gun fired those bullets. Hinton's defense was 
little help. An "expert witness," hired for his low price, had one eye and 
could not see through a forensic microscope. Nevertheless, a jury sentenced 
Hinton to death. Only the work of the Equal Justice Institute, a non-profit 
organization which works to exonerate falsely convicted criminals, led to his 
eventual exoneration.

Hinton's experience is not uncommon in the American criminal justice system. A 
2014 study concluded that 4 % of the 3,000 or so Americans on death row - 
around 120 people in total - are not guilty, and that of the 7,482 sentenced to 
death in the United States between 1973 and 2004, 13 % have been executed while 
4 % have died in prison. A far larger percentage, 36 %, have their death 
sentences commuted to life without parole, their cases largely forgotten. Only 
2 % are found not guilty and freed.

Even those who are exonerated, however, struggle to obtain legal justice. A 
week before Hinton's release, a Louisiana judge ruled that Glenn Ford, a 
65-year-old released from death row last year following a 30-year-long term for 
a murder he did not commit, was ineligible for compensation because he 
attempted to dispose of evidence related to the murder. "While Mr. Ford does 
not have the blood of [murder victim] Isadore Rozeman on his hands," the judge, 
Katherine Dorroh wrote in her order, "He did not have clean hands." Also last 
month, an Ohio judge ruled that Dale Johnston, wrongfully convicted and 
sentenced to death for murder in 1984 and exonerated 6 years later, was also 
ineligible for compensation due to a legal technicality - even though 2 others 
confessed to the crime in 2008.

"If I am able to get everything that the state says I???m allowed to have, 
that???s still an insult when you figure what I lost," Johnston told the 
Guardian.

Capital punishment remains broadly popular in the United States, but support, 
by some measures, has slipped. A recent study by Pew Research found that 37 % 
of Americans no longer support the death penalty for murder, more than double 
the percentage from 1996. Opponents of capital punishment often cite the risk 
of executing an innocent person as a main reason to abolish the practice. But 
as the experience of Ford and Johnston shows, even those inmates who are found 
innocent are not guaranteed justice.

(source: The Atlantic)








OKLAHOMA:

Former attorney general criticizes Oklahoma's execution drug



A former Oklahoma attorney general who is now president of Oklahoma City 
University has added his name to a legal submission that criticizes Oklahoma's 
execution methods.

In papers filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, OCU President Robert Henry says 
state lawyers picked an inappropriate drug for lethal injection because they 
were on a tight deadline and under political pressure, The Oklahoman reported 
from its Washington bureau Sunday (http://bit.ly/1GeQ0di ).

"Oklahoma's hasty, non-science-driven process for selecting midazolam as the 
1st drug in its 3-drug protocol did not cohere with its solemn duty to ensure 
its punishments are lawful," the submission signed by Henry says.

Henry, a former federal appeals court judge, joined the submission as former 
attorney general of Oklahoma from 1987 to 1991. Former Vice President Walter 
Mondale also signed it, along with along with former attorneys general from 
Virginia, California and other states.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments April 29 in the Oklahoma case, which 
is narrowly focused on the 1st drug used by the state in its 3-drug sequence.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who is defending the state in the case, 
plans to submit his written arguments to the court this week.

Henry joined a half-dozen friend-of-the-court submissions backing the Oklahoma 
death row inmates' position that the sedative chosen by the state doesn't meet 
the court's test for lethal injection drugs.

The case was filed by 21 Oklahoma death row inmates following the execution of 
Clayton Lockett, who remained conscious after midazolam was administered. His 
execution prompted an investigation of Oklahoma's protocols.

In their argument, Henry and the other former attorneys general say the 
decision to use midazolam was made by a group of government lawyers from the 
state Corrections Department and the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office "while 
under significant time and political pressure."

Pruitt has challenged that assertion previously. Pruitt's office told the court 
in January that Oklahoma "chose midazolam because it had been shown to work, 
and work effectively."

Oklahoma is 1 of only 2 states along with Florida that used midazolam as the 
1st drug in a 3-drug protocol, according to the Death Penalty Information 
Center, which opposes capital punishment. Ohio and Arizona have used it in a 
2-drug protocol. Missouri administered midazolam as a sedative before the 
official execution protocol began.

(source: Associated Press)








UTAH:

Utah Brings Back Firing Squad Executions; Witnesses Recall The Last One



Last month, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill bringing back the firing 
squad as a method of execution. The state abandoned firing squads in 2004 but 
now, it's returned as the backup option - partly because of a shortage of 
lethal injection drugs, the state's default execution method.

Utah is now the only state in the U.S. that authorizes execution by firing 
squad.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah says the bill makes the state look 
"backward and backwoods," while proponents argue the firing squad is more 
humane, considering the recent botched lethal injection executions in Texas, 
Oklahoma and Arizona.

What does a modern firing squad execution actually look like? The answer lies 
in Utah's past - it's the only state to carry out such an execution in the last 
4 decades.

The last time was the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.

He was put to death after the state abandoned the firing squad in 2004, but 
because he had been sentenced before that decision, he was able to opt into the 
older execution method.

The story begins on April 2, 1985, when Gardner was in court facing a murder 
charge. During a failed escape attempt in the courthouse, he killed an 
attorney.

That murder landed him on death row.

"There was a female friend of his that apparently was in on his escape attempt 
and when he was being escorted through the hallway, she passed him and handed 
him the weapon," says Sandra Yi, a reporter at KSL in Salt Lake City.

She covered Gardner's execution and remembers hearing the story of his 
attempted escape 30 years ago.

The weapon was a .22-caliber revolver used to shoot and kill the attorney 
Michael Burdell. Gardner also shot and wounded bailiff George "Nick" Kirk.

"[Kirk] ended up passing before Gardner was executed, but I remember his family 
saying how much he suffered because of what had happened," Yi says.

While he was on death row, Gardner could choose how he would die, and he chose 
the firing squad.

"This is the quote he said when he opted for that firing squad. He said, 'I 
lived by the gun, I murdered by the gun, so I will die by the gun,' " Yi says.

His execution date was set for June 18, 2010, just after midnight.

Marcos Ortiz, a reporter at KTVX in Salt Lake City, was in the viewing room on 
the other side of a bulletproof window.

"It certainly was some moments there that you really thought long and hard 
about what you were about to witness," he says.

Then, the curtain opened.

"He was right there, Ronnie Lee Gardner. There he was," Ortiz says. "And you're 
thinking, 'Boy, this is it - This is going to happen.' "

Yi was also in the viewing room.

"He was shackled, he had his head restrained, but I remember his eyes looking 
around the room and trying to see who was there," she says. "I know he couldn't 
see through the windows, but I remember that struck me quite a bit."

"And it was so quiet," Ortiz says. "It was so, so quiet."

"There was a hood placed over him, and a target placed over his heart," Yi 
says.

"That was where they were going to shoot," Ortiz says. "There were five 
marksman: They're all volunteers and they're police officer trained."

Of the 5 rifles, 1 is loaded with blanks so that no one knows for sure who 
fired the bullets.

"And so you're just waiting there," Ortiz says. "And then all of a sudden there 
was this, 'boom-boom-boom-boom.'"

"It happened pretty quickly, I think a lot of us were not prepared for when it 
did actually happen," Yi says.

"And then Ronnie Lee Gardner's hands gripping and raising, and then coming back 
down to rest," Ortiz says. "And that's when the medical examiner walked in and 
felt his pulse. And I think it was at 12:17 [a.m.] they pronounced him dead."

Gardner was Utah's most recent execution by any method; the state, notes Robert 
Dunham, executive director at the Death Penalty Information Center, "only 
rarely executes people."

Today, there are nine inmates on Utah's death row. 3 of the inmates, sentenced 
to death prior to 2004, already chose to die by firing squad.

Under the new law, firing squad isn't available at the prisoner's request; 
instead, it depends on the availability of lethal injection drugs. The state 
doesn't currently have any of the drugs on hand.

Just last Wednesday in Utah, Douglas Lovell was sentenced to death for murder. 
If the drugs aren't available when his execution date is set, then under the 
new law, he will be put to death by firing squad.

(source: ideastations.org)








CALIFORNIA:

750 People On Death Row: The Dark Side Of California



California is often portrayed in the media as an idyllic place, but there is a 
dark side to this state.

In particular, California's death row is the largest in the U.S. With no 
executions in nearly a decade and newly condemned men arriving each month, 
there are now more than 750 convicts currently in limbo, awaiting death. And 
there is no more room.

Governor Jerry Brown sees the solution as asking the California legislature for 
$3.2 million to open nearly 100 more cells at San Quentin State Prison. Really, 
Governor Brown? The Governor has included this request in his $113 billion 
budget proposal.

Even though a federal judge ruled last July that the state's slow death row 
system is 'unconstitutionally cruel'?

California's death penalty has been the subject of a decade of legal upheaval 
with one case even leading to a halt in executions in 2006.

Many of us hoped that in November, 2012, California would become the latest 
state to see the light and decide to get rid of capital punishment, but instead 
52 % of California voters cast ballots to keep the death penalty. Nevertheless, 
this slim majority indicates that Californians are growing increasingly 
concerned with the costs and unfairness of the death penalty.

2 years ago, in March 2013, Maryland became the 18th state to abolish the death 
penalty, giving hope to many that the tide is really turning, and the US is no 
longer embracing the death penalty.

Along with China, Iran, North Korea and Yemen, the United States currently 
leads the world in carrying out the most death sentences. What great company we 
are in.

10 Excellent Reasons To Abolish The Death Penalty Now

As Death Penalty Focus explains, there are 10 excellent reasons to end the 
death penalty now:

1. Innocence and the Death Penalty

The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be 
rectified.

2. The High Cost of the Death Penalty

It costs far more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for 
life.

3. Death Penalty Can Prolong Suffering for Victims' Families

Many family members who have lost love ones to murder feel that the death 
penalty will not heal their wounds nor will it end their pain; the extended 
legal process prior to executions can prolong the agony experienced by the 
victims??? families.

4. International Views on the Death Penalty

The vast majority of countries in Western Europe, North America and South 
America - more than 139 nations worldwide - have abandoned capital punishment 
in law or in practice.

5. Inadequate Legal Representation

Perhaps the most important factor in determining whether a defendant will 
receive the death penalty is the quality of the representation he or she is 
provided.

6. Deterrence

Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions 
deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences.

7. Arbitrariness in the Application of the Death Penalty

Politics, quality of legal counsel and the jurisdiction where a crime is 
committed are more often the determining factors in a death penalty case than 
the facts of the crime itself.

8. Religious Perspectives on the Death Penalty

Although isolated passages of religious scripture have been quoted in support 
of the death penalty, almost all religious groups in the United States regard 
executions as immoral.

9. Racial Disparities

The race of the victim and the race of the defendant in capital cases are major 
factors in determining who is sentenced to die in this country.

10. Alternatives to the Death Penalty

In every state that retains the death penalty, jurors have the option of 
sentencing convicted capital murderers to life in prison without the 
possibility of parole. The sentence is cheaper to tax-payers and keeps violent 
offenders off the streets for good.

Death Row In California

The legal fight of capital punishment has meant that California has not put an 
inmate to death in nearly 10 years. That's when a court invalidated the state's 
3-drug lethal injection system. Since then, no new protocols have been 
developed.

Governor Brown's budget proposal anticipates an average of 20 new arrivals on 
death row yearly and he proposes putting them in 97 cells on the first 2 tiers 
of the 5-tier South Block at San Quentin. If approved, the expansion would 
begin in July.

Deliberately taking another person's life is not justice, but nothing more than 
a crude instrument of revenge. It is a cruel and degrading punishment, and the 
US should banish the death penalty now.

Please, Governor Brown, reconsider your decision.

(source: Judy Molland, care2com)






USA:

Lawyers for Donald Fell prepare for death penalty retrial----Fell faces death 
penalty retrial for 2000 death of woman



A man who spent nearly a decade on federal death row is going to be back in a 
Vermont courtroom while attorneys prepare for another death penalty trial.

Last year a federal judge ordered a new trial for Donald Fell after it was 
revealed that one of the jurors in the original 2005 trial had investigated the 
details of the case on his own. The 34-year-old Fell was sentenced to death for 
the 2000 killing of 53-year-old Terry King, of North Clarendon, who was 
abducted when she arrived for work at a Rutland supermarket. Fell had offered 
to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole, but the deal 
never materialized.

A pretrial hearing is set for April 10 in Burlington.

(source: WPTZ news)