[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., OHIO, MO.

[Rick Halperin]

April 14



PENNSYLVANIA:

Pennsylvania DAs take aim at Wolf's death penalty moratorium


Pennsylvania's prosecutors are warning Gov. Tom Wolf's death penalty moratorium 
could affect plea bargains and how judges and juries view executions.

The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association released a friend-of-the-court 
brief Tuesday that said the Democratic governor has misinterpreted the term 
"reprieve," arguing his moratorium violates the state constitution.

The prosecutors say reprieves can only halt a criminal sentence for a defined 
period of time and for a reason that relates specifically to a particular 
convict.

Wolf announced the moratorium in February, suspending plans to execute Terrance 
Williams for a 1984 robbery and fatal tire-iron beating of another man in 
Philadelphia.

The governor argues the current system is error-prone and expensive. He plans 
to issue reprieves while a legislative committee prepares a report about the 
state's use of capital punishment.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO----new execution date (2017)

Ohio Supreme Court sets execution date for man on death row nearly 3 decades


The Ohio Supreme Court set an execution date Tuesday for Melvin Bonnell Jr., a 
man sentenced to die nearly 3 decades ago for a murder he committed in 
Cleveland.

In a 6-1 decision, the court ordered that Bonnell, 57, is to be executed Oct. 
18, 2017. Justice William O'Neill, who objects to the death penalty as 
unconstitutional, dissented.

Bonnell was convicted of shooting and killing 23-year-old Robert Bunner in 1986 
in Bunner's apartment.

Bonnell has exhausted his state and federal appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court 
declined to take up his case in 2007.

In 2009, the results of DNA testing indicated the victim was the source of 
blood on Bonnell's jacket, the Associated Press reported.

Bonnell will be one of 17 inmates scheduled for execution beginning next year.

Executions have been on hold in the state since January 2014, when murderer 
Dennis McGuire took an unexpectedly long 25 minutes to die from a controversial 
2-drug cocktail of midazolam and hydromorphone.

A federal judge ordered a temporary moratorium on Ohio executions that expired 
in January. By then state officials announced they would turn to 2 other drugs, 
sodium thiopental and pentobarbital, but that executions will be delayed until 
next year to give the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction time to 
secure a supply of those drugs

In December, state lawmakers passed legislation shielding the identities of 
small-scale drug manufacturers that sell execution drugs to the state.

The 1st death-row inmate set to die under the revised schedule is Akron killer 
Ronald Phillips, convicted of the 1993 rape and beating death of a 3-year-old 
girl. His execution, now set for Jan. 21, 2016, had previously been scheduled 
to take place next month.

(source: cleveland.com)

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

Exonerated men speak out against death penalty, urge change


6 men who spent 207 years on death row for crimes it was ultimately shown they 
did not commit spoke against capital punishment this morning at the Statehouse.

The former inmates, now free after being exonerated in court, spoke in 
conjunction with Ohioans to Stop Executions which is pushing a campaign to 
either "fix" or end the death penalty. They are urging lawmakers to accept 
recommendations made last year by an Ohio Supreme Court task force on the death 
penalty.

Kwame Ajamu, Joe D'Ambrosio, Ricky Jackson, Derrick Jamison, Dale Johnston and 
Wiley Bridgeman were the former inmates who spoke at a press conference.

Johnston, who was sentenced to death in 1984 for killing his stepdaughter and 
her boyfriend, was exonerated in 1990.

"I wasn't wrongfully convicted. I was intentionally framed."

Several of the men shed tears as they spoke of decades spent in prison for 
crimes they didn't commit.

Ricky Jackson, a Cleveland man freed last November after 39 years, said death 
row "isn't a place fit for human beings. If we did this to canines, people 
would be in an uproar. But we do this to human beings every day."

Kwame Ahamu, also of Cleveland who was prosecuted for the same 1975 murder as 
Jackson, said time stands still in prison.

"You don't know how much you missed out on until you've been out in the world."

Asked if any amount of money could compensate them for the years they lost, all 
6 men said "no."

Rep. Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood, a death penalty opponent, also spoke.

Ohio has not had an execution since Jan. 16, 2014, when Dennis McGuire was put 
to death using a previously untried, 2-drug combination. McGuire gasped and 
struggled against his restraints during the 20-minute process.

Executions have since been halted by a combination of orders from a federal 
judge and Gov. John Kasich's clemency decisions. The next execution is 
scheduled for January next year.

The General Assembly passed and Kasich signed a new law late last year which 
authorizes the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to buy drugs 
under secret contracts from small "compounding pharmacies" which mix drugs to 
customer specifications.

(source: Columbus Dispatch)






MISSOURI----impending execution

Judge halts Missouri execution, decision quickly appealed


A district judge agreed to halt the lethal injection of a Missouri death-row 
inmate, but the decision was quickly appealed to a federal appeals court just 
hours ahead of the execution scheduled for Tuesday evening. Andre Cole, 52, was 
sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a man in St. Louis County in a fit of 
anger over having to pay child support in 1998. His execution is scheduled for 
6 p.m.

Although similar arguments were rejected by the Missouri Supreme Court last 
week, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry ruled late Monday that Cole was 
incompetent to be executed because of mental illness.

"He hears voices over the TV, over the prison intercom. Everywhere," Cole's 
attorney, Joseph Luby, told The Associated Press. He said Cole believes that 
Gov. Jay Nixon, prosecutors and others "are giving him messages about his 
case."

But the Missouri Attorney General's Office quickly appealed to the 8th U.S. 
Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing there was no legal reason for the judge to 
overturn the Missouri Supreme Court ruling that allowed the execution to 
proceed.

Regardless of the appellate court's ruling, the case will likely be appealed to 
the U.S. Supreme Court. Cole's attorneys have already asked the high court to 
stop the execution based in part on concerns over Missouri's execution drug, 
which was purchased from a compounding pharmacy that the state refuses to 
identify.

Several outside groups, including the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties 
Union, are pushing Nixon to stop the execution and appoint a board to examine 
concerns about racial bias in Missouri's jury selection process. Cole, who is 
black, was convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury.

"The criminal justice system in this country is unfair," said Jeffrey Mittman, 
executive director of the ACLU in St. Louis. "It targets persons of color. It 
treats the African-American community differently."

Nixon's spokesman said the clemency petition was under review.

Cole's brother said the brutal crime was out of character, a sudden act of 
passion that doesn't merit the death penalty.

"It was a 1-time thing," said DeAngelo Cole, 38, of Las Vegas. "He didn't have 
a history of that kind of behavior."

Cole and his wife, Terri, divorced in 1995. The couple had 2 children and 
fought about visitation. Evidence showed that Andre Cole was upset that the 
government had ordered $3,000 in unpaid child support to be taken from his 
wages over the course of several paychecks.

The 1st deduction appeared on his paycheck dated Aug. 21, 1998. Hours later, 
Cole forced his way into his ex-wife's home and was confronted by Anthony 
Curtis, who was visiting. Andre Cole stabbed Curtis and Terri Cole repeatedly. 
Curtis died, while Terri Cole survived.

Andre Cole fled the state but surrendered 33 days later. He claimed at trial 
that he did not bring a weapon into Terri Cole's house and that Curtis 
initiated the attack with a knife.

St. Louis County prosecutors removed three black potential jurors from the pool 
of candidates, according to Cole's supporters. Mittman said one black man was 
removed because he was divorced, but a white juror was not removed even though 
he was paying child support.

(source: Associated Press)