[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., NEB., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 18



OKLAHOMA:

Oklahoma governor signs 'foolproof' nitrogen gas execution method----The state 
is the 1st to approve nitrogen-induced hypoxia for use on death-row inmates, 
which supporters says is 'painless' despite lack of human testing



Oklahoma became the 1st US state to approve nitrogen gas for executions under a 
measure Governor Mary Fallin signed into law Friday that provides an 
alternative death penalty method if lethal injections aren't possible, either 
because of a court ruling or a drug shortage.

Executions are on hold in Oklahoma while the US supreme court considers whether 
the state's current 3-drug method of lethal injection is constitutional. 
Supporters of the new law maintain nitrogen-induced hypoxia is a humane and 
painless method of execution that requires no medical expertise to perform.

"Oklahoma executes murderers whose crimes are especially heinous," Fallin said 
in a statement announcing that she had signed the bill into law.

"I support that policy, and I believe capital punishment must be performed 
effectively and without cruelty. The bill I signed today gives the state of 
Oklahoma another death penalty option that meets that standard."

The bill authored by Republican representative Mike Christian and Republican 
senator Anthony Sykes had passed the state House on an 85-10 vote and cleared 
the Senate on a 41-0 vote.

There are no reports of nitrogen gas ever being used to execute humans, and 
critics say that one concern is that the method is untested. Some states even 
ban its use to put animals to sleep.

But supporters of Oklahoma's plan argue that nitrogen-induced hypoxia - or a 
lack of oxygen in the blood - is a humane execution method.

"The process is fast and painless," said Christian, a former Oklahoma Highway 
Patrol trooper who wrote the bill. "It's foolproof."

Opponents say there's no way to know whether the method is painless and 
effective.

"It just hasn't been tried, so we don't know," said Represenative Emily Virgin, 
a Democrat from Norman who opposes the death penalty.

The changes come after a botched execution last year in which Oklahoma was 
using a new sedative as the 1st in a 3-drug combination. State officials tried 
to halt the lethal injection after the inmate writhed on the gurney and moaned. 
He died 43 minutes after the process began.

The problematic execution was blamed on a poorly placed intravenous line and 
prompted a lawsuit from Oklahoma death-row inmates, who argue that the state's 
new drug combination presents a serious risk of pain and suffering. The US 
supreme court is scheduled to hear arguments later this month.

Under the new law, lethal injection would remain the state's 1st choice for 
executions and nitrogen gas would be its 1st backup method - ahead of the 
electric chair, which the state hasn't used since 1966, and a firing squad, 
which has never been used in Oklahoma.

(source: The Guardian)








NEBRASKA:

Nebraska might repeal death penalty due to drug shortage



Nebraska is considering repealing the death penalty amid a shortage of lethal 
injection drugs, with legislation to eliminate capital punishment clearing a 
major hurdle Thursday.

Lawmakers voted 30-13 to advance the bill that would replace capital punishment 
with life imprisonment in first-degree murder cases. If that support holds, 
death penalty opponents would have enough votes to override Republican Gov. 
Pete Ricketts' promised veto.

A coalition of Republicans who voted for the bill cast the death penalty as a 
wasteful and bungling government program, but Ricketts released a statement 
urging them to reconsider.

Nebraska hasn't executed anyone since 1997 and has no way to carry out 
sentences for the 11 men sitting on death row because its supply of sodium 
thiopental, an anesthetic that's part of its execution protocol, expired in 
December 2013. Ricketts and Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson have 
vowed to find a solution, but the Department of Correctional Services has yet 
to obtain a new supply.

Death penalty states across the nation have been forced to find new drugs and 
new suppliers because pharmaceutical companies, many of which of which are 
based in Europe, have stopped selling them for executions. Some states are 
looking at alternatives. Tennessee passed a law last year to reinstate the 
electric chair if it can't get lethal injection drugs, and Utah has reinstated 
the firing squad as a backup method.

In Oklahoma, lawmakers have sent the governor a bill that would allow the state 
to use nitrogen gas hypoxia. That comes as executions there are on hold while 
the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether the state's three-drug method of 
lethal injection is constitutional. Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, 
Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming joined Alabama in 
a court filing Wednesday urging the court to uphold the use of the sedative 
midazolam in executions.

If Nebraska's repeal passes, the state would join 6 others that have abolished 
the death penalty since 2000. The Delaware Senate voted last month to end 
capital punishment, but the bill faces an uphill battle in the House.

The Nebraska vote reflects a growing sentiment among some conservative 
residents that the state will never execute an inmate again.

"The question of the death penalty has been moving from one of whether you find 
it morally justifiable to one of whether you trust the government to carry it 
out properly," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty 
Information Center, a group that is critical of how the death penalty is 
carried out.

The bill must advance through two more rounds of voting in the one-house, 
nonpartisan Legislature, and death penalty supporters are still working to 
block the legislation.

"I would say that those who favor getting rid of the death penalty have a long 
ways to go until they're going to have this bill cross the finish line," Sen. 
Beau McCoy of Omaha, an outspoken death penalty supporter, said.

Death penalty supporters peppered Thursday's debate with tales of gruesome 
killings, calling the death penalty a just response to crimes such as a 2002 
bank robbery in Norfolk in which five people were killed.

"Our days are numbered, and when you're a criminal who commits a crime, you 
have numbered your days and that warrants the death penalty," said Sen. Mike 
Groene of North Platte.

Most Americans still favor the death penalty for prisoners convicted of murder, 
but the support has reached a 40-year low, according to a survey released 
Thursday by the Pew Research Center. The survey found that 56 % of people 
support the death penalty in cases of murder, while 38 % remain opposed.

The sponsor of the Nebraska measure, Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, has fought 
for 4 decades to abolish capital punishment. The Legislature passed a repeal 
measure once, in 1979, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Charles Thone.

(source: Associated Press)








CALIFORNIA:

Former Marine charged in murder of dismembered companion in Panama



A former U.S. Marine was charged on Friday with murdering a woman who went 
missing in 2011 after traveling with him to Panama and whose dismembered 
remains were found in the remote jungle 2 years later.

Brian Brimager, 37, is accused in a federal grand jury indictment of killing 
and dismembering 42-year-old Yvonne Baldelli and then engaging in an elaborate 
cover-up of the crime that included sending emails from the dead woman's 
account to her friends and family members.

Brimager pleaded innocent during a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Diego. 
His attorney could not be reached for comment.

Family members of the slain woman said after the hearing that they were 
grateful to prosecutors for "finding a way to charge" Brimager with the murder.

"He put a lot of effort and energy into getting away with this," Baldelli's 
sister, Michelle Faust, told Reuters in an interview. "My sister did not 
deserve to be murdered and thrown away like trash."

According to the indictment, Brimager and Baldelli moved together in September 
2011 from Los Angeles to the Panamanian archipelago of Bocas del Toro, where 
they rented a room in a hostel on Isla Carenero.

Soon after arriving there, Brimager began emailing with another woman, the 
mother of his young daughter, to discuss moving back to California, prosecutors 
say, and he physically abused Baldelli, leaving her with bruises on her arms 
and around her eyes.

Brimager is accused in the indictment of murdering Baldelli in November 2011, 
dismembering her body and disposing of the parts in a remote jungle area of the 
island, before destroying evidence and sending the misleading emails.

He is also accused of withdrawing money from her bank account, using ATMs in 
Costa Rica to suggest that she had traveled there.

The indictment alleges that Brimager tried to dispose of the bloody mattress 
involved in Baldelli's murder, conducting Internet searches to find out how to 
clean a bloody mattress.

Brimager has been in federal custody since June 2013, when he was charged with 
making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If convicted of 
the murder charge, he could face the death penalty.

(source: canoe.ca)

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

2nd Smoking Gun Of Prosecutorial Team Cheating Emerges In Death Penalty Case



We reported earlier this week ("Dial Eme For Murder," April 15) that the Orange 
County district attorney's office (OCDA) won a 2007 death penalty case after 
hiding a key piece of evidence that would have undermined the government's 
trial position. Prosecutor Dan Wagner argued defendant Anthony R. Navarro, a 
Mexican Mafia associate and a prolific FBI informant, ordered 3 gang soldiers 
to carry out an October 2002 hit near Knott's Berry Farm. Navarro said he 
couldn't have commanded the soldiers because the gang wanted him dead for being 
a snitch, an assertion Wagner mocked as a "ridiculous" lie.

The prosecutor wasn't just wrong; law enforcement possessed evidence proving 
the error. Nearly two months before successfully asking jurors to impose death, 
government agents recovered the Mexican Mafia's secret "hard candy" list, which 
recorded the names of individuals the gang wanted murdered on sight, including 
Navarro, a.k.a. "Droopy." In a flagrant violation of ethics, officials hid that 
document from the defense, Judge Francisco P. Briseno and a jury of 7 men and 4 
woman. The 48-year-old defendant now lives on San Quentin State Prison's death 
row hoping the state Supreme Court will someday overturn his conviction.

But the Weekly has learned Wagner's prosecution of Navarro, his only death 
penalty victory before taking over the OCDA's homicide unit, cheated the 
defense of a second piece of critical exculpatory evidence: a letter written by 
Armando Macias, one of the gang soldiers that killed victim David Montemayor 
and months later used shanks in a murder attempt on Navarro inside a Fullerton 
courthouse holding cell.

Wagner told the jury the February 2003 shanking incident had nothing to do with 
Navarro being a snitch. He opined that the soldiers learned Navarro tricked 
them into carrying out the Montemayor hit by pretending Eme ordered it and they 
wanted him dead without input from gang leadership. If the hard candy list blew 
a hole in the prosecutor's stance, the Macias letter, copied by sheriff's 
deputies before it was mailed from the jail, gutted it.

Expressing intense anger while writing to a female gang associate in Sept. 
2003, Macias said that neither he nor any other Mexican Mafia-tied hoodlums in 
the custody of the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) had been able to 
kill Navarro. He didn't mention anything that supported the theory Wagner would 
use four years later at trial, but the contents definitely supported the 
defendant's story. In fact, Macias called Navarro a "jackass rat" and, annoyed 
his target was "still roaming around," described that he was "pulling my hair 
out" to figure out ways to kill him.

Like the hard candy list, the Macias letter remained hidden from the trial. But 
the two pieces of information share another similar fate. More than three years 
after OCDA put Navarro on death row, prosecutors decided the list and the 
letter aided their death penalty cases against Montemayor killers Macias and 
Alberto Martinez, and--voila!--the documents were introduced. This chain of 
events supports the contention by the Orange County Public Defenders Office and 
local defense lawyers that the prosecution can't be trusted to obey rules 
requiring the surrender of evidence that helps defendants.

Wagner, who says he can't recall why evidence wasn't turned over to Navarro, 
isn't new to this mess. Under his guidance, another death penalty case, People 
vs. Scott Dekraai, got officially marred. In March, Superior Court Judge Thomas 
M. Goethals ruled that 2 sheriff's deputies, Seth Tunstall and Ben Garcia, 
who'd been working in league with Wagner, repeatedly committed perjury and hid 
evidence from the Dekraai defense led by Scott Sanders. Goethals was so alarmed 
by the cheating that he recused OCDA from the case, an unprecedented move in 
county history. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas hasn't appeared interested in 
holding the badged liars accountable by filing charges.

Already embarrassed this year in Baca vs. Adams for defending the Riverside 
County DA's office using perjury to win a murder case, Kamala Harris' 
California Attorney General's office has chosen the same soiled route in 
Dekraai. Harris' office sided with OCDA that Goethals stance against the 
cheating was at best, from their perspective, erroneous and at worst an 
overreaction to meaningless misconduct. She is asking an appellate court to 
reinstate Rackauckas for the penalty phase of the case. The appeal could take 
several years to resolve.

Rackauckas is meanwhile pretending his office hasn't worked itself into a 
self-inflicted crisis that's winning increasing national attention. The 
problem, he says, isn't a lack of ethics. It's just erroneous public perception 
about an office that deserves budget increases. He recently told reporters his 
image woes can be erased if somebody "independent" double checks and rejects 
Goethals' findings. Lately, he's been holding press conferences underscoring 
his commitment to law and order policies.

On Thursday, UC Irvine School of Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky--one of the most 
credible legal names in the region--penned a guest OC Register editorial, "Big 
Problems at the DA's Office." Chemerinsky summarized opinions contained in this 
publication for last 14 months. "Systematic misconduct" by Rackauckas' office 
"is deeply disturbing and indicates that major reforms are needed," he wrote. 
Chemerinsky is calling for the creation of "an independent, blue-ribbon 
commission with full investigatory powers to examine the OCDA's office."

Rackauckas' reaction? It wasn't precisely a yawn. The 72-year-old, 5-term DA 
has adopted a run-out-the-clock strategy hoping time will alleviate pressure to 
enact reforms. Yesterday, he summoned reporters to his Santa Ana headquarters 
to celebrate for a third time this month his toughness in a PR goldmine case 
involving a 19-year-old pedophile. He has scheduled another press conference 
today to repeat his 2012-stated stance against parole for a man convicted in a 
triple murder 38 years ago. But the big question is: What other ugly 
revelations are coming?

(source: Orange County Register)








USA:

Birmingham attorney takes fight against death penalty in U.S. to the United 
Nations



Birmingham lawyer Lisa Borden opposes the death penalty. One of her worst fears 
is the prospect that one day she will have to watch a client executed.

Borden, who oversees the pro bono programs at the firm of Baker Donelson, has 
been involved in the appeals of 5 death row inmates. She also has filed briefs 
on behalf of groups fighting against executions.

But recently she found another way to help condemned inmates - she asked other 
nations to bring pressure on the United States to make changes to death penalty 
policies.

Borden was among 12 representatives from The Advocates For Human Rights, a 
non-profit group from Minnesota, that traveled in late March to the U.N. 
offices in Geneva Switzerland to participate in the U.N.'s "Universal Periodic 
Review."

The U.N. created the 'Universal Periodic Review" in 2006 as a way to review the 
human rights records of all 193 member nations. Each nation's human rights 
records are reviewed every 4 years.

During the process other nations are allowed to recommend changes the nation 
under review should make. The United States' next review is May 11. The U.S. 
can accept, reject, or just note the recommendations made by other countries.

In preparation for the reviews, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 
including The Advocates For Human Rights, are afforded an opportunity to submit 
reports and lobby the delegates of member nations on what recommendations they 
should make, in this case, to the United States.

Borden was the only one of the 12 with The Advocates for Human Rights to focus 
on the U.S. death penalty issues. Her firm had worked with the group on death 
penalty issues before. The others in the group focused on other issues.

Before the trip, Borden says, she had never thought before about ways to use 
international pressure to make changes to death penalty laws in the United 
States. "It sort of opened my eyes to a new avenue of maybe advancing the 
ball," she said.

During the week Borden said she would approach delegates from pre-identified 
target countries, hand them a one-page synopsis of proposed recommendations and 
ask if they would meet in the U.N.'s Serpentine Lounge. The meetings would 
usually last between five and 30 minutes, she said.

"It was awesome. It was a really amazing experience," Borden said.

Delegates she met with were from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, 
the Netherlands, Morocco, the United Kingdom, Paraguay, Portugal, and the Holy 
See (Vatican). None of those nations have the death penalty.

"You're not going to get a recommendation if they have the death penalty 
themselves," Borden said. "We're focusing on the countries we expect to be 
supportive of our position and we hope will step out and make recommendations 
(to the U.S.)."

European countries are particularly opposed to the death penalty, Borden said. 
"They're frankly horrified by what goes on here," she said.

Responses from delegates ranged from "very enthusiastic to polite," Borden 
said.

Borden said the goal is to "advance the ball" as much as they can on several 
issues regarding the death penalty.

Issues/Recommendations

"Obviously, we welcome and encourage recommendations to abolish the death 
penalty or a moratorium," Borden said.

But while a nation may oppose the United States' use of the death penalty, they 
may not want to use their precious time at next month's meeting to make such a 
recommendation on the topic, Borden said. "The countries are looking for 
something the U.S. might actually listen to," she said.

Delegates from all the countries will have a total of 3 1/2 hours to stand up 
and make recommendations to the U.S. - giving each nation only a few minutes to 
address any human rights topics. "It has to be laser focused," she said.

They're frankly horrified by what goes on here" Lisa Borden on European 
reaction to U.S. death penalty

One issue that that seemed to catch the interest of delegates is a proposed 
recommendation to have federal prosecutors stop seeking executions in states 
and territories where the death penalty has been abolished, Borden said.

For example, federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the Boston 
Marathon bomber case. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty.

Federal prosecutors' use of the death penalty is no starker than in the U.S. 
territory of Puerto Rico where they seek the death penalty 3-1/2 times more 
often than in the rest of United States, Borden said. Puerto Rico abolished the 
death penalty in 1929.

Since Puerto Rico has an almost entirely Hispanic population "we think that's a 
significant concern," Borden said.

Halting federal executions in non-death penalty states would only require an 
executive order from the President of the United States, Borden said. Such an 
order shouldn't be a problem for those states that don't have the death penalty 
or those who are in favor of states' rights, she said.

"The federal government would simply be respecting that state's authority," 
Borden said.

Among the other possible recommendations Borden talked to delegates about 
included adoption of:

-- Federal laws to ensure lethal injections are carried out via well-tested 
procedures that do not cause necessary pain, with full oversight and 
transparency of types and sources of drugs and using drugs approved by the Food 
and Drug Administration.

-- Procedures to provide full and fair representation for defendants and 
prevent or mitigate negative effects of inadequate DNA testing and eyewitness 
misidentifications.

-- Compensation laws for exonerated inmates to provide at least $100,000 per 
year on death row, without taxation or legal fees.

-- Laws providing exonerated death row inmates services, including housing, 
transportation, healthcare, employment, and education assistance.

Another recommendation delegates were asked to consider is asking the U.S. 
government to undertake studies to identify the root causes of ethnic and 
racial disparities with imposition of the death penalty.

Statistically, the most likely candidates for being sent to death row are 
African American defendants charged with killing white victims, Borden said. 
Another factor is being poor, she said.

Also, killers with money and good attorneys are less likely to be charged with 
a death penalty eligible offense, Borden said. "For me the issue is that the 
people who can't afford appropriate representation get railroaded onto death 
row," she said.

Borden says that early in her career she probably could have envisioned a 
scenario where the death penalty was appropriate for a convicted murderer. "But 
I can't say that now for 2 reasons," she said.

First, the reason most condemned inmates are sitting on death row is because 
they grew up in abject poverty and as children were victims of mental or sexual 
abuse with no treatment or support, Borden said. "Yet at the end of the day we 
say they are entirely responsible for what happened," she said.

Second, there are so many flaws in the judicial process that there are likely 
innocent people on death row awaiting execution, Borden said. "I don't see how 
we can put ourselves in the position that we have a process so reliable that we 
can kill people and feel confident about that," she said.

(source: al.com)

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

Census Bureau shooting suspect charged with guard's murder, could face death 
penalty



A man accused of killing a U.S. Census Bureau guard during a crime spree in and 
around the D.C. area has been charged with murder and other federal offenses, 
prosecutors said.

Ronald Anderson was charged in a criminal complaint on Friday in the April 9 
abduction, chase and gunfire that killed Lawrence Buckner.

The charges include kidnapping, murder, using and discharging a firearm during 
a crime of violence, and causing death by use of a firearm during a crime of 
violence.

The U.S. attorney's office said Anderson, 48, could face the death penalty if 
convicted.

The criminal complaint offers details about what happened that differ from 
reports issued by police immediately following the chaotic crime spree.

According to the complaint, on April 9, Anderson kidnapped a woman and drove 
her to his apartment complex in Suitland, Maryland. The woman was able to 
escape and jump into a car driven by a second woman whom Anderson had asked to 
meet him there.

The 2 women drove away, and Anderson chased them, according to the complaint, 
which said the women pulled into Census Bureau headquarters because the driver 
knew armed guards were stationed there. They crashed into a light pole near 
Buckner and a 2nd guard.

The complaint outlines the remaining sequence of events as follows:

Anderson pulled up behind the crashed car and got out, carrying a gun. He 
exchanged gunfire with Buckner, hitting the guard in the chest. Anderson then 
shot at a 2nd security guard, but missed, before jumping back into his car and 
driving away. Buckner, 59, was taken to a local hospital, where he was 
pronounced dead.

In D.C., Metropolitan Police saw the suspect's car and began following 
Anderson, who fired several shots at them during the chase. When his car 
stopped, he continued to shoot at officers, who returned fire. Anderson was hit 
several times, and a police officer was struck in the leg.

Prosecutors said Anderson is still being treated for his unidentified injuries, 
and no appearances in federal court have been scheduled.

In addition to the murder charge, Anderson has been charged with kidnapping and 
assault on a police officer in the District.

(source: WJLA news)