[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 26



TEXAS----new execution date

Gustavo Garcia has been given an execution for Feb. 16, 2016; it should be 
considered serious.


Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----10

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----528

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

11---------September 29-------------Perry Williams--------529

12---------October 6----------------Juan Garcia-----------530

13---------October 14---------------Licho Escamilla-------531

14---------October 28---------------Christopher Wilkins---532

15---------November 3---------------Julius Murphy---------533

16---------November 18--------------Raphael Holiday-------534

17---------January 20 (2016)-----Richard Masterson--------535

18---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------536

19---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------537

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






GEORGIA:

Warner Robins man wins battle to leave death row


A Warner Robins man fighting to leave death row won that battle Wednesday.

Roger Collins, who was the second longest-serving inmate on Georgia's death row 
in early 2015, was resentenced in Houston County Superior Court by Judge George 
Nunn to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The resentencing followed mental evaluations requested by both the prosecution 
and defense attorneys that found Collins suffers from mental retardation. The 
law prohibits the execution of mentally retarded people.

The option of a life sentence without parole was not an option for the court.

The former Warner Robins city sanitation worker was under a death sentence for 
nearly 38 years. At least twice his execution was ordered but then stayed.

Collins was convicted and sentenced to death for the Aug. 6, 1977, rape and 
slaying of a 17-year-old girl in a pecan orchard near Kathleen. He was 18 then.

He was convicted of bludgeoning DeLores Luster with a car bumper jack after he 
and another man raped her at knifepoint. William Durham, who was dating 
Collins' mother at the time, was sentenced to life for the murder and rape. A 
3rd man, Johnny Styles, who waited in the car after the rape while Luster was 
killed, was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.

Collins originally told Houston County sheriff's investigators that he and 
Durham both struck Luster with the jack but later told authorities he confessed 
to that because Durham told him to, and he never struck her. He admitted to 
dropping the jack out of a moving car afterward and discarding her clothes in a 
convenience store dumpster, according to his statement included in the case 
file in Houston County Superior Court.

In 1991, a Butts County Superior Court judge remanded the case to Houston 
County Superior Court on the mental retardation issue after a forensic 
psychologist found that Collins had an IQ of 66. But a trial to determine 
whether Collins was mentally disabled never took place.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of mentally retarded 
people but left up to each state how determinations of mental capacity are 
made. Georgia is the only state that requires the defense to prove mental 
retardation beyond a reasonable doubt. The standard has stood up under appeal.

Collins' case languished for more than 20 years until Decatur-based Watchdogs 
for Justice petitioned the Attorney General's Office in September 2012 to 
intervene. The nonprofit group asked that the death penalty be vacated for a 
life sentence with the possibility of parole.

In January 2013, Houston County Chief Deputy Assistant District Attorney Dan 
Bibler wrote a letter to Nunn about the need to get the case moving and 
requested a new psychiatric evaluation of Collins. State attorneys who 
represent people charged in capital cases mounted a defense to prevent 
prosecutors from challenging Collins' 1991 diagnosis of mental retardation and 
asked Nunn to vacate the death sentence for a life sentence with the 
possibility of parole. Nunn declined. The prosecution???s mental evaluation was 
completed in late July of this year.

"A diagnosis of mental retardation ... is based on significant deficits in 
intellectual and adaptive functioning, which are evident beginning in childhood 
or adolescence," according to the evaluation performed for the prosecution, 
which was included in the court record.

Bibler said Wednesday that while Collins was convicted of a brutal murder, the 
prosecution has to abide by the law, which prohibits the execution of a person 
deemed mentally retarded.

"I have no misgivings about it," Bibler said.

Amber Pittman, the lead capital defender representing Collins, could not be 
reached for comment.

(source: Macon Telegraph)






NEBRASKA:

Death penalty supporters turn over 166,000 signatures

Death penalty supporters turned in petitions Wednesday to the Secretary of 
State's office to be verified. They say the have almost 167,000 signatures, 
enough to suspend repeal and put death penalty before voters next year.

It appears voters in Nebraska will have the final say on the future of the 
death penalty.

Supporters of the death penalty in Nebraska said they turned over 166,692 
petition signatures Wednesday, which if verified, would suspend the repeal of 
capital punishment in the state until the issue goes before voters in November 
2016.

Nebraskans for the Death Penalty needed about 57,000 verified signatures -- 5 
% of the state's registered voters -- to put the issue to a vote and about 
114,000 -- 10 % of registered voters -- to stop the repeal from going into 
effect until after the 2016 vote takes place.

Standing in front of boxes and boxes of signed petitions at a Wednesday news 
conference, state Sen. Mike Groene said Nebraskans -- the 2nd house -- will 
now have their say.

State Treasurer Don Stenberg, state Sen. Beau McCoy, and Vivian Tuttle, mother 
of Evonne Tuttle, who was killed in 2002 during a bank robbery in Norfolk, were 
at the news conference. Stenberg and McCoy co-chaired the petition drive. 
Groene, of North Platte, and Tuttle said they gathered more than 1,700 and 
1,900 signatures, respectively.

Groene said people "flocked" to sign petitions.

The group began collecting signatures June 6, and paid circulators and 
volunteers spent every day since circulating petitions in all counties across 
the state. McCoy said over 1/2 of the 595 petition circulators were volunteers.

Organizers of the petition drive said they expected to have no problem meeting 
the additional threshold of signatures from 5 % of registered voters in at 
least 38 counties. Petitions, they said, include signatures from 10 % of 
registered voters in 70 of the state's 93 counties.

In May, Nebraska made international headlines when the Legislature voted 30-19 
to override Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto of LB268, introduced by Omaha Sen. Ernie 
Chambers, which repealed the death penalty. The count included votes to repeal 
cast by senators who identify as conservative. One of the senators who worked 
hard to gather repeal votes in the Legislature was Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash, 
who identifies himself as a conservative Republican, and who is also Catholic.

Ricketts and his father, Joe Ricketts, have been reported as the largest 
individual financial contributors to the campaign, which had raised $652,000 by 
the end of July, as reported to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure 
Commission. At the last filing with the commission, the governor and his father 
had contributed at least $300,000.

The Judicial Crisis Network, a group committed to the U.S. Constitution and to 
limited government, contributed $200,000 on July 27.

Nebraskans for Public Safety, which favors repeal of the death penalty, had 
raised $433,500 as of the end of July. About $400,000 of that came from the 
Proteus Action League of Amherst, Massachusetts, a civil rights and social 
action advocacy group.

Another group, Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, is closely 
monitoring the initial results of the death penalty referendum 
signature-gathering campaign and will await an official decision from the 
Nebraska Secretary of State's office, the group said in a news release.

"Just like the legislators they elected, we believe the more Nebraskans learn 
about the failures of capital punishment, the more they will be inclined to get 
rid of it," said the Rev. Stephen Griffith, incoming executive director of the 
organization.

Griffith said that while it looks like the pro-death penalty group got 
signatures from 10 % of registered voters, it appears to have failed to attract 
broad-based financial support because Gov. Pete Ricketts, his father and a 
handful of their associates provided the bulk of funds.

"It is evident that grassroots Nebraskans have already rejected the death 
penalty with their pocketbooks," Griffith said.

During the next 14 months, he said, Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death 
Penalty will continue to do what it has done for 3 decades: Have conversations 
with Nebraskans across the political spectrum about why capital punishment has 
failed in the state.

Matt Maly, coordinator for Nebraska Conservatives Concerned About the Death 
Penalty, said he's sure Nebraskans who learn about capital punishment will turn 
against it.

"Once our state's Second House learns all of the facts, we are confident they 
too will reject our broken death penalty," Maly said.

The petitions will go to Secretary of State John Gale's office, where they will 
be counted, separated by county and numbered, and then sent to local officials 
for verification.

Local election officials in each county will verify whether the signer is a 
registered voter. Each signature will be compared with voter registration 
records.

Those officials must return the verified petitions to the secretary of state 
within 40 days after receiving them, although an additional 10 days can be 
granted in unusual circumstances. The secretary of state will then review the 
petitions and total the number of valid signatures. If there are sufficient 
valid signatures, he will certify the measure for the general election ballot.

Attorney General Doug Peterson will write the ballot question or title that 
summarizes in 100 words or less the purpose of the measure. He will also 
provide material that explains the effect of a vote for or against the measure 
to appear on the ballot.

If the language is not challenged in court, a pamphlet written and produced by 
the secretary of state that contains the ballot title and arguments for and 
against the measure will be made available to voters at least 6 weeks prior to 
the election.

Public hearings on the measure will be conducted in each congressional district 
within 8 weeks prior to the election.

(source: Lincoln Journal Star)