[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., ALA., MO.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 31



TEXAS:

Hall Murder Trial Now Expected to Start Wednesday


The trial of an accused College Station killer that has seen a number of delays 
has one more that will keep it from starting Monday as scheduled.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Gabriel Hall, 22 of College 
Station.

Jury selection for the trial, which involves individual interviews with each 
potential juror because the state is seeking death as punishment, started July 
27. The trial was scheduled to start Monday, but the jury of 12 and 2 
alternates has not been selected. The majority of the panel has been chosen.

Judge Travis Bryan III now hopes to have opening arguments and the 1st witness 
testimony on Wednesday.

Hall is accused of shooting and stabbing 68-year-old Edwin Shaar to death in 
October 2011. Police say Shaar's wife, Linda, witnessed the attack and called 
9-1-1, but was also stabbed by the 22-year-old as she sat in her wheelchair. 
She survived the attack. Hall later admitted to the crimes, according to 
police.

The start of the trial has been delayed multiple times. Interviews with people 
in the Philippines, where Hall lived before he was adopted, and additional DNA 
testing required by a Texas law change have been among the reasons.

Once the trial begins, Bryan says it could take anywhere from 4-to-6 weeks to 
complete both the guilt-innocence and punishment phases if Hall is found 
guilty.

(source: KBTX news)






FLORIDA:

Jurors to decide whether Bessman Okafor gets death penalty----Okafor convicted 
in 2012 shooting death of Alex Zaldivar, 19


Testimony is scheduled to continue Monday in the sentencing hearing of 
convicted killer Bessman Okafor.

Convicted murderer Bessman Okafor returned to court Friday as jurors continue 
to hear testimony to determine whether he should be sentenced to death.

Jurors will decide whether Okafor, who was convicted last week in the 2012 
shooting death of Alex Zaldivar, 19, should get the death penalty or life in 
prison.

The defense claims that Okafor, who is already serving a life sentence, was 
abused as a child, and that led to problems throughout his life.

A psychologist called by the defense said Okafor suffered nine out of 10 
factors that cause lasting psychological and medical effect, including physical 
and sexual abuse. Okafor's brother and stepmother had previously testified that 
Okafor's biological mother beat him.

"The more factors, the more likely problems. Higher dose, greater range of 
difficulties and greater the severity of the difficulties. It would be severely 
rare and surprising if someone grew up with nine out of the 10 factors, and it 
didn't lead to severe consequences," said Dr. Steven Gold, a psychologist who 
interviewed Okafor.

Zaldivar's parents were in the courtroom as Gold testified that, give Okafor's 
background, his chances of growing up to be a successful adult were extremely 
low.

State Attorney Jeff Ashton repeatedly interrupted Gold with objections to the 
defense attorney's line of questioning.

Zaldivar was a witness who was set to testify against Okafor in another trial.

(source: WESH news)

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

4 young suspects in machete murder could be eligible for death penalty


A grand jury will be asked to issue an indictment for 1st-degree premeditated 
murder in the case of 4 ex-Homestead Job Corps students charged with the 
vicious machete killing of 17-year-old Jose Amaya Guardado.

An indictment means defendants Kaheem Arbelo, Desiray Strickland, Christian 
Colon and Jonathan Lucas will be eligible for the death penalty.

The announcement, made in court by a prosecutor on Monday, was not unexpected. 
Miami-Dade detectives say the group planned the grotesque murder, even digging 
a grave 2 days before Jose was hacked to death in June.

The hearing Monday was for Strickland, 18, who appeared before the trial judge 
for the first time for an arraignment.

The slender teen, cupping an inhaler, did not say anything in court. She sat, 
armed crossed, wearing a red jumpsuit designated for high-profile inmates.

The case will be presented to the grand jury next month as the panel reconvenes 
for the fall, Miami-Dade prosecutor Alejandra Lopez told the judge.

Authorities say Arbelo, Strickland and the others conspired for 2 weeks to kill 
Jose, a fellow student at the federally run residential school for at-risk 
youth in South Miami-Dade.

Law enforcement sources have told the Miami Herald that the killing may have 
stemmed from a debt owed to Arbelo, 20, and that the accused students were 
known as bullies at the campus.

Jose's shocking murder in June has drawn increased scrutiny on Job Corps, which 
operates 125 campuses across the country and falls under the U.S. Department of 
Labor. The program helps at-risk people between the ages of 16 and 24 earn 
their high-school degrees and learn vocational skills.

After the arrests, federal authorities suspended fall classes at the Homestead 
campus as they review operating procedures at the school.

Lawmakers have called for increased oversight at Job Corps, which has been the 
subject of several audits calling into question safety and proper supervision 
at the schools.

Jose went missing from the Homestead campus in June, only to be found by his 
brother buried in the shallow grave in the woods near the campus. He had been 
hacked so viciously that "his face caved in," according to a police report.

Strickland and Arbelo, according to police, had sex in the woods after the 
group cleaned up the crime scene and buried the dead teen.

(source: Miami Herald)






ALABAMA:

Disease, suicide killing Ala inmates faster than execution


Disease and suicide are claiming inmates on Alabama's death row faster than the 
executioner.

With Alabama's capital punishment mechanism on hold for more than 2 years 
because of legal challenges and a shortage of drugs for lethal injections, 5 of 
the state's death row inmates have died without ever seeing the inside of the 
execution chamber.

Prison officials say 3 inmates have died of natural causes since the state's 
last execution on July 25, 2013. 2 others committed suicide by hanging 
themselves.

With 189 people currently on death row, the state is trying to resume 
executions. But legal challenges could be a roadblock.

The state is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by death row 
inmate over the use of a new sedative for lethal injections.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI----impending execution

Vigil planned in Springfield hours before scheduled execution


As the State of Missouri prepares for another execution local death penalty 
opponents will take to the streets of Springfield to protest.

The Springfield chapter of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty 
(MADP) will hold a vigil and Ecumenical Remembrance for Victims of Violent 
Crime on Tuesday. It's planned for 1 p.m. in Park Central Square.

Death row inmate Roderick Nunley, 50, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal 
injection in the state prison at Bonne Terre Tuesday evening. He pleaded guilty 
to 1st degree murder in connection with the 1989 kidnapping, rape and killing 
of 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City. She was abducted while waiting in 
front of her home for a school bus. Supporters say prosecutors refused Nunley's 
request for a life sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. A judge sentenced 
Nunley to death after the guilty plea.

Michael Taylor, who was convicted for his participation in the crime, was put 
to death last year.

Nunley's execution would be the 6th in Missouri this year.

(source: ky3.com)

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

In the Execution Business, Missouri Is Surging ---- Defense lawyers call it a 
crisis; the state says it's just doing its job.


Since Texas carried out the country's 1st lethal injection in 1982, the state 
has performed far more executions than any other state. To date, 528 men and 
women have been put to death in Texas, more than the total in the next 8 states 
combined.

But viewed from a slightly different angle, Texas has lost its place as the 
epicenter of the American death penalty, at least for the moment. Since 
November 2013, when Missouri began performing executions at a rate of almost 1 
per month, the state has outstripped Texas in terms of the execution rate per 
capita. In 2014, both states executed 10 people, but Texas has more than 4 
times the population of Missouri. This year, the difference is not quite as 
stark (Texas: 10, Missouri: 5) but Missouri still ranks number 1. The state 
that has become the center of so many conversations about criminal justice 
through the courts and cops of Ferguson is now the center of one more.

Why?

The politicians, judges and prosecutors who keep the system running at full 
steam simply say the death penalty is a good thing and the pace of executions 
is a sign that nothing is gumming up the pipes of justice. Defense attorneys 
are more eager to talk about the reasons for the current situation. They tend 
to use the word "crisis."

The Drugs

The most important reason for the rise in Missouri's rate of execution is also 
the most mysterious. As other states have dealt with a nationwide shortage in 
lethal-injection drugs by turning to new and experimental combinations - 
leading to grisly botched executions (Dennis McGuire in Ohio, Clayton Lockett 
in Oklahoma, and Joseph Wood in Arizona) and lawsuits that have slowed down the 
pace of executions - Missouri has managed to get a steady supply of 
pentobarbital, a common execution drug.

Like their counterparts in all death-penalty states, Missouri officials are 
pushing in court to keep the source of their pentobarbital a secret. Texas has 
also exclusively used pentobarbital for executions in recent years, but has 
struggled to find a compounding pharmacy that will produce it. In Missouri, 
corrections officials had also struggled, but now have managed to stockpile the 
drug.

"We're the only state in the union with no trouble getting pentobarbital," says 
Cheryl Pilate, a Kansas City attorney who has represented death-row inmates. 
The pentobarbital made by small, generally unregulated compounding pharmacies - 
the choice in Texas - does not have a long shelf-life, leading Pilate and her 
colleagues to wonder whether Missouri officials are getting the drug from a 
veterinary supplier (the drug is often used to euthanize animals) or a 
manufacturer from overseas. Attorney General Chris Koster recently said in a 
court filing, quoted by BuzzFeed, that "Missouri uses pentobarbital as the 
lethal chemical in its execution process, but does not admit nor deny the 
chemical now used is compounded as opposed to manufactured."

The Governor and the Attorney General

Attorney General Koster, as well as Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, are both 
Democrats and both outspoken supporters of the death penalty. Nixon himself was 
the attorney general before Koster, so both have overseen the state's side in 
fighting the appeals of death-row inmates, pushing them along toward execution. 
Koster has suggested that the state set up a laboratory to make its own supply 
of lethal-injection drugs.

Nixon has the power to commute death sentences to life in prison, but he has 
done so once in his 6 1/2 years as governor, and he provided no explanation for 
why. Many political commentators have speculated that Nixon and Koster, as 
Democrats in a primarily conservative state - where the electoral votes went to 
Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election - use executions to establish 
their tough-on-crime bonafides. "As a Democrat in public office, you would lose 
a lot of votes by not being enthusiastically in support of the death penalty," 
says Joseph Luby, an attorney with the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in 
Kansas City.

Nixon and Koster's support for the death penalty fits a historical pattern of 
death-penalty support among blue governors in red states. In the 1990s, Texas 
Governor Ann Richards never commuted a death sentence and Arkansas Governor 
Bill Clinton famously flew home from the presidential campaign trail to preside 
over an execution of a man missing part of his brain. (Nixon had his own 
similar case earlier this year.) At the same time, Republicans in states near 
Missouri - Governor John Kasich in Ohio and former Governor Mike Huckabee in 
Arkansas - have regularly granted clemency to death-row inmates.

Nixon's office did not respond to a request for comment on the politics of the 
death penalty, while Koster's press secretary, Nanci Gonder, replied that he 
"has consistently supported the death penalty for the most serious murder 
convictions" and "1 of the duties of the Attorney General is to ensure that 
legal punishments for violating Missouri's criminal laws are carried out."

The Courts

Sean O'Brien, a professor at University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 
spent much of his career defending death-row inmates and recalled a case in 
which the judges at the Missouri Supreme Court ruled against the prosecution. 
In 2003, the court ruled in favor of a man who committed a murder before 
turning 18, a decision that was later ratified by the U.S. Supreme Court and 
became the basis for a nationwide ban on the execution of juveniles.

Missouri Supreme Court judges are appointed by the governor, and in 2013 
Governor Nixon selected Judge Mary Russell to be chief justice, overseeing the 
setting of execution dates. Her court set up the 1-a-month schedule in November 
of that year. When she stepped down in July this year, she told several 
reporters that the pace of executions picked up because they had been on hold 
during the lethal-injection drug shortage. Once the state had the drugs, she 
said, "there were a number of people who had been backlogged whose appeals were 
exhausted."

"It's required by law that the Supreme Court shall set execution dates," she 
added. "It's not that we agree or disagree with the death penalty."

The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which has final say over death cases 
in Missouri, rarely stops executions, according to O'Brien, the law professor. 
"We've got a situation where all 3" - the governor, attorney general, and 
supreme court - "are lickety-split gung-ho on this, and the federal courts 
aren't stopping them."

The Defense Bar

During a short phone interview last week, the Missouri capital-defense 
attorneys Cheryl Pilate and Lindsay Runnels used the words "crisis," 
"disaster," "horrific" and "overwhelming" as they described their "extremely 
small and embattled defense bar." They see their cohort's rushed work and 
missed deadlines and paltry resources as signs of broader problems with public 
defense in the state. Missouri was ranked 49th by the National Legal Aid & 
Defender Association in per-capita spending on indigent defense in 2009.

My colleague Ken Armstrong has chronicled the experience of one overburdened 
defense lawyer who dealt with the executions of 2 clients over 2 months at the 
end of 2013. In a March 2015 letter to the Missouri Supreme Court, members of 
the American Bar Association Death Penalty Assessment Team wrote, "The current 
pace of executions is preventing counsel for the condemned from performing 
competently."

"You live in a perpetual state of tension," Pilate said, "thinking your client 
could be next."

This state of affairs may not last. A pending lawsuit over the secrecy of the 
lethal injection drugs might force the state to divulge its source, allowing 
for more litigation that? could lead to a slow-down. The Missouri Supreme Court 
will soon have a new chief justice. A future Republican governor or attorney 
general could follow the lead of Kasich or Huckabee. The defense bar may get 
more help from national anti-death penalty groups now that the state is ground 
zero. For now, though, as the death penalty declines nationally, Missouri is 
headed in the other direction.

(source: themarshallproject.org)

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

The Latest on Missouri Execution: Top Court Gets New Appeal


The attorney for convicted killer Roderick Nunley has filed a new appeal to the 
U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to halt his execution.

Nunley is scheduled to die Tuesday evening for killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison 
in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1989. The girl was abducted while waiting for a 
school bus, then raped and stabbed to death.

Defense attorney Jennifer Herndon initially appealed last week, arguing that 
the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. She also has argued 
that a jury, not a judge, should have sentenced her client.

A new appeal, filed Monday, argues that Nunley's constitutional rights are 
being violated due to the secrecy concerning Missouri's execution drug. The 
state refuses to disclose who makes the drug or how it is tested.

(source: Associated Press)