[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., FLA., OKLA., NEV., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 9



GEORGIA----execution

Georgia executes man convicted of forging checks and killing a close friend of 
his mother's


A Georgia death row inmate who insisted he was innocent shook his head while 
looking at state officials before his death sentence was carried out early 
Wednesday.

Prison Warden Bruce Chatman announced that the time of death for Brian Keith 
Terrell was 12:52 a.m. Terrell, 47, was convicted of malice murder in the June 
1992 killing of 70-year-old John Watson of Covington, a community some 35 miles 
east of Atlanta.

Terrell stole checks belonging to Watson, a friend of his mother's, but the 
older man said he wouldn't press charges if Terrell paid him back. But, 
prosecutors said, Terrell killed Watson instead.

When Chatman asked if he wanted to record a final statement, Terrell said, "No, 
sir." But he did accept a final prayer.

Terrell lifted his head after the prayer and shook it while looking out at the 
front row where Newton County Sheriff Ezell Brown and other state witnesses 
were seated.

The warden left the execution chamber at 12:29 p.m. Records from previous 
executions show the lethal drug generally starts flowing within a minute or 2 
after the warden's exit.

Terrell lifted his head again and looked out at the front row twice after the 
warden left and also shook his head back and forth multiple times while laying 
on the gurney.

Four news reporters witnessed the execution, but only a reporter from the 
Newton Citizen newspaper was allowed to be in the room when Terrell was 
strapped to the gurney and IV lines were placed. She said nurses appeared to 
have trouble placing the needle in his left arm, and the process took about an 
hour, which is longer than usual.

Terrell was the 5th inmate executed this year in Georgia. That's the most 
executions the state has carried out in a calendar year since 1987, which also 
saw 5 executions, according to a database kept by the Death Penalty Information 
Center, which opposes executions and tracks the issue.

Terrell was on parole in 1992 when he stole 10 of Watson's checks and signed 
his name on some, prosecutors said. Watson told police about the theft but 
asked them not to pursue charges if most of the money was returned. The day he 
was to return the money, according to the prosecutors, Terrell had his cousin 
drive him to Watson's house where he shot Watson multiple times and then 
severely beat him.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is the only entity authorized 
to commute a death sentence, declined on Monday to grant Terrell clemency.

State and federal courts on Tuesday rejected legal challenges filed by 
Terrell's lawyers, clearing the way for his execution. The U.S. Supreme Court, 
without explanation, denied a request for a stay about 4 hours after the 7 p.m. 
scheduled execution time.

Terrell's lawyers had said their client was innocent. They argued that no 
physical evidence connected Terrell to the killing and that prosecutors had 
used false and misleading testimony to secure the conviction that drew the 
death penalty.

Terrell's lawyers also challenged the drug the state planned to use for his 
execution, saying the state could not guarantee the drug's safety and 
effectiveness. The state has not adequately determined what caused a problem 
with the drug it planned to use for an execution earlier this year which means 
it could happen again and could cause excruciating pain for their client, they 
argued.

Corrections officials stopped the scheduled execution of Kelly Gissendaner on 
March 2 after they noticed solid chunks had formed in the normally clear 
compounded pentobarbital solution. They temporarily suspended all executions - 
including Terrell's which was originally set for March 10 - to allow time for 
an analysis of the drug.

An expert consulted by the state concluded that the most likely cause of the 
problem was that the drug was shipped and stored at a temperature that was too 
cold. The state has taken precautions to ensure the problem won't happen again 
and would not proceed with an execution if a problem with the drug was 
detected, state lawyers said.

Terrell's 1st trial in Watson's death ended in a mistrial after jurors couldn't 
agree on his guilt. He was convicted and sentenced to death in a second trial, 
but the conviction was overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court because of an 
error during jury selection. In a 3rd trial, Terrell was again convicted and 
sentenced to death.

Terrell becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in 
Georgia and the 60th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 
1983.

Terrell becomes the 28th and last condemned inmate to be put to death this year 
in the USA and the 1422nd overall since the nation resumed executions on 
January 17, 1977. The 28 executions are the fewest in the USA since 1991 when 
14 were carried out. The nation's next scheduled execution is set for January 7 
in Florida.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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

Georgia executes Brian Keith Terrell for killing his mother's friend ---- 
Prisoner put to death by lethal injection despite his lawyers arguing there was 
no physical evidence connecting him to the 1992 murder


A Georgia man convicted of forging checks belonging to his mother's friend and 
killing the man after he demanded money back has been executed.

The execution of Brian Keith Terrell, 47, was carried out at 12.52am on 
Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson, the corrections department said in a 
press release.

Terrell was convicted of murder in the June 1992 killing of 70-year-old John 
Watson from Covington, a community 35 miles east of Atlanta.

The statement said Terrell accepted a final prayer and refused to record a 
final statement.

Terrell was on parole in 1992 when he stole 10 of Watson's checks and signed 
his name on some, prosecutors said. Watson told police about the theft but 
asked them not to pursue charges if most of the money was returned.

The day he was to return the money, according to the prosecutors, Terrell had 
his cousin drive him to Watson's house where he shot Watson multiple times.

Terrell's lawyers had said their client was innocent. They argued that no 
physical evidence connected Terrell to the killing and that prosecutors had 
used false and misleading testimony to secure the conviction that drew the 
death penalty.

State lawyers countered that the courts had already heard and rejected the 
defense arguments.

The US supreme court, without explanation, denied a request for a stay about 
four hours after the 7pm scheduled execution time.

On Monday the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied Terrell's request 
for clemency.

A state court on Tuesday dismissed a complaint in which Terrell claimed 
innocence, and the state supreme court declined to halt the execution.

Terrell also had filed a court challenge saying the state cannot ensure the 
safety or efficacy of the drug it plans to use to execute him.

A federal court on Tuesday rejected that challenge and Terrell appealed to the 
11th US court of appeals.

Terrell was previously set for execution on 10 March, but after Department of 
Corrections officials discovered solid chunks had formed in the drug that was 
to be used in another execution on 2 March they temporarily suspended all 
executions to allow time for an analysis of the drug.

The state has said the most likely cause was that the drug was shipped and 
stored at a temperature that was too cold. Precautions were taken to prevent it 
happening again, state lawyers said.

(source: The Guardian)






FLORIDA:

Capital punishment is bloodlust


Jim Springs is wrong on totally irreversible capital punishment ["Limit death 
penalty reviews," letters, Nov. 14].

Our criminal justice system is sometimes deeply flawed, especially true with 
the death penalty. The Death Penalty Information Center has shown that there 
have been 156 death row exonerations since 1973. Exonerations were for a 
variety of reasons including racially biased juries, gross 
prosecutorial/judicial/police misconduct, evidence tampering and witness 
perjury. Exonerations escalate due to DNA testing.

Darby Trillis of Illinois was convicted of murder in 1979. He was exonerated in 
1987 because Phyllis Santini, the prosecution's star witness, was proven to be 
an accomplice of the real murderer. The trial judge, Thomas J. Maloney, was 
convicted of accepting bribes.

In Florida, Freddie Lee Pitts and Wilbert Lee were convicted of murder and 
sentenced to death in 1963. Exonerations came in 1975 because the real murderer 
confessed. Police had beaten them into confessions and had threatened Lee's 
wife. There was prosecutorial evidence tampering and a racially biased jury.

The Florida Department of Corrections in 2011-2012 gave the average cost of 
inmate incarceration as $17,972 per year. It cost about $8 million to execute 
Ted Bundy. For that cost he could have been incarcerated instead for 445 years.

I???m an ordained Presbyterian elder. I scold people, especially Christians, 
that my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the most innocent human being to ever 
walk on this Earth, was executed swiftly by a crowd mentality and a corrupt 
Roman political state. That abomination still happens today.

If Springs or any of his loved ones were to be wrongfully convicted of murder, 
I'll bet he'd absolutely demand proper post-conviction treatment, time and cost 
be damned.

Capital punishment is fundamentally bloodlust revenge. Revenge is most often 
swift and cheap. True justice, however, as shown above, is often very expensive 
and time-consuming.

Henry P. Ziegler Jr.

Lakeland

(source: Letter to the Editor, The Lakeland Ledger)






OKLAHOMA:

16 Years Later, Tulsa Murder Victims' Families Get Justice


16 years after their loved ones were murdered, 2 Tulsa families finally have 
justice.

2 different juries found Victor Miller guilty of the murders of Mary Bowles and 
Jerald Thurman, and both sentenced him to death; but years of appeals 
overturned those sentences.

Tuesday, the families said they weren't happy Miller was off death row, but, 
were relieved the case was finally over.

For 16 years, the families have had to deal with appeals and new trials, but 
Tuesday's sentence of life in prison without parole for Miller is bringing the 
case to a close.

It was a moment the Bowles and Thurman families were waiting for.

Bowles' niece, Sara Mooney said, "It's an ongoing stressor. It doesn't go 
away."

"I'm just glad we've finally gotten to a point that we can all put this behind 
us and pick up our pieces and move on," said Jerald Thurman's son, Jacob.

In August 1999, Miller and John Hanson abducted Bowles from a mall parking lot. 
They took her to north Tulsa County and killed her. Thurman tried to help, but 
he was also killed.

Jacob Thurman said, "We were really hoping for the death penalty in this case, 
but it ain't a perfect world."

Miller beat the death penalty twice; the victims' families hoped the third time 
would send him to death row, indefinitely.

Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney John Luton said several things 
factored into going for life in prison instead.

"With him representing himself in a death penalty case, 1 of the factors would 
be, he would have the option or the ability to question jurors in the case - 
ask them their opinions as to death, life, without a life, to him specifically, 
and he would be the one asking those questions," he said.

Luton said since the initial trial witnesses have died, are too ill or can't be 
found. That, combined with 2 sentences overturned and the scrutiny that goes 
with a capital murder trial, life in prison was the sure thing.

Miller is already serving a life without parole sentence for murdering Bowles, 
and a federal sentence for more than 100 years for robbery cases.

(source: newson6.com)






NEVADA:

Vegas architects to design new Nevada execution chamber


Nevada officials are contracting with a Las Vegas firm to design a new 
execution chamber at the Ely State Prison.

The state Board of Examiners voted Tuesday to approve a $94,000 contract with 
the architectural firm Kittrell, Garlock and Associates. The funds will go 
toward remodeling a courtroom area and part of the visitation area to 
accommodate executions.

Nevada lawmakers approved $860,000 this spring for a new execution chamber. The 
state's existing death chamber at the shuttered Nevada State Prison in Carson 
City is not in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and state 
officials have said for about 4 years that they wouldn't be able to carry out 
capital punishment there.

Executions remain rare in Nevada, which has only carried out the death penalty 
12 times since 1977.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

Arguments to Start in Trial for Los Al Grad Accused of Grisly Murders


Opening statements are expected to begin Wednesday in the trial of a 
31-year-old community theater actor charged with the dismemberment murder of a 
neighbor and the killing of a friend of the neighbor more than 5 years ago.

Daniel Patrick Wozniak is accused of killing 26-year-old Samuel Eliezer Herr of 
Costa Mesa and 23-year-old Juri Julie Kibuishi of Irvine in May 2010.

The case has taken a long route to trial as Wozniak's attorneys have tried to 
make a case of outrageous governmental misconduct based on the defendant's 
encounter with a jailhouse informant. Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders 
sought to have Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley and Senior Deputy 
District Attorney Matt Murphy and the rest of his office thrown off the case 
and failed.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Wozniak, so the trial will be 
done in 2 phases. In the 1st phase the jurors will consider the defendant's 
guilt, and if he is convicted, they will consider whether to recommend life in 
prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

Wozniak would go on stage for a production of "9" in Fullerton after each 
slaying, authorities have alleged.

Wozniak killed Herr at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, prosecutors 
allege. Then he lured Kibuishi back to Herr's apartment, fatally shot her and 
then took off some of her clothes to make it appear Herr killed her, 
prosecutors allege.

Wozniak then returned to the theater on the military base where he allegedly 
dismembered the victim and tried to get rid of the body parts in the El Dorado 
Park Nature Center in Long Beach, prosecutors allege. Authorities have alleged 
he was trying to cover up the 1st crime.

Wozniak was arrested at his bachelor's party at a Huntington Beach restaurant. 
Authorities allege he killed Herr to steal his savings and pay for his wedding 
and honeymoon.

(source: patch.com)

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

Man Accused of Murdering 7 People Wants to Die Soon----The victims of the 2012 
fatal shooting were from all over East Bay. One Goh was arrested in Alameda 
soon after the shooting.


The man accused of killing 7 people and injuring 3 others in a shooting rampage 
at an Oakland university in 2012 wants to die as soon as possible to atone for 
what he did, a psychologist said today. Testifying at a hearing that will 
determine if One Goh, 47, is mentally competent to stand trial for the shooting 
at Oikos University on April 2, 2012, Yunghi France said Goh told her in one of 
their weekly therapy sessions, "I have to get the ultimate punishment because I 
took 7 lives and must pay with my own."

France said Goh told her, "I don't have a chance to give the victims' families 
justice, but I can give them some comfort if I get executed."

Goh, a Korean national, is charged with 7 counts of murder, 3 counts of 
premeditated attempted murder and the special circumstance allegations of 
committing a murder during a kidnapping and committing multiple murders for the 
shooting at Oikos, a Christian vocational school at 7850 Edgewater Drive, near 
the Oakland International Airport. Prosecutors have said he appears to have 
wanted a refund of his tuition and may have been targeting an administrator who 
was not present on the day of the shooting.

Criminal proceedings against Goh were suspended on Oct. 1, 2012, after his 
lawyers questioned his mental competency to stand trial and on Jan. 7, 2013, a 
judge ruled that he was incompetent to stand trial, citing reports by 2 
psychiatrists who examined him. He has been treated at Napa State Hospital for 
more than 2 1/2 years and most doctors who've examined him have continued to 
say that he is incapable of understanding the proceedings against him and 
assisting in his defense.

But a July report by Napa State Hospital forensic psychologist Todd Schirmer 
found him competent to stand trial so a judge recently ordered that Goh face a 
hearing on his competency. Prosecutors and defense attorneys have agreed that 
Goh wants the death penalty, but they disagreed about whether Goh reasonably 
feels guilty for his crime and simply wants his punishment or if he suffers 
from persistent delusions that prevent him from understanding the criminal 
proceedings against him.

If Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gloria Rhynes, who is presiding over the 
hearing, finds Goh to be competent he will stand trial on the charges against 
him and could face the death penalty. But if she finds him to be mentally 
incompetent he will be permanently placed at a psychiatric treatment facility 
such as the Napa State Hospital. France, who is also from Korea, said she was 
hired to be a cultural consultant to Goh and that even though he can speak 
English she mainly talks to him in Korean because he can express his emotions 
more easily in his 1st language.

France said there's a stigma about mental illness in Korean culture and Goh has 
told her that he doesn't want to plead not guilty by reason of insanity because 
it would bring "stigma and shame" to his family. France said Goh has also told 
her that pleading not guilty by reason of insanity would be "the cowardly way 
out" and he doesn't want anyone to excuse him because of mental illness.

Several members of the victims' families have been attending Goh's hearing, 
which will resume on Wednesday and is expected to conclude early next week. 
Goh, who was shackled, dressed in a red jail uniform, wore thick glasses and 
sported a goatee, listened attentively but quietly to the testimony at his 
hearing today.

(source: patch.com)

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

Death penalty overturned because of Bible quotes----Judge finds prosecutor 
committed misconduct by veering from facts, law


A judge has overturned the death sentence in the murder of an Oceanside 
housewife, finding the prosecutor committed "egregious misconduct" by telling 
jurors the Bible calls for murderers to be sentenced to death.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller wrote that the repeated quotations and 
references to biblical law in the prosecutor's closing statements were so 
inflammatory that they affected the outcome of Rudolph Roybal's 1992 trial.

"The prosecutor's improper argument presented an intolerable danger that the 
jury minimized its role as fact finder and encouraged jurors to vote for death 
because it was God's will, and not that the imposition of the death penalty 
complied with California and federal law," Miller wrote in a 226-page opinion 
granting Roybal's appeal. The opinion was filed last week.

The judge also chastised Roybal's defense attorneys, ruling they provided 
ineffective counsel by not objecting to the prosecutor's inappropriate closing 
remarks.

"The failure of defense counsel to object to such egregious misconduct and 
secure an admonition deprived defendant of the fundamental fairness of a death 
penalty proceeding free from foul prosecutorial blows," Miller said.

The ruling directs prosecutors to either grant Roybal, 59, a new penalty phase 
trial to determine if he should be sentenced to death, or to resentence him to 
life without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors have about 4 months to 
decide how to proceed.

Prosecutors can also appeal the judge's ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of 
Appeals.

The District Attorney's Office, which initially tried the case, said it is 
reviewing the ruling and declined to comment further Tuesday.

One of the deciding factors for the judge in making his ruling was an 
acknowledgment of just how close the penalty phase of the trial was, as jurors 
at one point announced they were deadlocked on the death penalty and at other 
times asked for testimony to be read back about Roybal's neglectful upbringing, 
his alcohol and drug use at an early age and his brain damage and dysfunction.

"Unquestionably, the jurors struggled with their decision," Miller noted.

Roybal was a 33-year-old drifter who had come from Santa Fe, N.M., to stay with 
his half-brother for awhile in Oceanside in 1989.

Testimony at the trial in Vista Superior Court was rife with details about his 
horrific childhood. His mother drank alcohol while pregnant with him, then 
later neglected him, and at one point offered to give him up to appease her 
husband at the time, according to testimony. Roybal started drinking and 
sniffing paint at age 9 and suffered from various personality disorders.

By the time he made it to Oceanside, he'd already been convicted of 6 felonies, 
including a drug-fueled attack on a former girlfriend and a car chase that 
ended with his passenger firing shots at a pursuing police officer.

While staying with his brother, he made money by offering to do yard work for 
people, riding around on his bicycle and knocking on doors. He lived about a 
half-mile from Yvonne Weden, a 65-year-old arthritic woman who stayed home 
alone at night while her husband worked. She suffered from hearing loss and was 
on crutches due to an ankle injury.

After performing about 4 days of gardening for the Wedens, he was fired because 
he was too slow. Even after that, the Wedens never took down the scrap of paper 
pinned to the bulletin board with his name and number.

Yvonne Weden, clad in pajamas, was found dead in her bedroom about a week or so 
later. She'd been stabbed sometime overnight 13 times - twice so brutally that 
2 of her ribs were broken - and beaten, according to testimony. Her neck had 
been slashed.

A Camel cigarette butt - the kind Roybal was known to smoke - was found on the 
floor, and the scrap of paper bearing his name gone from the bulletin board. 
Some of her jewelry was missing, including the wedding ring on her finger.

Roybal left for New Mexico the next day, and his mother saw him hide a plastic 
bag in a cinder block wall near her house. Police found it contained some of 
the Wedens' property, including jewelry.

A researcher testified that DNA from several items, including a folding knife, 
bloody jewelry box and the cigarette butt, could have come from either Weden or 
Roybal.

Roybal later told a psychiatrist that he took drugs on "Thursday" and "the next 
thing he remembered was getting off the bus in Santa Fe," according to the 
court record. He said that he had "absolutely no idea how he got the jewelry."

A jury found Roybal guilty of 1st-degree murder, robbery and burglary in 1992.

The penalty phase that followed lasted nine days, during which jurors were 
presented with details of Roybal's upbringing and mental history.

When it came time for closing statements, Deputy District Attorney James 
Koerber told jurors: "There is another book, written long ago, that mentions 
the crime of murder, and mentions what is the appropriate penalty for the crime 
of murder, and that book says a couple of different things.

"It says, 'Thou shalt not steal.' It says, 'Thou shalt not kill,'" Koerber 
continued. "It says 'And if he smite with an instrument of iron so that he die, 
he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.' It says, 
moreover, 'Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is 
guilty of death, but shall be surely put to death.'"

Roybal's public defenders, Jack Campbell and Kathleen Cannon, did not object.

"It is evident that the prosecutor meant to intentionally and forcefully argue 
that religious authority mandated the death penalty" rather than the law and 
the evidence presented in this case, Miller ruled.

Miller also rejected arguments that the defense attorneys made a tactical 
decision to not object , noting that they objected to other points during 
closing statements.

Alex Simpson, a professor at California Western School of Law, said the issue 
is less about the Bible than the prosecutor asking the jury to make a decision 
based on something other than the evidence presented in the case.

"It's an appeal to an authority or other evidence that shouldn't be considered 
by the jury," Simpson said in an interview. "In reality, the only thing a jury 
should do is consider what are the facts and how do the facts inform my 
decision to vote one way or the other."

A state appeals court had earlier found that the prosecutor's comments were 
clear misconduct, but concluded that it had no real effect on the outcome of 
the case.

With Roybal's state appeals exhausted, he moved forward with a habeas corpus 
claim in 2013 to the San Diego federal court. The state Attorney General's 
Office argued the case against Roybal's appellate attorneys, John Lanahan and 
Elizabeth Missakian.

Miller denied several other claims in the appeal, including allegations that a 
potential juror was wrongly dismissed based on her views of the death penalty, 
that the jury could not consider Roybal's past crimes as non-serious, and that 
some jurors appeared to share their personal experiences with domestic violence 
or child abuse during deliberations.

(source: San Diego Union-Tribune)