[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----VA., GA., OHIO, KAN., OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 9




VIRGINIA:

Ricky Gray requests new review of death penalty case


Ricky Gray has petitioned to have his death penalty case reviewed by all 15 
federal appeals court judges in Richmond.

The "en banc" hearing is the last resort before petitioning the US Supreme 
Court. The request places on hold Gray's death sentence until the Fourth 
Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether or not to give him another opportunity 
for his case to be heard.

Gray was sentenced to death in connection with the 2006 New Year's Day 
quadruple murders of the Harvey family in Richmond. Last month his appeal was 
denied and an execution dates was supposed to be set, however this appeal will 
suspend that process. The appeal stems from a brief filed in April, in which 
Gray's lawyers said he should be able to argue that his trial lawyers did not 
perform to acceptable standards.

The death sentence was specifically for the murders of Stella and Ruby Harvey, 
daughters of Bryan and Kathryn Harvey, who were also killed with the help of 
Ray Dandridge. A week later, Percyell Tucker, his wife Mary and their daughter, 
Ashley Baskerville - who was an accomplice in the Harveys' murder - were also 
killed.

Dandridge, is serving a life sentence.

In September, Gray's lawyers told a judge their client is "remorseful" for his 
actions.

(source: WWBT news)






GEORGIA:

Georgia inmate Brian Keith Terrell shook his head, proclaimed innocence before 
he was executed for 1992 murder


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

Prison Warden Bruce Chatman announced that the time of death for Brian Keith 
Terrell, 47, was 12:52 a.m. Terrell 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 would not 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 a.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 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 four 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 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 2nd 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.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Warren man facing death penalty tries to fire lawyers


A man facing the death penalty in a Youngstown murder case tried to fire his 
lawyers Wednesday morning.

Lance Hundley is charged in the beating death of Erika Huff last month, as well 
as the assault of Huff's mother, who survived the alleged attack. Prosecutors 
say Hundley tried to cover up his crimes by setting fire to the victim's 
Cleveland Avenue home.

Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas Judge Maureen Sweeney refused Hundley's 
request to change attorneys. His lawyers may have Hundley evaluated to see if 
he is competent to stand trial.

(source: WKBN news)






KANSAS:

Oral arguments in Kleypas appeal next week


The Kansas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Gary Kleypas's appeal 
case. Those arguments are set to begin Monday, December 14 at 9:00 am.

Kleypas was convicted of capital murder, attempted rape and aggravated burglary 
in the death of a Pittsburg State University student in March of 1996.

He was sentenced to death. His case was the 1st court challenge under the death 
penalty bill enacted by Kansas lawmakers in 1994.

This is the 3rd appeal in the case.

In a 2001 decision, the Supreme Court returned the case to the Crawford County 
District Court with instructions to conduct another penalty phase hearing in 
which a jury decides whether to impose the death penalty.

In a 2006 appeal by the state, the court settled an evidentiary issue prior to 
the penalty phase rehearing. In this appeal, Kleypas again argues his 
convictions should be reversed but focuses most of his arguments on 14 issues 
regarding alleged errors during the penalty phase hearing. He seeks reversal of 
his death sentence because of these errors.

In one of the 14 penalty phase issues, Kleypas argues that the trial court 
should have stopped the hearing after the victim's father attacked him in front 
of the jury because the attack prejudiced the jury against him. He also argues 
the trial court should not have allowed evidence that he had been convicted of 
murder in Missouri in 1977 because ineffective defense counsel made the 
conviction suspect. And, he argues the prosecutor improperly told the jury that 
it could not consider mercy in deciding whether to sentence Kleypas to death.

The audio of the arguments will be provided through the Supreme Court's 
website, www.kscourts.org

(source: KWCH news)






OKLAHOMA:

Death penalty via lethal injection: Road to Glossip v. Gross and a new method 
of execution


Administration of the death penalty via lethal injection has come under intense 
scrutiny as to both its effectiveness and constitutionality. This scrutiny has 
become highly visible by recent events in Oklahoma.

Lethal injection typically involves the administration of 3 drugs in sequence. 
First is sodium thiopental (an anesthetic), the 2nd is pancuronium bromide (a 
paralytic agent), and the 3rd is potassium chloride, which stops the heart and 
ultimately causes death.

However, in recent years sodium thiopental has become difficult to obtain in 
the U.S. The only FDA approved manufacturer of the drug in the United States 
stopped making the drug about 5 years ago. States then turned to pharmaceutical 
companies in Europe for the drug, but due to the European Union's opposition to 
capital punishment, the EU blocked companies from selling sodium thiopental to 
the U.S. for execution purposes. This export ban, started in 2011, has 
purposefully made execution via lethal injection more difficult to perform in 
the U.S.

In response to the reduced availability of sodium thiopental, Oklahoma, along 
with other states, chose a new drug mixture for lethal injection. Oklahoma 
settled on the use of midazolam for its anesthetic as a substitute for sodium 
thiopental. Midazolam has been criticized as not being as effective of an 
anesthetic as sodium thiopental. Furthermore, its use in the lethal injection 
protocol is untested.

In April of last year, Oklahoma attempted to execute Clayton Lockett by lethal 
injection using the new midazolam drug mixture. The execution went horribly 
awry. Lockett was administered the drug cocktail, but the execution was halted 
after about 20 minutes. Instead of peacefully losing consciousness and then 
dying as intended, Lockett went into and out of consciousness. He twitched and 
convulsed and spoke out loud that "something's wrong". Not long after the 
execution was stopped, he died of a heart attack.

The use of midazolam was widely suspected to be the cause of the botched 
execution. In addition to Lockett, other executions in Arizona and Ohio, where 
midazolam was also used, had similar problems being carried out effectively. 
The concern is that the condemned may not be sufficiently unconscious and thus 
could feel the pain when the potassium chloride stops the heart and that such a 
painful execution would violate the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The 
efficacy and constitutionality of using midazolam in performing lethal 
injections had now become questionable.

After Lockett's execution, the constitutional question of midazolam was 
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Oklahoma death row inmate Richard 
Glossip. In Glossip v. Gross , 135 S.Ct. 2726 (2015), Glossip argued the use of 
the midazolam drug cocktail caused an unacceptable risk of severe pain and thus 
violated the 8th Amendment. Oklahoma argued that it had tweaked its cocktail to 
include a larger dose of midazolam (500mg, much larger than the 100mg given to 
Lockett) and that Lockett's botched execution may have been caused by a problem 
with the IV, not midazolam. The court also noted that similar problematic 
executions in Ohio and Arizona were performed using smaller doses of midazolam, 
and were thus more risky than the new high dosage cocktail Oklahoma would use 
in the future.

In light of these and other factors, the Court held that Glossip failed to 
establish that any risk of harm arising from the state's use of midazolam was 
substantial when compared to a known and available method of execution and that 
the Western District of Oklahoma did not commit clear error in finding that 
midazolam was likely to render an inmate unable to feel pain. The decision came 
down along ideological lines, with the four more liberal justices (Sotomayor, 
Breyer, Kagan and Ginsberg) dissenting.

It is noteworthy that while the Glossip case was pending, a new possible method 
of execution has become law in Oklahoma. Oklahoma recently passed a bill to 
amend its death penalty statute to include a new alternative for execution. The 
bill, 2015 Okla. Sess. Law Serv. Ch. 75 (H.B. 1879), now codified at OK ST T. 
22 # 1014, allows for execution to be carried out by nitrogen hypoxia, if 
lethal injection is "held unconstitutional by an appellate court of competent 
jurisdiction or is otherwise unavailable."

The controversial bill was passed unanimously by Oklahoma's senate and without 
any research or consultation with scientists or physicians. Oklahoma's governor 
signed it into law in April 2015.

The speed of passage of this bill is a direct response to the strong support 
for the death penalty in Oklahoma. The bill was passed as a contingency to the 
Glossip case. Had the Supreme Court ruled the other way, Glossip very likely 
would have been the 1st person ever to be executed by nitrogen gas.

Indeed, there is still a small chance that Glossip may be executed by nitrogen. 
Currently, Glossip???s execution, along with all other executions in Oklahoma, 
is on hold until at least 2016. The hold was prompted by government officials 
receiving the wrong drug to perform the execution. (It is unclear which drug of 
the 3-part cocktail the state mistakenly received.) If Oklahoma cannot locate 
the "proper" drugs for lethal injection, then presumably the new law???s 
contingency will become effective and the use of nitrogen will go forward.

That Glossip's execution is currently being stayed because Oklahoma still does 
not have possession of the proper drug cocktail, even after the lengthy 
appellate process and the case having been heard by the Supreme Court, is a 
salient reminder that the pressure put on states, created by limited drug 
availability, is still very much ongoing.

(source: legalsolutions.com)