[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., N.C., NEB., NEV., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 13




PENNSYLVANIA:

Accused killers of Brownstown teacher Nicole Mathewson will go to trial in 
April


1 of the 2 men accused of killing sixth-grade teacher Nicole Mathewson will 
face the death penalty when he goes to trial next year.

The other will face the possibility of life in prison.

Thomas Gregory Moore, 26, and Marcus Rutter, 17, are charged with sexually 
assaulting and killing the 32-year-old Brownstown Elementary School teacher at 
her home on Dec. 15, 2014.

The trial for both defendants is scheduled to begin on April 12, 2016, with 
Judge David L. Ashworth presiding.

"As of now, they will be tried together," Brett Hambright, spokesman for the 
Lancaster County district attorney's office, said in an email Thursday.

Both sides in the case met with Ashworth in October and by mutual agreement 
pushed the trial to April, Hambright said. He expects the trial will last more 
than a week.

District Attorney Craig Stedman said in January that Moore deserves the death 
penalty because the murder occurred during the commission of a felony, 
including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, burglary and robbery, and 
involved torture.

Rutter will not face the death penalty because he was under 18 when Mathewson 
was killed, Stedman said.

Moore and Rutter entered Mathewson's home on North Franklin Street to 
burglarize it and, when they found her at home, beat and sexually assaulted the 
woman before killing her, according to arrest affidavits. They also took her 
car keys, debit card and card PIN before fleeing in her black Mazda sedan, 
according to affidavits.

The 2 men did not know Mathewson prior to the crime, police said.

Rutter's attorney, Melissa Lee Norton, could not be reached for comment 
Thursday.

Moore's attorney, Jeff Conrad, said in an email that he is "continuing to 
investigate the case and to review the discovery as we prepare Mr. Moore for 
his April trial."

(source: lancasteronline.com)






NORTH CAROLINA:

The death penalty is dying


The 25th anniversary of Blanche Taylor Moore's death sentence for the arsenic 
poisoning of her boyfriend, Raymond Reid, has caused me to reflect on the fate 
of that "peculiar institution" of American law known as "the death penalty." 
Since serving as a Forsyth County prosecutor, where my 1st capital trial was 
Moore's, and where I sought the death penalty in at least 12 other cases, I 
have become a defense attorney. And I can tell you that things have changed 
greatly since 1990.

Since Blanche Moore's trial, North Carolina prosecutors wisely select fewer 
cases for capital designation. This makes great sense in light of the 
tremendous cost to pursue any case as "capital."

The Supreme Court has greatly reduced the class of "death-eligible" persons by 
ruling unconstitutional the execution of the intellectually disabled and those 
under the age of 18.

Death verdicts have dramatically declined from highs of more than 20 per year 
in the 1990s to three in 2014 and none in 2015. This isn't for lack of trying. 
Prosecutors try about a dozen capital cases each year. Jurors are simply 
finding life without parole more appropriate.

There is a great deal of speculation as to reasons for this. Polls show a 
majority of the public choose life without parole over death if given that 
option.

A reason I often hear from prospective jurors is the number of wrongful 
convictions discovered through new evidence or subsequent DNA testing. No one 
wants to hear later that an innocent person was executed, as likely happened to 
Cameron Willingham in Texas in 2004.

Since 1973, there have been nine death-row exonerations in North Carolina and 
156 nationwide. Our state made national news with the exoneration of Darryl 
Hunt of Forsyth County after he served 19 years of a life sentence. Some jurors 
have correctly heard that it costs far more to execute than to house a 
defendant for life.

There are other signs that capital punishment is on the wane: No one has been 
executed in this state in almost 10 years. Doctors and nurses refuse to 
participate and drug companies who manufacture the lethal ingredients refuse to 
sell them for that purpose.

Families of murdered victims are often satisfied with a life sentence just so 
they can have closure and begin healing. I have witnessed the anguish of 
survivors forced to return for seemingly endless weeks of court hearings as 
appeals drag on.

The death penalty in North Carolina has become a "virtual punishment" costing 
taxpayers millions and consuming valuable court time, not to mention the 
personal cost to jurors in trials that now last 6 months or more.

This is not the fault of individual defense attorneys. The "Guidelines of the 
American Bar Association for Defense Attorneys in Capital Cases" is now about 
the length of War and Peace, and sets out the tremendous number of areas 
defense counsel must master and investigate. The U.S. Supreme Court holds that 
an adequate constitutionally required defense entails a thorough investigation 
and presentation of absolutely everything about the circumstances of an offense 
and "the background and character of the accused," which could conceivably call 
for a sentence less than death. This is a tall order requiring the collection 
and review of thousands of pages of records.

There remain 148 persons on death row in this state, of whom Blanche Moore is 
the 2nd oldest case.

But death verdicts and executions are reaching 30-year lows across the country, 
even in death-penalty prone states such as Texas and Florida. 20 states have 
abolished the death penalty in law or practice, the most recent being the 
conservative state of Nebraska.

Over 130 nations have abolished capital punishment, and the Charter of 
Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits it. Few Americans know this 
or see capital punishment as a human rights issue, but that concept is 
beginning to see more judicial sunlight.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer recently invited litigants to again 
challenge the constitutionality of the death penalty as happened when the Court 
struck it down in 1972 in Furman v. Georgia. In Justice Breyer's view, all 
attempts at reform since its reinstatement in 1976 have failed. In his view, a 
view apparently held by at least 3 other justices, it has become sporadically 
applied, unreliable, encumbered by delay and serves no purpose sufficient to 
justify its cost.

Blanche Taylor Moore, now 82 years old, after being closely confined for 25 
years and surviving a 2nd battle with cancer and the corrosive effects of 
chemotherapies, has become a living monument to the failure of a vanishing 
legal remedy. It is time for North Carolina to end this archaic practice.

(source: Vince Rabil is an assistant capital defender in 
Winston-Salem----Winston-Salem Journal)






NEBRASKA:

Local View: Governor should take next logical step on death penalty


Last May Gov. Pete Ricketts said he had found the solution to our death penalty 
quagmire. He gave us a promise the state would soon resume executions, and a 
bill for $54,000 worth of lethal injection drugs.

7 months later, he's finally admitted that there's no way to proceed with 
executions in our state. After all my family has endured because of the death 
penalty, I am not the least surprised at this latest twist in our death penalty 
drama. You see I've heard it all.

My brother was tortured and killed and his offender was sent to death row. Our 
family had already been through years of required appeals when the electric 
chair was ruled unconstitutional in 2008. When the Legislature made lethal 
injection the execution method in 2009, officials swore this would get the 
death machine moving again within the year. 2 years later Corrections finally 
said they were ready to carry out an execution, but this never happened. And 
here we are: many years, countless broken promises, and zero executions later.

While my brother's offender sat on death row, the best prosecutors and 
lawmakers did everything they could to resume executions. There is no doubt in 
my mind if it was possible to have executions in our state, they would have 
happened already. But the reality is, our system is too broken for that to be 
possible.

Wrongful convictions, like the Beatrice 6 from my hometown who collectively 
spent 77 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit, have made us anxious to 
ensure no stone is unturned in confirming we have the right person and their 
due process has been respected. Botched executions have eroded the public's 
confidence in any process that's not marked by transparency, and made 
legitimate pharmaceutical suppliers wary of the execution business. The result 
of all of this is that executions just don???t happen here.

This means that the only people actually punished by having the death penalty 
on the books is the families of victims who are promised a punishment that they 
never receive. For 30 years my family endured court proceedings, high profile 
coverage about the offender that ignored my brother, and uncountable false 
promises from elected officials.

I was finally freed from this terrible system last spring when the man who 
killed my brother died of natural causes, a few days before the legislature 
decided it was time to end our broken death penalty. Their recognition that our 
death penalty system was indefensible freed me, and every other victim who 
stood by waiting for the state to deliver on a promise it simply could not.

I appreciate that Governor Ricketts has stopped his quest to import drugs the 
FDA, DEA and U.S. Attorney all have clearly said can't be brought to Nebraska. 
I wish he would take the next logical step, look at the history of our death 
penalty, and acknowledge that even the most enthusiastic death penalty 
supporter can't make the system function. Enough is enough.

Miriam Thimm Kelle of Beatrice is the sister of murder victim James Thimm who 
was murdered by Michael Ryan. Ryan was sentenced to death in 1985 and died of 
natural causes on Nebraska's death row last spring.

(source: Opinion, Lincoln Journal Star)

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

Ricketts right to delay executions


The decision by Gov. Pete Ricketts to delay any executions in the state until 
after Nebraskans vote on the death penalty is appropriate.

The move will allow Corrections Director Scott Frakes to focus on the urgent 
job of prison reform without having to divert his attention to the impossible 
task of finding execution drugs.

As has been reported repeatedly by the Journal Star and other news 
organizations, the Food and Drug Administration says that sodium thiopental, 1 
of 3 drugs in Nebraska's lethal injection protocol, is not an approved drug for 
injection into humans and cannot be imported legally.

Judging from the experience of Nebraska officials in recent years, there are no 
reputable purveyors of the drug.

Twice now the state of Nebraska has written checks to a salesman in India named 
Cliff Harris for sodium thiopental. The 1st time, in 2012, the FDA ordered 
Nebraska officials to return the drug. This year state officials paid $54,000 
for a new supply, but the FDA has refused to allow it to be imported.

Harris's background does not inspire confidence. A landlord in Kolkata, India, 
told a Buzzfeed reporter that Harris skipped out owing 7 month's rent in 2013.

The Ricketts administration apparently was seeking the drug to counter 
arguments that it is next to impossible to legally carry out an execution in 
Nebraska.

Ironically the administration's attempts to find sodium thiopental proved that 
the death penalty opponents were right.

Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln, a Republican, said the governor's decision 
confirms that "the death penalty is broken. We can't obtain the drugs, it 
causes years of suffering for victim's families, risks executing the innocent, 
and is a waste of taxpayer dollars. It's time to move on."

Sen. Les Seiler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the governor's move 
will allow the Legislature to concentrate on other issues. Like Coash, Seiler 
is a Republican who voted both for repeal and to override the governor's veto. 
Ricketts??? decision will give senators time to work on various tax reduction 
proposals, Seiler said.

The governor could have saved his administration embarrassment if he had acted 
earlier.

Belated though his decision might be, Ricketts should be credited for 
recognizing that stubborn insistence on trying to find execution drugs would 
have interfered with his pursuit of other important goals.

As Ricketts said, his decision gives deference to Nebraska's voters. If they 
study the issue diligently, voters will come to the same conclusion that state 
senators did. Replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without 
possibility of parole is a better way to serve the cause of justice.

(source: Lincoln Journal Star Editorial Board)




NEVADA:

Louisiana couple indicted on murder charges, could face death penalty


A Louisiana ex-convict and his girlfriend have been indicted in Las Vegas on 
murder charges that could get them the death penalty in the killing of a 
71-year-old woman whose body was found in a duffel bag in an underground 
utility vault.

A nine-count indictment filed Thursday in Clark County District Court also 
charges Jamar Kenty Webb and Veronica Johnvae Houck with conspiracy, 
kidnapping, robbery and possession and use of stolen credit cards in the death 
of Young Suk Sanchez.

Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said Friday that a decision on whether to seek 
capital punishment will be made in coming weeks.

Webb's attorney, David Schieck said Webb will plead not guilty at arraignment 
Wednesday. Webb, 33, has been at the Clark County jail in Las Vegas since his 
transfer in custody in October following his arrest in Minden, Louisiana.

Houck, 23, is in a Louisiana prison, serving a four-year term after being found 
guilty last month of violating felony probation stemming from a May 2013 
identity theft conviction.

DiGiacomo said prosecutors will seek Houck's extradition to Las Vegas to stand 
trial.

Sanchez's decomposing body was found Sept. 22 by a utility worker near a 
complex of extended-stay suites in a casino district southeast of downtown Las 
Vegas. Police said Houck and Webb were Sanchez's neighbors.

The couple was arrested in Louisiana about 2 weeks later, after police traced 
spending on Sanchez's stolen credit cards, according to a police report.

Houck told police that Sanchez died Aug. 18 after she and Webb duct-taped the 
woman's feet, hands and mouth, put a trash bag over her head, set a cellphone 
timer and returned about 30 minutes later.

Webb was previously convicted in Louisiana of 1st-degree murder and battery of 
a police officer, and spent his entire adult life in prison before being 
released in December 2014, said Pam Laborde, spokeswoman for the Louisiana 
Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

L.A. Exhibition Showcases Art From Inside Death Row


Right now, 746 inmates await execution in California. We don't often hear from 
those inmates, let alone see artwork they make in prison. But organizers of a 
Los Angeles exhibition of art made by death row inmates from across the country 
say they hope to reveal the humanity of those people whose lives hang in the 
balance.

On July 16, 2014, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled that California's 
death penalty violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual 
punishment because it is arbitrary and plagued with delays. But that decision 
was overturned on Nov. 12, 2015, on technical grounds, which means executions 
could potentially move forward. The last execution in the state was in 2006.

Kevin Cooper has been on death row in San Quentin State Prison for 30 years. 
He???s on a short list of at least 17 death row inmates who have exhausted 
their appeals and would be the 1st to be put to death if executions resume in 
California. He spends much of his day in his cell.

"I live in a cage that is 4 1/2 feet wide by 11 feet long," Cooper says. "And 
everything that I do within this cage I do mostly to stay sane. But I have a 
TV, a typewriter, my art supplies and my books."

There's a tray slot in the door where guards pass him his meals or a cellphone. 
In 1985, Cooper was convicted of murdering 4 people in the Chino Hills area of 
Southern California. His case is controversial. People have marched to have him 
executed, while others have protested to demand his release. He has always 
maintained his innocence.

In 2004, Cooper was scheduled to be executed. Less than 4 hours before he was 
set to receive a lethal injection, it was postponed to allow for more DNA 
testing, which still failed to exonerate him. Still, he's become a figurehead 
in the movement to abolish the death penalty.

"I knew after I survived that stuff that my life wasn't my own no more, that it 
belonged to this movement. And I've been involved in this movement for a very 
long time. And that is where I get my strength," Cooper says.

Cooper is one of a couple dozen inmate artists represented in "Windows on Death 
Row," an exhibition at the University of Southern California. His acrylic 
paintings draw connections between slavery and prison labor. One, called "It's 
a Generation Thing in America," shows 3 black men - a grandfather, father and 
son - all wearing prison uniforms. Another piece, "Free Me," shows a man 
cupping his hand to his mouth and shouting.

"Sometimes when you're in a place like this and you tell people certain things, 
it's just like they don't hear. You have to scream it," Cooper says. "And 
sometimes when you scream, they still don't hear you."

"Windows on Death Row" was organized by a Swiss couple: Patrick Chappatte, a 
political cartoonist for the International New York Times, and TV journalist 
and documentary filmmaker Anne Widmann. Chappatte says they wanted to reveal 
the humanity of the inmates.

"And that's what is a bit unsettling, might be unsettling for some viewers, 
because death row is a place, is a forgotten place where we put, as a society 
we put people that are seen as monsters, and we don't pay attention to what's 
going on there. And what you see through the art is actually, you see beauty, 
you see human emotions," Chappatte said.

Over 70 framed drawings and paintings line the walls. Some of those include 
political cartoons submitted by Chappatte's fellow cartoonists. All the pieces 
in the show are critical of capital punishment. Chappatte said he reached out 
to conservative cartoonists but they, too, were against capital punishment.

"One of the cartoonists says that he's describing in one of his cartoons that 
he was for death penalty, then changed his mind. Another of the conservative 
cartoonists told me, 'You know what, I'm pro-life all the way, so I'm 
anti-abortion and anti-death penalty,'" Chappatte recalls.

The cartoonist who changed his mind about the death penalty is Jack Ohman, 
editorial cartoonist for the Sacramento Bee and president of the Association of 
American Editorial Cartoonists.

"I don't want to be executing somebody who - even if they had committed the 
crime - I don't think that sends the right signal. As a society, if you're 
saying killing is wrong, killing is wrong. We shouldn't be killing," Ohman 
says.

Widmann says "Windows on Death Row" is not about taking sides between criminals 
and victims. She points out that the group "Murder Victims' Families for Human 
Rights" is one of the show's sponsors. But she does want visitors to think 
about how race and class factor into how likely defendants are to be sentenced 
to death.

"I mean, look at this system. It's broken. I mean, how come terrible murderers 
are not on death row, and how come some are? How come some people have money to 
hire great lawyers, and how come others don't?" Widmann says. "It has nothing 
to do with empathy with criminals, you see what I mean?"

"Windows on Death Row" will travel to North Carolina and Ohio after it closes 
in Los Angeles on Dec. 18.

(source: KQED news)