[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.C., FLA., ALA., LA., OHIO, IND., KY., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 14



NORTH CAROLINA----death row inmate dies

Williams dies on death rowWilliams dies on death row


A death row inmate convicted of the 1991 murder of a Trinity woman has died of 
natural causes.

According to a press release from the N.C. Department of Public Safety, James 
E. Williams, 53, died Friday in Central Prison in Raleigh after being 
hospitalized for several weeks. He was convicted in Randolph County in November 
1993 and sentenced to die for the Feb. 14, 1991, murder of Elvie Rhodes of 
Trinity.

The case made headlines after Rhodes' badly-beaten body was found in a thicket 
near Farmer. Williams became a suspect when investigators talked to his mother, 
Julia Brooks, a friend and co-worker of Rhodes. An autopsy determined the cause 
of death as strangulation.

A woman characterized as Williams' girlfriend was also convicted of robbery and 
murder in connection with the case. Bernice Nobles Sikes was found guilty but, 
because of her testimony during Williams' trial, was not sentenced to die.

Sikes testified that she had been outside Rhodes' home while Williams was 
inside. After hearing a thump, Sikes said, she knocked on the door and Williams 
pulled her inside.

"I saw Mrs. Rhodes laying on the couch," Sikes said. "Her face was all bloody 
and her eyes were swollen shut.

"He went down the side of her face with his hand, and then he licked the blood 
off his fingers," Sikes continued. "Then he kicked Mrs. Rhodes in the side and 
he slapped her."

Sikes also described Williams "beating Rhodes with his hands and a wooden 
stick." She accused Williams of stomping on Rhodes before using a drape cord to 
strangle her.

The couple then wrapped Rhodes' body in a quilt, put it in the trunk of her 
car, stopped at a Hardee's drive-thru to order breakfast, then dumped the body 
in a thicket of briars and honeysuckle in the Farmer community.

Williams received the death penalty. He was 1 of 8 men from Randolph County on 
death row.

(source: The (Ashboro) Courier-Tribune)

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

N.C. prosecutor who sent 5 to death row: It's time to end death penalty


25 years ago, as an assistant district attorney in Forsyth County, Vince Rabil 
helped put Blanche Taylor Moore on death row. Today, Rabil says it is time to 
end the death penalty and calls Moore - a frail 82-year-old still sitting on 
death row - "a living monument to the failure of a vanishing legal remedy."

In an op-ed published Sunday, Rabil repudiates a punishment that he spent 
nearly 2 decades of his career fighting to uphold. In the 1990s, he prosecuted 
a dozen people for the death penalty and put at least 5 on death row. Four 
remain there today.

Rabil believed so strongly in the death penalty that, in 1997, he became the 
1st prosecutor in the country to seek death for a drunk driver. "This will 
seriously make everyone stop after the 1st drink or the 2nd one," he said at 
the time.

Now, Rabil says the death penalty is a broken system that costs taxpayers 
dearly, threatens innocent defendants, and does little to comfort the grieving 
families of victims. He says life with no possibility of parole is a more 
appropriate replacement.

Rabil's transformation reveals how much our state has evolved since the 1990s, 
when a blind faith in the capital punishment system allowed us to sentence 
dozens of people a year to die. This year, N.C. juries didn't hand down a 
single death sentence, executions remained on hold for a 9th year, and public 
opposition to the death penalty reached its highest point since the 1970s. In 
North Carolina, even a Republican legislator came out against capital 
punishment.

At the same time, Rabil's courageous stance against the death penalty marks a 
turning point in North Carolina. While many prosecutors, current and former, no 
doubt have serious concerns about the death penalty, Rabil is the 1st in our 
state to take such a public stand.

We applaud Rabil for speaking the truth that so many others are afraid to 
admit.

(source: ncpolicywatch.org)






FLORIDA:

Clemency counsel for Mike Lambrix objects to the denial of clemency and 
requests a stay of execution to allow time for the full Executive Clemency 
Board to conduct a hearing.


Michael Lambrix has spent over 30 years on death row in Florida. He is due to 
be executed next February 11th, 2016

In a letter addressed to the Florida Commission on Offender Review and the 
Florida Executive Clemency Board today, clemency counsel Adam Tebrugge objects 
to the denial of clemency for Mike Lambrix and requests a stay of execution in 
order to allow time for the full Clemency Board to conduct a hearing regarding 
the request for commutation of death sentence for his client who is due to be 
executed next February 11th, 2016. Further, he requests that Attorney General 
Pam Bond recuses herself from any further review in this case and also requests 
the release of statements made by the trial judge, the Hon. Richard Stanley. He 
argues that "Mr. Lambrix was not even afforded an interview or a 15 minute 
hearing where he could explain why his sentence should be commuted to life."

The letter states:

Michael Lambrix has always maintained that he acted in self-defense; that is 
why he previously turned down several plea offers of life imprisonment. The 
question presented in his plea for clemency is whether the death penalty is 
warranted. (...)

There were numerous egregious structural failures that occurred during Mike 
Lambrix's trial that have not been considered: 1 of the witnesses admitted that 
Mr. Lambrix never confessed to her; the trial judge (who was always armed with 
a shotgun while on the bench) admitted in 1996 that when it came to death 
penalty cases, he would shoot the defendants himself; the lead prosecutor has a 
history of securing wrongful convictions; Mr. Lambrix was denied the right to 
testify; there was evidence that existed at the time of trial regarding a plea 
deal and hair evidence that had never been disclosed; the jury never heard that 
the male victim had a history of violence; and several biased and partial 
jurors served on the jury for the retrial after it the 1st trial ended in a 
hung jury because, after eleven hours (11) the jurors could not determine 
whether the State had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. (...)

In additional to the foregoing, Mr. Lambrix wants the Cabinet to consider that 
if his case went to trial today, it would be very unlikely that the death 
penalty would be recommended or imposed. (...)

In death penalty cases, the clemency process traditionally was intended to 
function as a final safeguard or "fail safe" in our criminal justice system to 
evaluate (1) the fairness and judiciousness of the penalty in the context of 
the circumstances of the crime and the individual; and (2) whether a person 
should be put to death. See Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 415 (1993). There 
is a demonstrated need for procedural bars within the court system but it is 
just as important that those procedural bars do not result in a travesty of 
justice.

Read full letter here --http://weebly-link/213626632771775957

About Mike Lambrix

Mike Lambrix has been on death row for over 30 years in Florida. He has always 
maintained that he acted in self defence. He has previously turned down several 
plea offers of life imprisonment.

At his 1st trial, the Glades County jury ended with the declaration of a 
mistrial on December 17, 1983, when the jury failed to reach a verdict after 
deliberating for 11 hours. The retrial jury found M. Lambrix on 2 counts of 
indictment on February 24, 1984.

(source: EP)






ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama Supreme Court denies death row inmate's request to halt execution


The Alabama Supreme Court on Monday denied a death row inmate's request to halt 
his Jan. 21 execution.

A federal judge also said Monday that he would rule "expeditiously" on Alabama 
death row inmate Christopher Eugene Brooks' request for an emergency request to 
delay his execution.

If it happens, the execution would be the 1st in Alabama in 2-1/2 years. It 
also would be the 1st for Alabama's new drug combination for its lethal 
injection protocol.

Brooks had asked the Alabama Supreme Court and U.S. District Court Judge Keith 
Watkins to stay his execution.

Brooks' attorneys have argued that Brooks and 5 other inmates are waiting for a 
final evidentiary hearing on April 19 before Watkins on whether the state's new 
3-drug lethal injection execution violates the constitution against cruel and 
unusual punishment.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office has argued that while the other death row 
inmates had filed their lawsuits contesting the lethal injection combination 
about a year ago, Brooks didn't ask to intervene in the other inmates' suits 
until November in an apparent effort to delay his execution.

Watkins had set a hearing for Friday on Brook's motion for a stay of execution. 
But on Monday Watkins cancelled the hearing stating that the stay motion and 
the one by the Attorney General's Office seeking dismissal of Brooks' 
intervention in the other inmates' complaints can both be resolved without a 
hearing.

"An Order ruling on these 2 motions shall be entered expeditiously," Watkins 
wrote.

Brooks was convicted in 1993 of murder during the course of a rape, robbery, 
and burglary for killing Jo Deann Campbell at the Ski Lodge Apartments in 
Homewood. A jury recommended Brooks receive the death penalty and a judge 
sentenced him to death.

When he was sentenced Brooks bellowed at the victim's family that it "ain't 
over yet" before storming into the prisoners' passageway leading to the 
Jefferson County Jail.

Brooks and Campbell, 23, met in 1991 when they worked at different summer camps 
on a lake in New York, where Brooks and his parents then lived.

Brooks and a friend, Robert Leeper, came to Homewood on Dec. 30, 1992, to visit 
Campbell and stay the night.

The next evening, police found Campbell's body stuffed under her bed, her badly 
beaten head wrapped in her sweat pants. Police testified they found one of 
Brooks' palm prints on Campbell's ankle and his thumbprint in her blood on her 
bedroom doorknob. A state forensic scientist testified that DNA tests matched 
semen from Campbell's body to Brooks.

Police arrested Brooks and Leeper in Columbus, Ga., on charges that they bought 
beer, soda, gas and other items the day before with Campbell's credit card.

Leeper was charged but not indicted in the murder. Leeper denied any knowledge 
of Campbell's murder and forensic evidence did not link him to the crime 
prosecutors said. Leeper was sentenced to 5 years after pleading guilty to 
credit card theft and was released on probation with time served awaiting trial 
in jail.

(source: al.com)






LOUISIANA:

Judge recuses herself from ex-N.O. cop's death penalty case


A federal judge has disqualified herself from the case against a former New 
Orleans police officer who was sentenced to death for arranging a woman's 1994 
murder.

In a 1-page order Monday, U.S. District Judge Helen Berrigan didn't specify a 
reason for recusing herself more than 20 years after she was assigned to 
oversee the case against Len Davis. Berrigan merely cited a law that requires 
judges to disqualify themselves if their impartiality "might reasonably be 
questioned."

Davis was convicted of charges he directed a drug dealer to shoot and kill Kim 
Groves after she filed a brutality complaint against him. Berrigan sentenced 
him to death for a second time in 2005 but was still handling his 
post-conviction proceedings.

The case was reassigned to U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle.

(source: Associated Press)


OHIO:

After court overturns death penalty, Rayshawn Johnson sentenced to life in 
prison----Man convicted of killing neighbor with baseball bat in 1997

After a decision by the state's high court to overturn his death sentence, 
Rayshawn Johnson has been sentenced to life in prison.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters is criticizing a decision to overturn the 
death sentence of a man who beat a Cincinnati woman to death in 1997 during a 
robbery that netted $50.

Johnson was in court on Monday for the re-sentencing, after on Dec. 1, the 
court rejected Johnson's sentence of death, based on Johnson's troubled 
upbringing and his subsequent remorse.

The sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole was what 
Johnson and his attorney asked the court for.

Johnson was convicted of killing Shanon Marks with a baseball bat in 1997. He 
was sentenced to death in 1998, but appealed in 2006.

At that time, a federal court agreed that Johnson received ineffective 
assistance of counsel during the mitigation phase of his trial and instructed 
the state to commute Johnson's death sentence or hold a new mitigation hearing.

A new jury recommended death again in January 2012.

In the 2015 appeal, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected Johnson's arguments, but in 
an independent investigation, found that that the aggravating circumstances in 
the case were not outweighed beyond a reasonable doubt by the mitigating 
factors and the court set aside the death penalty in a 4-3 vote.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said in Hamilton County, he's never had a 
case that's been reversed. There's been one similar case in the state, in Lucas 
County.

(source: WLWT news)






INDIANA:

Man charged with 4 Indianapolis drug house slayings avoids death penalty in 
plea deal


The man charged with a drug-related quadruple homicide on Indianapolis' 
southeast side will be spared the death penalty under a plea agreement in which 
he will serve 4 life sentences without parole, prosecutors said Monday.

Kenneth "Cody" Rackemann, 26, agreed to plead guilty to 4 counts of murder and 
1 count each of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, the Marion County 
Prosecutor's Office said Monday. He's due in court Friday for a change of plea 
hearing.

Rackemann agreed to serve the life sentences consecutively, or one after 
another, plus 20 years on the 2 other charges, prosecutors said.

He had been facing death penalty charges in the shooting deaths of 4 people 
during a botched robbery at an Indianapolis drug house early last year.

Rackemann, who had worked security for 1 of the victims, drug dealer Walter 
Burnell, 47, allegedly was searching for a safe inside the home shared by 
Burrell and victim Jacob Rodemich, 43, when he started shooting those inside, 
prosecutors have said. Rackemann fatally shot the 2 men and Kristy Mae Sanchez, 
22, and wounded Hayley Navarra, 21, before he ran out of bullets, they have 
said.

Rackemann then allegedly called in 21-year-old Valencia Williams, who was 
sitting in a car outside, to kill the 4th victim, a probable cause affidavit 
said. Williams killed Navarra as she begged for her life, according to the 
affidavit.

The prosecutor's office said it had no comment Monday on the plea agreement.

Rackemann is the 2nd of 4 defendants to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.

Samantha Bradley, 22, pleaded guilty in August 2014 to conspiracy to commit 
robbery resulting in death. Prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her in 
exchange for testimony against her co-defendants. She faces a sentence of 20 to 
50 years in prison under her plea deal.

Charges are pending against 2 others.

(source: Associated Press)






KENTUCKY:

Justices Say Kentucky Death Sentence Wrongly Overturned


The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Kentucky officials seeking to reinstate 
the death sentence of a man convicted in the 1997 murders of a Louisville 
couple.

The justices ruled Monday that a federal appeals court was wrong to overturn 
Roger Wheeler's sentence based on the exclusion of a juror who expressed 
reservations about the death penalty.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the sentence after ruling the 
juror should not have been dismissed. The 2-1 ruling said the juror eventually 
said he could consider the full range of punishment.

Kentucky officials argue the juror never "unequivocally" said he could consider 
the death penalty.

The high court said in an unsigned opinion that the appeals court did not give 
enough deference to the state court ruling.

(source: Associated Press)






NEBRASKA:

Ricketts pursuing refund for execution drugs but may review options with same 
vendor should voters keep death penalty


Gov. Pete Ricketts said Monday that seeking a refund for lethal injection drugs 
the state bought earlier this year represents one of several options he is 
exploring on the death penalty front.

During the governor's monthly radio call-in show, Ricketts said much depends on 
whether voters decide in November 2016 to overturn the Nebraska Legislature's 
repeal of capital punishment.

Getting a refund of the $54,400 the state paid to a vendor in India for two 
expired death penalty drugs "is certainly one of the things we're looking at 
right now," Ricketts told a caller. But if voters decide to keep the death 
penalty, the governor added that he may "review with the vendor our options 
going forward."

Otherwise, the governor said his administration is investigating the drugs and 
execution methods used by other states with an eye toward changing Nebraska's 
execution protocol.

"We're going to look and see what other states have been doing," he said.

Ricketts recently shifted his death penalty strategy by announcing he no longer 
would attempt to import disputed lethal injection drugs until voters decide the 
issue next year. The announcement effectively put a moratorium on executions in 
Nebraska, where 10 men are on death row.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had repeatedly said it is under a federal 
court order to block importation of sodium thiopental, 1 of the lethal drugs 
that no longer has an approved use in this country.

In May, Nebraska lawmakers repealed the death penalty despite the governor's 
veto. Ricketts then provided financial support to a petition drive, which 
gathered more than enough signatures to put the repeal on hold pending the 2016 
vote.

(source: Omaha World-Herald)