[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, KAN., UTAH, MONT., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 4



TEXAS----execution

Texas executes 'Texas 7' prison escapee Donald Newbury for killing police 
officer 14 years ago



A 3-time convicted robber who helped engineer the biggest prison break in Texas 
history was executed Wednesday evening for killing a suburban Dallas police 
officer while the notorious gang was on the run.

Donald Newbury, 52, became the third member of the group known as the "Texas 7" 
executed for the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Aubrey Hawkins, an Irving 
officer who interrupted the fugitives' robbery of a sporting goods store on 
Christmas Eve in 2000.

The slaying occurred 11 days after the convicts escaped. The gang was captured 
a month later in Colorado.

Asked to make a final statement, he mumbled: "I would. That each new indignity 
defeats only the body. Pampering the spirit with obscure merit. I love you all. 
That's it."

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital took effect, he closed his eyes, then took 
a deep breath and began snoring. After about a dozen snores, each a bit 
quieter, he stopped all movement.

He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later, at 6:25 p.m.

About 2 dozen police officers stood at attention outside the Huntsville prison. 
Several supporters of the slain officer were on motorcycles outside, and as 
Newbury was taking his final breaths, the roar of them revving their engines 
could be heard inside the death chamber.

"This isn't about Donald Newbury. This is about justice for Officer Aubrey 
Hawkins," Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said after the execution. "And what 
you see from the Irving Police Department is to carry this through to the very 
end.

"This is just one episode in that chapter. ... That's our commitment to Officer 
Hawkins."

The punishment was carried out after Newbury lost a last-day appeal to the U.S. 
Supreme Court. His attorneys had argued previous lawyers were deficient and 
courts did not provide adequate money for a defense expert to illustrate how 
Newbury's abusive childhood influenced his violent behavior.

Evidence showed the gang led by George Rivas, who had been sentenced to 17 life 
prison terms, overpowered workers on Dec. 13, 2000, at the Connally Unit of the 
Texas Department of Criminal Justice, about 60 miles south of San Antonio. They 
broke into a prison armory, stole weapons and drove off in a prison truck.

2 days later, Rivas and Newbury held up a suburban Houston RadioShack store, 
taking electronics including police radio scanners.

"Rivas was the leader and would do the talking, and Newbury was one of the guys 
standing with the gun and threatening everybody," said Toby Shook, the former 
Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted both. "Rivas was using 
him as his muscle."

11 days after the breakout, Hawkins drove to the sporting goods store to check 
out a report of suspicious activity. He was shot 11 times, his bullet-ridden 
body pulled from his squad car and then run over with a stolen SUV. The 
fugitives fled with $70,000, 44 firearms and ammunition, plus jewelry and 
wallets from store employees who were closing up for the evening.

The gang was apprehended a month later. One of them, Larry Harper, killed 
himself rather than surrender. When arrested, Newbury had 12 loaded firearms in 
the Colorado Springs Holiday Inn room he shared with fellow fugitive Joseph 
Garcia.

Rivas was put to death 3 years ago at age 41. George Rodriguez ordered his 
appeals dropped and was executed in 2008 at age 45. 3 remain on death row: 
Garcia, 43; Patrick Murphy Jr., 53; and Randy Halprin, 37.

Newbury becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas 
and the 521st overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 
1982. Newbury becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death since Greg 
Abbott became Governor of Texas last month.

Newbury becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the 
USA and the 1401st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 
1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----3

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----521

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

4------------Feb. 10-------------------Les Bower, Jr.-------522

5------------Mar. 5--------------------Rodney Reed----------523

6------------Mar. 11-------------------Manuel Vasquez-------524

7------------Mar. 18-------------------Randall Mays---------525

8------------Apr. 9--------------------Kent Sprouse---------526

9------------Apr. 15-------------------Manual Garza---------527

10-----------Apr. 23-------------------Richard Vasquez------528

11-----------Apr. 28-------------------Robert Pruett--------529

12-----------May 12--------------------Derrick Charles------530

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)








OHIO:

Jury selection begins in death penalty case of Tallmadge man accused of killing 
girlfriend, son -- Wendy and Peyton Ralston's remains were found in woods 
behind their Tallmadge home in 2013.



Cellphone videos of fights between Wendy Ralston and Daniel Tighe, and records 
of Ralston meeting men for sex on the website Sugardaddy.com are among the 
possible testimony in the death penalty murder trial that began this morning

Tighe, 40, of Tallmadge, is accused of killing Ralston, his live-in girlfriend, 
and their 5-year-old son, Peyton Ralston, sometime around July 23, 2013, when 
the mother and son were reported missing.

Tighe is charged with aggravated murder, abuse of corpses, tampering with 
evidence and domestic violence. Attorneys began whittling down the pool of 150 
prospective jurors this morning. Jury selection could take more than a week.

The investigation into the Ralstons' death began Aug. 7 after Ralston's mother 
reported her daughter and her grandson missing. She told police that she last 
heard from them on July 23.

Ralston's mother, Marie Ralston, told investigators that her daughter was known 
to go missing for days without contacting anyone. But she told investigators 
she had never been gone that long and never took her son with her, according to 
court records.

Marie Ralston told investigators that her daughter regularly met up with men 
she found on Sugardaddy.com to have sex with, according to court records. 
Sugardaddy.com is a controversial website that caters to matching older men and 
younger women.

Tighe reported Wendy and Peyton Ralston missing on the same day. Tallmadge 
police went to their Stonecreek Drive home and interviewed Tighe.

He told police Wendy Ralston told him she was leaving for vacation with her 
son. She was supposed to be gone for two weeks, he said, and he contacted 
police after she didn't return home.

Police noted the mother and son hadn't taken any clothes with them on vacation 
and noted Wendy Ralston's keys and car were still at the home. Tighe told 
police she left her Jeep at home because her license was suspended, court 
records say.

He also told police she left her credit card and food stamp card for him to use 
while she was gone.

Neighbors told police it was odd for Wendy Ralston to be gone for more than a 
day and that it was odd Peyton Ralston hadn't been seen playing with other kids 
in the neighborhood, which he did regularly.

3 days after reporting her daughter missing, Marie Ralston walked in the woods 
behind her daughter's home. She called police when she found a blue duffel bag 
covered in bugs, according to court records.

Police arrived and found human remains wrapped in bedding inside the bag. They 
found more human remains wrapped in towels nearby. The remains were later 
identified as that of 31-year-old Wendy and her 5-year-old son.

Investigators from the Tallmadge police and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal 
Investigation searched the couple's home and found several cellphones, a shovel 
with hair on it and letters between Wendy Ralston and Tighe, among other items. 
They also searched a Jeep at the home and obtained Facebook records for Wendy 
Ralston, according to court records.

Investigators found 13 videos Wendy Ralston took of fights she had with Tighe 
in the 2 weeks leading up to her disappearance. Prosecutors said in court 
filings they believe the videos show their "strained and tumultuous 
relationship."

The 2 had several domestic incidents where police were called and Wendy Ralston 
once filed for a temporary protection order against Tighe in 2011.

(source: Cleveland.com)








KANSAS:

Cheatham seeking postponement in retrial in death penalty case----Postponement 
sought due to pending motion in Kansas Supreme Court



With less than 2 weeks before his capital murder retrial is to start, Phillip 
Delbert Cheatham Jr. is seeking postponement of his trial.

Starting Feb. 17, Cheatham, 42, is to be retried in the shooting deaths of 
Annette Roberson, 38, and Gloria A. Jones, 42, in 2003. The retrial is expected 
to last 6 weeks. If convicted of capital murder, Cheatham could be sentenced to 
death.

The motion to postpone the trial was filed on Jan. 20.

On Jan. 23, Cheatham's name was officially changed in Shawnee County District 
Court to King Phillip Amman Reu-El. His 1st name is "King Phillip," and his 
last name is "Amman Reu-El."

So far, that name hasn't surfaced in the criminal trial records, including 
documents filed by his attorneys. During the name-change case, Cheatham told 
the judge his last name should reflect his origin and not a European name, 
referring to Cheatham.

In the motion seeking a delay in the start of of the retrial, defense attorneys 
John Val Wachtel and Paul Oller said Cheatham had filed a pro se petition for a 
writ of habeas corpus before the Kansas Supreme Court.

In the petition written by Cheatham, he is seeking dismissal of the murder case 
and his release from custody. On Wednesday, it was unknown when that filing is 
to be heard by the Supreme Court.

With the filing before the Supreme Court, postponing the retrial would be in 
the "interest of justice, due process of law and judicial economy," the 
Cheatham lawyers wrote.

Cheatham attorneys will attend the Supreme Court proceedings as the Cheatham 
habeas corpus filing goes through that court, the filing said.

"It is not in the best interests of both the state and Mr. Cheatham to have 2 
such important matters as these proceeding at the same time," the attorneys 
said.

Cheatham next will be in district court on Friday during a hearing to handle 
motions. The district attorney's office will oppose postponement of the trial.

Unresolved defense motions that might be heard on Friday include:

-- A court order blocking prosecutors from using Cheatham's testimony during 
the penalty phase of his first trial. In capital cases, a jury hears the guilt 
phase in which jurors decide whether a defendant is guilty of capital murder. 
If he is convicted, the jury decides during the penalty phase whether to impose 
the death penalty.

-- A court order to prohibit prosecutors from using transcripts of testimony 
from the preliminary hearing and the 1st trial.

Cheatham is charged with capital murder in the Dec. 13, 2003, shooting deaths 
of Roberson and Jones; 2 alternative counts of premeditated 1st-degree murder 
of Roberson and Jones; attempted 1st-degree murder of Annetta D. Thomas; 
aggravated battery of Thomas; and criminal possession of a firearm.

A new trial was ordered for Cheatham in 2013 after the Supreme Court overturned 
his capital murder conviction and death penalty sentence for the killings of 
the 2 women in a home at 2718 S.E. Colorado.

On Nov. 14, the Supreme Court disbarred Dennis Hawver, of Ozawkie, the 1st 
attorney who represented Cheatham.

The Supreme Court said Hawver violated Kansas rules of professional conduct 
while defending Cheatham during his 2005 trial. The Supreme Court said Hawver 
engaged in "inexplicable incompetence" when defending Cheatham.

The Supreme Court earlier reversed Cheatham's murder convictions and ordered a 
new trial due to ineffective counsel by Hawver.

The Supreme Court ruled Hawver violated rules tied to conflict of interest, fee 
arrangements, competence, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice 
and conduct adversely reflecting on a lawyer's fitness to practice law.

(source: Capital Journal)



UTAH:

Bill to revive firing squad narrowly passes House committee----Bullets may 
replace needles in Utah death row executions now that a House committee closely 
passed a controversial bill Wednesday that would reinstate the firing squad.



Bullets may replace needles in Utah death row executions now that a House 
committee closely passed a controversial bill Wednesday that would reinstate 
the firing squad.

The House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 5-4 in favor of 
HB11, which would legalize firing squad executions in Utah if drugs needed for 
lethal injections aren???t available 30 days more before the date of the death 
warrant.

Now the bill will go to the House floor for additional debate.

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, is sponsoring the bill in wake of recent botched 
executions. He said prisons may need a "backup" method to lethal injections.

"This is just kind of a worse-case scenario," Ray said. "If we don't figure 
something out, this is what we can revert back to. ... The fact is we have (the 
death penalty) on the books; we're responsible to carry that out, so we have to 
have the ability to do that."

Ray said because the European pharmaceutical companies that sell lethal 
injection drugs oppose the death penalty and refuse to sell to U.S. prisons, 
the drugs have become difficult to obtain, and several states including 
Oklahoma have attempted to find new sources of execution drugs.

Ray said incidents of erred executions carried out by those new state drugs 
have flared debate about whether states have the ability to administer lethal 
injections while still meeting the U.S. Constitution's requirement that 
punishment may be neither cruel or unusual.

That's why Ray said he is pushing HB11 - to ensure Utah's ability to carry out 
the death penalty while avoiding what could be "a very costly legal battle," 
similar to the case Oklahoma currently faces with the U.S. Supreme Court, he 
said.

Acknowledging representatives of groups who oppose his bill because of their 
general opposition to the death penalty, Ray said HB11 "isn't really as big as 
it's being played up to be," because it would reinstate the firing squad as a 
secondary execution method, leaving lethal injection as the primary method.

"We would say it is in fact a big deal," said Anna Brower, public policy 
advocate with American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. "It's a big missed 
opportunity to do something better than to just keep finding different ways for 
the government to kill people."

Brower and other anti-death penalty group representatives urged the committee 
to consider using legislative time to dismantle the Utah death penalty 
altogether rather than "engaging in an ultimately doomed effort to decide on a 
decent way" to carry out the death penalty.

"If we can no longer kill people with lethal injection, which has become over 
time the least horrible way for the government to kill people, perhaps it's 
time that we simply acknowledge that there is no right way to execute people 
and give up on this failed experiment," Brower said. "I think that's a 
legitimate discussion to have at some point as to whether or not to keep the 
death penalty," Ray said, adding that HB11, however, would give the state 
"breathing room" depending on the availability of lethal injection drugs or the 
court costs that may result in a continued pursuit of using the drugs.

"It's a tough situation," Ray said. "There's no humane way to take a life, but 
given what's on the table as far as our options, I think this is a good option 
to have as a backup."

(source: Deseret News)








MONTANA:

Could help Ronald Smith: Montana politician wants death penalty gone



Montana politicians will try once again to pass legislation to abolish the 
death penalty - something that would have a direct impact on death-row Canadian 
Ronald Smith.

Republican representative David Moore is proposing a bill which would abolish 
executions and replace them with life imprisonment with no chance of parole.

Moore says having Smith and another inmate on death row is expensive because of 
all the legal wrangling in the cases.

A lawyer for Smith says he isn't particularly optimistic the bill will pass 
since several other attempts have failed.

Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta. has been on death row since 1983 for 
kidnapping and killing 2 men.

His request for clemency is still in the hands of Montana's governor.

(source: Times Colonist)








USA:

September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui says Saudi royals supported al 
Qaeda



A former al Qaeda operative imprisoned for life for his role in the Sept. 11, 
2001, attacks has told lawyers for victims of the attacks that members of the 
Saudi royal family supported the Islamic militant group.

Zacarias Moussaoui made the statements in testimony filed in Manhattan federal 
court on Tuesday by lawyers for attack victims who accuse Saudi Arabia in a 
suit of providing material support to al Qaeda.

He said a list of donors from the late 1990s that he drafted during al Qaeda 
leader Osama bin Laden's tenure included some "extremely famous" Saudi 
officials, including Prince Turki al-Faisal Al Saud, a former Saudi 
intelligence chief.

"Shaykh Osama wanted to keep a record who give money because ... who is to be 
listened to or who contribute to - to the jihad," said Moussaoui, a 46-year-old 
French native who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in 2005.

Moussaoui said he met in Kandahar with an official from Saudi Arabia's 
Washington embassy. Moussaoui said they were supposed to go to Washington 
together to find a location "suitable to launch a stinger attack" on the U.S. 
presidential plane, Air Force One.

In Washington, the Saudi embassy said on Wednesday that Moussaoui's claims 
appeared aimed at undermining Saudi-U.S. relations and contradicted findings of 
the 9/11 Commission in 2004 that there was no evidence of Saudi funding of al 
Qaeda.

"Moussaoui is a deranged criminal whose own lawyers presented evidence that he 
was mentally incompetent," the Saudi embassy said. "His words have no 
credibility."

The testimony was filed in opposition to Saudi Arabia's latest bid to dismiss 
lawsuits that began more than a decade ago.

Moussaoui made his statements in October at the super-maximum security prison 
in Florence, Colorado, where Moussaoui has been held since being sentenced to 
life in 2006. He wrote a letter offering to testify.

Families of Sept. 11 victims allege that Saudi Arabia and a 
government-affiliated charity knowingly provided funding and other material 
support to al Qaeda that helped it carry out the attacks.

Plaintiffs include families of the nearly 3,000 people killed, as well as 
insurers that covered losses suffered by building owners and businesses.

Most of the 19 attackers were Saudi nationals who hijacked planes and flew them 
into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon near Washington, 
D.C., and into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted.

The case is In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, U.S. District Court, 
Southern District of New York, No. 03-md-01570.

(source: rawstory.com)

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

Executions are down and abolition may not be far behind



It looks like the death penalty may be on life support.

January was set to be the deadliest month for U.S. executions in 2015, but 0 of 
the 15 executions were stopped. In an unprecedented wave, 3 of the deadliest 
states stopped executions planned for last month - Texas, Oklahoma and 
Missouri. February has just begun, but nine of its 12 scheduled executions have 
been halted.

Last year was not a good year for the death penalty, either, as death sentences 
hit a 40-year low and executions were at a 20-year low.

There were botched executions such as that of Clayton Lockett, who writhed in 
pain for 43 minutes before dying of a heart attack, with the Oklahoma prison 
warden calling it "a bloody mess."

Then there were the exonerations, such as that of Ricky Jackson in Ohio, who 
spent 39 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, convicted solely on the 
testimony of a 12-year-old boy who recanted.

Jackson was not alone - several others exonerated in 2014 spent over three 
decades behind bars. In December, we saw the 150th exoneration (since 1976). 
That means for every 9 executions, 1 person was found innocent. What if the 
Postal Service lost 1 letter for every 9 it delivered? What if an airline 
crashed 1 of every 10 flights? Innocence has raised questions for many of us.

Richard Glossip was one of those whose Oklahoma execution was halted by the 
U.S. Supreme Court last month. Glossip has maintained his innocence in the 
murder-for-hire of his boss. In fact, it is clear that if he had lied - and 
pleaded guilty to a lesser crime that he did not commit - he would not face 
execution for the greater crime, which he also did not commit.

It might be that folks are getting tired of the massive resources spent on 
death penalty cases. It is now a well-established fact that it costs more to 
kill someone than to keep them in prison for life. Political conservatives are 
now blasting the money wasted on the death penalty - money that could be used 
to support victims, prevent crime and repair broken schools and families. In 
some states, such as Nebraska, it is likely that Republicans will lead the way 
to abolition.

Groups such as Journey of Hope, Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, 
the Forgiveness Project and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights are 
gaining more and more traction as they insist that capital punishment creates a 
new set of victims and perpetuates violence instead of healing. As you listen 
to them, you can't help but wonder if we can do better than killing to show 
that killing is wrong.

So the death penalty is in critical condition.

But it is not dead - not yet, anyway. With recent polls showing that more than 
1/2 of Americans are opposed to the death penalty when given other 
alternatives, advocates are turning up the volume. In 2014, Tennessee 
reinstated the electric chair, and Wyoming tried to bring back the firing 
squad, though neither state had an execution in 2014.

Despite a loud minority, most of the U.S. has moved on. Last year, 7 states 
accounted for 80 % of all executions. And it is even more evident when you look 
at counties. More than 1/2 of death penalty convictions originate in 2 % of the 
counties in the U.S.

More Christians are troubled that 85 % of executions take place in the Bible 
Belt. A 2014 poll showed that millennial Christians are overwhelmingly against 
the death penalty, and only 5 % of Americans think Jesus would favor it.

Echoing the pleas of his predecessors Benedict XVI and John Paul II, Pope 
Francis called for a renewed commitment from Christians to abolish the death 
penalty - "whether legal or illegal, and in all its forms." Word on the street 
is that the National Association of Evangelicals, representing nearly 50,000 
congregations, may soon weigh in on the issue.

So I am hopeful that 2015 might be a year of abolition. The 6 executions that 
have gone forward this year reveal how broken the system is. 2 of those 
executions involved a lethal injection protocol that is now under review by the 
Supreme Court. Georgia executed a decorated war veteran who suffered from 
post-traumatic stress disorder. Another man was found intellectually disabled 
by 7 doctors. Texas executed a man with an IQ of 67 who was diagnosed as 
mentally retarded at the age of 13. And then there was Arnold Prieto, the 
41-year-old Texas inmate whose life would likely have been spared had he 
accepted a plea bargain (his co-defendants did not face execution, though 
accused of the same crimes).

Might it be that there is a new pro-life movement in America? This is not just 
about being anti-abortion but standing against death in all its ugly forms.

Perhaps it is no surprise that alongside constant stories of death from Paris 
to Ferguson, there is a surge of opposition to the death penalty in the U.S. It 
just feels strange to protest another ISIS beheading and then watch another 
botched execution in the U.S. Revolution is in the air - and the revolution is 
about how life matters. Let's say no to death - from ISIS to Texas.

(source: Commentary, Shane Claiborne; Washington Post)