[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., S.DAK., WYO., MONT., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 12



OKLAHOMA:

Oklahoma prisons boss to brief board on death penalty moratorium, prison 
overcrowding



The head of Oklahoma's prison system is scheduled to brief the agency's 
governing board about the current status of executions in Oklahoma, as well as 
how the agency is grappling with prison overcrowding.

The Board of Corrections is scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon at the John H. 
Lilley Correctional Center in Boley.

The U.S. Supreme Court halted three scheduled lethal injections in Oklahoma 
while it considers whether the state's current three-drug method is 
constitutional.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton also is expected to 
brief the board on how the state prison system is above 100 % capacity.

The board is expected to meet behind closed doors to discuss 2 pending lawsuits 
against the agency, including the lethal injection challenge that is being 
reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

(source: Associated Press)








SOUTH DAKOTA:

Death penalty repeal dies in Pierre



A legislative committee in Pierre on Wednesday killed a bill to repeal South 
Dakota's death penalty. The Senate State Affairs Committee voted 7-to-2 to kill 
the bill.

KCCR Radio's Tony Mangan reported from Pierre that while current State Attorney 
General Marty Jackley testified against the bill, two former Republican state 
attorneys general testified in support of repealing capital punishment in South 
Dakota.

A prime mover in Pierre for repeal of the death penalty is Sioux Falls 
Republican State Representative Steve Hickey who once was a strong supporter of 
capital punishment.

(source: KELO news)

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

Measures Addressing Victim's Opposition to Death Penalty Fail to Pass Committee



2 bills addressing a victim's opposition to the death penalty have been 
rejected by lawmakers.

In criminal cases where the prosecution is pursuing the death penalty jurors 
are not allowed to hear testimony on the family's wishes or the victim's views 
on the death penalty. House Bill 1158 would change this. If a victim opposed 
the death penalty during his or her life, House Bill 1158 would allow the jury 
to receive this evidence during a pre-sentence hearing. Denny Davis is with 
South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He says this measure 
gives victims a voice.

"Why would we not want to give the victim's family or the victim a voice in the 
trial that's going to take another person's life," says Davis.

Opponents say the measure allows evidence that is normally deemed hearsay and 
inadmissible in court.

The House State Affairs Committee also heard testimony on a companion bill. 
House Bill 1159 would add a check box to the state's driver's license 
application allowing a person to indicate if they are for or against the death 
penalty. The box would be similar to the organ donor check box, however, the 
information would remain confidential until it was needed at trial.

Members of the House State Affairs Committee rejected both measures.

(source: South Dakota Public Broadcasting)








WYOMING:

Bill to Allow Firing Squads as a 2nd Option For Death Row Inmates Expected To 
Pass House



A bill allowing firing squads to be used as a 2nd option after lethal 
injections for death row inmates is expected to pass the house tomorrow.

"It seems like we are moving back in time instead of forward which is a 
concern," said Rep. Mary Throne.

This bill has a lot of support even though a handful of legislators have 
opposed it from the start and say its embarrassing. Representatives in favor of 
the bill say the state needs another execution method.

"The society has the responsibility to if they are going to have an execution 
they have the responsibility to make sure they have the most humane method 
possible," said Rep. Nathan Winters.

Representative winters, A pastor, says he spoke for the death penalty in 
committee, but had questions on this bill. He says lethal injection is still 
the best way to execute inmates.

"When someone commits a heinous act we don't have to respond in the same kind 
of cruelty that they perpetuated on a victim," said Winters.

Lethal injection drugs have been limited by European drug companies because of 
opposition to the death penalty in the European union. Legislators think now is 
the time to act.

"I think the manufacturers have the right to say no we don't have to do that, 
that's why we don't have doctors carrying out executions," said Rep. Charles 
Pelkey.

"I don't like the fact that policy and law that we would pass in the state of 
Wyoming would be dictated by a foreign country," said Winters.

"I don't think that the least populated state in the country would affect how 
the European Union does business," said Throne.

An amendment passed in the house would now have inmates set for a firing squad 
execution to be put under anesthesia and unconscious when shot. The senate has 
to agree on the amendment before it goes to the governor's desk.

(source: KCWY news)








MONTANA:

Legislature should repeal death penalty



The Montana House of Representatives this week will hold a hearing on House 
Bill 370, which would replace the state's death penalty sentence with life in 
prison without the chance of parole. In 2013, a similar bill was introduced and 
failed. The Montana Abolition Coalition, lobbying for death-penalty repeal in 
Montana, is hoping that this session, Montana Republicans and Democrats will 
unite behind this bill, and Montana will join the 18 states in the union that 
do not have the death penalty.

The Montana Legislature should pass HB 370 because it will reduce the cost of 
prosecuting capital cases in the state, it will guarantee that no innocent 
person is wrongfully put to death, it will keep murderers behind bars where 
they will not have a chance to further menace society, it will free up millions 
of dollars that could be spent on crime prevention and victim 
compensation/counseling, and it will give the families of murder victims real 
closure.

According to the Montana Abolition Coalition, a death penalty case is up to 10 
times more costly to prosecute than a non-death penalty case. Montana currently 
has just 2 inmates on death row (where they have been for more than 20 years) 
and the cost of their legal defense, footed by taxpayers, exceeds $10 million. 
The Montana Abolition Coalition calculates that incarcerating these 2 men for 
the rest of their lives would have totaled about $3.5 million - still a pretty 
penny but far less costly and far more fiscally conservative.

We would all like to believe that there is never a miscarriage of justice in 
Montana. But the simple fact is that people make mistakes - that's just part of 
being human. The death penalty, however, is irrevocable. While we do not know 
whether an innocent man or woman has ever been put to death in Montana, we do 
know that three men have been exonerated for crimes they didn't commit after 
DNA testing proved their innocence. We also know that nationwide some 150 men 
and women on death row, who were convicted by a jury of the peers who found 
them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, have been exonerated of their alleged 
crimes when more facts or evidence came to light.

HB 370 would eliminate the death penalty as the highest sentence in applicable 
murder cases and would replace it with life in prison without a chance of 
parole. Those who commit truly heinous crimes who have no chance of 
rehabilitation and who pose a menace to society would stay in prison, for the 
rest of their lives, where they couldn't hurt anyone else. Eliminating the 
death penalty doesn't mean eliminating safeguards for society.

Equal Justice USA, a nationwide death penalty opponent, argues convincingly 
that the expensive, complex death penalty process is diverting millions of 
dollars at the state and federal levels away from programs that could be better 
spent giving the families of homicide victims the help they need to heal, 
including specialized grief counseling, financial assistance and ongoing 
support.

One relative of a Colorado murder victim, whose case is unsolved, Gail LaSuer, 
suggests that with the repeal of the death penalty, the money that had been 
spent on prosecution and appeals of death penalty inmates could be far better 
spent in the creation of a cold-case unit that could use the advantages of 
modern technology to go back and find, murderers who could then be put away for 
life.

Finally, repealing the death penalty will give real closure to the families of 
those whose lives have been brutally taken. Family after family of homicide 
victims has told Equal Justice USA that the drawn-out death penalty appeals 
process prolongs their pain, subjects them to further media coverage, drags 
them to court hearings, and continues to reopen the pains of the loss of their 
loved one. The Montana Abolition Coalition suggests that a rarely-used death 
penalty is almost like a hoax on victims' families, who are promised one 
conclusion and then must sit back for years to watch the appeals process drag 
out.

We encourage our local legislators, Reps. Christy Clark and Rob Cook, and Sen. 
Llew Jones, and their fellow House and Senate members on both sides of the 
aisle to vote in favor of HB 370 and to improve the efficiency of sentencing in 
Montana and to reduce the huge drain on the legal system that the existing 
death penalty creates.

(source: Editorial, Choteau Acantha)








USA:

Jury Pool for Trial in Aurora Shooting Is Pressed on Death Penalty



Lawyers on Wednesday began questioning potential jurors for the trial of the 
man accused of killing 12 people and wounding 70 during a showing of a Batman 
film in a packed Colorado movie theater in 2012.

The defendant, James E. Holmes, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, 
though his lawyers admit he was the gunman. The district attorney is seeking 
the death penalty, and prosecutors and defense lawyers focused most of their 
questioning on how prospective jurors feel about that sentence.

"Do you think you could say that this man over here should die?" Rich Orman, a 
prosecutor, asked one woman, waving toward Mr. Holmes, who was doodling on a 
legal pad. The woman, who said she was a lawyer, answered affirmatively.

The defense asked juror candidates if they would consider factors like mental 
illness, age or a difficult childhood in deciding whether to give the death 
penalty.

"What would you be looking at to determine if death is the only appropriate 
penalty?" asked Katherine Spengler, a defense lawyer. She turned to mental 
illness. "Would you consider that as a reason to give life?"

Bearded and noticeably heavier than in past appearances, Mr. Holmes at times 
seemed not to notice the drama surrounding him, hunching his shoulders over his 
legal pad. At other times, he sat rapt, watching his defense team question the 
potential jurors.

Officials sent jury summonses to 9,000 people here - a number that dwarfs even 
the 1,300 or so potential jurors who filled out questionnaires in the trial of 
the man accused in the Boston Marathon bombings.

The pool of potential jurors has since been whittled to about 2,000. 
Questioning of those people is expected to take 16 weeks, during which the pool 
will be reduced to 120, who will receive further questioning, and finally to 12 
jurors and 12 alternates.

The trial, to be held in this Denver suburb, could last from early spring to 
October, with testimony expected from police officers, crime scene experts, 
witnesses and mental health experts.

The shooting took place July 20, 2012, at a movie theater in the Denver suburb 
of Aurora, where about 400 people were attending a screening of "The Dark 
Knight Rises." Minutes into the film, a masked person entered the theater and 
opened fire.

2 1/2 years later, the effects of the massacre continue to ripple through the 
region, with victims and their families grappling with depression and 
post-traumatic stress disorder and divided over the prosecution's decision to 
seek the death penalty. Some have argued that it is the only way to ensure 
justice; others have said it will cause years of appeals, an excruciating 
prospect for those seeking a degree of closure.

Wednesday's questioning moved slowly, a sign of just how difficult it will be 
to find jurors who can keep an open mind during a long-running and highly 
publicized case being tried not far from the scene of the crime. During the 
morning session, just 4 jurors were questioned over more than 3 hours. The 
judge had hoped to see 6.

Several confessed links to the case. The 1st potential juror, a young woman 
dressed in pink, said that several of her Facebook friends knew a man who had 
been killed in the theater shooting. The 4th potential juror said he believed 
he knew one of the witnesses.

3 of the 4 jurors questioned during the morning session will return for further 
questioning.

In recent days, Tom and Caren Teves, whose son Alex was killed in the rampage, 
have renewed their calls for the news media to refrain from naming the shooter 
or displaying his photograph during what is expected to be widespread trial 
coverage, arguing that these actions encourage copycat crimes and traumatize 
families.

"Every day is like Alex died yesterday," Mr. Teves said in an interview. 
"That's how much pain we feel. I don't want another father to have to live, or 
another mother to have to live, the way Caren and I live."

(source: New York Times)