[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., ALA., MONT.

Fri Feb 13 16:59:45 CST 2015

Feb. 13

PENNSYLVANIA:

Death Penalty Moratorium Declaration----Published by Governor Tom Wolf

Governor Tom Wolf Announces a Moratorium on the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania

Today, Governor Tom Wolf announced a moratorium on the death penalty in 
Pennsylvania that will remain in effect until the governor has received and 
reviewed the forthcoming report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory 
Commission on Capital Punishment, established under Senate Resolution 6 of 
2011, and there is an opportunity to address all concerns satisfactorily.

"Today's action comes after significant consideration and reflection," said 
Governor Wolf. "This moratorium is in no way an expression of sympathy for the 
guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous 
crimes. This decision is based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an 
endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and 
expensive. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 150 people have been 
exonerated from death row nationwide, including 6 men in Pennsylvania. 
Recognizing the seriousness of these concerns, the Senate established the 
bipartisan Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission to conduct a study 
of the effectiveness of capital punishment in Pennsylvania. Today's moratorium 
will remain in effect until this commission has produced its recommendation and 
all concerns are addressed satisfactorily."

This morning, Gov. Wolf took the 1st step in placing a moratorium on the death 
penalty by granting a temporary reprieve to inmate Terrance Williams, who was 
scheduled to be executed on March 4, 2015. Governor Wolf will grant a reprieve 
- not a commutation - in each future instance in which an execution for a death 
row inmate is scheduled, establishing an effective moratorium on the death 
penalty in Pennsylvania. For death row inmates, the conditions and confinement 
will not change.

(source: scribd.com)

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Death penalty cases in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding area

Some of the Lehigh Valley's most notorious murder cases are affected by 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's announcement Friday of a moratorium on executions.

Wolf said he wants to review a forthcoming task force report on the death 
penalty. You can see the current list of state inmates awaiting execution here.

Pennsylvania has had 3 executions since the death penalty was reinstated in the 
state in 1974, and those were after the inmates waived their appeal rights, 
according to the Death Penalty Information Center

In the past 30 year, 29 Pennsylvania death row inmates died of natural causes 
while awaiting execution and three committed suicide, the center said.

Northampton County death row inmates

--Michael Ballard, who pleaded guilty to murdering 4 people in 2010 in a 
gruesome knife attack in Northampton. Ballard, who had been released from 
prison for a killing in Allentown, killed his ex-girlfriend Denise Merhi; her 
father, Denis Marsh; her grandfather, Alvin Marsh; and Steven Zernhelt, a 
neighbor who rushed into Merhi's home after hearing screaming inside.

--George Hitcho Jr., convicted by a jury in the shooting death of Freemansburg 
police officer Robert Lasso in August 2011.

Lehigh County death row inmates

--Harvey Miguel Robinson, an Allentown serial killer who raped and murdered 
three women in the early 1990s. Robinson's victims were Joan Burghardt, a 
29-year-old nurse's aide; Charlotte Schmoyer, a 15-year-old newspaper carrier; 
and Jessica Jean Fortney, a 47-year-old grandmother.

--George Lopez and Edwin Romero, both convicted in the strangling death of 
architect David Bolasky in 1995 in Allentown.

--Raymond Solano, who fatally shot Almondo Rodriguez in an Allentown park in 
2001.

--Junius Burno, who fatally shot an Allentown nightclub disc jockey, Carlos 
Juarbe, and his cousin, Oscar Rosado III, in April 2003 in Allentown.

There are also criminal cases with local ties where prosecutors planned to seek 
the death penalty in the event of a conviction of 1st-degree murder:

--Eric Frein, accused of using a .308-caliber rifle Sept. 12 outside the state 
police barracks at Blooming Grove in Pike County to fatally shoot Cpl. Bryon 
Dickson II and wound Trooper Alex Douglass.

--Tyrell Young, a Reading man accused of fatally shooting an Allentown 
businessman during a Craigslist car deal in April 2014.

--Michael Wilkins and Maurice Wilkins, Reading brothers accused of killing a 
Palmer Township man, and in a separate incident in December 2012 kidnapping, 
torturing and strangling a woman and dumping her body in Lehigh County.

--Jillian Tait and Gary Lee Fellenbaum, accused of torturing to death Tait's 
3-year-old son, Scott McMillan.

(source: lehighvalleylive.com)

ALABAMA----impending execution

Alabama death row inmate seeks stay of execution

Attorneys for an Alabama death row inmate scheduled to die next week asked a 
federal court Friday to stop the execution.

Thomas Arthur, convicted in 1982 in a murder-for-hire scheme, has been at the 
center of an ongoing battle over the drugs Alabama uses to conduct executions. 
The inmate first sued in 2011, saying the state's 3-drug cocktail violated his 
Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Arthur and attorneys have argued the anesthetic used in the execution would not 
work fast enough to prevent pain resulting from 2 succeeding drugs that 
paralyze the body and stop the heart.

A messages left with Suhana Han, an attorney representing Arthur, was not 
immediately returned Friday morning. Mike Lewis, a spokesman for Alabama 
Attorney General Luther Strange, said Friday the office had no comment.

Arthur is currently scheduled to be executed on Feb. 19.

The inmate's challenge is one of several facing the state's administration of 
capital punishment. When it the state adopted lethal injection as its primary 
form of execution in 2002, Alabama officials used sodium thiopental as its main 
sedative in the procedure. In part due to pressure from European anti-death 
penalty activists, Hospira stopped manufacturing the drug in the United States 
in 2011; the company said in a statement at the time that it "never condoned" 
the use of the drug in executions.

Alabama officials then switched to pentobarbital as the main sedative; Arthur 
and his attorneys argued that drug would take too long to render him 
unconscious before the other drugs took effect.

State officials acknowledged early last year that they had run out of the drug. 
The state last conducted an execution on July 25, 2013, when Andrew Reid Lackey 
was put to death for the 2005 murder of Charles Newman, an 80-year-old World 
War II veteran.

In filings with the Alabama Supreme Court last September, the Alabama attorney 
general's office announced that the Department of Corrections had adopted a new 
drug protocol, using midazolam hydrochloride, a sedative. Arthur and his 
attorneys successfully petitioned the court to amend their complaint to target 
midazolam, which was present in botched executions last year in Ohio, Oklahoma 
and Arizona. Alabama officials have cited Florida's use of the drug in 
executions, which has not resulted in any reported incidents.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month agreed to hear a challenge to the use of 
midazolam from 3 inmates on Oklahoma's death row.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday allowed a 2012 stay on Arthur's 
execution to expire, saying it dealt specifically with the timing of certain 
court filings. However, the panel also said that "nothing herein precludes Mr. 
Arthur from seeking an injunction or restraining order as to the February 19, 
2015 execution," though it directed the petition to be filed in district court.

Most of the filings in the Arthur case are under seal. Last year, the 
Department of Corrections denied separate Freedom of Information Act requests 
from the Advertiser, The Anniston Star and the Associated Press seeking 
information on the state's death penalty protocol, citing the Arthur seal.

The state has until Sunday morning to respond to the Arthur filing.

Christopher Price Lee, convicted in 1991 of the brutal murder of a Tuscaloosa 
minister, filed a separate lawsuit last October challenging the state's new 
execution protocol. The lawsuit is still pending before U.S. District Judge 
Kristi DuBose.

(source: Montgomery Advertiser)

MONTANA:

Effort reborn to abolish death penalty in Montana

Montana lawmakers are again considering a bill that would abolish the death 
penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Republican Rep. David Moore of Missoula introduced House Bill 370 Friday in the 
House Judiciary Committee.

Supporters say the practice is expensive and using it models the idea that 
killing is a legitimate way to end a conflict. Opponents say it's a needed tool 
in the justice system. People on both sides of the issue spoke emotionally 
about their experiences with violence and the death penalty.

Similar bills have made it through the Senate in prior years but in the past 
two legislative sessions it has failed to gain traction in the House.

The committee did not take action on the measure Friday.

(source: Associated Press)