[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., FLA., IND., COLO., ORE., WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 18



PENNSYLVANIA:

Prosecutor Urges Death Penalty for Man With Bodies in Yard



A prosecutor is urging a Pennsylvania jury to send a man to death row for 
killing a pharmacist and his girlfriend in 2002.

Hugo Selenski was convicted last week on 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the 
2002 strangulation deaths of Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett. Police found 
their bodies, along with 3 other sets of human remains, in Selenski's yard in 
2003.

First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said Wednesday in his closing 
argument that Selenski tortured Kerkowski before killing him and has a long 
history of violent crime. Those are 2 aggravating circumstances the jury can 
use to sentence Selenski to death.

Pennsylania's governor recently declared a moratorum on the death penalty, but 
the law remains on the books.

(source: Associated Press)








FLORIDA:

Death penalty sought in East Tampa triple-slaying



Prosecutors plan to seek a death sentence for a man accused of killing 3 people 
in front of his 3-year-old nephew during a domestic dispute in December.

Angel Luis Perez, 22, is charged with murder in the deaths of his 
brother-in-law, Jorge Gort, 25; Gort's girlfriend, Brittany Snyder, 23; and 
Perez's girlfriend, Oliva Miller, 22.

Police said Perez forced his way into Gort's home in East Tampa on Dec. 6 and 
shot Gort and Snyder, who died at the scene. When he returned to his car, he 
argued with Miller and shot her, police said.

Perez drove Miller and his nephew, Gort's son, to Tampa General Hospital, where 
she later died and Perez was arrested, police said.

The child, who goes by the nickname Gordo, wasn't injured.

Police said the shootings were the result of a custody dispute over the boy, 
but Gort's sister, Millie, said the 2 men were arguing about a woman.

The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office notified the defense last week that it 
intends to seek a death sentence for Perez for all 3 slayings.

(source: Tampa Bay Online)

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

Cruel and unusual? Florida's lethal injections in question



Florida's scheduled Feb. 26 execution of a quadruple murderer has been put on 
hold because of questions about the 3-drug cocktail the state uses to carry out 
the death penalty.

The Florida Supreme Court voted 5-2 to stay the execution of Jerry Correll 
because the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing whether Oklahoma's use of a 
"virtually identical" mixture of drugs for its lethal injections amounts to 
unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.

Florida and Oklahoma both use a blend of midazolam, vecuronium bromide and 
potassium chloride for executions.

Correll, now 59, was convicted in 1986 of stabbing to death his ex-wife, their 
5-year-old daughter and his ex-wife's mother and sister in 1985 near Orlando.

(source: Palm Beach Post)








INDIANA:

Indiana Supreme Court upholds Weisheit's conviction, death sentence



The Indiana Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the murder convictions and death 
sentence of Jeffrey Weisheit, a former Vanderburgh County man who killed 2 
children in 2010.

In November, Weisheit's attorney, Steven Ripstra, had argued the trial court 
judge should have allowed a witness to testify in the case on prison operations 
in a way that would have given insight on Weisheit's ability to be in the 
prison system without harming himself, other prisoners or staff.

Not allowing the witness - former Indiana Department of Corrections 
Commissioner James Aiken - left jurors to question whether Weisheit posed a 
danger in the event he was sentenced to life without parole, Ripstra sargued.

The state argued the Supreme Court should uphold Weisheit's death penalty 
conviction and that Aiken's testimony was based on a 35-minute interview with 
the defendant. Concerns centered on whether the former commissioner had an 
updated knowledge of current prison protocol

Weisheit was sentenced to death in 2013 on a jury's unanimous recommendation 
following his conviction on 2 murders and of arson in the deaths of Caleb 
Lynch, 5, and Alyssa Lynch, 8, in a fire at his home in northern Vanderburgh 
County in April 2010.

Weisheit's trial was held in Jeffersonville because of intense media coverage 
in the Vanderburgh County area. Autopsies concluded the children died of smoke 
inhalation, which indicated they had been alive when fire was set to the house.

Because Weisheit was sentenced to death, he was able to appeal directly to the 
state Supreme Court.

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

Appeals court orders judge to reverse ruling in McManus death penalty case



A federal appeals court has ordered a U.S. District Court judge to grant a 
Vanderburgh County man's petition for release and to set aside his conviction 
and death sentence for killing his family.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Tuesday sent Paul McManus' 
case back to the lower court with instructions to grant his petition unless the 
state elects to have a new trial.

The appeals court ruled that McManus was forced to appear before the jury in a 
"drug-induced stupor" in violation of federal case law.

The ruling, however, did not disagree with previous state and federal court 
rulings that found McManus was not so mentally disabled that executing him 
would violate a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The panel of 3 appeals court judges, including Seventh Circuit Chief Judge 
Diane Wood, concluded that state courts did not properly consider federal 
standards for determining a defendant's competency when looking at McManus' 
highly medicated condition at the time of his trial.

Shortly after his trial began, McManus began having severe panic attacks 
requiring hospital emergency room visits. He was treated with a "potent 
combination" of psychological medications throughout the trial, including one 
known to impair memory, as well as an opiad painkiller.

In a hearing on the issue during McManus' trial in 2002, according to court 
records, one doctor testified that the drugs prescribed McManus effectively 
"turned his brain into 'a neuropsychopharmacological soup' that significantly 
impaired his ability to make rational decisions and understand the 
proceedings."

According to the federal appeals court: "The powerful effect of the medications 
alone created substantial doubt about McManus's mental fitness for trial, but 
the judge never ordered a competency evaluation."

The federal appeals court judges concluded that: "...regardless of what caused 
the attacks, the drugs administered to curtail them clearly affected McManus's 
cognition during trial. We cannot see how new testimony before the district 
court could possibly provide the necessary information to retrospectively 
assess his competency under the applicable legal standard."

McManus was sentenced to death in 2002, after being convicted of fatally 
shooting his estranged wife, Melissa, 29, and their 2 children, Lindsey, 8, and 
Shelby, 23 months on Feb. 26, 2001.

During his trial, the shootings were not contested but a jury rejected his 
mental illness defense.

After exhausting his state appeals and having his request for appeal denied by 
the U.S. Supreme Court, McManus petitioned U.S. District Court for a writ of 
habeas corpus - a request to release him from prison and set aside his 
conviction and sentence on constitutional grounds.

However, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt denied all 6 grounds for 
appeal cited by McManus' defense attorneys, including a claim that his 
execution is barred because of his mental disability.

In a 2002 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing mentally disabled 
people violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel 
and unusual punishment, although states can define mental disability.

McManus was separated from his wife. He had been arrested on suspicion of 
domestic battery, during which he threatened to kill "everyone," according to 
court records. During the weeks before the shootings he spoke about suicide and 
killing his family.

On the morning of Feb. 26, 2001, McManus' wife served him with divorce papers. 
That same day, he bought ammunition at a gun store and retrieved a handgun from 
his brother's house.

After the shootings, McManus jumped from one of the U.S. 41 twin bridges into 
the Ohio River in an apparent suicide attempt, but was pulled out by rescuers.

(source for both: Courier & Press)



COLORADO:

Mom Tries to Save Son From Death Penalty Even Though He Killed Her Parents



The debate over the death penalty couldn't be more personal for the mother of 
Brendan Johnson.

In June 2014, Johnson and his then-girlfriend, Cassie Rieb, were arrested and 
charged in the murders of his grandfather and grandmother, Charles and Shirley 
Severance, in the eastern Colorado community of Sterling. A few months later, 
prosecutors announced they would be seeking the death penalty against the pair 
- a prospect that distresses his mom, even though Charles and Shirley were her 
parents. Hence, the creation of Saving My Son - Death Penalty, a Facebook page 
on which she shares anti-death-penalty posts as a way of fighting against the 
punishment that could eventually end Brendan's life.

There's no denying that reports about the Severances' deaths, drawn from arrest 
affidavits, are horrendous - and may disturb some readers.

As we noted last year, Johnson contacted police May 29 on a supposed medical 
call for his grandfather. Charles was dead upon the cops' arrival, and the fact 
that he had been killed a week-plus earlier goes a long way toward explaining 
why an autopsy didn't find immediate signs of trauma to his body.

In a subsequent interview, Johnson reportedly maintained that Charles had given 
him a couple of checks adding up to $4,500, as well as permission to drive his 
2009 Chevy truck. He's said to have used the money and vehicle to attend a 
concert in Denver during the days leading up to the body's discovery.

Shirley, for her part, was missing, and in a separate interview with 
investigators, Rieb allegedly denied knowledge of her whereabouts - although 
the affidavit quotes her as admitting that Johnson actually wrote and signed 
the checks supposedly given to him by Charles.

Armed with this information, the cops went back to Johnson. The affidavit says 
he and Reib subsequently confessed to killing the Severances, and their 
explanations about the botched process are chilling.

The murder plot reportedly came together in early May, with the goal focusing 
on Johnson collecting his inheritance early.

On May 20, the affidavit says, Johnson and Rieb entered the Severances' place, 
with him assigned to smother Charles and her tasked with doing the same to 
Shirley. But things didn't go as planned.

The document says Charles struggled so much that Johnson eventually had to 
choke him to death - although the 70-year-old may have suffered a fatal heart 
attack while fighting for his life. And Shirley was even less cooperative. She 
apparently tried to run away, and when she couldn't escape, she pleaded with 
the teens not to kill her and even offered them money to go away.

They didn't. Johnson reportedly allowed her to get some water - but while she 
was drinking, he tried to cut her throat. Instead, he slashed her jaw, 
prompting Shirley to try fleeing again. She failed to get free, however, and 
Johnson is accused of repeatedly stabbing her as she pleaded for her life.

Finally, Johnson strangled Shirley with a string, the affidavit says. 
Investigators believe that's what finally killed her.

The teens took the couple's bodies to a bedroom and left them there until the 
next day, police say. After the cleanup at the murder site was complete, they 
used the truck to transport Shirley's body to Prewitt Reservoir, a short drive 
from Sterling. There, they're accused of dousing it with gas and setting it 
ablaze - and while it burned, they tried to hack off an arm and a leg.

The body was initially buried in a reservoir fire pit. But they apparently 
didn't feel it was secure enough there, so they returned on May 28, dug it up 
and took it to a remote location in Nebraska before returning home. Johnson 
alerted the cops to Charles's death the next day.

We can only imagine the heartbreak Johnson's mother has suffered as a result of 
these incidents and those that followed. Then, in November, she launched the 
Saving My Son Facebook page with the following message:

Most of you have been FB friends with me since June 2nd, when our lives took a 
drastic, sorrow filled turn. Some of you are new friends that are unaware of my 
family's story or perhaps only know of it from newspaper/television articles. 
To summarize, my son (and his then-girlfriend) confessed to murdering my 
parents. In early September, the DA announced that she was going to seek the 
death penalty for my son, Brendan, and his then-girlfriend.

Although I will never understand, condone or accept what has happened, I have 
now come out of my fog and realized that if I don't start trying to do 
something, I may lose my son and I'm doing nothing about it.

All during this, I have tried to post things to my FB page to live out loud, as 
some friends and family have called it. I still plan to do that. However, I 
have decided to create a separate FB page for it to allow others to post to it 
if they have articles, feelings, websites to share.

During the intervening months, Brendan's mother has regularly posted stories 
about the death penalty, including one from Westword about Bob Autobee, who 
opposed the execution of his son's killer. She's also shared a pledge from the 
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and most recently praised 
Pennsylvania for its decision to halt capital punishment there.

For the most part, she has avoided commenting on Brendan's situation. The 
closest thing to an exception was a January post featuring the following photo: 
The caption on the pic reads: "Brendan with his little brother September 2003. 
He has always been so protective of his little brother."

And she is protective of him, despite the awful acts to which he's admitted.

(source: Westword)








OREGON:

John Kitzhaber leaves governor's office without commuting any death-row 
sentences

After 5 days of speculation, John Kitzhaber stepped down as governor Wednesday 
without commuting the sentences of any death row inmates.

At least Kitzhaber issued no statement that he was exercising his executive 
power to grant clemency to any or all of the state's 34 prisoners sentenced to 
die.

Kitzhaber isn't required by law to publicly disclose his decision, but word 
would certainly travel fast and a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of 
Corrections said she'd received no news from Kitzhaber's office that he 
commuted the sentences of any inmates as of 10 a.m. Wednesday. That's when Kate 
Brown was sworn in as governor.

Kitzhaber had remained silent on the subject since last Friday when he 
announced his pending resignation in the midst of an ethics scandal. In the 
following days, players in the criminal justice system pondered what the 
governor would do -- either excitedly or anxiously, depending on which side of 
the debate they fell.

Capital punishment opponents and supporters suddenly were jockeying for a 
moment with the governor in hopes of persuading him either way. A defense 
attorney on Tuesday renewed a clemency request for the state's oldest death row 
inmate, 66-year-old Mark Pinnell.

An Oregonian/OregonLive poll drew more than 3,000 participants, with 73 % 
saying Kitzhaber should commute the sentences of those condemned to die to life 
in prison to add something positive to his legacy.

The question made national headlines, with academics from Harvard Law School 
and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill writing an opinion piece 
for The Huffington Post titled "Gov. Kitzhaber: Your Job Is Not Done."

In arguing against Kitzhaber granting clemency, Clatsop County District 
Attorney Josh Marquis noted that by law seven of the death row inmates would be 
eligible for parole after 30 years while the rest would have to serve out their 
entire lives in prison with no hope of release.

Although some observers thought it was unlikely Kitzhaber would empty out death 
row, others pointed to the unusual circumstances of his departure and wondered 
if the clearly angry politician would close out his career with a bold move on 
an issue that deeply concerned him.

It wouldn't have been unprecedented.

In 2003, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of more than 
150 death row inmates just before leaving office.

Just a few weeks ago, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley granted clemency to 
the last four inmates on death row one day before his political term was up. 
O'Malley had previously succeeded in pushing lawmakers to abolish Maryland's 
death penalty, so no new inmates were being added to death row.

Even without any action from Kitzhaber, Oregonians are now looking toward the 
state's new governor and how she will act.

Under Oregon law, Brown has the same powers: She could reinstate Kitzhaber's 
2011 moratorium on executions or she could grant clemency to inmates. She also 
could push state lawmakers to repeal -- or at least send to voters a repeal -- 
of the state's death penalty, which was reinstated by voters in 1984.

Brown, however, has given no indication of her position on the death penalty. 
Spokesman Tony Green said he didn't have information to share about Brown's 
position. But in 2005, Brown supported a bill to expand the death penalty.

One factor that might encourage Brown to put a hold on all executions: On 
Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called for a national ban on all 
executions until the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue of whether lethal 
injection is constitutional.

(source: oregonlive.com)








WASHINGTON:

New bill would replace death penalty with life sentences



As 2 high-profile death penalty trials are in progress, lawmakers are 
considering shutting down executions in Washington State for good.

House Bill 1739 was discussed at a public hearing in front of the House 
Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning.

The bi-partisan bill would replace the death penalty with a life sentence with 
no parole.

The state's current statute dates back to 1981. Since then, 33 people have been 
sentenced to death. 5 have been executed.

"To me, it's a little like playing God if we're sentencing people to death," 
said Rep. Maureen Walsh at the hearing.

The effort to abolish capital punishment has failed in previous years, but 
supporters think they've gained momentum since Gov. Jay Inslee imposed a 
moratorium on the death penalty last year that lasts as long as he is in 
office.

There are 18 states that have abolished executions. The most recent is 
Maryland.

The bill would also require those convicted to pay restitution to victims and 
their families.

"I fully support the bipartisan bills introduced this year to end the death 
penalty. I put a moratorium on the use of capital punishment last year because 
of its unequal application in our state, the soaring costs and delays, and the 
fact that nearly 80 % of the death sentences issued in our state since 1981 
have been overturned," said Inslee in a statement released after the hearing.

Executions in Washington are carried out by lethal injection, or, at the 
election of condemned person, by hanging.

(source: KIRO news)