[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., GA., FLA., ALA., OHIO, W.VA.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 20



TEXAS:

Rodney Reed From Death Row: "I'm Not Giving Up"



About 4 hours east of Bastrop, in the small town of Livingston, is a maximum 
security prison better known as death row.

For the past 17 years, it's been Rodney Reed's home. He spends about 22 hours 
each day in a cell, clinging to hope and maintaining his innocence.

"It's not just what I'm going through, it's what my family is going through," 
Reed said. "I kind of get emotional when I think about what's going on with 
them."

At the moment, Reed said a radio is his only contact with the world.

As the days tick down on his life, he can't see the countless protests and 
vigils calling for his freedom taking place across the state.

The only updates come when family members see him through the glass.

"My baby boy, he tells me that he has faith," said Reed. "I have to hold on, I 
have to hold onto that."

Reed is scheduled to be executed March 5. A Bastrop jury convicted him nearly 2 
decades ago for the 1996 murder of 19-year-old Stacy Stites.

"I try not to entertain what the state is trying to do to me, I don't want to 
entertain it," Reed said.

But on Wednesday he was forced to.

Reed said that before his interview with KEYE TV he was told to complete 
paperwork for the state identifying which of his family members could be in the 
room when he's executed. It also outlines what to do with his remains.

KEYE TV asked Reed if he thinks it's possible the state will put him to death.

"I think that it's possible," he said. "I hope that they don't, but it's 
possible that they will."

Reed says he has known others on death row who have left and never come back, 
and he knows the routine, but it's not something he wants to focus on.

"I have to treat every day the same," he said. "I mean I'm not going to curl up 
in a corner -- nothing like that -- and stare at the celling all day. I'm going 
to continue to listen to my music, continue to read and continue to be me."

Reed also knows, as have others before him who have also maintained their 
innocence, that you can return from the brink.

At the moment Rodney Reed's fate rests with the courts and Governor Greg 
Abbott.

While campaigning for governor, Abbott spoke to KEYE TV in 2014 on his position 
on the death penalty in general, saying, "I want to ensure sure that it's 
administered with absolute fairness and justice."

Abbott said, "I led the advancement in this last session to ensure we would 
have broad-based DNA testing in any death penalty case. If the death penalty is 
going to be imposed we must be sure that the person who receives the death 
penalty really did commit the crime."

But at each recent hearing, the state consistently fought against additional 
DNA testing, along with new testing for evidence that's never been through the 
process, including the belt used to strangle Stites.

Reed's attorneys believe the state is ready to move forward with the execution, 
rather than admit the possibility that the new findings and testimony in Reed's 
defense show he's innocent.

"What the state is trying to do here, in our view, is rush the execution date 
before we can get to the evidence that establishes Mr. Reed's evidence," said 
Reed's attorney Andrew MacRae.

Their latest appeal argues new forensic evidence, from three renowned forensic 
pathologists, which they say shows it's impossible for Rodney Reed to be 
guilty.

There are also affidavits from 2 of Stites' coworkers saying they kncew Reed 
and Stites were in a relationship. It would back up the story Reed has been 
telling since his conviction.

"I've been in this fight, this struggle that long. I'm not giving up -- not my 
hope, not my faith," Reed said.

For now he waits, spending the majority of his time reading, thinking about 
family and supporters, and glancing at pictures.

"I look in their eyes, I look at their smiles, and I see the love," he said.

With lingering questions, did the state get it right or will an innocent man 
run out of time?

KEYE TV reached out to the office of the Governor and Attorney General for a 
comment on this case, but have not heard back.

(source: KEYE TV news)

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

Man who killed officer loses death row appeal



A convicted killer sent to Texas death row for fatally shooting a Dallas police 
officer working an off-duty security job at a club more than 13 years ago has 
lost a federal appeal.

Lawyers for 32-year-old Licho Escamilla argued before the 5th Circuit Court of 
Appeals that his trial attorneys were deficient for not producing evidence 
about his troubled childhood - evidence that could have persuaded jurors to 
sentence him to life in prison, the lawyers said.

But the 5th Circuit ruled late Wednesday that evidence of the crime outweighed 
any mitigating evidence not presented to jurors. Court records show that 
Escamilla had a history of violence and that Officer Christopher James was 1 of 
2 people he killed.

James was shot multiple times in the head by Escamilla while working off-duty 
as a security officer at Club DMX in northwest Dallas on Nov. 25, 2001.

At Escamilla's 2002 trial, he threw a pticher of water toward jurors.

(source: Associated Press)








PENNSYLVANIA:

Death sentence in name only



Gov. Tom Wolf last week declared a "moratorium" on capital punishment in 
Pennsylvania, citing a "flawed system that has ... proven to be an endless 
cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive."

The outrage was swift and included a rebuke from York County District Attorney 
Tom Kearney.

Wolf's action is "an affront to the memory of those murdered and their 
families," he said in a statement, adding the governor doesn't understand "the 
weight placed on a prosecutor" who seeks the death penalty.

"In one swift action this past Friday, Gov. Wolf has revictimized the very 
victims that we fight for each and every day by dismissing the tireless efforts 
of our juries," Kearney stated.

What the DA failed to mention is that Pennsylvania, for all intents and 
purposes, does not execute death row inmates.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States nearly 40 years 
ago, Pennsylvania governors have signed 434 death warrants.

In that time, just 3 people have been executed - and only then because they 
abandoned their appeals.

They basically left this world in control, having decided, perhaps, that death 
was preferable to life in a cage.

Does Kearney explain that to victims' survivors?

Does he tell grief-stricken family members that a death sentence in 
Pennsylvania means endless, expensive appeals that will regularly reopen 
emotional wounds ... but almost certainly will never end in an execution?

We hope so, because otherwise the DA is not being honest with survivors. That 
would be the real affront to them and their loved ones.

There are 186 condemned inmates - 13 convicted in York County - in 
Pennsylvania, making ours the 5th-largest death row population in the country. 
But we haven't actually meted out a capital punishment in nearly 16 years.

Critics argue Wolf doesn't have the authority to declare a "moratorium" on our 
phantom executions and say he'll face a legal challenge.

But Wolf certainly does have the power to grant temporary reprieves to 
condemned inmates, and his spokesman says he intends to use it.

Never mind the moral question the rest of the civilized world long ago 
answered.

Forget the astronomical cost - $370 million, based on one study - we spend on 
these lost causes.

Set aside the unacceptable risk of condemning an innocent person.

The reality is Pennsylvania has a death penalty only on paper.

It disrupts nothing to suspend the meaningless death warrants until the task 
force - a state Senate group that predates Wolf by about 3 years - finishes its 
study on the broader issues of capital punishment.

(source: Editorial, York Dispatch)

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

Why Gov. Wolf's so-called death penalty moratorium will fail



What the governor did last week was to grant a reprieve to 1 death row inmate 
who was scheduled for an imminent execution. The granting of a reprieve is one 
of the governor's powers with respect to clemency in Article IV, Section 9(a) 
of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The other 2 are the power to commute a death sentence to life and to grant a 
pardon. The latter 2, however, cannot be exercised by the governor unless 
recommended by the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons. With respect to commuting a 
death sentence to life, the recommendation must be unanimous.

Under Pennsylvania law, the issuance of execution warrants by the executive 
branch is a mandatory duty. That precedent was established in Morganelli v. 
Casey, a case I brought in 1994 against then-Gov. Robert Casey.

Today, the governor is given 90 days to sign a death warrant after receiving 
the case from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If the governor does not sign the 
execution warrant, the execution date must be set by the Department of 
Corrections and the execution proceeds without the governor's signature.

Accordingly, Judge Lewis advised the governor that executions must proceed and 
that the use of the reprieve power was the only constitutional basis for 
creating a de facto moratorium. The governor has stated that he will grant 
reprieves for subsequent scheduled executions for each death row inmate, at 
least until the release of an impending study being done by a task force 
established by the state Legislature.

The governor's objective is unlikely to succeed. In Morganelli v. Casey, the 
court held that a reprieve exists only to afford an individual defendant the 
opportunity to temporarily postpone an execution for a particular proceeding 
involving that defendant - i.e., a pending application for a pardon, 
commutation or judicial relief.

It is unlikely that a court will allow a governor to grant reprieves based on a 
governor's concern about the fairness of the process or the release of a report 
that has no legal significance. If this was permitted, it would, in effect, 
allow a governor to commute death sentences to life by passing the Board of 
Pardons in contravention of Article IV of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Only the Legislature has the power to repeal the death penalty, and only the 
judiciary has the power to suspend the death penalty or declare it null and 
void as unconstitutional or in violation of due process.

Pennsylvania's death penalty was deemed constitutional by the U.S. Supreme 
Court many years ago in the case of Blystone, and, therefore, the governor will 
not be able to derail Pennsylvania's death penalty by continuously granting 
reprieves in individual cases.

As someone who has personally litigated these issues, I predict that ultimately 
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will find the governor's action outside of the 
intended purpose and scope of a reprieve.

(source: opinion; Northampton County District Attorney John M. Morganelli is a 
past president of the Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association and in 1994 
successfully prosecuted an unprecedented case against the governor of 
Pennsylvania to enforce Pennsylvania's death penalty by signing death warrants 
for Josoph Henry and Martin Appel----Morning Call)

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

DA: Death penalty stay will not affect Frein case



The district attorney prosecuting trooper ambush suspect Eric Frein says the 
state's new moratorium on the death penalty will not affect the case. Governor 
Tom Wolf on Feb. 13 halted the further execution of death row inmates until the 
state senate approves a report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory 
Committee on Capital Punishment, which will make recommendations on how to 
prosecute capital cases more fairly. Wolf said he would issue a reprieve for 
every scheduled execution until the recommended improvements are in place.

"If we are to continue to administer the death penalty, we must take further 
steps to ensure that defendants have appropriate counsel at every stage of 
their prosecution, that the sentence is applied fairly and proportionally, and 
that we eliminate the risk of executing an innocent," Wolf said in a memorandum 
announcing the policy.

Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin said Wolf's decision will not stop him 
from pursuing the death penalty for Frein.

The head of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, Joseph Kovel, called 
the decision "a travesty because it prevents the commonwealth and the family of 
Cpl. Dickson from securing the penalty that is deserved. This decision also 
will affect the families of victims from all across the state who have had 
their loved ones torn from them due to senseless acts of violence from 
dangerous criminals."

Jeff Sheridan, Wolf's press secretary, confirmed that defendants in 
Pennsylvania can still be sentenced to death, and that prisoners on death row 
face the same fate as they did before the moratorium.

The governor's stay is part of a temporary reprieve for inmate Terrence 
Williams, scheduled for execution March 4 for killing 2 men. He admitted 
killing them while in his teens but now says both men had been sexually abusing 
him.

'An unending cycle' of appealTonkin opposes the moratorium, calling it a 
"potentially unlawful action." He said he believes state law requires the 
moratorium specify a time frame.

"This unilateral action will only cause more pain and confusion to families who 
have suffered the actions of the worst criminals," Tonkin said.

Wolf said families suffer more grief from an appeals system that has kept most 
Pennsylvania death penalty cases tied up in the courts for years without 
resolution.

"This unending cycle of death warrants and appeals diverts resources from the 
judicial system and forces the families and loved ones of victims to relive 
their tragedies each time a new round of warrants and appeals commences," Wolf 
said. "The only certainty in the current system is that the process will be 
drawn out, expensive, and painful for all involved," Wolf said.

Sheridan said the state's constitution gives the governor the power to grant 
reprieves, and that Wolf has in fact stated when he will lift the moratorium.

5th-largest death row

Death row in Pennsylvania currently has 186 inmates, making it the 5th-largest 
death row in the country. The commonwealth is mostly surrounded by states that 
have abolished capital punishment, including New York, New Jersey, West 
Virginia, and Maryland, which repealed its death penalty law in 2013.

Delaware and Ohio are the only neighboring states with the death penalty still 
in place. On Jan. 30, Ohio Gov. John Kasich postponed all 7 executions 
scheduled for 2015 in his state, after a series of lethal injections were 
botched last year. Delaware abolished capital punishment only briefly in its 
history, from 1958 to 1961.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 in Pennsylvania, only 3 inmates 
have been executed - even though governors have signed death warrants for 434 
prisoners.

The high cost of capital casesTonkin said in a statement that he is 
"disappointed that the governor failed to respond to correspondence from the 
Pennsylvania District Attorney's Association" before announcing the moratorium. 
The association said Wolf "turned his back on the silenced victims of 
cold-blooded killers."

Wolf said that among his chief concerns are the approximately 150 people on 
death row nationwide who have been exonerated over the past 39 years.

Sheridan said Wolf believes the crimes Frein is accused of committing "are 
heinous." He said the moratorium is meant only to give the commonwealth time to 
correct problems in its death penalty trials, including their high cost.

"If the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is going to take the irrevocable step of 
executing a human being, its capital sentencing system must be infallible. 
Pennsylvania's system is riddled with flaws, making it error prone, expensive, 
and anything but infallible."

(source: Pike County Courier)



GEORGIA:

Deacons witness execution of Catholic inmate Warren Hill



The State of Georgia executed Warren Lee Hill, who had received the sacraments 
of the Catholic Church while on death row, the evening of Jan. 27.

Hill, sentenced to death for the 1991 murder of a fellow inmate, died by lethal 
injection. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his application for a stay of 
execution earlier that day.

Hill's original prison sentence was a life term for the killing of his 
girlfriend.

In the years leading up to the execution, Hill had been granted reprieves from 
execution as attorneys representing him challenged Georgia's Lethal Injections 
Secrecy Act and also brought forward evaluations that Hill's sentence should be 
commuted to life imprisonment due to mental retardation.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the death penalty cannot be applied if an 
inmate is mentally retarded, but left it to each state to determine how that 
standard is met. Georgia has the highest such standard to meet of any state.

3 men executed in Georgia since December, woman may be executed in February

Hill's death was the latest of 3 executions at the Georgia Diagnostic and 
Classification Prison in Jackson since December.

Robert Wayne Holsey was executed Dec. 9, 2014, and Andrew Brannan on Jan. 13.

Deacon Richard Tolcher, head of the archdiocesan prison ministry, had provided 
spiritual ministry to all 3 men.

Deacon Tolcher baptized Hill on Feb. 14, 2013, the culmination of their meeting 
regularly since the fall of 2012. The deacon taught him about prayer, 
sacraments and the Catholic faith. The late Father Austin Fogarty, who 
regularly celebrated Mass at the prison, gave Hill his 1st Communion the same 
day and then confirmed him with the permission of Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.

"Archbishop Gregory heard his confession about a month ago," said Deacon 
Tolcher.

Hill asked Deacon Norm Keller and Deacon Tolcher to witness his execution. 
Although Hill declined offering any last words, he did want a prayer said.

Throughout the evening of the execution, Deacon Tolcher kept Archbishop Gregory 
and Bishop David Talley apprised of developments. Bishop Talley celebrates Mass 
for death row inmates each month.

Deacon Tolcher had also been meeting with Brannan, convicted of killing a 
police officer, in his final days. Brannan asked the deacon to witness his 
death and called his name out as he was dying.

"All of them sought and begged for forgiveness from the victims' families. None 
of them said, 'I didn't do it,'" said Deacon Tolcher. "Each of them faced their 
execution in full confidence of their faith."

The deacon said his goal was to "let them know that God loved them" and that 
they were "valuable human beings with human dignity."

When present at an execution, witnesses sit behind a glass window at the feet 
of the inmate. The prisoner's arms are extended outward and strapped down, and 
the upper body is elevated slightly.

The experience reminded Deacon Tolcher of the crucifixion.

Deacon Tolcher said jailhouse conversions are often ridiculed by the public or 
make prisoners seem weak in the eyes of other inmates.

"I'll take any kind of conversion," he said.

8 inmates on death row participate in weekly Mass

At the Jackson facility, 8 inmates, 7 of them Catholic, regularly attend Mass, 
held each Thursday. Priests celebrating Mass include Father John Adamski and 
Father Richard Tibbetts.

The inmates are often worried about their family members, and Deacon Tolcher 
said they pray regularly for them and for the loved ones of victims. In a 
sense, family members are additional victims of violence, he said.

There have been 57 men executed in Georgia since the U.S. Supreme Court 
reinstated the death penalty in 1973. Georgia's only female on death row, Kelly 
Gissendaner, is set to be executed Feb. 25 for planning and convincing her 
boyfriend to murder her husband. She is imprisoned at Lee Arrendale State 
Prison in Alto.

Recently, Deacon Tolcher offered to meet with 2 more death row inmates as a 
spiritual director.

The deacon is often asked how he can manage the emotional weight of prison 
ministry, particularly working with those on death row.

"How can I not do that?" he answered.

(source: The Georgia Bulletin)








FLORIDA:

Death Penalty Sought in Bradenton Killings



Tampa Bay area prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty for a man 
accused of killing 3 people.

Assistant State Attorney Art Brown said he sent the death penalty notice to 
Andy Avalos' attorney on Wednesday.

Avalos is charged with 1st-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Amber 
Avalos, neighbor Denise Potter and pastor James "Tripp" Battle.

Brown said he looked at "aggravating factors" in the crimes when considering 
the death penalty.

Officials said Avalos killed his wife and neighbor, then shot the pastor at his 
church.

(source: The Ledger)

***********

Death-penalty defendants Donald Smith, Randall Deviney get new lawyers



2 Jacksonville men facing the death penalty have new lawyers after an appeals 
court removed the public defenders from the cases at their request.

Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper on Friday appointed attorney Julie Schlax as the 
new attorney for Donald James Smith. Smith, 58, is charged with abducting, 
raping and murdering 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle.

Schlax was special assault director for the State Attorney's Office and 
departed when Angela Corey replaced Harry Shorstein as state attorney in 2009. 
She has been a defense lawyer since then.

Cooper appointed veteran defense attorney Jim Hernandez on Thursday to 
represent Randall Deviney. Deviney, 25, is accused of slitting the throat of 
65-year-old Delores Futrell.

Smith and Deviney were both originally scheduled to go on trial in January but 
their trials were delayed due to uncertainty over whether the Public Defender's 
Office had a conflict of interest representing both men.

Deviney said he has information on another murder that Smith committed and 
wrote several letters to prosecutors and media saying he'd reveal all he knew 
if prosecutors would drop the death penalty against him and allow him to get 
out of prison at some point in his life.

Prosecutors said they had no interest in talking with Deviney and implied they 
didn???t think he was telling the truth. Both Cooper and the prosecution said 
the Public Defender's Office had no conflict since authorities weren't going to 
talk with Deviney.

But the appellate court decided the public defenders had to be taken off both 
cases because a conflict existed with representing both men even if authorities 
chose not to act.

Smith and Deviney have no money, so their new attorneys will be paid with 
taxpayers' funds via an hourly rate set by the state.

It will likely take Schlax and Hernandez months to get up to speed on the 
cases. New trial dates for both men have not yet been set.

(source: Florida Times-Union)








ALABAMA:

Company says it didn't sell execution drug to Alabama



Officials with a company identified in state court filings as a supplier of a 
drugs used in executions said Thursday that, according to their records, the 
manufacturer did not sell the drug to Alabama.

"We have no evidence of a direct purchase of midazolam from the state of 
Alabama, and records we have received from wholesalers indicate no shipments of 
Akorn midazolam product to the state of Alabama," wrote Dewey Steadman, 
director of investor relations for Illinois-based drug manufacturer Akorn, in 
an email to The Star on Thursday.

State court filings this week suggested that Akorn is the manufacturer of 
midazolam the state plans to use in lethal injections, and referred to Akorn's 
drug manual twice as "the manufacturer's package insert." The drug was used in 
botched executions last year in Oklahoma, Arizona and Ohio.

Steadman said Thursday that the company "strongly objects" to the use of its 
products in executions. He said the company won't sell its products directly to 
prison systems, and will restrict the sale of its products to distributors who 
"use their best efforts" to keep these products out of prisons.

It was the 1st time Akorn has commented on the controls it uses to keep its 
drugs from being used in executions. For nearly a year, death penalty opponents 
have asked Akorn to put such controls in place, but the company remained 
largely silent on the issue until Thursday.

Restricted sales

Steadman wrote that the wording used in the state's filing "is a disclosure 
attached to all labeling pulled directly from our website and is not present in 
printed labeling shipped with our products. If the state was trying to make an 
argument based on the label, any company's midazolam label could serve as an 
exhibit as they all are the same."

Company records show no sales of the drug midazolam to Alabama, Steadman said, 
speaking by phone Thursday.

"That's not 100 % guaranteed, but that's from the records that we've received 
from our wholesalers," Steadman said.

Steadman added Akorn's share of the market of that drug was 1 % in the 1st 
quarter of 2014.

Steadman also wrote that at least 8 other companies make midazolam. One of 
those, a U.S. company, suspended all drug manufacturing in 2013. Still 2 other 
U.S. company Steadman named have denounced the use of its drugs in executions, 
and have taken steps to limit that use. Another drug maker listed, based in 
Germany, no longer ships drugs used by prisons in executions.

Another company on Steadman's list is banned by the FDA from importing the drug 
into the U.S. from its Mumbai facility, and a London-based company in 2013 said 
it would begin restrictions on those sales as well.

Joy Patterson, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said Thursday 
there would be no comment from the office to questions about which company 
supplies Alabama with the drug.

Lethal injection in Alabama

Uncertain sources

Alabama held its last execution in 2013. Numerous legal challenges from inmates 
claim that new drugs used in lethal injections could cause unnecessary pain and 
violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

European drug makers have largely stopped selling the lethal drugs to U.S. 
prisons, and Alabama switched to using pentobarbital as the 1st drug in a 
3-drug protocol. Under pressure from death-penalty opponents, drug makers 
curbed sales of pentobarbital for use in executions, causing many states to 
switch to new combinations of drugs. Alabama plans to use midazolam as a 
substitute.

In 2014 a state representative presented an Alabama House committee with a bill 
that would make the identity of death penalty drug suppliers secret. The 
lawmaker said he wanted to protect drugmakers from "blowback" from death 
penalty opponents. He proposed the bill at the request of corrections 
officials, and acknowledged that the identity of drug manufacturers isn't 
currently protected by law. Alabama law states that "every citizen has a right 
to inspect or take a copy of any writing of this state ... except as otherwise 
provided by statute."

Still, prison officials at the time rejected requests by The Anniston Star and 
other newspapers for information on the state's death penalty protocol, saying 
it was not released as a matter of department policy.

Asked why Akorn remained silent after pressure both in the U.S. and 
internationally from death penalty opponents asking the company to set 
safeguards against the drug's use by prison systems, Steadman said it came down 
to staffing. The company at the time wasn't large enough to employ people able 
to communicate with the media, he said. He was hired in November.

Akorn did not respond to calls from the British newspaper The Guardian in July 
2014 after midazolam was used in a botched execution in Oklahoma. The newspaper 
claimed at the time that Akorn appeared to have no controls regulating sale of 
the drug to wholesalers who could then sell to prison systems. "People respond 
to pressure," said Esther Brown, director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death 
Penalty, an Alabama group that advocates for the end of capital punishment.

"Often people maybe haven't thought things through. That they are responsible. 
That there's no such thing as an innocent bystander," Brown said.

Brown applauded Akorn's newly announced policy, and said as more companies set 
such guidelines, others will be forced to as well.

Steadman said Akorn's safeguards were already in place informally before they 
were announced Thursday.

"It's something that the company has always believed, but had never 
formalized," Steadman said. "Now is as good a time as any."

(source: Anniston Star)








OHIO----new execution date

Execution set for Ohio man who killed cellmate



A man serving time in a southwestern Ohio prison for a 1978 West Toledo robbery 
and murder faces execution Jan. 12, 2017, for brutally murdering his cellmate 
19 years later.

The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday set the date for the lethal injection of 
James Galen Hanna, 65, for stabbing cellmate Peter Copas, 43, in the eye and 
bludgeoning him with a sock containing a padlock at the Lebanon Correctional 
Institution in 1997.

Copas died nearly 3 weeks later.

Hanna has exhausted his state and federal appeals.

The sole dissent in setting a date came from Justice William O???Neill, a death 
penalty opponent who routinely refuses to schedule executions.

In a letter sent to an inmate at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, Hanna 
called Copas, who was serving a sentence for corruption of a minor, a "maggot 
baby-raper-killer." He bragged that he "made him suffer pretty good" as he 
repeatedly stabbed him with a knife fashioned from a paintbrush and beat him 
for 2 hours until morning head count.

"He lived for 20 1/2 hours after that before he croaked," he wrote.

Hanna was in the prison in Warren County serving a life sentence for the murder 
of Edward V. Tucker, 18, who was working his 1st solo night shift at a West 
Toledo convenience store.

A recent high school graduate, Mr. Tucker planned to study chemistry that fall 
at the University of Toledo.

Hanna stabbed him numerous times and then turned on the district manager who 
surprised him by walking in on the morning robbery. Harvey W. Blitz, then 26, 
also was stabbed numerous times but survived. Hanna was convicted of attempted 
aggravated murder in that case.

Ohio executions are currently scheduled to resume in early 2016 and continue 
into 2017 at the pace of roughly 1 a month. Gov. John Kasich imposed a 
moratorium on executions through this year because of the state's continuing 
struggles to acquire its preferred execution drugs as well as pending 
execution-related litigation.

Hanna is a defendant in the pending challenge in federal court to Ohio's death 
penalty process, but he has not been granted a stay of execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Hanna's conviction and death sentence in 2013, 
prompting Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell to request the setting of 
a date.

(source: Toledo Blade)

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

3 to face death penalty in Uniopolis murder



3 men were indicted this week in the June slaying of an Uniopolis man beaten to 
death inside his home.

All 3 will face the death penalty, Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce said 
Friday.

Aaron M. Dietrich Sr., 26, of Wapakoneta, Joseph R. Furry, 30, of Van Wert, and 
James P. Dinsmore, 28, all are charged with 2 counts of aggravated murder and 1 
count each of aggravated burglary, kidnapping and intimidation of a witness.

The arrests come this week, about 8 months into a lengthy investigation, 
Auglaize County Sheriff Al Solomon said.

(source: limaohio.com)

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

Judge Throws Out Ohio Inmates' 'Kafkaesque' Lethal Injection Lawsuit



A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by 4 death row inmates who 
challenged an Ohio law that shields the names of companies providing lethal 
injection drugs.

The inmates argued the new law violates free speech rights, contending in part 
that the measure restricts information that helps inform the public debate over 
capital punishment. Their attorneys have sought to stop provisions from taking 
effect in March.

But U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost ruled Tuesday that the inmates lacked 
standing, saying their challenge was not tied to "actual or imminent injuries."

Attorneys for the state had requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.

In a filing last month, Ohio's attorneys argued that nothing in the law 
infringes on prisoners' First Amendment rights or affects their ability to 
argue issues in court. They said the law denies inmates access to information 
in the state's hands, which is not the same as suppressing free speech.

Frost sided with the state in his decision. He wrote that the law does not 
suppress speech or the ability to oppose the death penalty.

"Rather, the statutory scheme simply cuts off Ohio and its employees as a 
source of specific information for both proponents and opponents of the death 
penalty," the judge said.

The inmates also allege the restrictions treat them differently than other 
groups, arguing that state lethal injection expert witnesses could have their 
identity shielded under the law, while defense witnesses wouldn't get the same 
protection. The state has disputed the unequal treatment allegation.

Frost noted that the dismissal "unquestionably handicaps" related litigation 
over Ohio's execution protocol.

"In order to challenge the use of a drug that will be used to execute them, 
inmates must explain why use of that drug presents a risk of substantial harm," 
he said. But he acknowledged that inmates aren't allowed to know where the drug 
came from, how it was manufactured or who was involved in its creation.

"A proponent of Kafkaesque absurdity might be proud of such a byzantine method 
for pursuing the protection of a constitutional right, even if the drafters of 
the United States Constitution might not," Frost wrote.

Supporters of the new law say shielding the names of companies that provide 
lethal injection drugs is necessary to protect drugmakers from harassment and 
ensure the state gets supplies of the drugs.

Ohio executions have been on hold since a troubling 26-minute execution a year 
ago during which a prisoner getting a first-ever two-drug combo repeatedly 
gasped and snorted.

The state has ditched that 2-drug method and said it will use 1 of 2 different 
anesthetics in the future, neither of which it has on hand and both of which 
may be hard to find.

Attorneys for the inmates say there is no evidence whatsoever of companies 
being harassed.

The lawsuit was filed in December on behalf of Ohio death row prisoners Ronald 
Phillips, Raymond Tibbetts, Robert Van Hook and Grady Brinkley.

Cleveland attorney Timothy Sweeney, who represents Phillips, said they will 
appeal the decision.

"This extreme law needs to be fully evaluated by the courts prior to its 
implementation," Sweeney said in a written statement.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Anthony Apanovitch's 3 decades on death row another argument for ending the 
death penalty



In 1985, Anthony Apanovitch was sentenced to death in Ohio for the rape and 
murder of Mary Anne Flynn, a young nurse-midwife. Last week, after spending 30 
years on death row, he was granted a new trial.

His case is yet another lesson in why the death penalty makes no sense -- for 
the accused, for taxpayers, or for the families of victims.

Death penalty cases arouse the strongest emotions and generate the greatest 
uproar. A dreadful crime creates horror and fear in the public and grievous 
suffering in the victim's family. There is intense pressure on police and 
prosecutors to find the perpetrator and get a conviction. But when the state 
seeks the penalty of death -- the 1 punishment that is irreversible -- there is 
a need for certainty that is at odds with the outrage of the public and the 
pressure on prosecutors.

In 1993, with Apanovitch nearing execution, his attorneys prepared a clemency 
video appeal for then-Gov. George Voinovich that presented evidence withheld by 
the state and not considered by the courts. They asked me to narrate it.

Because the U.S. Court of Appeals accepted a last-minute plea for 
reconsideration, the video was put on hold pending its decision. No one 
expected the appeal to sit on the court's docket for the next 10 years.

That court's eventual finding led to further litigation, time-consuming motions 
and hearings, a claim of destroyed evidence on the part of the state -- 
evidence that magically appeared later -- withheld DNA evidence and a report 
from an expert witness eventually shown to be incomplete. All of this kept the 
case in the system for many more years.

The video, never submitted to the governor, was evidently shown to some of 
Flynn's family. In 2007, they asked me to apologize for using my "time, talent 
and good name to get a guilty man out of prison."

Claiming that a DNA test had "proved that Anthony Apanovitch and nobody else 
was the stalker/rapist/murderer" of their sister, the angry and frustrated 
Flynns complained that I "and a lot of other people were duped." Among the 
others they listed "the second-guessers -- the anti-death penalty crowd that 
portrayed Apanovitch as a victim; The Cleveland Plain Dealer and their 
often-wrong-but-never-in-doubt editorials; and even a Catholic priest enlisting 
school children in a letter-writing campaign for a new trial."

Understanding their feelings, I responded to the Flynns that I was sorry for 
what happened to their sister and for the pain they had suffered. I explained I 
had not heard about the DNA test results and would check into it. But, I said, 
I could not apologize "for calling to the attention of the governor and the 
authorities the untested and unconsidered evidence that may have argued for Mr. 
Apanovitch's innocence. I believe that in these cases every piece of evidence 
has to be carefully considered before one makes a determination of guilt or 
innocence."

Last week, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Robert McClelland ruled in the 
matter of the murder of Mary Anne Flynn. He acquitted Apanovitch on one count 
of rape, dismissed a second rape count and removed the rape specification from 
the murder charge. What remains is a charge of murder and a charge of burglary. 
Because the facts have changed from the original trial and a DNA test actually 
excludes Apanovitch, the judge concluded he is entitled to a new trial. The 
judge also agreed to set bond, which means Apanovitch could be released pending 
the new trial.

For 30 years, the Flynn family has lived with nearly unendurable pain while 
those in charge of our system have struggled to justify killing Anthony 
Apanovitch.

Meanwhile, Apanovitch has remained in prison, living under the threat of 
imminent death while asserting his innocence. At one point, he was 5 days from 
execution.

Since 1976, when the United States reinstated the death penalty, 150 death row 
inmates have been exonerated: Their convictions have been overturned and they 
have been set free. The rate of exonerations has increased in recent years, 
with DNA testing and careful reinvestigation repeatedly revealing wrongful 
convictions.

It is too soon, even after 30 years, to call this case resolved. But it is not 
too soon to say that the death penalty system is a failure. In fact, it is long 
past time for us to declare that the death penalty does not serve the interests 
of society, the interests of victims, or the interests of justice.

(source: Opinion; Mike Farrell, who portrayed B.J. Hunnicutt on M*A*S*H, is 
president of Death Penalty Focus and author of "Just Call Me Mike; A Journey to 
Actor and Activist" and "Of Mule and Man."----cleveland.com)



WEST VIRGINIA:

Death penalty bill introduced in House



A bill to reinstate the death penalty in West Virginia has been introduced in 
the House of Delegates.

House Bill 2855, introduced by Delegates John Overington, Marty Gearheart, 
Steve Westfall, Rupie Phillips, Geoff Foster, Eric Householder, Saira Blair, 
Ron Walters and Michael Moffatt,calls for a person convicted of first degree 
murder to face the death penalty in certain circumstances, including if the 
victim was a member of law enforcement.

West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1965, but the last execution was 
in 1959. Previous attempts by the Legislature, as recently as 2011, to 
reinstate the death penalty were rejected.

(source: Charleston Daily Mail)