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

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 25



TEXAS:

Gov. Abbott Calls For 'Effective Death Penalty'



Today Governor Greg Abbott is speaking out for the 1st time about the Texas 
Court of Criminal Appeals' stay of execution in the case of Rodney Reed. A 
Bastrop County jury convicted Reed of the 1996 rape and strangling death of 
Stacey Stites.

Investigators say they found his DNA on the body. Prosecutors successfully 
argued the evidence tied him to the crime. But Reed's supporters claim he had a 
relationship with the victim.

Today we asked Governor Abbott about the hold on Reed's execution that we first 
reported Monday on KEYE TV News at 5:00 and the possibility of a new trial. He 
reiterated his support for what he calls "an effective death penalty in Texas." 
But he says that whenever it's applied we need to be certain the person 
commited the crime. Abbott adds, "I think that this is a healthy process that 
the court announced what it did so we can put beyond the shadow of any doubt 
whatsoever that he really is guilty of the crime for which he was convicted."

In the request for the stay of execution, one of the forensic experts who 
testified at Reed's trial says he now believes Reed's DNA could have been 
placed on Stites hours before she died ... perhaps even longer. New Texas 
Attorney General Ken Paxton is reviewing the appeals court's order.

(source: KEYE TV news)

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

Rodney Reed wins a reprieve



Supporters see the Texas high court's decision to stay the execution of Rodney 
Reed as a first step in the fight to ultimately win his freedom, reports 
Elizabeth Schulte.

A week before his scheduled execution on March 5, Texas death row prisoner 
Rodney Reed won a stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Reed, his family and his supporters have maintained Rodney's innocence ever 
since his 1998 conviction for the murder of Stacy Stites in Bastrop, Texas. 
Reed's lawyers have long argued that if evidence uncovered in the years since 
then was properly heard in court, he would be exonerated and freed.

Law enforcement and prosecutors ignored the original suspect in the 
murder--Stites' fiancee, a local police officer with a violent history--and 
instead built a case against Reed. The all-white Texas jury easily voted to 
convict a Black man accused of killing a white woman.

The stay could provide an opportunity for a court to hear new evidence, 
including the conclusions of forensic experts that Reed didn't sexually assault 
the 19-year-old Stites, as prosecutors claimed, as well as evidence that Reed 
was nowhere near the victim at the time of her murder. Reed's lawyers also hope 
the courts will finally allow DNA testing on all the material in the case, 
which they have fought for, but have been denied before.

As Lily Hughes of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty said:

The stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is excellent 
news and is just what we were hoping for at this stage. Now we are waiting for 
some indication from the court about how much of a hearing they will give the 
new claims that were raised in this appeal. We are looking for a full review of 
the explosive new medical findings, and we'd also like to see all the evidence 
tested for DNA that we have been asking for.

Whether it's through evidentiary hearings--or, even better, a new trial--we 
want a chance for all the evidence to be heard. Then we think the courts can 
have but 1 conclusion--Rodney Reed is innocent of this crime and must be freed 
from death row!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

There is nothing the Texas justice system would have liked more than for 
Rodney's case to be swept under the rug. But his family and supporters in the 
anti-death penalty movement have done their best to keep this injustice in the 
spotlight, where it belongs.

As Rodney's brother Rodrick told reporters at a press conference after the 
announcement of the stay, "Without people supporting us, backing us, getting 
out there and raising their voices, screaming at the top of their lungs, we may 
never have got this attention. They may have never even looked into it like 
they're doing."

On February 21, hundreds of people rallied in Austin at the state Capitol 
building to let Texas know that they're watching. Family members, exonerated 
death row prisoners and death penalty opponents gathered to show their support.

"We've been fighting tirelessly," Rodney's mother Sandra Reed told the crowd 
that day. "I will not give up this fight. I will not, regardless of what the 
outcome will be...There are too many innocent men that have gone, that are 
waiting, and that will go if we don't stop this murder--this murdering machine, 
the death penalty."

Supporters see the Texas high court's decision as a step in the direction of a 
bigger demand--freedom for an innocent man.

"Look into this case," Rodrick Reed told reporters after the announcement of 
the stay. "This man is innocent. Do the right thing. The lieutenant governor 
said, 'It's a new day in Texas.' I want to see that new day. I want to see 
justice done in this case, not just for Rodney, but for everybody."

(source: SocialistWorker.org)

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

Dallas-area man on death row for killing 2 loses appeal



The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the death sentence of a 
Dallas-area man convicted of killing his girlfriend and her daughter during a 
jealous rage 4 years ago.

Attorneys for 42-year-old Tyrone Cade of Irving argued that his trial in 2012 
was marked by 44 errors, including problems with jury instructions, admission 
of evidence, improper testimony and insufficient evidence to support a death 
penalty verdict.

The state's highest criminal court Wednesday rejected each claim.

Cade's lawyers at his trial said he was insane when he fatally stabbed 
37-year-old Mischell Fuller and her 17-year-old daughter Desaree Hoskins at 
their home. Evidence showed Cade's relationship with Fuller was deteriorating.

Evidence also showed Cade confessed to the slayings in a 911 call from a pay 
phone in a police station.

(source: Associated Press)








PENNSYLVANIA:

Chester County death sentence overturned in shooting case



Only 2 men have been sentenced to death by Chester County Common Pleas juries 
since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. Now, 1 of them has been 
granted a reprieve - at least temporarily - because of his attorney's alleged 
ineffectiveness.

Last fall, U.S. District Judge James Gardner vacated the death sentence that 
was handed down more than 20 years ago against Darrick Hall, convicted of 
shooting and killing a Coatesville coin laundry manager, Donald R. Johnson, 
during an armed robbery 1 week before Christmas 1993. The decision came in the 
wake of Hall's habeas corpus petition filed on his behalf by the Federal 
Defender's Association.

The judge, in an exhaustive opinion, wrote that Hall's attorney, Robert Miller 
of Philadelphia, had failed to meet the legal standard for effectiveness of 
counsel in capital trials during the penalty phase, after which the jury 
returned its verdict of a death sentence. At the time, it was the only jury to 
impose that sentence on a defendant in the county in 18 years.

Gardner wrote in his Oct. 21, 2014 opinion that Miller failed "to investigate 
and present significant mitigating evidence in the penalty phase of (Hall's) 
trial regarding (his) abusive childhood, illnesses and injuries normally 
associated with developmental and cognitive delays, and his inability to adjust 
to a strutted environment during the years he attended a disciplinary school."

More specifically, Gardner stated, Miller, "failed to seek out, interview and 
present testimony from some of (Hall's) family, friends and employers, and 
failed to request readily available medical, educational and court records and 
failed to obtain evaluations by a mental health expert."

"This fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, and (Hall) suffered 
prejudice as a result of (Miller's) deficient performance," Gardner wrote.

Gardner, however, did not overturn Hall's conviction for 1st-degree murder. The 
case is now on appeal to the Third Circuit Court in Philadelphia.

Hall, now 44, of Philadelphia, is currently housed in Graterford state prison, 
where he is still technically awaiting execution as his case makes its way 
through the appellate process. His appeal had been denied by the state Supreme 
Court, which had also ruled on the question of Miller's effectiveness and 
denied the claim.

Miller, who was hired by Hall's family to replace attorneys from the county 
Public Defender's Office who had represented Hall since his arrest, could not 
be reached for comment. A secretary at the office of another attorney with the 
same name - Robert S. Miller - said they had received inquiries about him in 
the past but could not offer forwarding contact information.

Miller's presentation at Hall's sentencing hearing was a stark contrast to 
other penalty hearings in county capital cases. He presented only 2 witnesses - 
a former girlfriend and Hall's mother - but they offered little in the way of 
testimony. Hall did not take the stand in his own defense, and Miller later 
told the judge overseeing the case - then Common Pleas Judge Paula Francisco 
Ott, now a member of the state Superior Court - that his client had told him 
not to offer any more in the way of evidence mitigating his case.

On the other hand, in 2 recent death penalty cases - those involving 
Coatesville crime figure Duron "Gotti" People and chainsaw killer LaQuanta 
Chapman - attorneys presented detailed testimony about their clients' troubled 
upbringings. Chapman's attorney included a videotape about the community where 
the defendant was raised in New Jersey, and Peoples took the stand to tell 
jurors about his childhood troubles himself.

Peoples was spared the death penalty last fall and sentenced to life for the 
contract murder case of a Coatesville barbershop owner he was engaged in a 
running feud with. Chapman was sentenced to death in November 2012 for the 
murder of a Coatesville teenager, whose body he dismembered with a chainsaw.

On Dec. 18, 1993, Hall and two other men engaged in a plan to rob the 
Coatesville laundromat located in the center of the city off East Lincoln 
Highway. 1 man, Troy Davis, acted as the getaway driver, while the other Tyrone 
Green stood inside the laundromat to act as bodyguard for Hall.

The 3 men had come to Coatesville earlier that month to sell a quantity of 
crack cocaine they had between themselves to raise money for Christmas 
presents, according to testimony at one of the 3 trials. But Davis used all of 
the drug himself, so the men decided they needed a quick robbery to recoup 
their funds. They chose the busy laundromat, on a Saturday morning, as their 
target.

Hall, brandishing a handgun, marched up to the manager's desk at the rear of 
the building, where Johnson, a well-liked 59-year-old man was seated. "What's 
up, Pops?" he said, according to witnesses, and pulled his handgun. When the 
manager made a move to disarm him, Hall fired 2 shots, hitting Johnson in his 
chest and in the back of his head. He died instantly.

In his closing argument at the end of the November 1994 trial, then District 
Attorney Anthony Sarcione, now a Common Pleas judge, pointed angrily at Hall, 
seated at the defense table, and said, "The only thing colder than the grave of 
Mr. Johnson is this guy's heart, because he put him there."

Writing in his October 2014 decision, Gardner agreed with Hall's appellate 
attorneys that a investigation into Hall's background would have found evidence 
of extreme childhood abuse cursory and a history of significant head traumas 
and seizures, according to the 180-page ruling. Indeed, Hall's previous 
attorney from the Public Defender's office testified he had begun that 
investigation when Hall's family decided to hire Miller, a private attorney, 
instead.

There was evidence that Hall's father regularly raped and beat his mother, 
pulled knives on her and threatened to kill her, Gardner found. Hall submitted 
an affidavit from his mother that Hall's father once kept her "in the house and 
repeatedly raped and beat her until friends were able to free her." 4 
affidavits also show that Hall witnessed his father breaking his mother's arm.

Hall's father took money allotted for food and household expenses and used them 
for drugs, the affidavits showed. When Hall was 5, his father was arrested and 
his mother began a relationship with another man who beat Hall. Around this 
time, his mother "began drinking as a way to cope with the abuse," the court 
found, citing the affidavits.

Hall's medical history meanwhile includes seizures and a bicycle accident when 
he was 8 years old that resulted in the loss of consciousness, according to 
Gardner's ruling. A psychological evaluation showed he had an IQ score of 73, 
below average, according to the opinion.

The habeas petition was opposed by the state Attorney General's Office, which 
argued that Miller had been abiding by Hall's decision not to present 
mitigating witnesses or take the stand, even though Miller had explained to him 
what could happen. It said that Miller had "strategic reasons for presenting 
only 2 witnesses ... and for not presenting (Hall's) school records or 
employment history."

Green and Davis were also convicted of Johnson's murder. Green is serving a 
life sentence.

(source: mainlinemedianews.com)

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

Pa. death penalty moratorium senseless



I wholeheartedly oppose the death penalty moratorium put in place by Gov. Wolf. 
It is senseless and stupid. Let the perpetrators pay for what they did, and 
let's put that money to a better use.

I am, however, all for raising the minimum wage in Pennsylvania and legalizing 
marijuana for medical purposes. I feel that the last 2 measures are long 
overdue.

Harrisburg has a history of blocking the death penalty. It is time it learns to 
stop interfering with it.

Constance A. Rampulla-White

Bethlehem Township

(source: Letter to the Editor, Allentown Morning Call)

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

Death penalty facts have no liberal bias



When Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on Pennsylvania's death penalty, he 
stated that it is "error-prone, expensive and anything but infallible." He 
didn't just pull that out of the air. The report on Pennsylvania's death 
penalty conducted by no less than the American Bar Association said the same 
thing.

The ongoing legislative study of the death penalty began in 2011 and was 
created by a resolution introduced by Republican Senate Judiciary Chair Stewart 
Greenleaf. It is examining impact on victims' families, costs and potential 
biases in the system.

I find the statements of victims' family members, such as Marlene Lang, 
compelling.

Let's see what the report recommends. Since when do facts have a liberal bias?

FYI, I am not a Democrat nor did I vote for Tom Wolf. However, he is legally 
authorized to grant a reprieve here because, contrary to what the Philly 
District Attorney's Office pontificates, Williams still has viable avenues of 
relief, including pleadings filed long ago. Mr. Williams and the others on 
death row aren't going anywhere; we're not talking about releasing them. The 
worst that could happen is that they'd die in prison, a fate much worse than 
execution, in my opinion.

BRANDON LANDGRAF

York College student

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

Ray Krone's sister weighs in on death penalty moratorium----Sister urges people 
to learn truth of death penalty



I just read the thoughts of York County District Attorney Tom Kearney, who 
said, "What Governor Wolf does not understand is the pain and anguish that 
victims' loved ones feel when someone they love is taken at the hands of 
another." I just can't help comment almost the same thing that he did, only 
from my point of view.

What Tom Kearney does not understand is the pain and anguish that the innocent 
death row inmate's loved ones feel when someone they love is taken at the hands 
of another.

I would love to have a conversation with those elected to serve their 
communities about my family's pain and anguish. It is just as bad when your 
loved one is sitting in prison for something they didn't do. Helplessness, 
hopelessness, discrimination, depression, anxiety, anger, rage, etc. I can talk 
about it because I was there for 10 years. I will talk about prosecutors, 
investigators, juries, expert witnesses and more.

I know families of those murder victims who do not support the death penalty. 
Don't kill people in their names. I know it cost much more for a death penalty 
case than for a life in prison without parole case.

Why do these elected officials hide behind the truth? They just need their 
"high" that comes from a death penalty case. Right or wrong, it's about them 
and their acting careers. There are so many sides to this, and I feel that Gov. 
Tom Wolf has the guts to address this death penalty issue and look at it fairly 
from all sides.

Educate yourselves, everyone, to the truth behind this. Don't let revenge ruin 
your heart.

Go, Tom, go.

AMY KRONE WILKISON

Ray Krone's sister

Dover

(source for both: Letter to the Editor, York Dispatch)








VIRGINIA:

Va. House kills lethal injection secrecy bill despite support of McAuliffe



In a surprising vote of support for transparency in state-sponsored executions, 
the Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday killed a bill that opponents said 
would have shrouded lethal injection in unprecedented secrecy.

The controversial measure was intended to keep drugs used for lethal injection 
flowing into Virginia by shielding manufacturers from public scrutiny and 
political pressure.

Despite bipartisan support from Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and the Senate, the 
overwhelmingly Republican House killed the bill, 56 to 42.

The bill, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), 
passed the Senate, 23 to 14, earlier this month.

Saslaw said he was surprised to see the bill fail, but cited opposition to the 
death penalty and concerns about government secrecy.

"The combination of the 2 (issues)" seemed to do the bill in, he said. "I would 
imagine within a year or 2, you're probably going to see a bill to just go back 
to the electric chair," he said.

In Virginia, inmates sentenced to the death penalty have a choice between the 
electric chair and lethal injection, but drugs are the default method of 
execution.

The issue was thrust into the national spotlight after foreign companies 
stopped selling such drugs as a result of pressure from their governments. That 
left some states unable to carry out death sentences and prompted others to 
experiment with chemicals that have been blamed for several ???high-profile 
botched executions.

Del. James M. LeMunyon (R-Fairfax) voted against the bill after making an 
unsuccessful attempt to put off the debate until next year.

"I think open government trumped secrecy today, and that's a good thing," he 
said.

The legislation would have prevented the public from scrutinizing most 
everything to do with the death penalty in Virginia.

The bill says that "all information relating to the execution process" would be 
exempt from the state's open records law. Although the names and quantities of 
chemicals used would had to have been disclosed, the names of the companies 
that sell them and information about buildings and equipment used in the 
process would have been withheld.

Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), who voted for the bill, offered an amendment 
that would have let defense attorneys and their clients see confidential 
information about the drug formulation and who made the drugs.

His goal was "to make sure they weren't putting something in there that wasn't 
approved," he said.

In the House, all Democrats and a strong contingent of Republicans with 
concerns about privacy joined forces to kill the bill.

"I'm pleased that some sense of rationality and dignity prevailed," Del. Scott 
A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) said. "Anytime somebody in the government wants to 
restrict information about what the government is going to do, I think we need 
to ask some really difficult questions and get some straight answers before we 
grant them that right."

The state Supreme Court is considering a case brought by Surovell over an open 
records request he filed - and the state denied - for records related to drugs, 
execution protocols and other issues. The U.S. Supreme Court is also reviewing 
lethal injections in Oklahoma.

(source: Washington Post)

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

ACLU of Virginia welcomes House of Delegates vote to reject secret execution 
procedures



Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia welcomes the 
Virginia House of Delegates decision to reject a bill (SB 1393, Saslaw) that 
would have shrouded Virginia's lethal injection execution procedures in 
secrecy.

"We were glad to work with the Catholic Conference, Virginians for Alternatives 
to the Death Penalty, and the Virginia Press Association to defeat this 
legislation that would have brought secret, experimental executions to the 
Commonwealth," said Frank Knaack, ACLU of Virginia Director of Public Policy 
and Communications. "By prohibiting the public from knowing anything about the 
lethal injection drug source, materials, or components, the legislation would 
have made the execution process almost entirely secret and subject to the 
unsupervised whim of the Director of the Department of Corrections. This level 
of secrecy and unchecked government authority is unacceptable, particularly 
when we're talking about the awesome power of the government to kill in our 
name," Mr. Knaack concluded.

"We are grateful particularly to those members of the House of Delegates who 
took a principled stand for transparency and accountability in government today 
despite accusations that to do so would be said to mean that they are against 
the death penalty," said Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, Executive Director of the 
ACLU of Virginia. "We thank them for recognizing that transparency and 
accountability are necessary to democracy, not just buzzwords that you cast 
aside cavalierly in an election year. Whether you oppose the death penalty, as 
we do, or support its continued use, government in the sunshine is nowhere more 
important than where it involves the exercise of the government???s ultimate 
power over a person's life," added Ms. Gastanaga.

Senate Bill 1393 (Sen. Saslaw) would have allowed the Department of Corrections 
to contract with compounding pharmacies to make up drugs for use in lethal 
injection and exempt from public disclosure laws the manufacturer of and the 
materials and components used to create the drugs. The bill was part of 
Governor McAuliffe's legislative package and was actively lobbied by the 
Department of Corrections and the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland 
Security.

(source: Augusta Free Press)








GEORGIA----impending (female) execution rescheduled for Monday

Parole board denies clemency in Kelly Gissendaner death penalty case



It's official: Kelly Gissendaner will die at the hands of the state of Georgia.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles announced Wednesday morning its 
decision to deny clemency for Gissendaner, the 46-year-old former Auburn woman 
accused of orchestrating her husband's murder in 1997. Her appeals already 
exhausted, the parole board was her last hope to avoid execution.

"In reaching its decision," parole board spokesman Steve Hayes said in an 
emailed statement, "the Board thoroughly reviewed all information and documents 
pertaining to the case. In addition to hearing testimony during the meeting on 
Tuesday, the Board, prior to the meeting had thoroughly reviewed the parole 
case file on the inmate, which includes the circumstances of the death penalty 
case, the inmate's criminal history, and a comprehensive history of the 
inmate's life."

21 people were at Tuesday's hearing in Atlanta to support Gissendaner's 
clemency application. Among them were 2 of her children, several Department of 
Corrections volunteers and many representatives from religious organizations.

The hearing was closed to the media, but Gissendaner's application was released 
prior to the hearing. In the 54-page document, the chairman of Georgia Prison 
Ministries called Gissendaner "a truly redeemed woman." The condemned 
prisoner's son and daughter vouched for their mother.

"It was by no means an easy road, but I learned that forgiving my mother was 
the best way to truly honor my father's memory and who he was," Gissendaner's 
daughter, who was 6 at the time of the murder, said. "My mother has become a 
woman full of love and compassion who is striving to become the best person she 
can within her situation."

Following Wednesday's announcement of the parole board's decision, the family 
of Doug Gissendaner - the husband that Kelly Gissendaner had killed by her 
lover, Greg Owen - released a lengthy statement through the Gwinnett County 
District Attorney's Office.

"This has been a long, hard, heartbreaking road for us," the statement said, in 
part. "Now that this chapter in this nightmare is over, Doug would want us and 
all of the people who loved him to find peace, to remember all the happy times 
and cherish memories we have of him. We should all strive every day to be the 
kind of person he was. Never forget him."

The only question left is when Gissendaner will be executed. She had been 
scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday, but Gwinnett County 
District Attorney Danny Porter told the Daily Post on Tuesday night that the 
execution was likely to be rescheduled due to weather.

As of Wednesday morning, attempts to confirm that with the Georgia Department 
of Corrections were unsuccessful.

(source: Gwinnett Daily Post)

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

Ga. woman's execution rescheduled for Monday



Tonight's scheduled execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner has been rescheduled 
for Monday at 7 p.m. because of predicted winter weather.

The Department of Corrections, which carries out executions for Georgia, 
confirmed the change just hours before Gissendaner was to die even though the 
decision was made Tuesday night.

The news that Gissendaner execution had been pushed back was released more than 
2 hours after the State Board of Pardons and Paroles announced it had rejected 
her application for clemency.

A press release from the board said it considered all the arguments and 
documentation in its review Tuesday.

Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 death of her husband, 
Douglas Gissendaner, and sentenced to death. She conspired with her former 
lover, Gregory Owen, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death. Owen is serving 
a life sentence with a possibility of parole after 25 years in prison.

Gissendaner's appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied October 6, 
2014.

Gissendaner was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and 
Classification Prison in Jackson. Her execution warrant says she is to be put 
to death between noon today and noon this coming Wednsday. If that deadline 
passes, a new execution warrant must be signed.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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

Kelly Renee Gissendaner Execution Delayed, Possibly Due Georgia Storm Forecast



The state of Georgia on Wednesday delayed the execution of its only female 
death row inmate, ahead of a winter storm forecast to hit many areas with 
several inches of snow.

Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, had been scheduled for execution at 7 p.m. at the 
state prison in Jackson. The execution has been reset for Monday, according to 
a Department of Corrections statement.

The department didn't give a reason in its statement. A winter storm was is 
forecast to hit parts of Georgia on Wednesday afternoon, closing schools and 
offices and prompting warnings about roads.

Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her 
husband. Prosecutors said she plotted with her boyfriend, Gregory Owen, in the 
killing.

Owen pleaded guilty and received a life prison sentence. A jury sentenced 
Gissendaner to death in 1998.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles held a clemency hearing Tuesday for 
Gissendaner but announced Wednesday that her request for clemency was denied. 
The parole board is the only entity in Georgia with the authority to commute a 
death sentence.

Gissendaner would be the 1st woman executed in Georgia in about 70 years.

Gissendaner told police her husband didn't return home Feb. 7, 1997, from 
dinner with friends in Lawrenceville, just outside Atlanta. His burned-out car 
was found 2 days later. His body was found about a week after that, roughly a 
mile from the car, in a remote wooded area. He had been stabbed several times.

Kelly and Douglas Gissendaner had a troubled relationship, splitting up and 
getting back together multiple times, including divorcing and remarrying, 
according to information provided by the state attorney general's office. Kelly 
Gissendaner repeatedly pushed Owen in late 1996 to kill her husband rather than 
just divorcing him as Owen suggested, prosecutors said.

Acting on Kelly Gissendaner's instructions, Owen ambushed Douglas Gissendaner 
at Gissendaner's home, forced him to drive to a remote area and stabbed him 
multiple times, prosecutors said.

Investigators looking into Douglas Gissendaner's killing zeroed in on Owen once 
they learned of his affair with Kelly Gissendaner. He initially denied 
involvement but eventually confessed and implicated Kelly Gissendaner.

Owen, who pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison, testified at 
Gissendaner's trial. A jury found Gissendaner guilty and sentenced her to death 
in 1998.

A clemency petition submitted by Gissendaner's lawyers was declassified and 
made public Monday by the parole board. It included several dozen testimonials 
from prison employees, clergy, educators and fellow inmates detailing 
Gissendaner's transformation through faith into a positive role model who has 
aided troubled inmates and helped prison guards keep order.

The clemency petition also included statements from 2 of Gissendaner's 3 
children asking the parole board to spare their mother's life.

Kayla Gissendaner, who was 7 when her father was killed, wrote to the board 
that she'd gone through periods of not speaking to her mother and that it had 
taken her a long time to get over her anger and bitterness at her mother for 
taking her father away.

"It was by no means and easy road, but I learned that forgiving my mother was 
the best way to truly honor my father's memory and who he was," she wrote. "My 
mother has become a woman full of love and compassion who is striving to become 
the best person she can within her situation."

The clemency petition also included a statement from Gissendaner, who 
apologized to her children and to the Gissendaner family.

"There are no excuses for what I did. I am fully responsible for my role in my 
husband's murder," she said. "I had become so self-centered and bitter about my 
life and who I had become, that I lost all judgment."

(source: Huffington Post)








FLORIDA:

Court hearing resumes for Clearwater man who hopes for the death penalty



A court hearing resumed Wednesday morning in the case of double-murderer Craig 
Wall, part of a process that will determine whether the 39-year-old Clearwater 
man will get the death penalty.

Wall, who is now acting as his own attorney, discussed procedural matters with 
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Philip Federico on Wednesday, and then called a 
witness, a sheriff's deputy who once picked him up in a transport vehicle. The 
deputy said she did not remember Wall. The purpose of his questioning was not 
clear.

Wall recently pleaded guilty to murdering his girlfriend Laura Taft in 2010 and 
pleaded no contest to murdering their infant child Craig Wall Jr. He has said 
he wants to receive the death penalty.

This proceeding is known as the sentencing phase.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)

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

Youngest female killers on death row make desperate plea for a stay of 
execution as they call their impending death 'legal murder'

Tiffany Cole, 33, and Emilia Carr, 30, convicted of separate murder charges

Both are sentenced to die at Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocarla, Florida

Carr is the youngest woman in America on death row

Both have filed appeals to have their sentences reduced to life



Tiffany Cole and Emilia Carr did not know each other before they were put on 
death row at Florida's Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocarla.

But now the women, who share incredibly similar stories, couldn't imagine life 
without each other.

Sexually abused when they were young, the cellmates were both convicted of 
separate murder charges they say are wrong and are fighting to have their death 
penalties removed from their sentences.

Carr, 30, is the is the youngest woman in the United States on death row, while 
Cole, 33, is the 3rd youngest.

'It's legal murder,' Cole told ABC News' 20/20 program during an interview with 
Diane Sawyer, which will air in-full on Friday.

'How many rich people go to prison?' Carr added.

'We're all minorities.

'We're all people who are either minorities or didn't have any, money - any way 
to say, ''Hey, let me buy my freedom'', because it's not free in this country.

'Unfortunately, equality is an illusion.'

Cole was 26 when she was found guilty of the kidnapping and 1st-degree murder 
of a Florida husband and wife.

Cole had lived next to them for years in South Carolina before moving to 
Jackonsville.

Cole and 3 men robbed the couple before tying them up, driving them across the 
border to Georgia and burying them alive.

The jury was shown photos of Cole and 2 co-defendants in a limousine, 
celebrating with champagne and handfuls of cash after the crime.

The jury voted 9 to 3 that she should receive the death penalty.

Cole claims she helped dig the grave but that she did not know it was for the 
victims.

She claims she thought the group were going to bury some of the items they had 
stolen.

'I am not the same person anymore,' Cole said.

'I have peace, I have joy. I have a sound mind.'

Emilia Carr was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2011 for the 2009 
murder of Heather Strong.

Strong was the wife of Carr's boyfriend, and both were convicted of her 
suffocating her with a plastic bag and dumping the body in a Florida storage 
unit.

Carr was 8 months pregnant at the time and now has 4 children, but is not 
allowed to see any of them.

She claims she had left before the murder was committed.

'Wouldn't there have been physical evidence?' she told ABC.

'I mean, duct tape is some sticky stuff, yet there's no finger prints, no DNA, 
no hair.'

Both women had never been to jail before they were arrested.

Now they spend 24 hours a day locked in a cell together.

3 times a week they are allowed outside for 2 hours, but the area is concrete.

'I haven't touched grass in 6 years,' Carr said.

'So it's the small stuff you take for granted, you really do.'

Carr struggles being away from her kids, but said she has taught herself to 
deal with it.

'I think about them every day,' she said.

'Before I really even came to know God, that was the hardest thing for me to 
cope with day in and day out, was being away from my kids.

'When I got here, my hair was falling out just from stress.'

Both women have lodged appeals, however the process takes an average of 10 to 
12 years.

They are not fighting their convictions, but want their sentences reduced from 
death to life in prison.

They are both convinced they will not be executed.

'You can't have that mentality (that you're going to die), because that means 
you've accepted this,' Carr said.

'You've already died ... you're already dead if you accept that,' Cole said.

The women spend their days reading books.

They are both religious and say that god and self-help books have turned their 
lives around.

'It's not over,' Cole said.

'There is forgiveness and there is hope.'

However, the prosecutor in Cole's case, Jay Plotkin, thinks differently, 
telling ABC News: 'I was a prosecutor for more than 20 years. There was not any 
case that I prosecuted where the crime was more vile or cruel than the torture 
and murder of the Sumners.

'This case lingers on in the heart and soul of our community.

'Ms. Cole is certainly entitled to, and should, exhaust all of her legal rights 
to appeal.

'I am personally confident that she received more than adequate representation 
and a fair trial.'

Watch the full story, 'A New Nation of Women Behind Bars', a Diane Sawyer 
'Hidden America' special, airing Friday, Feb. 27 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

(source: Daily Mail)