[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.J., GA., FLA., IND., MO., WASH.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 21



TEXAS----execution

Texas executes man convicted of killing 3 in San Antonio

A 41-year-old Texas prisoner was put to death Wednesday evening for the 
slayings of 3 people during a robbery at their San Antonio home more than 21 
years ago.

Arnold Prieto, who spurned a plea deal for a sentence of less than life in 
prison, became the 1st inmate to receive a lethal injection this year in Texas, 
which carried out 10 executions in 2014.

He was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. CST, 20 minutes after a lethal dose of 
pentobarbital began flowing into his veins.

Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Prieto replied: "There are no 
endings, only beginnings. Love y'all. See you soon."

As the injection began, he said he could smell it, then uttered, "Whoa."

He immediately began snoring, each snore a bit more quiet. After about 5 
snores, he stopped moving.

Prieto was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die for his role in the 
September 1993 fatal stabbings of Rodolfo Rodriguez, 72, his wife, Virginia, 
62, and Paula Moran, their 90-year-old former nanny who lived with them. Each 
victim was stabbed or cut multiple times with an icepick, screwdriver or knife.

The attackers took jewelry and about $300.

Prieto's sister was among witnesses watching through a window. 4 sons and a 
daughter-in-law of the slain couple watched through a window in an adjacent 
room. They declined to speak with reporters afterward.

Prieto smiled and nodded to the people he selected to watch him die as they 
walked into a witness room. He made no eye contact with relatives of the 
victims in the other room.

Prieto 2 decades ago turned down the plea deal, refusing to testify against one 
of other men with him during the robbery.

"There was a way out," one of Prieto's trial lawyers, Michael Bernard, recalled 
last week. "We just couldn't get there."

No late appeals were filed in the courts Wednesday to try to halt his 
punishment.

Prieto and 2 brothers related to the Rodriguezes were arrested in Carrollton, a 
north Dallas suburb, seven months after the killings. The case went unsolved 
until an informant's tip led police to Carrollton, where a grandnephew of the 
slain couple implicated himself, his brother and Prieto.

Prieto was the only 1 of 3 to get the death penalty.

Authorities said Prieto told them he and brothers Jesse and Guadalupe Hernandez 
believed the Rodriguezes had about $10,000 cash used for a checking-cashing 
business they operated out of their home.

Prieto told police the three had been using cocaine and continued to do so 
during their 300-mile drive from Carrollton to San Antonio. Virginia Rodriguez 
fed them breakfast after they arrived. Then she, her husband and Moran were 
attacked.

Prieto previously was jailed for more than a year and received probation for 
vehicle burglaries. He also was indicted in January 1994 on federal charges of 
engaging in organized criminal activity for the theft of 163 laptops worth 
$676,000 from a Dallas warehouse where he'd worked.

Jesse Hernandez, now 38, is serving a life sentence for the slayings. He was 
the fiance of Prieto's sister and father of her child. The killings occurred a 
day before his 17th birthday, making him too young for the death penalty. 
Charges against his brother, Guadalupe, were dropped because of insufficient 
evidence.

Prieto becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas 
and the 519th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 
1982. He becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death since Greg Abbott 
became governor of the state; Abbot was inaugurated just yesterday, Jan. 20.

Prieto becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA 
and the 1398th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. 
There are 5 more executions scheduled in the USA this month....last year, there 
were 6 executions in the month of January.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----1

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----519

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

2------------Jan. 28-------------------Garcia White---------520

3------------Jan. 29-------------------Robert Ladd----------521

4------------Feb. 4--------------------Donald Newbury-------522

5------------Feb. 10-------------------Les Bower, Jr.-------523

6------------Mar. 5--------------------Rodney Reed----------524

7------------Mar. 11-------------------Manuel Vasquez-------525

8------------Mar. 18-------------------Randall Mays---------526

9------------Apr. 9--------------------Kent Sprouse---------527

10-----------Apr. 15-------------------Manual Garza---------528

11-----------Apr. 23-------------------Richard Vasquez------529

11-----------Apr. 28-------------------Robert Pruett--------530

12-----------May 12--------------------Derrick Charles------531

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Soliz's death penalty appeal rejected



The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of a man convicted of killing a 
woman in Godley in 2010.

Mark Anthony Soliz, 32, was convicted in the 413th District Court in Cleburne 
and received the death penalty. He remains on Texas death row.

Soliz, a Fort Worth resident, shot and killed Nancy Weatherly, 61, during a 
robbery of her home near Godley. Earlier the same morning, Soliz shot and 
killed Ruben Martinez, a delivery man at a Fort Worth convenience store. In the 
several days leading up to those killings, Soliz engaged in a carjacking, armed 
robbery and several other shootings.

Fort Worth resident Jose Ramos, who participated in many of the crimes with 
Soliz and was present during both killings, received life in prison.

The Supreme Court made their ruling with no comment.

The process of appeals for Soliz is far from over, Johnson County District 
Attorney Dale Hanna said on Wednesday.

"The writ process begins now, which is a whole other round of appeals," Hanna 
said. "All that will go through the federal district court, the court of 
appeals and back to the Supreme Court and then appeals to the governor."

Once that process concludes 413th District Judge Bill Bosworth will set Soliz's 
execution date.

Even after the Supreme Court rules again there will be more appeals to stay 
Soliz's execution, Hanna said, attacking every aspect of the original case, 
methods of execution and cruel and unusual punishment arguments.

Hanna said he remains convinced that, once the appeal process runs its course, 
Soliz will be executed.

(source: Cleburne Times-Review)








NEW JERSEY:

New Jersey should revive the death penalty



Re: "Only victims get the death penalty" (Rabble Rouser, Jan. 12)

I am in favor of the death penalty and have always been a very vocal advocate 
for giving criminals what they deserve for any kind of murder - their own 
death. But giving Osvaldo Rivera 110 years in jail is not a death penalty but a 
penalty for the New Jersey taxpayers who have to keep this criminal and other 
monsters alive for the rest of their rotten lives.

Rivera needs to be executed. Only his execution brings the right and final kind 
of justice for the family of Dominick Andujar. What kind of justice is the 
family of Autumn Pasquale getting? None, as one of the Robinson brothers goes 
to jail for a few years and the other brother gets off. Both brothers should 
have been given the death penalty. But through the stupidity of former Gov. Jon 
Corzine, he signed away New Jersey's death penalty and commuted all death 
sentences to life in prison.

New Jersey needs a death penalty - and a death penalty that is used.

Jesse Timmendequas, the murderer of Megan Kanka, is a perfect example. He was 
given the death penalty and he spent over 12 years on New Jersey's death row. 
He was sentenced to die long before Corzine signed the death penalty away. Yet 
New Jersey's governors were afraid to kill him or anyone on death row.

Ever since New Jersey's death penalty has gone, there have been numerous 
heinous murders, too many to mention. In every city and every county of New 
Jersey, someone is murdered. To me, there is no justice until criminals pay for 
their crimes with their lives. Execution of these criminals is the only true 
justice for all victims' families.

Little Amber Andujar is a child, and she will grow up to hate the fact that her 
brother's killer is still alive, and she will at some point voice that opinion.

Rivera will never live 110 years to fulfill that sentence, but if he were 
executed then we could all forget about him, as he would have gotten what he 
deserved - an eye for an eye, a death for a death.

It's a shame that we can't send our murdering criminals to Texas. Now that's a 
state that knows justice.

Cheryl Gilbert

(source: Letter to the Editor, Courier Post)








GEORGIA----impending execution

Clemency hearing set for Georgia inmate set to die next week



The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has scheduled a clemency hearing for a 
Georgia death row inmate set to be executed next week.

The board said in a statement Wednesday that the clemency hearing for Warren 
Lee Hill will be held Jan. 26. Hill is set to die Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. at the 
state prison in Jackson.

Hill was serving a life sentence in 1990 for the 1986 slaying of his girlfriend 
when he killed a fellow inmate. A jury in 1991 convicted Hill of murder and 
sentenced him to death.

Hill's lawyers have long argued that he is intellectually disabled and 
therefore shouldn't be executed.

The Parole Board is the only entity in Georgia with the authority to reduce a 
death sentence to life without parole.

(source: Associated Press)








FLORIDA:

Pinellas man facing death penalty in killing of 2-year-old girl



When Karina Mora saw that her 2-year-old daughter had somehow gotten seriously 
injured, she knew she had to act fast. She asked her boyfriend to drive her to 
All Children's Hospital.

But for some reason, Joel Adrian Cruz did not show the same urgency, Mora said 
in court on Wednesday. Cruz didn't want to drive to the hospital. Then he got 
in his van with Mora and the girl, but turned toward a different hospital. Then 
he stopped at a gas station, because he said the engine was overheating.

Eventually, as they finally drove from mid Pinellas toward the St. Petersburg 
children's hospital, Cruz said to Mora: You're not going to snitch on me are 
you?

This is what Mora told a jury on Wednesday in the trial against her 
ex-boyfriend Cruz, 29. He is accused of murdering Ananhie Fernandez by beating 
her repeatedly in Largo in May 2013. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 
death.

Ananhie, nicknaamed "Chunky," loved the water and a bathing suit with 
butterflies on it, her family members have said.

Cruz had gone to his brother's apartment in the Largo area with Ananhie and 
returned to the apartment he shared with Mora. After talking to Cruz for a 
while, Mora checked on her girl and discovered that her body was unnaturally 
stiff, and she was wheezing.

Cruz later offered changing stories about what happened, Assistant State 
Attorney Kate Alexander said. At one point he said a box of tools fell on her, 
and another time he said she may have gotten hurt when he tried to protect her 
by pushing her out of the way. But Alexander said there were too many blows to 
Ananhie for these explanations to make sense.

The trial got off to a strange start, because former Pinellas-Pasco assistant 
medical examiner Dollett White balked about offering her testimony in the case, 
partly because it's unclear how much she or her office would be paid for doing 
so.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Joseph Bulone gave her a strongly-worded warning 
warning.

"We're not going to have a situation where a person who's having his life on 
the line ... is going to have the case jeopardized because of game playing," 
the judge said. He ordered White to prepare and to testify or face "direct 
criminal contempt."

It's basically unheard of locally for a medical examiner to refuse to testify. 
It would be similar to a homicide detective deciding to keep quiet about a 
murder investigation.

Bulone noted that it's often hard to get witnesses with rap sheets "a mile 
long" to testify truthfully in criminal cases, and then remarked on "how 
absolutely amazing it is that we have a professional who is a medical examiner 
whose duty is to do justice ... who refuses to review the materials and wants 
to play games."

White, who now has a similar position in Maricopa County, Arizona, initially 
said she could not provide complete testimony until a formal agreement was 
worked out between her former employer and her current one. But later in the 
day, after Bulone's comments, she did testify.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)



INDIANA:

New bill allows prosecutors to seek death penalty for murders on school 
property



The maximum sentence Cody Cousins could get was 65 years in prison for killing 
Andrew Boldt. But if a new bill is passed into law, someone who commits a 
similar crime could face the death penalty.

"Immediately after my sentencing on Cody Cousins, in that press conference, the 
first text message I got was from Sen. Hershman who said what can we do," 
Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington said.

That's when Harrington and Hershman got to work. Hershman crafted a bill that 
would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for murders committed on 
school grounds. "The current law doesn't include in that definition of school 
property higher education, which is obviously in this case of Cody Cousins 
showed one of the weaknesses in the law," Harrington said.

A weakness Harrington said Cousins knew about.

"He knew what the penalty might be, and he accepted it before he committed this 
act," Harrington said. "You never know trying to hindsight what would have 
happened in a criminal's mind. But we can certainly go forward and make sure 
that if anyone else ever reviews our statutes, they are going to know that they 
are looking at life without parole or death for doing a similar act."

Harrington said other prosecutors across the state are behind the bill too.

"I've spoken to prosecutors mainly in the other counties that have higher 
education, and they are all in agreement that this is a law that we need to 
pass," Harrington said.

The bill may be heard as early as next week at the Statehouse.

Cousins was sentenced to 65 years behind bars in September and later took his 
own life in prison.

(source: WLFI news)


MISSOURI:

Anti-death penalty groups meet at the Capitol



Several groups opposing Missouri's death penalty gathered at the state Capitol 
Wednesday morning.

Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (MADP), the NAACP, and the 
ACLU of Missouri gathered with the community for a Moratorium Now! event. These 
opponents of Missouri's Death Penalty say that the state is rushing executions 
on death row. This lobby day was to announce the filing of House Bill No. 561 
which will halt rushing executions.

Representative John Rizzo is in support of this bill and has filed legislation 
to place a moratorium on the death penalty until 2018. Rizzo was unable to 
attend the gathering, but left a statement for the session. Rizzo says in his 
statement, "I am convinced that any meaningful discussion about the ultimate 
penalty must be preceded by a thorough state specific assessment of the 
accuracy and fairness with which it is applied."

The state executed a record high of 10 inmates in 2014. This is the most in 
Missouri since 1899. There were 35 more people living under a death sentence at 
the years end and now several others, including that group, could be executed.

The ACLU explains that legislative remedies are urgently needed because on 
January 28th, Marcellus Williams, even though he has a strong case to prove his 
innocence, could be wrongly convicted. There is a lack of physical and DNA 
evidence tying him to the scene of the crime. Missouri executed at least 7 
individuals, including John Middleton in July-even if significant doubt of 
their guilt persists.

Other bills have been filed this year that would evaluate the costs and would 
require a review of every case.

(source: connectmidmissouri.com)








WASHINGTON:

There is no reasonable argument for keeping the death penalty----2 simultaneous 
death penalty cases in King County won't make the public any safer, but they 
will be ruinously expensive. End the death penalty.



The specter of 2 death-penalty cases happening simultaneously at the King 
County Courthouse is unprecedented. Yet, a 3rd is soon on the way.

None of those cases will make the public safer. They are ruinously expensive - 
and will continue to be for years to come. They keep alive a penalty that is 
inconsistently applied from county to county and sustain the possibility, 
however small, that a civil society will make the ultimate mistake.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg defends these relatively rare attempts to 
seek the death penalty because the pending cases - involving the assassination 
of a Seattle police officer and the mass killing of a Carnation family, 
including 2 young children - are so egregious. They are truly heinous crimes.

But the fact is, the effort to impose the death penalty is most likely 
symbolic. Since Washington reinstated capital punishment in 1981, 3/4 of the 
death sentences have been overturned in the pepper mill of the appeals process. 
Out of 33 cases, 5 inmates have been executed.

There is no convincing evidence those executions will deter future murders. In 
a comprehensive analysis published last year, the prestigious National Research 
Council of the National Academies found that studies claiming that capital 
punishment lowered homicide rates were too flawed to be taken seriously.

And, intuitively, the deterrence argument also fails. Consider Christopher 
Monfort, the alleged assassin of Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton in 
2009. He portrays himself as an ideological revolutionary, and he appears to 
have targeted police in warped retaliation for police misconduct. That 
irrational act knows no deterrent.

But the death penalty does come at an enormous cost. Adding this penalty to an 
aggravated murder case in Washington boosts police and legal costs by at least 
$1 million, according to a conservative estimate by Seattle University 
researchers. That figure includes the cost of incarceration.

In fact, the real costs of the death penalty are likely higher. Monfort's 
defense alone has spent about $4 million. Taxpayer costs for the Carnation 
cases - the one against Joseph McEnroe that started this week, and another 
pending capital case against his ex-girlfriend, Michele Anderson - are nearly 
$10 million.

The clearest argument in defense of the death penalty is simply vengeance. But 
a civil society instead owes victims and their families swift and certain 
justice. The death penalty provides neither. It adds years to the length of 
cases, prolonging uncertainty for victims' families, and it is often overturned 
or reversed.

Gov. Jay Inslee effectively ended the death penalty, at least while he is in 
office, by refusing to sign any death warrants. He and the Legislature should 
go further and end capital punishment altogether, hopefully before King County 
jurors add more to death row.

(source: Editorial board members are editorial page editor Kate Riley, Frank A. 
Blethen, Ryan Blethen, Mark Higgins, Jonathan Martin, Thanh Tan, Blanca Torres, 
William K. Blethen (emeritus) and Robert C. Blethen (emeritus)----Seattle 
Times)