[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., FLA., UTAH, CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 24



GEORGIA----impending execution

Death row inmate's case draws international attention



Georgia's next scheduled execution Tuesday has drawn national and international 
attention because of findings that the inmate, Warren Lee Hill, is 
intellectually disabled.

This will be the 4th time Hill will have been prepared for death by lethal 
injection, and his last hopes Monday rest with the state Board of Pardons and 
Parole, or last-minute intervention by a federal appeals court or the U.S. 
Supreme Court.

There is no doubt that Hill murdered 2 people on separate occasions, but the 
question is whether the state can legally execute a man who has an IQ of 70. 
That is a nationally-recognized benchmark for intellectual disability. Georgia 
was the 1st state to prohibit executing the intellectually disabled but its 
standard of proof is the most difficult to reach - beyond a reasonable doubt. 
All the other death-penalty states require only proof that an inmate is more 
likely than not intellectual disabled, or proof by a preponderance of evidence

"Georgia is about to execute someone with mentality of an 11-year-old - a young 
boy in man's body," said Hill's attorney Brian Kammer.

Lee County prosecutor Plez Hardin disputes that. He points out that Hill held 
jobs as a teenager to help support his family, graduated from high school and 
was a marksman and petty officer in the Navy. Hardin said Hill was evaluated 
before and after his trial.

"He only started malingering or showing signs of mental retardation many years 
into his appeals," Hardin said. "It's very clear he's not mentally retarded."

In the past 2 1/2 years as Hill has come close to execution, groups like the 
European Union, the American Bar Association and the American Association on 
Intellectual and Development Disabilities, and international media have lobbied 
for him to be spared, arguing that Georgia law makes it too hard, if not 
impossible, for him to prove he is intellectually disabled. Former President 
Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have written letters urging that he not be 
executed.

All the while, his death sentence has remained intact even though 2 state court 
judges who heard his appeals found Hill to be intellectually disabled, but only 
by a preponderance of the evidence. And 3 experts who testified for the 
prosecution in the 1991 trial have changed their opinions and said Hill is 
intellectually disabled beyond a reasonable doubt.

Neither Hill nor his 2nd victim, Joseph Handspike, are sympathetic characters.

Hill was in prison for the 1986 shooting death his 18-year-old girlfriend when 
he used a nail-studded board to beat Handspike. At the time of the 1990 attack, 
Handspike was also in prison for murder, and he was known as a sexual predator. 
Hill claimed he murdered his sleeping cellmate because Handspike had threatened 
to sexually assault him.

Even as he waits for the death sentence to be carried out, Hill has unresolved 
appeals before courts.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is weighing a request that Hill be 
allowed a 2nd round of appeals.

At the same time, Kammer has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to also consider 
Hill's case in light of a ruling by the justices last spring in a Florida case. 
The high court ruled in May states cannot solely rely on intelligence test 
scores when deciding whether a murderer is eligible to be executed. The 
justices said IQ tests are imprecise and contain a margin of error, creating a 
risk that an inmate with a borderline intellectual disability will be 
wrongfully put to death.

Kammer said he will stress that same U.S. Supreme Court ruling when he goes 
before the Parole Board on Monday.

"The courts are conflicted," Kammer said "There's a moral conflict here that's 
playing out in the courts."

Hill's 3 scheduled executions in 2012 and 2013 were stopped with hours to spare 
by state and federal courts to allow time to consider arguments about the drugs 
used to put those convicted to death and about his disability.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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

Georgia bishop asks pardons board to spare inmate's life



[Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta] Bishop Rob Wright Jan. 26 sent a letter to the 
chair and members of Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles asking them to 
spare the life of an intellectually disabled death-row inmate. Warren Lee Hill 
is scheduled to be executed Jan. 27.

Hill, whose intellectual disability has been twice confirmed by lower courts, 
had his final appeal to the State Supreme Court denied Jan. 20. The Board of 
Pardons and Paroles, which meets Jan. 26, provides Hill with a last opportunity 
for avoiding the death penalty unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes.

In his letter Wright made a biblical argument against executing Hill. "While 
many people support capital punishment, Holy Scripture clearly shows Jesus 
never taught that we should murder a human being, no matter how heinous the 
crime."

He told the board that he was greatly encouraged in July 2014 when they 
commuted the death sentence to life without parole in the case of Tommy Lee 
Waldrip.

"Your decision was a victory for morality and human dignity and I praise you 
for your action. Today I urge you to again take the courageous path and spare 
the life of Mr. Hill," he said.

Since 1984, Georgia has executed 56 people, an average of 2 per year. However, 
in the past year Georgia has increased the frequency of executions with 6 
scheduled executions.

Since 1954, The Episcopal Church has called repeatedly for an end to 
executions. Wright said in a letter to more than 200 clergy in his diocese that 
he hopes they will express concern to state officials - and physically witness 
their opposition to the death penalty. "As we all know, capital punishment can 
never bring an end to killing," he said.

This is not the 1st time Wright has called an end to Georgia executions. In 
December, he wrote a letter to Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal urging a halt to the 
practice. At that time Robert Wayne Holsey was facing execution. Holsey was 
executed Dec. 9 for the murder of Baldwin County sheriff's deputy Will 
Robinson.

On Jan. 13 the state also executed Andrew Howard Brannan, a decorated war 
veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to court 
records. Brannan was put to death for the 1998 murder of 22-year-old Laurens 
County Sheriff's Deputy Kyle Wayne Dinkheller.

Georgia is the only state to require evidence of intellectual disability to be 
proved beyond a reasonable doubt. All other states use a less-strict standard 
of proof.

In a New York Times editorial published Jan. 23, the editors said "Mr. Hill's 
case is a catalog of everything that is wrong with the death penalty."

Vigils protesting the death penalty are planned for outside Georgia's death-row 
prison and in Atlanta and 10 other locations throughout Georgia, according to 
Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty website.

(source: Episcopal News Service)








FLORIDA----new death sentence

James Herard sentenced to death for 2008 fatal shooting----Judge says Dunkin' 
Donuts robber 'looking for someone to kill' during body count contest



A man already serving multiple life sentences for his role in the robberies of 
several Dunkin' Donuts robberies in Broward and Palm Beach counties was 
sentenced to die Friday.

Broward County Judge Paul L. Backman ruled that James Herard, 25, should 
receive the death penalty for ordering the execution of Eric Jean-Pierre in 
November 2008.

Herard, who was 19 at the time, was convicted in May of 1st-degree murder in 
the death of Kiem Huynh, 58, a customer who was shot in the back as a warning 
to other store patrons during a Thanksgiving 2008 robbery at a Dunkin' Donuts 
in Tamarac.

That was 1 of 4 Dunkin' Donuts robberies -- along with robberies at stores in 
Delray Beach, Sunrise and Plantation -- Herard organized as leader of the "BACC 
Street Crips" gang.

The capital punishment sentence stems from the murder of Jean-Pierre, who was 
fatally shot while walking home from a bus stop.

Backman cited Herard's violent criminal history in his sentencing order.

Herard, "along with fellow gang members Tharod Bell and Charles Faustin, were 
looking for someone to kill" as part of a competition to see who could get the 
most number of body counts, Backman wrote. Herard wanted to "get Tharod a body" 
when he encouraged Bell to shoot Jean-Pierre at Herard's "urging and prodding," 
Backman wrote.

Jean-Pierre was then shot in the chest with a 20-gauge shotgun.

"You might as well give me that body because Tharod would not have done that if 
I didn't provoke it," Herard said in his statement to police.

Backman cited the murder as "cold, calculated and premeditated."

Before the sentencing began Backman warned Herard, who was fitted with a stun 
belt, not to make any outbursts, citing his previous demeanor in court.

"First time you open your mouth and make any comments during this process -- 
the 1st time -- you're going to get zapped once," Backman said. "2nd time, 
twice."

"I highly doubt it," Herard repeated as Backman spoke.

"Don't test me on that," Backman said. "After I'm finished, you can say 
whatever you would like."

"Like I say, I highly doubt it," Herard said.

"If you'd like I'll start right now with it," Backman said.

"By all means," Herard replied.

Herard is already serving 9 life sentences in Palm Beach County.

His attorney plans to appeal, arguing that his client's sentence shouldn't be 
more severe than the sentence for the person who pulled the trigger.

Bell and Faustin are already serving life sentences for their roles in the 
Dunkin' Donuts robberies.

(source: local10.com)

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

Capital Punishment Is Anti-Conservative and Bad in Florida, Group Claims



It may surprise you to discover a growing number of social conservatives and 
libertarians are questioning the alignment of capital punishment with 
conservative principles and values.

More and more -- even in Florida -- they're rethinking and rejecting the death 
penalty, according to the man who is carrying the message across the nation, 
Florida included.

"American criminal justice," says Marc Hyden, "is a system marked by 
inefficiency, inequity and inaccuracy."

Hyden is the national coordinator for Conservatives Concerned About the Death 
Penalty (CCATDP), a network of political and social conservatives. And he has a 
special interest in Florida.

"Florida leads the nation in people being released from death row for wrongful 
convictions, as well as by the Timely Justice Act ... not to mention there's no 
requirement for a unanimous jury verdict in capital cases," he told Sunshine 
State News.

He said of the 150 death row inmates exonerated nationwide since 1973, 25 were 
in Florida. Illinois is the state recording the next highest innocence number, 
with 20.

This is why twice in recent months Hyden has embarked on speaking tours with 
liberty, tea party, and Republican groups in Florida -- in the Panhandle, 
Tampa, Fort Myers, and Orlando.

Hyden finds capital punishment "doesn't pass the conservative litmus test" on 3 
counts: It isn't pro-life, isn't fiscally responsible and doesn't remotely 
represent limited government.

"Probably the biggest misconception of all is that it's cheaper to execute a 
prisoner in a capital crime than give him life without chance of parole. It 
isn't. In fact, it isn't even close. Capital punishment is a fiscal monster," 
he said. "The initial trial in a capital case is the most expensive part, far 
more than life-without-parole trials. And it costs twice as much to house an 
inmate on death row than in a maximum security prison."

In fact, Richard C. Dieter of the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center 
confirms that death penalty trials alone can cost $1 million more than ones in 
which life without parole is sought.

And a 2011 California study found the cost of incarcerating a death-row 
prisoner can outpace the cost of housing a general-population prisoner by 
$100,000 a year.

In some states, a death penalty case can bankrupt a county. Seattle Times 
writer Jonathan Martin found that in Washington state, criminal justice costs 
consume 80 % of county budgets, and administrators routinely worry about the 
financial devastation a capital case will cause.

Worse, says a story in the New York Daily News, states pay for the death 
penalty whether they use it or not. In New Jersey, prior to abolishing it, 
taxpayers spent more than 1/4-billion dollars on a capital punishment system 
that, over 23 years, executed no one.

Said Hyden, "The DNA era has given us irrefutable proof that our criminal 
justice system sentences innocent people to die. Evidence we once thought 
reliable, like eyewitness identification, is not always accurate. DNA evidence 
has led to hundreds of exonerations, but it isn't available in most cases.

"Despite our best intentions, human beings simply can't be right 100 % of the 
time. And when a life is on the line, 1 mistake is 1 too many. "

Hyden and many of the others who espouse the CCATDP point of view believe the 
United States government has perverted the relationship between citizen and 
state. They point to warrantless surveillance, militarized police and 
indefinite detention as mainstays in our way of life in the 21st century. How, 
they ask, can a government that so easily disregards the fundamental principles 
that created -- and limited -- it, be trusted with questions of life and death?

Hyden, who previously worked for the National Rifle Association, said CCATDP, 
launched in 2013, is a good fit for him personally. He describes the 
organization as an individual- and grant-supported nonprofit, with supporters 
rather than members per se in all 50 states -- including a growing number in 
Florida. Its parent group is Montana-based Equal Justice USA.

Many of the nation's conservative-thought leaders are strong supporters, 
including Ron and Rand Paul, Oliver North, Jay Sekulow, Ramesh Ponnuru and 
Richard Viguerie.

Says Ron Paul on the CCATDP website, "I believe that support for the death 
penalty is inconsistent with libertarianism and traditional conservatism. So I 
am pleased with Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty's efforts to 
form a coalition of libertarians and conservatives to work to end capital 
punishment."

There is no visible move afoot to end capital punishment in Florida, Hyden 
said.

(source: sunshinestatenews.com)








UTAH:

Don't return Utah to dark ages of firing squad



The Utah Legislature should not reinstate the firing squad as a method of 
execution in Utah. In 2004, after a year of exhaustive study and debate, the 
firing squad option was repealed. The Utah Sentencing Commission made a 
unanimous recommendation to do so.

We all decided then that there were good reasons to do so, and those reasons 
remain valid today. Convicted murderers gained national notoriety due to the 
negative media frenzy about the method of execution, and the victims were 
forgotten. Utah endured international condemnation for resorting to this 
archaic and barbaric method of execution. Executions became Wild West 
sideshows.

The firing squad was repealed in 2004 to eliminate the media circus caused by 
the firing squad and to remove the opportunity for murderers to gain fame 
thereby. In fact, more than a generation ago, most states abandoned the firing 
squad as a relic of a more gruesome past. Notably, a recent NBC poll reported 
that only 12 % of Americans support the use of the firing squad. And Utah would 
be the only state that actually still carries out executions by firing squad.

The firing squad problem is just one example of the defects of the death 
penalty generally. Compared to a system where life without possibility of 
parole is the maximum sentence, it is extraordinarily expensive, costing at 
least $1.6 million more per case, according to a 2012 Utah legislative audit. A 
single case can bankrupt a small county. Ending the use of the death penalty 
would promote the state's current effort to stop wasting taxpayer dollars by 
making data-driven decisions to reduce corrections costs, thus providing funds 
that can be reinvested in other ways to increase public safety.

In addition, the death penalty is applied unevenly and unfairly, even for 
similar crimes, and it disproportionately targets the poor and minorities. Only 
2 % of counties nationally account for most executions. So whether you are 
subject to the death penalty basically depends on your ZIP code.

The system also risks the execution of innocent people. The execution of even 1 
innocent person is intolerable. But nationally, death penalty exonerations 
since 1973 hit 150 this year, which is more than 10 % of all executions. Plus, 
the lengthy appeals process required in death penalty cases leaves the victims' 
families with open wounds for decades.

Many members of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty also oppose the 
firing squad bill on moral grounds. For them, "Thou Shalt Not Kill" is reason 
enough. For these many reasons the death penalty is falling into disuse 
nationally. This year only 7 states had executions, executions hit a 20-year 
low, and new death sentences hit a 40-year low.

Finally, the secretive way Utah carries out firing squad executions further 
demonstrates our moral qualms about it. The shooters remain anonymous so as to 
not become the subjects of public scrutiny and scorn. And one of them is given 
blanks, so that by that deception each of them can pretend that he did not just 
kill a defenseless person. Moreover, the prison staff who have to plan and 
participate in these premeditated killings often suffer for years afterward, 
and later regret their part in the process.

So there are a lot of reasons that in 2015, Utah should just say "no" to the 
firing squad, just like we did in 2004, and for the same reasons we had then.

Ralph Dellapiana is director of Utahns for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

(source: Op-Ed; Ralph Dellapiana, Salt Lake Tribune)








CALIFORNIA:

Clash expected over double-murder trial???s postponement



A defense attorney and Orange County prosecutor are expected to clash in court 
Friday over a postponement of a double-murder defendant's death penalty trial 
so the defense can pursue evidence of alleged governmental misconduct.

The last time the attorneys met to discuss the trial of Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 
Orange County Superior Court Judge James Stotler gave the defendant's attorney 
until today to file a motion to have the Orange County District Attorney's 
Office removed from the case and the death penalty taken away as punishment for 
alleged misconduct claims.

Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, who represents Wozniak and Scott 
Dekraai, the worst mass killer in Orange County history, filed an abbreviated 
version of the motion late Thursday and is seeking a delay in the trial.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy filed a response this week slamming 
Sanders' tactics, accusing him of filing misconduct claims against nearly every 
prosecutor he has faced, including 2 who are now judges.

Those claims from Murphy has prompted Sanders to signal that he will ask all 
judges in the county to recuse themselves from overseeing Wozniak's trial.

Sanders wants Stotler to schedule a pretrial hearing for Feb. 27, well past the 
scheduled Feb. 13 trial date, which has been postponed several times. Sanders 
wants to file his full motion alleging governmental misconduct on Feb. 27.

In the Dekraai case, Sanders' motion was more than 500 pages and led to months 
of evidentiary hearings before another judge, who found misconduct occurred, 
but that it was due to negligence, not a criminal conspiracy.

However, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals said he limited his 
analysis to just Dekraai's case and will soon hold hearings based on newfound 
evidence that may contradict testimony from sheriff's officials, who said they 
had nothing to do with placing Dekraai in a cell next to a government informant 
to collect damning information from the defendant, which would have violated 
Dekraai's constitutional rights because he was by then represented by 
attorneys.

Informants can listen for incriminating statements but cannot elicit them.

If Stotler refuses Sanders' request, the attorney said he would file a motion 
to dismiss charges, according to legal papers he filed this week. Sanders said 
he needs more time to gather evidence regarding Murphy's claims that the 
attorney is a serial accuser of prosecutorial misconduct.

Sanders has been pushing prosecutors to provide any correspondence between 
Murphy and his fellow prosecutors as well as the 2 judges.

Murphy argued in his response that Sanders' request is overly broad, that he is 
not entitled to that information, and that there has been no correspondence 
anyway.

Murphy also contradicted Sanders' arguments that his claims all had merit and 
that the attorney misrepresented what happened in each case.

"Mr. Sanders has accused 16 different prosecutors of misconduct in 13 separate 
cases," Murphy said in his motion.

As for Sanders' complaints that prosecutors have withheld evidence from defense 
attorneys in violation of the law, Murphy said Sanders has not lived up to a 
rule that compels him to provide prosecutors with information about expert 
witnesses in Wozniak's death penalty trial.

"This case is 4 1/2 years old and we have yet to receive a single meaningful 
page of discovery from the defense," Murphy wrote. "The defense isn't simply 
permitted to call opposing counsel, or sitting members of the Orange County 
bench, because they want to."

(source: mynewsla.com)

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

Defense tries to bar death penalty in OCC students' killings



Defense lawyers are trying to take the death penalty off the table for a man 
accused of murdering 2 Orange Coast College students in Costa Mesa more than 4 
years ago.

According to grand jury testimony, Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 30, has admitted to 
police to killing Samuel Herr, 26, and Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, in 2010 so he 
could steal $50,000 from Herr's bank account.

Prosecutors say Wozniak staged Kibuishi's body to look like Herr had sexually 
assaulted her. He also is accused of dismembering Herr's body so he could hide 
the remains in a park.

Wozniak's case has been slowed by accusations of misconduct that his public 
defender, Scott Sanders, has leveled against the Orange County district 
attorney's office and Orange County Sheriff's Department.

On Thursday, Sanders filed an 80-page summary of what he believes to be a 
culture of Orange County law enforcement withholding evidence that could be 
helpful to defendants and misusing jailhouse informants to violate defendants' 
constitutional rights.

He says Wozniak was approached by a jailhouse informant to elicit a confession.

"The Orange County district attorney's office, and related law enforcement 
agencies, have proved over decades that they are willing to decide on their own 
who is guilty and who is not, who deserves to live and who to die, and to 
illegally create and withhold evidence in the pursuit of enforcing those 
decisions," Sanders wrote.

He argued that capital punishment should be ruled out for his client.

But prosecutor Matt Murphy shot back that the filing had little or nothing to 
do with Wozniak's case. Prosecutors say they will not use any information from 
jailhouse informants in Wozniak's trial.

"This has to be the biggest dud in the history of Orange County jurisprudence," 
Murphy said in court.

Sanders' summary is only a preview of his allegations, not an official request 
to dismiss the death penalty in the case, which caused some confusion in court 
Friday.

"I don't know what that is," Orange County Superior Court Judge James Stotler 
said. "This isn't an actual motion."

Sanders explained that he wanted to give the court an idea of what he's been 
doing but said he needs more time to craft a final motion that he said could 
run 20,000 pages, an idea that Murphy mocked.

"Not only is that absurd, it's obscene," Murphy said, reminding Stotler that 3 
deadlines for Sanders' motion have already passed.

At times, Stotler had to rein in Murphy and Sanders as they spent most of 
Friday's hearing arguing about previous insults and accusations they have 
thrown at each other.

A deadline for Sanders' motion to bar the death penalty is unclear. The trial 
is scheduled to begin Feb. 13.

The 2 sides will return to court Monday for another hearing.

(source: The Daily Pilot)