[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., N.C., GA., ALA., MISS.

[Rick Halperin]

June 16



TEXAS:

Execution date set for Tyler man convicted of murdering 93 year old woman



An execution date was set Thursday for 31-year-old Clifton Lamar Williams who 
is on death row for the slaying of a 93-year-old woman a decade ago at her home 
in Tyler.

State District Judge Christi Kennedy set July 16, of this year as an execution 
date.

The Supreme Court justices recently refused to review the case of Williams.

Williams was condemned for the July 2005 beating, strangling and stabbing of 
Cecelia Schneider. Her body was set on fire and her car and purse containing 
$40 were stolen. DNA and fingerprint evidence linked the Tyler man to her 
slaying.

Prosecutors said he used the money to buy crack cocaine.

Appeals lawyers contended Williams had deficient legal help at his 2006 Smith 
County trial and that he was mentally impaired, making him ineligible for the 
death penalty.

(source: KYTX news)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----8

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----526

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

9-----------June 18------------------Gregory Russeau------527

10----------July 16------------------Clifton Williams-----528

11---------August 12----------------Daniel Lopez----------529

12---------August 26----------------Bernardo Tercero------530

13---------October 6----------------Juan Garcia-----------531

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

High court won't look into death row appeal



The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review an appeal from a Harris County man 
sent to death row at his request fo the strangling of a female impersonator 14 
years ago.

Richard Masterson, 43, testified in 2002 that Darin Shane Honeycutt, 35, died 
while the 2 were having sex. He also testified he'd be a future danger.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Ex-DA Who Sent Exoneree Anthony Graves to Death Row Is Disbarred



It's been 9 long years since the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that 
Charles Sebesta, the Burleson County DA who prosecuted Anthony Graves for 
capital murder, had withheld favorable evidence and used false testimony to 
secure a conviction - a conviction that sent Graves to death row. Graves spent 
18 years in prison, most of it in solitary confinement.

Friday, finally, a small measure of justice was served when the State Bar of 
Texas stripped Sebesta of his law license and formally disbarred him.

It was a stunning reversal of fortune for a man who was, for decades, the most 
powerful elected official in Burleson and Washington counties. Even after 
Graves walked free in 2010 and was formally exonerated in 2011, Sebesta 
continued to impugn his character - telling Texas newspapers as recently as 
last January that Graves was guilty of murder. Until the bar's ruling, he did 
so with impunity.

Then, last summer - 20 years after Graves' wrongful conviction - the bar's 
chief disciplinary counsel determined that there was "just cause" to believe 
that the former prosecutor had engaged in misconduct. This finding followed a 
lengthy investigation, which the bar conducted after Graves brought a grievance 
against Sebesta last January. (Graves was only able to do so because lawmakers 
passed a bill which changed the existing statute of limitations, allowing 
exonereees to file such grievances with the bar up to 4 years after their 
release from prison.)

The legal proceeding that followed was conducted this May behind closed doors, 
as per Sebesta's request. (Attorneys who are accused of misconduct may elect to 
have a district court proceeding, which is open to the public, or a private 
evidentiary panel hearing.) The trial spanned 4 days, and included testimony 
from Kelly Siegler, the special prosecutor who pronounced Graves an innocent 
man after re-investigating the case in 2010. Sebesta retained the formidable 
trial attorney Steve McConnico to defend him. But McConnico was up against the 
bar's Laura Popps and Beth Stevens, who had prosecuted the professional 
misconduct matter of former Williamson County DA Ken Anderson, resulting in his 
disbarment and jail time in 2013 for his conduct in the Michael Morton case.

In a sweeping ruling released this morning, the bar found that Sebesta had 
violated no fewer than 5 tenets of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional 
Conduct, including:

--3.03(a)(l ): "A lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of material 
fact or law to a tribunal."

--3.03(a)(5): "A lawyer shall not knowingly offer or use evidence that the 
lawyer knows to be false."

--3.09(d): "A prosecutor in a criminal case shall make timely disclosure to the 
defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to 
negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense ..."

--8.04(a)(l): "A lawyer shall not violate these rules, knowingly assist or 
induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another ..." 
--8.04(a)(3): "A lawyer shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, 
fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation."

When I reached Graves in Houston this morning, he expressed his gratitude to 
the bar for ensuring that Sebesta had finally faced consequences for his 
actions. "I never thought that a young, African-American man from the projects 
could file a grievance against a powerful, white DA in Texas and win," he said.

But he cautioned that a victory in his case alone was not enough. "I think this 
is a great f1t step," he said. "But a lot of people in Washington and Burleson 
counties were prosecuted and convicted by Charles Sebesta, and some of them are 
still behind bars. All of those cases need to be examined, too."

Was disbarment a sufficient punishment for the man who had sent him to death 
row, I asked? "I think he should be brought before a court of law to answer to 
charges of attempted murder," Graves said.

(source: Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly)








PENNSYLVANIA:

Politics notwithstanding, it's time to take death penalty off the books in 
Pennsylvania



We've said it before and we're saying it again: Gov. Tom Wolf should go a step 
further than his moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania. He should 
seek an end to the practice entirely.

Disregard the political theater that the Pennsylvania House acted out last week 
when it pooh-poohed the governor's moratorium on carrying out the death penalty 
and do what is right.

Only 3 people have been put to death since the death penalty was reinstated in 
1978, all in the 1990s and the last in 1999. All were convicted murderers who 
voluntarily abandoned their appeal rights.

The state should not be in the business of killing people, even if those people 
being put to death are convicted killers themselves, and even if they 
volunteer. Nebraska's Legislature gets it. The state abolished the death 
penalty in May.

The death penalty is a nicely wrapped political issue because of its 
simplicity: You are either for or against government-sanctioned killing. You 
won't find too many people on the fence.

Wolf's moratorium allows the Senate-commissioned Pennsylvania Task Force and 
Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment to bring forth findings, possibly by 
the end of the year. The move comes with some urgency. As PennLive's Jan Murphy 
reported, Wolf's executive order so far has resulted in reprieves being granted 
to Terrence Williams, who was convicted of 2 murders as a teenager in 1984, and 
Hubert Michael, who was convicted of killing 16-year-old Trista Eng in 1993. 
Both death row inmates have exhausted their appeals.

The government shouldn't kill. End of story.

(source: Editorial Board, PennLive)








NORTH CAROLINA:

Freedom comes at a price for prisoners



After 30 years in prison, it's hard to call the exonerations of 2 half-brothers 
for crimes they didn't commit "a happy ending."

Henry McCollum was 19 when he was wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering 
an 11-year-old girl in Robeson County. His half-brother Leon Brown was 15. 
There was no physical evidence linking them to the crime. Defense attorneys 
argue that McCollum and Brown were scared teenagers with low IQs. Police 
coerced them into confessing.

Gov. Pat McCrory brought justice to the case, at last, after an investigation 
by the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission. The commission found physical 
evidence at the crime scene that indicated the involvement of a man who now is 
serving a life sentence for a subsequent rape and murder.

McCrory pardoned McCollum and Brown last year. A recent story in The (Raleigh) 
News & Observer underscored the problems they've had re-entering a world where 
laptops, smart phones and other technology are a regular part of life.

What price should society pay for shutting 2 teenagers in a jail cell for 30 
years? McCollum is believed to have been the longest serving prisoner on North 
Carolina's death row. We can celebrate, at least, that his final sentence was 
never carried out.

The death penalty is the only appropriate sentence in some cases. The Boston 
marathon bombing comes to mind.

But so many questions have arisen in cases that were tried before DNA analysis 
and other forensic investigation techniques were commonplace. We hope McCollum 
and Brown find their footing and resume productive lives.

But we can't help but wonder how many more prisoners like them are out there.

(source: Editorial, Rocky Mount Telegram)








GEORGIA:

Justices Decline to Hear Death Row Habeas Case



The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a habeas appeal by a death 
row inmate in Georgia convicted of killing and dismembering a U.S. Navy 
shipmate.

In April 1992, Travis Clinton Hittson and Edward Vollmer, both enlisted men in 
the U.S. Navy serving on the Pensacola, Fla.-based training carrier Forrestal, 
killed, mutilated and dismembered their shipmate, Conway Utterbeck.

The murder occurred after Hittson and Vollmer, who were staying at Vollmer's 
parents house with Utterbeck, went out for a night of drinking and then decided 
the other man was "out to get them."

According to court documents, Hittson and Vollmer beat Utterbeck with an 
aluminum baseball back, dragged him into the kitchen, then shot the 21-year-old 
point blank in the head as he begged for his life.

Hittson and Vollmer then went to a nearby Waffle House to get something to eat, 
before finally returning to the murder scene and dismembering Utterbeck with a 
serrated steak knife and a hacksaw.

Hittson confessed to the crime, and in February 1993, he was convicted of 
murder in the Houston County, Ga. Superior Court.

During the penalty phase of his trial, Hittson tried to show that Vollmer 
planned the murder and had manipulated him into helping to carry it out. The 
jury was not persuaded and returned an unanimous death sentence, finding the 
murder "was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman."

After Hittson exhausted his direct appeal and collateral attack remedies in the 
Georgia courts, he petitioned the United States District Court for the Middle 
District of Georgia for a writ of habeas corpus.

In his petition, Hittson presented twenty separate claims for relief. These 
included claims that the trial court erred in letting a psychologist to testify 
about statements Hittson made during a court-ordered mental-health examination; 
that his attorneys failed to properly present expert testimony about his 
background and mental condition; and that the state withheld exculpatory 
evidence, thereby violating his due process rights.

The district court found that Hittson was entitled to habeas relief from his 
death sentence based on the state psychologist's testimony. The state appealed, 
acknowledging that admission of the testimony was a mistake, but arguing that 
it was a harmless error. Hittson also cross-appealed the district court's 
denial of some of his penalty phase challenges.

On review, the 11th Circuit reversed the district court's grant of habeas 
relief setting aside Hittson's death sentence based on the state psychologist's 
testimony, affirmed the lower court's denial of several of Hittson's other 
claims, and ruled the death row inmate cannot now raise new claims he failed to 
litigate in state court.

The majority of justices did not explain their rationale for rejecting the 
case, but in a concurring opinion in Justice Elena Kagan joined, Justice Ruth 
Bader Ginsburg said consideration of the case raised an important point for 
clarification -- how federal courts consider why a state court has rejected a 
state prisoner's federal claims.

"The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 directs a federal 
habeas court to train its attention on the particular reasons - both legal and 
factual -- why state courts rejected a state prisoner's federal claims," 
Ginsburg wrote.

"Only if the state court's decision 'was contrary to, or involved an 
unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law' or 'was based on 
an unreasonable determination of facts in light of the evidence presented,' may 
a federal court grant habeas relief premised on a federal claim previously 
adjudicated on the merits in state court," she said.

This, Ginsburg continued, is easy to do when the state court issues an opinion 
explaining its decision; not so much when it doesn't.

She goes on to explain that with its decision in Ylst v. Nunnemaker , high 
court outlined how federal courts should deal with the more-challenging 
circumstance.

In this case, the Georgia Supreme Court denied - without explanation - a 
certificate of probably cause to appeal.

But the 11th Circuit declined to apply Ylst, instead believing that a more 
recent Supreme Court decision, Harrington v. Richter, superseded it.

"With no reasoned opinion to look through to, the Court had no occasion to cast 
doubt on Ylst," Ginsburg wrote. "On the contrary, the Court cited Ylst 
approvingly in Richter ... and did so again 2 years later in Johnson v. 
Williams.

>From Ginsburg's perspective, the 11th Circuit believed Richter superseded Ylst 
and required the appeals court to hypothesize reasons that might have supported 
the state court's unexplained order.

"But Richter makes clear that where the state court's real reasons can be 
ascertained, the Ylst analysis can and should be based on the actual 'arguments 
or theories that supported the ... state court's decision,'" the justice wrote. 
"In short, Richter instructs that federal habeas courts should continue to 
'look though' even nondiscretionary adjudications to determine whether a claim 
was procedurally defaulted. There is no reason not to 'look through' such 
adjudications, as well, to determine the particular reasons why the state court 
rejected the claim on the merits," Ginsburg said.

The justice noted that an en banc rehearing on the petition raising the Ylst 
issue is currently pending before the 11th Circuit. "That petition affords the 
11th Circuit an opportunity to correct its error without the need for this 
court to intervene," she said.

(source: Courthouse News)








ALABAMA----death row inmate dies

Death row inmate found dead in cell; was convicted for 1993 Decatur murder



An Alabama death row inmate convicted for a 1993 robbery and murder in Decatur 
was found dead in his cell on Monday. John Milton Hardy was 43 years old.

He was serving his sentence at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in 
Atmore. A corrections officer found Hardy unresponsive in his cell during an 
early morning security check. Medical officials responded, but were unable to 
revive Hardy. A corrections doctor pronounced him dead at 3:23 a.m.

Hardy and Ulysses Charles Sneed, 45, were both sentenced to death for the 1993 
murder of Clarence Nugene Terry. Hardy and Sneed were convicted of killing 
Terry by shooting him several times during the armed robbery of a convenience 
store in Decatur, where Terry worked.

Hardy's cause of death remains under investigation. The Alabama Department of 
Forensic Sciences will perform an autopsy.

(source: WHNT news)








MISSISSIPPI:

Corrothers Denied New Trial for Lafayette County Murders



The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the petition for a new trial for Mississippi 
death row inmate Caleb Corrothers, who received the death penalty for the 2009 
murders of Taylor and Frank Clark in Lafayette County.

Corrothers, now 33, claims that an eyewitness mistakenly identified him 
following the crime. He offered the same story with the Supreme Court last 
year, but the argument was also rejected.

In 2011, Corrothers was convicted on 2 counts of capital murder for the deaths 
of Frank Clark and his son, Taylor Clark, in their Oxford-area home on July 11, 
2009. The dispute was drug-related.

Corrothers is back on death row with no execution date set.

(source: hottytoddy.com)