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

[Rick Halperin]

Mar. 2


TEXAS:

Supreme Court refuses Harris County death row inmate appeal



The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a 35-year-old Houston 
man sentenced to die for a fatal shooting during an $8 robbery nearly more than 
16 years ago in Harris County.

Lawyers for Juan Martin Garcia contended he had poor legal help during his 
trial in 2000 and that he's mentally impaired and ineligible for the death 
penalty.

The high court Monday rejected the appeal without comment.

Evidence showed the murder victim, 36-year-old Hugh Solano, was shot 3 times in 
the head in September 1998 when he was confronted while walking to his van at 
his Harris County apartment complex.

Garcia does not yet have an execution date.

(source: Associated Press)








PENNSYLVANIA:

End the death penalty and redirect savings to programs that help victims



When my 24-year-old son, Scott, was murdered in 1987, I was devastated. Losing 
a loved one to murder tears apart the lives of the surviving family members, 
but I've come to realize that the death penalty does very little to help 
victims' families heal. For many victims' families, the death penalty traps 
them in a decades-long cycle of uncertainty, court hearings, and waiting.

By getting rid of the death penalty, we could free up millions of dollars that 
could be redirected to programs that will actually help victims' families, such 
as grief and trauma counseling, compensation for lost income, and other 
much-needed services.

When New Mexico replaced their death penalty with a sentence of life without 
parole, they were able to redirect the savings to provide support to children 
of murder victims, provide services and programs to murder victims' families, 
and create a murder victims' family services fund. They were also able to pass 
another measure that requires employers to provide time off for victims' family 
members to attend judicial proceedings.

Forgiveness is not easy

Since my son's murder, I have worked to eliminate the capital punishment. I 
have spoken in 20 states and the District of Columbia about my experience of 
losing a son to murder, and being prodded by God to forgive the person who 
killed Scott. But forgiveness and healing didn't happen overnight, and it was 
not an easy process.

For almost a year after Scott's murder, my emotional state moved from rage to 
depression. I found it extremely challenging to fulfill my role as pastor of a 
United Methodist Church. I couldn't believe that one individual could do so 
much harm to my family, and I wanted him punished for a long, long time.

I went to the sentencing hearing for my son's killer filled with anger, but 
something unexpected happened. The killer, Mike Carlucci, apologized for what 
he had done. Something in my heart told me he was sincere. If I had not heeded 
God's call to forgive, I would very probably be dead by now ??? if not 
physically, at least emotionally and spiritually.

Death penalty fails us

When I heard Governor Wolf's announcement that he was halting all executions in 
Pennsylvania until concerns about the fairness of the state's death penalty 
system can be addressed, I was once again reminded why the death penalty fails 
us all.

Study after study shows that capital punishment is not a deterrent to murder 
and that it is far more costly than the alternative of life in prison without 
parole. Nationwide more than 150 men and women, including six from 
Pennsylvania, have been released from death row after new evidence emerged 
demonstrating that they had been wrongfully convicted. There are insufficient 
protections in place to protect against the wrongful execution of innocent men 
and women.

Pennsylvania has established a study commission to take a closer look at the 
administration of the death penalty in this state, including the problem of 
wrongful conviction. It just makes sense to halt executions until the 
commission has finished its important work and its recommendations can be 
considered and implemented.

It's my hope that Pennsylvania will realize that the death penalty simply can't 
be fixed, and will follow New Mexico's lead in replacing the death penalty with 
life without parole and redirecting the savings to programs that will actually 
benefit victims' family members.

(source: Rev. Walt Everett lives in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania----newsworks.org)






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

Take it from an ex-cop, the death penalty is as fallible as the humans who 
carry it out



In the aftermath of a brutal homicide, particularly 1 involving multiple 
victims or children, there is enormous pressure on law enforcement to solve the 
case and to solve it quickly.

The media often provides daily updates, opinions from so-called experts, and 
often name "persons of interest" who are all but convicted before they ever 
enter the courts.

Investigating officers frequently have the unenviable task of examining the 
bloody crime scene and notifying the loved ones of the victims. The weight that 
law enforcement officers carry on their shoulders in these cases is 
substantial.

Unfortunately, it's these very circumstances that can lead to the wrongful 
conviction of an innocent person. In the rush to solve these high profile cases 
it is easy to make mistakes, or to ignore evidence that points away from the 
"person of interest."

As someone who has spent 32 years in law enforcement, both here in Pennsylvania 
and in London, England, I understand this issue all too well. I count myself 
fortunate that when I was investigating murders I never felt that this type of 
pressure. Mine, however, is not the typical experience.

All murder is tragic, tragic for the victims and their families and those 
falsely accused and their families

Because of this, I cannot support the death penalty.

Mistakes happen too often, as evidenced by the fact that 150 men and women in 
the United States have been convicted and sent to death row - only to be 
released when conclusive evidence of their wrongful conviction emerged.

These cases involved all sorts of error, everything from mistaken eyewitnesses 
and junk science to false confessions. 6 of those cases are from Pennsylvania.

While DNA testing and new forensic methods have certainly helped prevent some 
wrongful convictions, biological evidence is only found in a small fraction of 
murder cases.

In fact, it's only found in 5 to 10 % of cases, meaning we can never be 
conclusively sure of guilt in the vast majority of murder cases. Once an 
execution is carried out, there is no way to undo it.

All murder is tragic, tragic for the victim and those family members and 
friends left behind. It is also tragic for the falsely accused and their 
families.

Can you imagine the horror of receiving the death penalty for something you 
didn't do? Let us not forget that an innocent person in prison leaves the 
murderer free to live amongst us and free to kill again.

Research also shows that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder. In 
fact, states that have the death penalty have substantially higher murder rates 
than those without the death penalty.

Furthermore, Pennsylvania has spent upwards of $350 million dollars on a death 
penalty system that has produced just 3 executions since 1999. All 3 of those 
executions involved men who voluntarily gave up their appeals. The system is 
obviously broken.

If the state of Pennsylvania and its counties redirected the enormous financial 
and human resources that they currently spend on seeking death sentences to 
efforts that will actually make our communities safer.

That includes improving our crime labs; solving unsolved rapes and murders; 
increasing access to mental health, drug, and alcohol treatment; and expanding 
programs that have been shown to effectively address the root causes of crime; 
we could actually substantially improve public safety.

Isn't this a better use of the taxpayers' money than trying to execute a 
handful of perpetrators who are already safely behind bars?

I'm very glad Gov. Tom Wolf had the courage to halt executions until problems 
with the fairness and accuracy of the system can be addressed.

It's a great 1st step. I hope it will lead to a thoughtful public discussion 
about the flaws and realities of the death penalty, and ultimately its demise.

As it is, we are in the same death penalty club as Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, 
Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and others. I suggest that we should not be a member 
of this group.

Don't misunderstand me, I want the guilty to be convicted and sentenced to life 
imprisonment. I just don't want anyone, particularly the innocent, to suffer 
death in my name or under a flawed system.

(source: Terence Inch is the former police commissioner of Hellam Township, 
Pennsylvania, where he served from 2010-2012. He had a 30-year career in law 
enforcement with Scotland Yard where he retired as a detective chief inspector. 
He left London for Lititz, Lancaster County, in 2002 and is currently a 
Professor at York College teaching Criminal Justice----pennlive.com)








NORTH CAROLINA:

Prosecutors to seek death penalty against suspect in Chapel Hill triple 
shooting



Durham County District Attorney Roger Echols says he plans to seek the death 
penalty against a man accused of killing 3 people at a condominium complex near 
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, faces 3 counts of 1st-degree murder in the Feb. 10 
shooting deaths of his neighbors Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, and his wife, Yusor 
Mohammad, 21, as well as her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.

Police have said an ongoing dispute over parking appears to be a motive for the 
crime, but local and federal investigators haven't ruled out other possible 
motives, including religious bias. The victims were Muslim, and Hicks is an 
atheist.

According to search warrants, police seized 14 firearms and a cache of 
ammunition from Hicks' Chapel Hill home at Finley Forest condominiums on 
Summerwalk Circle.

Barakat was a 2nd-year dental student at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Yusor Abu-Salha 
was scheduled to begin dental studies there in the fall.

She graduated last year from North Carolina State University, where Razan 
Abu-Salha was a sophomore.

Although the shooting occurred in Chapel Hill, the Durham County District 
Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case since the address of the crime is in 
Durham County.

(source: WRAL news)








GEORGIA----impending execution

Ga. Supreme Court denies execution stay for Kelly Gissendaner March 2, 2015



The Georgia Supreme Court has denied a stay for Kelly Gissendaner.

The court's 5-2 decision was released shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, 4 hours 
before Gissendaner was scheduled to be executed at Georgia Diagnostic and 
Classification Prison in Jackson. Justices Robert Benham and Carol Hunstein 
were the high court's only dissenters, a spokeswoman said.

No explanation of the decision was offered.

Earlier Monday, Gissendaner's attorneys petitioned the Georgia Board of Pardons 
and Paroles to postpone her death sentence for 3 months. Gissendaner sought, 
and was denied, clemency last week and her only reprieve came from the weather 
when officials postponed the execution because of the threat of snow and ice.

"This morning we filed an emergency request for the Georgia Board of Pardons 
and Paroles to grant a 90-day stay of execution to consider critical evidence 
that was missing from its evaluation last week," attorneys Susan Casey and 
Lindsay Bennett said in a statement. "This is an exceptional case requiring 
exceptional and immediate action. Kelly???s case cries out for the mercy power 
vested in the board."

A Gwinnett County jury convicted Gissendaner in 1998 on charges stemming from 
the Feb. 7, 1997, murder of her husband, Doug. Gissendaner, now 46 years old, 
plotted the killing with her boyfriend, Gregory Bruce Owen, who committed the 
actual murder in a wooded area near Dacula.

The latest attempts to save Gissendaner's life came hours after supporters 
gathered at Emory University's Cannon Chapel for vigil to pray for a miracle.

As part of their request, Casey and Bennett asked the board to reconsider 
clemency as well. They said the board did not hear from "many vital witnesses" 
from the Georgia Department of Corrections who could have provided testimony 
that "would have left no doubt that a grant of clemency is supported in this 
case."

Among the witnesses Case and Bennett feel the board should have heard from is 
Field Operations Manager Kathy Seabolt, who was warden for 6 years at prisons 
where Gissendaner has been held, and former board chairman Gen. James Donald.

Donald is said to have encouraged Seabolt and Gissendaner to apply for clemency 
after the inmate spoke a graduation ceremony for a Certificate of Theological 
Studies program in October 2011, according to the application for the 
reconsideration of clemency.

"The information and testimony needed for this board to exercise its power in 
full was not available to the board through no fault of the board," the lawyers 
wrote in their petition. "The board did not hear this because we, the lawyers, 
were unable to bring it to you. There were many witnesses who did not come 
forward due to their role as DOC employees."

(source: Gwinnett Daily post)

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

Georgia woman on death row files appeal effort hours before scheduled execution



Lawyers for the only woman on Georgia's death row asked the State Board of 
Pardons and Paroles on Monday to reconsider her request to have her sentence 
changed to life in prison.

Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, is set for execution at 7 p.m. at the state prison 
in Jackson. Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 stabbing 
death of her husband. Prosecutors said she plotted his death with her 
boyfriend, Gregory Owen.

Owen pleaded guilty and is serving a life prison sentence with the possibility 
for parole after 25 years.

Gissendaner's lawyers note that the parole board heard during a clemency 
hearing last week from many people testifying about Gissendaner's faith and 
remorse. But, her lawyers argue, the board did not hear from many Department of 
Corrections employees whose perspective "would have left no doubt that a grant 
of clemency is supported in this case."

Those employees, Gissendaner's lawyers say, were hesitant to testify.

"Although DOC rules ostensibly say that employees are permitted to speak to 
counsel in capital clemency proceedings if desired, the reality of this rule is 
less than clear," Gissendaner's lawyers wrote.

Gissendaner was originally set to be executed last Wednesday, but the 
Department of Corrections postponed her execution because of projected winter 
weather conditions and associated scheduling issues.

If Gissendaner's execution happens, she will be the first woman executed in 
Georgia since 1945 and only the 16th woman put to death nationwide since the 
Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to resume in 1976.

(source: Associated Press)


ALABAMA:

Jury Recommends Death Penalty For Geneva Native Zachary Wood----Wood Found 
Guilty Of First Degree Murder In Washington County.



A Washington County jury Friday unanimously recommended the death penalty for 
Zachary Wood in the killing of James Shores.

Wood, 24, of Geneva, Ala., was found guilty as charged Thursday of 1st-degree 
murder, burglary of a structure while armed with a firearm and robbery with a 
firearm. Assistant State Attorneys Larry Basford and Shala Jefcoat showed 
jurors during the weeklong trial that Wood and co-defendant Dillon Rafsky beat 
down, bound then executed Shores, 66, after he found them on his property the 
evening of April 19.

Friday, Basford proved to the jury that the murder met 3 aggravating factors: 
it was done to avoid arrest; it was committed during a burglary or robbery; and 
was cold, calculated and premeditated.

Jurors recommended 12-0 that Wood be put to death. Circuit Judge Christopher 
Patterson scheduled the next phase in the process for April 17, in which the 
judge will hear additional mitigating and aggravating evidence.

Shortly after that Patterson will hand down Wood's sentence. Patterson does not 
have to follow the jury's recommendation, but he will give it great weight in 
deciding Wood's penalty.

(source: WSFY news)








LOUISIANA:

Exonerated Angola inmate talks life after 30 years on death row



Glenn Ford admits he doesn't sleep much. An hour or 2 or 3 gets him by.

The rest of the 20 hours or so a day, he's up doing whatever he can to take in 
life.

"I'm trying to make every day count," he said from his home in New Orleans.

The need to measure every second zoomed into overdrive when he was diagnosed 
with Stage 4 lung cancer. On Feb. 23, doctors told him his life expectancy, 
once at 6 months to a year, had dwindled to 4 to 8 months.

It was the 2nd death sentence for Ford.

The 1st came on Dec. 5, 1984, when Ford, then a 33-year-old 
California-turned-Shreveport resident was convicted and sentenced to death for 
the Nov. 5, 1983, shooting death of Isadore Rozeman, a 56-year-old Shreveport 
jeweler who was robbed and killed in his Stoner Hill shop.

Following his formal sentencing in March 1985, Ford became a resident of death 
row at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Ford never stopped maintaining 
his innocence.

On March 10, the state of Louisiana finally believed him. Information about the 
real Rozeman triggerman secured during an unrelated homicide investigation in 
2013 caused the Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office to ask a Caddo district 
judge to vacate Ford's conviction and sentence.

So on March 11, after spending 30 years and 4 months behind bars, Ford walked 
through the prison gates a free man once again.

That's why the cancer dealt a gut-wrenching blow to his hopes of forging ahead 
with the 2nd phase of his life and more importantly re-establishing connections 
with family still in California. But in addition to a dogged determination to 
put up the biggest fight possible against his cancer, Ford is once again 
fighting the state of Louisiana.

A law allows wrongfully convicted individuals to get compensation from the 
state if they meet certain criteria. In court documents, the Louisiana Attorney 
General's office says Ford is not entitled to any money because he cannot prove 
he is factually innocent.

The Attorney General's office filed a motion opposing Glenn Ford's request for 
$105,000, representing the 1st payout of a possible $330,000 compensation 
package outlined by Louisiana law for wrongfully convicted individuals meeting 
statutory requirements.

Ford's attorney, Kristen Wenstrom, of the Innocence Project in New Orleans, 
says the state is wrong in its opposition and points out it was the state's 
disregard of evidence that gave Ford a death sentence.

A ruling on the compensation request was deferred during a Feb. 5 hearing 
before Caddo Parish District Judge Katherine Dorroh. Wenstrom said Dorroh said 
she would do her best to rule within 30 days.

Wenstrom anticipates an answer in early March, but an appeal by the losing side 
is likely, which could further delay an answer for Ford.

Meanwhile, Ford, now 65, realizes he is fighting the clock and the possibility 
of getting that money while he is alive is iffy. Attorneys that are included in 
a team of supporters working with him through Resurrection After Exoneration, a 
nonprofit organization created by another death row exonoree John Thompson to 
provide services to exonorees to get re-established in society, will explore if 
the money could be passed to Ford's family upon his death.

"I want to leave everything to my grandkids," said Ford, who grins when he says 
that number is somewhere between 17 and 21. "There's no less than 17 and no 
more than 21."

Daily life

Ford is fortunate to have found help from Thompson's organization shortly after 
his release.

Thompson, who spent 14 years on death row for a murder he did not commit, at 
first provided housing free of charge for Ford on the top floor of a print 
screen business that creates jobs for other exonorees. But he recently moved 
Ford into a house just down St. Bernard Avenue, allowing Ford to have full use 
of a downstairs apartment space.

Ford, Thompson admits, has become a father figure. He wants to make Ford's life 
as comfortable as possible. He's hopeful if the end days come some of Ford's 
family can make it to New Orleans to be with him.

The house, sitting like many others in this neighborhood just feet from 
adjacent ones, is across from a fast food eatery, a grocery and other stores, 
allowing Ford quick access to basic needs. Social Security disability and food 
stamps give him financial assistance.

The support team enters the picture again when it comes to getting Ford to his 
many doctor's visits. He started 2 weeks ago with an aggressive chemotherapy 
treatment that quickly hospitalized him.

Now, the treatments are coming in "short bursts," but will be done 5 days a 
week. After that, radiation.

Ford is not giving up. He's adapting his diet and is about to join a gym to 
increase his exercise.

"I'm going to do what it takes to live," he said.

Cancer struck Ford while he was on death row. But he didn't know it at the 
time.

"There's never no medical rush for death row," Ford said of his request for a 
doctor call. An initial diagnosis was a thyroid problem after Ford said he 
ballooned with a 40-pound weight gain within a month.

The morning that he left Angola, a physician handed him a bottle of pills for 
his thyroid. Continued health problems following his release led to the cancer 
diagnosis in July. By then it was Stage 2.

Down 70 pounds, Ford gives the outward appearance of a healthy man. A 2-hour 
interview in his home Friday found him dressed smartly in a gray beanie cap, 
coordinating sweater, creased jeans and dress shoes with a silver cross 
dangling from a cord around his neck.

At least once, Ford wobbled when standing up. He apologized. The morning's 
chemo treatment made him a little unsteady.

Talking about his possible demise this year didn't cause him any pause, though. 
He talked matter-of-factly about it, likely a by-product of the decades he sat 
in a cell with a death sentence hanging over his head.

Behind bars

Ford breaks out in a smile when recalling that day almost a year ago when 
learned he no longer was considered a convicted killer. He had known since 2013 
that court documents filed in federal court opened the door to his innocence. 
He was always optimistic the key to his release would be in in federal court, 
not state court.

But Ford experienced disappointment before when other appeals didn't fall in 
his favor. His attorney, Gary Clements, kept him apprised as the new 
information was under review.

"But I had gotten to the point that I didn't have high hopes," he said.

On the morning of March 11, Ford was playing chess with another death row 
inmate when a guard told him he had legal call. Clements was on the phone and 
told him he was about to be released.

"I said, 'OK, what else is new?' He said, 'No, I'm serious,'" Ford said. He 
went back to his cell and resumed the chess game. "I said I wasn't going for 
that."

Then the cell door opened and ranking prison officials were standing on the 
other side. "Then I knew it was true. ... I made my last chess move, threw my 
stuff everywhere and I flew out of there."

What he described as a "whirlwind" hasn't stopped. "I've not had a chance to 
marinate, so to say - or breathe."

Ford went to California to see his 4 sons and their families last Easter then 
make a return trip in July. That's when his illness kicked in, however, and 
it's been doctors' visits ever since.

Ford concedes he's scared. When he does sleep, waking up with different 
symptoms triggers fears of the nearness of possible death.

Still, Ford doesn't harbor ill feelings for his life's heart-breaking path.

"Anger, I don't have no anger. I have anger that I have cancer. I have 
resentment Angola allowed this to happen. I guess everything is for a reason. I 
really don't know," he said.

And whether his time left on Earth is long or short, what does he hope to 
accomplish?>

"More life," Ford answered. "I would like to live a little longer that's all."

(source: The Advertiser)








NEBRASKA:

Judge finds Nikko Jenkins competent for death penalty hearing



Nikko Jenkins got 1 wish Monday: that a judge declare him competent to 
understand the court proceedings against him.

He was clearly thrown for a loop when he didn't get his 2nd wish: that he be 
allowed to represent himself before the 3-judge panel.

After declaring Jenkins competent, Douglas County District Judge Peter 
Bataillon rejected Jenkins' request to represent himself.

Jenkins was incredulous.

He questioned how Bataillon could allow him to represent himself and plead no 
contest in 2014 to 4 murders and 12 gun charges but not represent himself in 
the death-penalty phase.

Bataillon hasn't set a date for the 3-judge panel that will decide whether 
Jenkins gets the death penalty. However, Jenkins' attorney, Douglas County 
Public Defender Tom Riley, has indicated that he will file a motion requesting 
that the judge allow Jenkins to withdraw his no-contest pleas to the murders.

Within 3 weeks of his 2013 release from prison, Jenkins killed Juan Uribe-Pena 
and Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz on Aug. 11, Curtis Bradford on Aug. 19 and Andrea Kruger 
on Aug. 21.

(source: omaha.com)