[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, ARK., NEV., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

March 22



OHIO:

Records show Ohio governor uses clemency power infrequently compared to 
predecessors



Gov. John Kasich used his executive clemency power during his first term far 
less frequently than any other Ohio governor in the past three decades, records 
show.

Kasich, a Republican, granted 66 of 1,521 requests, or about 4.4 percent of the 
non-death-penalty cases he received and acted upon from 2011 to 2014, according 
to records obtained by The (Columbus) Dispatch (http://bit.ly/18HbEIl ) under a 
public-records request.

That makes him the most conservative with clemency of any Ohio governor going 
back to the 1980s, when the state began tracking gubernatorial clemency, the 
newspaper said.

Kasich commuted the death sentences of five killers during his first term, but 
allowed 12 to be executed. He recently used his executive authority to push the 
state's entire execution schedule into 2016 to allow the Ohio prisons agency to 
obtain new drugs for lethal injection.

Clemency is a power unique to governors, broad but defined by law. In Ohio, the 
governor can halt or postpone executions, commute or reduce a sentence so that 
a prisoner can be freed now or in the future, and grant pardons, erasing a past 
criminal record.

Ohio governors have used clemency in different ways over the past three decades 
reflecting personal ideological persuasions.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, approved 20 % of 1,615 clemency 
requests he handled between 2007 and 2011. Most involved low-level, nonviolent 
offenses, but he did commute 5 death-penalty sentences to life without parole.

No Ohio governor in modern history has commuted a death sentence and set a 
prisoner free.

Republican governors George V. Voinovich (1991-98) and Bob Taft (1999-2007) 
each approved less than 10 % of the clemency requests they received. Gov. James 
A. Rhodes, a Republican, approved 17.5 % of clemencies in 1982, his last year 
in office.

Democrat Richard F. Celeste, governor from 1983 to 1991, commuted the death 
sentences of 8 killers on death row in his next to last day in office. He also 
granted clemency to 25 female prisoners, reasoning they were victims of 
"battered-woman syndrome" and deserved mercy.

Celeste's actions caused an uproar and spurred legal challenges. The General 
Assembly changed the law to require governors to have a recommendation from the 
Ohio Parole Board before making any clemency decision. The governor doesn't 
have to follow the board's recommendation.

Kasich differed with the board in 23 cases last year, each time rejecting 
clemency for inmates who had been favorably.

(source: Associated Press)






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Ohio should end death penalty



It's time for Ohio legislators to put an end to the death penalty. According to 
the Death Penalty Information Center, since 2003, 20 Ohio inmates have been 
removed from death row "through exonerations, clemency, or sentence reductions 
because of intellectual disabilities." In December 2014, Ohio Supreme Court 
Justice Paul Pfeifer testified before the House Criminal Justice Committee. 
Justice Pfeifer stated "The death penalty in Ohio has become what I call a 
death lottery. ... It's very difficult to conclude that the death penalty, as 
it exists today, is anything but a bad gamble. That's really not how a criminal 
justice system should work.''

Ohio legislators are working on bills that would prohibit the execution of 
those with severe mental illness, create an indigent defense fund, require 
crime labs and coroners to be certified, and prohibit the execution of anyone 
convicted solely on the testimony of a jailhouse snitch. While these are great 
steps in the right direction, it is time for Ohio to altogether abolish the 
death penalty.

As Justice Pfeifer rightly noted, the death penalty has become a death lottery. 
Those of means have the ability to hire competent defense attorneys, often 
resulting in the death penalty being taken off the table. The poor, who can't 
afford to hire an attorney, must rely on proper representation from a public 
defender. In many rural areas, the poor are often assigned an attorney with 
little capital case experience. While many public defenders do a great job 
defending indigent clients, there are times when they are not up to the task, 
lacking the necessary skill and time to adequately defend their client.

When a person's life hangs in the balance, they deserve competent, aggressive 
representation. Attorneys who defend an indigent client are paid a pathetic fee 
and must often wait for months or years to be reimbursed by the state. If we 
are going to continue to use execution as the means to punish those convicted 
of a capital crime, then it is morally imperative that we make sure that those 
facing death have the same access to attorneys, expert witnesses, and crime 
labs, regardless of their ability to pay.

Currently, 140 men and one woman are awaiting execution in Ohio. Due to 
controversy over the drugs used in lethal injections, it is unlikely there will 
be any executions until 2016. I would encourage Ohio legislators to use this 
time to find a way to bring an end to executions.

Killing someone because they committed a crime is rooted in the barbaric eye 
for an eye justice of the Old Testament. While many Christian sects now oppose 
the death penalty, evangelicals and conservative Christians continue to demand 
death for those convicted of a capital crime. I ask, what happened to following 
in the footsteps of Jesus? Would Jesus, the Prince of Peace, approve of a 
criminal system that disproportionately punishes the poor and people of color? 
If evangelicals, who overwhelmingly vote Republican, would get behind 
abolishing the death penalty, we can end this abhorrent practice.

Bruce Gerencser

(source: Letter to the Editor, Crescent-News)








ARKANSAS:

Analysis: Hurdles remain for Arkansas death penalty process



The Arkansas Supreme Court's decision upholding a 2013 lethal injection law 
clears a major hurdle to resuming the death penalty in a state that hasn't 
executed an inmate in a decade. But the path is by no means clear for capital 
punishment to make a return to Arkansas.

A narrowly divided court overturned a Pulaski County judge's ruling that the 
Legislature's most-recent rewrite of Arkansas' execution law violated the state 
constitution by allowing the Correction Department to decide which barbiturate 
to use when putting inmates to death.

"The delegation of authority contained within Act 139 is not unfettered and is 
bounded by reasonable guidelines from the Legislature," Justice Karen Baker 
wrote in the court's ruling. "Therefore we reverse the circuit court's 
conclusion that Act 139 is unconstitutional."

The court's ruling removes one of the major obstacles to reviving a death 
penalty system that the state's former attorney general had bemoaned as broken 
after years of legal challenges and drug shortages.

Arkansas has 32 inmates on death row, but hasn't executed an inmate since 2005. 
Former Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, went through 8 years in office without an 
execution taking place and said he would have abolished the death penalty if 
lawmakers sent him legislation doing so.

The challenges the state faces in resuming executions have been starkly 
illustrated in the rhetoric surrounding the debate over the death penalty 
during the past year. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge won the Republican 
Party's nomination last year after defeating a rival who called for the return 
of the electric chair for executing inmates.

The only death penalty bill to advance so far this legislative session has been 
an ultimately doomed effort to abolish executions, and the sponsor of that 
measure said last week he wouldn't pursue the idea further.

"It has no chance to pass on the Senate floor and it has even less of a chance 
in the House," said Democratic Sen. David Burnett of Osceola, a retired judge 
who introduced the proposal.

A lawmaker whose 12-year-old daughter was murdered by a man now on death row, 
meanwhile, has said she's unsure whether she'll pursue legislation she has 
filed calling for firing squads for executions.

Last week's decision could spur movement on another death penalty bill that, 
among other things, would make secret the names of suppliers of the drugs used 
in executions. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he supported making that 
information confidential.

"We still will have many challenges to face in carrying out the execution and 
mandate of the jury once the appeals are exhausted," Hutchinson told reporters 
after the decision. "There is still work to be done but this was a big hurdle."

The next hurdles will come as the state begins crafting its lethal injection 
protocol. Federal agents in 2011 seized Arkansas' execution drugs amid 
questions about their British supplier. In 2013, Arkansas said it had enough 
lorazepam and phenobarbital to execute prisoners under a protocol in place at 
the time, but there's no guarantee the drugs will be on a new approved-drug 
list.

Executions could also be further delayed by inmate challenges based on other 
grounds, which are all on different timetables.

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee warned that the ruling doesn't clear 
up the other logistical issues that have halted executions in recent years.

"I think it'll still be a while before anything could be done, and (Arkansas) 
may not ever still be able to ever carry out an execution," said Sen. Jeremy 
Hutchinson, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

(source: Assoicated Press)








NEVADA:

Man believed to be the getaway driver in 'road rage' shooting of Las Vegas 
mother Tammy Meyers is arrested; Derrick Andrews arrested Friday in connection 
to February 12 shooting; Erich Nowsch, 19, was already arrested in murder of 
44-year-old Meyers----Both are facing the death penalty or life in prison after 
being charged with murder, attempted murder, firing a weapon from a vehicle and 
conspiracy



A 2nd suspect is facing the death penalty after being arrested in connection to 
the February 12 shooting that left mother-of-4 Tammy Meyers dead.

Police arrested Derrick Andrews, 26, on Friday in Las Vegas, Nevada, and 
charged him with murder, attempted murder, firing a weapon from a vehicle and 
conspiracy.

Erich Milton Nowsch Jr, 19, is now facing the same charges following his arrest 
last month.

Prosecutors allege Nowsch fired the shots from a vehicle while Andrews was at 
the wheel.

Andrews' arrest came about an hour after he was named with Nowsch in an 
indictment.

The trial is scheduled for May 26 and the defendants could get the death 
penalty or life in prison if convicted.

District Attorney Steve Wolfson said: 'If you're a getaway driver, aiding and 
abetting another to commit a crime, you're equally guilty,'

Nowsch pleaded not guilty on March 12 to the murder, attempted murder and 
weapon charges during an appearance at Clark County District Court.

He is expected to plead not guilty to the conspiracy charge.

The conspiracy charge stems from allegations that Andrews and Nowsch tried to 
erase their cellphone records to prevent police from linking them to the 
shooting.

Andrews is accused of positioning his car so Nowsch could unload what 
Prosecutor David Stanton said police now believe to have been 24 shots at 
Meyers and her son Brandon.

1 bullet struck Meyers in the head and she died at a hospital 2 days later on 
Valentine's Day.

Stanton characterized Nowsch as a neighborhood marijuana and anxiety medication 
dealer who hung out at a park where he encountered schoolchildren and sometimes 
Meyers.

Las Vegas defense lawyer Martin Hart said he had spoken with Andrews in recent 
days but hadn't been hired to defend him.

Hart said he might be appointed to the case when Andrews and Nowsch appear for 
arraignment next Thursday.

He declined to comment on the case or the indictment.

Nowsch's attorney, Augustus Claus, declined to comment about the indictment or 
the arrest of Andrews.

Police initially suspected Meyers was shot in a road rage incident.

But days later, investigators revealed she had enlisted her adult son and his 
gun for a late-night prowl to confront a driver who threatened her on the way 
home from a mother-daughter driving lesson in a school parking lot.

In obtaining a no-bail warrant for Andrews' arrest, Stanton told Clark County 
District Court Judge Linda Marie Bell that Andrews responded in his silver Audi 
to a phone call from Nowsch.

Nowsch feared that a green Buick Park Avenue sedan with tinted windows driving 
slowly back and forth in a nearby school parking lot was following him, Stanton 
said.

The prosecutor said: 'He believed the people in the car meant to do him harm.'

He said it was a coincidence that Meyers' 15-year-old daughter Kristal was 
practicing driving in the lot.

BIZARRE SERIES OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO DERRICK ANDREWS' ARREST

February 13 - Las Vegas police reveal a mother-of-four is shot during an 
alleged road rage incident. She was later identified as Tammy Meyers. She was 
teaching her 15-year-old daughter Kristal to drive at the time.

February 15 - Her devastated husband, Robert Meyers, vows to find whoever did 
this to his wife. He turned off her life support after she failed to recover 
from her injuries sustained in the incident on Valentine's Day.

February 16 - CCTV of the incident is released by police as they hunt for the 
alleged killer and his accomplice. Police also disclose a sketch of the suspect 
and say he is 6ft, mid 20s and 180lbs. February 18 - Questions are raised over 
whether Nowsch acted in self-defense amid claims Mrs Meyers drove back to her 
home, dropped her daughter off, grabbed her son Brandon and hunted down the car 
in question. In response, Mr Meyers insists his son is a hero and not a 
vigilante. February 19 - Following a tense stand-off with police Eric Nowsch is 
arrested. Mr Meyers claims he knew the suspect and said he knew the kid was 
bad. After the incident he claimed he wasn't aware who shot his wife. Added 
that his wife consoled the youngsters for hours and tried to teach him how to 
be a man. February 23 - Nowsch is arraigned on murder charges in Las Vegas.

March 12 - Nowsch pleads not guilty to murder, attempted murder and weapon 
charges during an appearance at Clark County District Court.

March 20 - Prosecutors unveil an indictment which names Derrick Andrews and 
Nowsch. It charges them both with murder, attempted murder, firing a weapon 
from a vehicle and conspiracy. Andrews is arrested an hour later.

The coincidences mounted when the mother and daughter were driving home and 
encountered an angry driver in a silver vehicle who blocked their path, got out 
of his vehicle, and, according to Kristal, threatened them.

Frightened, Meyers dropped Kristal off at home and instructed her 22-year-old 
son to come with her to find that driver, Stanton said.

The prosecutor said the mother and son encountered Nowsch and Andrews in 
Andrews' silver sedan.

Stanton said the cars Meyers encountered that night were similar in color and 
design but 'from the evidence presented, Mrs. Meyers was mistaken'

(source: Daiy Mail)








CALIFORNIA:

'This ship has sunk:' Families fed up with further delays in Scott Dekraai case



The state Attorney General's Office on Friday appealed a judge's ruling 
removing local prosecutors from Orange County's worst mass murder case, saying 
the ouster was "legally inappropriate."

The state's appeal in the Scott Dekraai case is expected to take at least a 
year, according to Deputy Attorney General Theodore Cropley. Dekraai already 
has pleaded guilty to killing 8 people at a Seal Beach salon in 2011 and awaits 
a penalty phase trial to decide whether he will receive a death sentence.

Survivors of Dekraai's victims expressed frustration Friday at the latest twist 
in the case, with at least one blaming Orange County District Attorney Tony 
Rackauckas.

"Tony has let me down. ... This was a ship, and that's the captain of the 
ship," said Paul Wilson, whose wife, Christy Lynn Wilson, was among Dekraai's 
victims.

"Right now, as we sit here today, this ship has sunk."

On March 13, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals removed the 
district attorney's office from the Dekraai case, citing an apparent conflict 
of interest, and turned the trial over to the state attorney general.

Goethals ruled that local prosecutors failed to properly supervise its agents, 
who withheld evidence and broke rules regarding the use of jailhouse 
informants. The judge also concluded that 2 sheriff's deputies either 
intentionally lied or willfully withheld material evidence during two court 
hearings.

Despite the misconduct, Goethals did not agree to take the death penalty off 
the table in the upcoming penalty trial.

Revelations of a secret network of paid jailhouse informants have derailed at 
least 2 murder and 2 attempted murder cases in recent months, while defense 
lawyers throughout Orange County are scouring their own cases for more 
problems.

In interviews, Rackauckas conceded that sheriff's deputies made "inconsistent" 
statements in court, but fell short of saying they perjured themselves. He 
added that his own attorneys also made mistakes in handling informants.

1 of the biggest mistakes, he said, was not thoroughly checking the background 
of a jailhouse informant placed next to Dekraai after his arrest.

Authorities placed recording equipment in Dekraai's cell and a paid jailhouse 
informant in an adjacent cell. Prosecutors later delayed turning over 
information gained by the snitch to the defense.

The fight between Rackauckas and Goethals has intensified, with prosecutors 
boycotting the judge's court.

(source: Orange County Register)

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

O.C. Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas should halt filings against judge



Kudos to the Orange County Superior Court judge who uncovered a long-standing 
pattern of misconduct in the district attorney's office - so "sadly negligent," 
according to the judge, that he took the extraordinary step of kicking the D.A. 
off the case of the county's highest-profile killer.

The misuse of paid jailhouse informants and the withholding of evidence by 
prosecutors who should have handed it over to defense attorneys had already led 
to reduced sentences for some convicted criminals. Now, Dist. Atty. Tony 
Rackauckas has been removed from the death penalty phase of the trial for a 
former tugboat captain who pleaded guilty to gunning down 8 people in a Seal 
Beach beauty salon. The case was assigned instead to the state attorney 
general.

The last person who should be feeling any fallout from this is the judge 
himself. Yet Judge Thomas Goethals has recently been targeted by prosecutors in 
Rackauckas' office who have filed paperwork to have him disqualified from their 
cases. Such filings are perfectly legal, originally intended to keep a case out 
of the hands of a judge who might be prejudiced, and no reason for doing so is 
required, making the process vulnerable to abuse. When it is done en masse, 
it's called "papering the judge," and it is at times intended to force a judge 
out of hearing criminal cases altogether and into civil trials.

The D.A.'s office says it's not behind any purposeful effort to paper Goethals. 
But the actions against him sure quack and waddle like a vengeful duck. Over 
three years, 2011 to 2013, prosecutors filed such paperwork against him a total 
of five times. Since February 2014, when Goethals opened up a broad hearing 
into prosecutors' actions, he has been papered 57 times.

This is ridiculous, a petty slur by prosecutors whose office was obviously in 
the wrong on repeated occasions.

Rackauckas should denounce such tactics, both publicly and to the prosecutors 
who work for him. He should direct them not to seek Goethal's disqualification 
unless they have a specific reason for doing so that pertains to the case in 
question, and he should require them to make the case to him first.

Rackauckas should give Orange County voters, who elected him to office, reason 
to think that he's interested in correcting his office's legal and ethical 
missteps.

(source: Editorial, Los Angeles Times)

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

This Ballot Measure Would Make 'Sodomy' Punishable by Death. California's 
Attorney General Might Not Be Able to Keep It Off the Ballot.



There's an initiative in the works in California that would impose the death 
penalty for homosexual acts - and the state's attorney general might not be 
able to keep it off the ballot.

The "Sodomite Suppression Act," proposed by Huntington Beach, California, 
attorney Matt McLaughlin in February, is testing the Golden State's ballot 
initiative process.

Despite the fact that California's death penalty was declared unconstitutional 
last year and social tides have rapidly shifted on gay issues, McLaughlin's 
blunt bill - which would order that "any person who willingly touches another 
person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification be put to death 
by bullets to the head" - could wind up on the November 2016 ballot, all 
because McLaughlin paid his $200 fee.

Election lawyer Tom Hiltachk told the Sacramento Bee that California Attorney 
General Kamala Harris has no authority to keep McLaughlin's proposal off the 
ballot.

"While you might say that this initiative is 'clearly' illegal (and I would 
agree), the notion of what is or is not 'clearly' illegal is not always so cut 
and dried," Hiltachk wrote in an email.

UC Davis law professor Vikram Amar had a similar assessment.

"This one drips of evil, so the instinct is to say 'Well, there's got to be a 
way to avoid wasting everybody's time,'" he told the Bee. "But in the law we 
often have limitations that are built not for the easy cases but because we are 
worried about the hard cases."

Besides the death penalty for "the abominable crime against nature known as 
buggery," McLaughlin's proposal also calls for million-dollar fines for those 
who distribute "sodomistic propaganda" and barring gays from public office.

Of course, McLaughlin's proposal still has to get 365,880 signatures to qualify 
for the ballot, and even then it seems unlikely it would pass.

KFOR-TV noted that the state's LGBT Caucus is calling for a review of 
McLaughlin, arguing that he's violating an attorney's responsibility to act in 
"good moral character," but David Cameron Carr, who spent 12 years at the State 
Bar disciplining lawyers and 14 years defending them, said it's unlikely 
McLaughlin would be booted from the legal profession over the proposal.

"This is not obviously the kind of act of moral turpitude that calls into 
question his fitness to practice law," Carr told the Bee.

(source: The Blaze)

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

Defense in double murder plans appeal in attempt to remove judge from case



Lawyers for a Costa Mesa man accused in a double murder said Friday that they 
will appeal a decision that left the trial in the hands of a judge whom the 
defense team tried to remove from the case.

A Los Angeles judge last week denied a motion asking that Orange County 
Superior Court Judge John Conley be barred from overseeing Daniel Patrick 
Wozniak's trial because the defense hoped to call Conley as a witness about the 
possible misuse of jailhouse informants.

Public defender Scott Sanders has repeatedly accused the Orange County district 
attorney's office and Sheriff's Department of withholding evidence helpful to 
defendants and illegally sending snitches to coax incriminating information 
from Wozniak and other death penalty defendants.

Conley opposed Sanders' recusal motion, and Los Angeles County Superior Court 
Judge Kevin Brazile dismissed as "speculation" Sanders' contention that Conley 
could provide crucial details about the district attorney's use of informants.

Conley is a former prosecutor who worked in the Orange County district 
attorney's homicide unit from 1980 to 1982. He said the last time he used a 
jailhouse informant in a case was more than 30 years ago.

"Counsel for a party may not achieve disqualification of a judge by attempting 
to make a judge a witness in a proceeding unless there is a clear and 
compelling reason for the relevance of the judge's testimony," Brazile wrote in 
his March 9 ruling.

Brazile was selected to rule on Conley's recusal because the defense and 
prosecution could not pick an Orange County judge they agreed could make an 
unbiased decision.

Sanders' likely appeal of Brazile's decision could further delay the trial for 
Wozniak, who is accused of killing 2 Orange Coast College students in 2010.

According to grand jury testimony from police, Wozniak confessed that he shot 
26-year-old Army veteran Sam Herr in order to steal $50,000.

Prosecutors say Wozniak then dismembered Herr's body in an attempt to hide it 
and killed Herr's friend Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, staging her body to look as 
if Herr had sexually assaulted her.

For months, Sanders has been crafting a motion to remove the district 
attorney's office from Wozniak's case and bar the death penalty as an option.

Sanders alleges that Wozniak spoke to a prolific jailhouse informant, but the 
district attorney's office insists the informant was working on his own, not at 
the behest of prosecutors, which would be a violation of Wozniak's rights.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy has said the argument about snitches is irrelevant 
because he immediately ruled out using any testimony from the informant as soon 
as he became aware of it.

Last week, Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals removed the 
district attorney's office from the case of Scott Dekraai - who has pleaded 
guilty to killing 8 people in a Seal Beach salon in 2011 - based on similar 
accusations brought by Sanders. Goethals left the death penalty on the table in 
that case.

The state attorney general's office, which replaced the Orange County 
prosecutors in the Dekraai case, said Friday that it would appeal Goethals' 
decision.

(source: Daily Pilot)








USA:

Question for supporters of capital punishment



I have a question for Jeff Jacoby and those who support the death penalty 
("Thank death penalty foes for firing squads," Op-Ed, March 18). It's known 
that innocent people have been executed in the past.

My question: Would you be willing to die for a murder you did not commit and 
accept your execution - while regrettable and irreversible - as a necessary 
sacrifice for the common good?

Graham Walker

Lincoln

(source: Letter to the Editor, Boston Globe)